##VIDEO ID:9ww0jbwTkC0## hope oh e e e e e e evening everyone uh this meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act and is open to the media and Public Notices were duly posted and the meeting was advertised in the Hun County Democrat and Courier News formal action may be taken I don't think I said welcome everyone to the meeting I missed that I apologize so may we get a roll call please M here M Fury here here Ryan here stand for the United States good evening everyone uh first and foremost uh welcome back uh to school for the kickoff of the 242 five school year um it's great to be here and to give you uh two updates in my superintendent report first is um an update on the opening of schools and how we started the school year and then I will also talk about District goals uh when I'm finished talking about District goals I'll introduce Patty Reese from the New Jersey school boards Association who will help the board facilitate a discussion falling around board HS for the year as well so it's a night of kind of Celebration looking toward the year and um thinking about our goals for the year uh so First the full first day of school update we are in day four we just completed day four of school um so we're almost a weekend um and all has gone uh really well uh with the opening of school so just you know enrollment by numbers um here are our current enrollment numbers all students including our preschool students both in District as well as preschool students at our provider locations our total en enrollment as of when I took this snapshot of enrollment was 1,568 students uh we projected Jason and I when we did our budget presentation with the board back in March uh 1,574 I think this is the closest estimate of student enrollment we had ever had we eight students off um so we anticipated um 1,574 we just eight students short of what we thought our total would be including preschool um enrollment by grade level I just wanted to point this out because I noticed a trend if you take a look for the past couple of years um if you look at first and second grade you can see that our enrollment in grades one and two uh We've noticed has averaged out a little bit lower than total grade enrollment for the past couple years this is the first year in three years that our enrollment in kindergarten has actually exceeded for the first time in a couple of years exceeded our first grade and our second grade enrollment anecdotally folks might be moving into town preschool may have drawn some folks into uh Readington Township but our kindergarten enrollment our kindergarten enrollment being 151 um is good news it shows that one nothing and world might be creeping up a little bit by you know 10 or 20 students per grade level um if nothing else it's at least relatively stable I me our our en numbers by grade level are anywhere between you know 135 to fourth grade which is our largest class 164 so having that kind of consistent enrollment year after year is good news for the district that provides consistency in programming um in the future and we'll have to watch uh kindergarten enrollment um over the course of the next couple years to see if we are seeing a little bit of a 10 to 20 student boost in enrollment uh for kindergarten coming up every year um so that's just enrollment for us to start the school year all good news class sizes in the Elementary grades are ranging anywhere between 16 students to 20 students um fourth grade and fifth grade are around 20 to 22 um and then the Middle School class sizes are are pretty low because we've had a little bit of a dip in RMS enrollment overall um and we've maintained our staffing up there so class sies are in the teens to mid 20s low 20s up in the Middle School depending on the subject you know Health social study science classes are a little bit larger some language arts classes math classes nice and low um so we kicked off the year last week on Tuesday um welcoming back our staff uh we have a big celebration in the H Brook School cafeteria um Mrs Fury was there for some time for breakfast gy was there as well and Mrs wolf and Mrs py state for uh our big welcome back with the staff um we there were greetings from myself um from Mrs wolf and then from Mrs Vance as well uh there were introductions of new staff so we got to know everyone and then there were honors and awards given out at that day as well um some of the pictures the bottom left is just um Mrs pry getting everybody ready uh for our big celebration in the middle um I addressed the staff and Mrs wolf addressed the staff as well um both were really well received Mrs wolf I received some great compliments and some feedback from the staff on your welcome REM they really appreciate it having you there so thank you for it was great um and then all the way over to the right hand side there's a picture of Jason with Marcy Cole our transportation supervisor Marcy was uh given an award for 30 years of service to the district uh for this year which is fantastic um it was a great welcome back for the staff had two days of inservice last week to prepare for our students and then students came on uh Thursday welcome this was uh some preschool classrooms over at Barry patch uh just a couple of uh pictures all of our classrooms are uniform um across the district as well as our private providers with the same materials and manipulates for our preschool students but this is just a snapshot of preschool um these are this is a welcome back of our tip toop tigers um Dr Higgins as well as students in front of the welcome back sign on the first day of school um this is Cubby at White House School welcoming our Cubs of character back um the first day of school was kind of like a party style there was a music playing there was a big I don't you know how they Happ the carlots you know the big man with the Wiggles and everything like that he was there and cubby was there and the HSA provided a great welcome back to school Arch uh for the opening the main doors the front doors of school um this is Dr Moss and the Bobcat um we're having a big year in holor this year where uh Dr Moss and the staff are be celebrating 25 years of holor willo be open uh so we started the year with a a donated 25y year Mills for H school and this is the Viking welcome welcoming RMS Vikings back to school um all are valuable Vikings and uh we were looking forward to a great year at the Middle School uh and to top off our first day of school our bus drivers have a ton of reason to celebrate outside White House school they were dancing to the music um and uh they we the transportation department uh worked I have to say put this in here because the transportation department has worked tirelessly over the past couple of days ironing out all the transportation um challenges I'll say that we've had over the the past couple of days between pre uh transporting now over 100 preschoolers which is a lot to get on and off buses um every day to road closures to um some bus drivers choosing not to accept employment on first day of school um we had a lot of we had a lot to manage with the transportation parment but they did it in good strive um so we've had a very very successful welcome back um you may see some new signage around the district as well um you know we up here on this campus between the Middle School and Hook school um I noticed this quite a bit when we have to interview candidates or guests that are coming to the board offices they almost always call my secretary jorine from the back parking lot over at the middle school wondering where in the world the board office is we've put some signage out to make it more clear where the middle school is where the holber school is that offices can be located in some great school spirit with uh the banners that are kind of in on the light PS um you know we know I was talking the facilities manager our foreman um anytime they go to a facilities manager conference they always talk about how like kids and teachers feel proud of the school that they attend it raises student achievement having signs and excitement and Banners to show some school pride is really important for school so we did we have some new signs for the start of the school year which which are great so this is just a quick snapshot of um the beginning of the school year um before I move on to goals I'd like to turn it over and ask the th if you have any questions or comments about our open I just comment the welcome back it's fantastic there's so much enthusiasm from the staff it's really such an awesome event and so I just want to say great job thanks for doing that because feel like it's I don't know if it's the only event that brings the whole staff together like that just kick off a year it's really nice very nice so it seems like everyone feels appreciated really good atmosphere we've always had a great we don't get this that often we we've always done great welcome back um and it's taken a little bit of a different face over time and what's really important over the past probably two or three years you you may have noticed that we really closed the district between eight and 10 on that first day because everyone in the the staff should attend that that meeting bus drivers secretaries custodians maintenance the police were there and not just our four police officers but um other lieutenants from the police it was really a really nice show of community support that day breakfast has changed a little bit over time you know we we're offering more choices for breakfast we had hot breakfast this year uh for the first time so we've done a couple of things to really I guess up our game with the welcome back it's it's an exciting nice pep rally for the staff so thank you anything else open the days of school lot of excitement great days stay forward still working out the ks excellent Dan could you bring up the goals presentation as well uh so we use the uh the administration uses our leadership meeting our Retreat our summer planning our summers as a time to plan for the district goals for this year um we also as a board talk a lot a lot about what the next step for district goals might be when we sit and discuss my evaluation every June as well and usually that gives me an opportunity to start crafting what the goals might be and I'll have a discussion with you at that time but this is really after my evaluation using summer is a time to plan and meeting with the leadership team these are really the goals that um the district would like to look forward to um for the 2425 school year um so we don't ever forget our mission and our strategic Focus um and I found this quote actually um it's it states the occasional remarkable moment shouldn't be left to chance they should be planned for and invested in and this is a quote from Chip Heath the author of The Power of moments if you attended the first a welcome back part of my remarks to the staff was um were um I guess inspired by reading the power of moments over the course of the summer and what this book taught me is that we often leave powerful moments these Peaks that we have in our experiences to chance but actually it's better to manufacture to create powerful moments for kids for employees and an organization and I found this quote and I think it links directly to what it means to be to plan and be prepared and have District goals because we shouldn't just leave the school year to its own devices and allow it to happen we should plan for it we should invest in it and we should make sure that we have a remarkable and memorable schol Year and that includes the goals that I'm going to show you today um so our mission uh from our strategic work is to empower members of our community to Le purposeful lives with integrity and cultivate a spirit of Discovery and embrace Connections in our diverse Global society and in order to live our mission we have three strategic goals inquisitive learning partnership's goal as well as our social awars goal and these have been our standing strategic goals over the course of the past five we are in our fifth year I should say we are on a fifth year of executing these goals with specific action steps and this will be really exciting year to kind of reflect back on these goals um now that they're coming to the point where we need to evaluate how well achieve them but we have to keep these in mind because what we want to accomplish are these four different goals and I categorize them into Focus goals kind of how we categorize our board goals what we did last year at least and one continued goal because our strategic plan um is really our um our continued goal that our our three Focus areas are going to include academic achievement our Communications enhancement and our referendum planning and I'll provide some details on some action steps for each one of these goals in this presentation as well so these are our goals overarching goals but how will we accomplish it um some action steps so our first one is academic achievement and I highlighted a couple of areas for us here um and under academic achievement we want to focus on using our data um special programs and new standards implementation to overall bolster academic achievement as measured with I so the continued use of data um is the purpose of that is to drive instruction we want to ensure that we enhance our special programs like our newly established preschool program our special education programs as well as our multi- learning programs so special programs for our diverse population and then standards implementation this comes from the fact that uh this year language arts and math have received particularly language arts and math I should say have received pretty significant standards revisions from the Department of Education which cuse US creating an approvement we have approved new curriculum documents for both M Language Arts C create um because of that we implementing new standards and new curriculum and in some areas new materials this year so some of our action steps include implementation of the newly revised language arts and math curriculum which includes a K2 reading program a new one as well as a handwriting pilot as well which we've discussed over the past several months in nte uh adjustments do need to be made to the math and language arts curriculum which we've done because of new scheduling so you'll recall that on our latest agreement with with the RTA uh we were able to negotiate through bargaining uh an increase of of structural time in all of our buildings and we were able to realign our schedules last year for implementation this year so we do have new schedules and uh while grades K through five didn't change substantially we know that the Middle School really didn't have a large change scheduled this year after a yearlong investigation so we have to adjust our math to accommodate these schedules um we're going to look at training and protocols for reading difficulties or disabilities um we are certainly compliant with the dyslexia law we screen all students grades K through three with our I ready dyslexia screener but as we've discussed over the course of the year last year we'll talk about it in this year I've talked with the supervisors and the special ed and L arts program um we want to make sure that we have a standardized protocol after we do the screening as well as further options for continued screening for our teachers and we definitely want to talk to our staff about additional training because identifying and located reading difficulties and disabilities can be a very challenging tax for teachers we want to make sure that they are trained really well even beyond the two hours of training that state provides uh for dyslexia and reading disabilities we also want to look at enhancing our language instruction education program for our multilingual Learners Mr Tumalo talked in detail at the last tech meeting about including more we we are including more sheltered instruction training for staff at grades K through 8 uh sheltered instruction training is to ensure that students who are multilingual Learners and they are in the General in classroom that the teachers is equipped with strategies General teachers equipment strategies in the General in classroom but we're also looking at making this a community effort providing some parent education um to parents of our students who are multi Learners as well we also have another prong for multilingual leers to ensure that we have consultation in our preschools for any families that come with students who speak language other than English uh because that early intervention at age three and four is very powerful for students who are English as well um so that's our academic achievement goal and some action steps uh in brief our Communications goal I did talk about this at length at the last Board of Education meeting but Communications is certainly goal of ours uh we want to launch and develop our protocols for enhanced District Communications um we're going to develop a district newsletter schedule we're going to design opportunities for community outreach and engagement uh I received some good news uh we have a newspaper publication that goes to all free all households in Readington Ron flon called we made contact with the publisher of that newspaper thank you Mrs Toto for pointing that out to us because they've been great and really eager for school content um we've got some ads going in their next Edition for October which includes for bus trackers um so uh we've got that and I've reached out and talked with the township and uh they are doing a quarterly Community newsletter that's going to go Readington Township only um and they ask me for content for their first issue that's coming out soon this fall uh so we've got no Avenues to now two paper Avenues um that are going to go out to R to Residents which is great uh so we're going to use our protocols for sharing District news and initiatives um I'm going to work on forming a key communicators group um Lo will um everything from Township officials to religious leaders to parents to board members you know group of of folks to just come together and talk about school issues and Community issues and see how we can work together um and then we've already completed the district wide implementation of the s'more which is our accessible newsletter for families which is starting from My Level to um the board level your board griefs are now in war uh which is accessible to all uh individuals that sign up for the news s um and referendum planning a big Initiative for this year our goal this year is to determine District Capital project needs for a referendum and to develop a comprehensive proposal for stakeholder engagement and then eventually a vote and hear from him uh we have created an action step timeline um we are in the process of collecting this projects each School building but we don't want to come up with that list of projects without fully engaging our community we have planned for meetings with the HSA the rtea leadership parents and community members um we are looking at going to faculty meetings in each one of the buildings to talk with the staff about potential refand planning um and projects and holding Community forums in the fall and in the spring maybe next fall as well um we have to update our long range facility plan uh so that's going to require that the architect walk through buildings uh with our facilities manager with Jason maybe with me as well as the building principal to look at needs and wants across the district and then of course once we make it a project list then it's about communicating to the community for hopefully a successful referendum vote this time next year I'm learning a lot about referendums from from the parent side because my community has a vote next Tuesday I attended their Community Forum last night online um so I can already anticipate some questions that are going to come from communities when it comes to referendum planning um and then go four this is the continued goal our strategic plan we are in our final year of our strategic plan um and I think it's time for us to take a step back reflect call our staff and our Administration together um maybe even develop a survey and get some some feed back about how well we achieved our strategic goals over the past five years or so how will we know we've achieved our goals uh we want to monitor project completions deliverables like handbooks professional development offerings any new protocols that we develop and revisions to curricular documents our newsletters and press releases will be another U data point for all of our Communications goals and we sharing um referendum information surveys and feedback forms meeting minutes and notes again curriculum revisions uh student reports uh data VI I ready and jsla and then staff development so these are um how we will know we will have achieved our goals other possible work ahead just a couple of things that are kind of on our radar or just are on our radar and we need to attend to but maybe it aren't gold this is our um recertification cycle for sustainable Jersey uh so we have achieved silver uh the cast cycle so we're looking at doing our certification process again for sustainable Jersey which is due at the end of the school year so that will involv this school year work um and that is part of our strategic work um and then at the Leadership Retreat we've talked a little bit about Ai and what schools need to do in order to be prepared for where AI may be Tak in society and how we can better prepare our teachers our Administration and develop some policy around that I just point that out as something that's there something that we need to attend to it's not necessarily a gold but something we may want to focus on and that's uh my presentation in terms of uh where we may be headed with goals this year and I will open up to the board for questions that you may have I just had a comment the uh AI you know things onar and I know AI came up during a retreat and I think that's fine I would add though think even before we get to AI terms of things on the radar take a look at policies on student used to sell F scho I know I brought that up before and you know I know it could be a controversial issue I think we should at least have a policy about if they're allowed where they're allowed I see more and more districts I just reading the paper there's a trend to some districts just Banning them at least Banning them from classrooms so I would like to see that at least looked at there was um there was an article recently I don't know if looking at the same one it was maybe from the C State Coalition somewhere yeah or maybe maybe I'm going to put it in the vle um I also sent that same article to Mr Charleston principal middle school as well for him to read and review and I know that it's on his radar as well so that's something in terms of AI sofware use just technology and schools software it's something that we will take a look at this year as well thank you [Music] um great I mean I think they're great goals and really where you're proposing that wehe had um and I've heard a lot of great feedback about this moreor the newsletters being easy to read and easy to use on smartphones so people can see all the information on one small screen which is great and then also just a comment I think um under referendum planning you develop the communication protocol I would consider even I don't know if these are in order that they would be achieved but I think the communication piece is really important in referendum pinning and any support we can get from those that have done it before or insights that we could learn from other districts I think would be really helpful up front absolutely yeah Point well taken and yes Community engagement I I I think based off of the timeline Jason and I put together and we discussed in finance for referendum planning and my only context my frame of reference is my district where like it was like May of last year they're like by the way vote referendum in September I'm like maybe we should have known about that like a year ago or you know to think about it like something so we want to start now I think our idea is to start early with stakeholder engagement when it comes to the referendum we talked about ensuring that we at least have a community forum for winter break so that this is not like a shock in May when all of a sudden we've come to a board resolution in February or March and said yeah we're going to go out for refere that we actually get some input on the the front end first so that that would be our idea it's a point well taken thank you appreciate it I just want to add sorry go ahead just I just had a question how would we go about seeking Community input so we're going to use those um Outlets between the HSA the RTE the faculty and staff um members of the township committee and then we're going to have open Community forums that would that would be our plan by one some referendum education to the board by November our November board meeting and then open up to the full community where we have our architect B Council Jason and I available to answer any questions that the community might have and to seek their input right what would you like to see potentially be a referendum project not just not just the nine of you and the administration but this is a community effort right um and make sure that we gather that input we're Gathering all of this this fall so that by the time we get to January we need to put together a comprehensive project list we have talked with the HSA the RTA the full community the township um and others to gather the list of projects and they may then it'll be up to us up to all of you to decide what's in the proposal and what might not what might not be but at least we've asked we've gathered as much input as we can from the community in the Forum we're thinking to have it not be a board board meeting because board meetings have the you know public comment portions just have to be an open let's talk about this ex up to the microphone present your idea Jason and I can take notes on every idea and then we can bring everything back to you and we can talk about you know the analysis of each individual idea put a cost to it and then we can look at what we want to do with the referendum from there thank you y just I was just gonna add that this is an exciting time I really think for the district because for so long we concentrated on um negotiations and you know we the teachers and administrators and new and new contract them and now that that's kind of done it's I think it's really great this referendum it's coming together with end of the five years I mean it just seems like it's going to be a really exciting year and I'm really um I'm excited about it for everybody uh the district and I feel really optimistic it's so going to be great because that referendum we talk about mean that has such long range impact on the district so it's it's critical lot of good things happening excellent any other questions okay at this time I'd like to introduce um Tatty ree from the New Jersey school boards Association um she has a presentation so um she will talk to you about this u in much more detail but there are district goals which are really like the superintendent evaluation goals and then there are goals that we own collectively as the Board of Education in concer of District goals um and I think it'll be a really nice way for her to talk about um you know the potential board goals um now that we've talked a little bit about District goals and lead you through that discussion so um here's your clicking just click that way the arrow that's really down is the one okay good thank you all right thank you Dr har and thank you for having me today I know that um you in the past withw Borton and I'm happy to say she is still with the association she has just moved on she's now the director of content um so she's not out in districts as much and I'm happy for that on many levels but um um that I'm now in Somerset hun in part of Warren County I actually live in Somerset County one's Northern sumet I I live in Branchburg um so my background is I've been with the association for nine years uh some of that time as a county activities coordinator handling the county meetings at the for the northern counties in the last couple of years as a field service rep starting in middle section in Hudson which is why I'm really happy to be in summer 700 um before I at the association I was on the Branchburg board of education for 12 years I was also on after I came stepped down from that I was two and a half years on the township committee uh as well as 10 years on the Zoning Board of adjustments so when I looked at your website and I saw all the affordable housing um wow um it's um it's amazing um for you know what what we're all experiencing in this area but as I said I'm happy to be here um and one still a resource if you ever want to reach out to her as well um but I've been asked to talk about setting um goals uh board goals but it was great that Dr Hart started with the district goals because as we'll go into it um the goals build on each other and so you know one of the most important things uh most important board responsibilities is to set um comprehensive goals for your districts and your students and so as we go through this and that set the course for success for your students and as well as your your District so as we move forward through this process just ask yourself what have you accomplished this year uh what might need additional focus and do they reflect your do priorities reflect your core values and as we talked we talk about um from our perspective the stair step um level U model of responsibility because the goal should build on each other other and they should all be aligned so you really start with your strategic planning goals uh which then go to the bills uh your District BS Builds on that with more detail and then the Board of Education talks about what the board what goals the board can have to support the district goals and strategic planning goals and that goes all the way up to the administrator goals down to the building goals down to your teachers and ultimately to your students and so as as I say that all the goals should align that that they align to this your District's mission statement uh and U then again to your vision to your mission your vision your strategic planning uh district and then board goals and all the way down and a healthy process is to review those every year look at what what you did last year what s what was um successful what needed tweaking what might need to be carried forward in a different way um and so that that really is um a healthy way to to assign your District gools um and so he talked about your District gools the district gools is own are owned by everyone in the district the board as well as the the administration and the board really determines what they want to have accomplished and your Administration works with the what and and determines how that will be accomplished the board doesn't get into the how they just like the upper level stuff um and then the board goals are set by the board to um enhance their governance skills or to to for processes and tasks that are solely the boards the board governance cycle which includes mostly a lot of goal setting um is a continuous cycle um goal setting and now Anis and review and that's why the the graphic is a circle because it just goes from from one to the other you start over the summer as you are now we have summer at the beginning of the school year setting goals for your year um and then you um you analyze and review and and discuss them throughout the year uh potentially bringing them to your public a couple of times at at board meetings maybe sometimes we recommend quarterly to to bring them forward just so everybody's aware of the goals that you have and then your work towards that and what progress you've made and and then you know in the analysis if there's something that needs to be changed or twined a little bit that can happen throughout the the year um and it it as you come out that cycle of of Bo goal or of goal setting uh the the district goals or what your superintendent is aess on in your annual evaluation so we know that effective school boards Define uh clear goals for student achievement that are based on uh a vision of high expectations and shared beliefs about what's possible for all your students and that's why goal setting is really a very important part of of what board does what district so as you move forward um I think I sent him the wrong one it's a little out of water I apologize but um what should your focus be um as you as we start this discussion um is there anything that can that will most dramatically accelerate your student learning and address any opportunity gaps that have been identified um and we look through this is there anything that your data identifies as an improvement Focus what is there anything needed um to increase the to improve the overall Student Success and to align any of your financial resources and your budget to assess to I'm sorry to um support your student achievement plans and your priorities so set goals not limits we want it want to be aspirational as Cai and part of the um we start with the miss statement because it focuses on today and what um what you do as a board and as a district um it guides you to your destination and Dr Hart talked about his the mission statement in his and again that's is like the um this the stair step of responsibility you start here and this is something that just kind of grounds the direction of the district and and I won't go really into this too much because did but um it's important to look at your District strategic planning goals and how they um because they were um set collaboratively with your community um I see that your District your strategic plan um expires in 2025 um but but uh in this process we review your prior years board goals um strategic planning goals all the goals from the prior to determine if progress was made and uh if any should be carried over if any should be changed or if anything additional should come should come forward um I took from your website your board goals from last year uh and and again it's just to kind of look at um what worked what didn't what needs more work uh for it um and how they all align to your um strategic goals and your um your District goals again they should all be built upon each other just the the more of the continue goals uh that from last year and as we go for our discussion moving forward um from here uh what can the board do to be more effective in your areas of responsibility uh are any should any of those goals be of L's goals be continued um how do you ensure attention to all Learners such as with academics and how can we focus what can you focus on to enhance your performance as a board what are your processes for keeping policies current well excuse me policy development do you have a process for keeping them CM should that be something that you should be looking at um I don't know this is is is for your discussion um and what about high quality input and feedback Cycles is that something you want to focus on um and I understand from talking to Dr Hart that that you had a summer Retreat that you did a self assessment of the board and so some of these ideas do come from that he sent me some notes um for that um and from those notes that he sent these were uh and these are certainly up for discussion not a done deal but um potential focus more goals for next year based on those discussions and and as you look through them they actually do um align with your um the proposed District goals and and so um just for this to develop a comprehensive list of proc projects for a 2025 referendum focusing on District needs and educational enhancements um along with projects employ a robust Communications plan to accompany the referendum and it might be like what does that mean and and again these are um potential based on your discussion as a board this summer uh but this there's time now to have further discussion on if you agree with these if you don't if you want something different if you want to change the wording uh whatever that might be um and then support and Implement a district Communications plan and develop and develop and review protocols for policy documents and so um I understand you also did some work with or looked at Felts work on trust I've read briefly what that's about the four levels of trust um and how to to make a um an organization function better more cohesively I was I also looked at your board self- evaluation that you did with New Jersey school boards association with our tool and really it it it um have you seen that I know that we sent that was sent out um when you look at um the ratings right they're they're on a weighted four point scale we consider any rating of any board that rates themselves three or better on that weighted for scale as a board that works well together um you don't have anything below three so I you know I think that that um shows that you do work well it doesn't mean there's room for improvement because there's always room for improvement but it does show um that that you work well together and um believe me I've seen some where they've been well below um and and it's it's nice that people are or members are honest um and and I'm looking at my notes okay um so is there any does anybody want to start the discussion on uh let's go with uh potential potential Focus for role number one is that something that um resonates with the board is there is I'll to start because um last month and I'm glad everyone is here because I'm not sure a couple people might have missed it but those were just um suggestions that we had kind of presented right so but it's nice to now hear Dr Hart's um goals for the for the district and I think it's you know of course they want to be aligned like you said so that I think that you know I don't know how you guys all feel but I think you just go around and see if we're comfortable with with the first one um I mean definitely have to send so guys agree are we deciding sign honestly to to finalize the go no we vote on next month right okay so there's still time for people to think about it okay all right so nothing's in stone tonight but for now are we pretty comfortable what's number one anyone yeah I in speaking for myself I'm definitely comfortable with number one I think there's a tremendous amount of work that into that so I think it would need to be a priority I don't necessarily know if that would be what I'd say is our number one goal I'd be curious to explore to how we could best support the academic achievement of the district goal and supporting that from a board perspective as a priority possibly number one as well oh as number one yeah all right for I want to put that up for discussion yeah no I agree because now that I get aware of Dr Art's one of his goals it doesn't align with art goal so I was going to suggest that that as well so U all right well then one idea is that that's a great goal but maybe not number one I don't know get out there what you guys think no I agree with that am I supposed to leave this oriz sure processes right thank you because um sometimes it takes like the board president to get people to start to start chatting but but you want to um something to support academic achievement is is really what you're looking for I don't know I'm sorry Justus what were you saying no I was going to say I I I agree with Jen her thought was pretty much what I was gonna say so thank you so clearly academic has to be one of the three goals okay I agree and where it place where it's placed no I'm just say should be one you believe should be number one as well I I agree also so academic should be number one number one and I understand this is important that we have to get get it going but academic should be one okay um I'll come up with some some wording toward um that and can get that to you yeah the only the suggestion we had last time was a sharp clear focus on academics just throwing it out there that was you know that's just again a suggestion um along with the academics schol I remember I back of last year's but I feel like the mental health was a piece of that wasn't it so that we had those supports in place in order for economic achievement so I don't know if that's something that we still want to focus on I know that was postco very high priority right and so I just want to put that out there that maybe you know we're continuing to to do that like we used to do the Evergreen goals and so I don't know where it should be how it should be structured but I just wanted to go out there as far as I think in the past Patty I correct me if I'm wrong but when quen was here sometimes she would kind of take some notes on what we were saying and then she would send a document to me and the board president to then share with the full board and get feedback and then we we could we could craft based off that's okay with you yeah no no that's that is that is that is the process I wasn't sure given these potential that you know when we ched about the potential goals how um because I wasn't here last year so so I wasn't sure how the board worked with that if that as if it came out of the retreat and that was kind of where the direction the board wanted to go um but also it's not it's not set in stone tonight um and that's why we're having this this this discussion so that we can get I can get a sense of and you're get a sense of what the board really wants to focus on for their board gos I mean if if for support academic achievement um is is it as simple as that just the board will work um um to create the budget parameters and things and the the guidelines to um support academic achievement or continue to support something along the lines of continue to support the administr superintendent uh in determining um what needs to the needs to support academic achievement for all students something along those lines ahead I have a question this be a silly question but um Dr Hart you just presented goals that are different or not similar to these so I'm kind of I don't know I'm confused when we it's a good question it is when we talked at our August 4 meeting Camille I think You' have at least a brief discussion at the end of the meeting kind of identifying some themes that came out of our July Retreat so working backwards the July Retreat formed a discussion at the August board meeting and that discussion from the August board meeting I then shared with Patty to then put these up on the slide so it was from July to August to to these um and that's how these became goals that we discussed potential goals so I don't understand why they don't align like you have goal one is academic achievement but they're not on that screen I don't I I don't think we should just I I think nobody put them any which they were in the email how we there's no it's not a priority order by any means and maybe I should have just had bullets instead of numbers and I think the only reason let's say for example the referendum emerged as a top goal let's just call it a top goal was because it was the top of the discussion that we had at The Retreat and then at the August Bo meetings was like this is new that no one of those people has launched and Readington this is going to need some focus and I think it it doesn't have to be number one it just emerged as something that was on the front of everybody's mind no I understand that that's up there but academic achievement is not so that's why I was just there oh more than three yeah yeah okay there you go it's there it's just it's almost like the first slide that first slide was like new goals and this slide is what we're going to continue to do gos right like what's new to the what's new to the board in 2425 was the previous slide and this slide is what are we going to continue to work on in4 25 and generally board goals are not as um specific they're more broad goals and and and generally the board does um support the administration in the achievement of whatever their goals are but there are things that the board might want to um to look at in their own government structure like like I know it came up about your policy manual um if there's a process for that or not but but that's those those again were potential um and and not having done this here last year um I wasn't sure how your board operated um and so it's a learning curve for me as well and you know the point of tonight was to have a discussion based on these uh and certainly you can can have a discussion on something that's not even listed here that is your prerogative as a board these were just to kind of help start the discussion going um and and talk about look at programs and and things that are already in progress and the referendum apparently is um is something and for any Community referendum is big and it does take a massive effort um of of the board the district and the community so so again these are not set in stone they're you don't have to accept these as they are you can we can wormith them if you want uh or you can select can um you know discuss things that aren't even on nli that that resonate with you as well as a board you making a distinction you're making a distinction between the board and the district go why why is that well the district also what Dr Hart talked about those kinds of things that that you want to focus on as a district more into the details of the district itself the board goals talk about um are more about the tasks that are owned by the board or the processes owned by the board such as um your committee structure or supporting the the administration in the achievement of a specific goal or a um the the budget parameters something uh more generalized but also specific to board duties I mean I I know we don't get involved in daytoday running the schools but I me we decide on the district goals as the board no well the the all the goals have to be accepted and and and voted on by the board the strategic planning goals at some point in time were approved you know was a community Forum I'm guessing and then the board does vote on them um every year you know we vote on the district calls which were an offshoot of that every year and the district balls can continue throughout the time but the action you know the action plan may change every year as you as the district achieves part of that uh what realizes that we need to just make a few little changes or realizes that that part of that action plan just isn't realistic for what we can do based on um budget based on things that may have changed like what what may men strategic planning goal before for the pandemic and then during the pandemic I'm sure substantially changed what what boards focused on in District substantially change especially in the the years coming out of the pandemic so things that are not in in your control can affected as well and those are fluid question to me the goals always seem very you said my Corporate America smart goals they had to be specific measurable achievable relevant and time b or something you know very specific thing so we talk about we want to support academic achievement of course I mean this is a school you know of course we want but what is the goal you know so if you want to have a goal for a year what is our goal that we want to actually achieve in one year that supports academic Ai and I don't think ever really you know is generally a little more Broad and that's the action plans on how we will achieve that so what does it mean to create the supports and structures for you know focus on academic achievement um and some of those can be part of that like the action plan below will say specifically what the action will be needed uh who is responsible for that action how long it will take to achieve that action and then what does achievement of that action look like specifically what does it look like is it is it is it um test scores or is it more students in different classes um or less um you know more U Less more or less uh response to intervention type up situations that's where you you get that specif specificity in the action plan so it's not if the specificity isn't in the goal and how do we know we actually attain the goal or not how do we you know if it's so loose you know I I feel like at the end of the year when we're always looking to we achieve our goals the goals are just you know with with it doesn't have those what you're putting into an extra plan it doesn't have those specifics how do we know we ever achieved every well as you achieve the the um action plan items that's how youch and I'm just rereading I mean maybe if I if I can interrupt because I understand what Carolyn is saying what would be let's say in supporting academic achievement what would be a Board responsibility like an example maybe that you've seen another vard take an action step like um because generally what we would do with let's say an academic achievement goal we would take it into edtech into that committee because we have a committee structure and in that committee we would talk in much more detail about what the action steps might look like and then we would evaluate about mid year and then end year end of year in that specific committee and I understand what you're saying the goal can't necessarily be administering the district the goal has to be what you as a board can do to support the goal like so is there is there maybe an example would be is there a process the board could use or a protocol you within governance to support academic achievement and what might that look like and I hate to put you on the spot but I'm searching for the same thing like what what can we look at do you have a for committee we do our so it might be to to have a in further in-depth discussions on the committee level on what the with the help of administration right because they're the ones who with the students they're the ones that know what's going on um what what do they what kind of supports do they need to help your students achieve what to to whatever levels whatever it is that they're they're looking to achieve is that looking at a um a a new curriculum and what might that entail right that might is it is it a new textbook is it that and what what is the process that distri Fury has when they're looking at um the curriculum and so that's where you have those deeper discussions at the committee level so one of the things that Dr heart you mentioned during your presentation was training for the teachers um for you know students with readings difficulties or disabilities and so that I think would be one of the things that could be achieved and as a board we were probably vote on budget so I think that could fall in line with student achievement I think that'd be great but I think that's what we need is some you know the goal needs to be more than just support academic you know achievement need be what are we going to do to support it within the next year and I think when we align it to the district goals like Justine is saying and then when we meet in attech and we look at the academic achievement goal I think then you as a board in attech will say Dr Hart we want to you know we're prepared to to approve a dyslexia consultant we're prepared to identify another screening tool for reading difficulties and bring that to us and we'll approve that and that would be something that you would check on that would be an action step that you might say Administration is looking into this let's put that on the agenda um even under academic achievement sorry something uh the K2 reading program the h writing pilot Dr Hart we want to see the results of the handwriting pilot at the end of the year um and look at look into the district's you know rationale for choosing this program over that program those are some of the things that maybe could be in an Tech we could create a full list of here the actions that the board would expect by June that we complete them that's helpful yeah I think it's hard because like when it comes to like really doing the work of the goal that's really the administration principles the teacher but when it comes to supporting the goal that's the board because that's governance and sometimes the support of the goal will come later on after it's been established and after the action steps have been put in place and you know uh sometime sometimes the support is just making sure that the resources are there that that the budget parameters are there that that allows for them the administration to do what they need to do not that it's an empty you know blind check um certainly it's not that but to make sure that there are sufficient resources to achieve that goal whatever that might be I'll take a blank check anybody's operating I just feel like our goals don't at that level our goals won't really change from level of goals are support AC achievement or set a budget could it be a simple setting goal with those test test scores would go every every year like instead of saying students are at you know whatever it is 70% the state we you know may not be attainable but maybe we just say we want this because I know there was some disappointment over like some of those categories not math couple of them we just say we want to be up to this level on the test that's it it's like a hard a couple things about that one just the testing cycle is not doesn't allow itself to be evaluated to see the goal before you have to set another goal so for example we could set an achievement goal we won't get the results until October of next year so that's why when it comes to setting goals goals when it comes to state test test scores usually in district teachers will create SOS and set goals around the I ready data because that's something we can measure from September to June njsla is one one point in time that we measure um you know in May and then we don't get the results until October of the following school year I'm not I mean I think that that could be potentially problematic um the other thing that I I am just person personally philosophically very cautious of is the board setting a goal that imposes a specific number of academic achievement payment on the staff I think we have to be very careful in in creating an expectation that we're going to achieve a certain uh percentage of um achievement for our students because there are any number of factors that can impact that achievement number like you know staff attrition student attendance chronic absenteeism multilingual Learners you know those kinds of things there's a lot of factors that go into setting that goal if anything you know I try to think about it in terms of growth for kids not necessarily academic achievement and that's not really measured through njsla it's more through I ready so I I my personal and professional recommendation to the board would be not to set a specific bar because it may not be reasonable or achievable and I don't even know if I would know how to direct you to say I don't even have njsla in any great level of detail right now to say you know eth grade math will go to 30% to 35% for efficiency or something like that not only that that's not in our lane that's not our responsibility basically so we have to remember we're governance board I think just to put a frame at it the administrators do it the teach more to go back to gos from last year I was just about to do that thank oh you have because I just was gonna do that actually to put a frame around we what you feel about them if you they're in a similar R similar writing as what the the proposed ones were do you have them because I I have them right in front of me that's what I was gonna do that's not what I thought these were lot are the those are the continued goals but last year the board um these these holes goals were yes there are right so those are the board goals and then what we just saw were the continued goals you can even see the language it's a lot more specific those were but the continued goals right create and and create and supports and structures of it create and support structures for a Sharp clear focus on academic achievement to continue to improve Communications and expand Community engagement and then to set parameter budgeters to set budget parameters that affect planed for nor Etc so they're they are more Brad the continued ones they have they are so those are last year's right yeah um so those are last year and that's we have to just come up with some ideas for this year yeah yeah I mean I W say I'm not it not it's not unusual but it's not typical to settle that settle an agreement is um before the end of the school year shows up as a board rer that is our job though because we are negotiating and that's that that's you know but it was important to your board exactly and that's really what we need to to move forward is what's important to your board um these are certainly more succinct yes so two like if you were in the edtech committee if you look at 2A right with the examples if you in the edtech committee chances are you remember here about you used the data conversation guide in October looking at the student data last year um you looked at you looked at an approved clubs through um the YMCA as well as clubs through the district you saw I ready running record njla data multiple times in multiple Fashions throughout the year multiple fashion throughout the year in Personnel we talked about retention recruitment we have a little bit of data on you know how we were doing and filling positions um HIV reports I provide to you not in as much detail and a lot of those things were discussed and talked about and they came to the full board for approval as well so maybe having a list of examples might be the way to make the goal more specific I just want to touch on what K said as a newort number I can understand where you're like where is this specific but being in the edtech meetings I see the more specific goals and when the administration speaks about them but I feel like the rest of the board doesn't get to see that and probably goes the same with all the other committies like you guys have conversations and we don't know what actually happened so we're kind of like out of the loop a little bit maybe that could be our goal is to figure out a way to have these committee meeting the agendas or how there how the meeting went and like how it went down because like menes just aren't the same you know what I mean like maybe there's something we could do to to make it more I don't know more you know accessible more like we know what's going on you looking like things like committee minutes from your P from a board perspective from a board perspective like I don't feel like minutes are enough because like like minutes are like you know they bullet points it's not like speciic at Tech I know like the administration did but the bullet point just doesn't give it as much power and like well this is what they did it's just a bullet point it doesn't it's not clear does that make sense and and are the the committee chairs reporting out at board meetings they are they are but but it's not like you're in the committee having that in-depth discussion you are you're listening to Administration what they've done and you're like wow that's great but the rest of the board members aren't seeing them because we run B of committees so does that make sense yeah I was actually going to touch on that later but since you brought it up that was one of the things from the convention last year that I had learned from fellow board members is that they share and I understand not everybody's gonna you know we have our committees to we don't have a lot of time to go to Every committee meeting that's right we do serve on two committees as board members but they had shared that they share their agenda prior to the committee meeting to the entire board because perhaps you know the edtech committee is going to be discussing something that I have an expertise in and maybe I want to participate in that committee meeting that month I should have the opportunity to do that so that was one of the things that I learned last year just speaking to these other board members and I was like well we don't do that as a board we don't show show share our agendas ahead of time we don't record our committee um meeting so I understand um what Mr Lopes is saying is that you don't hear the conversations that are going on you come to the meeting to the public meeting and then you just hear the uh the minutes it's not enough sometimes and and I mean and you're absolutely right there are boards that do share the agenda out with the full board um and they they also have they have the committee schedule ahead of time right so that you know when the committee's meeting you get the agenda a certain amount of time before the committee meeting so that if you have a question or a comment or you have expertise that a board member could call the committee chair and and have that discussion with the committee chair I mean that is that is you know change looking at your committee structure and how to make it um more meaningful to all the board members and and things like that you can do that can be a board if you want to do something along those lines yeah they also said that at training um at the governance training that was best practice was to do that um so I agree that that's something maybe we should work on implementing this year because I know too also sometimes the minutes everyone has busy schedules so someone you know might not have if the if the minutes come out you know a day before our meeting that's a lot of cram time to say okay I need to process this I want to maybe look into this further and I'm supposed to be voting on something so if we get the agenda ahead of time it may allow us to get a lot of Head Start start on some of the information that's going to be coming to us and then if we don't see it in the minutes then we can ask that question or we may be able I just think it would be better for from an operation standpoint I mean um do you have some boards do where they set the committee gate meeting dates at like in September for the year the way we do it is after committee at the end of me then we have everyone there we say let's get our calendars out and then we set up the next meeting yeah otherwise I think there' be a lot of changing of dates I I don't know it's that's hard enough as it is even just with a few people but not not that we could we could look at another process or at least have the committee meeting the week before the board meeting so that the minutes come out at in specific time frame and you have to be realistic right because you you all have lives beyond being on the board so to say that we're going to have a committee meeting and the chair is going to get the minutes out within 24 hours is is likely unrealistic um and and and and then it doesn't then it comes you know a day or so before the board meeting and you're right you don't have enough time to read and process and maybe call and ask a few questions especially if there's stuff that you as a board have to vote on that you need this information and and so setting that structure on however that might work even if it's not not setting the whole committees meetings in September for this full school year but saying that the Committees will happen you know at least a week before the board meeting or at least before before if there's a voting item uh that's coming out of that at least a week before or maybe 10 days whatever works for the board board and the committee chairs and then to have those minutes go out um in enough time before your board meeting so that you you can review them you can call and ask questions if you or you know if you have questions I have no so that would be added to the list of of possible board go that we saying yes I like to see sure and then so have any s i problem with that anyone else have any thoughts about just yeah I think we can continue the providing share opportunities for training and professional development I think for like like we need to maybe set a goal for to be a high high functioning we are a high functioning board but you know and continue to you know maybe we dig deep into Robert's Rules I me just you know just maybe set a goal for you know I don't know checking it like I know one board they they read Robert's Rules like they they gave each other okay like this month we're going to read this one discuss that kind I don't know that's what we want to do just so we can make sure everyone knows what is yeah makes a lot of sense theard right the board keeps changing so I well I mean and and for board training professional development School boards has a lot of different programs and and your county meetings also have you know an hour of that that is professional development and now that that the county meetings are hybrid most of them um that you if you see a topic at another County meeting you can register and and attend that meeting virtually if it's a topic that's of interest and those all go towards um we have two different certification tracks one for board members and one for Boards of education and it's all about um helping providing opportunities for boards and board members to get additional professional development to help them do to help you do what you do um better and so that you know that's um that's that's an option as well to continue that and then look at what out what is out there or you know having somebody come into your board um a consultant but but just one selling point when we come in as part of your dues so there's no additional cost but um you there is that but um but so that's that's that's another goal as well okay so last time again we talked about referendum we talked about um supporting and implementing the district Communications plan so again we don't I don't know where it's one two three just so are we on we agree that we want to do something academics clearly we want to do something with a board process of agenda or minutes and all that so however that's worded we agree on the referendum right something with a referendum um do we agree to do something it's support and implement the district Communications plan again whether it's a a goal or even a continued goal you know we can figure that out but we great Communications um the other thing that had come up was and we don't have to do this now but it was um develop the review protocols for policy documents want to that or how do you feel about that one now with the new discussion on the processes that might fall under that as one of the action items perhaps there's a way to award it that we're reviewing some of our processes and then action items to get specific could be to review our policy process to review our committee protocols and we could say like for example setting agendas in advance of the meeting and things of that nature to get to some of those specifics but keep the goal a little bit broader so we can capture a lot of what this conver has included that makes sense okay I like that that makes sense maybe you guys agree all that you got this down yeah I hope I'm taking good by Friday but um yeah um we generally recommend three to five goals because if they have more than five goals then then you're really spending more time on the the goals itself and not on um you know you have a busy board schedule of other things um to to go so um we have something about supporting academic achievement reviewing or something about committee structure reviewing committee protocols something to support the referendum uh and then um Communications okay the only other thing that for continued goals was budget parameters and Safety and Security um which is always something that you know can that out so contined Safety and Security and that's you don't need to have continued goals you could just have three to five Bo goals and that continued goals could be encompassed in them somehow that's fine and then it's up to you if you want continue goals you you know it's up to you again I'm I'm I'm open to whatever you guys think and the last one is to review the Strategic plan since we're in year five like Dr hard had mentioned which we don't have to if if Dr is going to have that as a goal so unless there's any other ideas or thoughts personally I'm not a fan of goals the whole idea goal is that they should be cled down okay when you say continuing it just sounds like it's you know forever yeah which and I do understand the Evergreen other things that are always old but there should be some aspect of that goal that you want to focus on in the com year so got it right security Safety and Security is always a goal but what do we want to think about this year or you know what as as a board what's important to us you know something new this year to right like when we went from two police officers to four very specific right with the goals then you might then take the specific goals and put them to specific committees to discuss and further refine and come up with the action plans on what it looks like to what steps it what what achievement of that goal looks like and what step it takes to achieve that goal and you know who's going to do it and how long it's going to take and and that's really the end up discussions you can bring back to your different committees on those different goals communication Communications is ongoing goal maybe this year's goal is we set up a newsletter distributes or we get know the rent to news back up and running or something specific Within the occas or work with that new magazine that new EXA right so that's something that we achiev this year y it makes that work and maybe to your point carollyn when it comes to Safety and Security it doesn't need to be a continued go because I'm sure that when we talk referendum we're going to talk about Safety and Security upgrades to the buildings within referendum so maybe it doesn't need to be a contined goal but can support the referendum call right like that could be the action item within the referendum is focus on safety security upgrades and health and safety upgrades those kinds of things I think Safety and Security is something that we want to you know be aware of thinking about every year so I wouldn't mind seeing it as separate continuing goal but maybe trying to identify something within it like we went from two to four resarch officers and so maybe this year you know I think we upgraded the U the front entryway so the buildings a couple years back and that was a a goal for the year maybe this year it's new couns you know by all the where this year it's something else that as a board we think we want to work for many times support of those goals or something like that comes from at budget time where when you're looking at the budget and you're having that discussion you make sure that they're that the administration's recommending uh upgradings security measures what does that entail what is that in the budget and that you as a board support that and because it's there's not unlimited dollars for everything anymore so so you know there's things you have to there's checks and balances but but that's kind of more along the lines of what the board does support support the budget level for those but it doesn't hurt to have it there because you're right Safety and Security is especially in the last um well I G say last week but the last how many years it's it's a big issue um and it is on the top you know tops of people's minds especially parents teachers my daughter is a teacher and I know how the impact of those unannounced drills and all those have not only on your students but on your teachers so Safety and Security is a big thing and it should be at the Forefront part of your discussions does anyone else have any other thoughts or ideas that you'd like to consider as go as we'll go down to the next steps just you know want to talk about you develop the action plans you implement the action plans um and we recommend that even with the district RS that maybe quarterly quarterly at your board meeting just have a a 15 minutes progress towards those goals what are we doing what what it's working what needs to change just so you as a board and your community knows that these goals be they the district or the boort goals are important and you want them to know and you want that information out there it really especially as you're going into a referendum getting into the the habit of having quarterly updates on different things um it is important and and having we did a when I was on my board we did a referendum for um white and school and um and it really does help to bring your public along from the very beginning from the Inception of the idea and that could just be having um updates at your Bo just so that it's not a shock to them um that when you come to the actual time to vote there's a whole there's a whole plan for that so that's that's Communications is important and I will get something to help thank you very thank you we appreciate it all right thank you church we appreciate your help um we are now open to the public limited to action items on the agenda okay all right we did receive a correspondence on email from LL regarding the ELA curriculum and um now we sorry no that's okay I didn't know if there's anything there no nobody there's no comments right right that's fine thank you um moving on on to approval of administrative reports uh can we get a motion to adopt 2.01 move you got a vote for please M depto yes M FY yes Mr yes M mener yes Mr Peach yes M borski yes M Ryan Yes main drel yes um moving on to finance and Facilities can we get a motion to adopt 3.01 to 3.08 and we have a committee report the uh finance committee met on Thursday August 29th we discussed the 2024 25 capital projects um the RMS nurse's office roof and HVAC will be ready for the first day of school the uh main office will still be partially under construction when students return it's the long lead times on furniture that has delayed the project um it switch and access point project and uh they're adding battery backups and it switches and access points for Wi-Fi the first responder radio enhancement is 90% complete the equipment is in and they're working on getting the antennas out to the roof and program will be programming will begin very very soon the white house uh art room uh the furniture is set to be installed on October 3rd while the school is closed for the holiday we then discussed the referendum um and expiring debt uh the goal is to have a September 2025 referendum The Architects te board approved resolution at the end of January in order to meet timeline requirements uh we want to make sure every stakeholder is as involved as possible throughout the process administrators will put together a list of capital projects that input for staff The Architects will do a walkthrough with an engineer and meet with administrators to create a comprehensive plan and give us 10it costs leadership will begin meeting with the HSA rtea Township of Readington and other major stakeholders to get their input the architect will present and propose capital projects to the finance committee in November Bond Council will do a public presentation on November 12th explaining the referendum and expiring that with a Q&A there will then be an open public Community forum with v Council and Architects to present the final projects the meeting will be later in November with the dates F to be determined the finance committee will further discuss the projects in detail in December with the goal of finalizing the projects for referendum by early January the um solar expansion proposal the finance committee received an update on the um expansion we discussed information regarding fixed rate versus escalating rate and reviewed some decisions coming up uh for our next committee meeting the electric School Bus Grant the committee reviewed the plan for the new electric bus that has been ordered we reviewed the RMS bus lot which is in an optimal location because there is not a tremendous risk to students are buildings the electric box is there already for our engine warmers for our current Fleet for the Colder Weather the first electric vehicle charger will be right next to that and we'll make sure it follows the protocols that the fire fire department requires uh the bus will be at the end of the lot leaving a vacant spot next to the bus Mr loopes provided information to the Committees to ensure we protect our Fleet and consider all available safety measures including an easily accessible shut off switch to avoid any delay in extinguishing the vehicle and possibly a monitoring system in sprinklers these additional costs have yet to be determined there was a recent uh electric vehicle planning meeting that led to great discussion of safety measures for all lithium ion battery equipment and their disposal there will be a formal meeting with OEM and the fire department in September to make sure we are prepared for the new vehic um we then discussed the njda cafeteria audit um and corrective action plan the a reveal that we need to spend more money in our cafeteria we have remediated and spent money already and the action plan is in place uh we also discussed a h parent Insurance appeal the committee discussed an insurance matter involving a title 59 appeal uh Dr Hart also provided information regarding a legal matter the uh pilot program discussion uh has been tabled due to time constraints during the meeting and the opro legal alert was also tabled due to time constraints uh five minutes agenda items are the bill list and the ngj njda cafeteria audit corrective action plan and police shareff services agreement and our next meeting was just recently set right it was so yes yeah I forget the dates yes SE 24th yes oh okay thank you and October 18th thank you does anyone have any questions about anything regarding those minutes okay can we get a board talk please is dendo yes M yes Mr yes M Menor yes Mr yes borski yes M Fran yes yes yes moving on to edtech can we get a motion to adopt 4.01 to 4.03 we do not have a committee corre okay so does anyone have any questions regarding what's on uh in the agenda get a roll dep yes Fury yes M yes m m yes M Peach yes M borski yes yes is Ryan Yes is both yes yes weing on to Personnel we got a motion to adopt 5.01 to 5.13 so move Jennifer second uh once again we don't have a correct does anyone have any questions regarding anything on the agenda okay can we get a roll call please M yes is yes yes Yes Men yes speach yes borski yes Ryan yes yes yes moving on to communication uh can we get a motion to adopt 6.01 to 6.02 once again we don't have aort um does anyone have any question question about anything on the agenda all right we got a roll call please is the yes is yes yes M yes Peach yes yes Ryan Yes Yes Dr yes okay um unfinished business um I know Jason has been sending out probably about the workshop uh coming up Jason and I talked today the way I understand it is we have at least one board member going Tuesday and staying over Tuesday night into Wednesday and another board member going Tuesday staying over Tuesday night and staying Wednesday night till Thursday so if any um any board members interested in going we just want you to know that that seems to be the schedule and Jason and I will will kind of align ourselves with that schedule going Tuesday night Wednesday night and then leaving on Thursday um so if board members are interested in going we just wanted you to know what we've collected so that you can um you know look at your schedule and decide if you want to go for one night or two nights or you know you can go Monday and do the afternoon sessions on Monday just that nobody will be there so you'll be left to Atlantic City all by yourself so whatever you do happens in Atlantic City stays in Atlantic City um but just know that we'll plan on going Jason and I will go Tuesday night and Wednesday night and we'll just coordinate board members that are going for those two nights as well and Jason has the the details if anybody's interested the agenda is out as well so if there's certain agenda items that are of interest to you Tuesday and Wednesday are the more full days of agenda items Monday is just Monday afternoon and then Wednesday or Thursday excuse me is the law form so that's the update thank you y uh any new new business from the board no all right we're now open to the public for anything on or off the agenda any is a message from Austin fix the bathroom pass all right jully noted thank you anything else that we need to share no okay I would encourage Austin or anybody having a question about the RMS bathroom protocols to reach out to their teacher or Mr Charleston because it sounds like when reaching out to Mr Charleston or the nurses it sounds like whatever concerns have been heard and have been resolved can I something real quick topic I actually had a good J as a parent I reached out to Mr Charleston the principal and he's great and there's more Pros than cons that's yeah it's it's I'll tell you um we I I'll start by saying we have always monitored the sign out for children using the bathroom of the middle school we have moved to a digital version where students can use an app on their Chromebook in the classroom sign outs pick a specific bathroom and use the restroom during class time there are some limitations day four there are some limitations that we're still getting used to and I know that if you've reached out to Mr Charleston he's collecting all of the data and making adjustments from what I understand the concern has been because it's digital um the bathroom passes have Caps or limits on how many students could sign out to go to a specific bathroom so if you wanted to use the sixth grade boys bathroom and there are two students that are already signed out on the virtual system using that bathroom a student is not able to access that bathroom um but something that we're still getting used to um and I think that that was the primary concern in just students sorted having to wait differently than they had has um I know the parents reached out to Mr Charleston I know he's aware of the issue he's making adjustments to those cap limits I we're not going to let like 10 students in one bathroom at once you can imagine that could be problematic um but the real benefits of this is every Everybody in the building be able to monitor the B and specifically during an emergency drill link a lockdown Mr Charleston by a click of his computer can say there are we are in lockdown and there are eight students in these four bathrooms that know exactly who's out and what bathroom they're in and can identify that they so since it came up which I didn't expect it to I just have a question how how how even sure that the student says they're going to go those certain bathroom that they actually end up in that bathroom just curious now since that would of Middle School administration guess I didn't put you on the spot but but look they could sign out of classroom number 302 and say that they're going to the bathroom and go to no bathroom any you know there's you know we have to trust our students and we have clap monitors in the hallway who also have access to the app as well so I guess my personal family resence is just a little different that's yeah um that's great I can't imagine why um but I think we have monitors in the hallway that also have access to the same app as well so that they know if Johnny signed out of classroom 301 is Ved the sixth grade bathroom if I'm the sixth grade Hall Monitor I should be expecting joh walk down hallway and if they don't then I know so that's the best answer I can give on my very limited knowledge which is why you need to call Dr or Mr Charleston or your your child's teacher what problem are we solving that in order to implement that to that um there have been instances of vandalism in the bathrooms and graffiti as well and I this is certainly a way that we can monitor it a little bit closely without having to go into a FBI investigation of the cameras and everything like that um I say that tongue and cheek but as well as just monitoring student safety knowing where students are when they say they're going I mean and I believe that similar app or some kind of same protocol is used when they when students sign into the nurse's office or the school counselor site as well it's just about accounting for where students are in the given time building so my only question was I don't know if you know the answer but um the process so a child like requests it and then who's granting the permission to go it's an automatic um an automatic yes for them to go as long as there's an available place to go so the teacher doesn't have to go to her computer and click yes the teacher just the teacher just or the child says I need to use the bathroom the teacher says yes the teacher knows that that child's out of the classroom and the app traps that they to the bathroom I I think I have most of this right it's time M reset or something I don't think so but I know that I think that like students need to get in the habit of like coming back and clicking like back right your middle school parents right thank you Austin for prompting that conversation impromptu all right um any any other comments um can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting move second car's not here no one knows what yesi yes yes yes yes gets us home in time not that there's anything