all right good evening everyone may I call the Board of Education meeting at the parci Troy's Board of Education to order on Thursday May 9th 2024 everybody okay yep okay in compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified in the act in the following manner a meeting notice was published in the newspaper and on the district website on January 17th 2024 in addition the notice of the meeting was posted at the municipal building in the schools and a copy of the notice filed the Township Clerk and transmitted to the newspapers on April 26 2024 including a daily record The Star Ledger parcion Focus tap into parsipany patch in the district website this regular public board meeting is being video recorded as per bylaw 0168 these record the recordings of these meetings will be available on our district website and our video on the Go YouTube channel we ask that you please refrain from using student or staff names in your statement professionalism is expected at all times may we have the roll call please Mrs Abraham here Mr baros here Mrs kogan here Mrs mayor here Mr Rea here Mrs Chappelle here Dr Wright here Mrs Golder here Mr Choppa here please stand for the pledge to the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Applause] all all right I see uh only one of our high school students Emily would you care to give the report hello hello is it on hello oh here we go girls lacrosse hosted their second annual greenout game for Mental Health Awareness on Saturday April 27th at 10: a.m. Mr and Miss PHS returned on Friday April 26th at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium with six contestants competing for the title of Mr or Miss PHS through amazing entrances hilarious acts and witty answers to a Q&A section with a special MC The Italian Club had a pizza making field trip on Thursday May 2nd after school at a pet the Asian-American club's annual Sushi tea dance is at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday May 23rd the pthsd de education department and our parpan students with hearing loss will be sharing tips to help prevent hearing loss through the month of May beginning May 10th for National speech hearing and language month Sports Marketing hosted a mini Olympics ending with Samoa winning bronze Germany winning silver and Zimbabwe winning the gold medal the Spanish Honor Society seniors visited Rockway Meadow to to read stories in Spanish to the ESL students and their parents unified track team had a meet on the first at par Hills sweeping the 100 meter dash taking third in the 200 met Dash first and third in the long jum and second and third in relay the French Club learned how to make Moroccan couscous from a PHS parent and Community member peer buddies prepared 100 care packages for project kind and St John soup soup kitchen Italian C Indian culture Club Italian Club and cooking club teamed up to cook food for the PHS culture Fest the following students were selected by audition into the New Jersey All State Chorus for the 2024 2025 school year Emma Gonzalez soprano 1 Sai kelar soprano 1 Elena vodo soprano 1 Ana Sinha Alto 1 Stephanie Guan alto2 and sarva Coran base 2 this week commences the AP testing the junior dinner is next Friday May 17th and bids were on sale last week on May 1st and 2nd the art show on the 17th as well as from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. in the media center and Greenhouse Courtyard our National Honor Society selected new members last week the induction rehearsal is on Thursday May 23rd after school in the auditorium and the induction ceremony is on Thursday the 30th that's all thank you any questions uh by the board for Emily no thank you um I was informed that two of our crucial presenters for the Leadership Retreat are in route so we are going to skip over that section right now and continue with our regular agenda um correspondents is there any correspondents comeing before the board no there's not thank you is there any unfinished business thank you Emily oops okay sure no one finished business okay okay thank you committee reports let's see Mrs Abraham I think I think sheo you had said that um there were some edits that were made to the report so um I did I think make sure Joanie has those so we'll get them posted up on the website thank you or up on the board do sorry all right thank you uh TLC met on May 1st uh including myself was uh Miss Golder Mrs FR and Mrs mayor and Dr Malo the following books were discussed and reviewed uh folk and fairy tales edited by Martin and Barbara kesc uh this was as uh Dr Malini had mentioned this was a great textbook for Anthology for kids to have um Shadow and bone is part of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Lee bar bardugo uh which is part of the fantasy and fairy tales 12th grade semester English as well as Siege and storm which is also part of the same Trilogy by the same author upcoming in May is Meda by Elish Quinn which is also part of the fantasy and fairy tales uh the summaries were available for everyone to peruse Dr M roone also discussed the deib mini retreat uh that occurred in April it was about 2 hours at the pal building and uh it had about 30 students from PHS and phhs and they used to meet every month but now they meet every other month their uh their guest speaker was jabri Jackson who is a PHS Alum uh he's a head basketball coach in bton and he's very involved in lots of events and charity rallies with the police department there's also another event coming up on June 4th and the kids really seem to take uh really enjoyed meeting Mr Jackson and hearing about his experiences and did spend a lot of time um asking about him afterward and their retreat was focused on making a difference uh positive Community change and identity and names the elementary progress report committee has two remaining meetings and should have their revisions to the elementary progress report cards completed by the end of the school year Dr Malone also discussed the Career and Technical education CTE proposal and the academic office would like to pursue a Certificate of Eligibility from the New Jersey Department of Education and and a Perkins Grant to start a new career in technical education program using pre-existing courses which include some dual enrollment they'll be creating two three course career clusters for students to earn a CTE certificate in either architecture and construction which includes engineering one and two and honors engineering and design and that is in dual enrollment with NGIT and in addition to that they're also going to be doing the CT certificate in finance which includes accounting 1A honors accounting 1B honors counting two which is a full year and all of these courses do offer dual enrollment in fdu as well and I think that was it thank you thanks sheel any questions for sheel on the uh teaching learning committee and Dennis I I see perhaps a future podcast uh topic about uh how curriculum's developed I think that might be a good one okay got for podcast you do you do you do we'll have somebody do the voice over for you though uh Mr baros policy committee thank you Mr President uh policy met on uh May 6th in attendance uh myself uh Mr rehea Miss Chappelle Dr Sutter um so uh up for first read are policy 1140 uh policy 15 2 three these are all revised policies policy 1530 and um the Equal Opportunity uh complaint procedure that has also been revised so these are up for first read uh we went through each and every policy um and again they were just primarily uh updates uh based on current um statutes and word changing word changes um the policy committee also reviewed policy 7446 which was the school security policy uh we kicked it back because we had some additional questions for the insurance company we also had um a question or two for our board attorney um I believe that our questions have been answered and should be up for first read at our next meeting and that is my report for policy uh Tim the first read for this meeting or pardon me the first read for this meeting I think right no I was told that it was going to be for next the security ones the security okay thank you yeah security next read okay and all the policies are up for first reading um there were quite a few of them um the the changes seem to be to be in compliance with I guess the more recent um updates right by the um State Board of bed that's right right state is well but um St say smma also goes back through makes changes to their their model policies based on those changes so that's where they come up with their rights so again they're just our standard policy update so any questions on that M gold I guess for me it's come into question um reading some articles stating that stra ese is puts down mandated on some of their policies uh changes and yet they are technically not mandated um and they're more suggestions from their end and it all depends on what um what service you use to update your policies um so let's say if if so so I guess we I do we ever question when they State mandated that it must be changed um whether we have to change it I guess when it that came into question it you know it you start thinking of all the policies that that they have ever sent and that it's not always true that it's a real mandate that it's just a suggestion and that there you know are suggesting you to to either revise it or or or or make that change I could tell you that when we have a question about a policy we send it to our board attorney Kate and Kate reviews it right but we but when we see anything for she'll tell us whether or not it's mandated or not basically so every policy you see in and state yes it is mandated no I don't I only see the policies that come to me through the committee right when they have questions so I don't go I have not gone through the policy book I have not gone through no but but that's what I'm saying in that in that in the articles I was reading it states that even though Str I always for Strauss and Es um have put on there that it's mandated it really isn't or you know revision it's up to the school district to to make that change sometimes it might be um you know uh for legal reasons or such but it's not necessarily and I and technically why am I bringing it up I'm just questioning I'm like of all of the other ones we've ever done you know how do we do we have to um first of all we don't have to just use them we can use any other service okay that that can um that can do a whole policy review because we don't have um just like in just like in I'm sure that we have plenty of policies that are very old in our you know in in our book so I just was concerned about whe you know about whether we should have something like the curriculum committee has or uh curriculum department has that every you know that they go and check well when was the last time we revise that we Revis that so that they're always coming up and making sure that we're up to to date on things but and instead of just relying on once in a while Michelle so uh correct me if I'm wrong um but serving on the policy committee last year and this year my understanding is that you're totally right and we do not have it's our prerogative to take the changes that are coming through or not and we have to decide what's right for our district and that's why when we get them if we have any questions about that we send them to Kate to verify that this is something that must be made or not it's also my understanding that the policies that we have um were changed to tr ese just a few years ago it's quite an effort to it's been quite a while ago yeah it's quite an effort to migrate to a totally new set of policies so that would be a tremendous undertaking um so just want to be cautious with you know taking you know a step in that direction um but I appreciate you know you're saying it's always good to question and challenge things I just want to be cautious with the effort we have I'm just saying that we should at you know we should as a district make sure that we that we go through all our policies and see what we have and just and that was my that was my third point is that we do right we we do have a cycle that we look at the policies yeah that last year we had a stud cycle ones that would come through that we would went through a lot of them last year yeah but but those are the ones that brought up by stra Esme no there were other ones that came up that were not just through stra Esme that we hadn't looked at before may I just uh interject here I think and I can't remember which committee I was on so please forgive me but um in the talking stage I think we were talking about as a board initiative a process in which we have a a cycle in which we actually do a review so you know there's a policy that really hasn't been looked at touched since 2011 for example we would pick it up and review it I don't think there's you know I don't think we're at a point where it's formalized it was kind of like hey maybe we should be doing this so it started it was a discussion that we had in might been critical issues at the time but uh and I agree with that approach I think you're totally right that you if we have something that hasn't been looked at it definitely warrants you know some kind of right and and I just don't want us to fall into because somebody tells us it's you know tells us it's white we say oh yeah it's white we know it's about looking it over questioning it and keeping an open mind we did raise a lot of questions in the in the meeting on on on these policies so okay no I'm just yeah I think I think the point that Susie brings up um there was an article a few weeks ago that talked about Strauss Esme issuing their designations for policies you know suggested recommended man mandated and by their own admission by theany comp's own admission um and this is where I think the confusion comes in um they said that sometimes mandated doesn't really mean mandated so to Susie's Point how how do we really know um if it's mandated by Statute or or not um so and I was confused by that because I like I like kind of like words to mean what they're supposed to mean um funny that way but yeah I think we should um you know maybe remand it to policy just take a look at that um to best of my knowledge the service that we're paying for for Strauss ese is to update us when things change so that our policy manual is always up to date we have a board attorney who can answer questions regarding policy to make sure that they're um accurate and then we do have some latitude to change or modify certain things so that they're specific to our district so Timothy would you mind maybe taking uh that on in policy the summer's coming got lots of time I think I think I think um if I and a m of Vice President believe we were in talking about this in critical critical issues right with the board goals I I have I have information right okay yeah so I won't step on your on what you're going to do here but um was something that came up on a sidebar and we're just kind of like oh you know so miss Golder I'm sure can give you more context as to what we were talking about thank you any other questions I would mention that's right um to the to the board there are policies that Strauss smme has indicated are mandated are mandated but within the policy language they've made changes from like a shall to a May and those are not necessarily mandated so just because the policy is mandated does not always mean that the language within the policy is is required thank you oh sorry I just wanted to ask and I apologize to uh Mr beros that I didn't reach out to him um I wanted to ask because I didn't get enough time to read through every single one of these things if um if we if there's any way to do all of them next week at the next meeting all of which ones meaning like you have uh 7446 which is going to be up for first reading next meeting so do you think that the other four could also be moved to the next meeting since that oh poll right she's asked not to vote on those right I'm saying since I don't know if it's just me or if everybody else had enough time to peruse and ask questions I didn't I certainly did not but that's to my own fault I but I don't know if time is of the essence on any of these the ones that are for first read so oh unemployment I mean I don't a lot of them had to do with uh EEOC uh education Equity policy affirmative action I mean again they look like they were just basic word Chang urgent right yeah well if and there's a second reading still so right so there's two choices right we could either table these policies by motion and uh take them off the uh superintendent's bulletin or uh there's this is a first reading so that means between now and our next board meeting you have ample time to read and ask questions and if there's something that's um you know defective or something that think is compelling to change we can certainly do that at our next board meeting well just as a clarification if at the second read There is a a suggested change that makes makes sense and yes we want to do that um procedurally how do we back it off of a second read table table the following okay okay thank you sure okay yeah thank you all right thank you I have a question though in the past just like uh with teaching and learning there's certain committees such as policy that are that are um have more extensive reading than others and that is one of the reasons why we had um we had asked for the meetings to be held not the same week of the of um you know of the of a board meeting but to give us you know plenty of time for us to also meaning the other board members that are not involved in those committees to also do our you know uh due diligence in looking at um over our paperwork so that we feel comfortable and if we have any questions and um it it's maybe something that we could also consider for policy because I know teaching and learning has has been rescheduled so that same thing we could do for policy to make sure that they're not they don't fall on the same week so that board members have um enough time I I truthfully didn't get through all of them besides brout I I'm not sure I know the original scheduled meeting last week was last week or whenever we had the got postponed because there was a conflict somewhere so but I do agree yes you got to follow Andy I had one more question sure um in regards to what you were speaking about earlier with SC sesme are there any districts in New Jersey that use njsba as their policy okay and they don't use St s me so they're not monopolizing the whole thing no like No And there's others okay so I'm just curious about that that's all thank you you want me to uh do um Town Council or you want to wait on that sure ahead um sorry everyone I didn't have a chance to finish up my notes just life got a little busy but I attended the town council meeting this past uh Tuesday um and um it was a agenda meeting um basically in general the most of the reports were fairly simple the mayor's report wasn't um was was basic uh topics the um the Town Council had a lengthy discussion at about the township budget um in which uh councilman councilman Cella had asked to trim the budget um and made some recommendations there was a lot of back and forth and and they had a vote on that and uh it did not uh it failed the uh his recommendation so the current budget as it stands right now was moving on to the next phase um as far as the Town Council goes as relates to things that might be of interest to the board [Music] um there is a um development that is called the consent agenda it has been okay to move to the next phase this is going into the ladex plaza area it is a warehouse um it is a 27 truck bay Warehouse that is going to go approximately uh from what I've been told behind uh East Lake School um there is so right now the next step is now that it has already been kind of greenlighted to move to the next step they still have to go through planning so there's a lot of work that needs to be done uh but um they're hoping to get that through uh the process uh through the summer so um there's a lot of work in these M be traffic study and everything but long and short of is is that right now is uh it is looking for a warehouse um it's a sizable Warehouse I'm not sure what indicates sizable or not but and it has 27 Bays for trucks uh right now and they made it very clear that today it is not a pilot um but again they haven't gotten to the point of designating what it's going to be um they're still at that part where they have to get approvals and everything so it's got some ways to go yeah but it looks like that's going to happen so that is my update for Council thank you any questions your Tim on Town council meeting Wendy on that kind of thing is there an um like an as well as part of the planning is there an environmental study done like if is there going to be you know exhaust pumping into the kids recess area it's a good question I don't I don't know that I definitely thought about it and the my understanding is is that part of and someone might have a clearer knowledge of this part of the planning will be all that information but I don't want to swear to it that's kind of my understanding is how that process works thank you Jeff um Tim did the on the vote regarding the reduced spending or the budget cuts yes um was that a 4:1 vote against or 3-2 32 32 was Justin and councilman Mella and councilman Hernandez voted in favor everybody else voted no okay thank you thank you any other questions let's see Mrs kogan I didn't have any I did not have any committees but the delegate assembly is next Saturday and the delegate handout is 172 pages but I you know gave put in the our packet just the four pages that anybody really needs to read so if you could all just read what will be discussed at the delegate assembly and if you have any comments that you would like me to make during the meeting um I am our representative at that some of those resolutions the subcommittee and the school um njs B has not recommended so just pay attention to which ones they're recommending and which ones they're not when you give me your comments please and in that list if it says if it says njsb opinion and it's positive that's the recommendation if there's nothing there they it will say njsba does not support this resolution okay yeah it was a really good document um to read some interesting you know things going on planfield seems to be very active in uh a lot of this so good for them um Jack no report Judy I sure I guess I have sports um this update was dated May 8th um you have it in front of you I'll just highlight uh at the high school uh the varsity baseball and softball fields were being used unfortunately over the winter uh the back flow preventor um Services the irrigation system and it froze so that was a major problem um the due to this happening the fields don't have access to water uh the maintenance department is currently working to to fix the problem J JB baseball field although not in regular use is still an issue due to drainage issues um the turf fields get plenty of use at the hills um overall everything is in good condition um they didn't have to cancel any games due to bad field conditions uh there was one spot near the near the one Turf spot near the face off that needed repair um the issue was resolved um they were able to replace a scoreboard controller that was damaged in bad weather and maintenance was able to complete the batting cages project and going forward we'll need to look to replace the Outfield feds to the JV softball field and complete the awaya team pitching Bullpen for the varsity baseball field okay thank you any questions for Judy no Alison no Wendy any report uh transport did not have any agenda items and did not meet but I did want to extend a thank you to supervisor Tiffany Pizza who um uh provided just an overview to me because this is my first year on the committee was very much appreciated great thank you Michelle thank you so last night the Educational Services Commission of Mars County met um we are preparing for the reorg meeting that's happening on June 10th um took us through the new process they're using to accept candidates who want to be um uh officers of the board uh we talked about the annual uh coordination of the transportation services uh going through the bid process we also talked about the Cooperative bid purchasing uh they shared that the regional Day School uh Central Park School um unfortunately has had another decrease in student population um so they are graduating nine students so their total numbers will be down to 20 um and as a result they're going to have to reduce their teaching staff again um and they've done that for the past two years so it's something that they're struggling with as well um we went through the superintendent evaluation um everybody was very happy with the superintendent that we have in place uh so all is good there um and what everybody is waiting for um the alternative school information um so the superintendent did meet with the uh superintendent of Somerset um and they do have the alternative school program um and right now the program currently has 30 students all of them were referred due to behavioral issues in their district schools uh there are four subject Area Teachers one counselor and two security guards um students do participate in a proficiency based option two or sometimes referred to as Plan B program um they earn their high school credits um but it's through Innovative means taking different types of courses sometimes oneon-one sometimes remote um variety that works for each individual student uh counselors do work with the students to make sure that they are prepared um to so they can develop postsecondary goals as well what you're all waiting for is the price tags the cost of program per student is $62,400 this year so it is quite sizable um and the next request is to you know ask for how much interest there is in the program uh so that we can start to discuss it in more detail uh Alison did the somerset make it sound like that program was increasing versus you know what I mean like the other programs are decreasing so I just wanted to see if it looked like that was a growing population the superintendent didn't discuss that so I will follow up and ask that question because it is important um you know from what we have seen right it does seem like this is something something that's evolving throughout the state so I would imagine it's a growing demand but I will follow up and get back to you Judy um you mentioned the superintendent evaluation tool was that revamped I mean I know that that was last year they were talking about redoing that has that is it a new tool um they did use a new tool um it has been modified um it's including more questions you know to gather more detail uh feedback and they've also added uh open-ended questions so that we can provide more and better feedback oh good yeah so it actually was well received good thank you you're welcome okay uh Susie I you want to do critical issues no no you don't want to do critical issu ad hoc no I was going to do that oh okay you're do it y okay [Applause] okay critical issues met on May 6 uh present was myself Mr beros and Mr rehea and what was discussed was the uh 2024 Board of Education self- evaluation we um with we met for we took about 3 hours plus to read through all of the evaluations and come up with a game plan as to how to better present it to the board on the 23rd and um I think that it'll it we will next week everyone will receive a copy of of the um of all the evaluations and the um the First Co copy with the summary and it will what we decided to do was for each one of them we have two columns and one of column is uh a problem um found and then a um a suggested um solution thank you suggested solution and um and so that it'll it'll um give every board member the opportunity to write down on you know print it out on your own um write it down um so that when you come for the May 23rd meeting during closed session we will discuss um you know what what every one um we will discuss whatever you know whatever opinions or um any you know about the evaluation so uh and would like to remind everyone please that the superintendent evaluation is due to be completed by May 10th okay so that's that's tomorrow tomorrow yes yeah well I have it just went online it went online a week ago tomorrow well that was the original schedule we all gave okay it just went on yes but that was the original schedule it just went online well it went online last week um as soon as we were done with ours but anyway um does everyone feel that they need a little more time until Monday yeah no I mean I'm okay with we just have to do it before July 31st if they're good you could just he kind to show the Brilliance okay so so why don't we so I I think we should at least give it to May 15th yeah be our new um our new date is May 15th so that um we could then present it for the uh May 23rd May 15th at midnight or May 15 the reason I asked by by midnight daylight time the reason that I asked that is because several people will be going to the PF dinner that night May 14th so in case anybody's waiting till the last minute midnight if they have had a cocktail or anything you know whenever you get it in just do it okay so the the other thing now um you know what let's do I'm not I I have two graduations myself one on Saturday and one on the 15th so make sure everybody gets it in we could say May 17th is um are you okay with that Tim I'm sorry he's conflicted oh that's right no but yeah you can't even review it okay is that okay with with you jack yeah what was the date now May 17th May 17th at midnight it's a moving Target midnight okay and also ju just a quick um I did attend a uh it's a enhancing school safety uh using behavioral threat assessment it was uh given by the United States Secret Service it was really it it was very enlightening um very uh eye openening and they went over you know they went over of course School violence prevention they went over uh background thinking uh behavior of school attackers and how some schools discovered and stopped plots uh before violence occurred um and how they do the training to provide guidance on how schools May develop or improve uh existing violence uh prevention programs and a lot of it was was counselors and and and creating most of it the most important part was creating an environment in where a student feels comfortable with coming going to a peer going to a counselor going to a teacher going to their parents and where the people involved in in you know um people involved actually well that the person who is is is saying something feels respected believed that they you know that they can trust the people that there will be action taken because a lot of the times kids don't say anything you know if they notice one of their friends or if they've seen some type of behavior they don't say anything because they figure well who's going to believe me or what are they going to do anyway so so that that part was very important and they but they gave a lot of they did give a lot of examples of other school districts that you know they they were able to Tor some some of the the plots so it it was very interesting thank you any questions or Susie uh not a question I'm just gonna I'm just commenting I'm going to be attending that June 6 um the Secret Service National threat assessment yes same thing so I'll be going to that one that one's different that's by the FBI uh Secret Service yeah this one this one the one we're going to this one is the Secret Service as well anyone else intending to go or thinking about it thinking I aming okay thank you so we'll just wrap up committee reports and get to our presentation sorry ladies um so uh there was a Morris County uh School Board well let me do the ad hoc committee first sorry uh the ad hoc committee was developed to be the negotiating arm of the Board of Education with the township to expand things like uh Mutual assistant agreements shared services agreements and to discuss uh pilot Revenue sharing there's been one meeting with the township thus far a second meeting is scheduled on May 22nd and the um ad hoc committee has developed um a draft list of items to discuss with the township at that meeting uh board members are encouraged to send to uh myself uh any suggestions that they have for additional items that we can um potentially talk with the town about any questions on the ad hoc okay thank you just a couple other um items um a number of us attended the Morris County School Board Association hybrid meeting on May 2nd hosted at Roxbury High School um it was a second uh annual Nancy hellborg Memorial recognition award very moving Ceremonies for for um board members and for uh certain students who also um won scholarship Awards including um a student from our own phhs uh there were two uh I'm sorry three notable uh milestones for our own board of education uh Miss sheel Abraham and Miss Michelle Chappelle both earned their new board member certification and Mrs kogan reached her 10-year board member Milestone anniversary so congratulations uh uh for those things so I think that ends committee reports uh Dr Suter can we go to the presentation please absolutely Dr take it away give you foran's finest here best we have there hi everyone thank you for having us tonight my name is Abby Collins a senior at parcion high school I'm Lanna Roman a senior at Pary high school I'm Jaya Thompson as oh wait a senior at pany Hills High School and I'm Karen basil a senior at pipany Hills High School um so to start we wanted to talk to you guys about how you know we run this um event and make it really inclusive for both sides of town um this is a group of kids from both the high and the hills that come together seniors and juniors that make this event wonderful for the underclassman and so that they can go on to be leaders in the future um the team consists of people who have attended the event either the Freshman or sophomore year um and these team members are responsible for attending five weekly meetings um where we discuss how to run a small group and you know how to make everyone feel included and connected um we designed the t-shirts as you can see in the photo uh we all wearing the t-shirts um we also facilitate the games that will be played deliver talks and really just talk about how to make this a super CommunityWide event um so um myself and my three companions with me we were the um 2024 leaders for this year um and we've all been a part of it for the past two or three years um and are so grateful that we've had the opportunity to be able to make this event as special for the younger people as it was for us um we run the meetings um by ourselves with the help of Dr Moon and some of the others um watching over us but truly we do um we take leadership hence the name and we really work to you know show student leadership in um our community so thank you guys so a big part of the retreat is our small our group talks and our small group talks and it's where we pair a person from The High and a person from the hills and you choose a topic and the five talks are listed on like the screen it's academics relationships coping being yourself in social media um these talks are like written over 2 months and they're edited by all the leaders from um our group and it's just a a like a talk to share your experiences from like other students point of views and it's really nice because it tells you that like you're not alone in this and especially since this Retreat involves so many sophomore juniors and like seniors it shows that everybody's going through something together especially with the small groups after each Big Talk where it's like a speech um you get into smaller groups that you have for the whole day and you're able to talk about the the topic that was just discussed and this really impacted me my first year because I remember coming to this Retreat and not knowing what it was going to be about I just saw leadership in the name and I was like oh this is a great opportunity and when I got here I was really surprised by how open everybody was in the groups and about the topics at hand especially when it came to sensitive topics such as coping and social media so yeah these groups just um demonstrated that we're all going through everything together okay so so um since we have a lot of like underclassman and things like that um when we come in like originally so like initially all the people are like very like conserved and they don't want to talk and they don't want to open up and things like that so what we do is we have games we have two sets of games every single like I think it's like two hours we do it after like the talks and we get everyone together and we just play fun games just so that people open up and realize that it's a safe space cuz after like we're talking like coping relationships and things things like that everyone's just like very like to themselves and they're like serious so we play a bunch of games we play we do a Saltine eating contest that always gets really funny and gross at the same time um we do a rock Pap with scissor contest where everyone like cheers each other on and it's really good because like everyone doesn't know everyone from every other side of town so like this you get so many new friends and you're just talking to everyone I know I met a bunch of friends just from doing plr because you're talking to everyone you're all there for the same reason so it's just like it gets you so many friends we do Huggy Bear icebergs you see friends betray friends it's really really funny to watch and this team building and all it just it connects everyone together and just realizes that everyone goes through the same things and it really brings the whole motive of this event together that everyone goes through the same things whether you know it or not that's why we have the talks that's why we have the team building activities because we're all just teenagers in high school and we're all trying to go through the same things and navigate through life so these team building brings a fun happy way through it you got it okay and then so we alternate back and forth between the serious talks and the small groups and then we break it up we play games we have fun but another really important thing that I think that we do is the plr alumni panel so we offer it to people's siblings people that were previous plr members students in the school and these are people that graduated and they don't necessarily have to go to college and just what they did next and it's usually it's been people that are in their last year of college it's been people that are in their first year um like this year the four that you see there they're all freshman in college um all different schools the schools that are listed up there three of them were local um one of them was committed for a sport and this is super cool so a lot of the plr members that come back we were lucky enough to come 3 years but the people that attend and then come back to lead get to see usually eight people um that have done all different things and it's super cool for everybody because no matter what grade you are you're still in high school so it's interesting to ask them questions as they're still going through their first year really from the student point of view which is a lot of fun because you have people that went far people that stayed close did semester abroad last year we had somebody that transferred so she got a lot of questions um and they give you more of a realistic side of things like it's hard when you first move in but it's not hard to find friends and a lot of the questions it's the same way everything else goes where it's more General but then sometimes the questions got more specific things that you'd want to hear from a so that was always really cool go to the next one okay and then a couple of other things that we did um towards the end we would do um stress and coping skills so Miss Doyle from the high she would run an activity with everybody and this was usually after the second set of games so everybody was energy up and it was a way to calm everybody down and it was a mindfulness activity and it was about um envisioning a lemon and how your brain can taste it and everybody sitting there with their eyes closed and deep breathing and and it was just a way to go through a mindfulness activity together and then at the end the whole point is that it's a reminder that you can take a minute and you can breathe and it was just a way that you could do it so to teach you how to do it on your own um so that's always really fun and the timing of it is great after the second round of games and we're winding everything down for the last talk um and she's great she really um caters to everybody I feel like people that are more in tune with their mental health and people that go to therapy and she brings everything up she kind of targets every group of students well um and everybody kind of feels seen with her um the whole thing is also done with your eyes closed cuz not that she asks us to do anything ridiculous but just everybody's deep breathing together and you're very focused on yourself so it's nice to hear from everybody during the day and other people's experiences and how it relates to you it's a nice way to just kind of relax and think about yourself um and then the 101's was my favorite part when I attended my sophomore year so everybody coming in wears a name tag and so we selected two students uh during our bi-weekly meetings to create all kinds of pairs like yeah like Cosmo and Wanda peanut butter and jelly and so you'd come in and you'd like I'd have a name tag that said Karen and then in the little corner it would be a pair so at some point usually right before lunch we send everybody off and you have to ask people around and try and find the pair that you're looking for um and then you get 10ish minutes to sit and just like talk with that person ask them questions um and I've never seen this fail cuz I've done it and it was a lot of fun I was a leader last year and I participated again it was a lot of fun and then walking around this year talking to the groups taking pictures it seemed like everybody got along well everybody found something in common so it's a little bit stressful trying to find your pair especially if it's ambiguous and you don't know what you're trying to find um but everybody always ends up with a pair and it's a lot of fun so those are all the activities that we would do during the day excellent very wait don't go away don't go any board members have questions for you guys oh you're not done yet sorry sounds really great and I applaud you for your enthusiasm how many students do you get that actually participate in the retreat or at varies we have a large variety of students from each school that come there's a group of about how many leaders was it wow yeah that's great yeah you got to be accepted application process can I jump in of course can we stop you please yeah no please to so we ask teachers and administrators and the counselors to just to give us list of students who either have exhibited leadership or exhibit the potential for leadership or who are like this close to need something so we then we cast a wi invite all of them and like or so per building get to attend and then there's uh about 15 kids of each side of town who are on the team every year so thank you so is is the saltine contest is where you eat the saltines and try to whistle or something like no try try that one yeah it's actually really really funny but gross at the same time so we sit in the circle in the gym and everyone gets two waters we gave them mini ones this year it was bad bad idea um and you get a whole pack of Saltines and you the first one to finish both them but you have to get hand fed so like you can't feed yourself and everyone's like stuffing their faces but we also do this after lunch so also not the smartest thing but you know it's still funny so and then you just see everyone like stuffing their faces with sales and get let's everyone be goofy you know sometimes when you're in high school you take things like so serious like your AP classes or anything of that variety your sports so it just allows you to like really unlock your inner child and just like be fun and mo around the worst part isn't the amount of Saltines it's you're sitting like this close to your part if they laugh you get but it's also a good thing because you pick a person that's like in your group so a lot of times these people like they're not really necessarily friends or they don't know this person but they're like you look like Sal te and it's like that type of thing so it's just really fun to watch people get along that normally like that's excellent you to team bonding totally Rec it we we we should and we maybe maybe will so we'll have to consult with you we'll we'll have them craft our abely so Cosmo and Wanda seems like it's 10 years before you guys how do you no it's still it's still happening now really 2006 Middle Ground okay interesting well I want to thank you I want to thank you um your passion your preparedness the way you articulated the information whether you're going to college or career after this you guys are going to be successful so thank you so much and I want to thank Dr because I believe Dr and Mr Ricker started this they were the the brain child behind us how many years ago Dr  thank [Applause] [Music] you thanks thank you guys well we have to go back to our regular scheduled meeting so um approval of minutes uh ex should do with M te we can do that she doesn't want to be sprayed um approval of minutes executive session one and two in regular minutes of April 25th 2024 motion please Mrs mayor sheel second roll call please Mrs Abraham yes Mr baros yes Mrs kogan yes Mrs mayor yes Mr Reay yes Mrs Chappelle yes Dr Wright yes Mrs Golder uh oh um what's no there was one the minutes Northville yeah no in the the minutes okay sorry yes no I was in the other one where did I I'll show you Mr chaa yes you okay Dr Suter I think it's uh your turn superintendent bullet number 19 thank you president chafo I would like to highlight that may is Asian American Pacific Islander heritage month and as such the district compiled and shared a list of resources with our staff that acknowledges and celebrates aapi history uh I would like to congratulate Ria Patel from the north vale school for winning first place at the annual spelling B of the new State Federation of women's clubs 21 fourth and fifth grade students representing clubs from across New Jersey participated in the event as the parcion focus explained after several suspenseful rounds a winner emerged spelling the word silhouette so great job Rya and that's all I have for us tonight uh tonight for your approval we have superintendent Bolton items 1- 63 with addendum items 64- 85 are there any questions for Dr Suter I'm seeing none moving uh to the secretary's report Mrs Tedesco hi everyone on tonight's uh secretary's report we have our regular business motions including the approval of a door bid to replace doors throughout the district does anybody have any questions choices any questions for Robin okay thank you uh new business uh it says None So no any not on mine you got a special one Mr Rea thank you Mr President um a couple of weeks ago I reached out to Miz Rayman who is uh one of the leaders at the Islamic community cultural center and some of us had met with him two years ago and uh you know I figured I'd reach out just as an Outreach type of thing and he extended a he graciously extended an invite for all board members to attend uh to see the school some of us have already seen it but some of us haven't um on either Saturday May 18th or Saturday June 1st so he asked that I you know just give him an idea of how many people would like to attend anyone who hasn't been there you know you you you if you see it you'll be impressed with the facility it's it's family oriented it's um it's nice structured a kind of like a classroom but a fun classroom type setting for for the kids there so uh yeah if you just let me know and um you know maybe just to arrange um one of those Saturdays we can you know arrange to see the place and and then just listen to them and just um hear about any concerns and and I think it it the last time it was uh Michelle and and Allison and I met and we had a you know nice you know discussion with them and I think it was uh turned into a a fruitful Endeavor so thank you Jack so the two dates is it one or the other right yeah I think so uh um I don't know if anyone has a informal consensus as to which would work better I don't know he also offered the 11th which is Mother's Day weekend which I you know I didn't even want to go that's coming weekend yeah yeah but the evu but you know the the week after and then the week after Memorial Day weekend so you want board members to email you if they would like to come and which maybe that's the best way to do it or yeah just let me know text compile that and yeah yeah I'll compile it and let them know thank you and the other new business that I'm unaware of no June 18th or June yeah May 18th June 1st okay we're at the hearing of the public portion of the meeting at this time if there's anyone who would like to address the board please come up sign your name and address in the book at the Lector and state your name for the record and please address the chair each person will have three minutes to speak it will be helpful if you would like to address the board to please come up now and sign in the book so that you are ready when the first speaker is finished deep breath as a reminder we are video recording this meeting if you are a student who wishes to speak we ask that you not provide your home address but rather give only the name of the municipality in which you live if you are a parent wishing to discuss a specific matter pertaining to your child during this portion of the meeting you may request that the board temporarily suspend the video recording alternatively please consider speaking privately about the matter to the superint to Superintendent at after the meeting speakers should refrain from using specific student or staff names in their comments and are refer to by law 0168 for further information regarding the videotaping of our meetings is there anyone who would like to address the board okay seeing none we will close the public portion thank you we are at a roll call vote for superintendent's bulletin number 19 items 1 through 63 with addendums 64 through 85 may I have a motion please Susie Michelle second roll call please Mrs Abraham just wanted to abstain on one uh number 71 yes to everything else else Mr baros yes Mrs kogan yes Mrs mayor yes Mr Rea yes Mrs Chappelle yes Dr Wright yes Mrs Golder abstained from number four yes to everything else Mr chaa uh threeq is on 15 16 and 177 and 52 yes to everything else thank you thank you all motions passed uh I need a motion to adjourn the meeting unless there's any other business motion to adjourn Susie second Michelle oh same one all in favor I thank you everybody