Dr genov AC Mr kadia here Dr Liston here Dr Lou Mr Peters Dr Resnik Mr slotman M Williams gallano Dr Wilson here 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 provision 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 hopeful Valley News and the times on January 4th 2024 this meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon F the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meeting 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 hbr rsd.org members of the public who intend to participate in any public comment we ask that you sign in prior to speaking this will assist us with our recording okay I need a first and a second to approve the minut um for February 20th work session meeting as well as regular meeting all in favor any opposed or pass okay we would love to hear our report from our student representative Hannah should say missu hello is it on um now that we're over halfway through the month of March we are almost finished with the third marking period hopo students recently attended the state competitions for Deca and fbl and based on their achievements at the competitions we have four students who will be competing at the national Deca conference and eight students competing at the national FBLA conference um earlier this month several seniors went back to Stony Brook Elementary and Bear Tavern Elementary to participate in read Across America events and they're also looking forward to helping with the elementary school field days later this year um this Friday the freshman class will be hosting their freshman semiformal um our physics classes began the conquer of the Hill competition today where all students who are taking physics build a model vehicle and compete in a bracket style competition um this competition has been in existence at Hope for decades and it's something that everyone looks forward to each spring spring Sports began last week and over 300 students are participating in baseball softball golf tennis volleyball lacrosse track and UniFi track and finally with the end of the marking period being next week the student council has been planning the spirit week and the spring pep rally thank you awesome thank you to any questions from the board okay I just learned that wow [Applause] congratulations indeed so to keep you in con Cornell you are more than welcome to leave us and always welcome to stay Thank you again okay I will forego my report today and pass to Dr I hope everyone had a happy uh St Patrick's Day I know I enjoy the uh the Bulldog Dash at the high school um with our class we had a great turnout this weekend so I got to to do a run before I ate my um my traditional um Irish meal well I kind of southernization guests I do have some comments um but we do have a lengthy uh agenda including our um ssds report that Mr Deano is here to give us which is stands for our student uh safety data systems report that we're required to report to the community um to let you know how we're doing uh with student safety um Miss Smith is not here with us tonight but she's phoning in um to help with that report and then I also have a few more words to say uh before we um do the budget conversation that we have planned for this evening but without further Ado I want to shout out some of our distinguished guests we have a number of students here we probably miscalculated and should have used a community room next time we'll do better um but uh we have some of our visual Performing Arts that I'll defer to um principal Riley to introduce to you and I also have two very distinguished uh Boy Scouts here that are here to receive their Communications badge Harrison um can I get a wave and also Charlie I won't make you say a public public statement I know I threatened that earlier but you don't have to say anything but we're going to try to demonstrate for you how to engage at a board meeting civil all right we're going to do that tonight okay as we talk about budget budget gets a little hairy though we'll do our best all right with that being said Miss Riley if you can introduce Our Guest here tonight oh that works Mr Umstead supervisor of visual Performing Arts thank you for joining us thank you Dr tce President William gallano members of the board um administrative colleagues um who are here as well I also want to take a moment also to thank staff members from my department who have come here tonight um to join me in recog recognizing the students that I'm excited to to introduce to you soon um and I want to thank members of our community especially our parent Community who have come here also in support of the wonderful students that I I get to highlight this evening I want to take you for I want to thank you for the time I appreciate it I know as referenced by Dr T the amount of time and um that is involved with with running uh such a wonderful School District um so we appreciate your efforts and appreciate this time um but I do believe it's very much aligned with what you do and with what you care about which is highlighting um the strengths and successes of our students and that's why I am so appreciative when I spoke to Dr tce about the possibility of bringing some students forward and that you were open to doing that so thank you so the students that I want to share with you tonight um and introduce are just a small segment of a really wonderful group of students that spend time in Central High School um timberling middle school and of course we have our wonderful Elementary School students who are also moving in a direction of defining themselves as artists and Performing artists U but the students that I have um that I'm excited to introduce to you today are students who not only have worked within the structures of our system here in hopo Valley providing us with opportunities to enjoy their wonderful talents through what we offer as far as cour work and extracurricular work so in addition to the you you know the the joy we receive um as we encounter our students in the marching band um concerts plays musicals Etc we have the opportunity and I know that many of the students that I'm going to be introducing to you um have graced us with their talents in those areas but the students that I'm highlighting tonight um really have demonstrated an interest initiative and a sense of challenging themselves to go farther um so in addition to their very successful backgrounds in the academics um successful um academic Excellence that they are achieving in classrooms across our schools um and in addition to the work that they're doing again um with our programs and with extracurriculars these students have actually gone farther that they have challenged themselves by auditioning outside of our school district and so again in the state of New Jersey thankfully we have a very robust um support for the Arts across the state and the nation and some of these students as I said have looked for opportunities to develop themselves go take that extra step and have been successfully placed in a variety of those very challenging consider again the interest across the state of New Jersey P population density that is New Jersey there's a lot a lot of interest and there were a lot of students that were auditioning for a very few spots and so it is my pleasure to be able to introduce to you the students that um I'm highlighting uh along with their teachers for the efforts and the successes that they've had so I'm going to we have certificates I'm going to invite if I may miss Morse and um Mr schwarzer who are joined us and any other teachers who are here they're not going to speak because we don't we know how busy you are but I would like them to be here to be recognized for the supports that they [Applause] provide thank and so I have certificate I'm hoping up the order in which the certificates are in the folder and uh students as you come up I'm thinking that perhaps you could um greet the members of this um of of of our our department your teachers and then if it's okay with you we'll go right around the tables and just have them shake hands with each of you um and then we'll have you go back to your seats okay so we're going to start off in the area of vocal performance and at Central High School we have a student om Sharma I'd like to recognize you um for being placed in at all state vocal Jazz [Applause] choir Connor bden all state vocal Jazz choir and Region 2 Honor [Applause] Choir think so I think they're just gonna go right back to their thank you though um switching into the next area of focus is in the area of theater and d uh theater and dance uh the students that I'm show uh going to call to the to the front now our students who have participated by auditioning and sending audition materials in to the New Jersey um thespian society and these students have achieved the rating of superior which is close to impossible to get however we have quite a few who have here in hopo Valley first I'd like to introduce Jack Elliot who is a superior thespian for the state of New Jersey also Kayla Reber I'm not sure who is here or isn't but Kayla thank you wonderful also a superior we have is Jacob Brown I'm also pleased to recognize Rachel [Applause] Thornton we also have Rose andreski all right wonderful thank you all right so this final group of students have excelled in the area of instrumental music so we have a variety again there's um band and Orchestra students that are part of this group and I'm so pleased to share that toward the end I'll be noting two specific individuals who are from timberlan middle school who have gone forward in this process um in the inter intermediate level and achieved success but first we're going to start with Central High School and I'd like to call Ivan ponic up if of here and I want to recognize that uh Ivan was placed into the Central Jersey music educators Association Wind Ensemble um and then also at the state level the New Jersey um State Wind Ensemble so that was Ivan well done how about Aaron Lee Aaron Lee also placed into the Central Jersey mea Wind Ensemble and the state level njmea symphonic band um I have mean Kashi [Applause] r m Kashi also placed Central Jersey music educat Association symphonic band and at the state level symphonic band as well okay I'd like to invite up Elizabeth Kim Elizabeth Kim also placed into the Central Jersey music educators Association symphonic band and the state symphonic band as well okay I'm going to introduce uh a student who is excelled in the area of piano um we have a uh um 2024 International Talent hunt competition for piano we have a recognized winner and that is Chelsea [Applause] Roberts okay next I'd like to invite up Arena cows who was the New Jersey region Orchestra and it placed within that group um for 2023 24 um also part of the All State Orchestra um in the area of string base [Applause] AR I'm pleased to introduce Daniel R [Applause] Ravi Danielle is the winner of the crescendo music competition for violin okay and we wrap up with two middle school students that I'd like to introduce um we have a uh student placed into the Central Jersey M uh music educators Association re Region 2 Intermediate wind emble for um playing the alto saxophone he's uh placed at second chair which is amazing considering the the level of those that audition um and that's Ivan r singi come on [Applause] upan and and then finally our final honory this evening from also from timberlan Middle School uh she is a student that was placed in Central Jersey Jersey museum music educators Association intermediate region chamber orchestra and her name is Stella [Applause] evini so to close I just want to thank you for your time um and again I know how busy you are you've got much to consider even this evening as you're considering budget um and all that's implied there I do want to thank you again for the support that you provide to our um not only to our department to our community and our world through the support of the Performing Arts our students are richer because of what you do and what you do so thank you all I appreciate your time congratulations students okay just just really quickly we we are going to try to do a picture out in the hallway and I just want to take a quick opportunity to say thank you to our staff who nurture these amazingly gifted indivual idual and thank you all for coming out we appreciate getting to meet you and also anytime you want to perform at yes please do know we thoroughly enjoy that as well thank you thank you to the the teachers also for coming out tonight thank you so much thank you for inspiring our students hang we'll take a quick a quick few minutes um for the audience and we'll be right back [Music] what have to go to a for e done they're coming I'm sure they they chatting okay want to call everybody back thank you all for being efficient all right we're going to go ahead and move on to our next agenda item is public hearing on the special um opportunity for public comment on the 2023 24 period one report of violence vandalism and uh AB substance abuse excuse me so we'll have a report and then um I'll open Us in public comment separately all right thank you very much uh my name is Dand Stefano I am the supervisor of School counseling in the district um so most of the people in the room I think have heard this presentation a couple times but I know we have a couple of of new board members so I'm going to uh talk and review um our ssds system uh which also involves our Hib investigation and reporting procedures um we will also present numbers and statistics from the first half of the school year from September through December so that's what the state denotes as reporting period one um and then in the fall we do the presentation again and that's the full year for reporting periods one and two uh the next slide contains a screenshot of the ssds form that all the schools fill out um after um certain types of incidents so ssds stands for student safety data system um and uh the the the types of incidents noted on this form require um submission to to the state um the second page uh includes an overview of our uh restraint and restraint and seclusion uh statistics um we don't practice the seclusion portion but we we we have a safety cares uh program in place for the restraint portion um it's worth noting that that safety carees training is a full twoe full two-day staff training um which any staff who's going to be uh certified to to use safety cares is required to participate in and then there's one full day of training annually um to to kind of reup that certification um you know while uh restraint is in the title of the of of what we're doing here it's it's also worth focusing on uh the fact that safety cares is really about deescalation and avoiding any sort of restraint um you know if we if we're ever thinking about doing this we're dealing with somebody who's who's um having a having a quite a moment and often in danger of hurting themsel or hurting somebody else um so anybody who's trained in safety cares knows how to try to deescalate that situation um before it reaches the point of of of an adult putting hands on a child because that's obviously um the last the last thing we want to do um but if we do do it we have we have a lot of um really thoughtful uh procedures in place uh to ensure that we're doing it in a in a sensitive way um and that we're again working to deescalate and not escalate this uh this uh slide here shows the total number of suspensions uh and expulsions although expulsions is is thankfully zero U the total number of of suspensions in in the school district um this year uh it is worth noting that um the number of suspensions and the number of incidents don't necessarily match up so when a student is disciplined or or punished for some thing they've done it could include uh two days out of school and and three days in school suspension um so that that would count on this uh this slide twice while it would only be counting on the list of incidents once so that the numbers don't necessarily match up one to one I just wanted to point that out and these numbers are down the number the out of school suspension is down slightly from this time last year when it was 17 the in school suspensions is up slightly from last year at this time you see a lot of numbers on this slide along the top you have all the different types of incidents that would um be considered student safety data system entries um so anything from violence vandalism substances weapons uh any type of harassment intimidation and bullying and any restraints or any time that that safety cares restraint training um needed to be utilized um the the terms violence and vandalism can both be kind of uh confusing or or not completely descriptive so just wanted to expand on those terms the term violence in the state's definition refers to assaults kid assaults fights kidnapping robbery or extortion sexual assault or conduct and threats it also includes threats of violence not just acts of violence themselves the term vandalism can refer to arson computer trespassing damage of property false public alarm theft and TR pass so not just what you would typically think of as as vandalism of you know graffiti or or damaging property the substance abuse numbers also do not include our random drug screenings which we do um so those numbers are are not included if these are students who are found under possession or under the influence in school um and then the the two Hib columns Hib confirmed and Hib alleged um the those numbers add together to the total number of Hib investigations that we would have conducted so the alleged is not included in the confirmed they're two separate columns in terms of the specifics on some of those incidents uh under vandalism we had an instance of theft at timberlan we have an instance of trespassing at the high school violence we had two fights at the high school one at timberlan one simple thread at the high school um we did a behavioral team assessment there and it was not a credible threat that that was founded zero weapons which is good and um there were three instances of possession at the high school possession of substances I should say okay this slide gives a snapshot of a four is that fiveyear total I'm sorry um which with each type of instance as noted on the bottom um you can see that our um our substance uh abuse number is down this year which is a good thing no we no weapon instances it's another good thing um so this just allows you to see uh how this how this progressed over the years and you can see that weird 20 to 21 year obviously where the numbers were super skewed because because the children were not in school the next few slides are are pretty busy lots of words um but I'm going to review a lot of the programming and um effort that we have in place in our school buildings to uh with the wellness of our students in mind um so everything from the the student wellness center with that Miss Riley created at the high school this year um we have a a district drug and alcohol awareness team awareness committee um we run a webinar series called parent University uh and that's with the help of our Ruckers ubhc clinician who we have on staff in the district and um she'll touch on a number of different different topics throughout the school year based on um based on what we're seeing really and and where we see a need for uh for programming um the next program coming up is focusing on on young people and their their use of uh of the devices which I think is a really really hot issue right now um obviously we've we've recognized a lot of weeks and months um in in the first half of the year we have Suicide Prevention month we have Red Ribbon Week week of respect School violence Awareness Week all all within September and October um so we we do our our diligence in recognizing them during their denoted weeks and months but we try to focus on them and recognize them um all throughout the school year so that they're ingrained in in what we do um Timber leader outreaches throughout the year Red Ribbon Week was was the first example of that this school year we have we have a program called minding your mind that's been coming to the high school for years now to talk to our students about um Mental Health struggles anything from mental health itself to addiction um to substance use um real powerful presentations where real people from from The Real World come in and tell their stories um they're not telling other people's stories they're not they're not just preaching about what to do um they're they're people who've really gone through it and they they have a real way of connecting with their students and and making an impression uh we collect exit tickets from every student uh following these presentations uh which is what we really use to gauge the the impact that it's having and I'm just from reviewing those exit tickets after minding your mind this year it was clear that it really was hitting home and you know many students commented that it was the best assembly they'd had or the you know the best presentation of those of that type that they've had um with that in mind we we've introduced also kind Minds which is the elementary version of of minding your minds um so it's obviously um you know designed a little bit differently but it's it's um we've expanded that to the the elementary schools um just within the past couple of months here we conducted Vape takeback days at at the high school and the middle school in partnership with the prevention Coalition of of merer County um they do a lot of great work throughout the county they're part of um the uh um um uh the municipal Alliance I'm sorry they're part of the hopal Valley Municipal Alliance so what we we always get regular updates from them at those at those meetings and they've come in and do those Vape V Vape takeback days with us uh we did a mental health training for all coaches in the district during a January professional development day um we have science of suicide presentations to all nth grade students um just last month that that was conducted in in freshman Wellness classes uh and tomorrow is the first day of Teen Mental Health First AE which is going to be delivered to all of our 11th grade students once again in in their Wellness classes um that's a program we introduced last year and and it's it's really you know really powerful uh Matt Bellis comes in uh most Springs and presents to the uh Rising ninth graders when they come over to the high school for their eth to nth grade transition day so we're in the process of planning for that day um which is either may I have may there it's either May or June but he'll be he'll be in once again to present um to our eth and nth grade day eth Rising ninth graders all right um some things we have in place just ongoing every year um our student count student to counselor ratios are are very good in this District they're below the American school counselor Association recommendations of 250 to1 um there's a lot of states that are well above that number so I'm I'm proud that we're we're under it uh we have full-time student assistance counselors at the high school and the middle school as well as a full-time districtwide Student Assistance counselor who who travels to all of our buildings including the elementary schools um that allows us to provide another layer another tier of of counseling support for our students we have group counseling um offered at all levels um based on student need certain groups run almost every year and then certain groups come up organically and and counselors identify a need and um put together a a group um you know based on what they're seeing on the ground in the in the building um Alice obviously we have Alice school safety trainings for all students and staff every year District safety presentations for families school safety and climate teams um they meet in every building every year comprising of um teachers uh teachers counselors administrators uh there's always a parent on the school safety climate team uh and they work to discuss what's going on in the building what what what's everyone seeing and what type of uh programming might be necessary to to help our students um youth Mental Health First Aid training is also offered to um staff and families so that's a kind of like a a relative of the Teen Mental Health first aid program that we deliver to our 11th graders but that's made available to adults uh we have threat assessment teams in each building um they're they're trained through the the state's um procedures and they they meet throughout the school year to um to review what's going on in the building um faculty training around Hib in all of our buildings intimidation and bullying and we have a minimum of at least one uh anti-bullying specialist in each building um in addition to that we have a strong partnership with both the football Township Police Department and Pennington burough Police Department um I was able to um sit with them in the fall and and um get them you know up to date on all of our HIV laws and and procedures that we have in the district so that we can work uh work cooperatively with them I also wanted to mention uh it's not on the slides because it just came up the other day but we were invited to attend trainings on um a program called say something through the Sandy Hook promise organization um they've partnered with the New Jersey doe to uh put together a a prevention um program that I'm I'm really excited to hear more about U actually have an online training with them later this week and our our students assistant counselors will also be be attending that so um you know hopefully more to come on that but it it sounds promising and exciting oh there is one more slide sorry um we're continuing to unroll of the character strong seal curriculum throughout the school district um that's that was something that came from our seal committee uh which also plans our seal days the implementation of character strong Etc um ongoing throughout the school year we have a restorative justice program in partnership with the Mercer County prosecutor's office um so that's something that was unrolled at Timberlane this year um detective Webb comes in from the prosecutor's office and meets with a group of students um on a regular basis to train them and to to um teach them how to run um um uh restorative circles um so that students can provide that peer leadership after incidents um this training focuses specifically on incidents of bias that might occur in the school building um so DET uh detective Webb has been training our students and staff this school year um with the intent of them turn keying that training um on into the school building in in future years so that that program could remain in place um and we and um we've had talks of him coming uh to the high school to um to work with with the adults in the High School uh in the same capacity next school year so really excited about that um it's not the only restorative work that we do um we we focus on that especially in terms of like reaction to uh instances of harassment harassment intimidation and bullying um or after discipline referrals uh we we like to not just punish problems away or not just suspend or or give detention um in in isolation but also try to do work to make uh make those moments into uh teachable ones um so our our vice principls I was talking to um one of our vice principles this morning and he showed me um how they actually went through the entire student code of conduct and for every possible infraction they have a document where it links it directly to potential um restorative U practices that they can put in place educational components that they can have the students complete things like that um you know rather than a student just sitting idly in a detention or in a suspension if they have one then you know there's there's some good that can come out of that time too and they can actually be you know learn learning something um you know beyond obviously their normal SCH school work that they might be doing I already mentioned the safety cares training so I won't go over that anymore um Municipal Alliance I mentioned that too um one of the subcommittees of the municipal Alliance uh that we have in District here is the digital Wellness committee um which Heidi Kami runs and and um Dr tce and sits in the meetings with us as well and um you would really focus on how to dig in and help students with uh what's going on with those devices um because I think that's really the the biggest thing we have to worry about with our students I think um you know until we figure out how to really how to help students use technology the right way and how to help everybody use technology the right way um I think that's really like the foundation we need to build so that more good can be done beyond that but um you know I I I I honestly can't imagine what it's like as a teenager you know a middle school student to have that phone and to you know I used I remember in middle school I used to go home and close the door and I loved getting home and you know kind of just you know let's flush that day let's let's come home and reset um and you think about the kid now who they've got the phone in their hand and and it probably just gets worse when they get home right everybody is on their phones and um everything's um you know it's I digress but I think that's one of the areas that we really need to focus and the digital Wellness committee um focuses on that work uh we continue to have our air therapy dogs on site regularly in all of our buildings um Dr tce hosts her coffee in chat focus on different areas like substance abuse and school safety and mental health um and we do continue to see a reduction in the number of Vape alarms that we've seen at the high school this year um following an increase in the discipline and the student code of conduct so just a quick overview thank you very much um do anyone at the table have questions thank you for question sure so Alice is our um it's our school safety program that we use like it it it trains students teachers staff on what to do in all different types of situations um so whether it's a lockdown whether it's a shelter in place whether you know whatever um um you know whatever might need to be done in situation that's the training that everybody receives so they're able to navigate all that Alice is an acronym yeah it is it's uh alert lock down inform uh counter evacuate so those are the steps that students learn so it's an options based evacuation process as opposed to the what we back in the 80s which was just locked down and wait for somebody to get you it's option space behavioral behavioral health assessment team um so so if a student has made you know for instance a threat against the building or anything like that or another student that's a team that would convene to conduct and and um assess the student and The credibility of the threat that was made I just want me to take that I can take that one if you don't mind um so the um the restorative program that there's talking about the um Mercer County's Prosecutor Office for apprach not just hell but other school districts so Hamilton's also involved I believe they have groups going at ying and in West Windsor Plainsboro um students were able to volunteer to be part of these programs um we have um at the middle school right now we have about 10 students who have been trained in this work they meet every uh Tuesday with um with Detective web who trains has trained them to run restorative circles um the prosecutor's office right now uh every school has the obligation to report any bias incident so every time we have one of these harassment intimidation bullying reports that come to us and it's revolves a racially charged issue or a biased crime that could be a bias crime we have to report to them um they decided that they wanted to support us in the work of educating students not just punishing them so while we're reporting those to them we can say we want to actually run a restorative circle around this particular incident the students have to agree to participate the victim and the uh the person that is the alleged victim or the victim um if it's confirmed they have to agree to sit in this circle um this the students are trained to help them to come to a resolution and then the students decide what the consequences will be at the end um so it's been very powerful um I've watched the kids run about two or three two or three um of the restorative circles and the training between that and training and they really really don't lead it at all they just ask questions and they get them to decide on how they're going to correct the problem at the end of it very powerful now the if the student who is the perpetrator engages a second time in this then they do programming outside of us with Mercer County's prosecutor's office it's still therapeutic it's still learning the third time it might be something more stringent so that's how how it works they're hoping to expand it to the high school and Miss principal Riley is on board with that for next year you're welcome a couple quick questions um um thank you so much for this epth presentation and for answering my questions by email I really appreciate that um I did want to just follow up on dv's point here and say I really appreciate the fact that we're scaling up the Restort of J of program um I think there's a lot of evidence supporting restorative justice as a way to reduce out of school suspensions and so I look forward to seeing those numbers come down as we scale that up and use that in more places throughout our school system um I did have one question just following up on the data around restraint so one of the things that I had noticed is that last year um we had seen sort of throughout the whole school year there were 12 restraints among students and that number has jumped up quite a bit this school year and so um I know I followed up with you by email but that was really helpful context for me to hear so I'm wondering if either miss dinardo or or you Dr trce would be willing to just share a little bit about why are we seeing that jump in the numbers now absolutely so of the 18 restraints that we have documented there's actually been nine students across the district who have had um intense moments where staff um where the child was at risk of harming themselves or others and after a series of deescalation techniques that they follow through this safety care training um there was a danger and they had to put their hands on the child that could be um that a child was trying to elope a school they're trying to run out of the school um towards especially like if you think about Hope Elementary School you think about togate their Tavern even there's a little bit more space but not much they're running out towards the the road we have to go after them and we have to put our hands on them so that that was several of them and then we also of the 18 nine there were nine students so we've had had a couple children who have come to us um with some intense issues um and Trauma and we are working through that with them and um they've had a couple bad days um but I can report that they are they are really learning and doing well with us um so we are overly cautious we work very hard to communicate when we do have to to put our hands on our children we we complete a form we notify the parents that day and we share that form with the parents um full transparency because again our goal is just to keep them them safe and that they're safe thank you I really appreciate you sharing that um and then my last question um Mr dno for you is I I heard you mention that digital Wellness is really one of the areas you think we should be focusing our efforts and our energy on moving forward as we think about student safety in wellness and so I'm just curious thinking about this digital Wellness committee um do you anticipate any sort of policy recommendations coming out of that that we as a board could potentially think about implementing moving forward it's a very good question no no specific policy recommendations right now um I think that's that's the type of thing that we're always thinking about though is is what we can do to stay on top of of what we're seeing in our students um I don't have any specific polic policy recommendations though right now at this point uh we have been planning for the spring and different um presenters that we can you know partner with and and programming that we can put in place so thank you appreciate thank you okay anyone else before we go to public comment thank you Mr Stefano okay with that um we will have public comment specifically on um this report so I quickly read our so members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter from yeah oh sorry I did um members of the public are invited to address the board on specifically the uh the report for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent 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 public comment is now open and I'll defer to our timekeeper for any dire um just for anyone who hasn't made public comment um at 30 seconds I will hold up yellow and when your time is up I will hold up red and that's for all public comments any comments okay okay all right seeing no comments we will close this public comment session um we're going to go ahead and move on to the presentation and Adoption of the 2024 tenative undor tenative budget and special opportunity for public comment following this oh yes I will okay Dr trece um did you have any comments leading in just as a PR preface to um the the budget uh conversation and this is separate from the referendum conversation tonight this is this is the the budget for the upcoming school year um this is a time of year that I work very closely with my building level Administration uh Central offices um as we uh come up with and we strike this proposal for the budget that we're presenting to the Board of Education tonight um the slides that Mr Cav will be sharing with you um should be somewhat familiar but we now have our state aid numbers um so that we were able to give you a a full budget tonight on what our proposal is based on what we've been allotted uh by the state which those uh numbers came out um recently um we we CL we plan to keep most of what we hold dear here in this District um it has come to us clearly through um both the surveys that you've uh answered for us um comments that we've had in our strategic planning sessions comments in our emails comments that we've had in public session that the things that we have here in Hopewell are priorities for the district th those uh students that we honored tonight those programs that we have in place that uh provide those the extensive programming that we have in place to make sure that our students are safe and that we build a climate um that is welcoming for all students as best we can um that that is what we're talking about tonight maintaining those priorities and the cost for maintaining those those priorities which are very unique to hopwell and quite frankly um are not offered in a lot of districts around us so I I just want you to keep in mind that with all those things as we're listening tonight um and remain open uh to what we're presenting um everyone working here tonight is committing to maintaining the district's Prestige repres uh reputation the um the rigor that's here um and we'll also provide the rec the rationale behind our recommendations and why the cost is is what it is um we're open to your comments and feedback so um we'll also leave an opportunity for public comment after this report as well gooded okay so tonight uh tonight we'll be approving our tenative budget um that after tonight it must go to the county superintendent by Wednesday it'll go tomorrow and they will review it um they may have questions they may not they may want to make some modifications to some of the documents that go with it they may not um but ultimately the period of time between tonight and the public hearing when we strike the final budget will either reflect or not reflect changes County one and we we report those to you very seldom do they make anything what we submit there is time for the board to make final changes they so choose if we do change the budget we have to give a detailed narrative over why this is the last um again we've always started off with our mission statement this is what guides um what we do and I've had a lot of conversations recently with some board members about this particular process that we do this is where we've been we start um we start my office starts in the summer um getting ready to roll the budget over to start the planning process but with the board we start ear usually fall talk about our our big budget drivers cni which is what we do um special education has become a big driver in recent years our facilities with the referendum you know that's a big driver budget we like to set set the uh the the expectations for those particular areas early in the process we meet with our budget managers throughout this process as Dr Tre said she meets with her principles and her other administrative staff but also with uh those folks in the office who are ordering supplies and and know what's going on with price increases and things like that so we include everybody in the process not just Dr Tres and myself um we did have our first work session with the board on February 20th where we discussed in great detail a lot of the things that were driving the budget we'll get into that in a second um shortly thereafter we received our state aid allocation the district did get approximately $500,000 more than we got last year um I had anticipated closer to8 or $900,000 in additional Aid that did not happened I was thankful um that we didn't lose money like some of my colleagues who were expecting rather large increases to state in state aid but received Cuts so there is really been no Rhyme or Reason to some of this there's a formula that's derived by the state and how state aid is allocated and um they don't share it they don't share it in great detail anyway and when it's OA by members of my Association it takes forever to get it we still have not yet gotten the formula yet and how they calculated uh the numbers this year so again fortunate that we got an additional 500,000 um it seems to be a wild card next year's with the uh full implementation of the S2 law was a seven-year phas in where we got additional money each year um it's done so we're going to see what happens next just it was a law resolution to where they started to take money from the district that were overfunded and give it to the district that were underfund we were an underfunded district and we were the beneficiary over the last seven years of additional state aid many of my colleagues and districts that we work close to and lost millions of dollars so um we're now that we're fully fully implemented um brings us to tonight where we're going to adopt the tenative budget there's anything else the board wants to discuss we do have the remainder of March April changes that and just some of the priorities that we used this year when we were building the budget obviously Dr T we said we wanted to the budget to reflect our values but we wanted to maintain all of the programs that we've built over these years um all those programs and services that that make poo unique the academic program our class sizes um we also want to meet our obligations to our staff we have a well um educated and and trained staff that we want to make sure that we're meeting their their salary obligations and and make them paid Comm with other districts we also need to continue to evaluate all of our programs that's done usually over the summer but throughout the year we we examine the different kinds of programs staff need to implement that curriculum and we want to make sure that we're preparing a budget that has some space for unknowns because as you know every year something pops up that we need to address so we the budget prepares for that as well some of the things again driving this budget inflation I know Mark and I had a conversation at the Striking of last year's budget and I thought inflation was going to kind of settle in um it really hasn't yet it's really still driving the budget in the areas of a lot of these things um transportation is one of them 6% increase on Transportation expenses this year largely driven by um this the CPI for transportation um Insurance both medical health benefit type insurance but also property casual insurance the metrics on that continue to soar um into the 10 to 15% range but we do what we can with that we do publicly bid our insurance and those those where the numbers are falling so we're we're doing everything we can to keep the rates down that's just what the market bearing this um the state keeps mandating additional um insurances that we must carry as a school district and things like cyber um cyber insurances and environmental insurances are also driving these costs um again we're not going to Dell too much on facility and maintenance but but we are doing a referendum to try to help alleviate some of these costs but we have three buildings that are nearing a hundred years and our youngest building right now is over 20 years so these are are going to be a stal in any facility based organization special education is a is a driver um we do the best we can by bringing students back into District where we feel that we can educate them better and more efficiently than some outside placements but there are certain students that we can't do that for those tuitions are quite costly um and the state has allowed those to escalate sometimes greater than 10 or 15% per year but again we place our students where they are best served Staffing is always an issue we're that's what we do um to educate students you must have staff in place so we are doing everything we can to Min um to do what we can with the with the most um but making sure that we're in compliance technology has grows as you guys know in your own lives um everything is is driven by technology from our cars fire alarm TVs everything we use has got some kind of uh connection to technology and our technology folks have been inundated with the amount of devices that they're effec to maintain both internal devices but also external devices so it's a huge um one of our biggest growing budget we are dealing with growth uh in hopeall Township we have seen a few students enter from some of the newer neighborhoods but we have not um seen huge growth where it's driving uh some changes in the way we we uh group students right now but we are still anticipating that that will be coming in the in the near future and again something that I've been trying to drive home to this board is the utilization of savings to balance the bu budget um I liken it to the fact of if you were to get a windfall from Aunt Mary and you use it to buy a house that you can't afford you have it for a moment till that savings runs out and then all of a sudden you can't afford the mortgage so you need to be careful with how much um of that type of Revenue non-recurring curriculum obviously is um a huge driver in our budget I'm going to turn it over to VI talk about just a little bit about those but you have coming up you knew it was coming um so a lot of the things that drive our curriculum budget are due to the um NJ doe changes so for example um in September we are expected to roll out the new um English language arts um standards as well as mathematics standards so that will involve changes in Pro potentially involve changes in programmatic in programs as well as curriculum writing additionally there are State mandates that um come out um like the climate change and they just recently adopted a grief mandate so we will have to adjust our curriculum program to adopt those um other additional needs our technology subscriptions keep on going up in cost which is um a strain on the budget um we are adding this theme exploratory at all four elementary schools so that will take a um that would be curriculum writing plus four additional staff members and uh we will be use utilizing some training if if we adopt new um programs as well as uh the adoption of a new master schedule at the elementary level will also involve just training about how to adjust the teaching for any changes in the time time constraints again our curriculum is is dynamic and constantly in um change then the state drives it and we drive other things that we find that are valuable to us as I mentioned Transportation um that is that 5.81% is a state driven number it's a it's a form um but we must renew all of our bus routes um at no more than 5.81% you can come in less but um if you are a bus company knowing that um the M the maximum they could go up was 5.81% would you come in any less um we asked and they said no um we could go back out to rebid but um history usually shows that when you do that um it irritates them and they go higher than 5 um we are fortunate that we do have have um our buses many of my colleagues um are losing their routes their companies are closing due to to lack of drivers lack of being able to get drivers and the high cost of maintaining a transportation service uh industry many of my colleagues right before school uh and over the past several years have lost their entire Transportation Fleet the company comes to them says we are going out of business or we are not longer working in this area of the state happened to us several years ago when first student left Central Jersey and went South we lost all of our our first student runs we were able to have them picked up by another company but it's difficult so again those are driving our costs really kind of outside that oh yeah know he's he's out again I I've talked a little bit about health insurance but again the market um in these areas is a huge driver and costs that are really things that we need to do workers compensation claims again laws regarding workers compensation extremely liberal there really isn't an ability to fight cases anymore if somebody gets hurt in your building you're going to be responsible for something again we are doing the best we can to negotiate we bid these out and we have been very fortunate that while it's more than it has been in past years our self-insured program is is running better than the state program um and pretty much slightly under budget so I'm happy I monitor it weekly my office gets irritated with me because I'm like did the bill come in yet they come in weekly usually on a Wednesday and I want to see how we're tracking week by week see if we're running on budget because those are Mone again a Big Driver facilities of Maintenance again we talked about it we've had catastrophic failures this year sewer lines well pump first water feeders pipes we're going to be doing in this building other buildings constantly trying to stay ahead of things that aging build do you know caveat we're going to be addressing the major things in the referendum and hopefully it passes there are still things that we are not addressing that we're going to try to continue to pick off on an annual basis special ed again um out of District tuition continues to rise our program I don't touch on stuff pretty much have it there I mean I think that it's we we are known um throughout the state we have developed some really strong in-house special programming for our students that are receiving special education and um for example our autism classes you know if you think about we actually have a k k through AG 21 program for students with autism um and I'm talking about when when we look at the Spectrum those students who have autism that are more cognitively involved and if you to hold to house classrooms and to do right by these children and to follow the New Jersey Code we cannot have more than six children in a in a classroom when we hit three we have to have PA Professionals in the classroom to be able to implement apply behavioral analysis which the research shows is how these children can learn best especially early on it's almost a onet toone ratio so to do these programs and to do them well and to be able to give our children and our and our community with these challenges access to learning we have to build these programs and they are expensive um but they're learning and they're growing in their neighborhood schools and and you know again poette and I have done the the math on this and we actually the while the programs she said there some of them are almost one to one it's actually cheaper and better to do it in-house than it would be to send them to an out outside program but again A lot of times the reason I put this slide up there is because special education is if it comes up if we identify a new student we must take care of that child we can't push it off we can't delay it we got to have a budget that that allows Paul does a great job with that again Staffing we talked about that um we must U make sure we have proper Staffing with State guidelines those kinds of things we're dealing with a national teacher shortage um which means that student uh teachers before when you offered them a salary they were so happy to take it now it's is that the best you can do um and we've had to let some of the the candidates that we wanted walk away because we we couldn't offer them what they were able to shop around again you may think it's well why wouldn't you just give them the money to get them to stay it's there's a lot of legalities in that you must maintain consistency when hiring on at at certain levels of experience if you offer one person this and another person that with the same level of experience um it's it's not the way you need to operate properly St so we're very careful with how we do that again our and a lot of things too our staff comes here and they stay we get when we get staff it's a great environment to work in staff members come and they they stay they don't look around for other dist we take others um they don't like but that's what happen again we talked about technology the sheer number of devices that we have the software that we have found necessary for generating metrics and evaluated students conducting off-site meetings all those kinds of things have escalated in cost post pandemic we've done quite a bit to control costs um we do um do what we can with health benefits again we've talked a lot about these things already we've reduced staff and administration when enrollments have allowed we've gotten rid of some of our ancillary technology by moving to a Google environment where we're using the Google devices which are a lot cheaper than than regular PCS or laptops we virtualize things when we can but that that type of environment our our technology department is very forward thinking when it comes to that they've saved us a lot of money when it comes to our our uh direct connection to the internet our Broadband has done very um strategically as well as our phone service so we've done as much as we can with technology but maintaining those one toone devices is is possible at times we do what we can with energy we've been the most of the hbac items that we've been installing over the time are higher efficiency energy we've noticed that um with the new boilers that we've installed that the gas usage is significant we're hoping that that energy continue to see reductions when we do the remainder of the hbac projects uh with their passing on the referendum but that's been a great help to us um and again our facilities department is able to handle quite a bit of the repairs on our own rather than going out and bidding time and materials and having an outside company do the work we are able to do it more efficiently on our own while we don't want to we have made lists over the years on things um that we would do if we if the board wanted us to cut further not that these are not again in any particular order but these are some of the savings that could be seen if we were to reduce um some of the we might say nice to have other folks may call them Essentials but these are what these are the items that are outside of What's called the thorough and efficient education as defined by the state these are exts other districts don't have these we do just wanted you to know that we've looked we've examined these things discuss them both the board Andel if we were reduce those things what the impact would be to our student population we are proud to have curriculars at all levels from from elementary levels through Middle School and High School a broad range of all kinds of programs from Athletics to theater we had the theater students in tonight but we have a ton of activities that students can participate in our class sizes again um are extremely favorable compared to neighboring districts um some are in the teens it's unheard of in a lot of districts in this day and age with with shrinking budgets those are some of the things that that would be impacted we reduce cost SE just a kind of a graphical um understanding of where we go and where the money goes so start at 12:00 and start with Athletics and co-curricular S all the way around to stff benefit those are all direct costs that go into educating our students one might argue that the other the transportation fece also there's a very small amount of money that goes into the kind of the business side operations of the district most of the money more than 75% is going directly into the instruction where is where it should go kind of graphically if you're looking at it or uh in a chart 98 million of that money was going directly to our operating expenses the debt services like your mortgage it's the uh the last remaining mortgage we have is on the 2016 referendum in 2030 capital outlay is very small at this point that's basically equipment and an assessment from the state on money that they've given us they give you grant money but then they charge you interest on the payment back on paying it back I didn't tell you that bored it that's and obviously our revenues the12 million plus that we used based upon state federal aid and also local Aid you see a reduction in federal aid for next year that is uh real we are no longer a title one school at least for next year we will not be a title one school so we'll be um adjusting our programming to maintain some of those programs um we've already spoken with the high school which was our Title One school last year to try to maintain those programs with the lack of Title One money it's only about $80,000 think only but money is money um our local tax levy is made up of taxes obviously and also a waiver that we're using for health benefits that's how we able to come in higher than 2% we do need that waiver this year um state aid as you can see was about 8% almost 8% higher than it was last year that's also Debt Service Aid that we got for the last referendum the state is kicking in about um 30% on the last referendum we did um the number that concerns me and we'll talk a little bit more about it is the amount of fund balance and savings that we have in the budget it's less than last year which is is on a positive TR but it's still high and as one of uh my committee members said so we're going in next year kind of in the hole no we're not we're not in the hole but we're borrowing money from this year and putting it to next year and that's all contingent upon being able to do it again next year unless we can start to find ways of reducing cost or eliminating programs to get that number down um my number my happy place would be probably in an area of 2.5 million ion in there it's a little bit higher than I than I'd like and I'm hoping that we see savings and health benefits in home hit that but it it's a it's a source of some lost sleep for me that climate glad it's lower but it's still the miscellaneous revenue is um interest that we earn on our on our savings that's grown this year reason it's up 40 we actually changed Banks last year we were getting maybe 0.25% in interest from our old Bank when we switched we were getting over five and we're still getting um around 4.8 in interest so we're earning quite a bit of money now I did get unfortunately I did get an email today that the FED is exped to cut the rate uh about one and a half% before the end of 2024 I did not budget the entire amount that we were going to earn this year I was conservative with that I do think that we're going to be earning well over 3% interest throughout um 2025 when this budget ended that's why it climbed um it also includes tuition Revenue that we get for running some of the programs that um pette was talking about we also have some of our staff members bring students here we have facility rentals that is involved in that we do take in money we have uh part of one of the old contract we had with staff members is retirees could still get their health benefits through Us in retirement they pay full we don't support it they pay full free but we get Revenue that we get money from federal programs like eate which helps us with uh technology type purchases that's pretty much it facility rentals that no that's that's St um so that's that month number is unlimited what we can can draw in um but we're you know could we draw more people to rent facilities we could but we found that the the um tradeoff was that you get people who don't really care about your facilities and treat them as such um so we don't do that we used to get dance competitions things like that but they destroyed um our band rooms they destroyed a lot of things so it's not worth it we try tend to try to keep that local that's this is kind of how it breaks down kind of getting we we got to it um and there is also Transportation money that we do charge we do get some joint from some outside districts we also pay joint um for example Lawrence has a bus um and they're going to go through Hopewell on their way to hunterton County and they'll pick up kids in Hamilton and newing and H and drive them up to Hunter County whereas we may take a bus and go south to Cherry Hill and we'll pick up kidsing and lawence and drive those kids there this is what it looks like our total um general fund tax levy is going up 2.7% our total overall tax driven by the death service going down just based upon the way that schedule was again this just this is an illustration of how we've used Surplus over the years I had gotten to a good place in 1920 and 2021 I was even2 and then um we start to climb up again they're knocking it back down considerably this year again the number where I'd like to see it is no higher than 2 and a half% see I I'm comfortable where it is but I don't want to see it go any higher again Surplus the best place to use it is non-recurring expenses one time um but there were some things in the curriculum that we needed to do there was the stem weal VI talked about it stem mandate or that we wanted to put back we found value in it that's but there's a cost to that that this is what it's taxes um there is an increase the funny thing is if you add them all up and I I I I left the paper on my desk but if you add them up I think poal countship over the the um life of this is 27 cents they think hope burrow is like 31 cents bur is like 32 cents so while Pennington burrow had they had a couple of zeros they had a couple of negatives the last couple of years with the way the valuations come around they get hammered in the last two years but they had gone years with minimal the township kind of goes steadily along they had a drop there one year it's it all kind of evens out over the years they're somewhere in the area of 28 cents to 31 cents over that that period of time so kind of evens out over the years but we did come off the 41 getting back down okay any questions from the board feel like we've been doing a lot of reviewing of this so a lot of working it around well a lot of questions have gotten aned um as well one of the things that I I think it is important Dr you touched on it earlier um you go back to the right there yeah um so I I think it's important I mean a lot of our discussion as a board um in addition to referendum conversations is really talking about the quality of education and the the cost but we we say and have been paying um ongoingly that no one in the community wants to give up our the quality of Education the number of programs the um extracurriculars and I think it is it is our respons responsibility as a board to communicate clearly to the community that that the quality and impact of taxes it it some respects is not sustainable right leaving everything just as it is you still have all of the effects that um Mr civita touched on Transportation inflation these things largely outside of our also the you know things like shortages of teachers and the willingness for um veteran teachers which were were happily pulling in they're coming in at a higher um salary than our young young students out of school coming to us as teachers so there are all these These Fine factors that we have kind of I wouldn't say glossed over them but we've all felt pretty clearly quality yes we believe in quality here at uh hopeall Valley and we don't want to continue to gloss over them anymore because referendum no referendum moving forward the level of programming that we have or this class sizes that we have are going to be a challenge to afford if everything outside of our control continues right so I I just wanted to make sure that I I come to you whoever's watching make sure we share that we're we're paying attention we're paying attention to the details how can we maintain the highest quality and be responsible for um keeping our buildings at the appropriate safety level so quality of Education isn't impacted we're not losing school days so um I I think I'll leave it at that but underscoring the point here is that it is our financial uh responsibility to convey we're looking at every opportunity because it's not getting any easier and we won't say broad brush quality we're going to start coming to the community and saying testing for is this quality do this important to you can we maintain it do we need to cut back here so we're going to continue that dialogue this year and into the future because we need your assessment as a community on what that mission statement means to you when it comes to Quality education does that make sense anybody am I want to underscore it on the board do we hit it I I think that one one thing that we don't perhaps talk enough about in terms of quality is the kind of learning that we're going to be looking at in other words Bob and I had a conversation the other day about empowerment and to what extent is and that's part of our big our mission but to what extent is empowerment something that we can do with with less money or that we have to do with less money and and the kinds of of instructional contexts and processes that we need to formulate in order to establish not the not you know not class size not particular program experiences but the the spe specific kinds of learning that we want to see in our our students our public want to see their parents and our our community want to see in I think that's part that needs to be part of the conversation absolutely thank you for that okay um with that we are going to open um public comments specifically on the budget members of the public are invited to address the board on any sorry I did it again specifically on the budget 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 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 District administration public comment is now open seeing no movement out there I will say public comment is closed right I need a a motion and a second to vote Dr lison yes Dr Lou Mr Peters Dr Resnik yes Mr slotman Dr Wilson Dr jenev yes Miss Williams gallion yes um at this time we also have an open public comment which is um on any matter so members of the public 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 opt to take the matter up at Future meetings so that the matter is researched by The District administration public comment is now open Kate ham Pennington many times it has been stated that this District's Administration and Board of Education wholeheartedly support Equity honesty and transparency yet some actions do not align often times questions are asked and an email reply contains a lot of words and says nothing or even worse the individual inquiring is completely ignored hearing crickets this does not Foster a community of equity honesty and transparency in regards to an email which I sent to the district superintendent and nine board members on March 7th in which the only response was an automated out of response out of office resp response from one individual I drew your attention to the overwhelming concerns surrounding half days in this school district as they currently stand Equity Falls by the wayside I know last month's calendar presentation ignited some to rejoice when learning that hope Bell presents only 10 half days while other nearby districts have as many as 20 knowing the lack of accuracy I researched this information and what I discovered lacks transparency many of those school districts with higher numbers indicate that the number includes any school or combination of school schools having a half day they also indicate that makeup days are often half days to fulfill the state requirement at a glance when one looks at hopewell's calendar it appears that there are only 10 half days the number omits the half day in the fall when half of CHS has a delayed opening due to PSATs it also admits the half days in June when CHS students take finals while other buildings are still in school full days and just last week 3/4s of CHS population was delayed 2 days prior to an early release day for junior to test that's a minimum of an additional 5 days where families of CHS students are affected not to mention some of those days did not provide four or more academic hours for students as mandated by the state those delayed openings pose an additional cost too to the district because all of the bus routes run again two or three hours later I have previously highlighted that the half days caused the removal of pack and recitation at the secondary level students who receive related Services during this time are unable to do so students eligible for free and reduced lunch are left without and without so on early release days the families of secondary students unable to travel home and remain Home Alone are challenge how is this Equitable the majority of you sit around the table here were voted in by the community to be a voice for all matters brought forth every one of you board members is an individual taxpayer here you can always remove yourself from the table and speak as a citizen from this side as I concluded the email which I sent to you and received no response contradictions exist this community is concerned about transparency honest honesty and Equity how can we students parents Guardians and taxpayers Trust the education of our students when countless contradictions exist what has always been isn't necessarily right nor is it right for the times we are in reconsideration is necessary to align with the initiatives being supported thank you hi Sylvia kosis 7 yell Drive in Pennington I would ask the board tonight if you could share with us why you support a referendum vote in September and not in November during the general election as was stated tonight money is money holding a special election will mean taxpayers will pay the C cost of this special election the special bond election in 2016 cost $30,000 pole workers salaries have increased 50% since 2016 inflation has increased the cost of all Goods services and product a 50% increase means the September vote will cost at least $45,000 early in-person voting will not be available this disregards the principles of the John L Lewis Voting Rights Act President Biden encouraged the Senate to pass this bill which protects elections from voter suppression increases voter turnout and prevents changes that reduce relocate or consolidate voting opportunities and locations fewer citizens vote in special elections in 2016 voter turnout was less than 177% for the turnout in November it was 65% % Which percentage clearly demonstrates the will of the voters having the bond referendum on the bowet at the general election will mean no additional cost for the taxpayers and it respects the purpose and intent of the John L Lewis Voting Rights Act why are you concerned about a knee-jerk reaction if the r referendum vote is in November are you concerned that those who voted and November are not able to make an educated and informed decision if the board believes in the need for this referendum then present your reasons to the community through all means possible convince us that the extra 10,000 to $220,000 tax burden each household will bear over the next 20 years is what's best for the children but let us vote in November it makes fiscal sense it protects election integrity and it honors the goals of the John L Lewis Voting Rights Act thank you any other comments okay seeing none we'll move on to any responses see if I can get this go I'm going going to um refer to Mrs kosis as um question first about the September election um it is is not uncommon for school districts to um run special elections in September um to uh appeal to the public for for funding for referendums that are tied to facilities especially tied to facilities the maintenance um it has to do with the timing of there there is also a strategy to keep it away from any election where it's it's volatile or it may get lost and it also has to do for timing for when we can get the vote hopefully approved by the community and when we can go out to bid to contractors to actually get the work started um Mr Cavita shared re just in his slide presentation that we are going to be experiencing some growth very very soon and we're hoping that the public is going to support as we go out and campaign and there will be lots of campaigning um opportunities for us to explain to why we need this um we will be having lots of talks we are going to appeal to those members of the community that may not have students in District um and we want to hopefully convince everyone that this is something that's valuable to everyone and that we can get yes a vote for yes and that we can go out to bid before we miss the opportunity because they've accepted other contracts with other districts who have done it in September and then now we're pushed another year out to start what we have to do at Bear Tavern which needs to happen sooner than later what needs to happen in some of these buildings sooner than later with HVAC with Roofing um with some of the issues that we have around safety um so that's the reason why we're choosing to do it in September um Mr Cavita did I miss miss any other point um as I'm as I'm talking about this a lot of it is like I said is driven by getting us um hopefully approved and an out yes to the contractor and getting the process started for bonding Fund in the bonding process isens have toid for that getting us L up again we didn't do September we'd probably be pushing out we'd lose the entire summer yes of 202 so those that seven weeks eight weeks big it is Big um and I believe there was some discussion as well about um the cost of the opportunity of the bid not just losing different competitive um options but also the cost right the earlier you go out the more comp yeah when you go out late and other bids have already beened they're they're going to look and see what they can get you may not you may have companies that would have bid that have already they've already um used up their allow School contractors are governed by the department they only have a certain amount of work they can actually bid on they don't have unlimited work they're they're they're certified they this company they could use up their the earlier you go got it any other questions on that um and then um finally to miss ham about the um the calendar um we did receive your email and we also address those things I believe in two meetings two separate meetings which are posted um I I can't give you an answer that's going to say that we're going to eliminate the number of half days um because those are days that the district needs to do what we need to do in terms of training our staff in terms of administering assessments all school districts have half days um we had a calendar committee that looked at it extensively where we had representation from across the spectrum of parents work and everyone was a working parent um we had uh strive PTO parents we had um teachers who sat on on that committee and administrators we did our due diligence and research and this was the best we can come up with um there's not a there's not going to ever be a perfect world where everyone gets everything when we negotiate these calendars we will continue to look at those in the future um but the calendars that we have now meet all the needs as best we can of all the feedback we got from the community so thank we thank you for your email okay um with that public comment is now closed um and we do need to go back and approve I miss approving and accepting the report on um U violence vandalism so can I get a motion in a second roll call vote Dr um Dr Dr C Mr Cita Dr Lou Mr Peters Dr Resnik Mr slop Dr Wilson Dr genovas Mr Capia Dr Liston yes M Williams gallan yesk all right um moving on any old business items seeing none um I need a first and a second to to approve the consent agenda items all in favor any opposed or abstaining okay consent consent agenda items are approved um we'll go ahead and move into our committee um update starting with Finance all right so uh have invited the Mayers of the municipalities and Valley to our last meeting uh to go over the details of the proposed referendum to answer their question we 8 a.m. start increase the or minimize the chance of there being a conflict or all uh we did have the mayor hopeful borrow show up together with the hopeful Bor administrator uh Penington uh sent the president of the borrow Council and then we had a h town council meeting um not we really dedicated pretty much whole meeting to going through the presentation package that we have for the referendum answering their questions having discussion um and that's pretty much it the only other item of note iser said that he was named I suppose we can any questions from the board thank you Dr niik moving on to personnel all right so uh a relatively quick meeting this week we've got some things on the agenda for some future months uh first we just want to talk about four retirements that we have uh Ellen Davis stwn wheeler Will D dun and an Adams um all four two of the four have been around for quite some time and we're very very lucky to have teachers to stick of the district time as alluded to so always want to be able to celebrate those retirements as they move on uh we spent a little bit of time talking about uh with two of our new uh committee members just some of the things that we spend time talking about during that committee meeting and we've got updates on some up upcoming items excuse me related to um some negotiations and some other specific topics but other than that it was a relatively short meeting but I'm sure we'll have some longer ones coming up in the next several months any question thank you Mark um we do need to approve um all Personnel actions and um no no that's okay I I stepped over it myself um also extracurricular appointments so need a first and a second all right roll call can we do both at the same time yeah yes okay moving on to um edcom yeah contrasting the um relatively short Personnel meeting we had a longer Adcom meeting um so a few things um so Katie schooly of a special ad teacher at timang is currently doing her PhD at the school of education uh at ragus she's uh uh working on her dissertation focusing on understanding special at students needs from both the um academic side and the social aspects um so the she's going to use mixed meths and Gathering data from some of our special students um the committee approved her request and provided recommendations on um research design and thinking about how her findings can um um benefits our district like to share her findings and see how um some of the um errors for improvement can be implemented um and then uh Miss Lis BWI the supervisor of Wen languages and ESL um discussed the languages we offer um in our district and uh in comparison to neighboring districts we're doing pretty well in that regard in particular 50 students received the Seal of uh B Literacy for Chinese French German Hindi and um a number of other languages it it really shows that um our Educators our teachers are doing a great job and also is I'm sure is a reflection of uh parental support um in many of our homes um and then on the national language exams 75 of our students were awarded medals for their achiev ment um and then Mr B U Miss Baldwin also shared the multilingual learner program uh it's philosophy the learner identification also that language acquisition is not a separate subject but rather a systematically supported practice in our district um and then the agenda item that took most of the time was report from uh Mr Steve wilfing on uh it's a follow up to the the changes made to the sixth grade math placement um so Mr wilin showed uh um suggested changes as a response to Prior discussions we had um both here in larger group meetings than in the Adcom meeting um so there there are some proposed changes for example um on algebra part A students enter in seventh grade who fall below the um a set of prescribed uh grad May apply for a weaver um from the department supervisor by June 1st and then the number of uh the type of standardized test used to uh Place students has also been expanded um overall the the committee raised a lot of questions about the cut off uh set at 95% at this Point um the entire purpose for going through this exercise and um proposing changes is really to help expand the pathways for our student to um take more advanced math classes uh needless to say there is a lot of variation in students motivation their anxiety to go into such classes the amount of support it requires for them to be successful but at the getg go how to design a system that would not that would not prevent a lot of students from even entering those programs um is is problematic um we need to really think about ways to expand such Pathways so a few specific recommendations were provided to Mr wilin who will then work with his team to come up with um additional um recommended Solutions at the next step um did did I miss anything else thank you Dr Lou any questions I have a question that was really detailed I really appreciate that so what percentage of students currently have based on sort of the current process and the way it's laid out what percentage of students currently have access to the advanced mathematics courses that you're talking about [Laughter] for would expect all all where our main group of students get expect entering Middle School at that point we're making a decision that has an impact six or seven years into the future and it is a significant impact because if you are thinking about the kids who want to pursue college education in stamp field not taking an AP Calculus for does significant Advantage both terms of admission and so the request is really to look at what we're doing and um structure things so that that opportunity is not taken away there are concerns about accelerating kids too much especially in in algebra one and algebra one is a foundation you know it shows up calculus all time say AP Calculus exam is hard questions and from what right but at the same time we shouldn't be preing that decision when kids enter right we should have a structure that allows them to make them their parents to make that decision for themselves and there is all kinds of other issues around that in terms of what types of kids actually get disadvantage as was shown by the study that was done by Dr Natalie so there's all kinds of issues there it's it's not a simple issue but it's just that middle yeah and Alex just to clarify um that middle track they can't even take regular calculus it's calc I mean so it's not just AP Calculus it's Calculus if they get tracked then they stay in that track right so what is the size do you know the size of that group Dr pus and so for ref ma F7 is the main TR doesn't get you the calculus algebra 8 does get and it does give you two years in Middle School cover what normally want value from so it's not a bad option overall right so I think we're we're looking where we've asked Mr wi to look at his around that stuff and there is kids that take algebra one in seventh grade that's a whole I me that's that's a whole another animal yeah that's a whole other story those are kids were really couldn't have that's yes so what we're looking to do is try to expand in grade six the number of students we're taking and if we we've already um Mr wolfing has already um worked with his team to make some adjustments to how we're identifying kids to go in from fifth grade um and that's how we were losing a lot of our girls and a lot of our some of our students with just the way the test was designed is what the study was shown um and then moving forward um this this cut score of 95 is just too high right and so that needs to be lowered and we're looking at some other opportunities to capture more students what we don't want to do is go too far the other way and we were in a position at one point where we were pushing kids too fast and then kids that didn't have the aptitude nor were interested in going to sim Fields ran out of the math levels when they got to high school they could not do calculus and they didn't need calculus for what they wanted to do because what you take in grade uh six seven and eight doesn't count for the requirements to the state for graduation um so we want everyone to have the options that they need without pushing kids too far and stressing kids out that don't belong um and they need those skills built so that they can be um successful in math so we're hoping to have the The Best of Both Worlds the committee s us back to do more work and um we will have a better a better program for you uh next month when we present since we got into the details one more thing that I will add in my understanding Fair consensus the use of a waiver should be something which is an exception and not like hey parents this is one of the tools it should be an exception and in fact it should like we discussed before where there rules and limitations were put in at the high school around these of the waivers right they should be there at the middle school as well and I think that should go along with making some of the other can I just uh very quickly just wanted to say as someone who's sort of living with a child who's going through this in a like real time uh I just want to say thanks because I think the 95% is is you know it's it's a tough it puts a lot of stress on those kids for sure so I appreciate that you're guess why is my through it real I have a I have a f so I'm sure that she'll be looking at this next year as well but I appreciate appreciate work no nobody uh I have a question nobody although I think it's saying something that because I've also lived through it that so many of us have lived through the waiver system like it shouldn't be okay I've got a question um have have you ever looked into the sort of experiential project kind of way of introducing kids to complex math processes I mean I understand they don't get credit but but I know that a lot of times I've gotten kids into pretty good tools with with um some really interesting project you know they didn't get the should be asking over here he's the one that makes a lot of noise she actually makes choices how that sound so it's a little bit oh yeah re right are are your suggest well yeah I mean but I mean I've done geology Pro projects I've done uh social justice project I I mean I I work with software that that uses calculus that has you have to understand that you know limits and and that sort of thing but um they they don't get smack dab in the middle of a you know Al Advanced calculus I mean integration and differentiation is a different thing than just thinking about the limit right it's more applied math yeah right yeah so but I mean it's an important skill it doesn't have to be so yeah so much involved as as an AP well well my I will say calculus is not the issue except as a goal that we don't or an opportunity that we do not want to take away in Middle right calculus there is an issue that we briefly mentioned about how we get kids prepared better prepared for math in general and less fearful yeah well that's an but that's a I think that would have to be a separate disc from this one I mean that's okay yeah it it it it's a but it just sounded like we weren't getting kids into the math that that that they could use in in their future no I think it's more mechanical than that we were making decisions kids we were tracking if you're familiar with some of the tracking systems in Europe we're placing kids on tracks on track that it was very difficult to get off right very early in their education career on this particular right and it's not that it's impossible so it's not quite like right you're not stop but I will be felt at middle school early kind to do that and a lot of kids don't figure out where they are and and where they are until they get and even after that but I'm with you I was not good at math and I wish I would have had more experiential learning opportuni yeah all right thank you for that discussion um let's go ahead and move on to community relations uh we did uh essentially three things one we talked about things ways to talk about the referendum pretty much about the the reasons between November and September another thing we talked about is we just started the conversation was about empowerment um I think that uh given our mission statement that there's a lot that we can do with Community to support the empowerment of our students and finally um Community Comm Communications we were thinking that it we need to get out we need to listen to people we need to hear what they're saying and and uh Dr gave us a is getting guidelines for it to make sure we work do it right wa those were those three things yes so what do he means by that is um Dr Wilson and many of the other board members um really enjoyed when we were interviewing um um when some of the candidates were asking them about their experience and why they were involved with the board and feeling like you want to get out in the community and talk to community members and just be out there like sort of a meet your board member however as a board member individually you have to be careful um so um our board attorne is going to give us some guidelines about what you can talk about what you can't um without the full uh Court of the board um but definitely their intentions of getting out in the public and community and and talking to you all in a more informal way um is definitely something everybody wants to to do so look forward to that thank you all right and hi so we had a really um wonderful meeting with pette and I and the other members of the board um also got to watch some videos and stuff uh the main emphasis of uh the meeting was theal days that took place in all of our schools and I have to say I was just so impressed with all of the activities that were happening at every single level um around so there's like five core competencies that character strong has that we're working around with our seal it's self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills decision making and each School took a part of one of those sort of core competencies and did activities around them um so like Bear Tavern it was around cooperation and they had buddy classes talking about how they could cooperate together um hope well Elementary had an obstacle course anal obstacle course that they did um so like really creative ways of getting at these different seal core competencies uh Stony book talked about honesty um and different character traits of respect and responsibility togate did some mindfulness and some read alouds um they also did some grounding techniques um up be Tavern of course and uh the timberlan middle school did the St baldrick's activity to support um cancer research and uh youth um they also at the middle school which which is really important talked about regulating emotions and what real life respect looks like um and then at the high school they had a um health fair in the gym where lots of different organizations came um and so they could talk about that um and I guess um the other sort of conversation we had too was that when we look at character strong and the different activities around that that that's just one piece of what we're doing around seal and there are so many different things our social skills groups our counseling groups um our all school meetings nurtured heart our mental health birth fade which actually D Stephano kind of did all of all all of the report sort of thing um and then at our future meeting we discussed that um we're just going to talk about because many of us have been at the strategic planning meetings and a lot ofal is coming up so we're going to kind of come together and discuss what each of us individually is hearing at those um strategic planning meetings anything thank you all right moving on to policy so the policy committee has been busy uh we met on March 7th and principal Riley who most of you know is the principal of the Central High School joined us as a guest to discuss the school's random drug testing program uh we also reviewed five sets of policies and regulations related to the new state law that was passed governing use of sick leave among School Employees and the state's comprehensive Equity plan um which are all up for first reading today so you saw those in your agenda um so I'm going to start with a brief overview of our discussion with principal Riley and we'll pause there for any questions or discussion and then we'll move into a discussion regarding the policies that are up for first reading and abolishment today thank you um so a little bit of background on the random drug testing programs so regulation 5538 was adopted by the Board of Education in May 2018 so we've had it in place for about eight years and per the regulation all students in hopal Valley Central High School who participate in any Athletics co-curricular activities have been granted parking permits for on campus parking or or who elect to participate with parental consent voluntarily are eligible for random drug testing the testing procedures are implemented by a third-party provider meaning that we we pay a vendor to facilitate the program So based on external societal shifts at our own internal data about the effectiveness of this program the policy committee decided to revisit this regulation to determine whether it's helpful in furthering our goals as a school district and keeping our students safe so I'll say the first thing to note that came up in conversation is that since 2018 we've seen the legalization of marijuana in New Jersey and a corresponding change in attitudes towards marijuana and as a result the perceptions of and rules regulating marijuana use are more similar to alcohol now than they are to other controlled substances and the random drug testing program has seen a course responding increase in positive test results over the past several years with almost every student who tests positive with the exception of one testing positive for marijuana or THC use only often these students are testing positive at very low thresholds likely indicating infrequent recreational use of the substance as opposed to a more severe substance use disorder so what this means from an operational perspective is that the time and the resource that are being diverted from students who have more severe substance use disorders to those who are using marijuana in frequently um or recreationally second while the initial intention of this program was to identify students in need and connect them to Supportive Services I think the district has found that they're more successfully identifying students with severe substance use disorders through self-referrals through teachers and through friends and through yearly reviews of students who have tested positive our Student Assistance counselor has also found that the majority of the students who were identified through the program as having a significant e uh a significant need excuse me for substance use disorder services or who tested positive more than once so they recidivated were already known to the district last I'll say that as the evidence base around random drug testing in schools has built over the past few decades I think the research is telling us pretty clearly that these types of programs really have little or no impact as a deterrent to substance use um in fact the American Academy of Pediatrics has opposed random drug testing of students since 2015 based on the lack of evidence behind it so with the input from The District's drug and alcohol committee and other stakeholders the school district really has been shifting towards a more educational and supportive approach to preventing substance use among our students so for example the student the excuse me the district has completed a full audit of our substance use curriculum and is addressing areas where there might be gaps and additionally we know from the research that positive School climates are a protective Factor against substance use and as we all saw from Mr dno's presentation we've been putting a lot of time and resources into that so taking all of this into consideration the policy committee is intending to propose regulation 5538 for abolishment in June or July before the start of the 2024 to 2025 school year so I will invite my colleagues from policy to jump in if I missed anything I can just uh share my perspective as as a former student who was actually a freshman in the year that the random drug testing program was um first administered um this is an our policy I very much agree with the policy committee's decision to move forward with recommending abolishing it um it's clearly ineffective at deterring students from engaging in in drug use underage um and it's it's overall a punitive policy that is removing very important resources that we need for students that are genuinely struggling um and and are in need of our our counseling services and we're we're putting students who like Miss Lon just mentioned who are testing low uh low thresholds and are showing signs of recreational infrequent use and we're we're essentially mandating counseling services for those students and removing the opportunity um and the the time allotted for students who do genuinely need more um um services in that regard so I'm I'm very much in agreement of this position when I ran there were a lot of community members and students specifically who brought this up to me um and so I'm I'm happy to see that this is the the direction we're moving forward so admittedly for my friends on the policy committee this is an area where when I hear comments on studies that am I not talk oops can you hear me now yeah good um so admittedly this is an area where uh when I hear talk about studies and things that have happened in the past years um it's not something I'm not I'm well versed on um in talking with some of the board members uh who I've had individual conversations with about this I have found myself in a conundrum thinking about this policy for a lot of reasons uh mainly because I lived in a school district where this happened and saw some of the benefits of it and also saw some of the not from it so I would ask uh prior to this going up for a vote um if we're able to share some of this data that we when we talk about archaic and correlation causation and things of that nature so that we're position to be able to talk about it additionally I would just say publicly that I think uh I wouldn't be doing my job as a board member for the community if I didn't say that when we are talking about drugs and we're talking about drugs in the community and randomized drug testing one of the challenges that I personally face in this whole dilemma is none of us on this in this table in this room watching or in the community know what the potential repercussions are to some of the legalization that has happened and there's a lot of evidence suggests that that was a good thing not many of us know what's on the other side so I would just uh argue I guess out loud to say let's stay cognizant of that as we're talking about it and look forward to learning that right okay uh can I have a motion in a second to bring policy and regulation 16 4 2.01 sick Le uh policies and regulations through 212 and 4212 policy 575 and policy and regulation 2260 for first reading no move we've been busy all right so as I mentioned we have five sets of policies and regulations that are up for first read and um the first ones here are linked to the State's new leave law for School District employees as well as the second uh set are linked to the state's comprehensive Equity plan so we'll start with the sickle related policies um so a little bit of context about this and I know I I shared some of this at the last meeting um a new law was signed into place in July 2023 and went into effect immediately that essentially amended previous laws addressing the requirements around sick leave among School District employees so the law basically expands the allowable use use of sick leave including both the reasons for taking sick leave and who can take it so for example it can now be taken for care of family members and also includes reasons like a closure of a child's place of care or School due to a state of emergency uh and taking family members to medical appointments it does also allow for the board to require certification reasonable documentation and advanced notice of Si leave requests where practical so our school district has been implementing sick leave in alignment with the l new law since this summer uh with oversight from Miss Smith as well as guidance of our board attorney um however our policies and regulations now also need to be updated to align with the new law so that's essentially what we're discussing tonight uh so we'll start with policy and regulation 164 2.0 sick Lea so these are new policies and regulations so the policy essentially defines the allowable uses of sick leave per the new law whereas the regulation lays out the rules around the use and accumulation of sick Lea so focusing on the regulation which you have in your agenda you can see that there are several places where the board of education has options with regards to the language included in the regulation so first the regulation divides use of sick leave into foreseeable leave uh which is in the case of like a scheduled surgery for example and unforeseeable leave which is in the case of a sudden illness you didn't know it was going to happen basically so in the case of foreseeable leave under the new law boards can require up to seven calendar days advanced notice prior to the date the leave is to begin of the employes intention to use the leave as well as the expected duration of the leave and the law also requires the employee to make a reasonable effort to schedule the use of sick leave in a manner that does not unduly disrupt School operations so you can see highlighted um if you look at the the regulation you can see highlighted the places where we have some choices so if you look at section C2 first which is on page three the draft regulation provides three options for expectations around notification of foreseeable leave so leave that you know is going to happen so in option one the board may require up to 7 Days advanced notice of foreseeable sick leave when practical and the superintendent sets the number of days in option two it says the board does require up to 7 days advanced notice when practical with the superintendent also setting the number of days and then option three allows the board to set the number of days of advanced notice required provided it's seven days or less so here the policy committee is recommending option two which is requiring up to 7 Days advanced notice when leave is foreseeable so for Section C3 which is right below it the board is provided with two options in the case of unforeseeable leave so option one makes it optional for an employee to give notice of the intention to take unforeseeable leave and option two requires an employee to give notice of the intention to take unforeseeable leave as soon as practical and here we're recommending option two so we're requiring the employee to give notice as soon as possible so in the regulation sections D through H are not required by the new n New Jersey law but they are considered sort of best practice recommendations um so the board meaning the board has the option to include them remove them or adapt them and we're recommending leaving them in the regulation but with some minor adaptations so if you scroll down to section D this relates specifically to sick leave charges so under D1 the board can select the percentage of the day that an employee can be absent before they'll be charged a full sick leave day a full day of sick leave excuse me and we're recommending here 50% which is really in alignment with our neighboring school districts four applies to pre-scheduled sick leave during emergency closures so the draft policy U or the draft regulation states that an employee who's scheduled for sick leave on a day that the schools don't open will not be charged with a sick leave day we changed the language a little bit here to make it clear that this is only true on days when there is an emergency closure and staff are not contracted to complete professional development activities on that day and then section e speaks to readmission after sick leave so E1 page six specifies the number of consecutive work days that an employee can be out on sick leave before they're required to submit a statement from their physician indicating their Fitness to perform duties and we're recommending three days here um this has been our school district's policy for I think over 20 years so it's the requirement that staff and are custom too all right um so I guess I'll just stop are there any questions about that regulation okay all right so for policy and regulation 3212 and 4212 um attendance these are revisions to uh to policies and regulations that had already been in place so these policies and regulations mirror each other so policy and regulation 3212 applies to teaching staff where 4212 applies to non-teaching staff so these were all last revised in 2009 they outline staff attendance regulations and policies in alignment with the qac requirements which are the New Jersey Department of education's monitoring evaluation system for public schools um so for example the district must maintain accurate staff attendance records for teaching staff analyze attendance patterns and address any issues identified through that analysis so to policies and regulations 3212 and 4212 we just had a couple minor revisions here so in 3 212 we've changed staff to teaching staff throughout to make clear that um they apply to teaching staff members in particular and in 4212 we've changed staff to support staff throughout so we're just making really clear that differentiation between who they apply to both policies also now reference back to the applicable statute and remove any language that's inconsistent with the new law pass this summer um I'll just note here before we move on to the um C related policies that we are also recommend ending to abolish policy and regulation 4432 sickle um at the next meeting we're bringing up her first read today um because the revisions that we just proposed will actually replace them anybody have any questions about that one okay all right so now we're moving on to the policies and regulations linked to the state's comprehensive Equity plan okay so for the first one we have 5750 Equitable Educational Opportunity um these are revisions to a policy that has been in place so this is a policy that's mandated per state code and the New Jersey Department of education's comprehensive Equity plan and essentially what the policy does is it requires the school district to ensure that all students are afforded an equitable educational opportunity through the allocation of resources and through curricula that promote respect and acceptance among students um it also lays out the expectation that staff members shall conduct themselves in a way that's non-discriminatory uh so this policy was last revised by the board in February 2017 and we had a couple minor revisions here so references to the Amistad commission curriculum and the commission on Holocaust Education curriculum have been removed from the policy guide and are referenced in um policy guide 2260 which we'll review momentarily um other revisions remove the list of protected categories and replace that list with the expanded list as defined in the state code the policy committee also updated language requiring teaching staff members to exemplify the principles of equality and democracy to include all staff members so we sort of expanded that and then we updated the justification language to align with um our school district's mission statement around empowering students and then the second one you see here is uh 2260 policy and regulation it's equity in school and classroom practices again this is a policy that we're revising here uh in compliance with the comprehensive Equity plan so per the policy our school district is required to provide all students with Equitable and bias-free access to our school facilities courses services and programs regardless of race religion gender identity or membership in other protected categories as defined by the law um the provisions in the policy layout how we'll do this through for example ensuring needed support services are available to all students that students are in excluded Dua medical conditions that our curriculum addresses the elimination of discrimination and equal access to athletic programs and Facilities so regulation 2260 lays out the procedures by which a caregiver student can file a complaint should they believe that there's been a violation of the policy uh the policy was last revised by the board also in June 2017 and the regulation was adopted in April 2009 so we made minor revisions to the policy and regulation so so in policy 2260 similar to the last one uh rather than listing each protected category we referenced back to the state code that defines the protected categories um we relocated information addressing access to adequate counseling services to policy guide 2411 and then there's been some minor language changes to align with the recent revisions in the state law and the title has also been updated and then last in 2260 uh the regulation here additional guidance has been added for a person filing a complaint so for example the guidance says that a complaint can be filed during uh any time of day and delivered via essentially any medium so phone by person email um it we also updated the language in our committee meeting that says students and parents can file complaint to include caregivers as well and then the title's been updated and that's it guys um any questions yeah I have a question please I I was interested in in 5750 where talked about staff members to exemplify PR principles of equity and democracy Y and you were saying that that's referencing the the law the uh I forget the statute that it was but um I I wandered around I couldn't find any definition of equity and and democracy is there some way that you could give me help in that or do I need to go somewhere else that's a great question I don't actually think it's defined in the law I that's a sense I got that it should be talked about in the law and that yeah usually when I read a law I'll I'll find definitions at the beginning but um I couldn't find them I just no okay not that I'm aware of but I can go back and look do some more digging well I'll look I'll look some more it's a good question though Mike it really is thank you for racing that any other questions or comments okay um Bob Mr K do I um do a first and second for the abolishment okay let's move all those in favor any opposed orain I [Laughter] know we didn't want a second between okay so can I get a motion in a second to abolish policy and regulation 44326 leave no move all in favor hi hi any opposer [Laughter] y okay very good okay um we need a first and a a quick comment oh I had concerns when you took over for Adam because Adam's had an extremely high bar yeah no problem yeah you're here she's she smashed it well she does peek out a little bit it is her Jam it's awesome all right um need a first or second to approve the March do we have yeah oh we're do in April sorry um into March and April calendar okay April 11th at 10: a.m. I'm no I available 9 to 10: or in the afternoon with my coffee okay I do yeah so April 11th 8 o'cl um the other easy one is personnel which is think 6:00 um remember the board meeting is later 29 so wide open um I'm just gonna ask you want me to ask around first before we set a date you we want to be Ka why yeah try to get a date with him and then reach out to you guys okay we'll leave it kind open I'll reach out I'll try to keep it to the MonDay keep right so I mean I'll try to keep it around the 15th or 22nd I'll get back to you guys okay soil okay now community relations you you stack that with what April 11 at 11 a that relation which day does work noon but not in the April 11 afternoon would better who what that's the proposal chair actually you're the chair you're in charge you got to tell us are local yeah yeah yeah I I just I had the whole thing not the middle of the day oh actually and then policy remember you have time you have more time okay I I could they may want to speak to you more than us after three before noon or after 3 no April 12th at 1 no three before 12 or after three be fine 24 yeah that's going to be fine just so okay we got all those just just the background we were asked by Pennington burrow they're doing a local government week at Burrow Hall and they asked if we would man a table in burrow Hall on April 10th from like 5 to it's open but seven in um we obviously don't want I'd I'd like to show up so I can lock my I mean we'll put it on the board okay Rosetta and I ban it go to ITP you guys they don't know how many they're gonna get up no it's up you and mustache the two of you because you were holding your mustache you're over there okay oh yeah all in favor any opposed or abstaining okay Calendar's pass all right any new business items all right moving on to our final public comment before we wrap 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 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 public comment is now open it's exciting for me to be able to celebrate women's history month because that didn't exist long time ago um photos with uh quotes of famous women hang in the SE from the ceiling at the circulation desk at our hopeall library and families were encouraged by the administration to watch a Newsweek video that honored certain women of diversity may we remember that diversity of thought exists within racial and ethnic groups as much as between these groups not all Asians think alike not all women think alike lieutenant governor of Virginia winom Sears and Senator Stacy Abrams share the same skin color but they have distinctly different views on many topics in this District's Equity goal plan of action it States annually review and revise curricula to ensure that a balanced and uh that it provides a balanced and bias-free presentation of content as the district formulates its five-year strategic plan many women like me hope that a balanced and biased free curriculum will be the foundational principle pertaining to the education of our children this is at the heart and the soul of a public education and of a Democratic Republic whether it be about climate change immigration hostages in Hamas gender ideology other complex topics students need the freedom to disagree State one's beliefs and values and seek The Pursuit Of Truth this prevents an official Orthodox ideology being forced on children so to provide some balance I have some quotes to read women are not doing anything wrong by affirming their bi ology and advocating to protect their rights to believe that women deserve privacy safety fairness and equal opportunity is pro women and it is pro truth and it is Truth worth fighting for Riley Gaines All-American swimmer I encourage people to find and use the power of their voices just as much when I do not agree with them as those voices when I do agree with them Nikki Haley ambassador to the United Nations let us recognize that we can no longer tolerate violent oppression of women in the name of religion and culture anymore than we would tolerate violent oppression espoused by any other bully aanne Hy Ali Somali born American activist and my favorite my very favorite races have never done anything what seems to be race achievement is the work of individuals Zora Neil person thank you any other comment uh Brian um I live in hell Township um just as you guys are considering the budgets going forward and as these things start to Crunch together um there's been a general Trend that I've noticed that we focus on technical skills the technical ability to do mathematics the technical ability to write a good paper the technical ability to understand history and we lose focus on the soft skills in my experience in life and I think many of ours is that as we get into our adulthood our technical skills maybe get us our first job but our second third fourth jobs all of those promotions are all B based on our ability to have soft skills and so I would encourage you to not lose sight of the soft skills as we also seek those technical skills to get our students into secondary education um I also just would like to say and bring up totally separately tonight I used to be the president of shark PTO it's a pleasure to do that for four years the most unexpected part of pleasure for me was the number of phone calls I would get from around the country knowing if the things they heard the rumors about this place could be real because they couldn't believe that you could actually get help and support for special ed students so I want to congratulate the board and congratulate Mr Nardo on all the works that you all do and support around our district but please keep that in mind that it is one of the reasons that people are looking to come here because they are desperate as special educ ation parents they feel lost they feel alone they live in states with quotas they live in states where kindergarteners have to be suspended for 90 days to get Services because otherwise the district won't take it seriously if the parent is just trying to be helpful and take their disruptive child out of out of school and so please consider that strongly that we we are very blessed here but there are a number of people looking to come here because of the strength of these programs thank you so much I think we I want to second that like here here and like we see you and we see what you have done with this district and you should be acknowledged yeah I got goosebumps thank you for that okay well with that um I just um thank you both for your comments and I know that you're both involved in strategic planning right to make sure that these things get on our strategic plan for the next five years so we appreciate your comments tonight and thank you for the woman's History Month shout out with that I will close public comment number two and I will um ask a first and a second to um move to Executive oh to discuss um Hib and Personnel non tenure and student matters first second okay all in favor I any opposed or abstaining for