##VIDEO ID:KWTcE-_rjCE## like to call this evening's meeting to order we have a roll call Mr C Dr jovy Mr kadia Dr Liston Mr Peters here Dr Resnik here Mr slotman Miss Tracy Miss Williams gallano present Dr Wilson we have a 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 interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the Hope 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 Hopewell 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 purposes of Board review future reference preparation of the minutes and viewing on YouTube Bulldog TV and the school district website www.hvs.org please join me in flag salute Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God IND can I get a first and second to approve the minutes uh for the September 16th regular meeting all in favor any opposed or abstaining okay minutes are passed so we are going to welcome once again Aaron Lee with us our student uh representative please please share can you bring the her mic the choir program is set to PO its Ann annual haunted hallways and the Hop Valley Wind Ensemble has received an invitation from westest University to perform in their on our athletic teams are experiencing a suful through numerous Sports ining cross country girls field hockey girls volleyball girls soccer football notably the football team remains undefeated at 7 following a recent Victory against the girl soccer the colonial Valley conf record of 11 the psh was administered to all sop Juniors on Wednesday October 9th and hbcs has partnered with Mountain Heritage High School High School outside of Ash North Carolina to provide support after the damage it's a schoolwide effort and many of our and developing ways and ideas support them if any board members or Cal office staff want to help thank you any questions from the board all right thank you and you're welcome to stay and join us by all means we enjoy having you with us but understand if you have other engagements thank you Aon okay I'm we'll flip I'm G to um keep my comments brief for my superintendent report as we have a lot of um reports today to share with you um today was indigenous people Columbus Day um our students were off but our staff all of our staff members were working very hard on professional development they were able to self- select into a number of workshops at Miss uh Dr pitus and our faculty facilitated we also brought in some guest speakers to speak on differentiating learning for our students um we had trauma informed instructional strategies we had some of our all of our counselors in our CST at the dunwald farm I got to actually spend some time out there today as well um you know being in nature eating fresh figs off of of plants and meditating doing yoga just really had a great experience with some of our Eco PTO parents s um and other facilitators one was a retired English teacher uh Ruth mamamo who taught a writing Workshop in poetry just a really great experience as they're starting to um hone workshops for our staff and we're trying to get them to work on doing some of this for our children um it's a it's a very unique um opportunity to explore agriculture in a completely organic way and they are really um implementing some strategies on growing uh that are really cutting edge out there so just can't wait to have an opportunity for our kiddos to get out there we even had two chefs that were prepared food for us it was really um a nice thing that they did for us um and didn't charge us to do this they're just really trying to um build this Workshop as as something they they can offer to school district um in addition to that we had the um Dean from Ryder uh come and talk to our staff um about the importance of this work based on the demographic changes that we're seeing on our district that she's also tracking and also just the nature of the kids are different now than they then when you know uh she went into education when I went in education and we have to start thinking differently about our practices making sure that we're meeting all kids where they are I um I also want to say a few words um and thank the community for those of you who took the time to learn about our referendum um through our media streams I know there was a lot of conversation that were not ours going on out there um but for those of you who came to our our open houses went to our websites um really challenged us through emails to ask questions about the referendum it was not successful however I still strongly believe that this is the best way for the district to plan ahead for some of the the facility needs that we have while optimizing the availability of funds from from the New Jersey Department of Education um what we did get an opportunity to do was to learn from you so what we're going to be doing is doing a very very good listening tour over the next few months and find out what it is that we could have done better with communication to get things out because I know that the voices of misinformation may have drowned it out ours um but understand we can't go out on a campaign we have to be very careful to give you information um but I I can't cross the line of pushing telling you how to V vote and all those things but I am interested in hearing on what worked for you what didn't I'm already getting a lot of great feedback from our pto's um folks have offered and emailed us folks are willing now to help me with the communication piece which they weren't the last time so I'm appreciating that um and they're asking me what is Plan B what plan B is is what it always has been is that we're going to do our best to make sure that we maintain the programs that we were that we have come to expect in this District but we are going to be facing a very very tough and challenging budget year um Mr Cavita has already met with the other Bas in the in the county um with the um with the NJ doe business ba and he's letting all of us know that we better strap in if we thought it was hard these past years it's going to be even worse this year and that we ought to prepare for the worst so we have to really really dig deep where we're already struggling uh to figure out how we're going to pay for things and we are going to have to make some Cuts now the referendum failing is not the reason for all the cuts right but we know that that did not help and the while we're trying to swirl away money to plan for some of these things that we know we need to fix and things keep failing that we didn't know about like we just had another sewer issue at the high school that we didn't anticipate um we have to try to make sure that we grow our capital reserve so we have it for these emergencies that we're planning for these these things that we know are already failing and we try to maintain the staff and the programs that we already have knowing that we're going to have to really start cutting some things we're going to have to this year tonight we're going to have one of this the second presentation of I think we're going to have about four or five we have the Departments presenting to you in these meetings not tonight not tonight between now and when we strike a budget in the spring right we are going to have three tonight though right um but on budget we're having we're having each one of these departments that that spend a lot in their Department as as necessity come talk to you about where those dollars are going um during the referendum discussion there was a lot of talk about per pupil cost Dr plit has talked about curriculum instruction that goes into the per pupil cost that money that we're spending developing curriculum and and making sure that we're complying to the New Jersey Department's Ed mandate and also making sure that we're bringing in the the most upto-date strategies for teaching language arts for example for teaching mathematics for example and making sure we're raising our test score pette is going to be miss dardo our director of pupil services will be sharing our special education spending uh and it's alarming what we've been facing over the last few months with the influx of students our numbers are up more than they used to be and we already had a high classification rate compared to other districts in the area and why is that it's because Mr Nardo and her her faculty do an amazing job and people come here just to have access to what we do here in Hopewell but it's costly and she's going to talk to you about some of what's coming to her that she can't do anything about um that we didn't plan for and budget for last year because these students weren't here um so we'll be talking about that tonight um and again when um folks say that we're not talking about the budget all of these things are feeding into what makes our budget what it is um so uh tonight will be one of this one of five presentations is the second one that will go on between now and when we strike the budget in the spring um but again we're going to be having some tough conversations after they share these numbers then we're also going to be talking about what we have to take off the table now because we can't continue to do all of the things that we do um and keep this District thank you thank you Dr tce um so I'm I just want to underscore some of the similar points that Dr Tes raised but bring it to you from the board's perspective I I definitely want to thank the community for um being available for our referendum conversations and we have heard resoundingly that what we put forth was not acceptable to the community what I want to also let you know is that the district will continue to be the source for the latest and most critical information for what is plaguing us infrastructurally um as a district there is no one that is better informed in the general popul so if there are questions if you have questions you know I know folks in the room but also anyone listening please communicate directly with the the either the board or the administration if you have questions it does not do anyone any service to have um folks speaking as though they're professional experts on these topics the other thing that I want to underscore is the challenges of the upcoming budget because there are two different conversations at hand one is the referendum and the other is the budget these are intertwined of course but separate and distinct so the board is challenging regularly and has since last year challenged the administration to look deeply at where we can tighten our belts but as Dr Tes is saying tightening our belts isn't going to be sustainable for this district and we need to we're past creative right Solutions in our School classrooms might look different in the upcoming year um but I I want to underscore even as we shift our conversation is quality first Children First there is no interest in trying to cut Corners right but as we go through the budget conversations over these next few meetings you're going to see that there isn't a lot of fact so there's no squirreling away money and and all the strange things that people are implying in the public forum um that suggests that there's money that's available and we're not using it that is absolutely in inaccurate but also would be fraud lots of legal words but that it would be illegal so that is not happening and I want to help folks affirm for folks that there is a relationship of trust that we need to continue to have and I can assure you that this Administration has your children at the very core of every single decision is it hard to ask for people ask our families to give more or um say yes to a referendum absolutely but we would be um it would be egregious for us to not be doing the right thing for a strategic plan that'll make a difference in our future quality of Education in this District so finally I want to um also my my final point and this is a little bit intertwined with what I've already said but I ask Dr tce asks a lot of these individuals sitting around this table especially when it comes to f so the conversations that were happening in the public forum we could not respond to we would be held in uh you know we could be um sanctioned for ethics so the shame of that is that people who say they know what's happening over here in the here now or may have sat in this seat in past Seasons no longer have the ACC information and it is completely offensive to me to listen to the stuff in the papers and online that is asserting that this body has some ulterior motive so I've asked all these people around the table to hold their tongue when their their integrity is on the line so I want to take this opportunity to say clearly to the public for those of you who make an effort to support the board and the work of the district online thank you we cannot respond but that doesn't make them right and I just need to say that loud and clear and to acknowledge for this body that our integrity is at stake when people choose to attack and really honestly take detract from the work at hand which is the quality of our kids education so I'll leave that there um and um we'll move on hello my name is green R hello is this better okay thank you my name is Ken I am the district supervisor of counseling and also the district anti-bullying coordinator I'm going to be speaking with you tonight about the 23 24 grades according to the anti-bullying Bill of Rights act so in accordance with the anti-bullying Bill of Rights each of our schools has a safety or climate team this team is required annually to self assess the school's performance on the eight core elements that entail The anti- Bullying Bill of Rights we can go on um you can see all of the elements up on the screen there quickly um I'll just list the the majority of them programs trainings staff instruction and training student curriculum and instruction personnel with responsibilities related specifically to HIV incident reporting procedures investigation procedures and HIV report the grading scale that the uh school safety and climate team is required to use is on the screen before you zero indicating that the school does not meet the requirement and three indicating that the school exceeds the requirements um so these are the only four options that the committee is given upon which to grade the school uh on each element the school safety team um consists of a parent or Guardian an administrator teachers and is led by the school's anti-bullying specialists in addition to completing the self assessment annually the the um Team looks for Trends in HIV activi looks to address them and thinks creatively and strategically about how to prevent HIV from occurring here you see a snapshot of how each of our safety and climate committees rated their respective school for the 23 24 school year you'll notice that the numbers vary because of varying number of indicators for each element for instance element 8 has only two indicators whereas element s has four indicators to here are the total scores by school um important to note that a score of 50 here would indicate that the school has met all requirements so you can see based on these scores that our schools are exceeding requirements overall go on to the next this is a snapshot of the past four years and the average scores for Hopewell Valley Schools so you can see that we are continuing a tradition of exceeding expectations in this area on the screen before you now are just some of the notable bullying prevention and response efforts that we have um here I'll just ask you to recall some of those elements being programs and training ings uh curriculum and instruction Personnel related specifically to HIV you can go on to the next um some of the highlights that we have obviously um high school students mentoring Elementary School students peer leadership programs uh I didn't even mention the air doogs on this slide but that's one of the the things that our district has become known for that concludes uh my presentation thank you any questions from the board I had a couple questions not so fast thank you I appre no this was this was so helpful I really enjoyed reviewing your presentation so thank you for that I think one thing I just wanted to um clarify here and you may have said it but I know I missed it when I reviewed it 78 is the highest score not 100 so you look at that at first I thought oh how are we doing here and we're actually knocking it out of parket I just want to be clear um that that's like the cap is 78 which is just odd because we're looking at a 100 Point grading scale usually um so that's the first thing I just wanted to mention um and then I had two follow-up questions for you so one is given that this is a self assessment yeah what is the state doing if anything to validate these results against what we're reporting as a district so that's number one I think the second question I had is and again noting that these are all incredibly High um we see slightly lower scores among the elementary schools and more variation there so was there anything that just stood out to you as an area of improvement among the elementary schools um things that they're maybe not doing that we are doing in the middle and high school I think I'll I'll try to address your second question first if that's okay so this is a subjective rating uh and it's done by each committee so um because each committee is comprised of different people um they may be raing certain things differently uh when they're comparing Apples to Apples between schools um I know that in each of our elementary buildings there are very similar things happening um similar Personnel Etc similar programming for instance with week of respect this past week um you know some some great things happen and those counselors happen to collaborate together quite a bit so I guess in my opinion in answer to your second question is that it's just a sign of the subjectivity of the scale and and the the participants in the Committees um related to the first question um I know the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Education is tasked with ensuring that schools are following the anti-bullying Bill of Rights and this is is the means through which that I'm aware of and maybe others are aware of more um that the commissioner um does that is having us do a self assessment there may be others that I'm unaware of can can you just bend the mic her mic can come to you yeah but do we also um look at like some of the data from each of the schools of things that are recorded events that have happened uh with students and things like that and and do a bit more of an analytical to see if that syncs up with our self assessment of how we you know each school things are doing as well to support that so um each climate and safety team does take a look at each incident of bullying um and they meet annual well they meet a couple of times a year but they are looking for Trends either in Trends in locations or Trends in subject matter of instances of um suspected uh bullying or bullying investigations so they do look at that um as it relates specifically to the grading um the grading is really are we meeting expectations or exceeding expectations on those elements um so an element would be are we um reporting and do we have consistent procedures across the district for reporting acts of uh HIV um but it doesn't have anything to do with the number of uh HIV investigations that we undergo does that I think that answers your question yes um sort of in reference to Dr Lon validity concerns I'm curious is there any any validation of the the the legislation in other words the content of the legisl is is it reaching the the points that that make the most difference in in this this whole whole program so um I I think I'm not exactly sure of the answer to your question um what I can say is that New Jersey has one of the uh leading and strictest um uh laws across the country in this regard and the anti-bullying Bill of Rights was created with evidence-based programming in mind so when we are meeting the requirements or exceeding the requirements as they are laid out in the anti-bullying Bill of Rights we're actually doing um what evidence-based practices have said help lower instances of HIV no absolutely yeah yeah okay anyone else okay thank you thank you okay we're going to actually um um add an item to the agenda because we do want to have an open um public comment section on specifically related to the report so um members of the public are invited to address the board specifically on the uh report just given for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting you 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's Administration and um with that I'm going to open public comment but also request that my timekeeper give Claire Direction hi um so you have three minutes to talk when you when you have 30 seconds left I will hold up the yellow and at your 3 minutes I will hold up the red on this matter seeing none public comment is now closed thank you all right with that we are going to go ahead and move on to our budget presentation budget number two on special ed and we'll welcome the most lovely hi everybody hello everybody he me go to the next slide so I always like to start this presentation off um with these two links um the idea which is the individuals with Disabilities Act and the New Jersey Administrative Code chapter 146a carry this with me everywhere I go um because and and I want to reference these because um you know I I know firsthand um what happens to children when they are not educated properly so I have two family members who were institutionalized in the 60s and the 70s and um they did not receive an appropriate education um so that's why I'm here today and that's why I've been doing this for a really long time to make sure that doesn't happen to any of our children so these um these two uh legislations guide what we do and they allow us to truly educate our children to the to the maximum potential that they we possibly can so under the pupil service umbrella um are these are some of the responsibilities out of my office um we oversee all of special education preschool through age 21 um nursing and medical across the district that also includes sports physical so if you're CH child's an athletes um we um make sure and we oversee all of that we also oversee all counseling services and Mental Health Services for our students extended school year for our children with special needs um I am the homeless ladies on for the district so um My Team Works closely to support any of our families across the district who are homeless who may be in need of services and we also work to protect their rights um we also oversee home instruction so if a child is has a medical condition um where they are not able to ATT 10 school we are obligated per the New Jersey code to provide them with instruction um I also oversee the idea Grant which covers the majority of the tuition for our outof district placements for our students and semi which is Medicaid and making sure that um we track the services such as physical therapy occupational therapy um counseling um annual annual reviews IEPs and speech therapy so uh this is as of about 5 o'clock this evening um these are the eligibility categories so to be able to provide special education services for our students um we have to find them eligible and these are the categories which allows us to program accordingly for their needs so as of about 5:00 this evening I checked in our front line in our program that has and houses our our special education student information so if you look it breaks down the different categories um this evening we had a total of 8117 students across our district 762 of those students are School aged but with some students because of the Ida legislation some students who have um developmental disabilities Andor autism um can actually stay in our school system until the age of 21 and um 55 of our students are preschool age so when they are turning three before their third birthday if they are receiving early intervention So Physical Therapy um speech therapy occupational therapy or they have a cognitive delay um they receive early intervention and then as they turn three it becomes our responsibility to oversee those Services through the school so these are our preschool programs and um we have really grown our preschool I'm really excited to and proud to say that we offer preschool in all four of our elementary schools um some of our preschool programs are full day preschool programs for Stu for students who qualify who need that full day programming um the majority of our programs in preschool are half day so three-year-olds attend the morning session and four-year-olds ATT 10 the afternoon they are um general education for those three old and four-year-old classrooms so we have students that may have an IP and some who may not those are actually paid uh parents pay to send um their children to those programs these are list of our special class programs so again we're really fortunate in that we're able to um meet many of the needs of our students the majority of our our students that are in our in our neighborhood um so we have a language learning disability class at Hell Elementary that's kindergarten through fifth grade we have an emotional regulation class at togate kindergarten through fifth Stony Brook Elementary houses are multiply disabled and our autism classes at the middle school we have a multiply disabled class and a language learning class and at Central High School we have a multiply disabled class a language learning disabilities class and an emotional regulation class so when we talk about different levels of intervention um our least restrictive environment is the general education classroom and in that classroom you may have anywhere from 15 to 25 students um kindergarten through high school and some of those students may be in there may have IEP individualized education plans and may be receiving support from the second teacher so there's two teachers in what we call a collaborative class or per the code is call it an in-class resource class so that's our least restrictive environment and then we have resource room classrooms um where there are smaller size per the code and we're still again addressing the curriculum that is guiding us through the department of AD maybe at a little bit of a more slower Pace a little bit more individualized instruction but we're working really hard to meet their needs so this is the the New Jersey Code which is this book that I'm holding is what kind of it guides the number of students that we are allowed to have in classrooms that have special education programming so if you look for example at the elementary resource room classroom we can have up to six students with one teacher who is a certified special education teacher if we go beyond six so if we have a seventh student move in or is found eligible and in need of a language arts resource room we have to place a par professional or teacher Aid in that classroom um at the secondary we can have up to nine with no par of professional or teachers aid but if we have a 10th student move in or need that service we have to provide a pair of professional in that class in autism that number again is very small if we have four or more we have to have a pair of professional or teacher a in there we cannot have any more than six in a classroom that is identified as an Autism special class so our most restrictive environment would be if we've tried many programs and supports for our students but because of their specific challenged or specific needs we need to place them in a more therapeutic or specialized school to meet their needs those are our outof district placements now we are at 45 this year we are up by I think nine um from last year and these are lists of New Jersey Department of Ed approved and accredit accredited programs where we work collaboratively with the parents our case manager usually one of my supervisors or myself to find a program that is a good match for the needs so that they again can access their learning and reach their fullest potential so we did have a little um increase and there is a little bit of a challenge this year so since June of this year 29 students have registered with our district who are in need and who are receiving special education services over the past years usually between the end of school so the end of June to the beginning of the school year September usually average around 10 to 15 students that have IID or are receiving special education services of those 29 students who register seven of those students joined our district were already placed in New Jersey Department of aded approved out of district schools due to the severity of their special education needs by their previous Public School District we have to match that individualized education program when it comes to us especially if they are a school if they're child coming from an instate New Jersey public school system so these seven placements were not in the budget for 2425 because they had moved in after the budget was created this is now a $677,000 deficit within my tuition so these are example of some of the tuitions that we cover within the pupil service budget so we also support vocational education which again is really important for many of our students um and this is a breakdown of the tuition for those 45 students who are in out of District placement those 45 does not include the vocational program which is usually most of our stud students are a Shar day so they spend half of their day at the high school and then the other half of the day in the vocational program called cypac um and also you'll see at the bottom um the IDE idea grant money that we receive goes towards that out of District tuition funding that's where all of our tuition goes or all of our Ida grant funding goes I wanted highlight some of the the higher ticket items if you see we have um nurses so we have four students in our district who because of their medical needs need to have a nurse with them um and they receive one toone nursing all day and that is part of their programming that we need to support because we are Public School District in New Jersey outside evaluation so if we are evaluating children or we have children who are already receiving servic is and we as a team feel that they need to maybe go for a psychiatric evaluation to help us better understand what is going on and how to best support them um we cover that through that that line item we also cover sports physicals um we also have to review we have our district um medical doctor who will review those physicals for athletics we also cover the AED warranties and anything Health service related through through this piece of the budget the uh bottom line covers our U mental health clinician um also registered medical waste DPR um training that we are required to provide to staff in each building through Janet's law and then also drug testing so if we do random drug drug testing was taken away but if we do fild that a student um may be under the influence at a dance or at a football game or during the school day we can send them for testing if we feel that there is a concern there so these supplies OT so occupational therapy Physical Therapy Supplies um these if you look like Tech co-writer subscription FM systems Learning Ally FM systems are for students who have hearing and Central auditory processing deficits so we provide them with the equipment that they need to be able to access the learning in their classrooms those classrooms may be in a French class in a Calculus class in a resource room special education class um Learning Ally is actually a really great subspectrum that we use for our students who um Can comprehend on grade level but maybe cannot read on G grade level fluently so we provide this access to be able to have the books read to them um which is again a really important accommodation for many of our students we cover all Health supplies um for the nurses office epipens inhalers that's a little bit less than last year um because actually my secretary did a really great job and she found out that one of thees was donating epipens so we were able to to get some of those um and then purchase Professional Services so um assistive technology Physical Therapy occupational therapy and then also teacher of the death and audiological supports for students who may have hearing impairments again all really important services that help our children access their learning and reach their their potential so we also support I said earlier home instruction for general education students and special education students so if they have a surgery or a medical condition that um where they're not able to come to school um per the New Jersey Code we do need to provide um education for them which can be in the home it can be in the library and it's usually up to two hours at minimum per subject um of the core subject areas training is also really important and I actually want to put this up and I forgot but the New Jersey dyslexia legislation um has been um it's been they've been very vocal across the state which I think is is great for us in New Jersey and for our children um for the last 10 years that I've been involved in um the administrative part of our district we have been training our staff in science of reading and how to um really reach children who struggle with reading and writing um to do that training and to do it with Fidelity we have to make sure our teachers have this training and are able to implement it with Fidelity in the classroom so that is the Orton Gillingham training framing your thoughts which is a writing program that all of my k through eight language arts teachers are trained in safety care certification again um this is actually a department of mandate where if we have a child who um is intense struggling um running out of the school is unsafe doing something unsafe and we work and we do everything we can to deescalate them we may have to help them where we have to put our hands on them my our staff is is formally trained in safety care every year and throughout the year so that we can keep everybody safe including the child especially the child um I think that's it yeah and then these are just some pictures um so uh we were in Helen coralin pltw is that right's that yeah Project Lead the Way so um these are just a couple of her amazing classmates and um this is Lucia who brightens our life all of us um they are designing a Halloween costume for Lucia through their their classro and not only are they doing it but the whole class is working with Mercer County Special Services um specifically to support children in wheelchairs and they are designing really cool Halloween costumes for them as part of their school project and the young lady to your right is our work-based learning experience she's actually job exploring in Pennington Market um and then can you give me the last slide this is the band and the reason why I have the band here is because last I guess it was two Fridays ago I had the opportunity to go to a football game and I got I Bob asked me if I got a little Tey and I did a little bit um because I looked around our band was amazing and um there are many of our students who are receiving special education services in that band our cheerleaders our football team the football helpers um just I saw so many of our students and to see them just immersed in the community and contributing um was truly it just again it a highlight in my month to be able to see that and that is a testament to the programming and the support that not only um do you all give around the table but um the principles and the staff that are just truly dedicated to our children thank you any questions I did have oh um I just had a quick question just understand better the was it the the seven that moved in so the families move into the community they but in a prior school they were already assigned the school that they're going to and so when we received them into the community it just yeah I I'll give you an example and I I can reference um you know so for example if we have a student that moves in from West Windsor Plainsboro school district and they they also have really good programming they really I I I used to teach there and I know um and they have a student placed at I'm going to give an example Eden school for autism um and to know that they they're doing that when they they have autism programs like we have autism programs I kind of know when I see the paperwork that this is a student who is probably very involved who needs that kind of setting but I have um especially I work really hard to to meet family especially as they move in and I actually have visited a couple of our students who were have moved in those seven students who have moved in and actually attended a couple intakes in these schools because I want to make sure and they do need these services and they do need these out of districts I do not believe that um these students at this time we can bring them back I feel like they really need the interventions and um the intensity of therapies that like an eating can provide thank you that that's kind of the same direction my question was and so the to kind of fill in what I think I understand is the process for students who are coming in who are already outplaced um there is in their intake processes an opportunity to assess whether that's the best we yeah ongoing fit is that accurate we do we do whether it's case manager the supervisor or myself um we are gonna We we receive the individualized education program first that's usually what comes over we review it and then one of us or several of us will meet with a family we want to meet with a child we will contact the previous school district and talk to their case manager so there is there's a a process that we go through and we do have amazing programs here in house we really do but there are some children that need a more intensive type of setting um and it is typical that we we try to match that IEP when it comes to us especially from a neighboring New Jersey public school um and then we do what's called a 30-day review so even if a student so so I think I said it was like 27 um so 21 of them are in our programming here in District um we look at that program we match it but we also hold what's called a 30-day review to make sure that everything is correct in that IEP and to see if there's anything we need to add or if we need to adjust programming anyone else Alex but heard couple ofs I on the numbers and if you don't have those ANW now so [Music] going to those are you had a really would be interested see those categories how many and then the last one kids that just get an understanding a breakdown place which what we have to be careful of is she's not going to be able to do that in a board meeting because that's you know if somebody just moves in and it's a school they can you you can't identif who these kids are you see what I'm saying so we that's something we can do in a board meeting we could do it in committees or things like that what I what I can say is of the the 26 who are with us they are spread throughout the district it's not just one school so we have some at the high school some at the middle school and some in the elementary yes yes with regard to outof district tuition cost I can give you the range if that would help you is that what you're asking for so so I can yeah so I can give you so our um I actually have the list here and um one of the schools um is around 59,000 a year per student people and then um that's for students with um more specific and more significant learning disabilities okay versus a school for autism such as Eden or Princeton Child Development Institute where those tuitions range anywhere from $184 to $200,000 a year per people so I would have to pull that together for you yeah data point mark yeah I'll just comment on that I think at least for my chair why I'm interested in that information is more to do with the general conversation we're having about finances in the community and I think um having that information is more for all of us to understand that uh and maybe some of the community don't understand this the amount of responsibility we have to these children right to be able to send them out um I was also going to make mention to the point that uh I think in my two and some odd years being on this board what's been Mo most most eye openening to me has been what we do as a district for these types of students and these sorts of students that require this additional assistance versus others having friends in other districts around the state and in other states uh we do a terrific job doing our best to try to take care of the kids kudos to you Paulette for that and to the administration for supporting it um I do think that as we continue to talk about this it's really important that the more that we can educate the community around this as a part of our bigger broader discussion not just as a moral responsibility but a financial responsibility for this um and how we support it is important as we're talking about budget and talking about other things holistically so I understand I think uh maybe Alex some of your conversations or questions where I would take them equal to that discussion but just can't say enough the work that we do here um I had a conversation with a friend who has a child that is require exper help not in the state and it was sad to hear that discussion uh so great job and just thank you for you do so and and know that these I just need to to to say as we educate the public is what needs to happen because these things are not going to be cut this is the law and what we're doing is what everyone else ought to be doing and if folks are coming to us with ou a district placement and other districts aren't quick to do that either because it's expensive it's because they are well beyond something that we can support Even in our own programming and we hope to grow to that um but this is not something that we're going to be entertaining cutting we can't you know even that the medication the the aeds the the drug testing all those things are required by the state so they're legal oblation we couldn't touch it right we couldn't touch well people play with it but it's not a good idea right you know so it's not a good thing to do yeah that's actually a great question that was just a breakdown of students who were receiving special education services but we do oversee 504s through counseling much broader yes well it's shared so a standing desk would be building budget um but if a student has is in kindergarten and has um type 1 diabetes and needs the support of a par professional for the start of the school year we that's under my budget well good I just just so up when we're talking about educating the public um we do get funds from federal government through Ida but I think it's really important to know that that act was supposed to fund 40% of the additional cost for a student with special education it only funds at the most 12% is the highest it's ever been and so the school districts are picking up most most of those costs because the ACT has never been fully funded through our Representatives so I think that's important to note very very important okay thought you okay uh we continue thank you thank you thank you um poette and um the work you do I'm always so proud to um know that we're bringing our kids home and that they're going to school with their peers at all opportunities um moving on um to the student achievement report and then we'll move into our um first public comments on any item hi everybody um I'm going to give the the achievement report um to review the data from last year's testing Administration um so during this presentation I will Review AP scores sat averages and the njla assessment data so this doesn't include the NJ GPA scores as I presented them in August which is the grade 11 assessment um so the AP overview is situated around how hopeall Valley students are performing on AP exams as compared to other students in the US I chose to organize the presentation around that comparison as those are the students that that are students will be competing with in terms of college applications so College Board offers 38 possible AP courses the courses highlighted in yellow are the courses that we do not offer here at Hopewell Valley currently we offer 76% of the possible courses that college board offers please note that the district will order and administer any AP exam offered by college board for students who choose to self-study an AP course that we don't offer so overall colleges tend to only accept AP credit if students earn a four or five however in a study that was published by college board it was found that students who earned a one or two on an AP test are more are more likely to enroll in a four-year School are more prepared in an intro college level course and are more likely to take future AP tests and score higher so even though the objective for our for us is for our students to prepare them and get them a four or five score level um students who don't earn those scores are still being exposed to preparation and experience so I just briefly would like to talk about AP enrollment um so this slide shows the most heavily prescribed to AP courses in our district and this counts for about 50% of AP participation the bar graph highlights this year's test takers by demographics overall the distribution is very close to last year's uh distribution with 60% of the test takers being white there was a slight increase in regards to asan Asian students but limited changes in the other races uh this slide highlights the test takers by race taking into account the percentage of of the population of of of those different demographics um that comprise the school and so this this shows um the students that took the the demographics of the students who took the test in 2023 and 2024 uh this is the AP test takers by gender and it's very consistent to last year right now all right so now I just want to go into some Trends uh so this graph compares the three plus scores of students in New Jersey versus hell Valley so overall our students farx exceed performance as compared to the New Jersey averages please note that uh the data for 2024 was not available at the time of this presentation additionally there was an increase in students who earned a three plus over the last five years and you'll see that on next okay um so I just really want to highlight this slide um because um for the in regard to the number of test takers and score breakdowns so this year we had more students tested administered more assessments and the scores earning three plus and five were higher than over the past five years so in looking at this almost 96% of our AP scores were a three or higher so I think that's pretty phenomenal um the scores highlighted in the next few slides review the scores by the of the five most prescribed to AP exams which account for 50% of our test takers um so our most prescribed to AP exam this year was US History uh 93% of our students scored a three or higher as compared to the in the US which is only 72% in AP Physics 1 our second most prescribed to exam 70% of our students scored a three or higher on the assessment compared to 46% in the US historically students tend to earn the lowest score on this assessment however I'm happy to note that we had a 177% increase in the students who earned a three or higher as thir to last uh uh no okay in AP Statistics the third most prescribed to score 96% of our students earned a three or higher as compared to 62% in the US and there was a 15% increase in comparison to last year students who earned a three or higher APG AP apgb our fourth most prescribed to course 91% um earned a three or higher um as compared to 73% in the US again this was an increase about 18% of students who earned a career higher as compared to last year okay and then finally our fifth most prescribed to course um Cal AB 90% of our students earned a three or higher as compared to 64% of the us and this was pretty consistent as comparing to last so the next few slides review the other 50% of the exams and you can see that um in the uh the blue are the US averages and then the black are are our averages so overall we um we continued the trend of the previous uh courses and where our students were performing higher um in terms of a three or three plus um in compar to the rest of the students us and just note um the ones that are highlighted in yellow are the ones that we do not offer in the District but um students self studi thank you um so just some of our continuous goals for improvement um we want to continue to off to allow an increased accessibility up an accessibility to AP classes and we are just going to continue to evaluate the types of questions and contents that the students are struggling with and provide more opportunities for exposure in the class all right so I'd like to talk quickly um about the SAT means for our students along with the means for New Jersey and the nation um so overall we have been staying pretty consistent for the last few years in terms of our overall means in ela and math in Ed program we talked about um there was a decrease in our math scores since 2020 but when looking at the um National averages it seems that that has been a consistent Trend in in math um throughout the country uh in comparison um Hall Valley with New Jersey other New Jersey schools our students tend to score higher um specifically they score about 81% higher in English and 78 points higher in we are thrilled that many of our students were recognized by college board these are some of the Honors that we received this year and we will be having these students come to our November board meeting will we be honoring them and their accomplishments and uh additionally this year uh college board recognized uh Central High School with a silver recognition based on the performance of our assessments so this is the first time we've had that honor um since I've been giving this report okay so lastly I'd like to talk about the njsla data um these are the spring results for this njsla scores for Math and Ela and these assessments are taken by students in grades 3 through 11 so I'm going to start with math uh so this graph shows the same grade different students are earned a four or five on njsla by grade level in all the math courses uh there was a slight increase in most grades and subjects I know it's um uh but overall if you in terms of the last um uh uh ours with all grades there was overall a three a two I'm sorry a 2% increase since last year in in our math courses um conversely this graph shows the same grade different students for the last five test administrations for students who did not meet or any only partially met the expectation similar to the previous slide there was not a significant changes compared to last year's performance um so a little bit about Ela data um this graph shows the same grade different students who earned a four or five on the njsla by grade level and this was very similar to uh the math data in that there was a slight increase about 2% as compared to last year's data and then conversely this shows the same grade different students for the last five test administrations for un do not me or only partially met the expectations again there was not a significant change and so uh this is the first year we were able to share and uh comparison data for the science njsla and the science njsla is taken in grades five 8 and 11 uh so this slide shows the students who earned a four or five on the assessment as compared to last year's data um it seems that grade five there was a slight increase in performance but students in grades eight and 11 performed lower uh this past spring than they did in 2020 gr and similarly this is this is showing the students who per who earned a one or two on the assessment and students in grades five and eight tended to perform a bit better last year but I just want to note that um I was at a workshop last week from with the doe and they have noticed a trend throughout the state that historically all districts are not performing well on the science and jsla um test and so they are actually um going to be offering trainings that we are hosting the training there's one on Wednesday um um to help uh explore why this is um so just a little demographic data for the njsla I'll begin with the math demographic data um so there seems to be an increase in black students performance overall as well as a slight increase in Hispanic students performance for the math um njsla um this is the math uh by gender and overall similar results to last year's results but there was a slight increase about five percentage points for male students performance as compared to last year's and uh this is uh proficiency by programming and so minimal changes in regard to programming as compared to last year's performance although there was there has been increase since the 2022 testing Administration but um it's it's kind of plateaued or we had a slight decrease in in um some of the programming um so Ela demographic data uh overall there was not a significant change as it related to to race and performance um as compared to last year's data um and as the ELA is uh performance by gender um no really significant change over the last three years in regard to Performance and uh Ela performance by programming and there was not a significant change by programming for ELA performance um so this is just a slide that highlights some of the trends that I I talked about um it seems that for students performance in both Ela and math as compared to last years are pretty consistent um there are certain demographics that seem to generally earn um a or five on njsla assessment regardless of the test year Administration and certain grades tended to perform higher in the njsla science um so what are we going to do about this uh a similar graphic was shown as at last year's achievement report as a district will continue to have data conversations using data protocols and Technology platforms from these conversations we can identify specific learning needs in order to address these needs we have put in place some platforms and strategies as well um as out of school support but please note as mentioned at last year's achievement report it is challenging to sometimes staff these programs that run after school so sometimes that limits the availability of what we can offer um the information that we gather through the platforms that we're using for the data and this out of we will continue to um integrate in our conversations um in order to drive our decision making um and so one thing I know Dr T mentioned that today was our professional development and uh two of our goals for um the district are to integrate data and decision- making as well as to promote uh differentiation strategies in the classroom and those would have been the focus of our professional development today along with um the opening days in August so we really are trying to provide training and workshops to teachers to help support them in their integration of data and and personalized learning experiences for students thank you Dr pitz any questions from the board thank you so much Dr pitus I really appreciated this and thank you for sharing the presentation in advance I enjoyed looking through it um I have two questions one is one um that I think has been sort of a recurring theme in our board meetings but I'm just curious if there's any way for us to do this um I think when we compare to the New Jersey and US averages it's maybe not as informative as if we were able to compare to like districts and so for the scores that we have available whether it's SATs or njs lasas I don't even know can we look into where we have sort of the smallest level of data available like District level data and think about whether we could pull together some similar districts so that we can use those as a point of comparison moving forward so just a question to think about um the other thing I actually did follow up with you about but I I just want to sort of draw folks attention to it so I think as I was looking at the data I think the exciting thing is that we've seen um the njla scores for Math and Ela bump up a little for janed but I think what I also noticed is that the Gap has increased when we looked at Jed versus students with free and reduced lunch which is uh you guys know is the indicator for uh low income so I think um your explanation was really helpful to me in understanding why we're still seeing that despite implementing some of this really targeted programming from students who maybe are struggling to get their scores up so could you share a little bit of that background with the board so just looking at our um population for who are um U students who are identified as economically disadvantaged there has been an increase in the year so like last year it was we had a 4% um this year we're at 6% um and towards that and how we identify what are our Title One schools so last year we only had one Title One school which was the high school this year we have three Title One schools and so we are given funding that we can offer then diff um extra supports to those students um so I I'm hopeful that with um with the the additional funding and the fact that we have monies going now to three separate schools that will be be able to put in more supports for for students um a lot of the supports that we are offering though are after school supports and so I know last year um when we for the high school there were we weren't able to get as many teachers um or faculty to run these after school support settings so that limited what we could offer um for this year you know we there are three dist three as I mentioned three buildings that that are identified as title one and we are going to be offering busing for some of um the after school support so that will take out um another um you know maybe hindrance for white students wouldn't attend um but we we have um we also were going to be offering at the middle school in particular Saturday um workshops as well um so I'm hoping that with just the additional funding and the diff additional programming that we're going to be offering in in all three of the buildings that will help um help thank you I just wanted to offer real quick before your question um we are looking at for the for the good of the order opportunities to do it during the day because after school is hindrance even if you provide busing for kids that you know have to go home and help and and and and other things we are going to have to start really saying that if you're you're not underperforming that you have to accept the help because we kind of let people opt out of it we're kind of being and and I don't that's not something that's that's helpful I mean this is this needs to be the priority um is to make sure that kids are um exceeding um are performing at least meeting proficiency on the expectations of what the state is expecting in math language arts and science so we'll be talking about that in edcom and then the rest of the community will be hearing about that and their reports out thanks I just want to go to Alex and then Mike my turn so you you said you're talking about differentiated instruction and all these assessments that you're doing to to sort of support that is there some degree of equating between the the state tests and and these these uh I guess there's some kind of assessment thank you way of saying we discuss historically have I never ha njs test can't really say what I actually but uh it does reflect our Better or Worse we're steps that parents our students take the only other comment I had highlighted as one and the reason for that is the reason for high enrollment really [Music] we've been offering that years but the reality is it's not a very [Music] useful and not a lot of and the it well well not the test oh yeah so um as as Dr Resnik said that is why one the reasons why we did eliminate AP Physics one but also were doing some changes to the the curriculum and the um in conversations with the physics teachers they felt that the changes were not really going to help the students succeed in the college level um physics courses but with the honors physics um the teacher who is teaching honors physics also taught AP Physics one and she you know she is going to promote if students want to take the AP Physics one exam um it it isn't going to be a big stretch from what they're learning in the in the class I mean she can provide extra um Vicky just one comment or uh kind of actually not a comment a request um I would love to see the numbers on how many of our students with learning disabilities are taking AP courses um so you could get us those numbers that would be great thank you okay anything else I wonder if this is [Music] they take the class they don't take because right thank you all right um we are going to um move into our open um public comment members of the public are reminded um that they are invited to address the board on any matter 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 um the timekeeping rules still apply and public comment is now open good evening Kate ham Pennington while I had not intended to speak this evening I feel compelled to do so on the topic of the referendum it's no secret that there were a couple of Hot Topic concerns from the community members Dr T you mentioned wanting to hear the community's input is there a plan or steps to be taken for this to occur is there a rough timeline already laid out for this open collaborative and effective communication is vital with all stakeholders there is an illusion in the public that a lot of discussion happened behind closed doors and I wonder if opening those doors those allowing public discussion would increase Community involvement and Trust for example I've known other school district dists who have held two board meetings a month one to have public discussion about everything that you guys talk about in your committees and then the other four voting on just a thought in addition I had also mentioned previously allowing community members to walk through our buildings to physically see what it is that needs to be done might be possible the other topic for me to address is one that is near and dear to my heart I have spent more than two decades handson professionally and personally in the area of special education until you have personally experienced the need for this type of education you have no idea what it entails but I believe that everyone should have a seat at this table because until the unaffected are affected we won't see the change that our youth need it's important to understand that the code identifies qualifying students with special needs in 14 different categories but it's also important to understand that no two students are the same the request of what it costs per student differs from one student to another just as it does here in District you may have a student in District who goes to a school who is a special education student who requires something different than another special education student increasing their cost so just like you may send a child to newrange their tuition cost is not going to be the same as any other student that goes to that school or any other school I feel as though there is a direct retaliation or inquiry to our special needs students it is offensive to me I feel like we're being called out our students if you took the time to spend time with them and got involved with them you would understand that they are not a number they are so much more than that thank you hi there my name is Addison Al I'm Penington uh so I just want to give you a quick followup on my last I came here a couple months ago to talk about the robotics program um so I had three requests one is better access to the shop second was login credentials so we could use computers in the shop and the third was approval to use a fura compliant software platform like slack uh to communicate with the team um so we haven't had a lot of progress um I did have a meeting with Steve Quinn and Steve wilfing to talk about access to the shop and they informed me that we were not going to get a key now or in the future um now we talked a little bit about well are we talking about a physical key like a you know without a chip or anything or are we talking about a swiper we weren't completely sure but there there wasn't really a an Avenue to follow up so uh we would be very happy for instance to just have a swipe card or something like that um the other thing I want to bring to your attention is shortly after this conversation our head coach of 25 years Ed trillo was detained when he came into the school to work in the shop and taken to the office and he had and Steve Quinn and Susan Shen rooted through the files and tried to figure out if he had his credentials in order um and if he was safe to go in the shop and that took about 40 minutes um it's an understatement to say he felt disrespected uh by that process um I want you all to know this hat here is my only credential right now if I talk to a janitor and ask to get into a room if I talk to somebody in the media center and say we need to use the media center they're sizing me up and looking that at that hat I don't have any sort of a swipe card any sort of active so we all had to get recredentialing certification fresh background checks all that stuff took a very long time to get in compliance and we had a very hard time finding out what are the rules how can we fulfill them and that's really the main thing that we're after right now we need to have some sort of a cqu and the conversation with Steve Quinn and Steve wilfing was not they were not empowered to make decisions for the school district that's very clear that's why we're here at the board asking you guys directly is because we've talked to the people in the buildings the principles teachers the administrators and we understand very well that the district will not allow us to have a key it will not allow us to have AOG in credential and they will not allow us to use for for compliance software to communicate with student so um I would very much like it if we could set up some sort of a round table or conversation uh so that we can actually talk about the merits this situation what the pros and cons are of of doing things the way we do or or maybe making changes okay thanks a lot good evening good evening my name is Carolyn Bender I live in Hopewell Township I have been sitting on various pto's in hopeall Township since about 2004 and I've been sitting at a DPC for those of you that don't know what that is District Parent Council where we as PTO presidents get together with our superintendent for about the last 20 years um and I try to think that I'm fairly well informed um I do want to share with you madam president president but I was also very disheartened to see Vanessa stum and John Hart make comments on Facebook that were unhelpful and misleading um followed up by our past president Lisa Wolf very misleading um when I think of her term I think of our Black Box leaders instead of our special education trailers that should have been attended to since 1994 and haven't been um I have the luxury unlike other PTO of strive up until this year we have made our way through all of the schools so at every meeting we move to school from school to school and I'm able to see what our specific schools are trying to deal with um our Tollgate has not had a bathroom that has worked we have dug up hallways our uh Tollgate has doesn't have a room for our fire trucks to get into the right side and we still have trailers there and our nurse's office doesn't have a uh bathroom to help our special education children should they need help pottying or if they have an accident there is no way to help them without being a part of without experiencing some level of humiliation poal Elementary had big boiling ISS boiler issues and poor Bear Tavern every time we tried to hold a meeting in their Library it was raining it was really disheartening I am really not happy about the fact that our referendum didn't pass and I really think that our district will end up paying more in the end to do the things that we need to do all that being said I cannot tell you how much we appreciate as a special ed organization we function as a state mandated special education parent advisory group and also as a PTO because we do recognize that our families and our students need social opportunities as well Mrs dinardo has hands down brought this District into a place that it has never seen before I have had the luxury of dealing with the past director who um frankly can't hold a candle to her um forgive me I was taking a lot of notes while everybody was talking and I want to make sure that I cover everything that's important um I don't know that this board really understood that 20% or more of our students in our district are um state are our special ed students I also want to make sure that you understand that we are also paying for the kids that are court ordered to be here and we are assured there will be more students as we have more building um here we go I want to make sure I Hate Everything um and I know I'm coming I do want to say that our indoor percussion team is amazing and um they need more funding and okay I'm done thanks Jackie um I wasn't going to get us up and speak either and I don't want to speak about what I'm wanted to speak about but um I want to stand on Carolyn's I'm a band Mom they're incredible they don't get the recognition they deserve percussion came in best at metti this weekend which is huge imagine being a kid in ninth grade walking through whatever giant but um walking through giant stadium with your drum and drumming on and getting the best in percussion my and and others what Carolyn said they need to be recognized and it's not my son it's not my daughter we brought the equipment thank you onto the football team onto the new turf field here I don't know what the excuse me hell this thing is called I call it the big xylophone it's a you might know Paul that it's a big xylophone it is they always yell at me it broke when we brought it up that thing that turfield should be banking AOK perfect one of our students our I know this is recorded and I don't want to say who but he had to sit to the side and that broke everybody's heart everybody the the kids so I mean they bandaged it up but they need new equipment we walked down Hobo's parid for Memorial Day that tuba looked like hopeall got together with their Hammers and hammered it it was embarrassing I mean Hall should be embarrassed we got a new one and we got new drums but they need more we have a brand new um I don't know what they're called marching band teacher guy Andre Harding and he is Young Love yandre wherever the camera is but maybe we can help in progressing and and you know pushing a little bit and and giving him the help that he needs to get the equipment that he needs are helping I don't know but thank you already have um you only have oh kidding okay hi everyone um Julie cesary Pennington um for this first part of my comment I am speaking just as a parent and citizen not affiliated at all with any PTO um I was so so sad with the way the district was treated in the media with the referendum it broke my heart that our community some people in the community chose to really resort to very ugly ways of doing things I guess to to try to get their own way which I think worked and um it was really shortsighted and misinformed and as a uh an a a a newer parent in this town I think that those involved did a really great disservice um especially for new parents because um I've only been really in involved or paying much attention to the Bard ofed for the past year or so um but through through this time I have learned so much and have come to um really respect all of the hard work and dedication that you guys put into this and um it's not lost on me how many countless hours of work and deliberation and discussion must have gone in so um into all of that and so that being said um I just wanted to sort of off offer my support back to all of you and now as um an ego PTO person um I want to again um point out that at least when it comes to our littlest children grades I'll say three and under the ones who are not taking these SLA classes those years years it is so important for them to engage in unstructured play the iPads the media all of the things that we are constantly pushing in them is ultimately a disservice as they grow older and then have to achieve on these tests a lot of the social emotional learning that we are paying for so that we can I don't know all about it but I see a lot of things come home a lot of these social emotional skills that they really need to be learning at this time happened happen on the ground with each other and they need time to do that so like 25 minutes at recess really doesn't cut it so perhaps we could continue the conversation and thinking about how our youngest students may be served better with a less is more uh thank you hi I'm lose Martinez H Township we moved here last year and um obviously we moved into the middle of this whole referendum so there a lot of learning for us to um you know understand the situation here so I don't know all I know is a lot of work that were involved and obviously we were highly supported we have three kids um we have one in the township two that are coming so obviously we want our kids to be supportive here and and we love the community so one I want to say thank you for everything you've done so far I know there's a lot of work to do um I'm also here because obviously we you know there was a setback and I just wanted to understand what's the plan and what are the next steps and uh while it's hot I think there's probably lot of parents that on the same boat like they're just trying to get some answers right and um you know I do think that there's some momentum and those that feel strongly enough to continue to figure out like okay well we didn't get what we wanted but what else can we do and I know that you still exploring all that but um you know I I work in marketing so for me it's all about communication and trying to figure out how do we change customer Behavior so in our sense here it's like how do we um you know help educate and better inform the public on the benefits you know what we're trying to do at the school and how it can benefit everybody um so you know one of the things I did on the professional side that may help here you know that helped me is a game theory and I'm just curious if you guys have looked into something like that that helps you explore this very complex issue of trying to F budget with all these other elements that you got going on things are required by the state law there's just so many things you got to balance out but it has helped me figure out complex problems like that and uh and to you know recently joined like their parent like on the PTL side um I'm looking at the curriculum for hount and I'm trying to figure out like how do we help educate on the you know the young kids side the parents to get more involved so my my goal and I'm hoping you can help is to figure out how do we strengthen the resources provided to the PTO just in in terms of being aware of all these things going on to create campaigns reach other the schools because it's already so many things that the township is doing but I'm not sure that's getting translated all the way down to everybody so I think having the PTO help support what you already are putting together um you know and and creating a kind of social media campaign with each of the PTO um you know I think everyone's trying to help but kind of create more coordinate effort um you know so just here offering help and uh support thank you okay um seeing no other comments um kind of would stop start at the top of the list Dr T and I think we had a couple of yeah and I think we can hit all the referendum ones all at once and um thank you for the comments of folks who um um thanked us for the work that we did do um yes I've already started talking to parents groups of parents about you know what we could have done better um they we are conceding some of the folks that I'm talking to um that maybe we weren't paying as much as attention of attention to uh some of the the uh meetings that we had and the conversations we had here um also the the kind of quick to go to social media know that we are not going to post to social media Pennington hopeall update all of that that we cannot legally do that is not something we can do at all there were some parents that were gracious enough to uh on behalf of the district to repost things right that is certainly helpful I think that again this was a learning experience for folks I don't think that they when we said that the sky is falling because we've been saying it for years and kind of making it happen um that the sky was really falling and now we're here and they're like oh this is real so the tours are part of the things that are going to be happening in the future going into schools because if it's in your school and it's raining and you were there you saw it maybe if you're in another school you don't see it so the tours are going to be definitely part of of the plan moving forward there will be timelines of communication there is not going to be an open form to discuss what the parents think should be on it and not but I am listening to maybe the turf field was a sticking point right the board heard that loud and clear we all heard that loud and clear um but like HVAC is not optional a roof is not optional right those things are not optional um if we already have a turf field that is there and has to be repaired that is not optional because pulling it out and putting a lawn there is going to be three times as expensive as a turf field and it's a colossal waste of water and we don't have irrigation right so all those things we have to maintain instruments for the band if they need them needs to happen so we have to weigh all of these things when almost 80% of our budget is tied up in our staff and that's staff salaries and and health care which keeps going up Transportation cost keeps going up poet's tuition costs keep going up we only we're at a 2% cap we can't raise taxes Beyond a referendum beyond the 2% occasionally there's opportunities to get waivers for um health care but for the most part we are struggling with all of these increas in cost as you are in the community um the cost to fix things um this is not going to get easier as we move forward so that what's going to happen is we're going to have to really look hard at some things not what was up just here on this screen just now we can't right but the some of the things that we have uh that are luxuries right like I can't not have a PA in a classroom where I'm obligated to and have kindergarten Paras in every class right when that's not necessary when other districts I know we always want to compare ourselves to other districts other districts that are outperforming us a lot of times don't have that so those are places that we're going to go first because it doesn't directly hurt our kids we know they that it's not going to we're going to have to look at increasing our class size a little bit that's going to have to happen um and we're going to have to look where else can we cut because this is not going to get better as the years go on if the state doesn't change the way they fund us and the way that we can raise money it's not going to get better um so yes I'm am going to be coming back to you we're going to be looking at the fall because it's too late anyway to build now um to get anything started before um next next year anyhow um so we're going to be in the meantime I'm going to be leaning on all of you your help um how we can communicate better um what things were kind of sticking points as we were talking about the referendum but what I am going to ask the community is um that you're going to have to if you you have a question email us if you need another information night we'll come to you um but come to us for the information and kind of listening to the echo chamber of people um with their opinions who don't pay the bills and look at all this stuff in in committee for hours out of their time their their their time when they're donating their time and they don't get paid to do this folks they and they were on they got on this board because they wanted to check the spending and they got in here and they got into the books and they said we can't check the spending because these things we have to do um so they're doing the best they can we are all doing the best they can but this promise I make to you I am going to always give you the best advice for this community to capitalize on on strategic planning I'm always going to make decisions with your children at heart I don't and we always always do it in public we don't have Communications in private whatever is discussed in committee is discussed here in the board meeting it's always out there for you miss Bender was able to recount all those things because they were said right here and in town halls and in recordings and online and in my newsletters um and if that's not reaching you I will come to you and we'll have to do it on the ground um because I want everybody to have their questions answered um and it's not great when I'm spending other people's money nobody's feeling that so I get why people said no um and I hopefully when we come back next time um with a little bit better planning uh with how we communicate with folks with a little more help from community members to help me communicate with folks that we can get a yes the next time I'm hoping but again that's up to the community and we'll do our best to try to give you the information you need to make a sound decision um Mr Addison I want to thank you as always for volunteering to be uh to help our robotics we cannot have volunteer parents even when they have all the credentials in the building without a staff member so as much access as you want but we have to have a staff member can't give you a key or a swipe because our substitutes don't even have a swipe they come in and they get a a kind of super a substitute pass for the day but they don't have access to getting in and out of the building and it's really for a security reason I didn't get key to open these doors all of them besides my office until I was in Vicki spot that's how tight we are with all the keys um so we'll continue to work on that and if we have to look at a vice principal or somebody being in there or something with you then we we'll have to make those adjustments and we can't use slack either we have to use the district approved um um sites to communicate and that's also for the protection of our students and for you all quite frankly because we can't um we can't access the information that's going back and forth on that like we can with the other uh communication systems we use so that's that's the reason why that's there's no dis slack we can't use that here in the district well one of the things I did hear about that point though is just they don't have any identification that they are part of the robotics you know yes team so whether it's a swipe card or not getting them some piece of paper I don't know a card or whatever that that affirm that that's their role within the building I think that's certainly important and respectful to the contribution I'm sorry just as we do with other substitutes and volunteers they would need to to sign into the main office okay okay can't answer from the floor sorry okay um and Mr um Martinez I might be Mr Martinez I might be tapping you to be on my communications committee like anybody else who's in here would like to join us as well for the referendum um for the Eco PTO yes we always look for opportunities for our kids to kiddos to get outside even the younger ages we're mandated so many hour hours of of uh I mean so many minutes of language arts so many minutes of math social studies science that is regulated all the way down to Kay U so we we do um believe that unstructured play is important as well that's one of the things that the community also added to our strategic plan so there'll be days that we if you know we can't do it every day but there going to be definitely days that we go off the curriculum train and just have unstructured days of play some of the elementary schools already have been doing that and we've we've asked them to look at more days where they can increase those opportunities to do that and limit the tech we have been looking at the tech too okay yeah just want to make a quick comment think in general here about the idea of transparency questioning of some particular costs today I think as a board member who's been here for two and a half years uh it's been very eye opening to me during the referendum process what the public does not and when we ask questions about special education funding I always speak for myself in saying that I'm asking those questions to be able to get an A on hold up record for transparency so that those folks who do not understand there are limitations of that spending what we could cut even if we wanted to um they can a know that and I think B more important that they realize that it's not the right thing to do even if we could do it right when we think about the pillars by which we have to look at funding that's one of the three big pillers everybody up here knows that and I think as a matter of this referendum process it's been extremely apparent that given uh whether we call it misinformation or EO chamber a lot of folks don't get what we can and can't spend money on and how we can and can't save them so for me I have an obligation to ask those questions and I will but under no circumstances am I questioning it what I'm trying to do is make sure that we're in a position to be extremely transparent to the public about where we need to spend money and where the state requires us to addition on transparency I'll just make this statement in general I was one of the folks who ran for the Board of Education to be able to look under the hood of finances that was the main reason I and after being here for two and a half years after talking to the community through this process whether it be hope burrow hope Township oring to burrow it's extremely apparent that we as a community are at an impass when it comes to shared services schools being one and unless we we come together to talk about it as a community we will remain at invest it's unfortunate that we've gotten into this situation but I think that for the public to understand especially for folks in the finance and Facilities committee here it was our goal to be able to give it to the public in full as a whole so everybody could truly understand with transparency how bad it was and that's what we tried to do now we can attack messenger but we can't ignore the message the message is we're in a tough spot and I would encourage all of us as citizens of the community to understand that and once we do understand that then we figure out how we come together this is not just a school thing fire anys is in the same boat and they are even worse than we are right now so I would ask as we all move forward as a community that me as one individual board member who sits as the representative for Hope burrow the smallest percentage of the population right amongst the entire community that we can continue to think about the transparency that we have here and that we are trying to show and I commend the administration for allowing the board to ask them to be transparent this way despite the fact that we had not the outcome thanks thank you um Mark and I I think that is a really great point is that we've said it a number of times but it it bears is repeating that the administration brought this massive number to the table because the finance and Facilities committee requested and the board the balance of the board supported us being transparent with the State of Affairs and that our responsibility for a sustainable quality education is paramont right so it's great to paral our accolades and seeing all the amazing things we do but if we can't 10 years from now give the same quality we have done our children disservice into the future so yes we will continue to be transparent yes we will continue to ask the challenging questions and yes we are going to wrestle this challenge together but as a community we need to balance our expectation of what we ask the school of the school district and and adjust right it's yeah it's would I love my kid to have 12 people in the classroom 1,00% is that sustainable no right so we've got to adjust our mindset of what is actually a quality education look like I know what we're comfortable with but that doesn't equate it's not it's what we're used to that doesn't prove or we don't have statistics to say that that's the way to deliver a quality education so I promise you we are all looking at delivering the sustainable quality by using data and what's needed to reliably and repeatedly deliver so that's a lot of pillars to to balance on um but that's what we signed up for and we are committed to continuing that conversation and being involved is what meeting meeting having your community meet you at the table is where transparity transparency is seen not attending or reviewing the recordings or what have you you can't get transparency if you don't show up for the conversation right so thank you for being here and thank you um for continuing the conversation okay um anything else we'll close close out public comment and move on the agenda um old business anything out there that needs to be addressed okay moving on um I need a first and second to pass the consent agenda items all in favor any opposed or abstaining okay consent agenda items are passed we're going to go ahead and move into all the committee um updates and we're going to start with Dr Resnik and uh finance and Facilities usual meeting we for that quickly um it was mainly focused on of State facilities when and um I would butly speaking terribly out of the ordinary and then first time we met was half or so after the referendum um fell we needed to kind get together in a group with I don't much of what was discussed by Dr several times the only item that I wanted to highlight that we did discuss wasit of course as we go into the budget now thinking about we start of and yet there will Pro we're not going to be able to that money so there's going to be some impact to this upcoming that we and we've asked the administration to very the there was also a request to look at Beyond jce don't don't normal some of us wanted to understand what do and I know there talk about a followup that possible outcome but we also that's what the district don't got some what imp our I think that was that's pretty [Music] hi there we met on uh last Wednesday and we had um two teachers um Miss Courtney varara and Miss Stephanie Rebecca they're both biology teachers at the high school they had a approached me in the spring about piloting a new um kind of type curriculum for biology and it was more problem-based um and so it was and it was more interdisciplinary so they were just um meeting with the committee to go over the the what they've seen in their pilot um and and and the positive results that they've seen and this would be something that would be continuous regardless of if it a student was in honors or regular biology um so that was was very exciting um Mr Luen was presented on civil discourse and are Facing History professional development and he walked the committee through his presentation at the opening day department meeting regarding these two areas he shared the framework that was created through a joint effort for having difficult conversations and it was stressed that if teachers follow the guidelines and framework the board and superintendent will support them uh Mr Luen presented a timeline on what has been done and is going to be done in regard to civil discourse he discussed progress monitoring through PLC notes lesson plans observations and there was a conversation about resources to utilize timing of trainings and providing support to the students um and then lastly I um we we reviewed the achievement report briefly and you heard all of the feedback before thank you Dr blitzes um regarding the first report back that was that on the creative giving the kids a specific amount of time to work through the problem and then what was the first presentation um about the bi biology um it was just turning it more into a a a problem based approach rather than looking at um the the content in silos like first you're going to talk about characteristics of life and move on to some it was more of they give them almost like a phenomenon and then the kids have to work through it as they learn the the different concepts to high into that okay gotcha any other questions yeah I just had a quick question so um I'm trying to connect some Dots here so Mr Luen presented on civil discourse is this a course that Mr L is implementing or is Mr L leading the effort to think about how we're going to integrate this into okay so it is this is it is the effort focused on integrated into the schools more broadly okay and I just couldn't figure out what is the status of this so he's laying out like a work plan for doing that right now so right so he basically went through what he what he's done so far and what heop hes to do in the future months so he gave us a timeline um of of next steps last week there was uh we brought in a Facing History and ourselves as professional development which aligned with uh with our civil discourse framework um so he was pretty much just giving us an update on and where he's going uh one of the things we did talk about in terms of njsla which I think we might have rushed over in the presentation um was just the culture we kind of have in hope well of students not being very engaged when it comes to taking that test and putting their best foot forward and as we've seen on some of the tests that really do affect you know our chances at going to college and potentially saving money on tuition with ap scores we do see our students doing well above State averages and well above National averages um I think it would just be if we look at some of our peer districts to see how they provide healthy incentives to students um to see how you know they're creating a better culture to have students more engaged on that test um and I know that was something we did talk about was looking into ways to make sure that you know students aren't just seeing that test as you know another day that they can come in and you know not put all of the effort that maybe you know they could be so um I just thought that was something I wanted to flag and we had been having that conversation anything else all right awesome moving on to [Music] Personnel all right so we have a very long update tonight as we talk about our Personnel meeting um so uh all joking aside uh brief meeting prior to the call uh you're going to see on the agenda really just basic housekeeping items one being Personnel action roll call talk about um as well as the normalized extracurricular appointments we'll do a rooll call on and then every year we do the uh memorandum of agreement with local law enforcement so we learned a little bit more about that that's all available on the agenda any questions for anybody thank you all right okay can we move the agenda do get first here Rong call please Dr J Mr Kia Dr Liston yes Mr Peters Dr Resnik yes Mr slotman Miss Tracy Dr Wilson yes Miss Williams gallion uh we had our little meeting just just after the U the referendum um but we managed to talk a little bit about how talk about how we use the community to get kids out of bubble that we we essentially make with this with the school district here and have them essentially learn using the learning they you do here in the school district out in in other places we haven't figured that out yet I have some ideas I'm working with some people that might work might not I'm I'm looking around but um we're going to continue to pursue this this notion of being able to generalize learning Beyond and then we talked about the referendum that definitely was part of the any questions all right moving on toal okay I'm going to start and then I will hand it over to Mr Nardo um so we um talked a little bit about um the um sorry my brain so we have some exciting events coming up um one of them pertains uh directly to one of our public comments and I want to bring everyone's attention to on October 22nd from 7 to 8:30 we are going to be having a Roundtable discussion um on the book The an the anxious generation which is around cell phone use and the research coming out um we've got some great panelists including Dr Richards from samh we've got uh Dr mayor a psychology a a psychologist um Dr I'm probably gonna butcher these names so I apologize Dr palansky Who is a pediatrician uh Dr Doyle another pediatrician in the neighborhood Dr pelino um also a psychologist um so a Powerhouse panel um talking about an issue that I know is um very near and dear to us um it is an inperson and I apologize I do not have written down where it will be yeah so it's going to be here in the boardroom um we'll have Roundtable discussion so we'll have people assigned to tables with table facilitators um and it will go from 7:00 to 8:30 in the evening and currently we have roughly 35 um family members signed up yeah so definitely get the word out and um I will speak for myself and I know some other board members this is an issue to me that is very important and I'm going to apologize um it's during the board meeting and so I have a training and many of us on the board will be away that that does not mean that this isn't an issue we care about yeah good convention is happening at the same time so I just wanted to put that out there um we also have thanks to our strive PTO um Jordan Toma coming in February for our 9th 10th and 11th grade students and for those of you who do not know Mr Toma um has a book out I'm just a kid with an IEP um they also have a nighttime event for parents and uh caretakers so we'll keep reminding people about that um especially it's October so we have um world mental health day is in October dyslexia awareness is in October and also learning disabilities all um acknowledged during this month and so we're definitely looking forward to that um we also have um our teachers Mrs horley and Mr schaer um met with uh Mike Wilson Dr Wilson we're actually going to meet oh so we're we're going to be meeting oh October 24th and sorry to discuss yes a rubric and um we've been talking about different assessments within the district um and so another thing that sort of came up around all of the data collecting that we are trying to do within our district um is we've been having um several different conversations around our survey um our safety survey that you get towards the end of the year and how we might be able to um revamp it really to get the most um important data that the district is looking for in a way that we can get more people to participate in the survey it's just too long of a survey right now over the years it's collecting great information and important information but it's just gotten unwieldy and so um I know this year we're really going to take a look at that and see what we might be able uh to do with that um and then I wanted to hand it over uh to miss dardo to talk about the professional development uh that happened earlier today so today for our professional Development Day all of our counselors child study team and nurses um spent um half of the day at dunwald Farm um walking through a social emotional learning experience on the farm through Farm practices um it was a really really special day um with some amazing community members who shared their talents and gifts with us we did yoga um we did a writing activity um we did just some meditation actually played my Native American flute while they worked in teams it was pretty cool pretty cool day it was perfect weather and then the other half of the day um and that was thanks to Kristen bradick who has been here a lot and has been just very a great advocate for Outdoor Learning and social emotional um learning and then the other half of the day Kim sto and Jessica Kevy um spoke with the other half of our group we split them into groups of 20 um about trauma informed practices um and our staff just walked away really pleased with their experience today so um just a huge shout out to all of the people in our community involved who volunteered their time to train our staff great yep thinking about how can we spread that learning from you [Music] know yes for sure okay any other comments thought about do yeah so we we do utilize The Outdoor Learning environments that are in the school so at Bear Tavern there's the area where they read and with book stumps and the different not PR stump um um and the gardens but um it is definitely something that we're working towards Partnerships we already have Partnerships so for example how Farm um has been a partner with us for many years yes and the Watershed is another a great part that we have that we provide these outoor opportun for our children okay right moving on to climate action um and Dr L been you were there as well you attended this last meeting or who who attended it there was one board member it was you right okay I was like I'm putting you at the meeting I'm so you can tag team with me um so we had two board members there and um parents students um we had very well attended some members of of Eco PTO were also available right now the climate action committee has been going around to the different subcommittees of the board sharing their recommendations in the large very large strategic plan that the kids came up with um with recommendations the boards are is deciding which pieces we can Implement right away and what things we still have to research and look into um we are currently working with um uh the climate action committee uh with uh identifying green applications for busing which are working with uh Mr Cavita um to to apply for I don't know if we'll get them but we're applying for those as well uh so they shared all of the recommendations with that in that meeting um that they've made to the board in a snapshot and we're now talking about strategically how do we break that down into chunks and bring it to the board is there anything else that I missed in that conversation no I mean it was just awesome to see the the student energy um at the table and um some have are some have been participating in this conversation for a while so that was really excellent and um they're well organized and breaking up into committees and um kind of doing the research work uh so it was it was great kickoff and some of the changes we've already started to implement so we're really impressed with all of their work um and on another note we have the New Jersey Department of Agriculture coming to visit our cafeterias Bob you want to share a little bit about that some of that the kids had some input on um yeah yeah they're they're coming to honor uh it's more of our food service company for what they're doing with um farmed school and they're going to be coming tomorrow with the commissioner of Education not the commissioner of Education depart the commissioner of uh agriculture coming and some elected officials they haven't said who the elected officials are yet but they'll be coming tomorrow morning at timberlan at uh 10 o'clock and I just talk and to view our lunch and I want to thank um ponum again because the kids came with a list of Demands and they were able to implement quite a few of them and even add some meatless days to the menu getting rid of a lot of the uh single package things um they have really been open to to um working with the children to make sure that that we're doing the best we can to be sustainable in our cafeterias awesome all right pitching it over to Dr llon for policy okay thank you um so the policy committee met on October 4th and we briefly reviewed a few policies that are on deck for next month and then we made revisions to some policies that are up for first reading today and you'll see those in your agenda um so I'm just going to start with a brief overview of the policies that are on deck for next month and then we'll move into the first reading um so next month we're going to be looking at the staff and teacher dress code policy so our district does not currently have a policy related to employees dress this actually isn't fired under New Jersey law but it is recommended as sort of a best practice that Boards of education do adopt address code policies to really assist in establishing expectations for the address of teaching and support staff members in the schools um so we are looking to put this policy in place but we want to make sure that we do so with a very participatory process and that we acknowledge that different types of staff may have different dress needs so we really want people to have the opportunity to weigh based on their job responsibilities um so we've engaged some District staff who are Curr currently reviewing some draft language and making recommendations that we'll review next month in committee we also intend to incorporate language ensuring that there are protections for cultural DRFT as well as natural hairstyles um also in November coming up we'll be reviewing policy 5756 which is our transgender and non-conforming students policy so this policy provides that students who identify as transgender be treated equally and fairly um the policy was last reviewed back in 2016 but we've gotten some required revisions from the state since then and there was also a request that came out of uh public comment at the last board meeting so we will be reviewing that at the next meeting and then the last thing that I'll say is this past June the New Jersey state inter Scholastic Athletic Association passed a proposal requiring that its member school districts adopt a spectator code of conduct policy um during this school year so this is an effort to really promote good sportsmanship at athletic events and ensure that our students have a healthy plane environment um so we will also be reviewing language uh for that policy all right so before we move on to the policies up for first read policy committee colleagues do you have anything to add to that okay okay so can I please have a motion in a second to bring policy and regulation 5350 student suicide prevention and bylaw 143.5 high school student representative to the board of education of RSE raing a little more enthusiasm guys okay get late okay um so a little bit of background so policy and regulation 5350 student suicide prevention lays out the district's requirements in process around suicide prevention among its students so um the state law was recently revised to include new requirements related to training staff around youth Suicide Prevention as well as staff's obligation to report when they may have information that a student intends to harm themselves so the committee reviewed the current student suicide prevention policy and regulation which was last revised in 2018 really to ensure that it aligns with the updated training and Reporting requirements outlined in state law as well as what's known to be best evidence and best practice around youth Suicide Prevention a lot has changed since 2018 in this area so as you look through the the policy and regulation here among the major changes that you'll see um the committee did revise the policy and regulation to align better with the current evidence and with the American foundation for suicide prevention's model school policy on suicide prevention which really does highlight what we know to be best practices in this area area we've modified the purpose statement to indicate that the focus of the policy is to protect the health and well-being of our students uh we updated the processes outlined in the policy and regulation to align with current practice in the schools and also what's known to be best practice in the field and then we also included a requirement for a district level Suicide Prevention coordinator which will be uh a role that's filled by Miss rut who was here earlier who's our District's new supervisor of counseling does anybody have any questions or comments about this policy or regulation M yeah I I um I have a concern uh I mean our mission is to empower kids and a lot of the the ideation that's associated with suicide and related kinds of of activities or or experiences is based upon helplessness and I'm just want to have have you considered the the the sort of support or learn you learning experiences that that generate the kind of agency the kids can can develop if if they're given a chance and I you know I I don't know all I haven't read all the all the the literature that you have on the on what the schools are are supposed to be doing but it seems to me that if we could um like we're supposed to be doing empowering kids and helping them understand and and and deal with their own kinds of of um helplessness circumstances situations feelings Etc that there might be some some things to be to to be gain some some gains from that with our with our students I think that's a a great comment so are you just a clarification are you thinking of curricula or sort of learning sort of above and beyond what we're implementing as part of oural package I I'm thinking of it's not well yes it would be beyond the the current seal PR package um but it's not it's not that it's not that extreme I mean it's it's uh actually right now I'm talking to um one of the principles about how to to they might generate a better agency producing environment um and you know I I I think that it's not that big a deal but it needs to be some degree of focus that allows us to help these kids use theal stuff we're getting to incorporate that into their understanding of of of of their own power you know to give give them a sense of their power and and how it could be used in order to to deal with the problem but there's a lot to be discussed thank you appreciate it anyone else have any questions or comments okay um so we have one more document up for first read so this is bylaw 43.2 um high school student representative to the board of education so this bylaw authorizes the appointment of a student representative to the Boe who serves for one uh full school year uh this bylaw was last adopted in October 2022 and the policy committee uh made revisions to this policy in order to really more meaningfully integrate student voice into our board discussions by ensuring active participation in full board meetings and committee meetings were applicable um we're suggesting that these changes become effective in September 2025 so the start of next school year so a few revisions that I'll just note here and you can you can see the edits in your agenda as well we added more detailed duties and expectations to the role of the student representative like attend ending committee meetings when matters relevant to students are on the agenda and then we also added language to really help Shore up this position as a liaison between the student body and the board um so for example we added some processes to help ensure more bidirectional communication between the board and the student body through this position so does anybody have any questions or comments related to this bylaw out I want what I felt is for that what I [Music] wanted I love really something that our about I don't think students right and I and conversely I don't think for example you know it says here develop what is that isue this is what's going right but you could also a or right within High SCH it's actually and that's we want going the other way right educate all including are something but I really feel that that part is missing there's no but I don't think it gets sufficiently specific about this is what I want to I want to say ditto to everything that Dr Resnik said but I'm I'm always I I mean this is about giving voice to to students that are going to be citizens in a very short time as Mr Kia can can recom uh but is it possible to actually give them a vote in on on the board is that against the law or is that we did discuss it at length I think due to the nature of some of the decisions that the board makes particularly when you think think about decisions related to faculty staff um the discussion was that it might not be appropriate for them to be a voting member um and could create sort of dynamics that could be Del deleterious to them I guess um so I think that's something that we were considering but we did talk about it actually and you know what I said I said I'm goingon to channel Dr Wilson for a second here and I'm gonna say I and I'm GNA say I think he's going to want them to have a vote so but maybe it could be conditional or I mean or in certain respect right yeah yes and it is nonbinding on us right but it provides a need for us to request that for student body to be able figure out the way provide and it also establish we oh he said I could go we Mar got it um I want to challenge us because it does say in here the appointment of a minimum of one student selected by the student body um but I'd like to challenge us to have more than one student and to ensure that we're hearing a diversity of voices we get the same kind of student representative at least for the three years that I've been here which is usually our best and brightest I'm like nothing against our best and brightest but all students should have a voice and they are a small population of our school so I like to hear the voices of many different types of our students because I want everyone to be represented in our school did you know I I'm oh I in a very small minority and that's I think part of yeah and so having that's I like so yeah no no I just want so I want to address a couple of things one of them was um I really do love the idea of having it be multiple students because I can tell you from my years in the student body it was definitely you know the same people who are running in student government and NHS and it's the same crowd right and you do really get a biased opinion and understanding of what student body needs are so having multiple students is really I think a great idea um something I do think is important to consider and we talked about this was potentially transitioning from a direct vote from the students and having it be more of a an appointment and interview process from the um building principal from Principal Riley just because you know from my experience when principal Smith was there it was she had a real gauge on who the students were that were a capable of managing some of the responsibilities that we're now adding but also were able to take on you know this this endeavor of being kind of a in a pretty difficult situation in having to communicate with the board and also a student um something else I did want to talk about in terms of voting giving student you know an ability to vote um something we did really consider from the start was was that we want to make sure that the student that is in this position is not open to the same criticism and potential harm that we as board members based from the community we can all take it on the chin we're all elected we're all technically public officials but you know a 16 17 yearold who maybe just wants to really help their Community they shouldn't be um you know answering to the same criticism that we do so I think that was also something we were keeping in mind as we were adding different responsibilities to make sure that protected um and that their work doesn't become something that the public just openly yeah so I I want to I want to Shadow Dr Wilson and myself too um sometimes our students will raise to the amount of responsibility we give them and sometimes it's those students that are most overlooked that those opportunities have the greatest impact on so I guess you know when we're talking to our PR like that's I don't have a comment I was calling I was interrupting to get let you talk yeah so I'm just I'm just curious on this I think this is all sounds interesting is there a is there a problem we're trying to solve right now that I'm just not aware of yeah all right can you just like give me a 30 second on that okay I think that some of us and look I initiated this with the help of my colleague duv really feel that we ought to be thinking about how we can better incorporate student voice and many of the policies that we pass many of the discussions that we have directly impact our students and that voice is often not present at the table and so I think we feel that this would be one way to better integrate the perspectives of students into the decisions that we make and um and I don't think that was said at the beginning that this will go into place next year because we have a student that's been elected that's agreed to a certain thing all right and this is a lot more than she agreed to so so I would just I thank you so can I also provide answer to your question sure then can I respond yeah you go so so so I will add to the so the other part of it right to dit to everything that other part of the problem try to solve try get what honest h i mean that's a that would be a very low bar I think way higher than that but I yeah very good point and let me that correct right it that have been really job of what was described what job I think this is touching we want to change expectations theyve done yes and that's your point is well taken yes that's not what I yeah y yes you're absolutely right can I just do my follow real quick okay um I I think this is awesome I think this is uh much needed I think it echoes the sentiment that we're talking about is transparency amongst the community I will Echo the esteemed vice president sitting next to me on the fact that if we're going to do this I would strongly recommend we do it on equitability and different types of students having a seat at this table and do it in a way that we can hear all voices from all places and I think that's going to be challenging for us but I think we're up to the challenge to do it and could I just is this thing on I think it is I moved it all the way down here so I feel like I should at least uh speak into it at this point I just wanted to Echo I mean I'm you know the other member of the committee here and I think Drew and I should say Mr Kia and Dr Lon very well articulated a lot of these Chang I just wanted to sort of publicly say you know I've been doing this for a few months now and this is one of my couple of committees and they're both terrific I just want to compliment you particular Dr L and Dr T throws a lot at us and you really you know as far as this committee goes you come you you drive us to come up with some really great policies and I think this is represented with both of the ones that we're talking about tonight so I just wanted to ACC you on that and thank you for all your hard work because like I said I know she throws a lot of hard work at us and you do a great job moving everything forward so thank you for that I think we're good on this okay so um all in favor say I and any opposed or abstaining okay all right moving on to Calendars our favorite we're going to need a first and second to um for calendar oh wait I do that every time I'm good right so go ahead and go through your list yes one down I am 111 uh no three I I have three to four is the lightest I can do 3 to four would be the best if it at the afternoon okay he's not in there do the quot 18 go back the seventh MH late uh okay so four for Poli back when did they have 14th a so yeah so I can do it in the we can do it 11 after okay we're all done all right uh all in favor any any staining no okay I guess I just did a purge all right um we're going to move into our final public comment um for this evening members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting you are asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Ed 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 matters researched by The District administration public comment is now open Kate ham Pennington um I just wanted to remark on a comment that I heard you make Dr T to a member of the audience um saying that you may uh tap them up for communication throughout the district and just to remind some of you or let some of you know that seven years ago I moved to this district and I said that communication was atrocious between the board and the administration with that I with the then superintendent created the key communicator Committee of which one of these board members sat on alongside me I have asked for its return to no avail and so again I would implore you the community is out there they want to help they want to share their input um that's the reason that I a new person here in this District who immediately saw the need for it we acted on it had a committee until the previous superintendent left so I would encourage you again to talk about Revitalize whatever it is that you would like to call it but the community wants to provide input if only you allow them all right um Addison Al Pennington so thanks again for letting me uh talk and share share my experiences with you um so so far what I'm here hearing back I came here I said I want you I have some things that I need that are in violation of District policies and then what I'm hearing back is those things that you want are in violation of District policy so so far so good we are 100% on the same page but I'm here at the Boe to ask you to change District policies so it's changes in District policies that have made it so the team can't function anymore we we've been operating in the gray area for too long we had to surrender our keys a while ago and there's no provision for for any way to get back in a swipe card would be fantastic you can computerize it you can control when we're there you keep track of who's there we would be more secure if we had a formal way kind of aboveboard way that we all agree on the district the Boe everybody agrees on to let us be where we are if you don't want us to be where we are that's a different thing okay so and I'm going to finish up with an anecdote from my dad who was a chemistry professor for many years and he would teach a summer class with teaching assistants he hated teaching assistants they were bright they're energetic they're brilliant but they didn't know they' never T before in his words they could undo a Year's worth of teaching in five minutes and so the antidote for that was training he sits down his teaching assistant before every class says here's the items that we have to worry about this is where they're going to go wrong these are the things to keep your eye on and so that's when I talked to Steve I mean I can understand why you're reaction of oh we're from the public we're here to volunteer would be oh my God that's a liability right I do understand that you know both my parents are lifetime educated um but robotics programs will not work without volunteers we've always had volunteers we've had volunteers from BMS and from Johnson and Johnson in the early days now it's more and more parent but if if we're trying to project a way to make sustainable robotics programs in every High School school which we need then we've got to have a vision for how do we process these this enthusiasm and turn it into something that's actually helpful for the district okay so let's try to think about that okay goodn B Township just a couple quick things um that I wasn't able to get around the first time we are still waiting for an after school program that suits our special education students um we have a wide ariety of students that cannot be supported through our after school YMCA program which creates an undue stress on those families that need it um I know we talked about some busing for the kids that required to potentially stay for an after school in uh academic support I'm wondering how we're going to fit that into our budget um and my last thing was to Dr L listen I am super excited about adding potentially more students in Jackie um but I would love to work colle collaboratively with you and with M dardo and with our superintendent to kind of roll in some of our non-traditional students into that um from our special ed program because we really do hit the entire District thanks so much um yeah I just I was really glad to see that you're having the book discussion on anxious Generation Um I just as a grandparent I found myself falling into the Trap of being anxious about my grandkids and when I read the book it really it was like a transformative book for me um and I just am very very encouraged that you're doing this and and very grateful so just a couple of questions um I didn't know you were doing it it was just because a friend uh emailed it to me and I was able to respond so how are you advertising this uh will you be advertising it in the library Aries uh other ways that will attract more people because it is a transformative book um would it be something you might consider for a professional development day for the teachers because again um Echo PTO it dovetails with what they're talking about it dovetails with seal it dovetails with the the amount of counseling that children require today that could be reduced possibly because of the things that he says in this book um so I just want to encourage you to utilize this opportunity to get the word out to the community to the teachers to people because it is a book that really could help this District in so many ways from budget to seal to Better Health for our students to Suicide Prevention to everything that we come here and talk about and if you care about kids this book is something that you should really encourage every staff member to read and everyone who's a parent to take an opportunity to come so I thank you for it and I just hope that you can advertise it so that not just 35 people come but 135 or 235 maybe you're going to need it to move up to the high school and have a lot of tables around for people to talk so please advertise it get the word out there Julie cesary again uh Pennington um so I've been coming up here for a few months now and talking about generally the same things and generally hearing the same answer is that yes we have all the data that we know that kids need more time outside and they need more time in free play and that you know rigorous academics maybe isn't so great at the young age but we have to do what the state tells us to do and with all of this information that we have from books from studies like very well documented like why isn't the state listening who needs to hear this because everyone I talk to agrees um that especially the little kids need a vastic vast drastically different education um so who can I go to talk to if if if you guys are stuck because the state won't won't let us do what our children need for their physical and mental health then who in the state needs to hear it like who exactly do I need to go to because I can't seem to figure it out and um there's there are so many parents who who feel hopeless because it seems like everyone agrees but nobody's doing anything about it or like people are doing things about it but they're not the simple answers that we actually need they're other things that like look good on paper and packaged up so you know who we are supposed to talk to please tell us CU we don't thank you um Luis Martinez from Hill Township just a a quick comment on the student representative um I like the idea of making it more like a you know job application essentially I do think it's a great opportunity for young people to kind of learn what that process looks like be part of an organization um and and I think you know maybe what what some companies do I like the idea of having more than one creating maybe more of a rotational program maybe a couple of focus areas that you want more feedback on um so that they have more of a focused role and you know I can keep it in mind that they're students they have a lot of responsibilities and I know we want to expand their you know kind of what they do but I can't I remember those days where like the D 5 a classes and there's a lot of other things going on in their life so I'm trying to balance that out so I do think you know having more than one but also just making maybe make it a rotation where like they do more of an assignment with you based on like what you're doing what you're trying to accomplish throughout the year and they're with you for a few months but they're able to do some meaningful projects with you that you can you know put in the resume that they did this and they completed it and also kind of move on give somebody else a chance but I think that the fact that you have a an application process also encourages certain people that um you know are uh in a situation where like they're really passionate about climate or they're really pass something that aligns to what you already are trying to do so any but I really Echo what everyone else say so I don't want to repeat that but uh um yeah thank you so I think you should get a special ed student because I think there's some board members who need to learn a little bit about special ed so I think those students can tell you namely one Ros who can uh fill you in and the teachers in the high school allette our teachers would be monumentally wonderful in assisting these students to come up and I know I Aaron Lee would love to have one of those students because they buddy up or some I I don't know what it's called they do buddying up at the high school I think I think these kids are well prepared to go out with everyone in the future like most adults in our generation are not well I guess this is the first I don't have to ask is there anybody else because we've all gone twice no a good check check check awesome okay where would you like to start DR TR okay on there we go okay um Miss ham U Mr Martinez um all of you the great feedback thank you we'll take all all of your feedback into consideration I saw people taking notes um over um the C so I don't have an answer right now for the special at after school program um and some of the other suggestions uh that came up came about um including robotics I should put that in there as well what I was doing when I was texting and emailing is is reaching out to the adviser and the principal so that we can meet and talk about robotics because that's not something we can solve in this set setting here there are some things structurally we we cannot do because of security reasons we've changed the way that we operate even with our subs and student teachers who are with our kids um but you know there's we can resolve this so we just need to sit down and and talk um but for the rest of you thank you for your feedback we'll we'll look at an opportunity unities to include more parent voice um to uh to um absolutely look at ways that we can have more uh student voice here in our board as well um moving forward there was a question about how are we paying for the buses we're using title monies for that I believe and that comes and goes whether we have it um the way we're going we're probably will have it so but um uh that's how we're paying for that I think I covered everything did I miss anything some of these we're going to have to just work on oh and the anxious generation yes so uh Mrs C we we actually sent a letter an invite out to all of the parents and guardians of our children preschool through 12th grade um and that's where we we've started we've actually had discussions at the administrative level because this book is so powerful I agree with you and um the next phase is to have our staff involved in in a book read as well so that's where that's where we are my goal and what I would love is for us to have it at the high school so I am hoping we're going to sending out through the I believe it's the focus Dr tce correct you're sending it out through the focus I'm sorry yes it's been out in the focus and then I'll send another blast out through my office in the next week or two yeah and that emails every parent but you know some people are kind of deleting their emails the book is hard to get a copy of right now is what we're hearing too um so if um I think we still have a couple of copies upstairs so if there's anybody who wants it here tonight before before we go to Executive session I can go up and and grab um what we have left here um there was a question about who to talk to at the state about the the more play um the New Jersey Department of Ed your elected officials they're bound a lot by some federal mandates but some of a lot of this is decided um just like we've gotten all kinds of mandates passed because people have lobbied their Congress people and and their representatives or Senators um that's the way I would go with that but we'll keep doing what we can to get kids offline as much as we can as well and there was one more did I get one no you okay and then we covered the anxious generation yes okay any other comments from the board before we close out public comment okay public comment is now closed um any items for new business okay seeing none we um need a first and second to move into executive session to dis thank you um to discuss uh harassment in uh Hib matters as well as Personnel matters um for employee 4018 action no action will be taken first and second all in favor any opposed or abstaining all right open session is now closed um and since no votes will be taken after we thank you for your attendance and participate full participation [Music]