good evening everyone thank you for being here in the boardroom as well as on Zoom we appreciate you being here um we did the rooll call upstairs as well as the um the opening statement so with that I'm going to go right into my board president's report uh once again thank you all for the opportunity to serve as your board president I wanted to start this year off with some announcements and or changes if you will those that have been with me in past years when I was President know that my style is a bit old school and I don't necessarily think that it is a bad thing I think it is important to bring things back to basics and grow from there here where my old school is a bit obvious I do prefer to speak by phone um I feel much Gets Lost in Translation with email and text so please email or text me and I will be happy to speak to the to the board members as soon as possible um this is probably the longest president's report you will get from me because it is important that my report be limited to board happenings and not District happenings the expert on what is going on in this district is sitting right here and who better than to make that report than Miss Welden and Mr Hastings this will be the case with questions from the board while going through the agenda as well with that being said we also will not be having reports on any District committees which include security instructional counsel and wellness these committees are run by the district and not the board and it is important that we separate the two for the sake of the public and the district as well any information that needs to reach the public through these committees will come through our superintendent and school business administrator our public comment sections will be changing as per our bylaws that section of our meeting will be for public comment only please do not interpret this as meaning that we do not want to hear or answer your questions if anything we value your questions and many times they help us realize that something is happening that should not be however we want to make sure that you are being answered by the correct people we have placed Miss welden's business cards at the podium and asked that all Zoom callers with questions contact Miss Welden as well her email address is located on the school website the correct person will get back to you to answer your questions and we we will be going the chain of command we will also be limiting the public comment section to five minutes as per our bylaw to ensure that comments are kept within a decent time frame it will be a bit different but I think this will add to a more productive and efficient meeting we value our parents teachers and community and appreciate the time you give the board by logging in or or being at our meetings and I sincerely do mean that you are all an integral part of our operation in addition uh the committee list that is in your packet we did provide a hard copy of it for you it is a fluid list it will be changing once again so just keep keep your eyes open um there should be an updated list coming your way probably before the next meeting and lastly I want to end my report with some wonderful and exciting news um our superintendent Miss Welden got married over the winter break and on behalf of the board we congratulate you and your new husband and wish you nothing but health and happiness forever you so much this is for you from the board thank you so much I really appreciate that so much yes we're very happy he's going to love the flowers and with that we're going to move on to our superintendence report okay um thank you and good evening I hope everyone is staying somewhat dry coming in here tonight um speaking about weather I did put out a communication uh this week to the community and the principles have been doing the same to make sure that parents are logged into the Genesis par portal that their contact information is up to date that we have your cell phone numbers that we have your provider because that helps us put as much of your information as possible into our communication systems um and we are working to improve although we can email you already we can send you web backpack alerts our principles can send you remind messages um there are a few other things that we can do if we have your cell phone number and your provider as well so we just if you read my message from the superintendent today and you um just respond to those directions and anything else you're receiving from your principal I'm just hoping that parents and families that are listening um the more accurate information we have for you then the quicker you will get announcements and messages from the districts and certainly as we head into the winter months that's always a good thing because sometimes there is the need for announcements um so please please take a look at those messages that we sent out um and just also there are many many different events going on in our schools um some in the evening some during the day our spling bees are are underway our go at the Intermediate School is coming up this week um and there are a number of other events happening a theater night at Tois and all of those are in my communication as well the January events so I encourage families to come out and see all of the great things that are happening in our schools that concludes my report thank you so very much with that we will move on to the school business administrator report Mr Hastings thank you madam president I just have two items to uh update the board on uh attended our monthly business administrators meeting with the county superintendent and County business administrator um as you may be aware the district applied for stabilization Aid in the fall uh typically the decision on those Awards comes out in December early January we were advised by the County that uh the state put aside $20 million uh for allocation to stabilization a applicants uh however they did receive $60 Million worth of applications across the state so um that is taking more time than they anticipated and sorting through those uh so we do not yet have any um information on what the awards will be uh but they hope that in the next month or so they'll be able to notify districts of of the status of those applications U and then on the uh second item which again relates back to some fall information the district's Rod Grant Rod Grant applications or regular operating District uh Grant applications um we did receive preliminary approval uh for 40% funding on two Roofing projects uh the county has indicated that those letters those preliminary approvals have gone to the school Development Authority uh for review and issuance of of their Grant agreements so again we expect to have information uh from the school Development Authority probably within the next three or four weeks on how we can move forward with those and just as a reminder those uh applications that were approved were for roofing projects at uh Wayside and U and the ocean Elementary thank you thank you okay with that we will go on to the public comment session regarding agenda items all motions are posted on the district website at this point in the meeting we will now conduct the first of two public comment sessions the first session will be open for public comments on agenda items only and the second session will be at the end of the meeting and can be on any topic would anyone from the public like to comment on any agenda item at this time no one in the room uh Miss Conway Madam president there are no commenters thank you very much and with that we will move on to the action items Mr McCarthy move to approve items 7.1 and 7.2 second this is for approval of items 7.1 and 7.2 the minutes Mr Dalton abstain Mr D obain M SK yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs mcgow yes Mr Schneider obstain Mrs T Rico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes motion carries thank you Personnel um I'd like to move items 8.1 to 8.9 the second second may I say one thing before we resolve yes okay um I just want to because I I did see she's on here as well um congratulate Miss walgr on your retirement I know that um I worked with you a lot over at wanasa Union a lot to those students as well those kidss and a lot of the alumni there and thank you for all of your time with the toei thank you Mrs McGovern May yes I'd like to uh also thank Miss Walgren for her years of service and I know you'll be dearly missed by the children and the staff at wanasa school wishing you the best Miss Walgreen okay you will miss miss walren but we still have you till July okay we will move on to um well oh I'm sorry roll call I apologize seeing no further discussion this is for approval of 81 through 89 Mr doton yes M Dam yes Mrs Gilman abstain from volunteer coach O'Neal everything else yes thank you Mr McCarthy yes Mrs mcgoverin yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs T Rico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs yes motions carry thank you financial management and Resource Services is Mr Weinstein um thank you Madame President um I'd like to move 9.1 and 9.2 for a um for a vote I get a a motion for a vote second comments oh any questions comments this is for items 9.1 and 9.2 Mr dton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs mcgoveran yes Mr Schneider yes Mr Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paras yes and now I'd like to open the floor for 9.3 to 9.5 for discussion any questions to talk about is there anything you'd like to mention Mr Hastings on 9.3 through 9.5 uh no mad president okay just sorry Mrs mcover um I just have a question or a question on the tuition is it new that and students in eth and 12th get we it is new that they'll pay 75% normally that's been it so in the past we did not based on a certain date of the year we did not charge tuition but the policy has changed there's been an update to the law that we we approved this policy I believe at in December if not November yes and because of that we now have to set a tuition will be approved by the county superintendent we discussed giving our greatest discount that we currently allow by our current structure to students who have spent five or more school years with us and who are in 12th or eighth grade because we believe those to be Milestone years okay so follow up that so um if a student goes through 11 and moves on July 1st and wants to finish at ocean in 12th does that same apply we're saying this this proposal here is saying that any 12th grade student at any time in their 12th grade year and any eighth grade student at any time in their eighth grade year who moves away from Ocean Township would be entitled to this 75% discount of our current tuition rate okay so the way I read it whether it's good or bad and you're the English person um but because it says discount for the remainder of their year I don't so I don't know if that reads to what my to the question of leaving July moving July 1 because then it's an entire year so I don't know you can ponder that and see if it needs to right okay I understand what you're saying and if it doesn't need to change I'm okay with that too but it's just the way I read and you read it are probably saying the exact same thing just W to okay thank you any other questions good okay all right so everyone good okay instruction education and Student Activities Mrs Gilman thank you Madame President move to approve items 10.1 and 10.2 professional development for our staff and various school trips that you have listed second sir any discussion um just wanted to commend our uh math teacher Mr keskus I never heard of paulat is that something new excuse me let me just get to it it's uh it's sounds in conjunction with Mammoth University I guess they discuss uh hacking just wanted to say that it sounded very interesting okay goes along with the computer science classes that we're running and training there not sure it's his first time going or not didn't recognize it but it's on February 16th so no just no need to do research just sounds very okay great thank you is there a second yes Mr M second anyone else have any other questions all right Mr Hastings for items 10.1 10.2 Mr doton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs M McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes it Karen thank you Mrs Gilman we now move on to policy and that would be Mr mcarthy yes uh presentation of two three four four policies one regulation tonight this is the first reading of these uh specifically related to orientation for new members of the Board of Education whistleblower retaliation protection and air quality standards any questions specifically about those policies or to be directed to the administration they're up for discussion can I just have you point one go forward in my mentorship over here um Brian had asked about what the red strikes are so can you just remind people of what the red strikes are in case so the first time that we see a policy the red strikes will be present to show the demonstration uh to demonstrate to readers what is being removed from the policy the second time that we review the policy should per policy you have to have two readings of a policy before it can be voted on the second time you see it it's in its final state is that correct yes sir Yeah final state so the second time it'll be final State and then we will um read that and vote on it and who's been the one to make the red strikes the administration yeah or stra like based on the recommendation of stme as well yeah yeah don't apologize it's great good questions that's what I said I said you're you he sent me a list I said you had great questions today but that was when I thought everybody would have been and that's good for anyone viewing uh online or reading along for sure there are people who do do that anyone else have any other questions regarding policy okay we will move on to public relations and that would be Mr Weinstein um yeah I'd like to make a motion on 12.1 sorry thanks I was going to what it was you're going on go ahead I don't want I don't want to jump all over you no it's good we can okay is there any discussion did anybody have a chance to read all the pages and look at it I'll just say share some information so um I had mentioned I think at a previous meeting that the memorandum of agreement which we would ordinarily have approved earlier in the school year was not out yet from the Department of Education because it was being updated and revised so we have received the new version of the memorandum of agreement you have on your agenda both the full the link to the full version and then the short list of um mandatory report to law enforcement um and so if I could just summarize there well let me back up I will summarize some of the changes but certainly you can read those as well and the revision section is one .2 of the full document so if you'd like to read it before the next meeting when this will be up for a vote it's section 1.2 which goes into the revisions but the primary revisions of this document were intended to um address the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana use so although still not allowed for anyone under 21 the part of possession Andor use of of marijuana has shifted a little bit in the law so this agreement has shifted to align with the law as well and also there is some intent here to address bias and also the school to prison pipeline um and to try and and close that close that I um but again that is in section 1.2 and it summarizes the revisions of this full document and again the mandatory report page is what is also linked there for you that's the PDF that's an appendix at the end of the full document so you can look at what um we will be reporting I have met with the Chiefs I have discussed this with our administrators we're aware of the changes we have a very good relationship with the Ocean Township Police Department um we work very well together both ways of giving advice and guidance and keeping the appropriate lines of communication open um all in an effort to protect students and to get them on a PA to whatever Services they may need should they find themselves in a situation that might require a report to law enforcement um both I think I can speak for otpd and certainly for the school district that our main goal is to provide a student with the services necessary to turn around that type of behavior and set the student up for success for the rest of their life but certainly it's a lengthy document um you may want to take a closer look at it before we vote next week anyone have questions M teller have a question about the assault are we talking physical assault or um verbal assault or both physical unless it's like I mean verbal assault that's a bias crime would have to include but just a verbal altercation between yeah two individuals would not be a a mandatory report thank anyone else have questions no okay I take back my second all right we will move on to Old business uh before I ask the board if there's any old business I just want to um tell the public I know we had two presentations set up for this evening but because of the weather we felt that you know uh we should postpone that both presenters were uh live a little bit far away so we wanted them to be safe on the road so we will postpone both presentations to another another date does anyone have any old business no old business is there any new business Mr Weinstein um yeah what I was I was thinking about the last number of years that we've had that I've been on the board and um one thing I was wondering is if we see sometimes I feel like we do things maybe a little reactive um like we discuss uh test scores after the test scores are in we you know we discuss discipline things after there's been disciplinary action we discuss we just we discuss things maybe a little too much uh after the fact and I was and I was wondering because um if there was a way for us to maybe put a schedule together on when we would want to have um kind of discussions around uh main topics like uh mental health uh uh discipline um test scores what we're doing about those things because I feel like we're reactive in those and if we're going to be involved in the policy and kind of understand it and how to you know how to react to that it might it might make sense you know one thing that sparked it is um when I was thinking about the end of the year I was also thinking about you know when we get to these spots and we talking about discipline and all that stuff you know I was reading some articles about you know um phone usage in schools and there's been a number of schools who've stopped phone usage because they kind of cite that as both problematic for discipline problematic for mental health during the school and then there was that you know then there was another side to it about security and making sure PE parents can contact their kids and I just I just wanted to be able to have like a you know a discussion time around it as opposed to us getting a presentation and then we're having like a pop quiz on what do you think and uh like we don't have a there's usually never a good discussion when it's a pop quiz you know think it's an interesting point I was wondering if we could come up with a calendar that allowed us to do that I don't know if that's something that's possible well let me can I finish for a second so one one thing is one one thing is just is just us agree on the things that we'd want to talk about and then we can um ask um Miss Welden if she you know how to you know how to react to that so I don't know what the whole list is obviously I want we need a list of 20 things but there's probably four or five things that recur every year that we seem to always you know need to address discipline test scores um you know those kind of things Mental Health and so that was my first my first point was maybe we should just agree that we will have a calendar and and what what might be on the catalog of those things and then the other is to ask Miss Wen what she thought about that that was my Cadence to that let me ask you is that a possibility does that make sense to do something like that so some of the presentations are required to be reported in a timeline after those results are made available so we we cannot Veer from that timeline line doing that but if you wanted to add additional things on top of that we could discuss the schedule we've been I have been asking presenters to come to share presentations with the board at almost every meeting I think December maybe we didn't just because the buriedness of that month um and we were hoping to have the ESL bilingual presentation this evening and um you know other ones coming up so I have been choosing things that I think are important for the board to know about the work that we're doing we did have Mrs Hansen talk about the behavioral threat assessment and the different mental health S Services that we are providing in addition we had the assessment presentations in there as well so I'm happy to look at any input from the board of topics you'd like me to add to that um and then I think we we just have to discuss a schedule that makes sense based on the requirements that what we must also present on a timeline from the state Mr Weinstein I guess for me when so when I would see those presentations um I really wasn't I didn't have necessarily have enough time to researching myself on what I wanted to ask or talk about or be thoughtful about so if if I knew if if for me at least if I knew that there was a schedule here are the things we're going to be talking about then in advance I would get my head around okay that topic give myself some time to research it talk to people get my thoughts in place so that's why I'm looking more for a calendar of things um and by the way I do appreciate you doing all that um it was very very helpful it just I didn't feel like I could participate enough I felt like I was you know in a pop quiz kind of thing like you have any questions uh no sounds good you know which I don't mind right no and I I would agree with you that I think that was presented in that in that vein that it was informational and not necessarily a dialogue so if we're talking about creating a dialogue around topics I think our preparation would be different then and we should we should know that and the and the presenter should be ready for that too that that would feel like I think we should talk through what that would feel like for the presenters as well so that if there were questions in advance so they could feel that they were not in a pop quit situation and that they felt prepared to answer all the questions you may have totally agree I think that makes a ton of sense y okay any comments from the board Mr mcco I think that this I like this idea um and I think personally that that it borders more on initiatives that we want the board to be focused on right the key themes that we want this board to be focus on I think it's a bigger topic and and then I and I also think that we I think that we should have a recommendation from you know we should come up with our own ideas but this should be collaborative whereas the uh the administration also tells us what they would like us to focus on you know to give them guidance on as well and those kinds of things and I I think that to steal from your advice to me is maybe you should come up with something to present it to us on what you think we should I thought I was do I thought I was doing my part thought I thought I thought I was doing 80% of the part right now just saying hey maybe maybe something to get this started though in all in all series of like because I don't I think that this is a great idea I think we should run with this I think that we should be in collaboration with the administration on it but I think um I think there needs to be more discussion of what this will be what it will look like how we will Ex it before we start to make moves on it yep good any other comments Jeff do you see being aligned to our goals and objectives for um it can but I don't know if it necessarily it does need to be so things like discipline you know we're not we're not that's not one of our our objectives is to have is to make sure discipline is curved right um but that's not a board goal right so don't I don't think it fits into that there are things that we run into every year how we you know is it about testing what are we going to do about testing and making sure test scores are good and then we get into the discussion about whole students and how we emphasize that and and we do that a little bit after the fact right and I think if we and around discipline we you know bathrooms and discipline and bathrooms we we always have these discussions that are going that are very cyclical and then there's just the new spot about um know mental health and technology and how that's all impacting us so so I'd be happy to come up with a schedule I don't think it would be too many things but I just wanted to be I did talk about this with with Jim when um when we were doing this and I didn't really make too much progress but I would I think that this is probably the time to make that kind of progress because you know we don't have a you know big Co distraction or anything like that we we can get back into policy focusing but things that attach itself to what's important to the to the district and the community that's that's kind of how I'm thinking about it can we get to miss Walden's Point can we get a a calendar of what you have prepared to maybe start thinking about you know have I'm sure you're a couple months out or something just to have to know some of the upcoming things and then maybe we go from looking at that and going into good idea deeper di good idea it has absolutely been my intention to bring presentations to the board to Showcase things that are happening in this District that I think it is very important for you to be aware work that the staff is doing and the growth and the achievement of our students absolutely has been an initiative of mine and I can absolutely share the presentations I would hope to continue to bring um they are of the mind of more presentation less dialogue so I would want the right then to adjust them slightly based on this new Direction which is fine but I would want to adjust that but by the way my the intent of talking is not to bring more work to anybody right it's more it's more to that if we're going to be collaborators I think we have to figure out how to collaborate right and if we're expected to to support and be a supportive what you're doing we also want to have the context of how we got here so I think that that's really um because you know I get quizzed a lot on you know where with test scores and how we are with discipline and all you know you get quizzed a lot of these things and from the public from the public yeah right and I saw I would ask you to encourage them to reach of course yeah of course yeah but you could talk about that and people don't want to you know because they don't want to get too they want to get involved but not that involved so so but but it' be good if we could find that balance understood yeah Mr dolon did you have a question yeah I'm thinking out loud um so what I'm hearing is that there needs to be a clear delation there are requirements by the state that certain things are done at certain times of the year that every school district must do and maybe we need to be just abundantly clear that that's required right um but looking at the Strategic goals and all I I do hear part of what Jeff is saying does somewhat align right so you know maybe that we also look at how it aligns to what we're already doing within the Strategic goals and that those updates you know go through some of the activities that are on here and what many of the presentations are born out of that strategic plan and things that we need to be working on or so even when you're talking about discipline like when you read through this there might not be something specific to discipline but there are things about the the climate and culture and things like that which if you want to focus on discipline you need to be focusing on the climate and culture right so I I do think it does align to these goals and can be an outcropping of how we report on our goals okay but I think it's it's hard sometimes for the public and even the board sometimes to understand there's just all these requirements by the state that you have to present something in the public um and it might not be exactly what some people would like to hear or does not necessarily answer their questions but it is a required activity so I just think let's be clear about that that's all but looking through the Strategic goals and all it's there okay are there any other comments from the board regarding this topic is this something that we'd like to do I'll put a strowman together okay I think in addition maybe U Miss Wen can provide a list I I can send it to youo just to kind of get ball rolling okay that would be great thank you however Miss Wen wants to take it right behind you thank is there any other new business okay all right we will move on to public comment on any item anyone in the room M Hayes hi Alex hay and I don't have to say my state or my address so that's all I'm G to say um I have I think eight questions I didn't want to get up earlier I could have asked one but I'm just just going to start with the first question and I might just rattle them off so that I don't go past my five minutes I know other people have throughout the year but it's different that we're going to start enforcing that now um so the government did declare a state of emergency today I was just curious if that would ever implement the um virtual meetings um that they did over covid like could you all have met and made this all virtual so that nobody had to come out here in this storm um it we've had several emergency declarations over the past couple of months over weather but they never landed on a Schoolboard meeting so I thought that might be interesting because perhaps that's why there's nobody here um so that is number one I don't know if it's possible to check into that see if we could ever fall back on that and then maybe you guys could even meet an executive from home um number two um because of the cancellation of the two reports I know you guys knew about it but we didn't know about it the general public so I'm you know may or may not have come if I had known there wasn't going to be um the elll uh presentation today so since we post on our Facebook page that there's going to be a page I mean a board meeting it would have been awesome if there was an update like Hey we're not going to be having this massive ethics tutorial and we're not going to be having this massive elll uh presentation okay um wondering if there is um some of these are questions some are comments wondering if there is a construction on the middle school or an update on the Middle School construction it seems like most of those 18-wheeler things are gone but and it looks great just just wondering if it's done along those uh lines because this is maybe a Mr Hastings question another question for him was over the break there was an RP that ended January 3D it was a little vague it was 51 Pages or so and you didn't really get to the what are we asking people for it was the social and emotional learning and mental health but it didn't say what it was like an RFP for social emotional learning and mental health I was looking for a little bit more what that was until on page 44 it did finally get to the fact that we were looking for a 247 provider so I'm wondering if Mr Hastings or somebody or um superintendent won could eval uh elaborate a little bit more on that um I have always pushed for fairness in um in bidding and awarding of contracts we even say things like we won't take companies from Russia or Bella Rush Bella roofs however you say it but um I did not see any language in there that says we would give extra points for minority owned women owned um and those types of organizations and it seems that for the last eight years we refused to make that at you know a check box um so I would love to see if we could have that in an RFP but that was a question um to see if we have all of our stuff in there for that RFP the construction was a question another question third and fourth graders are going to be starting their extra help you know in uh English uh with the grant so superintendent Welden for those parents who may feel that their kids should have made it but didn't you know get the call back to start having an after school help who do they call um kind of like we did with the Spartan summer programs if you weren't selected the previous superintendent said reach out to us and if there's space we'll let your kid in so who can they call for that almost done um um the enrollment figures I know are not public for right now but they do become public at the next meeting if that's correct the monthly enrollment figures there was no PDF you know for the lay person I know you all get it um and I think that's it except oh two more sorry to ask can you can ask me to repeat these if you need when do negotiations with the Education Association start and um the eighth grade Spartan schools document that went out today was quite extensive um but it was only in English the one I got at least because I have an eighth grader I'm just curious if we are putting it any other languages for multilingual families okay thank you someone will get back to you when hopefully this week this week great thanks thank you that was great um Miss Conway is there anyone in the queue that has any comments Madame President there are no commenters okay thank you so much with that I'd like to make a motion to adjourn is there a second second meeting is ajour thank you all so much for coming out nice sure