##VIDEO ID:G_iEcrQQAT4## e e e e e e e e Miss calves here miss carola here Mr Cory here Mr Hayward here miss garelli here miss Stevenson here miss Rendell here Dr Robinson here we have a quorum thank you Miss carisella are you able to lead us through the flag sure I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you and Mr Cory if you're able to read us our mission statement of course the Glenrock School District founded on principles of education in partnership with the supportive Community provides an exceptional education to all students to cultivate resilient responsible and engaged Global Citizens all right adequate notice of meeting in accordance with PL 1975 chapter 231 notice of tonight's meeting was mailed to the record in the Ridgewood news on January 9th 2024 notice of this meeting was also mailed to the borrow Clerk and was posted on the bulletin board of the Board of Education Office in the administration building on the same date all right yes good evening everyone um we have some very uh EXC in uh recognitions um tonight uh first we'll start off um momentarily with uh Miss Gomez and I know a lot of her staff and some of our students are here tonight uh to speak about uh Hamilton getting the Blue Ribbon award um this year uh just to reiterate um is considered to be the highest award that a school could get and we're very very proud of Miss Gomez her staff students at Hamilton also includes the students that had graduated that are now in sixth seventh and eighth grade A lot of those scores uh that factored into Hamilton's years of success certainly um are the result of those students uh hard work as well in particular I also want to thank Mr Van Nest the supervisors and Miss Gomez in particular uh also both of our directors uh director Daniel and director McKay for all their efforts um putting together the application for Blue Ribbon uh we were notified in January that we had met the criteria to to be um a blue ribbon school but that was just step one of very many steps that the team had to take and I think perhaps the hardest part was us not being able to say anything for several for several months um but the team put together a very comprehensive application uh it was accepted uh by the New Jersey Department of Education came back with a couple of changes we made those changes and then it went to the federal uh Department of of of Education uh they reviewed it and then we found out minutes before everybody else did on that Monday uh so we're very very excited and proud um of of our students and staff at Hamilton and just as we are proud of all of our our our schools here here in um in Glenrock all of our schools and students do well um Hamilton is just another one that got a very um prestigious award so that being said uh Miss Gomez I'm going to call you up and we look forward to hearing from you and recognizing your teachers that are here tonight and your students Miss Gomez [Applause] all right good evening members of the Board of Ed Dr Charleston Mr vaness and Mr Canalis it's truly an honor to stand before you tonight to celebrate this remarkable achievement the recogn the recognition of Alexander Hamilton our school as a National Blue Ribbon School this prestigious award is a reflection of the hard work dedication and celebration of our entire School Community it represents the countless hours of effort of our staff our students and families what they've put in to ensure that our school is a place of Excellence not just in academics but in a culture of care and connection we take great pride in the diverse and dynamic environment we've created at our school at Hamilton we are a community where students feel seen heard and supported yes academic achievement matters and our students Contin really demonstrate excellence in their achievement in their performance but this award is more is about more than just our test scores it's about how we built a school where kindness teamwork and resilience are woven into everything that we do when reflecting on what sets us apart from other high ranking and high achieving schools in our state and Country I often find myself thinking about the little things that standardized tests and school report cards don't measure the metric I think that provides our school The Winning Edge is how we rally around each other whether it's teachers supporting students teachers supporting their colleagues or students helping their peers Team Hamilton truly operates as one this sense of belonging of being united in our purpose is at the core of our success every single member of our community plays a role in this achievement and this Blue Ribbon is a testament to that teamwork I want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank our outstanding staff their dedication to our Student Success goes far beyond the classroom they are mentors cheers leaders and guides who pour their hearts into this work every day our teachers set the bar high for our students but they also make sure every child knows they are supported valued and love loved excuse me I also want to express my gratitude to our families who partner with us in so many ways your partnership and involvement are crucial to our students our school Success whether it's volunteering cheering on your child's as achievements or working with us to ensure every student has what they need to thrive we could not do this without you and finally I want to speak about our incredible students these are the true stars of tonight's celebration especially I'd like to recognize our fifth grade leaders who were elected by their peers to represent them these students exemplify the very best of what our school stands for their leaders not in their academic successes but also in how they embody kindness integrity and service to others as you listen to them speak tonight you'll understand why this award truly belongs to them so thank you for the opportunity to celebrate this exciting moment in Hamilton story to our staff our families and most importantly our students thank you for making our school such a special place to learn and grow this blue ribbon is for all of us and I couldn't be happier and prouder to celebrate it with [Applause] you okay hello my name is Wyatt row and I'm here as the fifth grade mayor of Alexander Hamilton school as of 2024 Alexander Hamilton school has been elected as one of the nine blue raven schools of New Jersey I'm very glad I'm very grateful that our students and our teachers have been working very hard in order to win this award becoming a blue ribbon school is a very high honor and we've it's proof that the huskys never give up we have all come to this meeting to share some of the reasons as to why we think Alexander Hamilton school is worthy of of the Blue Ribbon hello my name is Ava and I'm one of the hundreds of students who made the Blue Ribbon award possible in fact I think that we won this award because of all of our students the picture in the Blue Ribbon announcements video shows Hamilton students doing an outstanding job being engaged creative and hardworking we have fun while we are learning and try our best each day this award is shared by students who have graduated from Hamilton and current students at our school I'm so excited to be a fifth grader this year and be a Hamilton leader thank you hi my name is Gracin Kelly and I'm a fifth gr at Hamilton I'm very thankful to be able to talk about how great Hamilton is as you know Hamilton is a blue Riven school and every student at Hamilton made it possible with their hard work and of course we wouldn't have won if it wasn't for our teachers too their support helps us every day teachers are flexible and creative in making sure that every student at Hamilton learns and understands that's best for them they make learning fun with Sant length lessons and word study games they prepare us for the njsla but more importantly tou us lessons about life I am very proud of Hamilton and I can say that Hamilton feels the same way too thank you hi my name is mdny milen and I'm a fifth grader at Hamilton Hamilton has won the Blue Ribbon because we have worked very hard to make sure our school is a special place for everyone in Hamilton we have special events like the Multicultural Festival which is a day where everyone at Hamilton learns about other people's cultures and their own cultures in a fun and exciting way there even cultural dances to give students ideas of what someone's family culture is all about there is also a week of respect which was actually last week week of respect students learn how to respect other people and make people feel comfortable we also learn about our feelings and how to handle them with our schoolwide ruler program this is why Hamilton has won the Blue Ribbon way to go Team Hamilton OH you have something else thank you for inviting us today and let us show our school pride Hamilton really is the best team ever [Applause] oh she's not you see you show up did you walk we thank you [Applause] oh Yeahs yeah no they came out late I'll all right thank you thank you so much for that wonderful presentation Mrs Gomez um I think I remember a couple years ago um members of the community had asked you know what were some things that we could think about in terms of other schools and um obtaining the blue ribbon and I'm really excited to be able to even be here seeing that whole process actually follow through and um get another award for one of our schools we know that all of our schools are performing ing at this level as our curriculum and instruction um allow for um that Equitable level of Education uh so I'm really just you know personally I can say that I'm proud um are there any other board members that have any comments Miss Randell I just want to say that I'm very proud of um all the work that's gone in uh I know it was uh a lot of work but I I I truly think it highlights all of the wonderful Progressive things that are going on in our education so I just want to say thank you to Dr Charleston and his team for a very very high accomplishment thank you all right all right um Dr Tron the national mayor yes so now we have Dr Lauren Daniel who's our our director of student Personnel Services and she will be recognizing our National Merit Scholarship program semifinalists Dr Daniel good evening everyone as a 2025 National Merit Scholarship competition progresses standout students across the country have been named semi-finalists showcasing exceptional academics and dedication to their studies each year semi-finalists are selected based on their performance on the PSAT and msqt placing them among the top scores Nationwide to put into perspective over 1.3 million Juniors entered the National Merit Scholarship program by taking the PSAT last October roughly 16,000 students Nationwide out of 1.3 million have been named semi-finalists and three of them are from Glenrock high school we would like to congratulate late and recognize the semi-finalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship competition they are Jeremy Bedwell Cole Sophie he and Ethan [Applause] Tang for parents [Applause] all right we'll just give a moment for the change in the program all right so before we begin um the rest of our Cal meeting or Committee of the whole meeting um you know this is our next meeting after uh we had quite a Charged meeting last meeting right we all know everyone knows um and I think there were a few board members that have wanted to say something so I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to just address each other address you know each other formally um address each other um address the community whatever it is that you know we feel like we need to say at this moment before we begin the rest of our meeting um are there any board members that have something M mandal all right so I'll start so it's been a rough few weeks speaking just from my perspective it was disappointing to be so harshly judged by people who don't understand the role of a trustee I'm not here to give you my opinion I simply want to give everyone a basic level of understanding when it comes to us voting I will speak generally and I will not comment on any specific vote so to start what are we voting on when we're asked to appoint a hire recommended by the superintendent the board is responsible for being able to answer three questions affirmatively does the new hire meet board policy with state certification does the new hire fall within our budget and align with contract and was the process Equitable and did it follow our standard procedure the board may not be involved in the interview process you may not influence the interview or hire any other candidate we the board is not entitled to know any of the candidates that were not offered the job there are a number of reasons our job is defined this way but the two reasons that make the most sense to me first for the board to assume responsibility of a hire we would essentially erode the superintendent's ability to hold them accountable there is no mechanism for the administration to evaluate the board this is a very dangerous game for us to play second the board to influence the hiring of any employee other than the superintendent it destroys the Integrity of a system that is designed to hire the best candidate how can a group of people not allowed to be part of the hiring process be exp expected to vote on the quality of a candidate we're not but that is where trust comes into play it's no secret that I trust our Administration and I'm not sure why that's a bad thing I've been around now for a while I've seen how this Administration works I've seen the results I have spent a lot of time doing this job and it matters to me there's 's no doubt that I trust these very capable educational experts to make the best educational decision for our kids I stand behind them and the long list of accomplishments made by this District we were just awarded another Blue Ribbon we now have two Blue Ribbon Schools in our district I am proud of the work Dr Charleston has done I'm confident in his team and I trust that their efforts are for the benefit of our students we are a thriving District let's not throw it away I want to be very clear tonight that I intend to continue doing my job I will work to maintain the Integrity of the system A system that is it safeguards us from corruption and liability I will continue to raise my voice and challenge what I believe is wrong which brings me to my final point I have to address the comments on Facebook accusing me of smirking and laughing at kids while they spoke those comments were disgusting and hurtful I was gutted listening to those kids speak those kids are my daughter's best friends my kids my friends kids kids I have personally coached for years kids that are like family to me but yes maybe I did smile I was still proud of them they spoke with respect and passion they were intelligent and thoughtful so maybe I did smile thinking how great they were but shame on anyone that tries to give people especially those kids the impression that I am anything other than proud of them what are we here for if it is not for them that's all I have um thank you m randelle um are there any other board members that have anything that they want to say no um okay um I think you know as we have um you know mcard uh vacated her seat on the last meeting so we are in the process of um interviewing candidates and we do have some that have been um submitted and you know you'll see a notice for a meeting on on Thursday for interviews um one of the challenges that has become like apparent like for me this is my fourth year in in the position and um it is really hard to spend a lot of time spend so much time volunteering for my community you know I can speak personally that I came from a military background and I thought you know as I'm leaving active duty service what do I want to do like okay I have a spirit of volunteerism I'd like to figure out what I can do in the community and so asking a variety of people you know what can you do like there's different committees you can you know participate on Town Council you can participate with the library and things like that and I thought for for me personally that participating within the educational system would be something that's imp impactful and over the years I've you know every time we go for elections we're always asking and encouraging like our our professional association um encourages us to reach out to the community and say hey this is what we do as a board like you know would you be interested and almost consist it's like pulling teeth honestly like whenever I I I speak with anybody I'm like hey would you you know what do you think about the board would you do the board and things like that and um the vast majority of people tell me no tell me that wouldn't want to do it because they don't want to be um you know put themselves up for public criticism or um you know or they don't think that they like you know certain people or that they just don't have the time and I can speak with the challenge of of us you know planning extra meetings that it really feels like none of us have the time every last one of us that's sitting up here is extremely busy and talking with each one of these members that sit next to me I can tell you that you know we we we we do it for the kids we do it for um for the people that we love that are sitting you know some in in the audience and out in the community that we're we're really sitting here to give back to the community there's no professional gain from sitting here there's no personal gain from from me sitting here I don't I don't get anything else from from this position it's really just finding a way to give back and to volunteer for things that a lot of people do not want to do and um it's really challenging when yeah like you know we're all going to make mistakes we're all human I I'm not going to be perfect as a board member I don't anticipate that anyone that would take Miss car's seat would be perfect um and the our our ultimate goal even for me taking um on presidency this year is just to find a way to cohesively work together with respect with respect amongst us between our community um and with admin ministration and just move forward and move the district going forward we're doing we're doing well and how can we find ways to highlight highlight those things and and do better you know and so you know I'm looking forward to you know the candidates that we have coming up and and really getting a sense of um you know what the next wave of of of people that we have on the board even after election and just really getting a sense of what we can do to to be more cohesive how we can work with the community better um and then how we can also individually not feel like we're being persecuted by the very people that we are working and volunteering for you know um you know we don't we don't we don't want to be mowed down at the at the grocery store or stand in line with pick up with our own kids because we very many of us have kids that are in the district and things like that and so if we can all just continue with a level of respect and knowing that we're really really really trying hard to be good at this job and spending a lot of personal time that we could be spending individually with our family and we do appreciate the feedback that we get from the community and I would love when you send us emails and even you know there there will be complaints not saying that that's not appropriate um it would be great as well for you to also insert some suggestions for how you think that things could improve from your perspective um and it it really helps with the communication we'll be investigating like some addition ways that we can um reach out to the community and um get that feedback and um go from there so thank you all right bar no other comments on yeah say real Qui um just thank you to you for that statement and for your leadership you've always LED with empathy and respect for the individual and I know it's been hard the past couple of weeks through what I've read on social media some of the campaign propaganda I'll call it um and some of the emails so you know to the administration I want to say I wish there was more focus on the good um success and the progress and deali just thank you for representing us your voice has been great in all of your responses and even now the way you address everything that's happening I hope it's clear to everyone that we do all care we do want to hear concerns we want to celebrate with you successes and um yeah we're volunteers and we're happy to be here and we're friends not enemies thank you miss carel all right um oh yes Mr Corey to share uh Stephanie shared this with me the other week and I thought it was just helpful because it's been rolling around in my mind um New Jersey State Board Association describes the challenge of our role um the school board has a dual role to represent the concerns of the citizens taxpayers and parents to the school administration uh School administrators and to represent the needs of the students in school district to the citizens taxpayers and parents our community I I I think you said that wholesomely fulsomely uh it takes a discussion to break that little statement out and it really takes the it underscores the challenge what we have to do we have to manage a budget listen to parents not get involved but be involved so thanks for putting it out there and U appreciate your your leadership there this time thank you Mr C all right all right so on to the business of this meeting um dealing with Personnel can I have a motion to discuss um resolutions P1 through P2 uh Mr Cory seconded by miss garelli any questions comments regarding P1 um yeah thank you my my children are all in Hamilton right now so it's a bit of a interesting change they've been enjoying Spanish they have not learned Spanish uh so this is a chance for them to learn Mandarin and I think they just simply asked oh like why and I'm supposed to know all the answers right I'm Dad I'm on the board uh but I thought it' be great to just explain a a little bit of the opportunity that we had the challenges that we're trying to solve um I know there's been discussion about different languages throughout the high school and other parents in the community have just asked that through that channel saying hey what's happening and is this related or like how do how is this um how are we solving solving a problem or addressing a need so it's just a good topic to put some light on what we're doing right here um yeah so I think just want to make sure I answer the question I just want me to expand about how Mandarin got here for the elementary program yeah so we had uh a resignation um in uh early August of our one of our Elementary uh Spanish teachers and we had advertised quickly um as we always do for a a replacement um Spanish teacher and this was an issue that we had last year as well um we could not find a replacement for elementary Spanish so in meeting with the elementary principles um we decided to advertise for all the languages that we offer at the high school and middle school so we adverti for French Latin Mandarin Spanish and also we added American sign language as well uh we um did get a French um applicant that we interviewed that was not a candidate we thought was a good fit but we did get several Mandarin um uh certified uh uh candidates so through that process we found a very strong uh uh candidate teacher um who uh accepted the position and in meeting with the principles and Mr Van Nest we decided that we would split it up with Spanish half a year at two of the elementary schools in at the other other two and then flip it um as people may or may not be aware but uh the the world languages are offered one day per week and it's more of a uh learning about the culture not as much about about the language and we thought since we do offer uh Mandarin in the middle school and high school it would be a good uh transition to expose students to those uh those two languages and then they have choices when they get to um to the middle school we do know that we because of low enrollment with mandarin in the middle in high school that we only offer Mandarin in grades 7 through 12 and the other three languages French Latin and Spanish are offered in sixth grade on a rotational basis and we have a new class set the board approved sixth grade seminar which replaced the rotation with mandarin and that was done for a couple of reasons but the biggest one was a staffing issue that we had at the time um so we're going to proceed with uh the plan we have now which we think we have two strong teachers in actually we know we have two strong teachers in the elementary schools for Mandarin in Spanish our students will be exposed to those courses uh to those languages over over um the next several years depending on their grade and then they have options when they get to Middle School Is Not Our intention to eliminate a world uh language from the middle or High School uh we would like to continue to add but at the end of the day it does come down to enrollment and our sheer numbers of what we can and can't offer uh but that's the um that was a thought process behind that decision which was fully supported by obviously myself uh Mr van Nas but in particular I give credit to the principles for kind of thinking outside the box and trying to come up with a creative way to provide a certified teacher to work with our students hope that answers the question that's great yeah the elementary school principls are in charge of a lot so getting their feedback is fantastic thank you good thank you oops Yeah do have Itor any any other Peak questions and we can call roll Mr Canalis Miss Calis yes Miss carola yes Mr Corey yes Mr Hayward yes Miss garelli yes Miss Stevenson yes Miss Randell yes Dr Robinson yes motion passes thank you all right for General can we uh talk about policy so as everyone's aware the Board of Education one of their main roles is is policy policy are sort of think of them as like Congress the lawmakers so they they write the policy that um dictates how we as Administration uh execute and run the district uh the board has always wanted to review uh old policies and make sure they're current and up to date so in uh in the appendix and in backup the board will see that we have a policy on class size and in particular there was a change we had added ental registar um who maintains the wait list for students that move into the district that want to go to another um you know uh their assigned bird and they want to go to Central or whatever the policy as it read that was maintained by the building administrators which just was not accurate it's actually maintained by the central regist so it's our suggestion again this is falls under the board's Authority but it's our suggestion to make that policy accurate and to say that it's the central registar that does that it's the only change to that policy your other option could be superintendent or designate if you wanted to give yourself more flexibility but it's not accurate to say that the building administrators do that because they do not are there any questions specifically about this for Dr Charleston so now we just have to decide um yeah there's no questions this will be on for second reading um at the next the next meeting board's happy with Central registar or if they would prefer superintend or design um either one is fine with me okay all right I think I mean Central registar Central registar sounds okay for everyone same okay all right all right next item 26ac yeah so we have a review I'll go over real quick so we have just a review no changes here um for qac which is 2331 um as people are aware uh Glenrock is going through the qac monitoring process again it's every 3 years it involves five um what we call District performance reviews uh my my office overseas uh governance and Personnel Greg overseas instruction and programming and James overseas uh finance and operations some of us touch different areas there's some of james' stuff is in governance some of my stuff's and some of the things in James but at the end of the day our job over these last several weeks starting in August is to put data uh evidence into uh a file um that the county office will review and say Hey you yes you did this you get points for that if that makes sense um we have a committee which Miss carisol is on and she'll be speaking about shortly but this policy here in front of you outlines exactly probably in a much more uh intelligent way than what I just said but outlines um what the qac process is and the responsibilities of the district for the boards uh your your what's going to come to you um will be uh the dprs uh which will be signed by the committee and that will be on November 11th the board will certify that and then that will get submitted to the county office no later than November 15th then the county will start what they call a desk audit which is from obviously their office they'll be able to look at everything we submitted and then they will come out and see us probably in February uh to do a site visit well they'll sit down with Greg and his team to go through our curriculum to sit down with me and and Miss Babin to go over all of our HR and Personnel records they'll do site visits to the schools to look at our facilities and operations um and things along those lines but the majority of it is done as uh remotely in what they call a desk audit so again nothing to change here just um I think it's good for the board to review and get an idea of what's coming down the pike on November 11th and I don't want to take anything away from Miss car cuz she's up next you basically took everything away from me um I think all my notes U yeah the committee met it was a great it was very eye opening for me since I wasn't part of this before um since it's a three every threeyear process but this is some of the paperwork that just talks about what is needed um you mentioned the five areas but it includes things like graduation rates curriculum alignment auditing P professional development things like that it's very comprehensive very thorough um and it's a lot it's a lot of information that's being collected so um if anyone's totally unfamiliar with it I know you said it's the state's monitoring and District self- evaluation system for public school districts so it really evaluates um our performance and capacity so um I think you said everything else I wanted to say um does anyone know what husack stands for I would love for you to tell us quality single accountability Continuum last time I believe we were a high performing district and I expect will be so again based on the evidence I saw at our last meeting so we're meeting again the end of this month yes so um when we meet on I think it's October I think it's before the next board meeting um Miss carola we have two teachers um the grea nominates or selects two teachers to be on that committee they did the graa selects one person to be on that committee they did and then we have our central office people which consists here we have Miss Babin from HR as well we will go through all the nearly 100 indicators to make sure that we have evidence for that for the district to be considered high performing you must score an 80% or higher in all the different all five of the areas we will certainly score either perfect or maybe maybe lose a point here or there on one area so um we will be a high performing District if you remember um last time we lost two points or two things three points each one was uh we didn't spend enough money in a grant quick enough um so that was news to us and then the other one if you remember was we submitted something on Friday that was due on Monday but they didn't read it until Monday afternoon so they considered it late so that's where we lost our our our points there so we had 97 and 97 and two areas 100 and 100 in another area in instruction and programming a large percentage of your points are based on your test scores our test scores are always very strong but they won't be a perfect score just by the nature of the tests so we'll be high performing we'll go through it's just a lot of work and it's good for us to gives us a check on on what we're doing well and what we can focus on uh for improvements in the future and it's nice to have the county office come out and and you know share with us best practices of things along those lines and I do appreciate Miss carola and the members of the committee they're putting a lot of effort into this U making sure that it's comprehensive what we're submitting and uh again it's much appreciated all right thank you very much um any other questions regarding cusac from the board no all right looking forward to the future all right for instruction and program um we have uh three old business items um Dr charson do we have anything with the elementary intervention Cod yeah so I'll talk about a couple of these things here first just to give you an update as you know in the spring you realigned some of the coaching positions and and those kind of things so I just want to kind of fill you on on how things are going and and the answer is things are going well um I've been working with the coaches I meet with them every other week they are with their principles all the time um so they're working very closely with the inrs teams they're looking at data they're looking at the referral process for inrs we've we've done a lot of work with that and streamlining a lot of those things making um the referral form and online form for example and a better way of collecting data and making it all much more data driven which is great um they have the the coaches worked with their principles to plan PD this afternoon for their staff um in their buildings working on um tier one supports and and really planning that out they themselves are are doing the math BSI as as you know we we realigned it that way so they started working with the math BSI kids in the last week or two I think as far as it's their identification process to see who who is eligible who needs it who needs what um we have we're looking into I put into the budget this year for the title two funds that we get which is for professional development some of that money we're going to be using to send I think one of the coaches to a a Jim night coaching PD I saw him at a at a conference last year and he does a week-long Institute for coaches that I think it's going to be really good about the coaching impact Cycles how he describes it um but he's very good and I think that would be well worth our grant money to send one of them there um they have also I I told you I meet with them every other week but we also coordinate so I'm in meetings all afternoon they're not they're part of it and then I have the supervisors with them and then I have just the supervisors so they're overlapping with them and we're we're talking and supporting each other through that as well so they're part of that that larger conversation um moving on to mtss and kind of a bigger bigger framework for the district already talked about intervention coaches today as you know we had a half day of ped for staff and we did that by building uh we didn't bring them all here as we have done in the past and really they worked on um professional development for these tiers of instruction especially tier one um I was here briefly with the with Michelle gando as she was leading it here talking about the process talking about the overall structure then they broke into departments to to talk about what they can do in their own departments um talked about the difference between accommodations and modifications because we often just throw those two words out as if they are the same thing and they are or not um and um we're looking at similar kinds of work going on at the elementary schools I wasn't at those because I was up here um but I know the coaches and principles were working with their staff so as as you recall one of the things that we were excited about and still are with the way we redefine the coaches is that they are in a building all day long and really building that team there which which I think is going to be really powerful for our for our teachers and for our students and then the last few things that I want to just kind of kind of put on your radar um we are using funds from various grants to support some of this professional learning so we had the id idea funds were being used for um John Ali Consulting I think that was on the last agenda um you also on the last agenda we had title 2A funds for the math professional development for the High School Math teachers a lot of that is focused on tiers of instruction small group instruction responsive instruction those kinds of things that we're talking a lot about this year and then um you've also approved the title 3 funds which is for multilingual multilanguage Learners um and that's for professional development Hamilton so those are the things we've been doing so far and it's only October so uh a lot going on and I'm pretty pretty excited to see how it's shaping up thank you Mr VES um I do have a question so do you have like what would be like a broad timeline for the mtss process in terms of like what what like phases do you see it going through this year what we're really focusing on is that tier one of instruction how to teachers in the General Ed classroom support the learning for all of their Learners at once right so um as we move on we're going to be talking a lot more about tier two which would be more that small group kind of instruction and tier three is much more focused on special education which we're always working on as well but this year the the primary focus is what can you do as a teacher to differentiate to support to enrich to all of those kinds of things and um and that's really what we're here hitting on right now and like what like in terms of the um breadth of this project like how many years do you think it takes for you to get to your end goal just generally like a few it's probably going to be I mean this year is mostly going to be tier one looking at that and then moving on especially and to be honest I was a high school teacher it's harder at the high school level moving on Beyond tier one instruction when you have five classes and and 120 kids um and what do we do for tier 2 in at middle and high school and mostly what we what we were talking about with tier 2 and that that more support for students at the middle school and high school is much more about the social emotional component so we've done a lot of that with the wellness room and the wellness counselors and those kinds of things it's not a lot of the academic support but I think there's a need for that so that'll be the thing we'll be looking at next thank you so much thank you are there any questions for Mr venos all right thank you all right so I'm going to talk briefly about um our Beijing academy uh student exchange or student and Staff Exchange program um as some of you may be aware we had 17 um ba students beijan academy uh students and two teachers uh come here for a little more than two weeks and they stayed with host families uh I do have some of the host families here I'd like to thank uh Mr and Mrs randelle Mr Mrs carosella Miss calves helped us with a placement and they all got eggs for for that so so they could feed their families uh for being eaten out of their house by welcoming uh teenagers um but and I think back there I have Grandma and Grandpa uh rondelle right and they they they took uh uh exchange students as well um so I do think it was a wonderful experience uh this is something that tried to start when when I got here uh Co slowed it down but now it's back up and running you may be aware June we sent I believe seven students and two teachers to Beijing um for I think it was eight or nine days I do believe Miss uh rondell's one of her sons went on that trip um and um we return to favor with their their students coming here so it looks like we're we're in a pretty good uh uh exchange now where our kids will go there in June their their kids will come here at the end of September and October there is another trip coming up in December that uh me and Miss uh G Orlando will be attending it's uh their uh International professional development conference that's where we go and we present we also build relationships uh and work on future exchanges um with Beijing Academy and perhaps other sister schools um that is fully paid for by Beijing Academy so they'll pay for our flight um room board meals and everything uh and so we're looking forward to that trip and again that will help set up the trip in June and our goal is to get away from sending uh supervisors or administrators really want to be teacher run with our students and and I fully expect with the June uh trip uh many of our students wanting to go just to get an idea again if I'm repeating myself I apologize but um when our students go so as of now to uh to visit Beijing all they have to do is pay for their airfare everything else is paid for from the time they land we don't return the same favor here um so when they come here um a lot more is is on them and that's that's fine I do know our host family spent a lot of money and again it doesn't go unnoticed and it's much appreciated um and uh if you have any feedback in terms of how the um theost hting went please let me or miss Stella Fortuna know so we can make adjustments going forward the first adjustment that we already going to make is only one week with the host family next year versus the two weeks which seem to be a stretch on on the families um and we're aware of that uh but there were a lot of Tears when the when the students left uh this time um and so they made some friendships they learned a lot about each other and I think it's just a great way for us to expand as i' like to say the the proverbial Four Walls of a school and get our students out into the real world and learn from other students and and cultures so um again it'll be on the next agenda for a trip in December uh for me and Miss G Orlando again 99% is paid for by Beijing Academy the only cost you'll see there will be a Visa that m g has to get I already have a Visa and then Park parking at the airport happy to answer any questions or listen to other people who had hosted we were a host and it was a great experience I'm a habitual volunteer so when I see something you need people I'm like me with not knowing what it was really about so the experience for my own son was incredible um his the relationship he formed with the student the trips that he got to go to the dialogues he was part of in school um it was really um amazing for him so I'm thrilled that this time when I raised my hand and my family had a come along it really did benefit him in a way that was very special um and we loved introducing the student to Glenn Rock and our friends and uh a lot of people miss our student yo-yo and we we hope we can keep in touch with him but I really think it's fabulous and hope that we can grow the program with um maybe other schools it was just the impact was huge so thank you for the opportunity um we also did host uh with my parents my parents had two and we had two um um so we had a lot of kids I think one of the greatest things was well one we spent a lot of family time over two weeks which have high schoolers and middle schoolers so it doesn't always happen it was a really great time for our family to be together and then the other thing was since Henry my middle son went to China last year his student that he was paired up with did not come here but they were able to FaceTime with him with our kids so he was able to have that relationship and that kind of built on itself now they have each other's social media accounts and they're it's definitely something bigger than I anticipated it to be and it was incredibly uh beneficial for not just my kids but our whole family my extended family included thank you thank you um I know I'm I'm excited to to hear more and and see the partnership grow um so thank you for bringing this opportunity to the district it's our pleasure we really enjoy that it's not as I say it's it's not a vacation going there for a short period of time and coming back right it's it's a lot of work um but when we see all the good experiences and learning opportunities that our students get both here and there I think it's worth it and we are in the process of of trying to develop additional relationships with uh sister schools right now we're having conversations with uh schools in France and schools in Finland um so we're trying to get a couple I want to see if I can get one in South America so we can hit different continents um so our students have all these different options uh going forward but for right now I think the Beijing Academy and the the Czech Republic exchanges seem to be going well and we'll keep them up excellent thank you right so I see nothing in Special Services um looking at management and Community if we have the demographic report update yeah so I'm just sharing that uh the the the contract the or the PO was cut contract was signed Dr grip from statistical forecasting has requested a lot of data from us we provided that I think we're waiting for a couple of things tomorrow is October 15th that's our big what we would say is our data dump that the state required it's a big day for us to make sure that we get all the information in there that's how our state our state aid is calculated that's our anticipated enrollment for the following year Dr G gets a lot of that data as well and he starts to formulate his his report he still says he's on track to be done in January and February and as we shared in the contract we will be bringing him here to present uh in person um and uh hopefully that's I'm hope in January or early February so we have information leading up into the budget process okay excellent all right on to business um fiscal management all right so we just have a couple of items to uh review uh first and foremost uh just an update on the power professional and substitute bids that we have put out we're going to be opening those up on Halloween and we will report back to the board um also at our next meeting you will uh approve our budget calendar um it is substantially uh similar to what we did last year in terms of dates and objectives um and deliverables at the different points in time um some some broad highlights you know we'll be uh launching our building based budgets on the 30th of this month we'll be doing salary projections through the months of November and December um on November 25th we are scheduled to have our auditor president present for us to accept the 2324 audit um we'll be having our building meeting meetings with principles uh and directors in January um the board will get a copy of the budget um in that first week of February we will then approve a preliminary budget in March and a final budget in April so that'll be on the agenda for uh your acceptance um at our next meeting all right thank you very much now are we on to operations sure uh so some updates on some of the projects that we're working on uh so first uh is our preschool um so as we know when we uh uh provided a contract uh to our um contractors we had an allowance in there for unforeseen things that come up and so one of the two things have come up and we just want to give you an update so the first is there is a waste pump down there um that we believe is as old as the building and uh it was decided that in the abundance of caution it would be best to replace that pump uh as opposed to doing a whole bunch of construction down there and having it go and then having to rip out and replace so that uh there is going to be an allowance there for $22,000 uh we also um in a very aesthetic uh decision wanted our airell uh unit ventilators so these classrooms won't have the ventilators go across the air Dells go vertical um it allows for more light and what have you in the classroom uh we wanted to match it up on our grayish colors scheme that we had going there so uh that cost us an additional uh $2,700 so in essence we've used $25,000 of our uh allowance of $100,000 so we have 25 75,000 sorry uh left over we also had an allowance on our lower field lights project come in uh so we had gotten a request to have an electrical pedestal put down uh somewhere around Midfield so that we could have power actually on the field uh whether that be for the scoreboard or for the coaches on either side so that is going to run us an additional $7,700 uh against a allowance of $112,000 so we have $14,000 left to spend there so that's kind of our our update on allowances um now for some change orders so as you know we're going through our EIP uh project and so our esip project was set up with some contingency in it and so now we're starting to see some of those items come in so we have change order number two which is very similar to change order number one that the board approved a couple months ago which was for some electrical upgrades uh for rooftop units over at Coleman school now they the vendor has gotten around to uh the high school and so we have in that same light kind replacement things have changed over the years and we need some electrical upgrades uh running the district an additional $50,900 um we also have uh my favorite kind of change order which is a give back uh so we're getting back $7,000 as a result of some piping and insulation work that the district did between the time that we contracted with them and them coming out to the field so we'll be getting $7,000 back there um just to remind you change order number one for the electrical upgrades at Coleman was $66,000 so we have about a contingency right now of $226,000 left over uh the way the contingency will work at the end um is they are going to be providing us with a master commissioning report that's going to give us a list of potential projects that we could use that money on or we can just decide to save that money and put it toward paying down uh the interest Andor the principal on the bonds that were issued to cover the esip so we'll have a decision at that point um some bid information so uh last Tuesday we opened up bids for our Coleman roof just to remind you that was the rod project that we were going to do last summer but upon review of the uh extent of the work needed we wanted to take the time to actually uh bid it out because it was more of a tear a tear down and replace as opposed to a resurface so we put those bids out uh we open them up and our lowest bid which will be on our next uh uh Action meeting came in at uh about $30,000 favorable so we're we're kind of happy about that um especially since um mids have been a very erratic as of late and so one that really was based on numbers that are now almost 3 years old has come in favorable so we're really excited it's currently in uh review and like I said it'll be on the 28th for your award and then lastly is this Friday we have uh a bid opening for our um exterior stairs uh up here at the high school from the gym um if you remember that was the bid that had come in about $142,000 over budget and we decided as you guys decided as a board to reject all of the offers and that we would rebid again so fingers crossed and uh we will hopefully have that as well on the next agenda for approval by the board and that's all I have thank you very much Mr caneles um I wanted to take a um opportunity to just answer some questions that I had received um just for from the board members and just to highlight some of the things over um what we've done for like a past year and a half with regards to the preschool Grant um so just like to brush up um the grant doesn't allow for new construction and I you know please um Dr charlest or Mr canel step in if I say anything um in correct so it doesn't allow for new construction it's only for renovation one of the goals of the grant is um from the state of New Jersey is to bring Universal preschool to as many communities as possible and it seeks to provide increased access to Early Education so the government did a lot $120 million of funding um to 27 school districts in including ours which have been awarded funds to create preschool seats and they've increased the seats by I believe about 3,500 seats and um there's actually a tremendous amount of money that was allotted to that grant that um the vast majority of school districts actually just didn't apply for or for whatever reason um and so it is nice to be able to bring um pre like expansion of our preschool program uh to this to this District um so just uh some of the um budget numbers I've shared with each of the board members you know we we are well within our budget um we received $870,000 um Grant which is you know very substantial the project is um a little over you know maybe let's say $25 million um and $870,000 is is U money from from the state um you know we there's been many iterations many presentations over the past year and a have um we've received input from you know all all sorts of stakeholders including Like Preschool and Elementary CAC I remember um uh one of the feedbacks from all of those parents were that uh they would like some fixed um age appropriate uh equipment to the playground and and and I understand that that has been um addressed uh so we we really appreci appreciate that feedback um I had the opportunity um to see the space in the current uh state of construction last week um and it looks like it's going to be you know a state-ofthe-art space um with dedicated therapy room um three classrooms and um it has two emergency exits that are you know dedicated for um our little ones we have um an elevator that takes um students that need um elevator access down down um to the the classrooms um It is Well lit it will be well lit like there I see massive um windows in each of those areas in addition to the um additional light that will be there um it you know the the opportunity for our children to all be integrated uh integrated with special needs as well as general education students um you know the potential for additional high school programs that support the learning of these children um it's going to be it will be an upgrade to our current um preschool uh options um so you know I just wanted to kind of highlight some of these things or you know mention that to the board members today and see if there were any additional questions one um thing to note is um uh we're we're going to be able to tour the tour the area I was hoping that it would be able to be tonight but um based Bas on the way that the construction was done like Thursday is actually a better night for it so hopefully everyone's able to come Thursday and we'll be able to see the space and it'll just based on what they've done since um since I saw it on Thursday that it's better for us to walk the space on on Thursday um so anticipating that um yeah that's that's what I have for so so far any other questions or comments all right more to follow on Thursday oh yeah oh did you have something uh just prek hasn't really found its way into the communities the way it has in like New York City U I moved my family had of Hoboken a long time ago when prek was just becoming a thing so that became the norm and I think this these little Suburban towns like Glenrock haven't had to take the chance on this so what we're doing right now doesn't uh there's not the immediate need but when the emergency comes like when we have to do it I appreciate that we're taking the efforts right now to to set some of the standards some of the practices deal with some of the challenges Hamilton just put on four moreo uh classrooms and there's not a lot more grass that anybody really wants to take over so uh looking forward to seeing how this works out as it works out and as you mentioned like with the using this grant money that was available to us allows us to then also use other classrooms too in the future for um if we want to expand you know sections and other classes within the elementary schools then you know we have the opportunity to do that as well as making this like a a state ofth Art Space um so it is kind of like our Forward Thinking for being able to um keep our class sizes as low and as low as possible um yeah so thank you all right do we have anything from did you have something no I was going to say something about the class sizes which you just did so okay thank you and thank you just thank you for the update um I've been hearing a lot about how we're putting kids in basement so I think um people are going to be so excited when they see it because it is a state-of-the-art facility it's going to really the natural light that is coming in from the large Windows you mentioned I think will um settle a lot of concerns that I've been hearing thanks thank you all right do we have any um information from the isons sure um excuse me I attended the middle school high school h a meeting on Friday October 11th um it was the first meeting of the school year um and the HSA activities are well under way uh Miss Rivera came um the new assistant principal of the high school she spoke to the audience it was really nice to I've met her before but to watch her interact um with parents there um speak about her impressions of the students in the high school and one of the words that she used repeatedly was respect um so it seems like those relationships are off to a really good start um and then just some highlights they approved the June meeting minutes um so that's a good foundation for ensuring continuity in planning and operations of the HSA um and then they also approve the financial report um so it looks like we're on solid financial position to support the initiatives and programs for the upcoming school year but as always um we encourage folks in the community to sign up for the HSA and participate um as often as possible thank you very much this to have just one other brief update where I did contact my liaison um from the Town Council in an effort to address some of the um concerns raised regarding broken crosswalk signs in towns I don't have an affirmative answer on exactly what the next steps are but I did have a commitment that I would get an answer shortly I appreciate that I know um it's been like good to have a partnership there so I appreciate that this is almost late but um in our last meeting we discussed water filtration and just to piggyback on your comment that became that became a topic because I'm the Hamilton HSA liaison so that gave me the opportunity to just be two ears in a room and hear and hear the people that are discussing this topic so I want to thank Mr canel is here for taking that action on that responding back and giving we we made a change and we gave some information back and we now have better communication from that effort so it's it's what you're doing and it's it work there too all right just to add to that um all of the filters have been replaced and they are all functioning all right I appreciate that thank you yes I went to the New Jersey I went to the New Jersey school boards Association the county meeting on Monday the 30th there are 71 districts going to the convention so anybody who's going please download the app they highly recommend the app um I found that useful last year regra for any of the um sessions that you would be interested in and the superintendent of crcll spoke to us about Ai and how they were using it there they spoke about policy the support um for their use and training and also some guidelines on helping to prevent the pitfalls of a I especially with the students so the next meeting is in December um you can attend in person or virtually so I be nice if we had a a bigger showing there because it did really do get some good information you get to network with people from other towns I sat with people from fairon and from um Edgewater so it's just nice to meet other people and talk about boards and and you know exchange ideas very good point thank you very much um and you know like the information that we you know you glean and you share here and um over the I actually have a meeting with um Matt Lee I think next week um and we're going to talk about some of the other things that would get us towards the certified board and kind of get a plan for that and so I think it all kind of wraps in like we really just need to focus on um also knowing as much as we can about our role and you know being very comfortable in in in what we do here um so thank you for sharing that Ram was honored at that board meeting for becoming ceri board wow yeah excellent okay excellent all right so that leads us to our public comments on agenda items only um so I would like to open public comments at 8:16 um please state your name your address and you are um asked to speak for no more than three minutes please as the three minutes um approaches you might hear a beep and that just is just a a reminder um and that's it I appreciate it thank you hello my name is Andrea gucho 110 Midwood Road um in listening to uh the discussion about the preschool handicap classes being moved to the Middle School in high school I can't help but be dismayed and disappointed about this move as a retired special education teacher ldtc and preschool handicap teacher I have spent much of my time in basement classrooms nothing breeds isolation more than loow Loc in Special Needs classes in basement when the preschool handicap classes are moved to the middle school and high school basements how are interactions with appropriate age children going to occur middle school and high school students do not Foster age appropriate behavior language social and emotional development I find it difficult to comprehend how this situation provides the least restrictive environment for these students how are these children going to participate in inclusive learning activities such as a assemblies art music and special school programs such as field days I'm especially Disturbed to learn that these children must walk upstairs to go out Outdoors um I did hear that there was going to be an elev elator but anybody that has been in an elevator has seen the sign do not use in case of an emergency that these children should be the first ones out out the door not the last uh I've also known how difficult it is to keep these children calm in both both a simulated and real emergency situation our children in these classes deserve no less than any other student in the district I can't help but feeling that we are reverting back to a time when I first started teaching and these children were hidden away in Basin classrooms rather than being embraced and welcomed as members of the school Community extreme care must be taken to Foster their social emotion educ emotional educational physical growth and safety I urge the board members to consider this detrimental move and um as I said I'm I'm very disappointed very disappointed thank [Applause] you please you you can actually um if so as soon as someone is finished then you can um feel free to stop up to the mic thank you good evening good evening congratulations Hamilton School I have always supported the teachers and the wonderful students we have here in this District I am not on social media but I do want to go ahead and just make a comment about what what you discussed in the beginning of this meeting about what took place three weeks ago this Administration and Board of Education I'm sorry did not have the back of our amazing coach in the school district I'm a 1970 graduate from Glenrock High School my husband and my daughter also I am also a past Board of Education member and my mother served three terms on the board so I know how difficult some decisions can be however the decision decision three weeks ago should have should have not been a difficult decision in my opinion the athletic director in his position should have always had the back of our coaches especially one who deserved the promotion when a school district has the talent and staff to do the job you should never be bringing someone in from the outside never happened when I was on the board secondly Mrs Rundle whose own daughter was on the basketball team should have never voted on this issue never in my day of being on the board of education would someone vote if there's a conflict of interest the sad part of how you handled this resulted in a talented and respected board member resigning two members walked out of the board meeting two members I was told were not present and Mrs rundall who should have abstained on the decision that left four board members so therefore it never would have been voted on Glenrock schools have always been one of the top rated schools over the past few years we have seen a mass exit of many teachers leave this school district and I admit it was some some of the problem with the pandemic however there were teachers who left because they felt lack of support and some of the decisions that this Administration and school board has made if you talk to people in this town which I'm sure you all do you must be aware that there is some poor morale in some areas of the district thank you if you can begin to wrap up can I just finish my conclusion if you can find a way with please thank you to conclude this town has terrific parents who want to have top coaches and teachers so their children can get the best education this town can offer the Board of Education Administration continues to make decisions that should support our veteran coaches it is my hope that in the future you will always consider the talents of our teachers and our coaches before you hire outside the district thank you my daughter um and actually just as a point of uh notification ma'am if you're able to just please um come back to the podium and state your name and address my apologies I meant to say that when you were standing there I know that sorry Mary Joe Dervis 41 Cedar Street glamrock thank you are there any other members of the public that would like to speak all right um seeing no other members of the public that would like to speak we would like to close our public comment session at 8:25 p.m. um I would also like to make a statement that uh there are no there were no conflicted um members there uh as I understand your daughter does not my daughter has never played high school basketball thank you thank you that's all all right um so our next um meeting will be on Thursday um our next meeting will be on Thursday um we at that point we will be um doing some interviews um and that's just a special meeting for that purpose uh after this meeting we're actually going to go back into close just to do some Clos discussion um and so I will need um somebody to make a motion to go into close after the completion of our public session we will not be voting on any items um it's just to discuss a uh board matter I just have one question before the meeting on Thursday is open to the public correct it is open to starts at 7:00 p.m. correct yes okay just so the public knows that they're welcome to come yeah for and which is a good point of of notice just like I mean any public meeting that we have will be posted and just with the open public um meetings act you know members of the public are able to attend whenever there's a quorum so thank you and I'll make the motion thank you okay motion made to um end open or public session and then go into close with no voting Matters seconded by Mr Hayward all right um a motion made by C and seconded by all right Mr all those in favor all right all right n oppos okay thank you