##VIDEO ID:vPINPZnF3Ig## e e e e e e e e e e e e okay okay we're going to start this meeting at 7 o'clock thank you everyone for coming okay purum to the New Jersey open public meetings at njsa 104-1 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by such advertising such notice in the home News Tribune the B Park Press the board office the schools and on cable vision channel 118 in Verizon files 20 form by filing such notice for the township cler this meeting was scheduled for Tuesday October 29th the board will take formal action payment of bills and other agenda items Mr White the Oldbridge town whoa the Oldbridge Township Board of Education acknowledges that the law of this state establishes that members of the public including members of the board have the right to record public board meetings using audio or video recording devices provide that the act of recording does not interfere with the business of this public board meeting therefore the board makes it known that any such recording is to be considered the private recording of the individual and in no manner represents the official record of this board the board therefore takes no responsibility for such private recording and completely disavows any future use thank you Mr wo R call please Dan tuno here Jano here jri here Francisco here lent Mara Mone here Slade here solowski here we have a quum thank you would everybody please stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for would everybody please remain standing in memory move the Board of Education acknowledge the death of Susan armenti sber buade and Joyce Kenny retired teacher at Carl samber middle school thank you code of ethics code of ethics the board the board member will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders pertaining to schools desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures thank you District gos board gos approval of minutes J down make the motion can I get a second please almost second any discussion roll call Polie danant tuno yes Gano yes jri yes Francisco yes lent Marquetta is absent Mone yes s yes solowski yes resolution one for approval of minutes passes thank you a report of student representative he's not here tonight he is hosting the student Senate Halloween movie at Lombardi field so we have a little report from our board secretary good good evening all this is from Joseph laen Fama our student representative to the board for tonight's meeting Dear Mr citadino and Board of Education members I want to let you know that I will be unable to attend tonight's Board of Education meeting I'm hosting the student uh student Senate Halloween movie night at Lombardy field I am including my notes on the activities of this past month the last month has been very busy at the high school we are continuing to encourage all of our students to get involved in the various clubs and activities that we have to offer homecoming and the senior dinner Crews were a lot of fun for all who attended our sports teams are wrapping up their regular season and beginning their playoffs football annual pink out was amazing and they have a playoff game this Friday night our girls soccer and girls volleyball teams both played in the GMC finals this afternoon our girls tennis team were GMC white division champions for the first time in school history good luck to all our teams in their State Playoff runs our marching band has been phenomenal all fall and they will be compete competing at Nationals this weekend at MetLife Stadium freshman through Juniors took the PSATs this past Friday while seniors enjoyed fun activities run by by our class advisers and the fiz Ed Department the night bucks program has been a great success so far and many students are encouraging or encouraged to do the right thing the junior Roc or jrc is currently running a food drive for local families in need leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday I'm looking forward to giving the November report in person it's been a great month to be a night sincerely Joseph laen Fama thank you very well put okay uh he gonna okay recognition retire Reese uh we would like to thank and congratulate Darlene Simon and Diane lefante on your uh retirement a total of 41 years altogether so thank you for your dedication to the students of alberge thank you [Applause] okay we have one more recognition over here miss maone we as a district part ourselves as a national District of character amongst the numerous factors that make us a national District of character are the people throughout the district there are numerous people who help shape this community by giving back to it I can't think of a better person to highlight in this regard uh in this regard other than Miss Clarissa Marbel for her more love Foundation besides being a wife mother and school secretary Mrs Marbel finds time to give back in a huge way back in 2017 Mrs marel along with her husband and children started the more love Foundation to try and help families in need in our own town in 2018 she kicked off kicked it off with her first event called blessing bags in which she fundraised and collected personal hygiene products for individuals and families facing hardships or homelessness over the years she had partnered with Walmart and other local restaurants to collect clothing and food to distribute throughout the community in 2019 she partnered with oldridge principles guidens counselors and school nurses to sponsor families from each school and help provide them with a memorable holiday season she gathers items that the family may need organizes them in list and uses her Facebook page to help gather people to sponsor these families she relies on School staff and friends to help coordinate drop offs and Pickups wrapping the gifts and delivering these gifts to the families directly always making sure these families remain anonymous staff from all different schools in our community come together in their own time to help put this all together demonstrating Great Character she has grown this event from eight schools to 14 out of our 16 schools last year and never once does she ask for ask or want for a thank you in a world of such uncertainty it is a breath of fresh air to know we have people like the Marbell family who makes it their mission to make every child has a memor memorable holiday season on behalf of the Board of Education we would like to donate this $100 gift card to the morla foundation in hopes that a brings just one family a smile Mrs marel and family thank you all for you what you do and not only for the families of grome but to the families throughout Albridge it is an honor to be able to recognize you and your family for your selfish selfless acts of kindness year after year you bring the whole family in go ahead remember family stays together okay thank you Miss Miss Mone great job okay can I get a motion to move recognition please M motion can I get a second Francisco will second any discuss roll call please SL yes Dan tuno yes Jano yes jri yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquett is absent maone yes solowsky yes resolution one and two for recognition passes thank you Mr wo superintendent report do we have one yes thank you thank you Mr President um tonight we have a very special start to this I was contacted by one of our staff members Mr Matthew gregan um and he can start that with M Mr gadusi they're going to show us a little video presentation that has become a tradition um Mr gregan lost a dear member of his family to breast cancer many years ago and he started a tradition within our schools that takes place at the schools that he works at as a uh physical education teacher um I know he this year's um the video I think he's going to show us his uh his annual event at Cooper School I think there's another one coming up up at shirra school and just a glimpse enter what they're doing and how they're helping raise awareness towards breast cancer awareness and um helping families locally um through their through charitable work so thank you Mr gregan okay good evening my name is Matthew gregan I've been teaching in the school district for 24 years and I'm a second Generation Mr Greger and as my dad Dale taught in the district for 37 years as well I'm up here today to present some of the activities that went on during the month of October which is known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month 15 years ago my 32-year-old sister was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer at the time I was teaching at carpenter school and I went up to Mr Phillips at the time and asked him what can we do can we do something to help raise awareness for breast cancer so we decided to do a walk and it was a huge success I did that for another two years at Carpenter and then I was moved to Madison Park where I did it for another two years then 11 years ago I moved over to Cooper Elementary School and at the same time principal Dr Gada had just started working there as the principal I brought up the idea to having a pink day and she said it sounded great but her exact words to me were let's make it bigger so we sat down we brainstormed and we decided to being that she had just come from the high school to invite the students from the cosmetology class to come over to the high school come over to Cooper and help with the kids and from that moment on pink day had become an all day event it's an event that these kids truly look forward to every single year it's a fun day but it's also an educational day and a meaningful day they may not be learning math science or Ela however they are learning about caring what it means to be hopeful what it means to have courage and most importantly what it means to be a giving person a person who looks forward to helping others it's the little things in life that we remember the most whether it's one thing one day one instance that these kids remember they always come back to me at some point and say do you remember pink day our pink day starts out in the morning with the fifth graders going around the school where they have created an essay on the topics of strength love hope and courage they go around and read this to the younger students once the essays are written they head outside where the cosmo kids are waiting to decorate them paint their nails braid their hair give them face paint color their hair and give them tattoos once that part is over we enter into our wathon where we invite the parents to come and join with their kids and take about a 45-minute walk around the grounds of the school then we break for for lunch and once we break for lunch the kids during recess come into our photo booth where they can choose three or four different friends and take Buddy pictures holding up different types of props once lunch is over we break outside again where we sit on the floor of the black top and we spell out of word every year we choose a different word we've done words like cure hope love strength this year we did rise and at the end of the day we had a pink shalk danceon outside to celebrate the kids and have a good time for all their hard work that they did so I'd like to play this short video that we did from our day at Cooper could you turn the monitor a little bit so some of these board members could see it onv oh it's going to be on the TV also you're broken down and tired living life on the merry go around and you can't find us see so we walk it [Music] out we going to walk it out days and iise up iise like the day I Rise up I una afraid iise up and I do it times again and I up like the waves I up of the up and I do it a thousand times again [Music] [Applause] [Music] the silence is quiet and it feels like it's getting hard to bre and I know you feel like I hate but I promise we take the world to his [Music] feet I bring it to his feet and I I like day I iise unafraid I rise up and I do it thousand times [Music] again all we need oh we need is Hope and for that we have each other and for that we have each other we will rise we will rise We [Music] [Laughter] rise as well as being an educational and meaningful day our pink day is also a fundraiser the funds that we raise go to a local organiz organization called the mama May Foundation the mama May Foundation helps local families who are dealing with breast cancer whether it be helping them with finances or our greatest gift that we give away every year an all expense paid dream vacation I'd like to Now call up several members that were a part of this year's pink Day first I'd like to call up let get this in order um earlier in the school year I uh reached out to uh Mr Michael Kazo and Miss Donna Puli over at Walter M chro school and I asked them if they wanted to get on board as well and in a short amount of time they were able to put together a great wathon and they raised $4,000 towards the mama Mar foundation so I'd like to call up Mr Michael Kazo and Miss Donna pulli [Applause] here is a certificate of appreciation for your guys and the staff as well as a $100 gift card for you to buy something for the staff or breakfast or what have you guys so thank you very much appreciate all the work that you guys did why don't you have a picture taken with them come on [Applause] next I'd like to call up the two girls girls that were at our school that day that shot the videos and the pictures we had a live video um that I had sent to some of the board members unfortunately with media uh constraints there were kids on the video that we could not show so she instead spent the last 48 hours putting together a still the still picture video that we saw I will tell you that when we watched the video I showed it to every staff member at least half of them had tears in their eyes because these two girls did amazing job Kayla Hennessy and Sasha Ria she oh okay all right you can hold it for her and for you guys both I'd like to give you for your hard work a $50 gift card and thank you very much take a picture don't forget the picture thank [Applause] you and next I'd like to call up um from Leroy Gordon Cooper School Dr Gada to come receive the certificate our school at Leroy Gordon Cooper School we raised $697 so here's an $100 gift card for the school as well yes I just want to take a quick moment just real quick this gentleman goes above and beyond and I'm going to well up because it's all in Jill's honor I just want to thank the board Mr sadino Dr OG um Mr gaji I know you're back there somewhere because you always always come through for us I would be remissed if I didn't thank Mr dun for being the original um what do you call the boom on the uh fire truck the ladder truck see I don't even know the term but he was the original he'd come and and do it with the Advent of drones you know um but uh Miss less uh Miss palanki um Dr Sasso thank you for always approving it this could not be done without his love our students our community and of course the support of the board and the and uh the district so thank you everybody thank [Applause] [Applause] you and finally um i' like like to call up the awesome and I mean Awesome from the bottom of my heart because they've been tremendous um Miss palah I know tonight is Robin's birthday so she cannot be here but both uh Trish and Robin every year they come to our school they go above and beyond decorating these kids the kids love it this year they brought 56 Juniors and seniors and it's just it's so exciting when you guys walk in that building because I know it's going to be a great day so can the cosmo kids and Trish can you please come up I'd like to present you with an award as [Applause] well thank you very well done and that's it thank you very much thank you thank you very well put thank you very much Mr Greg and that was very well put together and obviously has a great impact on the the families impacted by breast cancer so thank you very much and thank you for everyone who participated uh the second part is pro progress towards goals and this is where we'll have our our annual testing report um we do this because it's important for the public to know how our students are progressing but it's also required um by the the Department of Education to do a testing report in the month of October thank you good evening um you know thank you Board of Education Mr citadino for the opportunity to present our annual testing report so first off I'd like to thank the orridge Township Board of Education uh for your continued support in the uh schoolwide PSAT administration at alridge high school last week over 2,000 students participated in the second annual digital PSAT special thank you to Dr Sasso and the entire orridge High School Community 91 rooms of calm confidence and the most successful admin yet great job everyone who is involved the New Jersey student learning assessment was administered to students at grades 3 through n in the spring of 2024 tested areas include grades 3-9 Ela 3 through eight math and by course for the grade nine in Algebra 1 Algebra 2 and geometry all njs all NJ SLA data will be compared uh by grade level um to the state of New Jersey and the College Board data will be including a fiveyear summary of sat and advanced placement achievement grade three historically we have significantly outperformed the state in grades three through five you can see this clearly demonstrated here in grade three similar Trend in grade four also similar in grade five as we transition to the Middle School you will notice a similar yet new trend in the area of mathematics where traditionally we would uh kind of lose our advantage over the state of New Jersey as we went from six to seven to eight where in grade eight in Algebra 1 the state would outperform Us in the area of mathematics so you can see here we outperformed the state in ela grade six and also math in grade six but now as we transition to grade seven where typically this margin would narrow in the area of mathematics you can see that we actually outperform in the state by a more significant margin as we continue through the grade levels for the first time that we've seen this data in grade eight you will notice that in grade eight and also in grade nine we were outperformed by the state of New Jersey in the areas of vaa where you'll see the same Trend in math where we're significantly outperforming the state of New Jersey in grade eight mathematics you'll see that in grade eight there was a narrow margin which we were outperformed by the state of New Jersey as we transitioned to nine the margin the state outperforms us is slightly more significant at grade nine and again we had not uh outperformed the state New Jersey in Algebra 1 any time before covid our most highly achieving grade n students take Algebra 2 and geometry you can see they're doing a fantastic job at the grade night Center any questions on njla data so the College Board historical data uh I would provide a five-year analysis of all the SAT scores and also a five-year analysis of all advanced placement data including percentage of students achieving score of three plus total AP students and total AP exams sat EWR which is English writing and reading for formerly known as verbal to those who took it forever ago as I did uh I will address the anomaly of 2021 in two slides you will see a slight improvement from 23 to 24 which is great news as we continue to grow uh postco SAT Math I will address the anomaly of SAT Math in 2022 in the next slide and again you'll see a slight improvement from 2023 to 20 24 in the area of sat mathematics so in 21 and 22 the two years postco almost all colleges and universities were sat optional only our most competitive students would take the SAT which results in these inflated scores in 21 and also in 22 please note the significant Improvement six points is is great news we don't want drastic numbers drastic changes in any of our SAT data so we did improve by six points from 2023 into 2024 the cohort class AP percentage of students who score three plus this is defined as the threshold the College Board uses to determine students achieving at the Collegiate level this was our first time over 80% great job AP teachers great job AP students and also great job Miss Fazzio who is the AP coordinator the first time that we had 80% of our advanced placement student students achieving at the Collegiate level which is great news total AP students AP total students and total number of exams taken we have a blossoming dual enrollment program and early college program at Oldbridge High School some of these students no longer need to take AP exams to achieve college credit or college placement so they wouldn't need to take the AP exam we expect that these numbers will slightly decrease throughout the years as those dual enroll programs and also the early college program continue to Blossom so you see a slight reduction from 23 to 24 in the total number of AP students who took AP exams and you also see a similar slight drop in the total number of AP exams that were administered from 23 to 24 again this trend will likely continue as those other college programs continue to Blossom at ald high school this concludes the annual Tes report thank you o Township Board of Ed ation uh any questions it's my pleasure to introduce Miss edin Ali who will be presenting on the dynamic learning Maps thank you thank you very well done gonna have to lower this little thank you Mr Coffield good evening everyone my name is Alexa alfi I'm the supervisor of Elementary special education preschool and liter univers K through 5 uh tonight I have the honor and privilege of presenting to you the dynamic learning Maps or the DM test results for the 2324 school year I'm excited to present these results to you because I believe they're a true Testament to our incredible teachers and their outstanding work to our students and their dedication um to school but also to the administration and the board of education for really supporting us and allowing us to assess our practices and Implement programs that really meet the unique learning needs of our students it takes a team it takes a village and I thank everyone for your support so what is the dynamic learning Maps the dlm is an alternative assessment to the njsla like the njsla it's administered to students in grades 3 through eight and grade 11 in language arts and Mathematics students in grades 5 8 and 11 are also administered the Science assessment New Jersey administers the year end model um for the njs for the dlm um it's based off of a computer-based assessment um based off the njsls which is the New Jersey student learning standards as well as the dlm Essential Elements so how do we really determine whether a student is eligible to take the dlm versus the njla so really it's a collaborative team decision it's made with the IEP team the state does provide us with specific criteria that we do have to consider when making the determination on whether a student participates in the DM versus the njsla so just to give you an understanding of what that specific criteria is the student has to be uh has to have a disability that significantly impacts intellectual functioning and adaptive Behavior the student has to be primarily taught using the dlm Essential Elements the student requires extensive repeated individualized instruction and support that is not of temporary or transient nature the student uses substantially adapted materials individualized methods of accessing information and lastly the students significant intellectual disability will impact post School outcomes for example the need for supported housing and employment when we look at that criteria for the 2324 school year Oldbridge had 48 students that were eligible to participate in the DM 25 of those students were at the elementary level grades 3 through 5 23 students were at the middle school level grades 6 through 8 and we did not have any students eligible at the high school level in grade 11 this slide right here represents the number of students that are were assessed by each grade each grade in comparison to the 2223 school year you'll notice that we are remaining consistent in the number of students that are assessed utilizing the dlm from one grade to the next for instance if you look at grade seven in 2223 we had 14 students assessed those students transitioned to e8th grade and we again had 14 students assessed um I do want to point out the fact that we are adding uh specialized programs to our district so with the increase in specialized programs um we will likely see an increase in the number of students that will be assess utilizing the DM dlm in future years um two years ago we had 51 students assessed like I said we had 48 students assessed last year you'll notice when I go over scores I'm making a comparison of Oldbridge from two years ago to last year because the state has not been able to provide us with a score report um for how the state performed on the dlm so we are making a comparison of how Oldbridge performed each grade level um for uh for the DM assessment in ela and Mathematics so when we look at the dlm um score report just to understand the different uh levels the dlm categorizes student progress in relation to the essential elements into four key levels level one is emerging level two is approaching the target level three is at Target and level four is Advanced students at the uh emerging level really show that initial understanding this indicates they're just beginning to grasp the concepts students at the approaching level are gaining a better understanding and are beginning to apply their knowledge more effectively um more more effectively to the Essential Elements and then students at their target level have a deep understanding and can apply their skills effectively and have essentially met the expectations for that essential element of course students at the advanced level have really Advanced their understanding and have the ability to apply the um knowledge to the essential element so what is that I essentially mean waiting for it to change up there okay so when we look at 23 and 24 um um this bar this bar graph really tells it all this slide shows the percentage of students who were at Target or advanced in comparison to the 2223 school year the green bar represents the 22 23 school year and the blue bar represents the 23 24 school year I'm a visual person so just by glancing at this you can tell why I'm very happy to share these results with you as you can see the percentage of students who have met the Target or advanced in on the dlm has increased significantly in comparison two years ago in almost every grade level and every subject area specifically our students in grades in fifth grade ELA Math and Science have sh shown significant Improvement sixth grade ELA and math and then e8th grade ELA Math and Science this slide represents the number of students in each grade level that fell within the emerging approaching or at Target level for ELA starting with third grade and then progressing through the columns to the A grade as you can see while we have made significant growth in the number of students that really have met the Target or advanced in comparison to other years we still have a large group of students who are falling in with that emerging level which means they're really just having that initial understanding of the concepts and the Essential Elements um when we highlight and dive more into the data um we can really Target where our Focus needs to be and that is in the third and fourth grade language arts so when we're moving forward and I give my recommendations to the board and to the community um you'll see why I'm really targeting those areas and what the plan is moving forward math this slide represents the number of students in each grade level that fell within the emerging approaching and Target level for mathematics starting with grade three and then progressing through the comms to eth grade as you can see like I said before with Ela it's the same pattern we do have an increase in number of students who are performing at Target or Advanced on the math dlm yet majority of our students are still falling within the emerging level so again overall when we look at our math scores we do have to show improvement with targeted interventions so what are the next steps when it comes to dlm and our specialized programs overall um we're doing a great job and I'm really proud of our students and our staff um but there are things that we can do to improve our scores um while this is not mandatory I do think that participating in What's called the dlm instructionally embedded assessment model will help both our students St and our staff um this is a assessment that UTI that the dlm utilizes to Benchmark and progress monitor our students so that we can really get an understanding of how they're progressing on the Essential Elements and then provide us what what's called linkage levels um to Target our instruction in the classroom we will also utilize our child study teams um more effectively to provide the consultative roles to progress um the progress monitor our students in the specialized classes conduct A needs assessment of programs that really utilize the DM Essential Elements continue to research and propose M um supplementary intervention programs for both Ela and math just to give you an understanding we have already implemented the language for learning program in some of our specialized classrooms um this started in September and our staff were uh trained in um at our September in service we are also implementing news to you unique Learning System in our elementary and secondary Pro uh specialized classes and then we're looking to implement a multi-sensory reading program um we would like to provide uh professional development to case managers and teachers on the Essential Elements so that we can apply them more effectively to the IEP goals and objectives and the classroom instruction overall like I stated before this is my first time being really able to dive into the DM data um and I'm really excited about these results um I saw the results and I immediately went to Dr Tui um because it really shows our progress over the years um and where we are in regards to special services and being able to provide appropriate programs to our students um like I said before it takes a village and I thank everyone for your support um and I look forward to um the progress for the remainder of the year does anyone have any other question any questions at all I do um do we think the state will start collecting the data and sharing it or so the last report that so I did send an email to the state um and the last report that I received was from 2022 um and that's the one that's posted on the State website as well um so I'm hoping I would have even taken data from 2023 but the last one I can have access to is 20 22 for day but if I do re receive a response I'll let everyone know thank you thank you and Jeff very much very in-depth report very well done thank you keep up to good [Applause] work any more progress St goals no that concludes my report sir thank you any correspondence yes three pie uh three pieces of correspondents tonight first is an email from Carolyn Mech Dear Mr solowski and members of the board I request that my letter be read as correspondents at the next Boe meeting having attended last night's board meeting but being unable to stay through the duration we watch the remainder of the meeting online I would like to comment on some of what I heard first I want to commend the Integrity of Christina mazone and Elena Francisco I appreciate and applaud their commitment to the students of the district by refusing to vote on the new curriculum before fully vetting and studying it considering that this is for grades K to 12 it was no doubt V Vol voluminous and would require for anyone serious about their job as a Boe member thoughtful consideration and precious time time I appreciate the sentiment spoken by Miss Mone I did not want to vote on something I did not read or understand as I understood there were new curriculum requirements as well certainly having the good sense to delay a vote in order that new curriculum could get the consideration it deserves would be a very important character quality for a board member kudos for that I also appreciate that Miss Francisco took the time to meet with Dr Tui and two supervisors to get questions answered prior to Casting her vote this is the kind of thing that has the potential to elevate a school district it's the willingness to do the harder thing because it's the right thing as many districts are still struggling to regain the performance levels we saw preo curriculums must be scrutinized and weighed and this is what at least two of our board members were doing when they asked for more time last of all I went to respond to the accusation by many in the audience Tuesday night who criticizes who criticized the delay for the vote as political on two fronts they didn't like that the vote for the new curriculum was delayed just one week and they pushed for superintendent David C's contract to be immediately immedi medely renewed 6 months ahead of schedule this was clearly and repeatedly hammered by teachers former students and parents who then accuse certain board members of playing politics for not caving to the pressure a good superintendent like a new curriculum can and should be willing to stand the test of scrutiny thank you for not caving to the rhetoric meant to intimidate and pressure you into prematurely passing a new curriculum and renewing the superintendent's contract ahead of schedule you did the right thing sincerely Carolyn Mack 23 cler Court Oldbridge New Jersey second correspondence comes from Alexander Ria good good evening members of the Board of Education parents and residents of Oldbridge hope all is well I would like to address the importance of extending Mr David cito's position as superintendent as a proud Oldbridge resident and current high school student I've seen firsthand the positive impact he has had on our community and our schools Mr cadino embodies the spirit of Oldbridge his support for students and dedication to our schools have been evident in countless ways he does his best to show up to school events that are important to us and make it a possibility to engage in the activities that help represent Oldbridge our Oldbridge Pride especially knowing how much we love Daisy and seeing our grins go from ear to ear with joy throughout the challenging times especially during the pandemic Mr sadino has been a source of Hope and stability his ability to find Solutions and uplift Spirits even during the most difficult times has made a significant difference in our lives why should the board consider in extending Mr cino's contract because he is a true role model his commitment to our community and his passion for Education shine through in all that he does he car he cares deeply for students and families always striving to help us achieve our goals to the board members here tonight I want you you to reflect on the countless endorsements from Educators across the district and consider the positive changes Mr Cino has has brought to Oldbridge thank you for your time and I wish everyone a wonderful Halloween to those who celebrate sincerely Sasha third correspondence is from Kim vent Venta Diane Michael Colleen Kik and push cower on behalf of SEPTA Oldbridge NJ we kindly request that this email to be read tonight October 29th at the Board of Education meeting during correspondence by David wiell in the same fashion emails have been read at all previous meetings regarding David citad contract the community should be aware that there will be no play UniFi clubs at all 11 schools and no UniFi programs or Sports at this time that means no school clubs during the day or after school no unified basketball Track bowling cheer dance or Esports Etc Special Olympics offers a grant for these programs it has been cut year after year and now the cut is totaling 51% and to be clear these grants from Special Olympics are the ones subsidizing overd Township Public Schools these grants are relieving majority of Burden off the school of the burden off the school district not the other way around put up some funds we need the community or the and the general public at LGE to know that the Oldbridge Township Public Schools refuses to put $1 in their planning or budget toward the special education students to participate in any extracurricular Athletics Sports Club Etc in our district Oldbridge Township Public Schools put zero dollars or consideration into any unified program now in the past orever we are aware that multiple meetings took place with the director of Athletics principls David wiell superintendent and assistant staff and Oba 1,500 plus students are being denied access to extracurricular activities due to their disabilities 1,500 students are being segregated and discriminated against we have a Dei committee that never retrieves any data or conclusion about inclusion or the absolute lack thereof in Oldbridge Township Public Schools five multi- disabled girls at GNC were blly told no to participate on Friday Night Lights cheer or dance this year those girls sat in the bleachers and watched their brothers and friends play football perform in band cheer and dance among other things how is this okay these parents suggested just a small role to be taken on the sideline we were not included we were told no these families quickly got physicals done and were excited to find finally be in high school to participate it is November we can list the amazing things in this District that have already taken place band soccer football dance cheer Esports amazing trips all that did not include our children we demand that you get back to the table find your voice and figure out how to make this work it is simply deplorable that our most V vulnerable students have nothing as it pertains to inclusion socialization character you tell me where you see or hear our special education students where are they to our community where are they on the agenda tonight we see you hired more coaches for wrestling and cheer that's fantastic you you even hired David wiell an assistant ba for $130,000 $130,000 congratulations why is it that we can hire an assistant ba now for $130,000 three coaches that hire steps but we can't find the funds to subsidize a grant for our disabled students Oldbridge proud one love Ohana differen makers District character I guess only if you're aren't a classified student do better Administration what has not been mentioned by any administrator or Board of Ed members is the entire classroom SEPTA and our community gutted and built totaling close to $133,000 how do we choose recognition in this District please see the following attachment that states have the special Olympic Grant needs local policies special Olympic response to proposed funding cuts for special education programs in the United States thank you Kim vent vent Diane Michael Colleen K push C that concludes correspondence thank you very much uh any special committee reports I think we have quite a few I have quite a few okay thank you okay buckle up here we go um on October 9th we had a special services a joint special services curriculum committee meeting um I don't know if anybody's planning to report on the curriculum meeting okay good because that I'll skip that part we had um I'll I'll just report out on the special services part um the um presentation is on the Oldbridge Public Schools website you can access it but just to um summarize it we went over the an overview of special education programming and District changes for the 24 25 school year we talked about goals for the upcoming year and we was entitled focusing on the positives we talked about information uh about the number of students requiring support of special education services broken down by PR elementary school middle school and high school and also the number the total number of Staff supporting our students and we reviewed important dates and the calendar we talked about the Second Step social skills program and also um in information on becoming a member of the special education PTA and all that they do for students was available as well then question questions regarding the lldd curriculum were taken um that brings me to October 10th uh we had a meeting for transportation buildings in grounds I think Jen is going to talk about the transportation part but I was going to talk about the buildings and ground so we had um Mr Ernest jomy the director of Plant Services he talked about what they've done and I especially wanted to talk about this and relay the information that he provided because that's the kind of um work that's done that's kind that really nobody really ever sees it's kind of behind the scenes that and transportation but if those um positions and those jobs didn't exist keeping our schools safe keeping our kids safe we wouldn't be able to uh have any of the programs or anything that we that make Oldbridge a really great School District so over the summer um between actually between July 1st and October 10th which is the night of the meeting the maintenance fieldwork orders completed were um totaled 1,175 work orders in the GNC it's funny that you mentioned it in the letter in the GNC they um the renovation project of the home economics room 306 uh that was the project that SEPTA implemented they they had to actually uh renovate everything they removed old kitchen cabinets they removed sinks and they installed new kitchen cabinets new sinks a washer and a dryer they painted the entire room room uh they also renovated a bathroom and um made it accessible they said he said that the work included was not limited to removing or redesigning of toilet partitions installing railings and shower curtains they installed a new DK collector in the wood shop at the high school they pruned trees in the central Courtyard at Sandberg they made extensive Locker repairs uh in all of the schools they installed exterior door swipe identification for the Oldbridge Police Department they installed exterior enhancement projects including painting doors and window panels they completed Paving Improvement projects HVAC preventative maintenance and that included filter replacement belt replacement and greasing of motors and pumps boiler maintenance including boiler cleaning and ignition tuneups and interior painting of various rooms he want he made a special point to mention all the staff that was involved and again those are the people that we really you know not teachers or or power professionals that we see their names often that nobody really knows but without them nothing could really run um Kevin Canton custodial supervisor Tim and Glenn craft for carpentry John GNA electrical and this name I'm sorry I'm I know I'm going to mess it up but piotra W and wanito complo for plumbing Kevin Novak Ferman roas Janette Jensen Al hermans and Charlie or ordino painting Pat tany William kofer for HVAC he also shared that it should be noted during the summer months beginning on 71 the department was in the middle of a major transition involving multiple contractors And Trades that had the potential to significantly impact the overall delay of operations in summer cleaning they transitioned from aromar to Pritchard for custodial services and it took a while to get everybody up to speed um other significant transitions involve districtwide Landscaping boiler maintenance drain cleaning underground utilities drain cleaning and roof maintenance and many long hours were spent bringing these new contractors up to speed as well he mentioned in a in our last meeting that none of these accomplishments would have been possible without the dedicated St talented staff that they're fortunate to have in the Plant Services Department and Mr dromy also mentioned the names of clerical staff where who he said are second to none in ensuring that all administrative needs and tasks of the department are taking care of he said as the old saying goes the work is never done until the paperwork is done and he couldn't be more blessed to work with two dedicated professionals Diane lefante and Dina asencio and I'm not done yet um yesterday we had a CPAC Zoom meeting um the topic was parent teacher conferences and how to prepare for them what questions to ask and how to make the most of short of the short time families have with their children's teachers Miss fabit shared some great resources for par for parent teacher conferences and also suggested that families go to um two websites understood.org and be learning her.org for many other helpful uh resources um some of the the resources that she shared were um informational there were online informational resources the difference between IEP meetings and parent teacher conferences uh she shared conversations starters to use with your child's teachers the positive student profile and that's a tool to be completed by the family to provide information about the strengths challenges and successes of a child parent teacher conference worksheet it's something that you would fill out before the conference Mark what you feel your child is doing well what you think your child is having trouble with and then during the conference go through the worksheet with the child's teacher talk about each topic and take notes on what you discuss and then the last thing she shared was the parent teacher planning tool a tool to get ready for parent teacher conferences it can also be used as a followup with teachers and afterwards make sure you have the information you need about your child's progress all of those resources are on the cpeg website so and and cpeg uh Facebook page so you can um download them and use them before parent teacher conferences and that's all I have for committee meetings thank you go down there okay um so the transportation part of the evening um we want to thank Debbie Linda Mary and I believe um Shannon was the other uh office team member in there they've done a great job with the transportation this was one of the smoothest opening days that the district has had um in a while so they commended their team of drivers uh they shared with us that when the contract drivers are short a driver they're all you know grabbing other routes including these four office ladies aren't necessarily answering the phones they're out driving our buses too um they also spoke very highly of their team um when they lost a team member Susan that we announced earlier everyone got notice that morning and everyone still showed up and picked up all the the kids and stuff like that so we do want to give kudos and thank you to the um District bus team uh for being true Professionals in your job uh tomorrow we will have the care and the Dei meetings uh the care committee is at 6:30 we're going to pick a new project for the year in the past we uh we visited the district website and the district calendar and the Dei we're going to go over the results of the school climate survey that was on the parent portal when everyone um want to go find out who their teachers in September um the technology committee will be before our next board meeting so that will be November 18th thank you thank you m Mr de tuno and Miss JRE very well put we have one more did we have more okay we do a lot of work what a we have here huh so um real quick before I give the report for the curriculum meeting I encourage all of you to come to these meetings this is where the bulk of our work is done it's kind of the meat and potatoes of everything we do so come to these committee meetings if you can and it's they're just a wealth of information so as um Miss JRE had mentioned we had a joint curriculum and special services committee meeting on Wednesday October 9th so I'm just going to tell you what we did at for the curriculum part we actually started the night at 6:30 we had various supervisors um who came and had samples of their subject curriculum so that attendees could review before the meeting had started present at the meeting were Dr Christine Dy supervisor of secondary special education Karen Hicks supervisor of CT and nursing Roco sentano supervisor of secondary Ela and social studies Stacy Winters supervisor of mathematics Jeffrey Coffield supervisor of Science and testing Dr Caitlyn candria director of Grants intervention and student services uh Dr kandria and Mr Coffield presented District data pre and postco to evaluate where the children are in ela and math these presentations are currently on our homepage on the website and we'll eventually move to the instructional information section if they haven't already so if you'd like to take a look at them I encourage you to do so and you also got to see the presentations here this evening um Dr tuy then went over the curriculum writing process and timelines and some possible changes that we might be able to make so that there could be a more cohesive um process between teachers and supervisors and Board of Education um Fallon keas and Samantha fazo presented on the summer program um Miss Fallon is a high school special education teacher and Miss fio is a school counselor at Samberg uh then we switched over to the special services portion of the meeting and Mrs Georgy has already presented on that so like I said come out to our committee meeting thank you thank you anyone else uh Matt I just need to I need to get something out real quick um I don't know how everyone in this room watching on TV is not fuming at the correspondence that was just read to us sent by uh the team at SEPTA we come here week after week worried about a contract that we technically we have months to decide on and yet you have these poor mothers who are fighting for their kids to just be involved I don't know how anyone is not uphold right now it is not okay to tell any child regardless of a disability or not a disability that they are not allowed to participate in an activity especially one that has to do with their school um I can guarantee 90% of the people in this room right now are here to talk about Mr cino's contract and this has nothing to do with you I just think that oldridge needs to do better I think it is absolutely disgusting how these parents are trying to fight for their kids and yet everywhere they turn it's a no from anyone sorry had to get that off my chest well um I wish I spoke sooner because maybe you wouldn't have said that this was discussed during negotiations and you said on negotiations committee and the negotiations committee and I wanted Mr Parton to reflect upon this is that we decided we you were as one of it wanted them to apply for the grant first when we find out how much the grant was then we would address the balance however as as I understand we just found out about the grant this week before we left for Atlantic City that wasn't given to me yet until this email came in today so we haven't even had a chance to respond to it so the fact that I don't know everything in there to be truth of what you're what the email says I haven't it came in at I think 3:00 today there's a lot of information there I don't even know but that was part of the negotiation process if the board had directed a different way in which this would be funded it would have been funded in a different way but that was the decision of the board not the decision of the administration on how to fund this going forward the grant has nothing to do with any teacher telling or any coach telling a child they cannot participate I agree with you but I don't I don't know that to be a fact as of right now information came in at 3:00 I nothing new this is nothing new these parents have been fighting for their children for years this is nothing new so no grants no nothing it's not okay for a child to be told no and I agree with you and I just haven't had the information yet to look into that and I I don't find that our staff goes around telling PE students that they can't do something I think a hard part here to I I I wasn't sure where we were going to going to discuss this if we were going to do this you know um at the end but I think this is the perfect time um it's it's really easy to put it on the board when we have to dig for information anyway so that's the position that I have found myself in especially we were just talking about curriculum I feel like I have to sit here and I have to comb through Bill lists and and yes this is my job and I I know exactly what I signed up for and I'm and I'm proud and happy to do it but but to totally put that on the board is is unfair when we are constantly digging for information constantly so I will do my very best and I I spoke with a couple people today I have been part of discussions of of play UniFi and trying to get it off the ground and some of the hindrances that we have been encountering which shouldn't be happening um but this is this is beyond this is and and as a board member I I honestly even said that I didn't even know it was this bad and I should know and I'm glad now that I do know so that we just we have to move forward I mean we can sit here and we can hash this out but we need to move forward we need to do better I thought anyone else go ahead I thought we were bringing it up later so that's why I didn't address it before I would just like more information and I guess having conversation to get like you said came through um during the work day uh Elena um Elena Christina are you doing the Food Service committee okay um so yeah I didn't want to let SEPTA conversation um happen so I was just going to ask for more more information once you guys find out more um just to finish out the Food Service the the Committees the we the other meeting that occurred was we had the Food Service committee meeting where we met with arm Arc to see what changes they've made since the end of last year and the beginning of this year um um and so that was the other committee that had met um but as far as are we continuing this UPA conversation now or are we doing it later what's it's up to us it's up to you okay um so my question was and I wasn't part of negotiations so I didn't know that part is was it a staffing issue or was it a financial thing from my understanding is that the staff applies for the grant each year and then we look at the Grant and try to do the Staffing with the grant that's applied and as the district has me said many times is that the tough part with grants is that they they go away so what the the consensus of the board in negotiations was we didn't want to just throw the grant money away and say well just we're going to fund it completely without going for the grant first go for the grant first see where the funding lies and then once there we look at the gaps there the board would look at funding where where it would need to be done in the balance again this information just came out that I know of I wasn't presented with any amount even the grant yet um to my office that I know of and I received this email around 3:00 today um okay I would like to you know I you know I apologize if this is the way it's being received but i' would like to have had this conversation with the board and my administrative team you know a after reading that um obviously it's something that needs to be acknowledge the the the letter but you know okay so it's not that we as a board or Administration said no to the program at all no okay not at all anyone else what a board we have here Matt questions I love it Matt I have just a committee reminder uh we have a long overdue strategic planning committee coming up November 13th 7 o'clock uh thank you David Mr wiell for coming up with that so that will be discussing um District goals and uh part of the strategic planning that we had meeting we had two years ago of long range planning so November 13th at 7 o'clock in the conference room thank you thank you Mr Slate anyone else just I love this board I tell you so many questions this is great in the last 20 years we never had anything like this everything was just yes yes yes this is great go ahead to the board we do need to have a uh policy committing there was a um a report that was sent out probably along the summer months and trying to get the policy committee together um we have not done so yet but we do have um some followup on on policy that we do have to try to get on so please look at your calendars um to try to get policy in um couple items there to discuss thank you anyone else before we move forward okay uh hearing of residents on any agenda items any agenda items items and when you come up please state your name please and sign the book b no book just say your name thank you Andrew Lewis Oba um I just want to provide some clarification not there sorry see put it up there physically me don't worry Andrew Lis Oba I just want to provide some clarification on the discussion that was just had regarding play Unified um so as was mentioned at negotiations it was said that we will discuss this once we see what the funding was we received that funding shortly after we settled that information um I had requested a meeting to discuss that so I met with Mr wiell uh Mr Domino as well as one of the teachers who handles that on Wednesday October 16th um that the following week was school boards um but Mr W had said after that meeting that he would follow up with his colleagues on the stage um so I don't know you know when that happened but I received correspondence today uh that the district would not provide further funding beyond what was already provided by the grant so I don't know you know who had what information when but I receiv received that that correspondence today from Administration thank you thank you anyone else just agenda items Scott Mella uh teacher and Public Relation coordinator um since she was the top top of the agenda I just want to say a couple words about Joyce Kenny who passed away this month um Joyce was my seventh grade social studies teacher and I remember her uh passion her spirit she had a great sense of humor uh she was a great teacher and I wouldn't even have a job in oldridge if it wasn't for her because my uh first or second day subing in Oldbridge I was a gym teacher and I took an extra class at a language arts class and uh it was right across the hall from Miss Kenny and I said I gotta go thank her for inspiring me uh amongst several teachers in my uh schooling to become a social studies teacher so I went out there and I was so excited I said Miss Kenny uh you know you're you're like one of my favorite teachers you helped inspire me to be a social studies teacher y yada Y and she saw vice principal Bob Ericson coming down the hallway and uh she was like can you tell him all that so uh I did but she wasn't saying that to brag about herself she knew there was a a long-term position in social studies available and that if I said I was social studies certified he would be interested so I took that and I got the job and the rest is history so thank you Miss Kenny I miss you thank you up there and uh you know say little proud for her she's a good person thanks thank you anyone else just really Andrew did you find that binder I think I saw you with it yeah we just get up there thank you okay moving on policy we have nothing curriculum professional development one through three can I get a motion to move curriculum professional development please Francisco will move can I get a second second any discussion Roo please marqu is absent ma yes Slade yes St tuno yes Jano yes J yes Francisco yes lent is absent solowski yes resolution one through three for curriculum and professional development passes thank you Mr wiell Finance one through 13 can I get a motion to move Finance one through 13 move can I get a second please Francisco one second can I get a any discussion no discussion on finance okay I have one question go ahead you would probably know this um on number nine what is the Mast program that is a vocational school in um MTH County vocational it stands it's a school name I think it's Marine Marine Science and Technology Marine Academy Science and and techn not so it's a school so we're sending students here because we can't offer these courses here correct right okay no the the magnet programs associated with either Mammoth County or middle County are programs that we do offer here however students can apply to other County Schools um it's a selective process where they take one or two students from MTH County Schools this particular student I believe resides in mwan that's why they're able to attend a m County school it's magnet program we offer the program here do we provide the transportation also yes yeah but okay you're required for the for County program okay thank you anyone else question on number 10 uh move the Board of Education to authorize a submission of the United States Department of Agriculture national school lunch program fiscal year 2024 equipment assistance grant for funding intended to assist schools in purchasing equip for important improvements to the food program um what schools will be getting improvements and if this grant when the grants is done if if it's not fully paid for how are we paying for the remainder of it so no no Grant is guarant no school is guaranteed to get anything this competitive Grant the US Department of Agriculture um has allotted state of New Jersey $350,000 Statewide um for for districts to apply for their schools um so just the list that I had in relation to I worked with Aramark on this along with our consulting company um we have mcdermit school grade n Center we have the High School main campus we have jonasa Middle School Carl Samberg Middle School uh Gordon Leo Gordon Cooper School James a MCD divit Memorial School Miller school and War school have all had um pieces of equipment identified that either need uh an upgrade or it's a safety hazard safety concern from the employees so again we will be submitting the application for it but if it's it's a competitive Grant so there's no guarantee to get anything and the way this grant works it's it's really one time a year um you have to pay for it upfront and you get full reimbursement for the the purchase so it's not like uh you know it's not a partial or anything like that it's a full reimbursement but it's a a certain limit I have to provide the quotes on all these items that are identified and so that the USDA then essentially grades and and uh scores your your application to to award so it's not a guarantee anyone get will get awarded but um it it is a nice program and in years past there was way more funding um that was allotted and now it's down to $350,000 across you know every school essenti not even just District every school in the state can apply um for this so very competitive and hopefully we can get something for someone so so if the grant isn't approved are we we still replacing the equipment or it'll depend on the results of it no we only are moving forward if we get we are only moving forward with any piece of equipment if it gets accepted any other questions it just if it's not approved tonight it saves me work because it's due tomorrow so I'm going back to the office to to put the application in but um I'll leave that to the board I'm glad that you do your homework okay uh can I roll call please L yep Marquetta is absent maone yes Slade yes danant tuno yes gardano yes jri yes Francisco yes solowski yes resolution 1 through 13 for finance passes I got some homework to do tonight thank you do you still have to go to the office later okay of course okay Athletics one can I get a motion to move Athletics number one did your D make the motion can I get a second please Jo second can I any discussion please yes go um just to tie in with with the SEPTA conversation um Mr Lewis had said that it we said no to the play unified are we still valori you know verifying that information or I can respond to that so last year because it was a grant fund we did lose funds from original 35,000 to 25,000 at the time which was November Mrs jenss and Mrs chowski who are the coordinators for the program provided us with uh revised stiens for each one of the schools subsequently when the grant was lowered again the suggest was to lower the stiens because they're not currently in the contract for positions however at this juncture because there is a concern something obviously we can look into but based on what happened last year where the teachers revised the stiens which is what was suggested in the email today and again Mr s you know wasn't privy to that because unfortunately was abing yesterday that is what was suggesting Mr Lewis thanks so are we is it still like a stat Mr anono I promise you I'm going to look it to I was sorry this is the the you know when that correspondence happened we were not in last week I have been out with a fever for the past two days I made it here to get this meeting I did not see any correspondence until this 3:00 event Mr Dr Tui was not privy to our conversations in negotiations because he doesn't not attend negotiations so had I was able to get that information he would have not responded to that because he shouldn't have responded to that because it's different information this year than in Prior years based upon our conversation and negotiations and all I'm saying is when this happened again I'm upset about it was I would have liked that we've all talked about it and then addressed it um with the clear information um thank going forward I have a question um currently at both Samberg and Suk how many cheerleading coaches do we currently have I don't know okay I'm just curious because you know I want to make the right decisions here and I want to know the answers to some questions and so I'm just wondering um and this in no way is you know a negative thought on having an assistant coach or any one particular person who would be the assistant I think I'm just going to clarify because I think I don't the all assistants you're you're a Samberg coach you're assault coach you're assistant it's not an assistant to another coach you're all assistant to the varsity coach of the high school okay so that's important I wanted to yes before you said more so this is the coach this is the coach it's not the coach right and I believe they just wanted every school that matters thank you for clarifying because I did not know that I am also learning everybody I'm learning wow that's harsh man okay thank you anyone else no R call please okay just to it was gordano and jri correct yes all right Francisco oh jordano and J sorry yeah uh Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta is absent maone yes Slade yes danant tuno yes gardano yes jri yes solowski yes resolution one for athletics passes thank you Mr Vell noncertified personnel office move the board approve okay uh one through two J second any discussion roll call please ji yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta is absent maone yeah Slade yes Dan tuno yes gordano yes solowski yes resolution one and two for non-certificated personnel office passes thank you Mr w why am I always at the end to vote that's a good question that is what Roberts rules I believe oh I didn't know that always at the end H save the best last okay okay number one you down make the motion can I get a second please miss second any discussion roll call please Gano yes J yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquette is absent maone yes sled yes St tuno yes solowski yes resolution one for non-certificated personnel operational passes okay non-certified Personnel other one through eight J I make the motion can I get a second please miss second any discussion on this no Miss roko please danant tuno yes gordano yes jry yes Francisco yes L and Marquetta are absent Mone yes Slade yes solowski yes resolutions 1 through eight for non-certified personnel other passes thank you certified Personnel we have uh yeah one through 17 and we have a uh administrative correction administrative correction right on number 22 I believe uh resolution number four line item uh B administrative corrected the effective date so the effective date was originally listed Ed as was that 11132 24 it is now 1225 so that's resolution four um letter B for jacn Smith thank you can I get a motion to move certified Personnel through 17 motion can I get a second please dan0 second any discussion I'd like to separate number eight for voting purposes number eight and uh nine yes okay voting we're voting on one through S and N9 through I'm sorry yeah through 17 1 through 7 and 10 through 17 just separate can I get a motion to what roll call please s yes Dan tuno yes Jano yes jri yes Francisco yes lent and marquet are absent Mone yes and solowski yes resolutions 1 through 7 and 10 to 17 for certificated Personnel passes thank you okay we're going to vote on number eight I separated number eight because I I believe I told we I'm on a Personnel committee anything above teaching I mentioned it to Dr huler that one or two people from the personel meeting should be there for the interview at least the final two candidates all of a sudden here's who we hire they show the person I'm totally against that okay so I'm voting now on number eight roll call please Mr Sakowski the entire the entire board opportunity to meet with the candidate during executive session at the prior board meeting why why why isn't the Personnel committee get involved in this anything above the rank of teaching I mentioned that a long time ago thank you all right so we have a roll call right for number eight yes Slade yes Dan tuno yes J Sano yes JRE yes Francisco yes lent and Marquette are absent Mone yes solowski was a no no resolution number eight does pass for personnel non-certified Personnel transportation we have nothing we still have number nine okay okay roll call for number nine Slade you want discuss I I just don't disagree I disagree with the amount if we have to pass it I'll pass it but I'm not we're not making this 70o it's just like the security guards from last week it's a very high amount for uh testing coordinator when we teach when we pay our actual teachers 49 something so I just disagree with the amount okay no further comment Slade yes Dan tuno yes girano no jod yes Francisco yes lent and marqu are absent maone yes solowski no resolution nine does pass for to Personnel thank you thank you Mr sakow you have four new hires that are present yes okay this is exciting we do this uh just started the this here old the new highes I believe we have who's in charge of that March okay we would like to welcome Lisa Flynn as the assistant business administrator petria funes as a psychologist Jacqueline Smith teacher and Katherine Noble I don't have her position here but um instrumental music Excuse Me instrumental music if you would come up to front we everybody stand please these are our new Educators okay these people are our everyday Heralds they're working with the kids all day long they're the ones that deserve all the credit thank you congratulations I I want all of you folks to have a very productive year with our kids thank you non-certified Personnel transportation we have nothing transportation number one duno will move Francisco will second any discussion roll call please mark K and is absent Mone yes Slade yes danant tuno yes Gano yes J yes Francisco yes lent is absent uh Sol gski yes resolution one for transportation passes thank you supplies equipment and services only in one item M motion can I get a second please duno any discussion on this roll call please lent and marquet are abs maone yes Slade yes Dan tuno yes Gano yes JRE yes Francisco yes solowski yes resolution one for supplies equipment and services passes thank you miss cellaneous one through nine can I get a motion to move miscellaneous please miss a motion can I get a second Joe dral second any discussion can I separate number nine for voting yes number eight I'm sorry number eight okay so we're voting on one through wa I have a question um yeah Dr Hulker during the Personnel meeting remember I had asked about the syllabus oh wait was it during Personnel or was it oh no it was one of the meetings I had asked remember about the syllabus do you have any update on that so I did ask the question I do not have the complete answer um the answer is sometimes but it was something when I got the answer that we said we will bring it up at a curriculum meeting and talk about being um providing it with consistency moving forward okay thank you anyone else okay so we're voting on one through seven and nine roll call please Francisco yes lent and Marquette are absent maone yes Slade yes dant tuno yes Jano yes J yes solowski yes resolutions 1 through seven and nine passes thank you Mr wiell now we're going to discuss number eight it was separated who separated it I didin any other discussion or you could have juststained but that's right not a common occurrence way no problem okay so we're voting on number eight okay Francisco yes lent and Marquette are absent mazone yes but Jen is are we allowed to know why you're because I donated then yes yes thank you go ahead okay yes I love it what a board we have okay number eight yes Dan tuno obain Jano yes jri yes solowski yes resolution number eight for miscellaneous passes board secretary and board business nothing okay hearing of residents on any school district issue anything to do with the school go ahead so before we get into this public portion uh Mr solas's request uh under old and new business we're going to have a discussion of a contract person matter the member of the staff involved Mr cadino has waved his rice privacy rights which means that rather than going into executive session for that discussion we'll be having that discussion here with you however it does not mean that there is an additional public portion to this meeting my point being that this is your time for public comment once the board is having the discussion regarding Dave's contract regardless of strong feelings On All or any side there will not be addition public input at that point just so everybody knows where this agenda stands okay so we're going to set work with the public in the beginning if you have any comments on any school district items okay Andrew Lewis Oba I just want to go Circle back for a minute to play unified and uh it's correct that it's not in the contract right now that we just settled because we said that we would follow up on it once we got the grand funding information um all right so what I wanted to say uh the members of the Oba work to create a safe inclusive and nurturing learning environment for every student in our district our commitment to our students is unwavering however tonight I want to address a serious and a growing crisis assaults on our staff assaults that are simply unacceptable anymore it's not a new issue it's one that's been addressed at every level except here at a public board meeting and it pains me to speak about it this evening because it impacts my members and our students but we've endured more than anyone should have to over the last few years every day teachers par professionals and other support staff come to work prepared to educate support and guide our students toward a bright future they do so with compassion dedication and resilience lately they've been showing up knowing that they might face aggression and physical violence from students policies that we have in place the support that we need and the enforcement that we count on are failing everyone they're failing students they're failing the student causing the injury the students are a witness to it and they're failing the staff and we're at a Breaking Point and it's time for some hard truths the current situation has left our staff feeling unsupported and unsafe it's left them wondering am I truly valued in my job because what we're seeing right now doesn't feel like support it feels like neglect in the first two months of this school year the Oba has received 124 incident reports those aren't just numbers each represents a person who has been hurt physically assaults are in interest numbers their names faces and lives that are being effective every incident left unchecked sends a message that the very individuals entrusted with the education and care of our children are not safe in their workplace there's a very serious incident that happened last week at one of our middle schools has the board been made aware of this incident yet and if not will you tonight in executive session how many incidents has the board been made aware of since the start of 2024 since last January or since we had a task force meeting or the special services committee meeting where you were told that you'd be given information about incidences that occurred in our schools what we need urgently is for our board to create real and Lasting change one meeting of a task force few words on a piece of paper it's not enough anymore it's time for real action and accountability I employ you to take this issue to heart and ensure that every staff member and student who enters our schools know that they are respected protected and valued it's not a commitment to our staff it's a commitment to every student in our district and we expect action thank you thank you [Applause] anyone else no okay we have someone good evening everyone um I hope you all got a good break in Atlantic City in the convention I hope we got some new learnings uh we would like to know as the public and the community what happened in the convention maybe not right now definitely in one of the upcoming meetings so you could share what exactly happened there that'll give some visibility to everyone uh I got three topics here uh first of all this Thursday it's Diwali the W is a cultural Festival it's a Festival of Lights celebrated predominantly by Asians and predominantly by uh the culture coming from India so this Thursday we will gather to celebrate the Festival of Lights a a time of joy prosperity and the of light over Darkness the reminds us that even in the darkest times there is always a light that guides us forward let us embrace the Spirit of Hope and renewal and may the light of the fill our homes and Arts with happiness and peace so with that message I would also like to talk about there are similar festivals like e which the predominantly the Muslim Community celebrate and diali which predominantly the hu Community celebrate so my request here is a very humble request this is again coming from the entire set of community here as know I'm talking to many of the parents and the students I like to put a request here in front of the board I know years back there was some kind of a uh policy that was put in place but we really don't have real holidays for these kind of festivals these children you know together along with other kids would like to invite you know their other kids other friends to homes so if there is school on that day it's impossible for them to gather together and celebrate so there are many other towns around here around worldbridge like Edison or South Bron new Bron many other towns sville they have holidays for these cultural festivals so my humble request here is we we have to revisit for the upcoming calendar years how we can make this inclusive and this will strengthen and bring more Unity uh starting with the kids if the unity starts with the kids then all along it's going to grow up uh the another topic is I know we had issues about the late bus cuts and we all know the reasons around it uh but what I'm also hearing from the community is more about there is some of these programs are not accessible now because there is not enough enrollments and looks like again this is public information I would like to see a response today if available or you know later at a time the public information which we get at least I get is that some of the programs are being shut down or closed or not available to others so I would like to you know valate this uh and and lastly uh this is about the fire ban in New Jersey we all know that there elevated levels of uh fire at about 3: and because of the drought and the dry conditions why I highight that is because in the festival time of Diwali kids especially from the Indian Community and the Asian Community they really like to play with fireworks sparklers and whatnot this is not the right time I just want this to be you know put into uh you know every possible kid or others to know that it is banned this season across New Jersey so starting with the kids and parents please support that and be aware of it let's play it safe thank you thank you thank you anyone else good evening Richard Dunn 58 Norman Lane in this great Township of alridge I just want to preface uh a few things this evening number one as we know November 5th is election day and I see that there's six candidates for the Board of Education are in this room and I just want to just thank everyone for a very vibrant discussion during these last uh three months since uh August when we filed our petitions and uh you know we all have our opinions and we have the right to believe what we do and we could work together for the betterment of the school district so it takes a very special person to throw themselves out there in this Arena so the six candidates who are out there I want to commend them for you know a very positive uh campaign uh they all have done a wonderful job uh in in articulating their positions and where they stand and we're at the culmination point of um to determine who of the three are going to be sitting up at that Podium uh come on January so I want to thank all the candidates who are here from the bottom of my heart for uh working for the students because all all six are working for the kids and they're trying to do their best so uh ridicule is tough uh I've been uh a person you know who has been targeted a few times just like everyone else might have been but we have to work together who no matter who gets up there and we're going to work together so I just want to thank all six uh actually all five for for for you know putting themselves out there in that Arena you have to have a thick skin and uh you know a lot of things come your way and you need to brush it off and move forward I've been up the de uh for 10 years so I know how it is so it's not easy it's not easy so let's give the candidates a round of applause for being able to be out there and uh campaigning for the children which is very very important important number two I want to just uh again briefly speak about David sadino um Again David uh has been the backbone of this district for 12 years uh David has been a remarkable superintendent um you know I I believe in what he's done I believe what's in his heart and I know that a good majority of this Township believe in David and what he's done we've all been the beneficiaries of his kindness his dedication his Progressive thinking and his actually great stewardship of this incredible District we've made so many beautiful and remarkable accolades in the last 12 years and he's a big part of it and I know that there's going to be a discussion in a few minutes with about David but I can tell you my 10 years David was always very helpful anytime I had a question or a concern I would call him I would email him and his door was always open so there should be never a board member who doesn't have the information and information can be easily gotten by a phone call so when a board member says that they don't have the information they can't make a rational decision I think that's hogwash I think uh the Administration has always been very gracious with their time and to make sure that all board members are edified and educated before making a decision so with that said David I want to thank you you've been a terrific uh superintendent here in Albridge and I'm hoping for many more years you to be here leading this great School district and I appeal to everyone to give that David what he deserves thank you everyone anyone else okay we're going to close the public portion of the meeting Matt yes and we're going to open it up to the board what over here good we're gonna do new business because if I what which part are we doing this we're gonna do this under new business okay so I have something first old business okay can I I have something first to talk about okay because I know once we do that there's going to be no coming back from it um so um Mr Gregorian was talking a little bit about the pink out at um Cooper school and I just wanted to thank them for inviting the board um they they invite them every year they invite us every year um and I also was kind of on a mission to um to share good news in Oldbridge schools just to make sure that you know a lot of what we talk about up here is you know things that we have to fix things we have to work on things we have to um um improve but I just wanted to make sure that um when I go to different schools I share good news from from people so when I was at pink out I talked to um the principal and I talked to another teacher there um and I realized that both Cooper's principal Dr Kathy Gada and one of Cooper's RTI interventionist um Dion Phillips both earned their phds I think that's awesome Dr Dr Gat doc Dr gma's doctoral study was about providing recommendations for solving the problem of Chron chronic absenteeism at the Early Elementary levels she completed hers in July and graduated with a Doctorate in Education with a concentration in curriculum and instruction with hi distinction Dr Gata shared for this year we are looking to ensure the insertion of attendance interventions meet District standards and policies involving the current RTI project process and program further a discussion of student motivation for these in interventions must include three factors for Success affiliation Independence and competence students becoming part of school resources that lead them to more successful outcomes will benefit from the experience and um Dr Deon Phillips her doctoral study examined a professional development initiative aimed at providing Educators with the knowledge and understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy CRP to establish a deeper connection and sense of belonging between the teachers students specifically students of color the students family members the school and the community Dr Phillips completed her doctorate in teacher leadership in September the rationale she stated the rationale for my study focused on the trends that underscore a significant reshaping of the demographic composition of our student body highlighting shifts toward a more diverse enrollment landscape Dr Phillips also shared um this is not a list to be checked off or Heritage honoring holidays but a state of mind to believe in our students that support their skills and abilities this framework can be incorporated within the teaching practice within the physical classroom lessons interaction and language of Education ators that show the they value their students identities and high academic expectations for all students I just wanted to say congratulations to both Dr Gada and Dr Phillips on an impressive and inspiring accomplishment thank you anyone else yes I have a few things go um I did want to address the comments about the calendar um we as a district had put out a survey to the families and the families chose to not choose those days off um but Mr sadino has been a big component of if it's your holiday celebrate it you know the kids have the 17 sick days kind of use them or lose them type thing so we have offered that and the community decided um they'd rather not go to June 29th in uncondition air air conditioned school but we don't prevent the students and their friends from celebrating um also wanted to touch on Cooper it was a great event I stopped by in the morning before work and the excitement with all the kids I mean one kid was pink from head to tail I'm talking arm skin everything it was amazing um I was unable to attend chiras uh but the passion that he brings to the program and the envelopment by the staff and the students to make it happen was just amazing to watch I did kind of want to bring up the old topic of uh meeting with the town and trying to set an agenda I think there's some opportunities at Town level for our students and I'd like to um those are some of the things I'd like to discuss if we could get a meeting with the Town Council so it's was just trying to work on under shared services uh Mr weell uh tried to set up a meeting and the wind up was that they didn't have the same dates that we had they're still work I believe you're still working still work we're still working we were out we were out last we working I'm working with Mr White and I spoke to the president of the Town Council so she was busy that day we had a meeting schedule thank you any um yes I have two comments um one comment is to Mr dun's point of um anytime we ask for a qu anytime we ask a question anytime we abstain to voting for a certain reason never once do we ever say that we were not handed the information anytime we have emailed admin they do everything they can to get back to us as soon as possible with any amount of information that that we ask for um where we abstain to is if we didn't have enough time to review the entire packet that is handed um Kieran to your comment with the workshop I have to say and I think everyone on the board agrees we had a such a nice time last week um it was filled with a lot of workshops that are very informative helped us uh better understand different you know different situations you were able to choose whatever workshops you wanted to go to um yeah we we we we did we had a very nice week last week it was very very helpful we're going to do it again next year Matt Matt I else yes I have one more thing to to bring up in response to Mr Lewis's comments um I think the people on the task force would love to keep it going and have an ongoing ongoing meetings with the task force I think it was really help we we identified a lot of um a lot of places where we could make improvements but I think um keeping that going would be a really good thing and I think uh all the members are interested um as far as policy 5612 um that and and the the Andrew brought up the fact that teers teachers are being assaulted there's a policy that um sets out the criteria for um parents to be called to pick up their child if um there's an assault has happened on the staff member but there's also a second part to the policy that H has the reporting by principles to Administration and then Administration is supposed to report out the number of um assaults or staff injuries at a board meeting um I think doing that and you know not only requesting parents to pick up the students but following the second part of the policy as well um would be would be helpful thank you anyone else yes a few things uh so a while ago we had a policy meeting with literally 100 teachers were in that room talking about the assaults that he had from students and the policy we were going to try to revise was the one against the corporal punishment you know because I think at some level you need to have some self-defense if a student attacks you but of course on the other side you're GNA have a bunch of parents like oh they can't touch my kid no matter what they do so you're GNA have that backlash but I'm still um looking forward to having that conversation as well at the convention I took a bunch of workshops and courses I sat in the the annual law for on Thursday I learned about the open public records act updates uh school safety and uh we had a what you call that uh not a seminar but like basically like Oldbridge day where all the vendors of the schools try to advertise their products what exhibit exhibit hall thank you we had it exhibit hall and um a lot of good information a lot of um competition between companies um hold on I wrote a bunch of stuff congratulations to those recognized before for um helping with the awareness and find trying to find the cure for breast cancer um the board appreciates that very much in response to the correspondents about us asking questions uh I read all schedules and attachments and if necessary I'll send an email to Mr wiell and I I did ask in public a few questions because usually when we vote no on things there's a lot of backlash but there's no backlash when we vote Yes on certain things and something the public or some people might not know is that during the weekend Friday to today uh new things get added on so I understand the reason that some board members may not have the appropriate time to vote on them and just in case we don't get to new business uh as a reminder get out and vote good luck to all the candidates for the Board of Education um I can tell you from experience that it's the only election not controlled by party bosses and Jerry mandering like many on the top of the ballot so please please take it seriously enjoy it and um for any young adults or anyone else voting in general uh the power to change your life make your life better than you don't rely on candidates even they win or lose and that's it and then all my comments are going to be about the contracts when we get to that thank you anyone else good luck to all the candidates yes yes yes good luck we all know it's not easy I did it eight times it's tough I'm telling you I'm still sitting here I don't know why but okay uh that's the end of the public portion just can I just add oh we have some more go ahead just to answer to M Monon is the when we adapt adopted that new calendar not for this current years I think it's the the next school year the the holidays which you mentioned are early dismissal days I think that's the way the the board decided to modify the calendar so I know it's not doesn't give everything that you're looking for but allows the the peers of your children who are in school to be released from school early to come to your home and celebrate with your children who will be celebrating um the Festival of Lights dwali uh this week and um eat and other other holidays throughout the community um can I just say one thing we also sent out a survey to the families so the families that did respond um overwhelmingly they didn't want to make the school year longer they wanted they opted for the half day so we can send out another half we can send out another survey and if you know if that changes but we went with the majority of what the survey responses were anyone else so I have some new business um one uh after the Dei and Care committee meeting tomorrow night the marching nights are having a sendoff at Lombardi field at 8:30 so um you know I'm inviting everyone to come to Lombardi field and and wish our marching nights a great sendoff um one of the things I did learn at convention is um how behind schedule we are and compliance and stuff as a board I know you know second year you know still learning but um some of the stuff we're discussing you know with Dave and um his eval and Stu was was something that should have been done in the spring so I'm just hoping that as a board we can make next year better and and be more in compliance and on time with things thank you anyone else okay again I'm going to close the portion and we're going to talk about the contract I guess right okay do I start it Mr sardino you want to start sure I'll just make an opening comment U thank you I was comment I was connected to by um Mr Parton and um I'm happy that there's consensus of the amongst the board to extend my contract um I believe the information that it provides me is that the board was consensus to provide me with a one-year extension um at this point I'm just asking for the board for a two-year extension um that is inclusive of um this they're completing this school year and two years beyond that um and I'll let the board respond and I'll give my rational to why thank you okay I guess it's my turn everything I State here is this is my opinion when we hired Mr cadino he was principal at s school and my first encounter with this individual I like him I mean he's a nice guy but I brought something in he was the principal in the school at the time we had 20 applicants for an English position back then what we used to do is we to get the entire packet with the person that were hiring the resume and everything else they don't do that anymore they do everything secretly behind closed doors and I'm totally against it we had a candidate with a position for an English teacher we had 20 people that applied and back then I was able to get all their resumes five or six of them were totally qualified to teach English because they were certified and Mr sadino at the time was the principal and we hired a person that was not certified in English or Ela she was a hotel motel management and she went alternate rout my I mean that turned me off right on the spot when we had so many candidates that were qualified and this individual hired somebody that wasn't it was a political appointment probably this is my opinion again if you want to see it I have it right here okay so because he hired someone that that wasn't certified and but there was five people that were certified and had the certificate to teach English Okay this was a political appointment okay that turned me off right on the spot and I can respect your opinion you weren't here for all this I was go ahead can I can can I can I respond to it yes okay one I was the principal and principal's we do we send out interviews and we make a recommendation and that's it we don't we don't go further than that the board gets you know you're talking I think that was 2006 um the board is you don't get paper packets anymore because 2008 2008 go ahead we don't use paper packets anymore um I made a recommendation because the person was a highly qualified person who went alternate route into uh English and went to an Ivy League school and came out as probably one of the best people that can provide our students you know it's not easy get into an Ivy League school so looking at who can provide our students especially students from Oldbridge especially students who have come from uh low socio economics that this person was able to come from Oldbridge get into an Ivy League school and be successful and graduate at the top of their class is something that our students could look forward to all I did was make a recommendation to the board the board then at least six of the nine people on the board voted to approve that recommendation and and three didn't and I was one of them that said no because there's something wrong over here I smell a skunk in and chicken CP over here okay first I'm impressed that you remember exactly who he's talking about 20 years later um but when I'm looking at hiring someone contract the work they've done more you know in the more present time in the rough times that we've had is what I'm looking at you know we all I'm sure if you look in all of our closets we all have some wrong move we did 20 years ago that someone somewhere isn't going to approve again not saying that your reasons are wrong I'm just asking that we look at things more recent um as far as the 2-year versus one year I'd be in favor of a two year the one year makes it convenient for the board to do a timely search where we don't end up with just someone sitting there in an interim twoyear means that we appreciate the work that's being done we'd like to continue to see the district move in the in the direction it has been and I'd be in favor of a two-year because that's what's right for the district not just what's right for the [Applause] board okay we're going to move forward now yes I'd like to go can we still speak yeah go ahead um I just wanted to say also I'm in favor of the the two-year because it would give us time to find somebody and to do a proper search we haven't um we haven't we haven't looked at um evaluations we haven't done any of that in the past few years we don't even Jen and I were talking today that we don't even know you know um what's involved as far as like evaluations and things like that so um um just because we haven't done it our board hasn't been involved in any of that that we should have been um and Matt to your point I completely understand that there are some things in the past but I think when we were given um we were given these books a few about I think it was last was it last month you gave this so it has all the accomplishments all the great things and achievements of orridge high school um professional development has all kinds of things that all all the awards are on the back that our school district has received and I mean you know you can look at certain things you don't like the way something happened or but performance-wise you know we're not we're not marrying Dave said you know we're looking for him to be our to continue to be our our superintendent and I think that um we have to overlook any personal problems or any personal things we object to and look and see professionally what has he done for us where has he brought us where has he you know taken our students and our staff in our schools and I think for that reason that I would vote to continue for two more years and um do a proper search when the time comes okay Jay uh Jay you're going ni just want real quick I I just want I mean I appreciate Matt having more of a history with Dave but I want to discuss da Dave as a superintendent not so much of what he did as a principal um I've worked with Dave for three years I mean I've been impressed not from day one it took some while just to get to know him better from where I came off of um it's kind of weird to talk about somebody when they're in the room like it's a third person or a piece of equipment in the district but just based on the timeline that we were discuss the fact that it's November and we haven't started the process I think Jen eluded the fact that we're going to rush to find somebody I've never been part of the process of getting a superintendent but again I think that two-year window puts everybody at ease uh we get to interview enough I heard it's a nine Monon to a year process and it's November and his contract's over in uh June of 25 so the fact I think he's done a great job again this speaks about his accolades I know we've heard only great things at the podium I haven't been privy to the bad guy room I haven't heard or anything um I do support the 2-year I just think it just helps the process I mean if we're stuck with him for two years it's not a bad thing you know it's the guy's done some great great things for the district I think a lot of parents are happy about the results um and I think we just need to move forward and stay focused and we know we have to find somebody new so um that two-year window would help thank you anyone else I'll say something um so there's no doubt that I think that Mr cadino has done great things for the district he has he does he he cares about the kids he somehow remembers everything and I don't know how but he does um where I'm getting stuck is um if I I Feel Like Us offering the you know one year it's like negotiation just like we did with the teachers contract it's a negotiation so you know right now we're stuck and it's you want two years we offered one so if you're not willing to work with us then why should we consider working to your contract my thing is is US extending you that one year gives us plenty of time to still look for another superintendent um another thing that has me going back and forth and I spoke to you about this over lunch was um last year when you uh agreed to a salary increase and this being your list year and then this year you said you had changed your minds which is fine people change their minds but what does that say about character if you're not going to follow through with your word then why do we why do we have to give you what you want and my my my thing is is yes people come up here and they will say everything good that they have to say about you and again a lot most of it is true but no one is is going to come up to that Podium and say bad stories nobody is going to come up there and tell you as their boss things that they are they don't approve of and things that they don't like that's my opinion so that's where I'm stuck right now anyone else yeah I'll chime in go ahead so first I would like to say that you know everyone is quick to always judge us and being you know this divided board and I think that it deserves some credit that we actually came together and we couldn't agree maybe on two or zero and we and we came to a compromise in the middle which I think needs to be noted um and I and I will say that you know the the more division or the division that people perceive at least is just the the talk you know there there's not as much division we just spent the last week together and we had we had an awesome time and I'll speak for myself maybe not everybody had a great time but we did I had a great time with other board members I had a great time with Administration there's a lot of good to be done here there's a lot of Education to give and wonderful things that this District does um this entire thing somehow has turned into a spectacle and it really shouldn't have I am for for again I'm speaking for me I am so tired of hearing oh my goodness we need to put our personal agendas and our political agendas and vendettas aside it is getting old I have Z zero Personal Agenda against Mr cadino zero um there's been no negative interactions I might have been a little upset about something as a parent that would had was not his fault at all in the past i' I've got nothing there's nothing personal or political going on here so you can you know say that all you need to put it on Facebook all you need to it doesn't make it true so that's number one my professional opinion of Mr citadino is a good one I think he's done a lot for the district I think he's a good person I think he's great with kids I think he's great with his staff I think he's thoughtful and compassionate um and I think that the people who came to the podium to speak on his behalf is a beautiful thing um some of those stories brought me to tears I know they brought you to tears and and remembering a lot of those different stories and scenarios and how you were there for people and how you supported staff um but my job as a board member is to be objective as I can it's almost impossible to take emotion out when you're dealing with children and that's that's our job we deal with children and I was a teacher it's all emotional but I am trying to remove myself from those emotional stories and focus on education I can think all of those great things about Mr citadino and what he's done for the district and I can also think that it's time for change I can think both of those things and because you might not agree doesn't make it wrong and it doesn't make it untrue so that's that's where I am I have um seen staff and parents come up speak positively on his behalf and as Christina said you're not going to get parents or staff members to come up and speak negatively it it's it's a skewed view I am a voice for the people not a voice for me I'm a voice for our children I'm a voice for our community and I have been taking the time to talk to as many community members as many parents have been in the town a long time to try and gather that feeling and gather that information so I'm letting you know that I'm genuinely trying to do my homework and yes and maybe there's some board members up here that have heard some of those negative things and what am I going to do throw people under the bus and share their names and their stories that they've confided in me um confidentially no I'm not going to you can say it didn't happen and it's not there that that's for you to decide I know it's there and I know that these opinions exist um I also feel Mr citadino that you did give your word that you know it was a it was a handshake it was a deal it was a contract it wasn't in writing that this was going to be your last year and instead of staying for the year that we've offered it's become a further spectacle and and creates division just by us going back and forth and it's a it's a good conversation we're always going to disagree it's important that we disagree um but I just feel like we could have moved forward we could have had you for another year and you would have your contract extended the community has asked for your contract to be extended we offered a year for extension and you're you're still choosing not to so that's where I'm at I that's as honest as I can be be thank you can I uh go ahead anyone else Mr Zen you go first okay um yes and I think I I I have addressed this in the past um no I did not make a a deal with the entire board that this would be my last year or anything um when asked about it I I said I believe this would be my last year I believe my intent was to retire I gave the the same reasons I'm going to tell the public now we just come out of covid it was very difficult on my mental health my physical health um having to deal with that we have i' I've spent you know probably nine years fighting some kind of battle in this District um whether it be an S2 District being covid whether it be um uh Charter Schools there's always been a battle and and and a fight and S2 has been very difficult and coming into this being an S2 District um we were also looking at negotiations this year I was very pleased that negotiations with our largest bargain Union went very well that's not always been the case and you know that as always very taxing as someone who you know supports our staff but also has to be the administrative support of the board um but that that went away um you guys did went to the table and negotiated fairly and um that that problem was rectified and looking at it I still think I you know coming I still have think of positive things to add to this district and add to this board and you know but I I must say that in making my decision I walk away from this at the end of this year right even right now if I walked away today I have nothing from the past few years to show the work I've done and you know I've talked to the board about this I've talked to them in private I've talked to them in public I've talked just trying to get work done it's not just this year it's going on years I haven't been evaluated in three years so it's you this board pays me paid me last year $238,000 and you didn't think to evaluate me you talk about fiscal responsibility you talk about being the voice of the people for uh making sure that you're the voice of the taxpayer the person you paid the most it's your only job to evaluate you didn't evaluate and you didn't do it last year and you didn't do the year before that and now you're going to say hey we're done with you we're done with you go on your way and we want to say you know we'd like you to stay but we can't tell you what you did bad because we didn't evaluate you we didn't you know I I'll say listen okay you don't want to give me another contract be beyond the fact they changed my mind tell me where in my evaluation I didn't do what you wanted me to do and I think that's a fair you want data that's the main force of data sension of data from my contract is where do I stand on my assessment where did you evaluate me and I didn't live up to it everywhere across the state of New Jersey every superintendent is held to that standard except here in Oldbridge and that's an issue and I don't I you know I don't think that it's it's unfair for me to say listen I want a year I'd like to be evaluated properly and I'd like to an extension upon that year you're offering year I'm saying I would like two years I would like to have two years of positive I would hope they'd be positive not nothing but pos positive evaluations and then I could retire if I wanted to work outside I could tell I have a I have these evaluations from my last districts right now I have I have no evaluations and you know I think I'm owed that and I think the the people of this community are owed that that was part of the learning curve I thought and part of what I learned at convention to to let the public know we get a survey in the spring Dave fills it out and we fill it out I didn't realize there was a second part I thought once I filled out my online survey that was done I didn't realize that the leadership team were supposed to set up the SBA to come in to give you a formal evalue so had I known that I would have been a board member to push for that so for my part in that I apologize because I think it is a give and take I think you know you want certain parts from us we want certain parts from you I don't think we can do a fair thing um I was asked if I would consider a one year and I said I would mul it over and the board kind of went over that way after I'm mulling it over I I don't agree to a one year because I don't think it's fair I don't think it's fair to Dave I think it's being greedy and selfish to us as board members because then that saves our butt and gets us covered for the work that we have to do but we haven't done our work as a board for he's saying three I've only been on two and I you know we need to be held accountable too and it's not just you know the voting box every three years we we need to be held accountable every year of what job we're supposed to be doing what requirements we're supposed to do and we haven't done that well we haven't done that we this is our first year on the board so the last three years that there weren't any evaluations has nothing to do with Elena and I because we weren't here the last three years no but when we take when we swear in and we take the O the and the o no one can have an opinion unless that's what you guys want to hear but this is this is the truth okay I'm going to I'm going to get involved okay it's up to the board president to set up the evaluation for the last two years the presidents didn't do anything this year I pulled out the Whip and we are going to evaluate because we have this person right here from the New Jersey school boards okay in November so we we did our job this year so don't say we didn't do our job right not in a time not in a timely fashion at the there's nothing wrong with with the timing what what was wrong with in the spring no no no it's November it's supposed to be done in the spring so is there things you would like to say Yes um every Administration person the assistant superintendent the ba the assistant ba all have one-year contracts so looking to renew Mr sedino a year at a time we could amend it was a three-year contract we could go up to five so renewing him year by year is fair and appropriate and I haven't said anything when I have evaluated him past um four or five years uh I've never had any complaints professionally I I do think the looming threat of retirement is a professional worry so I I'm completely okay with renewing a year at a time about a week ago I contacted the njsba I was interested to see because when we do the superintendent search they have the aspiring superintendent ready so I was trying to ask for that list they haven't gotten back to me so but I think it's appropriate to plan for the future we could acknowledge the past and the present but if we could get a a high quality superintendent and give a threee contract and or even more three four five depending on what the board decides I think that's a reasonable thought to have and we do have until March I'm I'm still I'll admited I'm confused because I'm I'm used to doing things fast I can't see how it would take months to find a superintendent if we hired someone it could be done in a timely manner but once once again I would like to see the list if the list if there's no one as qualified or I feel comfortable with going into the future for the next three years then it's appropriate to renew the contract year by year so you it's GNA it's going to roll over if we don't make a decision it'll roll over to the previous threeyear contract right thank you can I just add a comment I really think that you need to investigate the amount of time that it does take to do a superintendent search because it is 6 to n months and if you wait until March you will not have a superintendent in The District in June if Mr citadino decides to leave at that time and and the contract isn't extended and it creates chaos within the District of who is the leader and what is going on and it and when you extend for one year you do the same thing if you don't have a plan in place to do the search but every other administrative position is one year every other administrative position is not the superintendent of schools it doesn't it there it's not as easy to find someone who is going to take on a district this size have any kind of experience and be able to manage it you have to think about the district and the size and the scope of the responsibility for this position that's why we're offering the year though because then that gives us a year and a half to do our research you're offering the year to give you the time that wasn't planned for and should have been planned for in advance knowing that the contract was ending then the decision should have been made earlier so that you had the time to do the Search and S you were with me in the class last year at convention on the superintendent search because we did know that Dave's contract was up so this technically should have started when you were president and and that's when the process should have started but you were there when they said six to9 and that's if everything goes smoothly there were plenty of districts saying they're on year two we didn't have the votes to make a decision we still don't have votes to we didn't have the conversation this sets the board apart all this let me let me finish what this is it is nonsense you're bringing up irrelevant information we are where we are now we could do year by year and see what happens and we could do the same thing next year South just just to be clear about the yearby year thing you're right that you can do a new contract and extend the superintendent but there is a difference and I just want to be clear that we can't give him one year deal you can give him a new three-year contract that goes backwards and forwards uh it is different in New Jersey to Dr hooker's Point all your central administrators other than the soup have to get one-year contracts you know no matter how great you think a central administrator an assistant soup of ba is the most you can do is give them one-year contract and talk about it again next year superintendent gets a contract that's no shorter than three no longer than five now you can resend and replace and have the effect of ending it and when you have somebody who's towards the end of their career and we've had discussions about retirement that may be something that you want to consider as a board uh as we've discussed it requires five board votes because you're appointing a staff member uh it's a pretty wide open process but just to clear up the idea that we can just talk about it each year and bump them along that's not really how it works it is kind of what you're talking about with the onee proposal but it's just a little bit more complicated than that thank you and I just want to make point because I just want to be clear from Miss Francisco I just I had no intention of making this public I I I again I had no intention but at the last meeting a board member said that I have inside information on Mr citadino that the public doesn't know about that will only come out in executive session so how do you think the public felt it sounded pretty nefarious so that's why I want to have this public so if there's anything you want to say about me say it now and don't say you're going to say in executive session because the public thought it was something a lot worse I see I see we have a lot of support from Mr Cino here huh hold on hold on hold on go ahead hold on yeah yeah you just you just waved your privacy rights so I wasn't going to tell people that you were going to retire that I wasn't G to I wasn't going to say that it sounded a lot worse than I was going to retire that's something that the public doesn't know come on ladies and that is that is inside information that is now public after right so s we're not we're not ending your com trying the comment made Mr jodano was that I have information that the public doesn't know about Mr cadino and I'll you know they know now it's the way you say saying you're retiring is a lot different than the way you made it sound yes you made it sound like I stole money from little kids no I i' I I've I've never been the emotional type I focus on logic so if you and the public were offended then I'll apologize for that but there was nothing nefarious about what I said and this is something you and the public have been doing you're trying to make people look bad for just asking questions about this contract I've never said I wanted to get rid of you and not renew your contract in fact if if I could predict and at the convention we had a safety convention and they were saying how Mr Cino takes safety very seriously so I if I did have that list I probably would say that he is the most qualified and I would make the decision then but yeah okay but yeah sorry sorry if any of you got triggered I apologize I I tend to do that a lot but it's just it's just the facts okay now Mr cadino becomes an assistant superintendent under Dr Brennan Dr Brennan was an interm Superintendent at the time and uh Dr bosow left before his time so we had I believe Dr Brennan for a year or year and a half and Mr sardino Bo his assistant at that time a lot of complaints came in about the planetarium so I took the superintendent at the time was Dr Brenan I says we have to do something here kids are each other up they don't have anything to do in a planetarium what year was this what what what we did is we took $50,000 from the athletic fund to redo both planetariums and now I find out that they closed this one down without on the board this is our superintendent he does what he wants to do I can't believe it without telling the board what year was this I don't know when he I don't know when they closed the planetarium all I know is that we completely upgraded both planetariums we had teachers inv both of them and now what happened gone thank you okay I'm going to move forward $5,000 gone just think about it and the room is sitting there empty that's our superintendent that's our superintendent okay can I can I make a request and this is for anybody wanting to say anything be quiet speak speak when spoken to so can I make a comment oh my God I I I I never said that I never said that you're you're insane and the right asinine as time out all right Scott Scott Scott Scott Mr M Mr I appk thank you Mr M thank yeah bye good so what I was going to say was we all in this room no matter how we feel owe each other the respect of listening that's what we teach our children when someone else in the class is speaking that everyone else is listening quietly and attentively so if we can't do that as adults I don't know how we're educating our kids to do the same thing hold on security security SC easy okay we'll the public portion is gone thank you Matt hold on so this is kind of what I was talking about earlier it is absolutely fair and appropriate and expected for everyone to have strong emotions about this this is a pivotal issue in the school district no matter what ends up happening but this is you Eve dropping completely legally on Executive session you are here as Spectators and we have to let all sides be heard because the board members are expressing their opinions and the superintendent has waved his privacy right so Mr solowski is doing something that is unusual and unexpected but completely legal because he's talking about his feelings about the superintendent in the context of renewing a contract or not you're along for the ride buckle up he's unallowed to again everything I say is my opinion I'm not talking for the board okay let's move forward okay now ches Quake School just think about it a Blue Ribbon School closed tried to sell it for money because he wanted to make all these things go and yet I asked him to remove our let's put it this way dismiss one or two administrators he said no I need them but yet he went after all the little people got rid of them okay chees Quake school he couldn't sell it so we we were renting it out I believe the contracts up this year or next year then what are we going to do we have a building over there probably nobody going to be in it I'm totally against it this is and then 27 acres of land was sold by this Administration to try to make ends meet again apparently the administration is doing something wrong over here Matt question for clarification the closing of Cheesequake and the selling of land had to have board approval correct and I voted no on everything God check the records I voted no on selling the land the school fine but you you keep blaming Administration it is it is Administration but it's not it's the board and the people that made those decisions either got reelected or didn't get reelected that's a board decision the proposals came from the administration so the Administration has a team everything stops at the top the superintendent and then it filters on down and if anything goes wrong the superintendent is at fault so not the people Bel what went wrong okay 20 the 27 Acres 10,000 or $10 million we couldn't use it for whatever we wanted to it has to go into infrastructure I guess for the buildings okay here's another one I guess this happened maybe five or six years ago which also turned my stomach we were short a French teacher for a couple of periods because we had an over enrollment so what what we did is we we ured services with another District two periods or three period so we shared I guess the medical expenses and everything else and at the same time a person that was teaching one of the Practical Arts programs in the same school middle school was subbing a wood shop you can't do anything in a wood shop if you have a substitute in there because it's all machines they should have hired a teacher when that person was on medical this Administration didn't care this is what they did in Woodshop can you believe this okay this is and this was supposed to be for Keys holding keys they never got anything because they were subbed so what Mr sadino did is he took a teacher from s brought him over to Sandberg for a couple of periods here and there I offered my services to go in there and teach the class because I'm certified in the area okay again that was a stomach Turner that nobody cared about all these kids remember we're supposed to be there for all the kids not only the AC ademic kids and this Administration or this superintendent apparently he doesn't know what's going on in that area here's another great one the lifts the lifts broke and I go up to the superintendent I said hey the lifts are gone I I don't I don't know anything about it you're the superintendent I'm giving you a quarter of a million dollars a year you don't know anything what's going on in our district shame on you that's another thing that turned me okay contract he had a 5-year contract the salary was frozen at I believe 218,000 or something like this I felt sorry for the guy so what I did is I approached him and since I was the deciding vote I said here's what we'll do we'll give you the three years 218 or whatever it is then he went up to 235 or 238 and now he's at 250 he said I'm going to leave after that I said okay no problem and then he lied to me he says oh no no now I want a three-year contract in his mind he already knew that he wanted a three-year contract but he lied to me to get that 250,000 and 235,000 because the salary was frozen and I think Mr sou you were there for that right yes that's why I brought it up just I mean my stomach is constantly in knots with this Administration the mistakes that were made because he's not there for all the kids are better yet he doesn't know what's going on everywhere and we're paying him top dollars to be there okay then what we did I went up and I said I we'll give you an extra year this year and next year at 250,000 and a 4% increase he says no I want three but I'm not going to give them three at least my vote I don't know about the other people anyone else comment on it I mean is this is this like the like the mat roast of Dave you keep saying that we're going to stop him he he wanted this I didn't want this no but you're not it seems like you're just the focus of just roasting the guy yes I am because all the mistakes that were made in the last 10 or 12 years him being superintendent he should know everything and you got you don't have any accomplishments on that sheet no hey you don't look at the accomplishments you look at the mistakes the accomplishments are always going to be there okay Chris I have a question for clarification yes uh we need five votes to give him a contract yes and if he doesn't have five five votes can you share with the public what happens please yeah um to non-renew Mr cadino requires notification from the board which means five people the deadline for that is March 30th because it's a 90-day contract clause which is consistent with what the statute requires so it would require five people you have eight board members because right now miss lent cannot participate she has a family member employed in the district so you would need five out of eight to say we're going to notify Dave that he's out of here you would also need five out of eight to notify Dave that you are offering or entering a new contract a contract with an aggregate term of three to five years if neither of those happen we are back to June of 2023 I'm sorry June of 2022 to when the contract expired he was not non-renewed he was not renewed and by Statute in 1996 not to sound like Mr Weber but in 1996 when we got rid of as a state uh we got rid of superintendent tenure superintendents used to have lifelong tenure once they had done their three years uh instead they can now have a contract of three to five years but if that circumstance happens where you don't non-renew and don't renew the superintend rolls over as Mr Super Mr cadino did in in July 1st of 2022 into a new contract of the same duration so it was another fiveyear term at that point with with no changes step on my legal analysis uh with no changes in the contract so whatever the final salary is it would stay the same that's what happened and then the next year in summer of 2023 there were five plus votes on the board to give him a new contract so that is what could happen again if you don't get five on either side of that question there is a middle ground it is imposed by state law and it would roll Dave over into what would now be a new three-year contract which in which his current salary would remain the same does that answer your question okay anyone anyone from the board any more comments I'd like to address some of the points you made um so the chees Quake School 2018 um the board asked us for proposals and that was just one of the proposals that is the proposal that the board chose to adopt we could have given you no proposals as an Administration and you wouldn't have been able to put put together a budget for that school year but several several proposals were put together some were umit removal of programs similar to we went through this year at the high school and um a severe reduction of staff and that was not the direction that the board wanted to go so the board you may have voted no chose for the cheese the Cheesequake model um which brought in $5 million in Revenue over the course of 10 years it's not it has doesn't um it doesn't end this year what year it is I think it's at least four more years on that contract two the Nike base again part of S2 brought in $10 million in in revenue on a piece of property that was uh evaluated at $3.4 million um again that's $15 million in Revenue that if you're going to put all the blame on me then put all the heroics on me too I brought in $15 million in Revenue to the district I'm only I'm not even asking for a portion of that um so if I bring in $15 million in Revenue you know use your history books go back and see if there's another superintend and brought in $15 billion in Revenue to the district just to clarify that one th those funds as we talked about in in numerous budgets and even s has brought up P legislation we we cannot use it to fund our general budget those can only be funded for construction related projects so even if you had 155 million from the sale you know to to be honest it could have wiped out the deficit for one year and then you would never have that money again it's lost so that that money by Statute can only stay in in the capital reserve for funding construction projects so so we can't use that for payroll then right correct correct okay but the original assumption is I believe in my opinion that they were going to use this money for their toys whatever it may be no okay because we reduced administration at the building we reduced it we reduced costs at that building as well as then using the the money for Revenue in in the rental that we could use elsewhere that we still have to have as an operating budget we've gone over that with how you need operators operational cash every year and that that money allows you to have operational cash when you're waiting for your state aid to come in and you still have to make payroll in the month of July and you get interest yes and you get interest on it so that's yet but yet you didn't cut any Administration supervision we did cut Administration during that time yes we did who tell me Mrs Barrett the we had to move principles around and the principal one principal was cut in addition to counselor secretary nurse we did cut the executive director of uh curriculum the director of Technology was also that year and you also and you also created other administrative position five administrative positions cut that year what about the Creations let's talk about them so the hold on what about what you just asked we answered it okay so we did cut administrative positions as we get you also created onad as we get into the creation of positions let's keep in mind that one person W wav their rice rights for tonight no names um the wood the wood shop position um the wood shop position we work to get a a qualified substitute for that position as best we could we could not have if if we would have to have you in the position as as a volunteer I'm not even sure if that's a conf confict or not but you'd Al we'd also have to hire a teacher to be in there with you because you're not you are you are a volunteer you're not you if you worked as a certified teacher you'd be conflicted because you're working as a volunteer and due to our volun our volunteer policy I would still have to hire a teacher to be with you and was Staffing we didn't have but the thing is at least the kids would get an education instead of sitting there beating each other up and the teacher I totally disagree with you okay I offered my my my services I know that I could all I can do is go in there use the Machinery sh all the kids and I would have to have a sub in there but at least the kids would be getting in education you didn't go in that direction totally disagree with you as far as I'm concerned this Administration put this District in such a financial burden no superintendent I I've worked here for 50 years almost I I think six or seven superintendant none of of them ever got into a situation like this where we sold all this land my old partner Ellen mcder we named the building after she says Matt don't sell anything you have to hold on to it because they don't make anymore okay so just to clarify I apologize clarify thank you so in 20178 the state of New Jersey provided oldridge with 44 m779 $742 for the 2425 school year we got 24 m342 million it's a 20, 437,000 loss Mr sedino did not do that anyone else no okay I showed you my my side I would like to hire a new superintendent I don't know what kind because I haven't found that person yet but once we interview him I think the right person will be there I'm looking for somebody with a financial industrial background with the qualifications to be a superintendent okay they don't have to have a doctorate degree because he never got his doctorate degree he was supposed to if that was your goal you should have started that in January when you took over as president look we're not behind the last we're not the last superintendent search we didn't go through the school boards we did it on our own okay and it took three months I think Mr paron was there we interviewed 10 or 10 eight or nine people I believe it was or 10 Mr silakowski I think I think that was a for a short-term interim position that that resulted in Dr Brenan for a year you're right right that's an interm that would create more problems and more disruption than creating a long-term plan just like the Strategic plan like you need to have a plan not just oh well we're going to end we'll end up with somebody we don't know if they're really going to work for a year but then like that'll give us time that's not how we should be running the district I gave Mr sadino the time he has this year and I offered him another year at 250 a quarter of a Million Dollar Plus 4% but we didn't he said no he said no but the public elected us to do a job of give him an evaluation or plan for changes that are up coming we all knew Dave's contract was up in June we didn't do the proper planning to get this ball rolling like we should have that's why we're giving him another year so we could do that but he has two years next year and he's rejecting the offer of a one-year contract so so when the new board comes on we'll have a vote and we'll see what happens if he gets another three years God bless him if not the is there public comments D thank you that is a great way to respond to staff in the district after they've given more than 20 years is you've got two years left take a walk when a person lies to another person I don't like that he lied to me but we all have oh look look no no no no I I hold look I'm a man of my word apparently he isn't you're saying you've never changed your mind on any opinion any budget very very I always vote no on everything you can change your mind that's why we're giving you a year at a time and then two years oh I've said but to say that I lied when it say your mind that's it's a big difference I Clos my phone I'm withdrawing my support for a one year so I won't support a one-year contract right I just have just last thing to say is um was the point I just made I said it out loud and I forgot I about the evaluation this year oh yeah okay so extending the contract one more year after this school year gives you two years of evaluations hold on then um it it's just funny to me that the last meeting in executive session everyone was we were all on board for this and now you get on we get on the stage the cameras are on and then the divisive thoughts again and it this is just like this is just what happens every single meeting no I said I wanted more time to and then you agree with it and that's why Mr Parton brought it to Mr citadino was because we because everyone else was going for the one year and after thinking about it right but Christina also we we agreed to offer it but when he turned it down and now you know gives us another another reason so you changed your mind just like he does no we get a chance to renegotiate if he says no yes because we're on here and the cameras are here and you have your and him a year this is what happens every single meting not the fact is right now you authorized me to make an offer to the superintendent he tonight said no to that offer he said he when when I conveyed it to him he said he was thinking about it now that's not a live issue so the question isn't what happened the question is what do you want to do next I know so the one year is not an option anymore we offered him a year he said no it's not that we're changing our decision he made a decision not to accept a year so we got to accept either June or two years or that's it there's only two options right anyone else okay I'm going to close this and we're going to go into executive session we have uh somebody from the New Jersey school boards over here and we're going to go over the evaluation I thought so no yeah oh public okay I didn't know that okay I'm here so long for all this and we wouldn't have made you stay all late I apologize just to just to put you completely on the spot are you prepared to lead the discussion of the superintendent evaluation tonight or just do logistical discussions of that right okay M so if that if that's going to be I'm sorry if that's going going to be a brief part of this then we will continue that in public as well if it gets into Personnel discussions of your performances part of the evaluation do you want that to continue in public as well Mr CAD Miss Fran I'm Sor do you want to put her up there so we can CH has a microphone so people hear yes you might as well all right would you explain the process to us because so you're saying you don't you don't have the ability to do my evaluation tonight correct that one okay sorry not used to microphones um so the superintendent evaluation has been completed and has been compiled and has been delivered to the person that Mr sukowski asked me to deliver it to along with instructions on how to complete the rest of the process I have no idea where that stands at this point but what what I will tell you is once the compilation has been provided to a board member to the board the board should meet an executive session having rice the superintendent to review that compilation as long no non-con all non-conflicted members so anybody who's conflicted is not able to be there they discuss that compilation and they identify what the majority opinion of the board is that gets typed up into a formal um final evaluation document because it's just the majority opinion of the board then that then the Board needs to have another executive session having R the superintendent where the board all non-conflicted members meet with the superintendent to give them the final document which is just the majority opinion of the board it's the superintendent's opportunity to address the board non-conflicted members only and the non-conflicted members of the board to address the superintendent and that that's when that conversation about the superintendent's evaluation happens with the superintendent there's two steps that need to be taken once the compilation has been provided so I don't know if either of those steps have been taken yes that was me and I emailed all of you the compiled email from njsba yes may just your your opinion sorry are we behind schedule according to by Statute and by code the superintendent evaluation must be completed by July 1st of each year CU so Matt you said we weren't behind schedule you made you made a public statement that we're on Pace I'm not talking I'm talking about the contract his contract no no no earlier I said oh are we on schedule misunderstood you probably go ahead misunderstood okay so by April you said by July ju so the process usually starts around March and then goes through because the superintendent enters the their information first the board can't do anything until that's entered superintendent does their part then the board members as soon as that's submitted will get an email within 48 Hours letting them know anybody who's not conflicted that they can go in and do their part of the evaluation so that part has all been done and that's what has been compiled and Mr sukowski asked me to send it to one of the board members which I did and also to the best of your knowledge last year you were involved in the in the evaluation as well so unfortunately I I was your field service rep in from 2017 to 2022 okay and then I was moved out of of middlex so I wasn't in 2022 and I wasn't in 20 I was I was here for 2022 but I don't believe that the evaluation was ever completed correct and that was a whole other issue so 22 and 24 behind and I don't know if it was done in 23 or not because I wasn't your field service ra so I apologize so you said that we go over the compilation and then we submit a majority opinion you identify what the majority opinion of the board is from that compiled document okay and then that gets typed into a summary document that I have supplied right and that gets typed in and then at the next executive session you have these are two executive sessions having rice the superintendent okay so the so the compilation is the compilation and then the majority of opinion is based off of that so at that point you can't add or delete anything that you want to be considered so you can consider things certainly and if somebody hadn't participated in the evaluation who was able to because they don't have a family member or relative working in the district they just chose not to their input would be able to be taken to put that that summary document together think of the compilation as the raw data and then you're creating a summary document which just represents the majority opinion of the board okay at this point does anybody who so the we already can see um which who completed the evaluations and when at this point so do I have that information March no no I know I'm just saying um so do they go back and then change their evaluation or does who go back I don't know a board member no once it's compiled so okay so what I did was I provided I provided reports tracking reports to Mr silakowski okay he then said when it gets to this point I want it to go to this particular person and I had him send me an email to that effect also because I need to know that okay um and I need to have that in writing because I'm not sending it to the board president any longer I'm sending it to somebody else I just wanted to get an idea what that those meetings are going to consist of so thank you so the meeting would consist of you all receiving the EV valuation the data the raw data that compilation and then identifying in that executive session what the majority opinion of the board is and then somebody types that up it's usually the board president but it can be designated to somebody else but it needs to be a board member that does that okay thank you for explaining it you're welcome okay so I guess we're going to have to call another executive session sorry she's here to do the board self eval yes right well two executive sessions you have to go over the compilation they have to review the compilation yes exactly and then and then deliver to the superintendent on the second one right and I generally recommend that you Del you deliver that summary document to the superintendent 48 hours before your second executive session so that they have the opportunity to review it it's never two pages long it's usually multiple pages and you want them to be able to to digest it and to process it so that they're not sitting there reading it when you have that executive session so he has to do his homework I understand okay who has to do his homework Mr sadino he has to read basically what he would read the summary document yes right right so we give him two days to do it yes okay so can you start the board self ail so we don't make you stay longer sure you want to do this now yes we're here for all okay so the board self- evaluation is not mandated excuse me this is not a cold not covid I have vocal CT issues from last year I went to Workshop having laryngitis and I did what they tell you not to do when you have laryngitis and I talked so all workshop last year so I now have vocal CT issues so the sup the um board self- evaluation while the superintendent's evaluation is mandatory and it is due by July 1st the board self- evaluation is not mandatory and it is not it does not have a deadline date so there were seven board members who completed this the board self- evaluation and you have it in front of you on the right hand leftand side of your packet and anything that's considered that's considered a three that's a 3.0 or above in the averages is a considered a board that's working well together okay so on the first thing that we ask you to do it's the quantification of relative value so we ask you to Value the nine different areas that we ask you to assess yourselves in those are planning policy student achievement Finance board operations board performance board superintendent relationships board staff relationships and board and Community the things that you ranked the highest were board staff relationships and board and community and the next um four areas that you rank just below that were policy student achievement finance and board superintendent relationships so when we get to the charts which will be in a few minutes we're going to look at that value as what you feel your um your ability is so I look at at the value kind of like special ed what is your ability and then what's your performance so your board ratings on each of these nine areas that you'll see going through are going to give you what your what you feel your performance is and then we'll look at that in comparison to the value that you shed on those that you rated those particular areas on okay so the first thing that we talk about is planning and this was an area of relative strength for the board the one thing that um was a little bit lower was regularly monitoring progress towards the district goals and that's something that can be done on a regular basis generally the board will set their district and their board goals over the summer months and then I always recommend November as the first time for an opportunity to get progress reports and that's where that you've asked the superintendent to provide you with information on how things are going towards the achievement of the district goals and you've already had a couple of months then to take a look at what progress has been made January is the next best time to do this because you may have new board members who may or may not know that you have set District goals and to see what kind of progress has been made there knowing that you're six months in to those District goals then March because March is when you're going to have to sit sit down to start doing your superintendent evaluation and the superintendant needs you to know exactly where he is with the district goals and you need to know that in order to make an informed evaluation of the superintendent okay make sense so far okay then June you want to have an end of the year wrapup and is there anything that we weren't able to accomplish that we need to move forward into the upcoming year or is there anything that worked so well and we did so well with we'd like to prolong some of those things and work on accelerating those so that's the those are the four different times that we recommend having updates on progress towards District goals I also always recommend that the board um talk about the progress towards the board goals at that point as well board goals are are usually on process and procedure and your governance structure and that allows you to take a look at what you're doing as a governance structure how you're performing and what you want to improve upon and this is actually going to give you a very nice table setting for what things you might want to improve upon okay for board goals and then I always suggest that the board president or somebody on the board report out on the progress November January March and June okay so the next thing was policy and this is an area of relative strength developing broad policies that give the administration sufficient authority to and latitude to manage the day-to-day operations also reviewing and updating your policy manual regularly as required by qac and also ensuring the administration develops appropriate procedures and reg regulations those were your three areas of strength in policy in terms of student achievement student achievement was also an area of strength mostly in using the expertise of your professional staff to um in developing the curriculum and ensuring that it's focused on student achievement monitoring the effectiveness of your instructional program and setting high standards for all students which we know are very important in terms of getting that that student achievement up when we have high expectations for all students for ourselves for our staff for the board for administration people rise to that occasion and that's very powerful in terms of Finance this was an area of relative strength also exercising Financial oversight of all aspects of District Operations in accordance with statute and reviewing and understanding and evaluating the financial reports to ensure that the educational dollars are used in an efficent in an effective manner the one area that was that was the area that is a little bit of a challenge is balancing the educational needs of students with the impact of budgetary increases so again anything that's a 3.0 or above is an area where the board is working well together board operations this was an area that that provides some challenges for you the areas of strength we're holding your meetings in compliance with applicable statutes policies and bylaws and providing time funding and opportunity for orienting and updating our members um also you stated that you're the ratings were that your method of board governance has clearly defined bylaws but there were some some challenges in terms of providing a climate that allows free orderly and open discussion by all board members at the meetings developing and utilizing skills in um teamwork consensus building and collaborative problem solving using good discussion decisionmaking processes only after appropriate information has been received and studied and respecting the administrator's leadership by thoughtfully deliberating on recommendations also um I from this I wasn't really sure whether you worked as a board of the whole or on committees after tonight I see you work with committees um but there was thought that the method of board governance may not be contributing to the overall effectiveness of the board and effici of the board and that the to that the board's governance doesn't necessarily lessen the overall impact of um the total work of the board members and that the method of governance is not necessarily ensuring appropriate communication to the board so those were a couple of areas of Challenge and again those areas or Challen of challenge are areas that you may want to consider when you're thinking about developing board goals so have you developed board goals yet for this year okay um so that's something that I would be happy to come in and and facilitate with you guys so that we could use this information in developing board goals that will help you to become more effective and hopefully next year's evaluation will be even better than this year's evaluation okay um board performance this was an area that was a challenge also um recognizing that the um area of um of strength was recognizing that Authority rests with the board as a whole sitting in a legally ad advertised meeting with the Quorum of the board the areas that were challenges were working together in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect ensuring that all members have input into decision making avoiding even the appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest and operating in accordance with the board members code of ethics okay so those were some of the areas that we may want to take a look at in terms of board goals and again board goals have to do with process policy procedures and governance the board superintendent relationship was an area of relative strength um the one area that's a little bit of a challenge is respecting the management responsibilities and administrative prerogatives of the superintendent the areas that were strength we're keeping the superintendent informed about community and school issues and aspirations conducting that fair comprehensive um annual event evaluation of the superintendent which is a little surprising because that hasn't happened yet so but it's in process and then regularly um requiring regular Dialogue on progress towards District goals so that's something that when you develop your District goals also have you developed District goals for the upcoming year okay so I'm going to suggest that we have me back in and that we do a goal setting session we take care of District goals and board goals I will always ask the superintendent to come in with proposed goal areas because that is the person that you've hired to make those decisions and your educational leader and he knows what needs to be focused on most in the upcoming year we're a little bit late in doing those things but it's still important to do them because they'll be critical in terms of next year's EV superintendent evaluation because whether you use our evaluation tool or not and we are not the only game in town certainly um but whatever evaluation tool you use for the superintendent it must by Statute have a district goals component to it and progress towards those District goals in that evaluation okay so that's the important part um and then what we'll do is when we develop the district goals and the board goals we'll talk about how often you want to have updates on the progress towards those district and board goals so that will be cemented at that point as well and everybody will be on the same page page you'll all know what the district goals are you'll know how you're progressing towards those you'll all know what the board goals are and you'll understand how you're progressing towards those as well board staff relationships this was an area of strength recognizing the importance of staff development and providing the necessary funds and time for that providing for public recognition of Staff achievements and also treating District staff with courtesy and respect those were all areas of strength next was board and Community again this is is an area of relative strength encouraging Community involvement in the district and having an effective communication community relations program and I know I was part of facilitating your strategic plan back in 2022 so I know that that's in place I'm glad you're having meeting you have an upcoming meeting Mr Slade said um on November 13th was it see I was listening um November 13th to be able to talk about the strategic planning goals and moving forward with those as well so that's very positive the last two things that we ask are identifying the challenges that are facing your District what are three major challenges that are currently facing the district and the the three things that the two three things that popped out to me were funding and budget we know that you're an S2 district and you've taken some really severe Financial hits from state aid and unfortunately that's nothing that we can do anything about but we have to deal with it and so that going to be an issue moving forward as well and then student learning and achievement was also a high priority and a challenge given those reduced funds and then thing that several people talked about was differing views on what's best for students and that struck me because it wasn't just one person who said that it was multiple people who said that and so what you may want to try and do also at some point in time in the near future is really think about what your vision should be develop a collaborative Vision between the board and the superintendent for where you want this District to be and that's what you would where you want to go and then your mission is how you get there you do have a powerful mission statement and I think it's important that you take a look at that and then take a look at whatever the vision statement is that you would like to to identify with all of you collaboratively and make sure that those things are are ding together okay that that that mission statement is going to help to take you where the vision is that you've all decided on then we ask you as a policymaking body what are some areas of additional focus and training that the board would like to receive training on there was several um statements about you know continuing with board training continuing with governance training roles and responsibilities and things like that so those are all things that we can talk about about as well any questions on the actual data part of the evaluation okay so then you have your charts so the first chart takes a look at the value and the board's rating and again I make this akin to what you feel your ability is as the value and what you feel the performance of the board is so the first five areas from planning to board operations are your task areas and those are areas that the board is generally very uniquely involved in and intimately involved with because they're task areas that the board is very responsible for those last four areas from board performance to board and Community those are your relationship areas so in terms of value to board value being what you consider your ability and board being what your performance is those things are pretty close together if there were some really large gaps there would be some concerns but there pretty close together so I think that's pretty good then the second page talks about the board to individual and on this in all nine areas board members rated themselves as individuals higher than you rated yourselves as a board typically the board will rate itself higher in those task areas so in planning through board operations typically the boards feel that they do better together when they're seated in a legally advertised meeting of the board and they're conducting the business of the board but then in the relationship areas board members usually feel as individuals they do better because it's relationships and that's usually an individual thing so in this particular case all in all nine areas board members felt this individuals they did better as individuals than they do you do as a board together okay and then the last chart talks about the current year versus the prior year so the gray bar going gray column going up is last year the green column is the is this year and in two areas you rated yourself as improved over last year and that was in board superintendent relationships and board and Community the rest were slightly lower than last year that's based off of the surveys that we filled out last year but we didn't do this part of it okay right okay so you did the board self- evaluation last year you definitely did that and I don't know because again I wasn't your field service up last year so I can't speak to that um I don't know whether Patty came in and talked to you all about the findings like we're doing tonight or whether it was just delivered to the board or did you not ever see it we never saw it okay okay so this is this is part of the reason why we always offer to come in and I don't know that that was done last year so I can't speak to that um but we offered to come in to review the findings because it does make a difference in terms of things that you're thinking about out considering for board goals areas that you want to improve upon and and identifying areas of relative strength any other questions so the right side is all just like planning and and stuff for next year the right side is um just yeah just really taking a look at those things when you're um so what I would ask you to do if we're going to ask if you're going to have me in or or regardless if you're going to develop you need to develop District goals absolutely okay it's not too late to do that and it's critical for next year's superintendence evaluation by Statute and code um but if you want to develop board goals also then take a look at that Green Sheet which talks about processing the board self- evaluation so really take a look at this and look at the comments and identify what was really interesting about it what was unexpected about it what areas you feel as a board you could be doing doing better in and then we can talk about those areas for board goals and what areas you feel you exceled them okay and then on the left hand side there's the board evaluation process calendar which really spells out for you what the time frame is it gives you what the recommendation is for the timelines in terms of what's required by the state and when it's required to be done and if you follow that so after reorganization if whoever the president is sits down with the super super intendent and comes up with a plan with the vice president perhaps too on what these dates will look like you will never have to worry about going beyond the July 1 date again because this Maps it all out for you all you have to do is put in your dates okay and then most of the time boards who do this will send me those dates and then I can track on that progress also and make sure that you're staying true to your calendar okay okay thank you if you have any other questions please feel free to give me a call okay you have my contact information in there I appreciate your time tonight um and I wish you the best and I hope to hear from you soon I appreciate you coming okay so we have two dates November 14th or the 19th for the superintendent evaluation that's when we have our agenda meeting and regular meeting I guess we can do it before the meeting or after you could do it in executive session after you just have to make sure that you r Mr cedo for both of those sessions that's up to okay okay so what what date is good for you I don't come in for those oh you don't I'm not here for that I can't be a part of the conversation of the superintendent's evaluation because the superintendent doesn't report to me okay he reports to you so all I can do is guide you through that process and as I said I know that um Christine I had provided you with a bunch of documents if you could share those with the board also okay so you want to take a look at that next steps document which really outlines it gives you bulleted I you know points that you need to follow and hopefully you know get that done as as soon as possible okay so that that's that's done and now you'll be working on next year's valuation okay for the go board and District goals what what date is we for you the 14th or the 19th of November I will have to take a look at my calendar okay and get and get back to either me or uh Christina okay 14th or the 19th 19th okay so you want to do Dave's superintendent thing ends District goals all on the same night end well she doesn't have to be here for the superintendent evaluation I know but how long is a goal like that's not a five minute meeting no goal setting is usually about an hour to an hour and a half a question do we have to do it after a meeting can we can we do it like a yeah like on at an on the brandom night you can do it on a different night you can do it as a special meeting absolutely okay got that we have me unless you guys want to get a bunch of sleeping bags and sleep here you could do that too so Christina if you're going to be responsible for the dates you and I I'll talk okay and come up with a date you got it okay all right thank you everybody I want to thank you for your time good night thank you that's good Mr solowski we we do have a brief executive session for personnel issues with people who have not waved their privacy rights Mone motion is to end the meeting Francisco second motion to go exact motions in second we're now going to go into I would like uh I thank everyone for coming and your input and uh good night okay ciao for now