e e e e e e the North hund and Vorhees Regional High School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday June 25th 2024 is is now called to order in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting act njsa 104 D6 at seek adequate notice of the meeting has been provided by submission of notice of the time date and location to The Star Ledger on December 5th 2023 and the hunon county Democrat on December 7th 2023 notice and to the extent known the agenda of this meeting have been posted at North Hunton high school and Vorhees High School provided to the municipal Clerks of Bethlehem Township califan burough town of Clinton Clinton Township Franklin Township Glen Gardner burough Hampton burough Highbridge burough Lebanon burrow Lebanon Township tubry Township and Union Township as well as other interested parties in posted on the district website fire exits are located in the direction indicated if alerted to fire please move in a common orderly fashion to the nearest smokefree exit at this time please silence cell phones selo Mr Spanton Miss VI here and Mr faran hereis for flag salute PL ALG to the flag of States of America rep for it stands Nation indivisible so I need a call for a motion and second to approve agenda item 4.1 which are the minutes from the May 7th board meeting so Cara Nicole any questions all in favor I any opposed abstain is yes okay view of the Department of Education you got it okay so just to remind everybody of the process this is something we go through twice a year um we have a self assessment team that evaluates both of our high schools on how they are adhering to the anti-bullying Bill of Rights uh then they give us scores on different categories we uh present that score to the board of ed then it is submitted it to the state the state then approves it sends it back to us and this is the board now affirming that um the scores that we submitted are correct so if you remember North hun uh scored a 76 and Vorhees scored a 77 which gives us a district score of 77 out of 78 are there any questions okay thank you all right and then your report okay so we had an exciting end of year um I'll go over the good stuff first and then we'll get into the normal stuff uh first of all on Friday May 10th U which was three years after we met last the north hon high school held their annual Relay for Life they raised over $50,000 again this year um to battle cancer the ceremony was dedicated to Joey Edwards and um who was a senior who lost his battle to cancel this past year and for anybody that attended it was a pretty emotional ceremony um had to be indoors unfortunately it's nice to have it Outdoors but uh it was a great event nonetheless and thank you to Dina Maron for all the hard work she puts in with the internet club and making it making that happen uh also Vorhees had their junior senior prom on May 30th and North hunterton senior prom was held on May 31st they were both held at steel Stacks in bethle PA and it seems like a great time was had by all on Tuesday July 11th as everyone is aware North hun and high school Andes both held their graduation ceremonies both ceremonies were a large success with large crowds and beautiful weather uh North Hunter name's valorium was Selena Zang and vor's valorium was Mony Patel uh North salutatorian was Amelia Chapman Brian's not here tonight and VOR Sal salutatorian was Megan macac and Brendan is here tonight so um two of those board members um congratulations so congratulations to those students but also to their parents you know put a lot of hard work in over the years and um and we wish them all the success for the record I didn't help modesty is a good trait um on June 11th following graduation to PTSA hosted another successful Project Graduation for North hunon students at the Funplex in Mount Laurel New Jersey where close to 200 students chose to attend for those of you that aren't aware um Project Graduation is an alcohol-free um event that is meant to you know give students something um constructive to do um the night of graduation um and we have a pretty good turnout for that which is always nice on May 28th War students had their senior trip to Dorney Park and on May 21st they had their senior class trip where they had a dinner cruise on the Hudson River and inor senior class also had a cookout and Senior sunset on Thursday June 6th after graduation practice and I wanted to call it out because I think it's it's become a tradition of bores now where they they do a senior Sunrise when the seniors come in for the beginning of their school year and then they do a senior sunset at the end of the school year and it's just it's become have a nice little tradition that um you know they have a great time with and they do a great job with so congratulations on that and just a one more congratulations to all the 2024 graduates we wish them the best in their Futures and all their Endeavors and lastly I want to mention that uh hun County poch as you can see the building is going up quickly there's a lot of work being done by there Katie and I were fortunate to attend a topping off beam signing ceremony um this past Friday um and and it was you know a lot of people from the community Commissioners were there a lot of people from a lot of different agencies and everyone got the s a steel beam that then they lifted up and put in place signatures on it um I think the workers were probably like saying all right get your slers on there so get out of the way get this done uh but it it turned out really well it was a great event we got to walk through the inside of the building which was something it's much larger than you could expect when you look at it from the outside so um and Todd expressed his thanks to the board of ed for their support and the community as a whole so um you know it was a great event altogether I wanted you to all be aware that happened so that is targeting the next fall right that right now they're still saying May of 2025 for completion you know that might be a little ambitious but regardless they have some time to play with so fall of 2025 as an opening yeah I think that's probably feasible right cool all right we do have our harassment intimidation and bullying items there was one Hib case reported since the last time we met and was unfounded so there will be no action necessary at the next board meeting for that but then um I need a call for a motion in second to determine the one founded and one unfounded um Hib incident that was reported the laste so mooved I have a question any questions yeah a question just looking at both of these forms there's like kind of seems there's like information missing there's like dates missing the school's missing one says that the parents weren't contacted what happens in those kind of situations so these forms are generated from a software package that has about a thousand options that you can check um the schools sometimes don't check one or sometimes check the other or they check it after it was already reported um so there's a vared bunch of things that could happen so if you have any questions if you let me know at any time I can look up the specifics for that particular question okay and and in in normal situations when parents aren't contacted how is that handle parents are always no here okay yeah I can tell you they always contact yeah I was kind of surprised to see that myself yeah so again just because someone forgot to check something out a form doesn't mean it didn't happen Okay but we're approving it so rich can I just tack into that sure um I think what she's referring to on the the task section so on the first page it says no test they they don't they don't complement each other it says no one says no one doesn't and then there's questions the task go under inside the the actual document and then like under notes there might not be notes or dates weren't when it says it's supposed to be entered you have 10 days to do it and then some on one of them it says um it was the deadline was missed and then it was stated no it wasn't so I just think there's inconsistencies there is and that's because of the complexity of system so you know what to do we're going to make that simpler form so it' be a lot easier for you to read at the board meetings and then if you have any questions about specifics you can let us know and we can find that information out on that spe particular incident instead of just trying to search through a whole form of trying to figure out why something happened that sounds great thanks questions okay all in favor any opposed any extensions okay okay and last but not least uh on my section is our New Jersey qac um which is the quality single accountability Continuum that's a um mouthful but uh basically this is a monitoring process the state goes through for every school district every three years uh this was our year to have it done it actually hasn't been done for this is the sixth year I believe so um you know when Co hit we were actually due and then every year they kept pushing it off and saying just put a um statement of assurance in saying you're still okay um but this was our year to you know Pro postco we monitored we were and you can see our scores there um you know we did we passed everything and that's really what counts from the county office so um we also look at this data to see where there is places to improve um obviously instruction and programming we'd like to see that a lot higher that really comes down to test scores um test scores are something that we we have control over but not directly in regards to the monitoring system it just comes from the state and pre-populates that's state test SC correct yes so rich would those be test scores from the last three years or from the last six years or no I think it's only from the last year this is from the last year correct okay and which I'm not really clear on what what exactly is this so again it's a monitoring system where what happens is the county superintendent comes in with members of his staff um for instance you have someone come in and look at our um curriculum and instruction and the instruction program um make sure we have things in place make sure we have things filed the way we're supposed to make sure we have Public Notices the way we're supposed to um governance is how the board runs we talk about board operations posting of agendas making sure we have a board meeting every 60 days things like that um fiscal management Kati you know works with them directly with the um County ba to make sure that we have our accounting systems in place and they are all following they look back they look back 12 months and then they just verify that you know we've we've met certain requirements that's in Co statute and there's a checklist and basically they go through a checklist and say do you have this yes and so you get one or two points for that where you get zero points so do they so on the instruction and program section do they I mean do they actually provide you with feedback on what is prohibiting you from getting 100% so again instruction programming is based just on State Testing oh okay I would love to have 100% but that's probably not a feasible go I'd like to see that closer in the 90s yeah I mean it's it would because the way I read it was meaning you know our curriculum and what we're teaching and all it would have been lesser all the things that we have control I shouldn't say all we have control over the test scores in not know but all the things we have direct control over here um all of those we scored 100% on okay that's a part of that instruction and programing then I see okay if you wanted to see the actual checklist of what they go through when we approved this back in November the board um allowed us to submit our qac document and that has all of those checklists in there so if you want to go back to those you see that y thank you you're welcome and one more other question is there like a I mean a percentage of like where we rank in the CATE so to speak or in the county is there any kind ofac no it's qac is you either um pass or fail pass or fail if you fail you have a corrective action plan that goes into place at the district um and that's not the case here but you know that's the only I guess consequence Rich this may be going too a little too deep on that but on the test score part of it is it about meeting the state designated state determined benchmarks for the district cor that is a good question and the the uh formula they use for it is so complicated that it's not just that you would think that it would be like all right you met your benchmarks with this percentage and that's you would think 82% met the Benchmark right that's not quite the case it looks at subgroups it looks at a lot of different categories um and comes up the score based on waiting and yeah like that well I remember because I know a lot of the information is annually on the school report card for overall performance in subgroups but I know a few years back pre pandemic mic each district had their goals sort of set for them based on pre pandemic years of performance and then Meeting those goals everyone sort of took a hit after the pandemic and I know falling short of those Trends now I I was curious if that was an area where yeah that was happening I wouldn't say that that's the case right now because I think we're far enough out of the pandemic that we're you know we should be seeing you know results for what we're doing so any other questions okay thank you uh our next regular board meeting is July 23rd 2024 at 700m at The District administration office and the deadline to submit nominating petitions for school board vacancies to the county clerk's office is July 29 2024 at 4M so open for public comment so during this portion of the meeting the public is invited to address the Board of Education with comments you are requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to state your name Municipality of residence group affiliation applicable and director comments to the school board president by all comments will be considered by the Board of Education and a response may be forthcoming if one appropriate individual school board members may not respond to the speakers at the time of their appearance the public comment period will be a maximum of 30 minutes in length unless there are unusual circumstances you'll be allocated three minutes to speak and no one will be permitted to speak speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard please keep your comments respectful and non defamatory and maintain the level of decorum appropriate for a public meeting where students may be present and in the audience any comments good evening board president fellow board members and administration my name is Steven Ponch and I reside in Union Township I'd like to share some important concerns that to my knowledge have not yet been addressed during the previous board meeting on May 20 uh May 7th 2024 our North hunon High School librarian Martha Hixon walked down the hall to where her Library office was with several students in tow and a cameraman they all went towards her office which had a closed door I checked all the other rooms and she was nowhere to be found which was the outside uh of the building and the staircase I brought this to the attention of principal Katrell and his response was I will not respond to these allegations further stating that all staff members go through a background check and most of the school is monitored by cameras my questions I have are was the administration aware that Miss Hixon brought students to a library office during off school hour hours did the administration approve of this why did did Miss Hixon have the students and the cameraman in her office in the first place was the cameraman putting Miss Hixon and these children and students on video on the internet were all the parents aware and did they provide written consent policy 3281 pertains to inappropriate staff conduct based on this librarian's behavior in this incident and numerous others I Believe Miss Hixon has violated this policy due to overstepping the staff student boundaries that are required to maintain professionalism respect and most importantly safety for all students policy 3211 speaks to the code of ethics required by professional Educators that and comes directly from the National Education Association I Believe Miss Hixon violated this District policy as well code of ethics State the educator shall not use personal relationships with students for private advantages Miss Hixon has received Awards one being $10,000 for the Lemony Snicket award due to fighting with and calling parents extremists that simply want to protect their minor children in public schools from sexually explicit and obscene content Miss Hixon has put out messages to students getting them to believe they themselves are under attack and they should come to the board meetings and speak she has put them on video discussing their LGBT nists and has even publicly stated in an interview more than once that she's a big advocate for getting students involved to join the fight it is one thing if the students by their own doing one to support their educator it is another when that educator is recruiting facilitating and grooming them to help the educator fight a fight the educator created choosing to curate library books that are highly inappropriate sexually explicit pervasively vulgar and obscene Miss Hixon has used our School District Library in interviews by media and even when as far as putting students on video and has posted online Miss hion has been given free reign by this Administration to use our School District Library and students many of whom are minors that taxpayers fund to do her activist work Miss Hixon has on countless occasions blackened out the Windows of the library no teacher or staff member should ever purposely obstruct the door or glass windows with anything that would prevent someone from being able to clearly see inside public schools should is that my time yes sir you you can sum up if you'd like I'll just wait it goes around it's okay did you take the my own sorry thank [Laughter] you uh Jennifer cusac of hybridge um after last month's meeting I got lost in the hallway Miss hexon helped me out she wasn't unfindable she wasn't with students she was helping me because I was lost thank you round two Miss Hixon and her political activist Group North hunter in Vorhees intellectual Freedom Fighters has pages on multiple social media platforms if you go to their Facebook pages you will see the constant personal attacks against Board of Ed candidates Board of Ed members family members those who donate to their campaign and community members they don't just disagree with a person stance on an issue and present a counterargument but resort to name callings such as labeling them extremists right-wingers radicals homophobes transphobes bigots and other character assassination attempts the same type of behavior and Language by North har and Vorhees students is not tolerated and should not be tolerated based on Miss Hixon engaging in the same sort of conduct this is Unbecoming of a public school librarian Miss Miss Hixon herself has demanded that community members be civil when they express their grievances on issues yet she doesn't care to do the same Miss Hixon and her north4 intellectual Freedom Fighters posted inside information from the book Review Committee that the public still to this day has not been given this leak was never investigated nor addressed Miss Hixon has given Garden State equality a left-wing political activist organization guidance on how to fight against so-called book bands this publication contains Miss hixon's name and personal email address this is more evidence that Miss hixon's interviewing her job as a librarian and her activism Miss Hixon says she fights for and believes in the First Amendment yet during the 2022 election hien had and a group of activists protested a 101.5 radio show host Bill spia by banging loud drums in an attempt to deny him those running for the board and their constituents from the First Amendment right to assemble and exercise my one-year-old son was one of the kids that were that had a drum banged in his ear yes Miss Hixon like every other American citizen has a First Amendment right but she's being a government she being a government employee of the state in a public school where the district policies and state ethics in place does Place restrictions on what she can say how she says it where and when the first amendment is not unlimited as our own board Attorney John kigo pointed out in a board meeting in O of October 2021 the more this Administration turns a blind eye to one of their employees words and behaviors the more emboldened the employee becomes and the further they are willing to cross the line by overstepping policies procedures and ethics I am speaking here tonight with the understanding that the board is the last uh Court of The Last Resort this Administration is well aware of the many issues that have been brought to their attention regarding Miss hixon's words and behavior and nothing has been done therefore my grievance will now be part of public record and I am asking the board and administration to immediately address all of what missen has done and has said not just from what I shared here tonight but from all the other complaints that have come in and been ignored there is more than enough evidence to terminate her employment and at the very least take disciplinary action so going forward Miss Hixon understands she cannot freely do and say whatever she wants when a Community member addresses their grievances related to this librarian or anything she strongly disagrees with she doesn't immediately claim she's not being protected that she's a victim of harassment and sends her letter to the Community member threatening to sue them for defamation like she did in 2022 when no defamation was committed against her hence why she never went forward with a lawsuit against the Community member it was a bully and intimidation tactic which comes from the American libraries Association guidance for librarians when fighting back against parents I got one more sentence can I finish or appreciate it I highly recommend you address the ongoing issue within our school district or you will leave yourself open for a major lawsuit for failure to doing your job as an Administration and a board thank you me not steal the page this time thank you for your time hello I'm Dan I'm not from your District just sign in I have to sign up I'll get your new penny I'm not from your District so whatever I say is not going to matter here I looked at your agenda and I looked at something called uh CJ Pride uh I'm not objecting to the word pride uh I'm not objecting to anything this is your District but it does emphasize that employees will be selected based on diversity to me that means employees will not be selected based on quality you can't have both you have to pick based on their quality but if they're not the right diversity then suddenly they're not to be selected this is a problem that we can see in major companies like Walt Disney where they uh were just caught coming out and admitting to this a red hat does the same thing airlines are doing it and it's resulting in poorer quality Airlines and actions and so on and so forth within companies diversity is an important goal but when it's going to be a replacement for quality of the Educators that you're hiring then it's something that you might want to consider whether you really want to agree that diversity is the goal in hiring as opposed to Quality thank you Jim Char tubry uh so I was um at the last meeting last uh month and uh my comment has to do with the the uh discussion that the board was having after all the public comments when they're discussing the issue of the book and the crowd was very boisterous and interruptive very disrespectful to a lot of the members of the board as they were discussing so I just like to say as president your responsibility is to gavel at that crowd down and maintain order and demand respect for the board when they're discussing these issues because that's your responsibility and they have every right as you know to discuss these issues public comments are a different situation given the issue you know it's going to get a little boisterous and what have you and that's fine but when the board is in discussion you have a responsibility to maintain order and protect your your board members that's all I wanted to say thank you any other comments okay great thank you so moving on to agenda item 9 I need a call for motion and second to approve agenda items 91 through 998 so moved yes second Beth any questions I have questions um on I would like to make a motion to amend resolution um 0625 244 to replace kamno Wall Group with bush Law Group as the attorney of record for the 2024 and 2025 school year what what is that so I don't what we are at 91 so my motion is to make Bush law the attorney of record Over kma Law what does that have to do with 91 and 92 we're approving lawyer contracts and Professional Services which you're making a motion with a motion yes discussing 91 through 98 I believe right so that would be a separate motion yeah so it's how is that you she'd have to make a motion after we discuss no you can't make a motion when we're in a motion no you have to do it after we disc motion and a second for all it so we need to vote yeah we're discussing but before she can make a new I can make because he asked for approval so I didn't know he said any discussion so I was kind of confused but the primary the primary motion has to be okay all right so we need to first vote on this primary motion and if it doesn't pass then we can take up your motion okay if it doesn't pass that's right so we're first going to vote on this motion and if this motion passes then you can putor you put another motion on the floor but we're first going to vote on my on the motion to approve these okay so other other questions okay so are any all in favor of 91 through 98 any opposed two Selena and any extensions okay so now we take up a new motion to flip them or is this new business it passed sorry that's not what she's so motion passed correct do a new motion to pointments have been made at this point have been approved right so the motion has moved correct yeah so we can discuss it during new business then okay I track from new Georgia school boards and there was um they did have something in their um in our policy it does state that um okay we'll wait to new business I'll work with that then just so you guys know it's hard to hear you down here for all of us sorry I'm sorry okay that's okay I know we need to be back at the district office that's right other districts have done it this far so okay uh moving to agenda item 10 for curriculum instruction and Technology yeah so the um curriculum instruction and Technology committee met on um June 19th um and uh the the topics were first off the home home instruction um which um there I think there were only a few left going into the the end of the the uh school year and then we discussed um the out of place out of District placements better understanding about how they're funded um and making sure that the budget that we approved also included uh the funds that were going to be allocated to the out of District placements given uh the number of of students that were being sent out of district for need um then we also discussed the requirements for the L which is essentially The Limited English uh language skills program uh so we discussed that a bit and then all also talked about the two textbooks that are being proposed and on the agenda for approval tonight one is the uh 10th grade English for my perspectives uh and the other is a new textbook for AP Calculus uh what we discussed was really a better was really trying to understand you know what the curriculum in English class looks like based upon the use of my perspectives which takes uh excerpts from books uh versus the reading of actual novels so we have that discussion it was um fairly clear with the curriculum being weighted uh more 60 70% relying on novels and writing and so we were comfortable with that uh then we talked about the enrollment Trends and um what we were doing was analyzing the trends from about the two 2017 2018 enrollment um through this year and seeing that while there was definitely a decrease um a lot of the we we were noticing that it was being balanced with the academy uh the recommendation of the people on of the members on the committee was to updating the demographic study given the um the the additional housing that's been brought into the this the uh the district and to evaluate what the longer term impact could be on the number of students coming into the school district the high school district um in the future and so we'll be looking into that we also talked about uh the common assessments again and the need to analyze the data when it starts coming in we really won't be able to look at a true assessment of the data until we start seeing what um what it looks like coming out of this the the ninth grade year the students coming in as well as the students that will be taking the assessments um in 10th Grade and I think what we're going to do also is help parents better understand what we mean by assessments they're not meant to be standardized test assessments they are assessments meaning School tests uh and so it'll be made more clear to the parents We Believe by explaining what we mean by that and as to why uh students have this information or the grades in their GPA um other than that we've agreed to revisit still the the topic of artificial intelligence um and so now that we're meeting uh in July again um it'll give us the opportunity to have more of that discussion as well and that was it any questions I have a few questions um in looking at the ad of District placements have we have we I don't know if you guys talked about um bringing students back into the district are any of the C possibilities of candidates coming into the programs we have here in the district I was just curious because this was ask me yourself we talked a little bit about you go ahead and address it we talked a bit but yeah I by law we have to provide the least environment for every student so yes whenever possible we have students in housee in our programs it's only when we can't provide that instruction for that student that they get out of District plac okay um and then looking at the textbooks um there's a the C the calculus for the AP course will there be roll outs for calculus for CP and honors too changing texts or is it just the AP level just the AP level yeah and it's for both AP a and BC it's the whole thing yeah okay um and then I just had um the language arts grade 10 um I was just curious um there was talking about um the selections of the curriculum who the selections may be uh covered in other curriculum areas well isn't that what we want you want it to be cross-curricular correct what was your question I don't Yeah question your weaknesses it's it's it's dressing on some statement weaknesses of text the textbooks I was just curious when you guys discussed them in committee well we we weren't talking necessarily about weaknesses in the textbook itself but understanding um what is going to be in the textbook versus are we going to have the students still reading novels and the things that are kind of essential to uh English you know the English uh language and um the studies as they get older and so we talked a bit about the fact that um the book does cover different types of historical sociological types of topics uh to assist students in their in their written and uh um anal written analysis and things of that nature and then on top of it there is also going to be novels that is that are part of the curriculum as well so that's what we were just trying to better understand and evaluate okay thank you that same Textbook Company is used for the ninth was used for the nth graders this year as well so this is just the 10th 10th grade book right they already have from nth grade I yes yeah thank you yeah I have some questions and comments too yeah so the the 10th grade ELA book this is the first time we're having a text for 10th grade ELA and it's for all levels I just want to make that understanding get that understanding correct because the last few years my understanding is they were strictly reading novels and writing and and getting EX handed out to the teacher so there there's always been a textbook there's always been a textbook okay the W replacing was from 1989 so that's why it's being replaced so maybe they weren't using it as extensively yeah okay so this textbook will be an electronic textbook okay yes and then the the calculus one is an actual hard copy correct I don't recall all of our textbooks now are electon everything's elect there sometimes hard copies that are classroom copies that students can use but they typically access it even ma there's no even for the AP for the calculus again they have they have hard copies for the classroom set so a student can have a hard copy but most of the students are accessing the online yeah everything's online Okay um regarding in our in our agenda 10.1 I know last meeting we were asked to have monthly reports within our curriculum instruction technology so we didn't get a chance to go over that in our committee meeting so I'm wondering are you talking about the attendance reports no no no so the it's item 10.1 month monthly reports report last month that was under the CSA report last I checked the agenda and we had that under our chief administrator's report which is usually where it's been since January right so with the request from last meeting we shifted it to curricul curriculum but nobody's nobody's going over that from what I'm seeing because we didn't we didn't Bunch it under Chief administrator's report okay and we didn't we didn't touch on it we I guess we didn't have time or it wasn't in our agenda just didn't get in it was not to my knowledge it wasn't on the agenda I'm looking at the agenda from the meeting um so we can make sure that's on the agenda from now on yeah we'll make sure that it's there yeah you want to discuss the mon reports any curriculum commit that's what it looks like yeah so we can put that on the agenda want to table that for July it was on it was on uh someone requested it last I requested it it was in the minutes that I requested it but no no I'm saying this actual report since it wasn't discussed in in committee do you want to table it they're just they're attendance no there's all kinds of information in there there's attendance there's people that leave the district there's like all kinds of disciplinary issues okay vaping issues all kinds of different things on there that need to be addressed taing might be good so do we have do you have specific questions on it because I normally pH it under under the uh uh administration's report right I guess it's supposed to be considered under the in a committee setting and since it wasn't it's kind of like we to months ago we had a book donation that wasn't presented at our committee so we tabled it for the next month to have the discussion at committee and then we approved it I guess that's a similar scenario because if you look at the what she's what she's trying to say if you look at the agenda for tonight it is now on the bottom under under curricular construction technology it was always under the superintendence and we just you know it was there for reference it wasn't discussed last month it was recommended to could we question could it be moved table it we can table it table it so just table it till next month but add it on that's fine we can table it to the next to the next July meeting but I also want to ask is there a concern with that list you were actually the one I think that Rec that I recomended I did not recommend it I recommended it I recommended it and then and then um Beth you you suggested that maybe you could be put right okay but my concern is just to kind of like kind when you look at the the two schools when you look at some of the like the um Behavior issue issues how they're being like you know comparing them are they going up are they going down what schools struggling with vaping what schools struggling with buling whatever the scenario is I kind of feel that in reality less than five students engaged in reality the point was just to monitor what's going on in each school because that's something that also needs to be discussed because from word of mouth is that the vaping and and drug use is really up and in both schools so I would just want that also to be reviewed okay thank you so then um I I have no issue with us tbling that point and so then we would remove that I guess from so I guess I need a a motion a second to table 10.1 is that how approve so I so moved second okay so know if there was I don't know if there was a motion already so there not a motion to vote on it yet no so does the administration want to table or not offer 101 that's being suggested is that we table 101 to July so 101 is not being offered by the administration right so this 10 will just be 102 through 105 right 102 to 105 okay and then next month it'll be April May June be discussed in curriculum okay so Mo for that or now we need a motion in a second on 10 two through 105 second okay so all in favor of approving 10 2 to 105 I any opposed extensions uh policy and security Kim uh we had an simple meeting update on njba the conversion process uh Rich provided an update to the committee members um on the status of the policy manual uh the temp they using to evaluate each policy and fit into the format was was shared and discussed a sample resolution we got to see it um uh was also shared with the committee and the next update will be presented to the committee at the August meeting I think you're rich your meeting with them again 13th of August uh July 28th I believe 28th so we're continuing to monitor the progress so there's no action I use at this time we also did discuss um District goals board goals um how we should develop them together um Glenn was going to reach out to Gwen and establish our availability for July or August to facilitate that conversation and Glenn did reach back out to us it's a in August um and we did discuss I recommended in that discussion um we are strategic plan is up so I did recommend that we look at that and possibly that be a board u a district goal so um and that was it it's the 29th meeting again thank you Rich July July 29th is the next meeting for uh speaking with nj's B I mean June 29th right July July yeah June 29th is coming up yeah it comes fast okay any questions on policy okay uh Finance John I guess thank you I um committee met uh last Monday evening at 6:30 virtually uh committee members with with the exception of Dan um first thing we talked about um was the PowerPoint presentation review um Katie had put this together it's in our our common drive for for all board members to review this presentation to help um board uh members um uh regarding the monthly uh board secretary transfer and financial certifications the presentation has several screenshots from uh March 31st the financial statement um that were the most recent ones approved and how how they work so this is meant to be like a tutorial to get uh board members more knowledgeable of these reports that we see on on a monthly um basis uh Glenn and the uh our committee um agreed to have uh uh Finance resources that are available may be a great place to begin um you know so once again it's a great resource so please take the time to review it uh kti put a lot of time into it and it's in that drive um next one we talked about uh a facility project projects that are underway uh this summer uh those are hbac projects uh related to the referendum and the uh New Jersey clean energy Grant are now being installed um equipment lead times have caused this delay that's why it's getting done uh this summer both uh North and vor's have contractors installing new units um and if you look in our Common Drive you'll see maps uh in the in our folder uh depict what's being replaced um while this is occurring um and since we're out of school um we have some uh commercial de dehumidifiers that will be working in the areas where we don't have proper HVAC at this time to avoid any any mold issues like we had a few years ago um also we had a discussion about some uh um some activity in Trenton uh we talked about it a little bit at our last meeting there were bills in play to help uh uh boards who have had um you know loss of uh state aid um now the one bill a 4161 um that's not going to be uh applicable to us because we we didn't actually lose any Aid we had a slight increase so that that bill is to help towns had lost some Aid um also Bill a41 61 um it allows an increase in the uh the levy um to compensate for uh L losses going back um you know over the last uh four years uh up to 99.9% um both the administration and our committee agreed that uh re recouping um this loss in state aid by by making at one time uh raising our our taxes to our um taxpayers was not uh something that we wanted to do we've been able to pass our budgets uh with that 2% or um or other means that we've had Nest available in the last few years so just because we can go back um and raise taxes we don't recommend it um and uh the other Bill extends a deadline for the budget calendar to do this but obviously we're not going to do it so it's irrelevant to us as far as agenda review items you'll see uh we already discussed about this first one the qac um Finance received a 95% rating um it the reason it received a 5% deduction were uh safety concerns regarding visual pan Vision panels and classroom doors this has been a an item that's been on our radar for quite a while and you'll not on our agenda tonight this uh project is on the agenda for bid acceptance so that would you know erase that uh make that that score 100% for next next I guess in three years um annual activities uh lots of resolutions for renewal professional service contracts bonds and year yearend capital reserve transfers um also there's some uh updated pricing with different uh Cooperative contracts uh 12.7 reappoints Brown and Brown as the health uh benefits broker for 2425 uh this concludes we had a request for proposal out there to many uh you know the vendors and um so we're reappointing Brown amount after going through that process also we're reporting um paret samjen Architects they have two two tasks um to um 12.8 12.9 one is their continual um monitoring of the uh Polytech activities they are involved helping our our Administration with any of those issues that come up with the Polytech construction and also they're going to be charged with updating our District's long range uh facility plan this summer um and then last one 12.10 I already mentioned was bid acceptance of the classroom uh door replacement um so with that the our committee recommends approval of these these items be happy to answer any questions just the detail on the doors is it that the that they're lacking I believe I believe is that correct there's no vision panel that's correct they should have a vision panel they're just the ones in question are solid correct they're original to the building both buildings so there's window is that state law or is that just something that we're just trying to do to be ahead of safety oh yeah that's in statute I believe any new construction going forward we do it but this just hasn't been cleaned up in PR how we've been grandfathered several years we hav been grandfathered so they've never actually deducted points for us in qack even though we were not in compliance for so long but they finally said no did they tell us they were going to be doing that that they were going to penalize us on qack did they give us a heads up they let me know as we were in the process but of course it's up to their determination Rel okay so did we get hit on that that was the five but they didn't really give us enough time they said they said if we had the bid in place by the time we finished we could [Music] have the door so just on the comment John made about the second bill right so Katie's other comment was we didn't we didn't forgo something in this budget cycle right that we right that we think we should have or we could have used this opportunity to try to bring back right so that was part of the determination as to not take advantage of right and is a one-time thing this year only so we can't you know Bank you can't do everything I mean that's the state for you I'm was just saying that's kind of yeah no just so everyone's clear right it's it's it wasn't like we forwent something that we can now try to get back right we think we we did what was necessary for this year so right so correct me right we've used pride in the past pride is simply providing us another opportunity to get access to another to to more talent pool right because the difficulty in hiring teachers and right as always we we're hiring on merits it's another opportunity to get access to more people right correct we have um it's they basically provide us a job for every year that allows us to um recruit Educators from around State um they did change their name recently it is now New Jersey strive and that stands for Statewide recruitment of diverse Educators so I have a question on that what is the yield like what are we getting have we have any applicants from them have we been successful in recruiting them yeah I think we've we've hired two or three teachers over the years through the job fair how long have we been in this contract like two or three years three four and we've hired actually from this we actually have yet okay so then I have a question if we're an equal opportunity employer why do we need this I mean we shouldn't be discriminating anyway we should be higher and under more recr access to more access to more people this is just gives us access to more people people fight what would you suggest a regular application like anybody else they do do the jobs we get to participate in the job fairs it's just more people right we're still hiring a merit we're just it's just more more people it increases the candidate po I would say one of the things you're seeing job fairs that schools within Hunter and County participating in job fa fairs in South Jersey North Jersey like everywhere Beyond in the years past you often didn't have to do more than put out something in the local papers oh yeah I remember there used to be people on One J applications and I've in my time I've seen applicant responses to a position go from 75 to 7 so we are reaching out in every possible Direction Just because the candidate pool is not as B so basically the whole reason the contract is just so they can do a job fair we participate in job partip which takes a lot of money and resources to put on the fairs so it's just another Avenue for us to have access to the fairs what other many schools many schools many schools but what other like um organizations out there or other recruitment consortiums that we we work with we've gone to College jobs fais before so they so CJ I'm sorry NJ stride now they put on their own job fair where people go there to recruit teachers it's a virtual job fair where we we create a booth we man the booth or um staff the booth and then we people jump in and say hey I'm a science teacher do you have any jobs and we say as a matter of fact we do look we're looking for physics and we talk to them a little bit we get them interested in the district we try to sell on to them why they should come to our district versus somebody else's District they try to sell tell us on who they are and why they're a good candidate and we take names down they take names down and hopefully we contact each other and we get a good hire okay so what happens I mean I'm sorry um this is just confusing me a little bit but what constitutes AE so there's just certain amount of people that do it but other people can't be a part of constitutes of what I'm sorry diverse diverse is everybody everybody so includes anyone anyone anyone part of it yes making sure any other comments questions okay so a call for motion second to approve agenda items 121 through 1221 so Brendon be second all in favor any opposed any extensions okay uh community relations didn't meet but any comments uh not for community relations but the next one on 14 is delegates for delegates then um and I'm hope that we'll meet next month right have other month for meeting y um so uh New Jersey school boards held their delegate assembly in May um and it was quite Lely um of the I'll send you all a link but of the resolutions that had been proposed and discussed five had failed 10 were approved as proposed and then two were after discussion were referred back to a committee and um they'll be brought up again next uh assembly which is in November but one one of them that had approved was the verbage for resolution number seven and that was the use of artificial intelligence so I wanted to read this for you because it overlap with policy and um curriculum um so what was approved during the delegate assembly was that the New Jersey school board believes that the use of artificial intelligence AI by students and staff along with the integration of AI into curriculum presents both unprecedented opportunities and profound challenges to New Jersey school districts and that school districts need to implement policies to establish guidelines for the use of AI in public schools in support of this belief n NJ School Board supports the establishment of a Statewide artificial intelligence task force which will provide guidance and policy recommendations to assist public schools in ensuring Equitable access to AI Technologies promote responsible and ethical AI use and Foster Innovation and digital literacy among students and educ ators so that motion that resolution was approved um at the assembly but there'll be a task force but it'll be something that both policy and curriculum should put on maybe the next agendas to start working and looking at the yeah the task force that's great really thank you for sharing that you're welcome you're welcome it's helpful um and then uh the ones that were referred back we we monitor the task force we can actually sit in and listen to the T we can listen to them and they'll probably have workshops they haven't come to that conclusion but um and I'm assuming that in uh October um at the convention there'll be areas of discussion and workshops on it at that time so um and that brings us up to that Workshop will be in October and if we I don't know who wants to go but the early bird session is at the end of this month if we want to go we can get reduced pricing so okay Brendon you had interest right so you typically send out I believe like a Google uh form so that you can let me know of your interest and then we can do a group bre okay so just look for that shortly sure thank you that's good Kim anything to report on Hunting County Schoolboard no but I would what I would say is uh they have opened up all PD so if you log on you can start filling in your calendar you know and there's topics that I told you that you know toward the end of the year they just fade off but right the first semester of the of the school year you'll you'll get a lot of PD so I just it's it's you learn a lot so I suggest that everyone take advantage of as much as you can I definitely notice that like when you're in them and then you have questions it's like your question like other people are having that same question and when they ask that question it just brings up other things that you weren't you weren't even thinking about but just definitely helps answer questions uh Personnel Jess personel Matt we discuss the Personal Agenda perfect perfect uh so I need a call for motion second to adopt resolution 0625 24-2 for ex executive session to discuss matters falling under category 8 as reflected in the attached resolution the board expect to be an executive session for approximately 1 hour and a upon return to public session action will be taken I need a Voice vote motion a second sorry so move second all in favor I oppos okay we're executive session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right so I need a call for motion second to reconvene public session so Mo ni I okay I'm sorry all in favor I exensions objections okay back in session uh I need a call for motion second to approve agenda it item 181 and 182 move oh second Tara and Jess and we need a roll call vote for that M pagna yes Miss Gallow yes Miss H yes hran yes Mr mcac yes Mr yes M Reyes yes Miss selino yes Mr yes Miss VI yes and Mr farbes yes oh I'm sorry I need to abstain oh you need to abstain that's right from 18.2 my bad that's okay got it okay so we're going to break protocol for a second because I know it was very conf confusing tonight where we're located so um this young woman approach us to just to address so thank you I can hear you we can hear you um so my name is Christina identify and yeah where you're from I'm I have a sonore so um I came here today to and I hope to attend all the school board meetings going forward but I wanted to share that I am um Coming forward uh to become involved in the joint special education uh parent advisory group um I'm not sure if there is one at the moment um my understanding is that there is not an active uh special education parent advisory group so I just wanted to come and inform the the Board of Education The Joint Board of Education um that I that I am a a parent and that I would like to come forward to lead this group and tell you a little bit about what a a cpeg is um and a little bit about myself um and ask for the district's support and the administrators especially support in um um encouraging the school districts to enable the the group because I can't form a parent L group um without the support of the school district because I cannot recruit parents to join the group okay so let me tell you a little bit about what a cpag is some you may already know um and this is from the state the New Jersey Department of Education so uh a special education parent advisory group is a state um is a a state mandated so these are mandated by the state of New Jersey Department of Education your districts have to have one and they have to be duly constituted and they are parent L they are not District L they are parent L okay so um you need parents to lead them and the districts then collaborate with them and the objective is that um they provide input to the local school district um on system level challenges in special education related Services issues and needs and they're supposed to they're not really supposed to represent one philosophy or another but they are supposed to be comprised of parents working in cooperation with hopefully interested involved and committed um administrators and teachers and you have some great administrators and teachers in your District um uh to talk about issues that concern um the parents and the students uh that may be um either uh that maybe currently have a 504 or an IEP or are trying to get a 504 IOP implemented or are at the age where they are like between 21 and 23 and um are looking towards adulthood okay so again it's a parent it's a state mandated body but it needs District support well it actually needs administrator support because again I can't go out and recruit parents and say oh do you have a special education student would you like to join my group so um yeah um so there's a flyer that I created at the end of last year we call it the last two semesters that I've been trying to get disseminated I don't know I've been working with wonderful people um at Vorhees but I'm not quite sure they know how to facilitate and support the administration the implementation so if it's okay I would like to leave this with you okay so that we can just get a little bit of board support to very you know to start next year um and start strong because in general and you know active cegs end up really helping the districts by and this is by opening up lines of communication you know creating healthier communities that are more inclusive um representing the needs of special education families so that there are not misunderstandings or or problems that come up and then just a little bit about me um just so that you know who I am um I um I'm a biotech I work in biotechnology um so I'm not an educator um but I also serve on the board of and I have served on the board of an organization called New Jersey inclusive uh njcie which is new New Jersey of education and we spun off a parent L group that works to educate parents on inclusion inclusion happens to be my my sort of area of interest but um again a cpeg would represent a parent that has an out of District placement it feels like that that is the best you know placement for their child to make meaningful progress or whatever it represents your entire body okay so I just wanted to say that we need your [Applause] help thank you also one I'd like to say is um I know I'm very better at directions but I'm not familiar with this building and I found and I know it's probably r off because you're moving around so it's not a criticism at all but I was just wondering how I was supposed to know how to come to cafeteria a or be and how where it was um I probably am not the best with directions or special orientation but I did notice that when I parked you know I didn't know where to park in order to access this cafeteria or the original cafeteria then I got back my somebody told me it's over there so I just want you to consider that even in the best case scenario if I if I parked optimally and then I walk to cafeteria a it might have been a quarter of a mile so if I had an ulation problem it might be very it might be a struggle to come here and it might be a deterrent to an open public meeting so please do consider that if you guys did post like a schematic or a map that said this is where you should Park to have accessibility to uh cafeteria a somewhere and I missed it then i' be okay all right so um any old and new business so I guess I have one um so Gwen is our as I emailed all of you right so um Gwen is set to come to us on August 13th to do um board goal setting so one of the options you may be aware of is that we can also have the um Administration right so um Glen can you talk talk louder sorry so one of the options on board goal setting is that we can also have the administration go into the comment period right so we're we're all entering a self- evaluation we can also have um I believe right Jeff and R Katie also putting put in comments on us right this is not mandatory um Gwen's comment to me was some boards do this some boards don't do that right so I didn't I'm not advocating for it I just want everyone to be aware of it and before I right before I open up I guess what's everyone's thought on it so I welcome the thought of getting feedback from Administration we've never received that before so I think it would be um it would be helpful for us to to hear how they feel we're achieving our goals yeah I'll be honest with you I I I when I saw it I actually thought I thought getting feedback is a good thing I do too I mean I agree that's my opinion so I was kind of kind thinking since there's like so many of us compared to other boards that another two people would just kind of be another two opinions and then last year when we did like self- evaluations half the board didn't do it so we never had a self EV let's put it let's be clear we did not have the self- evaluation half of us completed it the other half was in limbo I brought it up so so that's the past so we're going to do it this year going to do it my point to we should we should do a ward self- evaluation this year if that's a goal something that the board would like to do moving forward I would do it we can change that but we're in the process right now already completed the superintendent evaluation we're going to move to the board self- evaluation I would suggest that we keep it aboard self- evaluation this year I I have to disagree I think that the board has been in so much there's been so much activity amongst the board the the that we should get the feedback from Administration as to whether or not we're actually achieving goals or we're making more noise and I think we need to hear what we been how we've been functioning for the last year on their evaluation as well I don't think we can do we're self-evaluating but we all there we all have our own opinions of ourselves and the way the board has conducted itself but I would really like to know what our administrators think of us I think it's a valuable resource for us to have moving forward and if we can get it this year let's get it we haven't started Ed the process yet on the board evaluation so why not include it I know other thoughts I I agree with Jess I think it would be really helpful to have um the administrators evaluate our performance and and whether or not we're achieving what their expectations are and um I mean it's always good to have feedback you mean it never hurts to have feedback it helps us to better understand I agree what what's happening what's not happening I don't see a downside in it I'm not saying that there's a downside I'm saying we're in the middle of a process and we had very the process includes this as an option and we haven't started the process with Gwen we have started the pro well not Gwen has not committed but we've we've started the process people have started the process but that's fine our process doesn't change it's them providing feedback and we didn't even get feedback from our own board members last year but that's fine last year well how do you how do you see them giving us feedback are they following my understanding is that they go into the same the same process we do I don't know if I mean I'm assuming I'm we're going to be able to determine their feedback because it's going to be right toned in a certain way meaning you know from but it we should know that it I I actually I actually would like to know right I mean I would like to know too um now timing wise though will they have the ability to well I mean so at this point Gwen's not coming until August so we really do have we have plenty of time to you know we can certainly right I think I said July 2nd right but we can certainly move that date out I don't think Gwen needs you know what seven weeks to do this right so is it just the superintendent and the ba who would do it my understanding it's it's um from what I read and you you guys had more those meetings is that it can be one and or the other so one and or the other I would like both but it's com I would like it I would really support that I think it's essential for us to know we've been at a we've been in a lot of turmoil this board has been through the last three years this board has been upheaved and if we don't get feedback from one and Andor both I think we're doing ourselves a disservice and I don't I don't disagree I'm just stating the fact that we're in the process I get but why not add to the process and make it a more robust review more robust feedback and give us more opportunity to improve if and have them and have a full evaluation I see no reason for I'll make a motion to have the administration um also be part of our board re you know self- review um a second does the motion need to be one or stating one or the other since you're saying one or the other or both do we even meet a motion John if it's listed in the board evaluation as an option why do we need an why do it's just asking them to complete it right if there's a consensus of the board to invite Administration to partic participate in that process you don't need a motion to specify it I appreciate the motion okay um in the thinking there but you know the conversation is is is heard there's an obvious consensus I believe uh and so um Glenn as president can share that with Gwen and uh they'll participate in August thank you yeah my suggestion I my personal suggestion it's not one of the other I think I think both yeah both now listen I don't I don't know if if it needed to be the superintendent or assistant superintendent I I think I think the way I read it was it needs to be the superintendent um the board administrator and the board or the board secretary we don't right well our board administrator so I think it's so it's way I read it was it's Jeff and and Katie and frankly I because we work with the you know I think my personal vote y ter you withdraw your motion I'll withdraw my motion yes and I will as well thank you Glen will make the Outreach to Gwen yeah yeah yeah make sure listen so if Gwen says something different right or something a clarification by all means right we can make a note so okay great old the new business so the I have another one I guess so the other one I had is I know that we we had talked about an updated demographic study right and I think because we're seeing a down spin but then right maybe there's an up Spin and so I guess I guess we had talked about this in one of the Committees I guess curriculum we talked about it in curriculum so whether or not we should be doing a demographic study so that I guess what's the next topic I think it's I mean we just talked about it a week go or to maybe it's a board goal or I think we should put it as a board goal or an objective but I also think one of the suggestions that I had said in curriculum was to reach out to the sending districts and see if there's any level of collaboration we can obtain from them so it's not just our burden but also information that it's going to be helpful to them and if or if they're doing their own study why replicate fair enough okay that District or that sending District when we can incorporate their results and then exchange the information on a broader level yeah because I I had said also in committee that the Clinton Township School District made decisions several years ago to consolidate students into fewer schools which left um Spruce Run open there's they're using the building but I'm sure that with the housing that's come into the area that they're going to want to carefully monitor the increase especially given um the Young families that are coming into the area that's exactly we talked I we're on the same page so Clinton Township School District may actually be doing that already so it's a good idea when's the last time that North hund and Bor ours just expired and we had a 10-year demographic done it was done right when I first started with the board and ours just expired so it is prudent and I agree with Jessica reach out to our cing district so why don't we have Jeff Jeff's reach out to the sing District discuss it with them that's a good idea and collaborate yeah okay yeah I the same though I think I think I think you star to flip into a younger no I think it's worth while yeah I have two things so one one is committee meetings for July are some of us doing them some of us not because it seems as do we plan I discussion tonight are we doing them or not so they're not planned right now they're not planned so if somebody wants to have them I can bring that information to Jeff tomorrow to tap onto that I wanted to address um the comment that was made here because we um I was participant in the special education parent advisory groups with my daughter uh who has Down syndrome and um we just approved a job description today and I'm hoping that as a board that that that was approved and Rich you can attest that we can make sure that the group gets the the backing and without a doubt yeah and I believe the I believe that cpeg is already in existence at Clinton Township yes so you may actually you know to the extent you have Rising if grer is coming in that'll be a nice benefit you'll have some of that population already there's no restri meetings right yeah absolutely absolutely great great and that would be something we should put on community relations I agree about to say so we'll add that to our agenda for our next meeting which will be in August I guess yeah um I also have one more thing so so we didn't answer your first question which let's resolve the first one committee part committees for July just I'm I don't know I mean I don't see why not but I don't why we shouldn't have them or is this something to talk about I mean I don't know if Rich br's gonna have anything is Rich I don't curriculum we put the July meeting on last month so you know that was the ideas that we'd have a July meeting but do we put it on as a placeholder to see if we had critical business to then maybe I think follow having a meeting if we advertise it we plan on having a meeting okay um and whatever business we have we we'll put on the agenda I don't anticipate a lot in July well why don't we schedule why don't we schedule the Committees and if there's nothing to talk about then we cancel twice a month yeah fair you advocating for the meetings right as I speak for you all right so why don't we schedule them and then if there's nothing to talk about we'll pull them off okay okay or they're just really fast and also to to continue from our discussion with the last meeting um the May 7th meeting with the the books um the book situations in the library I'd like to just make it a public statement I'm not sure if it needs to go into policy committee but there's the the parental concerns right so in terms of having some kind of procedure for parents who have a concern about a certain book if we could keep that on our radar keep it um on an agenda for a upcoming policy committee because it was stated last meeting that there is not a procedure at this moment yeah I'll be honest with I I I made that comment last time I I wish I truly wish there was a happy medium that we could make everyone happy well that's rhetoric that's a double but I I really wish there was a was a was a place where the the books could be on the shelves for those who want them there and the books on those parents that don't want the books there we can satisfy that and I don't know what that answer is and I don't know if that's something we can put into a committee to investigate but I'll be honest with you and I said it right we spent a lot of energy on it and I wish we wouldn't I wish we could find a happy place where we don't spend that kind of energy truly right because I it's just I don't I understand right I I know how I voted but I I understand that parents parents are parents and they have they they strongly feel about their kids and and I'm never going to tell a parent they're wrong in their opinion um and I wish we could find a place that make both both sides of the parents happy and I don't know if that's a committee well conversation or I think I think like for new business um in in include regarding the book scenario when I was trying to speak and get my thoughts out and have a conversation with the board the decorum from the um crowd Community was um un it was not okay I did not feel that the decorum was handled well I did not feel like it was pulled in well I mean finally Andrew had to step in to say like you had your public comment this is board discussion you know talking to other board members they didn't feel they had a voice to voice their opinion um we were being heckled I was being called names it was it was pretty it was really unruly I sent an email to you in administration I got no response none so I'm I'm still speaking I'm still struggling with the fact of communication because I understand that we're all not going to agree I I get that and and that's all right that's why there's 12 of us on on this board but it really was a difficult situation for me to get a lot more information out in other people and then when I file a grievance it's not it's not even responded by Administration or you so I guess I have two comments right I'm not going to disagree that when we're doing this the public needs to be quiet I also know at some at some extent if I keep acknowledging noise noise gets larger right so some extent you try to over overtalk it and let it calm itself down right we have a large crowd so I apologize if you felt the way you did right but you know sometimes you try to let it just calm itself down right I I you know do some of this for a living right sometimes let the let the noise come but I apologize that you know you felt that way well I don't think it was just me I think it was other board members too and I I'm going to tag on that it was very uncomfortable it's embarrassing it's been an uncomfortable situation I'm speaking Jessica please let me speak and it was embarrassing and some of us did not get a chance and then to watch the public engaging there's two side there's three sides to every story that but we had we had public and we and split and they were passionate on both sides and it seemed like they were they were heckling board members and shutting them down as in Nicole uh statement and then there was there was also public members being shut down and people were screaming shut up sit down and the the officer had to come over to a gentleman and it it just was it's it's just so inappropriate and that is when the G the time to to use that gavel and to to make those to step in there I agree with you sometimes you have to learn to pull back but you have not been doing that and it spurred out of control okay and we did there were some of us that do sit here at the board that have are constantly are feeling uncomfortable and we have new board members that are being heckled in uncomfortable uncomfortability and it's it's just not right a lack of Decor IM inability and I did mention that the last two months um we had an incident in January when we had moved from the um Board office to the the bigger cafeteria where there was a very large group of people that wanted to speak and it was great that we extended the public comments cuz I think think it was very necessary necessary to hear everybody there was a situation where um a public Community member was being cut in line routinely um by students to come and speak because I guess they were trying to squeak their way in to make sure we didn't cut off the public comments after a couple times when he tried to address it um it got a little altercation with some of the community members that were sitting there and then when the cops went and approached them a thumb came up from one of the board members to you and immediately you stay to leave for him to leave meanwhile there was a mother who was running across the thing cursing and she was able to be she was able to stay so those kind of behaviors show that a support for a special interest group which as board members were really not supposed to do now I'm not sure it was a really weird situation I think a lot of it was getting a little out of control but on that case when one board member gave you a thumbs up that person got thrown out wasn't able to make a public comment so you know that has been complained to me quite quite often uh I don't know if they had written to you or to the administration but you know when you have little things like that or when you're allowing more people on the other side to have that extra minute or 30 seconds to finish and then you know so it just shows that there's um no it's p it's the perception it's a perception of of of of supporting a special interest group um the other thing that I thought that was you know we discussed that regarding the book Review Committee there was a leak it was never addressed and and that should have been addressed because that was a very big deal you know I mean we don't want to look like that we compromise anything we don't want to look like the the book Review Committee compromise anything I mean obviously some of I've explained to you multiple occasions that that you understand that the committee's formed and you we we you would appreciate that you think the committee knows that there's a degree of confidentiality okay a member decided to do to let it go it's you know I I don't know what to said right going forward next time we'll make it very clear you should not be doing that I meant addressing the community letting the community know about the me sorry at some point it's it's right it's not the community it's it's it's our problem right you all said it was your problem and so I told I told all of you who called me for the hours at length that it happened it's not an issue it shouldn't have happened but it did and it won't happen again we'll make it very clear if they get into that situation it's a confidential document should not be released until the board has it right we're rehashing things we've talked about multiple times I trust me multiple times I will hamble the gavel harder in the future because you want me to handle gavel harder and at at at people who come to listen to us certainly I will tell you that I will tell you my personal feeling is when people are upset over a heated topic banging on a gavl you standing on a stage I'm not so sure com will down but that's my personal opinion I will Amber gav's going for you don't have to NE either to to to the G you could call for um a recess okay I got it let's move on okay so then as another new um business item I would like to make a motion um to go out for an R RFP for a board attorney um it's been three and a half years since we've done such so this is something that we should have done prior to approving [Music] board attorneys tonight right so this is effectively kind of late right we should have done that's what I tried to making a motion but let her proceed she wants to make a motion bus why don't we put it into Finance let Finance talk about it is that an option or well we're in new business it's a motion in new business if she wants to make a proposal can I intercede just for a moment as the qualified purchasing agent I have to go through certain deliberative processes in order to appoint professionals we did that process we appointed the professionals at tonight's meeting if we want to do an RFP process that goes through me that's something that I am qualified to do and if the board has a consensus to do that I'm happy to do that but I think we should start with finance committee we can have that discussion we can pull the board and see if that's necessary can I how does that work meeting be on agenda it'll be on our next agenda we discuss it the policy recomendation we have a July Finance meeting me we can have that discussion of what it looks like and we can pull the board and see if there's a consensus to do that and again that goes through my office I handle RFP with all of you and then we would go through that same process we did three years ago Katie I I appreciate that I do I I respect you highly and and I would never um uh step on your toes or other but just so the board is aware I called and spoke with Glenn this was back in February and I asked about this a person to to discuss this and ask this to get direction right and I said put it to finance and you didn't we know that was not the whole conversation but I don't think this is the the time and place but you had said to wait and then you have said other things so there again it's it's miscommunication it's inefficiencies and we're not effectively communicating which is more reason why we should having having word goals and have that been been the topic you would have said that to myself and said or any other person who who reached out to you you would have stated we're we want to we you you are to make the motion before we approve and it would have been done somebody would have made that motion last month I think with everything going on last month it was held back okay okay so it goes to finance talks about it and it goes from there is that what we're doing all right all right I think Katie's recommendation good I mean I didn't anything else yes I do um I wanted to um mention graduation um I went to both it was Bor was they were both phenomenal um it was cool in the morning great came over here it it was phenomenal and to hear um the speeches and to hear them talk about Joey and many of us know Joey it was just very touching and it was great to see board members but I would like to see board members because we represent two constituencies go to when they can I know we work both graduations and I did bring this up to I bring this up to Rich several times that pushing back the time and I know about the the hot he the rain I mean nothing's ever perfect but maybe we do a morning and an evening maybe we change it up or there's ways to do it because it is a celebration of our students achievements and our District's accolades and we should be doing it together and we all just don't represent most of us represent two constituencies I would ask that I asked about a bus Katie and R everyone was great getting me out and I rushed over here but it was very un comfortable going in with the students coming down and I'm walking across the the front of the the the the turf to get on the stage it it it's not my moment it's the graduates moment and I felt uncomfortable I I I would like to see there uh it be like 10 and 12 or we do a night time we do something let's think out of the box try things right we're talking about options right everyone's saying that here and I think it would be prudent of us to go back to doing those because you know we all should be part partake and it it would be a great opportunity if they're separated then Administration can go to both and not pick one to go to yeah Kim I wanted just to add that so I I've been to the north graduation last year and this year I went and um I think it's it's part of our responsibility as board members to attend graduations we know a year in advance when graduation is taking place so I there to me unless there's a family emergency there should be no reason why you can't plan ahead with your jobs that you have um and I just again I I think it almost should be a mandatory responsibility for everybody and yes if we have to we can split up based on this the the the towns that we represent but there should absolutely be a decent showing of board members at the graduation members yeah at North hun in his graduation ceremony and there were several at Bor well I and I VI the Boris but there was just no way I was be able to get down Feld so if we could have a bigger time frame I know I agree easier Logistics think was saying right and then if if we have one maybe one in the evening maybe like that the next year you flip it so you know I don't know something to that effect but it is definitely essential for yeah board members to be to be present it it is an amazing thing to it's an honor to be there it's an honor to be there at their graduations when they've completed their educations and we've done something really important for them um I I think we we're it's an honor for us to be there with them see the board support them and the administration at both schools yeah it's a it's a great occasion so Rebel with it and I have one more thing for old business since um the lack of the Quorum I wasn't able to add some comments to the conversation that we were having about the book so I just wanted to bring up that the argument was made to trust experts um and my comment was going to be that the um ala's president which would be the expert on this is a known self- admitted Marxist lesbian who promotes queer Theory is it I'm sorry to interrupt you Nicole but is it necessary to label the person that's speaking or the the Marxist lesbian is it necessary 100% you're just interrupted my comments if you don't like what I have to say you more to welcome the walk out okay let's let's let really talk about interrupted me but I wanted to ask if it was necessary to use those words let let's have her finishers disc got her her her point and everyone does the word bother you I just don't know why you're using Okay so the theory basically is used to catalog books in libraries the term is broadly associated with the study a theorization of gender and sexual practices that exist outside of heterosexuality and challenge the notion of heterosexuality as normal why is the Ala pushing sexuality in Le of Education that was going to be my argument okay pervasively vulgar novels mainly in the LGBT genre who's proteced the LGBT children okay this Theory aligns with Marxism which undermines American values okay and traditional families okay the raised fist okay is a a a is a symbol of Marxism okay it represents a wide range of political ideologies most notably socialism communism anarchism trade unism whatever that is and also can be used to salute Express in unity strength or resistance okay so the njaa another expert on their social media has a fist as a rad what does that represent that represents Marxism okay so my point is when you're going to trust the experts okay we do trust our professionals we're trying to trust our professionals okay however one of the experts during an assembly education hearing on the freedom to read act stated in my professional role there is no pornog graphy for minors in a school library so there's no need to restrict it she also stated that the idea of obscenity that is a definition cannot can only be determined by a judge and jury that our personal opinion about obscenity does not make it so which is false because we do have a state law that states what abenity is so I wanted to add that to the book thing because I disagree highly with the vote right so just to be clear right those obviously are Nicole's opinions and not not the opinion of the board so she's speaking as an individual and not not on behalf of the board just so people I think that's where I got confused okay any other old and new business no okay call for a motion second to adjourn so moved all in favor are for