welcome um we're going to call the meeting to order for the February 5th Long Hill Township Board of Education please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all such a nice job so much nicer with all of your voices adequate notice of this meeting of the Long Hill Township Board of Education was given as required by the open Public's meeting act as follows notice was sent to the echo Sentinel and daily record on September 18th 2023 notices were posted on the bulletin board in the first floor entrance of the School District administration building Gillette New Jersey notices were filed with the Township Clerk and notices were mailed to all persons who have requested individual notice pursuant to the open public meetings act roll call please Mrs Butler here Mrs daily here Mr Foster here Mr gr here Dr Mo here m mnon m nist here mugalo here Mrs case here so we're excited we're going to start off the night with the Millington school student presentation so yeah it's great to have a full house here and it's great to see our Millington students let me invite Mrs Dawson to come forward and introduce everyone we would be better for us to go come on good evening everyone while the Board of Education members are making their way down I'm Mrs Dawson the principal at Millington school and I've been there a while which is a good thing I guess um and sometimes you just think about the awesome people you work with and Millington school has a a culture of learning where students come they're encouraged but one of the neat things that that has happened is when teachers take the initiative to do a program and all I have to say is go do it and I I want to talk about um our teams of teachers it's all across the the building they're constantly working together but our second and fourth grade teachers got together and decided to create a program last year called reading B buddies and it had so much success that we kicked it off early in the year this year and paired up some home rooms and um the kids are going to do all the Talking you don't need to hear from me so um do we have a specific order Mrs Coulter all right come on up Gabby yeah reading buddies is designed for fourth graders to be mentors and for all students to have a comfort comfortable environment to practice reading out loud this is a great way to improve fluency and reading skills we choose books or a particular text is chosen by the teachers we discuss the text features with each other and sometimes even write a response to the text or or do an activity there are some response examples on the presentation boards as well as photos thank you Gabby Ryan is next but when we're done you could we have some pictures of just some sessions together come on up Ryan our teachers are creating an environment of communication and sharing we practice social skills as well as reading skills we enjoy seeing our buddies outside of the classroom when students see each other in the Halls they they might say hello or ask how they are doing fourth grade students are excited to visit their old classrooms and teachers and the second grade students are excited to make new friends in an upper grade thank you Ryan okay you're in fourth grade science we've we've covered about a unit of engineering so we decided to include our second grade bunnies buddies in a fun class project we read about engineering and used our basic engineering skills to build a structure using marshmallows and toothpicks we had a lot of fun with our buddies and we get excited to see them each month thank you very much are we good with fourth grade is done those are our fourth grade presenters oh Jake come on up sorry Juan SoDo in the house my favorite thing about book buddies is when we get to read to the second graders book buddies is important because we are helping these students learn how to read if they ever get stuck on a word we always work together to figure it out thank you we always talk about using those context clues okay second graders do we have a particular order or we're just coming up one at a time Mr mclenon you're up here speak into the microphone we have fun reading with our friends if if we I am having trouble with a word my fellow grade buddy can help my f my fourth grade buddy can help me perfect very good who's next we'll just go in order okay perfect the question is what do you like best about Buddy reading during B during book buddies I enjoy talking about the book Thank you next up do you have a question on yours too okay go ahead Jazelle my favorite thing about Buddy reading is that I get to have a friend to talk to about books um books with I love to share what is going on in the story and talk about the characters with my buddy thank you Mr jaldo you're up next um I really like seeing my one of my buddies every month and reading a really good book that I like to them perfect thank you okay Quinn are you next I like to read with my other people and I get to hear fourth graders read I also get to read with a buddy instead of alone it's perfect all right marcelis do you have a question or you're just reading you're just reading go ahead go ahead we get to read different books with our buddy like a who will win book they can help us with hard words wonderful all right Cole I like that we have a different partner to read to every time we find a different Fun Spot in the room to [Applause] read Mr K my favorite thing I did during book buddies was make a pair of mittens with my buddy after reading a snowy story together and maybe one day we'll have more snow reading buddies is fun when the older kids come to us we um read together and make structures Perfect boys and girls you did a fantastic job of presenting and as you can see it's a one time a month activity with other activities going around the reading and so there's some boards here with pictures that the teachers put up if you want to just take a look at it okay thank you on that one did it buddy did really good not doing here oh he like can I get Burger King a good very good very good yes he looks up I like it that's great thank you thank you thank you get hello say hi see you later [Music] Budd very ni no no problem horrible eyes like you know when you voice like voice I'm a little nervous with my recap I'm gonna I'm not I'm not good at like transcribing so I'm keeping it at a high level you don't need to go on every little thing Alex kind of intense somebody's got to take that back yeah I'm gonna keep it at a higher level I told that here oh lights lights oh they're up here I think where the outlets is there an outlet why am I like I know we have them here had to plug in myell meeting didn't want to miss anything so and then of course play withby [Music] weekend all the funds left the building we're g to move on to um ssds results yes and uh if I can invite Melissa backer to come forward and give our semiannual report on student safety thank you Tom good evening the ssds report is the student safety data system and it captures incidents leading to a students removal from school HIV investigations staff training and programs for students that are all related to the HIV law so there are two reporting periods we have September through December and January through June so our numbers for the first part of the um school year are very low which is very typical for us we are very lucky um so I'm just going to focus on our trainings and the programs that we have that are related to the Hib law so for our trainings all of our staff are annually trained on Hib policy at the beginning of the school year and it's a district training with Hib law scenarios for them to review the process that we follow when we're investigating Hib investigation and our district procedures we also have two School climate teams and three School climate teams and they meet two to three times per year and that team is responsible to develop Foster and maintain a positive School culture and climate and we focus on ongoing practices in school and addressing climate issues such as harassment intimidation and bullying we have teachers and a parent representative from each School building our programs for the first part of the school year we have our choose love social emotional learning program which is various monthly activities programs and lessons that are related to the various social emotional learning development that our students are learning about we had the week of respect peace and our schools week and Red Ribbon Week and during all those three weeks in October there are activities related to the different themes focusing on being respectful kind supportive Learners relationships with peers and respecting our community and making healthy choices we have monthly character education lessons at Gillette and Millington as well as tiger team assemblies where the students gather and focus on the Core lesson of the social emotional learning initiatives from that um month at Central we had a digital citizenship assembly called my life online and follow-up activities were done in all of the classrooms from the guidance counselor and not part of this but we also did a digital citizenship in January so it doesn't typically fall into this reporting period but we did that with the fifth graders at Millington just recently any questions go ahead sure I hate to ask the violence one what is that call to Mark this violence what do that so the way that the report works is so violence and we are very fortunate in our district that we don't really have typical violence as we would see it but it would be a physical altercation between two students and that unfortunately has to be classified as violence okay simple question and I believe gotten the answer already but I'll ask maybe for those who didn't see it in central number of cases filed were two and one was violence and there doesn't add up to two I understand that it's not necessarily supposed to so correct so the other Hib case that was filed did not fall into any of the categories that were an option in the report so that's why it's not listed not an oversight you did by thank you not an oversight one plus one is normally two but not always George and I just actually did discuss that because I did look at it because it doesn't um it doesn't add up but it just didn't fall into one of the reported categories I I will say from a parent perspective whatever you did with the fifth grade that you mentioned I ca my son came home and was giving me like everything that had been said he was looking through who he was friends with on his text messages people got deleted and so it worked da is part of that conversation as well same thing with my daughter in the fifth grade I was like where are you learning this yeah well I'm also able to share with them that I work at the middle school as well so that I I'm privy information on what happens as you get older with social media so we try to focus on that a little bit too so good I'm glad that we had an impact on that any other questions okay thank you thank you Melissa um Communications none to report I don't have any to report because I think some things are going to be covered during committee reports so I'm okay with that um so committee and Lees on reports let's start with Karen U Morris County ed services met virtually on January 10th this was what they call a meeting of the representatives as well as the board of directors so we had two meetings essentially there are over 40 districts represented on the commission some are not in Morris County any any district from any County can join um and the board of directors is only is made up of 15 members of the of the total group so at this assembly with the representatives uh we voted on the um prices for the services that they offer and uh I checked with Robin she doesn't recall getting them yet but she should get them because they were approved at that meeting um the other thing is uh at the meeting uh we approved a new 5e contract for Dr valard he had a his a contra present contract at that time wouldn't be over until June 30th of next year but he approached us about renegotiating and everything worked out so he's got a new fiveyear contract and um that's about it in terms of what would be of interest to us uh moving on to governance um and vision progress uh Mr Alexis is working with Mr Vella and the thought is to use it as a uh language arts lesson and asking the uh students using a prompt you know what what do they want to know and what kind of student do they want to be when they move on to high school and that would help us maybe formulate our mission and vision um we did a little review of the mid Year I'll call it uh Retreat um I think it went well I think it was okay good um now the thing is uh we discussed that maybe instead of just waiting it for the the half year maybe there's something else we should look at and I'll bring it up in new business to maybe put it at a different interval and um well that's it so you want to move ahead one of the things is um you all must know got promoted so she's like busier like really busy so it's important to get her as soon as we can the reason why we like to have her at our sessions is because we get training credit if we don't have her we don't get the credit and we want to maintain our Master board status however be that as it may the important thing is the work and getting it done so there may be an occasion or two where surely might not be available just everybody knows with respect to all schools counsel that is in the present contract and the way the things are working with the administrators and Mr Alexis it seems to be working very well uh hopefully transition reports were provided to the new chairs if there was a new chair of a committee um obviously if you stayed the same you know you don't have to do that um one thing too and I think what was really great that everybody got their meeting scheduled into Mr Alexis we got it least that posted that was great and um if we just have to just keep working on you know a really the agenda is more important almost than the minutes and that's because you see the subject that come up the other board members might see something that they want to question and they can pose that to the committee so if we could all just try to I know it's not easy but just try to work to get that out as as soon as you can or at with at least maybe a week before your meeting hopefully um our next meeting I put down it was incorrect on the on the minutes that were submitted I fixed it is actually February 20th at 7 o'clock and it'll be virtual okay now this is a good one this is finance and you know Robin will pick up a lot of the slack on this one um we reviewed um well we started looking at and asking questions regarding the budget and uh as you recall last year we had two dates this year it was not on the calendar however we are initiating another date so that you can have a review of the preliminary budget so that'll be on March 11th and then on March 18th we will vote on the preliminary budget that has to be up to the county on the 20th uh I know that's another meeting but it'll be short and brief but it's something that's and prior to that and I want to get a confirmation from Robin yet she's gonna have the video up online before that so you'll still you'll get a everybody will get a look at it even before the 11th the finance committee is going to have a meeting an extra meeting on March 4th to look at that budget before it you know finally gets to you there are some big things happening so for instance estimating a health care cost increase of 10% this is going to be a killer Insurance increase of about 15% then you have just the regular salary increases and the utility increases that go in there and we know Esser funds you know were put towards things that excuse me that wouldn't be in you know necessarily in the budget they were extra but there's a program or two that we had for the learning loss that we really have to look at and say and the administrators are looking at it to see should we try to work the budget to keep that even so there's a lot of balancing that has to go on Transportation is another big issue pres contractor has one year okay and uh things are settling down a bit there's still a lot of trouble with substitutes so these there's a lot things being discussed in a lot of back and forth between wung Hills and Watchung do we go out for a bid do we not go out for a bid do we go with wat Chang and not watang Hills do we try to do that um they're so things are kind of up in the air do you with the devil that you know versus the one that you know um the other thing that Robin is looking at is let's have let's review Our Roots again you know maybe there's a way that we can make it shorter thinking without having um I'll call it meeting stops so that there's the poor bus driver is not going you know bum bum bum and you said you just got you were talking to right I had a long conversation today with um Frank Romano at the moris county ESC the Karen new and we spoke for over an hour about what we can do he actually as uh volunteered to kind of look at our roots with us to see he said 257 stops is just way too many he lives in town he knows said we have to start clustering children in neighborhoods the fact that you don't have a sidewalk doesn't mean that it's a bad neighborhood it just means you know a first grader may need to be walk to the corner um and wait with Mom and that's just what happens that we can help our bus company whichever bus company it is if we can shorten the roots and figure out ways to do that so we're going to take a long hard look to see what we can do um to make the roots better and that will help us in the long run the one other thing is though we are not looking to go just with watching alone we are a group of three it's um the high school little Watchung and us and we work together that we don't we don't separate out at all oh at all okay then I okay can I add some Transportation yes um I I think what people just have to to manage their expectations for next year that right now a lot of the kids in our district are almost getting door too busing and that is resulting in a much as as wonderful as it is it's resulting in numerous problems it's resulting with requiring more Roots because when you have more stops you know um you can't keep these kids on the bus for a very long period of time so I know that at one point there's going to be some backlash and I just want to preempt that by as as in the ideal world to have that door too you know stop is wonderful but I I could I know we could all say that when we were kids we had to maybe walk a block to get on the bus and that is going to be the possibly and it should be should be the expectation for the next school year because it's costing a lot of money but not even that it's costing kids to sit on the bus for 45 minutes I I mean I Live 5 minutes from the school and my kids are on the bus for 45 minutes so um I think everyone has to understand that as much as you want your kid to be picked up right in front of your house it's costing the district an enormous amount of money and um it's also costing the kids who are sitting on the bus it's not good for the kids it's not it's really not good for our students that we can do better we have to we really have to look at clusters and say neighborhoods may have a stop or two and you have to walk to the stop in your neighborhood and it's just what what we'll do and we'll make it as we can we're not going to put anybody in danger but it but it's just going to have to be a little bit more um efficient so that all the children benefit in the long run next subject is free and reduced lunch um we have some questions and a few concerns uh a certain if a certain percentage of your your student Universe qualifies for free lunch after point it's got to be you got to go to the point where you offer it to everybody and have a total free lunch program so uh Robin you know spoke with people and right now uh we're in a year of a period of Investigation uh to see what would be involved you know the cost just how would we manage and administered Etc so it's going to be a busy year for the business office uh we mentioned before broad grants we got the the award we got the letter so um the projects um are partic you know hopefully begin this summer next summer oh next summer I'm sorry I apologize okay um out of the $930,000 you will be getting 372,000 and I I just want to put a thing they say 40% but the state is notorious for saying 40% but they're only going to fund it 80% or 70% so we they're saying 40% we're saying 40% but don't be surprised if they say of that 40% we haven't funded the whole thing that's oh okay yep all right uh big thing uh one of the vehicles uh one of the trucks is defunct I mean and it's being put out for sale you see there's a resolution according to the pet contract we were entitled to $20,000 a year in equipment and this is the last year of our contract and even though it was the beginning of the year Pritchard agreed to give us that 20,000 so we had 60,000 and Frank was able to find a let me get F250 yeah thank you with a snow cloud for 58,000 so good going and now our Fleet so to speak um is all very I I'm going to say within the fiveyear range or less six years or less so it's a good and they've been maintained so we're pretty good for a while um let me just say the Pritchard contract though is not the last year Pritchard still has two more years it was a fivey year so what we did is we did not spend the 20,000 the first year the second year and now we're asking for an advance on the third year to buy the truck that and that's that's how we're doing it then we'll have two more years of Pritchard and 20,000 20,000 each one of those years 20,000 each year I apologize 100,000 misunderstood um next thing uh there was a another change but an additional Clause added to our insurance to cover the PTO uh where it specifies that they are responsible for the activities supervising the activities on our premise it was um it was picked up by our broker or um and that we didn't have that so this will avoid any problems saying you know whether did we super it was on our property did we supervise it no the PTO did so it's spelled out change anything doesn't change deductibles doesn't change our Premier anything um okay uh the grant amendments I would feel better if you spoke about that Robin okay uh you'll see there's a resolution to excuse me to uh move a jet School AUD a audiometer meter audio meter uh out for disposal um in revie contracts for our district and Bedminster District Robin found there was pricing discrepancy we both used the same Law Firm so now both of us have the lowest price that was quoted on each contract so you have the associate price and you have the lawyer price and you know one was high and low and one was high and low and it was different so now we're all the same um we approved or putting in for Dan Borgo to have additional hours until June um maybe it'll be like less than eight hours a week and it might not even be every week just to be available right so what I'm asking on that one I hope you don't mind that is just that Dan is a great consultant he's a great mentor um and he has 38 years experience so during budget season it is very valuable to all of us and the community to have Dan to help me oversee and find things little things within the budget program within the within the the overall look of everything so that we get the best for our community he's just excellent at finding ideas um and I'm asking for him to be approved through June just because should anything else come up where I want Dan's opinion or to consult with him I want the opportunity to call him and say can you come in can you look at this can you can you advise me on you know am I going in the right direction on this I'm a first year ba it's not uncommon for when you're the first year to have a mentor many people do um and it stilles us a real benefit on the shared service because the shared service is when you add the two together even with the half price and what we pay down if we were PID to down to the maximum we're still going to save 60,000 a year over having a full-time baa so I look at as you have a point5 and then you have an expert also that so it's it's a really good thing by July I don't think we'll need it at all but it just gives me a little you know something in my back pocket that should we we need something I have somebody to call and taking a look um George and Jack uh did their investigating and it should be also on the resolution regarding a company associated with redesigning and our website so that was think care of um there's also a resolution dealing with vendors there's um a limit of 44,000 and the whether when they reach it or if there's a little bit over it has to go on the resolution right so I am a qpa and the limit for me is 44,000 so anything over 44,000 right I'm supposed to let the board know that we have gone over that nothing is unusual about the contract or the agreement it's just letting the board know that over this 44,000 has been spent and um like I said nothing different going on it's just a way of let you letting you know that over the limit for my qpa has been reached and notice on the resolution that Nate is no longer uh working in the tech area and Mark is no longer on our roles either okay um we reviewed the bills and everything is okay so you can approve them and uh our next meeting is well we're gonna have a special meeting March 4th and we'll be doing a budget review okay any other questions for Karen okay Danielle excuse me okay so um as for the PTO the update for February um the Rucker science bus will be at Millington school for a fifth grade program on February 12th through the 14th um the pennies for puppies fundraiser sponsored by the PTO at Millington School benefiting benefiting the seeing ey in Morristown New Jersey will begin on February 22nd and ends on March 8th and the seeing ey assembly for Millington school is on February 29th 9th um there will be a holocaust Survivor Fran malcin will visit the Central School seventh graders on uh February 29th and the next PTO general meeting is on Wednesday February 28th at 7 pm in the Millington media center you can also um oh it says please support the PTO by joining as a paid member and also completing the volunteer opportunities form on the PTO website the link can be found on the district website under the parents tab if anyone has any questions please email lht PTO gmail.com and as for the Comm the community relations committee um we did not have a meeting this in January we are going to be having our next meeting on February 13th at 12: PM via zoom and um I believe we're going to start going to uh every other month for community relations we're I'll I'll be getting the agenda out soon um because it's so it's it's about a week eight days away so um but we'll be discussing the attendance of what we did last year for the street fair the um Sterling street fair so we'll be expecting to come up with some type of you know rotating for between the nine of us um and also kind of coming up with what what it is that we want to get out to the public um and I think that's it for now yes did it come up about from last year we said we were talking about getting a banner or you know some kind of table cloth or whatever that showed the board of bed we didn't have right right we didn't have that that that's that we'll discuss that on the 13th because I definitely think that we need something like that yeah um or FL or whatever right yeah something so if you have an idea any ideas or you know suggestions email but but we'll talk about that I'll send you the link to what we're looking at at the found it's it's not a regular table Club it's like a tight one so it doesn't blow in the wind yeah and last year was very windy so um I'll send you the link to it okay great thank you Danielle did you want to ask anybody for um some comments so that we can discuss them in the meeting rather than bring back the meeting and then February was very close to March which is very close to April so maybe some input from the board now of things to talk about sure I mean it does anybody have any suggestions for for adding anything before I make the agenda yeah I mean if people want to email Danielle then you can email Danielle related to community relations I got yours Tom okay thank you uh okay Crystal all right I don't have anything to report this month um but I would like to say thank you to the students and the teachers and um Miss Dawson at Millington it's always good to send our student voices when we're here at meetings and it's great to see the impact that our programming is having especially with um literacy and building those relationships across grade levels so that was just really wonderful to see thank you thank you Ann on January 9th we had a student achievement and curriculum committee meeting um myself Kim case Katie mclennon Danielle Daly Dr Jones Miss cologne and Mr Alexis were in attendance um we we had a lengthy discussion uh with Jerry cologne about um you know various questions that the committee had and then updates for uh special education programs within the district uh including uh the K1 ABA uh autism classroom with an update update to a classroom at Central that is working uh closely with the bcba uh and then a very thorough uh and informative uh discussion about the multi-tiered systems of support within the district uh which was a followup um we've been discussing previously in the committee um it is a repeat of conversations and updates we we've given before uh but um just the tiers of small group targeted instruction uh with the teacher with the pullout support uh teacher uh that can move to onetoone direct instruction involves goals and it's a data driven um from the data collection methods we have within the district I ready which is a new program you've been hearing about in District is providing data that is useful in this process as well as having other uses for teachers in the classroom um and it's also involving um there's a multi-tiered system uh support Committee in the district that is working on professional development and different topics with the teachers um we talked about the preschool program uh just an update because there was a slight change in the way that that was organized for this year uh we had an update on uh the conquer Math training um which again I had updated in the past and the committee had discussed uh if you remember it was a series of workshops uh five five to seven in training uh inperson workshops with an expert in uh math instruction and ways to fine-tune math instruction to improve uh student outcomes uh so the um a variety of teachers throughout the district have been uh sent to the training and it's something that the district had in place prior to covid uh where we we were using the training there was a pause in the program obviously with Co the program itself had paused so we're um just working to make sure that there's that language among the teachers um we had an update on the after school tutoring program and the plans for that in grades three to uh grades three through eight uh and the letters were sent out already um the program yeah yeah uh is set to run through uh March uh and there was a selection based on variety of data it could be some information from the uh State Testing it could be from teacher recommendation or from the um I uh Benchmark data um let's see included second graders as well oh sorry if I get the wrong grade uh we had um a a conversation just to touch base on um the teacher conferences that we had in November that was a conversation just ongoing really from last year and and over recent years in the district you know what is the best approach to the conferences how effective are the conferences where are areas for improvement so just to touch based on how those went um because we had restored them to the week of teacher conventions the days prior uh let's see uh for uh our March meeting uh I'm sorry we're having a meeting tomorrow uh we're going to be touching base on some items related to the uh budget and discussions there um and uh also um we're looking at just uh see data in terms of the Genesis communication with parents when they're getting various letters now um like for example parents could get information about the State Testing through Genesis so just you know the the way we're informing uh our parents and Community about the student input uh the central steam room was uh being used that was an exciting piece of news from the meeting uh and like I said our next meeting will be tomorrow night we've moved the time to 8 o'clock because of the uh Millington chorus concert there we go any questions from an for an rather I just it's not really a question it's a statement um we when we had our meeting regarding oh is this on yeah um we had our meeting regarding the the the state scores um we had discussed when we were going to start uh the um tutoring program because in in the past it started in later in February it was really nice that we started it you know fairly short notice we we shifted that and moved it to January and I think you know ideally we'll see some dividends from that so that was something I wanted to mention that we moved that up and that's I think a a good thing for the kids in our district so I appreciate that happened other questions okay Tom thank you very much the uh chairman of the planning board has changed from Dennis sandal to Don Richardson I reached out to both of them to uh open Communications of anything that they would like to discuss with the school district Board of Education and uh don got back to me he's uh still getting his feet wet and he will be in touch with us um also as for the technology committee we are meeting on Thursday at noon via Google meet thank you okay any questions for Tom okay Justin no report okay Melissa so I am now the legislative chair and I am here to report all the juicy things of the new laws that are relevant to school so I am attending a clle which is a continuing legal education class but for now I have to report on some juicy things uh as you know we had the hi investigation tonight and just as a a reminder out there to parents you can be Civ responsible for a child under 18 who is bullying another child now in the state of New Jersey that passed with the law but also keep your eyes on what's happening in Michigan we're on verdict watch people in Michigan it's the parent it's the first time a parent is being criminally held respon well criminally charged for a school shooting because of the neglectful actions alleged neglectful actions of the parents so these are things to keep your eye on the laws changing the laws recognizing bullying is not okay parents need to be held more responsible for it and I'll have some juicy updates next month oh in policy we had our meeting and um it's self-explanatory juicy it's just as juicy we changed some dates and some policies very exciting stuff uh George thank you for taking the extra step of double-checking some of the statutes that these policies were relying on and we have another exciting policy committee meeting that's going to be taking place on February 13th at 800m where we will excitedly review 11 more policies yay okay uh any questions for Melissa I've never seen her so animated I clearly I gave her a good role she she likes the law I'm going to Crime Con in May I'll bring back some souvenirs handcuffs okay um Katie um I have a markedly less exciting uh review of the uh buildings and grounds committee meeting uh but a lot of good things um occurred there uh we met on on January 30th virtually um in attendance was myself Mr Alexis Kim case Karen nikus Tom Roff Mark vtina Frank mergatroid and Adele Valentino oh you're not in there I was there you were there robomen I don't know you listen b Bomer okay and Robin bmer I'm sorry it's not on the list um anyway uh I apologize Robin she was there and she helped get everything going okay so now I'm all shoved so we went through our project updates um first districtwide we have now completed the um infield renovation for the uh baseball and softball fields so now Gillette and Millington have also been renovated and then there will be spring touch-ups at all three schools um at Gillette School uh room 20 a unit ventilator and condenser replacement is complete and it's working and at Millington school so um it's nice and warm and it'll be nice and cool in the spring uh or the summer um Millington room 18 and 19 their ventilator and condenser replacement is in process the heat is working they just need to replace the window AC that's currently there it it it'll be removed once it's complete um in Central Middle School the um the replacement of the fire alarm is complete they just need to do a final punch list review um the renovation of the staff Laboratories two of the three are currently usable waiting on a specialized lock for the final laboratory and it's on on back order um and then after that the punch list and final inspections are left um classroom 33 is operational was classroom 53 the steam classroom or is that separate I think it's separate so the the steam classroom is waiting on a sync cabinet but the classroom is in use um and then uh the maintenance and operations updates are School dude which is the um tracking system is operational it's now closing out 40 to 50 work orders a month and about two two um maintenance orders a month uh so that's going really well um the districtwide HVAC they've approved hudgings is that uh Hudgins Hudgins HVAC for preventitive maintenance uh Frank implemented a logging system for building wide filter replacement and roof and roof equipment cleaning so uh the custodians will change will note every uh filter change for each classroom it's uh logged and dated quarterly and then the air records are kept in a binder in the district office for posos which is poos which is the public education occupation it's it's OSHA for Public employes public employees yeah yes um the Cent Central School their sewer line is still having some ongoing backup issues um the main my understanding is the main thing is that the pipes are really old and we have new low volume uh toilets so they have you know reminded staff and students what's appropriate to put down there and also they're looking in the options of what to do about these low volume which is good for the environment but not so good for the school so we're kind of working on that um that's something that they're bewi you know you know sometimes the road to uh you know the the path of you know anyway good intentions are not always have the best outcomes um the district White's tree work is completed at all three schools and it was approved by the shade tree commission um there is a plan for more work in the spring and obviously everything will be cleared by the shade tree um annual right to know inspection has been complete the only issue was they found some old science chemicals and storage at Central which have been addressed and disposed of and Frank now has a manifest at every building with dates and procedures for disposal this this is kind of an ongoing thing where we are finding things that were not necessarily done procedurally in the correct manner in the past and it's really nice to see that um obviously Mark and now Frank have kind of made a corrective action um to it and have like a process so we're slowly getting back on track and um it's really nice to see that there's a process more and more for everything um and we're really organized so that's really good news um and uh let's see districtwide lead um in in Social in school drinking water testing is complete after new fixtures were installed there are no issue no issues um basically the state tests every three years or whenever any new water fixtures are installed we have our three-year inspection in the summer um and currently the disclosure information is updated on this District website so what's good news is we've had the testing done because we had new fixtures put in so we know borrowing anything knock on wood we're in good stead for for the um the three-year inspection in the summer so um they also mentioned that we're we're on the lookout as we we've been installing these um the water bottle um water filling stations water filling stations thank you um and um kind of it's on the radar to be adding more every year um so that's kind of on our radar to be adding some more of those um which again will keep us on top of making sure everything is working properly and also you know the more kids have it nearby the more they'll use it and it's it's kind of a win-win um okay the district relighting projects there were some faulty lights that have been replaced um and then there's something about Med coocks those are the lacks that are on back order there specialty locks that um are for schools there's safety there's a lot of process in the back end to make sure that um no one has access to these um and they can't be duplicated they can't be duplicated it's you have to prove that you work for the district to to order them and it's it's it's a safety issue so it's not like we can just go to home vehicle and replace a lock it's much more um involved in that over winter break um Frank created some projects uh for his for his team um they scrub scrubbed all the hallways and allpurpose floor room floors to eliminate scuffing and he's now instituted a bi-weekly cleaning with electric electrostatic sprayers on Tuesdays and Friday evenings and this is great because we had these um this this system from when we had them for covid and because it's winter and there's a lot of illness going around at least for the time being during the winter we're going to be using this and there's no additional cost because we have the equipment and the supplies because we got them over Co so it's it's been going on and it's going really well um there's some been some roof leaks they've addressed them and the ideas um there there were some tiles that needed to be replaced but that's been addressed and uh they said you know we're in we're okay for now but you know in the next year or two we have to bear in mind that we're going to need you know some roof projects that will be costly so for budgeting reasons that's something that we should bear in mind um he's also uh set up during evenings and weekends they are when when the school is in use um and we have to have um custodians on on you know in the building they've been using that time to uh paint door frames that are nicked and scuffed so they're there anyway so they're they're making use of that time and it's not costing us all more money so that's been a great thing as well okay it's very detailed I I apologize there's a lot going on um we we've disposed of obsolete items the chemicals at Central there's been a lot of things in the basement of Gillette that have been cleaned and and disposed of and they're currently planning for um a workshop to be put in there um and they're just kind of planning for that it's in the planning stages there um we've already talked about the dump truck um integrated Pest Management the routine service and calls and inspections we have we had a Millington health department inspection in December we passed with no recommendations which is great um and now we're just talking about the 2024 Capital Improvement projects um the preliminary Capital Improvement project plan the main one is the Gillette school fire alarm renovation we're also talking about um reviewing what it costs to replace a classroom to replace the furniture the fixtures rugs Etc the idea is it's kind of a blueprint so that for budgeting purposes we have a list of like what it's going to cost so when we're planning you know the ideal is as Mark was saying three classrooms a year and you know the the dream is to do more than three a year if the budget allows um I don't know if three is in the budget this year but that is something we've talked about um but having that kind of in our pocket when perhaps one year we have a little bit of extra money that we can do a little bit more or whatever we have that and we just know and we don't have to um you know always be figuring that out so that's kind of something they're working on and then um you're you're going to talk about the the grants and our next meeting is March 5th that's it I would just like to end I think Frank is super organized and he know he really knows knows his stuff what he's doing I mean he talked about our district as if he had been here for three years you know I mean he just knew everything really really very lucky and his systems he's really like confident in in implementing new things which I was really impressed with we interviewed a lot of people I have to tell you Frank stood out he stood out because he was organized he has an H background um and he's been in big districts that have done a lot of construction so he really fit in well here and he loves being here he lives close by and he likes the feel of community and we I think the the whole office um and and I hope the schools just bonded with him immediately I know when we walk around we look at ceilings we look at floors we look at baseboards um so it's it's great because he really is already feels part of our community wants to and wants to be part of us so that's really a nice thing I one thing that I was impressed with is that he's always like if someone's in the building he wants to give them something to do not just standing around you know just to be there while something's going on so he's trying to keep people busy and also making sure that if they're doing something it's logged so we have that information you know doing these the logs for the um air conditioning and things like that if a teacher has concerns about um the air quality for for themselves or for a student you know if there's a student with asthma things like that they can they have that information the date everything so they know that they things are they're on top of things and the more on top of things we are the more confidence people can have that you know the rooms are safe and the air is you know the quality is good so I was you know when he's like I have a system for that I was like this is amazing and like literally like four times during the meeting he's like and there's a system and was like I know he also likes to walk around and and as we walk around in the buildings you know teachers will talk to us and the nice part as they talk they'll say like oh if by that may he goes oh and he writes it down the teacher gets an email you know the day I'm looking at that or I've already changed it I've looked into it which is to be able to to have that kind of um quickness about you know I reported it an action was taken the thing also is that he's gotten School dude really running they now know what to put into school dude and he's handing them out to the to his uh uh people every morning to make sure that the work orders are getting through and he knows exactly where they are what needs to be done and teachers are seeing that there is a process and that things are getting answered which is really nice really nice it it really gives you a a log of what has been done when it was answered what what need you know just the process which is really a good thing okay uh any questions for Katie no okay and the lill Education Foundation um we are winding down our winter uh Force classes um we are currently in the preparation period for the spring classes which will uh probably be set up in the next three weeks so probably mid February late February they'll start the signups again and we'll obviously be sending you know notifications out the email on social media Etc and on our website um uh we have the uh the grant process has been started so teachers and administrators can submit um um we have now monthly submissions as well as twice annually they'll be for larger things um so the deadline for the the um the large spring Grant is I believe March 15 and uh that's very exciting and we've already had two submissions so hopefully we'll see some more um we have family movie night which is on um February 24th at Central at 700 p.m it's going to be ice age what was really nice is the kids voted on it so they had the choice between snow day and Ice Age and Ice Age one um it should be a fun night um it starts at 7M um on May 17th we just organized this we're very excited we're going to have a color run at 6: pm on May 17th it's a Friday at Millington school and um it'll be a fundraiser and it should be a really great time um is that like we run well it's the kids run and they get they get powdered through powdered oh kids for the kids them in there it's for the kids there's there's powdered color they get all messy and it's water soluble so they can you know when you get home they toss them in the shower it's a lot of fun and um it's a great way to raise money and have some Community spirit and uh we're really excited about it because a couple of us have been wanting to do it for a couple years so uh it should be a lot of fun and it's where everyone in the district is invited um and there'll be a lot more information about that in the future and then our next meeting is Tuesday February 20th at 800 PM it's virtual and we invite everyone to be there so that all okay any questions for Katie on that no okay um I'll just mention quickly I attended uh the Morris County President and Vice President meeting uh for the school boards on January 27th and Rockaway hosted and it was nice to get together with other uh leadership from districts and learn about their challenges and successes and share out um our stories um I did get a one pager um that I'm going to share out with the group I just have to shoot you all an email about um sort of school president leadership um I also went to the PTO meeting last week and it was just incredible all the things that they're doing so I encourage everybody to to follow along and um I'm sure your kids brief you on the things that are happening I know I've heard about the Rucker's bus because that's coming up but um just you know thank them again for all of their work um just a lot going on superintendent report just a few highlights very quickly so uh some real nice student events and accomplishments uh a week ago Sunday we hosted the robotics tournament here at uh Central in the gym uh it was great hosting it the kids had a very competitive experience and clearly an enjoyable one um but we also received plenty of comments about the facilities here so that was also a nice nice feedback to get um Mrs Butler mentioned the Millington concert tomorrow evening back in the middle of January we had the central concert many of those students played in the regional honors band at Watchung Hills last Tuesday uh there's actually a link on the watching Hills website if anyone wants to take a peek uh I'm also pleased that the following day on Wednesday we had ninth grade students from the high school come down to Central to meet with the eighth graders and small groups uh to talk about the transition to high school and um I'd say this our students certainly but it looked like the ninth graders really enjoyed themselves also uh our learning walks at watching Hills uh with our fellow sending districts will continue this Wednesday uh with science teachers visiting in the morning and social studies in the afternoon um the boys and girls basketball teams rolled through not just the first round of the playoffs but also the second round of the playoffs and again I'm a little superstitious so I don't want to say anything but tomorrow we'll be rooting on the lady to tigers in the central gymnasium at 4:00 and on Wednesday that's for the championship and then on Wednesday we roote on the boys team uh for that for their Championship so exciting times here in Long Hill Athletics so it's all good stuff thank you okay any questions yes K I don't have a question I just the pictures that you you know sent us that gym looks great I mean it oh bright clean and oh it it looks wonderful really really does okay Daniel yeah I have a question so when the nth graders came was this the first year that they've been doing or have they been doing this every year I I don't I know that we're the only District that's doing it currently and I think this might be the first year we actually did this in in the way that we did it where the ninth graders came and met with the kids in small groups that's not and are they question the nth graders they are Long Hill not all Long Hill because we had kids from Warren and watch them green broke also like it was a mixture of kids nice yeah but there were there were plenty of former Long Hill students there y this is the first year it's happening um Were You instrumental in making this happen no I cannot take credit for that at all this is Mr Vell and the high school you know Communications and it may have happened in some form in the past I'm not 100% sure but this one was really great kudos to all involved that's great and we get we we definitely get feedback from the high school they're very pleased with the extent of our uh openness to these learning walks and some of the changes they want to make and uh everyone's been very open to it and very you know flexible and collaborative the second letter you get to deliver that yes this week yeah any other questions okay business administrator report well Karen did you in almost everything on the agenda but I just had a couple more things to go over um weing two grants that we're asking you to approve we're amending the arer grant because they put in a 20 20% learning loss um initiative on it so we had to move some funds around to meet that it's the last year of this grant we will use up all our funds um we have everything scheduled to be used up it'll be totally done by the time Grant is due um we're also amending idea prek um and this is again is just because um we're using the funds for something different we're using for some uh profession devel that was done during the summer time um and so the grant is being amended just on a fiscal amount to change where the dollar amounts are that um Dr Jones with u Mr lexus's support has submitted a high impact tutoring Grant which goes along with our financial goals um so that's been submitted to the doe and with any luck we'll get some Grant funds for some high impact tutoring uh we also are asking for the annual semi waiver semi is special education Medical itive and it's a school-based Medicaid reimbursement program um for medically related Services listed on students I and they allow you to wave it if you have under 40 students there's an awful lot of paperwork for under 40 with not a lot of money attached and they recognize that so every year we do submit a waver for that and then lastly we also um received an SDA Grant in the amount of 8,620 um for emerg and M projects and we're going to use that for some preventive maintenance services um that we thought we could put into next year's budget but we're going to ask this to help us fund and so we're asking for approval of that Grant as well any questions for Robin okay thank you um any comments from the public on agenda items okay we're going to move into resolutions uh Karen will you move in reorganization resolutions items numbers one and two so move second any questions roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs Dy yes Mr Foster yes Mr gr yes Dr M yes yes nist yes m r yes case yes Danielle will you move in minutes number three so moved second any questions roll call Mrs Butler yes Mrs Dy yes Mr Foster yes Mr gr yes Dr M yes Mrs mlon yes M yes yes this is case yes Crystal we move in financials numbers 4 through 21 so moved second pick your poison Robin uh any questions roll call Butler yes D yes Mr yes M yes Dr yes plan yes nist yes yes M case yes and will you move in Special Services Numbers 22 to 23 so moved second any questions roll call M Butler yes Mrs Dy yes Mr Foster yes M yes Dr yes m m yes m n yes m r yes Mrs case yes Tom will you move in Personnel numbers 24 to 29 so moved second questions roll call please Mrs Butler yes mrsy yes Mr Foster yes Mr gr yes Dr Mah yes Mrs mlon yes Mrs iist yes and I forgot to ask a question well wait sorry R yes Mrs case yes okay Karen you have a question very simple is Maria sh Shanahan related to anybody was in District aware okay um curriculums uh Justin will you move in items numbers 30 through 31 so moved second the very exciting class trips which the kids get so excited about so that's I'm glad that we're getting more into that after covid um roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs Dy yes Mr Foster yes Mr yes Dr yes M yes nist yes yes policy Melissa will we move in numbers 32 to 33 so move second any questions roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs Dy yes Mr Foster yes Mr Duke Ros yes Dr M yes yes yes yes yes Katie will we move in other number 34 to 36 so move second I have a question okay question yeah Melissa what is a medical containment drill what's in a medical containment drill drill medical oh containment drill contain yes so it's one of the emergency drills that where you set off an area where someone can be you know any sort of medical emergency could be addressed it's just like running any other kind of drill so like if if if somebody had like a seizure or something exactly and they have to like do some sort of Sheltering place in that area okay that's typical I think one year they had a student got injured on theground and they had to take into the building and they had the kids in real life it happened something like that there was an injury and they had the kids all stay in their room it's things like okay so the kids don't get scared excuse me question okay we have back yeah don't we have to do evacuation drills also we do we do one fire drill and one emergency drill per month evacuation with the well this this counts as an emergency drill yeah it doesn't have to necessarily be a full evacuation they're all they're all different right this was just January Karen yeah so they have a lot January y okay any other okay roll call did we do that yet after these questions okay roll call sorry Mrs Butler yes mrsy yes Mr Foster yes Mr yes Dr yes mlon yes nist yes rugo case yes okay uh items for discussion unfinished business okay new business oh you have new or unfinished item for discussion well okay go ahead was to do go ahead go ahead Tom okay um this year we had the well I happen to see that there's a policy that says committees disband at the end of the year and they don't reformulate until the president sets up the new committees um I have a suggestion that well every year at least six of us will be coming back unless somebody bows out and who knows what the election will do it could be all nine of us the the form that we did for you about what you would like to do to be completed prior to the end of the year so that perhaps we could start the new committees earlier rather than having there was I know let's not pick what committees but some committees met some committees did not it's probably just better if we just start the process just a little bit earlier week or two earlier or in the December meeting whatever and I think that would that would help so that we're not disavowing our policy and we can be more efficient our first meeting to mean something for everything okay okay part of the problem is that we don't have a president sworn in by then to pick the Committees you know I like understood but our first meeting is usually early in I think it was a little later in January but but soon soon after these reports will be ready rather than having to wait get it to us and and I don't want to Discount anybody who may come in new you can't set it up till end just food for thought for next year okay other questions or thoughts Karen no questions I'm sorry okay other business new business uh you may see that we're going to have a meeting in mayi before the board meeting do a goal review I I did not word it correctly by putting it as a midu retreat it's going to be a a go review now um excuse me we can schedule it all all right we attempted to schedule it for April but like I said Charlene was not available so now the question comes up is come July we have our self- evaluation we do our goal review final you know the year and we set our new goals and it was thought we need a few more checkpoints on the goals so I'm going to throw this out there that every fourth months actually when I say ref months it'll be twice in the in the school year so it would be November and April again it's before a board meeting that we have a on hour session to just do a goal update now not a big thing like we did before however I know some of us when we have the two hour session for the retreat we appreciate that time because we to discuss things and talk with each other and L back and forth that we really don't get all the time to do so the other side of it is those other sessions that I suggested could be two hours I want to put it out to the board to give me your view on what we should do is that with Charlene or without Charlene if we can get her we'll get her if we can we'll still do it so I'm I'm a little bit confused yep so in we're we're doing we have the idea of doing the Retreats but this is in addition to the Retreats no no retreat we have one Retreat okay in July yes and then we set our goals and now this is just going to be goal review like we did in December but this year we try to just do a goal review that's what we're going to do in November and April check a check right on where the status of where we are in our goals not a blown Retreat because the retreat involves our self- evaluation yeah so it's the one or the two hours and you know and it's time and I think I personally think that the two hours helps because like we need a little time to kind of tiptoe around things and then we always like towards the end really get to it so I think even though it's it's a challenge for me to get here early um I do think it's time well spent having the two hours okay yeah I agree with that yeah minut Kim is two Melissa I'm saying do a two hour one okay Justin Tom two good to me two we're all two that one okay what did that average out to I'm sorry what did that average out to what did it average out to we all said two what mean okay so this year like I said couldn't get strong for March I mean I'm sorry for April we're having it in May um and we will have her we already booked her I booked her like back in the fall for July uh we have her coming for July so I will now try to do may move ahead and try to get her for next November and the following April because I said now that she's got that promotion she is you know like one she's really busy I mean really buy I'm getting emails at 10 o' at night she working hard she is okay any other new business okay any comments from the public okay an will you move us into executive session the board will enter into private executive session to discuss two harassment intimidation and bullying reports and a confidential Personnel matter second okay all in favor I any opposed extensions okay thank you