all right the time is now 7 o'clock I'll call this meeting to order Mr Gibbs will you please read the statement of compliance in compliance with the open public meeting ACT public law 1975 chapter 231 notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the Daily Record and Suburban Trends its agenda has been posted at the appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with the Panic Township Clerk thank you please call the rooll Mr Bloomer here Mr cesi here here M Dempsey here M esito here Mr G here Mr mcweeny here Mr Pompeo absent Mr siic here and Mrs shenon here we have a quorum thank you 11 please stand for flag salute flag United States okay good evening Welcome to our March 13th sorry May 13th Workshop meeting first I want to wish a happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there I hope you had a very relaxing weekend and I hope you got to enjoy some of the good weather that we had on Saturday next I want to congratulate our pths boys golf team for winning the north one group one state sectional Championship last week and I also want to congratulate the pths boys track and field team for winning their conference for the first time since 94 and for winning the njac small school championship for the first time ever uh so great job to all the students and the coaches and the board's looking forward to honoring both teams at a future meeting uh last and on a different note you'll notice that the board is wearing green tonight to promote mental health awareness our board is proud that Panic is stigma free and I want to state again for anyone that might be struggling there is light there is help you are worth it please ask for help if you need it uh that's it for my report and I'll pass it over to Dr poris okay thank you Mr senic um our student representatives are currently preparing for AP exams or stuck at work both of which I support my report's pretty quick as well happy Mother's Day wishes to all mothers grandmothers caregivers and others who do so much to keep us going say thank you to all of you who have dedicated your time energy and talent to the lives of our children and the success of our schools your efforts too often go unnoticed but I hope you had the opportunity to relax and soak in the appreciation you deserve if only for a day though I was advised at home that the event is actually a full weekend holiday we're making great progress in the school year with only 25 more school days left 25 we're wrapping up some very successful spring Sports Seasons enjoying wonderful shows for our music programs at all the schools and winding down testing in regards that last item which is testing I'm particularly proud of how seriously our students have taken their testing experience my favorite thing to hear from administrators and Proctors is that our kids are working really hard effort doesn't guarantee success it just makes it much more likely I'm also very proud of our AP test takers who have about one more week of testing and I'm excited for you to be rewarded for your efforts with high scores and college credits like to call attention to the display at Town Hall of the books published by our longtime friend Dr Sue deell Dr Dell had a distinguished career as a school nurse in this district and has remained with us as a substitute nurse and we are so proud of her for publishing her books and appreciate the much deserved positive press she's receiving also thank you to Margaret for sending me that picture it's really nice finally I'll be attending the njasa conference later this week and we'll be sharing a presentation titled relax refresh and recharge strategies for self-preservation and fun I've learned a great deal from our staff here and I'm excited to share that with my colleagues from around the state as we focus on the importance of mental health not only for staff and students but also for administrators that wraps up my report now I will pass it back to you Mr senic thank you uh Mr Gibbs do you have a report uh yes good evening the 2024 2025 budget was submitted to the county and State offices on April 30th in accordance with State guidelines the 2024 2025 tax levy and tax Schedule the supporting documentation was sent to the town clerk and the town tax assessor on April 30th also in accordance with State guidelines the RFP for an auditor was completed and only one audit firm replied Miss aacha LLC responded with is the one with the top excuse me is one of the top auditing firms in New Jersey for municipalities and public schools Miss Saia LLC is a peer-reviewed uh accounting firm by an outside auditor the RFP for preschool program was completed on May 9th with a response from three providers the preschool program committee will be reviewing the proposals and the final results will be board approved at the June 10th Workshop board meeting the RFP for a school physician will be going out this Friday pending attorney review an up an update to the county excuse me capital projects for the 2024 2025 school year as follows obviously subject to weather conditions the paving at the high school is to start at the end of June and carry through the mid July the ball fields may be started in either July or August and the window the new windows at the high school will not be started until the end of September uh this is just a reminder that we are in the process of uh setting up the October 2024 New Jersey school boards Workshop early registrations so we will need to know how many board members will be attending this year the dates are Monday October 21st to Thursday October 24th and finally the town meeting will be held on Wednesday May 29th at 7M located at the high school auditorium the town meeting will be a zoning Board of adjustment meeting regarding the approval of one school Global's new facility that will be located across the street from the high school thank you thank you all right at this time I'm gonna open the floor for public comment Brian I didn't want to tell Gordon something about the baby the paving in the parking lot um as someone who walks a dog every day past there there's something new that's going on in the parking lot in front of the gym it's holding a lot of water now I don't know what's going on but there is a uh section closest to the street where the Board of Ed van and couple of the other uh trucks park and it's wet all the time or a lot of the time I should say so I'm guessing that these guys know to do the grading and stuff like that but they may not notice it if it's dry for like two weeks or something but it is holding water for a while okay I'll let them know thank you okay uh we'll open it up for public comment now and agenda items only remember the public may speak for a maximum of a period of five minutes by the clock during this portion of the meeting the public may speak on any agenda item only during their five minutes if a member of the public raises a question please direct a question to the board president and state your name and sign in before you begin Miss just go to to the uh the podium and then just just state your name and just sign your name and then you have five minutes to give us your comments thanks and you do not have to say your address got it good evening Board of Education my name is Dominique daos and I'm a junior attending this high school I'm present today regarding the recent news that miss palcio my current Algebra 2 teacher has not been asked back back for next school year under short notice with limited time to take action I formed an email to send to all of Miss P's students and past students um and ask them to share a message regarding this matter within six hours of sending this email I was overwhelmed with over 30 responses bear with me as I briefly excerpt a few Andrew cusmano Miss palcio has not only taught me more than a majority of my teachers I've had in the past but also taught me the value of hard work and how far can get you with her as my teacher for Algebra 2 I've learned quickly and efficiently and I can confidently say that she's the one of one of the strongest mathematicians I've ever had teach me Riley chco coming from a student who's had Miss P for the past three years she is 100% the most important and impactful teach teacher I've ever had every day she has entered the class and greeted by I've been greeted by her positivity and it's something that could put a smile on my face every day Justin griskin as a freshman almost three years ago when I had three different Math teachers none of them were like Miss P she stood out from all of them such a kind-hearted loving and wholesome person she's made my day in other students days when she W when we walked in the room there's something different about her presence she could bring a student that is having a bad day to a great day without a doubt if you ever need needed to talk to someone about something it would it would be her to talk to Alex Nan she is qualified to teach multiple types of math and computer science classes she teaches those with prois and I've heard from some of my friends who have had her for those classes she commands the classroom bringing energy to each of her lessons and keeping the class engaged she gives the students the amount of respect they deserve and we return it by paying attention and doing the homework niala throughout my academic Journey from Elementary School to present time I've struggled with test taking and maintaining focus in class this challenge has persisted across all subjects including math M difficult making it difficult for me to thrive in traditional classroom setting however Miss P has been nothing but understanding helpful and accommodating in my educational experience I've had Miss P for two years in three courses and I strongly believe she has the rare ability to adapt her teaching style to accommodate students like me who learn differently in a class like math or was never strong in my previous years she's made it one of my strongest subjects over time she's had me as a student I'd just like to put in my personal um comment just saying she is my favorite teacher I've ever had and strong uh ma math is not usually my strong suit but she's made me feel confident walking into that class as in past math classes I've cried taking tests and learning I've never had an issue in her class because she made it an environment that one can adapt and thrive in thank you Board of Education thank you great job Mr n if you want to get up and give your comments now instead of waiting till the end okay uh I'll defer the uh response to that to uh Dr poris as uh the board of EDS has not managed the the features yeah and we we can't really comment specifically on staff members whether positive or negative but I will say I'm so impressed with how Dominique put that together as well as how she both read it and also spoke from the heart it's a very meaningful I'm very proud of you for how you spoke there so uh maybe not the message we're hoping to hear but sincerely I am impressed okay that moves us into our action items uh the first items are PMC so I'm going to ask Mr cesi to move the items under PMC I would like to move pmc2 40-24 through PMC 25-24 second any questions or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the rooll yes Mr yes Miss Dy yes Mr gon yes Mr mcweeny yes Mr mpeo is absent Mrs shanton yes Mrs Esposito yes and Mr cic yes motion carries okay next up on the action items is CIS I'd ask Mr maxen to please move CIS yes I'd like to move CIS 95-2 24 through CIS 9824 second any question or discussion Mr Gibbs please call the roll Mr Bloomer yes Mr cesi yes M Dempsey Mr gon yes Mr mweene yes Mr bompeo is absent Mrs shenton yes Mrs esito yes and Mr senic yes motion carries okay that brings us to our Workshop discussion items first up is PMC and there's two items uh an update and a followup with the starttime committee and schedules and a district social media and communication resources update yeah I I'll manage both of those just pulling one quick thing up right first item is about the school start time committee and schedules followup uh we had a parent University last week uh it was presented by Mr Fogo Mr seber Alki Mr hazler and me uh the slide deck uh should be up on the website and publicly available um we are still in the process of tweaking portions of the high school schedule most specifically we're looking to move from 55 minute class period to a 56 minute class period U which does accumulate and it doesn't sound like an upful lot but it definitely helps um we also are going to be filming a podcast tomorrow about the PV schedule and then we'll be doing one later on for the high school schedule uh from what I understand from the parent University the audio didn't work for the first portion of it so people didn't hear all the presentation about the middle school so it's particularly timely that we're going to push something out about the um with the podcast tomorrow about the PV schedule and this is one twoo it's just going to be a pretty basic barebones podcast it'll be Mr sabrowski and I on a zoom call with the um revised schedule as as the visual I've assured Mrs noon we will not need her expert editing work uh this will be pretty pretty low Tech um any questions or concerns about the starttime committee and it's really it's it's just schedules but starttime committee was pivotal in setting that up but don't anything in the board have you got any comments from any of the parents about the uh the uh parent University that that you had or anything like that um outside of the conversations we had that night um we had a number of people come talk to us afterwards on Monday night but I haven't gotten any follow up emails um I feel I feel like we've had I guess a methodical process and we've been pushing out information as we get it and it's probably maddening because I couch everything with this is subject to change because things are subject to change but um I feel like the the communication cycle worked well and I haven't received questions I can't speak for Mr haes or Mr serowski but um I'm pretty quiet on my front and then you're still planning the add it to your uh like weekly updates going forward to let everyone know it's going to happen this as Miss Dempsey had suggested yeah make sure people are in the loop um and the good thing about having u a landing spot on the district website for the work is that if you want to refer back to any of the information it'll be there and um it's very it's pretty easy to find so hopefully that proves to be useful Sam yeah I've had some uh families from your old stomping grounds Brian your town uh telling me how wonderful it is that we are going to the later St time and how they were wishing that their District would be able to figure that out for for them as well as you know what time they start is like 7:25 or something in the morning as well so um good for us and I'll put it out there too that if there are neighboring districts um that are interested in getting any of our information or talking about our process granted my first piece of advice might be to get a consultant don't do it yourself say that in justest but um I'll gladly share about our process um you just have to really expect it's going to take about two or three years to to get to a place where you feel like yep I'm I'm comfortable pushing this out because you don't know how much you don't know until you start peeling back layers and realizing oh this would be great if we could do this but then there are five other dominoes that fall as a consequence but um I feel like we you know we we we kept pretty steady progress moving um it's a lot of work but it's good work okay next item District social media and communication resources yep and I was pulling up uh Matt Shay who was our chief technology officer sent me an update um this afternoon as well he and I were talking about this I think it's just important um that we're really big proponents right now of something that's called cope cope which is an acronym for click once post everywhere and one of the updates that he brought to how our website functions now is when we put announcements on the website it automatically pushes out to Facebook it pushes out to Twitter which is now known as ex um as well as to Instagram and I'm not terribly knowledgeable with Instagram Facebook and Twitter I'm a little more comfortable with but I think it's important to meet families as well as the kids where they are um also we're using YouTube quite a bit more um not only for our board board meetings but also for my podcasts as well as for providing other community news um looking to get an app launched within a month um we're very excited about the progress being made there um our partners at final site which is the hosting agent for our website have worked in helping the steer us towards a really success what we hope is going to be a really successful app launch and we realize way the way that people get information is changing very rapidly and and we need to be able to change with it and you know we see we see the arpa Quantic app and how effective that's been in terms of helping to push out information and pull things together um and you we think it's important that school district provide a direct Resource as well that can actually probably work in tandem with that so a lot of good things going on there um and then also we've made it a practice of pushing out the principal newsletters alog together I have to give Miss noon credit for that um she she makes sure we push out the newsletters via Facebook I think they go out on Twitter as well um and then we also have the school messenger platform which is what I use Whenever I send out messages my weekend updates or if I have an alert if there's a shelter in place at a building or something of that sort that's what we use but um I just want to put it out there that we're we're looking to um use as many tools as we can to reach people where they are and also look at usage and determine if there are things that don't need to be used and I'm excited too because I feel like we stumbled into something great with these podcasts I'd like to really see that that grow and I keep giving Miss noon credit it's great that she's here but um I feel like what my vision was for the podcast was about an eighth of what her vision is for the podcast and I really see this growing and being an effective way to communicate with our our families not only in this District but families really everywhere Dr poris it's all great news with the the cope The Click ones post everywhere I know that um we've historically our website isn't like that and what I mean is that each School potentially posts their own calendar and those types of things and so when there's a change we're changing five calendars versus one maybe when we're done with all this other technology roll out we can look at sort of cleaning that up because I know that we do have lack of lost documents out there that are potentially not the correct version because we think we've replaced the version and there is the correct version somewhere about four clicks down there's the incorrect version again yeah and that that's a good point because you want it to be as efficient as possible and what we found is pretty effective too is is if you have a single link on each website that goes to a unified landing spot um I know when I was a principal I used to feel almost like that was cheating and now I realized that it's actually really smart so if you go to the sjg portion of the website and you click on curriculum instruction C goes to Dr Sheridan's page if you do from the Hillview page if you do from the PV page it all goes to the same spot we have we have it the same way with Hib as well so um we're looking to yeah to to Route things to a central location um this way yeah we don't face the confusion that comes when you have multiple iterations of the same document and you might have version 2.3 and you're like oh this is the most updated one you don't know it's version 2.4 or anything else that' be great thank you okay next on the agenda is CIS for workshop and there's two items the curriculum writing process and an update on that and then an update on the portrait of graduate initiative out of practice um this won't take long so we do have curricular revisions underway the curriculum and instruction team has met with our writers to discuss our expectations and I continue to add content to our Google Classroom that highlights the expectations along with other videos and tools to assist in the writing process the goal uh for us is to have all work sent to you as it's completed so um so that you have time to review each guide our first Target date for approval of guys will be the July 22nd Board of Ed meeting and our second target date will be August 19th um and this will give our teachers time also to review the curriculum before the school year so each guide will be reviewed by the supervisor and me prior to being sent to you um while I would love Perfection I'm looking for progress and looking to include some of the important elements in the curriculum that align to our understanding by Design um but we are we are making progress so I'm happy about that we do have some new courses that are running next year so you'll see some new curriculum coming your way just a couple to emphasize we have a Digi Panthers uh course running at the middle school so it's emphasizing digital communication um and that could could could include some school updates and even podcasting which I think is really cool it's um it's kind of the rage Now everywhere Dr pis has jumped on the train as well so um it really is podcasting has really taken off we're also running an elective called lights camera in literature that will look at books depicted in film all age appropriate of course at the high school we're looking um into sort of an environmental physics mashup course called geophysical science and this is designed to give uh our Juniors and seniors sort of The Best of Both Worlds um some of the environmental science and some of the physics so not a full year of each but just sort of a half year of each we're also running a new elective called True Crime and suspense in media and literature at the high school this should be fun in a kind of a maob sort of way but um I think it should be really really interesting also coming your way will be um some uh grade three four and five curriculum that just has our updated Ela and math standards uh Ela and math have new standards dated 2023 um the New Jersey uh Department of Ed expects that they will fully be implemented this fall we will do our best to have them in our guide but all our teachers have access to what those standards are so um it really is not a lot of significant change for the middle school and the high school it's just kind of taking what used to be companion standards and just kind of scrunching them in so it's not dramatically um different um and last thing um that you'll see in our curriculum you'll start to see um some more uniformity here is where there's a section of our stage one learning plan which is our long-term transfer goals and our long-term transfer goals are talking about the articulated skills and knowledge that we expect our students to have uh K through 12 and um what they will graduate with and this really does fall in line with the goals and the objectives of the portrait of a graduate which is being spare headed by Daniel o'keef our new social studies and World Language and business supervisor and a segue to Dr poris yeah thank you Dr Sheridan um and as Dr Sheridan said uh Dr AEF has been instrumental in the progress we making with the portrait of a graduate project um it's worth noting he's been a member of our team for about four and a half months and he's already made a tremendous Headway he's also picked up a nickname because his initials are identical to those of depth of knowledge so the depth of knowledge is certainly being applied here um but just want to give a quick update there that um he's working really closely with committee to generate surveys that can be pushed out to the community to the staff as well as to students um and we're going to work with the committee at our meeting on Wednesday May 22nd that's going to take place at 6 clock I believe that one is exclusively online so expect a zoom link from Dr O'Keefe if you have not already received one um and we're going to look to review the the survey information with the the committee and and talk about what it is we're trying to tease out of this process um and then we are going to look to provide consistent updates on this process through our web platform as well um we're thinking about finding the best spot to Nest the information we don't know if it should go under the superintendent page that I know gets lot of traffic um or if it's better placed in the about page for the district I suspect the about might be the better Landing place um but this is something we want to make sure that we get real Community Buy in and that this doesn't end up being just something where you put up some pretty posters and say oh look these are the things our kids can do we want it to really reflect what we want our kids to be able to know to be able to do to be able to apply um and I think this is one that we we thought it was really good idea and then as we've gotten into it more we're realizing it's a great idea it's just instead of being a two-year District goal this is a three-year District yeah yeah it's a great way to just take everything that we do and really boil it down into these particular things that we want our graduates to be able to do and to know um and that will really drive and influence everything that we do in the building all our curriculum our resources that we purchase um the instruction that we're supporting everything yeah and that was uh we had a meeting this is Dr Keefe Mr hazler and and me about a month back with Dr Murphy who used to be the superintendent of Ramsey and they they they launched one of the first portrait of graduate projects in New Jersey and and did I I gotta say Sensational job with it but he was telling us your your challenge isn't developing the portrait that's the easy part the challenge is how are you going to make sure that it works its way into your curriculum how is it going to influence what happens in kindergarten classroom these are Big questions and um the answer I kept giving them was let me get back to you on that but that that's the answer you're supposed to be giving at this point but it's pretty exciting to think that we can generate with community support and staff input a unified statement of this is what we want our kids to be able to do at age 18 and at ages five and six and obviously all points in between these are these are the attributes that they're going to develop to ensure that we can get them to that point so that when when they graduate from our high school they're they're going to be able to do things whether and apply that whether it be in college the workforce the military um anywhere but their parents basement we want them to be able to get out in the world perform and be really confident yeah something that kept coming up in my head and kind of you you joted it Loose Dr Sheran was something from a from a from a book I read uh Seven Habits of Highly Effective People begin with the end in mind yeah and it's like that's exactly what you're doing this is what we want to end with the product of the school system and then how do you work backwards and incorporate that into everything so that way the end product is what you're expecting to be you know so it's it sounds like it could be something that really spreads out and gets into everything so that's yeah that's a great thing thanks and then one thing I just want to make a note of too from uh one of the items obviously they're not numbered because they're action items for the next meeting but there is uh an item for the fbaa competition and it erroneously lists the cost of District as0 do we'll make sure for the action agenda that's posted for the second meeting in May that that's corrected it's not it's not zero dollars to the district it's more than zero those two things I I have a question so um going back to the the curriculum writing um I was so excited to see Digi Panthers when I you know got the note about enrolling my child for her elective um um it looks fantastic I'm very curious what numbers for that look like and I say that because my child would much rather I think my opinion have preferred to have taken that class however she elected to stay in ban because she wants to go to Dorney Park so I'm I'm just curious like a are are children actually going to take this or B do we look at that Dorney Park experience and perhaps change that criteria yeah I I think that's that's well known it's well known that that's that it's the reward for taking the class all year that's great but what if I want to take an art class why don't I get to go so yeah well I can certainly um call Mr seosi and see where they are now with the numbers I'm not sure if their scheduling has been completely finished yet um I can certainly share with him the concerns I think there are some kids out there who can go to Dorney Park at a different time I wish the three students hadn't left could have asked them agree with you I I totally agree with you yeah okay I'm just this is this is where we are with middle schoolers so um and they want to go with their friends because it's a fun day and they'll go together anything else I have a separate question on CIS items that are on the next agenda so um for the approval of providers I noticed in backup we had a lot of uh we had like some of the vendors and rate sheets and things like that there seemed to be a lot of vendors for language services and I felt is that has that always been the case or are these new I don't I don't think we got a whole lot of info of like why certain things were in backup like translation services yeah yeah okay so we've had quite a quite a number of um multilanguage Learners yeah come into the district and there are times where we would need to reach out to provide translation for those students in a in a wide array of things um it certainly most of that I think is also driven from student services too so it may be in in conversation with that that's something that we could follow up with um Miss Bronco about yeah it's fine it's just it's they seemed like outside of what we are typically or at least in me I didn't remember seeing that many of them in the past yeah so we use translators in my district in my district and it it is sometimes difficult to find translators yeah um even you know you think it' be really easy to find a um spanishs speaking translator to attend a meeting that's not always the case yeah so I think it's probably just I'm just assuming it's probably just a variety because it it is you would think it's easy but it's actually really hard to get translators so we have to engage with several different providers in order to needs and those needs are increasing it sounds like yeah I I was in a meeting this afternoon with um representatives from several districts across uh North Jersey with Sussex uh obious in Mars County and and one of the topics that came up was are how everybody's seeing a real um spike in the number of multilanguage Learners that that they have right and critical to that and it's great and we we we we love having the diversity and we certainly Embrace that but there are also challenges logistically of finding a sufficient number of translators and and I say I'm glad to hear that your District's struggling with it as well but it's it's something that it's yeah when many districts are looking for the same product that product becomes much more scarce sure yeah yeah because you have yeah right okay great thank you all right moving on to FFA there's six items under FFA results of the RFP for the school auditor lunch prices a new insurance broker of record new color copiers to replace the small color printers a board office facility update and additional classroom space okay start with the uh the RFP for the the auditor as I mentioned earlier we only had one uh response which is our current auditor and uh they are excellent I work with them for a number of years number of Auditors in their firms and both Kathy mantel and also Brian Co are excellent Auditors so I'm very glad that they're back uh any questions on the order no nope next one I have is lunch prices the lunch prices are going to go up they're going to go up from $44.50 per meal to $4.75 per meal which represents a 6% increase it is still far lower than what we were charged the beginning of this uh school year with chells but um the 6% increase is due to the fact that the rights and costs of food and transportation there any questions to that no I look through them I mean not everything is going up and when it is going up it's going up by like a quarter or less yeah some snacks and then the full lunch the pizza was staying the same across the board so that's good that's a good thing Okay the third item I have is a new insurance broker of record um Lee Nestle will be our new insurance broker of record with cus uh currently we have Deborah jetto and she is good but I've worked with Lee for a number of years and he's excellent his response time is much faster than Deborah and I feel the the need for the change is is a good one there's no cost to the district for the change it's still through our current insurance carriers uh so there is no cost to this change and it's just a matter of preference as to who you're working with any questions on that no okay the uh new color copy to replace uh color printers uh we are setting up a lease for new color copiers it's going to be five color copiers and one black and white each color copier will be in a school um and in the media center and will'll be replacing um 14 um printers desktop printers which are outdated they're over 15 years old it's costing us more money to get them repaired than it is to keep them in service so that's why we went through the need of going through this process is there any question with there what what is the cost of a color copier now just we're leasing right it's a56 a month for five five years each no it's for all of them oh for all yes okay and then part of the managed print solutions is we pay by the page so we get charged a set rate for the cost to print a page like you print a page in black and white pretty sure it's a penny right and then color is and I I don't have the number right in front of me I think it's eight cents um comparatively speaking if if you're if you're printing from a desktop color printer considering all costs you're probably paying about 40 cents a page sure so it's it's a much more cost efficient and what we what we've seen with those desktop is that um they're they're obsolete so Gordon are are you hoping that this is the last time we'll be leasing anything like this or do you think these are going to be around for another 15 20 years it depends on the amount of usage they get but I would I would hope they'll be around for the next 15 20 years what I'm saying you think people are still gonna be printing things 1520 years perhaps not yeah that's open so Sam I had asked uh Gordon about this um because copers are just it's just an expensive and and and it's just an expensive thing no matter what um we rent them for our construction trailers and it's just crazy how much they cost throughout a construction job which only two years but either way Gordon provided me with the the backup that shows that going one way with the printers cost x amount of dollars then going the way that we're going now with renting the copiers um is just simply less so over the long run it's the respon companies are leasing them now it doesn't really make sense to purchase anything at this point plus something that comes as a benefit too and correct me from wrong it seems like there's more control over who's using the copers with this new Arrangement because you had no control before or less control is that correct that's correct cool Services quicker too which is really helpful STS yeah but if you want to antagonize a school staff sham The copier oh yeah any other questions regarding the pop yeah Margaret caught me doing a jam and scram last week and still hasn't forgiven me now the only thing I'd like to say is I appreciate you give me the backup Gordon quickly so uh thank you you're welcome the next item is the board office facility update uh the lease for the board office is with the uh United States Post Office which is up on January 2025 um I'm trying to get a hold of someone down at the United States Post Office in Washington DC which is next to imposs um but I have gotten a name and a phone number today which I was totally shocked and uh they're going to be working on it with us so hopefully I'll have a better report in the next meeting yeah maybe a letter send them a letter yeah return at the same time that was great address unfound signature guaranteed that have postmaster any questions regarding that so we're not looking to move we're just looking to stay in that spot uh it depends I have to hear what they want to do do they want to buy the property right now the the building sitting on the property is their building it's it's a strange situation the property is the school's property they're paying us $50,000 change per year to use our property they're what they have to do is either tell us they want to buy it they want to continue leasing it or they're going to walk away I'm hoping they'll walk away I doubt they will but I have to talk to somebody to get that right because they would have to have someplace else to go right but now um and if if if it's top secret and I'm not allowed to ask it then tell me but are we allowed to then renegotiate a new price for what they're paying us oh absolutely that's all part of the yeah okay because I mean 30 years ago $50,000 you know a year was nothing it was on a sliding scale so we'll have a new sliding scale right yeah so it there were um six different fiveyear increments and and it and it went up each year okay and just to about the space that we're using right now it's it's a it's a good location but it was originally designated to be a storage space right and and it shows and how this I mean our our guys have done a really nice job retrofitting it as much as they can sure but it's uh I would say it's definitely outfitted to be a storage space in 1985 not a modern Works Space in 2024 is that um it's got to be at least a half acre right I think it's more than that but part of the property is unbuildable it's permeated property has to be used for runoff okay so we can build on the lower section and if you're familiar with the in front of the building is fine but then there's a lower section to the left right you cannot build there the town has already told us that we we looked into okay all right cool and and then people don't generally go back there but there is a good siiz parking lot behind us and then also a plot of land there any other questions on property no okay the last item I have is additional classroom space um Miss Bronco and I are looking into the possibility of look of expanding the preschool program we have 25 Stu potential students on a waiting list uh right now I'm looking at the Lutheran Church on Panic Turnpike um I'm hopefully going to be meeting with them this week their president of their Council has has said that she would meet with us so uh the montor school is now out of there so now it gives us the opportunity to move in if if possible so that's that's coming down the pipe that's next to Tavern five yeah yeah your Tavern five that one I'm sorry your Tavern five oh yes left hand side any other questions to that no okay thank you okay thank you next up is policy uh three items to talk about 2300 homework 2361 student acceptable use of computer and internet social media networkcomputer and resources and three policy revision process summary so I believe most of these are things that are Works still in progress and so I'm going to turn it over to Dr poris for some updates thank you Miss Dy yeah the first one just a quick update um about 2300 I know we'd spoken about it but I just wanted to put out there that this is going to be part of our day day one of our admin Retreat is looking at at this and any other relevant policies but um what we have on the books right now is is a little more philosophical than it is practical and what I want to really talk to the team about is what what would they recommend to the committee the policy committee about what we do need to have in there um so day one of the retreat is notoriously not that much fun um it's the part that I organize and I'm not trying to be funny there true Beth does the fun part on day two um but this is something we want to look at and see like how much do we really want to set in stone one thing I I do want to eliminate is I don't like the 5% ruled about um saying that homework has to be worth 5% of the grade there should be a little more flexibility there but um we have started to look at it but made no progress because it's kind of Fallen by the wayside in the face of a lot of other I'll call them more pressing things and that Retreat is in July yeah I think it's July 17 and 18 and then that's where we start working on the district goals and um a lot of work gets done over the course of those two days and and I think that this can get looped into it as well but that said too I know we're looking to get admin input and then bring it to the committee and then I think we should get staff input as well um but I don't want any board members to feel like you have to wait until we come up with something for you if there are things that you think are really important send them send them right my way obviously um CC Megan on them because I think that that can help to inform the conversation as well yeah and it's kind of uh far adjacent to homework but um we had done work last summer to integrate artificial intelligence into one of the policies and so like I think the plagiarism policy or something along those lines and that might be worth if you're going to look at policies that affect academics um a revisit just to kind of get input on is the way we worded it what's actually useful in practice now that it's you know been in students lives for a full Academic Year and continually increasing in presence um I mean we're seeing this it's just exploding in higher ed and and ubiquitous and I'm sure in different ways here as well yeah and I I think when even when we were approving that and it is tucked into our plagiarism policy we were aware that whatever we approved by the time it got through a second reading and approved was probably going to be a little bit out of date and over the course of a year so much changes I was even at a conference back in February and the presenter was talking about AI they said guys something new dropped today it was it was like a just after lunch presentation and he was talking about something that just dropped at n9ine o'clock that morning and it was remarkable about AI generated artwork and yeah the capabilities remarkable I think that's definitely worth revisiting though all right then the the second one um isn't isn't quite so exciting that's the student acceptable use of computer and internet social media networking computers and resources uh this is something that uh Matt Shay recommended that we look at reviewing every year um to ensure that we are sipa compliant um our last our last review and adoption was July 2020 which is good um he was recommending that we we look to do this annually um something I'll just just quick summarize it's three-page policy it does identify disciplinary implications for people who misuse the um Network as well as the devices um it also talks about what are considered inappropriate activities it kind of refers back to its own definition which is earlier um there's something I really like on page two of this policy which focuses directly on um students not permitted to do the following it says engage in other activities that do not Advance the educational purpose for which computer networks Computing devices are provided um that that's really important um there's information in the Internet safety and protection section of the policy that's actually using legal definitions that um cover profanity and pornography but it's uh it's important that we identify that we do not want our students engaging in looking up that kind of stuff and then one other thing that's on page three that's pretty important to note is um that the school district will certify on an annual basis that the schools including media centers libraries and District are in compliance with the children's internet protection act um which we refer to as sipa so um this one I think will be a Light review um and just to just to ensure bless you that everything we have in there again is CPA complying as we get new resources into the district they do have to have that stamp of approval so um it's not like the wild west of internet resources from say 10 15 years ago when you would get offered you know a month free of using a certain program like great sign me up for that we we've cut back on that considerably because we want to make sure that we're aware of where our information is going um what are the tentacles connected to any of these programs um and so anyway just to to get back into this it's a good policy to look at there's not much action that needs to happen but just to make sure that we're on top of it I think it's a great point though because this stuff changes like almost you know daily it seems and making sure that our policy is up to date with the most advanced you know rules regulations laws everything specifically to protect our kids from I mean you see some of the stuff that comes across um in these uh notifications of police reports of and it's like it's just crazy so whatever we can do to protect the kids whatever we can do to protect our networks I'm all in favor of it yeah and it's really interesting I mean you you you try to follow the spirit of the law as opposed to the you know complete letter of the law when you're interpreting policy and and other legal matters but it's gotten to be so complicated like even when we were looking at the plagiarism policy um it was talking about when when you plagiarize from another person's work well if you're using AI it's not another person's work there there's no person behind it so there there are things that we we haven't thought of because we really couldn't think of because I guess they were in the realm of Science Fiction and so yeah to to be to be on top of this on an annual basis I think it's a very good idea I appreciate that uh that Mr Shay brought that to my attention all right and then finally um I just wanted to put it out there as a matter of public record our policy revision process I think it is important for people to know that um we we do take this incredibly seriously most of what we get comes from our policy provider which is Strauss Esme they are the leader in the state um they they have a legal background so they're aware of how to craft a lot of these but um I'll get about three or four policy updates um from Strauss asme I think they get paid by the page because they tend to be quite quite Hefty um but once I get those I'll I'll mark them up and share that with Miss Dempsey who is our policy chair um we will note any changes that we see in it and she and I will have a pretty lengthy meeting reviewing all the possible changes and what are the implications what are the red flags what are the things that don't necessarily apply to us then we'll meet with the committee um give them the summary give them an opportunity to ask questions and then present it uh for the board approval process which is sometimes be discussion generally it goes straight to First reading pass through first reading goes to Second reading and then it becomes a matter of policy so that's that's our most common practice if I missed any details there no I think that makes sense I mean sometimes the stra SMA packets are so um Bland like it's a lot of revisions that are just statutory language and stuff and in that case we might bypass the full committee meeting and then just do it as the workshop discussion um but that's typically we'll go through and see if there's things that we need to dig into a little deeper with a committee before bringing it to the full Workshop discussion but otherwise they usually do come to Workshop yep yeah and and it's the March update that we received was exactly that I think it was about 120 pages and when you and I met we were just pretty much saying this is all just legal e and just minor minor tweaks so it didn't warrant a committee meeting um and then there are two other possibilities too for when we enter the policy revision process um we're we're pretty consistently looking at what hasn't been reviewed in the past 10 years um and then or any the part of a cycle and we review if there are changes needed sometimes we'll look at something and it'll be fine it'll cover all that needs to be covered um other times we'll find that there are subtle refinements that have to take place and that will bring through a committee process as well and then um finally it also does happen that we'll recognize through practice that um a policy might have some type of deficiency uh this happens sometimes when I'm working with the admin team and will'll constantly refer back to policy as our as our reference point because policy both protects you and guides you and we'll realize there's something here that doesn't quite work or that's not worded as well as it could be or that doesn't consider this possible ramification or this possible loophole so um we'll look at how we can update the language for that I know last year we were looking at the student smoking policy especially as it applied to vaping uh we made some revisions on that and we'll we'll continue doing that and I actually really like it when um the admin team brings these to my attention because it shows that they're paying close attention to policy and understanding why it's important so that making revisions to the policy though does not hold true for mandated policies is that correct if there's something that comes down from the state and it's a mandated policy are we allowed to change the language in it change no yeah um I believe there have been some policies we looked at where we could add local practice or philosophy or guidance um but we would definitely bring that through legal counsel before doing so um so yeah we can't change like you were saying the spirit of the law essentially in those mandated policies and just decide well no we're not going to abide by that particular statute um I'm trying to think of an example where we have but there's certain circumstances where we could go like a step further if we wanted to in terms of our local policy um or how we're dealing with it in practice and for those they might give us an option and they'll say that you can either give like a 10day window or or a one month window and I wish that's a great question because I I wish I could think of like a really good concrete example but the the mandated ones we we we generally don't touch um because they're they're set up they're crafted by attorneys to meet the standards of not only what's expected in statute and code but also and I found this out recently they actually look at how um civil rights um legal interpretations could be influenced or influence that policy and they try to also make sure that they're positioning a district so that it's not going to run a foul of of a lawsuit it's a terribly worded answer but hope the hope the spirit of what I'm trying to say came through well trying to keep you out of trouble that's that's pretty much it yeah it's yeah and that's what I said before it's meant to provide guidance but also really to protect the district so I can give you a small example so we have policy 2200 which is our curriculum content um and I'm trying to remember the exact oh we put a note in it because we did make a change but the we didn't like remove something that is mandated um we made changes we made the changes to one policy instead of another policy because it just like made more sense and again we ran that through Council and it made sense so I think it had to do with the placement of like the health and physical education language in that policy versus in a different policy but we still have it on the books and in policy as mandated thank you okay that brings us to our second opportunity for public comment this time on any comment or any topic uh members of the public may speak for five minutes during the clock during this portion of the meeting and again you can speak toing speak to any topic and if you want to raise a question please direct it to the board president which is me state your name and sign in before you begin uh John naan Sunset Road Pompton Plains um I'm here at Finance for the high school uh music parents uh on March 23rd we have uh the spring mus Department concert coming up it's going to be uh the last show uh for Bruno mayoria he's the longest serving staff member in the in the music department here so I'm sure there'll be teers not just nine but others and if you want to come out and see him wish him well on his uh his his next next phase um we can do that I'd like to thank um the Friends of the panic Library they invited a couple of our student ensembles to perform with the Bloomingdale big band here last Friday they had a jazz concert um and uh they both groups seem to enjoy each other there were a lot more glasses on this side of the stage than that side of the stage so the music must have been written real small on this side but uh but it was good everyone had a good time a lot of people from the community came out and got to see our kids too uh hold their own so to speak uh I want to thank um the the district for helping out with Transportation our marching band got uh their first invite for a paid gig they're gonna go out to haacon Flag Day Parade on June 15 so they were invited they got offered money to come play in their parade so the I mean would have broke even if they had to paid for their own transportation so the district looks like they're going to pick up that end for us so so that's good they get uh to make a little money uh to help fund their group uh they also had their car wash this past weekend and that's my favorite fundraiser because they do 95% of the work I like that and um also on the transportation thing we just got guess the official word the family that has been doing the marching band transportation for the last eight seasons they're not going to be in the music department anymore so we have not figured out what our solution is going to be I don't know if a conversation maybe not right now but right after the school year should start with the band director on the uh quantity of things he's moving uh to his competitions just to to start to help us brainstorm solutions to get them there um even if like we're trying to find maybe people who are willing to to do the the driving with the truck with the trailer but if people don't own one they're not as typically comfortable driving them and then you end up at a school with 3,000 kids and you that's not the place to learn I would say um so I just wanted to put that that out there uh as well because we don't have an answer yet and then uh just as a community member I'd like to thank uh the administration for their prepared statements for possible costs to the district with the the the property across the street if they do build a school there what types of of things we can expect to possibly be taking on as a as a community to assist them them that school those students and then uh also personally as someone who's needed mental health care in the past it's great to see those shirts up there keep the conversation open well s thank you I'm going to the uh the concert on the 23rd after Beauty and the Beast I can't wait because I know it's going to be phenomenal and uh on Saturday I got my car washed um Blown Away by like the professionalism of I thought I was going to professional Car Wash there's cone set up there's two lanes of traffic there's people collecting money over here there's you know it was just it was really and then the kids my car looks great so I got home I got in trouble because I took my car not my wife's car um so yeah really good job yeah did you tip Brian did you tip dude I 15 20 25% which one was it I I tipped like four times the cost of the wash right so professional move on the tip amateur move on which car you brought so we we'll look to keep getting better with that um quick thing about the concert on May 23rd um we did get um something I I received something from Mr strier that I sent forth to the to the board but also I'm going to include that in my Friday newsletter um which I know we we've spoken about people read that um I exactly it's quite well received um I'm so happy to hear the jazz concert went well and it's very difficult to play Chaz um because there's so much improvisation while staying true to the form and do it in in the company of some really season vets is pretty impressive for our kids get about the glasses part as well I'm so happy to hear about the the kids being able to get a paid gig um as their deao talent agent I'm really excited about what could be the implications for me with my new that that that's really great and so happy to hear that quality is getting recognized uh great news about the car wash fundraiser uh the transportation I know we've talked about looking into um the cost of rental trucks which can be challenging to drive and you were talking about that but um we'll definitely work together try to find Solutions and or volunteers um and I know people people in this community Step Up remarkably uh and then um I understand obviously wasn't here for it but I understand Mr senic did a great job with the prepared statement and then uh I am really happy and proud to the the board's commitment to metal health supports and really as as you said in your opening comments and you echoed it Mr Nason like keep conversations going and and I think that that's something that's so important for where we are um as Society right now is that there is a greater degree of openness and with openness you see changes and you see greater levels of support so it's important to Echo that okay that brings us to unfinished business any board member have any unfinished business I do um so just an update on what we're anticipating for a site tour um we've been been delayed a few times but we're looking to have our pths site tour for the board uh on June 26 and from there we will what I want to do is I want to survey the board to see exactly what other aspects of the other buildings may want to be looked at um it's going to be difficult to see uh all the buildings um especially over the summer with different travel so if there's any specific things we can then add a second date with Dwight uh Dwight's kind of spread thin right now so uh we're just trying to that's why we're kind of punting it a little bit down down the way but again June or June yes June 26 will be before our meeting there's a board meeting that night we will do this building um oh then why you did say the 20 so so it's 24th right either way be here um so it is before our meeting so let's go with the 24th and I'll Redline Dr Porter's [Laughter] email anybody else any new business board member announcements I do as well uh let me open it so on what was it May 2nd attended the um Mars County njsba meeting in at Roxbury High School uh it was a whole to-do it was the first one I've been to in person in a long time and it was a great dinner ahead of time uh there was probably 30 students welcoming you escorting you to your table serving you food um and it was a it was really well organized a lot of uh familiar faces from the from the the county that you see at at school boards in Atlantic City um the reason for attendance was uh that many of the board members sitting at this table were honored with their individual certifications which was really exciting um p definitely had the majority of people being honored um out of everybody getting all the levels new board certified um certified board leader certified board member Master board member so it was really great to see and here uh I was with um Miss Dempsey and uh Mr senic but what got me was uh all the scholarships and um awards that were handed out uh what was amazing to see what was was the unsung heroes awards that they they hand out and I wanted to know more about what goes into an unsung hero the definition of it and it can me it's it's broad but it's you know those students that the recognition maybe is not easily put in a newsletter or on the morning announcements or on social media it's one it's it's kids that are recognized for doing things that made their school better um whether it was helping that single student having a hard time whether it's uh helping that student that just came to the country and doesn't speak English at this moment and really needed somebody to lean on uh so the stories were just amazing and it's also students that defied odds by by going through some hardships whether it's losing a sibling at a young age or Lo or a parent so it was just heartwarming it was great uh Sheriff Ganon a Mars County Sheriff was there to um give these uh uh Awards out and again it was just very touching and it was really good to to be there and hear it all and he's got free parking and he's got free parking that he mentioned many times as he invited people to marwn yeah anybody else yeah so um as Mr Bloomer mentioned I also attended the uh Mars County school board's recognition ceremony it was a great night um so many wonderful students that were honored and then also board members who received a lot of Honor they definitely were saying Panic correctly by the end of the night because they had to say it so many times so that was exciting um and I just wanted to um say thank you to Mr Bloomer and the rest of the board for um nominating me for the Excellence in boardmy award I really appreciate that um acknowledgement of the work that I've been doing on the board um and it was uh it was very exciting to be there among the nominees so I thank you for that oh there is an added part uh whether Dr por notices or not we are hosting the next one yeah we may have AG in the process of wait what yeah we were we were told this um at the end saying we're coming to you guys in the fall so uh it was Charlene's idea yeah Charlene's idea yes so um Dr poris and I have been communicating with Robert Sarah yeah and bernardet and yeah is it October it's October and I wasn't aware that we had to ensure free parking for Sheriff Canon but we can accommodate and pizza pza we're already in touch with pom Tony and we're gonna make sure that uh when people exit their experience here they gonna say wow high quality experience all right so I got a couple uh first is CSA valuation so it's due I sent it out to everyone yesterday your uh EV valuations are due on the 3 and then we will meet on June 10th in exec to discuss the evaluations as a board and then we will meet again on June 24th in exec with uh Dr poris to present our evaluation uh to be in compliance with the July first dat uh the other thing is I was also at that ceremony with uh Mr Bloomer and miss miss Dempsey was uh phenomenal I remember the one uh the guy that was announcing all the awards he said and and and once again another person from BL so I mean uh yeah we're definitely you know pushing the envelope forward so and and I I agree with you Mr Bloomer the stories were really cool uh really really good night um and then the last thing I had was on 5'9 I attended the veterans wall committee and at that meeting we adopted laws and discussed plans for a pre-construction meeting with the contractors which is going to happen soon and when I say soon I mean by the end of May um and the the generosity that we're with witnessing with the community whether it's people just straight up giving money or providing some kind of in kind donation of Labor or materials to construct the project is really just blowing me away um and I can't wait to get started in the near future and it's going to be a great project um I attended the PV choir and band concert on the 9th um it was awesome I felt it was it was very interactive it it was just um it was great I thought it was really great the kids did a nice job the staff was phenomenal um really excited about the way that the music program at PB is going I totally agree with uh um Danielle I was incredibly impressed both of the kids and the new staff I know they have not been there very long I know Middle School is tough group of kids seventh and eighth grade is tougher than the sixth graders which I'm going to see tomorrow and I'm really excited about um but it was incredibly impressive and the art show too okay we do not have reason to move into executive session tonight so we will adjourn our next meeting is going to be Tuesday May 28th here at the high school um is there a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I any opposed good night everyone