##VIDEO ID:6juhDvqBA8c## but if he was late to work I apologize but it was just it's been been really well appreciate that and we're looking forward to having um our brand dedication which is at a date and time to be announced the GS but thank you again for that that's it Mr Gibbs do you have a report yes good evening the 2014 Rod grants or otherwise known as the regular operating District reimbursement has been finalized and is currently under review by the state it is anticipated that the school district will receive the 1.7 Million reimbursements by the end of October 2024 pending all levels of approval by the state the new playground at North Boulevard is antici Mr Gibbs can you just repeat that we're going to get $1.6 million from the state 1.7 Sorry by the end of October that's what we're looking towards yes great job I don't think that's something that should be so quickly gone over not only that I would recommend that you say it like this $1.7 million do I actually have a question regarding that too since it's never been close enough to coming to fruition does that go does that have to go into our capital budget is that operating funds like where does that funding Go part of it's going to go to capital reserve and part of it's going to go to great that's where it's going to Pi up awesome thank you which is my next okay interrup a good Interruption it is a good Interruption okay so the new playground at North Boulevard is anticipated to be installed in mid November by Ben schaer Incorporated who is part of the co-op the cost is $ 58,183 the funds to pay for the playground will come be derived from the 2014 SDA reimbursement Grant we can conditioning of the ball fields will be completed this Thursday the new ticket booth at the high school arrived on August 21st and is in place on August 20th I met with the architect and Engineers regarding the inspection of the building at seven Industrial Road the inspection revealed that the building is in good condition and they will be sending it over a complete report for the board to review on August 26th I met with the board approved appraiser who will be doing an appraisal on seven Industrial Road we should have report in about 3 to four weeks in accordance with his contract on August 26th there was an Oprah request for a vendor information as to the turf field maintenance from 2021 to 2023 the request was completed on August 27th in accordance with njsa 47.1 A-1 thank you and one other note I think it it fits in with what Mr sen was talking about as well as my my report um as well as yours like we're doing a lot of things that show that there is close attention to detail and a high level of care um in the quality of what we're putting forth for a public whether it's people visiting or whether it's people work here some The Children Here live in a greater community that seems to be a prevailing theme that I'm really proud of I was talking um Mr senic about it a different time but somebody coming up to our school today can see how Magnificent the veterans w project looks and just everything about it then there's also the freshly paved part very precisely detailed love how that looks back you can see the ball fields doing work there I was getting haircut on Saturdays like a park parent was asking hey so what exactly you guys doing it's nice to be able to say that we're focusing on trying to make things as good as possible while maintaining a high level of fiscal responsibility so I just wanted to just interject that I know I'm going way off scripts but I I just feel like a fa state anytime someone gives you $1.7 million there's there's a there's a an inclination to talk okay uh next up on the agenda public comment for agenda items members of the public may speak once for a maximum period of five minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting the public may speak on any agenda item only during their five minutes and if a member of the public does raise a question address that question to the board president and state your name and sign in before you begin okay seeing no one I'm going to close that and move into approval of the action items and first up is PMC Mr cesi will you please move PMC I would like to move PMC 40-25 through PMC 50- second question or discussion yeah real quick I just want to um say while it's such a huge loss for our district Miss ringan um leaving and having this great rear opportunity uh I'm very happy for her um I was talking to Dr poris about this earlier on and you know hopefully everything's still full circle maybe one day we are we're lucky to have her again in our district um but I just wish her the best of luck she has been nothing but a positive energy in this District since she came in um I remember the day she was sworn in voted in and uh just again wish her the best of luck definitely second that m ringan is the the treasure bad that she's got to leave anybody else Mr Gibbs please call the roll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes Miss Dempsey yes Mr G yes Mr mpen yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs chanton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries thank you Mr mawey would you please move CIS yes I'd like to move CIS 15-25 second question of discussion Mr Gibbs please call the r Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes Miss Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr pmo yes Mrs Shannon yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr senic yes motion cars thank you next up is FFA Mr Bloomer would you please move FFA yes I lost my agenda here one second there we you I'd like to make a motion to move FFA 27-25 through FFA 29-5 second uh I got one question on FFA 2925 which is chapter 1921 93 that's related to uh nonpublic schools correct yeah that's actually one of the discussion talking about okay okay anybody else Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo Mrs shanton Mrs Esposito yes and Mr sen yes motion carries all right that brings us to our workshop and first up is PMC District goals and Staffing update I'll take care of the district all staff update too but the district goals um are in backup and uh I just want to give a really just I guess high high end um overview of of what we're looking to accomplish in these three three goals uh something that we started doing last year is specifically identifying which aspect of the Strategic plan was being covered in the goals that's why you'll see District goal number one ensuring Student Success and then further description District goal two uring staff success for the description and then goal three family and Community Partnerships so we're trying to make sure that we treat the Strategic plan not just as something that we do every five years then blow the dust off and do for another five years something that really does have direct connection to our everyday operations as well as what we're looking to accomplish so the first goal which fits under the ensuring Student Success category is the profile of quic student it's really profile want a graduate and this is something that we started working on last year and very quickly realized that we knew it was gonna be a two-year goal we realiz actually be a three-year goal so this is going to carry into a third year and what we did for organization purposes we kept the year one movement so you could see what we built on and then put year two above that um and what we're really looking to do is continue to make progress on this and be able to share information with the community while actively soliciting information from the community there hasn't been a tremendous amount of Interest expressed about it and that's okay where we are in the process but we'd really like to um through our ongoing communication really get people pretty excited about this because we want to be able to say as a consequence of going to our schools you can expect that your kids are going to be able to do these different things and have these competencies and tenen these traits so um we're pretty excited about it we definitely for year three we want to align it with curriculum and be able to really make it part of classroom instruction um but slow and steady right now but but I'm happy with how the community is working on it and um obviously board members are are welcome to be a part of this as well I know Mrs espo has been in a couple meetings as well so I if there any questions about the portrait of a graduate do you see it ever do you see it transitioning into okay now we've established what it is so then the goals essentially been met and now we move into a pH where like you say you integrated into other things but you've already defined what it is therefore like at the end of the year two maybe it's it's technically met which just now we're like integrating it into the rest of the exactly like you yeah and actually that I'm glad you asked that because one of the things we talked about is we don't want this to be a very involved process in which we make a bunch of really shiny pretty posters and put them up in every school um we we are going to make really pretty shiny posters and put them up in every school but if that's your terminal point to me you've got this all wrong it it has to be that those are a visible tangible reminder of these are the qualities and attributes competencies we want our students to have and a reminder to staff members I've got to push and support our kids to be able to achieve that and then we we do need to weave it into our our curriculum into our instruction um I'm sure in some way shape or form assessment as well really to guide our assessment understanding so we want to be something that that's deeply philosophical but also very very practical at the same time so yeah I think by by by the end of this year we should be at that bright shiny object stage and then and then year three we've been advised year three is the tough one um that that's when we look to really start to to work it into to what we do and what I'm excited about I I that I get excited about everything this takes me back to when we first got our hands on the common core standards and I was able to see a consistent thread in from from kindergarten all the way through 12th grade in language arts and I could see these are the different skills kids are supposed to develop as they move and when you can articulate these are these are the companies and I know um Mrs vll spoke about in her interview she said that the the verbs in the standards Define what kids should be able to do there's a definitive action there and I want want to align what we develop from the portrait of a graduate to be able to do kind of the same thing this is this is the stuff our guys are going to be able to manage do articulate so yeah so and and just so you know at the um the meeting that we're having on the 16th I will present more thoroughly on the goals we actually have two presentations that night uh Mr hazler is going to present on our AP numbers which involves enrollment as well as outcomes nominally I'm a co-presenter for that but let's face it it's a microphone it's Mr hazler I'll take a backseat there but for the district goals I think he's going to let me have access to the microphone which I think our friends at see crest for Joy maybe I should go first because he's a little more of a dynamic speaker than I am so I'll take a back seat yeah we did well there last year that was that was a fun meeting uh the second one is uring Staff success and I'm GNA toot our horn one more time um until the next time about the ensuring staff success that we are the first district that um integrated this into their strategic or into our strategic plan and and I think that that's really important and so what we're looking to do for for this upcoming year is really focus on building efficacy and capacity in our staff members that they feel comfortable and confident um being dynamic in their instruction and and and evolving and really looking to integrate data into we call a recursive process something's recursive it just means it Cycles back upon itself that we have the curriculum that's going to Define our instruction the assessment's going to tell us whether informal or formal assessment how well the students are mastering what's in the instruction which tells the teacher you're not just responsible for teaching you're responsible for student learning and that should come back and inform your ongoing modifications to your instruction um any any interventions that might be needed for students breaking up into small groups um and that should also inform our curriculum revisions so it is going to put a lot more on Mrs V's plate which I'm I'm fine with that because I kind of warned her that we were going to overburden her she seems up to it so I'm good there but yeah but but I'm I'm excited about this one too because um we really want to get into the weeds deeper for data driven instruction um help our staff um recognize that there are strategies that they could employ that could help to close any gaps that we see and U when she and I do the data presentation which will probably be coming up second meeting in October thereabouts um we want to give some really close insights as a board and also as a public into what we recommend based on some of the areas where we don't see ourselves achieving to the level that we expect you know what what does he need to do to help students with modeling reasoning and that so there's a lot going on here but ultimately end of the day I really want our staff members to feel like they have ownership and they have agency um and that they should be confident to Showcase what they're doing and take take risks it's really important and and then the third one is about family and Community Partnerships um and this is one that's been ongoing we we've been trying to enhance our communication with the community uh in a very nice note um Mrs noon pulled me aside the other day and asked me when we were going to start doing the podcasts again I was like well I guess we're doing it pretty soon but it's nice I feel like we we've really expanded our reach to the community through our social media Outlets through our newsletters um through our website now having an app the podcasts are another good one so we want to make sure that we're providing messaging across a lot of platforms to reach a wide range of stakeholders um and to communicate consistent messages one of the most important messages is that attendance matters and you'll notice that little tagline on the bottom of a lot of emails that you're you're getting from the administrative team and we we've really realized that attendance is a major concern and it's not just us saying it Statewide certainly Nationwide too um New Jersey is actually doing better than any other state in terms of reducing chronic absenteeism chronic absenteeism bless you um when a student is absent for 10% or more of days of school so here it's it's 18 out of 180 it's a lot of this time um and you know we we want to make sure that we're supporting our students with their attendance supporting families and also supporting our staff with their attendance try and try just really emphasize bless you it's really important to be here even if you're sneezing you can still come in highly functioning and and participate um but some of the data that I was looking at from last year um was was pretty pretty eye open um we had in one of our schools principal PR prepared a report for me and found that 22.4% of our kindergarteners were chronically absent last year that's such an important foundational Year we're used to numbers in the ballpark about 5% can't blame Co it's got to be something else at the core of it and you guys know me well enough I I couldn't care less about blame I think blame's stupid but I I think it's really important to understand causes and reasons and then what Solutions can you put into place to to address that so we are gonna we're we are going to really push the message of get your kids here they need to be here you might be able to get a killer deal on a week away at St Lucia you can wait um school year happen you got to stay with us could be that you know you want to go see a three- game series that the Colorado Rockies are playing and baseball season's almost over there's gonna be another one next year during spring break to so we want to just emphasize we we we need the kids here and um don't send your kids to school if they're sick they got a fever they're throwing up but every a kid tells you I don't feel good today maybe probe a little bit so anyway so we're going to focus on that and then we also want to continue to emphasize wellness and mental health um we're involved in a in a project right now with the rotary of trying trying to um get better communication out about the support services available for students families and staff regarding uh mental health um we're going to keep it up with parent University webinars we actually have information in this one about the veterans wall which as you could probably tell I will talk about a lot um because it deserves that and also really pushing greater advertising for the academies of making sure that people know that's in our community with other communities he we've got some really good things going on here so um and one other thing I'm sorry kind of over it is to really um focus on appreciation for our volunteers parents give a lot of time a lot of the talent a lot of their energy and I know with Mr na on here we've talked about that with band parents and their complete commitment programming to the kids um and we see it at all the schools people who get involved we want to make sure that we're giving them some recognition your best volunteers are those who aren't asking for the recognition which makes it more fun to give them so those are the three goals um there's a lot embedded in them I'm giving a very broad oversight but I'm pretty excited about it because I think what we're looking to do is is really support measurable student learning outcomes in ways that um that speak to their complete experience for our kids like if you have staff who are performing at a high level you're G to see students achieving at a higher level if you're able to articulate these are the things we need to be able to do in order to produce these outcomes whether it's go to the College of your choice be able to start employment right away out of school or be a valuable contributor to the military that portion of graduates going to help us there and I feel like the greater communication getting kids into school more often it's G to help us so that's it so you just act surpris when I tell you all this on the 16th um do you think we could find out how many people actually downloaded the app uh we definitely could I definitely could I mean I'll ask Matt Shay because he'll know for sure app is phenomenal there's so much information on it I really hope that everybody is downloading yeah yeah because I know with um even with the data that I was getting from my podcast uh which which is unbelievable how many people were tuning in but um but there are s with with with Android it's different from what you're gonna get from Apple in terms of maybe maybe that was like Amazon Tellis whatever it is I'm I'm rambling and incoherent so if we could just edit that out of the meeting that' be great I'll find out from that sh he'll know he'll be good yeah all right uh Staffing update so um we are we currently need a part-time special ed teacher at sjg um we we had somebody at the altar she was actually on the early drafted this agenda and then she got offered a full-time job somewhere else um then for sign a contracts so we couldn't hold is 60 days so um we currently have that vacancy I will put it out there if somebody is um a certificated teacher and is interested in getting back into the business whether you've been home for whatever reason um this is a great opportunity to do it it's actually I I know the schedule this person would have had and it's great schedule and sg's phenomenal place um so we do have that vacancy and I'm going to tuck something into my update I'm probably sending one not tomorrow but definitely by the end of the week but just letting the community know like when when we put out the the call for substitute nurses we we had a good number of RNs in the district who said yeah I could I could pitch in So yeah so we're GNA use that to help us out and a nice note too we've gotten some really good Community Support about the uh the Aviation Academy um a couple of our of our friends in the community have put us in touch with people who could either be in a Consulting capacity um we do have somebody who's looking in in a full scale getting certificated capacity um but it's that's another program that's been very difficult to staff very specialized but um we have the classes for that program covered we would just like to have somebody stable and in place as as a longterm solution thought we had that last year it didn't quite pan out um so we we're back to the drawing board of sorts U beyond that we are doing we are doing well with Staffing and we hear far stories about District that are looking for 152 people thankfully that's not us um and I think a lot of why we're doing well um was evident in this room this morning at 8 AM or actually before 8 AM when people were entering the building I'm just making sure that people see that they are Val and there is a huge value to what they're doing um so we we'll keep doing that and um I think having a really positive Community helps us as well our community is good recruiting tool told people that's what brought me into this District initially as a teacher it's certainly what brought me back as a principal so anyway so that's where we are currently with Staffing um hopefully it's it's pretty it's it's pretty flat from here on out and then I know we spoke about um M Ran's uh departure which is going to happen in November we have an interview plan in place we're going to follow our process which is very thorough and has produced outstanding results as evidenced by the person sitting in the far left um but Mr seoski prepared a report for me which outlined the stakeholders are going to be involved in the interview process and the timeline for it and we'll have somebody uh permanent staff member in place for January well 1 but they'll start January 2nd but um with that said too uh we also have a plan about how we're going to make sure we we ensure adequate support um Mr seber aski um at PV through one of our inter administrators as well as through um our supervisor one of our supervisors volunteered to help out a lot of times I'll say was volunt but I did not volunt tell this individual so we'll be covered that's it all right moving on to uh CIS red discussion items the National Guard Blackhawk helicopter visit to the high school which is just sounds outstanding uh the opening day PD and the plans for the year and then curriculum updates and in in continuing efforts to turn the board meeting into the Mike poris show um I'll take care of the first CIS item and then I'll turn it over to Emme so um Mr cop has been working very closely um with the military to to be able to have a Blackhawk helicopter land at our school um uh and the dates we're looking at right now are October 8th 9th and 10th um I set up a chain um of use the word again stakeholders who can look at all the different things we have to make sure that we have covered including Insurance um GI made sure they were notified we have to coordinate the fire department police department I've already had some conversations with Bill Giuliano about that but we're we're really excited about this um we did land the um the state police metac helicopter here last year and it was it was spectacular and it was such a great experience for our Aviation Academy students as well as our all Health stud students to be able to see what this was and uh you know you think you know how powerful these these machines are when you I don't think you realize that until you get up pretty close to them like they're they're really impressive so we're very excited about this and I think this has a nice connection to the veterans wall and our work there um and it it's going to be impressive it's going to be excited you might to get off yeah no I'm I'm very excited for it I'm very excited for it yeah and then yeah I mean honestly I think we're probably gonna have more kids who want to be out there for it and the Aviation Academy is such a niche thing so I'll work with vano Mr hazler and Mr cop on on you know how how wide open we can make it um but I think it's going to be it's going to be very impressive and and I can tell you even when when I was out there when state police came um it was pretty cool some some of our Police Department came to observe it we had a few teachers came out and every single person was so impressed and then to add to it it's not just that you get this incredible machine Landing but it's also the people who operate it were so generous with their time and so generous with their um their information that they possess their knowledge their understanding Fielding questions just really help the kids develop a better understanding so I think it's going to be outstanding that's on the baseball field uh no so it there's a little patch of field I guess it would be the JB field is where we had it last year J right okay yep so I didn't think we can't do that collapse right uh I I would not recommend it on the chch that's that's what I was guessing I mean you can't ride your bike on it yeah certainly can't land a helicopter I I don't think it would collapse but to that point like we we don't want bicycles on it so the idea of a a helicopter landing on it teries me yeah it's not like we're on if you can't wear high heel shoes on Turf you certainly should helicopter there we should definitely not land a helicopter on there 100% right um and yeah in the spirit of that event we Al is there anything that we're gonna do game again U we're gonna look at what else we can do for the slute service game is going to be on October 5th which is very close to that um and so we're going to look to see if we can get anything coordinated with that um in terms of getting someone to we we had the from West Point we had the jump Squad come in that was incredible I would love to be able to do that again not so sure if they're gonna come back for that but they really liked it they had fun here so it's worth a shot because that that was really impressive too those guys came in fast playing watch it's concerned he end up in my backyard yeah I don't think they were wearing heels I think we were okay yeah all right I'm gonna um I'm G to pass it over hello okay um so for the opening PD days we have a lot going on with um really the schedule helping the teachers uh have time to adjust and plan for the new schedule changes at the high school and the middle school so we provide a bunch of time for them with that plus they have meetings with the supervisors and the principles to go over and support them in that um we have CPI training going on to support um our pair of professionals and staff members um in that at the elementary schools as well as and that's that's being run by Nikki Schneider and Lauren habos in in uh District so figuring out the names as we go um and then our supervisor are also running different types of rotations around small group and differenti instruction because that's another um s that's another strategy that we want to push out and support more especially at the elementary schools um across all the core content not only Ela and math but how can they do it in science and social studies as well so they met today to start that process and the other thing that we're going to focus on is um assessment and how we can work our backwards design with assessment to support instruction better which would should drive um our tier one instruction and tier two instruction um I a big fan of multi-tiered systems of support um it's something that I really did a lot of work with in my last District so I'm looking to see how it um Works in this district and to see how I can support and push that out more um so that we're meeting the goals of um as many of our students as we can so um besides our PDA today um I've started to talk with Matt Shay about tech Summit and we already have that's October 11th we have a a lot of possibilities set up for that day with a keynote speaker and um a couple other things so we're looking for more teachers who want to um run workshops that day and we're starting to pull that together so I'm extremely excited about that um I'm hoping to run my own Workshop that day on data literacy because I really like to run workshops um so we're going to talk about data literacy and some of the new math standards uh that go with that and then we have four their half PD days which again we'll focus a lot on the small group differentiate instruction as well as again giving teachers who are working with new schedules time to keep coming back how does it how does it working what do we need to adjust and as Dr Portis said um focusing on that data driven instruction having that time to uh look at our data and uh see how we can again tier one two three support what can we do to um help the students there don't think I have anything else on the PD days so far um and then curriculum updates um so Dr Sheridan left me a fantastic schedule of curriculum updates so I will be diving into that um putting out for the writers of the curriculum to come up over the school year and I will keep you informed as soon as I know as much more about that as possible um and I think that's all I might need to say about that all right thank you and welcome thank you all right next up is FFA and there are two discussion items uh some are black outdates for athletics and then updates on projects um so I just um open the conversation so I definitely I the blackout dates have been a blackout dates have been a topic of discussion uh over the last um few months and um I understand the njsiaa requires one week uh per summer for blackout dates I know that we give our families two weeks uh I just think that the positioning of our two weeks as in my f a chair board member and parent opinion doesn't maybe necessarily suit the banic parents the way that or families I should say the way these weeks sure to be intended for in terms of true blackout dates in the core heart of the summer when there's scheduling being done months ahead of time for vacations um as I was learning this this was a you know one of those scenarios where you don't know what you don't know um just became a High School parent it um so I I I saw the I saw the um anxiety that it kind of caused from families as it was uh addressed um definitely could have been better follow train of command on something like this but regardless uh it was something that is on people's minds so I just wanted to bring that to the table um just to have some discussion over it so um been here a while and the original intent of the rule was so that families could go on vacation in the middle of the summer and if they had two students playing two different sports if you had a kid on football and a kid on volleyball or field hockey and soccer whatever that you could take your entire family and go on vacation and those dates um originally were in July Late July early August I think at some point uh we were going first two weeks in August and I think that that has become difficult now because football starts earlier kids have to be on the field for nine consecutive practices before they can scrimmage so there's a whole bunch of rules so I think we moved it back at some point but um you know I don't want to speak for everybody or I don't want to speak for everybody in town but I think that thinking two weeks in Middle to Late July into August would benefit most people uh I believe that uh the blackout dates last week were the first week the last week in June and the first week in July and uh I don't think that that's the best choice for for people quic I think a lot of people aren't going anywhere in June and they're not going anywhere till at least the Fourth of July so uh I would like to propose that we we look at a later date I don't want to be the one to pick the dates but I think that you know sometime after I'll say July 5ifth seventh eight something like that maybe the second third weeks in July into August um based on I think that football's one that starts first so we probably have to go backwards from there but that we do that and then I think the most important thing out of this whole conversation is that parents know when the blackout are because it doesn't really matter when the blackout dates are because if you if you plan your vacation and that's when the it's not the blackout date then your kid is going to get penalized at least by not being in practice scrimmages and things like that so um that's just my my thoughts on it I think that we should publish the dates but people know a lot of the kids that are in athletics coming in as as freshmen they have no idea that there is is a blackout dat thing so my thoughts on that yeah so I would agree that whenever the dates are it should be sent out so that way everybody knows I'm I'm not sure that it's not done now but maybe it could be done better it could be done more but I think that that's the most important thing like you said Sam that if you are going to have these dates established whatever they are everybody should know when they are so that way they can plan accordingly since that's the purpose of having it and and I do also again this is just a suggestion but I think if we if let's just say we're going to say the last two weeks in July Panic Township High School should just be the last two weeks in July going forward that way parents don't really have to know about it um we don't have to publish it on the calendar or something like that I don't know if that's possible I know we have situations like the gym four has to get done and there's different things that have that come to uh you know this conversation but I think that if we were able to pick two weeks and go with it that that would be uh a lot easier for a lot of people especially people that uh have Shore houses and reup for the next year things like that just it's just a suggestion so can I just um so thank you for bringing this up I have heard as a High School parent have heard um you know several concerns from from parents throughout the community and yes I always explain to them they need to go through the chain of command they don't always do that um but I'm a High School parent as well um and I can tell you even if practices aren't mandated to a certain point until like later in August and you're going on vacation and there's some kind of practice game or scrimmage your kid is then stressed out because they're missing it so this causes like a little bit of turmoil um I feel like I agree I don't think it necessarily has to be two weeks feel like if we picked one week um in August after summer school's over because we have to remember that we have students who go to summer school and that's important um I think that would really help just I think that would be really good for our families um so that's and I I definitely it definitely needs to be communicated whether it's on the calendar not on the calendar or someplace on the website where parents can easily access it um that would be great as well thank thank you I just wanted to throw it there obviously agree I think we have to we have a lot of parents whether whether we like it or not are spending thousands and thousands of dollars um in sports training sports clubs on top of everything else um so when Mom and Dad and the rest of the family want to have just a week together we should try to make that uh possible and easy for them um in addition I I think there's a couple opportunities one there's not much on the calendar in the summer so I don't see why it's so hard to to put it on there uh but also when we have the orientation club uh activities that we have here at the high school in the spring leading up to you know everybody signs their interest uh that is something that should be easily uh one of the things on the screen um and handed out with every single sports club uh what the blackout dates are uh giving people more than enough time um but I would think by by February we should have that up posted everywhere because that people start planning their vacations early spring um or or the end of the year so or beginning of the year sorry it is so yeah it's it's important to note that um whatever date you pick it's not going to be amable to everybody um which I think we're all well had enough life experience that we're aware of that that you could have the most wellth thought out plan and it's still going to meet with some resistance so I do think the communication part is is the most important component to make sure that families know in advance somebody who generally goes away the first week of July can actually extol the virtues of doing so it's a nice time to get away but I get it that not everybody wants to do it end of June early July more than anything um our our dates are determined by the availability of gym floor we do get it um resurfaced and we get it taken care of by an outside firm um and the gym is actually used quite a bit over the summer we have basketball camps we have all types of camps so that predicates a lot of the timing for when we can actually do this um there's a lot on the line there and and I I don't know how much people believe it but like all of these workouts that are being discussed are all voluntary if a student cannot make it to a voluntary work out there can be no repercussion now mind you we went on trips without my son Danny because it was understood played quarterback quarterbacks came his voluntary workouts so I don't want to St him talking out of both sides of my mouth we said like look you can stay home have your on Uncle watch you and that's what that's what they did um so is it ideal no but I could speak to you that was my experience um yes we have to make sure that the dates are identical for All Sports football comes back on August 12th everybody else comes back August 19th for mandatory workouts you want to make sure if you have um student plays soccer you also have another child plays football you have to make sure that the dates dates line up there as well um but um the coaches do have some discretion about also having times at which they do not schedule anything because we want to give them a chance at the end of the year to decompress as well school year it's a lot of fun but it's also very stressful generally by the end of June people are pretty pretty well expended but um what Mr sppin shared with me is the dates generally pushed out in October um and we get updates from our buildings some ground supervisor about when the companies can do the work in our facilities um some work Des T to book up about a year in advance so um we we'll be sure to get the communication out um I'm open to listening to other ideas like if somebody has a week where you're like hey this is this week is like Prime and and it passes the test of well it's not going to interfere with basketball gamp or anything El that needs the gym floor I'm wide open to it um and I defer obviously to my athletic director since this is really his job to manage but I think it is important to get input from the board as well as from the community and if you do have people who are coming to you with concerns please route them straight to Mr silipo so this way he can know exactly what's going on um yes I get it you guys are very visible in the community so people see you as someone they could reach out to and discuss these concerns they've got they've got to get routed through the building Administration otherwise we have we have an inaccurate understanding of what the true level of concern is I have a question uh in regards to gym floors so you said basketball camp and I um I mean gym floors we only have one full sport that uses the gym and that's volleyball and if they had to I mean we could send them over to PB school to have practices gym fls are being done I I hate to think that that the entire fall sports program is being moved because of a basketball camp that basketball is a winter Sport and you know I just think that if that's what's happening I don't know if that's happening but I'm saying if we're worrying about a basketball camp basketball is a winter sport we're talking about getting these kids to be able and not everybody gets to go on vacation so you know but getting these kids to be able to go on a vacation with their family they literally have four years in high school to be able to do that and then nobody goes on vacation together it again and so to be able to do that in July or early August we said what April uh August 12th football has to be back so we now we know so they got to be back by the 12th or the 10th or something that there but I mean to base this on gy Floors if I was a field hockey player a soccer player a football player or a volleyball player I'd be like what about you know Practice North Boulevard um I don't know that's just just a thought on that yeah I bring up basketball camp as something that we have also for for youth groups in the community as well so Jim gets a lot of use over the portion of the summer it's not just lying dormant um and then as far as um all fall Sports have access to the gym so that if there's inclement weather instead of saying oh there's lightning sorry can't can't do anything um they have the opportunity to be able to share the floor but I I can find out a more comprehensive understanding of exactly what activities are using the gym floor and when I can present that to you so you can see what the usage is it sounds it sounds like to me though it's more of a function of when the gym floors get finished and and that's like trying to plan around we have this work that has to get done over the summer and if it has to get done in this time period want to make sure that there's no one that's allowed to use the gym floor at that point you know what I mean so it seems like if we could because I'm I'm trying to look for some kind of I I guess the word is like compromise hold on can I just finish yeah I'm so I guess I guess the thing I'm trying to look for is like is there a set time that the gym floors always do get finished like is it always the last couple weeks of June or is it always the beginning of July or is it like maybe we could look at that and then say Okay since we know it's always around this time then we could try and set it based on that you know I'm sorry I'm just I'm just going to throw this out there but can't we just add an additional week in August do the kids have to practice I mean how many weeks of summer are there 10 eight nine do they have to practice these are all voluntary they they don't have to I I but so I I get that they're voluntary but these are high school kids that we're talking about and this is important to them and then it causes more stress at home in my opinion I I believe me I had I we left our family vacation so Olivia could come back and go to cheer camp for two days so I I understand that I do what I would always do what needs to be done but we're talking there's how many weeks sum are there summer are there 10 so we can't take three weeks off for sports and we can't take three weeks I'm just I'm just I'm not like going after three like so then they still have seven weeks of sports the state has two so I mean I'm not I'm not an athlete never been an athlete never will be an athlete but I think seven weeks of practice is pretty good I mean call me crazy so am I wrong I think maybe it would just be helpful to see the different sports how many weeks Etc so for example my child my child is not a cheerleader she does something else they've been practicing for two weeks so yeah so that's just I I just think that there's probably a lot of different moving puzzle pieces here and just understanding them will help every all of us to sort of sit down look at the whole picture and then you know talk about potential what works for everybody that's a good question Dr cortis is the band even uh involved it did they have a blackout week John does the band have blackout weeks or they just go for last day of school because and 95 that's what I'm assuming that's why we're not really including you guys now there's no blackout dates okay right but they don't have any time off like m not me we if a ban parents want to take their kids on vacation okay right okay yeah yeah I'll turn I don't know why I'm talking to the audience here but I mean basically if you have one child unbanned and one child on in the sport and you want to go away yes right okay so we all we all agree on that without a doubt that it should all align I think the two things that we I think Miss chetton said it well let's get all the information so we could actually see the whole picture and then the second piece of it is when we do see the whole picture make sure that's communicated clearly to the community so that they know when it is whenever it's going to be you know and that whole picture should take into account things like all the different sports as well as the maintenance on the schools that has to occur so that way we can make sure that we can get our floors refinished and not have to skip out on a year because some of the reason yeah I think I think everybody has said some good points right and I think what it is based on where they fell this year was I guess right the first week immediately ending the school so the practicality of the fact that is a coach really jumping in the first week of Summer saying let's go practice I think is leading people to say this is an irrelevant point where it's blackout because nobody's going to be there anyway and that's what it's coming down to practical alignment that's I'm I'm just saying for a second and and in a way I mean I I don't know of a coach I would just say okay we ended school in 19th or whatever graduation was I think 18th or 19th this year 23d I think was that Monday we're back at it I don't that's going to be blacked out regardless just natural you know that's what I'm that's where I'm like up well you can't say that because you don't know that I'm just saying in W I'll admit I've gone on vacation that week in June am I an outlier like am I am I somehow defective because my family's done that I'm it's more expensive people go at all different times all I think we got a plan uh let's move on to the project updates the updates on the projects uh for the new windows at the high school um we're anticipating them starting the end of November uh obviously they have to coordinate not being in the building when students are there uh so they'll be working nights and weekends and that's all been incorporated into the plan it should take probably a good month to get that all windows in obviously we're coming into a cold time time of the year so it will be a little more difficult but we'll get it in any questions on the Windows when did you say they're R to start Gord we don't have an exact date yet but probably the end of November beginning of December they're going to I guess they're not going to leave they're going to replace windows as they go so there's not going to be any indicate any reason to temporarily secure openings in the middle of like Heating season right no comes out goes in that's simple okay yeah any other questions on the window no no okay the new playground actually uh I talked about that a little bit in my business administrator's report um it's anticipated to start sometime mid November um so hopefully that'll be done that should be very quickly there was some concern at the last board meeting whether the old one had been removed or it's going to be removed and it has been removed so that's no longer any questions on the playground this seems cheaper than the one at I shouldn't say that I shouldn't say it like that expens this purchase seems more efficient than the one that we received for pill viiew and it's a similar size playground so it seems like it's we got a couple bucks off yeah it was a good deal yeah it's good deal very efficient we negotiated a good deal okay they using a union to install this sure okay any other questions on the playground no okay the big topic is really the uh the board the new board office and classrooms I also mentioned in my uh board secretary's report that uh I met with the architect and our Engineers we're going to provide a report to the board as to the condition of the building that we're looking to purchase um I also have met with the appraiser and I actually went through the building with the appraiser and he was quite impressed with the building because it is in very nice shape uh once I get all that information I'll be able to put together a plan an action plan before putting in any kind of negotiation because obviously I need numbers I need to figure out where it's coming from and when we're going to buy it we have a problem in buying it through our capital reserve and that we cannot buy it this year it has to be built into your budget in order to purchase anything out of capital reserve so I have an idea how to negotiate that and I've also gone over with our attorney I went over with Dennis actually and um he was in agreement I went over it with our Auditors and they see they said that's okay also so once I get that information I'll put it together a package for the board and we can take a look at it before I start the negotiation process I do know that he or excuse me the owner the current owner did purchase the building a little over two years ago for about 2.55 million he wants 2.85 so he's looking for $300,000 increase in what his purchase R is that high I don't know that's what the appraisal would tell us obviously we cannot buy it for more than what the appraised value is so that appraisal is key yeah so we're working on that um my idea is to keep the tenants in the second floor as long as we can till we get the third floor totally finished off the way we want it and slowly weed the m I think 2029 is the last lease on that building so that'll work out nice so what is our overlap timing of committing to this and then that becomes available and say okay that's better but we're now in the in the process like what once we once we commit to that building that's done that you're talking about once okay um U my last email and I shared that with the board yeah um they're not interested currently currently right right if that becomes available that would be a whole another issue because that would have to go out for referendum for sure yeah yeah this build a building over there right here we actually have a building build so I mean it would be years and I was just gonna ask when is the date where leave the post office what's the DAT that's February 2026 and they are not going to negotiate as far as us buying the the building so they they want the building they want the property so they want us out um can oh sorry till you're done goe um just thinking about the location of where it is on like the far southern end of town do we know how much of the like residential area of town is far enough away that would we have to bus students there most likely we'd have to bust students there yeah for safety reasons so that's we're only talking four classrooms to start three to four classrooms to start I'm going to have the architect draw draw up some plans to give you an idea as to what we could do obviously the board makes that final decision um but yes we I would surmise we would have to bust some of those students any students who live within two miles they don't get bust unless they're special education they wouldn't but if they're beyond two miles we have to offer yes like parents don't have to use it but we have to offer it cor right um and we're talking about preschool age kids well not for the third floor you cannot put a preschool on the third floor there was a law that was recently changed which stopped back and I had a long conversation with the County VA and she flat out said you cannot do it and she studied the law and I said okay law is the law so we're looking to put uh upper grades just on those three or four classrooms to open up some classrooms in North Boulevard um for more preschool because right now we're losing about $200,000 a year in students that are waiting to come in yeah that's a lot money to lose when we leave the post or actually starting Fe January 1st 2025 we're losing our rent from the post office for the property that the building is sitting on that's 55,000 a year so now the rent we're going to get for this new building is about 30,000 net what I've seen so far so I have to look at the numbers even further obviously Myer it's also looking at so that's going to be factored into the purchase price so okay I'm sorry then i' gotten lost along the way so we're talking about four classrooms to start third floor only right but upper grades corre so a very small subset of students what about like assemblies much recet like well those things will have to be Tak obviously I me we're still at the very beginning stage right okay and unfortunately there aren't a lot of properties in town that we can choose from sure you know what I'm saying so we're says everyone who's looking to move into this town exactly what each case would you consider be going there I'm thinking Academy students yeah older students I up Dr CIS yeah one thing we did talk about too is um it doesn't require nooms to anticipate that there's going to be huge by the number of students requiring services in the ages 18 to 21 um we're seeing spikes across the board in special education enrollment and it's showing no signs of slowing down so um one thing I have discussed is the possibility of having an 18 to 21 program this is still in the very speculative stages but up on that third floor um and that will free up some space in this high school as well so if we did want to expand anything with academies or general programming U we could do so so I think in 18 to 21 could serve the needs not only of students Within our district but also allow us to pull in students from other districts and um you you guys have seen some of the numbers added District placements they're astronomical and th those aren't slowing down um and so if we can find ways to help not only ourselves by housing such a program and I'm not making this sound like it's a fate complete like there's a lot of work to be done to determine if it's even possible but we could bust students in from neighboring districts as well that could be a great source of Revenue um and it really helps you have a more effective program so yeah so there ideas kicking around I mean one thing that this building has I mean the location's not the best it's just the fact that it's in our ZIP codes and and is available makes it very attractive but it has something that we just can't find anywhere else in that space and um when when we were talking to Frank the architect about what we could do classroom wise he was looking at the wall like oh this this easy work he's like you just tell him like what size you want he's like and I can tell you exactly how to shift R knock things out obviously much broader scope of a project but we have a one floor High School like what have we ever talked about going up the problem with going up is the more space that you have you have to provide parking uh we're limited on parking now you go up what are you going to find yeah think right and and you'll see it um as a High School parent now like the layout of this school is is not efficient it's there there's a lot of waste of space whether it's the courtyards that have no real egress um but that I would have liked to have seen it laid out differently and even like how PV has portion that has a second floor it's great create space sg's got that little portion um I think that that would have been great but I think it's going to be relegated to the would it could have should have as opposed to something that's actually feasible and then just to piggy back on that when we got the solar panels on the roofs we have we have solar panels on the roofs in a lot of places and then Additionally the structure for a twostory building is different than a story structure for one story building like for instance the library is like wood rain right right and the wood Bears on in most cases like the the sidewalls so I don't necessarily know if they're adequate to go up two stories typically you have like a structural steel frame then you go up beside your long foot in my opinion we should knock something down build something new but funny is there an elevator in this building yes there's elev Tim you went here right no he means no no I me the new there is here it's right next any other questions uh couple questions about so we're considering putting classrooms there as well as the preschool yeah so it would we can't just to summarize what what uh Gordon was talking about so we cannot put any pre on the third floor um and I I triy to make the argument that the first floor is essentially a basement that's not fully underground um so second the third floor I contended was actually a second floor because there are only two usable floors um I think the county found my argument using at best um for sarily dismissing it so um essentially that that third floor which is again a glorified second floor has to have another use so the office space is g to be great it's going to open us up could even move supervisors potentially in there great space High School Middle School U we would look to use half of that third floor classroom space it's it's pretty big um and so that's like an an older program would be well suited because you wouldn't have to worry so much about um recess like we would still have students doing like you know visits around town where able to do on-site learning experiences but I'm I'm hooked in it's 18 to 21 it doesn't have to be that but I that would be a great thing to be able to house and I and I know Mrs espo speak to this course she's observed you're you're going to see just just an explosion in the need for these programs and I'd love to be out ahead of it and then second floor which is flori first floor um that that we could dedicate fly pre cage we got to make sure that the tenants currently occupy the office space there and the classrooms it would just be for the older 18 to 20y Old yeah the upstairs I'm not going to use the the floor numbers because I'm confusing myself as I say it but the the top floor would be yeah exclusively for the older kids I'm sorry when we're looking at the preschool rooms are we um taking into consideration the PSA if we ever get it yeah and what because within five years we have to universally educate 90% of our students so like how many classes would we really technically need we're going to need a lot and the great thing is you prek requires a lot of space 9950 ft which when you think about is a big chunk of space um but we'll be able to configure things so we're confident we can get four classrooms in at least um pretty positive with the aid of 750 square feet and a bathroom I don't think the bathroom has to be in the room but it has to be right there line of it has so um just because if if and when we are up for that hopefully sooner rather than later it's a very quick turnaround not only is it it's a super quick turnaround and it's also a lot so if we're planning I'm just putting it out there because we're I'm going through it right now or my district is going through it right now it is huge undertaking but it is phenomenal a yeah we're gonna I'm going to include something in in one of my fourth coming updates it should actually be my next um to remind parents about the availability of free and reduced lunches and and I'm glad that this SE gives me an opening to say it publicly as well but like if you're experiencing any type of U temporary Financial instability and there's a way that we can help like the feds have this in place to help people and kids don't get you know a lunch with a big Scarlet free or reduced you know there's no F there's no r on it you get a lunch and and all that is kept confidential but but I bring this up because it's a program that I feel is is underutilized and if if families are experiencing food insecurity right now that is going to directly impact kids ability to learn and to want to come to school and I'm bringing it up in regards to FFA because the grant money is largely based on how many what what what portion of students you have who are receiving free sled service service so I'm putting it out there that it really does help the district if we have families taking advantage of something that our tax dollars are paying for it's in place as a support and we know ideally we want it to be a temporary crutch to help people um so they can really get back on their feet but it's there and again there's no Stigma attached to it so I do want to get the word out about that because U it it serves multiple multiple benefits there any Gordon is there any way we could go and visit the property I know we haven't like purchased it or appraised it or is there any way we could just go see the inside maybe so we could get a good idea of what we're really looking at yeah just let me know when you want to go see it I'll take you through realer said that I can go anytime if anybody just goes I mean that might be a little shady to them so um yeah just just let me know when you want to go and I'll I'll be there for you thank you I appreciate it any other questions no no thank you Mr G thank you all right moving on to policy four discussion items the homework policy duties of the president policy updating the policy Master list and then potential self policy do you want to take [Music] homework it really was being self-deprecating when I said the Mike poured a shut but the homework policy is one that we spoke about in a couple of meetings as something that we'd really like to have passed through a committee of ad um comprise of Administrators and I was really happy with how the process unfolded U Vance cold was able to be a part of committee that met for that and we had what what I felt were very very good intellectual arguments that focused on generating a document that could convey accurate philosophical position on the importance of homework while also affording us the wiggle room um things are going to change through the years and we want to make sure that the um building level principles and supervisors and directors are able to push out information that's accurate for that time and speaks to these are the expectations for this year and that's that's why I bring up that there is something in in one of the paragraphs U about how there will information in the in the handbook or shareed out with students and families because I think that that's very important that's the third paragraph Department of school guidelines will provide specific details about the importance of homeworking determining students grades we want to make it clear too um I I was rapidly opposed to the 5 perent rule um for a number of reasons you've heard most of them but I do feel like homework should factor into grades if it kids take it more seriously if it matters but it shouldn't dictate students grades if you've demonstrated outstanding performance on major assessments but you simply don't do your homework there shouldn't be much of a penalty for that because clearly you've demonstrated Mastery your grade should reflect that um nevertheless so what we what we put forth um and this went through some very close readings um I was pressed Mrs vll called me out on a floating adverb and I hate adverbs so I was impressed with that very well executed um but we wanted to make sure that this was a one-pager that it was precise um and that it stated something that was that was clear but also didn't necessarily pinion our our staff members and we also want to make sure we include something about the homework free weekends um this year we're looking to do it for Thanksgiving and Memorial Day no argument here with Thanksgiving or Memorial day but also it it is important to note that there are going to be different expectations most likely for AP that that's a college level course and I hate to say it with when we start school we open our doors on Thursday kids in Brownville Texas will have four weeks under their belt in their AP classes at that point so so go ahead I I think this is great I love this um I know that that the administration Works super hard on those two long weekends so I really appre appreciate at the high school level can we maybe think about challenging to maybe do a homework free weekend a month at the elementary school level or like even Middle School where they're they're not worried about AP classes and those types of things where the kids really can disconnect a little bit more so maybe it's one allowance for the elementary school something a little slightly different for middle school and then high school has those two week which then also the other schools will have so the whole families regardless of school level Etc have no homework Thanksgiving and Memorial Day I can definitely bring it up now is that something that that you that you found that that's been a significant disruption and I realize it's loaded language say significant but that has the homework been honorous from either your firsthand observations or conversations you've had so some I mean so obviously it's very child dependent right like some kids they sit down they do the homework takes them four seconds and they're done other kids they sit down the same homework will take them four hours and it's it's anguish and it's torture so I feel like through my experiences and and what I've hearded over the years is sometimes the kids don't get those children who have who struggle a little with getting homework completed may not get there Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday homework done right and so come Friday they're then trying to play catchup and so they they take it home and it's a struggle Sunday at so maybe we can just sort of be cognizant of that or I I I don't I'm sure that there's some sort of like I need to my some sort of um creative solution um but just to sort of care for some of the instances and the fact that the homework now doesn't dictate the grade I think that's that's a huge step in the right direction for those types of kids who struggle that way um but yeah yeah and just something I want to really point out well two things one directly connect to what you're saying the other is you really want homework to be done by the student if if a kid is really struggling with being able to complete something that's okay because that gives the teacher accurate data on where that student's understanding is and as a parent I think there's a natural tendency to to want to help their kids and I I was a for years and I used to struggle with that all the time is am I going too far in in the assistance I'm providing in this particular you know essay college application essay because you want the work to be authentically the kids but you also don't want to see them losing their minds so I think it's important that that that homework is taken seriously students put forth their best effort but if I've given you three math problems and you can do one of them and the other two are just beyond you that gives the teacher phenomenal quantitative data about what needs to be retaught how to how to work with groups in class and the other thing I think this is really important for parents um is that the homework Battleground is a brutal place and it if you have a student who is struggling who is incredibly resistant to homework there's no shame in putting a Post-It note on the homework or even writing on it sometimes kids are Savvy and know that they can remove Post-it notes say we worked on this for 20 minutes didn't make progress you have to say sorry or anything like that I know that's hard to do um but so it it's very hard and and I totally understand what you're saying and you're coming at this I feel like from the point of view of an educator right and so somebody like myself or some of my friends who are not Educators and don't understand education like that will'll sit with our children for four hours and tears to try and get them to try and teach them to YouTube videos to get them to where we think they need to be even if that's not beneficial to them because otherwise we feel like we're not doing our part as parents at home to get the work completed when they get it I think there's a really good messaging that can come out of this and and and again like my phenomenal podcast viewing numbers maybe support that I'll getting aide but like to be able to just say as as an educator as parent gr my kids are older but and and as somebody who has a pretty pretty deeply grounded understanding of this topic like they almost give people permission if if your kid is is losing his or her mind shut it down you know and and you know whether it's a brain break say look we're gonna work on this for 10 minutes we're gonna go out the driveway we're gonna we're going to shoot hoops or or you do something different and then we're gon to come back to this or just say you know what the last three hours of my life been sheer unadulterated hell so I'm going to I'm going to cut ba like it's really it's really important and I think we can reinforce that message and it can't just be coming from me like I think from the teachers from the administrators it's good back to school night message too that like once you hit and and Mr V will probably speak to it better than I but like I felt like with the little guys on like with math once you hit minute 31 you're beyond the point of return like you're just not going to you're not going to get return on that investment so just best just done um you don't want to condition the kids to realize I torment well 30 minutes and then I'm I'm do my math so there's there's a lot to consider but just for parents to understand like you're not a bad parent if if you if you shut it down you're actually doing great um I get it but when your kids sitting there crying and and you I mean I'm sure everyone's been through their own version of this um but I agree it's great messaging and maybe you know the principles can the Elementary Middle School principls can include it in there you know weekly newsletters that go home um just to like reinforce I know for some kids it I think that there is an idea that homework homework should re reinforcement it shouldn't be parents teaching the kids the lesson and if that's the case there should be an email sent out like my kid just didn't get it so I think that maybe that needs to be communicated a little bit more as well because it's difficult listen I am an educator and did not do homework with my kids because it was it was not a good experience for anyone so um you know but I think that just I I think you're right I think going out in the newsletter would be a good idea I'd like to come at this same idea from Another Side because I really appreciate the advice they giving to parents in this regard um I do get the sense that some of those tears and frustrations on behalf of the students are because there is still a mentality of homework being graded and homework being an expectation and it's um it's a word in here that I'm going to challenge us to keep thinking about um of an assessment of student performance and so the student who is struggling is feeling inadequate because they are going to go into that class tomorrow having not performed to the expectations of the teacher so and I'm not saying that that is universally what's being put on the students but there is still that mentality I think throughout our district I I think I see it because I have a high achieving Middle School I think you see it most in high achieving students especially and they tend to internalize that a lot more so I think that's something we should watch for um to that end in the draft of the homework policy there um is in the first paragraph the sentence I would like us to keep looking at especially in relation to a lot of the changes that are in the last paragraph which I really like um we have in here based on educational value of engaging in ongoing assessment the board supports faculty efforts to maintain consistency and quality in providing homework assignments that assess student performance but then later in the end of the policy and actually prior in that paragraph we say that homework is the opportunity to practice and we've eliminated and perfect which I'm very pleased to see um but the last paragraph talks a lot about students being able to assess their own Mastery while helping teachers determine the level of understanding and ability to apply their knowledge so I would like us to keep looking at those ideas next to each other and are they are they compliment or are they a bit in Conflict if we're talking about homework as ongoing assessment of performance versus practice I can put it in an email to you no fine I'm J notes and though I hate listening to these because I I think my voice makes me sound like K Rees I don't like listening to these meetings true story um but it's basically the third sentence of the first paragraph yeah so we in relation to I'm sorry it's not the last paragraph in relation to the third par paragraph as a whole I think they're they're a little bit in Conflict there and just quick scroll down to the um the bottom page four because that's actually the one where we cut out we cut out the word okay s good then you've already done what I asked you to no you read M I'm sorry draft for editing okay excellent um the kind of separately this is might not necessarily be a part of the policy but I did also want to comment on um our use of tools like I ready and other sorts of responsive systems that are often being used for homework um and making sure that particularly for students who are getting the concepts those systems continually provide them with more challenging work as they do well and making sure that we're not facing grades on those necessarily because if a student is exceeding their grade level ability and are being given questions that are one or two grades above their actual grade and then not performing at Mastery we we want to make sure students aren't being penalized or feeling like again like they're not achieving where they need to be they're being given work that may be two grades above what their peers are learning so just making sure that that's balanced as well yeah and and that's um I just want to point something out and I had a earlier had a conversation with Mrs esposo I think it's really important to to focus on this idea that when we talk about ongoing assessment we're not talking about ongoing testing for a grade we're talking about assessing where kids are and that's what I like about a tool like I ready where yeah you do see the progressively more difficult questions I had a teacher almost in tears for were first piloting that program she like my kids got destroyed on like what do you mean she they got the first three right and then they got the next two wrong like that's fine so what the systems figuring out is all right so you got these first three right let's try two grade levels above and then it and then it it adapts it's adaptive assessment which is which is wonderful but if if I get yeah if I get like a 68% because the adaptive technology is testing to see how far I can go there's an issue there and and it is really important that we want to be able to assess in other words to determine where where are the kids who are seated in front of us in the classroom so that we can modify instruction to to meet them where they are I know Brian you want CH yeah and similarly making sure the students understand that so they're not in tears over the I ready problems that are two grades above where they are supposed to be it's actually funny you bring that up because I have a kid that'll do I ready like at home and then being like you know he he's in fourth grade will be in Middle School doing algebra and be upset that he doesn't get it right because he went from and he just keeps going and going and going until he gets it wrong um so I think that's it's very wise what you said Megan as far as the homework policy I thought it was good because I think it is good to have the homework be practice like it says in the policy for Concepts that they're learning in school and reinforcement because that just judging from my own experience that's how I tend to learn I might not get the concept I might get the concept in class but then when I go home and do the homework it reinforces it to now when I come back the next day I I I know it better than I understood it the first time when I saw it um but I also think it's important too for the teacher to be able to understand where the students are having issues so that they can differentiate their instruction and I do see now their performance was replaced with understanding thank you that's awesome I do the sentence that's highlighted I do think that that's a really great sentence that really will speak to differentiating homework so thank you um and I Dr pz and I did have a brief conversation about using the term assessment and if we could Define that a little bit I think um within the policy a little bit more I'm John that yeah and something that that I I I did share with the the committee and they really were outstanding they were very focused and it was cool like when I looked through my minutes from the meeting everybody was there um made a significant contribution so it wasn't just like one or two people speaking it was it was all seven people in the room and they were they were willing to argue and bring forth ideas but um I did tell them that one of my agendas as as a well an English teacher but also somebody who really thinks can't stress literacy skills enough because I want to emphasize the importance of reading and and all that reading gets is mention as part of a a series of three items but it's it's in there and it's important because I do think if we are looking to acquire new information it's through Reading and it's so important that our our staff recognizes their teach teaching students how to read a scientist they're teaching students how to read like a historian um you read primary source documents but um where I thought I was gonna have this big glowing statement it's just it's just one item that's separated by an Oxford comma but it's but it's important I I actually yeah and I'll Adit I lost a lot on this one and I loved it um I think I I think I said it to you in my notes that it was the most brutally Pleasant interaction I'd ever had because that they were they were Fearless about about picking apart pieces of language and and it was great because it reflects a wide range of thinking and thinkers so what are our next steps on this one so um I I any input that you guys want to put in writing like I I jotted down some notes um but anything that you really want us to address um please reach out to me CC Magan as committee chair I'm sure Brian want to be part of the conversation but I I I feel like I can give you something clean that's ready to go for a first reading either on the 16th or if we want to um give people little more time to adjust it to a first reading at the October small number date meeting oh do it at the first October meeting we do that as well the action item section beginning that's is that what people feel comfortable with or yeah okay so so we'll look yeah so first reading for October 7th because that'll give you a chance to let this let this settle if you want to watch the video again and again you have time to do that too yeah I think it's close I think it's very close I agree so um I know Brian got nervous when he saw duties of the president on here but it just so happened I was going through the next item that will be up for discussion which is the master list of policies to see what um could be due for review how to been looked at in a long time that one stood out to me we haven't reapproved it or done anything with it since 2012 and it seemed like a fairly easy one because the duties of the president really haven't changed that much so it was in backup just for review um I wanted to throw that I I was hoping to identify a couple more but I'll tell you why I didn't we got to discussion number three um but I thought this 0171 could go for just a review and re approval um for first reading and then second reading at the next business meeting so any comments on that policy or changes that you think might need to be discussed on that the school warrants is pretty interesting did you know you have to sign all those well I I read it when uh first became president but I've never signed any school warrants so I guess that's a good thing I was a little one I was wondering about the um language around appointing the Committees and serving as the next committee uh Committee Member ex aicio but we do still use the Committees and a kind of AD hog basis so I think they're all still okay well if you see have any questions about that one before the next meeting let me know otherwise we'll put it on as is um just for a reapprovals I I would just prefer that for number 10 says confer with superintendent crucial matters that may occur between board meetings the relative pronoun there reflect the common American usage it should be that rather than which I'm gonna be quiet now I'll leave that one to you to fix that not which that's all he said okay so [Laughter] um MOG was very was kind enough to um share with myself and Dr Portis the list of um policies of it's like a master list of policies that includes the date of the last sh estimate update when the bo last adopted or when I guess it was originally adopted um and then the last review date and some of them do go back pretty far if there haven't been any sh sesme updates it's really not that big a deal but it's just good practice to go through them every now and then um reapproved them make sure that um particularly for ones that are not mandated policies that it still reflects our practices in our philosophy um and our mission but as I started going through that I just I realized that um the list itself needs some cleaning up so that's something that um I'm going to look at and Dr Portis I'll work with you and Mrs a to make sure that we can um make sure uh I think some names may have changed from what's in here and things like that so we'll clean the list up um and then I would like to get into establishing a regular review of policies get back into that so we had kind of fallen out of that um habit the one question I had to see if anyone had an opinion on was um do you want to see a chunk of policies that are all from the same section of our policy manual so we take on three or four that are from the student section and then we later take on that are from the teacher section or do you want a smattering that are from all different sections of the policy manual if we were to do this on say a monthly basis I would think section by section section by section there's a reason why they're organized that way so review them that way the only thing we might do is lump teacher and sta teaching staff and support staff like there's two sections where there's a lot of duplicate policies so we might bring those together but yeah we can do them section by section then yeah exactly right they're just the same with different titles okay so um we'll do some work on that and get it set up with a some sort of schedule that can be passed on to the Future policy chair and cell phone policy um there was a memo that came out from the New Jersey Department of Education of considerations for the development of your policies to address cell phone usage and schools obviously be come um is becoming a bigger and bigger issue they reference some studies and some research in there um and we do have a policy in place we have procedures in place at the different schools that are outlined in the handbooks um but Dr ctis I'll throw it over to you if there's something you wanted to add to the existence of this memo yeah and I'm glad that we we were able to bring it to the table for this um the memo itself doesn't really State particularly strong position um which I guess is good it provides us some local control over how we want to respond but this is something that we we definitely saw there being a ground swell um the the book anxious generation from Jonathan hate has gained a lot of traction um it was something I had included a review from Miss Abrams and Dr Sheridan about it one of my my updates a couple parents actually got back to me um and probably regretted it because I've been bombarding them with emails ever since but um there was a very good podcast that ha did about I think it was last week that went over what he felt very simple solutions to help schools better support kids um and ultimately what it comes down to is that that the kids is that students and two a degree staff but more so students are are so compelled to look at these pth logically um they get pulled in by the alerts the updates there's this incredible fear of missing out so I was glad that you saw that study from Ruckers about students having access to their phones during class um how that disrupted their learning experiences and um I'm I'm open about it when when um we were developing a cell phone policy for the middle school I wanted us to take advantage of the opportunity to teach kids how to use their cell phones responsibly um it was in respect one of the um Dumber positions I've ever taken because it was very much an esoteric idea like hey we can teach them this but it's just not and there's a grip that these things have on on young users and so with that said I'm actually very happy that the state it's towards the bottom of the memo um but that the state is welcoming input from us um they're calling it the social media commission I think the cell phone use goes beyond social media as well but that is what they're calling it so I'll respect that and I do think we should encourage people to offer their input as parents as Educators as as board members as administrators teachers I I think it's really really important um but that said I I do think that we should look at what are our expectations for kids with phones and reality is we we don't want people texting their kids during school we don't want kids checking in on Instagram during school like we we we want it to be that the focus is on what's in the moment I think if we were and I'm going to dread saying this out loud but I think I think we were to set up a committee for the community to give people an opportunity to talk about it and address how we can help kids families with with this issue I think it might go a long way I think that's a great idea uh I read an article in a school leader I guess was the last month's episode that there was different districts doing different things one of them was they have these these uh cubbies in one school district where they put the phone in there when they go into school or when they go into class they're not allowed to have it and then there was another uh District that had bags that the bags closed and the student still has the phone I think they called theond bags or something like that but the they're allowed to walk around with the bag but they can't get access to the phone and it's similar to something that I had to deal with when I went to see Joe Rogan at madis Square Garden which was which was lovely and uh they gave me a bag to put my phone in so you couldn't record the event and you still had your phone but the phone was essentially you couldn't get at it um I've read studies that even having your phone at work if it's face down on your table it distracts you even if you're not looking at it if it's in the Next Room you know it's there distracts you if it's in your car it's less of a distraction so it's like the basically comes down to the further you can get away from your phone the better off you're going to be as far as when you're trying to learn something and focus so I am totally in favor of putting out a uh survey to the parents and I would also be totally in favor of keeping the phones out of the kids' hands when they come into the building which I think is the policy now as far as the handbook they're supposed to put in their locker and then not have it in class so right there that's what we should be doing they have the shoe shoe holders in high school I will say I I sent to some of you today uh the New York Times puts out a podcast called The Daily um today's daily is completely focused on cell phone use in schools uh really worth a listen I think it's about 30 minutes and it doesn't just talk about different counties different states how they're handling it and uh I'm a big proponent of getting rid of the phones entirely till I listen to today's podcast um there was some information about uh students who have the most adult responsibilities often do need access to the phone for example if they're working their hours get changed and they need to know that before obviously they leave school they're caring for elderly uh there may be important messages on there so there was some talk there about like how do you still give them access whether that's in guidance you know you have to go to the guidance room guidance offices to open up the phone to look at it um like a safe space where it's appropriate um maybe during launch or what whatnot so they can they can do this but I just I never really thought about how kind of those students with the most adult responsibilities may need access to their phones so just keeping that in mind as we move forward it does seem to oh sorry I was gonna say as a school where we are a onet toone school from sixth grade up so students have another device that they can use for educational purposes so we're not like eliminating technology from the classroom but you know keeping that in mind and if there is certain Tech that teachers want to use that yes maybe is easier done through their own phone but we can find them the tech And maybe invest in what they want in a different way whether it's like clicker technology that can be done through the combook or iPads that they use to make videos in the hallways instead of having the kids get their phones out and make videos in the hallways using their iPhones um making sure that we're supporting the educational needs in a way that the phones can be in the locker and they don't feel like they need it and they're missing out on you know some method of learning because that device is not in the students hands yeah well one thing I wanted to add to that and sorry I meant to say it before is while we have the cell phone policy we probably should inspect to make sure we're not having coaches just because it's easier send out text messages to teams hey my players games cancel today uh they can do that through email through the students computers um but you know I think that we maybe just little more pressure on that policy to say hey don't entice the kids to grab your phones when you can be easily email them as well you there used to be you know the principal would make an announcement that the game is canceled today over the PA system I don't know if we still have a PA system but um you know I I was kind of I'm kind of on the fence you know with this but the reality is that there's several states that have changed the laws and I think that we need to be prepared for that in that sense right we don't want to go from zero to 100 I think that if we work our way towards something like that something that we want if we're told what we have to do at some point that would be easier um change the laws and getting them away from many to state laws now are changing that schools are not allowed to have cellon oh yeah so um so but we kind of have that now right because like in PV you're supposed to put it in your locker and then right we we kind of schol you're not supposed to have it either but maybe we could also come up with some other ideas like if if a parent has to get hold of a kid but it's not an emergency who do they call but do they even know who to call right now you know what I mean like main office do you call the GU counselor like you know what I'm saying like you don't call me Dr poris you know what I'm saying so you know what is what is the chain of command for them but um I tell you what though you know I was listening to the podcast today uh while I was getting ready to come here and my incoming freshman heard it and she goes well what am I supposed to do for the first three weeks when I can't find my classroom I I have everything on my phone and I said well I'll print out something on MapQuest for you but you know I mean the thing is is that it it is going it's not something we can just do it's something we have to train these kids to get because you will have kids that get shakes because all they're worried about is getting their phone and another thing that you know nobody talks about it would be nice probably for these kids not to have to worry about getting their picture taken you know 75 times a day in the hallway in a classroom you know whatever that they could just be themselves and not worry about somebody taking their picture every five minutes I mean what more can we do if that's already the policy that has to be Locker you know what is what's the it's probably like I put phone but I know I I think I think especially after hearing that podcast that it is something that the state is eventually going to want to stick their hand to government overreach of course but why not yeah they're doing it already yeah yeah they're yeah they're definitely testing the water with this and and and I think it's a good thing um I would have preferred something a little more assertive but but I like that they're at least opening up to the conversation and I do like the idea and as I'm saying this I I should tuck this into my update which is now going to be about nine pages long but but I think it's important that people know like listen you can make your voice heard at state level as well I'm assuming somebody really is going to read this and uh as you talk about these podcasts it's important to to get the messaging out because it is very eye open like even I have my phone over you know right next to me here if this is the dinner table like there are studies that show like whether it's at home or at a restaurant how much that diminishes the quality and caliber and intensity of conversation that I can maintain so I think the more awareness that we create for our families for our kids for for our staff I it's really important and that's I have a note here about sharing with you uh the podcast that I would or really a webinar that I was able to observe last week but I have the recording for it I think you'll find it interesting I can push that out to the community but back ring this conversation is is is is really important because you you realize just how influential these things are in changing people's habits and now that I've been it's F Sam you were talking about how like you're a little more attuned from having listened to that podcast um we went to DC for a few days and just I was observing how many people I saw walking around like this and like just nexts down like no look up this is an incredibly beautifully you know crafted City the architecture everything else and so the the more aware that you become and you start observing people's habits of course you observe your own as well um and I'm aware of that during a commercial break I I fall victim to occupied boredom I'm going to check out oh maybe there's something in Apple news or there's an email no there's not just change channel anyway so I I I think there's a lot here that we could do just to get the conversation going and even if it's not something that's policy maybe it's something that's more important practice and I don't we can communicate that out I think I just added a lot to my workload and I'm okay with that all right policy all right that brings us to our second opportunity for public comment members of the public may speak once for a maximum period of five minutes by the clock doing this portion of the meeting and the public may speak on any topic during their five minutes if a member of the public raises a question direct that question to the board president and State your name and sign in We Begin we don't have a special guest speaker tonight oh all right moving on to uh unfinished business any board member with unfinished business any board member with new business any board member that has an announcement to make um I don't have an announcement but uh it's exciting times good luck to uh this the teachers staff students um in this 2024 25 year let's have an outstanding year this is why we're all here let's do it like the enthusiasm Sam well said let's do it absolutely let's get an elevator in this building okay I just um I'd like to thank all of our custodians our secretaries our support staff our teachers and our admin team for preparing our schools for the 2024 2025 school year which I just can't even believe it's the 2024 2025 school year um best of luck to all of our students teachers and staff for an amazing School Year may it be filled with academic growth and funfilled memories last Thursday I attended the uh home opener football game was a lot of fun it was beautiful night great game earlier did an amazing job first time out there as well everybody had a really great time um my 10-year-old did ask me to pass on the message to the announcer from that evening to learn the difference between defense and offense and fall start and offsides apparently I'm just kidding Mr hazler did a fabulous job but um needs to brush up on those Rules From what I am told uh but other than that fabulous game and uh thanks to everyone who put the hard work for that yeah I I know she I know exactly what she's talking about I was the uh how's the volume how's the volume of the it is very important to note that I was standing quietly on the sideline that it was the golden throat of Mr hazler that was conducting the announcing he did a great job but yeah you can't call fo start on the defense that that's it's off Sid or a neutral zone violation I just want to wish every every body um again good luck and more importantly the uh new staff coming to the quic family um picking off their their careers here um good luck and then have fun it's a fun place to be all right we do not have reason to go into executive session tonight so uh is there a motion to adjourn motion is there a second second all in favor any opposed good night everyone our next meeting will be a regular business meeting at Cedar Crest on September 16th see you all there good night