good evening um I call to order the Highland Park Board of Education hybrid Workshop meeting for this evening Monday April 8th may have a qu uh oh I forgot number two announcement of notice the New Jersey open public meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in compliance with the open public public meetings act the Highland Park Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting setting forth the time date and location to be submitted for publication in the home News Tribune and the Star Ledger and posted on the board's website at least 48 hours in advance of this meeting members of the public who wish to address the board will be given the opportunity to do so before the board adjourns for the evening may I have roll call Dr batty here miss Calon here Dr Coleman here Dr Pixley here miss puce here Dr scholman here miss stanel miss vman miss Vorhees here okay stand for the pledge pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we had three communications um one about something called payroll uh parking question and an invitation to the Gratitude Tree project um that was on March 27th um next meeting will be looking to approve the hybrid Workshop meeting and executive session minutes for March 11th 2024 and the hybrid preliminary budget presentation and voting meeting and executive session from March 18th 202 four we'll move to our student representative reports over at Irving came back from their spring break today um and they would like to thank everyone who went to their Spring Dance um before the break they had a wonderful time also their prek and kindergarten students will have a visit from Silly Billy and his reptiles this week thanks to the PTO for providing the students with this opportunity uh there also their used book sale will take place at the end of the month uh and more details will be going home about this soon and lastly over at Irving uh they hope to see you for their Earth Day celebration on April 17th and information has gone home about this or you can check the Irving's website for more information okay Bartle time bartel's epic and student council present the movie night wear your pajamas and watch A Bug's Life to celebrate spring you may bring a stuffed animal and a blanket if you want the uh HPA Pride will provide popcorn and snacks and this event is going to be held on Thursday April 11th at 5:15 p.m. in the Bartle Auditorium it is rated PG just so you know RSVP by Tuesday April 9th which oh that's tomorrow at 2:15 p.m with the link or the QR code details are on the Bartle website next Bartle students will participate in the Tay anti-bullying assembly presented by Tay Fisher who's a former Harlem Globe Trotter on Friday April 12th on April 18th they will have an author visit from the poet Janet Wong which sounds like a lot of fun and also on April 18th at 5:30 p.m. there will be an seal parent night details for that can be found on Bart's website Middle School the Middle School's penny wars raised $759 for the Edison animal shelter many pets will benefit so massive thanks to all that contributed next their volleyball tournament was a huge success the eighth grade team was the winning student team but unfortunately got smoked by the staff team in the final round rip also the movie night was a huge success thank you to all the parents and staff who made both of these events successful finally the permission slip for the seventh grade trip was sent out earlier this week it's been attached somewhere probably to the website for your convenience uh and the payments and that permission slip will be due by April 17th 2024 so if you're a seventh grade parent get on that over today at the high school we were able to enjoy the eclipse outside today um we went out at around 2:30 and enjoyed it until the bell rang at 3: but even had some students to stay for the rest of it we'd like to give a huge thanks to the ptso for supplying the glasses next the Highland Park Educational Foundation who helps to sponsor many clubs and events at the school are having a community meeting and are seeking new members the meeting is on April 10th and right here in the Middle School cafeteria at 7:30 p.m. uh next the Highland Park Project Graduation is holding a night at the races event on April 13th at penos come and have fun and bed on a horse there will be food drinks door door prizes and more tickets can be bought at hppr graduation.cap and the team Center is hosting one dream one one team one dream this program will include games and discussions about your concerns about relationships and creating healthy friendships and as well as boundary setting they have their first meeting today after school and will continue meeting on Mondays in the teen center after school from 3:00 to 4m the Highland Park drama club has officially begun work on their last production of the year one acts the production is a string of 10 minute or less one act shows that are fully written produced and created by the students today they held one of the three writing workshops for the students to learn about playwriting and to help them begin their writing they were joined by well they will be joined by an alumni of the drama club the next two uh days and they're very excited to get started uh the high school classes are also holding a schoolwide fundraiser uh of the Wizards basketball show the team will come to the high school gym on May 13th at 6:30 p.m. and will sing and dance their way through a game against the high Park teachers Oh Boy tickets could be bought at harlemwizards.com all one word the high school beginning next year so sorry seniors uh will offer an opportunity to teach Sports to students with special needs through their a period buddy ball program students who are interested can sign up using the QR codes on the Flyers hung around school or reach out to miss Landis at Elis at HP schools.net finally the high school's teen pep night will be on April 16th in the high school cafeteria the night will provide parents and Guardians and teenagers with a form that encourages open communication on issues of sexual health gender and sexuality and that's all from the student report thank you Roy um any questions for our student Representatives thank you thank you so much guys thank you all right uh we're going to move to our superintendent report good evening everyone and thank you Andrew and Roy for a great presentation and updates on going on I just want to Echo some of the sentiments that uh I appreciate all the parents Guardian Guardians and caregivers out there that are doing some really great things for our students by getting involved and it sounds like the high school middle school PTO is is revving up which is really awesome so I really encourage all parents Guardians and caregivers please come out and support all these great organizations I know the uh PTO needs support our booster club HP booster clubs need support our hpf needs some support some some you know uh vibrant you know families and and and parents that want to get involved so please get involved all of this great um you know great work and volunteer to to pay off for the for the students thank you thanks for reporting on that so tonight I'm really excited um that we have Mr Gold here and his model un um so those who are not here in public there's a whole bunch of students here that were really excited to share about their trip to Mexico City so I'd like to invite Mr Gold up to the podium and I'm not sure if you're bringing people with you or I'm not sure but more than welcome to go to the podium as well and share about your experiences welcome Mr Gold thank you thank you yeah three uh so first of all thank you for letting us present today sorry I just want to as close the microphone as you can get so the people at home can hear thank you um we we wanted to start by extending gratitude uh for this opportunity this is a unique experience that our District offers that really distinguishes our school from so many other Public Schools not only in New Jersey but across the country and we think it's really special and we really appreciate your trust in our students um we also wanted to thank the hpf because um I know that they need support right now they actually supported this program the first time that it ran uh we this program uh is I know it's model un uh our model un team competes um and we're very proud of those competitions uh other academic programs in the school like the robotics club and deca also uh compete and do amazing things um this trip is a little bit different which is why we wanted to share it why hpf supported us initially uh it's a global Ambassador trip the idea is we're supposed to be representing not only our community but our country in visiting Mexico City and we are supposed to be learning from our experience there and as you'll hear from our uh students today uh we think that this visits to the schools that we do there and the Partnerships that we gain with those teachers and with those students um the cultural experience is even more important than the actual competition that we participate when we're there there so we thank the H hpf for offering an opportunity for us to do this the first time they sent us to Montreal gave us some funding uh many years ago uh the last time we were there was right um at during the pandem right before the pandemic um really broke out so this was wonderful to be able to get back there and we also wanted to thank one other organization the citizens for Global solutions that provided a grant to support students who needed financial aid to be able to attend um so we wanted thank those organizations as well as the district for really supporting us and I wanted to turn it over to Yaya and enan and Anna um who will share a little bit about their experience and we have a little slideshow they prepared hi every everyone my name is Yaya hang and I'm a senior so this is my fourth year doing model un should we introduce ourselves as we good okay hi I'm Anna jic I'm a junior and this is my third year doing model Un Hi my name is en and Chu I'm also a senior and this is also my fourth year doing M so we wanted to start this presentation with a little video that Mr Gold Circle do you have some hidden talents for director uh e e I hope oh I hope you all enjoyed that um so now we're gonna talk about some of the schools that we visited while we were there yeah so there were two of them the first one that we saw was Esa amayi um so at this school what our goal was was to First of first off give a little presentation about what Highland Park High School was um we connected with the students there we had a nice tour of their school and we learned that their school system was very different from ours the way that they joined different grades together and the classes that they had so um after the tour that we had of their school we split up into three different groups so um these three Highland Park groups went to the mieli classes um so now these classes they included history Cinema Mexican Cinema and Spanish Literature which was really exciting so if we could uh move to the next slide thank you yeah so here's some pictures of us participating in certain classes um myself I I was in the history class and found it really interesting so what we did there was we broke off into little groups of three we talked about um American history Mexican history and different political issues that we were all facing so it was really interesting to learn more about Mexican politics because that's not something that I normally follow but it was important for us to get a different perspective on world problems um the other classes I wasn't in but I heard great things about them I know that in the Spanish Literature class students had an opportunity to read poems um write their own poems sort of edit them so that sounded pretty cool and Mexican Cinema class I just heard great things about what they learned there so that was all really good experience at melli um and also just a little fun side part we got to play soccer with the students there they were very very good I will say um beat us in a lot of games but it was still a really enjoyable experience overall yeah so the second school that we visited was Kio Williams now this was another private school the other one was private as well so here um it was a little bit different because we began communicating with them before we actually arrived in Mexico City so uh two Highland Park students were assigned to work with one student from kleo Williams and we were kind of like pen pal for a little bit we were exchanging emails sharing facts about ourselves and just about modelu experience and we um I know some Highland Park kids we prepared presents to give to our friends from colia Williams so when we got there it was really nice to meet these students in person um we got a wonderful tour of their school which was very beautiful by the way it's in the next slide um yeah it it was like a castle it was really yeah it was really incredible um and so what we did was we broke off into discussion groups as well and it wasn't exactly as like conversational about political issues this time but it was more about personal stories I felt like so it was really interesting for me to learn how some of these students grew up um and how diverse the school really was so I just found that to be a very helpful experience so one of the most important things going to Mexico City was being able to learn about the culture and every night that we had um free time when we weren't in committee we got to visit a different neighborhood of Mexico City so the three neighborhoods that we got to visit were kondesa cooa Kan and poano and kondesa um we got to visit on the first night and we got to try out some W hawan food which was super delicious um but it was just super nice we got the opportunity to walk around we passed a skate park we got churos and we just kind of got to like chill and see like all the beautiful like Greenery and there's like there's so many trees in Mexico City all the streets are beautiful to walk down um then we also got to visit cooa con and we got to spend a good half a day there we went to an outdoor Market that was super big and we got to shop at all these vendors and a lot of these vendors are um usually just to people in Mexico City who speak Spanish so we had to speak a lot of Spanish while we were walking around on these vendors to communicate what we wanted to buy to ask how much money it was um or just to have conversations to say that you know we had to pay we wanted to pay with C or we wanted to pay with pesos and so it was a really good opportunity to use our Spanish skills and um they appreciated it when we weren't speaking English because it was much easier to communicate and it was good for us to get the opportunity to to practice um and we also visited a neighborhood called panco which is a little more upscale so there was a lot of cool architecture there were a lot of restaurants lining the streets people were eating outside it was a super nice day out so we got to walk along the street um we had really good tacos for dinner and it was just really nice to go through all these different neighborhoods and see how there were differences even in Mexico City of how people lived you can go to the next slide um so a couple places we got to visit um we got to visit the Museum of anthropology and chipot toek park so chipot park is this super massive beautiful Park it's like it's huge it's bigger than Central Park there's a massive Lake in the middle that we got to walk around and there's so many trees and different plants and Greenery and we got the opportunity to walk around and see all of it there were vendors kind of lining some of the sidewalks and people got to get souvenirs um and uh then we went to the Museum of anthropology which is a really wellb built super cool architecture as you can see um and the Museum of anthropology has the history of all the indigenous groups of Mexico that you maybe don't learn about in our American history our American World History um course so it was really interesting to go throughout the museums and learn about the history of the indigenous groups of Mexico City and there were a lot of different relics and the architecture there was really cool the way they um rebuilt sort of kind of this the civilization so we could really it was really a visual learning experience along with being able to read about the um indigenous populations next slide please um another fun thing we got to do was we got to go to a Lucha Libra match and this was it was uh super fun because it was like a big like a really big like cultural experience it wasn't like a museum or a god tour it was like you were in the city you were with the people who really like wanted to be there the crowd was super hyped and if you don't know Lucha Libra is a scripted wrestling match so they have different rounds they have different Champions they're all wearing different costumes you know we got to pick our favorites and we were rooting them on and we were like I think this one's going to win I think this one's going to win and we just got to be like really hype with the crowd and everybody was just having like a super fun time and it was it was super cool to see next slide and then my favorite part of the trip um we got to visit teot wakan which are um pyramids and we learned a lot about teot wakan and how it was built it we had a guided tour which was super helpful because I think if we all just went to the pyramids without this tour guide we would just look at them and be like wow these are super cool and then leave um but we got a guided tour guide and he took us around the pyramids and he taught us um we saw the two major pyramids which are the Pyramid of the Moon which is on the left and then the bigger one which is the Pyramid of the Sun and we learned um that you know historians don't know who established teoton who built it they know that there are indigenous groups that came to teoton and that teoton comes from the azex who named it um and it means the place that the gods were created and the Pyramid of the Moon and Sun are after the gods of the moon and the god of the sun I mean the the god of the sun and the goddess of the moon and we just we got to learn a long a lot about how it's been excavated and the different processes they do to um discover what's inside the pyramids and we got to go through Museum before our outdoor tour to learn a little bit to give us some background information before we actually saw the pyramids and we didn't get to go off them because of Co they don't let people go off them but it didn't matter CU it was super cool to just be there we got to walk down the Avenue of the Dead which is where there's more of those um little pyramids and we got to see so much and it was just like extremely like we learned like so much about the pyramids and about how they were built and who lived in them and how they were destroyed and it was just it was super um interesting and it like I've gone home and I've done more research about these pyramids because it was so so interesting to learn all the Legends next slide and then finally one of the most important things about culture is food and in Mexico City we all ate super good food um when we went to the outdoor Market in cooa con we got to um try new Mexican candies we all got Mexican candies Mr Gold and Miss Solair brought some home for the students here um and we also got there's me and Eden we got some alpastor tacos everybody got Tacos on this trip but those were like super good we saw them make them in front of us and it was just like like everywhere we went like the next picture we tried W Hawking food it was something I wouldn't try normally and like the things on the menu I hadn't even heard of and I was like okay I'll just get this and it was just everything was so so delicious and every meal I was like I just was so happy that I had good food um and with food also comes language you had to order in Spanish taught everybody who didn't know how to order in Spanish um and it was really an opportunity not only in restaurants but when we were at the schools or when we were in committee to speak Spanish because all the kids in our committee spoke Spanish not in committee but outside when we were walking around you know just around the hotel everybody was speaking Spanish and it was an opportunity to speak Spanish in a way that you don't in the classroom you can't really have like conversations with students in the classroom in the classroom you know you want to speak English if you don't know a word but when you're with students that speak Spanish you you have to like know how to speak the language and be able to have a conversation and it was just like a really good opportunity to test out your skills and expand your skills because as we spoke um Spanish to our new Mexican friends they would speak English to us so we both got to like um help out each other with words and just like have the opportunity to practice our Spanish in like a real world way and it's something that I can never get in the classroom and I really just appreciate okay so now to the actual conference we debated in total for four days which was a long time but it was very rewarding of course um one thing to note that's really interesting about this conference is that we are one of three American schools here but the other schools that are attend that attended from Mexico they're all private schools so what Mr Gold was teaching us was that this is a very slim picture of students in Mexico and that private schools typically get a lot more funding than public schools ever will and that in general their school systems are different and so by seeing that and by seeing that you know so many private schools are here but so many other private schools don't even have a mod team and the ones that we talk to don't have a lot of sports teams or a lot of clubs it made us just grateful in general for us to be there in the first place but the way the conference was divided was with two sort of time periods the first one was was in 1989 um the second one was present day and this allowed different committees to bridge together and connect so that the people you're talking to in your room weren't the only people you would interact with over the course of the four days and that's something I found really unique with the conference specifically that helped me be able to talk to a lot of other people and make a lot of new connections so the last slide was the 1989 committees this slide is the present day committees and for example for mine I was the present day un United States cabinet and I was representing the Secretary of State Anthony blinkin and I was going into this committee sort of feeling like if this was a committee that we had experienced here you know just in New Brunswick at the Hyatt I feel like I could predict a lot of what was going to happen in terms of debate but the fact that people like Mexican students were representing American figures and they had different ideologies and Notions of the United States provided a lot more in terms of the debate and what I experienced because you know as the searching their committees they don't get the same websites that we do and they're not seeing the same information and not knowing the current news maybe as well as I do experiencing it through school and so by talking to them and debating with them for such a long time about the United States broaden my view a lot about you know World Views about the United States and how other people perceive us and one thing that was also very fun about this conference was they do midnight crises so on Saturday night or I believe Friday night night they wake they knock on your door at around 11:30 p.m. and so you have to go down to your committee room and debate from around 12:00 p.m. anywhere from 2: to 3: in the morning it might not sound fun to you guys for for us for us it was enjoyable I enjoyed it a lot they throw like a very random like situation at you and you have to try and figure it out and a lot of the kids are trying not to fall asleep but it's a very immersive experience nonetheless and you get extra sleep the next day so if you go if you go to the next slide we did really well at this conference we had a lot of fun overall we won 25 individual Awards some of us won multiple um Hugh right there he won four Awards because he's a very strong debater he did very well in his committee but as a whole all of us did a really good job in terms of dictating the room and that's something that M has taught me specifically is making sure that people know what my view is in that room that's something Mr Gold talks about a lot is making sure that other people know what you're representing and that it's just a life skill in general not just in M but as you know as I go into college and as I get a job it's important for me to be able to voice my concerns and voice my opinions and that's the biggest thing that M has taught me specifically but in general we also won the best delegation there which is on the next slide um which is a test to the hard work that everyone put in I know we made a lot of speeches over the course of the trip Max who's sitting over there made one about how everyone put in a lot of hard work in terms of researching their characters who they were their countries and making sure also that the people that we were representing that our opinions were accurate to what we were saying and that we weren't misconstruing any country or any person or delegate there and that we were making sure that we were going along with history but we were also adding new ideas that we thought would be beneficial so yeah yeah so on one final note um just to emphasize how important this trip was we learned a lot um As Americans here but we also wanted to do something helpful for the first school that we visited amayi so um they're private school which means they have more resources but during the covid pandemic they're uh model un Club wasn't able to continue on so what we wanted to do was we some of us met with some of their students to talk about restructuring or recreating a model un club for them that way they would be able to participate at M in future years like we were so lucky to do so so they used to have a club um and we're trying to help them bring it back so some of us Tred to schedule a zoom debate with them um on abortion so that was in works and for us what we learned a lot from this conference was different ways to make this experience more educational so Highland Park Model un we run our own conference in May or June this year it's in June and we learned a lot from my men so we took some of the ideas there and we're trying to recreate it in our own way to make it work for a one-day conference for Central Jersey um delegates to learn the same way that we did so thank you everyone I gon one more thing to say there's one like uh an important uh theme for us is is gratitude understanding where we are our our privilege and our positionality in the world and I I just want to make sure that I express my gratitude for my students um and I think that all of you and their parents and the community um I think you would be extremely grateful for the way that they represented uh this school this District this community this country um at a time when our politics are so divided for them to be young people representing to a lot of the students there what Americans are like when those students have preconceptions themselves um I think it's really foundational for the development of um an early diplomatic relationship and I was just so proud of them uh Beyond winning the awards I'm just so proud of them and I think you would all be too if you were there to see them in person so thank you to them and thank you to all of you so much thank you for presenting thank you Mr Gold and to our model un um students it sounds like such an amazing trip you made me very hungry um but honestly just the the culture and seeing the world and seeing the world through other people's eyes um can be truly lifechanging so I'm really grateful that you all had that experience and it sounds like you put in a lot of time and effort and hard work even leading up to it but it sounds like there's a lot of preparation that has to be done so uh Mr Gold thank you for your commitment and students as well um thank you for that and I also want to thank the board for their support of the field trip um I know that funding can be a challenge um especially for uh a population um you know that's ever changing in Highland Park where a lot of our students do qualify for you know free and reduced lunch and and subsidy and need and need that financial support um even the support I know we've talked about in the past even I know there's a if you notice in the picture certain dress attire that has to happen um during debates and things like that and sometimes um our students don't have access to the appropriate attire that they have to wear so I know we have opportunities for students to get um some of that that clothing and things like that so there's a lot more that goes into to this trip other than flying to another country and to act as parent appendi when uh when when they're not there so it's way more than that and just way more than the prep work there's a lot to that goes into it so I thank the board the hpf and and all the funding that happens and I believe if I'm not mistaken that the spring conference that you hold is also a little bit of a fundraiser too um to support that so I encourage anybody in the in central New Jersey to come in participate uh and learn from our students so thank you again and um I just want to open up if anybody on the board had any questions or comments um for Mr Gold or the team well I just wanted to Echo the thank you to everyone all the students and certainly Mr Gold I mean I think you're very uh modest and and humble um but I know I believe I could speak on behalf of most of us here we really appreciate the work that you've done with um the students over the years so I know when my student was at my son was at the high school and he tested out the waters with model un I was shocked but that was you sort of really coaching him nurturing him and I see you doing that in all the students that come to you or that you find a way to bring them to you and I think we really value your presence and what you contribute to our community here so I just wanted to say that um and for the students what an amazing experience all I can say is I am overwhelmed with just how much how well you presented first of all and how much you clearly gained from this experience because I know that we know you go on these trips every year you go to Mexico City but we've never really heard about the totality of the experience I think about the competitions and how you guys are doing in these committees and how you must be stressed out the whole time and you know in those but no you are doing so many wonderful things uh it's just uh a transformative life experience I'm really excited to hear that you do so much more of the immersion cultural immersion and exchange you're bringing back and giving back to others so excellent job keep it up and we'll miss you when you all go on but you are taking so much from your experiences not just at the high school but traveling abroad as you go on to your next endeavors so thank you I also just want to extend my sincere gratitude to you Mr Gold and your dedication to these students and also um awesome presentation I really appreciate it but I just wanted to say Mr Gold added a personal touch to the trip where they did secret Santa Fe and all of the students were assigned like a secret santa type of thing where they got little souvenirs for each other which I thought was really sweet and just little extra touches like that that you that you add to the trip thank you well thank you so that concludes my presentation um Mr Gold and students you're more than welcome to stay for the totality of this riveting board meeting um but please you know feel free to excuse yourself I know you have you know lots to do uh outside of of the meeting so thank you again thank you for coming thank you everyone all right we're going to move to our board committee reports um first Andrew I forgot to I forgot your name so I thanked Roy for his her for your report and then I was like so I was like I got to Circle back and of course Andrew and I know your name which is so crazy but thank you both for your reports um okay so we'll start with curriculum we have not met since our last meeting um we are meeting Thursday uh but we do have some items that will be on the agenda for approval um the first is the field TRS that are attached there's a pep rally at ble so our Middle School cheer team is going to be walking to ble to perform um another walking trip which is the high school and middle school grounds will be used by the Irving School uh for a whole school picnic um for K And1 and we also have a ble elementary school trip for the first grade um the first grade from Irving is going to go see their new school so it's one of the probably the most exciting trips of the year um we also have a resolution to approve the 2023 2024 nursing plan which is attached the agenda um we have a res resolution to approve the program of peer mediation at the middle school um which would be effective September 1st 2024 um this is a voluntary conflict resolution process in which two trained student mediators facilitate communication between their disputing peers empowering them to negotiate a mutually acceptable agreement um an agreement may not always be reached at that time but the process of mediation is still beneficial among peers and that's because the program has been so successful at the high school that they are now going to to bring peer mediation down to the Middle School um and we have a resolution to approve some job descriptions we have um a supervisor of funded programs and District initiatives and Human Resources um a human resources health benefits and payroll support position and a lead nurse position again we are approving the position descriptions that does not mean that these are going to be hired for but we do want to have them on hand should budgets allow for um the rules and that concludes curriculum instruction equity and Excellence nothing to report finance and Facilities uh we did not yet meet I think we meet tomorrow night um so uh there'll be more to hell when we meet again later in April it's on okay and um also our agenda items for fining facilities are very short I suspect later in the month they're going to get a lot longer but we do have on the agenda the resolution to approve travel and related expense reimbursement reports um and that's attached resolution to approve um it's another one of these passrs that we need that we um have on our agenda often it's non-public school security and this is for children's House monu um for a pad Locking System code locks and padlocks that's uh they're right here in Highland Park to's house murri um and then a resolution to approve the purchase of a mail center mailing system for our business office at the cost of $9,990 um and a resolution to approve the following contracts which are for professional development one is inspired instruction um for a PD a full day PD at ble at the middle school that's going to be paid by title 2 a funds and go Guardian um six half day professional development sessions these dates are to be determined also paid for by title 2A funds and that's all for this one this round any questions for finance I like you short doesn't happen often no it won't be that way next week next meeting all right personnel and communication question what is the mail center what is that postage The Machine yeah that stamps the postage yeah um personnel and communication we did meet right before the break on March 26 in attendance were Dr suska Marilyn Nikki an and myself we went over the agenda items we have a resolution to accept the resignation of Miss Stern Mandarin teacher at the middle school a resolution to accept the resignation of Miss gentle cor which is our HR payroll admin ative assistant in the business office effective May 31st resolution to approve an extension of a leave of absence for um one employee on the following dates uh February 12th through the 29th and unpaid from March 1st to May 5th um with a return to work on May 6th resolution to approve a paid medical leave using sick days starting on May 1st through June 30th resolution to approve a family leave of absence from April 22nd to June 3rd um eligible for FMLA resolution to approve the request to receive payment for 10 days minus the cost of a substitute due to extenda circumstances while remaining on Family Leave um the paid medical leave ends on March 25th resolution to approve the request from employee from one of our employees to receive payment for 71.5 days minus the cost of a substitute due to extenda circumstances and I'm sorry this like reading backwards should just be using the paper copy um take this are you up to date yeah resolution to approve Summer band camp um from Mr prey this will be onee Summer band camp in the last week of August um half day 9 to 12: p.m um I believe this is using eser funds resolution to approve Michael nasus par professional at Irving um as the volunteer Middle School baseball coach uh resolution to approve the following staff to receive a stipend for being a special education instructional coach um April 1st through June 30th this is funded by title 2A Miss Levens Miss GAC Miss tacis and Miss Powell Williams um that's at all four schools resolution to approve additional hours for the brothers mentoring program at ble um for Miss en Mr frisia and Mr Burell and brothers mentoring at the middle school um for Mr mcglinn and again Mr frisia that's it he's at both schools um resolution to approve the following staff for presenting professional development and prep for the PD Academy um miss drasher miss doel and miss Trasher again for different topics um yeah and that's it that is it for me sorry any questions on the agenda items policy um policy also is meeting this coming week so um however there are on the agenda quite a few policies for first reading and some for second reading um all the agenda all the policies are both of the board fold are also actually attached here so I would encourage everybody to read them and if you have comments um to send them along because obviously we're not voting till later in the month for the most part these are all um changes or minor most of them are related to pronouns related to uh the protected classes and the the code rather than listing the classes um it's the affirmative action program although I think we titled it differently comprehensive Equity plan equal opportunity equal opportunities perative action for employment and also for school classroom practices um the policy on uh concussions and head injury sports related and on vandalism those are all for first read and then second read is we talk we had them on our agenda last month code of ethics equal opportunity these most of these are resolu are regulations um equal employment opportunity curriculum content also related to equity equity in school and class classroom bilingual and ESL honoring student achievement and vandalism I actually when I looked yesterday at the honoring student achievement we need to do some fill-ins which we'll look at when we meet later in the week we either need to fill some things or make it a little more General but um so that's what we'll be looking at later in the month uh any questions or comments encourage you to read them when you when you need to when you having sleeping at night that is important for us all to look at to make sure there's no questions that's it all right we're going to move on to public comment the Highland Park Board of Education invites public participation during its meeting board policy number 064.0 6 allows for public comments during remote meetings and comments can be submitted in advance via email or Written Letter um board policy number 0167 underscores the importance of public comment and educational issues during board meetings a portion is allocated for public comment with participation participants requiring to announce their name place of residence and affiliation um I'm sorry yes and affiliation um how many people do we have on our meet okay there's nobody in person so is there anybody online for public comment again if anybody online wants to make a public comment just raise your hand okay um we are going to move uh oh yes uh president's report so I just want to Echo what um Dr susco was saying we have a few groups in town that are um kind of turning over in terms of parent leadership um we do have our HP boosters we have our Highland Park Educational Foundation um and then we also have uh that need parent support and each principal has a parents Advisory Group um all of these are opportunities for parents to get involved um not only just in the the fun stuff you know the sports and and trips but also with the um parent advisory groups to be able to have conversations with leadership about um things that are going on in the building so if you did not know that those groups were around please do reach out to your building principles um they are you know basically you get an invitation um and then you are provided the link to attend um and that's all I have for my president's report any old business quick question just on the parent advisory committee outreach are the administrators just sending out how are they reaching out to all the families so that everyone's so typically um the the invitation was originally sent out in the beginning of the year I mean I only see ble in Middle School um I don't get the emails from Irving or the high school um but I also know know that Miss Brady will put it in her emails um when there is the next coming uh the next Advisory Group coming up and I believe Miss nap does as well um although she sends out more quarterly uh Communications so it would be there but we can definitely have uh Jen as chair kind of touch on that during the communications thank you other thing I wanted to just update folks on is that there's a central leader ship team meeting this week that will discuss start time since I know that's something the public is very interested in um so that will be a major topic of of that meeting coming up they what they're going to be doing is they're also discussing the results of the uh questionnaires that went out to each of the school school groups um and maybe I think also just overall the impact on uh the change in our scheduling so that will be I think absente ism is on the agenda also the uh it's on that agenda so right we'll report about that at end of the month um and we are aware that some parents did not get a pop-up notification when the um ble parents logged in so um the staff at ble is making phone calls to each person that did not submit a survey in order to make sure that everybody has a chance to submit one well and just interrupt so um I did when I pulled the report of who didn't complete it there were some um parents that didn't complete it from other schools as well so it went to all four schools the entire list there were about 300 and something students in general that it wasn't completed for um one we want to make sure it gets done because reading report cards is very important to to know that you know you can have access and and see where your children are um you know in their trajectory in school but also um to make sure that that all everybody on the list was contacted because we want as as close to 100% um participation would be great because it's a really important piece of feedback for us so not just it didn't just go to ble we I um did suggest that everybody get so if you're on the list expect a personal phone call from your building thank you for clarifying any new business yeah um so just a a quick comment it's kind of so interesting speaking when nobody's here hope we all um so I just want to say uh General I'm you know I'm just really optimistic about the collaboration between the Board of Education and the bureau um uh can you can you hear me okay um we're really striving to kind of establish a new way of working together and what I will say at a very very high level right now we're engaged in a series of strategic planning sessions to make sure that Highland Park actually maximizes the dollars coming to us that we quite frankly have not had for to in the past years related to other towns and it's really our time now and so we're working together to make sure that that uh you know we get what we need from an infrastructure perspective so it's pretty exciting I think everyone here has an incredibly important part to play here on the board of education as well as the the burough side and the council and the mayor and so just giving you a little teaser more to come stay tuned and um you know I think it's just a really exciting on how how we're we're changing the way that we work together to make it happen and an has something smart to say as she always does being able to work with the um Highland Park Public Schools administrative staff uh Denise is an absolute rock star but Dr Susa uh John our facilities I like manager I just cannot say more good things about um what I think we're going to be able to work forward and Achieve together and it's a good team so I want to say thank you Denise worked with me on her Spring Break Even can I add something a quick side note that Mr Flanigan actually talks to the students in the high school um and he strikes up conversations I hear his voice echoing down the Halles um and he ask he asks us like what's going on with the facilities and how he can make it better um and people like the students know who he is so definitely a good thing to add all right we will move to our second public comment um again we invite public comment and participation during these meetings um is there anybody online for public comment you can raise your hand how many do we still have 13 one still engaged that's good y okay good engagement all right um we are doing something a little bit different tonight we are going to um be recessing to Executive session um to discuss negotiations uh when we return we are coming back just to adjourn the meeting so if you are online there will be no new information um no discussion uh executive session um no new decision- making um so I'm going to move be it resolved pursuant to the sunshine Act njsa 10 col 4-12 and 13 the Highland Park Board of Education will meet in closed session to discuss matters related to negotiations these exemptions are permitted to be discussed in closed session in accordance with njsa 104-113 information regarding the board's closed session discussion will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists I move that we um recess to Executive session may I have a second second second all in favor I e e e e e e e e e e e e e so e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I move that we I move that we reconvene to regular SE session second roll call please Dr B here miss Cal here Dr Coleman here Dr Pixley here miss Bruce here Dr schoolman here miss stano miss vardan here miss Vorhees here I move that we adjourn second