compliance with the open public meeting ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the Daily Record in Suburban Trends its agenda has been posted at the appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with banic Township Clerk thank you we please call the role Mr Bloomer here Mr cesi here miss Dempsey here Mrs Esposito here Mr gon here Mr mcweeny here Mr Pompeo here Mr senic here and Mrs shanon here we have a quarum thank youone please stand for the flag salute Al to the flag of the United States okay good evening everyone Welcome to our January 22nd regular business meeting uh first I want to acknowledge the members of our community impacted by the adverse weather a few weeks ago um first we had some rain and recently we've had the snow uh I know it hasn't been easy and the board wants to wish them all their best and that we're thinking of them tonight the board will receive training on ethics and mandatory State training from our njsba field rep Charlene Peterson this training will count towards our goal to achieve Carol e Larson Master board certification also tonight we will receive a presentation on the district ssds which stands for student safety data system we receive a report on that next tonight under PMC item 17524 the board will vote to change the start and end times for the high school next year this change was prompted by scientific studies that show students in that age group do not get enough sleep because of hormonal changes that impact their circadian rhythms making it difficult for them to fall asleep before 11: p.m. an appropriate response to this is the later school start time which allows them to get not just more sleep but better sleep benefits of this change will include better student mental health better grades improved test scores and just overall happier kids at the request of the board Dr poris has led this effort over the past few years uh along with members of his as his administration they organized committee uh Community committees presented their findings held parent universities and made sure that they not only kept the community informed but also that they solicited the community's input before we thought about these changes it was a lot of work and I want to thank them for their effort and with that I will pass the mic to Dr poris thank you Mr Sanic first off I'm gonna pass it to um zers for the student representative report then I'll provide a brief report of my own after which we'll have the ssds report from Mr Riner and Miss Abrams and then we will have Miss Peterson present the school board training but first floor is yours thank you good evening everyone so glad to see you all again believe it or not we are halfway through the school year congratulations to the teachers of the year and support Professionals of the year at all our schools thank you for all you do class meetings with the pths administration review the program of studies scheduling for the 24 and 2025 school year Mr hazer also talked about the potential change of school at start time and the impact on the overall schedule for students AP and elective fair was held on Thursday students had a chance to hear from their fellow peers and teachers about potential AP courses and electives for next year congratulations to all the participants of the winter Cabaret the students and staff did a great job the cast and crew the Beauty and the Beast have begun practicing in preparation for for the spring musical Emily will say the ra winter cheer had their first competition this past Sunday January 21st the senior night of girls basketball wrestling swim and hockey have all taken place it was a great night where seniors were recognized in front of their peers and their family congratulations to Chloe Vasquez as she was nominated to be selected to play in The All-American McDonald's girl basketball game she will wait to hear if she is selected to play both girls and boys basketball teams will compete in the county tournament this coming Saturday come out and support the end of the marking period is coming up and students at pths will be taking the midterm exams starting this Wednesday good luck to all students taking the exams thank you for your time and have a great night thank you both and do you remember the advice I gave you years and years ago for doing your best on standardized tests the three things or as I'm put you on the spot do your best try your hardest have fun well hopefully you've been applying that even though clearly you just forgot it but anyway best of luck hope it all goes really well thanks for an outstanding report now that I've made it so they probably never want to come back again um my report will be pretty brief um as Mr Sanic alluded to uh we will be voting the board will be voting on school start times and end times and that focuses primarily on changes at 3ek level PV and most significantly at the high school this topic was included one of our first committee the whole Workshop meetings back in February of 2020 and has appeared on no fewer than 15 Board of Education meeting agendas including tonight's while also having been addressed through several Community meetings with Myriad stakeholders presentations to the community meetings with administrators and collaboration with staff members who have made site visits and offered input throughout the process it has been incredibly involved and at times somewhat difficult process one that I can say has our commun school Community paw prints all over it our goal is to maximize the time we have with our students to position them that have the best educational experiences possible I thank all involved for their patience persistence and willingness to address a seemingly endless array of fine details we present it to you not as a perfect plan but as something that represents a lot of hard work and creative thinking to borrow from the artist Yan vanike and later on Gus Stickley will apply the phrase Alon to our outcomes which translates to the best we can or really actually it's the best I can but it was we the recommended update to the prek is a fairly late addition to this process and reflects a carefully crafted position piece presented by our dedicated Preschool teachers and operates from the premise that preschool is not the same as daycare it is an educational experience I realize it's not going to be popular pull back the time where we're doing so to allow our teachers who are trained in the tools of the my program to work with students for the entire duration of the students time during which they are in school we would remove the specials program with separate teachers but keep those structured activities in place as part of the integrated educational program with those trained teachers and then also a quick note about something they came up too um board will not be approving new schedules um what has to happen first in terms of the process for start times board approved start and end times and then School administrators as well as me will work together to ensure we have a schedule in place um most likely the schedule that is that's on the slide deck that we presented back in October I think it's slide 13 fortunately my Wi-Fi is not working so I can't double check that uh Bears closest resemblance to what we would most likely like to run at the high school couple other quick updates the veterans wall committee met on January 11th to review plans for the project determine objectives and work on some logistical challenges we're fortunate to have our architect Mr Frank MSO join us and he shared Insight not only from his professional experience as an architect but also from his work from having been part of the Vietnam veterans wall project in hell for the past 30 years I had no idea he had been part of that our design plans were generated by students in our STEM Academy and will be further refined by the solutions firm and we look forward to working with the Greater Community to develop something that celebrates those who have served and our deep sense of community support and finally last week I met with a group from the rotary that was organized by the rotary that involves Educators from Lincoln Park as well as support service providers in New bridg Atlantic Health the goal of this project established by Our Community Partners in the rotary is to find ways to elicit Greater Community involvement and support from mental health programs to support our students we are seeing significant increases in the number of students needing support including those as young as two to three years old and appreciate that this critical issue is getting the vital attention that it needs that concludes my report and with that that I'm going to turn the floor over to miss Abrams and Mr Riner I believe you have the the power of the clicker the power good evening um I'm unaa Marie Abrams I am the um anti-bullying coordinator and I'm G introduce yourself hi everybody uh Matthew Ryder principal sjg and school safety specialist for the district um so tonight uh we're going to talk about the student sa safety data system which gathers two categories of data from schools in the district the first category is reports on incidents such as violence vandalism harassment intimidation bullying Hib uh weapons offenses substance offenses restraint seclusion any other occurrences resulting in the removal of a student from school the second category is information related to hi trainings and programs so so here is the breakdown of overall District numbers keeping in mind that this is for January 1 2023 through June 30th 2023 okay um so that's the breakdown of overall District numbers for that first category on incidents with more granular information on each school to follow on the next slide so here is the school based breakdown with the elementary schools listed first followed by the middle school and the high school one point of qualitative data that may help to offer some context to the higher number uh for substance abuse a pvms is that Vape detectors were installed at PV in April of 2023 so this uptick may be attributable to that incidents leading to removal uh are occurrences that don't meet the criteria listed on the previous slide however they do result in the removal of a student from their educational placement for a duration of half a day or more so you'll note that the numbers at the high school are significantly higher but please also keep in mind that removals may occur for a variety of reasons and in a variety of contexts uh during this time frame all activities aimed at promoting anti-bullying initiatives in district schools are documented and reported to ssds trainings refer to purposely crafted activities that equip individuals with the necessary skills to execute a program strategy or a responsibility effectively and programs or organized activities plans systems or scheduled events designed to help the community to achieve a specific goal so the next set of slides will'll focus on the five year comparison on the first category of incidents you'll notice gaps in the 2019 2020 school year due to the co shutdown in the spring specifically so here's the longitudinal data um on violence with a downward Trend between last year and this year as it relates to vandalism the numbers have remained the same but the setting of those numbers has changed from last year to this year as I mentioned before the installation of The Vape detectors at the middle school is likely the reason for the increase in numbers we're seeing at the middle school if we go by the high school numbers the Vape detectors that were installed there may well be a deterrent um as well as an increased security presence in the high school hallways and bathroom entrances so we're happy to report that there is zero longitudinal data on weapons and we are hopeful that this will always be the case here is the longitudinal data for confirmed Hib cases January uary to June and this is for alleged Hib cases and as regards incidents leading to removal there is a downward Trend in the longitudinal data so this last slide is newer for reporting un thus there's no longitudinal data to share for seclusions and restraints the one reported case last year is is here and and that is all I have so one of the questions that uh would come up would be like the violence Having Eight uh if you go back to the violence slide Having Eight occurrences you know what could that consist of uh those could be altercations uh physical altercations uh is mostly what those violence numbers are based upon all right it's not like somebody um targeting the school for a violent act it's actually physical altercations sure and I think that it's a very wide you know kind of range for that um and and you'll notice obviously the as as kids mature the consequences are higher right um so an incident for removal in the high school um one example of that might be that a student who's had multiple taries and is assigned to Saturday detention doesn't show up and then that escalates the consequences escalate and that's a that's reason for removal um and so that's not you know so there's many connotations one might have but I'm confident to say number one the numbers were going down let me just sorry I'm I'm a bad clicker this year yes right so yeah they weren't viol yes it could be anything from uh not showing up to a Saturday school to um you know a high level of disrespect to a staff member um could be you know some of those could be those physical alocation right um yeah but it's um you know the the the big thing is that the high school you know I look at it as an elementary principle that at elementary school you know you're you're teaching students how to behave right and the consequences are less right and then as they get older the expectations raise and so do the yeah so do the uh you know the consequences oh overall I think that as as a district you know you're seeing good over a five-year Trend you're seeing you know you're seeing good data there in terms of you know the incidents going down um the HB alleged incidents went down uh Therefore your hivs that were found to be hivs also go down um I think that's through education I think that's through a deeper understanding um you know less uh less false reporting um I also think you're Al you're having less um less I want to say uh like one reports and then the other one says well I'll get you and I'm going to report right so there was less of that as well uh less Retaliator retaliatory reporting I think is also a part of that so thank you for this so much and thank you for the historical data I know I'm always like historical data so I have another historical data question this is only second period compared to second period correct I think it would be incredibly helpful this time next year to see second period data but then to see the annual Iz data so I I would love a snapshot of like the entire school year what does that look like you know by by by school and then you know buy a offen a fence like that I think that would be incredibly helpful because I personally don't recall how first period looked and so I'm gonna go and and look but we can actually get that for you and we can share it with Dr poris and he could share out with you abolutely would be amazing we can do that yeah anybody else all right thank you very much thank you all right so next on the agenda the board will receive our training from our rep Charlene Peterson Chris do you want to Loop her in please so I am here can you see me and hear me or aha there I am okay um just want to say good evening everyone and thank you for the opportunity to you know to work with the board tonight as it's doing its ethics training and it was mentioned you know that the board is um working toward earning a certification for full board training but I also wanted to acknowledge the work that the individual board members are doing in taking training when I first looked at the board's transcripts and saw these registrations I thought I was going to count and see how how many trainings the board members took last year so in 2023 on top of all the other work that you do you know as board members um the board collectively took 98 different training opportunities from New Jersey school boards last year year so really just wanted you know to kind of emphasize the amount of work and the amount of training and the priority that this board is giving to this work um and then New Jersey school boards also provide certifications to individual members so last year the board earn seven different individual certifications um with you know three you have three certified board members right now two Master board members and one certified board leader that's our highest level and it looks like we're soon to be at two right so the board I just wanted to acknowledge the work that the board is doing in training um so having said that I wasn't sure am I sharing my screen or is my PowerPoint being shared or how does that work for the ethics training I think we could have you share your screen um it probably be the I I don't know what I'm looking at right now okay this be the most efficient that way you maintain control over it okay so everyone see what I'm sharing right now then okay good okay I will go ahead then and take the board through its ethics training um you are welcome to stop at any time ask questions at any time you know the board so um and I can't see everyone's faces so please you know either Brian just let me know or you know just please feel free to jump in um so just going to again take you you through this training with the understanding that this is not you know a a legal you know a disclaimer it's not a legal presentation it's more a presentation about information recognizing that if the board had any questions about ethics it would go um to their board attorney um so here just wanted to emphasize the importance of um you know us being elected public officials and what that means and you know would hope that as we look at what's required of us as this the state that we consider that to be the minimum set of standards that we would hold ourselves accountable to um so from the perspective of the board the way we are held accountable is through the school ethics act um and this is really what separates us from thinking about ourselves differently than as volunteers that we are elected public officials and with that comes responsibility so the responsibility that we have to the public um is that that our conduct holds the resp respect and the confidence of the people that elected us but then also looks at our conduct and said that we have to avoid conduct that would be inv violation of the public trust and then we're even held to an even higher standard of saying even if there's nothing wrong but it could create a justifiable impression that trust is being violated that that's what we are held accountable to you know I once had a board member say you know I feel like I have one hand tied behind my back and I said you know what well maybe in a way you do but that's really the responsibility that comes along with being an elected public official um so the school ethics act has some other components that go along with it um so we are going to go through each of those so I wanted to um start out talking about the fact that some of them such as the code of ethics and the mandatory training apply only to board members um but then we'll see that the prohibited acts which used to be called conflicts of interest and the disclosure statements not only apply to board members but also then to some administrators and you can see the the listing of what the requirements are of which administrators um it applies to so these are all the things then that are um components of the school ethics act so the school ethics um is overseen by a body called the school ethics commission and they're appointed by the governor for a three-year term with no more than five coming from any one political party um and it's comprised of two school board members two School administrators and then interesting the that the majority are five are non-school officials um so what the school ethics commission does is they meet monthly and they would um you know hold hearings either looking um over advisory opinions that were requested of them and so what that means is that you as a school official um can ask the school ethics commission for their advice as to whether they think something would be a violation of the code of ethics or you know of of the ethics act um before it's happened so that way you can um you know get some guidance and get some direction and then if they think that the rest of us would benefit from that six of them can vote to make that advisory opinion public and then they would take out any information you know any identifying information um so like as an example that I usually provide of that there was a board who had a high school senior elected to their board so when you think about all the potential conflicts there could be um the board asked for an advisory opinion you know thinking well what happens if we're going to talk about you know this some of this the students friends or their classmates or um classes they're in or teachers and so the school so they asked for an advisory opinion kind of asking all of those questions and the school ethics commission came back and said you know we essentially we wouldn't treat the student any different than we would any other board member whatever would be a conflict for them would also be a conflict for this student so just again it's the opportunity to get some advice before the action has happened um and then separately from that they also um consider ethics complaints that were filed um and so while only a school official can request an advisory opinion um essentially anyone who feels that a violation took place can file ethics charges so it can be a board member it can be a staff member of the public um but the group it cannot be is it cannot be the Panic Township Board of Education so it can't be the entire board um but it could be um individual members um so um in select say so then they they meet monthly and rule on those um so another component of this is um that as board members we are held accountable to having mandatory training we don't always realize that we are the only public officials in the state that have this requirement and really even around the country there are not many states that require their board members to have mandatory training so in New Jersey's case um we are required to have training in our first term of office you know for those first three years of our term and one of the the recent changes that went into effect last March um was that we used to have a full year to complete all of the training but in looking at new board members the state you know considered the fact of what a benefit it would be for new board members to have their training sooner than that um and get it earlier in their board you know in the start of their board year so now the requirement is is that new board members have to compl complete their governance one kind of the the basics of being a board member within their first 90 days of taking office um then in your second year of board service you would take governance to and there you do have a full year to complete it and that's finance and labor by the end of year three it's governance three which is student achievement and then anytime you are reelected that year following your reelection you need to take governance four which is legal updates and so this needs to be taken as many times as you are reelected so for someone that's been on their board 20 years or however long it's been and that year following reelection you need to take governance for so this is what um board members are held accountable to as the basic mandatory training recognizing that there are many more opportunities beyond that um the other thing that we are um held accountable to doing is identifying any um relatives that might work in the district and any potential Financial conflict so we have to fill out disclosure statements so for new board members that's within the first 30 days of taking office and then for returning school officials It Is by April 30th and those disclosure statements come directly from the state to you and then they are um public information so it mentioned you know that the school ethics commission you know does rule on um cases that are brought before it um so these are the different penalties that the school ethics commission can recommend and they say recommend because they Rec make a recommendation to the commissioner of education and then it is the commissioner that um has the final determination on the penalty so there are four levels of penalty that penalties that can be imposed um the least restrictive is a reprimand which is just kind of a almost like a verbal hands slab that said you know acknowledging that you did something wrong um the next one is centure and that's a little more formal and that it's publicized by a resolution that resolution is read at the state level it's read at your board meetings and then also all of those places that you post your meeting notices you also have to post that this um this cental resolution as well members can also be suspended from um board service and it's usually in increments of like 30 days 60 days um you know and then you can't participate at all during that time or else you can be removed from the board so these are the the different penalties that can be imposed by the school ethics commission so it mentioned that the code of ethics is for board members only um so the top is in the green box is the actual tenant or the actual code and then underneath that is the standard and so what that means is that if someone files ethics charges against a board member and said that they violated letter a um below then is the standard that the school ethics commission would use to determine if a violation took place or not um so I'm just going to kind of quickly go through what the what the tenants are um so the first one here talks about you know holding us accountable to essentially being the kind the local representatives of the state and so it says that we will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the state um so you know this before Co we had a really hard time coming up with examples of what that could look like and then once kind of mas mandates and other things came down from the state that perhaps were unpopular or difficult for boards to have to implement this is what held us what holds us accountable to doing that um and saying you know what if you want to make changes if you disagree with what we're doing then please do so through legal and ethical procedures so that's why you would see some boards perhaps passing resolutions about things that they disagree with but saying but not giving us the right to say that we refuse to do it um and this next one talks about kind of separating the lens through which we look at things as a board member and saying that we make decisions that are in the best interest of all children you know people can come to your meetings with concerns about a particular School a particular grade a particular situation and when you are on this side of the board table you have to look at through the lens of how does this impact every single student in the school district because that's who I'm responsible for so that's the lens through which I'm making decisions um this tenant looks at our role this is the state now starting to tell us board members this is your lane this is what you do you are policymaking planning and Appraisal this is your work um and then also says that we have to consult those who will be affected by it so essentially that's why we have two readings on a policy the first reading puts it out there then it now gives anyone the right who has you know wants to come back and share with us how that policy is impacting them so then we can hear that then before on the second reading that we vote to adopt the policy um this next one is pretty much New Jersey school board's Mantra I'm saying you know that essentially we don't run the schools that's the job of the superintendent um but together with our fellow board members and again that's important together with our fellow board members that we see that they're well-run and so we we know that we do that through the previous slide have said through policymaking planning and Appraisal that um you know that that's our work in making this happen um so this is an area that in a couple minutes we're going to look at some of the cases and this one about taking independent action that could compromise the board going to see that that is in surfaces in every single case where someone was found to be in violation last year there may be other things but every example included this one a board members like say you know all of us are responsible for the success of the board and making sure that we do our work at the board table and not going outside of that and taking private action that could compromise the board next one talks about surrendering our independent judgment to any kind of special groups and so and to me this goes back to all students that again you know regardless how you got on the board whatever promises you think you may have made once you are here the group that you are responsible to are all of the the students um in this one this is what holds us accountable to confidentiality as a board we know that we're a public body we do our work in public um but there are times that the state has identified that we can meet in executive session um and it's usually for reasons to protect the rights of our students our staff the legal rights of the district but recognizing then that information that is shared with us is considered confidential and you know canot be shared with anyone outside of um your fellow board members um so this is what holds us accountable to that and then also you know the state recognizes you know that as board members we have access to a lot of information so it would be reasonable for the public to assume that if we say something about the schools that it must be true based on the information that we have so this is what holds us accountable to providing accurate information and this one CLI clarifies um really our role um that the board doesn't hire the board doesn't fire um the board just approves or disapproves the recommendation of the um the superintendent so again just kind of making that clear um what that distinction is in our role um and this one saying that we'll support and protect School personnel and the proper performance of their duties and this is becoming more of an issue with social media and so holding us accountable to saying okay board members you you know don't only do that at the board table but you now essentially are held accountable to these in everything that you do all the time this one talks about the board not taking action or not trying to fix situations not trying to resolve problems things that people you know when people come to you with complaints or concerns essentially saying that you'll refer those to the to the superintendent and from the board's perspective you know we say that essentially you're the court of last resort that you will you know want to make sure that the person goes through the process first and that the board can only get involved after failure of an administrative solution so this is what holds us accountable to not trying to jump in any sooner than that um because then it would be difficult to hold the superintendent accountable and you've kind of effectively taken that c that court of Last Resort away um so these were the tenants then of the code of ethics themselves and again those apply only to board members um so these are some of the cases from last year I'm not going to go through all of them but when you see the like in in red where it has like in parentheses the E and the J the E and the F like those are the tenants that it relates to so that's why I saying that all of them um you'll see a letter e next to all of them about members taking independent action so in in some of these it's you know board members that either shared communication um someone forwarded something um from a board um shared board communication to someone outside of the board used their board email to express their personal views um you know sent a invited some one side of a group to a rally um and then the third one down was a little interesting and that there was a board member who their independent action that they took is that the district had been using um MacBooks for their students the superintendent had put a and it was time to kind of replace them so the superintendent had put a committee together and the committee's recommendation was that they continue to use the MacBooks there was a board member the question why aren't we using Chromebooks well you know did we look into that why isn't that the recommendation um so instead of accepting the investigation that had taken place or the recommendation this board member went off on their own and started calling other business administrators calling other districts calling other vendors um and kind of conducting their own um research and investigation on the issue um and then here just wanted to um talk about in the first one a little bit they have one board member that had two things that were brought against them but um the second one was um in their in their role as kind of a private citizen in they were a volunteer um for a local group they were a secretary of that organization and every year the school's chorus performed at an event that this local group had so this year when they reached out to the principal to ask if the course would be performing the principal said no that that would not be possible this year so what this board member did then was texted the corus teacher and said I don't understand what gives why aren't you um performing this year so it was thought then that the board member reaching out directly to the chorus teacher then um that that was essentially kind of administering the schools gave the appearance that the board disagreed with the administration put and put the chorus teacher in an uncomfortable situation and said that it was kind of an investigation prior to you know the referral to the superintendent um and in the next one too as well was another situation where uh a board member had made a walk-on resolution in a district to change the Columbus Day holiday to a different name um you know the rest of the Bo in that past you know uh board resolution passed that um it created a firestorm in the community and so there were two members of the public that asked to meet separately with this board member who made that walk- on resolution to say like why did you do this can you explain to us why you did this um and so then it again was considered to be um taking independent action that could compromise the board and said if the board votes on something regardless of who was the person that brought it up it's the board that takes the action and said that um it should then be up to the board to publicly discuss and explain the rationale for its decisions not an individual member doing that and then said it also undermines the administration's Authority and imposes an unnecessary strain on the administration board relationship so that's kind of the first time we've seen the school ethics commission using that language to talk about the impact of that board and superintendent relationship and how when the board does things outside of um its scope the impact that they that that can have um so while we talked about the code ofth ethics of being um you know accountable to board members only the prohibited acts which like I said used to be called conflicts of interest are also um you know certain administrators are held accountable to that and essentially saying that you need to recuse yourself so not participate in discussion or vote if there's a benefit to you as a school official or to a member of your immediate family and we'll look at the state's definition of that in just a moment and essentially saying that you know if there's any kind of a business interest if there's any kind of a financial involvement any kind of a favor or gain um but then if you look at letter B Bob it says and you know if you use your position to gain any unwarranted privileges advantages or employment and then importantly says that it extends to others so that means that we can go beyond this definition of just you or your immediate family if in any circumstance it thinks that that has happened that someone has received an an unwarranted privilege advantage or employment because of your position on the board um that you can be held accountable to that so one of the things that you know we have not really talked about in the past and this is even something new really that I've just learned this year is that the past if a board member had a conflict like if you know there was a reason that um they had to um recuse them themselves that many times in the vote we would say well then they need to abstain um so what we have since learned is that you really if you have a legal conflict it's really different than abstaining and saying abstaining from a matter is not sufficient to memorialize the fact that the board member had a legal conflict is not eligible or able to vote so instead they should vocalize that they are recused so again so that that that that distinction is memorialized um so here is that um relationship definition from the state of an immediate family member being a spouse um or partner or dependent child residing in the same household and then a bigger broader definition is of a the state's definition of a relative which is essentially our nepotism policy definition um and pretty much has every um relative except for cousin I think it's the only one we've determined is not on there um but again you know that can be that whole term of other can be that catchall if needed so one of the things that the school ethics commission did in this past year is this is a sample of an an advisory opinion where they took every single potential relative relationship you could think of like this is just an excert of it in the advisory opinion itself like this is about two or three pages long of telling you yes or no yes or no whether this particular relationship um would be considered a conflict or not so again just um some helpful guidance from the school ethics commission so why that's important is that you know we cannot hire the relative of a board member or of the chief School administrator and if the relative already works in the district then from the administrator standpoint they can exercise direct or indirect authority over their relative and from the board's perspective they cannot take part in employment matters concerning the superintendent or any supervisors in the chain of command between their relative and the superintendent and for those boards that are undergoing a superintendent search the board members would not be able to participate if they had a relative that works in the district but it not only impacts hiring it can also potentially impact negotiations collective bargaining um so a board member that has a relative that works in the district is not able to participate in negotiations anyway whatsoever if you your spouse or dependent child kind of that immediate family member if you are a teacher say in another District then you cannot participate while the board is negotiating but once the negotiations are done the the memorandum of Agreements are drawn up the salary guides are done essentially it's too late to change the outcome then you are able to vote on the um you know on the actual agreement itself um for those members that have that that bigger broader definition of a relative that works in another District somewhere um which is almost everyone in New Jersey right um saying that you can participate in negotiations you can vote um absent any other conflict so what that other conflict might be as identified by the state could be um if your relative had heightened Union involvement and then also wanted to point out for board members that are like in those communities where sometimes the the bargaining units get involved in board member campaigns and may contribute money to a board election um that those board members usually have to sit out of negotiations for at least a year or more so these are the advisory opinions that go along with the conflicts or the prohibited acts so I'm not going to go through all these they're just here more for the board members to look at later but just kind of wanted to make the point that you'll see the advice in almost every case is to recuse yourself from any and all matters related to what your conflict is so that is kind of what the expectation is and then if we look in the third one too where it said it said the in the potential for conflict actual or perceived conflict so then again it's what kind of a perception so that's pretty much what we are held accountable to um so this is some some new kind of advice that we haven't seen before you know we knew that if you had a relative that worked in the district some you know we just looked at some of the things that you would have to recuse yourself from but in this case there was an advisory opinion that was asked where someone who was the board president um and their child was an instructional assistant in the district that the advice kind of extended to um you know typically boards um assign their board presidents to um you know determine who's going to serve on committees to determine who's going to be the committee chair and so this advisory opinion said that b a board president who had a relative working in the district they couldn't choose the chair the members or serve on any committee that remotely touches or directly re relates to their family members employment and said you know not limited to Personnel negotiations instructional and finance committees which is pretty much you know most of the Committees right and then the same thing was true in the second example where it was a board member spouse so this wasn't the board president but even saying that that this board member who had a spouse that worked in the district again could not um be involved in any committees that touched upon their spouse's employment so this is kind of um you know a level of advice that again we hadn't seen before also them there were two situations last year where board members who had a conflict um attended executive session um discussions so in the first one the board had a vacancy that they were filling a vacant seat and one of the people that that applied for this vacant seat was the a board member's husband so when the board went into executive session to talk about you know who they were going to um you know to talk about the people that had applied for the vacant seat this board member was there even though you know one of the subjects of discussion was her husband in another situation a board president attended multiple discussions on a f on a matter that involved an immediate family member and it was just an ID that was given so the rest of the board members didn't know this person was and in both cases the board members had consulted with the attorney first um but at the end of the day were found you know to to be guilty by the scho ethics commission and you know kind of made it clear that said when a member with a conflict goes behind closed doors it creates a justifiable impression to the public that their trust is being violated um and you know we say that a members um who have a conflict have the same right as the public so this would say that you had an unwarranted privilege or Advantage because not any other member of the public is able to go into executive session with the rest of the board and said that the members presence could chill meaning or intimidate or sway the comments and opinions of others and saying as members we're all responsible for our own actions um so you know one of the things that came out of this that's still pending is saying okay well what if you did follow the the advice of your Council does that protect me in any way and so that this is kind of the defense of saying okay these are kind of the prerequisite things that had to have have happened that you needed to have asked the attorney before the action um you know so you can just kind of see that those conditions um so saying that at the end of the day you might still be found guilty but if all of those conditions above can be met um that it may um diminish the penalty or you may may not receive a penalty at all so again just to take that into consideration um one of the other areas that the school ethics commission gives us guidance is on volunteering while we think that as a board member many of us may have got our start in the schools as volunteers School commission said okay now that you're a board member I you need to maintain that 30,000 foot view of the district so in order to do that it would be difficult if you were in the buildings every day if you were am mesed in this work if you so they kind of broke it down into two different areas that they would look at and said well what is your degree of involvement with staff and students how often and what kind of level of interaction do you have with them and then what's the degree of authority that you are giving and receiving directions or orders from staff and students um you know so this kind of first started with a board member whose wife worked in the district and this board member was I me his wife wife always did the school plays and so this word member would help his wife and so when you think about all the time that spent rehearsing and they had a budget and orders back and forth to staff so the school ethics commission came back and said you know that that that was not right that it would be difficult to maintain that 30,000 foot view of the district um and then kind of made the distinguishment of it would be okay like say if you wanted to volunteer for a wck team say that used the school's facilities because the wreck has its own bylaws it has its own budget um you know or any other organization that use the schools that that would be fine but like I said you couldn't be a volunteer say coach for the schools team kind of making that distinction um here was a sample or again some advice from the school ethics commission about voting and said you know that we are entrusted to review the recommendation from the superintendent and that's typically why most of our resolutions start with a PA recommendation of of the superintendent um but um just wanted to share that there was an advisory opinion last year for a board member that said and again asking ahead of time would I viol would I violate the school ethics act if I voted affirmatively to refuse to implement that this you know the time when the the um health and PE student learning standards were you know being changed and the School ethics commission response was if it was shown that a school official acted contrary to the laws rules and regulations promulgated by the State Board of Education they could be in violation of that that letter A you know that that first tenant of the code of ethics that we looked at so again just making it clear what our responsibilities are so one of the other areas that we've been getting more guidance in this year from the school ethics commission is on board member use of social media and said that in general you know that you don't violate the ACT merely because you engage in social media but instead said what they look at is could a reasonable member of the public perceive that you are speaking in your official capacity or pursuant to your official duties so they said it depends in a large part on the content of your speech if what you're saying has no correlation or relationship whatsoever to the board or its operation s then you know then it would be clear then that you weren't speaking on behalf of the board however um if your speech in question does relate to the business of the board it then is reasonable that it could be considered in your official capacities and you could be subject um to violation so one of the ways that we can help make that clear that the school ethics commission asks us to help make that clear is by using a disclaim ler on our speech right so this or you know in what we're posting and so saying that these statements are made by me as a private citizen so this is the language then um that the school ethics commission provides for us to use um but you know but again that the disclaimer is not a catch all so if I use a disclaimer does that automatically protect me from being in violation and the answer is no but it does help clarify the capacity in which we're you know which you're speaking um but then so then okay then if it doesn't completely protect me what would cause me to be in violation if I use a disclaimer and again it goes back to that content and if a reasonable member of the public could perceive you're speaking in your official capacity or pursuant to your official duties that could make the disclaimer inadequate and of No Force or effect so that really is you know what what matters is what is the content and if I don't use a disclaimer does that mean I'm automatically in violation no again it goes back to the content and then must I use the disclaimer wording exactly from the school ethics commission and they said that the failure to parent their exact language would not mean that you didn't use an appropriate disclaimer um so here's a situation where um a board member asked for an advisory opinion in their town I guess there were several kind of separate local Facebook or local groups that were talking about things related to the school so this board members said well how would we just combine them all together into one group and it would be a Q&A between the parents and the board and this person volunteered to be that board member that would be participating in that um so this you know so the school ethics commission came back and said it you know the community's aware of your status as a board member so it would pretty much be hard for you to disclaim your speech but it was the last line here that um I thought was pretty telling again it said if you only ever provide links to publicly available information it's possible that it would not immunize you from being the subject of an Ethics complaint so again those are all things that we need to be um wary of so uh a couple other things you know for most people when you run for the board it would not be you know most people have a campaign either a campaign website camp campaign Facebook page some kind of a camp a page that identifies you as a board member and saying that once you get on the board it is no longer appropriate to use any kind of a social media account that inherently indicates your position as a board member um somebody had asked if I just like or share something does that you know does that automatically make me in violation and they said you know again it goes back to that whole content thing and what it is um and then in the last one looking at using divisive language there were a couple of situations where people had filed ethics complaints because board members use such horrible terrible language like offensive language and so the school ethics commission said like we can't if we were to compare to any of that the tenants we don't see anything here that we can find you guilty but that doesn't mean really mean that it's okay for you to talk like that and that at the and your kind of your ultimate judge is the public that your community is the one who votes you in so they are the ones who are kind of the ultimate Authority or best suited to determine you know who will best serve their students um so kind of uh points to consider in closing of this is you know making sure from the board's perspective that you're aware of who you know who or if anyone has any potential conflicts um recognizing the board attorney is a person that would provide you with with guidance um and then you know the school ethics commission has said that not knowing about something is not you know not an excuse so New Jersey school boards every Wednesday puts out Schoolboard notes that have um any late you know any of the latest updates on any changes or additions to ethics and then just wanted to kind of leave you with a closing thought of kind of you know again just the honor of being a board member and kind of upholding ourselves to that standard and saying you know that when we deliberately disregard or ignore our ethical standards it not only threatens the Integrity of the board it compromises the district and then subverts the very purpose for which we're elected namely to serve the needs of the school district and our students so again kind of the whole reason why why we do what we do right so um I will stop sharing my screen here and I guess we'll see if any any of the board members have any questions for me otherwise thank you very much anything no Charlene I think that was perfect uh we appreciate you attending our meeting and presenting that very detailed information um we also appreciate you giving us the handout so we can go back and refer to some of those cases um so thank you very much we appreciate it good job thank you everyone good night okay Mr Gibbs do you have a report uh yes good evening on tonight's board agenda you will see a board resolution approving the removal of some items that were previously board approved and needed to be corrected so the district can receive 1.6 million in SDA grant money from the 2014 and 2016 school years SDA grants the items to be removed were never completed or completed under another Grant the application for reimbursement is subject to State approval and after the funds are received the funds may be used towards the new SDA grant for the 2024 2025 school year the board office received confirmation of the new SDA Grant in the amount of 2.7 million which was approved by the state the grant will be part of the 24 2024 2025 budget for some of the high schools capital projects that will Encompass internal ceiling heaters rooftop exterior units and air handler units more information will be provided at the February working board meeting on January 9th the high School auditorium flooded due to heavy rain at which a claim has been submitted to the school's insurance carrier for replacement of the carpet on January 17th a media center laminated beam split due to the weight of the snow and ice on the roof of which we have put in a claim to our insurance carrier the budget season is moving along nicely and that Dr poris and I have met with the principls and directors and reviewed their budgets requests for the 2024 2025 school year finally there will be a town meeting on January 24th from 700 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. located at the high school auditorium the town meeting will be the seventh Zone boarding adjustment meeting regarding the approval of one school Global's new facility that will be located across the street from the high school this is not a board meeting but the use of facilities requested by the town's Zoning Board of adjustments thank you thank you 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 the public may speak on any agenda item only during their five minutes if a member of the public does raise a question or questions should be directed to the board president and please remember to state your name and sign in before you begin talking thank you I'm glad I came to this riveting meeting uh just two questions um that was great I learned a lot um it may have been discussed and if it was I apologize but will there be if parents can't if you vote Yes for the the changing of the time the school time will there be someone available at the school to I hate to say the word babysit because it's high school but if parents work and they can't go later is there someone on staff that maybe they could sit in the auditorium and still be dropped off at the regular time if they're unable to for work or can't get a ride is that an option and if it is approved um I don't know if Miss supporter or someone from the board it now conflicts with the starting time of the proposed school next door so the traffic study they did and is updated now it takes a whole new meaning to the traffic now if the school's starting at the same time so would would the board go on behalf of yourselves not as on behalf of the community and express your concerns now for your students hey look our students come at this time now it was sort of okay because was different times but now it's the same exact time start time so will someone from the board represent yourselves saying we have a concern as a board for our students not on behalf of the the public but on behalf of the board itself for the students thank you thank you Brian that was expressed at one of the meetings um as before I got yelled at to sit down so they definitely know about it anybody else Janelle Macwan 32 William Street Panic um good evening thank you for all your hard work that you put into the start um school start times I'm just a little concerned with I was on the committee we really wanted to try our best to end school at 3 o'clock um could you give us a little bit more input of how the school is going to implement the kids getting extra time and to finish a test rather than that happening during lunch right now I that was one of our concerns when I was on this committee that kids and teachers on their lunch was taken away so I was hoping with this new schedule there was going to be some type of kids staying to school till 245 if they finished their work or they didn't need to go for extra help they could leave is that part of this plan so if you can just give us a little bit more information also time periods is this going to be an hour long each class with the drop rotation schedule I just think that I know I was at your one meeting in October November and you did lay out a schedule but I was just wondering if you can lay that out again for the community thank you thank you hello I'm Jen siddig um I'm actually here on behalf of my child whose's home she's studying so she had a couple questions she wanted me to just ask um she wanted to know um why not just take five minutes off every period because I'm again like what Janelle had said I wasn't sure what the B bell schedule was going to be and if it this included the block schedule or um so it would be good to hear see what the schedule is going to be what's proposed um she was um thinking that there might be some classes where a longer block period might be a little much she's not a big fan of math in particular so it might be a lot if they're going to be there for a lot longer um she understands the labs obviously but um so and then she was also worried about you know how Sports would start um she didn't want to be late to you know to her practices after school or to games um so and then she was also concerned about um on like classes that didn't meet the day before and would the teachers then have a test on that subject that they learned now two days be before and may not be such you know so top of M for them so she was concerned that you know I guess she knows that you can go to the extra help or if there is extra help you could go to that but having a class the day before a test might be better for the students that it's like fresher in their mind so that was just some questions she had so I told her I'd come and I ask them for her thank you thank you uh thank you each of you for coming up to speak including representing your child which is very nice thing to do um I can't comment on whether the presentation was riveting um I'll allow Mr vas Leno's comment to stand on its own Merit um but as far as um kids being dropped off early um that's something I gota be honest I haven't really thought much through it that's something I usually address um with elementary schools and it's a real topic of focus but I haven't thought about it necessarily for the high school um we have talked about um opening up the cafeteria to make it almost like a cafe environment and I'm looking over at Mr hazler who's probably regretting the fact that he set foot in here but it is something that um if we need to help to accommodate somebody we'll definitely look at different POS oh God no um he he's apparently indicating he'd like to approach the microphone you selling eight doll pink drinks in the morning or what that's not a bad idea uh Mr hazler um I was I was looking at Mr siic but permission is granted to respond yeah of course obviously open book I was just gonna help if you need me too so um to be honest with you you know thinking about the morning um that would be something that we could discuss um we're I mean administrators are here but we're also doing things in the morning too so that could be something that we you know work through as a if a teacher would like the duty in the morning you know to hang out with kids uh if necessary we we're as we develop the schedule there's going to be things that we're going to need to work out um that we haven't experienced before but that's certainly one um you know kids can't get dropped off at 6:45 in the morning that but you know we could certainly be willing to we have students now that get dropped off at 7 so you know we have them come into the auditorium hang out we have security guards here and things like that so don't go too far yeah as far as the second question in terms of representing um District star times at the one school Global something that Mr cesi was alluding to was that we had board members told that they weren't allowed to speak um which I I can provide no legal advice um other than to say I would like it if somebody from the board is able to speak on Wednesday night or at another time to represent that interest um if not we can we can reach out and communicate with them directly saying This is Our intention um we do intend to start at 8:05 we do intend to close our day at this time um to make it known to them and that that might negate some of the accuracy of the traffic study um and then as far as uh the series of questions from Mr mwan um who did participate in the committee which is obviously greatly appreciated and she had kind of an Insider angle on it too I just want to clarify that the board is not approving a schedule um the board approv start and end times they don't have approval over the schedule which isn't to say that we don't consult with them they do have um input on that but really the schedule is going to come down to a lot of Mr haer's work my work Mr goo's work staff's work Dr Shan's work um but as far as the end time it's there there are two different star times and I think your questions kind of got to that as well that um the conclusion of class of classes will be at 2:46 and then we'll have a 20 minute we calling Panther block period at the end of the day during which students can get extra help um they can complete tests or other assessments that they need an extended time with um and that is time that's built into the schedule if a student does not need that time 246 they're free to go um if they if they do want to make use of that time and and if I had kids in the school I would very much want them to um that time would be made available to them to 306 so that will be built into the schedules and then in terms of laying out the exact time period of schedules that's follow-up presentation um that we we want to make we wanted to make sure we got the times approved first um and then we'll make a presentation to the community to follow up on what we did back in October which in full disclosure to what we did in October is available on the website um from home I can't get the YouTube to work but I understand it works for pretty much everybody else Under the Sun I don't know if you wanted to add anything to that too rich yeah I I explained to the students when we met in our class meetings um you know if a teacher requests you know that's a great opportunity for our AP reviews right a lot of our AP reviews now happen at night which our student athletes are involved in a zillion things and they're rushing back for AP reviews so the teachers can tell the students hey I'm doing an AP review till 306 so you'll know that um when I communicate in the summer um and obviously before that but you know 306 students would be expected to be here um but if they are in good academic standing it's not necessary that they're here they can go home at 2:46 um you know and it's a great opportunity for students who need extra help extra time on tests you know anything like that um in terms of of remediation because as we did discuss our teachers do a tremendous job um of giving up their lunchtime which they are not obligated to do they choose to do um out of the goodness of their hearts and and a lot of them spend a lot of time working with students during lunch and then they don't get a lunch you know and they're working straight through so this is a great opportunity for our teachers to get you know some some lunchtime some well deserved Reserve lunchtime um and also it's a good chance for our students during lunch to just rest um that's also important too um and then that time will be built in you know and that could be something where you know at the end of the day kids who are involved in sports can go down and see their coach for 20 minutes and have an academic study with their coach um if necessary at the end of the day um you know before practice um you know those are things in terms of sports um practices wouldn't start until 3:15 so nobody's going to miss any time uh because our teachers who are coaches are obligated to be here until 36 so those those um Sports would not you know if they need to leave for a game you know those are things that will obviously work through and and I've talk to a lot of high schools that have later end times um and they do those things um you know they they obviously we're not going to penalize any coaches or kids for being late to games um there is talk about moving games later because more schools are going to later start times it's just the reality of the situation um but those are meetings those are conversations I have basically at every County principal meeting so and I forgot the other the other question they asked I'll I'll keep I'll keep going through it don't go too far um but it's it's important to note too that um this actually goes back to our strategic plan that we were the first district in the state to implement um as one of its themes uh ensuring staff success everybody focuses on uring Student Success that's why we're in business but I do like the fact that we're telling our staff look it's great that you're willing to give up your lunch time and I'm sure there people are still going to do so we need you to have a chance to unplug during the course of the work day to keep you as fresh and keep you from not burning out as best we can so I really like that that I love the name of it the panther block at the end of the day which gives the kids an opportunity gives staff an opportunity um to be able to meet um can be be in a tutoring session what whatever it might be um it can look a lot of different ways um and then as far as the the questions from the student um about loping five minutes off each period that that's a it's a nice idea um as a as a former teacher I don't really like it I actually prefer to teach in longer periods I found that um a lot of time gets lost sometimes in that transitional time of getting a class started and getting it ended um I taught in a 57 minute block I think actually for a while when I was teaching here we had 60 Minute periods too and I found that that middle block you can get a lot more accomplished in terms of U Project based learning in terms of um activities with students small group time so I actually prefer going to the rotating drop block because it gives you a I think a better chance to structure multiple experiences during a class period and and stay very active something that's really important that's interconnected to her second question about sports start times too is we we are aware that kids are gonna have to get places at set times you know if if you're playing hockey you've got to get to the ice ball at a certain time if you're playing golf you have to be at the course at a certain time so um kids might miss part of the last period of the day with increasing frequency and instead of that always being period perod N9 it's going to be period five period six period seven period eight it'll literally be on a rotating basis so that there's not always the same class taking the hit um and there's greater variety for students in there too um and I I can speak from my experience as an educator I found that teaching in the rotating drop block was a much more effective method or structure than teaching um in in a more traditional which is what we have the more traditional nine period day with the lunch right in the middle um and then classes that didn't meet the day before and then having a test the next day um it's a good question I I I don't think that's something that we would legislate and say you know that that teachers can't have testing days the day after kids s have class um I know I used I used to avoid tests on Monday because I found that um just wasn't terribly effective but um it's something that I think we can have further discussion about and I don't know have you really talked about that yet yeah in our research and talking with various high schools who Implement these schedules uh there are many schools who do they don't they don't um you know they don't dictate it but it's basically an Unwritten rule that there are no tests given on the day following a drop School per drop period um you know it's for the advantage of the students obviously for the teachers as well um you know so that's something that we're going to talk about with the teachers um you know and again I I'm going to have further conversations with schools I'm doing it on a regular basis um you know with schools that have moved to these types of of schedules um and schedules that we're looking at uh from period lengthwise range from what I explained to the students is that there would be a a 50-minute period a 70 minute period and a 50-minute period um you know and then the same would follow in the afternoon so the periods would be longer but you have to keep in mind you know they might have a 70-minute math period one day um but they're also losing you know a math period a week so they're gaining some some instruction there um you know that that that will be beneficial and and every every in the schools that we visited um when we spoke to the teachers and we explained that we had a nine period day and they had a rotational period they they said we we'd never go back to a nine period day y um once they're once they're in it and the kids you know that I spoke to at those schools said that they enjoyed it as well because it was fewer classes in a day they could focus on and sometimes there's a class that they don't enjoy um you know it's the nature of it I'm sure we all had one uh there was a class that we wish we didn't have to have every day um you know and it gives them a chance to not have that on a given day um and maybe for the teacher not to have that that class on that given day you know it works both ways so um you know it it kind of gave the students and staff a little bit of flexibility that quite frankly we don't have in our schedule right now and I know you weren't suggesting that students would run out and have math less frequently that's correct I'm married to a math teacher I your matrimonial status I'd like that to stay intact no none I'm taken but I did I have a question about the testing so it could happen that Algebra 2 half those algebra two classes are taking that test on Tuesday but the other class won't take it until Wednesday till Wednesday correct that's not a problem though okay yes yeah and what I was pointing out too is like if you might have weeks where you see a math class three times because if that class doesn't meet on I use the letters that's part of my old practice but if if you don't have math on an a day and it's an a week you don't have math on Monday or Friday you got Tuesday Wednesday Thursday but then the next week you pay the price if you're taking a test I'll just thr this out if you're taking a test first period you know and your buddy takes it ninth period you know they're not nobody's ever going to take the test at the exact same time right um so it's just the nature of of of the Beast um that you deal with so no matter what schedule there's no perfect solution when it comes to assessment um you know even our midterm schedule I have kids that are going to take a midterm on Tuesday or Wednesday and somebody's going to take that same midterm on Monday you know so and this is a totally different thing but I've been doing a lot of research about the um the new PSAT structure be presenting on that Thursday night but it uses the Adaptive assessment technology where as you start answering questions based on your performance you go down a different path that's um aligned to what the predictive technology believes you should be doing um so in that case if we do if we do find a really strong online assessment provider we could actually be providing kids with with much different assessments that are geared towards um how how they're performing right now we only have that primarily at the elementary middle school level with something like the ready math program which does employ this so sometimes a kid might say I got two out of four wrong like yeah but you got the first two right so you got two really hard questions next but that's another story another day Shameless plug on tomorrow night I'm doing a parent University on scheduling so I will be briefly uh talking about the schedule um just the framework of it to give an understanding um and then we'll do a more formalized presentation whenever Dr poris tells me I can have the mic so we'll be good thank you all right thank you Dr poris thank you Mr hazler oh one more question sure go ahead you actually get the special microphone yes yes deluxe model it's in 3D we haven't heard of microphone how are you I'm Kristen shilia 18 Center Street I just had a question I don't know any thoughts I know my two daughters just applied for the Allied Health program and just the thoughts on how that schedule might look now if it goes to the block scheduling I just I just kind of went through my mind I don't know if there's any thoughts on that yet I'm gonna push that right over to this guy because he he's been he's been the most invested and and I will say that we wanted to make sure that whatever we put into place it didn't um it didn't impede the existing programs that we have such as the academy such as work-based learning so um thankfully working with other school districts has helped us find a lot of solutions that quite frankly I don't think we would have come up with on our own this one's easy there's not going to be any change uh to our Academy structures they're going to be able to have the same courses uh that they have uh the rotations will continue for our our full-time emies as well as our shared time so there's not going to be any change to our to our Academy structures yeah the good thing about having the morning I'm sorry right the morning and the afternoon rotations too is um for the sharetime kids if they're coming in the morning they're spending the morning with us if they're coming in the afternoon likewise so um having the the separate morning block and afternoon block allows that to take place much more effectively and efficiently okay so we're going to close public comment um I appreciate you all coming and asking these questions um I appreciate the discussion back and forth I think it was great so we'll move on uh Mr G go ahead yeah and and that's actually I'm really glad you said that as well and I know it's genuine and I really do appreciate I give him a hard time about being anywhere near a microphone but I really appreciate it Mr hazler it's a matter of public record now I'm thanking him um but really as questions come up whether it's from you whether it's from your kids whether it's from your neighbors um we want to be as transparent through this process as possible so if you send questions to him that's great you send them to Dr Sheridan that's great if you send them directly to me also great and whatever I can't answer you know I'm going to Route it to somebody who could do a better job than I can which I showed a great ability to do tonight so keep the an keep the questions coming too because there are definitely things that we haven't thought about and I acknowledged it when it um when I was addressing Mr vasil Leno's questions I hadn't thought about that about kids maybe are 14 years old and parents aren't quite comfortable yet leaving them at home from 7:15 all the way till till 8 o'clock um so yeah there there's a lot that you that your creative thinking can help to inform our ability to respond and Implement things and keep making the the program better so thank you for that okay Mr G would you please uh move the minutes yeah I'd like to make a motion to move the minutes for the 1211 meeting and the4 meeting second question discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr sesi yes M Dy yes Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs shenton yes Mrs Esposito yes Mr cic yes motion carries all right thank you that moves us into the approval of our action items first up is PMC and before I ask Mr cesi to move the items under PMC I'd like to make a motion to amend PMC 175-20 which is the school start and dismissal times and what I'd like to do is to take out the pre items at the end of that uh table and the reason why I make this motion to take out the 3K times it's because I think that we had such Community input from the high school and the uh PV start and end times that I'd like to try and solicit the same for prek before we actually vote on it so we can be a little bit more informed as to where the community stands with that um so I'd like to make the motion to amend PMC 17524 to remove the prek items I second that motion any question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the roll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gitten yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs chanton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries thank you Mr cesi would you please move the items under PMC with PMC 17524 being uh as just amended um I would like to move PMC 16224 through PMC 178 d24 second question or discussion okay Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gitten yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs shanton yes Mrs Esposito yes Mr siic yes motion carries thank you Mr Max Sweeny would you please move CIS yes I'd like to move CIS 54-24 through CIS 62-24 second any question or discussion yes real quick high impact tutoring is only at North Boulevard the um that is additional tutoring for some grade five students at North Boulevard to be paid for with the S funding okay so high impact tutoring is at all three elementary schools all three for fourth and fifth grade correct third and fourth grade third and fourth grade okay but additional at North Boulevard for fifth grade that is correct okay not at sjg or Hillview no we were looking at the data and um we determined Dr Sheri and I were talking about this and we did have some exra funding available to pay for some tutoring um just due to continued gaps um at North Boulevard okay okay thank you okay Mr GBS please call the roll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr Pompeo yes Mrs chanton yes Mrs espito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries thank you Mr Bloomer would you please move FFA yes I'd like to make a motion to move FFA 9724 through FFA 105 24 seconds any question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr mwei uh yes to all except for on FFA 9824 items uh pertain to me like to or it recuse myself Mr Pompeo yes Mrs shenton yes Mrs esposo yes and Mr senic yes motion carries um I would like to take a moment to thank the pths association of Music parents for their generous donations for the uniforms and the staff stien thank you Mr Bloomer okay that brings us 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 may now speak on any topic during their five minutes if a member of the public does raise a question please address it to the board president and state your name before you sign in and begin good evening everyone uh John naan Sunset Road pton Plains I'm here representing the uh high school music parents Association uh first like to congratulate uh Mr fo on his well-deserved and earned retirement he's been clearly a a inspiration to many kids who came through this district and launched them into great careers here as musicians in our high school um hopefully that tradition continues with Mr strier new mentee um I'd also like to uh thank members of the public including Mr senic himself for coming out to our pancake breakfast this past weekend hopefully uh our cooking details were up to Snuff for everyone I should be thanking you uh yeah uh this Friday uh the nocv are performing on stage here uh 8 o'clock they're doing a friends and family show they introduce themselves their parts to the show it's uh their first public run through uh before they have their iasa order final competition on Sunday so anyone's welcome to come out and see them what they're working on uh our Winter Guard group has their first competition on Saturday at West Orange High School and as the student Representatives reported Beauty and the Beast auditions are complete the cast is uh hard at work already and we do a lot of lunch sales at the high school for shows we hold here we also do online sales through our website now Beauty and the Beast is expected to have a big draw at the younger kid age group and I was wondering if there was a way or some thoughts on how we could have some kind of substitute for our lunch sales at that level like maybe a parent pickup at each School certain days or if there's other events that principles may have parents where they can kind of pre- buby their tickets something of that nature just to just to get that exposure Ure out uh at to those groups uh and then we'll know have a better feel of what our attendance is going to be uh for those shows all right thank you thank you Janelle mcowan again real quick um something that I was just thinking um about about homework free weekends maybe we were talking about mental health um another District that I know of extremely well implemented it this year once a month homework free weekends something to think about I'd like to talk to you more about it Dr poris um but I I have heard that it's going very well and it's districtwide so it's K through 12th grade homework free weekend once a month for stigma free thank you so a couple quick things I appreciate the updates as always about the incredible work that's going on with our music programs um definitely with the beauty the Beast ticket sales too um send me whatever information you have on it because what I'll do is I'll put it in my uh weekly updates but I can also make sure I fan it out to the elementary schools and I'm not saying that Mr hazler updates don't get read very closely by the constituents but they I think they get a little more attention at the elementary school level and then if we do have something where there's a natural ability to have um representatives from the Beauty and the Beast production team or whatever there to present parents I'd love to be able to tie that together that might be tougher to do definitely the newsletters I think you'll get a lot of traction there um then as as far as the homework free weekends um I trust that that would also extend to administrators that would have an email free weekend and I'm not sure I mean quick vote of the two I have here getting nods so I I think it's a great idea um it's something that we hear a lot of talk about about student mental health and um a lot of it is about awareness but then what what are the solutions so if there are things that we can do and potentially do easily I I like it I think during um during the covid time when our physical plant was closed down we actually were telling teachers they weren't allowed to check their emails on Saturdays and I think a lot of them actually quite enjoyed that um I I brought it up that my name Volkswagen shuts down company email from 7 pm on Friday till 7 am on Monday now I think most of my staff members are probably lose their minds if they have access to email on Sunday night but um but these are the things worth considering not just for our kids but also for our staff members so I appreciate it I'll take credit for it of course um so the seven people who are in the audience right now will know that's not mine I'll take credit maybe uh your next snow day could be sponsored by the Beauty and the Beast or something to that effect yeah I didn't do so great with my call on Friday so I don't know if you necessarily want to hit your wagon to this star at this point yeah I I've been asked if I if I have ever thought of doing any any silly snow day call messages or songs um I don't think any are forthcoming From Me Maybe from some of my friends all right thank you uh next on the agenda is unfinished business I have one item and uh Dr por is kind of mentioned it already well not kind of he did mention it already on 111 I attended a meeting with other members of our community to discuss the veterans wall project so we had spoken about that at previous meetings that is getting off the ground again um the first meeting focused on organizing the effort to complete the project by trying to understand what the current status was and then talking about next steps and uh as Dr poris had said we were joined by uh Solutions architect who's providing design assistance and we're planning to meet again in February any other unfinished business from any board members yeah I just have one item so um we have a policy that will be up for discussion at the next Workshop meeting um the board superintendent communication policy so it is in backup from previous meetings if you don't if you can't find it or you don't have a copy of the draft that was provided uh please let me know so we can make sure that you get that and uh take a look at the sentence I think it's one or two sentences that were added um if you want to contact me individually over email to discuss anything first please feel free um otherwise come to the meeting prepared to discuss thank you I have a quick one uh we are definitely past du on our board facilities tour uh we didn't get to get I know we briefly spoke about that um probably the end of last year I think but uh we definitely need to try to schedule something just to look at the EIP project [Music] um all the everything that actually everything that's been done so just uh we could work with white and I know might need two dates I know it's going to be hard to get the whole board um originally I was you know making sure wanting to make sure that Mr bompeo was there since he has never done it and then Mr gon but um we're just G have to get throw something on the calendar and make people come okay uh new business business I I have one item for new business um being that our uh contract with the post office which is below our Board office is going to expire uh in the future I would like to put a adhoc committee together of board members just to work with Dr poris um to just kind of steer that in the right direction um so what I would suggest is if anyone's interested to be on that Committee just send me an email and then I'll put the committee together and then we could start working towards that goal of uh making sure that we um we know where that path is going to lead and uh get the full uh opportunity out of wherever it does lead all right but wouldn't that that wouldn't fall under FFA well it would fall under FFA but it's kind of like such a niche thing that I think it'd be good to have just like a a dedicated committee to it and not put it under something else I'll tell you one thing nobody there knows what going on so that's for sure that's what my Intel has gotten your Intel is usually pretty right huh oh yeah about the post office well I mean where are they gonna go the other no theic post office says there's no way in the world it will happen anybody else have any bus for two zones and that's it anybody else have any new business board member announcements yeah I have one uh so I got to attend um the sixth grade concert at PV which was Mr fo's final um concert and uh it was uh it was great because um Miss Gareth uh who is the choir teacher that came in uh end of last year made sure that the entire audience and former students and all grades knew that this was Mr fo's final performance and uh had a surprise song for him at the end and everybody stood up and everybody was singing and he was uh I truly believe he was shocked and and did not realize that was going to happen so it was uh a really special moment um I know Mr fo is a absolute fan favorite in that school um and the amount of selfies that I've saw taken after the concert shows that was a true statement uh and it was really it was a fun time just adding according to my Intel he really was surprised and uh and really moved I got a chance to uh attend coach Craig Spencer uh in induction to the wrestling hall of fame I didn't get to go to the dinner uh but I came for the match that night got to hang out with him for a little while and um it it truly was an amazing night to see how many people came back uh for this for this guy I mean it was it was crazy right and they they raised money uh he has he's been uh they raised money for him I think they raised about $8,000 and uh he was my was my wrestling coach he was fizet teacher and um honestly I was shocked I walked up to him and he said hey Sam what's going on I was like wow I mean just it was he was just it was amazing how many people came out to that thing um you know the one it was just great and I don't good night it was a good night anybody else yep I have one um I went to the unified basketball game today here at the high school which was a great time as it has been in the past as well it was so much fun to watch um just pure joy for the game um and I just wanted to oh I lost my this I just wanted to give a acknowledgement to the athletes um who participated Thomas ammed Katie Zach and Blake they uh was a really tough match and they didn't have a good amount of Subs to keep them going through the whole game and they put their all in for the entire time um and congratulations to coach Justin Lefever for doing a great job leading them as well uh and I'm just really glad that we have this program uh and look forward to seeing it continue to grow over the years okay uh we do have a reason to go into executive session tonight where we will discuss student matters no action will be taken and we will adjourn from there our next meeting is February 5th here at the high school and is there a motion to go into executive session motion is there a second second all in favor I I any opposed all right good night everyone