##VIDEO ID:VjAQnuk1xAU## i' like to call this meeting to order notices meeting refer to the inquire carer post Clerk of the township and a district website and members of the Board of Education and posted in the Board of Education offices at 17 Ariel Road Blenheim New Jersey please note this meeting May Be video or audio recorded where everybody please rise for the flag salute pledge allegiance the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all may I have a roll call please this G here Mr G here Mr G here M Gord here Mr Johnson here Mr Don is AC tonight Mrs dintino here Mar here I did hear from M oono she will not be able to attend tonight at this time we're going to move on to 1.3 board gold settings Miss Terry L the floor is yours please introduce who you brought with you well thank you for having me back U my name is Terry Lewis I am from New Jersey school boards and we recently made a new hire uh and this is Lori banow she's going to be covering Burlington and ocean counties she take it out she's going to be covering Burlington and ocean counties I got it I just hat um and she's been with us since July the 2nd so but she has had um at least oh my gosh 10 years board experience with two different boards one in New York one in New Jersey so she's really familiar with the way boards operate so we're just going to show her the way that we do things around here so tonight we're going to do goal setting I'm going to pass these around and if you will remember correctly it moves a little faster if we all talk so I just figured I would provide that small friendly reminder so tonight we're going to do District goals and board goals and if you turn the paper over that I just gave you it really gives you a good explanation of what the two of them are okay so the district goals is something that everyone here owns really what these are are your priorities for the upcoming year you're saying this is important to us this is what we want to work on um you're going to set those here and it's up to your Administration to carry those goals out it's up to you to monitor them throughout the year to make to be to make sure that they are being worked on um the other one are board goals and they are gen they belong to the board and they are set really to improve your knowledge processes to make sure that the board uh can maintain its efficiencies and his Effectiveness so those are the two sets let me turn my mic up didn't I knew it so last year in front of you is a recap of what you did last year so before we get into those I want to ask you all a question and you know what my question is going to be I ask you this all the time it's been a year since I've seen you there's been a lot going on in the district so why don't you give me a recap of some of the really good things that have been happening here over the past year just to bring us all up to speed well I think one of the things that the board is pretty excited on is we did hit one of the goals with more s SRO in the buildings you have more SRO build went from three to five now that's that's moving the boat in the right direction good good good good you're all very quiet I know you come to meetings at least once or twice a month and I know you talk about all the good things that are happening here so I need you to share them with me well I'm new I just started in January and what I've seen is the students come to these board meetings and they share uh the different achievements they've made in the different areas and it's really uh enlightened me to all the good things that are happening into the district it's nice it really affirms what you do as a board and really it affirms what's happening here in the district all the good stuff thank you for sharing that I know that there's way more than that you have a ton of schools and a ton of kids and a lot of good programs so what are some of those great things how many counselors have we add to our St last year was it six we doubled our counselors so it was seven 10 right 10 so we doubled our counselors to 10 10 10 total or 10 additional 10 there were 10 additional in in the 23 24 budget and there were also additional professionals HED including a supervisor for the first time uh for Mar Clinical Services and so those counselors and social workers and different professionals that are really for the first time aimed at dealing with typically developing students and their challenges there's always a lot of resources as there should be for students with special needs but just um kind of post uh post pandemic we see that in just regular kids they have struggles at times so so I think that um board saw the need to address that and that was um very beneficial so we're looking forward to a second year at that excellent that's super good uh we've been meeting um before board meetings on Monday with curriculum with Tim he's had supervisors come to talk to us about different things that'll be going on um so I think we're going in the right direction there we do have a good meeting um and whenever we have questions you know we're not to hesitate to ask and we get the answers so we do curriculum we also have PBIS positive behavior that is working in our schools to cut down on discipline problems and I guess that kind of goes hand inand with some of the the the counseling and stuff that you just talked about so good how many school you have 11 schools seven schools 11 11 that's what I thought I was telling Lori that I think you're the largest K to8 in the state of New Jersey is that correct yeah that's what I thought we a lot of politics yeah we revamped the um breast code policy and I thought it was a very good collaborative effort with input from all different you know areas yeah writing that good still squeaking a little bit here dress code discipline you guys are taking a look at ramping a lot of those yeah good so so you're looking at everything from all different facets of the community very nice very nice so you've been busy exced about the mental health Edition and I believe Oaks Integrated Health is part of that it is yeah it is um where the social workers or the counselors were all on their own before maybe one juggling mle different issues um there's going to be much more comprehensive Services yep with this partnership and uh it's an area that Society needs as a whole but especially for the children and catching up with covid and all of that and socio psychological economic challenges of society today is even more challenging than it was a year ago or a year before that so I'm really um I think that's to me that sticks out of my mind really is is a great accomplishment and the gentleman who's running it um it's very capable good knowledgeable yeah one of the additional things in that whole package that we're working on through Oak Oaks integrated and different resources is when you know student makes a poor decision says something and needs clearance before they can come back to school used to be somewhat arduis of In Time be sent to an emergency room where hospitals can deal with them but it's hours to do that and now um working with the ad Services Commission and different grants we've had we can send students that make board decisions out and sometimes it was just words and um if they have a clearance there may be a consequence for speaking inappropriately but it's not so prolonged anymore than the student could be back in school where they belong as soon as they can't be get them the assistance they need as quickly as possible and then getting back to the learning environment good good yep and I don't think we realize I think we're just starting to realize like what happens sometimes out of school areas um in a child's life has a direct impact on their learning here in school so we need to be able to deal with them where they are so that's really nice that you're doing that that's perfect excellent so let's take a quick look unless you have any more you want to share okay let's take a quick look at your goals from last year so your first one was to increase the student achievement in ela and math as measured by the star results how did we do definely need to stay on there there's always room for improvement in that I I tend to agree I mean you know you you can increase it and you can increase it and to me it's not it's not done until it's 100% so you want to leave that on there yeah absolutely okay um the number two is to address student discipline measures and you are looking at Chronic attendance issues um consistent application of policies and SRO for all schools now I know you don't have SRO for all schools but you did say that you have made a significant uh you know progress there so that's really good um you're working on your policies um and we haven't talked about chronic attendance so how's that working which is really a tough thing to tackle yeah that's that's hard for board to maintain that that's that starts at home and comes to buildings in my opinion well yes and no so it's a law kids have to come to school um and I guess it's really trying to Target those kids I don't I don't know what you're using for chronically absent is it 10 10 absences more than 10 a year is that what the state says it yeah I yes I wanted to comment but I know Tim we have that kind of a a graduated scale I know you don't like Mr tro and I answer it Terry but sometimes we have to get context yep all right Mr tro good we do monitor um student attendance closely it is something during our monthly principal meetings that we will periodically not necessarily every month but periodically throughout the year I'll update them with where we are compare it to past years um many of them set goals for reducing that um so the policy is mirrored based on what the state guidelines are that they recommend and so the state defines chronically absent as students who Miss 10% of the days that they could be in school so if a student enrolls in school and they're only enrolled for 100 days say because they move in in December um then chronically absent for them would be 10 days because it would be 10% of 100 so for the typical student in all all school year it's 18 days or more so the policy's written that there are certain benchmarks five 10 days where their parents are communicated with counselors and administrators are supposed to reach out develop attendance action plans and then when they hit 18 days they're labeled as chronically absent and that's also what triggers our policy has attendant probation in there where they can't participate in some Afterschool activities if they're not actually attending school regularly until they reestablish regular attendance um they're taken to Municipal Court um the parents are taken to municipal court because it is a misdemeanor to not have your child in school I think I said correctly with misdemeanor but it is a something that can be addressed to municipal court and um so we try to implement that consistently and do do a lot with communicating with the parents and so forth so we have been successful in reducing those numbers Co of course been a slow recovery from that we do have a fairly strict policy I would say when it comes to attendance um where we only excuse the days that the state excuses which would be religious holidays and various um there's several other things like that that are the state does take your child to work day and a couple of others routine illnesses and so fourth we have a fairly strict policy with that where they count towards those 18 days they're not excused per state law and guidelines and so we hold tight to that to try to make sure that people understand that they need to have their child in school and consistently so that they can achieve appropriately so I think we have made some progress with that I don't have the number right in front of me but we definitely had a decrease last year in the number of students who were chronically absent from the year before har can I just add to Mr tr's statement when um when we follow the board's policy and we have to enforce it um it becomes difficult there are a lot of people in our school main offices that track things there are a lot of Administrators that get involved we let parents know at different intervals with recorded messages with letters um sometimes um uh people will go to the wall and we're just F we don't have the Liberty to look the other way on the board's policy so unfortunately you know um it gets difficult we just one case in point that it continues um on as we speak a case from last year so you know there's a lot of good people that trying to enforce it it's unsung work and no one wants to call and say Hey you know we really refer your child to be here but that's the most important thing so there's a lot of due diligence out there in our Liv buildings yeah you're not the only District that faces that I mean it's tough I mean you're filing it you're doing all the procedures that are that are set out and that and a lot of them are mandated by law too so you're following all that and you know you end up in taking somebody to court because you're not sending your kid to school but if that's what it takes that's what it takes so what do you want to do with Goal number two you want to think about it for a minute because it was pretty big um I think some of the stuff from what you've told me is working as far as discipline and you've got some other things in place to take care of some of the social and emotional things um you've got new SRO additional SRO you've been looking at your policies to make sure that you know they say what you need them to say to give the staff what they need to be able to enforce them um so I'm not sure we'll leave it for now then you can decide when we're done so goal number three was that increase in Social and emotional and Dei learning and professional development opportunities for all staff so tell me about goal number three I'm gonna put Linda on the spot here I know you have you've had curriculum meetings because you you told me so are you talking about a lot of this stuff in there or some of it not some of it some of it I I personally like to see more professional development opportunities for staff um more um different contacts I guess instead of the same old but more targeted more targeted I I like to see I know some of the professional developments on scoring and testing and stuff like that I like to try to maybe not erase that but go a little bit further and add to it the district had started Department of ccul construction had started to infuse um social emotional more importantly Dei training actually before the school year began last year Mr TR started with certain cohorts and it kind of ends in the 24 25 school year I think that we also enhanced our staff gcn trainings to reflect uh this particular go so I know that I give a very summited that Mr tro would give a more detailed answer but prior to the boards goal we were trying to um follow a trend out there with these two particular things and I think that we have done a very good job of the exposure to our staff and I think this is one goal where uh this is a really long-term goal because it's not something that you're going to achieve in year one year two year three this is really longterm and I always say that you want to keep a goal on there until it's kind of ingrained into the fabric of your District so if you are taking a look at your curriculum and you're infusing and and it's engrained how are we going to put SEO in here how are we gonna what are we going to do about Dei are we looking are we looking at our curriculum with that eye once that is ingrained into the way that you look at it then I think it's okay take it off but after one year I don't know Mr Marks may ask a question SP out the gentleman who runs the um Mental Health social Mr K Mr Klein hasn't he Incorporated a lot of this type of teaching at you know I know we're talking about curriculum and in the context of the curriculum program but outside of the curriculum program the teachers just separate themselves in reference to all of the things that are mentioned the Dei I had felt like Mr Klein had um created a pretty comprehensive program to also address tell me if I'm wrong or mistaken also to address and add to ins servicing for the staff the teachers because outside of curriculum like we had said it's all it's it's it's its own thing it's its own issue in every area of their lives every area of the building you all St curriculum too look at it so because I'm B curriculum too and um I think of it yes it's part of curriculum but I look at it as a wider schoolwide thing and I remember the wonderful presentations Mr Klein gave and I was very pleased to see that um that was going to be I believe if I remember correctly a big part of it address did I reme misremember for my speaking ad no you didn't misremember Mr Klein is uh very fond young administrator and uh in his first year I think he really exceeded a lot of expectations as a former counselor himself I certainly think as he um got the resources the district resources under um professional development um having a Common Language to treat the whole child student and sometimes that goes beyond obviously our our brick and mortar buildings but there are things that happen in that students life at home and sometimes um I think having that um the ability to to in just reinforc with his staff that um there are things to address other than just straight discipline for a bad decision and I think that uh he will continue to grow that he has a lot of Grants and a lot of resources and um he is bringing a lot of very smart people on board in that department and it's going to really assist this District in this community one of the things I remember is he was going to teach or somehow within that program pramming empathy would be taught and empathy needs to be taught it's not something that need develop a natural skill that and today's environment what today's environment today's envirment reference to empathy um and life in the craziness of life sometimes you know that's something that has to be deliberately taught and so that was part of it and I thought that is tremendous great Mr to add something to I think some of the specifics you're thinking of are the character strong education program that our counselors are doing so one of the things we were able to do and that the counselors had asked for and one of the reasons we expanded the number of counselors in the district was to give them more time to actually be in classrooms and teaching preventative type lessons with students instead of being so reactive which was often what they had to do when we only had one in each building so they've been going in they started last year this year it's going to become even more formal um in every building where they're going in I think it's going to be about twice a month I believe is what Mr Klein and they've settled on where they'll be going into each classroom to teach these character education lessons and then they've I know I've sat in on a number of faculty meetings in which the counselor will share with the some of the topics as well as additional things that teachers can do with them in between lessons to make sure that it's not just a one and done lesson but it is getting into the fabric of what we're doing so that's one huge piece as well as a lot of the work we're doing with multi-tiered systems of support trying to get line with the state model and so we've done a great job particularly in elementary school of monitoring students academic performance and getting them intervention but then what do you do with students that are struggling behaviorally socially and so we've got all sorts of plans for that and systems that are being put in place and new tools that we purchased to help us do a better job of dealing with the whole child instead of just one particular area so those are just a couple of the specifics I think that you were referring to L and when I forget names like Mr Klein is no slate to him I have no memory for names titles of books but I can tell you everything but it's it's a doing a great job yeah it's not a you know he I just that's my little thing I problemis with you so considering the fact that that goal was new last year and that you've already started some really good considerable work on that I'm assuming you want to keep that one yes okay okay then we can move on to number four creating more opportunities to engage parents and caregivers in their students educational process I don't think that we met this goal um we had discussed creating a committee with f with parents board members [Music] stat teachers and we just never got to that so that's one we definitely need to leave on and improve on that then I think so absolutely yeah I I think we need to um engage parents and caregivers more of an opportunity whether it be and I know it's hard for parents to come to something at night but just given the opportunity put it out there Zoom we we need something um it hard we have we've had things and parents it's it's small group that show up and it's hard because kids are running here parents are running here some parents are working two jobs but we definitely need to do a better job at this and getting more people I'm going to um pick you back on that I think it could be increased but I'm going to ask that we make that a little more specific as far as what exactly that we're looking for to happen what is it going to look like um and then how are we measuring that we achieve that so those are my well I think maybe a committee together would be the first step deciding who should be invited to the to this meeting whether it be Zoom or in person but it's the the board sets the goal and it's the districts like there's their responsibility to how we're going to that is correct yeah yeah so I think you need to decide what you want it to be and if you want to be more specific what would that look like you know what are you looking to attain I guess oh I definitely think it needs to be more specific yeah not just engage parents engage caregivers we need to be put more of a point and more a specific area of where we want to engage um so so let me ask you a couple questions though what what is the purpose for you doing this why do you want to do this transparency no I would like to see more parents and caregivers involved involved in what involved in school life um and like I said I know it's hard but we don't have enough parents involved and I don't know that we have enough opportunities to get them involved we need to kind of measure on where maybe send a questioner out on what parents caregivers would like to see um I don't know what the answer is but I know we need to get more people involved we need to have more of a hold so but I want to ask you again what is the reason for getting them involved what what are you trying to accomplish input they can come to a meeting contact board member right so I mean if it's if it's to engage them in their child's education that's going to be a little bit more specific but if it's to Garner more support for the school that's going to send another Direction so that's why I keep I'd like to see engage engage more in the education side of their child um um so many parents now I mean don't well I remember when my kid came home is did backward math and I'm like backward math okay like the curriculum has changed so much from when we went to school and I don't know that parents understand the whole concept of what the kids are learning and they may they may I don't know but I think sometimes parents are kind of at a loss when it comes to the new Concepts that we're we're doing in the school which is not a bad thing I mean we're but I think we need to get parents more engaged in the education of their child that's just my opinion didn't know some teach if they couldn't get anywhere with their teachers or staff and they have Bo open to anywhere so when you have um when you have activities when you do things do parents come out do they support the school depends what the depend situation is yeah okay if I recall when we set this goal last year part of it was the uh report cards like parents not even checking off the report cards that you know so we did work on doing some of that type of of stuff but I think you had brought up um kind of going to where they were with like Facebook and stuff like that letting them know of things that were going on and then we had that there's there are you know PTA like different well groups I guess there's not something that's the district that's responsible but that's going to the TR so we'll have a district account that push puts out okay in social media okay soach we are but we also have a lot of English as a second language and a lot of those people are and not that we don't help them I know that we do help them so the new website will translate My worry is that some parents don't have some of the opportunities to have the computers and the social media um so I don't I don't know what the answer is they have a phone honestly I have found out that that is the easiest way to reach most Advantage because they pretty much that is their Lifeline they have that so what you're doing with social media I I think it's a great idea I didn't realize that was going to I seen so I think you can leave it on as a goal but I would probably change it a little bit um because it says create more opportunities but I would be more specific with the with what you're doing with the website and your your your social media content because I think it's a great content so expand to social media I would you know it's really nice because you can post one thing on the website you know an important message and then send it out through your social media pages and everybody can click the link link and it takes you right back to the website that is okay Facebook all the students that we have as English as a second language that'll all we're going to incorporate all those languages into that okay okay all right all right I haven't I didn't go I just want to make sure all the languages are included because I know we have a lot okay okay and I think even as a user I can change my own Facebook page I can change the Lang Ang on mine so yeah that would help no I know because I know when we spoke Beth a lot of the the students were talking to their parents explaining to their parents so this way with that translation l so I think that'll make those parents feel more involved too than their child coming and saying this is like at least they'll be able to right okay and I guess it's important you know it's important to point out too that when you talk about engaging with you know parents and caregivers that there is a certain cultural difference between the way people had education where they came from to where it is here and they don't they don't realize that they can come and ask questions and find out because that probably wasn't the way it was where they came from no so so you want to keep that one but you want to change the wording a little bit okay so so far we're at one we are at three and we are at four three though you wanted to and and I'm Gonna Leave This up to Kia Kia how do you want to change what that says to be like kind of more specific three we know we're going to change four but you had mentioned on goal number three that you thought that it should be more focused and measurable no that was that was four I thought it was three sorry my mistake but I but I think three I think three should be measurable too I wrote some things down like like how number two is with the different bullets that's how number three should be like look at um curriculum um more specific um for professional development and say what kind of professional development and continue and monitor the um the programs the character program and like maybe um monitor how many times that if they do go in twice a month like they're saying they're going to do that so that's what I just wrote down some notes to make it more specific no I agree I like that it's measurable so you can yeah I like putting the objectives down it all need to be measurable I think everything we need to know what it is exactly that we are looking to attain um sorry the mic um but we need to know exactly what we're looking for like what what is our intended outcome so I think we need to get specific on all them really just to make sure they're okay consistent yeah even goal number one like we we did increase it by 0 one you know whatever the minor thing percentage are we looking for a 20% increase are we looking for 80 you know as in the classroom we set goals as far as percentage of students that we want to achieve and what we what we're looking for with that so I think it should be the same as if the so did you want a percentage of growth in goal one or did you want a percentage increase well how would we measure and then I was thinking in reference to the professional development maybe would we do like survey but did we get a baseline do well that would be Tim's area to be able to we don't care how they do it we we just want measure the right bring us back some data yeah but I you know you mentioned on goal number one like are you looking for a specific Target and if so what is that Target I think it's we did set a perent 5% wasn't it I don't have that do you have it was five okay okay on grade level would you be comfortable with another five no the same goal increase it okay go seven it's a good number okay yeah we wanna we don't want to go yeah we want to work to where we know that they're getting the information and keeping it and in reason right make it realistic not that our faculty out for failure right now the only thing the only one we didn't talk a lot about was goal number two so I mean where are you on this do you want to keep it do you want to say no we just want to really concentrate on the other three I mean you've put a lot into place here um I would like to still see the student discipline measures personally um and especially now that Steve is working on different areas that that continues to increase you want to change that word address to monitor yes yes yes good yes okay so you're going to be monitoring chronic attendance you're going to be monitoring the consistent application of policies we're not necessarily going to monitor the sro's no we have but is there anything else in there that you w to you know the number of uh you know disciplinary infractions do you know because of you're monitoring that obviously you can get data on that not that you're going to say hey we want a decrease but can you show us data so that we can see that this is having an effect right if not then maybe we need to do something else that works I don't open a can of worms sure you really I'm always the one so we're just going to keep the three monitor student discipline with oh yes I'm sorry chronic attendance issues and application of policies y yes we're doing away with the SRO right you seen anyone address yet start to look at yes yes and that is actually um a really hot topic these days so a lot of people are taking a look at it uh making sure that have policies the hard part with AI is like it's I know does everybody here know what it is and you're like yeah I sort of know what it is but you don't know how kids will be using it in school exactly so if it were me I wouldn't make it a district goal per se but I think that should be a board goal for each one of you to get some information on how AI affects the school district and affects student learning so that when those policies and those things come down you can have a good robust conversation because now you already know like these are and there's a lot of trainings out there on that right now that you can you don't even have to leave the comfort of your home there's webinars and all kinds of stuff that you can pick up uh but I would say that from a board perspective you need to really bone up on that because that is really an up and coming yeah yeah we had a policy meeting last week and board went through an array of different policies and I didn't give them didn't ask for them to approve it on the first reading but I gave it to the policy Strauss s's um AI policy yeah I wanted them to just be begin to become familiar as you just mentioned I also stated that in two months at the school boards conference that a lot more information probably be saturated hopefully down there it's a big and powerful topic yeah and I would imagine that members that attend probably have workouts work breakout sessions they could attend to learn more I think there are assemble back here again and start um drilling down what we want to do because fascinating at one on one hand it could be very powerful for teachers for students and it's could be kind of like the internet a bit of a demon also that you can have ai do pretty much ter paper in 38 seconds exactly so we don't want that we want to have um Fair branders around AI That's So new that we need to learn as much as we can before we set something in writing it's this is this is a terrible analogy but it is the new and improved cursive writing nobody writes a cursive anymore because everybody types right now I use my thumbs I use my fingers I do I do too do kid they don't they don't care about cursive they're all ppers they can't read any know what it is they don't even really care about spelling why do I have to do spelling mom because there's autocorrect y my phone does it for me my laptop do it for me I don't need to learn how to spell this will figure out now ai is just a bigger form of that so it's going to be interesting so to go along with what John said um check out all the county meetings and we may not have any locally but take a look at some of the other parts of the state because they do have some AI coming up in those um and you can do those virtually if you want so there's always a virtual component to those County meetings um and then I think we we might even have a webinar out but the more information you can get the better because yeah you you're going to have to take that policy kind of apart and at least start to address it it's like I think it's cyber security I don't know if there's one for AI and have you heard of any other school districts doing anything hard you know like a hard change in the way they do things with phones oh yeah that's a big topic too in reference I think kry Hill just passed the policy um and who was the other one that we heard somebody else waston yeah but I think Cherry Hill just did theirs and somebody else was following up too and I was somebody from the south or Central so yeah you're going to start seeing that too okay thank you so it's a good time to pull out that that phone policy and see what it says so let's go down to board goals then um you already have one that's your AI goal um how did you do let's look at your goal number two did you take a look at your committee structure this year yes your committee and meeting structure did you make any changes yeah we Consolidated a lot compared to what three years ago we had 12 I think we're down to nine committees two are periodic yeah yeah but they're not all yeah we have like six seven main ones and a lot of them meet constant like curriculum is every month policy when what every month US mean much so we have it narrowed down to the most important ones and have the members activate them is there any way you can fold those other ones into like some of the more active ones and end up with kind of like three main committees that's just a food for thought year that's tough I think that's tough for district this size too yeah I think We Shrunk them down over years quite a bit I'm comfortable with what we have three in my opinion would be a challenge yeah yeah I think the three is just too too small Ma I think we're doing fine with what we have okay I mean I know you were used to when you came in we had boom boom boom yeah you had tons of them I was like what yeah nothing was Consolidated but we've Consolidated okay so one of the things that we look at and most districts that I deal with have three main committees that's it and they have negotiations so I shouldn't say three because negotiations is always separate but are they as big as a school district yeah yeah you said we don't me periodically that's what I'm saying we don't meet all those committees less needed I mean a lot of times it's as needed um I think the main ones we meet like we meet regularly the main so you always throw that one in with Finance no Finance is different yeah I would like it because well those are the big Finance facilities you know yeah that might be Transportation doesn't always me like that often exactly so it can all yeah but I but if there's an issue I I mean we meet if if there's an issue in transportation or if there's an issue I think you make us aware of what's going on how does that look if they have three committees like you mentioned the district so the advantage there's advantages the one advantage is three committees nine members everybody's on one committee and you don't really miss anything because if it's a you know I don't know buildings and grounds committee they only meet three times a year that's okay they're going to be absorbed by another committee so everything that they look at will be in a committee that meets once a month I kind of like that for for this awareness right now we have Finance business budget Supply and purchasing as one instruction and curriculum is another personnel and professionals is another negotiations which is that's kind of yeah um policy and planning special services Transportation buildings and grounds and security maybe there's last one but I'm not knowledgeable of all these other areas so I don't know what they entail we're in trouble now fine I'm fine I'm comfortable with where we are I mean you is anybody else not comfortable with to my fine I'm good all you gonna leave that one alone yeah and then your other goal was to continue to monitor the academic progress of all student groups to ensure they are given the opportunity to see succeed both academically and behaviorally and again that's something that's got to be continual mon I believe I don't think that's something you can take off that's a long longterm goal that needs to stay on year after there's always room for improvement there's always room for growth so you want to take off goal number two and substitute that with the AI right yes perfect yeah is there anything else going on that you think that maybe we missed that maybe we should start taking a look at in any of these goal areas actually I was thinking um I just jotted down a few ideas um work with the superintendent to improve effective communication cooperation between the superintendent and the board a lot of times we are blindsided by things so I think we just need a little bit more back and forth no surprises right we don't yeah we don't want surprises but is it more of an uh so a board meeting is when that's the opportunity for the board to meet and discuss those things so I don't know do you want to take it out of a meeting I'm not sure what it is you're looking for no it wouldn't necessarily be in a meeting more so um this this is happening and just to be on your radar okay you run a Friday report or anything we get superintendent notes which is good yeah but a lot of times it's like oh my goodness we didn't know anything about this and it and we're voting on things that we don't know about well help me here it's on your agenda right right and has a commit if it's on your agenda a committee's looked at it because you have a committee structure right not always certain things happen that there was no discussion about okay that end up on a so I think one of the things the piggyback of what M John was talking about is we kind of discussed that with Mr Bell with d his evaluation where we wanted more formative information not walking into a meeting and getting bombarded of why we have 80 people sitting in here okay and that was discussed during his evaluation period okay I think it's probably the better way to handle it and not sure how you make a goal yeah I think and we did discuss that yeah I wasn't at that meeting oh that's right because you're conflicted yeah so yeah but it was discussed okay and we all no we did discuss that okay yeah great anybody else I have nothing I do another one sorry um I don't know whether this would be under board or District but um to support the District staff Recruitment and Retention we're having a problem keeping people yeah so and I'm sure it's standing everywhere but we need we need to do something Terry one of the things that um I don't know if it would be a board goal which often discussed um we have a um fairly vibrant preschool program uh we're fully funded um we cannot educate the amount of Resident students in prek because we don't have physical space to do so so we're achieving less than 2third of what we're only servicing about 2third of the students and there are hundreds of students in both age three and four that can't be educated um so perhaps there could be consideration of a goal to go from talking about it to um perhaps um securing an architect have some type of strategic P plan to put a 12th building in wer Township Public Schools to serve um hopefully preschool but more students than that um but the the premise behind it is that um we could educate more and the board's been very good we have done things to schools in some cases in my own opinion not the schools I would pick but they were the schools that had space in them it would give an opportunity to reset that we have tremendous growth in this town they are building those students will come from all corners of Gloucester Township into our buildings and so just something from going from talking about a preschool to putting something down on paper and moving forward with something tangible and how I like call the meeting back to order may I have a roll call please here here Mr G here M Mr G here M Gore here Mr Johnson here M dintino here Mr Marx here may I have a motion and a second for executive session July 22 2024 second any questions roll please Mrs Ritz yes Mrs ging abstain Mr given yes Mrs G yes Miss core AB Mrs Johnson yes Mr dintino yes Mr Marks yes may I have a motion a second for regular board minut at July 22 2024 so moved second any questions roll call please Mrs Fritz yeah M gck abstain Mr gibons yes Mr G yes Miss G abstain Miss Johnson yes Miss dentino yes Mr Marks yes we're going move on the public comments for agenda items only I see none we are going to move on reporter to the solicitor Mr long I have to report yes nothing to rep the report just if you have anything additional that's not an exec no reports outstanding thank you I can do that need talk to any about that 6.0 report of superintendent Mr V thank you Mr Marks of the board the public thank you Mr Marks ladies and gentlemen of the board members of the public um I'd like to ask for a consent resolution this evening for items numbered 6.2a through 6.6 and and as a Nancy may I have a motion a second please so moved good any questions yes I do Under 6.6 J superintendent recommends the approval of termination four of these have declined position do we know why did they ever start obviously they didn't start but do we know why they declined I don't have that information this evening Mr Johnson I can ask I can give you a call I'm sure um if there has been interaction with HR staff they've got some anecdotal notes so I can get back to you okay I would just be curious to find out if the Reas the reason why they de why they um declined the position and was it because of money we see that a lot on our monthly agendas position yes okay thank you welcome um any other questions I did six 68 I see we had resignation of an Autism teacher at Union Valley are we actively looking we are and no do we have anyone as of right now I didn't see anything I do not think at this time but I know that that has been posted and we're U screening and it's hopeful we'll have someone on boarded any other questions roll call please Mrs sprs yes M SC yes Mr given yes Mrs gch yes M Gore yes M Johnson yes Miss dintino yes Mr Marks yes 7.0 reported a business administrator Mr MC yes asking for the board's consent agenda on um 7.0 which is begins on 7.1 through 7.7 C sorry that was me hitting this may I have a motion a second please so moved second any questions roll call please Mrs Spritz yes Mrs gck yes Mr Gibbons uh I'm going to be a no on check 1341 179 and no on check 134 295 yes on the balance Mrs gilch yes Miss Gore yes Mr Johnson abstain on check number 134190 yes on the balance ventino yes Mr Marks yes 8.0 old business Mr buo Mr Marks uh I have had the facilities Department Reach Out Mr Marks I've had the facilities Department reach out to the um main stage and I've asked um I have not heard back but I've asked for a table um in regards to um Pumpkin Festival and I've um had some conversations relative to what what we might do um as far as letting people know that we are still hiring staff here in W Township Public Schools okay awesome I will give an update once they've gotten back to us thank you 9.0 new business um I had and I'll just share with the public I had put this in a superintendent note but this was um something that um one of my colleagues forwarded to me um and it was an article that New Jersey 101.5 the radio station had done and it talked about uh the most efficient school districts in New Jersey and um I just wanted to let the Board of Education know that Gloucester Township Schools uh was of all the districts and they're in excess of 600 in New Jersey um and Gloucester Township is uh 29th 29th um and this was on 2020 2 2023 School District data so I know that we're doing an awful lot U we have um great um District here a lot of great people and um we continue to be mindful of um tax dollars here so I just wanted everyone to know that I just wanted to one other fact um Gloucester Township is a KDAY District it has a specific subset that there is only um 72 District districts of the 600 plus of New Jersey that are K to8 with with that have student enrollment is 751 are greater so when you look into that we are the sixth most efficient District of the 72 there outstanding thank you anything else no sir we'll move on to 10.0 public comments yes ma'am yes stand up here the microphone say your name please good evening my name is Mrs Porter Kelly Porter my little boy Gregory is a student in uh I think lauring Fleming this year my son was in The District in Prior years and always been here through uh medical uh excuse me after medical daycare he attended your um kindergarten disabled program at Blackwood my son is on the Spectrum he has severe sensory processing disorder and uh autism communication impairment it's been a real challenge um my husband and I moved to statford for three years a little over three years ago in a hardship we had uh we were forced to move out of our home in Wister Township and the only reason I say that is in coming back we moved our son back to have the great school that you have I know we have it because I grew up here my husband came from here we couldn't wait to bring Gregory back here but it's a real challenge when we as Parents try to advocate for what's best for our children and I'm sure all of you would do the same and I have two daughters that are done college that are not special needs so I can see both sides of it some people understand it and some never will as a mom it's absolutely disheartening to me and I'm going to try not to cry to think that we moov back to gler Township Mr Bido and I've emailed you to meet with you because I've had challenges with the director of CST in my son's placement I'm not here to belittle anybody or make myself feel big by talking bad about them but I'm here to advocate for my son I got his placement today in speaking to Dr Rose and I absolutely have never had him in a Genet setting nor did his IEP ever allow that my son had an llz placement in straford for three years because they had no MD setting learning in language disabled in my son's placement this morning Dr Martin put my son in aen setting with P out support I will spend every day advocating for Gregory and pop replacement because when you talk about attendance my son would cry not to go into classrooms when he didn't understand the lesson my son is not used to a hading with more than 12 children my son has anics he cannot you know there's just so many factors in that and just like his school bus he is a he's always had these accommodations and I'm just here as a mom to ask you to meet with me and my husband because I don't don't want to be mean I just want to be a mom and this is not what's best for Gregory and I promise you I didn't come here to cry but that is my 10-year-old son who cannot handle his severe sensory processing he's never been in a classroom of 25 other than a Home Room in straford when they didn't have any other choice and we were shopping for out of District placement just prior to moving that's why I moved back home I wholeheartedly just want to do what's best for him but it's really a challenge when I have been emailing your director of cstc since June when we moved we actually moved in May and I asked her old superintendent to allow my son to finish school because I didn't want to to serve him and a few weeks left and she allowed it and we commuted him but there is no reason why a parent is emailing you multiple times a month begging for resources because CSD completely disregards mine and my husband's concerns for my son I have neurologist report I I pedi pediatrician I'm very um I I don't know what else to do I'm not somebody to ever like I'm just angry at this point because I would never put your son or your child in a position that wouldn't set him up to thrive in my work environment and I don't know how we can pretend that's not happening here I'm sorry is my five minutes what's three minutes I just want to meet with you and make everything right for Gregory I don't want to go back and forth with your director of CST and I say that with the most respect ECT but I will not sit idle to her misplacing him intentionally she does not communicate with me and my husband she sent us a letter in the mail following an email I sent to Erica wisley I never heard back from Erica wisley I don't know what is happening there I found my son's case worker when I was speaking to Dr Rose today on the portal that I got the email today for Miss Miss Renee Michelle helped me with my sons registration she was absolutely amazing but when it comes to Dr Martin she's not that way with me and my family and I all I can say is that if we can't do what's best for Gregory I don't want to be forced to go to New Jersey Department of Education every single time she violates her I feel like she's not doing what's best if you don't have an lldd placement we don't just push him into gened settings with 25 kids or roughly like this doesn't as a parent I'm just here to ask you to meet with me and my husband to fix this before like it just turns into something it shouldn't be it should be positive and he should have friends that are like him he shouldn't be afraid to go to recess because the class is too big he shouldn't be afraid of lunch because it's too noisy he shouldn't there's so many factors in that and the way that Dr Martin has completely disregarded that for my son is completely heartbreaking and I feel sick every day from it because I thought we were coming back to have him in an MD setting that's what he's always had he learning language disabled there and she just put him in setting with two pull out supports and I don't understand how anybody can like sleep at night like that can happen Okay m supporter um let me give you the basic answer you certainly um can meet with me okay I will make sure that my assistant reaches out to you tomorrow will set something up okay I will tell you though that um after meeting with you then probably would become a little bit more complex but I certainly want to listen to you and make sure your voice is heard and you certainly always should advocate for your son um you know in my role I have to go to many professionals and in this case I do have to go back and speak with uh staff uh from Special Services uh but at the end of the day what we want to do is give uh your son the best educational placement so um you are going to have that meeting um and from there I have to obviously do some more research and we're going to work it together is that fair thank you you're welcome I with non-verbal and he was almost three that medical daycare and your school gave him MD prek I think that's how you disabled prek at Blackwood I don't think that program I know it moves around but I would never in moving to statford I never thought it would just dissolve or I would never agree to that and I just can't place him into something that I will physically have to carry my special needs son into every morning because he afraid of not knowing the class size all of it I just want to be a good person but it took everything in me not to bring the parents that I know that had issues with your CST Department that are actively me members in the community here tonight like I just wanted to bring them in and just let them tell you that I'm not the only one because I'm angry I'm angry that my son I've been trying to say this since June and our move that I just want to do its best for him but it's really hard when you have somebody who completely ignores your concerns and they don't even email me back I don't know where Erica wisley is but at least a return email would be nice I mean I've never heard of that well I have to let you know that Mrs wisley is no longer a staff member in glester town Public Schools um she has gone on to uh another employer and um I'm apologized that that email you sent to her did not get responded if you can get to that email can you forward it to uh my attention I think I did this morning when I sent another email I just keep emailing you I'm just gonna I'm just gonna keep emailing you do you have do you have information I just I need to make sure that they know that it's documented for since June I've been asking my only witness is Mr Wells but the board office suffered a Comcast failure today so every email all day long didn't come here so I know this sounds like I'm giving you my my homework my dog ate my homework but yes so I it is back up and if your emails there failing that resend all the emails please them absolutely I told dring that I was going to go to the New Jersey Department Ed forer with leave on Friday if I didn't hear back so I guess it's going I came because I would have never you have information I just okay I just need somebody to like Mr gon is it possible that it's a case if she's been going for three years that maybe the child has to just be re-evaluated to see where he needs placement potentially often districts so when they have an IEP for a prior District you honor what was there for a period of time until our staff have enough time to re-evaluate the student I don't know where that process is currently so is it possible other people have also emailed and aren't getting back any answer back because she's left typically when people don't get a response Mr Gibbons they call the superintendent's office so or show up at the public meetings they say call so call Dr Martin's office you need to communicate with CST she doesn't communicate with me she doesn't acknowledge me and my husband email her and it's very like a week or two or three a I mean it's not I've been doing this since June I think there's been three emails but I'm not I can't send my son to school in the first day and he's not going to thrive he's going to melt down and youry can you squeeze on she I'm trying to be reach out to Mr buo tomorrow try to get this done as soon as possible hopefully this week for you yeah I can't put him in that setting and I don't want to be unkind but I will file where I will go to any consentuous or anybody who will listen to me I need somebody to help me Advocate because he has the documentation he he everything is there it's like I'm being forced into another setting and I've never seen anybody get away let's start with your meeting first and let give us the opportunity to make things right whether it's in this direction or that direction and then you do what you feel need to do as a parent there's no stting at Lauren claming there's no MD stting I spoke to Dr Rose this morning and I was just like I'm gonna have to see you in TR and I can't send my son on the first day and you don't want to threaten him I'm just saying like I'm a mom you wouldn't put an Autism nonb child in in a classroom you know my son is verbal but he still has sensory overload I can't I just can't reiterate to you that I feel broken over this we move back because the schools are amazing but we shouldn't have to fight every week or every I mean when I registered Gregory Mrs Michelle was so amazing to us and I thought oh this is a new start like it should not I just want to do what's best for him and putting him in an environment that is too large my son won't go to school and then you talk about attendance there's a lot of factors there we actually had to go to a neurologist in straford and get a letter that he came in after home room right I wanted to sue them for his fi like I just I just and I'm not I'm just being a mom right we're all like I just I couldn't understand that they didn't have a setting so we started to look for different environment I said to my husband we're going home I wanted to come home I understand all parents do you're done sit down Mr Belo and hopefully that gets the ball rolling in the right direction for you thank you so much thank you Mrs gilch I I remember you from Cherrywood when you were knocking door to door when I lived there many years ago and my girls were in like middle school and I love I think you were you told me about the college um scholarship I think you're amazing thank you good for I haven't seen you in years by I just want you to know thank you thanks for coming thank you any other comments yes just morning Denise coin yeah it's it's a little tall poting it at the CE how do you just we're loud down the top the mic the very top of the microphone there you go okay um I listened to the planning session earlier and uh something that was said confused me a little bit Mrs Johnson said that there's a problem in the district with um hiring and maintaining staff and somehow that turned into building a new school which you would need to staff can you explain that transition because it's not logical to me at all well if there good evening Mr SC good evening um if there were a new school let's just say in this example it was uh 30 preschool rooms we have preschool classrooms in and Mullen Middle School that the staff members are already there we would just just transition them from out of a middle school environment we have the same thing at Glen landing and we have in other elementary schools preschool what ideally we could do is take the existing staff and put them into the new building I'm not saying that you wouldn't need additional staff but the one nice thing about the preschool program is that it is fully funded in the state of New Jersey no taxpayer dollars no local taxpayer dollars fund that program and there is um detail on what the state recommends the Staffing structure be and I'm certain if Mr tro or Mr pongalo um would know exactly what a building would take but I would say for the most part many of the staff are just going to be in a new physical spot they're already here okay but I didn't hear anything that addressed the issue of maintaining staff that you have and hiring additional staff employee retention correct all right that was second Point yes um well in the goal setting that really wasn't brought up again after Mr Johnson mentioned it what we are doing though is um often it comes down to money and what wages are I think the board of education has been negotiating in good faith with different Collective aring groups um and they intend to pay more money and even non-unit um wage earners the board is addressing those on a consistent basis because we are competing against neighboring districts and we don't want to not be competitive so right but are you sure that that's the issue are you sure it's not something else I mean how do you know what isues are any of it it's morale and money you got to keep morale up often often people morale money often people are leaving us because of proximity we have professional staff are we asking these questions though I mean when somebody leaves no they're offering it some some people live in eggh Harbor Township and EG a EG Harbor will offer the same amount of money and now instead of driving from a harbor out there at glester township the person has to cross their own Township and work for the same rate of pay yeah I get that but I'm just saying do are you sure you know what the issues are what the problem is I mean you can't fix something if you don't know what's broke we did send out the surveys which a lot of them won't won't take time to fill out an exit survey everyone gets an exit survey now but they are not compelled to take it they get one and they are scanned for for reasons um but they're not compelled so that often makes it difficult on how many responses you get to form an accurate opinion like what is the exact reason so are you only asking people that are leaving or are you asking the current staff that you have if they have issues and if so what those issues are we're not asking the current staff maybe that should be something you should look at should we ask them why they're staying no should you ask if they have any current problems or concerns that they think aren't currently being addressed before it comes a problem and they want to leave maybe it's something you could fix before it gets to that point Thank you thank you any other comments Mr Rodriguez hi Gina Rodriguez I want to thank Miss G Mr dintino Mr and Miss odonnell for helping us out to support staff gtsp reach a nice contract I hope so thank you for putting out with us for many hours many many hours but we appreciate it thank you all right thank you g any other comments I have none I will move on to board member comments I would like to thank everybody taking the time to come out tonight enjoy the last few weeks we have a summer everybody good night thank you for coming out May I have a motion to adjourn all in favor by thank you guys good night