##VIDEO ID:F5iwtI-kVDg## number three so please don't take anything um as a facial response because again we would love to see your faces but we can't I would invite you of course to move forward um where you can um just a note of order for the board the mics are hot all night and so um just please try not to touch them too much do not move them as was the direction just as I did such um but also because we're in a open Forum even communicating across to one another in um board member to board member will require a mark in this setting okay so with that said can we have a roll call Dr jovy here Mr kadia here Dr Liston here Mr Peters here Dr Resnik I think so Mr slotman there miss Tracy here there you go Miss Williams gallano here Dr Will Wilson here we have a quorum thank you the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the hopel Valley Regional Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof communicated to the hopeall Valley News and the times on January 4th 2024 this meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon FiOS the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education the meeting is being recorded for the purpose of Board review future reference preparation of the minutes and viewing on YouTube Bulldog TV and the school district website wwwv rsd.org that's www.hrsd.com salute IED Al 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 can I get a a first and second to uh pass the minutes for our October 14th meeting first second all in favor I any opposed or abstaining seeing none the minutes pass would like to go ahead and move on to our student rep this evening for her report aarin as we wrap up the first marking period and students settle into their schedules we are proud to highlight several key accomplishments and Community efforts there have been many fall Sports achievements this year the girls soccer team won the CBC tournament and the boys football team completed an undefeated regular season finally girls cross country had an invitation to the meet of Champions for the first time since 2009 in response to the recent hurricane our school continued supporting M Heritage High School with several fundraisers and community events student council hosted an unad ice cream fundraiser donating a portion of the proceeds to the school this Thursday November 21st student council will host the annual Powderpuff game collecting donations for the school as well the hbcs athletic Council together with student athletes organized the 2024 Sports Fest raising over $1,000 for Hurricane Relief yes Club is hosting a clothing exchange and athletic teams are currently selling wristbands finally our student ambassadors are collecting items for care packages as students at Mountain Heritage High School are returning to school we completed our second year of student teacher caregiver conferences and we are moving into the second marking period thank you thank you any questions from the board any comments okay seeing none thank you Aaron as we move through agenda I'll make uh comments so I don't have an official uh board president report Dr trece I would just like to um point out a few things that happened over the last few weeks um our students and our teachers are working very closely together to uh do cross content and crossgrade level activities some of these the students are planning with their teachers and some of the teachers are working together to really bring live some of the things we talked about in our strategic planning where student students got to uh get to work across grade levels and we're also talking about ways that we can get students to work together across schools um some of the things we floated is possibly a fi day that will happen where all students can do that fi day together um The District Parent Council has talked to me about that while I think we still will have our homebased things doing something at the middle school in the spring well bringing our fifth grades to together is something that we're looking into um the yes group our um our Environmental Society students here at the um High School are working with Miss mcgraph their adviser to pull together resources about the wildfires that are going on all over New Jersey for our teachers and our students and our families uh to help students that might be struggling with some of the things you're seeing on TV that are happening with the environment um when you do this work with students it does create a level of anxiety sometimes um that we need to recognize and provide resources for but also some things that they're going to be using uh they're going to give the teachers to use in their classrooms we're very excited that our students took the initiative to do this work um and also at the uh last week uh November 14th all of our elementary schools participated along with a lot of other school districts Across the Nation Lawrenceville being another one in um in merer County to uh commemorate Ruby Bridges uh walk into school the first time in 1960 the kids walked uh to school rolled to school R their bikes um or for in bear tavern's case they did a little Loop the school because they're not a walking district and then they came in and learned about Ruby they learned about three other cases that came before Ruby's case the first one in late the late 1800s um I I'll share all that in my newsletter that will be coming to your home soon uh and then the kids talked about how they can um at their appropriate age level right how do we make school welcoming for our new students that are coming in because we know we have new students coming in every day with our new developments and we know that there'll be some more developing development happening um in Hope walboro coming soon uh so the kids had a great time we all enjoyed walking they had some celebrity uh guest Walkers and the kids had lots of great ideas on how to make students feel more welcome they heard a little bit about my story as a military brat of moving all around and how it made a lot of difference for me when kids were welcoming and and invited me into the school and there was always one or two kids that did that right so I was encouraging them to figure out ways that they can do the same so that's our report for this week I know we have a lot of guests tonight so I want to be quick absolutely thank you Dr teres um with that we have a lot of folks to acknowledge and I want to pass the microphone over to miss uh Corey rut no let's do the kids first okay gotcha we're going to recognize our National Merit Scholars that's what we're going to do next good evening thank you so much for having me back it's always great to see you all the National Merit Scholarship program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955 high school students enter the National Merit program by taking the preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship qualifying test the PSAT a test which serves as an initial screen of approximately 1.6 million entrance each year of the 1.6 million entrance roughly 50,000 students with the highest PSAT selection index scores qualify for recognition in the National Merit Scholarship program about 34,000 of the approximately 50,000 high school high scorers on the PSAT receive letters of commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic promise commended students are named on the basis of a nationally applied selection index score that varies from year to year and varies from state to state I will say New Jersey has one of the highest selection indexes so these students are not only just amazing on their own but they're especially amazing because they come from New Jersey this year we have 18 commended Scholars at hbcs in addition to those 18 commended Scholars about 16,000 students or approximately one-third of the 50,000 High scorers are notified that they have qualified as semi-finalists to ensure that academically talented young people from all parts of the United States are included in this talent pool semi-finalists are designated on a state representational basis so in this case New Jersey is kind of not the place to be because they're so good and we can only have a few so they're the highest scoring entrance in each state and this year we have three National Merit semi-finalists at hbcs so tonight out of 1.6 million entrance across the country we are recognizing the students who scored in the top 3% and have earned the designation of commended scholar or semi-finalists now these individuals that were recognizing tonight are Scholars of Merit in many senses obviously their test scores are excellent from an academic perspective they are truly exceptional however beyond the classroom they are talented in so many other ways they are award-winning artists Varsity athletes Community Act activists talented musicians and leaders in our school some of them weren't able to attend this evening because they had other remarkable accomplishments that they needed to contribute to including participation in college level courses rehearsals for The Nutcracker and speaking engagements so this is quite a group as you know from previous years I think it's really important for you to know more about them than just their test scores so instead of me introducing them I'm going to bring the grp forward they're each going to introduce themselves and share a fun fact about themselves with you these fun facts haven't been pre-approved I am unsure what we're going to get but it's going to be great so it is my pleasure to introduce to you these amazing members of the class of [Applause] 2025 um hi I'm Nina uh my fun fact is that the fastest time I've solved to 3x3 Rubik's cub in is 11.45 seconds could you speak closer to the mic should I do it again oh sure we'd love to wait which one is it that was a practice run a big one okay um I'm Nina and that my fun fact is that the fastest time I've solved the Rubik's Cube in is 11.45 [Applause] seconds hi I'm saraphina and my fun fact is my first cat's name was meow [Laughter] meows uh hi I'm manua and my fun fact is that my favorite video game is Horizon because it has a woman in it and she's really cool and she's like yeah okay hi I'm Zoe and my fun fact is that I believe I make a pretty decent tiramisu hi I'm Andrew a fun fact about me is that I play card games for [Applause] fun all right so as you can see they're talented they're amazing they're fun in so many different ways and uh I'm really excited to present them to you so thank you again for having us and uh we appreciate your time [Applause] we are going to take a brief second to take a picture but I do want to just share um our the board acknowledgement of these amazing individuals and I superbly love the fun facts for sure but also very much appreciate how much you cultivate your well-rounded um skills in other areas besides academic so thank you take a quick picture [Applause] for for for you should accom yes that's all matters Jeff okay moving on to our presentation by Miss Tanis Smith and Corey R ready good evening can you hear me nope I'm trying not to move this I was told not to move is this good now okay great good evening everyone um this is the annual presentation on the findings from the 2023 2024 school year this is the full year report of the student safety data systems uh you may remember danda Stefan and I presented last uh fall uh or excuse me last winter which was on the first half of last school year which was just from September through December so this is report periods one and two next slide there you go all right um so I put in the presentation the forms uh you've seen these before we show them every time we do this presentation um this there are four pages that the re uh requires for this St State student data system forms um any HIV reports Hib reports are also reported on these forms this is something that each building administrator needs to fill out for their building every time there is an incident wrong way all right the last page of the form includes um information on student restraints and seclusion which is relatively new to this report um um I know Mr Nardo has spoken about this in previous board meetings um just explaining and so I put the definitions up there for you to see this next slide is the breakdown of off fence by school with the incident type across the top and the school along the side this year I've listed how the state defines each of the incident types so that you can see what is included for instance what makes up violence what makes up vandalism um and what the state defines that as the substance category does not include random drug screening results and I know last year there were still uh random drug screening at the high school so this report still does include that however that does not fall under the substance category these numbers only refer to students who were found in possession or under the influence while in the building please note that the last two columns are not included in the incident totals however we do need to report those incidents to the state um the weapons what I will say um you know we're not happy that we see three there for timberling um but we are overly cautious and that is what our principles um at each of our buildings take everything very seriously so what we report uh would not be reported in most other districts for instance a um pocketknife keychain that is about this this big was something that was reported where in most districts they would laugh and say no we're not reporting that so we take everything very seriously um a toy that looks like a gun that would be something that we would report other districts do not do so um you you may remember hrsd we've had threat assessment teams in our district for over eight years um but the state requires it now it's a mandatory thing that every school district needs to have um we are not required to report these numbers to the state yet um but as a board you Shar that you were interested in seeing those results when we had this board policy um passed last year uh so if you look in the yellow box to the left you will see those numbers again our administrators are overly cautious making sure to fully go through the process if there is any indication of an issue um last year there were two identified threats uh there were four other situations where they went through the screening process but did not move forward with that um when things are looked at as a threat um they go through a process the parents are involved the police are involved a a plan is created um and I I'm not going to speak to the specifics of the the students or the type of students but please know that um it was a a wh school um plan where the the administrators are working with the counselors or working with child study team members if they are needed working with family working with the police police working with any outside um to make sure that the students are cared for and that they're getting the uh supports that they need next here's a three-year trend of incidents so if you look to um 2122 we were still coming out of that pandemic post pandemic so our numbers were lower we did discuss it back at the time um while vaping falls under the tobacco policy if other substances are included for instance THC then it would be considered under the substance um indicator I know I mentioned this before when it came to threat assessments our administrators are also very very cautious when we talk about violence so any time um we had a for instance two students thought about having a fight and they met to do so there was no actual fight but that was recorded in that way so our administrators take everything very seriously they follow the letter of the law other school districts would never even look at that as something to report um we're working on that whether we really should be reporting things like that I'm trying to make sure that we are getting accurate data um but the just so you are all aware the board the administrators do take this very seriously um we were happy to see that our substance numbers decrease from the previous year um we've discussed before that substance abuse is being seen a rise in numbers of substance abuse is being seen all over the country and according to the substance abuse in Mental Health Services Administration the rapidly evolving policy landscape at the state level poses significant challenges for preventing marijuana use by use by youth greater public acceptance declining perception of risk increasing availability product diversity ification and pervasive marketing all contribute to an increase in youth marijuana use we are happy that we saw numbers decrease in our report wrong way one more there should be one more in there all right I will to speak to um there should be one more slide in there I don't know why it's not in there um there is a slide on discipline a three-year Trend so I will make sure that that gets into the report that shared um but the numbers were for the district the nice thing to see was that our um out of school suspensions decreased and our in school suspensions did increase just a bit um it includes all of the suspensions and consequences that resulted from Hib inves instigations other conduct violations um and one thing to note Mo there may be multiple students involved in one incident so if two students may be found to be stealing from the cafeteria together it would be listed as one incident on the data form however individual consequences would be given to each student um based on the student code of conduct and consequences um that the board has recommended uh they would be split so students wouldn't get all out of school suspension they might get a day of in school a day of out of school things like that um so the number of type of incidents of um suspensions would increase but it didn't necessarily mean that um the number of incidents increased so you can see the difference when you look for the two slides um there were changes last year in the student code of conduct which focused on shortening the length of some of the suspensions favoring ISS which is in school suspension over OSS which is out of school suspension and including mandatory educational components related to the infractions all right at this time I'm going to pass it over to Corey who's going to share about our programming good evening can everybody hear me okay okay excellent my name is Corey rud I'm the district supervisor of counseling um thank you for taking a moment to listen to what we have to say this evening so I want to talk with you now about best practices and addressing students student safety according to a joint statement by a group of associations representing School psychologists School principles and school resource officers among others there are several best practices related to creating safe School environments among them are building strong School Community connections proactive teaching of social emotional skills access to mental health support and preventative as well as responsive efforts to address things that impact student safety you can go on to the next slide hvrsd has a lot to report in this regard what I've done here is try to just list some of the highlights by each best practice category and then I'll go on to tell you a little bit more about everything that we do some of the highlights within each of these areas are listed here I'll elaborate on just a few in terms of community connectedness we have a great partnership with hope 12 Valley Municipal Alliance also through our relationship with the Mercer County prosecutor's office detective Marlin Webb trains faculty members and how to lead students in restorative Circle discussions through a partnership with Ruckers University Behavioral Health we offer parent University events during the school year in addition to hosting other speakers and special events to try to connect with as many families throughout the year as possible in fact we have a parent University event tomorrow evening at 700 p.m. via zoom in which Samantha aala our on-site recers behavioral health clinici will discuss habits for building Healthy Families Two we proactively teach social emotional skills we have implemented the character strong curriculum in grades K through 8 and through this curriculum weekly lessons in which themes like respect responsibility and empathy are taught and woven and then also into morning meetings at the elementary level counselors also proactively push into classrooms and deliver lessons in problem solving conflict resolution emotional vocabulary and others new this year we're happy to report that we have a tier 2 intervention called hope Squad that will roll out to groups of students in grades 4 through 12 number three in terms of mental health supports Hrs is fortunate to have a number of school counselors School psychologists and social workers throughout our buildings air therapy dogs are present in each school and through the bat team and our on-site ruers clinician we provide access to therapy for students who might not otherwise be able to obtain it lastly we engage in preventative and responsive safety programming Alice safety training is required for staff school safety teams and threat assessment teams meet several times a year faculty are trained about the HIV policy and students are taught ways to identify and respond to bullying Behavior we have a district seal committee that was integral in bringing character strong to our students we have school resource officers and in each building there is an anti-bullying specialist additionally we have implemented best practices related to bullying response including discipline counseling restorative practices and skill building for both offenders and victims on to the next slide uh I'm not going to go through the exhaustive list but needless to say there we we do even more um leadership Corp for example delivers lessons focused on self-awareness self-management for example time management and healthy versus unhealthy habits interpersonal and relation ship skills self-awareness and stress management responsible decision-making and uh Prejudice reduction the panda club offers um Outreach to students regarding drug and alcohol use so it's students to student communication um in an effort to prevent obviously prevent drug and alcohol use we're also fortunate to have a highly skilled group of counselors who Implement some counseling approaches that might be seen and used in a therapeutic setting motivational interviewing for example is used by our Student Assistance counselors as are some cognitive behavioral techniques it's important to note however that inside the school is is not a place where um therapy happens with the exception of our Rucker um uh clinici as mentioned when appropriate uh we work to connect families with outside resources for therapy lastly recognizing that some students need more support in the area of social emotional skill building as part of our efforts related to multi-tiered systems of support we're looking into a tier 2 intervention to address this need thank you thank you um any questions from board members I had a question um thank you so much for this uh presentation for sharing it in advance um Miss Smith and Miss Rett really appreciate it um and we had a chance to talk over email a bit so um I just wanted to reiterate one of my questions because you know I've seen this presentation a few times now and it always strikes me that we are doing so much right um but I think we also noted that we've really seen the number of hibs jump up last year and so I'm wondering if you can just share a bit about where you think we should be directing our resources to address that increase in hip sure um so as I mentioned I think uh over email to you um we are doing so many things uh yet there is a a n National um as well as a worldwide uh crisis in terms of um mental health issues among our youth um and unfortunately we don't exist in isolation of that studies have indicated that when uh students are struggling with mental health issues they are more likely to exhibit behaviors that are considered internalizing or externalizing behaviors and those behaviors research has found um indicate that when students are exhibiting these behaviors they are more likely to become the targets um of potential bullying so there is that piece and that's one reason I'm very excited to report that we are looking into tier 2 interventions that don't um rely solely on our school counselors for implementation um that can be implemented by any train any faculty member who receives training in them also I do want to point out um that because we do so much education around what is potentially bullying um we I think are seeing more and more people come forward perhaps with issues that may not have been um addressed in that manner before so those are my my theories thank you any other questions okay seeing none we will move into public comment for specifically the um presentation just provided so members of the public are invited to address the hopal valley Board of educ ation specifically on the 2023 24 periods 1 and two student safety data system report for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent of schools to do so the Board of Education may also op to take this matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by the district administ ation members of the public who intend to participate in public comment we ask that you sign in prior to speaking this is assisting us with recordkeeping with that said direction from the timekeeper and public comment will open following yes so hi um as stated you have three minutes to talk when you have 30 seconds left I will put up the yellow to give you a warning and then when the three minutes are up I will put up the red thank you okay seeing no public comment we'll close public comment on this topic and open general public comment same standards apply um but um you can speak for 3 minutes during this period on any topic again Ask to state your name address and municipality and um sign in at the podium public comment is now open do we'll do aware that on October 14th a Community member requested that the Board review our transgender and gender non-conforming student policy I know that the board agreed that they would review said policy and I'm here this evening to say first of all to offer gratitude Hopewell was really ahead of the curve on this our policy was adopted in I believe June of 2016 um as a parent raising a trans daughter and a non-binary child knowing that policy exists for the safety of my children has meant a lot that policy existing in the school district has also informed behaviors within the school district and we have seen and we have heard tell of lived experience of trans children trans students who aren't in districts without a policy like this we have seen how difficult it is for them we have seen how high the numbers are in cases of bullying and violence against those students and so I want to thank this district for having a policy like that on the books and the second thing I would like to do is I would beg you to please leave it there leave it there as it is I have spent the last two weeks speaking with folks all across the state of New Jersey showing them our policy I have heard amazing things about the policy that it's very strong um that it's very much in line with the the Mandate from the Department of Education we need policies like this so please please leave it be thank you [Applause] good evening I'm Katie angeron 12 Park Avenue Pennington back up I want to thank you all for everything you do I know this job is probably the hardest elected job in the valley so thank you for doing it and I imagine that a very big part of your job as we heard tonight is your mandate to ensure that children feel safe as they develop and make their way uh on their journey to who they are there are a myriad of ways that um you do this in the school district whether it is filtering water or um the safety report we heard earlier today social and emotional learning um having a trainer on the field with the uh Sports fire drills and you're very attentive to mental health as we just heard you also make sure everybody has access to food the transgender policy that this school district has is just another extension of safety and providing safety to our children and I understand that there are some in this community that lack the pens out ofing um my name is Amy promer and um I reside in Hopewell Township and I would Echo what the um earlier two speakers have said um but I'd actually like to congratulate you um I'm a retired teacher who has had transgender children mov through my classrooms in the last few years and have seen districts who were not as Forward Thinking as this one has been and I just want to congratulate uh so I'm Addison Al um of Hope of U hille Township uh speaking on behalf of the robotics team I just want to thank Dr tce and uh principal Riley for helping us out um I think we've started to make some progress on um resolving some of the uncertainty that we were facing um so it looks like we'll get slack pretty soon and uh and we've got a better understanding of when and how we can use facilities um so I think one uh one lingering issue that doesn't it's not urgent but I I might keep chewing on this bone is um trying to think about um possible key card access um to certain rooms because um as a technologist I'm pretty aware that lots and lots of facilities around the country um you know use that and I'm thinking out loud here a little bit but just want to share it with everybody that uh it might make sense to do that because we've got a wonderful wonderful facility uh in the shop here um lots of people lots of sponsors have given a lot of resources to get it set up and we want to get as much use out of it as we can uh while of course respecting all the rints that the district and administration are operating under all righty so anyway thanks thanks so much appreciate it [Applause] good evening my name is sus palinsky I live in hell Township I'm here as the parent of two hrsd students as a taxpayer and as a practicing pediatrician to express my unwavering support for policy 5756 hsd's current transgender and gender non-conforming student policy I'm grateful to live in a district District whose administrators and Board of Education rely on evidence-based peer-reviewed research to inform their policy decisions I appreciate the board's commitment to ensuring policies are up toate and I trust that your review will find this policy to be excellent as written I won't take time now to read them in their entirety but here's a partial list of the Prof Professional Medical and mental health associations whose policies affirm a made recent affirming policy statements emphasizing the importance of inclusive comprehensive gender affirming Healthcare I recognize that a school is not a healthcare facility but it's the place where our children spend nearly half of their waking hours so it's of the utmost importance that we ensure and I'm taking these words from the US Doe's policy statement that all students have the ability to learn in a safe and supportive setting free from discrimination please affirm and retain policy 5756 [Applause] my name is Sarah ORF and I live on nedland Avenue in Titusville and I want to um Echo the others and take this opportunity to thank the board of ed for your current policy regarding the transgender and gender non-conforming students my children have already graduated but I'm so grateful that they were able to go to school in an environment that supported and protected all students and I think these policies are literally a matter of life and death um I recently did see a study from the National Library of Medicine that reported that 82% of transgender youth have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide and and I just know that these kids they need the support of of our schools and um in this policy so thank you [Applause] hello my name is Brienne Dixon um hul burrow um I uh want to speak first as an Alum of this District I graduated in 2004 um I still have a lot of friends and family in this district and I am also a transwoman and I feel it's important to have someone like me make a public comment to remind everyone that the debates that we've heard from others um are about real people it's not a hypothetical and it is extremely dehumanizing to feel the need to be here right now um and I want to thank you all Echo the thanks that we've heard already tonight um you've done tremendous work on this front and it's really important work I'll leave the facts and debates to to others but I just wanted to be present as myself knowing that there are others like me here thank you do we need to sign it yes I do okay hi uh I think most of you know me um so my name is Carolyn McGrath um I'm am both a resident of the township um but I'm also a teacher at the high school and I've had the privilege of advising the Spectrum Club for the last five plus years um and it's been a a real privilege for me um I was asked by a former student to advise the club and it was uh something I took on with with um great seriousness um because I know there's much work to do in supporting uh lgbtq plus students in our schools I hope that I've done a decent job um specifically with regards to transgender and gender nonconforming students I'm extremely thankful that we I get to work and live in a community that uh values all students but also that protects the rights of students who are uh more vulnerable than other students as uh some of the previous speakers have said uh trans transgender students uh experience higher rates of depression suicide and victimization for many students schools uh remain a hostile place and I I hope that that is not the case for for many of our students I believe it's not the case um and the kind of harms that face lgbtq plus students and trans students particularly uh both has impacts on Mental Health as well as academic performance so because of this of course I am in support of our policy see continuing and I just want to add in my personal experience that honestly trans students just want to live their lives they want to live their lives free of bullying harassment and hate and they just want to be regular kids uh I have experienced transgender students Joy resilience it's time to go and I just want to thank you again for all you to thanks my name is Alexis Fuller Wright I'm a resident of Hopewell Township and I have uh two children at Hopewell Elementary School when we relocated back to the area a year ago we specifically only looked for homes in hopwell Township because we have um one gender expansive child um who also has a lot of special education needs um and that child is flourishing in this school I it is the brightest part of our life right now is watching how beautifully he is doing in this school I Pastor a church in Bucks County my church wanted me to live in bucks and I raise our children there uh and we made the choice that for our own families FL ising Hopewell Township was the place to do that and at my church we happen to host the Rainbow Room which is for lgbtq teens and Roy G Biv which is for middle schoolers and we watch the impact of of these children who are raised in an environment or who are who are nourished in an environment that does not see them as a whole person and I give thanks all of the time that that is not my own child's experience and I want that experience for every child after this last election where we saw $150 million spent on ads targeting trans kids my wife and I had to wonder what is the point at which we need to leave to protect our child if this space doesn't stay a safe space for our child and do we go internationally where the the IEP needs won't get met even though maybe the gender affirming part will be met what part of their identity do we need to negotiate away and we realized that staying firmly rooted in Hopewell Township was the part of our lives that made us feel safest right now because of how amazing this community has been how well supported our children are and this is where they are flourishing and so I would ask you to continue to affirm the policy you have although it' be great if they were gender expansive and not non-conforming but that's a different question um just because I find that much more affirming um but I want to thank you for the for how deliberately you have cultivated an environment where I am not constantly worried about my child's mental health where I would be in many many other school districts and I hope we can maintain that here [Applause] good evening my name is Claire Doyle and I'm a resident of Hopewell Township um this has been a real education for me in the most beautiful way um my kids went through hope well uh my oldest child graduated with Brienne and knows Miss grath and my younger child graduated in 2009 and at that time uh she was Timothy Doyle and now she's Mecca Doyle and she somewhere in the high school years realized that she was not a a boy and so we did what we could to support her through the Journey about 3 years ago she kind of officially came out to her friends who were great and our family who was great um and a couple days ago I spoke with someone whose kids were in their 20s and said oh it's really good now they're really accepting so that was the first thing I heard I had knots in my stomach coming here because I didn't know what to expect I have wanted to since the last however long all of the nonsense has been going on wanted to hide in the basement and not acknowledge not let any body know because I didn't feel we were safe I didn't feel Mecca was safe and this is brilliant and I applaud you and I hope you keep this going because um I'm I've also am a retired clinical social worker and I got had the privilege of working with kids who were questioning themselves and their mental health and their everything about them was better once they started to figure out who they really were and were able to express themselves in that way so um I had to come in always so thank you very much and I hope you keep your policy which I wasn't really aware of until today so this has been a real education [Applause] sorry flipping to the next page um I am a junior in hvchs my name is samau uh live in Hopewell Township um I have come as basically everyone else has to say that um your transgender and gender non-conforming student policy is absolutely necessary to the well-being of your transgender and non-binary students um I have a couple statements from several of my friends who are themselves transgender uh about this policy and everyone else has said everything already but I just want to read these statements um from one of my friends as a trans student at CHS the policy in place is extremely important for many students while I personally am fortunate to have parents who will support me not everyone lives in a home that is safe for them to be out and the policy allows them to have a space for them to be themselves in a welcoming environment which is absolutely incredible chs's policy for transgender students is really amazing and should be kept everyone deserves to have equal opportunities and the policy is an important piece of that um sorry scrolling the next thing um and from another of my friends as a child who is not in a particularly safe home environment uh for a good period of time having a support of school really makes a difference Hopewell is fortunate to have a very supportive environment because being trans is hard enough in and of itself but when you're living in an unsafe home as a trans person school is really all you have so again I implore you keep this policy it is vital to the wellbeing of many of your students thank you oh hi my name is tharen mcneel I live in hopal Barrow um parent of a special needs child who started in the school district four months before his third birthday through graduation um and thank you all for everything you did for him um I wanted to speak to the intersection between special needs parents and parents of children who are trans or gender non-conforming um and that intersection comes in the stress of raising a child who is different from the majority um it also comes in uh the intersection is also there in the fear as you spoke to and the dread um the fear of knowing what happens to kids who are different or even adults who are different um The Dread of what's going to happen to your kid when they go to school and when my son entered first grade at Bear Tavern one of the first things the uh teacher said to me when I was saying well how do you handle the fact that he's not in the general population most of the day it's going to be so obvious to all the kid and he can't handle being in the general population so when he's in the um General Leed classroom he's with a parah everybody's going to see that and he's not going to be able to handle the situation anyway um and she said um well what we teach our students is that we have schools within the school and everybody gets what they need at their own school um and I just immediately felt so relaxed um because I really felt supported and understood and I felt that my child was going to be be safe um it just took so much that fear and dread away there's enough stress as a parent when you're trying to deal with a child with differences um so um when you're helping these children when you have these policies in place to keep our kids safe you're truly helping the whole family because you're giving the parents also space in their minds to let the fear and let the dread Abate a little bit and see to the other needs which are tremendous of these children that we have thank you so much for all you did for my [Applause] son okay wow it seems like my mic's the loudest everybody else it's hard to hear um with before we close public this public comment section I just would invite Dr tce to say a few words I want to thank everybody who came and gave public comment today um I'm going to start with uh Dr Al because yours was about Robotics and we're going to keep working I know that we see he I love his advocating for our robotics kids and thank you for your volunteer it takes a lot of time um out of your schedule and and we'll work through it we'll continue to work on on um the key access um to to all the folks that came um in support of policy um 5756 and the parent uh the grandmother who asked us to review this policy um we've come a long way in this District I was over at Timberlane as a as a building level administrator when uh Dr Tom Smith the former superintendent brought this policy uh to the community and um I remember watching the board meeting on television and uh the vitri all and the fighting and I think there was even a physical fight that night uh when they talked about the policy but it has been in place we were the one of the first districts I believe maybe the first district in New Jersey to adopt it um and the fact that we can come and peacefully talk about this policy even those parents who are struggling with it still um in a peaceful way and not have to um have John get up my CSO is back there somewhere and escort people out right because it really got ugly that conversation and there are still districts in this state that that in places across a nation that cannot have this conversation peacefully so what I'm proud of as a district is that we're able to do that and to be here for all of our kids and I thank everyone that that that gave these comments um our our policy chair will will discuss our discussions that we had in policy today um but we thank you for coming out and we thank this community for being so caring and loving and being able to talk about the things that are hard to talk about and to do that peacefully so thank you [Applause] okay um with that said we will close public comment um and we do need to quickly duck back to um our presentation because the board does need to approve um and accept that so can I get do we need a roll call just okay um can I get a first and second to accept the report second all in favor I I any opposed or abstaining okay the report is accepted um moving on are there any old business items seeing none I need a first and and second to accept the consent agenda items so move second all in favor I I any opposed or abstaining seeing none the consent agenda items pass we'll go ahead and move into committee updates um and reports Dr Resnik for finance uh I was not able to attend the committee meeting meeting this time so Mark do you have any I know if it's Mark or Bob can step in for me do can't leave these guys even supposed to be yours uh so yeah we met uh last Tuesday evening um we discussed the ongoing um issues we're having with some of our facilities uh namly the um sewer leaks or sewer uh yeah sewer leaks at both Timberlane and Bear Tavern um the Bear Tavern sewer league has been corrected for now and Timberlane is still uh ongoing um now you uh trying to what we talked about um we did meet with um we did discuss with the committee that we were going to be meeting with um hopo burrow to discuss um some of their planning needs planning that's going on uh for expansion up in the burough um they brought us in as a partner uh explaining to us what they have planned they'll be announcing more of those plans in their meetings um but they just wanted to let us know that there is some plans for growth in the burrow which could affect uh Hope Elementary School as well as the middle school and the high school um I think that might be it yeah that was it but yeah it was a lengthy discussion on on what was going on in help Barrow yeah there's a so there is an item on there for a donation uh coming from the boys varsity barbecue committee um that a donation of $500 that will be split among the girls soccer program and the boys soccer program and a donation of $7,500 for the for wrestling chairs not sure what that is but the donor would like to remain anonymous so we are very grateful to receive items to our to benefit our programs as always so could we get a motion in a second to accept the donations motion second all in all in favor I any oppose or abstaining donation is accepted moving on to U Mark for personnel thank you Mr kovita uh so we met as a Personnel committee earlier today talked a few uh about a few items that you're going to hear about and you can see on the agenda regarding Personnel uh and the normal extracurricular appointments uh we did have a bit of a sidebar conversation about the agreement also on the agenda and then we wrapped it up and came in here can we get a first and second for um moving the Personnel actions first second roll call Mr kadia yes Dr Liston yes Mr Peters yes Dr Resnik yes Mr slotman Miss Tracy yes Dr Wilson yes Dr genovas yes Miss Williams gallan yes motion carries next update would be our Ed program um hi everybody we met last can you guys hear me okay we let we met last Thursday um and we had Dr Finn and Dr arsin Who are part um researchers for ETS and they were kind enough to come and present on a study that we had participated in years ago and the focus was on remembered success effect which explores preferences for challenging academic tasks that start or end with extra opportunities for Success over task that do not um so an example of that would be adding in problems to make a student more successful um and to give them an easier problem so that they would boost up the confidence of that success um and so uh this was a four-year study that W and their findings included um students in grades 3 six and N showed a remembered success effect which in turn impacted motivation um and there was partial support for whether these findings were generalized to other areas besides math problems uh um Dr arsin also is looking to do a new study um that she would ask asked us as a district to participate in um it focus is on context personalization using generative AI um however she's still trying to figure out funding um and so she will um come back to us with more information in the spring about that um Miss Riley the principal of hchs came to talk about um addressing the NJ GPA um achievement gaps that we noticed um as you all might might or might not remember I presented on um the NJ GPA test scores in August which is the 11th grade um test that students take as part of a grad who um are identified as having below proficiency we have created four possible tiers to help boost their proficiency um also we had a very lengthy conversation about um other ways that we could maybe change the culture of attitudes toward testing um and to create like more incentivizing um and so we talked about Raffles or having breakfast on the day so that that was a conversation just um about how we could maybe get the kids to to be more excited about taking the test um and then finally uh Mr NM the supervisor of special education SE 612 proposed two new courses uh one was for executive functioning support at timberlan which was the course helped to support special education students who are in an icr setting become a more independent learner and um we ALS and he also o propos the college readiness math at the high school and so this would be a fourth year math for special education students and the course would reinforce mathematical Concepts from Algebra 1 to and geometry any questions okay so you mentioned the um or things that you talked about for for students who are not testing to a um to a proficiency level on are are those going to be voluntary or what's what's the process for for so ideally we would like for the students to participate in this semester elective okay um however depending upon other courses that the students might be enroll rolled in if they're not a if we're not able to fit that in the schedule then we would go to our plan B's and C's okay but it would be one of those things where the we put together a plan for the student and then present it to correct okay thank you I should anything else okay thank you Dr pites okay moving on to community relations Dr Wilson uh yeah we um we had a a fairly uh SE several members were not quite there so but we had a very good conversation about several things one is being the sort of the de deyo isation of of Hopewell in other words getting our students beyond the the boundaries of Hopewell and working with other students it's apparently fairly talks about student empowerment and I've been talking to uh people at tabern about issues that um get us get the whole notion of empowerment and agency beyond the schools so that they the the kinds of learning they're doing in relationship to to empowerment can be used um you know in their families and and and Beyond in the community and finally we're we're talking about U umal me measurement uh again for getting kids to to take the theal uh learning they have and use it in in their in their home and that's it thank you any [Music] questions okay seeing none moving on to seal Dr jev so um this will be a short report I apologize um the seal committee actually all participated in the Ruby Bridges walks with the different schools um instead of having a a formal meeting which I thought was a great idea thank you m um so getting to experience what our students are experiencing around some special events and really feeling history um I think is important and I would actually encourage other committees to do that in the future you know get out with the kids kids um those of us who kids have graduated um and aren't in the schools every day it's good for us to see what the students are participating in as uh board members so I thank you for that invitation and being able to participate in that awesome thank you I had a lot of fun um we are going to go ahead and move on to climate action and I'm going to do a surprise attack on M mcrath um if you wouldn't mind just giving us a quick update I know you've been running the committee I was not quite prepared but I always I just wanted to say there's been a lot of student involvement at the high school level which um really appreciative of I think I have at least 10 students who are involved and are very enthusiastic about this work so um that's very positive um I I just want to I'm my thoughts are not fully formed around this so forgive me um well two things number one um right now is the conference of the parties in Baku ban and for those who don't know it's world leaders are coming together to address climate change we're in the warmest year on record and we've we've now passed 1.5 degrees celsus above pre-industrial level so things are not looking good um but one bright spot for me is um one of our students art pieces is on display at the conference and I I found out about that through social media I was like wait that's Julia's painting um so that was very exciting um just kind of bringing it back here to us um you know of course there's a lot of uncertainty in terms of what kind of support we're going to have from the federal level for climate action going forward there's a lot of federal programs that have uh come through this past administration my understanding is that some of them will still be funded um or that money has already been allocated so um just we haven't had a chance yet to meet with finance and Facilities uh specifically about facilities but I just wanted to um reiterate two items from facilities um that really are sort of in addition to education the heart of the climate action plan which is to decarbonize school buildings and maximizing opportunities to advance decarbonization goals um during Renovations new construction Etc and there's funding that exists of course at the state level um but also funding that exists at the uh Federal level um I have like a one page if anybody wants to see it so I hope that that I know that there's an item on the agenda with regards to that high school I so hope that is something that can be um considered and uh I will also just say that I understand that as a school district we can't thank you so much um oh sure some of the work that they've been doing I talk to you about the curricular work with Gathering lesson plans and resources for our students and teachers um Carolyn and the her work groups have also met with the green teams in each one of the schools and are trying to get parent volunteers to come bring back our Gardens the mini Gardens the PTO and hvf the hope we Val Ed Foundation have funded over the years um so we're looking to bring back those green spaces and make sure they're cared for as parents and their kids move on to their next phase of life that we have younger families that are taking on um helping us keep those um green spaces alive and she's also identified some Grand opportunities for for transportation and for the boiler system that we're looking at right now unfortunately um we keep digging a lot of times they don't look at school districts like ours they look at the urban schools but we're we're going to continue to to look look and apply for these things and who knows you can't all you can be told is no so we'll keep applying and hopefully we'll get some of these um Grants awarded to us over time so just to wrap up that comment just a little bit of a mash up between seal and climate action this is one area that is a perfect example of something was mentioned earlier in public comment is that our kids are are struggling in a lot of different ways they feel uh they worry a great deal about climate issues policy issues the climate the political climate those are all even though we think they're young it it bleeds into their world um so what we can do is show up like the climate action committee and do the work we can make an impact on how our kids feel about how we're addressing their care and concern because sometimes um there is there's an erosion of trust when adults in this their space don't respond to their worry so no we can't fix everything but if we're not doing anything our children feel particularly um unheard and unsafe this is a prime example of that as well as the other comments earlier so I just um want to celebrate what we're doing but also underscore not only why it is important um to keep pushing to keep doing the work is because it matters to our kids' Futures and also how they feel right now in the here and now um as as protected by adults so thank you for the work and um we'll keep going okay with that we're going to go ahead and move to Dr lilon and policy okay thank you so the policy committee met on November 12th and we were joined by special guest trip Becker who's the High School athletic director uh we reviewed two policies during this committee meeting and are bringing one policy one regulation and one bylaw up for second reading today um so just first a brief overview of the policy that were under review so we reviewed the spectator code of conduct so as you all might recall in June 2024 the New Jersey state inter Scholastic Athletic Association they call it the njs AA passed a proposal that requires member school districts of which we are one to adopt a spectator code of conduct policy during the 24 to 25 school year um so this stemmed from some concerns around inappropriate conduct among spectators at sporting events and just an overall desire to promote a healthy playing environment for student athletes um so among other things the code of conduct is required to include disciplinary measures for violating provisions of the policy as well as an educational component for violators so our school district does not currently have a spectator policy but we do have a code of conduct in place that parents are required to sign off on this code of conduct that we have doesn't meet the level of specificity that's now being required um by the njsa so the committee reviewed the association's model language and is recommending that the school adopts this to meet the new requirements uh because this isn't a policy it doesn't need to come to this full board for review however Strauss Esme is developing a policy guide that's aligned with the njsia aa's policy guidance which will be distributed in February so at that time the policy committee is going to bring the policy associated with The Spectator code of conduct for first rating so keep an eye out for that uh the second document that we reviewed was policy 5756 transgender and gender non-conforming students so the policy committee was required to review this policy as part of the state's comprehensive Equity plan additionally we received updates to the policy from Strauss Esme for consideration and a request during public comment so the committee did review this policy as well as comments from members of the board and consulted with our board attorney regarding their advice our board attorney's recommendation was that we maintain the language in the current policy as is because it meets the requirements under the New Jersey law against discrimination the 27 2017 State statue which requires the commissioner of Education to develop and distribute guidelines concerning transgender students to school districts the njsa policy and the department of education's guidelines uh so we thank the the public and the board for their comments the committee is recommending no revisions to the current policy I'll stop there for a moment and ask if my policy committee colleagues have anything to add [Applause] all I wanted to add was first just to thank everyone for coming out tonight and and uh expressing their solidarity with our trans students and and with um the policy committee's decision to to make sure that this policy is is safeguarded um and protected um one one side of this that I I really do want to show my gratitude to is is our Administration um we have some great voices on this board who are in support um um of policy 5756 but I also want to make sure that Dr tce Miss Smith Dr fitzes um all of you have done a phenomenal job both when I was a student and now as a board member of making sure that all of our students feel included and heard um so I just want to make sure that the public recognizes that you not only have Partners um with some of us as board members but you also have Partners in the administration that we have here in Hopewell um and and something I've said in previous board meetings is as long as I'm on this board you will always have a staunch Advocate activist um and protector for our trans students so just want to reiterate that again as all of you took the time out of your busy schedules to come and speak at the meeting today so thank [Applause] you I'll just uh just just to Echo again first and foremost just thank you all for for coming out here and and you know sharing your uh your your testimony and statements I think it sort of reinforces you know to me why we're doing the things that we're doing here as a school district so I just really appreciate that and you know Echo everything that Dr Lon and Mr capadia just said as well but thank you all for for coming out here and sharing your uh sharing your testimony we really appreciate it comments okay think you're good okay um so now we're going to move on to Second reading so can I have a motion in a second to bring policy and regulation 5350 student suicide prevention and bylaw 01432 high school student representative to the board of education for second reading motion second okay great um so first we have the student suicide prevention policy so so just a little background here policy 5350 and regulation 5350 lay out the district's requirements and process related to Suicide Prevention among students so the committee revised the current student suicide prevention policy and regulation to ensure that they aligned with the updated training and Reporting requirements outlined in state law as well as what's known to be best evidence and practice around youth Suicide Prevention um we want to do we do want to thank uh some of the uh board members for their comments including Dr Wilson during first reading um we did have a discussion and we believe that the concerns that were expressed um are addressed elsewhere in the district's curricula and policy so we're recommending that this policy and regulation moved to Second reading with no additional revisions at this time next up we have bylaw 014 3.2 so this is the high school student representative to the Board of Education so as a reminder this bylaw authorizes the appointment of one or more student representatives to the board to serve for one school for full school year uh the policy committee has revised the bylaw in order to really more meaningfully integrate student voice into board discussions by ensuring active student participation in full board meetings and committee meetings were applicable so our Pro proposed revisions now do constitute a new set of expectations for this position and as such we are suggesting that these changes become effective in September 2025 so that would be the start of the next school year um so we did have a lively discussion about this at the last board meeting and based on comments that we received from the board as well as the public during first reading uh We've integrated a few additional revisions which you'll see on your agenda so we did increase the minimum number of student representatives to two students representing diverse perspectives and we also included an application process by which administrative staff screen and recommend candidates for the position who the student body will then vote on and this is really to account for the increased expectations associated with the position um so I will stop there and see if my policy colleagues have anything to add okay any comments or questions from the board okay bye I think it's a roll call vote y Mr Peters yes Dr esnik yep Mr slotman yes Miss Tracy yes Dr Wilson yes Dr genovas yes Mr kapadia yes Dr Liston yes M Williams gallano yes motion carries all right very well okay um we are going to go ahead and move into accepting the November and December calendars or opening them for motion first and second for November and December calendars so move okay I'm going to start with Finance facilities and I'm going to ask the members of the committee to delay uh a meeting date tonight uh pending um our internal meeting with the architect to make as a condition um a followup of the last meeting was also to meet to get an updated list so give us a chance to get that list and we'll set a meeting uh outside P Personnel will be 12:16 6 o'clock that's an easy one for Ed for Ed program how is uh Wednesday the 11th at like 5 Jackie um Dro Alex Sarah is there an alternative yeah yeah I mean really any the only evening I can't is not good for me is Thursday that week so we could do Tuesday or Monday week is that the 11th yeah week of the the Monday is good for me okay do you think we could do it um like at maybe a little bit later maybe 6:15 yep okay sorry I have class that night okay thank you so December 9th at December 9th at 6:15 on Zoom everyone 6:15 actually I take it back that's the only day that doesn't work okay how about the 10th okay we can we can go to the week before um how about the 4th December 4th perfectly fine I'm sorry um December 4th Drew you're killing me HPA negotiations I can do it right before then what we have we have negotiations at six you could do it before that um I don't think they want to do it on a Friday um how about um could you do 6: p.m. on the 11th I know 6 pm on the 11th works for me yeah yeah that's right 1211 at 6 okay 12 okay that's going okay going once okay 121 at six thank you okay policy or seal community relations anyone hi um so I I'm an early bird so I would love an early meeting if possible like in 8 a could do the um 10th the 11th the TW oh no the 12th I can't the 10th the 11th or the 13th 13 works for me 13th at 8 a.m. 1 Jackie no 13th's okay with me too the 13th's okay with you okay but not Jackie AV until 84 all right you want to do 9 9:00 a.m on the 13th can you do 9:00 a. that be fine okay till 84 no no I said I'm only available until 84 should be all right that's okay yeah let's do 8 o' on the 13 8 o00 on the 13th Friday the 1 policy Rel does the does the n9th work for for you all Monday the 9th what time I I can do any time on the 9th actually five five John can you do yeah 5:30 5:30 is fine to policy 5:30 5:30 sure 129 I think that's GNA work but I have I'll let you know but 5:30 we're going to set it for now okay that was policy Y and lastly community relations uh with community relations can we just do the next hour after seal like the 13th at 10 o' I am at Round Table so and go to Round Table until 11:30 but it's just up the street at iack so we can do after that we can do um oh what time I'm there until 11:30 so I can be at 12 after so like 1:00 I can do 1 o00 at on the on the 13th does that work for everyone else y okay I'll make that work I promise I'm not available I'll make that work M yes I'm not okay all in favor I I that sounded interesting any opposing or abstaining okay calendars are passed um any new business items what's the what's the process so um I'll just kick us off I we've had some board discussions about that the opportunity to um expand the conversation with government um government entities outside of our um immediate body could be local Etc um there are some challenges in terms of ethics and things that we need to pursue so there is a a recommendation on the table to explore an ad hoc have an ad hoc committee explore what it could look like to have a government engagement or government Relations Committee so um this will this is the opportunity and I'm going to defer um momentarily to the Brain Trust who raised the idea and I think um it is great but I want him him to take a moment to really Express the vision um and then also just to say that we will um if we can form the structure for this ad hoc committee um then we'll Vote or bring it to the table formally in December but this is a discussion phase and new business so uh Mr Cadia yeah no thank you so much um I I have had this conversation with some folks on the board as well as um folks from the administration so apologies if this is the first time uh you're hearing of it um I've just noticed in in the last 11 months serving on the board and also working in local and state government um that our district uh through all of its strengths um we sometimes have some shortcomings when it comes to communicating with local government and state government here uh in the 15th legislative district and also uh in the intersection of P bur hope bur and hopeall Township um you know one thing about our school district that I think is so interesting and great is that we are the unifying institution between three municipalities who as I'm sure many of you all know if you're keeping up with local news you know tends to at times have conflicting and competing political interests um I see it as our responsibility to bridge that Gap and make sure that we're having open lines of communication with our folks in Hope Township and Pennington bur and H bur um and just looking at the referendum and how that went over the course of the last year I think it would be helpful if we had an entity that was you know had membership from the board had membership from the administration and met with our local government leaders on a regular Cadence um so one aspect is meeting with our local government uh officials regularly the other side is making sure we build a relationship with our state legislators in the 15th District um other districts do this throughout the state um having worked uh for a state senator representing the 16th District which is a neighboring um legislative district uh we work with you know bigger school districts like Hillsboro South Brunswick um to make sure that their financial resources and financial needs are met through the annual state budget process um really it's as simple as us meeting with 15th with meeting with the 15th legislative district legislators and having a conversation about what are some line items that we could use help with um whether those are small or big ticket items um it's it's really about exploring new means of securing resources for our district um the worst answer we can get is no but I think having that conversation and starting it right now is is really our best step forward and as I mean our finance and Facilities folks know it best we do have a very tight um uh budget and we have a lot of fiscal constraints and so exploring potential other forms of resources and securing dollars for our district I think is is in the best interest for all of our students so that's kind of the the primer um I'm more than happy to answer any questions from my fellow board members and and just to have this discussion before we make things more official in December and as we move into 2025 Alex so I I'll start maybe uh so first of all thank you for driving this because I I I I really like the idea um I know in the last three years that I've been here uh we've had a number of occasions where we would come across an issue and we be like well this is really impacting uh dist in a negative way and it's not clear that the folks in Trenton that put this thing in place realize quite realize the impact um and I can't remember a specific one right now but I know we've had the conversation would this be a talk mic yeah would this be would this committee be a means for us to actually feed those things back okay yeah it absolutely would be and I I talked about this with Mr Peters um we do often times find ourselves uh on the ground level struggling to implement certain policies that come out of trend and I think there's a lot of times where there's well-intentioned policies that get passed by the legislature and sign by the governor but when it comes to implementing them you know in our district there tends to be challenges so I I think this would be an opportunity for us to at least speak to legislators and have an Avenue to talk to them about some issues we're having question uh I've in the past I worked as a lobby lobby lobbyist with with for different organizations on on the state and the federal level and when you're lobbying it helps to have a fairly good siiz body of people that you're uh you're representing now are we going to could or do you include in this this the sense of developing this this sort of power base in in in hope well I'm I mean I would love to see how this committee takes form um I think one aspect as we're moving into next year that I'm really proud of uh that that Dr lison has spearheaded is the idea of expanding the role and responsibility of the student representative so we'll be able to have more you know in-depth student perspectives as we move into to you know talking with our local government folks folks our state government folks um the the other aspect is you know we haven't exactly formulated who is going to sit on this committee so if there is you know room and interest for community members to or Community Liaisons as we have different positions on the on the board to to be able to give their input I would be more than open to it um but I think right now the initial idea is just seeing how how we can uh move forward with with establishing you know a Bare Bones of of starting these convers because you know it's completely new infrastructure and I'm very flexible and I think you know the more Community Voices the better so I just wanted to share that um in uh to to help move this process along as this as this idea was brought to me um in the board secretary I reached out to the board's attorney who who has asked you all to go with caution and he suggested that um he doesn't know of any school boards that do this because it's sticky he says it's you have to really be careful with um because we're not you're not really a polit political entity and really the only voice of the board that can speak is is the board president um so that being said he he uh forwarded me to um the board's representative which is U Maryanne fredman who is the one who did our strategic plan she is now our representative for school boards and she is looking out to see and I suggested the districts you talked about um what districts have something like this in place and what the structures are and what kind of guardrails you need to put in place to protect you all ethically for this this work um so that being said when she gets back to me I'll let you all know what she comes up with u and that should help you kind of get an idea of what this needs to look like and how you need to um how you need to shape it I think having parents on it and um having it sort of driven by the community members is probably what those other districts are doing and I share that with you um but there's no reason why you can't have that kind of collaboration sort of like what happens with clab and action and some of the other um groups that we have I have a got oops can I just you go you were going to say no no I was going to wrap this oh I was I was just going to make a comment so yeah I I would like to just publicly very much endorse this can we speak into the mic mic I would just like to publicly very much endorse this there we go uh I have been a outspoken to say the least regarding the current Community crisis that I believe that we are in and I think think that you being able to step up with this idea is an important one I would encourage as this comes together that my fellow board members Administration those in the room right now those watching on TV think about this as a way to collectively bring the three forms of government together which is a very serious situation right now on many levels so that we can actually come to some consensus in the community around things fiscally that are important while we have a lot of passion around a lot of of the ideas in the community one that we can't lose sight of is the fact that we are have a fiscal situation that is brewing amongst the school district as we all know amongst each levels of those government and at the state level that we need to be very cognizant of right now so I am fully supportive of it I commend you on bringing it up I hope we can do it okay so thank you thank you Mr kapadia I'm sorry not enough coffee in here um but these are the the ways that um we shift and grow with the times and what's needed so I really appreciate um the ideas that you have brought forward and um Dr lilon as well so um we'll look forward to hearing more in December about how we can form that committee effectively and safely and ethically um with that I'm going to close this out for new business and move us into public comment and this is a open public comment so members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter of a for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by The District administration with that public comment is now open hi uh Katherine Fulmer Hogan hopeall Township I have had the pleasure of engaging with many of you on a number of different levels and Beyond being crazy smart and Incredibly thoughtful one thing I can say about all of you is that you have an unwavering commitment to doing what is best for kids and you upheld that commitment this evening and I am full of gratitude thank you [Applause] hi I'm Sylvia koses 7 wiell Drive uh Pennington New Jersey and Kate I wish I could say the same um that I would have had the opportunity to speak to many of you as Kate seems to have the opportunity to do on a personal level but that's for another time um I would like to read and say that I totally support the school board's transgender policy in the purpose the Hopewell Valley Regional School District is committed to providing a safe supportive and inclusive learning environment for all students including transgender students and ensuring that every student has equal opportunity and equal access to the district's educational program and activities uh I requested that the policy be reviewed simply because there are some things in it that I thought you might want to look at because policies written and approved by the school board should use words and terms that facilitate clear communication they should be based on factual and accurate information they should be free from ideological and political bias and they should ensure that all students have a safe and supportive School experience with fair and equal opportunities to achievement and success there are some sections of this policy that need to be corrected because they contain misinformation or disinformation misinformation is defined as false or inaccurate information we could describe it as getting the facts wrong and disinformation is defined as false information which is deliberately intended to mislead the current policy fails to Define basic terms I've said this before sex male female it contains phrases like sex assigned at Birth gender assigned at Birth and all people have a gender identity which are prime examples of misinformation because they deny scientific facts and objective truth it promotes an ideological theory in regards to sex gender and sexuality that says that females and males are the same and interchangeable that categories like males and females are oppressive and artificially created and an objective re uh reality is nonexistent and as we've seen in sports in competitive Sports even this year that it doesn't allow female rights to privacy dignity safety feelings equal opportunity and Fair competition in competitive and uh Sports and it means that it doesn't matter thank you hi sus Pinsky hopeall Township um I said before that I'm a pediatrician words matter um the I believe that some of the phrases that it seems like you're referring to are evidence-based peer-reviewed phrases and words and labels used in the medical literature and the psychological literature um I would like to just briefly read from the American Psychological Association policy statement on affirming evidence-based inclusive care for transgender gender diverse and non-binary individuals addressing misinformation and the role of psychological practice in science I'm just going to pull a couple pieces that feel relevant whereas legislative efforts to restrict access to care have involved dissemination of misleading and unfounded narratives for instance mischaracterizing gender dysphoria as a manifestation of traumatic stress or neurode Divergence equating affirming care for transgender gender diverse and non-binary youth with child abuse creating a distorted perception of the psychological and medical support necessary for these Youth and creating a hostile environment that adversely affects their mental health and well-being whereas such Mis misinformation is widely disseminated through formal and informal networks yet credible scientific evidence has not been widely disseminated and is not readily accessible to the public having the potential to further stigmatize and marginalize all transgender gender diverse and non-binary individuals hindering their access to indicated unnecessary Health Care worsening existing Geographic disparities into Healthcare access and fostering an environment that may lead to discrimination some of the words that you're talking about are words that have been agreed upon because they protect people um you can we we the grown-up can like them or not like them we can think of them as the words that we grew up with or we can be uncomfortable with the change that we're asked to make but they are necessary to protect our kids the resolutions that the a uh one of the resolutions that the APA um States is therefore it be be it resolved that the APA opposes efforts to obstruct access to evidence-based interventions for children adolescence and adults advocating for inclusive HealthCare coverage without gender-based discrimination and it urges support for policies facilitating access to gender affirming healthare for children adolescence and adults recognizing the positive uh impact on Mental Health outcomes I think it's really important that while I recognize I'm I'm I'm citing from medical literature these kids spend half their day half their waking hours in these buildings these buildings need to stay safe and if we the grown-ups are not uncomfortable with the words then we need to educate ourselves and we need to come together in forums like this to educate other people but um go back to the way it sounded when I I was a kid is not is not the way to teach our children and to keep them safe thank you very much for um choosing to retain the policy I I appreciate [Applause] that okay um any comments um I want to thank Miss kosas again for um getting up and giving her comments and also um um sus Pinsky Dr Pinsky for also sharing um the the research that's out there I just want to uh affirm that the work that the committee did they did take this seriously um Dr lisin I know you can tell by the way she talks is is quite a master researcher uh Mr slotman and Mr kapati are both um very uh deep in the policy World they dug and we all looked at the code uh we talked to folks um we also looked at the code that's already in place by the uh njsiaa the intercol actic Sports Association that the students play Under they have guidelines in place to make sure that there's not an even competition or that students are safe when they're competing whe when they're competing against transgendered students and you can't just up and say I'm transgendered today and compete on on a team that is your gender identity there has to be evidence that's who you are and that there can't be an adverse you know safety or competition major imbalance and that so that's handled outside of our policy um so um again we did review the policy um and and keeping with all of our research and what is expected of us at the state of New Jersey and what's right for kids um we've decided at this time to not change the policy and one just final note um when we use words like disinformation misinformation and use a a definition straight read we are making an opinion about what falls into each of those buckets the important thing that is required by this board and this Administration per our direction is that there are documents peer-reviewed and otherwise research based information that our policies are grounded in so at no time do our policies Veer off into some general misinformed social media resource multiple documented sources of information support the policy and will continue to support the work that we do as a full body and specifically as we set policies for our children the key here is safety for all children full stop I want to just add that this cois did bring us um from newspapers repal newspapers op op Deads and some some other research that's out there um but again what we had really outweighed um and we did review all the materials that you did bring us so thank you okay any other comments from the board before we move on to p uh to close public comment okay seeing no comments public comment is now closed um I need a first and second to move into executive session for the full board so move second second um just as a statement there we are going to be addressing H Hib um matter M as well as Personnel matter for employee 8773 and student uh student matters involving two students no action will be taken at this time all in favor of moving into executive session session any in favor sorry any opposed or abstaining okay seeing none we are now in public um form is closed and moving into executive session thank you all for coming this evening we very much appreciate your involvement