7 o'clock and I'll call this meeting to order Mr Gibbs will you please read the statement of compliance in compliance with the open public meeting ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the Daily Record and Suburban Trends its agenda has been posted at the appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with the bonic Township Clerk thank you please call a roll Mr Bloomer here Mr cesi here M Dempsey here Mrs Esposito here Mr gon here Mr M will be late Mr Pompeo here Mr pic here and Mr shennon here we have a quorum thank you will everyone please stand for flag salute all right good evening everyone Welcome to our June 24th regular business meeting tonight the board will receive a presentation on school safety and hi reporting as well as another by our board attorney on relevant legal issues the end of the school year has arrived and I want to congratulate all our students that have moved on or that graduated last week I was able to attend the promotion ceremony for North Boulevard the graduation for PV and I was privileged to speak at the pths graduation it was great to be able to see the enthus the enthusiasm on students faces as they were promoted or accepted their diplomas additionally I thought each ceremony was uh that I attended was very well organized well-run and emphasized the importance of those special moments for our district families great job to all the faculty staff and administration on executing these events and congratulations to all our students and families who took part I hope that all our students and staff have a very safe summer fun and relaxing summer um with that I'll pass the link over to Dr bis thank you Mr senic and to Echo your sentiment thank you to everyone who helped make our PV and pths commencement ceremony such successful events last week staff students administrators prepared exceptionally well and helped to provide a memorable evening for our families and guests Billings and grounds team and custodians made sure that our facilities were in good order our security team collaborated with the police to ensure the safety of our guests and our em EMT Squad uh was there to provide another layer of support the event that the heat came too much and I will say it was pretty hot both days but it was it was manageable and it was really nice I'm proud to say that both events were joyous and respectful celebrations the people Help to make our school district such a wonderful place I know I said that in my last two updates I've sent out to the community but I think it really Bears repeating i' I've been to a lot of high school graduations through the years been doing this for 27 years and um I would say the combination of what I saw at the middle school and the high school probably the two most dignified and refined events like I've seen graduations that seemed like they were straight out of Faber College you know the parade but this was these were they were academic they were fun and they were just a real celebration of the work that our our families were put in that the kids were put in that the staff's put in so I I was I was particularly impressed and I really enjoyed it um two other quick just notes one is that summer hours begin today which means that buildings uh are open from 7:30 to 4:15 the one exception and closed on Fridays the one exception there is north Boulevard will be open in July on Fridays for the extended school year program district will be closed on July 4th which is a Thursday and remain closed on July 5th which is a Friday except for North Boulevard then finally we're looking forward to the admin Retreat on July 17th and July 18th during which we will focus on analyzing data on student performance as well as data on non-academic indicators which actually is part of what Miss Abrams is presenting tonight um we're also going to get some legal training work on setting our goals and also spend some time some team building as well as welcoming one of our our newest members who will be celebrating her birthday on July 17th no more fun than celebrating your birthday with Michael poris at a district level Retreat yes yes I'm I'm an absolute gas so uh that concludes my superintendent report uh the students are not here as they are on summer vacation so I will uh actually pass the floor over to miss Abrams who's going to present the ssds report hello good evening uh the student safety dat safety data system I'm so excited I'm tripping over my words I'm sorry the student safety data system ssds collects data from district schools in two main areas the first area encompasses reports on incidents including violence vandalism harassment intimidation bullying hi weapons and substance offenses restraint seclusion other incidents leading to student removal the second area is information concerning hip training and programs so here are uh the districtwide figures for those incidents and just uh to be clear that would be from uh excuse me sorry um that would be from July 1 2023 to December 31st 2023 okay um here is the school base breakdown with the elementary schools listed first followed by the middle school and the high school so during this period all efforts to support anti-bullying initiatives in district schools are recorded and reported to ssds and trainings are structured um and activities that provide individuals with the skills needed to implement the program strategy or responsibility effectively so programs are coordinated activities systems or scheduled events intended to help the community achieve a particular objective so this is the breakdown on the trainings and the programs this is the longitudinal data on total incidents in the district for period one and that's again July through December 31 in the past six years um please keep in mind that in the past two years data on seclusions and restraints have been reporting requirements but in the previous four years they were not so more granular information will follow so here is the longitudinal data on violence with a downward trend between last year and this year as you can see and I've also you know broken it down for the school level and this is consistent with the rest of the slides as well so that you can see year to year as it relates to vandalism uh there were two incidents in Period one this past fall oh I'm sorry because the I mean you don't really need to see on the side on the curtain there but you can see the the slides there I think um on the right sorry okay yes you do have the slideshow okay good um as for the data on substance abuse I am anticipating questions given the notable increase in incidents one reason for this uptic may still be pandemic Fallout self-regulation challenges Poss ible exposure to trauma lack of structure and predictability might have led to potential substance use as a coping mechanism what I do want to be sure to emphasize with you all is that our new Student Assistance counselor Miss bass alone since coming on board here at the end of April has immersed herself in designing an action plan so we also want to keep in mind we were not miss basselin was not with us in this period of this reporting we did not have a stu A A Student Assistance counselor at that time that was you know staffed here in the building um and dedicated to that so um Miss bass alone since coming on board here at the end of April as I had said before has immersed herself in designing an action plan the acronym for her action plan is subbert uh screening brief intervention and referral to treatment so this is an approach that's used to to identify and intervene early with adolescence at risk of substance abuse okay uh there were zero incidents of weapons this past year and um the longitudinal Daton weapons for period one uh shows one isolated incident in the last several years here is the longitudinal data for confirmed uh hi cases July to December and this is the longitudinal data on alleged Hib cases finally um incidents leading to removal are events not meeting the criteria from the previous slide but they still result in a student being removed from their educational placement for half a day or longer and as regards incidents leading to removal there is a downward Trend in the longitudinal data um overall note that the high school has significantly higher numbers but remember and I also said this in in the fall as well remember that removals can happen for various reasons and in various contexts for example at the high school level incidents leading to removal may result from students having multiple tardies to school then not reporting to detention and then that escalates to a suspension and and and to removal um and so the these might not be isolated incidents that immediately lead to removal they might escalate to that as a results okay and then the last slide is newer for reporting as I had said before the in the um uh the seclusions and restraints so the longitudinal data to share is really only for the last two years um for that and that that is all any questions I have a couple questions yes so my first is going back to that substance slide yes do we have a breakdown of do we even know what what substance it is that we're talking about because you would potentially action plan slightly differently depending on what it is I'm trying to get the the slid to go back um Mr Schultz could you move the slides back I don't know why I can't move them back um so uh to answer your question I did consult with um Miss mildner um who did look you know take a deeper dive into that data not surprisingly most of those substance you know use incidents are vaping related thank you um and then another question sort of along the same lines but slightly different the removal data you know you had gone through that they could be merried of different reasons we also have the breakdown of that and could that maybe be shared with the board because I think also that if it is truly like tardies maybe yes something we can do I can absolutely follow up with Miss Milner and provide you with that information that would be awesome thank you yes I have a question on the um substance yes so obvious the the spike we're using more vape detectors nowadays correct so wouldn't could that be part of it they're being detected therefore they're they're forced to be tested if they're caught and they're positive it can not be the uptick I do know that the middle school did have an uptick when The Vape detectors were installed at the middle school I can also follow up with Miss milder and get you more information about that the you know the extent to which Vape detectors are used in the restrooms Etc okay um I can I can find that information out for you as well I'll just chime in too I have a quick question but it also is representative of the its own type of pandemic or epidemic of kids getting involved with bathing much younger and it is so addictive so early on and not enough is being done about it which is me editorializing in touch but I think it's something that definitely warrants a more aggressive response not just at school Level Society in our conversations with Miss bass alone as well um she also had more Global Research not just specific to this place that also underscores much of what Dr poris had just said as well because there's also like almost like a gap in adolescence um the period during which I'm I'm S I don't have a degree in Psychology mine's in literature uh but there is a period in adolescence that developmentally um having to do with really trial and error judgment forming uh you know forming judgments making judgment calls that it's quite possible many young people in this age group have kind of posted over skipped over and that's executive function impulsivity things along those lines that that they're still kind of forming and developing in ways that perhaps 10 years ago or so I'm not sure we might we might have seen that differently so I suppose we'll see it more so in the rearview but I can absolutely you know provide you with more data um and follow up as well with Mrs basalone okay are we I'm sorry are we also able to get possibly are we looking at a specific grade level that is having more substance abuse than the other is that something that we could break down as well and maybe Target that specific grade Dr PES yeah well internally we do yes do keep such data yes it is something that we're aware that there are groups whether broken down by anyone many representatives we we we know we need to focus on it's proba our best and to add to that as well um again Mrs bass alone I'm singing her Praises tonight um but she has made it um very much so and a a goal and an objective to form therapeutic relationships with students at risk and then to also have you know um you know to have this intervention plan in place that's very granular and and very specific as well so I hope that answers your question mpo thank you good question for you um on your programs and trainings I noticed that sjg seems to exceed all the other elementary schools in number of programs by not a little bit um is that in response to something or just because they're the best as Miss Esposito just whispered under her breath um was that in in response to Prior incidents or is that just you know they took it upon themselves to do more than everybody else you know I am not I am not certain of that um of the response to that what I what I do know um is that you know uh certainly Mr Riner you know the programming that he does is instructional as well as you know co-curricular um he pushes into classrooms um along with Mr M and does lessons that are you know that are related to um you know to this subject matter at hand um and all across the year for certain um but you know again we could take a little bit of a deeper dive into that if you'd like you know and uh and find out I think there's always good stuff that's happening that can be shared across all of the buildings I'm sure Mr rer would love to share his data with us yes is just a followup question that is there a minimum we expect from each school or well the state does have and um Mr O'Keefe who is going to be replacing me in this role in the fall he will do the self assessment report the state does have minimum requirements of you you know um but you know but I would I would say that we do try our hardest to exceed that minimum requirement and our reporting shows that our assessments yeah I'd say exceeding it by quite a the expectation and I will commend Mr Ryan I think doing a great job emulating former principal of Hillview been one's reactive and proactive in his his programs and and I I do know that they did do he and Mr did one program that was in response to data that they saw from previous year they thought was specific thank you last question um and this is probably to both of you I noticed there's a spike in alleged hibs maybe not necessarily hibs um what do we attribute that to so um interestingly I attribute it to better programming because if you the if you look at the alleged Spike right it is actually there were more there were a few cases that were alleged at sjg this year right they turned out to be nothing but better to air on the side of caution right um and we I could say having looked at those you know certainly at those cases they were ering on the side of caution right because students know better and and that it was pursued uh By You Know by Mr Renner and his staff you know as such and it was taken through you know the proper course of things but that is where you know I think the spike is attributable to that which is a pleasant complication much rather that yeah and I think the um the public posting of that form 338 which is allowed for greater ease in reporting for families or parents and even for students as well has also contributed to that because there there is an awareness of this and when those get filed oftentimes the principls will reach out to me wh Miss abrs say what do you think of this and there have been instances where I've said there's no way on Earth this is going to be a hi but we're going to investigate as such so that we have a thorough investigation we leave the paper trail and we ensure that if there is anything similar to this involving any of the same participants we have documentation to support that we've done an investigation and that we're monitoring it any other questions do we I'm sorry do we get a lot more hi referrals through that Anonymous form or have you seen like a huge uptick with it or it's just their I think it's a pretty even you know I don't see big upti because of that I think it's it's even overall between if it's reported at the building level or through you know the building or if it's reported externally through that it's probably six of one a half dozen of another and something too that I don't think it shows up in the historical data right now because we had we had a few incidents a few years back um that predate what what was presented where we saw retaliatory hibs being filed and things would escalate and as we know whenever there's action and reaction there's no defined end point sometimes so we had to investigate and so you might see a school that had 13 in one reporting period because there was so much going back and forth um we seem to have gotten out of that we've seen a few that um you know one's filed against a person and that person's filed back against and we still see that periodically but it's it's it's pretty uncommon all right thank you very much good job all right up next is our legal update I know I'm I believe when you make a PowerPoint presentation that not all of the information that you are going to be getting should be on the slide so I believe firmly in that no there will be information that I say is present on the slide but it is not word for word that does not vode well for me as a presenter let's just put it that way no yes um so good evening everyone uh for those of you who are do not know who I am my name is jacn Mor Jayy I'm an attorney with Chason lamp pillo malan and kuso um I serve as the Board of Education uh legal council I've been asked this evening to give a legal update as to sort of where we are in the the landscape of Education law um I just want to open been with sort of a broad disclaimer um I've been asked to provide a legal update I take no position nor do I make any opinion on any of the information that I am giving to you if the board of education has any questions or would like to apply some of the information that I am giving to you obviously I need the opportunity to do a more in depth factual analysis in comparison to where we are with the law so I just wanted to give you that information as of right now um so I don't I don't know if I know how to work this thing but we're gonna there we go um so this evening I'm going to talk to you about four different topics these are the largest uh most I would say prominent changes in education law over the last year you see uh the change in the sick leave law regarding uh public uh employees and how we apply specifically for education and teaching staff members how sick leave applies to them uh the recent change most recent change related to the open public records act and how that's sort of changed the Landscapes as far as transparency and government uh probably the most time we're going to spend on is is the transgender student policy the information related to where we are with the Hanover Park Marboro and uh Manalapan litigations um as well as the most recent indictment of George Northcross and how that impacts health insurance so those are the four topics I'm going to cover for you this evening um and if at any point you need me to repeat something I'd be more than happy to do that um so we're going to jump right in with sick Leaf um 18a 30-1 is going to give you your sick Leaf stat statute that is still the statute that is still the statute that applies it's just been expanded so previously when sik leave um prior to the uh July 2023 uh change in the law s leave applied exactly like that when you were personally ill you had the right to take sick leave um they were public employees or School Employees were permitted only to use sick leave when the employee was personally ill or injured or they were required to re quarantine due to a contagious illness in the employees household that last language about quarantine um really sort of specific to how it was diagnosed it wasn't necessarily created because of covid so it was sort of misapplied during covid times which is I in my opinion why the sick leave Law kind of came about because of the fact that they it was very restrictive into how sick leave could be granted and and applied um not only did the the grounds for which an employee could use sick leave change but also the notification requirements previously under 18a 30-4 we could request as a board of education we could request a doctor's note for any period of sick leave for any period of time so if you were out for one day with for a cold we could ask you to provide a doctor's note now that gave a lot of employees Hang-Ups because of the fact that employee wakes up and doesn't feel well they're not always going to the doctor every day so in in practice it wasn't really taking place like that but that's essentially what the status of the law was so in July of 2023 Governor Murphy comes in he he passes Public Law 2023 chapter 95 this law greatly expands the uses of sick leave as well as alternatively addressing how we uh require verification of that sick lead uh those revisions were effective immediately so the law passed on on July 3D they took effect on July 3r um it kind of sent a lot of school districts Panic being one of them into uh a a Mad Dash to make sure our policies were updated for this current school year you guys have a current policy on the books you took really quick action on that uh followed the model policies and that's a credit to you as a board um so by changing the uh with chapter 955 not only could employees use uh sick leave for personal Illness but they could also use it for a number of other reasons those reasons are listed above um there it's not only for your personal illness it's for the the illness of a family member family members are defined broadly um it's for the per also for not only for the actual Illness but for preventative care right so if you go to a doctor for a preventative care visit that's uh considered eligible for sick leave at this point in time under the statute um it also created a lot of situations where an employee was absent due to circumstances related to being a victim of domestic or sexual ual violence in order for them to obtain uh psychological counseling um services from a designated domestic violence agency or victim Services organization anything sort of related to that it also covered the opportunity for you to seek legal services to address a domestic or sexual violence uh incident so again we're greatly expanding the definition of personal illness to now andcompany all these different uh uses um what it also did was language that was typic Al memorialized in an individual School District's collective bargaining agreement was now mandated statutorily so you see throughout the state there were a number of Provisions within collective bargaining agreements where employees could use sick leave or could you could be granted leave for bement purposes and individual districts established the relationships for which and the length of periods of time that an employee could be absent uh for a family member's death this was now codified in 18a 30-1 employees can now use up to seven days of sick leave specifically sick leave for uh death of a family member and again family member is defined very broadly um other purposes were related to Children right we saw a really big movement in covid where a uh child's school might have been closed but the school district that the uh individual employee was working in might have still been open we saw a lot of circumstances where employees were having to choose between whether or not they go to work or their child goes to school one or the other so I think a lot of the chapter 95 changes were spurred by this new realm that we were dealing with because of covid and these other circumstances that we were dealing with but I think that that's sort of how the legislature was attempting to address it um the statute also specifically addresses certain definitions um definitions related to who's considered a child it can be a biological adopted foster child or stepchild of the employee or the employees uh spouse domestic or civil union civil union partner or uh a child who is defined as a quote unquote legal ward of the employee so again very broad definition of child family member for purposes of bereavement is pretty much every relationship Under the Sun um I could list them all out for you but we be here forever but it also includes a specific uh in uh blanket relationship any employee who related by blood or who's close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship so if you have a a a person that you consider to be a family like status to you that's considered a close Association under the statute you could use uh your sickly for that individual's bereavement under the statute um we also saw changes to 18a 30-4 this is dealing with notification right so 30-1 deals with the definition of what constitutes sick leave and 30- for deals with how we are received notification and accept notification of sick Le right because when we had personal illness it was you went to the doctor you got a doctor's note you provided a doctor's note a doctor certified that you were personally ill you were eligible for sck Le a number of those uh reasons on the leftand side are not something that a doctor can certify to right a doctor can't certify to that you've been requested or required to attend a child a a PTA meeting or a uh an IEP meeting at your child School a doctor certified to that so how do we verify something to that effect um so the reasonable documentation piece is what's key under 18830 sorry go ahead Z if it wasn't a personal Illness but it was something else you would probably still be able to get a note for that if it wasn't personal illness and it was something else you could yes IEP meeting you would get a note from the other school if it was somebody else was sick if your child was sick you would get the child's sick note right but the the the I understand what you're getting at but the 18304 said physician certificate so it needed to be modified to follow it in and like you said you might wake up in the morning feel like crap but you're not I'm not going to doctor I'm why why bother it's going to be gone in 48 hours right and I I can say sort of as a general measure of practice is that if you are an employee who is not historically uh tardy or absent most districts including this one are not going to look to you for a doctors know on one day of absence it's the individuals who are abusing these reasons that are we looking for putting sort of a stock act because then it becomes an operational issue right we don't have the staff member in front of our kids instructing our kids we have a disruption the student day and we have disruption in the student learning process and in in the day and age where we're in where we're in a substitute shortage and we're in a teaching shortage it creates an operational issue for us but the uh the real key is is the type of documentation the timing of the documentation as well as the difference between foreseeable and unforeseeable absences so for personal illnesses family illnesses anything that sort of involves a doctor physician certificate is still going to be the gold standard the timing for which is going to be a little bit different right so the time for which we can request a sick note for personal illness doesn't change that doesn't get touched by the statute that doesn't change at all but for any of these other reasons the statute specifically says that it uh can be required only after three days of consecutive illness when the leave is not due to the employees own personal illness or injury so family illness bement three consecutive days that's when we have the ability to ask for you for uh medical documentation or some form of documentation in accordance with the statute uh examples of reasonable documentation for uh an individual who's uh a victim of domestic or sexual violence law enforcement record or report police report things like that a court order uh documentation showing the conviction of the uh employ individual who was perpetrating these offenses against the employee um and other documentation right the statute actually incorporates language that says you could get a note from your priest and it could be considered adequate documentation so it's very broad uh the interpretations of this language really haven't come through yet because of the fact that it statute I mean if you're looking from a legislative perspective a statute being less than a year old is pretty young statute so you really don't have a lot of case law to sort of supplement and fill in the gaps where there might be ambiguities in the statutory language so we are looking at we're uh keeping our nose to the ground as those uh informational uh gaps get filled um the other key that the statue comes in talks about is the difference between foreseeable leave and uh unforeseeable leave right you can't foresee when your kid's going to wake up on Tuesday and feel like he's got a stomach virus and you got to take him to doctor that's an unforeseeable leave the statute requires as uh as much notices you can reasonably provide right so if the kid wakes up at 7:00 a.m. throwing up and you got to take him to the doctor obviously the sooner the the notice the better but in that sort of circumstance that's not foreseeable it's not something that we can address the foreseeable piece is something to the effect of you had a scheduled IEP meeting for your your child at your child school and that was been scheduled for three weeks in advance we're going to ask you for that information at least uh seven calendar calendar days prior to the date of the expected leave so if something is foreseeable the statute does require seven days notice but it does not define or provide a bright line uh bright line as to what is conc considered foreseeable or not my recommendation is always going to be use your best judgment as an employee if it's something that you know about and you know that you're going to want to be absent for it make the request as soon as you can any questions on the sick leave portion of this so the open public records Act is the newest change in the law um this actually came down last month so open public records Act is the law that uh requires public bodies to provide access to government excuse me government records when they're requested by individuals or entities uh the term public records is pretty broad it's any government record determined to be available for inspection right so the definition is the definition itself it's a government record that's deemed to be a government record it's sort of circular but there's a lot of case law both by the government records Council or the GRC as well as Superior Court cases that Define essentially what's a government record and what's exempt from disclosure as a government record uh Personnel records always going to be uh exempt from disclosure Student Records always going to be exempt from disclosure uh they're considered government records but they're exempt from disclosure so there are a number of exceptions to that definition um so on June 5th of this year Governor Murphy signed a bill into law that states that uh there's more than a dungeon changes that in the general public opinion I guess um that make the state's o law more difficult for people to gain access to documents created and maintained by public officials I actually missed a slide so there we go um According to some critics of the bill um it cuts off access to wide array of public documents while seeking to streamline the process for requesting records previously the law was was that you weren't required to use a particular form uh now there is going to be a uniform request form issued by the the the state that's created and adopted or it's going to be created by the municipalities and adopted to allow custodians to deny outright requests that don't include a name address email address or phone number um this is going to be really sort of important for your sodian of Records simply because some requests that come in come in from entities and requests pages and pages of employee information because they want to send out whatever they want to send out to uh as a vendors or whatever it might be uh it also impacts how employees or how requesters are treated when they're make when they make Anonymous uh oah requests Anonymous uh requests are also really difficult to respond to and address because you don't know who you're dealing with you don't know if there's a intent behind what the request is seeking you want to make sure that the information that you're being requested is valid and it's something that you have to provide uh and this law addresses how we we do that if you're an anonymous requester under this new law if an indiv if uh an individual custodian of Records denies your request you don't have standing now to come forward and and object to that request or challenge that request simply because you chose to be anonymous and a lot of uh critics of this law have sort of determined that or taken the opinion that that creates a lack of transparency by nature of me being anonymous I now don't have the right to now fight for a request for something that if I was willing to put my name to I would have the right to be able to challenge and and receive uh probably I think the one of the largest changes in my opinion is this idea is there are a certain number of documents that Cur under the previous iteration of the law had to be immediately disclosed uh contracts things that were dealt with um administrator salaries things of that nature those things are still are only now uh have to be provided immediately if they're within two years uh old so an individual if you're at if you're looking for a superintendent contract you're not provided with immediate access if that contract is more than two years old you can still request it but it's not something that we have to immediately provide to you so that 7-Day response time would still apply things like bills budgets vouchers employee salary information overtime information it's not required if that information is down more than two years old um and then also one of the more interesting things is if the the agency let's say the board of education has a document but it did not create the document it just has it in its possession the thing that comes to mind is a bid specification right your your your architect would have probably created something to that effect you have it you have a copy of it if somebody sends you an OA request for it according to this new law you can direct them to the architect you don't have to actually provide it to them so it's a timesaver right we're looking to make this a little bit more um streamlined and then it also allows uh custodians of Records to essentially create an online portal where they can put government records that are requested onto so rather than you responding to an individual requester you might put those records on this online portal so that if uh your memorandum of agreement with the PTA is requested as a public document one requester wants it and then then two weeks later another requestor wants it rather than you having to send out two separate requests and responses to those requests you could put it on an online portal and say here it is it's accessible at this link and here's where you can access it and saves you the time so rather than you have to address that individually you can address it as sort of a blanket repository yes so that's ambiguous in the statute um my best understanding of it is that if you aware of where it can be located we're obligated to provide them with the route to receive it uh but the law still stands that if it's something that you did not create you're not bound to one create anything or to provide something that you don't have either so if it's publicly accessible I always recommend the that it be provided as to how they can get it whether it's publicly accessible on a website or whom they can contact to it but recognize that once they start reaching out to these other entities they're not necessarily public entities who have the the required or required by Oprah to provide this request you as the Board of Education if it's a record that you've created and it's a government record that you maintain you're obligated to comply with it because of the law any other question question on Oprah um probably the most controversial piece of this law is that it allows government entities to file suits against requesters if they believe that the request was filed to stunt government operations and allow it allows judges to issue protective auditor or orders on public entities to prevent these Superfluous or uh highly frequent requests uh I happen to represent a number of districts where we have hundreds of Oprah requests coming in every month and this language of this statute would Ser uh serve to curb some of those requests and simply address uh if they're just meant to be menacing and to attack a board of education or other public entity for purposes of creating essentially traffic uh this law would now provide those public entities with an Avenue to to stop that um it also impacts the Law related to how special service charges get imposed and as well as if previously it used to be only the time taken to reproduce the actual record you could charge a special service charge for but now the bill would allow uh Records custodians to impose special service charges on requests that they deem to involve extra time and effort as well as double charging for any records that are made or requested that are already uh readily accessible in the public domain um it changes the burden for requesters who are challenging when those fees are made so essentially it used to be that if you were uh it was a a small burden for requesters to say hey this this charge is unreasonable now uh the burden itself is on the it was on the I'm sorry the burden was on the government entity to show that the special service chart that it was assessing is reasonable now the burden is flipped it's on the requestor to show that the special service charge being assessed is unreasonable so it's a little bit of a burden Shi there again a lot of critics talk about how it's impacting transparency uh there's a lot of concern about how often the words reasonable or unreasonable are used throughout the statute I mean if you read any laws they use that term pretty consistently but no one ever really defines it it's one of the first things you learn when you go to law school is that no one ever really defines what's considered reasonable or not um and then the the strongest uh opposition to this law is the the uh abolition of mandatory awarding of attorney fees for parties who are successfully challenge a denied Opa request so it previously was if you were successful in challenging an Oprah request you could make a CH a claim for your attorney's fees to be paid it's a fe fees shifting statute um so essentially public parties could make a request get that request denied and say I want $40,000 for my attorney's fees to be paid back to me and that was a claim that if they were successful they had a excuse me had a right to now all of a sudden it's not a mandatory uh fees shifting statute there's a little bit more involved with that and it requires the custodian to act and B Faith unreasonably deny access or knowingly violating the law so it's a little bit more of an affirmative showing any questions on opra okay so now we're going to get into the biggest topic which is the transgender student policy so this has been a long time coming uh in 2017 you see that Governor Christy signed in a Senate bill um it required the State Department of Education to provide guidance to school districts on how to address transgender students you saw a Big Mo move between the 2017 2018 on how to address and what policies to adopt uh the New Jersey law against discrimination includes gender identity and expression or and affectation or sexual orientation as protected legal classifications so when Governor Christie came in and and passed uh Bill 3 3067 it required that uh Boards of education and public schools to create policies related to those affectation and sexual orientations as well as gender identity expression include those within protected classes uh 18a 36-41 is your statute that memorializes what needs to be included in your policy specifically calls for guidance to be disseminated to school districts regarding specific terms to be uh defining transgender issues gender identity and expression transgend what a transgender individual is uh it requires school districts to maintain a safe and uh secure uh learning environment that's free from discrimination harassment not only for students that are in protected classes but specifically transgender students in coming and including students going through a gender transition uh IT addresses confidentiality and privacy concerns uh procedures for how School school records are maintained um how we maintain the official record containing the students legal name and biological gender um all these different issues related to how we maintain our records how we issue School documentation how we handle uh physical education bathrooms all all that stuff that we hear about when we talk about transgender students and the issues that they experience in schools uh in addition the uh bill that Governor Christie passed required uh guidance and resources to be provided to school districts regarding professional development opportunities on how to educate teachers and other school staff on concerns and issues related to lgbtq plus students um the commissioner of education is particularly uh required to conduct periodic reviews of the guidelines and update and modify them as required so that's why you're seeing a lot of this guidance come through periodically every sort of six to eight months you see something new that comes through and uh requires us to kind of respond to it um where this got sort of chaotic is the adoption of policy 5756 so when the New Jersey State Department of Education provided its guidance it tackled the issue regarding parent notification and whether or not parents should be notified and essentially left it to school districts in their best judgment and in the best Judgment of its professionals to determine whether or not parents need needed to be notified and that was sort of a a very heavy buzzword for a lot of school districts um specifically in 2023 you the districts that you see listed below Hanover Township Manalapan Englishtown Mar Marboro and Middletown um took actual legal action regarding the amendment or repealing of policy 5756 policy 5756 is the Strauss Esme iteration of the uh transgender students policy that policy as originally drafted by by Strauss Esme again left the parent notification process within the best Judgment of school professionals and that was sort of interpreted as to mean that a school district was not required to notify a parent as to a child's chosen uh name uh gender identity or how that child wished to be referred in school uh so again those four districts the four districts that are the main sources of this litigation because they took uh specific action either to repeal amend or pass other policies related to the parent notification process uh policy 5756 specifically states there is no affirmative Duty for any school district Personnel to notify a parent or guardian of the student's gender identity or expression except when mandated under specific stat state or federal laws uh so so I'm going to give you a summary of each of the four districts and sort of where we are in those pending cases so in Hanover Township they passed a policy called 8463 what it requires is the immediate notification of parents when a staff member is made aware of facts and circumstances that could uh impact students overall health and well-being related to the student sexual activity orientation transitioning gender identity or expression the uh 8730 six uh allow staff members to notify the administration DCF dcpm or the Hanover Township police if they believe that parental notification will place a student at risk or abuse or neglect so essentially what they were requiring is mandating that parent be notified but then also empowering individual uh staff members to report uh if they believed that that mandatory notification was going to create a and put a student in danger uh Middletown's policy required parent notification when a student requests a public social transition accommodation provided there is no documentation or evidence that doing so would put the student in physical or emotional harm or abuse um and then in the Middletown policy parental notification was only required uh for counseling and a referral to the students mental health concerns relating to parent notification consent for such Services uh in Manalapan English toown it was similar to to the Middletown policy except sort of broke it out into grade levels they made a determination that if you were a student in grades p prek through five the responsibility for determining a student's gender identity rests with the parents whereas from grade six through eight uh parental consent for acceptance of the student's asserted gender identity is not required uh the policy would also require parental disclosure if there was no credible evidence that doing so would subject to the student to physical or emotional harm or abuse um again these policies these are the language specifically from the policies uh I don't have any more information as to what's considered uh credible evidence uh specifically related there but I wanted to give you sort of an overview of these policies the marbor policy uh focused on addressing case-by casee uh transgender issues uh and then that policy required uh duty to notify parents guardians of student changes and gender identities or expression accepted there was reason to believe doing so would pose a danger to the health or safety of the student so when these districts kind of all everybody kind of took the same scope of actions around the same time last summer was really sort of when this issue kind of came really to a head uh the day after Hanover Township passed um 84 uh 63 uh the Attorney General file and the uh division of civil rights file both the complaint in Superior Court as well as a complaint with the division of civil rights uh both complaints allege that the board's action unlawfully discriminated against uh transgender students or students who were questioning on the basis of gender identity or expression or affectation status or sexual orientation uh the grounds were it was a violation of the New Jersey law against discrimination so with any sort of uh legal case when a uh complaint is filed there's the opportunity for either entity to seek what's called temporary restraints what temporary restraints are is the opportunity for the uh party who is opposing the action to be taken to put a temporary stop on that action and essentially maintain the status quo during the pendency of litigation so on August 24th 2023 uh the superior court of Morris County issued temporary restraint stopping the enforcement of revise policy 8463 but then the board came through and they uh while they didn't uh adopt 8430 8463 they repealed 5756 so the policy that applied related to transgender students they pulled that back they did not were temporarily restrained from adopting policy 8463 which was the policy that required parental notification um and that was everything sort of remained in a status quo for about a month until the court issued an order uh they granted the uh attorney general's and the dcr's motion for preliminary restraints in part they temporarily restrained them from adopting policy 8463 determining that the parental parental notification process could not be adopted uh but did not stop them from uh resending policy 5756 so that case is currently on appeal essentially the court had a split ruling where it sort of boiled down is the parental notification process and mandating parental notification could not be adopted by board policy the uh repeal of 5756 could be allowed to continue because the court sort of opined that the New Jersey law against discrimination is the law of the land and because it's the law of the land Board of educations no matter what their policy manual says cannot discriminate against any individuals in a protected class so essentially the Court ruled that regardless of whatever the board's policy manual says Board of Education can't discriminate against individuals particularly of individuals of uh on the basis of gender identity gender expression effectual affectation or sexual orientation because that would violate the njla day uh Middletown Marboro Manalapan English toown they're all sort of very similar because uh they adopted amended versions of 5756 Han Township so that's that that's that's a difference right 8736 or 63 was a different policy 5756 was a policy already on the books these three uh districts wanted to amend or otherwise repeal 5756 courton Hanover came in and said okay that's fine you do what you want with your policy manual but you still have to apply the law of njlad the 8763 which was the mandatory parental notification requirement that's the piece that's being held on that's the piece that we can't uh according to the court in the case law that's currently being existence mandatory reporting to parent parent notification is is sort of in limbo and it's been held as to be in temporary restraints in all of these cases so that's the difference there any questions on this yes um I wish I had a better answer for you than I don't know because I don't know uh appeals process particularly with cases that are so high-profile of this kind they slow playay it because they want to see if there's something that comes from up high the federal government regulation particularly uh my understanding is that nothing's been coming so they're sort of determining whether or not they need to act on this you probably will see a briefing schedule in the next couple of months but I don't expect this to be resolved in a year or so any other questions on this again like I said this is purely informational it's not meant to provide any sort of legal advice or opinion um if the board has questions on what it needs to do we can have that conversation separately I just want you to have all the information um I just want to make sure we talked about this yeah we did this is the fun one because this just happened literally last week so to give you sort of an overview right in 2020 chapter 44 for health insurance comes uh by and what chapter 44 does is if you were in the school employees health benefit plan there were about before chapter 44 comes into play there was about 16 different plans that a school district could select that members could enroll in right it ranged from direct 10 direct 15 20 40 all these different things and every sort of plan was separate the thing about the school employees health benefit plan is while it is the public plan it also drives the market for all the private plans right so all these other insurance companies that underwrite these plans and provide these health insurance plans to uh public entities particularly school districts is they sort of have to mirror the school employees health benefit plan and be competitive because it any point in any time a school district that's underwritten by Etna can decide you know what Etna is not giving us a good renewal policy anymore cost of health insurance is going up we could go to the school employees health benefit plan and get the equal to or better than letter from our broker and move everybody from a private Etna plan into the school employees health benefit plan make that change boom bang we're saving $100,000 year because of the fact that the premiums are less and that was great right everybody sort of knew what they were getting with the school employees health benefit plan everybody sort of knew what they were getting with the uh the private plans and they sort of mirrored one another Well chapter 44 comes in and it does exactly that except in Reverse so all of a sudden all these extra plans that were available are now gone and there's the direct 10 direct 15 New Jersey Educators plan and the Garden State Health Plan there's four plans but now also school districts that are not in the school employees health benefit plan have to adopt the private equivalent of the njp the New Jersey Educators Health Plan and the uh Garden State Health Plan the gshp what those plans are is essentially it it changes the way that employees contribute to their health insurance right so instead of they're contributing by a percentage of their premium they're contributing a percentage of salary so we're not going to get into how that that impacts the school district but the problem is or not a problem what's more most interesting is that the statute of chapter 44 specifically requires Boards of Education that are not participants in the SE HBP to adopt a plan that they didn't create right the legislature essentially created what the policy limits and what the requirements and the co-pays and co- insurance and all those details related to the ehp they essentially created a road map and handed it to the school districts and said okay now your private insurance carrier has to adopt this plan it has to give you a price and a premium cost for that plan well we we know who writes the chapter 44 law in the state of New Jersey and it's the health insurance Lobby it's the njaa and it's all of these entities that come in together and they create this body and they're part of the health insurance commission so one of those entities that's part of the health insurance law Lobby is Conor strong bucko which is a major health insurance broker primarily based out of South J's I'm uh if you're familiar with brown and brown uh benefit advisors they are the equivalent of Brown and Brown for South Jersey George nor Norcross is the uh Executive Vice President of or the head of Conor strong Buckaloo so he's probably considered one of the highest power Brokers in the state of New Jersey there are people and I won't give you my opinion on it who believe that George Norcross particularly wrote chapter 44 Andy scbp um education Educators Health Plan and Garden State Health Plan so not only did he create the plan that was in effect for the uh public plan he created essentially the plan that every school district in the state has to adopt and why is that important well he got indicted last week on uh 13 counts of uh fraud including racketeer so the reason that this is important for you is because we don't know how this is going to impact the market right because every school district in the state that has to adopt this plan that was written by the New Jersey state legislature and George Norcross now we don't know what that means so it's going to be really interesting to see how this ongoing criminal action impacts the overall market for public employees health insurance in New Jersey yeah specifically any questions but yeah so it's it's it's just an interesting tidbit that when you saw come across your uh news2 screens everybody kind of looked and were like I've heard that name but I don't really know why it's important but yeah it's pretty interesting so thank you guys for your time I really appreciate it thanks shie Jackie thank you for a great presentation very informative all right moving on with the meeting uh up next Mr Gibbs do you have a report yes uh good evening uh tonight's board agenda there is a motion for the cancellation of the RFP for the 2024 2025 before after CARE program as the board would like more input from the community before making a final decision the before after CARE program at Hillview will change from the 2425 school year as the Adam and Danielle uh children center who runs the current program has elected not to continue next year subject to tonight's board approval the Boys and Girls Club will operate the program at HW for the 2425 school year a new RFP will be going out during the 2425 school year for the 2526 before and after CARE program I'll be sending out a survey to the community for their input prior to the RFP more information will be provided at a later date as it becomes available just to give an update to the board office the Board office property will be sold on or about February 2026 as the post office who owns the building on the property has said that they're going to exercise their right to purchase the property that being said the board office will have to be moved to another location and a search for the property in town there is a building with property located at S Industrial Road that is up for sale at a price of $ 2,850,000 the building was built in 2006 and currently has a third floor available that could be subdivided into a board office and classrooms the remaining of the offices in the building are currently being leased of which the last lease will end on or about 2029 Dr poris Miss Bronco Mr Anderson and I have visited the building of which we all agree that it would be a perfect would be perfect to converted to classrooms over time our architect feels that this is an excellent alternative to putting an addition on the school building as the cost would be well over $8 million through a referendum as this would be a tremendous savings the board may be looking to purchase a building without the use of a referendum or financing more information will be provided at a later date this is just a reminder that that there we are in the process of uh setting up the October 2024 New Jersey school board's workshop and early registration so we will need to know how many board members will be attending this year the dates are Monday October 21st to Thursday October 24th and finally the 10th town meeting will be held on Tuesday July 30th at 700 p.m. located at the high school auditorium the town meeting will be the Zoning Board of adjustments meeting regarding the approval of one school Global's new facility that will be located across the street from the high school thank you thank you I have a question on on that um so Gordon just for everybody and so too uh so there's not blowups on Facebook the if we were to purchase this location or a different location or whatever the case may be the money eventually would come from the sale of the property the current property it's we wouldn't have to go for referendum we wouldn't have to raise taxes or whatever as far as we know it would be from the purchase of our property to get the new property correct that's what we're working towards that's why you also see there's a motion for a um an appraiser uh to give an appraisal as to what the property is worth over where the board office is that'll help give me an idea as to how much money we will get from possibly get from that property plus how much money we will need from an SDA Grant which we are in the process of completing uh in order to get a $1.7 million that's due us going back to 2014 so between those two we should be able to I'm hoping pay cash basically for the building and not have to go out for referendum maybe hopefully there'll be some other areas that are available too then yeah absolutely yeah so my question was going to be and recognizing that this is very very early in the process and no decisions are being made do we know what the flood history and forecast is for that property because it's it's like it's behind Jersey Johnny's basically right so correct the building is actually built um in case there is a flood um there is no first ground floor it's actually a flood zone down on the ground floor there's also like a I'm going to say a moat around the building so water were to come down or come into the area they will go to that moat I'm saying and going out to the river and and there is actually a Floodgate which will not allow the water to come back so it'll go out and be gone um in talking with our architect who's very familiar with the building he said that you most likely won't have a problem with the state because that was one of my concerns as I built a school in Fairfield a number of years ago and that was a huge concern I had spent many many days down at the Department of Environmental Protection going over different ways to get around this you know one problem so yeah so it is a positive move forward on this building yeah just a a followup question as well not so much on uh the environmental aspect but uh the road itself industrial um as it denotes is an industrial Street there's lots of uh traffic of industrial nature uh for this property or any other property will we be doing a traffic study to make sure we have you know the appropriate for more for obviously not so much for the offices but if we are to bringing classrooms um into the space that it's inappropriate yeah that'll actually be taken care of by our architect but that's actually down the road right now we're just um finding out if it's even possible to do this so we're at the very beginning stages which is a good reason why we're starting early because you don't want to get to the last minute and have to MK Grandam and find a facility for the board office yeah okay thank you don't deny me my boote Mr gon you please not allow to have a bridge though no bridge over the M Mr gon you please move the minutes yeah I'd like to make a motion and move the minutes for the May 28th meeting and the June 10th meeting second question discussion Mr Gibbs please call the roll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes to May 28th I'll obstain on June 10th Mr GID yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr bpeo yes Mrs shanton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries thank you that brings us to our first opportunity for public comment members of the public may speak once for a maximum period of five minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting public may speak on any agenda item only during the five minutes and if a member of the public does raise a question the question should be directed to the board president please state your name and sign in before you begin all right seeing nobody with any questions I'm going to close that and move on to approval of our action items Mr cesi would you please move the items under PMC I would like to move PMC 29724 through 350 PMC 352 d24 second any question discussion yes uh real quick a couple of these resolutions have Dr Sharon enlisted correct I was trying to employ a course of tactic to make her stay um okay so um my logic there is to do the approval through June 30th for the associated positions that come with being the director of cni and then when um we move forward with the replacement in August um either the interim person will take those over if we have to go that route or if the person we look to a point can take over we'll just give it directly to that person so I figured it's cleaner to have somebody on the books despite the fact you know she's retiring in two months thank you okay Mr Gibbs please call the roll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr G yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes um M chanton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr Sonic yes yes motion carries thank you Mr Max Sweeny would you please move the item under go ahead yeah I'm sorry to interject but um I just want to point out that in regards to PMC okay M Max you please move CIS yes I'd like to move CIS 10924 through CIS 11224 second question or discussion on CIS Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes Miss Dempsey yes Mr gitten yes Mr mcen yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs shanton yes Mrs espito yes and Mr s yes motion carries okay that brings us to FFA Mr Bloomer would you please move FFA yes i' like to make a motion to move FFA 17724 through FFA 22-24 second question or discussion on FFA I just have one comment on FFA 2024 um I just wanted to personally thank the staff of the Adam and Danielle Children's after care center for the many years of service that they've provided to our district um and for the excellent care they have taken of my children and I know of many others in the district and I greatly appreciate uh that I was able to be a working mom because of them I would like to second that okay Mr Gibbs please call the role Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes Miss Dempsey yes Mr G yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes Mr chenton yes M espito yes and Mr s yes motion carries thank you Miss Dempsey would you please move policy oh motion to approve P 17-24 sorry the button second question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the roll Mr BL yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr G yes Mr mweene yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs shanton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr Z yes motion carries thank you Mr Pompeo would you please move other absolutely I'd like to move o-1 13-24 second question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr sesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr mcme yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs shenton yes Mrs espito yes and Mr sen yes motion carries okay that brings us to our second second opportunity for public comment members of the public may speak once for a maximum period of five minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting uh member of the public may speak on any topic during the five minutes and if a member of the public has a question directed towards the board president state your name and sign in before we begin I oh seeing nobody I'm going to close public comment and move on to unfinished business anybody have any unfinished business I just have one item because I uh was not able to be at the workshop meeting for the policy discussion um so regarding the homework policy I know that the admin is going to be discussing updates to that at their Retreat coming up in July um we have piloted the homework free weekend in May so we got a little bit of a taste of that I suppose um but I wanted to just put it out there in case anyone wants to share thoughts on what you'd be interested in um having the administration consider in reviewing this policy or if there are any particular priorities that you want them to um you know think about or discuss I will mention I think dedicated um homework free weekends or holidays or something along those lines are important I would like to see that institutionalized in some way um whether it be through the policy or I've actually been seeing in other districts they put it on their District calendar although it's not in the policy um so Princeton public schools have them calendared right in ramsy public schools are doing this um so that's another great way to really communicate that it's something um that's a priority for us so that I just wanted to put that as something um I'm hoping will be discussed and I'll open it to the floor if anyone else wants to Megan I'm sorry just a quick question do you know um just because I know part of the concern here is that that we do have AP classes for the high school um I'm pretty sure Princeton public schools are offering AP yeah I'm sure do they do they do do we know is it like Universal I mean is there something different for their AP classes because you know I 100% agree with um homework free weekends absolutely um however having a child who went through um AP World History there is a tremendous amount of curriculum that has to get done before that AP exam though I think it would be benefit icial maybe to have like less work for AP that weekend or if we could because I know that is a concern um not only for the teacher and the staff but for the kids and the the stress of of getting all of that information just I how are other districts handling that AP how handling those AP courses so I don't know I can answer that but just not problem solving but I do tend to like to problem solve I would think maybe you give an assignment Wednesday through Wednesday as opposed to Monday through Monday Monday through Monday then comes Saturday Sunday the kids are like oh I have to do it Wednesday through Wednesday perhaps they decide to work on the weekend or perhaps you know Monday and Tuesday is when they focus on it so I think it's just maybe about how the works distributed um thank you for bringing this up again Mrs Dempsey I think it's so important I know that we talk about stigma free and mental health and I think this is such a critical component to that um I know we were able to do one this past year I also hope that we're able to implement on a much more frequent basis that went forward I agree with you know I my daughter has just graduated had a num number of AP classes in our senior year and you know the mental health mental health aspect of this is really important having that free weekend to not have to be buried in your books is really important we're not asking that we spring this on the faculty and the staff and the students you know last minute we're saying let's get this on a calendar now for the next year so the AP teachers know this second weekend of whatever month or third what whatever the plan is they have plenty of time to say okay we're going to do our project the second week not the third week and give these kids a break because they do need it because it it as they get they go through high school and they're going through you know AP classes and worrying about colleges and it it mounts the pressure really gets them after a while so give them give and give the teachers a week off too weekend off too they don't have to answer emails and answer questions from students who are trying figure out how to get this project done in time I like it I think it's an interesting timing opportunity because I would imagine that many teachers are already rethinking how am I going to deliver a lesson in this longer block of Time Versus a shorter block of time right so they're you're sort of already thinking about the curriculum delivery so again like you said Mr mix We with that advanced notice of such such a weekend maybe there's a chance to kind of intentionally figure that out um Danielle to answer your question I didn't notice any kind of caveat written into the ones where I saw it on their calendar I admittedly did not see it in any policy that I looked at so that does not seem to be a trend um but the ones that did have it on their actual District calendar just like their half days and their days off they had homework free weekends um I think princ I one of the districts it might have been Princeton it was all holiday weekend so it wasn't like necessarily one a month but it was the Thanksgiving recess it was the Martin Luther King recess whatever those holiday weekends were those were the homework free ones so it's being done in districts in ways that make the most sense for them and I trust that Dr poris and his admin team will also make the right decisions for us yeah I was I was gonna say I I think that this is important but I certainly wouldn't want to hold um anybody to has to be once every two weeks or once a month or whatever again you know Dr poris and his team they figure out what it is what works for them and um the kids and the parents can work around it you know I mean if if they're going to know that they have you know there's no homework on Thanksgiving weekend then they're going to know they're going to know that in September so you know they can work around that but um I I do think it's important um and and honestly I think it's important for the teachers you know because if the teachers know that they don't have anything that they have to worry about over Thanksgiving weekend uh I think that that's important as well so not quite along these lines um I know other school districts are doing not just homework free weekends but a lotting time maybe once a a marking period once a quarter um to instead of going to classes allowing that to be one-on-one time with let's say an AP teacher for followup um where students can schedule that uh I think that may be even more valuable because it's it allows them to really say hey this is where I need help this is we need to focus on these projects um and circling back with check-ins so something along those lines but maybe more work oriented not to sound it like it it needs to be more work but um something where they can actually go and get the special help they need as opposed to just time off okay anybody any new business that want bring up board member announcements I have a few Mr s uh so I attended the uh June 12th Mars Educational Service Commission meeting it was the uh annual reorganization it's on a different schedule than we are um so we reorganized the board for the 24 25 school year is that right yeah 25 crazy um yeah and uh I am uh continuing to be on that board so good news there um the school that the marcc runs down to 20 students now um so we're continuing to look at other options and other services that the MARC can provide to its members the county basically and some other towns from other counties uh they do still do all a lot of the busing and a lot of the busing routs as we take advantage of as well um I had the opportunity to uh work the barbecue at the senior barbecue this year that was a lot of fun it was very hot but I probably lost s some arm hairs on that Grill but uh it was a lot of fun it was great seeing the kids um and catching up a lot of the parents who were there too who haven't seen in a few years and then um ptss pth gradu pths graduation was the following night uh it was a great ceremony um very very warm um but uh it was it was a good time to be there and I had a lot of fun I uh attended the PV and pths graduations I thought they they were both outstanding it was very warm uh but listen you gotta do what you got to do we we've all had lacrosse and softball games and everything else try going to a volleyball game in the gym in September it's nothing graduation was nothing compared to that so um I Echo what Dr poris said about the behavior and just the overall feeling I thought it was great um I was a little disappointed that there were no beach balls or anything uh anywhere but you know um other than that um it was great it was great both nights were were excellent I too attended the uh P PV graduation unfortunately I was unable to attend the high school graduation but uh I just want to thank the staff uh the custodian staff um everybody who you know made this graduation it was smooth it was quick and short for the reason of heat and everybody did a great job and congratulations to all the graduates and I hope everybody has a safe and happy summer I attended um Hillview moving up ceremony um the PV graduation and the pths graduation all were absolutely amazing I did not think it was that hot I thought it was not that bad um it wasn't that bad was listen I think our outside ceremonies I've gone you know in my district we have one inside I think the outside is is so much nicer um I think the pictures are amazing the kids have so much fun when they're outside um throwing their caps it's just um really awesome always happy to go and attend so proud of our graduates um I also attended um the pths winter competitive cheerleaders held a fundraiser here on the football field um they were um working with mini cheerleaders um so first graders through 8th grade they did a cheer clinic for two afternoons on Thursday and Friday um and then had a performance and the minis will be um cheering on the sidelines during one of our home games um it was really really great fundraiser I think there was like 60 many cheerleaders um they had such a good time and we got a lot of compliments on the high school cheerleader how um how wonderful they were with the girls um tons of compliments and how much fun the mise had so I was really proud of our students for um you know having little kids look up to them it was a great fundraiser I uh also attended the PV Middle School graduation uh was unfortunately not able to make the pths graduation but um It's a Wonderful event but I wanted to make sure we took a special moment to thank our volunteer EMT squads who attended both ceremonies uh especially for some people who felt like it was hot it was nice that they were there um to assist if needed and also give special shout outs uh both in person and over social media to their members who graduated both Middle School and High School respectively at a previous meeting I had neglected to mention that in May the end of May I went to the Allied Health poster sessions so it's a little late but I just wanted to uh mention how how impressive the students were at that and um their level of sophistication and preparation to be able to speak to total strangers about the project they're working on is amazing um and they had really ambitious research projects so um couple years I've gone to that it was really impressive um I did go to the annual Hillview quidditch match which is an unmatched uh event in my mind and uh want to say congratulations to Ellie denoya who set a new school record I believe for her uh reader points something along those lines so congratulations to her and I also attended the sjg fifth grade recognition ceremony um and they mentioned that the whole thing is planned and scripted by the students they really do an amazing job with that I had gone last year also um and now that was a hot day that was that Monday morning it was like 90 degrees by nine o'clock and those kids were so composed and put on such an excellent celebration and they did it so maturely and so well um it was really it was a really nice time um and then same comments about the other graduation celebrations it's always a pleasure to celebrate our students at the end of the year uh also I wanted to thank Dr poris um I know that we moved the graduations from 7 to six this year but I had many people coming up to me and Thanking us Dr poris you um evidently there some schools were doing their's a 10 am and 3 pm and other nonsense and so I wanted to thank you for keeping uh things you know so that parents could get to see their kids graduate I don't know how you do that at 10: a.m unless you get a doctor's note at you're sick I but um again Common Sense prevails in panic and I wanted to thank you for that well said Sam okay anybody else I think that was everybody all right that brings us to uh the close of the meeting an executive session and we do have a reason to go into executive session tonight where we will discuss the CSA evaluation okay and student matters no action will be taken and we will adjourn from there our next meeting will be July 22nd here at the high school is there a motion to go into executive session motion there second I is there a second second yes all in favor I any opposed good night everyone