##VIDEO ID:Flv9Uc6v_AM## Miss Diaz AB Mr vanstone yes M ory yes Mr Dona yes Mr dun yes brings us to our first public comments uh section of the evening agenda items only in accordance with open public meetings act we will open the public uh public comments for agenda items only at this time each speaker should State his or her name and address you will have 3 minutes to address the board which will be timed by myself we will limit the section to no longer than 45 minutes please be respectful and mindful that your comments are being recorded and I guess we don't really have a position uh for public comments uh in the room if right in front of right in front of the yeah that would be perfect not uh all I'll also ask if we have any virtual comments no we have none no okay seeing may I have uh I'll make a motion to close public comments I'll second all in favor I I any opposed okay moving on to the remainder of our presentations uh I can not commun sure so I believe that's the principal report and Athletics report from Mr John what would you like me to say um probably somewhere over here so we can get you on on film camera love it okay CNC machine good evening everybody happy August as we're we're here and getting ready to go so I'll give a a brief update on on where we're at feel like everybody are good sorry about that it's like behind behind the scenes so um just want to say thank you to most important to our codio maintenance staff U building and grounds uh secretaries IT staff Transportation um Summer Staff that come in summer students that come in and help because they have had a Monumental job of working through um getting our school ready for the school year as they always do uh in particular obviously with all the work that's going on um it's also you know hard to keep everything clean and SP and span as to say so um kudos to them for getting us ready to open the doors next week um I just wanted to make sure that we publicly thank them for the the great job that that that they do um every single day um our staff and students and uh parent communication all went out so for those of you that are room and also our dual role as parents you received that it's a lot of information um at once for the veteran parents I know we have some ninth grade parents as well it's it's um a lot we try to make it as efficient as process and we're always open here to to answer any questions in this form or in others um that's what we're here for so um spoke to a lot of firsttime freshman parents who are have that nervous feel much like we are as you drop your kids off for for college um the same feel um and the same anxiousness arises so working through that as well with that information has all gone out uh we have gotten much better with Genesis and using that as our Nexus of uh communication it's taking some time to transition to get to there um so we do do a Ser mailing which is hard copy mailing as well as um through uh email and digital and that seems to work best we tried to move away completely away from the um hard um copy mailing years ago and found that that was less effective sometimes out now especially postco something that's a hard copy receiving that because you get inundated we all do with emailed the digital Communications getting a hard copy something is like okay I got to remember this is important so we try to do some um say the dates and reminders that way that seem to kind of stick out so people can look at that and say okay this is something I really to look at this is something I can an email I can read later or sometimes not at all depends on what it is um so that's that's the reality too um so all of our fors are through Genesis and again you as parents have seen that um thank you to uh Mr Laney um our special ed child study team and guidance staff and supervisors for getting our master schedule ready to go um for the school year it takes a lot of work pretty much from about November on through August um to get that all finalized and and working and Mr C knows that as well as we work together on that and it's it's a large task but we're looking good in that and again our goal is to be as student centered as possible based on the Staffing availability that we have in the building um obviously that's um certification driven in some capacities um as well so we're excited to open the doors I hate to say the close a school year um and opening a school year but that's really the reality of what it is we're opening the doors um it's been awesome to to see our campus buzzing in the last couple weeks um for those of you that are parents droing your kids off 18 times um for practices and scrimmages and all those things my daughter's coming back from before he right now from a scrimmage um so that's the reality of what you're seeing so it's great to to have that life somebody asked me that's not an education the other day like you know you work all summer how's that for you and I said well it's not the same right obviously there's a lot of paperwork and things we have to do reports to get done in end year and then it's turn a page and get ready for planning but once you start to see the students come back in the building and staff come back in the building that turns it from a building back into a school um and that's really the feeling that you you start to see um a couple things for key dates n uh September 5th is our freshman orientation um we still do that it's a half day program for our ninth graders and they come in for a half day um and they get a chance to meet their counselors and go through their schedule and take a breath a little bit um it's kind of really our fourth step of transition from our eighth grade tours in the fall to our eighth grade open house to our eighth grade um picnic um aspect in in the spring to now the ninth grade um orientation day so really tell them from the beginning when they come to see us in the fall you're going to have kind of four um intentional steps along the way coming from Regional School that's a challenge um but also a blessing as well um then six is the First full days for students to really open the doors right and figure out what works what doesn't work and fix it along the way uh which is sometimes challenging but also exciting our nth grade parent night for nth grade parents is the uh 12th and at 7 pm we will be sending out U very shortly probably tomorrow I say the date for that um the 19th of September is excuse me our back to school night and that's at 6:45 we try to start a little bit earlier with the welcome so we can hopefully get everybody out as parents um especially veteran parents that have been there before a chance to be there and not be there till 10 o' at night is also important um as well um and for our fall Sports as we said they're they're in full swing um from the athletic director Mr Dex and they are rocking and rolling we do have uh for the first time a uh football game um before school which is a roof scrimmage which is going to th against W so looking for something fun come out 5:00 on on Thursday night looks like the weather's going to be nice about 75 beautiful um for our home football kickoff against Walker Valley our next door neighbors so any questions about all that I know it was a lot of information short amount of time thank you Mr Talam for being the leader um that the community can place their trust in when they send their kids here they know that there's someone in they can to care about and love their kids um all kids all day every day and that you provide a degree of comfort and stability to the community and you do an exceptional job of that thank you thank you we appreciate that and that is our goal right be parents all the time to they our kids as much as we can thank you any other questions thank you everyone to stop before you so you're good to go okay nice take a Qui away so I've got some um CNC milling that I'd like to do for you oh boy safety glasses I think Mr D might be the only one in the room who has some idea what's going on over here safe to say it is um so we have quite a bit to go over so I'll try and kind of get moving good to have secc here want to thank Mr kler who spent three days this summer at the County College training on this device but as Dr Connelly said we are a um a lighthouse District when it comes to technology and I think over the last three decades um Mr Mark Wallace's leadership and Mr Brian dr's leadership played um really seminal roles in establishing us such a strong tech school so thank you to them and that Legacy that they helped to establish um so on the agenda tonight are our goals for next year and I broke them up into two and two I think important these are the same goals that we had last year it's important sometimes to realize that if it's important it's not a one andone right so we will continue to work on wellness and we will continue to increase our collaboration with teachers um which was highly successful last year we also added that we're going to be increasingly focused on vaping and that that approach will be rather comprehensive including prevention but uh consequences as well and I think Dr Ripley took a leadership role in the region with the Department of Health and the department of ucation um creating a conversation about how various schools are going to attack that and so we're going to be um even more focused on what is an incredibly challenging issue um we want to have a conversation there's a national conversation right now I came into school this morning and I heard on the car radio probably for the 15th time this Sumer summer either in um social media or on the news or on the radio various States exploring the idea of banning phones and I think when you um consider something that's sizable you need a conversation you need to hear from parents and students and teachers over the course of time and so one goal this year will be to have that dialogue and to get that input and to think about what we want our cell phone policy to be that's a tough one um so those are our district goals um any thoughts or questions on on those four goals what do you think the cell phone policy should be well on a personal level what I think um adolescents need for their health and development is time away from their screens and so whether it's putting it in the phone rack in the classroom or whether it's just um uh even if it's every other day or every Wednesday we go really hardcore that we're going low Tech Etc um the addiction that we all have to our device um I know I'm not alone that when I get five steps out of the office if I don't have this I run back in faster than if I don't have my car keys um and my brain formed and most of our brains formed at a time where we didn't have this distraction so I think our policy should be one that increases instances or lengths of time where the students learn to focus and function and devel without it what exactly that looks like I don't know um it's very difficult because uh there are so many different opinions uh about it and it's very difficult to um come to some some consensus and I think we want to be leaders in um in the county and in the state but we're also watching carefully as other states and other uh school districts uh attempt um pretty ambitious approaches um but that's our our goal so I hope that as the year goes on we get a lot of um spirited well informed um varying opinions and we can come to a consensus that um there's buy in for it's hard with cell phones to enact a dramatic policy without really building the support throughout the community I think a major change needs a little bit of of time and if we're going to go to something that major I think number four would really facilitate that that may be number four next year too I'm not just as we talk about you know because this would be such a radical um you know if you did remove them and I'm not saying we would I'm not saying we wouldn't but this this this level of discourse is I think sufficient enough that there's at least the possibility whether it's remote or likely that this this conversation will continue beyond June 15th yeah it would be great to get student feedback yeah absolutely considering that a lot of our students are practically adults and then having them control to decide be an agent right in like managing their own cell phone use is critical and I think what's striking is I know shared some articles at our recent admin meetings I think increasingly you see students uh aware of that so I think more than ever before you see the student saying um this has not really brought me a great deal of Happiness not not that it's um no one's talking about getting rid of phones but um when we grew up we were able to um uh turn it off at 9:00 or 10 o00 and you got some peace from it and the kids don't get they go to bed with it in most instances they wake up with it and so the pressures of social media that it creates um the attention span issues ETC um it's something we have to focus more intently on so thanks all right um we have gone through qack and it was a a great deal of work uh every three years all districts go through qac and we're evaluated in five areas there is nothing that happens from the utility bill to um the curriculum to certification to background checks Etc every single facet of the school is monitored it's about a yearlong process and about this time last year we were getting ready to find out what we had to provide um for qack and we had a site visit in February we've got our results and here we are presenting them I want to thank some of the people in this room this is Lori Kaufman in particular uh Miss Jessica Briggs and others for the great work that they did on this we scored a 100 in every area where there was a compliance piece however in the area where it was student performance it's not possible to score 100 so you'll see and really not every District scores 100 in those others but we did and we're very proud of that feel free to may ask question would you like so um here's the area where we lost points everybody lost points you can't get a perfect score in this area this aspect of instruction and programming was worth 60 points we earned 34.4 5.6 points shy of passing this component looked at NJ SLA scores for ELA and math student attendance and graduation rate and that's what are we earned 34.4 60 so we're proud that and by the way the compliance piece I don't want to dust over that the doe was exceedingly praiseworthy of how um organized and on top of every requirement and proficient we were they were absolutely um overwhelmed with their visit here so we got incredibly High rate marks the student performance um is why we did not pass important to note that the student performance was from the 2223 school year so they came and they monitored us last year but it was based on the 2223 results and you'll see the metrics there for the four areas that um reflected student performance okay English math student absenteeism and graduation rate I'm happy to report that we already have made tremendous growth in all of those areas I assume the graduation rate that's not been released yet our English test scores are up over 10% our math scores went up our chronic absenteeism rate dropped considerably so in the in the four areas where we lost points and as a result didn't past qac in 2223 we have already made sizable progress toward Improvement during this past year and we have a plan to continue that that pattern yeah quick question is the 20 The Chronic absenteeism what is that percent sure chronic absenteeism isent of the whole the percentage of students at the school that are absent more than 10% of the school days which means 18 days now on a whole another note on the agenda tonight there's an action plan specifically for chronic absenteeism so we're kind of double planning here because it's now a state requirement that any school district whose chronic gaps anism rate is above 10% must be on an action plan um I don't think there's a district in this County not on an action plan likewise State what's that or in the state Pro probably likewise um I mentioned with qac that every District gets monitored every three years so in our County we were one of eight schools that got monitored last year I believe seven of them are also on an improvement plan for not having scored 80 points in that imp so we are far from alone and I'll just say um sure there is a drop in scores coming out of Co that's for sure but even without Co njsla there are years where um only 40 or 45% of students Statewide demonstrate proficiency so it's an extremely challenging metric and that's why the majority of St go schools go onto an improvement plan like ours so we're happy we're making progress but we have to make more progress we we don't want the board or the public to be under the misapprehension that we are pleased with the student performance data this is something we take very seriously and we are very uh focused on ensuring that those numbers improve we are we do feel good about the manner in which the district is run we believe it's run exceptionally well as good as any at least in the county if not Beyond and so we're very proud of the job that we do in running the district but I want I don't want anyone to think that we're brushing over those numbers as though they're unimportant they are the reason why we're here and they are the most important numbers listed while we're proud of the other numbers at 100% the numbers that we see in student performance are not acceptable and we will focus on them with great uh with great effort thank you um so the Improvement plan which is on the agenda tonight it was a collaborative effort back and forth with the Department of Ed the local office in Sparta uh we submitted plans they sent them back we talked uh extensively um to improve the math and English scores we have two I think clear and simple goals one is students need to see more assessment like questions they need this in science social studies English and math they need do know that when they take that test in may they are exceedingly familiar and confident with the um the content and the format of the assessment we also this is an area that the county office was um very um I don't want to say insistent on but they're going to be here to observe how our Improvement plan is going during the year and they want to see US expand that cycle of teaching where you teach and you test but then you reflect you return the assessment and you retach where there was a lack of Mastery and reassess that's challenging that takes time that takes work that's difficult but we have to do more and our teachers do it but we need more of that we need a um a greater commitment of resources towards the Learning Cycle when students struggle and of course the challenge is well I only have until June and that's that's the hurdle that we have to try and cross but we will and we believe our scores will continue to increase as they did this past year the assessment test what does it do towards the student anything or is this simply just a test for State mbers um I will have to be honest with you that when they took that test in 2223 I went into every freshman English class to give them a pep talk and the teachers having increasingly in park years ago there was all this divisiveness we're past that everybody's on board with the fact that these tests have to be taken seriously but when I went in on a Thursday to the freshman classes and I told them we want you to be uh to to look good you care about your teacher and we care about our school and we're proud of what we do and if we're going to do something we're going to do it well and I also told them if you do well it will meet your graduation require and you won't have to do like a portfolio when you're senior so yeah that's my question because that was on Thursday on Monday Trenton released a um a broadcast that said this test no longer counts for graduation I I'm not making this up so therefore it it they you know we go by these scores we want to look at these scores but some of the kids could just be playing connected dots yeah and making graphs and Designs out of of the the the test form so the validity is it's it's it seems like a waste of effort when they don't see it counting towards their grades a lot of them don't how about by school can you by school or is this total State mandated can you give a credit can you give a extra grade can you give something no 100% mandated by Statute yeah however I will say as frustrating as it is the opt out and the click through continues to become less of an issue what happens is you build a relationship with the students in your classroom and that nth grade English teacher and that nth grade math teacher really proud of their students results they look at how their student did in in eighth grade and they say I think we could get this kid to a passing score they were at 7:30 last year our teachers care and students when they know the teacher cares they put forth a good effort so that does happen we track time on task we get the dat when the test is over and we can see how many students just click through it's dramatically less than it was but the fact that there are that that there's no um uh tangible purpose to the student is frustrating but there's still enough of a number to bring the numbers down absolutely oh absolutely so we can't use those numbers as a super solid guideline no and I'll also say that um in defense of our math scores algebra one is the most unique course in all of high school because in some districts almost every student takes it in eighth grade in some districts almost every student takes it in ninth grade so when you try and look at how your math scores compared to another school it's very very difficult because you don't know for example our geometry scores are very strong kudos to the teachers and the students but our geometry assessment results are typically The Freshman who took and passed algebra one and eighth grade therefore it's our stronger students um so it's hard to compare and I also will say this um we don't complain about our score we just use it as motivation to do better however we are unique as a 9 to 12 and the rubric for QC qac is I believe more punitive there's no other construct other than 9 to 12 where math and English counts as much towards your imp so if you're a k to 8 if you're a K to 12 the sparta and Vernon and OPAC um these scores do not count as much towards their final product so uh it's not a perfect system but but as Dr Ripley said right we don't cry about the the that we use it as motivation let's learn what we need to learn and let's see if we can get measurable Improvement out of it uh also we have an mtss team um every single week in the principal's conference room Mr tal uh Mrs Delaney one of our guidance counselors um Mrs fenario um and Miss Bean lead a team that looks at data and tries to come up with plans to support students well one of those meetings each month is going to be dedicated specifically to ensure that we're um we're quick on the jump to find 12th graders or 11th graders who could be credit icient and to identify chronic absenteeism but I have to say Mr Emma Mr Sno Mr tal Mr rice a lot of our resources this past year you saw that drop in chronic absenteeism so um great job to our staff who's already making progress in in those areas we've invested very heavily in this area in the last several years in human resources we've hired people in guidance extra guidance counselors that we did not have previously because we recognize that this is the area where kids particularly at risk kids need an adult who is monitoring their progress almost as though A A A Child study team mentality where um every child particularly every at risk child has a relationship with a specific adult who is assigned to them to monitor their progress as a team we meet as an mtss team and as individual so that no kid particularly at risk kids we're really focusing on here with the mtss so that no kids are getting lost and falling through the cracks and so that requires an investment in human resources because you could not do it otherwise software Works to a certain degree but it is those specific relationships between adults and children that enables kids to feel connected that feel loved that someone cares about them and so we have invested heavily in human resources in this are area particularly for this area and I think that education is moving in this direction and I think that districts who've had to reduce Staffing are probably acutely aware of what they're going to have to deny kids and I don't mean what they have to because of the the nature of school funding because it it's such an important component to uh provide human resources in this area I'm sorry no so that's where we're at right now publicly presenting um our plan goes into effect uh next week and the department of Ed will be monitoring our progress as we go we've also reached out to some of our neighbors in the region who have done well and said what did you do um I called several districts particularly districts I know that that are um very uh supportive of re retesting so one of the elements in our action plan to give more time to that cycle of reassessment came from our con consultation with districts in the region that did um particularly well on the njsla how do how does that work the reassessment it can work so many ways right there's a variety of ways and when we meet the teachers on Tuesday we're going to begin to collaborate what are we doing now that we think is highly effective what do we um but I mean sure the score that's recorded for a student does that disappear then with a new if they take it again is that there's there's a million different ways to do it um I'll give you I give you one example if I give a math assessment on pols and well let's say there's three concepts on the math test it's a sumita of assessment we've been working on for two weeks and I get it and you know half the students really didn't do well on this one standard I'm going to give the test back we're going to use time during the class to work on what we didn't do well and I'm going to give them a brief quiz at the end of the period and allow that to bolster their original grade or or even give them quiz a new Standalone quiz grp the idea is how you do it is to be worked out I misunderstood I thought you it was a reassessment of the end oh no no it's one done it's just and we have teachers that are doing great things and we have to um leverage what's already working inhouse and then get more teachers to to um participate in that so the NJ um GPS now this is the assessment that's um 3 years old that counts for graduation okay um it's very similar to the njsla so it is frustrating uh required by Statute that all Juniors take it it is the primary mechanism by which they meet the um 45 year long uh mandate that a high school graduate show Proficiency in English and math here are our results um in English nearly 80% of our Juniors were proficient in math nearly 60% were proficient um if you look at the state that is uh we're not satisfied with that there's some positive to glean from that but we want to be above the state in every metric um I will say that the test is very similar to the njsla and I think that shows significant growth that we should be encouraged by but we want it's not just the njsla that's for our action plan we want more and more of our 11th graders to just knock this out of the park and have their graduation requirement quickly met last week I sent home a letter to the parents of all incoming seniors a variety of different letters one you passed everything your your child and I sent it to the students as well you've met all your requirements two you need math in English or you need math or you need English um here's how you meet this requirement uh you you get a 725 or greater on the NJ GPA you demonstrate uh qualifying score on a test such as the PSAT or the SAT unfortunately in the last two years they've greatly reduced uh the number of tests njsla used to be one the ASVAB used to be one so they've really paired it down and given the students fewer options three you do the graduation portfolio it's a quality process you do real meaningful tasks Guided by a teacher and the learning process is authentic it's not Scantron it's not um it's a very good process and every one of our students succeed um the letter affirmed Mr T and I for years get uh a lump in our throat when we tell these 12th grade students that after 13 years you're still not qualified to graduate it's unfair it hurts it's not right um and this year we're very proud of the fact that we're coming right out of the gate um we have 51 seniors who need to do the portfolio we're getting them going on it um next week because we want these students to have that requirement completed and to not get into March and April May and still feel as if they have some requirement so um we've you know students get they get panicked when they get this and and you you put the letter how many ways can you say it you're going to be fine first thing we're doing is giving them personalized meetings with their counselor next week when they get back so the counselor can find out who's anxious about this and make sure we reassure them now here are our results our participation rate uh was excellent we are required by law to present how different subgroups did first off in Green in math there was little discrepancy between male and female students I think that's a positive we are prohibited by law from reporting on any demographic group that has less than 10 students so that would be generally um some of our racial groups however down towards the bottom what you'll see is we are concerned about the discrepancy in proficiency among students who are economically disadvantaged and those that are not and students with IPS and those without IPS so as we tackle this problem this year we will continue to look at how to support those students and by the way the state two years ago changed the requirement um the number of students now who don't take it is very very small there used to be a lot of students with IEPs where they would give them an alternative assessment it's now almost uh every student and I think that's a good thing but um nonetheless that is an issue here is our Ela um you'll see every single time we do this greater proficiency for female students in language arts um Miss Jacqueline McCarthy and our English teachers are putting a lot of energy into um Choice reading and I think this particularly helps our male students um when they have choice on what they're going to read uh we've done a good job of getting better engagement again you'll see on the bottom we need to close the gap when it comes to socioeconomics and um uh IEPs and that's it I could do do more that which was reported this evening is required by law so it wasn't Mr Campell getting his monthly affirmation it's actually we actually get qack points for having documented that we did that so and you did it very Thor thank you Mr that's it for presentations move through uh other business uh I think there's two bullets here that just to note future orientation will be held uh August 28 29th and substitute orientation was held today so there is one item under other business uh related to our district goals be it resolve that the Board of Education approves the following District goals for the 2024 2025 school year and since we just saw them up on the screen I won't read them uh individually uh so I would like to make that motion uh for that resolution may I have a second any discussion or comments on our district goals I have a call Miss ory yes Mr Jonah yes Mr vanstone yes Mrs Diaz yes Mr confor yes Miss Schuman yes all Mr D yes sorry sorry all right now moving on to action items uh versus curriculum instruction and technology so just to um draw attention to the faculty attendance for June uh there was no stud attendance reported the suspension uh report for June have attachments and then I'd like to move items 4 through 25 together four is the harassment intimidation and buing reports um for June 26 through June 30th 24 and July through a 7 2024 attachment um number five are field trips number six is professional development activities number seven it's the comprehensive Equity plan statement of assurance uh that extends 2019 to uh 2022 through 2025 there's an attachment on that number eight is to use educ online as a virtual provider for this school years number nine is to use the Danielson framework for teaching the teaching evaluation teachers and other certificated staff and the Marshal principal re for administrators uh number 10 is the um Choice um students for 2425 number 11 are the um njsla or sorry excuse me New Jersey student learning standards um as listed uh number 12 is the district professional development plan and the new teacher mentoring plan for 2425 um and there are uh links to those uh number 13 is uh the use of the Rubicon Atlas Curriculum maps um and there's also a link for that number 14 is the 2425 staff handbook the link uh number 15 is the student handbook for this school year with a link number 16 is the um Elementary and secondary education acts um idea and the Carl D Perkins career Tech Grant applications um we accept the following Awards as listed for those funds uh number 17 is to approve the joining of a Consortium ass schools uh for title three funding through the esa grants and that award number 18 is the QC District Improvement plan uh there's a link for that too Mr kendell's presentation number 19 is the local Education Agency guidance for virtual remote instruction plan checklist for 2425 and there is a link 20 uh number 20 is the assessment schedule for the school year number 21 is the anti-discrimination and anti-harassment handbook affirmative action uh for the school year with a link number 25 uh work based learning program um in various locations around County for this school year number 23 to approve the chronic absen is in corrected action plan for this school year the link 24 curricular materials um as well and number 25 is the revised 2024 25 school calendar which reflects half schedules professional development for sta making motions second second any discussion I have a question on the just on the calendar it says for um if we exceed because of I guess bad weather and whatnot it says February 17 and then it says the April 24th April 25th which would mean we return a Thursday and then a Friday and then a Wednesday yes that was several years ago when this was relevant we did a uh districtwide uh survey as to the dates that they wanted to be um to lose first if it as it were and that was what was established and so we've maintained that since okay thank you any other questions mrone Missy yes Mrs Diaz yes Mr donor yes Mr confor yes Miss shum yes Mr dou yes so that was curricul instruction so moving to Personnel okay I'd like to move items 1 through 13 number one has to do with the res of a special events security officer number two is the approval to resend the appointment of a special ed teacher um number three is to approve administrators for the CER attention coverage number four is to approve substitutes number five is to approve home instructors and tutors uh number six is to approve buids number seven is the approval of a co-op student main office and guidance office number eight is uh approval of after school detention advisor number nine yeah number nine is approval of coverage dur of the board secretary coverage during the Board of Ed meetings um and committee meetings number 10 is to approve the part-time school security officer number 11 is to accept the resignation notification of the music teacher um number 12 is to approve the six period assignments and number 13 is to approve the summer workshop days making a motion seeking a second discussion call please Mr con for yes M Mr Mrs Diaz yes M ory yes Mr vanstone yes to all M Jona yes M sh yes Mr D yes uh I will move under extracurricular items one through nine together item one being uh recommendation to approve John Mayor Mir and holder to assist with uh previously approved sports physicals two uh recommendation to accept the resignation with Mark Russell as assistant girls volleyball coach three uh recommendation accept the Nation Casey Carroll as marching B director uh for to accept the resignation of James aslanian as assistant marching B director five uh to approve the following extracurricular appointments for the 2425 school year and they are as listed in the table six uh recommendation to approve the following volunteer coaches advisor pending uh background checks seven is a recommendation to approve the creation of bring change to mind a new club which empowers students to Advocate with friends teachers and others for mental health awareness as outlined in the link uh below uh item eight is a recommendation to approve wage Township first aid Squad uh to provide ambulance coverage for our home football games uh for the 24 25 school year is a volunteer service with no cost to board and item nine is a recommendation to approve the following individuals as volunteers to assist with the full drama and musical uh and they are as listed so I'll make that motion one through nine may have a second second any comments or discussion uh just a question on number seven uh the two teachers are at voluntary advisors is this uh a process for them in the future to become an a paid EDP there is enough there is um so high point has a significantly vast number of extracurricular positions and that um that there's a a financial commitment in that regard and so what we've seen is over the SE last several years we've determined that we can only sustain so much so many so much fiscal commitment to these but we do have staff who want very much to bring forward their expertise in areas that they believe that they can have an impact on our student body and so what they they recognized over the last I think it's seven eight years that subsequent um extracurricular opportunities will be as a volunteer only certainly that conversation could be had in the future I believe that we still are in the of financial challenges such that I believe that our fiscal situation informs the continuation policy continue to make volunteer thank you um any other comments I'll call9 please uh M shman yes Mr confor yes Mr Dona yes Mr Diaz yes Mr vanstone yes to all M ory yes Mr Doug yes D policy one page yeah um I'd like to move items one through two one and two together um number one is the recommendation to approve to abolish the following policy um to do with remote public board meetings during a declared emergency number two is the approval of the following revised policies and regulations uh we have board member number and term we have curriculum content we have physical examinations uh we have attendance we have service animals student suicide prevention emergency and crisis situations firearms and weapons and volunteer athletic coaches and co-curricular advisors and assistants um and I just would like to note that all but two of these policies and regulations are mandated and by the state so making a motion seeking in a second any discussion yes no they're good questions it's all good uh on policy 2200 um there is a line on the third paragraph that is slashed uh which would eliminate the board approving curriculum content I would uh po uh policy 22000 I believe that the strike through is relevant to it does not remove the board's approval of curriculum as you can see we did approve the curriculum already what it does is it removes that line where it in that line and it is yeah I didn't it anywhere else in that's why I'm asking states that super is responsible approved by the board I would have to go back into the notes as to why this particular line was struck by the the company who provides these to us um as you can see that there was several and I would have to go back and notes to see precisely as to why that particular line was strong can number two be cut off and put on next month yeah we can maybe table that one that one just give me a second because that that particular line is addressed in the first paragraph the board shall annually approve a list of all programs and courses that comprise the district's curriculum and shall approve any subsequent changes in the curriculum in accordance to policy 2220 D adoption of courses so that would be what happens is they they strike things which are previously stated that that therefore prove redundant and um and so therefore I believe that is precisely as to why that particular line has been stricted okay thank You' and on um regulation 52000 uh just to clarify um because the regulation says College visits up to 3 days per school year how ever the school normally goes four days so that we are going above and beyond what this and so here's the difference right so there is a definition for chronic absenteeism given by the state and federal government that so stipulates how they calculate chronic absenteeism however outside of those specifically delineated reasons um religious holiday um School College visit or um or uh bring your child to workday believe it or not outside of those specifically designated dates it is a board determination as to what can be determined as an excused absence so the board can say we believe it's appropriate that a child goes to the doctor and provides a note that we excuse that that is not excused according to Chronic absenteeism but it is EX under policy 50 regulation 5200 that I'm putting forward to the board for them to vote upon it it's my belief that it it should be proceed uh calculated as an excused absence okay and so that's and and I'm I I'm rambling on about this this specific question to which you were uh seeking Clarity was that that this States three days but I know at the high school they're allowed four so I wanted to know why there's a discrepancy between those two numbers right because the the state federal government allow I think three and we allow four okay and then the last item honestly because I thought that four was makes more sense more appro uh allowance okay under instruction on that same uh regulation uh number one teachers will cooperate in the preparation of Home assignments for students who anticipate any length of absence okay so they anticipate they know on Monday they're going to be out next Monday for a week and they ask their teacher for work that's okay good but if they come in Friday morning they're not going to be here Monday so what is an um um and anticipated time like what like what are we holding teachers to being okay that's fair and that's what that's not fair you'll notice that whether it's in that particular paragraph or elsewhere uh it stipulates a reasonable amount of time right so my question was is there somewhere where that reasonable amount of time is identified that's why we pay supervisors and administrators to determine through their discretion what they believe is a reasonable amount of time and that is that does exist at the high school yes okay thank you curious what the change was on the board member number and term that was not one that we usually see it wasn't really changes it was just um uh change in verbage to comply with updated definitions in code I asked all right any other things okay uh roll call please okay Mr confor yes Mrs Diaz uh no to one and yes to two Okay Miss ory yes Mr vanstone yes good Mr Jonah yes Miss schan yes Mr yes uh we have no negotiation action items but I will note that uh the board is presently engaged with the HPA and ongoing negotiations we also have no buildings and grounds action items but I did want to mention we have a new set of stairs in the back that Dr Ripley sent me a picture of I'm very excited that I'm sure people that attend the football game Thursday night will be very excited to uh partake in so uh yeah curiously thankfully we've dodged the 50-year bullet and uh now we have the ability walk down what our rather steep incline not one that I used to think was too steep but now as I approach a certain age I'm little more trepidacious of that Hill less so now that there's stairs yes and that was that was done basically in incredible uh and we just obviously we have a lot of hbac work U being done I want to go into too many details on that but uh hope to have that completed as soon as possible so then moving to finance I will move one through 12 together uh one is recommendation to accept the report of the board secretary business administrator for June 2024 two is a recommendation to accept the report of the treasur for the same month and three is uh recommendation to accept uh the report of transfers and minimum expense transfer report for the months of June and July 24 item four is recommendation to approve the attached schedule of audited bills uh and those are for three periods as noted uh five is the recommendation to accept all of those accounts that I normally read but I won't uh for June and July of 2024 six is a recommendation to approve the following substitute a uh schedule as listed s is a recommendation to approve an interlocal shared service agreement for nursing services with Lafayette monu and Frankford Boards of education for the 2024 25 school year item eight is a recommendation to approve a shared service agreement with the migu board of education for the position of board certified Behavioral Analyst uh for current year uh item nine is a recommendation to approve and authorize execution an agreement between the Ed Services Commission of Morris County and the High Point Regional Board of Education to provide health and environmental Safety Services for the current year uh item 10 is a recommendation to approve the student accident Insurance renewal proposal between High Point uh and Binger Specialty Group effective July 2020 1st 2024 through June 30th 202 five uh item 11 is a recommendation to acknowledge and gratefully accept donations in the amount of $2500 from the Weiss family and $2,500 from Atlas Construction to be used to purchase new football uniforms uh item 12's recommendation to uh authorize execution of the following tuition contracts between High Point as ascending district and the following districts as listed there and that Mony table that takes to the end that's the last item okay so I'll make that Motion 1 through 12 in finance I'll second it any comments discussions just to thankful for the donations yes that's very generous thank you both white family and Atlas Construction Christine St and i' just like to note all those um out of school district tuitions that we have no control of the increases that take place when we still have to keep the 2% cap which are well above 2% increases would that be corrected saying that it's another component of having a uh sending districts and a a high school district where you have no um input into the P to8 IEPs so when IEPs come to you and you must to those IEPs and and the fact that we are able to assess those IEPs and provide input and recommendations for appropriate IEP placements in a rather in an incredibly quick amount of time is a testimony to our director of special education and our child study team that uh work very uh very hard to try to get those kids um assessed and in the proper placement could you briefly explain number nursing agreement yes so what happens is um there each district involved in that agreement agrees that should one of those districts be without a nurse for a particular date because nurses are more scarce than bus drivers and so what happens is you can you can try to have a substitute bus driver and substitute uh nurse but if you can't look a substitute nurse you can't have school and so one of the ways in which we've uh managed that is to have an agreement with uh our sending districts that we provide a nursing Services should one of us be without that for the particular day that way nobody has to close I know we that last yes I think this is the third year of that in place between the uh four of the five uh no other discussion or comments M sh yes Mr confor yes Mr Dona yes Mrs Diaz yes Mr vanstone yes to all M ory yes Mr D yes uh H Transportation I'm going to put one through 32 together um it's basically going to cover all Transportation needs for the 2425 school year to include regular school transport sports activities and Inter Scholastic Transportation amongst other schools discussion comment I'll take a second where you been for 12 years Joe was good Joe Joe are you second it okay yeah I seconded it roll call please all right uh Mr Diaz yes M ory yes Mr vanstone yes Mr Dona yes Mr con for yes M SCH yes Mr dun yes uh we have no item no legal action items presentation ah hey we know the line meeting come on he bked his [Music] time uh we have no correspondence under miscellaneous just noting School Board mandated training um the as you can contact our um this this administrator will be able to provide you with any updates as to any uh mandated training that's required he'll AR for that for you um so second public comment section of the evening uh please state your name and address uh no limit on agenda items any public comments in the room anything virtual no I have a motion to close public comments motion second all in favor I any opposed great um any non-committee board member rep or comments I have a comment um since number four is an um is a goal to look at um phone usage I would recommend the book The anxious Generation by Jonathan hate uh which specifically looks at what the cell phone use um is doing to our young people's minds um and it is a driving factor in Morris County because Morris County principles have all kind of unified in setting up drafts of policies so that we can't say Well in that District they do this and in that District they don't we're trying to be very uniform in what we're doing in mors County yes Mr cam so uh Mr tal just recommended an adven G that's our our summer reading um book so we just got 10 that one oh okay that's very good you already bought Amazon yes in some yes start we're doing in it as a district parent and District uh book club Jefferson we'll see how it goes yes uh we have nothing under other business Oprah requests look pretty Spar farar this month I like that yes uh so I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion I'll second it all in favor I any thank you everyone thank you very much thank you great night