##VIDEO ID:KQpTWwWCJ_I## sorry we're starting a little late the time is now 6:33 and I'll call the meeting to order um adequate notice of tonight's meeting has been provided in accordance with the open public meetings act uh by the following methods distribution of notice to the record posting of the agenda on the school district website and through parents square if you all could please stand for the plge of Allegiance United States of America the stands one nation under God and okay thank you very much um uh Mr Thomas can we have roll call please Miss Troy Dr Meer here miss Molina here Mr Park here Mr zepa Miss SEO Miss Thompson Miss Wilds vice president Melman and president Lee here we have a quorum thank you and for the record Mr zppa did contact me before the meeting he had a conflict for tonight and also I just like to announce also in attendance we have our superintendent of schools Dr gadens as well as our assistant superintendent of schools uh Dr caramanos as well as our board attorney Mr leera and all three stun repo also present for tonight okay thank you very much that brings us to item 1.4 public comments regarding agenda items only anyone from the public wishing to speak please step up to the podium provide your name and address going once going t Okay seeing no one from the public we'll move on to item 1 point five uh yes good evening everyone it's good to see everybody Welcome to our our new staff members our Administration Welcome to our grad students here to see our uh democracy Board of Education meeting in action delighted to have you here thank you very much for joining us tonight um you picked a good night to come because not only is there a Board of Education meeting but there's coffee and cake behind us too so you picked a wise meeting to come to so as the board knows we always reserve the October meeting for the introduction of our new staff members so we have our building and District administrator shared this evening to introduce the staff members all the staff members have to do is just stand there awkwardly while the administrators introduce you when we're done uh we'll go we'll start with Mr Brier first who's representing ACS so and then after each administrator is done please hand it off to the next administrator when we're done with all the introductions we will uh break for 10 minutes for some coffee and cake so we want everyone to enjoy themselves uh this is where the Board of Education puts our new staff members at ease by making genial and fun small talk okay so board I know that you can do it Mr ryer the floor is yours otherwise the public I'll repeat that Miss Johnson comes to us from Brooklyn where she was a public school teacher for 15 years correct uh she has two children Robbie who's over there so happy to be at a board meeting instead of watching the Yankees um and what's your daughter's name Amelia who's at the middle school swimming right now okay uh herner husband have been married for 20 years or you met him 20 years ago sorry I'm reading this off the cuff uh jool Lynn's favorite pastime is to hang out on the beach in Bethany Delaware and that's jolen John jolen is an inclusion teacher I'm sorry special education inclusion teacher working with our second grade students this year and we're very happy that she's with us thanks julen uh Caitlyn Ryan also third grade inclusion teacher Caitlyn could not be with us tonight she's homesick she's celebrating her 10th year in education she's worked in both General and special ed and has taught students in grades K to six when she's not teaching she enjoys spending time with her daughters Amilia and Charlotte and her husband Pat and she is also the sister-in-law of Tim Ryan who is swim cross country PE went to Paris with our Olympic Athlete this summer so you all know Tim and Caitlyn is his sister-in-law so we have to be nice to Tim and to Caitlyn uh finally Leanne fiser who is not here tonight Leanne is uh our kindergarten maternity leave for kissy Gonzalez uh we were very lucky to find Leanne this summer um getting a kindergarten teacher for maternity leave as a godsend especially one 29 years of experience she's taught K to8 she's taught BSI and uh we are very lucky to have lean with us so those are my three introductions I'm going to turn the rest of ACS over to miss juso who's the director of special [Applause] services good evening good to see you so I am introducing four people three of them are from ACS we'll start with rzy sck she is a school psychologist who started with us last school year in December and she has is joining our district um bringing a rich background in education from both public and private schools her professional Journey includes participation and the suppor of schools newwork Grant which created a pipeline of school psychologists into high schools that or into high need schools this experience provided her with valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities within education settings equipping her to effectively address the needs of Youth who have faced various tra forms of trauma as a new mother Miss Steyr enjoys spending time with her husband and her three-month-old daughter and we're happy that she's with us and then the next two staff members couldn't be with us tonight uh Melissa coo is a speech language pathologist at ACS for the past seven years she's been working in other New Jersey districts specifically caucus Newark in Union City Melissa loves working with elementary students and it is very rewarding when you see the students talking one of her favorite sayings is I teach students to talk back she is looking forward to being part of the amazing speech team in Leonia and Sarah Park could not be here tonight um she is an inclusion grade for Teacher joining us at ACS starting in November Miss park has several years of teaching experience at the palates Park and pamis School District she attended Ruckers University both for her master's and her bachelor's degrees where she studied psychology and Elementary education Miss Park holds instructional certifications within the NJ dooe for prek 3 K to 6 and teacher of students with disabilities she's excited to join us in November and then I'll start off LMS we have Julia Panter here with us tonight do you mind stany she's thrilled um she's thrilled to be in the classroom thank goodness so Julia is the special education multiple disabilities classroom teacher at Leona Middle School she graduated with the Bachelor of Arts in comparative literature and English from Cornell University suuma cumad very nice in 2019 she received her masters of arts in teaching students with disabilities and teaching English from NYU in 2022 Julia began her teaching career in Chinatown as a self-contained teacher across content for grades 6 to8 following that Julia was a gr like this is going in now with a sixth grade special education teacher and case manager in Westchester New York and we're thrilled to have her and I'm going to ask the mic off Mr Sao thank [Applause] you good evening good evening everyone thank you so much for having us this evening I'm going to introduce a few of our new teachers at LMS and I will turn this over to miss King our vice principal I'm going to begin with Victoria Duran our new French teacher at LMS and LHS Victoria is standing Victoria is a graduate Providence College where she earned her degree in secondary education and French she fell in love with the language while studying at the Sor bone in Paris France uh Victoria was born right here here in uh born and raised right here in Leonia and after 11 years of teaching in another New Jersey district grilled to home teaching in Leonia to welcome Victoria no Christian noell thank you science teacher at LMS originally from hpog New Jersey Christian graduated from Rucker University with his degree in Wildlife science and then earned his master's degree in education from Queens College Christian has brought 10 years of teaching experience with him to Leonia and most days he can be seen riding his bike to LMS from his hometown of 14 welcome Christian next we have Teresa scura special education teacher at LMS and a fellow graduate from M Marist College in pipy New York go red foxes Teresa began her career as a special education teacher after starting her family Teresa pursued opportunities to serve as an educational consultant in a variety of settings from school districts to hospitals excited to return to the classroom and uh we are thrilled that she uh Teresa has joined our team here at LMS she began in September welcome Teresa now miss King thank you Mr Sao good evening good evening everyone I have the pleasure of introducing two of our newest faculty members here at LMS uh Jake f who serves as our mathematics teacher for mainly our sixth grade students and one class of 8th grade Jake fi is a graduate of marer University good school choice by the way can you tell I went there uh he's a graduate of MSU M State University where he earned his degree in mathematics while with a concentration in education and a minor in Asian languages after completing full-time leave Replacements in monville in berville Jake has come to LMS with 3 years of experience and great enthusiasm for teaching Middle School mathematics welcome Jake to our Elm lion family the next teacher is our teacher of Music her name is uh Caitlyn Payne she is unable to be here with us tonight I want you to know that Caitlyn Payne has a bachelor of music degree in instrumental music education from the Catholic University of America and she earned her master's degree in music education from William Patterson University she has been playing the violin in Viola since the age of five and came to Leonia with 14 years of teaching experience I also welcome Caitlyn Payne to the LMS lion family at this time I'm going to turn over to Mr Steve [Applause] PDA thank you Miss King good evening I have the pleasure of introducing our uh new physical education and health teachers I'm going to start with Jack Miller Jack is a member of the physical education department at Leonia high school and Leonia middle school he starts his morning at LHS and spends his afternoon at LMS working with the fifth graders Jack graduated sumacum ly honors from William Patterson University in the spring of 20 20 24 with a BS in K to2 physical education with health endorsement and driver's education this is jack's first official teaching job he student taught in Pompton Lakes fairon Garfield and woff Jack is a baseball Enthusiast you can check out his instructional training videos on Instagram if you want and Jack is also on today's agenda to be approved as a Leonia High School's next bowling coach Jack was an all County bowler at Indian Hills High School please welcome Jack [Applause] Miller moving on to Alexandra nufo um Ally Ally is a member of the physical physical education department at Leonia High School Ali attended Penn State University and Montclair State University she has a bachelor degree in athletic training and a master's degree in health and physical education Ali has served as a coach for the USA Sports Group for the past three years and hopes to use this experience as a stepping stone into coaching at the high school level as a first year teacher Ally feels extremely grateful to have been given this opportunity in Leonia she couldn't have asked for more supportive welcoming Community to be part of a fun fact about Ally she has two very cute dogs at home and would be more than happy to share pictures with everybody once the introductions are complete please welcome new for you now welcome Mr Charles CER Leon High School principal good evening everyone thank you for having us it's always a great night so the my first staff member that I'd like to introduce is Miss Lama gab llama moved from Lebanon to the US in 2020 she holds a bachelor's degree in French language and literature from the leban Lebanese University faculty of human Sciences along with several certifications from the French Institute in Lebanon and France llama has 14 years of experience teaching French as a second language in private schools in Lebanon as well as teaching French as a foreign language and French for specific purposes at the Lebanese University covering all levels from beginner to advance after relocating to the US llama worked as an assistant teacher and French tutor at the French American Academy while preparing for her French teaching certification she recently taught French at Fon public schools and is currently enrolled in the Ruckers alternate route program and teaching French of all levels at LHS and we're happy to have her L next we have Kevin agnu Kevin has been teaching mathematics since the Great Recession of 20 of 2008 prior to that he worked for 20 years in a top ranking New York City corporate law firm as a pargal Kevin graduated from Rucker University New Brunswick the Mason gross School of Arts in 1991 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and more recently returned to school attending Mont Clair State University their traders to teachers program this program trained people who formerly worked on Wall Street and in the New York corporate sector and who were displaced due to the recession to teach mathematics in high schools Kevin has taught at Montclair High School SE caucus High School and Middle School Bloomfield High School and most recently Essex County uh schools of Technology nework Tech Kevin is married with two boys one is graduating this year and the other just started out in high school and he has one rescue beagle Kevin agnel and we have one uh one other member who could not be here today Eduardo Dylan Rivera teaches Spanish at LHS he's a graduate of New Jersey City University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and St peters's University where he earned his master's degree in teaching Eduardo has spent the last seven years as an ABA par professional in the west uh West New York school district uh before joining Leonia this year and that is all of the new staff members at Leonia high school and I guess at the Leonia School dist year thank you behalf of the Board of Education welcome to Leonia delighted to have you here um as we told you your first day during orientation that the interview process was over and the job was to get to work and we've been very impressed by all of your work so far the goal of the evening is to welcome you we welcome you by having conversation and breaking some bread together and having a bite to eat so at this point we'll take a 10-minute break everybody who's here everybody who's here by the way all of our guests already enjoy a cup of coffee and a pastry and we'll restart the meeting about 10 minutes or so so we'll break now thank you report just at the bottom yeah it's just the bottom okay what do and I don't aot yeah I know also like wasn't wasn't the was I forgot everything the botom we be voting if you go up to the top it gives you the order then go approval consent sorry2 then if you go down Finance I thought if you just click on that it BR can't get the Clos session that you should be able you can get the minutes again there are minutes ex session exective um session minutes of September 17th 4.2 yeah we haven't it may be found in the agenda agenda what is it issue it's an issue with old school ch ah so I told right no I understand I understand [Music] oh okay I would something e okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e thank you have a good night what what is you he is upset about the VAP VAP yeah right so before we restart the meeting I do want to thank the board of education for being so welcoming to our new teachers that means a lot to them the conversation and the cake and the cofy they work so hard on behalf of our kids and making that connection with you is really important so thank you everybody for that it's always a great an opportunity to do uh have meetings with the teachers outside of kind of the normal day to-day so this is great um so that brings us to excuse me item 2.1 board member comments uh any members from the board have any comments regarding agenda related items okay seeing none um brings us to item 2.2 our student Representatives any comments okay thank you okay that brings us to item 3.1 approval of consent agenda items uh can I have a motion and a second please motion Maria second uh St and any items for discussion okay seeing nonc roll call please Miss Troy uh yes and is item 10 of public content is her church is that part of part of the approval sorry I'm looking for no no um it's all in the if it's on the new business that's a separate motion oh okay all right yes Dr Meer yes Miss Molina yes but abstaining from anything that's ECS Mr Park yes Mr seal Miss Thompson Miss Wilds vice president Melman yes and president Lee yes motion carries on consent agenda items okay thank you that brings us to our administrative reports Dr games good evening everybody Welcome to our board meeting for a variety of reports tonight uh my first item is not actually listed in the the board agenda but I do want to point out um Congratulations by proxy as we all know uh Dr Martinez is retiring uh this year and we will certainly speak more about her before December but I want to point out that her son Eduardo published his first book yeah yeah Boxed In by Ard Martinez it's about democracy and making identity safe I share that because uh as as a parent myself the fact that your child is getting some sort of attention is very nice so I wanted to make mention of him publishing a book and congratulations to Dr Martinez's son so by a proud mom by proxy so we happy for that want to remind everybody that we have strategic planning session number two this coming Thursday night at Leonia Middle School at 700 p.m. um as we've pointed out multiple times attendance at the first session is not a requirement to be at the second or third sessions and we want to thank New Jersey school boards for taking care and facilitating that work want to thank our uh our faculty for their uh their all of our back to school nights we always look at those evenings as they kick off to the school year and the when the last one comes we're in the the busyness of the year so thank you for those great back to school nights LHS had their open house last week thank you for everyone who came and hundreds of people came out for that one again welcome Miss NRA who would be starting January 1st as the principal of NC Scott Elementary School she was here last week for the first and second grade campfire right in this room track over here um so once again want to thank m n for coming and spending the today here with us she's been here on multiple days and we'll be seeing and hearing more from her as we get into November the LHS gym uh the floor is being repaired being worked on uh the our high school representatives are are nodding there and they're smiling if you peek in the window uh it gets closer and closer to being finished we are sticking to our original due date of mid November um I a superstitious person so I'm not going to talk a bit earlier about that but if you walk by the gym it looks great and it looks good the LMS black top um has been coming along the basketball lines have been added and additional striping will be coming out for the LMS blacktop I do want to join I do want to thank uh Mr Lee for joining Dr caramanos and myself for lunch last week in the high school cafeteria it was a pleasure to enjoy that it was actually Taco Thursday was a big hit and I know that a couple of the board members have been sniffing around to come enjoy a delightful High School Lunch we'd love to have you come and join us I do want to point out I did told I did say this to uh Mr Lee I'll say it again here is that we do not tip off the cafeteria that you're on the way in you are getting the authentic student-based experience um and we eat there too three days a week it's great I want to thank the acsa for their build aine event this room was packed uh doing a great job for us LMS has has Haunted Hills on October 25th their HSA and the high school HSA has their pocketbook Bingo this coming Friday night so we are fully in the in the energy of the school year want to thank all of our teachers and volunteers and I do want to call out three staff members who recently announced their retirement I want to congratulate and thank Susan Grover lilan romano and Maria orula for their dedication to the district and wish them best of luck in their retirements thank you Mr Lee back over to you thank you um I do want to reemphasize the strategic planning session number two um session one was great um fairly well attended obviously it's open to everyone in the community uh I think Dr gon mentioned it but there is a link to register it's not required for you to register uh it just helps in terms of helps in terms of I think for this round there are going to be actual groups that are set up whereas last time it was a little more random um but again if if you're available on Thursday to 10: you're more than welcome to come the more feedback we can get from the community the better um because this really is the community strategic plan for the vision for the school district this is not the board of EDS I mean ultimately we take the final action on it but it's created based on the feedback from the community um and I also if don't mind in terms of the open house it was actually I attended with my son uh this year and it was quite different from years in the past I don't know what it quite was the students were more just energetic I mean the students for the clubs and the various groups were I mean they were attacking the younger students trying to get them to sign up for the various events it just there was just different err this year and I mean it was great to see all the kids so excited about all their clubs I mean there was just wasn't enough time even in the night to get through um to all the all the different events so want to thank um Chuck and Mr service for setting that up and all everyone that helped run it and um just one last request if you could please move taco day to Tuesdays um so and that brings us then to Mr Thomas Sage thank you president Le so for tonight I have three items uh relating to some key key items going on in the business office first item is the 2324 audit which is uh scheduled to start this Thursday the next item is the budget calendar for 2526 that calendar has been provided and discussed with the finance and planning committee previously and will be posted on our district website some important dates uh for the public and for the board members to keep on your calendar is the adoption and filing of the tenative budget uh the plan is to have that March 11th uh at March 11th board meeting that's based on the tenative date set by the state so that hasn't been released yet so that could possibly change uh the next date is the public hearing and Adoption of the budget that's planned to be scheduled May 6 board meeting which which is also based on the tenative date by the state uh the last item is the Assa which is currently underway as of today so the snapshot date that the state has set for the Assa which is October 15 today's date and that's pretty much the uh the Assa is the is the application for state school aid um that data collection is used to gather resident and non-resident pupil counts required to calculate that state aid entitle entitlement that data will be compiled over the next couple of weeks in the business office and analyzed prior to submitting to the state uh the due date is early December and that is a huge part you know as discussed with last budget uh that we put together for 2425 one of the big uh factors in the budget is the state aid which comes from this data that that will be generated from the snapshot as of today um and as you see you know we're working on the 2324 audit we're in 2425 school year and now we're planning for 2526 so there's a lot of moving Parts um in the business office and districtwide uh administrative level that we you know kind of factor in all different uh different three you know three different school years and that's that's it okay thank you um that brings us to item number six committee reports and we will start with our student Representatives thank you president Lee um for tonight we have five different things to report um student from dtan Global High School visited Leonia high school on October 4th far far from South Korea and exchanged cultures student councils tour students and make a successful day um another thing is there will be a PSAT tomorrow for sophomores and juniors make sure students are bringing a charged room book with their ticket another one will be there will be a financial aid night on October 24th in Leonia High School um we cannot ignore the sports team's performances so the cross country team are undefeated and winning their league by 11-0 and Dominic Cameron Calvin do and Jude Baron set the new School record swim boys basketball girls basketball wrestling and bowling teams are starting their interest meetings for winter for their winter sports season that's it thank you thank you very much it's impressive for the cross country team okay that brings us to our next committee uh buildings and grounds I know U Mr zepa is not here tonight he did send me some information though sorry I checked off the wrong thing there actually next item is practices and principles uh we met on October 2nd um we talked about the goal setting that we're going to discuss uh in a minute um we also talked about following up on our board self- evaluation um so we have that on the agenda for our November meeting to just kind of debrief on um the self- evaluation so if you haven't done the self- evaluation yet um you have time until November to do it um and that was pretty much it um we talked briefly about um the November elections that are coming up as well um so should we move to goal setting discussion okay um had you share out yeah so we thought we'd just kind of share out the two ideas that the committee had discussed at our October 2nd meeting and then go from there um so our first was we were kind of saying that because it's a strategic planning year that kind of our lift is minimal compared to years past like in other years the board has had a pretty lengthy sometimes an hour more long discussion about our board goals but but that's not the case this year um because of the strategic planning so our goal our idea for our first goal is to support the district strategic planning um and then we thought it was a good idea to have um a fiscal goal a financial goal so our second um goal is about fiscal accountability um kind of maximizing savings and then supporting our business administrator in accountability so we we just had two goals right now so basically the those two goals are the goals that are on the table and just to build off of what Kim was saying I mean in years past um well last year um we we didn't get too complicated and a lot of that was because a lot of what we do is based on the position that's filled by Dr gon um we were in an interim period at the time so we we we purposely if you recall we did not make the the uh the goals too complicated um the prior year before that I think we did have an extensive list of five or six goals um which was extremely long um but this year and it's not that I'm making an excuse but I'm trying to I think you know what we're driving towards is to make the work that we're looking to do align with the overall goals for the school district um the big thing you know big Initiative for the board this year and the big effort is to get the Strategic plan done and that because that is going to be the document that'll guide us for the next five years um that's why that came up as one of the the goals to really push for this year um and financial responsibility is the second one only because that's I mean that's always important for the board to be keeping an eye on um so those are the two goals that we're looking to do and there's that's why we're really only looking to to two right now um mostly because there strategic planning that should really be you know our our heavy lift so just wanted to see if I mean if you if anyone if any board members have other suggestions if you want to talk about other ideas or explore other avenues then that then it's open um the floor is open for that uh these discussions obviously all happen in public so anyone that is watching from home can you know they can see and partake or at least hear you know what our thoughts and feelings are about each of those goals um but by all means I mean the floor is open if anyone has agrees disagrees has any other ideas for uh for board and District goals that they'd like to put out there yeah just one more note um if everyone wants to see it I've added a document under the Boe general information in the drive um under board and District goal setting so we'll that document it after and then from a process perspective conversation happens this evening any changes are made we'll refine that and that will be a motion on the November agenda so we'll have decide tonight it's going to be in effect and we'll be moving along with it but the official uh the official recommendation will be in the November agenda but we're not going to wait until November to get cracking on it we'll decid tonight I have a comment so my only recommendation is that we are specific enough to have goals that are measurable um we already know sort of the the time Horizon right and for strategic planning you know the goal is like create a strategic plan right so that's very clear but for fiscal accountability while it's not a bad value to have as a as a board in general I would just say I I would like to see very clear um measurement right or like very a very specific goal so that we can know if we met it or if we're driving toward it um I would say that we're we're kind of missing that part of the goal thank you do you any ideas that you you might have for example we could have a few different sub bullet points so you know not having any findings in the audit right in the financial audit that's that's one way in which we could um clearly show fiscal accountability right um when you have things like maximize savings I would say you know is it that we're looking to increase certain funds in the budget you know like what are our specific goals like transfer money to the capital reserve you know things like that and that would align with strategic planning and things like that but I would recommend um just based on my own experience that you you want the goals to be quantifiable otherwise you don't know if you got there and like everybody can have a different opinion on whether you got there or not would you have one goal be adhering to the budget calendar y I mean a little bit more specificity could also be related to like managing the budget to x%c um to some level so you know one is not one isn't going really under where maybe that funds could have been used separately nor is one obviously going over budget either so we could we can align on a percentage that's realistic with the understanding that you know something you know unto is is unexpected that that's within reason you know those are great recommendations I do want to balance it though with just remembering that with the strategic planning process happening I just want to caution us getting too specific with certain items um because we don't want to set things in motion now that may then ultimately work against against a strategic plan and I know it makes it like how do you yeah how do you set a goal yeah no I I agree with you yes specific measurable right like no I I get it um it's just so it's just a caution to try to balance the goal that we're going to set that is you know a smart goal um with not banking ourselves into a corner in terms of what happens what comes out of the Strategic plan and it's tough because it's right Chicken or the Egg and we need to set goals now whereas we're not going to complete be complete with the strategic planning for quite some time now so just keep that in mind so we we should you know our goals should be set so that there we minimize or eliminate that possibility right yeah I mean let's not set a goal that could potentially set us up to you know fall short on a strategic planning for I mean a way that we can maybe achieve both is to make sure like set something that's a smart goal but then just create put language in there that basically indicates or acknowledges that the strategic planning is coming and we'll have to adjust it if it's not in alignment with the Strategic plan so I think also on that note with having strategic planning being both a board and a district goal that each of the each of the separate committees make a commitment inside their committee structure to dedicate time and agenda items to specific specific strategic planning conversation in the context of the committee right so every committee agrees that there'll be a monthly meeting as part of their regular committee meetings of strategic planning will receive specific attention in general but also specific to them to the goal of that committee that's a good that's measurable goal because that requires that each committee then has those conversations so can we um would we want to kind of add that to number one about supporting District strategic planning through like committee invol I don't know engagement or something along those lines I would say like committee as committee as a as agenda items which are then reported upon at the next board meeting could our goal not be support but create District strategic plan or work with our um facilitator to create a plan well yes I mean the the plan will be created by virtue of the work that we're going to do as a district level leadership team and we'll and we will work with the board on that I I where I where the word create um I would avoid is that we've been very clear with the public that the board of education is looking at what the public has done and is building the plan predicated in many ways by what the public is telling us and so I would say like the Board of Education we're looking for verbs I would say we we'll work with public input for the purpose of formulating the Strategic plan so we always want to point back to the idea that we're looking towards what the public is talking about I just want to make sure these goals like are you know kind of reach goals you know that we have to work to get there they're not just slam dunks so that there are you know good goals for us any other thoughts or comments on either of the proposed goals you think you have enough to put together something to share with the board so again we well I mean we're just it's just discussion right now for and then um so again I mean tonight is discussion for us to consider and then put together an actual actual goals to vote on at our next our next meeting um if and if no one has anything else to discuss maybe can you try to summarize putting you on the spot here I think we can in years past we've kind of worked on the document as a board and um between the president and vice president um to kind of get the language more cohesive to put on the agenda right edting but I think we're there yeah and I think what we'll do too Miss Mel is that we'll we'll Circle back on that we'll work in that language together and we'll get it in the board notes on the Fridays and the board can see it and give feedback on it okay so it'll be summarized then we'll we'll share that through the board notes okay and then I'm obviously there'll be opportunity for discussion um at the next meeting if anyone is not comfortable or you can you can email directly with with Kim as the chair of the uh practices and principles committee uh to discuss further and then we can disc discuss it in public at the next meeting um so you think I have enough comments for now um I anyone has other feedback or comments um I had one question so we we go to the district planning process right and then we find out some goals aren't exactly aligned will we at least like an ad hoc update the goals again based on seems like we're like in a c yeah no I I think we'd have to because I mean the district the strategic planning is That's supposed to be our guide for moving forward if there's anything like we would have to change our goals to fit the Strategic plan not the other way around yeah so if that process is complete and our goal is in an alignment then we're going to have to adjust it and I think that happens to boards all the time when I've been reading about it on njsba it's a cyclical process every year and I think it especially boards that are doing strategic plans right can I put one other suggestion out there just for feedback I I know we want to do two goals so I would consider a student oriented goal and I'm sure you know the district strategic planning process will obviously include um a lot of things that we want to do for the students uh but around you know social emotional learning but also creating a culture of inclusion and belonging sometimes you know we get feedback that you know maybe not all of our categories in terms of when we do the self- evaluation for our Hib process for example we're not exceeding in all categories right we we've seen that feedback um we've seen maybe more hibs in the past year than we have in previous years it's a very tough divisive climate you know right now and and I do wonder if uh that's an area where we want to focus our attention because you know I I think the finance committee for example has shown very good judgment around fiscal accountability and I wonder if that's not really a like enough of a a reach for us to to do that again so I just want to put it out there for feedback I'm not saying we have to choose that over one of the others but so in terms of feedback for that we have our district PDP and there's a social emotional component built into the PDP which has already been adopted and it's already in place we can just fold that into these goals so that's actually not a it's not a challenging thing for us to do because we've already had the conversation internally we could expand it out to the board and District goals very easily no yeah exactly well the third the third goal actually exists oh no no it is no no no and the third no to that point if the if the if having stud goal we've already had something written through the PDP which we could layer into the district and board goals so three goals no absolutely that that is I like it What's um a PDP could you share a little bit uh what you were referring to that's kind want to F Us in on that content of it I am wondering from what Maria said earlier is it measurable um thing that we're discussing here the PDP sure so our uh PDP stands for professional development plan um and that is something that the board approves in August every year um which basically outlines the District goals around professional development and just the focus that we'll have for this school year so for this particular year we have two PDP goals the first one being around supporting academic needs so we've been building on our on our multi-tiered systems of support throughout the past few years um so continuing to build on the supports we're giving uh academic to all of our types of Learners uh and then and focusing our professional de development around the different um the different gaps that we talked about when we did the state performance assessments uh then the other goal is around social emotional learning and it's about building capacity for our staff to be able to provide again multi tiered systems of support intervention strategies to be able to support um the social emotional needs of our students and building that culture and climate within our schools so those are our two and I can give the specific language in terms of smart goals um you know to Kim later on um but those are our pdps for the school year sounds great thank you okay so it sounds like we're working towards three goals then and Kim will summarize that and it'll be in the the document in the committee folders yeah it's already there the document is already there um so everyone everyone has access to it under um Boe general information board and District goal setting um 2425 board and District goal setting can you for district schs could you send a link for the folder just to all the board members I also fold that link into my Friday board notes beat me to it okay so the request from the board members then before the next meeting take a look at it provide any comments um and then we'll work on the actual specific language for the goals if any has any concerns or comments about it then um either contact Kim directly um or you can save your comments for the next board meeting okay any other questions or comments about the practices and principles and our goals okay thank you so we will move on then to um buildings and grounds um Mr zapka is not here tonight but he did he did he and I did communicate a text um he did he indicated that um there was some discussion about projects that were completed at LMS um and uh Dr gon's mentioned uh the high school gym floor and the progress that's being made there and that I think there was I don't know if it was a question or if it was discussed but there were one of two of the subjects that Joe mentioned was doors at ACS and cameras on the buses I'm not sure if he was looking for an update on those sure the doors at uh at ACS are on their way they been ordered uh there was a slight delay on the architect side of getting those completed and done but those are scheduled and ready to to come in as soon as they arrive we'll get them in here and the bus cameras I need to get an update from them do you have something there Mr thomasevich just have still a tenative date uh last time we spoke to the vendor was four to six weeks out from end end of August beginning of September nothing has changed on that okay thank you that brings us to education our committee met last week and we had a lively discussion as always uh we discussed uh we had an update on the strategic planning process which was very helpful for the committee uh we talked about the agenda for our PD day that was just this past Monday um we talked about the feedback that we've had from schedule modifications to the high school schedule it seems like it's been all positive from both students and faculty at the high school and we talked about a preliminary calendar and we're going to keep working on that thank you now that brings us to finance and planning um it's actually been a quiet month so we did not get together in September but we will be meeting in October with the budget season and audit coming up um during that time we'll be discussing a lot of the items that Mr Thomas sevich indicated tonight including the calendar um as well as um our board and District goals um so that's the report for finance and planning uh that brings us to policy Mr s sure so since the last meeting we haven't had any state mandated updates or optional mandatory changes to our policies but we always say we encourage our board members to bring any questions about existing policies or any new potential policies to our attention to the committee and we can definitely address that thank you okay uh thank you that brings us to item 10 new business 10.1 use of facilities sorry I'm still getting used to the new agenda format um so item 10.1 is a use of facilities um can I have a okay that's yeah use of facilities for by outside entities can I have a motion in a second please motion Thompson and second Mr seagel that is public comments okay I apologize again I'm still getting used to this new format so item 10.4 on the agenda is new is actually a collection of items 10.1 through 10.3 um what I can do what I'll do is ask for a motion in a second again if anyone wants to speak on um any of those three items specifically please you can note it at that time um and then barring any changes or adjustments will go to roll call so I'll ask for a motion in a second is Thompson you still is the motion and the second Mr s uh Mr seal okay so does anyone have any items to actually we can't discuss these the only item we can discuss is item 10.1 if anyone would like to discuss I think Tommy did you okay um anyone else have any comments on that 10.1 if not then we will uh take roll call okay I'm seeing none can we have roll call please miss Choy I'm sorry this is 10.1 or everything sorry to clarify the motion and the second was for item 10.4 which is approval for items 10.1 10.2 and 10.3 so M Troy you want to recuse yourself for 101 and all the others I want to say yes okay thank you we got you we Dr Meer yes Miss Molina yes Miss toar yes Miss SEO Miss Thompson Miss Wilds vice president Melman and president Lee Yes motion carries on new business 10.1 through 10.3 okay thank you and again I apologize I know it's been August we started this new format still still getting used to it okay that brings us to item 11.1 public comment regarding non-agenda items anyone from the public wishing to speak please step board provide your name and address Arthur oh I apologize yes H how real quick wel I'm glad you're here you can come to the podium if you want to use the microphone so the folks at home can hear you and then you uh your name and your address that's the standard procedure and then the floor is yours um so if we oh so if we ate those Foods daily we would not be he and I think um it's not good for a kids either and if also we're expecting them to focus in school and and do well um I just think we need better choices than ice cream and cookies and uh popsicles for snack um and fried foods for lunch and PE shes for brakfast uh so I just wanted to start this conversation and see what we can do to have more options no thank you very much um so the we'll give comments back um once we close the public portion anyone else from the public wishing to speak Arthur's 125 reles yes the agenda says 6:30 at the top I missed it sorry I was late but thank God for two public sessions I have a bunch of things to go over but it's nice to see Dan without his foot on his boot on and thank you uh Maria and Sid for bringing up those goals you may or may not recall but well over a year ago when I saw noticed goals at the bottom of the agenda I brought up that I was very interested in that but I wasn't sure they were measurable so I really appreciate that coming from the business environment my goals are always really specific and measurable and there's a lot of things you can pick we can I'll be glad to go over them you can pick one specific thing you can pick utilities you can pick expenses you can pick consolidation of services there's a million things you can pick and regarding Steve picking things that you're that you're afraid you're going to pick and fail at that's okay it's okay to pick shoot for this and then only reach 80% of it they've got to be challenging that's the goals are supposed to be anything and unlike even uh at the last meeting or the meeting before I forgot when zany did her presentation and Brian was talking about well gee all these groups it would be suspicious if everybody batted a thousand and hit 100% of their goal because you know they didn't so the self assessments were reasonably accurate based on the fact that there were different levels that were there so that should really be pursued there's a lot that you can tackle as you know I'm I big focus on finance a lot of stuff and spending so those are things you can pick also U sorry to to uh digress um uh this the trips one of the things was the trips every I I look at it and there's that might be something maybe should could add a column on here that says what what what it what the purpose of it is some of these don't seem like they're very educational to me I brought it up before I've mentioned it before you may recall but some of them just seem like going to the shop right what's it for what's the purpose and there's whole bunch of there's two pages of trips I'm sure they're all worthy I'm sure there's justification but I the public have no idea and it looks like you're spending money and time for the kids sending them somewhere that doesn't look like it's very educational so I'd appreciate a justification column on that um tuition for East Mountain School for $90,000 we could hire a new teacher for $90,000 so I know that I'm not sure and I don't need to know and I'm sure it's worthy educational process but isn't there something else that we can do to consolidate with another school is it a one-on-one with that particular student that may need it in which case it's probably about the right amount of money I guess I don't know but those are the types of things you can also Target look at all of the extraneous uh special education and again I'm not challenging the need for it I'm I'm just saying let's look at the cost of all this and is there another way of getting the same result but but at a different shared cost maybe with another school district uh the EV charges for LHS is about $60,000 but uh it's 8.3 and 8.4 is this for the buses or is this for kids cars if it's for kids cars I have an objection to it if it's for the buses I don't have a problem with it if it is for the kids cars I'll I'll withdraw my objection if they're paying for it but I don't want to pay for it as a taxpayer so that's like an answer for that um uh therapy sessions again $58,000 for therapy sessions I'm not saying they don't need it okay but you know when you call for an ambulance in Leonia the ambulance service builds the parents health insurance so can't we do something like that can't if they need therapy great but can't the school district build the parents health insurance and then reduce that cost somehow so that's just a thought that I had also a pickup truck the additional is that an ADD add one if so why if it's a replacement what do you do with the old one that's $58,000 that was 8.8 um again 8.9 $38,000 transportation for two students on Route 70825 can't we do that are there a bus that we can buses or can we do something else other than spend $38,000 to for for transportation to two students um and the settlement 10.2 between between individuals was that the big settlement is that the big deal that you that is the big one okay so it's settled that's um and p ptoa uh contractors for 1136 is that the asphalt in front of the middle school project uh for flooding uh if not what what is it for uh and that is all I have right what was that number Arthur what number was that it was uh 10.2 uh no it's it's p not there it's not it's under bills not under Contra contractors for 1136 at the middle school I I thought that might it didn't Define what it was for I thought it might have been for the ass fall for the drage but I'm not sure that's all I have thank you very much for listening thank God for two two sessions okay thank you any other members from the public wishing to speak okay seeing none we will move into board comment um first Mr Belz thank you for coming to the meeting it's always great to see members from the public come um I don't know if you've ever watched from home we typically have one guest um so we're we're actually overly excited to have so many people here tonight whether it's for a class or on your own will yeah but uh that's that's what that's why the board meetings are open to the public so I do appreciate you coming and sharing your comments um Dr gon will respond sure in regards to the the food offerings at the cafeteria let me make contact with you tomorrow you and I will talk about it we'll have a chance to talk to m our food service provider um I want to make sure you have a full understanding of our offerings what we have and if you have concerns we will certainly hear them and talk about them but we I just want to thank you on behalf of the board for for giving up your time and coming out and it's important to you because it's important to you we want to hear from you and talk to you about it so before you leave tonight just make sure you leave your name and number behind just so I know how to contact you tomorrow okay and one of us will be in touch with you to discuss further okay so thank you and just so just so you know I mean like food comments do come up um occasionally here and there that's part of actually part of the reason why I wanted to go to the school just to see for myself what types of food offerings were there I think it is a little different from school to school but at the high school I mean there were multiple multiple options for the kids to eat obviously um the uh nutritional benefits are are I mean I thought the food options were great they had salad bars they had cold sandwiches they had hot food they a multitude of options to choose from so um I think I'm not sure what they offer they see us if it's different but yeah so yeah yeah if it was on Tuesdays it' be better I also want to go on record for my wife watching at home that I did not have taco Thursday okay I di the grilled chicken so thank you Kathy I can confirm that actually we have photo evidence yeah exactly um yeah yes please so Arthur so uh zany Eric and I are going to to respond to your questions as we sort of go through them it's good it's good to see you um a few things here when it comes to uh when when when you see a large number for for a specific School very often that is a it's a a private special education matter where the child's needs are so intense that we couldn't possibly replicate it inside the district for that cost I just want to that's the the gist of it there and one thing we always do and the board knows this but I'll say it out loud and for our guest are here tonight is that we always look for ways in which we could fold uh services that we do to bring children back into the district um there's some children whose needs are just so uh so extensive and so needy that they have to go to a a school with with with those specific needs and that's what you you see there that doesn't mean that we don't attempt to bring children like that back into the district aside from the financial component we're firm Believers of the idea that we want our children Le onlyi and Edge order children to be educated in their local communities we think it's good for children to be here with us so we really strive to bring kids back into the district so I just want to give some clarification for that question um for the field trip on the right hand side it list of the club that's usually taking part in that trip um wherever you see like a shoppr for example what with that is is that most likely that is a uh for our special education students who are taking part in in Community Practice activities the practice of shopping getting a food list together things like that but um we will take your your food trip recomend your field trip under recommendations um EV Chargers those are not for students um it's actually a really interesting idea like if it was for students would there be some sort of Revenue there but those are for those are designed for district facilities District buses so those are not for students um in terms of the therapy sessions once again I revert back to your first question that there there are uh what we do here is that we we work with an outside provider for the purpose of giving our students mental health and wellness support and that is built through that that's what you're seeing there um the pickup truck I'll let Mr thomasevich speak to that in a moment there um transportation same thing we work with South Bergen jointure which is a uh it's a Consortium of multiple schools in the area and we do our best to combine routes and one thing that Mr Woods does very well and Miss vau do very well in transportation is that they're always talking about other school districts oh you have a child who goes there can you pick up our child can we do that and it's this this jigs swap puzzle they try to put together and we we we have those costs are very low and we share a lot of routes with school districts that's what you're seeing there um and obviously as you pointed out 10.2 is illegal matter so I can't discuss that publicly that's a sentiment um you want to speak to the the pickup truck and and now thank you Dr GIS uh relating to the maintenance truck that was um based on our vehicle we have a vehicle list at districtwide vehicle list and this is part of our phas out plan so this is to add um a replacement vehicle for an aging vehicle for uh Mr Woods's Department this will give him flexibility uh because of the pick a TR to utilize it for um inclement weather you know adding a plow and all that uh what we typic Ty Al doe for older vehicles um as well as any older equipment that we we look to dispose of if it has uh technically the state says if it has a value over the quote threshold which is 6600 but we we kind of tailor that down even more if it has any significant value we try to you know auction it off through gov deals or other uh neighboring districts that might potentially have a need to try to sell it first if it doesn't really have significant value but it still operates we'll you know look to Don it to other organizations that could potentially use it if it has no value and it's not uh usable it's it's end of life then we'll you know disregard it and and recycle it uh as far as point to that is indeed relating to the LMS mitigation so that on the uh bills list was was payment to cover the cost of the mitigation I believe there is still a final payment that's due so so the project is pretty much complete but the payments have not all been made yet okay thank you one thing I let you know Arthur for those special ed schools private schools um the district can apply for Extraordinary Aid if the school is over 55,000 so any amount over 55,000 they can apply for that's depends upon what the state funds any particular year so in this case if it's 990,000 um among other things the the school district applies for Extraordinary Aid and they get some percentage of that back it's not 100% but it's some percentage so the impact to the budget is not quite as severe as what you see when you look at the the number okay um any other comments from board members okay seeing none that brings us to item 13.1 which is the Clos session um so we will we do okay so for those of uh our members of the public watching on YouTube and for our members attending in person here today um we the board is going to have to go into Clos session um we do anticipate being in closed session for approximately 30 minutes um so appreciate you being here after my comments before but at this point I need to ask you to leave so we can have our discussion um and for those of you on YouTube we'll be back in about 30 minutes I just need a motion in a second um Isaac in a second um a sid all in favor any oppos or extensions okay motion carries item 14 Personnel is next on the agenda um can I have a motion in a second please motion um motion Miss Thompson second Dr M uh can we have roll call please miss Choy Dr Misa yes Miss Molina yes but abstaining on ACS Mr par yes Mr SEO Miss Thompson Miss Wilds vice president Melman and president Lee Yes motion carries on Personnel thank you can I have a motion for adjournment Thompson second Mr Park all in favor any oppos or extensions okay motion carries we are adjourned at 8 54