##VIDEO ID:BIbg8fsWr3Y## everybody e e okay the time is 7 o'clock I'll call this meeting to order Mr Gibbs we please read the statement of compliance in compliance with the open public meeting ACT public law 1973 75 chapter 231 notice of this um this meeting has been posted properly advertised on The Daily Record and Suburban Trends its agenda has been posted the appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with the pic Township Clark thank you please call the RS Mr blumer here Mr cesi here miss Dempsey hereo here Mr G here Queeny here Pompeo here here and M shent who's absent we have a thank you will everyone please stand for the flag salute hi good even even everyone Welcome to our August 19th meeting last week the board held our summer Retreat to discuss progress made against our goals set at the beginning of the year goal one was to support the district in academic growth and mental health one example of board action towards that goal was to approve revisions to the pths start time goal three was to work with Dr poris to establish a formalized annual schedule of updates regarding student achievement facilities and District Operations during the retreat we reviewed a draft schedule which address State assessments AP enrollment student services and everything in between substantial progress has been made toward achievement of goals one and three and we are poised to complete both by the end of the year goal two was to achieve Carol El Larson Master board certification this certification is granted to high performing boards that accumulate in additional 10 hours of training in the first two years after achieving the first level of certification in fact since the Inception of this certification there have only been 47 boards in the state and 11 in Morris County that have reached this level the Quantic board achieved the first level of certification in 20123 and set a goal to achieve Master certification level for 2024 following our Retreat and the review of our self- evaluation I'm happy to report that we have accumulated enough credits to achieve Carol Le Larson masterboard certification and with that have completed goal number two this could not have been possible without the help of our njsba field rep Charlene Peterson who performed most of our training as well as Dr poris and Mr Gibbs Mr Gibbs performed training and Dr poris was required to be at every one of our training sessions so that they count thank you to you all I want to also thank the board I want to also thank the board for the hard work and persistence to accomplish two years of training in one year the board will receive our certification plaque at the first Morris County SBA meeting of the year which will be held at the high school pths on October 2nd last I want to provide an update on the veterans wall project as you can see we have made major progress and are close to the end of major construction all concrete has been placed Monument walls are installed awaiting the final coat of Stucco and all lights have been in installed in fact the lights are active and you can see the monument lit up if you drive by it at night this week we will install pavers the finished coat of stuckle on the walls and next week we will install the wall caps and perform final landscaping and irrigation work again I want to thank the contractors for donating their services to make this project a reality um their generosity is just so appreciated and inspiring so thank you to all of them and now pass the mic on to Dr PS all right thank you Mr senic so a few items in my report uh first off I just want to thank the police department for organizing a wonderful Community event with the National Night Out last week Mr Asen and I enjoyed being able to pitch in as dunkies for the dunk tank and both Nancy poris and the younger Michael poris wanted to express their gratitude for being able to send me in for a swim a few times uh but as a district we appreciate that the police department truly works as a community partner school district and it's great to be able to share so many experiences with them so a lot of fun it was great seeing so many people out for a really fun event um to Echo some of what Mr senic was saying the veterans wall Project's nearing completion is moving at what describe as an astonishing Pace began as a tremendous opportunity to celebrate the power of community it's become even greater than what I could have imagined crn kind donor working so hard to do such beautiful work it's inspiring and the extraordinary Community Support is also incredibly appreciated so it's meaningful in a lot of ways and it's gained even further meaning uh throughout this process like to also thank Mr Anderson the buildings and grounds team and our custodians for the hard work and getting our schools ready for September 5th their pride in the appearence and clariness of our schools is obvious and helps set a tone for excellence for our staff students and families then today we started our new staff orientation we welcome new staff in today for day one of a three-day orientation this this year's group is fairly small it brings a lot of energy and we're really excited to have them as part of our team and then finally uh this is in regards to PMC item but I just want to say that we have an exciting approval on the agenda for PMC which deals with personnel which is to welcome our soon Tobe new curriculum director of curriculum instruction Mrs Amar vanle it's bittersweet as we have to say goodbye to our friend Dr Sheridan uh she's the one with the balloons who'll be retiring in 12 days after a 25 year career in education I'll make a more formal speech at another meeting but do want to take this opportunity to thank Beth for her outstanding contributions to our district it's been a lot of fun working with you and watching you grow in this role and I'm proud of how you've developed programs in an infrastructure to ensure that Mrs vle is positioned for Success starting on day one congratulations and have fun in retirement Mr Gibbs you have a report yes good evening on the evening's board agenda there is a request for an approval for the new playground at North Boulevard in the amount of $ 58,183 through Ben schaer corated who was part of the co-al the new playground should be installed sometime in mid November on July 25th an electric a utility proposal went out to bid of which there were five energy companies that placed their bid the winning provider is Direct Energy business with an anticipated savings to the school district to be amount of $2,936 24 over the next two years the reconditioning of the ball field started on August 12th with an estimated completion date of August 31st weather permitting the resurfacing and striping of the parking lot at the high school was completed during the last week of July the replacement of the outside molding around the top of the gym to high school was completed on Sunday August 18th now for just a brief update on the new board office and addition classrooms the appraisal on the property where the post office and the Board of Education reside came in at $85,000 on July 25th I had a meeting with their Auditors regarding the purchase of seven Industrial Road it was determined that the school district could purchase the building outright without the use of financing but the school district would have to wait excuse me have to build the purchase into the 2025 2026 budget in order to use capital reserve funds my plan of action includes the use of capital reserve funds for the purchase of the new building in July 2025 the SDA Grant of 1.7 million as well as the estimated 85,000 proceeds from the sale of the school's Board office property will go back into capital reserve accounts to help recover some of the costs in the new facility the asking price of the new building is $2.8 million thank you thank you Mr Gibbs will you please approve the minutes yeah I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes for the July 22nd meeting and the August 12th meeting second any question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the roll yes yes yes yes Mr mcen like to abstain from July 22nd but yes to August 12 Mr Pompeo I'd like to do the same stain from July 22nd uh but yes to August 12th m chenton is absent Vito yes and Mr s yes motion carries okay that brings us to our first opportunity for public comment members of the public may speak once for a maximum period of 5 minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting public may speak on any agenda item only during your five minutes and if a member of the public raises a question direct that question to the board president state your name and sign in before you begin good evening anarie finnen 166 Boulevard and president of the ponic township Education Association and I just wanted to take a quick opportunity to um welcome our soon toe new director of curriculum instruction um I had a pleasure to meet Mrs vanle this afternoon um and just excited uh for the future working with you and and welcome you I I did mention to her that I'm so excited for her to get into the classrooms and see the teaching because it's something we're all particularly proud of in this district and as long as I have the microphone I wanted to thank Dr Sheridan um for a great um tenure and and all the things you've done for our district um during difficult times um and for your partnership um I feel very privileged to have worked with you um and I actually have to run in a little bit so I know this is an agenda item but just in terms of welcoming everyone back and um echoing um Dr pse's thanks to our 12month staff and and to the PTA members who work through the summer uh to get everything ready and I know um the 10-month employees are ready um getting ready I've had the chance to be in every school in the past two weeks for various reasons and there were staff um setting up and and and preparing and um I think it's going to be a wonderful year a lot of changes a lot of new things but I'm very optimistic and excited so thank you board congrat congratulations on your um honor and thank you for doing that work to get there thank you thank you all right that brings us to the uh approval of our action items first up is PMC Mr cesi would you please move PMC I would like to move pmc1 19-25 through PMC 39-25 second question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr mmei yes Mr Pompeo yes Mr shenton is absent Mrs Esposito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries V congratulations but one one comment I'll make other than the obvious of congratulations is there has been some confusion in the board office about when I say an Marie now about whom I'm speaking because uh Mrs spinn and I work together on a lot of things very frequently and now be working with you quite a bit so we we'll resolve that that that one we'll figure that one out but um so happy for you um so happy for Dr Sheridan to know she's leaving her role and in incredibly capable hands um and I'm excited for our future so um thank you to board for your your trust in our hiring process and you're going to be fantastic congrats all right next up is CIS we have two items for Workshop uh lead request to record the instructor and the transition to the new director of curriculum and instruction and I guess I kind of already spoke about item number two there but I do want to address that specifically um one there's there's an item it's not up for a vote um but I wanted to make you aware that we received a request from our instructor for the lead program lead is what took over for dare um we we made the transition for a few reasons but I'm very happy with the lead program and uh SE Julian has been really involved with it and um has an opportunity to get further credentials as an instructor what the lead program wants to be able to do is record him teaching four separate classes and so um admittedly I gave a little push back from the initial request because I didn't feel like it was comprehensive enough and and to their credit and lead organization what they came back with and it's in it's in backup is really good and I wanted to make sure that the identity of our students was going to be protected um I have Assurance of that um I'm aware of who's going to be reviewing the information it's going to be a very select view in the leadership of the instructional program um and also I got assurances about where that those videos are going to be warehoused and then ultimately destroyed when they're no longer of use for determining the advocacy of our sro's lessons but um if we do have students who aren't able to be videotaped we would obviously move them to a part of the classroom where they couldn't be recorded recording will take place from the back of the room so they get the back of kids heads which doesn't give away any real identifiers um but something that I just want to bring up to your attention I know we do allow for recording for student teachers it's actually a state requirement um but though I initially pushed back and um rejected the requests um I my recommendation now is that we accept it would we go to each child's parents to get approval for them to be part of this no there's um at the start of the Year from the documents people can return they can fill out request um not to be photographed or filmed and that that's a blanket um request and so that would be granted for that as well so we would make sure that those children it's I believe this is just for the fifth grade groups um I gotta double check if it's eth as well but whichever grade levels are are involved in instruction we make sure that none of those students appeared on fill officer Juliano is requesting this or it's part of his just ascending to a higher level certification yeah he he requested it and that's exactly what it is is um he wants to be able to get a stronger certification as as an instructor so he's motivated to do it he takes he takes the program very seriously which we like um so I'm comfortable allowing the principal to sign the consent for will that potentially be at all three schools or one school do we know uh so it would be it could potentially be at all three elementaries as well as possibly PV so um that that's something that we would need to work with officer Juliano on determining exactly which lessons you wanted to record like I don't know if it would be two with one of the classes at Hillview and two with one of the classes at R Boulevard or something along those lines but we'll we'll map that out um and you know make sure that's handled as efficient and clean and manner as possible and then the other one I'm just excited to report we've already begun the transition to our new director of curricul instruction um we brought Mrs vull in earlier uh in the summer and she was brought in to fill the student services prek to five director role Miss Miss Bronco is currently out on maternity leave and doing very well we can't get her to stop working but she's still doing really well um and her leave is going to last all the way until the end of October um I don't like to identify the dates specifically but the last day in October which is the 31st is her last day of her leave but with that said we're going to we're we're in the process transitioning Mrs vll to the curriculum instruction role she's been communicating quite a bit with Dr Sheridan so we're anticipating that's going to be as seamlessly transitioned as one could imagine and then we have Mrs Debbie ioso coming back and September to fill in for Miss Bronco for September and October so we won't have an opening in that position and we're not going to try to force Mrs V to do two roles as she's beginning the most important one which is the director of curricul instruction but um it's worked out really well um for her having an opportunity to get to know the admin team as well as some of the staff members um in the interim role and now being able to transition to a permanent role probably couldn't scripted it any better I don't if you guys have any questions too about plans there and now that the vote went through um I'm gonna be sending out an update to the community at some point this week probably quite L till Friday just letting them know about transitions in place and what I just explain it to you I'll explain about Mrs ioso filling in for pre- to five as well okay uh that leads us to the approval of those items Mr ma would you please move the items under C yes I'd like to move U CIS 08-25 through cis1 14-25 second question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer uh yes so accept stain on C CIS 0825 were pertains today CI um the same yes to all except for CIS 0825 uh in reference to uh the New Jersey school boards trip M Dy yes to all but AB stain to CIS 0825 as it pertains to me Mr gon yes to all except CIS 0825 or pertains to myself Mr mixme yes Mr Pompeo yes Mr shinton is absent Esposito Yes except I abstain from CIS 0825 as to where it pertains to me and Mr Senate yes to all except CIS 0825 where it pertains to motion carries thank you Mr Bloomer would you please move the items under FFA yes I'd like to make a motion to move FFA 17-25 through FFA 26-25 second question of discussion I have a question on FFA 2525 for the North Boulevard equipment and mainly my question is will the existing playground need to be closed off to students at the beginning of the school year or like what kind of a state was it in that we we're looking to have it removed as soon as possible so it's not even stru for the students okay oh real quick before we make motion um did we were we surprised at the value of the property po off property Dr poris and I talked about that uh was between nine and 1.2 we were talking about but unfortunately it's not what apprais the appraiser uh a US government employee uh no but he is a professional appraiser he doesn't for municipalities towns he's a professional he's not just anyone okay seem and well that's that's that's the appraised diet that may not be what we sell it right no of course you know I mean the post office is going to do the same thing they're going to get their value and it's probably going to be lower than ours we got to try to you know manipulate it to get it as high as we can okay and yes just add to that we we I was a bit more vocal in expressing my disappointment with what the price came in at um and I I heard somebody down there offering to purchase the property it's pretty nice size property um for 805 it's not too shabby but uh Mr Gibbs declined to consider my offer I'm sure waa would pay a lot more for that location right there just saying uh I got a question about the 24 uh 2525 do we know when the equipment would be installed well they said uh mid November I mean there's no exact date yet yeah no I mean it could be worse yeah okay any other questions or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr sesi yes yes M Dempsey yes Mr G yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes m is absent this Esposito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries I'd like to take a quick moment just to thank our donors Mr defin and banic Field Hockey Association for their generous donations thank you Mr Bloomer next up is policy Miss Dempsey would you please move the item on policy yeah real quick before I move that I'll just mention um that earlier I had sent out a summary the um homework committee among the admin team met and Dr Portis shared uh the agenda from that with myself and Mr senic and then I kind of put together a a summary for everybody and shared it out with you so if you have any questions regarding that first meeting feel free to let me know and I'll compile everything and get it to Dr pis um they're still in the beginning stages but there is a a date set for the next meeting to discuss it further motion to approve p0425 any question or discussion I'm sorry just to clarify we're gonna discuss the homework policy um at the next meeting oh oh okay sorry thank you yeah we're we're gonna meet by we I mean um the members of the Advent team who are on that committee but um we're meeting on Tuesday of next week to follow up and um I've already drafted um a a REV a revision of the policy and the understanding with that group is I want them to be confident enough to gut it if there's stuff that they feel U isn't appropriate or needs to be explained further so um I'm I'm pretty enthusiastic about it it was a I found to be a particularly strong meeting last week when we were going over it and it's unusual for um for administrators to get particularly excited talking about policy it's admittedly dry content so the the energy that they brought um I was really impressed with and it was nice as I was going through my minutes realizing that really everybody it was it was seven of us total everybody contributed so um I think we've got a pretty consistent vision for what we want in there we want to be concise um but also provide ample Direction so you you'll get you'll get some outcomes probably I'd say within a month or so because I want to make sure what I get to you is really sharp yeah I think October is reasonable to get a first reading in I mean really the big push would be to have it in place for um 2526 but I mean you can make a an adjustment Midstream it just can't be anything where you say that um homework is going to count for 50% of a grade you can't do that Midstream I will tease this though that the 5% rule about homework counting for 5% of the total grade is going to go by the wayside um I don't I don't think it's an effective practice so that that's like the guess that's like the preview I didn't put it on I was just talking I'm sorry sorry I'm having a day thank thank you thank you Dr pz I think it's it's great I appreciate it um yeah I just want a little bit of a time frame yeah and sorry if I was confusing in the way I described it the summary I sent out is really just sort of like the discussion points that came up when they were talking about the policy so it does give you a sense of the direction certain ideas will go in um but we'll better understand when we see a draft that comes out yeah absolutely yeah and you'll see the policy kind of consistent with what we have right now it's be grounded more in a philosophical approach um as opposed to mandating um you know top down you must do these things but just that homework needs to be purposeful um and you so as a as a parent who did not have to endure much of the homework Battleground because my wife um took those hits I can tell you um poorly designed homework given frequently um Can can be very disruptive so we want to make sure that what we give has meaning has purpose and uh helps to improve the overall quality of instruction and learning ultimately learning thank you Dr poris I know that the uh the policy that was that Mr Dempsey sent around said that they would usually like to do it for the entire school year um so we couldn't get it in place for this school year but could we possibly consider getting for January rather than waiting until nextt no it we'll have it we'll have it in probably first reading in October but but we could actually start the staff could start using it in October I think so because again there's nothing there's it's not going to be a directive it's not me telling people since I know everything about education you must count homework for 20% like it's it's not gonna be anything where they're gonna get penned in or we're we're GNA be changing the rules after the game has begun um the one thing I will say is we are eliminating the 5 per rule um which I I I think will um get a lot of favor favorable responses but um we do want something that the staff can can see and and and quite frankly kids can see as well as families that this is what we believe is the is the importance of homework and even if it's not um approved until October we can also talk about it at our September staff meetings too and you say like more so at the high school middle school but this is this is the purpose of this and I think uh that that kind of guidance I think will help and then um work with staff to work within the parameters of that okay cool so I think the only potential piece of it that um would not that would affect like a September start would be if we did include language in there about homework free weekends specific homework free weekends and so there was the suggestion of maybe includings language around that um is that something that is still could still be talked about for the coming school year or where are we with that yeah and um we could we could push that out and that's largely contingent again on on high school and middle school about the homework free weekends um one that I I think will get quite a bit of favor is is the Memorial Day weekend because we're we're past AP you know it's it's you're you're in that that home stretch of the school year and then we're looking to do one earlier in the year as well and I don't want to dip into that too often um because then it loses its luster and also does become restrictive as a former AP teacher I can tell you if you said I had to do one homework free weekend a month that would lost my mind so we want we want to try to balance the needs of our staff as well as with our kids um and also make it so it's a special thing that can happen every so often okay Mr giz pleas Mr Bloomer yes Mr scy yes M Dy yes Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs shanton feel like I was here for three seconds of the conversation um I'm G to abstain just for that reason thank you Mrs espito yes and Mr sen yes motion carries thank you okay now we move on to our second opportunity for public comment members of the public may speak for a maximum period of five minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting and the public member may speak on any topic during their five minutes if a member of the public raises a question please direct that question to the board president state your name and sign in We Begin that's the floor is yours uh John Nan Sunset Road Pompton PLS I'm a finance for the high school uh music parents I want to congratulate you guys on your meeting your certification goals as a board that's that's great I want to thank uh facilities committee for redoing the the ticket booth for us at the the stadium there hopefully that's done for the first football game it's coming up before school even starts so uh I want to thank uh Mr hazler was there this morning to speak to the marching band and send them off to their band camp for the week I was good to see him uh there to to to send the kids on their way um we still face uh our transportation issues for the marching band the uh the family that had had moved props and equipment for eight years right they've moved on from the music department and we're down to probably about a month we believe we're going to be renting an enclosed trailer well not we we don't carry auto insurance but one of the parents is going to rent a trailer pull that trailer with their personal vehicle um even if we figure that piece out we don't have a place to park the trail with the props in it right the the previous uh person who helped us out with that they had enough property where they could park the trailer and they stored everything so we we'll probably be requesting like to park the trailer somewhere at the school here I don't know what's got to happen for for that piece of a puzzle but that's probably going to be be coming if a trailer and truck and truck driver can't be provided by the district and then uh just um two personal things uh one with the the change of start times I don't know if the police department is involved with new traffic patterns timings new parent schedules and new routes right they're not going to be on the same route because High School's at a different time than the other schools and things so if they don't know I would let them know they may want to be around to help people feel those things out at the start of the school year and again I'd like to thank the administration and board for uh providing some information at some of the uh zoning board meetings for the property across the street and just informing uh not only the zoning board but the public you know what what we do here what we're obligated to provide should that facility ever be approved okay thanks thank you uh good evening board members um congratulations on your recent Accolade that's amazing um I'm speaking on behalf of the special education parents advisory committee tonight um they just wanted me to share a little bit of information uh they did have their first sort of Summer kickoff meeting on Friday of last week uh just sort of going through goals for the coming school year they are very excited for another year of partnership and collaboration with the District administration um I just want to put it out there and I'm gonna you know try to put it out there to the elementary principles as well we are looking for parent representation still in Hillview and sjg um anyone who's listening and is interested Panic CPAC excuse me panic. CPAC gmail.com thank you Tina I KO to lock what have all right thank you both uh thank you for the update on CPAC and I'm gonna let Dr bis talk to the request for the B yep thank you uh so I'm excited about the um the new ticket booth I understand that it was therapeutic for one of our staff members to dismantle that the previous one fell rather easily too but um and yeah I'm really happy too that Mr Haz had a chance to send the kids off to Camp he's very proud of them and I know he's such a prominent figure in their lives and for them to know that he's genuinely enthusiastic has to mean a lot not just to him but also to them um as far as the spots put a trailer um I I was pointing at Mr Gibbs as you were talking about that I I have no idea but I know a guy to my left who does who might be look at me right now but um if the district can help you we're Partners we we work together on a lot so we'll see if there's something that we can help with I can't me any promises he's still looking at me um and then yeah the police are aware of the later star time um I had a conversation actually last week following up on that so um it's going to be it's going to be a little bit disruptive for the first few days just because something that's not familiar um it's like anything else people will adapt within within a week or so but um they're aware of it making sure that the crossing guards are aware and uh we're pretty excited about it and happy to be able to offer information um that help to guide the decision-making process or even just the process for the zoning board um you just if you can share information I feel like it's incumbent to do so and then uh as far as um that Ko's discussion about CPAC I'm pretty impressed actually you guys met on a Friday in in the summer like that's that's unheard of so that's I I will Marvel at that but um as far as getting parent Reps for Hillview in sjg if you reach out to um if you have somebody from the organization reach out to Mrs stagger and Mr Riner um they'll use their platform to get the word out as well and know we're looking to send um updates at the end of this week I I know I definitely am but also probably from the schools as well so they tuck it into there okay uh any board member with any unfinished business a board member with any new business board member announcements uh yeah I just like to thank Dr Sheridan for her many years of service to the district and welcome emry yeah I definitely want to thank uh Beth on your your years here it was you know it was great I mean you were kind of like the inaugural director of curriculum again because we got rid of it was it was gone for so many years and brought that back so uh it's definitely a speal special position that you held and I want to thank you for all the work thank you yeah I want to Echo that um congratulations on your retirement I could see that you're very excited to retire you're also probably a little sad that you have to leave us but I could see that you're very excited for it and to be honest with I'm excited for you because I've I've spoken to you a couple times about what you're going to do and it seems like you're going to have a great time so I wish you much success and uh thank you for everything you've done for our district and have fun thank you I appreciate um I'd like to welcome Mrs vincle to our district we look forward to having you um I definitely would like to thank Dr Sheridan for her many years here at Panic um it was a pleasure to work with you you were Olivia's teacher for a little while so that was amazing as well um we appreciate appreciate all you've done for the district and most importantly for our students um I wish you all the best on your retirement in particular all your traveling um and good health thank you great appreciate um congratulations thank you enjoy thank you congratulations enjoy just congratulations on your retirement I hope you get to enjoy it and welcome thank you I'm just going to Echo everyone's sentiments congratulations it it really was an honor and a privilege and and retirement I hope is awesome I'm very jealous as you can see I was late I just got off the bus from work so and welcome um and apologies everyone for being late yep I go have everybody's comments congratulations on your retirement it was great working with you thanks andry welcome I feel very um Bittersweet ever about um leaving but I feel um I truly have so enjoyed all my time here in bonic I mean I've been here for my entire administrative career which has been just a wonderful wonderful place between the the board has been so supportive and I've been humbled and so appreciate that it's it's the people it's the students and it's the my administrative colleagues it's the teachers that I've worked with that have kept me here um the work is always there it's always challenging it's always been so rewarding but it it's the people that really make this place very very special and I I will truly miss that but when we offered anarie the job I just a huge sigh of relief and smile across my face I know that I'm passing this into the hands of someone who's very capable and competent and will just take Panic to that next level so congratulations so thank you thank you all again I appreciate it it's been a pleasure okay uh with that we do have reason to go into executive session tonight where we will discuss Personnel matters no action will be taken and we will journ from there our next meeting is September 3rd here at the high school is there a motion to go the executive session motion second second all in favor hi any opposed good night everyone