##VIDEO ID:PeeOUNf-8uc## meeting call the order call here Mr Mr CER here Mr here Mr here M Ryan here M dun m g here Stand United States of America to the stands na indivisible St in accordance with the of the New Jersey open public meetings law from the Milford board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof hosted in the burough Hall in the new Public Library notices have been sent to the record and the twin buroughs the board announces that under its long policy it will not discuss in public any comments made by members of the public concerning individual staffers at this time please be advised that all cell phones and electronic devices are to be turned off meetings of the board are open to the public and all members of the community should to participate before coming to the board the chain of command should be follow there are two portions of the meeting reserved for comment from the public the first at the beginning of the meeting for agenda items only and the second and the end of the meeting for other items issues raised by the public may or may not be responded to by the board but all comments will be considered the board request that all members of the public be mindful of the rights of under other individuals when speaking confidentiality and legal rights afforded by the state of New Jersey members of the public are asked to not speak negatively or in a derogatory manner about any employee of the board okay I seek a motion for community on the whole Stephanie second by Page all in favor oos let approve the minutes of August 28 is there a present there no so superintendent schools report Peter bla yep good evening sorry we're a little bit late National cheeseburger day um for suspension and hivs there's absolutely nothing to report for the month of August this will not be the case for September um I'd like to welcome em a Grady uh as a student representative to the Board of Education uh M daa actually is not here tonight she has another engagement um however she clipped out this newspaper equiping that I shared with her before and it's um Emma yeah as principal for day and Gib next to Scott DAV well pass this around de so it shows Once a leader always a leader right than you for doing this high school kid taking time out of their night to come hang out with us and get the report you know you deserve a lot of credit uh so overall the New Milford Public Schools open very smooth Berkeley's off to a great start they actually have a new IBC program um to get that IBC program started in there they had to put in we had to put in a new bathroom and our maintenance staff did the entire bathroom which is a huge cost Savings in the district uh pass everything we need to pass and so I thank the me that to make that happen Gib school already had a GI Gathering which I was fortunate to be a part of um 490 kids um in the auditorium um Mr ricelli lent us the mascot the night mascot I did not wear the mascot but a brave teacher did and was in there for probably about 45 minutes the kids absolutely loved it it also got gave me a chance to relive my principal days and address the 490 students and Le introduce who I am so I'm not a stranger in the building I just said when you see me give me fist bumps and so I got about 300 fist bumps after that so hopefully I'm not a stranger in that building anymore and hopefully that can continues to happen throughout the district do reports a highly successful transition for the new sixth grade class 177 incoming sixth graders it's a really nice size class they actually did an alternate schedule on the first day all behavioral expectations so I really like that Avenue and the teachers loved it and as I roed around the schools I asked them how it's going and they said they think that day of fall behavioral expectations really helped get him off to a great start um um student leadership played a crucial role in assisting new students to help guide and support the sixth graders we know the eighth graders com out of help um the department special services off to a fantastic start DR pra tour every single one of the programs the kids are all happy and they're all learning the board office is in the high school so I find myself in the high school the most uh I'm going to jump to the fact that they are it's a nice environment um as they walk down the hallways taking is popping into teachers uh the kids are engaged and it's very noticeable that there's a new couch uh in every classroom with cell phones and I'm not sure if Emma's going to talk about that or not I don't know but the teachers absolutely love it um so they do cell phone policy being enforced in the high school I'm huge fan of it man public till the summertime the teachers are on board and the students are doing really well with it so they have pouches when they walk in the classroom and as soon as they come in they put it in the couch and they sit down and it's so much healthier for them it's on tethering the students on their phone it's allowing to focus more we're having less issues in the bathroom already because they're not texting each other to meet up in the bathroom they more board bathroom particular so it has been a rebounding success on many levels um one teacher actually did an informal poll before and after you know this cell phone policy and cell phone usage by the students are down 2 and 1/2 hours in the so very happy it's certainly a step in the right direction I really just want the public to understand this is not an infringement on student rights at all this is a health and safety thing where we want our kids to be healthy as possible in our school focus and learn and as for the safety thing the cell phone do not make them any safer in school it actually makes them less safer according to law enforcement um so everything bu Accord to plan we are very very happy about it I appreciate the community the teacher the administration support On That September 11th uh was I was a history teacher um so it's very important to me uh 911 was commemorated in many different age appropriate ways some schools engage in moments of Silence our older students listen to personal stories from First Responders and at EMT new mord high school again I was very fortunate to be invited into the social studies classroom three in particular to go and sit down and just um share stories with old history not St Mr Wilson told but share stories with Mr Wilson and Mr cers and you know Mr Hershey um and talk about our perspective from 9/11 and hear the students perspective about 90 do and it's interesting because where we all have an emotional attachment and you do got we all have an emotional attachment to it the kids understand it as a very historical event that understand the devastation of it the outcomes it had for the future the effect it had on us but they don't have that emotional attachment right away I'm like that's like the Kennedy assassination for myself my mother was devastated by the Kennedy assassination I understand historical ramifications but it's just different because I'm separated by so many years so that's really the first time in seeing this that this generation was not born during this time so it's very interesting and I I give the history Department credit before continuing this we do not want to forget uh some highlights from the sporting world the Milford football team is Anor roll they beat their home opener they he had Brook Heights in their home opener at the first time in over two decades very exciting game it actually earned them uh North Jersey team so we celebrate that during the game also we had an individual standout Luis poso um who scored three touchdowns seven catches for 165 yards five rushes for 10 yards and an interception so he was like the njic you know play every week the marching band and cheerleaders both performed halim of each other's game of the games which creates a nice genuine cular environment we're looking for girl soccer team is undefeated Vol ball team is four in one tennis tennis team I see them hitting the balls out there all the time and enjoying yourself right being competitive um Mr Kelly's cross country team also went 3 in one in their first n contest uh so employe soccer got their first win as well so right now we're in a great place um in co-curricular and Sports in mil on Saturday September 28th New Milford will have their athletic senior day very exciting starts at 9:00 a.m. um and culminates at 300 p.m. with the football game it involves volleyball tennis girl soccer boys soccer just come for the day you know bring a bag of goodies and and enjoy bring the whole family I'd like to point out some things on the agenda tonight there are a couple of items it that I would like the board particular would focus on first is the graduation Pathways report so as per state statute the chief School administrator with superintendent myself must report out annually to the district for event no later than September 30th how many students graduated the year prior and what Pathways were utilized in order to graduate students must prove proficiency for language arts literacy and math in order to graduate graduate Beyond simply earning EveryDay credit in classes they have to pass one of these Pathways as well to prove proficiency there are technically three Pathways which are outlined in board policy 5460 High School graduation that allows students to prove proficiency one is pass the njpa which is a state standardized assessment in math and Ela separately number two pass an alternate approved assessment like the PSAT sat or act number three students get engaged in the portfolio appeal process and actually students of IEPs can engage in their own appeal process um for an alternate assessment based on accommodations so the following are the pathways our students utilize to graduate high school last year there were 137 students graduated New Milford High School in 2024 and Ela of those 137 students 120 students used the first pathway which was passing the NJ GPA three students utilize a second pathway which is an alternative assessment like the PSAT Stu two students utilize the third pathway portfolio uh process and eight students receive diploma through alternate requirements as for their IP in math of those 137 students 89 students use the first pathway 25 students utilize the second Pathway to the alterate PSAT seven students use the third pathway which is a portfolio process 12 students receive the diploma through alternate requirement that's specified in their IE for student to not graduate with this cohort however I caution everyone not to jump to the conclusion that these students failed or dropped out which is certainly not the case some students continue their education in an adult program which we provide for our school district so it's very important that we understand that um I'm asking the Board of Education to approve this report after her statute also on the agenda for Board acttion District team teams um there are three separate School District team based teams that I'd like to talk about um this report just serves uh for the trustees to acknowledge that these teams have been formed and are actively engaged in the schools to deal with uh threat assessment and school climate safety which I think is pivotal at this time and a great conversation point so we have a threat assessment team and which consists of a number of trained individuals from a variety of educational backgrounds including law enforcement and what they do is they screen any potential threats to self or others um each building has a threat assessment team but there's also a district team should an issue present itself a scenario with a student the threat assessment team is called immediately they took a take a look at all the facts everything that it encompasses and then the threat assessment team will make recommendations for how we move forward so it's not just lateral decision by a principle it's a team of people who have been trained um that make the assessment and do F in different ways each school also has a school safety and climate team that is led by the school anti- specialist and abs and it's comprised of administration faculty and actually parent Representatives here we get the parent point of view they engage in conversations focused on increasing School culture and climate ideas to prevent buing uh the team's periodically me throughout the year our last committee doesn't really have anything to do with safety but I want to acknowledge it's been formed is a skip committee it's a school Improvement panel it's a team of individuals Administration and teachers that get together and they focus on professional development and teacher evaluation mentoring to make sure everything is going proper so all these teams have been formed and are active in our build spectator code of conduct I'd like the board to acknowledge the new njsa policy that outlines The Spectator code of conduct the njsa has purchased signs outlining expectation for all schools in the state of New Jersey sanctioned by the njsa which controls the governing body of all the sports all of the expectations are logical and reasonable expectations include no verbal abuse no obscene gestures no profanity no entering field of play it's a shame we have to reinforce these things during during this time but we definitely need to uh the policy then outlines that these things can result in ejection and also suspension from contests so we have two signs to hang up one will be at the athletic field in the back and also in the gym more signs are forthcoming board goals I'm seeking approval from the board for the 2024 2025 District goals the first one is evaluate and refine structures related to accountability through the entire District to ensure Personnel processes and supports are in place for the district to function efficiently and effectively we want to ensure that this we want to ensure with this that everyone knows their job respons responsibility who is to report to who how they're being evaluated it's important for me to know that and be designing and refining those things that needed I will learn that process so I can have a bigger understanding of what's going on um and I think it's fair and transparent for all involved number two would be evaluate and establish structures for communication outlining formal and informal channels used to communicate appropriate information to the different stakeholder groups so communication is crucial component of any High functioning School District where there's good communication there's often trust as they go hand in hand so uniformity Clarity and transparen all pivotal structur in communication with those tenants in mind who refine our communication practices I updating the websites which is a need for an overhaul um for all the buildings evaluating social media outlets and how they correspond with parent communication and the development of parents Square as our main needs of communication third we'd like to continue to evaluate and find current practices to develop new program to support the social emotional needs of our students across all schools in the areas of curriculum Wellness activities counseling and outside resources to supplement District programming is always needed as a great way for inventory what we do what's working what's not working and how can we move forward and create new programs there are a couple other items to focus on in the agenda specifically p24 25.50 we have a couple retirements that will be honored at a later date for the service but quickly on behalf of the district I want to thank Dr perau Who was currently the director of special service for the district who was also a principal of mine when I was a teacher a long time ago at David E own Middle School she is a lifelong educator who has involved the special ed program to be inclusive with as many students as possible and in doing so in the Milford special education program and become a model for other districts Mrs Ruth berer as well is retiring she served in the middle school and the high school in our culinary arts programs as well as our Early Child development courses where she grew both programs over 21 years of District I am told she is a legend of sorts in the school on behalf of the district I want to thank her for a decade of service as well both of these positions are difficult to replace it is already on their way we've already posted we already have applicants uh we wish uh Miss biner and Dr per the best of Lu moving forward um again we be honored uh one file question from last night about publicly accessing the links and team discussed it um you know Watson deny and the secretaries uh at DOA and we are going to inventory the links what we can show and what we can't show put them in a different color we want to be as transparent as possible with the with the subject matter so in field trips they will be made accessible um we have no problem with that and but we will go on a caseby Case basis we'll do that as our board planning attent uh that concludes my report for tonight thank you anyone have any questions before we go on to Mr Watson would you like to do your presentation good evening everyone I excited to here so to start the year we excited to welcome these two council members after our club Fair on Friday starting the math out our year prepare different Multicultural events fundraisers and Student Activities that's my report for the evening thank you does anyone have any questions I do so not that also have brought up the the the cell phone policy um I think dress code was in um you got notification before school started so how are things going with those two changes so I don't know too much about the dress code but um as for the phone policies it's definitely changed the class environment a lot because um we don't have that distraction anymore teachers aren't really fighting with students anymore we their cell phones because that is now like a requirement in the classroom so everyone is definitely more Focus engaged which I think is really good does anyone look at each other in the hallways anymore try to make up for the time I think within the minutes we have trying to get to am all right thank you anyone else okay no you're busy you do not have to St for the rest of the meeting thank you for coming presentation thank you thank you Emma know know so acting business administrative report Bruce Watson okay thank you good evening everybody want to put that back on I have to share but anyway last night in the work session I haven't really got into a lot of detail so let me summarize just at the public session and I'm going to point to motions number 2425 68 that's the latest complete final contract GI group um so Saturday they will be here and they will finalize it and they are in very good shape I also pointed out that fortunately with the control and monitoring and working with them we actually came in less than the accepted bid which is a really a very good thing uh for us um I want to thank our facilities manager uh G her he's on top of it did a great job and and works very well with everybody next motion 2425 62 we are uh on the motion have the board approve the purchase wall matting for the two Elementary grades I shared pictures with the board last night that's a safety issue uh we want to get them as soon as we can and we're going to put them up lunchroom uh there was a question from board I really I don't think I answered it properly but or totally uh the lunch rooms are not that much cuz the tables are kind of shielding from that however during the phys Z class and running around that's where the concern is that you know you throw on a ball you might run into the wall Etc so we've got those on order and uh the board knows about that from last night's meeting and then the last item I have is motion uh 2425 72 that is the board budget calendar as I explained uh probably in the top three to five most important documents is the school budget and so we want to get off to an early start uh so when the ba comes back uh she will be able to just jump right in and continue it and not be so far behind so we can put this budget you know together so we have the calendar there for you to approve tonight so before before I say that's it for me I just want to say uh that uh last time I was last month I had shout did a shout out for the people in the central office both in the superintendent office and mine um they have been EX extremely welcoming to me I appreciate that and very helpful wherever I go they work hard to get the things I ask them to do would help me out tonight I'd like to do a special shout out I've been in every building I've walked through them and they are in great shape they are clean uh I've been in many districts I think the board knows looking at my resume how many I've been in and I will tell you these buildings are very very clean and well lit I think uh so I want to do a I I just think that the custodial maintenance crew deserves a nice shout out they've done a great job in this district and I want to thank them for that on behalf of all of us and also uh the folks that have helped me a lot to get acclimated is the IT people that we have a gentleman in the back of the room obviously he's part of the team but I want to thank Ron Watson and his whole team they are a group of very very competent and helpful people so I just want to publicly thank them for what they've been doing with our office office downstairs in the business office and that is my report thank you any questions okay thank you any new le on board committee reports from last night um Cheryl so yes yes it's like a last minute report because uh we were we came directly uh to our meeting earlier from a meeting with burrow regarding the proposed pilot program uh that could be developed where the old shop right location is so um without really going into too many of the details because I'll I'll provide that um in a report to the board um we did have I mean it was it was pack room um you know with our committee members and then also the mayor was there the bur administrator um you know special counsel of the buau two council members um The Bu auditor and you know four of us and I think that that really is a testament to help serious you know everybody's taking kind of the collaboration and discussions we're having about pilot um and then we really went into it with I I have five primary goals all of them are important but I'm very wory but I had uh our five primary goals are really to just you know meet with the borrow obviously get a meeting on the calendar with them to really enter the dialogue of you know where this potential project could you know um could go we then you know wanted to on behalf of the district really express our interest in what was going to be happening at that location you know express any concerns we might have any any thoughts or comments we might have um which was a robust conversation obviously um we discussed any potential financial implications or issues that we thought that we could um run into and then you know I think more importantly we really confirmed the commitment to keeping an open dialogue with the burrow to keeping a continued collaboration with them um you know obviously more detailed you know it's not something that's already been approved the more details will be to come but it was an important it was important for us to kind of get um involved in the process as early as we could so that you know we can make sure that the you know the district is protected and and interest are are are taken into account so um I'll prepare a a written report that won't be quite this long um for all of you but um that's kind of where we were coming from and then we have thank you and then for corres response we received a letter from the Auditors got in an attachment Okay so I seek a motion to open to the public for items on the agenda is outlined new nor Board of Education bylaw 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes I need a second Stephanie all in favor oppos anyone from the public regarding items on the agenda okay I seek a motion Clos Page seconded by Andrew all in favor post okay board action I seek a motion for ba2 24-2 25789 20 21 that's all of them right okay any a second Cheryl all in favor oppos educational programs and curriculum committee Stephanie CER I make motion to seek approval for C 24- 25.12 13 and 14 in a second in a second Angel Lombardi all in favor okay Personnel recommendations having the recommendation of the superintendent seek a motion for p23 24119 14156 p 24- 2521 28 33 34 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 5 4 55 56 57 and a new motion for p 24- 2558 roll call Joe now roll call thank you approval for special resolution superintendent's recommendation to terminate employee 30 375 okay roll call Mr Al yes M Cal yes Mr D yes Mr C yes Mr lardi yes Mr Lam yes Mr Ryan Yes m d abson and M yes okay finance and Facilities committee charl c i see a motion for approval of f 24-25 1. 57. 5859 60 61 62 63 64 6566 67 68 69 70 71 72 and 73 a second okay Brian all in favor oppos F co-curricular committee I will do in please Nicole I seek a motion for AC 24- 25.6 a second page ran all in favor I oppos and thank you for our volunteers policy committee Anthony Alo uh I wish I seek a motion for the first reading of the following policies regulations policy 0141 policy 2200 policy 3160 regulation 3160 policy 4160 regulation 4160 regulation 5200 policy 53 3 37 policy 5350 policy 8420 policy 8467 regulation 8467 policy 9181 and then we're moving to abolish the following policies policies 01 64.6 and policy 72331 any the second Kel Lombardy all in favor oppos any old business any new business okay I seek a motion to open to the public as outlined in New Milford Board of Education by law 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited to 3 minutes I need a second Jo Jo all in favor anyone in public no you're up just say your name in town please oh she left she left yeah so hang on one say don't start clock yet hey my name is k crane I'm uh resident in wford my son goes here am I supposed to stand up I guess it doesn't matter uh the last time I was here was my son CJ was here we try to get Transportation uh set up for the school bus for the swim team I don't know how that all panned out anyway tonight I'm here because uh for about the last 18 months uh I've been trying to get a program called altine off the ground which is for students and it kind of It kind of parallels with the item three and your thing about about helping helping kids with emotional stuff blah blah blah uh my history is really not important because I don't want to go into it for 3 minutes but basically what it is is a group that's set up for students I can come bring it to the school it's no cost to any any school people uh you have to research a little bit I'll just kind out these little Flyers these are what I I want put these up in the school if it's possible it's a it's an anonymous program for students who may want to have a safe place to go to discuss maybe what's going on in their family uh involving drugs or whatever with their kids or with their friends or with their parents um presently it's in tinic I started about two years ago a lot of gung-ho because of Co and it's not really just limited to the to the alcohol or drugs it's I'm pretty much it's an open door I've been working in the area for many many years uh not license like that but I'm certified through alanon and alak we have to be we have to be bonded and certified background checks because it's got kids involved uh each meeting has two people in it uh the idea behind it is is that it's a self-help group for students run by students supervised by someone like myself and there's different options there's uh there's you can set something up in a school uh you can do that I have to get more information on that you only only 3 minutes so I don't want to go all into it uh but basically the idea is is that right now I have about two kids right now coming I've been working at a long time everybody was really gung-ho at New Bridge cuz they have uh something called uh I don't know some kind of Crisis uh type of thing where there's so many kids there they wanted to have a place that they could go after they were discharged uh same thing with um outpatient rehab and pamis and there was one other one everybody was going ho uh what really the resistance becomes uh do parents want their kids to be talking about home you know what I mean so sometimes they do sometimes they don't even the alanon people are a little s suspect about it because I don't know quite frankly it's a true the one kid that that the two kids that have come the one kid that comes constantly he's a 17-year-old football player from a town out of the area uh he comes to te and after being there for three nights uh he he cried every night but he said I wish everybody a big freaking kid everybody my age had something like this to come to because and and his issue wasn't so much the drunk that was his divorced father blah blah blah but it was actually his mom and how his mom was treating him because he still cared about his dad so he had nowhere to go with like letting his stuff off his chest and he is carrying around and number one thing for these kids is they believe it's their fault and they start believing they're the only one going through it okay so it's it's it's vital to to I believe it's vital uh I've talked to dorine about it uh I think she's in you know she's she's you know happy about she would like to help but uh I don't want to speak for her and she's not here um and again I've had a lot of a lot of uh good feedback from parents now they won't bring their kids for some reason the one meeting I got set up right now it's at St Mark in t on Tuesday nights at 7:30 that information's there if you want more information they can just do that barcode thing there whatever that is I don't even know what it is but the ladyes made them you put that into the phone and it'll give you all the information these are two little packets I'm just going to leave them here if you want to go through them these are basically what we hand to the kids when they come into the room it's basically uh books and stuff about trying to get them acclimated to understanding they're not alone it's huge you know with kids going out of Co that's why I told the people at Alam because I have to go through the process of getting approval to do certain things and then certain things are just kind of it's very autonomous you can do what you really think is necessary is that I wanted to open it up to people who had more issues just so that they had a place to come and discuss issues and then I monitor so uh for example it's for supposed to be for teenagers okay but they will will leave it up to me if somebody like 10 years old has his brother who's 13 and another one that's 16 and they want to come they're all welcome so I didn't really put an age limit on it the only thing that I would control is is the is the U discussions so let's say there's a 14 and a 10year old in a room we're not talking about the sexual problems that are going on at the house or and again the other the other guiding post is it's Guided by the state law so if somebody brings something up that somebody's in danger I have to report it just like it was a teacher in a school just like anything else if it comes up so that it it's it kind of protected all over the place the thing that I was hoping that I could do is that possibly maybe have a have a maybe a thing at a health class or say something you know to the students and be able to like just throw it out there if they were interested maybe an open session of some kind and then if there was interest or I mean again I don't know how how you go about this there is some guidelines we have have and there's a working with the educational community that they have flyers on um that maybe we could set up a meeting like during a break during a school time normally they work they work an hour these little meetings have an hour but the the it's really for them so if they come out of the meeting and somebody comes up to them and says well what did you talk about their answer is going to be maybe a little disrespectful it's going to be none of your business because it's it's Anonymous what they say in that room is is s s or whatever I'm not good at words but it's basically their their anonymity is protected at all times and it's really I think it's so needed because I'm seeing you know i' I've worked with I've seen kids kill themselves been involved with kids who kill themselves I've been involved with kids that have run away I've been involved with kids that all of a sudden started into drugs because they thought it was their problem that they caused it and why not be like Mom and Dad or their brother or whatever this gives them an outlet and I think it's really important I think I could discuss it further at a more formal thing than in in a public form like this but I I really would appreciate if at least we could put up some flyers around the school I don't know what the high school thinks about it thank you for this information and I think that I know Mrs Zer already reached out to you right and um I'm glad to hear that you're certified and um that which is great because obviously we can't just let anybody just come in and put up flyers and all that there's a vetting process so I'm glad reached out to Mr zacher you know we'll go through the vetting process and if it's if it's a relationship that fits we'd be more than happy to continue it but Mr zacher will be in touch and I I I'll talk she sent me an email already so yes yeah thank you very much for sharing this okay thank you guys thanks a lot anyone else from to public okay I se a motion to close Stephanie John all in favor I oppose okay I see we're not going to close cuz we any board member requests for additional information okay I se a motion to adjourn Tony seconded by John all in favor I oppose and our next meeting will be October 15th