##VIDEO ID:zukQ9TfxLWk## District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday October 15 2024 is now called to order in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting Act njsa 10 4-6 x 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 huning county Democrat on December 7 2023 notice and to the extent known the agenda of this meeting have been posted at North hunon High School and Vorhees High School provided to the municipal Clerks of Bethlehem Township Califon burough town of Clinton Clinton Township Franklin Township Glenn Gardner burough Hampton burough Highbridge bur Lebanon bur Lebanon Township tubry Township and Union Township as well as other interested parties and posted on the district website fire exits are located in the direction uh directions indicated uh if allord to a fire please move in a common worldly fashion the nearest smoke free exit at this time please silence your cell phones perf it's all right it's all right and that this uh and so I need a roll call Katie M tno here Mr Chapman here mallow here M yes here here Mr M here Mr mik here M Rees here misso here Mr Spanton here M here and mran here and I FL salute i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all so I need a call for a motion and second to approve agenda item 4.1 which is our minutes from September 24 2024 school board meeting so moved second just all in favor I any opposed any extensions okay uh so any recognition of student achievements or Greg or Ron let you guys fight it out good evening everybody um this is Lillian baller uh Lillian came to me back in the fall of 2023 I think 2022 and uh asked me if she could do a viking M and I said well I'm not really sure what you want to do can you please sketch it out um but I brought her amazing teacher here at Laura Malay she's going to tell you all about the U mural that she did right outside of the mall area um but I'm going to tell you about uh Lillian's future plans um she's committed to Rowan University to play lacrosse she's looking to major in biomed art and visualization which I didn't even know that was such a thing um she's planning to go for masters in medical illustration and her career as a medical illustrator which is illustrations for medical or scientific purposes such as medical textbooks or for pharmaceutical companies which I think you could see that she's going to be fantastic at that but I will hand it over to Lauren tell you all about the ins and outs and that she did hello good evening um first I would just like to express my gratitude to our Vorhees administrators Mr Peterson and Mr Simpson for their support um their openness allowing Lillian to execute on this ambitious project um Lillian started the mural in January on January 25th of 2023 and finished May 29th of 2024 taking over a year approximately 92 hours she used five paint pens and painted 200 dots per minute so we roughly estimated that that's over a million dots total um I've had Lillian as my student every semester since she started at Vorhees and lilian's Viking represents everything we embody at Vorhees strength Spirit Unity leadership and Beauty lilan works hard at what she loves and has self motivation to get things done she is extremely well-rounded successful with academics Fine Arts and athletically um as she's as a student she's leaving Vorhees with an unforgettable Legacy it has been an honor to see her growth and Evol Evolution to this point so thank you I'd also like to add that we have recently covered this with uh plexiglass and cocked it all in so nothing ever happens to it so we can preserve it for the End of Time as far as I'm concerned because she has set the bar high for any murals that uh students will ask to put up from now on so L congratulations [Applause] while they're setting up if anybody has a chance to see this mural at B High School the image that we put up here does not do it justice it is super impressive so you have a chance all right so it's my pleasure to introduce you tonight to Mar green Max gar Cassie Santiago and Cat wolf uh what I'm sure you know at this point is we tragically lost a few toras on the very first day of school uh a week later we had a candlelight vigil on the football field at North I don't know how many people were there but several hundred it was a very powerful night it provided a night for our families and communities and students to grieve to honor Sophia and to celebrate her life and what I will say is that night would not have been possible without these four students right here it was not my idea it was their idea I didn't do all the work they did most of the work I wasn't the one up there on the podium most of the night night they were that night was possible because of them and their parents who came to me to ask to have that night and they felt that it was what the community needed and they were exactly right so uh just to give them a uh due credit here they assumed the key roles in organizing the visual they gathered the supplies coordinated the volunteers created the posters prepared the candle and Candy filled bags for every guest their leadership was also evident in the selections of the songs and the pictures that were displayed during the event and the cre creation of the moving slideshow they also acted as MC's for the event so it's through their dedication and hard work and commitment along with several other students that helped that allowed for a powerful night that showed that when the community comes together it supports each other to grieve through difficult times so just to give them an introduction we have Mara green Mara stand out for us here Mara is a junior class vice president she's a member of the interact and red Red Cross Club she runs cross country for our track team Mara attends the B Med Academy here at North and hopes to become a pediatric nurse practitioner one day we also have Max scolar Max he's our junior class secretary he is in the marching band he's actually the drum major of the mar marching band he also attends a biomed program and is a member of the Neuroscience Club Max hopes to attend med school in the future to study Neuroscience Thanks Max we also have Cassie Santiago she's a dedicated member of our dance team when she's not dancing here at North she also spends the rest of her time at the dance studio or dancing at home Cassie is uh also a member of our interact and diversity club and she hopes to become a civil engineer and then we also have catwolf catwolf is actually the president of our junior class and a member of our varsity volleyball team she's involved in teen pep as well as a science pool uh which competes in state science competitions outside of school cat volunteers at a wildlife sanctuary and look for looks forward to pursuing a career in Wildlife support so big round of [Applause] I I think we're going to get a photo I think over here where you want to go Mike that's fine okay take all the there you show the certificates so we now have our student representative reports so Sarah schar and her alternative are not here tonight so sh you got both schools all right so um for upcoming events or I guess go for what happened we had our um North homecoming which was a really really good turnout our theme was a silver like S8 kind of theme and we had almost a thousand kids I think it's a th000 kids that came to that night and it was uh it was a really good turnout raised a lot of money um so we're having a whiffle ball um fundraiser um through the baseball team U my friend Aaron dor is leading that and it's October 25th at 300M it's the day of the milk can game but it's just uh like basically right after school um it's going to be $75 per team and it's going to be five players on each team and we're hoping to get a really good turnout and the proceeds will go to the tutor family so there's that we have the Powerpuff game that's happening next week on the 22nd um hoping that'll be really exciting um unfortunately the girls field hockey and Athletics they lost to Warren Hills but um I just wanted to mention it because like getting to that rank uh to the finals of hor war and Sussex is like a really big feat on its own and they're actually rank six in New Jersey right now um another thing the thrift store um I'm not sure if you uh know about that from last year that's my class that um uh me and my class officers that are organizing that it's basically we're um getting donations from the whole school we have a b outside bin in the school for donations we organize it and basically the Friday or um November 2 27th the half day um we're going to have like almost kind of like basically like a thrift shop like a little store in the green gym and just basically selling those clothes um proceeds go to the open open cupboard food pantry and um to our class fun as well um moving on Spirit Week full for the milk can week is next week so Monday is groutfit Tuesday is like an Out of Water Theme um so like floaties goggles towels all that uh Wednesday is like meme day so dress as your favorite meme Thursday is blackout and we're bringing back our glass Spirit color Showdown so like our class Wars um so freshman are green sophomores are red juniors are yellow and seniors are blue and we're um going to have a day or two days actually to um decorate the mall and have like the cuz we really wanted to bring back that class spirit and this is like a big way that we can um moving on marching band um they marched in the Columbus Day Parade North and B's together and I thought that was like really really like awesome and a sense of unity through both schools um another thing that's happening with both schools is the hurricane relief fundraiser through the Key Club and um the first week of November is the theaters um full play so that's all I have for updates for this month thank you thank you anybody have questions or sh pardon my ignorance what is GRA fit uh it's like a gray outfit like a comfy okay he did forget to mention that he was homecoming King yes all right thanks sh uh so now U Mr gazinski from I'm GNA pronounce this wrong n niia you got it sorry I practiced that actually um we'll review the financial highlights in summary of the annual comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year ended June 30th 2024 thanks for joining us absolutely good evening everyone um I believe in your packets you should have I sent Katie a uh four-page handout with all the financial highlights for the year so I'm just going to spend a minute or so going over all this um the primary thing that you're concerned about is the budgetary operations of the district for the year so if you look in that attachment right at the top it's just going to give you a breakdown of where your fund balance ended for the year so to start out you had capital reserve balance of $8.4 million you had $1.7 million for your maintenance Reserve you had $5.5 million almost $5.6 million that from 20023 that will be used in the 2025 budget for excess Surplus um and this year we generated 5,250 th000 of excess Surplus which will be used in your 2026 budget we also had 600 $126,000 of unemployment we had incumbrances of 1.97 and we had ending unassigned fund balance of 1.5 that's the 2% calculation that's based off of your budgetary expenditures for the year with a certain number of State allowable adjustments that get made to it like to refer to that as you're as healthy as you potentially can be in your unassigned fund balance so overall we did have about a $3.2 million decrease in our fund balance year-over-year but there's a good reason for that the primary reason for that is that we took a bunch of money out of our capital reserve to pay for Debt Service and to pay for projects that have been go ongoing in the district so I'm just going to move down in that in that there and go to the capital reserve section so if you look we started with $12.7 million we had interest earnings of about $69,000 and at the end of the year with that 2% that's the most that we're allowed to have we were allowed to transfer back almost $2.8 million but again going back to what we had taken out in order to do capital projects throughout the district as well as transferring money over to debt service we took out $2.8 million to do projects and we also took out $4.2 million for debt so that left us with $8.4 million in the capital reserve at the end of the year uh maintenance reserve a lot more simple we started with $1.7 million we got $24,000 and we ended with $1,737 th000 in maintenance um on to the next page I just want to discuss the results of your food service um we had operating Revenue this year of 1,952 th000 which is an increase of about 150,000 from last year uh we also had nonoperating revenue of about $8,600 and we had operating expenses of $1.9 million again typically with the food service the more that we sell the more that it costs so it just goes hand inand um but we did have an overall $33,000 increase in our position in the Food Service fund so the ending position in the food service we had a total of $671,000 of net position and that's comprised of $212,000 of capital assets and $458,000 of net position unrestricted uh your long-term liability section uh just to briefly go through these so serial bonds we ended up with $5.7 million we had an ending balance in our compensated absences of 4 .5 million um just to touch on that really quick there was a change in the requirement of how compensated absences has to be calculated this year so when you look on this sheet it says that you went up by 1.5 million uh it's kind of almost a misnumber what it is is that with this new standard that was issued uh we had two options we could do what's called early implementation in which case we implement it now and we don't have to do a restatement of the prior year financials or we do it next year in which case we would have had to put a restatement in your financials so really that increase is just avoiding that restatement of the financials into the following year um but we did pay out $131,000 in comp time this year so we ended with $4,547.43 our net pension liability for purs uh ended at $8.9 million which was a decrease from last year of about 748 th000 again I know that we've uh all heard about the net pension liability for years now but it's kind of out of our control it is what it is we get the report from KPMG from the state and they tell us what your liability is you know we pay our pension bill it's nothing that you have to worry about at this point um but it's just there it's it's required for the the Gap section of the report so we disclose it um there are two management suggestions in this report they're pretty much advisory um I know when I've come to present before I've said this and I'm sure that everyone is sick and tired of hearing of the first one no pun intended but covid-19 um talking about how they're doing the desk reviews of all the grant money that was issued over the course of the pandemic um we're just giving you the heads up again that hopefully we're thinking that next year we're going to actually pull this out of the report so this is probably the last year I have to do this whole Spiel um you're not necessarily going to be subject to an audit of any significance going forward we're hoping so we think it's about time that we're going to have to stop worrying about this um and the only other item in there is the Federal grant receivables so this doesn't again necessarily apply to you we just thought it would be prudent to put that in this year's report as all of those covid programs Grant periods are ending to make sure that we're we've submitted for all of our receivables and everything and I'm sure Katie can tell you that we're good on that um again just two advisory thing so nothing to worry about there and then buring the lead here uh we had no recommendations again this year which is excellent um you know uh definitely ktie gets a lot of credit for that um she keeps everything in line make sure that everything goes smoothly um you know her staff upstairs does a great job with getting us everything that we need as we're going through the audit process and they're quick about it I know that the one thing that we uh we typically run into difficulty with is getting all of the there's a giant section at the back of the report that's completely una audited it's the statistical section but we rely so much on the towns for supplying that information and uh Jen had the hard task this year of tracking all of that information down um but she did a great job and we were able to get through all of it so again I just want to commend Katie and the rest of her staff for the their hard work um if anyone has any questions I'd be happy to address them the pension liability is that something that the formula at the state level and we just get whatever it is or is there actually some factors in there that are specific to us so basically you get your pension bill every year we pay our pension bill every year um it's the funding of the pension itself and all of the Actuarial assumptions changing over time and you know you hear it every year is is the pension going to be fully funded this year is it not going to be fully funded so it's all based off of that and what they do is all of your employees that are in the pension system they take all of that information pull it all together and say the overall liability is $8.9 million you know going forward so the change in that is based off of Actuarial assumptions that KPMG takes all of that they compile it into their report every year and we get that it's got deferred inflows out outflows uh includes changes in proportion um kind of fluctuation is it from year to year it's a great question it's it's there's so many factors what there's so many factors that some years you're going to see it that it's going to it's going to increase by a million other years it's going to decrease by a million and it's you know that I mean every year that that note or that the note related to Pur specifically as well as the the teachers pension annuity fund that goes within the report those two pages are probably about 15 pages long each you want to read through it it's it's it's a fun read um but it's there's a lot of factors that go into that and you'll see if if you pay attention you know we have to change a lot of those things every year so there's a lot of factors that go into it you know it's how it's How the Pension funds are are performing overall each year it's an amalgamation of things it really is thank you yeah sure I just a question and I and I apologize because I can't find it now but um I did recall seeing something in the full report that talked about um and I don't know if it was in the notes um but it related to um the district being mindful of any potential increases in population and kids entering the school system and what impact they may that may have on our overall budgeting um I don't know if you could add anything to that or is there like an expectation of what kind of timing would really impact it um that I believe what you're talking about is um in the factors affecting the district which is part of the um the the uh mdna section or it might be in in in your intro letter it's that's kind of almost like a boiler play thing okay because the reality is is that you know dependent upon student population we've seen a lot over the years where we have declining student populations in certain places and you know based on the needs of students coming into the district we could have a student that comes into the district that we didn't budget for and it's you know to provide the services necessary for that student it's it might be a couple of hundred, that we didn't right think about so that's more of an advisory thing of just the district is being mindful I guess you could say you know okay and then just a question about so the the new building for the Polytech are they I don't remember are they leasing land from us or did we so are those lease when will the lease payments start being made to the district so the lease is a dollar a year so it's not like we're generating revenue from the actual lease but we're going to be generating Revenue over time when they have students so students will attend our programs will get tuition Revenue which I think we speak to in the audit report too trying to find places where we can generate Revenue that's outside of the 2% Levy cap got it okay and I do want to say it is really terrific job the way you keep up with it so thank you for that definely anyone else great thanks everyone have a great night we'll do it again next year so I need a call for motion and second to approve the receipt and acceptance of the annual comprehensive financial report and the udor management report for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 as prepared by The District's appointed and certified public accounting firm n v vajia LP of Mount Arlington New Jersey ter second uh I need a roll call vote M pagam yes Mr pman yes Miss Gallow yes Miss H yes M scan yes Mr M yes Mr M yes M Reyes yes Miss selino yes Mr Spanton yes Miss Fato yes and Mr farb yes so Dr bjx will now review the New Jersey Department of Education School self assessment for uh North and bores for determining grades under the anti-bully bullying Bill of Rights Act for July 1st 2023 through June 30th 2024 thanks Glen so just to remind everybody um this is something that we do every year uh what happens is uh based on the anti bullying Bill of Rights Act um the school safety teams meet in each building they go through a checklist a set of criteria to do a self assessment of what they how they felt they did at as far as adhering to the anti B rights in the previous year they met this September at both schools um I won't read you know every one of the um items on the checklist they there for your to review but basically uh North Hunter scored a 75 out of 78 and Bo scored a 77 out of 78 and again they rate each other independently of themselves so that's why sometimes there's a little variation in um score then what happen I report this to you tonight answer any questions you have then I'm able to submit this to the state the MJ um Home Room website the state then reviews all the data comes back with any determinations will if they don't have any they will approve the scores the scores are then brought back to you in the spring to approve so that and then we post them on the website so the ones that are posted on the website now are from last year they'll let get posted on the website this spring which is these scores and in nor in North's review there's a score that the ABS met at least two times per year with the district antibullying coordinator and that didn't happen or that nope that only happened once this year so that's why they sorted themselves as um partially meeting it and um and it really came down to a matter of circumstances in the spring that the spring meeting got canceled and then got rescheduled and got canceled again um this year we have two dates on the books already to make sure it doesn't happen again okay just a clarification to did you say they self assess or they assess one another they self assess the school so the school safety team which is made up of the school safety Specialists and the assist the principal they're looking at whether or not we um met twice a year that's a check box right and you get a score based on that did we and it's basically did you not meet did you partially meet did you meet it or did you exceed it um so it's a zero through three is what they're allowed to get yeah I I think I was asking I just didn't know if there was a dimension of like sort of peer assessment going on there no not really it's the school safety team assessing on how they did and how the rest of the school did as far as um maintaining that that act is there any funding that comes from the state for that for the scores or anything like that not that I'm aware of so that's it for anti buing um there's no questions questions okay so rich Braun director of curriculum articulation and student achievement will give us a presentation the 2024 njsla results good evening everyone all right so I'm here tonight to go over the spring 2024 administration of the New Jersey student learning assessment as far as the students who take this assessment um it's there's an Ela component a math component and a science component for ELA it's students in grade n for math it's all students in grade n in Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 and it's also students completing Algebra 1 for the first time for science it's all Juniors and as I always say when I present this information um the students who are in the uh hunon County Vocational School District Academy programs are not included in this data so what I'll do is I'll go over Ela then Math and Science and for each of those I'll go over three different things basically the percentage of students at each proficiency level and how that compares to 2023 and also to the state I always say at this presentation that all that I know at this point is how we did and how the state did later on in the school year usually around January we'll find out how other schools did but at this point it's just how we did and how the state did um I'll also go over the results by the school and then show the subgroup proficiency percentage for the district so Ela and math there's five different levels of proficiency going from the lowest with level one not yet meeting expectations up to level five where they're exceeding expectations so when I talk about proficiency level I'm really talking about students at levels four and five four is meeting expectations five is exceeding expectations so starting off with Ela um what this shows is districtwide to change from LA from 23 to 24 so in the column all the way off to the right you see that the levels four and five total went up 8% from 2023 and whereas the levels 1 and two decreased 6% from 23 so we moved in a positive direction um and how that compares to the state you know like I said we moved up 8% uh whereas the state moved up 6% so similar change to the State now breaking it down by school um so if you remember at this presentation last year there was a big discrepancy between north hundon and Vorhees for the ELA 9 scores and you can see that in a second from the right column where last year 55% of the students at North were proficient and 85% of the students at Vorhees were proficient at the at that time we thought it was abnormally high for Vorhees and abnormally low for north and now you can see that the two schools are you know much more closely aligned with 73% of the students proficient at North 76% of the students at Vorhees which is well above the state average of 58% across the whole state every single subgroup except for one the percentage increased um as far as the percent proficient the one that decreased is our black or African-American students and that actually had the lowest number of students that were able to publicly report so we're talking about the change of one or two students being proficient in that group so moving into mathematics um so I will mention here that when we look at the algebra 1 Algebra 2 and geometry results um great students in grades 11 and 12 are not included in this information from the state however students in seventh and 8th grade are included in that so that's why we always talk about our Algebra 1 scores being lower they're actually right at State average but lower than we would expect because the higher level math students took Algebra 1 in seventh or 8th grade so as we look at um Algebra 1 so this just shows the change from 23 to 24 um both Algebra 1 districtwide and geometry districtwide the percentage uh proficient increased from 23 to 24 you can see the algebra 1 went up 9% over from 23 and geometry went up 4% from 2023 do not have enough students to public publicly report the results for Algebra 2 and how that compares to the state um the 9% increase for Algebra 1 for us compares to 45% increase across the state um across the state geometry actually went down 1 and a half% while while ours went up 4% so focusing on Algebra 1 here first um breaking it down by school you could see that North hunon had a a really large increase uh this year last year or 23 it was 22% proficient it went up to 38.5% proficient in 2024 and Vorhees dropped down a little bit from 43 1.5% in 23 down to about 39.5% in 2024 so again last year we thought that North was abnormally low and Vorhees was abnormally high and those two kind of met in the middle and again we talked about the New Jersey average of 39 and a. half% that includes those Advanced students taken in seventh and eth grade so now when you move into geometry uh well actually the subgroups first for Algebra 1 um I believe every yeah every single subgroup that is reported that was reported for both years went up our Asian students uh we didn't have enough students to publicly report those results in 24 whereas we did in 203 but the one thing I really want to point out here you see the huge jump with the male students about 15% increase from the percent proficient in 2023 to 2024 moving into geometry so again these are the more advanced math students taking geometry in nth grade at the two schools are almost exactly the same 73% proficient at North 72.9% at Vorhees and that is well above uh the the state percentage of 49% and you can see that Vorhees went up almost 10% uh from 2023 again with the subgroups they're very similar to they were last year um just a little bit of fluctuation there but mostly about the same and again we did not have enough students taking Algebra 2 to publicly report those results and then moving into science so science is reported differently there are four levels for science so levels three level three is proficient level four is Advanced proficient so we're really looking at levels three and four as when I talk about proficiency so you can see that uh the percent proficient districtwide actually went down 5% from 2023 and it went down across the state 2% compared to going down 5% in our district so looking at the schoolwide um you could see across the state only 28.1% of the students were proficient uh 38.5% at North and almost 47% at vhe and looking at the subgroups for that you can see that um just about uh it's a really a variety um with our Asian students having the highest percentage proficient um but most of them are some going down some saying the same really a a mix there so as far as the achievements go from our njsla results uh the district percentage of students proficient is well above the state average for ELA 9 geometry and science 11 we talked about the jumps with North hunon with Ela 9 going up 28% from 2023 and for Algebra 1 that percentage going up 16% from 2023 so intervention strategies districtwide uh we looked at trying to consolidate our staffing in attested courses so that fewer teachers were teaching that course so it's more consistent um we did begin common assessments with our grade nine classes last year um and now we continued that this year with our grade 10 classes using professional development sessions to evaluate our Common Assessment results continuing to infuse njsla align questions into our curriculum and then for the uh continuing with the district uh we did expand our articulation meetings with our sending districts um yesterday we actually had uh representatives from 13 districts together um with articulation meetings from prek through 5 and in all of the subject area articulation meetings as as well we had over 600 teachers participating in that between the two buildings yesterday uh we obviously examined these NJ njsla results by course level by teacher and all different areas for which we could examine them and then continuing to emphasize writing across the curriculum for our students who are struggling we obviously have many different ways for students to get extra help um for our seniors who are not yet proficient in English or math we offer our Workshop classes we have our resource room where teachers are available on every subject uh every period for extra help for students who have study halls uh obviously after school from 2:30 to 3:10 teachers are available we have our online tutoring program and for students who are not meeting the standards in the course we have our response to intervention program any questions about these results so it seems like scores put up so it seems like the intervention strategy you're putting in place we're seeing some positive results away from the strategy but that was sort of my general takeway yeah I mean districtwide everything did increase from 2023 it seems like what we're doing is working the things you're trying to when you talked to the sending Jes are they seeing similar results as us I don't know their results from 2024 yet um when they're released we'll take a look to see how they go but um I think I mean you see the Statewide numbers going in that direction as well so uh hopefully we you know we want to begin working with them as early as possible so that you know we can help them that's one of the big to topics of conversation yesterday in these articulation meetings was how they can use these results to inform their instruction and how we can work together because a lot of these sending districts they may have one science teacher or one Ela teacher so by getting everybody together and share those resources and and have those discussions hopefully we can impact everybody has this this affected any of the common assessments that you're you're going to do this year a little bit different from last year um not necessarily although we certainly try to use uh njsla like questions in those common assessments um but you know we by the time we got these results we had already completed those common assessments but we'll we'll still continue to revise them if necessary one question I had with that 15% jump in the boys on algebra yes um do and and you may not have know this now like that's a district wise and was that um sort of common across buildings or do you have information suggesting that for for some reason it you know the the jump in male boy performance on Algebra 1 was more pronounced in one building versus another and whether that reveals anything in terms of some of the strategies you were talking about so and and the reason why we do the district results for the subgroups is because we wouldn't have enough students for a lot of these subgroups if we did it by school um but as far as I can tell you by school though at North hundon High School uh the males 44% were proficient but I don't have last years so and you know that's the majority of our students so 44% at at North and 43% at Vorhees so they both must have gone up about the same so then I guess similarly with the challenge of algebra being that our strongest students have taken algebra before they've arrived here yes do we see I'm just curious about the distribution of Algebra 1 students as freshmen if that is something we're seeing equally spread across sending districts or are we seeing a phenomenon where there are some programs that are being more successful with alra at a at a younger age and is that part of the articulation it well part of the discussion is when you begin to accelerate students and how you identify the students that you're accelerating um but I think even more importantly than the the difference between Algebra 1 and math 8 in 8th grade is the level at which they're coming in in algebra in 9th grade so we saw a big change in these Algebra 1 results in 2023 the majority of students were in Algebra 1 CP in 2024 the majority of the students were in Algebra 1 advance so that that's really one of the things that we're able to pinpoint and what again this might not be something that you know right now do you have a sense of do we have kids who are retaking Al we do have a handful there there aren't a lot but there are some yes and then I think getting to Glenn's point a little bit I don't know with conversations with the Senate indry I'd be sort of curious to see that um like our our when you look at our Ela 9 performance when you compare cohort to cohort obviously it's going up a little bit each year which is good I guess I'm very curious about like that grade eight for that same cohort the year before like in other words we're we're taking sort of our performance relative to our performance last year but what we don't know is what gains we might be realizing uh when compared to their grade8 Ela and what might feel like um you know incremental but positive progress to us could potentially be building be a significant leap from the year before and I didn't know if that would play out similar some of the map so basically saying that the the math8 results for our sending districts and then as they come to us yeah I mean those math 8 results across the state are typically like I think it's around 25% proficient so and I I mean it's Statewide but um so yeah we do see you know we look at 40% for Algebra 1 but what those same students did in math 8 was significantly lower okay yeah because I guess the same way it can give us insight into having kids just even with the articulation we have them for a year and what sort of gains we're potentially realizing because if it's what was it 70 it's in the 70s now as freshman and then last year we were in the 90s for the GPA so we know the two years that we have been that progress sort of the cut scores Chang right okay which is why we talked about in the curriculum committee that one of the things that we want to look at is um the PSAT results and how students the percentage of students who are meeting the cut score for the P so I'm going to work on that as well any other questions yes I know we talked about this in curriculum committee with the science part because that's unique where it's 11th grade yes so we're not really looking at the sending districts as right so what what are we doing with trying to advance that because we have scores that to me having a score whether it's math or English or science that's in the 30% you know 30% of the students are proficient that's still seems low even though it's above State Standards so is there something that we can do to help science literacy students so one of the did 11 grade PRI sure so so that everybody knows uh the Science assessment is not a biology test or a chemistry test it is a test of all of the high school standards in science um we looked at some of the sample questions in the curriculum committee and we're like well this isn't really like a specific subject it's not biology or it's not you know it's taking different scenarios different graphs and trying to make draw conclusions from that um I will say that in looking at the results across the state from 2023 uh our district was at or above other similar schools in the state that does not excuse having 38 46% proficient um it's a really really difficult assessment and I'll try to put it nicely um Juniors may not be entirely invested in the results of those assessments and I don't know if you want to chime in about that but uh you know we do our best to tell students that take it seriously when you use it to inform our instruction and to develop our programs but we can see how quickly they sometimes go through the assessment have the have the assessments changed in the last like I mean are they changing significant every year or is there a big change from like 20 let's go to 2019 or 2020 compared to 2023 and this this particular assessment I believe 2019 might have been the first year for this particular Science assessment and then obviously we didn't test in 2020 or 2021 um so it's been about three or four years for this particular assessment have you compared these scores to 2019 yeah they're pretty comparable yeah yeah you mention curriculum and you s a spot check of similar schools us right I think you said we're we're those yeah when we received those scores um actually last so I all I have is last year from 2023 um countywide Vorhees had the highest percentage in 2023 uh um it it's a little misleading that doesn't make it no I'm sorry North did I'm looking at the numbers right here North had the highest percentage proficient across the county last year and Vorhees was right behind it at 46% um but looking at you know in the curriculum committee we talked some about the dfg's and the the similar socioeconomic status the schools that with similar socioeconomic status our science scores were at or above the average for all of those schools in the similar socioeconomic status any other questions I know we're looking at the scores but it came to mind when you were talking about the articulating committee was meeting yesterday yes which is fantastic so are you strictly meeting with the teachers for math Ela and science no every single subject area okay fabulous language and social studies yes and one of the one of the groups that we actually added this year where were our ESL teachers they had previously worked with the world language teachers but now we have enough District wide well not just our districtwide but sending districtwide as well that there was a separate ESL group as well and that goes all the way from prek on question yes with our with this articulation I know the discussion with eighth grades you know it's been for forever you know being on same page using same materials you you know where they're starting where they're ending which standards are is that some of the discussion going on right now that they're looking to to Really streamline what every eth grade district is doing so one of the things that they want to do this came from the superintendence and it's being supported by the Math teachers as well uh I was in a lot of the math articulation meetings I was in the math articulation meeting quite a bit yesterday um they want to develop a common Algebra 1 curriculum for the eth grade well not just the eth grade for the eth and nth grade students so all nine middle schools and our two high schools want to develop a common Algebra 1 curriculum for within 100 County ouring District yes yes and I think that'll be when we see the success of that I think that will trickle into some of the other ones as well but I think that's a great starting point what was the delay to get to that point 12 sending distri yes that really was and and it really came from I mean you know it was at the superintendent articulation meeting where they just decided that this is something that we really need to prioritize so yeah the superintendent of T actually brought it up and everyone else really jumped on board and said we think this would be a great idea so I think if Jen takes the lead which I hope she will um then I see I think we'll see some success i' be great any other questions not not necessarily a question but I know as we sort of go into strategic planning um I know this is these are data points that you're required to present annually um our school report part in so many other things that you present either through curriculum or different times during the year and even those things that you said you're going to look at PSAT scores SAT scores AP participation and performance uh dual credit certification seal of by literacy um certifications that kids are getting through like Polytech programs and I mean to be honest with you even thinking about the things that we saw presented here at the beginning of the evening it would be really nice in a strategic plan to really have a broad view of the just the diversity of assassings because I what I will say is I guarantee you the students who were sitting here today um probably don't even know how they did on this other than the fact that they're like oh I passed and that was fine but to think about like the impact of that mural in that event that those students LED um that's something that's never captured in data points like that and it's the sort of thing that I think in a broad um sort of dashboard of of performance can really um Inspire some creative thinking so not I mean I I'm saying that for all of us as we engage in that conversation but you're certainly the person who can kind of Marshall all that information and one of the things for those of you who are familiar with the middle State's accreditation process one of the things that you develop through middle States is the portrait of a graduate and that's kind of what you're talking about you know giving that full picture and I think that it's a great thing to incorporate into strategic planning as we look at that as well anything else all right well thank you so much thank you thanks Rich so moving on we are on to the chief School administration report thank you Glenn let's start with some exciting stuff first uh first I do want to mention homecomings at both north Hunter and bores um they got off um without a hitch and everybody going to have a great time the theme for the football game this year was a pink out get both schools um that's always fun um I also do want to send some congratulations to our homecoming king and queen from VHS uh brand casy and Geneva D um and then from north hunon of course around shamell and Mary spe was um the king of Queen so congratulations to Shivam and all the other students who um met that accomplishment enjoyed that weekend so uh I want to mention that college board and announced that North hon and bores High School have been aimed a 2024 advanced placement program School honor role um we earned a bronze distinction in that the AP School honor Ro recognizes schools whose AP programs are delivering results for all students while also broading access to the U availability of AP schools so how students are doing and also what we're offering um we earn this recognition annually based on criteria to collect our commitment to increasing College Bound students um and also providing opportunities for students to earn college credits and maximize College radio so that was great news from the AP Wars uh there are a lot of um fun School sponsored events coming up um shiv talked about some of them the pep rallies the ppff game and of course the annual milk can football game is going to be happening October 25th so I hope many of you can make it if you haven't been to a milk can game it's an exciting game an event um it will be held at North Hunter this year so and then moving on to the agenda items uh I do want to recognize Tim McKinnon uh Tim McKinnon is a technology education teacher at north hunon um he was nominated by Zitch when he assist principal of North for his um for the New Jersey school board's unsung hero um superhero award I'm sorry and um Tim is a technology education teacher at North one one of his accomplish accomplishments academically is that not only does he teach the classes he teaches but there's a lot of students that there's not enough students to take a class that he offers um a lot of times he will do a lot of independent studies with students which is a lot of extra work for him uh but he takes that on without hesit hesitation and always um accommodates those students so a lot of students are getting credits in in that subject area that wouldn't otherwise have tended go above Beyond he's also um a current soccer coach he's coached field hockey fencing and Lacrosse in the past he's also um the adviser for the video Club he works with TSA which is a technology Students Association and he also works um with SEC instruction for the plays um it also runs an annual bridge building competition between the two buildings so um the New Jersey school board's unsung her award uh obviously celebrates you know they celebrate invaluable contributions of the School District staff who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure their schools run smoothly and provide a safer Nur environment for all their students and he will be recognized at 10:00 a.m. on the Tuesday of school board's workshop and um at the keynote speaking event that will happen here so for those of us that be down here I hope you'll join me I plan to be be there to um you know be there for the recognition of Tim again so congratulations to Tim he's a hard worker and this is something that glad he was all right moving on to the not so exciting stuff uh we have um our report on harassment intimidation and bullying this month we had three cases um three incidents that were reported and one was founded um and those you'll be voting on um for disposition next month and then we have our call for a motion so need a motion and second to affirm the determinations on the hi incidence reported incidence reported at the September 24th 2024 board meeting and just to clarify there was one founded at North and one unfounded can I ask a question about it before we just in terms of so just do the first and second questions yeah so I hav seen a first and second second right okay question okay um so I noticed it it has these his incidents you know whether they were founder or not two of which were cell phone related after hours so my question is are students aware of the repercussions of something with their cell phone that's after school hours if something occurs they all sign off on a student parent handb um they this is also reiterated at class meetings and other times throughout the year when opportunities arise um and sometimes it's somebody getting caught doing something that you know sends a message to the other the rest of your student body as well so so I would say yes they are aware okay good and it's it it only is addressed in the school it affects the school environment too and that's typically what happens is something happens off hours but it doesn't stay it comes into school and kids feel uncomfortable or they feel like sure of course okay thank you questions okay all in favor any opposed any exensions okay so moved so then we have a call for a motion and [Music] sure that's all right I can't read thought was I know uh you call for motion second to approve the annual renewal of the New Jersey uniform State memorandum of agreements between the education and law enforcement officials for the 2024 2025 school year Jess and Kim second any questions okay all in favor I any opposed any extensions okay last monthy school reports any questions on that we talk about some of the factors in the committee about some of those things okay thank you okay uh so our next board meeting is November 26 2024 at 700 p.m here in The District administration office as Rich mentioned uh next week is the njsba workshop 2024 um the 21st to 24th in Atlantic City and several people are going including rich and team again that's where uh Tim will be also honored um and then moving on to our 2025 um meeting calendar anybody have any questions on this that or as you notice right based on feedback we now put a a meeting in for every month of the year so rather than trying to yeah great appreciate that so sorry no okay yeah one of the ideas was if we decide not to do one um we could always convert it into like a repeat or something but it might be easier for mooving now okay is there a certain time period where if you wanted to cancel if we didn't need it you have to get a notification 48 hours that's okay okay so I need a call for motion second to approve the 2025 board meeting calendar Nicole all in favor I any extensions any opposed awesome thank you so moving on to public comment 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 residents group affiliation if applicable and direct your comments to the school board president while all comments will be considered by the Board of Education and a response may be forthcoming if in when appropriate individual school board members may not respond to 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 3 minutes to speak and no one will be permitted to 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 defamatory and maintain the level of decorum appropriate for the public meeting where students may be present and in the audience any comments going once going twice okay so moving on to curriculum yes spaced out there for a second okay um so their curriculum commit met on October 9th everyone was in attendance um most of the committee meeting was um spent discussing the um results of the njsla um we started with the meeting going through the monthly report um with um just discussion about some of the the suspensions which were limited given the fact that the school year had just started um but that uh Dr BX will be gathering information throughout the year as to both schools so that you can you know make sure that things are being um implemented in a similar manner um we also discussed the number of withdrawals from the school district uh specifically looking at students who have either um withdrawn from one of the uh Academy programs or from polych and and returned to a high school outside of the district um but that the the numbers that we had are were relatively low and really you know not something to be concerned about um so then like I said we looked at the um njsla results um compared to all of the hunting County um districts that are used we considered an i in the district Factor grouping which I think I believe goes from a to J with I you know with J being in the higher socioeconomic classes our status um and our results were close to or above those similar schools um as we discussed we um I'm not going to repeat the the information that um that rich brown did a very nice job of of presenting to us um but um we went through the exact same information just discuss the information as well um we also discussed how we're expanding our um ml program which is formerly called ESL so that we can serve more multilingual Learners um students that can learn English at North through the north H bores school district and we discussed the school calendar which is up for approval today um which um has staff beginning on um August 20th next year so the dates are a little um different from how things have happened over the the prior years um students will start on August 25th which is a Monday so they'll have a full week of school um versus when they typically have come into school which I think was on like a Thursday we had uh freshman come in on that Wednesday so tot would be a little bit different but graduation will be held on on June 16th of 2026 which is consistent with when graduation is this year and and prior years um we also uh reviewed the process that's used for following professional development for the district and as was mentioned there was a professional development day yesterday um we build in time for professional development not only that is done um with the the district but also so that teachers and staff can do professional development on their own own and so we provide um with the the district provides recommended programs and sessions for them to attend so it's not just the development that they're receiving on the days where there may be a teacher in service um and while we didn't get to it um the we did have ai on the the discussion item since it will be a an ongoing um agenda item um however um a number of people participated in the hunter County SBA session on AI there were some really terrific resources that were provided that I'm hoping to be able to share with the entire group um but really the focus is on the fact that policies need to happen um but I think there's a lot of question about what that needs to look like um the states all have different things um and it's um but some of the information provide I I just thought was fascinating some of the videos and things that they provided so I think it'll be a really good um thing for to learn more about and and figure out how to best um have uh use it within for the staff and teachers to use it as well as how we manage it with the students as well and that was it for the committee meeting any questions um yeah on the on the school calendar and it seems it's an annual annual comment that I have is the excessive nature of the the six early dismissals I don't know if any discussion came up or around on that um I just think it's excessive and you know we're giving credit for full days we're not getting full days of learning I can see that once in a while maybe on a special occasion but like for instance like the first week of school we're in school for 4 days and then we have an early dismissal I I just kind of kind of think it's ridiculous I've spoken out about it almost annually and uh I don't know if if anybody agrees with me or not I do agree with you because it does throw a loop for parents as well to figure out what students are doing when they come home um I know that that's a time when it's it's in service it's a professional development time correct I assume that's for a long weekend or something like that okay they count as a full day I know in my family student my my children are reluctant to go to school like why are we going to school it's just a half day it's a waste nothing's going to take place but it's um like I said it's given credit towards the instructional days um that are you know our our faculty are attractively obligated for so I don't know if it's a this is a uh you know something that's for the uh you know for the the parents who might be trying to get away early on a vacation or it or this is just some I don't know in my opinion bad you know bad habit that keeps uh continuing so it's not contractual and it's not tied to in Services corre no it's not contractual and and I mean officially these are not half days for staff these are half days for students and again the rationale in having them there was it was we actually have our attendance it turned out being greater with the half days than it was full days um the day before holiday if you remember last yeares actually when we brought this up last year we asked what he thought about it and he was um he said yeah the reason that comes because it's a half day but I don't know if you want to add any information help us out um no I mean I would just say that I agree with u having a half day only because it's kind of not just like to just to like get out of school but I feel like it's it's a nice like welcome to like e into the year I mean and I can say the half days for students are utilized a lot for things like Friendship Day um at North and I I know events at B's as well where if you're going to disrupt an academic day for what is a great event if you can do it on a half day instead of a full day that usually helps and so these sometimes utilize for that but but again I'm open for any other suggestions well there might be and again this might be a direction around strategic planning like there might be events that are sort of unique events that could be happening either as part of that day um whether it's you know days of service days of volunteering uh academic fairs things of that sort it might be an opportunity to look at and say you know there there's potentially time in here for Unique experiences that and believe me we didn't want to make you the spokesperson to r on behalf of all the kids but um to your point if it's a day of easing into you know a weekend or something like that there might be some unique Community um building wide learning experiences that can happen on that kind of day um you know I don't know what the equivalent of High School Field Day is um but the kinds of things that as you were talking about building Spirit among uh grade levels um whether it's academic showcases art showcases it's possibly an opportunity to dream big on what those things could I mean I would agree but for the fact that it's always before a holiday weekend so um they're always before holiday periods so to plan a school event um or activity right before a holiday period of time I'm not saying that I would be against it but I think that there could be backlash from parents I think that or not in agreement if that had been extended into the you know afternoon evening exactly afterno but I think what Brendon is saying maybe we can utilize you know all of those days for some kind of whether it's an art festival students or right you know um you to see their I I mean having explored similar things I know we've run like poetry festivals and things that might articulate with teen Arts that make that day sort of exploratory um I love the idea of strategic planning that you really coming down to the student experience overall so so do we want to hold off them on approving this until next meeting uh I would recommend approving the calendar tonight if we wanted to revise the calendar we could but we don't approve it now what it does it puts us behind the hall for a lot of planning got it okay that make sense and yeah I was just suggesting to John's initial Point like let's let's look at it yeah we we can always revise that with the half days later at least we have a calendar and we can start things like college fairs and things like that that all Evol that makes sense sounds good any other questions okay so I need a motion and second to approve agenda items 131 through 133 still moved ni all in favor I I any opposed any exensions okay uh kimman policy um we met on uh Monday October 7th everyone was present except for Glenn um we had a presentation school security presentation from uh Mr Shane Barry who's our school safety specialist um he presented on the state of our school security measures in both of our buildings or both schools um per NJ dooe we are required to conduct one fire drill and one security drill to be conducted at each school once a month um he talked about the types of security drills conducted each month based on a common Lang language that has been adopted for all schools in hun County sorry these security drills are based on a standard response um protocol uh Mr Barry differentiated between school safety which is providing a safe School environment where students can learn in school security which is a set of practice steps that are in place to proactively um prevent but also address a crisis situation he also reviewed the communication measures in place from cameras to handheld radio devices the physical measures like ballards ballot proof uh double doors in each building uh schools uh notifying staff of unauthorized open doors and background checks for visitors we discussed um and lastly Mr Barry noted an asset to our district is of course our SRO and class three officers and security staff which are present daily to monitor our school environment and protect students and staff so it was just for uh the board to see um from the presentation from uh Mr Barry but obviously there's there's security measures we cannot disclose and discuss further if you had questions you were interested I he he uh gave a lot of information that we didn't know and very interesting and I think I forgot to mention but I dropped his presentation it's in the was really very it's very informative yeah is Shane working with the new Polytech building as well or is it their own security officers and things like that I know you mentioned there's going to be an officer in there yeah we will be working with them um and coordinating those services so Shane will have to be instrumental in doing that yes and the doors will they be the same type of security doors we have at the um main campus that's my understanding um yeah you said said should have asked security simar yeah okay that's what I thought but I'm sure they'll un un I guess disclose that as we get closer and we have better planning yeah we're starting to think about those things now yeah we want to get a building up first right now we're starting to think of all the logistics of getting students between the buildings making sure they're safe and secure during that time um and then also you know how we'll communicate between the buildings um as Todd mentioned right now they use the Sheriff's Office for their um class 3es or sro's uh we want to make sure they communicate directly with Clinton Township police if they're going to do that but we're going to look at all the different options but that's a possibility we discussed that using our services with keeping everything under one roof um our kids are here and it would make sense but he did disclose that tonight when we walked to the walk through where the best where it would be what is his expectation is but I really I want I don't want to get to that discussion in the middle of a tour sure no but I'd like to see that again as we come progress and go into June to go that do that walk through again y this is a tangent right so those of us want who didn't go it really is really impressive to me it's incredibly bright it's way bigger than it looks from this point of view it it was it's really really impressive so it's very yeah it really and I and I I know it I just reminded me again that most of these poch programs are two years and this is going to open up to four years so um I apologize for not saying that I'd like to attend the culinary right but it was very Fring I think what caught me by surprise the most is that the majority of people in interest The Culinary is so large compared to some of the other sections which I just I guess I maybe because it's just in circles I haven't really met too many kids have gone through it or parents that have talked about it so that was like one of the big surprising things for me and that room is just incredible it's incredible um did we have an update I'm sorry I should have asked you on the on the policy getting our new policies in place oh no I have not had an update since the last I met with them I met with them the day of our committee meeting September and it's only been but they did say they were on target for the end of October so we Midway through I'll check okay probably the end of next week when we back SCH okay any other questions okay Finance John thanks Glen um yes we met uh virtually on the 7th everybody was was present on the committee except for Glenn um first thing we talked about was the audit so um we've all heard the presentation this evening and once once again uh really like to commend Katie and her staff for an excellent job as you could tell there are no concerns uh that arose from the auditor couple of the highlights um going back to the previous year we generated 8.6 million in Surplus uh this current year uh 23 24 it'll be roughly 8.1 million uh this Surplus is 500,000 less um it's sort of to be expected as we see Rising costs and we're we're we're stuck at a 2% uh tax levy cap um the 8.1 million will be used to partially uh fund our our next budget uh of the amount of 5.25 million and there'll be the remainder will be a deposit into cap capital reserve um also we had a little bit of a policy review um and at our meeting um policy uh 5470 regarding payments of claims this was an issue uh last month um and uh Katie you know talked about all the work that goes into getting to the point of seeing the uh claims at our on our agenda for this evening um and once goods are received the accounts are payable the secretary verifies that the several items um have been received and then payment is entered and submitted to the board of ed for approval um the key sentence in policy 5470 is the board must approve all claims for payment except such payments that are be paid from funds derived from athletic events or other activities of student organizations um so you know so it was a followup from last month also there was a uh we had a discussion on policy uh 6820 Financial reports um uh which we uh regarding uh you know the reports that are on the meeting are on the agenda and um how we go about voting on them uh in our meetings agenda review it's a relatively light agenda um UniFi Grant to North hunon uh um there's also the Lebanon Township uh um Police contract ready for our approval Clinton Township will be forthcoming at a future meeting uh the annual comprehensive maintenance plan is is attached this is an annual calculation of facility repairs needed and it's based on the square footage of our buildings also you'll see the purchase of uh $44,000 piece of equipment uh more specifically it's a motor for one of the large chillers at North hun in uh that's in need of repair uh other than that there are the monthly Financial reports uh on the agenda Al also the last item items that we talked about just for the good of the order um the long range so what plan report is in the process of we're also in the Pro process of uh commencing a demographic study um the vendor is statistical forecasting and um there's brief discussion about a uh reassessments that are occurring in Bethlehem Township and Katie pointed out that uh um you know if people have problems with their reassessments it's it's the County tax office is the place to take that appeal uh not not to us or her um and also the last thing Katie updated us on some legislation um specifically um some districts uh uh or in that we are um we're not eligible to go higher than 2% tax levy because we are deemed uh a district that has adequate spending so we're still stuck to or held fast to that 2% that's all I have anybody has any questions if John you mentioned that you addressed policy 6820 regarding Financial reports can was that in regards to the monthly bills uh yes can you dive a little a little deeper into that and how that impacts our voting on it well yes so um when we are given their monthly bills to pay um I guess the key takeaway is that uh if anybody votes no um immediately then that triggers the the board secretary shall provide um you know that information to the uh the county superintendent um with names and the reasons uh for for the no vote so um I guess it's at a higher level than some of the other uh items of business that we have to discuss at our meeting you really need to have a a reason because it's going to be taken to the next level immediately if there's a no vote so I think that um you know goes into the seriousness of uh voting yes on that uh and you know that's part of our duty is not just to uh abstain um it's important part uh if there's a problem make that vote and it's going to go to the next level if not uh there's a lot of training a lot of work that goes into preparation and of these reports certifications of the professionals that we have preparing them um and so it's uh it's a serious deal if we uh dance around this topic so that's one of the reasons we talked about it did did you also address the line item of the monthly bills and how and voting well that's more under payment of claims on under 6470 um whereas um a lot of work goes into um preparing this list you know it's not just the check is ready to be signed offline and going out it's we've already there's a vendor process there's a whole process and I mean Katie you can speak to to this process I mean there's several steps maybe five or six well Katie Katie put it I don't needan to interrupt it's right here in the agenda committee minutes policy review 6470 6820 Katie went over it with us you can pull the policies you can read them and it's probably best you do that if you have questions ask Katie yeah thank you Jess I need I have a question John about agenda is it a Qui quick question agenda item one the second bullet point were you inquired about those booster clubs and other organizations what did you mean by other organizations is it they're not I bet mostly booster booster I don't know about other organizations but booster clubs aren't aren't subject to maybe maybe there are and I I don't I'm not aware of that but is it maybe Club other clubs that F right they're not subject to the normal audit process that we saw tonight so you know the takeaway from that is and and I get that question from from parents you know I'm sure other people do too you know as far as they might have a complaint about how how's money being being spent in the booster clubs and it's up to those organizations to have good representation good leadership you know and those people that are part of that club should ask the the questions to the pertinent people um to make sure that the money is being spent where it should be so that would include other clubs like maybe Key Club or whatever I would assume so raising also that's manag it would be the outside organizations like the parent run booster clubs that have their own by laws and do their own fundraising they're outside of our scope the clubs under us are under the school yeah but they're also accountable just like the PTA there's a governing body when you sit on a PTA when you sit on the Boost I've down them both so there you're there's an accountability yeah and they have as individual entities they have their own reporting requirements they just they're they're a not for-profit organization a booster organization but they have reporting accounting and governance as their own independent okay not under the school's umbrella or the schools in charge of or what we get AED or anything else like that all right thank you you had mentioned is 154 right this is the first time we're we're um taking teacher from one of the sending districts uh yeah so if you want me to speak on that this yeah I think it's interesting right sure Clinton Township um meliss saer superintend of Clint Township uh reached out to us to see if we had any surplus Spanish teachers because they were short they needed some Spanish language instruction for their students and they didn't have enough teachers to provide all of that and wanted to know if we had any surplus and we said we have had a situation in the past where we had six assignment we paid them a six assignment and then the district would reimburse us for that um and as we're discussing that and it evolved it turns out that they have a um a multilingual learning teacher that they had capacity that is not fully um utilized at Clinton Township and they said well maybe instead of us just giving you the money back we're giving you in kind services for multilingual and we're giving them um Spanish language services so it's actually the first time I I I'm aware of that um that we have a shared service agreement with one of our sing districts where we are um giving services in kind to each other that are of of close to equal value and um and we're all benefiting from it I think it's really exciting that we're able to that's exciting that we're able to do something that is um a true shared service and not just an exchange of fund especially as everyone's facing budget problems right this is a great great use of share resources so that's why I want to call it out any other questions okay so I need a call for motion and second to approve agenda items 151 through 1513 seconda and Dan um all in favor any abstentions or any opposed okay so move yeah okay um community relations and Student Activities uh we met on October 10 virtually um all uh members including uh Dr Buras and Julianne sto were um in present and Beth katran was not able to make it um on our agenda items first one we talked about um Juliana gave an overview of homecoming and all the activities going on so there's lots and everyone's touched upon how wonderful it's been and the upcoming um Spirit weeks and um home uh milk can games so um that was one of the areas that we talked about and um it's exciting for all the students so um another agenda item we had was our school uh first year uh school year first so we spent some time um wanting to talk about full participation because in the past it's been brought up that students weren't aware of clubs we wanted to see what we could do initiatives that we could put in place that we'd get a better turnout so um based on public comments and things in the past this year we wanted to kind of touch space to see how at this point how is it going since the freshmen are coming in doing clubs and it seems like um you know there's been so much activity um both in the student clubs and Sport participation um one of the action items that we're going to look at is to see if we can collect some data on these clubs to see if there's anything further we need to do or if we keep pushing the way we are um we talked about the roar report which is a video and that's the way that students can engage and they tend to respond better than I guess in the past signs up or at back to school night so um we want to see you know just make sure all these initiatives are um that we're putting in place and we're getting a good turnout um the other area that was brought up was um Glenn asked about how the hockey team was doing and uh participation wise and uh it's going well and we also looked at other combined Sports um to see if they've been successful or not and um Nicole had asked if you know if we see a drop in participation as seniors start to age out but um it looks like seniors once they're in a club they pretty much are committed um and Ski Club seems to be one that's very popular um amongst that uh demographic in the the district um so we'll keep monitoring it and you know we we have such a huge offering um and I commend the board on when you know they come to us on clubs wanting to start and as long as they've gone through the criteria of getting an advisor um enough students that we go ahead and you know approve these clubs um as interests you know EV and flow and change um so that's that's great um and then the other one was we wanted to look at some successful ini initiatives um one of the things that has come up in the past is on how we communicate to the parents on um you know parental uh permissions and uh those rights so uh we looked at um what's going on you know are we it's in the parent handbook back to school night we're looking at the website and one of the things that came up and which is there is a followup on is to see if um the library you know the information's getting out there so parents are aware that they can opt out of if it's a a extracurricular if it's a school program if it's a library book if it's a a survey so we're making sure that we're communicating clearly uh with the community with the parents um so those are areas that we'll continue to look at um the CAG we had a public comment in July and we have a new director of special education um and we know that the concern there to make sure that we have a cpad in place that the school uh we help facilitate that we we don't have to lead it but the parents group do and that was one of the things that was going to be followed up on um to see how if that's already been put in place I know everything is kind of new yeah I don't think they have dates yet but I know they're working together I'll talk to J on they have our meeting so fabulous um and then one of the other areas that was brought up for uh the community the Outreach was the topic of traffic and what's going on around the schools um warries doesn't seem to have as big of an issue with parent drop off and traffic flow the dangerous um situations that our students and the parents driving them are faced uh one of the things that worries is that we have a sign on that the school is here but it's not lit up and there's going to be inquiry in to see that and the north hunterton sign um and that would a county um right the county is respons clarification that we thought it was a county because it would be a County Road um I am working with Hal Abraham who's the new Superintendent at Leon Township um he actually reached out to the county um and they said that we have to go through the townships and never were um work the township so house a letter that he sent to the county that and we're going to send a letter asking for assistance from the township as well I believe the last time we did fix those um it was our obligation for the payment but we just need to make sure they know what we're doing because sh okay um so yes so and then um one of the things that brought up talking about driving and students um is to look at um the SRO officer we've had programs in the past where uh to get your permit to be able to par that they would take a course um I think at one point it was alive at 25 so that's one of the initiatives we'd like to look at with the S to see if a program could put in place for next year's seniors that to get a parking permit they have to go through some kind of traffic awareness um just because our school's on a busy road and there's construction so our concern is with those traffic um patterns and safety of our students just a question about that so when you were talking about the the signs are we talking about doing anything to the light the signal at Regional Road and 31 or no no I did I did talk to Clint count police about that Chief D Roa um you know in a state road there's limited um control they have over at they can manually override it like they do sometimes for football games things like that but that's when there's really an exorbitant amount of um traffic so doing it on a daily basis just wasn't feasible but a staffing I I just wish that there could be like a left-and term signal for students coming from the school to 31 and making it left on the 301 because what you find is at the end of the day that I've noticed is there's sunl for the students coming I don't know if it's north south but coming from the Exon property on Regional Road to the school and so that's that's the that's the point where we tend to see the accidents is when they're turning so I just wish that there was a way that there there could be something done to at least do like a leftand turn signal or a delayed green or something like that for the other side I I Know Chief the Rosa is working on whatever options he he can and we're going to support whatever he needs um you know I I think it just it adds a layer of difficulty a state road there's also the talk of making no turn on no turn on red that red um as well because that is there's limited site there and things like that so um again those are all great ideas that we try to move towards that'll be practical okay the other thing too is that the and we don't see not on wood we don't see a lot of accidents there but when students are pulling out by the tennis court even at adults it's very hard to see cars coming up from 31 I don't know if if if that's going to change because of the construction that's there but it's almost it's almost like a obstructed view I wonder if putting like a mirror or something straight ahead would would allow for students to be able to see better I'll look into that I thought I think it's coming from the right like you're making the left the traffic because there's a hill yeah it's the hill but um I do know we have an officer stationed out there at dismissal to so so at least when a lot of students are entering onto that road um you know actually talk to the officers is there for sometimes you're coming in at that time and you can't get in yeah so okay okay it's also helpful to go to your town to go to your Township committee meetings and bring these up to your Township committee and your mayor Y and they have a voice a little bigger than Than You Know Rich here even just beyond the township said okay that's know too you can go to any anybody in Township and you have that discussion you get public uh time to speak and bring it up okay great and then the only thing that we have to vote on and it's our standard it would be the overnight uh trips that we have on the agenda here for the model un and Key Club um so that's the only thing we have to vote action item tonight one other question just on participation and Rich I don't know do we have any metrics on participation and I don't know if our student information system AIDS Us in that in having a sense of what percentage of our student body are either involved in athletics or clubs um I don't believe we're tracking it with our student information system but all the um Club advisers are supposed to be keeping attendant records um and we can access that at any time you need to right I guess I'm curious from to Tara's Point like the participation um or fluctuations in participation what is the overall participation because some of even Perkins back to what Rich presented and I think as parents we know academic success often stems from success broader success and participation in the school I know we're tracking Athletics I don't think we doing schedule will bees that's something I can talk to yes so that's one of the things we discussed that if we could get some data so we can see and make sure that any kind of initiatives that we put in place are working and then if there's something that we need to improve on as a committee is that possible through ask I don't know if it's possible through Aspen but if it's not we can always look at other methods of doing it you know just some sort of central data collection that everybody puts it in and then we can um analyze data based on that is there a concern of clubs being canceled if the enrollment is low is that what eventually happens okay they pH out that is what eventually does happen it happens sort of organically without us looking at the data and forcing a close it sort of just you know goes away um but when that happens there's there's always clubs on the wait list who are volunteer clubs right so when a paid Club goes away because there's not as much interest anymore than one of the other non-paid clubs that there is more interesting gets bumped up order that yeah yeah so there's there there is some rotation in the clubs and it wains from you know maybe not year to year but every two or three years depending on sometimes you have a student that's really into something that they get their friends and everybody involved and then their students leave and there's not people that take it up something okay yeah and then the the advisers the stiens there's a lot that are doing it volunteering just because the passion for it and you know so which is says a lot about our our faculty to take on those clubs Y no that that and just I I asked the hockey question because I don't maybe some of new members we had bought hockey into the school a couple years back and one of the concerns was the cost do we have enough feeder kids coming into the program to make it right have a life and right so you're right so defin the report said yes and yes and in fact right we are seeing enough kids to stay in the program which is great so yeah and I think that's many years out yeah yeah so so at least the data is proving to be TR which is good and on the combined um Sports uh hockey was the first one hockey was the first one we did at as a combined cohort between two schools U but last year if you remember we asked you to also support gymnastics te cohort sport so that has North sport tomorrow night is senior night at Hillsboro um I'm planning on attending that our district that's cool other questions okay so I need a call for motion and second to approve agenda item 16.1 so Mo second and yes all in favor I any opposed any exensions uh delegates report car and k um December 7th oh that's right yeah but she does I have a bunch of stuff sorry um okay so uh we had the uh County meeting on September 30th I was virtual I saw but I think um Dr B was there Tara Nicole there's a few people there that was virtual um yes Chrissy was virtual so we had uh superintendent uh Dr Rick FY of kingin Township and Milford Public School District and Dr Carrie McAn of the Flemington raran School attend and then Mr uh Ralph Lano from Flemington raran director he's a director of Technology student data and assessment he provided a presentation on AI and how it has the potential to be used to improve student achievement enhance curriculum and instruction and streamline administrative tasks you can get you can see that it's all recorded so you can go in and go back in and look at that okay very interesting more question it's fascinating you have more questions at the end like you know but a lot to to you know to to delve into um on October 8th there was a podcast um and it was with our own well Mar smala uh with Ray Penny um that was on communication tips for school districts so very good you might want to just pull that podcast um uh featuring um Marin had a lot great tips a lot of it probably already are aware um noteworthy future noteworthy dates I thought this was important we've been having discussions so njsba has our meetings and training events there's you'll have County meetings and then PD which are trainings you can attend any County meeting so um upcoming on in J this is in January put on your calendars January 27th Somerset hunterson count uh Hunter Hudson County uh it's having their meeting and their topic is what you need to know about the board secretary report it's 6:45 to 8:30 and it is virtual it's only virtual um January 29th ocean county is having uh their meeting and discussion on navigating School Finance 6:45 to 8:30 it's virtual and then this month October 16th Burlington County is their topic understanding the budget formula and how districts can stabilize their funding that is 6 to8 virtual and then October 30th 10 to 11:00 a.m. is the fall legislative update and that's virtual so everything that's that on the legislative floor bills you'll hear every our our the for from njsba a will speak and there's a lot of good stuff for that hour and then last but not least I think uh T you probably already said this right our December 7 is the delegate delegate and then um December 11th there is a Union County um their SBA meeting and it's taking a deeper dive into the budget process and development the board's role in the budget again so those are right especially newbies and the December 7th I'm the voting delegate but anybody can go and you could just sign up and it's at Mercer County Community College um and so it starts in you can sit there you just won't yeah 9 to 12 and they do a little you know uh a breakfast beforehand but it's it's nice to it it's it's very packed with so so many members but so much information and because we're moving over to the the delegate we're we're we writing the policy for school boards so that's what we're voting on any verbage changes new resolutions so it's nice to be involved you can't you just can't vote but you can be there so I I recommend it it's it's really it is and if you're interested in becoming a a certified board member or Master board member some of us are you need to have that so I would go it's it's it's worthy and then once you go you learn a lot and it's an easy drive on a Saturday morning to get there before 9 you can get through Flemington pretty quick and get down 2 95 so yeah what's do we have a deadline though if we're having topics discussed for that December 7th didn't they they have to already be in yeah so we when I put that out for everyone if anyone wanted to you do any um resolutions so Clinton Township has one last uh in May um that they had put proposed so um and that's something we could think of as a board is there's an area or topic and we want to input a resolution um we can go ahead and write that and submit it cool thanks K uh Personnel Personnel committee met on October 9th everyone was present and we discuss the items on the Personnel agenda okay so I need a call for motion second to adopt resolution 10152 4-2 for executive session to discuss matters falling under category 8 as reflected in the attached resolution the board expects to be next in executive session for approximately 1 hour and upon return public session action will be taken first so Dan second all in favor iion for those sitting here I would plan on the stronger hour than less than an hour as supect will be a bit long tonight so just you know in case you're planing to stay [Music] so 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 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 call for motion in second I'm sorry I need a call for motion in second to reconvene public session second left side right side all in favor post exstension we are back in public session so I need a call for motion and second to approve agenda items uh 211 2 22 and 213 which is a hand carry which is to accept the resignation of Jeff Fender uh effective November 20th 2024 uh I first and second so move so move Tera and Jess and I need a roll call vote oh any questions or comments oh I'm sorry any questions or comments I'm sorry thank you now P yes Mr cman yes M Gall yes M Vin yes M kran yes Mr MC yes Mr M yes M re yes Miss Selena yes Mr Spanton yes M yes and Mr far yes thank you president you just want to make yeah so one comment is that I do want to thank um Jeff Bender for his many years of service with our schools um a few months back we appointed Dr b as our Acting Superintendent and rich is continuing as our Acting Superintendent overseeing the day-to-day operations of our school and he old new business I will say I reached out to Patty Reese just to see if she can do norms and she reached out and said yes so just FYI that's my new business I did have um one thing um I'm not sure who to ask to tell us about it but in the annual fiscal report that we heard we had uh today there was a mentioned that the district uh works with communities on internship opportunities for seniors was one of the kind of highlights of um major initiatives and accomplishments and I don't remember hearing about that particular initiative and I thought that would be a really nice thing to hear about is the the work that the district has been doing to you know that it said that we've been doing about getting internship opportunities for seniors sure if um if you can reference where that was that in the report that would help me but if not I can just check with Mike squara and find out what our current yeah there's a section that's called major initiatives and accomplishments it's in the kind of front piece that's more State of the Union for the the district not the meeting financial pieces but somewhere that must be happening toar good good comment all right I need a call for motion and second to adjourn so moved second second okay all in favor any oppos exensions we are adjourned good work everybody thanks