##VIDEO ID:XBsl8GCr4cg## e e e e e e e e e e o'clock I'll call this meeting to order Mr Gibbs will please read the statement of compliance in compliance with the open public meeting ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the Daily Record and Suburban Trends its agenda has been posted at the appropriate location and a copy has been filed with the banic Township Clerk thank you please call the rooll Mr Bloomer here Mr thi here M Dempsey here M Esposito here Mr gon is absent Mr mcen here Mr Pompeo is absent Mr SI here and Mrs shanton here we have a quum thank you will everyone please stand for the flag salute all right so before we begin tonight I want to kick it over to the NOC Daves to sing couple songs so take it away Mr rold e reach de [Music] [Music] SC [Music] do you con [Music] [Music] all right they said it snowed last night I don't know if that's true or not uh I myself like the first time it snows in the air and then I'm kind of over it but we're gonna sing Let It Snow it's a great song Ready two [Music] [Music] [Music] the is so delight and we no place to go it dying and my dear still goodbying [Music] thank you everybody all right thank you very much that was great outstanding job yeah right good luck following that indeed okay good evening Welcome to our December 16th Workshop SL regular business meeting this is our last meeting of the year and again we have students and staff that we would like to recognize for outstanding achievements I want to start by congratulating our staff members that were selected as the governors educators of the Year award recipients the board appreciates you and your contributions to our district board will honor you all at a future meeting congratulations and thank you tonight the board will honor Alex naasan for becoming the or sorry for being selected to join the north Jersey area band congratulations Alex also tonight we will honor the pths marching band for winning the US band's 2024 group three state championship our marching band is a force to say the least uh the kids are enthusiastic dedicated and professional they deserve all the accolades they received because they've earned them through long nights and hard work additionally I want to congratulate Mr strier and all the banned parents as I know these achievements would not be possible without your leadership and support congratulations to you all and Well Done couple more things Additionally the board tonight will receive a presentation on special education from our special services directors Mr foglio and Miss Bronco as well as from a representative from CPAC which is a great resource for our district parents I also want to remind everyone that this Thursday the district will host a ceremony at 6:30 pm to dedicate the main gym to Ruth kellet this will be a great event and I encourage everyone to attend last I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas a happy Hanukkah and a safe and happy New Year this time of year is special and inspires Nostalgia and Goodwill if you are able I encourage everyone to give to those who are less fortunate this season so the holiday spirit reaches as many people as possible I hope you all enjoy this holiday season with your families and friends and I will see you all next year and I'll I'll pass the mic to Dr poris right thank you Mr senic and I'm actually G to pass it right over to our student representative good evening everyone it's so nice to see you all again the winter sports seasons have been off to a great start and teams have been working hard in their practices and games good luck to teams starting their regular season games this week as a reflection of the Fall season I would like to say congratulations to Marissa Vega on breaking the record for saves in a freshman season she currently holds the record at 216 saves congrats to our marching band on their state championship boy soccer players Kieran Brady Sebastian Barona and Luke white were recognized at the boys Morris County Soccer banquet congratulations to on oh sorry on all of the all conference and all County fall sports players congratulations to Sebastian Barona on receiving all state for The Fall season the ice hockey captains Kyle Gregory and Joe Baro were recognized at the presedential center in amongst other ice hockey captains in New Jersey congratulations to Angelo Cundiff and Henry strel on being recognized at the New York Jets football game last Sunday Henry strel was recognized for the young man of the year and Angelo Kiff is recognized for player of the week congratulations to Justin to Justin griskin for earning defenseman to sorry for earning defensive linemen of Morris County congratulations to the district's educators of the year and support Professionals of the year a special a special sorry a special shout out to Mr southernland and Miss OK Conor at pths the World Language Honor Society had a friends giving where students in the society brought different cultural Cuisines it was a great event for friends to get together and experience food from around the world student council organized a a door decorating contest throughout the high school where teachers could decorate their door with their sixth period class the contest started after Thanksgiving and they had up until December 11th to decorate their doors the winner will be picked by the security guards and announced at the winter pep rally the the winter pep rally will be on this Friday before winter break student council has been working hard to make sure the students have a great time the NHS did student group did Stu sorry did study groups for freshman in sophomore math and science classes NHS also hosted a trivia night this past week fpla organized a Polar Express night for elementary school students where they could participate in a variety of activities and then watch The Polar Express in the auditorium donations were made for Toys for Tots and there was even an appearance by Santa Claus himself students of the marketing 2 Capstone and fashion and merchandise classes went to the American dream mall last Thursday to learn about the behind the scenes of retail and business industry students were also able to use the topics and skills they learned in the classroom in seed in real life form the blue and gold parties have been campaigned this week setting up their platforms and collecting data on student views on certain platforms both parties are finding creative ways to campaign to gain support of staff and students the election will take place in school on Thursday best of luck to both parties the choirs went on a winter tour this Friday this is where they sang their winter songs around the elementary schools middle schools and holy spirit it's a great way the high school spreads holiday cheer the Winter concert is December 17th come out and support the music department as the students have been working hard earning learning their music this past couple of months the dedication of the gym ceremon is on December 19th and it will be dedicated to Ruth kellet at 6:30 in jimby Mrs kellet was a teacher coach and athletic director at Pani Township High School for over 34 years she was the first female to coach a boys basketball team in the state of New Jersey during her tenure she she coached girls and boys basketball softball and boys golf she earned Division and County championship in girls basketball and a state sectional championship in softball she was also named coach of the year four years in a row in boys golf Mrs Kell along with two other colleagues started the Morris County basketball tournament for girls she's also one of the first if not the first female to become an athletic director in the state and was named athletic director of the year in 1987 she became an unofficial representative for Equitable practice scheduling and time for both men and women serving on the njsa community executive Community she was a Trailblazer for equality and sports and role model for our students and community on behalf of the students we'd like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year well done little Lana and I'm want to point out too that she was also a participant in the wheelchair basketball game um which cosmetically we won despite the fact I think we scored four baskets but they gave us like 16 points per basket but fun experience right with a great turn yeah all right thank you Liliana before we get on to the recognitions I have a brief report as well since our last meeting I've been able to participate in some really great events that celebrate community and reaffirm my faith in the power of ity as I mentioned the wheelchair basketball game took place at pths um on November 12th that was inspiring and fun and really really hard um also I had the opportunity to work with volunteers at sjg to help prepare meals for the homeless um and that served as a powerful reminder of our moral obligation to support our neighbors in need regardless of where they live we also held our first AI team meeting which uh will make a reference to that during the policy portion of the meeting but that was conducted by Mr Shay conducted quite well we celebrated our governor educator of the year honores uh last Friday and then looking ahead we have our Winter concert Right In This Very Room tomorrow night and then on Thursday night we'll be hosting the dedication to uh Mrs kellet for what will now be known as the Ruth Kell at Jim um in a meeting to discuss some of the logistics we were talking about how it's actually Jim B right now and I believe it was Mr hazler came up with the idea to call it Jim K moving forward so I I like that idea as well you didn't didn't smile when I said that so it might have been somebody else who brought that up okay you two are very similar so I got confused um take the praise when you can get it uh and then on a exciting professional note for me I was fortunate to attend the RTM National superintendent Forum this past Sunday through Tuesday and came away with some really great information and ideas while also being able to spread the word about Panic during my presentation on enhancing the employee experience it is fun going to National events because people think if you're from New Jersey you're inherent scary and weird so I kind of capitalized on that and definitely played the jersey brand to the best of my ability finally our last day before winter break is Monday December 23rd my hope is that it will be a productive and festive day and my expectation is that our attendance will greatly exceed the minimum requirement uh in order for a day to count so please make sure you're here and that you bring your friends here as well um I also appreciate that we have such a festive environment tonight I'm so glad we get to celebrate with the nocubes who have since departed but also um with our incredibly talented band here tonight really helps set a great tone um I look forward to a joyful and fun holiday season as well as looking forward to an outstanding 2025 and I I'll point out two quick things I completely support Mr Arnold's point that there is no snow in the forecast for the rest of the winter actually so we're we're going to bank on that was actually kind of a relief when I got up this morning I looked at my window I'm like oh we're good um but I'm sure we'll have one or two snow days but hopefully not too soon um and then one other thing there is a change in the sequence um for the recognitions we were originally going to recognize the band first and then our North Jersey area band member second but we're actually going to mix that up um and this came a recommendation of a staff member it was not Mr hazler um but it was it was Mr strier and uh I think it's for a really good reason so I don't know if who's gonna well it's a microphone so Mr hazler is on his way so um Mr Haz I'll give you an opportunity to first uh introduce our North Jersey area band member I hope Mr strier can up and join us for that as well and then we'll take care of recognizing and honoring our band members but we'll do a different sequence thank you so thank you very much for the opportunity to present uh and recognize our students this evening we don't we don't always get to do this in front of of the large band and Mr strier and I were talking because uh this is just a a tremendous accomplishment for this young man um Alex naasan is um first chair in the tuba I can't imagine how hard that is to to actually go there and perform um knowing that people are you know people are judging you based on your performance then to get you first chair right um to get first chair in this competition in and performance is just unbelievable so Alex congratulations I don't know where you are I know you were just singing there he is Andy was was uh in in the front there but uh come on up here bud uh congratulations Mr strier um want to get up there and get a pick okay I finally got I got the right seat all right ready one two three all right that good all right congratulations Alex G ask Mr Sher to come up again but I I also um we're here tonight to recognize our marching band um I say this every year but as a principal um the start of the school year is based on two things one is the success of our football team and the other is the success of our marching band and we are incredibly fortunate that every year our marching b band sets off just a positive tone and it doesn't that doesn't begin in September you know that begins in May I believe when you actually decide what show you're doing and the work that Mr strier and his team put together um they decide on the show and then they start uh right from the beginning and uh the work that they do and I'm often here late at night and so were they uh whether it's it's starting the percussion line or the color guards out there um it is just unbelievable the amount of work that you do and then to put time in all summer then go to band camp uh and then the practi is late into the evening uh sometimes 8 9 10:00 at at night you're out on that field uh and then all day on Saturdays you get ready for your competitions um you know you you make a lot of sacrifices time to hang out with your friends you know sometimes you have to to judge you know even doing school work sometimes and you you get it all done and that is is just a testament to your hard work your dedication the fact that you're just outstanding students inside and outside the classroom um I want to congratulate Mr strier and his team um the amount of time and effort that he puts in uh and his team to make sure that you everything that you need um I've never seen anything like it so Mr strier thank you very much to you and your team I would also like to thank I think they have the coolest band name parent name but the amps uh they are uh fantastic not not not just donating their time and effort but also financially I know they support the band a lot um in terms of getting you where you need to go they're loading the trucks they're driving the trucks they're there unloading um and they're your biggest fans and uh so thank you to the to the P parents that are here this evening our marching band has moved up uh over the years and we are now in the open division which is the highest division that you can be in and for a small school we're out there competing um in the toughest in the toughest Division and this year you know they took first in every competition uh that they that they could do and even came in they came in third in Nationals but it was by a slim slim margin and the the number of bands that that that were there uh you gave them a run for their money and uh for for a school of our size that's just unheard of um and we're here tonight not just to celebrate all your victories but also your group three open state championship so congratulations to our Pang Township High School Marching Band we are so so proud of you Mr strier is just going to add a few things I am jealous because you do get to perform on Giant the giant Stadium Field and you're doing much better than the Giants are doing this year so but it is uh it that's also a tremendous experience and you know Mr strier carefully calculates where you guys are going to perform and uh to put you on a and have an opportunity for you to put you on that stage those are memories that you're going to take with you forever so uh to the seniors thank you for your leadership and your dedication um I know it's been a very memorable year for you and uh this is you know just this is one of those last right recognitions but there's more to come for you I know many of you are continuing on uh there's so much power in music right and never lose sight of that even if you don't participate in a in a formal Band Keep practicing keep twirling the flags keep doing those things that you are passionate about U because that takes you far in life right um we're starting a faculty band that that we're we're looking to do and uh I'm breaking out the berry sacks I haven't played the Barry Sachs in like 25 years so um but yeah we'll see how it goes uh but but it's going to be fun so congratulations to you guys and Mr strier the floor is yours thank you to Mr hazer I've never had to speak right after you before or right yeah it's a lot of pressure but I just want to take a second to thank uh the Board of Education and administration for recognizing our program and the incredible achievement of these students uh your support means so much to us and plays a huge role in in their success so uh congratulations to our amazing students uh who spent countless hours practicing and rehearsing and I think what separates them from the pack is just their character they're just the best people to spend time with and work with and watching them grow over the season over the years is um just a privilege that I I can't even begin to talk about so I also want to shout out our incredible staff uh who Inspire these guys and push them to be the best that they can be um and inspire me as well to be a better teacher every day I learned so much from the staff that works with the March band they're another group of amazing people um also like to shout out the the parents um that amps um who their unwavering support ensures that that our program can keep thriving so we appreciate them so much um I'm incredibly proud of this group for what they've accomplished and I thank you for believing in me and believing in us so thank you everybody so we gave out their their certificates ahead of time so we're going to have you come up uh to the front here and let's get your picture yeah you can go in front of the table everybody all right parents Now's the Time for the picture so come on up although it's probably better from back there all right congratulations everybody you guys can you guys can head out just before I leave I'd like to wish the the Board of Ed very happy holidays and uh thank you for all your support of our students and and our staff at the high school uh wish you all very happy holiday and restful break so thank you okay so before we move on with the presentation uh we have one more person that we'd like to honor and that's Mr Gibbs good evening there's a resolution on tonight's board agenda to extend the time for the new capital lease on seven Industrial Road property a new lease is required effective January 1st as the board will be changing effective January 6th and the new board will have to vote on the new lease currently I'm working with the owner and the tenants regarding their move to the top floor of the building which will allow the preschool OCC occupy the space on the second floor the progress is hopeful on the move and more information to follow there's been a change in the law with respect to school bus drivers not needing a CDL license the effective date of the new law has changed to July 1st 2025 also the driver will have to obtain an s endorsement on their current driver's license the state is working on what the s endorsement will entail which is the reason for the delay we have received three oper requests regarding the 2023 2024 information all requests were handled in accordance with State guidelines the smartboards that were uh board approved to be disposed of were purchased by watchong board of education for $10,000 they were the only District that bided on the units the new windows of the high school are on track to start the installation on Friday December 20th of which is a tenative start date the approximate installation time is 10 days the installation has been delayed due to manufacturing issues and finally I would like to wish everyone a happy healthy and safe holiday season thank you all right thank you Mr Gibbs all right now we have someone else that we would like to honor and that person is Miss Dempsey uh tonight is Miss Dempsey's last meeting and I want to give everyone an opportunity to say a few words so we're gonna start with Miss esito and then we're gonna go to miss uh shenton and go around the table okay tonight we have the honor of celebrating someone who has left an invaluable mark on our district a fellow board member whose unwavering dedication integrity and service have elevated this board Miss Megan Dempsey Megan your deep knowledge of board operations policies and procedures has been nothing short of extraordinary your commitment to the highest ethical standards has set a benchmark For All You've consistently approached every challenge every decision with an unbiased perspective ensuring that the needs of our students always remain at the Forefront no matter the pressures or politics of the moment you never wavered and your focus never shifted from what truly matters the well-being and success of every student in our district we know that serving on a school board isn't always easy especially during election Seasons you have faced your share of unwarranted criticism some of it harsh unfair and undeserved yet you handled these moments with great resilience and an unshakable commitment to the students of ponic Township when we say you are our strongest board member we are not offering platitudes we are stating facts your thoughtful questions and discussions have elevated our work as a board your insightful contributions have challenged us to think deeper act smarter and always always strive for better on a personal note I will absolutely miss working with you I will miss your calm demeanor your sense of humor and your inval valuable knowledge it has been a privilege to work alongside you these past several years and I am even more fortunate to call you a friend as you step away from this role know that your impact will continue to be felt long after you leave the students whose lives you've touch the policies you've shaped and the examples you've set will resonate for years to come thank you for everything we are better because of you and I am better for having had the opportunity to work alongside you so it's my turn I brought tissues because they have the worst cold ever but I'm glad I did well I might need one in a minute too so I'm G it's like what she said but differently so hold on um tonight I want to recognize Megan whose six years of service on the board have been nothing short of extraordinary um as our policy chair she has been instrumental in moving this board forward ensuring that we remain focused thoughtful and aligned with the best interests of all our students in our community her commitment to collaboration and preparation has set an incredibly high standard for all of us before Megan joined the board we knew each other through Hillview activities and it has been an absolute pre privilege to see her step into this role with such passion and integrity over these years I've come to admire her not only as a colleague but as a trusted confident and friend what truly sets Megan aart is her ability to listen with an open mind and heart especially during challenging and polarizing times when contentious issues have Arisen Megan has always made it a priority to reach out and have real conversations to ensure she fully understands all points of view before making decisions this thoughtful and inclusive approach reflects her deep respect for this community and her belief in the importance of dialogue and understanding Megan your leadership your empathy and your steadfast dedication will be terribly terribly terribly missed I'm profoundly grateful for everything you've done and wish you all the best in the future don't be a stranger I'm really going to miss you I'm glad I'm going third because I don't know what you guys are gonna say down at the end of the table over there but um so yeah I I would also like to thank Megan for all she's done for the district and for the board you know when I started on the board Megan helped answer many of my questions helped me figure out what I really needed to know as a new board member and offered her perspective and her guidance and I would definitely say that I'm a better board member for working with her for the last five years um Megan always brought a thoughtful intelligent and a very measured perspective to our discussions whether it was on curriculum Finance policy uh and of course when Megan spoke uh you knew the information she was delivering or the questions she were asking were important so it was always time I always felt it was time I was listening very intently to what Megan was saying and as for policy we will definitely miss Megan's leadership on policy which is our our primary responsibility she's taken that role seriously uh and done it exceptionally well so Megan will miss you um pretty sure over your tenure here on the board you have helped improve the district for the staff administrators and most importantly our students uh so thank you for for all you've done and of course enjoy your free Monday nights I'd be happy to go I didn't write anything down though so oh Joe's prepared let him go first e okay so uh I know I did not write anything down for this so this is going to take a little while you guys went stretch so Megan came on with six years ago and when Megan first came on the board I had already been here for a couple years three four years and uh um I wasn't thrilled um I will tell you that Megan and I disagreed upon every single thing you could imagine for at least 18 months and then um I watch Megan and I watched how she listened to both sides of everybody's feelings and she actually listened to me and a lot of times I was screaming at some point um this was an exact though don't worry about it not in the meetings but she listened to both sides of everything and she always made her decisions based on what was best for the kids it was not about her feelings on something or it was always what's best for the kids and over time um I started to realize how amazing of a board member she was and how important she was to our board and I think I remember the first time I called you you picked up the phone you said Sam are you calling me is everything okay and I just wanted a clarification on some policy or something that I was just a little not sure about and she explained everything and at the end I said all right that works and she said so which way you going vote on that and I said that's none of your damn business um but really um I I have to say that if if anybody has ever changed my feelings about themselves in my life it is absolutely you um I'm I'm really really happy that you ran I would never said that six years ago uh and that you R ran again and I know that what you went through uh to do that it wasn't easy running isn't easy what you went through is a thousand times worse than anyone should ever have to go through but um you did it and you did it for the kids in this town and for the staff and and you know everything else and and I appreciate that and I know that there are 3,918 people that also appreciate that in this town and um maybe in few years when I leave you can take my spot and run um but again thank you I want to thank you uh again because really the effort that you put in and the time and uh it was just it's just amazing it's just you did an absolute fantastic job and I've served with how many board members I can't even tell you and I you're just fantastic board member thank you all right I just wanted to thank Miss Dempsey for her six dedicated years to the Board of Education she did probably more work than any of us outside these meetings probably combined honestly more work than any of us uh being a policy chair she did so much and she knew so much and uh yeah Tina is gonna have some really tough shoes to fill uh she taught me a lot of new things and I was really a pleasure to work with you and sit next to you so thank you sorry I'm not as good a public speaker as everyone else but uh thank you I really do appreciate all the things you did thank you so much all right Megan uh when I joined the board I didn't think that um I would get along with you as well as I as I did you are a extremely hard worker your opinion no matter what it is is extremely well informed and your goal in everything that we did was success for the children student achievement and transparency of the board to the public and any Endeavor that we undertook you were always the one that first said how's this going to look are we doing it the right way is this transparent enough or people getting enough access to us um you I I I can't overstate how valuable you are to this board you're a fantastic board member you're an njsba masterboard member you're njsba rep um and you led our policy committee um outstandingly for your six years so in honor of you being on the board of education and your service to the Board of Education uh as a board we got you a plaque which you can hang in your house I'm sure in a very prominent location um we got you some flowers and then Dr Porter would like to say some stuff as well thank you Mr Sanic and also thank you to uh really all the board members for really helping to make this such a special sendoff for our good friend Miss Dempsey I got to know her first um through her wonderful family uh during my time at at Hillview and very little has has changed in my perception of said wonderful family I'll point out too that Fiona is the youngest person ever to sign a qack attendance sheet I believe in the state of New Jersey I think she was three when she signed it and she did a pretty nice job with it too um but what's cons consistently impressed me about Miss Dempsey is her integrity and courage um we've seen those certainly on display in board meetings but also more so behind the scenes and um I've been impressed with her fearless questioning um sometimes as an administrator when somebody asks really good questions it can make you a bit uncomfortable because you realize oh I don't have an answer for that one just yet but those are the kind of things that make you much better at your job and it's nice to be able to tell a board member yes I am better at my job as a consequence of your presence on the board so I appreciate the Precision and accuracy with which you approach policy and all other work um you do so with a degree of Honor grace and elegance that is quite remarkable but you also bring humor to it as well and shocking as it may sound we did have fun with some of our our policy meetings as well as few other meetings that we attended um and we're definitely going to miss you as part of the board but your legacy will certainly live on thank you for your contributions and I'm sure your presence will continue to be felt thank you Megan we got a couple things to give you e e e sure if you want to say something go ahead I had a few things for word member announcements but I'll say it now that was very nice thank you all so much you make you know I'm a crier um so thank you all for um for all of your kind words and this this is so nice um but I mostly wanted to thank the they smell good right um what I really wanted to do is thank the community for electing me to serve two terms on this board um and to bring my perspective to the table there have definitely been some challenging situations to navigate like a pandemic and many other things um but I've tried hard to make decisions with the best interest of all of our students in mind so I really appreciate that so many of you mentioned that um and that have seen that this board that we have now and that we have had for a few years is a truly amazing one and I have said since I first got elected when talking to anyone about how we function that we are not of a single mind we definitely don't always agree on what the right decision is but we're respectful of each other's perspectives and experiences we listen to each other we listen to the community even if we don't always make the decision that you want and we listen to the administration and the staff again even if we don't always make the decision that you want um but I truly believe that everyone here acts with the best interest of this District at heart uh and I have no doubt that that will continue to be true in the next year um and I just have to say I think I I walked into the first meeting and saw that my name tag was next to Sam's actually right in the other seats and I think I thought somebody was playing a joke on me or on you I'm not sure who they were trying to get um but you showed me the ropes as well and uh I'm really thankful for the friendships that I've made with everybody on this board um again I have no doubt that this is going to continue to be a great board for the coming year I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve to work with all of you Dr poris to work with you in this capacity Mr Gibbs Mrs vanle and Mrs Sheridan before her um and all of the staff that I've had a chance to um interact with and and who have also stood up for me um in public when necessary believe it or not I am gonna miss some of this but I am also looking forward to being on that side of the podium for a while on on a few Monday nights uh there's a stipulation you can't come back to a meeting for eight months I'll make a note of that and Mark it in my calendar thanks everyone that that was all thank you all right time for the presentation well all right um so the other day when we were preparing for this presentation I had mentioned to Helena I was like Helena I think I'd really like to say something about Miss Dempsey it's her last night here and you guys all did that already so all right everything that I was going to say you guys pretty much aired um but thank you Miss mcy for all of your work you were one of the first families that we met when we moved to town um and we learned that you were on the board and then we started paying attention and um everything that the the board has said is true um you handle yourself with such Poise and professionalism um you were more prepared than I ever know could be available to someone um with policy and your questions the question really stuck out for me when we you know M Dr poris mentioned that your questions are challenging um yet we tell we can tell you're listening and you're you're processing what information we're putting out there and that that really means a lot so if you have any challenging questions I look forward to it and I'll get back to you um in eight months um I'm not sure if that's in policy but anyhow um so uh Helena and myself are back um in front of you tonight to just give our special education presentation a light overview of what we um we go through um with the district and all the you know programs we have available um and Then followed up with a um presentation from uh our friends of CPAC um so tonight we just hope to quickly go over um a few questions uh what is an IEP uh do I have to read the whole thing um we have programs um and then where can I find help okay okay so communication protocol so we have developed a protocol call um for each school um so we will share this presentation so that everything has a link so it'll be easy to access it is also listed on our website so it is under each school and then under I think communication protocol um so if you click on any of the links so every school has a list of Staff members and it just goes down um you know the step one who to contact normally it's the teacher then going and leading into um starting with the teacher getting any questions that you have answered about your child's education any kind of progress go right to the source um then obviously if you need additional support you can also go to the school counselor and we have listed all the staff I'm not going to go through each every single school um and then leading up to if the child does have a case manager each school has each case manager listed with their email phone number extension and then going down the line to step two assistant principal um and then continuing on um step three principal so we're just trying to create a little bit of a chain of commands to get your questions answered we want to make sure that um anybody that you want to reach obviously is available um but this is just a nice quick uh way to access any staff member in each building and Chris and I are at the end of each one we're obviously available at any time as well uh so when we talk about uh individualized education programs um your IEPs uh it starts off with a few sections that are important so when we talk about do I have to read the whole thing uh the short answer is yes uh but there is some key points um that really stand out for you um when your child has an IEP um first the title page has all the information that you need on the front with the diagnosis or the classification um for the reason for the I AP um the signature page uh meeting date the evaluation dates when the next reeval may occur um and then following that you'll get your present levels uh we often call this um inh house the PLS the present levels of academic um achievement and functional performance and this is really the story that follows the student um I often tells teachers to focus on that part first uh because that's giving you an outline of what your predecessor you know the the teachers that had the student before you um their experiences what worked what didn't work um how did was the relationship built within that class um before they got to you um so I always encourage them to read that first um and then we get into goals and objectives um and goals and objectives we always talk about smart goals so they're specific measurable achievable um relevant and time bound um so the this should be based off of evaluations within the IAP you know where there might be a weakness or a skill deficit and something we want to work on throughout the academic areas um in the IAP um one of the things that we talked about is there's no magic number number doesn't mean if you have more that's better um they really should be targeted um for skill development um for your child or yourent and then continuing on parts of the IEP we have the modifications and accommodations sections um so modifications change what is learned versus the accommodations is to change how content is learned um so that is one section um and kind of similar to goals and objectives uh more is not always better so you want to make sure that they're appropriate for the child and they should be individualized um leading into the program page so again we're going to kind of get into all the different program OFA uh options that we have available in District um but this is the page where the child would have their current programming setting they might be in a general education classroom um that won't be listed on this section but it will say things like maybe a special education setting that's where that page would be and then the related Services Additionally you can have services in occupational therapy or physical therapy um you can have some behavioral consult counseling that's the section and it'll always tell you um what the service is how often it's being delivered and in what setting so it's a very detailed page and this is a an important page to to attend to and then there's other sections in the IEP um that may or may not be applicable to the child and that's the behavior intervention plan uh usually not all children need a bip uh which is the acronym uh for their if they do have behaviors that might be something that is implemented into the IEP and you may see in the related Services section a consult so that the behaviorists may be overseeing that bip um then there's also the parental concern section that is something that every parent has a right to add exactly what they want right in that section uh and then the procedural safeguards so these are all sections in I and then across the district we have programs um available in each of the different buildings uh in elementary school they vary by building our self-contained ER class uh is at sjg um we have lldd um over at um Hillview and then our MD and our preschool disabilities programs are at North Boulevard and then in the middle school we have our MD program we also have an program and then our self our um inclass resource and outer class resource classes you know our you know OCR and icr know we have a lot of acronyms and we're going to put together resource to kind of break those down for you um and so be looking for that in the future and then self-contained programs uh those are the ones I mentioned the ER you know we call it C which I always forget what it's called it's Collaborative Learning environment so that's the program at sjg um er stands for emotional regulation impairment um MD is the multiple disabilities program um we have that at PV and then at the high school we don't have a young adult program here right now because we don't have any young adults in the program um but we will in a couple of years unless someone Moves In in that you know time frame um and then we have our you know in-class and out class resource classes so as I said before in the program page you'll have related services so we have in our in our district we are fortunate enough to have three behaviorists uh and that again acronym bcba which is a board certified behavior analyst uh it's a professional who studies behavior of children and creates plans to improve problematic Behavior Uh you have an SLP a speech language pathologist again we have five wonderful ladies that we work in District um and they obviously um they will do evaluations and they'll provide indirect and Direct Services um we also in the last I think two years we also are utilizing the 3:1 model so that's something that's also embedded into the IEPs and pretty much that means that all the related Services they have three weeks of Direct Services and then we have one flexible week indirect week where they may be pushing into classrooms they may be uh doing Miss sessions uh they may uh be they're collaborating with our colleagues they're doing evaluations uh they're doing pushings into the classroom training Paris staff and plethora of other things um otpt occupational therapist and a physical therapist um so again U we have uh three OTS in District and we have um one hopefully two PTs in our district coming soon uh and then counseling every we are fortunate enough that we have a school counselor in each of our elementary schools which is wonderful uh we do provide school-based counseling uh for short-term intervention to help our kids that may need it uh to cope with their social emotional needs and then I know that at the middle school we have three wonderful counselors and at the high school four five four five counselors missed one there so we have a lot of great staff um to provide our students all the services that they need so when counseling shows up in your iip there's several staff members that could be assigned to provided and that's the school counselors like you mentioned um it could also be our Student Assistance coordinator she's also a licensed counselor um and then it could be your social worker they can provide school-based counseling um and the school psychologist um is that the last piece of that puzzle that could provide counseling um and then we also partner with uh our CPAC group our special education parent advisory committee uh we meet once monthly uh to go over any concerns air in the district um they are also going to you know speak tonight um so we're excited about that um their website is also tagged there like we said we'll post this um for everyone in the future and then last but not least we have the resources page um we just added a couple of resource links there um directly to the code so if there's any questions to the state code um whether it's classroom sizes or programs or anything that you may have a question about um a lot of it's you know found right there um we reference this a lot just to make sure everything is aligned and perfect um parent University um we do a lot of you know in you know District uh opportunities for learning with our you know parent groups um I often talk about this when we're interviewing people and one of my FR questions is what would you like to provide you know our community um if you were Prov you know give an opportunity to speak to them and they always have an answer and it's really cool to kind of Leverage that um so we always kind of bring them in to talk about the parent University uh Behavioral Health Resources we have a link there and then a quick um IEP Tip Sheet which is pretty comprehensive and a really nice resource so um when you have a chance click there and then last but not least Helena and myself are emails um always available for you um for any questions you may have regarding IPS any questions thank you what a night that was uh the anchor so thank you and then we'll bring in CPAC which I'm sure would be better than yes he hi good evening I am Melissa stasic I am the community liaison of CPAC Renee blin who's back there she's with me she is the um Panic Valley Middle School liaison excellent um what is CPAC if you are not familiarized with us we um are a special education parent advisory Council every Public School District in New Jersey is required to establish a CAC just so you know in some districts they are referred to as cegs um and that would be a group instead of a council um the purpose of these groups is to provide opportunities for parents and community members to offer input to their districts on critical issues relating to students with disabilities thank you um the purpose and responsibility of our group um it is districtwide organization created by parents to support the emotional social and academic well-being of children with special needs we provide information educational opportunities resources and support to families and professionals striving to achieve the maximum benefit for all children in our community our vision uh we aim to improve the systematic issues for children classified for special education related services and to promote inclusion of children with special needs with the necessary support within their schools and communities at large and our mission uh the Panic special education parent advisory council is to facilitate communication between parents staff and administration regarding the district's special education programs and to provide input to the district on issues concerning students with disabilities this just shows um the breakdown of our parent executive board um this year we have a new representative April Hagen from Hillview um Amy fante is for North Boulevard uh we actually have two North Boulevard preschool Representatives Tina who will be soon joining you and Danielle Leon um at Steven J Jas we are currently open and we have been open for some time we are looking for represent resentative so if anybody is aware um of somebody who would be interested in joining us um they can always contact us by email um as I mentioned Renee is the Panic Valley Middle School Melissa Krauss is the high school I am the community liaison Lynn Schwarz is a transition liaison as well as out of district and votek and Kristen Perry is with our Cornerstone program which is at the high school uh currently right now so we normally will meet um as a group and then what we will do is we will provide um programs for the community so we just recently had had a program um I believe it was was it November I think it was November um it was November and um that was currently a zoom program that we had had we had also earlier in October had um a parent community meeting where all parents in the district whether your child has an IEP a 504 you may join the meeting um it is not attended by the um by the administrators so it is only parents and they are allowed to speak freely about things that are working for them um things that may not be working for them and then what we will do is we bring that information back to Helena and Chris during our meetings and then we um we discuss what had happened and then they always come back and they give us answers that we could bring back to the parents so just so that you know we do have our next parent meeting um which will be taking place on January 14th at 7:30 p.m. and there will be a zoom which we will be sending out the link very soon um and I think that's pretty much it um I don't know if you have any questions but you can always reach us by email and as Chris and Helena said we do meet with them monthly and we've been doing that for some time so it works great it is I real quick I mean I it's it's funny like today's like a reflection over the last six years with with Megan um leaving but I I just want to you know thank you and and congratulate you guys on the last six years because I remember the meetings that we used to have up do you want to remember those Joe no I don't want to remember those and this was a need that was not welcome by individuals that will remain nameless in this in this in forly in the district and it's amazing what you know again the need of it for anybody to resist that is amazing but you got were not going to be told no um because it was a need uh it's clearly grown again bringing in Lincoln Park I think is phenomenal uh so again just great job thank you and yeah it's it's great that we don't have those types of meetings anymore and it's just a uh self-sustaining program thank you no thank you guys um I have to say we have partnered with Lincoln Park and um we actually went to last year we went to Boon's transition fair and they have a phenomenal group over there as well we were really we gathered so much great information our first presentation was somebody that we had met there our second presentation um on why is it don't look at me it's what the heck are we doing it's um January it's leaving me she's going to scroll there's so many people that we met that um they had contacted us after we had met in botin and it was just it was so great and so they're willing to come in and they're willing to do presentations and we've done a lot of presentations inhouse as well which we're also currently looking to do for the rest of the year so it's just been great but um I do want to say there are so many other districts in the area once we started branching out and when I took on this community liaison position because my son had aged out and you know time passed on I we all of a sudden just realized there are so many districts that are not run by parents they are run strictly by the district so originally cpacs were they were supposed to be for the parents and run by the parents so the fact that Panic still has that is great um Lincoln Park has been trying to do that as well and transition into that so it's just been it's been it's been a ride but we've enjoyed it so we just want to thank all of you thank you thank you all right thank you okay that brings us to approval of the minutes and I'm gonna ask uh Miss chetton to please move the minutes I would like to move approval of the minutes from November 18th 2024 second any question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes Miss Dempsey yes Mr gon yes mcweeny yes bpeo is absent Miss shenton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries okay that brings us to our first opportunity for public comment members of the public may speak once for a maximum period of five minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting uh the public may speak on any agenda item only during the five minutes and if you raise a question please direct it to the board president state your name and sign in before you begin all right seeing none we're going to move into approval of action items and our slash Workshop so first up is PMC where before we vote we have two discussion items school start time and surveys uh related to the school start time changes and Staffing update all right thank cic um we sent out surveys uh three different surveys to our students our staff and our community members and what our Hope was there was to receive um General generalized um information on the perceptions of each of those stakeholder groups based on the implementation of new schedules at both PV and the high school um we really wanted to get a sense of what people were perceiving third of the way into the school year and it's very interesting to see the responses um both through the the quantifiable data as well as through the um the narratives that people provided in some instances I'm still working my way through a lot of the um qualitative data which is a lot more difficult to organize and categorize but it's also fascinating and really lens literally and figuratively vo to the data um the board members have received the various graphs and charts that were um generated by Google form from the information that we received and one thing I'm going to point out too is that there are multiple variables involved in the data collection so we can't necessarily say that changing the schedule or delaying this or pushing the start time back um necessarily has a causal relationship to the perceptions that were expressed by the different stakeholder groups but it is very interesting to note that um there were some pretty consistent patterns and um we saw some differences between the perceptions of Staff versus what students were sensing which we expected um occasionally the parents were the middle ground between the two but not always the case um the way the questions were set up was intended to um look very very similar for each group so the first question dealt with the topic of rest for students the statement was I feel better rested this year staff my students seem better rested this year year for families my children seem better rested this year um the positive responses that we got from the staff weren't uh weren't terribly strong it was a 58.2% response that was positive we used a lyer scale that went from one through four that was very intentionally done as well if you use a scale that has an odd number people tend to float towards the middle so if it's scale of one n people will end up with a five so um we wanted to make it so that things were either definitively on the positive side or on the negative side so um out of the 79 respondents amongst the staff only 58.2% felt that students seem more rested and that's between PV and the high school uh the parents said 63.3% felt that students seem better rested so that was a lot more promising and what was great is among the kids uh 77.4% of them felt that they were better rested this year and again we're not saying that this is a direct consequence of changing the schedules but it's good to see that that's moving in a positive direction and many of them uh among the students did Express at the high school level that they appreciated um the the change in the start time um what was interesting too is a number of the respondents at the middle school who were sixth graders said it was challenging and I hadn't anticipated that but their start time is 40 minutes earlier than what it had been in elementary school so as I was going through I definitely had a few yeah moments uh in reading through that the next question uh centered on the topic of mental health uh the student statement was my overall sense of well-being feels better this year for staff the overall well-being of my students seems better this year for families the overall well-being of my children seems better this year and again this is a massive overarching statement um but it's one where we want to just get a sense of what is the perception here um among the staff 72.2% seem to think the overall well-being seems better this year I found that to be very promising parents were on or families were on a pretty similar scale 70.9% of them were positive but what was I was really excited about is 88.3% of our students said they felt that the overall sense of well-being feels better this year that has me feeling really excited I think that's very promising and we definitely want to keep on on that trajectory um for those of you who've read the anxious generation which I know it's been getting a lot of attention um this is something that that is a huge concern among um young people particularly those who have come of age since the Advent of the smartphone so if we can find ways to try to help them feel better sense of well-being I'm I'm very excited for it and by the way please feel free to chime in at any point amongst the the board as well um I realize I'm the one who's holding literally holding the data information but you have access to it as well I think you just said it right there when I saw those results the first thing that jumped off the page at me was the the mental health of the students them themselves saying how much better they feel how much better rested they feel and as a board member your main priority is student achievement right so to see the students reap an actual benefit to this it really made me feel like we made the right decision so this was really great the first couple questions are PV pths you can see the the difference but the main ones they weren't broken out that way can is it possible for us to see them that way or did it go out that we can pull that I'm just you know you mentioned like the sixth graders I'd really be curious to see about the change in the high school and and how the students answered yeah and that's something with um with the spread shees that are generated about Google forms I can break it out more so I could look at um specifically amongst the sixth graders what are we seeing among seventh graders and so forth because I did have the students respond by grade so I didn't get these readily accessible pie charts from that but I think with a deeper dig into the information I could probably pull something out there and what could be very interesting too is organizing as such and looking at U the different open-ended responses that are provided according to the grade groups as well I mean even just high school and I if you if you'd like to go deep that would be wonderful but even just high school and middle school because the time change really PB didn't change so yeah yeah the only real change at PV was in in shortening the class minutes and then adding on um the block at the end of the day exactly um but this is a couple years back I did do quantitative analysis for my dissertation and and I I found myself um uncovering more and then generating more questions than I was Finding answers and I sense that this is going to be the process as I dig deeper into this but knowing that there's an audience for it I think it's very motivating so I look forward to digging deeper into this you've been warned was this survey sent out to the entire District or just a certain select uh people so um it the select people were those who click on my on my uh Weekend Update which actually gets a pretty good readership from what I've been told but yeah so the the family one I sent out um and I believe Mr sabrowski and Mr hazler also followed up and then um they they took care of the portion that was sent out to staff amongst their respective staff members um and then they also ensured that students had time to complete the surveys in school as well so this so we we tried to blanket the entire community and I I say it kind of tongue and cheek that it's only the readers of my weekend update but um if if people if people wanted access to it everyone had access to it and we had over 500 student responses yep that's great yeah I do think I have to agree with Mrs shenton that it'd be worth breaking out PV versus pths because I I think that well-rested question doesn't really have anything to do with PV and also the panther period is used in such different ways across the two schools that I think it would be worth looking at the responses to those separately and seeing kind of what the perception of the use of the panther period at the high school is compared to PV absolutely yeah and I love having the generalized overview but where you get the really interesting information is is the deeper you dig into the specific details the results are definitely impressive definitely like the the the less tired and the better mental health um I I know that when going back and all the research and the work that we did going into looking to move to latest start times when we heard presentation from other schools and they were pointing to data like this you know I was like wow they have data like this now we're a district that has data like that too you say like hey we surveyed our students and this is what they're saying this is how they're feeling and then we can build on that in years to come we can say look three years ago they were here now we're collectively here uh it's it's a great start I think it's yeah really cool yeah now I'm looking forward to um we'll do at least certainly at least one more and hopefully two more I don't want to um do death by survey where you kind of had that Overkill but I definitely want to find out as we get much deeper into this because there may be a reason recy bias of hey this is new and exciting but after we've got 120 days or more under our belts what's this really going to look like um and I think that that I want to uh mimic a lot of the format of these questions and I will say and I appreciate the board support as we were developing the questions um it was it was a relief to come up with statements that were more simple than than terribly specific and detailed and I felt like that may have actually helped our our respondents be able to respond more confidently and easily as well I'm just other couple other quick topics to cover uh just on on that um I have to tell you I was a little nervous about what the results were going to be um and I was thrilled to see what they were uh I do have a request for uh everyone who's listening out there ever anywhere uh red green color blind people don't appreciate pie charts with red and green it's the same color okay noted blue light blue so just listen closely purple purple and Blue's no good either we we'll we'll work on that all right thank you but see if I find a good translation K was sorry about that and it is something anytime you do a survey too there is that bit of of nervousness of what am I going to get back and and in some cases people responded back with open-ended responses that were not necessarily gerain to the question being asked um or really the the purpose of the survey but I want to recognize that it means that they have something to say and and it's important and the survey is intended to give people a voice um and that's something it was a recommendation for one of the board members to do the open ENT response after each question and I think that that really helped because you do want people to feel like they are being heard whe whether there's any action to follow that that that tough to say but at least get those ideas out there so um I'll cook through these other ones because I realize it is it's a long meeting um but for the extra help and support the um statement for students is schedule has helped me get more extra help or support for staff the schedules help my students receive more extra help or support and for families schedules help my children receive more extra help or support um among the staff uh 81% said uh responded in the affirmative to that um it wasn't quite as strong among families it was only 67.1 and then interestingly uh the students were pretty consistent with what the staff said that was an 82.6% um positive response about getting more extra he or support by the way I agonized over that phrasing it sounds like more extra help what more extra but in context it makes sense um for the length of the class period at PV we actually um took minutes off the each class period and then for the high school we added to the class period and that wasn't intended to be counterintuitive high school students are better suited to longer class periods than are their middle school peers but also the high school mooved to the rotating drop block um the amount of minutes for each class period helps my students perform better 73.4% of Staff members agreed with that parents uh came in at 75.9 so we're really consistent there and students uh came in at 80.6 so that's that's really strong as well what I'd be interested even with that is if I were to take out the sixth graders and probably the freshmen um what that data would look like as well because they don't really have a baseline um for comparison and then the last one and I had a feeling this one was going to be hit or miss uh is regarding the panther period which is something that we're still in the process of defining it and even when when we did a site visit to a school that a middle school in Wayne that has a similar structure to what we now have they said it took them a couple years to really figure out how to define how to use that block they had a basic overview and they made it work but to really refine it down to the point where they felt they'd achieved Excellence took took some years so um we are going to be patient with this but we want to keep trying to make sure that we're refining our practice and so the information here is very helpful too for the parther period uh were the staff members saying my students use the panther period effectively to get extra help in reinforcement um 60 8% um were in the affirmative for that I'd like to break that down further by PV and and the high school PV it's required High School it is not um for for the parent part it was 67.1% um and then for the students this is quite remarkable um they said 87.4% of them answered in the affirmative so they were significantly greater than what what families were saying and um even more so when staff says 60 point 60.8% of Staff felt students were using it well kids themselves 87.4% felt they were using it well so obviously a different perception of what what we have there I do think that we have to Market it better to our students at the high school this is what this time is set aside to do a few staff members worked in some suggestions about how we could maybe use the time even better which we're going to look into what we can do especially as we look start building next year's schedule but um I'm going to add just again I appreciate the feedback that we got from everybody who took the time to respond um I know it's not always exciting to respond to surveys but it really helps us be a lot more mindful in our decision making and our analysis of that decision making that was anything else right good and then the other one I just think it's an important topic to have for all the discussions um and that is Staffing update um again it goes without staying but we are in Nationwide in a staffing crisis for schools um New Jersey is not doing as poorly as uh some of our friends across the United States but um we're doing we're in pretty good shape in panic right now um I I want to note we currently have several leave replacement positions that are being filled with staff who we really hope to keep um keep in the mix as much as we can um leave Replacements come up for a number of reasons and they are uh it's difficult to find people who are available and who are um going to be outstanding in in filling them we've done really well with people we have in place right now and uh we'd like to we'd like to keep them in the mix so that they can continue to support our our students and also if a staff member has to be out for any reason for any length of time it's good for them to know that their kids are being um taken care of and looked out for um we're currently interviewing for a speech language pathologist um as well as the school psychologist position um as Miss Bronco also mentioned I have an interview with the um Physical Therapy candidate I believe on Wednesday so we'll hope to have that sealed up before the end of 2024 and an exciting note our new PV assistant principal Mr David rafo is going to be starting on January 2nd technically January 1 but we're not open on January 1 unfortunately I was hoping we could but I was told I'm not allowed to so we'll we'll wait for the second um but he was able to visit school on Friday get to meet some of the students some of the staff he's really excited to join us and we're happy to have him so right now um KN on wood we're in we're very strong position Staffing wise um and we'll continue to look to fill these positions with the best people we can find all right thank you Dr bis moving on to the approval of the action items uh Mr cesi would you please move the PMC items I would like to move PMC 10625 through pmc11 19-25 second any question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the role Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr P is absent M chanton yes mrso yes and Mr sen yes motion carries thank you Mr M would you please move your items under CIS yes I'd like to move CIS 45-25 through C 49.5 second any question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr M yes Mr Pompeo is absent m senton m Esposito yes and Mr sen yes motion carries okay that brings us to FFA with two discussion items use of protective equipment for football during the summer recess period and state regulation regarding Driving School Vans the first one just to kick it off it seems like a no-brainer to me that if they're going to be out there playing some kind of sport even if it's just non- contct and the protective equipment is really just there just in case still better to have it be there than not be there yeah and I'm really happy with the proposal proposal that Mr Michelle has submitted he's our football coach submitted to Mr Silena who is our athletic director and um what it comes down to is According to njsiaa which is the governing body for uh High School athletics throughout New Jersey um in order for football players to be able to use wear their full equipment or any portion of their equipment during the summer recess it needs board approval so Mr michella developed the proposal he went through the chain of command first m Filipa who then sent it to me and obviously I'm sending it along to you but um his rationale is grounded as Mr senic alluded to um and player safety it's really important that um kids learn how to wear their helmets and pads correctly um and that they become comfortable with that I I think more than anything with the helmet so it becomes almost an extension of who they are and they they get used to the different weight and it is it's different experience wearing that U on your head um absolutely because you're you're seeing things differently and you have to know how to turn your head so um I I felt as rationale for the player safety was very well phrased and then um skill development it's important that they learn how to be more mobile and agile while wearing the equipment and then just in terms of best practices um if you're going to be performing with this gear on it's best to have it on um he also included um information about the sizing distribution and practical use to make sure that the students um student athletes are um are fitted out with the correct sizes and this way if they're not plenty of time to be able to accommodate the need to to switch out um and just want to make sure that they're that they become as comfortable as possible with their with their gear so I think it's a great idea obviously if I did not would not be making it to the board agenda so will this be on a future meeting as an action item to vote uh yes what is the reason that they they haven't been wearing pads is it because of heat is it heat stroke related or I I don't think so I I think a lot of it has to do with um previous practices involving students being involved in contact drills when they're not supposed to be and there there is this suspicion that if you if you give student athletes the gear that the coach will have them hitting um and that that's not the case that's not what we're looking for here mean I've heard the cautionary tale my mom went to St Cecilia's and they they got shut down for an entire year because of coaches practices during a summer actually resulted in player fatality this was also in the 60s much different time frame but knowing this from my family history and all four of my uncles played there I'm very aware of the importance of player safety also had a son who played football but with this um to me I I I think the rules were put in place to make sure that people didn't um succumb to the temptation to have drills that they shouldn't have um and as a result a lot of schools with the right intentions lost out on a good teaching opportunity for the kids yeah I saw the other document that um from ngj siia was say there's no Fuller contact for minute during the summer recess time yeah in other words yeah there's no hitting so so with this you're you're learning how to run patterns you know obviously you're you know stret and do some conditioning as well but this is not intended for them to be able to do do any hidden or um anything resembling contact okay the uh state regulations regarding the driving um driving Vans has changed as I mentioned in my my original report um the person we hired this evening she won't be starting until February 1 because she's actually now working on her CDL and she will have her CDL by February 1st so she can start right away when she has that um that was in lie of her waiting until July to be hired um she wants to be a bus driver with a big buses and this is the way the route to go so it's really a good thing for us we're very fortunate in that respect um and from my understand she's a very good driver she's driven for years so we're very pleased right she's working full-time right now for her CDL just a quick update uh I was going to save this for my uh board member comment stand but at the um Mars County ESC which deals a lot with Transportation um the update the superintendent gave there was that as of this date which was two weeks ago um there are no no new regulations from the doe or from Motor Vehicles regarding um the legislation is there but there's no new formal rules so Mars County ESC is not doing anything with drivers without CDLs yet yeah there was a hangup um in Trenton with it but also what's interesting is there's currently a run on the vans so right now if you want to order one of those eight to nine P passenger vans New Jersey can't get one um because they're they're on back order so many schools jumped on it once this once this came out that's why you see the V that's on the uh agenda for approval it's going to take three months to get here so yeah we got in we got in early yes any other question no thank you all right thank you uh Mr Bloomer would you please move the items under FFA uh I'd like to make a motion to move FFA 66- 25 through FFA 8425 any questions discussion Mr Gibbs please call the roll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey yes to all accept FFA 6725 where it pertains to me I'll obstain Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny Mr Pompeo is absent M shenton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr sen yes motion carries I'd like to take a minute to thank the pths Association of Music parents for their very generous donations for the mar marching band sement all right moving on to policy two discussion items uh extracurricular activities policy 2430 R and an AI policy work update as a paron gift to miss Dempsey I'll take care of these too so the extracurricular activities not much of a a board conversation on that one um just to point out that in this regulation um third page um there is an item listed regarding the evaluation of activities this is something that I want to make sure that we're following at um at the at the building level this year so that we can really get a good sense of which Student Activities or extracurricular activities are being well attended and and are um still of significant enough interest if we have activities that are no longer garnering sufficient student interest uh my my intention is to is to um dissolve whatever that activity might be and replace it with something that reflects current student interests um right now there's a movement at the high school to Pivot from the um the sad club which students canst strun driving um that is no longer running we have actually a lot of interest in a boxing club and I was speaking with Mr hazler about I'm sharing with me a proposal for that so I'm looking for ways that we can can meet students where they are so in the on page three it does give information about what should be involved in the evaluation I'm looking more than anything in membership and attendance U regular meetings but I am also interested in how we're giving kids opportunities to demonstrate through leadership um and then one other item that will be up for a vote is in that evaluation portion excuse me um there is one of the stipulations is such other India of pupil's growth and development as the evaluators may choose um we're going to change the word India which is a real word but it goes more with the markings that appear on an envelope when the when the post office has um has marked it we're going to go with indicators which is yeah it's less strained it sounds less like hey I have a thesaurus I'm G to use it so I I I'm a fan of it we'll go with Clarity so minor change but um but just more important to point out we're going reinforcing this one with the goal of making sure that we're maximizing the opportunities for our kids I don't if any questions on that one anybody's going to miss India really important um and then other thing worth noting is um I put on there that our AI policy work update um we we had our first meeting of the um the district AI team I know that uh Mr shade did a a great job running that and that Mr hazler is encouraging him to call I believe the AI Justice League of panic yep that that was met for those of you who were watching us on video was met with a fist pump from said Mr Shay that's a good sign um but what I was really excited about is um the committee is comprised of people from a lot of different stakeholder groups in the community we have um principles we have supervisors we have students we have staff members we have uh board members um we have a teacher who's also a a a parent who's also multilingual and has been able to talk about how um AI can be used in helping students learn different languages um one one of the parents who's on the team is um is also heavily involved in technology and and works in uh educational circles as well um miss van skull is also a part of this so um really excited about the um representation we have in that group hearing student voes to me is really exciting and I know that we're also recruiting a few more um students to be a part of this um we've established three separate subcommittees um we each were able to put in our requests for which subcommittee we'd like to join um those groups are ethics and obstacles tools and best practices and policy and planning full disclosure I put in for policy and planning and I really hope I get picked and I don't know Mr Shay anything you want want to add or do you think I covered it sounds great um and it's something that we we talked about very very briefly in that meeting though is that we want the policy to be something that we could put on the books and have in place um but the AI plan needs to be that fluid living document that can move with the same rapidity with which we're seeing um AI evolving and changing um so I'm excited for this um and I know that Mr Shay is currently up to his eyeballs and AI information but that's a good thing um because I think he's really going to be a leader not just for this school Community but across the state I'll also point out that the monster policy update that stra sesme dropped in our La as a night holiday present includes um a new AI policy that then kind of allows you to say this is what will be in our plan which can be the more flexible document um and also revising what we currently have called the plagiarism policy to an academic Integrity policy and I imagine touches on some of this and that seems like a good move um in a direction because plagiarism is not the only issue of academic Integrity anymore so have fun with that new policy committee I just wanted to add um I attended um the Ruckers New Jersey computer science Summit on Friday um and and there was about 230 240 different um attendees and one of the things we T we talked a lot about AI on Friday and um in one of the sessions they asked how many districts had a had an AI policy committee policy Andor committee started and it was a very small percentage of the um districts represented a lot of them said that some of them said that they were waiting to kind of see how everything landed because um they didn't want their policies to have to change like they're expecting everything to have to change so quickly so um we definitely shared how that's why we're jumping in and looking at to make it U the guidelines a little bit more fluid um so that we can keep up with the changes and actually it's a little bit um a little bit of veering left but I from the direction of where we were going with the conversation too but I'm so glad you brought up where you were this Mas going to put you on the spot too because you also got a lot of information about what's happening at the state level for cyber security well so one of the keynote speakers was the head of um New Jersey cyber it's called NJ kick and I can't remember what that second C is but it's NJ like cyber security something integration cell um super interesting uh a little terrifying uh because he is basically explaining the importance of um how us getting into education with the cyber security and data science and one of the things which um I didn't get onto the workshopping but just to mention the program of studies um we're excited about how the program of stud studies is moving to for the high school is moving to a Google site format um Mr hazler is working extremely hard on it it looks amazing and he's going to be adding things even like um videos uh making more of a living document so you can go on and maybe get a testimonial of why you should take this course things like that um to the new additions are cyber security and data science being paired up as a two half year courses together so that we're moving in that direction but it was H very interesting um and as I said terrifying keynote about how important this is um and for students to understand it even students who aren't interested in um going into stem careers or computer science but all of our students should be getting this information so that they because they're active users um yes lot there all right uh Miss Dempsey would you please move the one item under policy motion to approve p07 d25 BL second question discussion okay Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes Miss Dempsey yes Mr gon yes Mr M yes Mr Pompeo is absent M chanon yes Mrs ESO yes and M Mr senic yes motion carries thank you uh Mr G would you please move the item under other uh yeah I'd like to make a motion to move other o- 3-25 second second uh mcweeny second question or discussion not that we could discuss it Mr Gibbs please call the rooll Mr blumer yes Mr cesi yes Ms Dempsey yes Mr G yes Mr M yes Mr Pompeo is absent m M shinton yes Mrs espito yes and Mr s yes motion carries thank you 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 during this portion they may speak on any topic during their five minutes if a member does raise a question please direct the question to the board president state your name and sign in before you begin Donan Sunset Road pumpt and plains uh Finance for the high school music parents group um first I want to also thank U Miss Dempsey for her time into this District uh um I also want to thank uh the board for approving uh the music department trip to New York City um tomorrow night we have uh the Winter concert here it's the concert band concert choir jazz band and then octaves uh all performing and then to book end the winter break when the students come back that Friday January 3D uh there's going to be U The Cabaret night it's going to it's moving back to the cafeteria that's where it started it felt more I don't know City night Clubby sitting at Round Tables you know like real close up to the performers and stuff so moving back over there 7 o'clock uh that's Friday January 3 um Mr Arnold has a theme of um songs either performed by the villains of musicals or songs about the villains so it'll be it's different music the students pick their own the songs they want to do it's all small groups and and he tries to to give them a theme to push them to do new things so we hear different songs that just never come up in in other uh Productions um want to wish uh everyone a safe new year okay thanks thank you I'll say that the uh the choice of the songs especially with the octaves is is crazy at the one uh ceremony that we had the noav perform at they sang Thriller and it was Unreal it was like nothing I've ever heard because when they sing it without music and they they are the music it's they have to do different things beatboxing and really really cool so I understand what you're saying about picking different songs and having it sound so cool very very very cool and I could just chime in too congratulations to your son on the recognition U known him for a long time I know he works very hard at it and I know you've supported him so congratulations on that and um as far as using the cafeteria for the Cabaret I think that's really cool in a conversation with Miss brenzinger I said I want the high school library to feel like a combination between a French cafe and a used bookstore so maybe that's something we can aspire to to make that space cool enough that it can it can host Cabaret as well but I think it's a great call way to ks can feel like they can snap as they applaud have a really outstanding time all right that brings us to unfinished business any board member with unfinished business uh I do um on 1019 I sent an I don't expect an answer tonight uh I inquired about BSN Sports AR agreement that we had um got some responses and I I want to understand the money that goes back to our sports with it um as a board member as we we voted on BS excuse me we voted on BSN as a vendor um being a board member who voted on it turning into a parent that has used it I I just want to understand it a little bit more um because I I you know I stated my my reservations about Not Giving business to local embroidery companies so forth and so on I understand there might be you know rewards going back I just want to understand it more you don't have to answer it now um I just don't I didn't get all that from the email chain yeah and I know I started working on a document for that I don't know if I ever shared it out with the whole board so I'll I'll get something nowk yeah I'll get that pretty quick too any board member with new business board member announcements happy holidays everybody um I would like to thank the admin team and the policy committee for working on the updated homework policy um specifically we had our first homework free weekend um in panic Township over Thanksgiving and though this may not impact necessarily the elementary students or even the PVE students um as a mom of a high school student who is in a very rigorous um program uh this was amazing um I thought it was just phenomenal that there was no worry about homework or studying the whole weekend it was very relaxing I could feel the stress kind of drain um from Liv so I just wanted to to thank everybody for that I thought it was I don't know if anybody else had that feeling or if we're getting any feedback in terms of the homework free weekend but this is one mom and one kid who very much appreciated it you know I was for you Mike I I've been um I was shocked at some of the response I was you know people were thanking me at like softball games about parents parents that were so relieved about it yeah which I don't know if it was an element that I was really processing thinking like oh kids are going to love this right it it was parents that were so thankful for this and I I don't think I've ever really again looked at it in that point of view but um this was this yeah this is yeah I thought it was great I'm really looking forward to definitely Memorial Day weekend I think will be fantastic for them and then I don't know if we can squeeze another one in in the winter I know that you know with AP classes and and theems we have to make sure that certain curriculum is done um however I do think I would love to get some feedback from the kids if they even noticed or if they you know felt like a little I know Olivia definitely um was less stressed and I could she could get some things done at home that she necessarily can't always get done because um she has homework right so I mean she I I just felt like the whole whole weekend we were able to like relax we did shopping we kind of like enjoy like it was just it was nice so very much appreciated um I hope that the district gets some more feedback um or the admin team gets some more positive feedback I also attended the PV choir concert um which was right here in the auditorium which was phenomenal so thank you for moving that here I thought it was fantastic um Miss Bonitas did a phenomenal job um between the kids coming down with the candles in their hands dressed in all black um with the holiday decorations and the Beautiful songs she has really done a lot with the program um I give her a lot of credit because um I don't know how you can get seventh and eighth grade boys and girls and there are a lot of boys and girls in that program she has grown it tremendously um to participate and they really did a nice job I mean I've worked in middle school before I yeah it was it was awesome as a teacher yeah um as as a teacher yes I was um I thought you weren't a real teacher not a real teacher so um it was amazing I it was awesome uh just want to wish everybody a wonderful holiday season especially our students and our staff um have a phenomenal fun last week because it is super fun yet super crazy and hopefully um everybody has a wonderful happy and healthy New Year um I just want to stress how excited I am for this coming Thursday um with the gymnasium School naming um just the fact like I it means a lot like my daughter is going to be playing on the court a half hour after the ceremony um as pths basketball player so it's just uh it's amazing feeling to be able to see the ceremony I think this is like two and a half years in the making um and it's here and then I you know then be in the stands uh to watch the first game and again you know personal as been just having my daughter on that Court just very excited can't can't stress enough anybody else New York City traffic won't be as bad as tonight and I'll be able to get there just stay home from work that day you can stay for the game I go to sleep about 8:30 now my life is just complet completely upside down anybody else hi the same night as the PV choir concert was the PV band concert um we were fortunate that ours ours was first so um but again congratulations to Mr Curtis who also did an amazing job with that um same comments I think it was a it was an amazing experience in terms of local to have the band up on the stage it was a full house in here so it was amazing to see um do need to work out some Logistics in terms of people movement at the end of one and those coming into the next one for next year but nothing that couldn't be sorted out um because I think it was a really great move out of the um PV gym no offense to the PV gym but to have it held here was really very professional and elegant for the students um and hopefully a great experience for them so well done I really appreciate hearing that too because that was something um where we interviewed both misss bonitz and Mr Curtis we talked about is really providing an outstanding feeder program what we have here and to provide something where the students at that at those grade levels can look at and say this is this is what I want to inspire to so even you look you look at tonight how we had the nocs um perform two songs and do so beautifully um and then be able to recognize the band for their U remarkable achievements but it it doesn't just Happ happen in a vacuum there's so many contributors to it and to know that things are happening with our our middle school music program is is really exciting and I think the two of them are are so energized and just they have a vision for what they want to accomplish it sounds like the kids are on board and it certainly sounds like the families are on board to support it so I'm very excited for not just what that means for us for this year but really for many many years moving forward um just like to wish everyone a happy holiday and I look forward to all the great work work we're going to do in 2025 I just got one um this Friday I attended the winter dash for uh North B HSA seems like every year the winter Dash gets just better and better and bigger and bigger um unfortunately this will be the last year because my kids will all be into uh middle school but I just want to say great job to everyone that put that together and uh can't wait to uh see how it grows in the future and want to wish everyone a happy holiday all right uh we do have 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 will be January 6th here at the high school we will reorganize um so at this time I'd ask for a motion to into executive session motion to go into executive session all in favor I any opposed all good night everyone