##VIDEO ID:DfSlLewjE2U## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Richwood board of education has been meeting an executive session pursuant to njsa 10 colon 4-12 the minutes of this meeting will be released when the need for confidentiality no longer exists um may we start with a roll call Mr Donnie Miss quack here miss mcau here Mr mmmut here miss BR here uh flag salute and Pledge of Allegiance please join pursuing to the requirements of the open public meetings act advanced notice has been given to the Star Ledger the record and the clerk of the village of Ridgewood in addition notices were posted in the office of the board secretary and in all school buildings I think I need a a roll call right do we need another roll call no okay all right all right uh presentations Dr Short course I think it's um haris all right we have a pretty light night tonight and we have with us Mr Harrison Burns Ridgewood High School student and student representative to the board Mr Burns take it away please hi everybody I hope you're uh doing well um so yeah next few weeks of school have started people are settling in um so rard high school began its annual tell your story program a couple of weeks ago um for those of you not familiar that was a program started a couple years ago meant to kind of unify the whole school so there's a selection of I it's five books um and every student in every English class gets to kind of choose one of those books and it's this really kind of cool way of unifying the whole student body um under these uh books that usually follow some certain theme um and so it's really cool because kind of everyone is reading the same thing at the same time um and usually they're they're Memoirs so this year uh Memoirs that really feature kind of a profound experience um including Trevor Noah is born a crime and Terror Westover is educated um also recently the rhs Alumni Association had their annual distinguished alumni ceremony uh on Saturday September 21st um where thank you um were Alan Miller Robert Hofer Libby gist Wilds David mad Madden excuse me uh were honored um and to grade parents had their financial aid meeting last week on September 23rd um and nth grade parents had their first class meeting on Thursday the 26th to kind of Welcome them to the is this good now everybody can hear me okay okay thank you um brid High School back to school night was on Tuesday the 24th uh the event opened with its usual address from the principal Mr nias uh at 6:30 in the Campus Center um recently select Ridgewood High School student um as well as some students from BF and GW were invited to attend the Visions 2030 student meeting on September 23rd at 1 pm um this is part of a launch of vision 2030 to find out uh what to focus on for the future of the r Public Schools uh by receiving the inputs of various groups and organizations um students were invited to join a zoom call without teachers principes or any other District employees there to encourage them to speak freely um I had the pleasure of attending that meeting myself and it was very interesting to hear some of the perspectives of you know my fellow high school students and uh and some middle school students as well so it was very informative and interesting and engaging experience um seniors said their goodbyes to their beloved great adviser Mr Burke who left the district last Tuesday he had his last day um he was you know speaking just from my personal experience he was a fan favorite um very beloved among the grade um and a very very fun but also very kind uh individual so he will be missed um and Mrs wood is stepping in uh to kind of fill up his role until uh replacement um under classroom students had their school pictures taken during the week of the 16th and senior portraits are also wrapping up now so kind of picture time at school but it's it's largely over now which is nice but uh we'll have some retakes in October um AP students are also starting to register for their exams which will be in May um they're still till the end of October to register for those so no worries if people haven't gotten to that yet but that's already being thought about which is crazy um and the National Honor Society had their first meeting on Tuesday September 17th and they've began to offer their regular tutoring Services um either to be scheduled or uh there's drop in tutoring every day uh in the learning Commons uh after school so uh and then over to the sports and activities side uh the applied engineering club has continued to receive remark remarkable excuse me growth uh as it kicked off the year with over 230 members and 25 established invention teams um I know that uh they're home to I believe it's five NJ steam tank winners and five Thomas Edison pitch contest winners so they've had a lot of success and that's just in the past four years so they're doing very well um super soccer Saturday ran at rid high school on Saturday the 21st featuring food apparel sales a car caricature artist and all six levels of soccer being played throughout the day so that was a lot of fun um the marching band had their preview performance in Ramsey uh this past Friday the 27th uh which I heard went pretty well um the girls basketball team had their car wash at the high school this past Saturday the 28th um and ridard football defeated Piscataway in a nailbiter 14 to13 at the first home game of the season um which I went to myself and it was a lot of fun it's one of only two home games we have this year so the energy was very high and it was it was a great game um and finally boys and girls soccer both won their games this past Saturday the 21st uh which continues an undefeated uh s-0 record for the boys so uh that's about it so thank you I will open for uh comments from the public and as of the last meeting we had waved the requirement for you to State your address um so we ask that you state your name and your municipality um and the policy committee I see already on the agenda they've already met and and are making a recommendation to make that part of our bylaws uh but we have to go through a process so for uh we will continue to wave that requirement um and we will once the policy uh assuming that it passes uh adjust the um verbiage on the front page of our agendas good evening I'm Barbara chelmi of Bridgewood at the last Board of Education meeting a few mothers including me spoke about the district's intimidation and bullying of parents who have children with disabilities when we advocate for our kids Special Needs parents have a sacred duty to use the tools that we are given including the law to advocate for our kids we applaud the board members who demonstrated concern for us including members Mamud and Mall's excellent idea to create an ad hoc special education committee I wanted to follow up tonight to let you know that since the last meeting my husband and I have received overwhelming support from other specialed parents mothers that we did not know before reached out to share painful traumatic experiences including experiences with board attorney Alyssa Weinstein at IEP meetings and in ation proceedings we heard from one parent our lives have been hell end quote due to their dealings with the board's attorney and Dr fenwick's office repeatedly I heard parents say that they and their child have PTSD all related to the district's conduct it became apparent to us that this intimidation and bullying is a much broader problem but such conduct runs counter to one of this board's mission statements of helping each child maximize their potential we feel privileged that these parents were comfortable sharing their traumatic experiences with us some of these parents are afraid to come here and speak publicly about what they have endured for fear of the negative consequences against them and their special needs children I bring this up so that the board is aware that there is a widespread problem The Bullying intimidation of specialed parents has gotten worse in the last four to five years and we hope the board takes action immediately to address these issues thank you thank you um is are are you here for public comment we do have uh Susan here um on the line you can speak if you'd like um hello Susan Ruan I live in Ridgewood I'm also calling in regard to the special um needs Department um at the last and I want to commend the superintendent for doing the coffees with parents I believe that's a great Outreach to parents and it's a great opportunity for parents to express their concerns as well as to for him to respond to them um with that said I was a little bit upset to hear that the special needs department is going to do a self audit on themselves um I was really hoping that an outside will come in and observe or um do do the audit because I don't think um the special needs Department um one will have an objective point of view when examining themselves and I think that um parents need to also be involved um in the audit and I believe they should be stakeholders and I and if there is a self audit then should um have parents in in there as well to hear what's happening and there should be full transparency there shouldn't be at the end of the um the presentation this is the conclusion and no one knows how they got there um that's pretty much it thank you I'm going to close public comment um Dr Schwarz did you um have anything you wanted to add or do you want to go into your report uh no I don't really know that there's too much more that I can add um just that you know that we hear hear our parents concerns uh regarding special education and um certainly always wanting to make sure that we're doing the best I do want to clarify you know I don't have a clear position regarding whether or not it would be appropriate given the parent concerns that have come up for us to use a third party to to pay for some sort of an outside audit uh we are engaging in audits right now for Dei practices we're we're engaging with Professionals for a strategic plan um I'm not opposed to any kind of thirdparty audit but generally speaking my normal process would consist of gathering all the Gathering all the data that would surround that concern reporting out on that as is uh it's not that would be something that we in process of board members you know that we've put together some information if the board decides after we've done an initial review of information like sort of like a preliminary look into the concerns that have been presented um then that's something that certainly I would not be opposed to so I just want to be clear I'm not trying to there's no no extent to which I am um ever opposed to having like some sort of an external opinion regarding our practices I think our experience um last year with getting in some initial data particularly when we're looking at reading our language arts and we're looking at math um you really did do a deep dive into that and then came with recommendations after really sitting down and talking with um the uh the staff and that U supervisors so my inclination is to let you do that deep dive and then come back to the board and determine because I think in the absence of of really collecting any data well we and we we have data we have we have some we're actually going over uh I was looking into um some of our community surveys from parents last year as well so we're we're we're pulling we have a wide variety of data but we're organizing that in a way that kind of can help to tell a bit of a story and then of course obviously I've been meeting with some families that have had concerns directly themselves have been doing that really throughout the year last year um so we'll we'll be continuing to to give a a clear like kind of as we we also had there was a cpag meeting I want reminded but there cpag meeting last year in the spring I Believe Miss Mall you were there we had a lot of productive conversation around trying to kind of level set and really get a sensus to where we are and recognizing that um you know we always need to be in a constant state of self-improvement and self self assessment and so um one of the thing one of the the commitments that I made and we came to at that convers ation which was very forthright and very very respectful was that uh we would do really like a state of the we would we would take the the prior independent evaluation that was done on special education and we do an analysis regarding what has changed since then which is part of what we've been doing with the the report we're putting together for all of you and also we are um uh we would be putting we would then update that with current numbers and then really and I don't remember if we said it actually at the CAC meeting but afterwards it kind of at least came into manifestation the idea that if we're going to take the time to do a transparent state of the schools address where we include survey items about how our schools are doing in general it would make sense that we would do something similar in perpetuity for spec with with specific gearing towards special education I did look back at some of our parent surveys and the questions that we asked were very specific about special education they're not like General satisfaction questions I don't know how useful they are but perhaps that's something that we'd want to do to be able to have more informed data points to kind of test the hypotheses that some folks have that there are that that there are um that there is uh there are these experiences now that said talking with the teams and like there there are probably opportunities for us to you know um talking about children's placements and education programs is a very sensitive matter of course and it's something that the professionals take seriously and it's something that parents no doubt take very seriously um and so some and and it they can be delicate so perhaps there's also room for us to really look at at our engagement practices and exactly what those conversations look like one thing I have heard just otally as an example is that I've heard from numerous parents both those whose children who feel their children are well-placed and parents of students who and and parents who who are concerned about their child's placement that parents don't always feel well prepared for IP meetings this is just an example right and that basically they kind of show up and they get all the information at the IP meeting right so something that kind of came out of some of those conversations is are ways that our child study team members can help parents to have more information and be better prepared before I'm sorry my my microphone's cutting in and out here M Bar yours M broin you know and making a good faith attempt to try to make sure that parents have the information that they need and understanding before the child study team meeting so these are the kinds of uh the things that we're exploring and trying to see if we can uh if uh if if if like some some common sense Solutions there um so that said I'm not trying to make comment on any any specifics have brought forth um but as a as a general fact finding right now in response to the general concerns that's what we're focused on but again I the the board has the board is the is the governing body and whatever you all want to do in terms of how you want to uh want me to report whether whether it's to the whole board or a committee specifically or whether you want to engage in uh if you want to do like a like a a process where we select an dependent group to just be able to give you that independent perspective it's it's it's all fine with me right well your goal um we're going to be discussing your goals and I notic that is is to um you know as you are evaluating all of our different programs doing special education and I think that we all need to be grounded in some of the special education uh laws and what's happening and then we can go from there I think also um I I agree 100% with that approach where we you know we get like the basic information but I think part of the basic information that we need clearly there's a an appetite for to make sure that we have the experiential information all of it right um so I think that's important and I like the idea of maybe a different survey I know um you know a survey that maybe more comprehensively addresses the types of concerns that we're hearing um the other thing that I would like to look at at some point is our resources do we have the resources we need to serve the kids that we have um I assume that we do but you know that's the type of thing that we actually want to make sure that we're always looking at do we do we have enough because sometimes I think a lack of resources a lack of time is you know lends itself to perceived your real concerns so Dr Schwarz I think one of the basic questions I have from the feedback we heard from last time and today um and the your um internal audit or whether you recommend um a third party audit whatever that process would be how do we ensure that we are getting the feed the negative feedback to whoever is evaluating and do we have a an ongoing process for that so if if there are concerns that there are some staff members who are not willing to come forward because they are worried about retaliation so whether that's uh so if a staff member has a a feedback on how something went down during IEP process or how or uh feedback for improvement do they have a channel available to them to provide that feedback to you um anonymously or without worrying about um ident being identified so so if somebody within the staff has a knows about an issue do they have a channel available to them to report that to you directly somehow if you are doing that evaluation and for parents also when parents are going through the IEP meeting or if the parents are at elementary or very early stages right now and they know that they have to work with the district for next 12 years do they have an Avenue to report report those problems to you in a generalized form or even to reach out to you um or when the parents reach out to you is the standard answer let's go and through the proper Channel and you have to work with this special team I don't also don't want to like everybody to be coming to you we don't want that but if somebody has a genuine concern or a situation do they have an Avenue to provide that feedback to you or during so that's an ongoing process question and for this specifically right now if it is brought to your attention what would be your way to gather that information how will you actually collect even if we are doing perfectly good in 99.5% of the cases and there is a room for improvement in 05% how do we uh identify those 05% cases without a bias uh towards ourselves that yes we are doing so if there is a room for improvement how do we know that how do we get that inform without disclosing their names or without like how do we make sure that they come forward but is that oh gosh is that um not just special education but is it just in general I'd like to understand if there is uh like a a 360 like two you know just allaround way to capture anonymously some feedback if if a channel exists I think you talked about that very early on yes so we do have a variety of channels by which people can share information I'm speaking generally right now this is not just special education so we have uh we we have channels the official channels like we have our principles right and we have all of our our supervisory channels and we try to keep open Communications that way we can learn about areas of disatisfaction or concern that people have we also have an environment work very hard to keep an environment where people don't feel stigmatized for raising concerns quite the opposite we encourage and we praise people for who bring forth concerns that said the proper actual structure is not always the the most reliable because sometimes people are afraid to speak truth to power right and they're can they're worried about consequences right so we also use use our local associations really proactively so we have a te our Teachers Association who we need to work with in good faith to just as a matter of of of good faith employment but also uh we worked very hard to build that trusting relationship so that we can have two-way communication as well and the the association is actually a really good tool for us to to actually Channel up concerns so often we'll have uh concerns that are brought forth sort of anonymously through the association and come through the association reps we also reinstituted last year something called the uh um Personnel policy committee which is sort of oriented around like Personnel issues but it really is like a general a committee for like General generalized concerns and it's something where the associations both the administrator Association and the Educators Association they have representatives in each building and they bring those concerns forward through their representatives anonymously they get vetted make sure that they're they're valid and then they come forth in in a more anonymized sort of way but then we work as a committee to try to resolve that I think I'm cutting out again here I'm still good we also uh engage am I not am I not cutting in and out is it just me it's just me yeah maybe maybe the speaker oh maybe the speaker is going in and out maybe that's what it is all right I'll just power through you got you got to flag me down if it's not working out okay all right thanks so um and then of course we we have surveys our surveys are we do work to make sure our surveys are not um we don't ask too much information so that we can narrow down who is taking the surveys they are anonymized so we so yeah I think we have quite a few channels by which people can share their concerns um and we try to bring bring forth those concerns um you know I and I and I always want to be like walking a fine line between gathering information proac and consistently and like and really keeping the ear to the ground you know even just walking around schools and talking with folks I mean that's what all of our administrators do we try to keep kind of run a flat organization where we're where we we we're staying in contact with each other and we can kind of uh drum up you know kind of get a sens of anything that's bubbling out there but with respect to something like this was talking about special education it it it it warrants I mean with the level of concern that we all seem to have that we're all talking about this so much it warrants in an initial collection of information and data data but it also warrants some inquiries and inquiries usually come in the form of anonymous surveys and we have to go through efforts to make sure that that data is really treated anonymously and that people feel comfortable saying what they have to say I will say there is are some constraints when it comes to families if we're in if we're in active litigation with a family I do have constraints around how much I can engage with them because you know it's we're officially in a legal process um but in so far as we're talking with families who are just have General concerns they they do engage with cpag we've also another Avenue of concerns of course all of our parent organizations CPAC is a great advocacy organization so we have lots of conversation through them and again as we said last you know uh where we left it last with the cpeg group and I was speaking with uh with some Representatives even just over the summer the beginning of the school year there was some general interest in seeing what the output was going to be of the different uh fact finding that we were going to do including some some Financial analyses of like what we actually spend in the district what our what our extraordinary Aid actually is what we spend on legal fees these just general questions that we can be transparent about so uh happy to uh happy to to follow through on that and then and then continue to engage in further inquiry as needed from there but Mr Donnie a point that you made that is an interesting point is just the relative efficiency there's there's an inefficiency and inefficiency to using an outside firm there's an inefficiency and that actually takes a lot of time to choose a firm to bring a firm in to then provide all the data to that firm and then to support the firm and all the data that they would need to collect which would be very similar to what we would do so um but once that work is being done and it comes to like writing a report and doing the analysis that is something that they take care of for you which is a nice which is a nice perk of of doing something like that so my recommendation would be that we would we would just complete this fact finding ex initial fact finding exercise and we'll we'll continue to report to you I think we said in our in our executive session we were talking about some matters um that were that were subject to attorney client privilege and one of the indications that we made I'm happy to say here is that uh we have some additional information that we'd like to share um uh which again would subject to a current attorney client privilege I believe but reported on the 14th so you'd have a more complete picture so um just to just to close the loop on that so I understand how you have the channel to get Anonymous feedback from the teachers from the staff if staff has concerned through the teachers union um how will we get the feedback from parents who are currently affected or who are recently affected in last few years and who may have a feedback regarding this audit so if somebody has a feedback how are you going to choose that population to send out the survey um for to complete the process I think we just need to figure out what exactly it it's going to come down to what the questions are so depending on what the questions are and what our inquiries are we decide what the population is that we want to survey if we want to and Survey the entirety I'm more inclined in the district or size to just survey the entirety of the population because of the current District parents or uh parents who have already uh any any well that's the thing is that's part of what the research is is we have to determine what the population is so if we determine that the population is parents who are current District parents or parents with whom the the district has entered in a settlement agreement with or parents who are the parents of students who are no longer students in the district because they graduated we can determine what that population is we can seek to survey them because we may get more honest information from parents who who are already not using the district right so we should not exclude them if they recently used The District in last four years if that's the time frame we are looking for I mean that that that strikes me as a valid argument right now okay we also um may get some insight and information uh through the Strategic Plan Focus Group we had uh not all parents but students parents community members but we may get some insight they seem to indicate that they uh was considerable conversations about um special education so again free form question there I I don't remember if there was AE we we had a very strong representation from what I understand in the live sessions from our special education communities there's extensive notes taken so that's just it Bears noting it it does I mean it's just it's just another data point it's it it's not the complete right um so we'll go uh now to um a discussion of the district goals um draft y um and you all received the updated the updated draft the updated draft the only change was to the second goal was it yep okay I just want because I didn't print out upd so on on the gos Dr sh last time we discussed that we also need a presentation of what where are we with the last year's goals for the at a public presentation for the public for the public regard because that's what will close the loop on the last year's goals we we discussed the goals in public but we haven't discussed the results of those those goals in public and there was a presentation where I had requested some additional slides um for from the data perspective so I want to First follow up on that before I would start talking about the new new goals so I so I so I reported to all of you and in close session right and then I reported out like a a version of that like a like a kind of paired down version for the public so the public could see specifically the outcomes of the goals so I'm sorry in my head like right but that was reported at a coffee that was not reported a board meeting no but I reported no I reported to you all in executive session what he's saying is that report as a public meeting here so I can I can do that I can pull that up now if you if you all would like that and you did did I mean you also did it in public I did not I did but whereever it was first reported I had requested some clarifications I don't remember getting those like there were some numbers about yeah it had to do with the we added the slides on proportionality of stat right right there was there was more beyond the what was in those slides yeah the the slide basically just uh identified the total staff but it did not identify the the breakdown of that staff because staff can include custodial staff can include um uh I think if even if we're going to re report on that it should be on an agenda so people can tune in for it it's my suggestion so maybe we just can we look into this to see if we did it in the past if we did it I would say it's put it on an agenda for the next meeting we did it in June I'm just saying we we should give people notice the public not we're yeah yeah so I'm not I'm not trying to pull a live presentation yeah that that's not my goal I'm just saying that there there were couple of data points that were missing and I've brought it up couple of like more than two times now all right we're we're doing a lot of business here so so I have the presentation up so before we close when the day is over and the meeting's over if you can just stick around for a minute with me and with Mrs Murphy because I think it was HR data right right then let's just nail down what your concerns are because again lots of data flying around lots of so many pre I'm trying to present it coffees and it executive sessions and at public I'm just getting a little getting a little lost so sure I'd rather I'm happy to be redundant I don't mind but I don't but I don't want to surprise folks so let's look at that together and then we can Circle back next time around I wasn't planning on us authorizing the goals today it was more just this was our round I want to go back with the admin to get their input on a final round before I went back to the admin I wanted you to see my draft first and I want to give you some context for it okay if that works yeah so what I did though if you recall and I'm just going to show this for a just for a just for a quick second um to demonstrate how this fits so again we'll do this presentation again at the next meeting all right just wait one second it's going to pop up there we go so you you may recall let me let me let me I do the colored charts yeah let me view this let's go into slideshow all right so you recall that I did a I did a midyear update and then I did uh which was actually this so that was the and I just chose this goal too was inclusivity right so this was the December update last year and then this was the end of year eo's end of year update right and we showed some things were established but then there were other things that were in process right so what I did was I took the feedback that I got from some of you and I'm sorry if I missed some of your feedback but I got I I took some that feedback and then I took all of these chunks and then I basically it because we have the Strategic plan which is going to be the plan that sets those multi-year targets it seemed to make more sense to me to stay focused on process right now because I know there are a lot of process oriented things that people want us to actually do not just achieve so so what I did was I just since we seemed to do well with the format last year like we I mean meaning meaning that we all seem to be more or less on the same page about the format and the structure what I did was I spent a lot of time working with the admin around what like the overarching buckets of the goals would be and then we talked I think a little bit last time or one of the recent times we talked a little bit about some of those some of those topics or maybe we talked about just in committees so what I did was then is I drafted this document which we can link in uh we can link in a version of it so the public can see it too right now I don't think it's linked for the public but the public can see the screen so um basically this is working draft and the idea was last year the theme was basically like set a Baseline of understanding where we are so this year I'm saying set a long-term Vision because that's the district that's a strategic planning goal but like we it doesn't work it doesn't make sense to me at least to say well we're doing the Strategic plan so we're not going to do anything else in the meantime right like like there's still plenty of work to do right and there's things in motion so let's follow through right so the first goal and I'm going to move through this kind of quickly so bear with me and I'm sorry if I make you if anybody's watching from home if this is a little dizzying actually you know what I think I can get rid of some of these bars make it a little better let's see uh let get of the BL full screen maybe there we go all right so goal one is basically focused on strategic planning I should have just wrote like one word to make it easier so District goal is goal one is basically just continuing District goal one last year was strategic planning this year is is a continuation of that goal and I'll come back to it District goal two is empowering students so the idea was the second goal last year I think was inclusivity the third goal was math and language arts this year I want to get a little bigger than that then we we are calling out math and language arts I know that we still we still want to make sure that we're following up on those things but I really want to focus on uh what a consensus was around our administrative Group which was that they really want to focus on simultaneously and again this is consistent with seligman's research simultaneously focus on the supports for kids while focusing on the academics for kids and although math and language arts are still important we really want to start expanding to all subject areas and making sure that we're monitoring student progress we have Co we have a coherent sequence of things which I shouldn't say we have a very we we have great programs and great sequences but again ensuring that it is truly guaranteed and viable as as Dr Murphy likes to say uh throughout all of our areas and that we have some common assessments which we have in some areas but we want to have common assessments throughout so that just we can can monitor student progress throughout AC and not just across math and language arts they're very important subjects but there are other important subjects as well so goal two is about empowering students but I used that umbrella or that bucket if you would as a as a place to house a lot of our inclusivity work because a lot of this comes down to making sure that if Stu different student populations are not having the same experience that we make sure that we're looking at that and making it and addressing that um and then the second one and and then of course uh we talked about added a piece about um evaluating uh child study team practices and special education services because that's something that we've been talking about and I also and we talked about this year being like a year of really evaluating our gifted and talented programs as well so I called that out as well as some other things which I'll get to District goal 3 is really about high academic growth for all so this is really where like that like high expectations really the academic Ambitions come into play because you know we we have the support so that our kids can perform well and if we want our kids to perform well we have to make sure sure they're supported and then the last one of course is a rearticulation and update of uh facilities and finances basically an operational goal so similar structure to last year is is everyone I think it that'll when I go through it I think it might make a little more sense but how does everybody feel about that General structure I like it I read through it um my one comment was I didn't see a call out for the floods situation specifically unless unless are we just understanding that that's included into facilities plan thank you for that you're right I'm sorry to Circle back yeah yeah I think that's there's no call out to our flood mitigation yeah kind of along the along those lines flood being a specific issue I think and I don't know if I'm getting to mention to the we at this point but when you're talking about the Strategic plan and what we're looking to accomplish and consider in developing that I really think we need to take a look at our facilities in terms of what's our fiveyear plan for the facilities long range plan on the front four it's under District Four here yeah it's on the fourth one but when we're specifically talking about the spe the maybe I missed it but we're specifically talking about the Strategic plan I think that we should reference the facil work with that in addition to the fact that we have to do a general facilities assessment I just think it needs to be wrapped up into the Strategic those are the action PL those the plans that will come out of the Just Right but it's not listed as a priority oh I got the priorities are profile a graduate or you know AI I think a priority should be do our facilities you know are they adequate for our needs is something we want to do need to do I think that's got to be part of our strategic plan yeah I agree that's that's great hold on let me just here so this this one was the the I was being you know I was making uh implications here with this statement I was trying to make it more broad than just flooding but in saying like responsible use in maintenance that's that's that's where my brain was going with it but we'll call it out that's that's fine so um there was one thing that we discussed last time and I had after the presentation after you had presented to us I had sent an email with the uh specific U minutes and hours on the video where everybody agreed but I think it was not reflected in the goals not called out so if we can call it out this time um we need to identify uh we like we we need the number of how many students are buzzed from east side of Ridgewood or other side of 17 I picked that up for it's number seven evaluate District busing practices to ensure Equity of service yeah but it was vague last time and it was not done so let's can we call it out that uh um so Equity of service well I I'm I'm using so you mentioned one specific situation yes but but I there are I have numerous situations that are of concern that I have initially made board right so in my example I'm not talking about busing practice I'm talking about um the need for a school in a neighborhood oh right so so if we are busing too many students from a neighborhood to a different neighborhood do we need to reevaluate the order change in demographics uh in last 20 30 years that do we need a to restart a school in in a neighborhood that's I think that was the Genesis of that discussion last year but uh because it did not make it explicit in the goals it did not happen but I I have that's a much bigger a much it's not when you making that kind of decision which I have no problem addressing you're not just looking at busing you got to look at what's in that neighborhood yes whatever is need whatever data we need for that so that so that would be like a districting study like a school districting study is that what you're saying like like figuring out like the districting of the schools again so I don't want uh to the right wording because that you you would suggest what wording is needs to be there last time we just talked about basic that okay let's look at how many students are actually coming from other side of rout 17 to H how many students are being busted so that was just one data point we talked about but it did not make into the do do so we we want if we just make a districting uh question or the question the underlying question is has the neighborhood changed uh in last 20 30 years since that decision was made to change close the school and do we have maybe more younger families now there that we should have a elementary school there or not right so how do we get that data but let's just I mean just for Devil's Advocate purposes let's say we find a high concentration of bus students from Super Northeast you know Ridgewood or super Southwest Ridgewood are we really going to establish a new school and keep by the demographics are changing year by year as well but that's the only neighborhood from where we uh bust the students because of the dis like the two every other neighborhood has a school within uh a grammar school within their neighborhood open you school there or buy a house convert it what would what would be the step two of but we already have it so that hypothetical question doesn't make I know Glen is what you're going right but how about the rest of the we already have the schools in every NE other neighborhood so you want to look specifically at the GL that's the only neighborhood where we don't have a school so I I kind of feel like the way you expressed the question just before which was well now I can't remember how you said it but you you basic I feel like that is a freestanding inquiry that we as a board need to decide do we or do we not want to assess whether or not at this point in time we want to change the use of Glenn from what it is now to maybe a neighborhood Elementary School I mean I think that's what you're asking and I right but how would you decide without even knowing how many students are being I didn't say no no I'm not saying you make that decision I'm saying you ask that question you make the decision to ask the question and then you go and you get all the data because that is one data point I'm not saying it's unimportant but there are also other things to consider like the fact that there's 250 kids that are currently being educated in that building in other programs that's fineing thing that we need need to address yes but you would not be able to address that until you know how many students are coming being busted from that neighborhood until you know that problem with that I'm just saying that you don't do that in a vacuum I'm saying that your your question is a larger inquiry that I think we need to decide as a board whether we want to address it so that's what I'm saying that I have a I have suggest so I have a question and you are saying that your question is not sufficient to make a decision but but I'll not make a decision because I don't have all other questions with me right now no my all I'm saying to you is that you asked a good question and I think it should be separate a separate question that we look into maybe as another board goal if that's what the board wants to do I'm not all I'm saying is that it's a big issue and so rather than kick at it little by little let's say we're going to look at it or we're not and if we look at it let's look at all of it okay so what numbers then I mean you know if you if you begin to take children out of an elementary school that's not quite full to open I think all those are the things we have to address the point is if you start picking and say well we bust I don't know the numbers and I think all of those questions are valid but I don't see the point in doing one thing now without acknowledging that there's a larger question that we either do or do not want to address so I have I have a motion to I have a motion to put on the table uh let's see if I have a second it's a very basic simple question do we want to add in the board goals to get a number of how many students are buzzed from the other side of rout 17 to H school that's the simple question I mean I personally think that that could just be a a bullet on their facilities fin right so that's my qu that's my motion that should we be should we get that get that data as part of yeah I mean so so maybe I'm interpreting this as bigger than what you're asking because because that's a pretty straightforward data request and I I didn't interpret it as such I when you that's what I had last year yeah okay so right that's the starting point and if that number is very small then then everything is yeah there's nothing then there's nothing else to discuss all right okay well I mean in that doesn't even have to be I can do that for you this we can do that for you this week yeah but let's let's memorialize it because otherwise there are so many things on tell you what if we don't have information for you for you by the 14th then we'll memorialize it okay okay so wait is that information going to be publicly available because this has been um the broader discussion about um Glenn has been it's been you know in the in the works for a while and it wais on WS depends on um depends on other issues but it it's it's it's an it's been a an ongoing inquiry that we don't have any answers or sometimes I guess no appetite to discuss it but it's still there so is that information going to be something that will be shared that we can discuss publicly on the 14th will it get on the agenda oh yeah okay so it'll be an agenda I mean that's I mean well saying it's gonna be on the I I don't I would just report it to you on the 14th yeah before the 14th meaning like meaning meaning you're asking for a data point right if and I'm hearing correctly you're asking for what is the what is the cost that the district pays to bus students from The Glenn area of town and how many number of students number of students right from Glen GL Glenn area from The Glenn area so do we have a is that defined someone it's a route 17 is a clear division fair enough they're on a bus so to so how many kids how many kids do bus TOS is that that's the question okay every bus is for is is from that and N none are from the pause catchment area no no no can't answer that what I'm saying other areas to much but we can we can find that out with the bus we I mean this is a fine question yeah okay so Mar to go back to the goals I have another comments and and maybe it's not an issue but let me bring it up and and I think we should have brought this up in the last year's goals too because I just look at those as well but if I'm just looking glancing at these goals I'm not seeing any mention of uh Music Arts or Sports anywhere very academic heavy extracurricular activities that includes that's I think kind of but we can say extra and you can good and that just falls under the extracurricular activities sub point if we are we are it's fine or does it deserve calling out under that systems of support again I don't want to create a lot more goals I'm not a big fan of lots of goals uh because it it just becomes meaningless um or again if we are we're good that that fall under extracurricular is that something that maybe should be a priority under the Strategic plan I mean I what I'm hearing you say that it feels a little unbalanced and feels very academic yeah academic heavy and I appreciate which I appreciate no I appreciate that but I also appreciate the point you just raised and I'm wondering if because that's why I was really focusing on the Strategic plan it's it's everything right so maybe we make it another priority point and we specify Music Arts you know athletic whatever that that might be the way to do it maybe that's also the the portrait of a graduate yeah let me yes Arts right Sports yeah yeah I like that yeah this is supposed to say 25 someone else caught that before yeah um okay I like that so you're saying within the specific within within goal one is strategic plan we're calling out that we want to make sure that the scope of of that work and that vision would be inclusive of Arts Athletics and other extracurriculars the whole child of the whole child the whole child all right full Pro F so I'm just going to make a note here uh uh but I I I I I'm interested because I see that you know engag in strategic planning process but and we can say this is what we want to do but doesn't doesn't the data that we collected have to really inform well I I think there's two elements to this I think there is a I think there is a task level element to it but and I'm sorry I'm don't mean to speak for all of you but but the way the way the way I'm interpreting it is I think that there is there's like a there's a stuff we want to get done sort of element but then there's also like a virtue signaling kind values based signaling kind of element too like where like what's in this document what's not to to Mr mud's Point what's not in this document called out speaks as loudly as the things that are called out to some folks right so even if it's not even if functionally we know what our intentions are it's not a bad idea to just say hey this matters to us right I I I I would I imagine I have a hard time conceiving of a world in which our community would come up with a with a strategic plan that wasn't inclusive of the Arts and like you know well-roundedness and everything but it's not a bad it's not it's not bad to call it out and to make sure that like you know that as as I'm going down my checklist of the goals I can be oh are we are we encoun are we covering the Arts in that plan we can we can do that so I think it's a I think it's a good mention so I'm just making a little note here for myself when I when I go back to to have to clean this up kind of sports and along Visual and Performing Arts Visual performing Sport and extra yeah I'll call it out in my mind Arts are music too but so along those same lines and and I don't know if I'm getting too much in the weeds here but you gave us the document right that's why I tried to do my to be prepared right so in three uh right in the same world District goal number one where you talk section three priorities Again part Roman numeral three so the articulation of an updated college admissions advis advisement process I personally would take out in a test optional application environment because I think tests are coming back and it's unclear so I think a broader statement is better where was oh sorry right at the bottom of the first page three uh part let's see subparagraph three of District C one and it's actually sub paragraph three of sub paragraph three sorry I would take out I would take out the the right and I also was wondering again under the theory of you know or should we not omit this but should there be some nod to Alternative career paths because we do talk about that later on for you know those that may you know not want to do a four you know fouryear college and we have talked a lot about you know alternative career paths or alternative schooling paths you know for some of our students foret them the exploration of options to no it is there well it's kind of there that's what I'm saying I didn't know whether or not I I made the note to myself first when I saw three to include that and then I went and saw what we had in five and I wasn't sure that's why I raised it for discussion to see whether or not you think we should add that there yeah and clean that up a little bit yeah we more explicit about that call out yeah um on um the last point is this is not for here it I mean just to keep in mind is that for the financial it was the idea of budgeting for the upcoming year and having um a a Viewpoint for the TW for 2425 and then number to start developing 25 26 but beyond that um having not a fiveyear but certainly a threeyear Outlook yeah sure rather than just being very year by year that's a good point yeah that's that's important because in last three four years we had the extra Aid uh from Governor Murphy and that has stopped now so we may be uh accustomed to getting extra money and now if that suddenly stops then what will be the future in next few years or the extra money my point is we are getting above and the state a so if you were getting above and beyond what we getting last year um in the following year we were getting more in last three years that extra will not yeah no that that that's that's good I added that so I just left that statement about the bud I think it' be part of the budget process so while we are projecting our 25 26 budget as a component of that we can give a couple year look for it again that's a very rough cut I mean there's you know we're going to be we' have to make a lot of assumptions that we'd be very clear about but still I think it would' be a fruitful exercise so um Matthews do you want to add anything to that oh by the way we haven't I still haven't gotten to my still haven't gotten to my superintendent report because my superintendent report is like way deep in the agenda but I if I hadn't said this already I have to say it for the PO record uh we have with us our new business administrator board secretary today Mr Richard Matthews is his first public board meeting with us he started last week he has been a breath of fresh air coming in and it already lifting a huge amount of stuff off of my plate I'm really grateful for him and Mr can I just give Mr Matthews an opportunity just introduce himself so what's not waiting longer why don't you just say hi and and tell us what you think hello yeah uh we're actually working on um budget 2526 obviously one of the things that I've done in the past is I would do what's called a gap review which makes a projection for the year coming up but as far as making exceptions for future years we can you know with State a um S2 which was a legislation for the past seven years that has now Sunset it so it's been real quiet on a state eight front what's going to happen for future years one of the big differences with our budget is 81% of our revenues come from from the tax levy which is good so we're not as relying on state aid so these things that you're asking for are things that are already kind of on our plate so you know right now I had a first budget team meeting today to roll out 2526 but you know what you're asking for is something that definitely we can do um as part of the 2526 budget so hopefully we'll have everything you know ready to kind of roll out by the end of the month budget calendar and all the other stuff regarding rolling out to the central office to to the schools meet with Mark make sure what we want to roll out is soort satisfactory so you know we're ramping up pretty quick looking at a lot of old stuff uncovering a lot of different things so um we know we're taking deep dives into the whole budget we're meeting with vendors right now preparing for rfps get them out sooner so that we can um maximize taxpayer dollars um um so we're we're we're rocking and rolling right now thank you yeah officially welcome uh one thing we spent a lot of time on last year uh talking about what were um intramurals and how to address opportunities for students at after school so um I know that we um already authorized a number of after school programs but that was one we spent lot of time and there was interest in um so in your list of um yeah that actually was done a I think almost an injustice because it ended up in the board goals and not the administrative goals not in the district goals okay right board goals yeah so I think I I'm glad you brought that up I'm going to add it in because I do think that's something I'm gonna actually put in the support goal because I think it's a really positive like psychological out I do and uh we'll collect some data on that and see if that's something that we can do it's it wouldn't be represent a major cost really just about a logistical piece of who would be available what spaces would be available and how many kids would be interested right yeah so I think that's where we we thought about starting is is starting to see if there was an interest yeah and if there was an interest then how do you build so yeah we did we did some initial conversations administratively and some initial inquiries but I think we need to collect some real data on that is there anything else good okay um Dr Mur anything you caught in that conversation all right thank you so our next step is the next step is I'll take this back to the admin team get their input we have a meeting on Wednesday so we'll uh we'll go over everything with them we'll we'll do some word smithing get their input make sure we're not missing anything that they feel needs to be in here if they have any feedback I'll share that all with you and then we'll come on the 14th we'll do our final tweaks in advance of the meeting if we need to make tweaks at the table we can do that and then we'll authorize up I I hope to be comfortable authorizing on the the 14th in the meantime we that that data we talked about we'll just take care of that my only worry is it's very ambitious I mean there are four goals but there are four goals that have Pages yeah but I think a lot of it's still continuation of last year so I think uh it's fine Dr schz uh one item uh maybe we can add that from last year and this year's analysis um are there any data points that you have identified should become uh should become a standard uh reportable data for the district so like your state of the school address for example so that's your style of working you brought it to the district but say in 10 years or when you becomes even bigger then um then the new person may not do the state of the school address but we want some continuity on the what should be reported like so are there any standard reports that you identified from last year and this year that okay these should become standard reports and they should go to the district's website in a specific section and they just become the reports there so that way there's continuity of that data being reported forever or until it changed yeah so um so I would recommend that um I mean I don't really want to report on any data that's not helpful so right I I generally the state of the schools address that I gave you is like the the latest iteration of what I had been doing in my prior district and I would say that every year we would want to do the same thing um you know in a in a in a I won't be the superintendent of Bridgewood forever um so at some point when there's a superintendent taking over for me um I would definitely make it clear that it's something it's something cultural to District wants to continue and with the the with the ground being the ground work being laid and the road being paved it's really not hard to maintain at this point the team knows how to run the analyses and the numbers we have a great Tech Team here we have surveys that are already in place um so this is really and actually the tech team has automated all of this data actually to go into an actual internal dashboard system that we can then like play with data which actually there's going to be I I'd love for that to be more widely available that's where we're kind of working towards that everyone could benefit from being able to run their own like just look at the analyses of our numbers so um so my point being that I would say there are a couple things that I definitely would continue I would always continue the uh the the student surveys and try to avoid changing the data points too much because I think they're good data points I think they're similar to what's in research and if you can see them longitudinally you can really have a sense of like how things are going at your schools and I would also say that the uh I think that the the stable cohort analysis that we do here is particularly fruitful when you look at njsla data because it truly looks at only the students that you that that that you have that have been in your program year over years so I think that those just on the Fly just if you're thrown some that question at me I would say those are those are two really impactful data points that matter to be and I think mattered everybody else too but if you had something else in mind tell me so would or or would uh your um state of the school address become a separate tab uh like you had in Madison where you had state of school addresses listed because right now it's part of the coffee it just yeah we need to break out we need to break out at least that so that way yeah and then year over year you can see them yeah and and each address you what we try to do is you know we have one year of data here well we we have more than one year because some of the data goes back but like with survey data we only have one year but the ultimate idea of like in my mind of communicating progress is to communicate trends like because we were talking about the budget like what's the budget Trend right so you have to have multiple years of data so that's why I would recommend you know that you continue the practice and continue to collect it so each each you know you can always go back in Prior years like I think I don't know if they're still up in Madison but you can go you could go back and you could see prior years and you could see how they would change from year to year the the the co really screwed up our data for a little bit but we tried to find other creative uses but um but within each Year's data we try to always include a look back so that way you don't necessarily have to look at all the presentations so that that's that's what I'm trying to accomplish for you I think the first good starting point would be just to have on our website state of the school addresses as a separate tab as a call out as a call out because right now they are part of the coffee okay sounds good thanks for that feedback report well we've been talking a lot and you've already heard plenty from me so I would just say I was going to welcome Mr Matthews which we did so thank you so much for being here Mr Matthews really appreciate you and I think uh Dr Murphy this is your second meeting here with us right he's old school now yep but but I was wondering if you had anything you wanted to share because you've been doing a lot of great work for us thank you and good evening everyone just want to touch base on a couple of issues for things to highlight in two weeks we have our professional development day and we're bringing in a wonderful author Natalie Wexler who will be speaking to our primary teachers about comprehension she has a wonderful New York Times best-seller book out there that I highly recommend two weeks ago we brought in Dr Molly NES who spoke uh to our teachers about the importance of read alouds and the science behind how young children acquire reading and I have books from Molly to give out to the board members who were not at the curriculum meeting so and I think it's important and I applaud the district um and I said this to Dr Schwarz when we were when I was interviewing I'm so glad that the district is now paying attention to those foundational skills in the early years um both as a parent and a a elementary school teacher and principal I think it was uh overdue so um those things are coming down the pike and um while we were supposed to have a big AI training session for tomorrow unfortunately that got postponed Greg glck is unable to come tomorrow but he will be here at a future date and I'm excited about um how we're dipping our toes into artificial intelligence without jumping all in without knowing how deep the pool is so to speak um so we have some really good professional development planned for the year on the um use of AI not only in the classroom but also how it can and should impact curriculum development wonderful and I think we were talking about some if you want to share some of our intentions around providing some opportunities for board members yes um thank you so as we move forward one of the things that I swear I wasn't going to do this in my previous role in my previous district and that is bringing in PD for the Board of Ed education I think the more you know about the issues concerning curricular curriculum instruction and alignment and assessment and how those three should be aligned just to piggyback on the question about data points my hope one day is we have enough common assessments that that becomes part part of the State of the Union reporting right now we have external measures but we need to build those um coherent benchmarks that reflect our curriculum not a third party so going back to I would love to bring Molly Ness in to speak to the community and to our parents about reading at an early age and and the Brain Research and maybe have a special meeting just where she can come to the board and talk to you she's a a wonderful resource in our backyard so to speak I've known Dr NES for close to a decade and she's the real deal so if you're so inclined I think it's really important for the board to understand not just what we should be doing but why we should be doing it I I think that would be great um I know in the past I I told uh Dr schores in the past um when we put in something new and I'm just going to use Running Records because I remember that we put in Running Records and the board sat there and we're like what is that and then we came in they had a presentation about what it is and why we're doing it and the importance of it at that point so and and whenever we put in something new we would spend time as a board understanding it understanding the rationale so that when parents or community members ask us what are you doing you know you had you had something to fall back yeah and you had a knowledge of what was happening in our schools very important no that's a great great point and and soon we'll be coming to you for resources to help support those initiatives set you know in phonics pheic awareness word study I think it's important that you understand why we need it and how we're going to use it and how we're going to roll it out but um I I see a lot of heads nodding yet yes so I'll work on bringing Dr Ness in um before you do that I just want to look at the New Jersey School Board Association Workshop that's coming up and see to the extent that um you know we pay $27,000 Plus for njsba membership one of the and then extra to go to the workshop I guess but um I'm not sure but um you know that is coming up and I'd like to see the the options out there and you know I don't want to duplicate something that already is accessible to us great so but there but it's it there's something to be said about having it at the board table in public so not only does the board understand the initiative happening right here in our classrooms but our community has an understanding of it too so I would say that just you know for school boards that's that's one venue to learn but there's also something to be said by doing something loly absolutely and and um you know the thing about s VA is that you're getting best practices so you can definitely um do both that um attend I I'm hoping I I have to see I'm hoping some of those uh workshops are available um to be streamed usually you have to go in person but um let me go look at the schedule and um you know maybe she's there maybe she's not I don't know was Dr Murphy uh suggesting uh like a bigger like a workshop type of thing or a presentation of the board meeting because yes and yes I I I think it would be neat not that you want to be out yet again but if we have just a special meeting dedicated to Dr NES or someone else you know it doesn't I'm using her as the example then then you're my experien is you you don't have the constraints of passing agenda items public comments about other things it's it's a i thinku that is a different thing than board education it's not a board uh learning for the board it's more about an expert coming in and reinforcing that why we are changing our course in elementary school Ela and what are the best practices from her perspective so she's just going to reaffirm the path that we are on so for the community so it it would be like a presentation for at at this meeting here is that the is that what it is it would be okay because I I I thought it was more about you know educating the board as said well you know it would be it would be open up to the public right but it would allow the board to come to it as a whole right you know all five of you coming as a whole and being able to ask questions and it will be recorded it will be available to everybody so it's basically as a as a board or as Dr super and Dr Murphy's initiatives we've already started that um even at Rich time but that will be a reaffirmation or for that okay yes this is the direction we are going in and we need to continue to push towards that yeah and and in our conversations too uh so I don't want to get caught up in semantics but just to be clear like we have I sat in on some of Dr ness's talks with our faculty she is awesome in terms of she is in this deep in the science so it was a workshop on reader louds but it was all Neuroscience right and she had wonderful visualizations so my my level of thinking about is not like Bo training it's like it's however you want to look at that it's it's more like we are bringing in this worldclass expert in the topic who's talking about all the latest brain research and science right so why would we and we're giving our teachers access to her so if and if and if we want to have alignment the way that we're approaching this it would be really great if you as board members also were privy to that presentation understood it and if we're going to give you access to such an expert and we're in public anyway it would also seem to be a great idea to like raise awareness in the community to say hey come and watch the board meeting we're going to have this fantastic expert and PhD in this subject giving us this fantastic presentation which by the way they gave our teachers and I think it was really would align us all very well I think I think it's needed because there are board members there are community members who still would have preferred the old ways to do things because there are parents who have been coming here to these meetings and asking for this since 2018 at least so if an expert comes to this meeting and says no that's the right way that's the new way I think that's reaffirming so I think it's good great idea yeah thank you Dr Murphy okay I just had a couple other topics real quick so first of all I just want to thank all the uh all the parents us again I'm not sure how many are how many actually listened to the board meeting here but I know we had many many parents coming back to school nights um so anyone who's listening who was at the back to school and I just want to say thank you um man what great turnout here uh you know we talk about why are why are our schools great so much engagement from the community so much enthusiasm from teachers I mean we're not perfect nobody's perfect but but the the energy and the and the commitment uh was just great so the the the uh was really blessed unfortunately I couldn't make it to the middle school ones cuz I had my own so I made a little video um but I heard very positive things from them as well uh so I appreciate everyone's um such a great one of my favorite favorite times of the year um and then lastly a couple things oh I'm sorry two last final items just as a quick note um we had our two new Middle School resource officers start today um sound seemed like things went really nicely they're uh they they did some walk arounds and introductions I think some Communications went out today um we've had a chance to do some work with these gentlemen and they're just uh really really wonderful uh wonderful folks so looking forward to everybody having a chance to meet them and having them be a part of our community and then also uh there was a conversation just closing the loop uh there was a conversation at um uh uh at a at a public meeting around um concerns about uh artificial turf and kids playing on artificial turf and should we have a waiver we talked about at the table here A bunch so uh we did have uh we did have an opportunity to speak with with councel uh an executive session and if I remember correct as as my notes have we said that I would make a note of this that we're that at this point um we're going to take that advisement uh and we're going to go back to the um uh the district physici which I've already initiated that conversation and then we're going to update our student and staff our student uh handbooks uh with that with the with some updated guidance about safety around uh both artificial turf but also some some natural Turf concerns as well um and basically just just really be clear about that and we'll push out a notice for everybody when that gets updated we should be able to do that in in short order so I'll keep the board up to date on that uh on that deliverable all right there's plenty of other topics I'm sure but I think that's plenty for now probably oh I had one other one other I'm sorry I just related to the agenda sorry um we have a nursing Services plan we picked up on a few uh few few typos and some of the data and it's there's no timeline for that so I'm just going to I I would like to just remove that item so a your discretion I I'm happy to just ask it for it to be stricken from the record is my recommendation to be removed but if you'd like to move it more formally with a motion I'll leave that to you Miss Bren that would that would be um Administration three three so when we get to that we will we'll move Administration but without uh three but we're not there yet are we no we're attendance at conference this would be the first all right is it anything else hope that's it okay thank you very much um so we'll go to consent items regular routine and um attendance at conferences I move attendance at conferences do I have a second second any questions just have to note that I'm going to abstain from this vote because there's actually professional development for me on attachment a so I don't want to vote on oh maybe there is for me too I don't know was was I on it we ready okay ready Mr Donnie yes Miss CL Yes except for if there's anything to do with me miss m can you just abstain on the record I'm abstaining yes from the whole thing yes abstaining from the entire thing yes Mr mmud yes Miss broken yes I think you could just abstain from the one thing that you are related to not everything but it doesn't really matter I mean it's ped right so yeah I I I was nervous I didn't want to do anything I wasn't supposed to so I was being overly cautious okay next time I'll know better thank you um uh the next is Administration without three which is the approval of District nursing Services we're going to uh remove that from the agenda for tonight and it will come back on at another meeting do I have somebody would like to move Administration I'll move Administration someone second it second Mr Donnie yes Miss quac yes Miss M yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes curriculum instructions move curriculum instruction and um number two on that um I just wanted to mention that for the this author visit I think 50% of the cost is coming from hsas so our portion is 10,398 but um our elementary school hs's are also contributing um the remaining 10,398 so so thank you for that great thank you Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss M yes Mr mmud yes Miss Broan yes I move Human Resources someone like to Second it second are there any questions it's a long one again um okay Mr Donnie yes Miss qua yes Miss M yes Mr Mahmud yes Miss Brogan yes and I just want to make note of the Unified sports uh September through June we have a number of Staff members who are involved in that um and Unified sports um is a really wonderful opportunity for our gen Ed and special ed students to work together um and different sports and different other and other than Sports they different activities that they're doing as well uh Finance I move Finance seconds um I'd like to just read into the record the uh restricted donations and thank our donors Mr and Mrs uh morovich uh a gift in kind of an air purifier for the reach for for prek uh classroom at Glenn School Ridge Elementary School student activity account to be used to purchase supplies for Ridge Elementary School Somerville Children's Theater group a gift in kind uh of the installation of a stage I think it it's really they're not really installing a stage right they are um renovating it and upgrading it so it's not I don't think it's a new stage having um George Washington Middle School homeless school Association um 24967 70 to be used to purchase new physical education equipment at GW Ridge home and School Association a gift and kind uh enrichment equipment for the Ridge Elementary School sensory room erdi Partners Incorporated to be used for staff recognition that's $500 and rwood uh early developmental Development Association $3,000 should be used to purchase new playground equipment at the Glen School so really um all our donors are extremely generous at the end of the year when you look at all the all of the gifts um in kind and cash um is really amazing um are there any questions um yes um I had a question um I put it that any I think it it fell through in multiple emails so the first one um the air purifier can you tell us what type of air purifier is that for 4794 and if we have um air purif purifiers in all classrooms that we obtained last year from the Federal grant uh why was it needed for one specific room I am not sure I'm not sure if that was a specifically for a reason or if it was just something that was already had so I'd have to find out and get that back to him because an air purifier for 4794 parent bringing in um whether that amount is correct or like I I I don't I don't know sometimes a gift in kind would be like they already own the purifier and so they don't have use for it and so they're just donating it so I I just can't answer that concretely right now because I it the only reason I want to understand that is fresh year is our responsibility in all the schools all the classrooms so if a parent had to bring in I just want to go to the details of that that why did they have to bring in and what can we do if if there are others other classrooms where we need to provide fresh air anything else we'll get back on that probably can just email us yeah I guess I guess you can go right ahead Mr Donnie yes M quac okay so actually I should have um under Finance this was I should have asked this before voting there's one item number nine the approval which is on page 13 it says it the board has received background information as reviewed by the finance committee we did not review it which item number nine no yeah was so I that's typo so I would I just want to clarify that for the record that it was not reviewed by us yeah that's that that would be accurate was reviewed yeah so if it could be you know if it could be um uh the board has received background information it was reviewed in executive session I think so we want to before we vote you want to strike out and it was reviewed by the fin committee corre so does that need to be a motion or just yeah no so for on page 13 approval for the agreement SE number 2 d224 to 2025 I just want to change that to reflect that the board has received background information and it was reviewed in executive session not by the finance Comm and yes with the amendment Miss MC yes Mr Mahmud yes misss Broan yes okay we have no um resolutions and motions not included in consent agenda approval of bills although it says uh M Mall it is really going to be hu who is going to be doing the bills yes so I did um review the bills and um I'm moving it forward for board approval a second Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss M yes Mr Mahmud yes Miss Broan yes okay board member announcements um actually um Harrison did a great job I was going to talk about the alumni weekend and honored alumni but it's um he already did but they really were impressive uh I if you uh um I can leave this here I've underlined but um the alumni that we had we had um can I just um Alan Miller who class of uh 1972 um he is the founder of news literacy project the leading provider of news literacy education in the country he is a pull surprize winner he he had a career in um writing for newspapers um uh he also won the George pulk award the gold smith prize for investigative reporting and the investigative reporters and editors metal uh he's truly an impressive person kind and generous David Madden uh class of 1999 he um was I think the eighth most successful Jeopardy contestant um and um he was very active in quiz bowl while at the high school and I remember him coming to the board and so he's class of 1999 so would have been his senior year he came to the board saying how important having quiz bull was and that we needed to have it and and um anyways his he now is the executive director of international academic competitions um he has created and overseen this uh the National History B and Bowl National Geography B National Science B International history Olympiad International geography championships International environmental science opad and other and 30 other competitions over 50,000 students worldwide including dozens from W Ridgewood compete annually so good for him right um Libby gist Wilds uh class of 1998 um she is um she is a a fil she's a a producer and director for films on documentary since she she started the uh she's presence of words and pictures she started her career um at I think ESPN um and doing documents from there she is an Academy Award winner for one of her um her uh I think it was the last dance and OJ ma In America which I guess it was OJ Made In America which uh won an Academy Award in 2017 so um the these are graduates of our school so it's great and Robert Hofer class of 1981 he is Renown a Renown as the bot father has made unparallel compet uh contributions to the technology and the AI industry through his groundbreaking inventions and Visionary insights so I'm thinking when we're talking about AI he was um held up in Germany at that point he couldn't couldn't get a flight out to be here but we may want to be talking to him as we're as we're looking at AI um and and just look at his expertise pce hoofer has among early has been one of the earliest to raise concerns and Ring the Alarm Bill about the dangers of AI advocating for the necessity to give Bots a soul and warning of the potential risk inherit in chat box chat box Technologies so we just may want to pick his brain a little bit um and since he's an award winner from rhs I think we have that opport we can do that um we can ask him so it was very exciting though to see this and um it was a good turnout and hopefully next year it will be more a board committee reports had an announcement sorry I just wanted to so two things sorry um just saw um on uh actually on social media that it's National principles month and um Christine corus is highlighting each of our principles and I just thought it was worth giving a shout out to all of our fantastic principles so I just wanted to say that if you see your principal give him a high five um but the um the other thing is uh the lighthouse initiative is starting up again and if you recall last year uh this was uh something that was started by Dr Karen ladimer uh in town and it's really an initiative in partnership with the Y and in partnership with the Ridgewood Public Schools uh all of our faith communities where we're really focusing on Wellness for our um students and our community at large um we now have well we they now have a website Ridgewood Lighthouse initiative.org uh you can follow them on Instagram the lighthouse initiative um we have different themes every month uh September was transition um I think October is movement November is gratitude if you're interested in getting involved if you just want to check it out please look at the website you can contact me I can put you in touch with Karen or contact Kar indirectly um it you know it's really a it's one of those things that we really wanted to have legs throughout the community it's not just for the schools so um I just wanted to remind everyone that it's there and it's also a great source of resources right now as a matter of fact the public library but a whole list of resources on transition on the website from everything from a new baby to being a new empty nester to what's it what's it like as a first grader to you know High School College Etc so just remember that that's it thanks if I could just follow up on we are meeting with them uh shortly the live yeah we've made that connection fantastic great thanks Mary any any other announcement okay fac um committee reports facilities okay we really a facilities was more of an update um this um our meeting uh September 25th um did you want to report oh okay so um we welcomed uh Mr Matthews to that meeting and I loved your response yeah we can do that yeah we can do that so this is great um we discussed uh the field feasibility studies with initial Focus being on BF and uh the rhs Footbridge so that was again just reiterating that um we anticipate recommendations from the study of from our engineering and Architectural firm um in January comprehensive facilities assessment is underway they're looking at all of our buildings and all of our systems and again we're looking forward to having that assessment um timeline um time frame being in January as well um there is going to be followup with our broker regarding the recent deductible hike on uh on our Fields um so we haven't gotten any information on that yet or maybe we did you're talking about the $500,000 yes so we we found out that that's pretty standard throughout the entire industry for properties that are located in zone a so we actually met with we're meeting with a bunch of other risk management companies because they want to do an RFP so I did counter check that I did vet that situation and I did find out anything in zone a we were misclassified uh when we were uh $50,000 deductible but we were under what was called Class C but that property is in what's called Zone a and every property under a couple different risk management companies that I talked to that deductible is high 1,000 wow so that's that's what it is so um actually when we started talking about we had our first budget meeting we needed we started talking how many claims can we get in a year so that that's going to be a huge increase to our to our budget next year realizing that that that is the real classification for the uh the field at so that would be only for the Field section of the high school not the entire High School correct yes not the entire High School just the field is in zone a and that's what that number is it was a it was a misclassification when we were in z c both both Fields the uh so I know you have the other field there I think it's the I know for sure that is is the football field I need to double check about the other field okay it is it is that's what it is is there any adjustment to the premium the deduction it doesn't doesn't change the premium it was that it was just in they call the misclassification we met with the broker last week Mr Matthews I did the Bills and there was a payment um in total about $980,000 um if I remember correctly was comprised of for AIG 630,000 about and that was for the insurance are we talking about the so part of that 630 covers that $500,000 deductible so you have premium and you have deductibles are two different St yeah I know but I'm saying so if we if we're paying 630 and a deductible is 500,000 I don't believe there was any claims at that time so I I would have to double check that to be honest with you are saying our premium is close to a million dollars well I just I there a bill that was in there and I when I clicked on it it was for $980,000 was for the insurance it was broken up between like two insurance or is it liability or like what was the question yeah so that's why I wanted to know yeah what was in that six I couldn't go really beyond the fact that it was segmented between like 28 something and then when I actually when I clicked on that um 680 component it showed that it was part of a Consortium a AIG property Consortium and it compared US versus other districts and we were the if not the highest paying um premium um I think I think were the highest because it showed all the other districts that were in that group and what they were paying for their coverage but we were being assessed and we 600 I think 30 or 680 I don't remember so why doesn't Finance take a look at um what the premium is what the coverage is yes um the deductible because the deductible actually was $25,000 for each field was it was 50 but we have we have a finance meeting on on Wednesday and um so at the finance meeting on Wednesday we'll give you give you an update on that yeah I have um the information from the bills because I so I can send that to you just to see what I saw today all right I'll get it yeah have we have we checked with other insurance brokers or just insurance companies directly I mean it's possible our insurance brokers also mistaken or no they're not they're not mistaken so you're allowed to have conversations with other Brokers before you go out to RFP so kind of an introduction meeting with other Brokers calling in like three Brokers then we're going to do an RFP and send out the entire Marketplace and we might get 10 bids in or 15 bids in so we're actually having those early conversations and I I used this meeting to cross reference that situation because I I I became aware of it I guess it was I don't know Thursday or Friday and then and when I had the meeting today I I asked about things are in zone a what's what's the uh situation I did another call to another person just to make sure so it's across the board Zone a that's what the deductible is U had nothing to do with the broker that we have every broker will be the same thing wow we'd still want to ask them whether or not Zone a versus Zone C affects our premium right because that affects your underwriting we're getting we're getting Le I understand the different Zone but for the same piece of property we are now getting significantly less coverage so I don't know if that affects the premium that we're paying or not it may not because it's a Zone thing but I think it's a reasonable question to ask you know because we're not we're not getting what we were paying for something and now we're you know we're paying getting 10 times yeah less than what we were paying for so I don't know if there may not be an adjustment in premium but it's a worthwhile question because on the underwriting side I'm not sure they're so so we did sorry so we did ask that question so there was no change in the premium there no change it was just a we asked that question last week to our existing broker Gina Debbie I forget her name exactly and she said the the question was no I didn't get a chance to double check that okay but the the only thing that changed was the actual deductible not the premium right right but the deductible has reduced our coverage significantly yes so we're paying we're paying the same amount the same amount of money for Less coverage exactly so I wonder if there's a I I don't know in your in the world of consortiums and schools whether there's any room to negotiate I there may not be um don't think there is we kind of have what we have right now that's why we're kind of having these conversations and we're kind of just floating some of the things that we're concerned about District right and then obviously some of these things we could put into the specifications right so we're just trying to have these conversations and just putting out some of our our concerns to them and so put together we'll put together an RFP and every RFP that we put out there we will share that with the committee so that they see what the RFP says that's one of the things that we did talk about today was looking at all expiring contracts obviously and that's one of the expiring contracts is our risk management contract so that's why we're having these conversations we want to go out to the marketplace uh within short order October November time frame and then anything that we do go to the marketplace with we would be given an update to the board regarding any rfps that go out into the marketplace are we are we obligated to take action on RFP the reason I'm asking is you can go to the marketplace with an RP and you're not happy with them you don't have to take action what we should do is we should after we get all these quotes back or we should do an analysis is it even worth it to keep insance or not a lot of times I mean if you can go direct to vendors not going through Insurance you might be able to get a better cleanup rate potentially as well right I mean a lot of times vendors know they're going most of the schools are going to Group Insurance because it is cheaper um the Bergen County goes to this northeast Bergen County Joint Insurance Group a lot of people go through New Jersey Sig which is another joint Insurance Group so that's kind of the the way to go when you have it separate all those different tends to be a little bit more money like for instance Give an example is like like School du separately is more money than being part of a joint Insurance Group so that's why that's why everyone goes into the joint just wondering like want to have insurance go without insurance no flood insurance as opposed because you got to have property damage cost X for the annual premium plus deductible 500,000 every time something happens we just do it ourselves maybe it's 100 so what's the cost of the premium so we need to know what's the cost of the premium for for the fields when when does last question when does the policy expire June so it June 2025 So currently we have do we have $500,000 deductible right now or are we still under the old policy we have 25 no we have 500,000 we have it right now we have it right now okay so it's it's a done deal we only have a $500,000 okay I wasn't sure like if that was happing or happened it happened yeah I don't know how that happened but that's they left a voicemail yeah okay maybe costs us maybe it could cost us 15K through a vendor clean up vendor to do it our every time it happens I I hear you maybe that's better just have I don't know no I think it's a very good point mam that we need to know what the premium is we are paying for the fields but also if there is a if the governor declares a state of emergency in a FLIR situation and if there is FEMA money do we claim uh that money directly to FEMA or do we go through the the village C FEMA you have to do you typically with female you have to expense it and then show all your all your expenses to get reimbursed and that could take a couple years but female doesn't it's not at 100% FEMA it's at a it's at a percentage of your total cost so we would still be if in the in an event if we do spend that type of money $150 $200,000 for clean up we do have the avenue to go to FEMA it may take two years if you have state of emergency that's declared yes yeah that's if if the a lot of the measures that Dr Schwarz is taking if they work which I I hope they will work then the only scenario where we'll get to that type of money is in a state of emergency when there's like when there's a if there's a state of emergency can we then use our emergency reserves so emergency reserves are um there's a you can use emergency reserves by relev it's locked to it's locked into a million dollars for emergency right right right so we we tend to keep about a million we try that's the max that could be in res so if if there's a state of emergency that's declared yes are we allowed to tap into our emergency reserves if there is of ample funds which you know philosophically i' like to support that great y no no no it's not it's not no right no but that's that's the question so yeah that's right that makes sense no it's not it's that's why I asked the question if if if there's a state of emergency that's declared and we can tap into the emergency reserves for fuel cleanup or whatever and you're saying yes I'm 99% sure the answer is yes yeah but but but is that the same pot of money that if we were to let's say were to utilize it for that then there wouldn't be money for health insurance which is we've been using the emergency for later no much that's a that's a it you tap into the emergency reserves for health expense that's in excess of what you might have budgeted so that's literally what it's for it's a it's a it's a yeah bottom line is there's only there's one pot of money right right whatever it is and and we use it okay I yeah but just to just yeah from the from what I learning now is there are a lot of measures that Dr schwart is taking prevent the uh silt collection on the field mhm water is usually not a problem it's mud that's right right so he's he's taken some measures and it's taking more measures there so for a normal flood uh that should not be a problem I I'm hoping for normal flood you can't use the emergency right no I'm saying we may not have to spend money right too much money so that the amount of money that we had to spend last time 100,000 plus 200,000 range those type of money we'll only have to spend in a state of emergency hopefully and if in that case insurance will not cover it but some of it will come back from female hopefully otherwise we have that emergency Reserve so the the last point I would make just on what Muhammad was saying was um makes me nervous to think about not having insurance I'm not going to lie but having said that if the if we make the analysis that it it makes no sense to have the flood insurance unless the rules are different than they are for homeowners if we were to decide that let's say today you you can you know you just cancel the policy and they'll per rate you get the money back yeah so it's it's it's I don't know that we necessarily want to wait to make to do that analysis until June if it really is something that's viable and a good idea for us to do it that's all 100% what I would do is I would go to some of the vendors that have done Cleanup in the past and say hey if we want a direct quote like we're not going to go through Insurance here there's no insurance money the bill US Direct like what's a worst case scenario quote maybe they give us like a not to exceed quote maybe that gives us some sort of you know drisking of the financials and then we cancel our insurance potentially again I'm not arguing that that's what we should do but but you always have that option to do that right and you have to see how what's the impact of the premium if we were like why why should I keep I don't know what the premium yeah we have to see what what's the impact to the premium versus having that deductible $500,000 but you always have the option to go out there and contract out to have somebody else do the work you always have that option free is high why keep pay yeah I don't know pay a million what's the impact if you don't have that insurance versus the cost of the premium reduction by not having the insurance the option the option to do that is always there to kind tracked out to do the remediation for flood well what we we we've got a we've got a we've got what appears to be a total premium I just checked the number it does look like a total premium in the ballpark of 980,000 so I'm assuming a portion of that is the field the fields right so the question is what's the carve out for the fields we'll find that out we did an analysis of what the actual flood rates were and the cost I can't find the document right now but we did an analysis last year what we actually paid out for field recovery the worst one that we had on record was the last one that happened over the winter that was like a $300,000 number but if I remember correctly almost all of the others Insurance paid out no that's what we paid out and then and then insurance cover and then actually I forget that I forget the exact mechanism of but that was Insurance eligible because that was over our 50,000 yeah but the total cost of work was 300,000 okay but the but we did not go over or if we did it was only slightly over the $50,000 deductible for almost every other flood including the one that we had in the first in in the first storm so uh in that first storm last October so that's why we were hopeful that like barring a complete disaster which we would hope would trigger FEMA monies um you know that with some of these mitigation strategies that we have to just just keep the salt from sett the silt from settling onto the fields that that will that will help us but my point is if let's say it's just $150,000 just throwing that out there right it's $150,000 that we're paying in in a deductible for insuring the fields then that's then we would we'd have to pay that money in cleanups anyway even if we had a $50,000 deductible right so it probably makes more sense to keep that money in our pocket and just fund our cleanups with it so that we'll do that analysis thank you I had a question on the facilities um with the BF and rhs Footbridge um analysis and and I'm sure this is going to come up tomorrow at my Field's meeting but with the BF um facilities it with are we talking about the track again the track and is that uh we talk about putting a field within the track of BF and if so has it been determined whether it's going to be grass or turf or are we open to both so that so that is what we're looking at we're looking at two key questions for BF so the two key questions are what is to what extent is it possible to without impacting negatively the track program to what extent is it possible to develop the inside of that track we have sod now so the the key question is what would be the impact of turf of of artificial turfing that space for durability and that involves we have to do some some environmental checks and things like that so for that specific site that's the first question is how can to what extent can we develop inside that but the other question is to what extent is there any sense in just reconfiguring that entire space so that it can still be everything that is for track and then possibly have other features um I I the first question is obviously much easier to answer and initial rough cut does seem to indicate that that space inside that track is rather ample but there are several field events that are who whose uh whose um uh areas are set up there like I think it's a triple jump yeah yeah Javelin I think was easier to move but I think it was I want to say it was uh it was long jump or triple jump that was uh and and and that that track was also just for what it's worth was spec out actually to have two of each field events so that way we could host major major competitions that's one of the reasons why they take up so much space but out but excluding those those field events there's plenty of room inside that track for for us to put artificial turf which would greatly alleviate the pressure off of off of the fields and other places so again that's we have saw down there um we've also talked about something I don't want go down this Rabbit Hole too badly but there there were some concerns that were brought up about like people outside of our community using our fields and that's a kind of a frustration with for some that we Clos the grass field Fields because like if it's raining because we don't want them to take on damage and the people from other communities come out so we're also looking at like how can we effectively close our grass fields so that they are not so destroyed sometimes after storms so Dr SW are we maybe I I misunderstood are we only considering Turf as an option or are we considering turf or because I had produced some of these cities from massachus Springfield Massachusetts and other places that are successfully using grass fields so my understanding was that we are studying that what is what can we do that we are not already doing to improve the grass fields um the other data point was that how many days our grass fields were closed last year uh I think that was one of the data point that was requested because of the rain or how many days the um athletic director asked that those were not playable um and then decide between the two I I did not understand that that the only thing that we are under I thought reconfiguration and what is the scope is one question that okay what all can be done at BF yeah but I did not think that we are only looking at at the turf in the in that place my my understanding was that we are looking for both what can what all can be done in that space how much can be expanded do we have extra space in the in the beginning of the field at the end yeah reconfiguration all all of that and once we reconfigure how much extra field space can we get so that's one question and then whether that extra space or the middle of the track U or whether track stays there versus track goes somewhere else so whatever happens to the field overall the field utilization and then that's one question and then the second question is whether it would be turf or whether it would be a better grass field so that question I think I thought that we are evaluating both of these those so so the so the the primary focus is just was can get a fullsize field in that space right right that so that is the that is the primary question so then if we can get a primary field in that space then to what extent is it worth having actually trying to maintain grass or is it worth moving to artificial turf the your questions about the studies on like when you're specific protocols that can help really keep natural Turf be be uh be more resilient um what we're doing right now is we're we're looking into what our practices are for maintaining our current fields because they're not being maintained well so as I as we I think you and I mentioned um we're looking into more uh better technology for air rating the fields which we think would make a significant difference we're also gather gathering information regarding the extent to which we do use fertilizers or pesticides on the fields uh to make sure that we are using the best the best practices also like not cutting the grass too low so we're inventorying like what what exactly are we doing with our current fields we have right because regardless of anything that we do we want to be the best stewards of our grass fields also so yeah so so there's a there's a we're looking at all the different potential things that we can do there as well because because for BF to me there are two questions one is can we expand the US utilization at BF and number two if we are if we were to go to that route there will be two options one is grass one is Turf and what would be the initial cost upkeep cost in both options MH and uh which one would be better yeah yeah and and there's a cost analysis that goes into that there right yeah right so it's so just just to recap um because I want to be really um clear in my understanding um is that when it comes to this uh study that is being undertaken that with a uh projected um reporting out of January it would be both BF and the rhs Footbridge when it comes to the BF track um it sounds like the first with the configuration question MH and the second question is um once a configuration the optimal configuration is um is designed uh it would be then just a material whether it would be sod or whether it would be Turf my understanding that sequencing decision tree correctly uh yeah there there's also that we need to do to do all that though we also are need to we're commissioning a land survey as well because we don't even have it we have to get the boundary sense and we have to learn to what extent we can work in our borders so there's a couple steps to the process okay so part of the reconfiguration is under getting a survey which we don't have yeah that's that that's that step one okay okay and so that survey would um be available before January the January would be more about with the understanding of the survey the reconfiguration and um it's basically for for J for what we're doing in January is we're we're trying to we want to have it be done and we want to have a complete report on what the configuration options are there so we're not there's no trigger pulling or even recommendation it's just here's cost here's all analysis and then and I'd like to tie in and I know we talked about developing that specific space and that's what we're talking about but we I do also want to we're also trying to get a better handle on all of our Fields because they're not really particularly maintained well and we want to make sure that they are maintained better with proper airation and proper and we're looking at like I said if we're closing a field for rain I've heard multiple accounts of Us closing a field for rain to keep it to keep it in good shape and then people from wherever just show up and are playing on the field and I've even had heard accounts of community members confronting those people because they're like you know because like I know you're not supposed to be here I'm supposed to be here so we're looking at even signage to at least again deter not that people won't take the signage down but like if a field is being rested and it's because of rain like actually put up a big sign like like that you can stick in the ground like field is closed to try to like make sure that that that our grass fields are are kept better care of also um uh Dr schores and um Keith kasmark um are reviewing the fields committee structure and policy and and um I understand you're GNA attend the meetings yeah Mr kasmar and I will be in attendance tomorrow we're reviewing the policy and structure uh the fields committee is established by a a document that is a shared agreement of sorts between uh the village and the the Board of Education the do the governing document is quite out of date um and and uh just feeling definitively in need to a make sure that we have uh good order and decorum at those meetings with clarity about who's running the meetings uh the document currently puts the athletic director of the school the director of um Parks and Recreation in charge of running the meeting but that meeting is is operating at an inclusive nature that is well beyond what it's an intent intent was it seems to me as though this is really intended to be like a kind of a focused work group and it's kind of a morphed into like this big public meeting that lots of people come to that's virtual also so being that it is a joint committee between the village and uh and the the and the board uh I spoke with Mr kasmar and we agree that we're going to kind of we're going to step in and co-chair the committee for the time being on a tentative basis while we're evaluating its procedures and we'll start the meeting tomorrow just setting some basic expectations for procedure and decorum so that way we have uh we've had um had some incidents where things got more than a little tense so we want to make sure that that that doesn't happen again it's also a limit it's also it's not it really isn't in terms of uh it's it's I can't find anything that that that would clearly signify that this is in fact legally a public meeting which means that um it's not dozen people who are speaking at this meeting don't necessarily have the same protections that they have as a meeting here people have to people can come to the board meeting and be quite emboldened here and quite passionate um but at a meeting that's supposed to be for a work group I think people need to be rather dispassionate just talk just plainly so and to be clear they shouldn't there in the past we have not had um voting mechanisms or resolutions and certainly nothing if if anything was it was more discussion based um and if any vote I don't ever remember it being taken until recently and certainly that's not a binding um uh vote that would uh override whatever agency we have at the board level and at the Village Council level yeah the policy enumerates some powers to for like recognizing groups but that's where we want to just be focused on like what those specific powers are and what they are not so the meeting is tomorrow at 8: am online and there's there's also an imbalance of the membership there uh Village Council versus Board of fed the prior versions of that um report or the agreement had representative from Board of fed or appointed by border ofed the most recent version only has a representative appointed by Village Council and um if you look at that so A representative appointed by Village Council then a representative appointed by par Andre and a representative appointed by open space committee and a representative appointed by one more of um The Village Council subgroups and those are also appointed by Village Council so it's basically five versus one ratio there so it's not an even distribution there for on that agreement so it it needs to it needs a complete overhaul finally the um HVAC projects at Ridge and Glenn and the um uh air filter uh it's not really a filter system is it it it's for the wood shop dust collecting dust colle um is um is still under review actually we're waiting for the um materials for the dust collection and so that should be starting soon and we're still waiting for a final recommendation from our architect but that will be soon for Glenn and um and Rich at least my understanding was it's going to be soon Yeah by January okay yeah they have they they have uh that one we're hoping that we'd like to have sooner than January yeah I thought so too okay so um and just an FYI or jrc meetings uh have begun again we met in September uh remotely Somerville in October we're going to be looking at Travel um it was um you know all new people there so we I think we've gotten what we need I I think we've we've indicated all the things that our expectations are for the materials that we want um them to bring forward so I expect um travel will be uh a little bit more focused than the first meeting at Somerville where we were more introductions of everybody and and um not quite as detailed into what projects um are completed um and what ones are still left open at the school so um but actually it's great um that they've started and and that's good Finance um I'm not sure did you want to report anything on finance other than we we did most of that work in the uh agenda tonight right yeah um we uh there are still some um uh items that we have carried over to our next meeting Mr Matthews you you'll see it um that has been waiting for your input um and in terms of the agenda items uh we did review those so that's what you see reflected here but we are continuing to work on um question on finance when do we get to know uh numbers from last year the Surplus number because we have a lot of that was actually my question that a lot of facilities projects are coming up on line line because when with jrc meetings starting the is coming up that was my question because you know at the end of um a fiscal year ends June 30th 2024 and and we have Surplus that we have allocated just generically not to exceed numbers but you don't actually know the actual numbers that went in you just have a cap um that my last understanding is that is waiting um for the audit and the audit um well is starting soon not start yet um don't have an exact date on on when it's going to start but we're starting to compile the data so they can come inside and do it um so I had a process and aon's got a place a process in place so we're kind of going in that direction right now so uh but we're on the earlier side of the queue because in the past sometimes we've been on the you know in terms of the auditing firm um they have a schedule of when they would start the work but if I remember we usually used to get un audited number at least ballpark that are where are we from last year we don't we did not wait for the final audit to get an was that that was a question that was an open question question in in the last meeting that okay this is the Surplus from last year but it's un audited not final but this is the approximate ballpark number for yeah Mr Bowman should be able to get that for the point policy um I the two policies that are um on the agenda for discussion um but well the two that were on the agenda for the discussion um that was on uh I'm looking to see here but essentially um public participation in board meetings I'm going to start with that one we just essentially um assessed whether or not it really is necessary or whether to you know for somebody to State exactly where they live um or whether or not we can just go ahead and revise the bylaws so that you no longer need to do that so we agreed that um it's sufficient to say your name and what town you're from your municipality and that's so that would be the proposed change to the bylaw and then um sportsmanship was something that had come down from Strauss smme and there were some questions because it was revised I think um by the state um and there we just were concerned that it might prohibit pep rallies or something like that which we of course did not want to do but our concerns were unfounded were good so that was what we did in poliy oh that last part about um excessive noise yeah exactly exactly and and you know like bright flashing lights and if you ever been to a wrestling meet you know the kids run run to ACDC around the room with flashing lights and they love it actually so we wouldn't want to not be able to do that but we just we we looked into it and we checked it and you know I I didn't see the policy minutes in our uh so I'm not missing anything am I no I I mean we did have a discussion on um which was uh summarized by Dr Schwarz and his um superintendent report we did have a meeting about um the the turf waiver you know there was a discussion about that and um we talked about maybe putting signs up in terms of um uh what to do when you get a open wound and turf material gets in and all sorts of advisories and it was uh in instead of that we're going with uh this approach which is really um very um direct uh which will be some of the health and safety guidelines we put into practice to directly through a handbook that uh coaches and um uh PE teachers and uh will have so that they can be proactive in um dealing with any uh with the safe practices um on any material both uh Turf and and grass but specifically specific things you have to do um in the turf material so that is being um implemented great thank you um and then curricul um Mary so um I'm just looking actually we reviewed that I have my little notes here so um a lot of that was addressed on the agenda as well where we um approved new Community School classes that are on this agenda we did have I think in the minutes he said a lively discussion regarding uh College admissions and acknowledging student sarab's laughing see I got two thumbs up from sarab I would like the record to reflect that sarab and I did agree on a couple of things inp of our Lively discussion um but in all seriousness um it was a very good discussion because we're continuing to really explore the philosophy uh behind what's going on in guidance what's going on in college admissions what's going on not just at the high school but throughout you know K through 12 in terms of acknowledging student achievement um in a way that's healthy and fair for everyone I I think that's a good way to put it right yeah basically the underlying thing is that we want to set celebrate academic success right right and we and we talked about ways to do that so um and we you know we also talked about other types of data to collect in terms of um the students and and college admissions and things like that and uh we talked a lot also about our Ela program um uh so we we got we got a lot going on I think I say that after every single report but it's true and I do need to give you a CPAC report um but I I just want to say well with 5,500 students in our buildings and here 180 days it should be our Focus what's happening in the classrooms fair enough fair enough well it's certainly we are going on in the in curriculum there's a lot going on in curriculum um it's exciting actually um and then on cpeg uh just to let everybody know that the first cpeg informational meeting will be here third floor of the Ed Center on October 10th at 9 :30 um it'll be an overview of special programs and uh there was a successful activities Fair uh last week September 24th and I believe that at SMI I want to say Smith Brothers and that's it's steel wheel I believe we have another sensory dinner coming up and unfortunately I don't have that date in front of me but check out the cpeg website for all of that information they um that um thank you it ties into access week ah yes so uh it's Tuesday October 15 is the family dining from 5: to 7 and then young adult dining from uh 7 to 8 at steel whe Tavern and on curriculum I just want to add that I think with Dr Murphy we this was our first curriculum meeting and um he like we did not go in a phase that okay I I just started I'm learning I'm trying to find all of that he was we had a lot of already action items and recommendations and the improvements in the first oh I had a question for um curriculum committee maybe it was already covered um how has it been with the introduction of math a and with the the switch in Pathways starting with this class how is the math sequencing how has that been going on the roll out of that I just met with uh the math supervisor on Friday and we discussed uh the progress so we're on top of it making uh real time moves to support it so I think that's the best way to say it which is we've agreed to meet every two weeks on this issue she is on top of it Ashley is really really an outstanding math supervisor um so I'm very confident that she has the pulse of what's going on and I was glad to hear that she's already making some you know one of the things I talk about agility when it comes to curriculum which is we need to be more agile with our curriculum we can't wait necessarily five years for this major you know change and specifically to that question she's on top of it she's been in the classroom and she's working with the teachers to support them so I think that is all we should be thank not all we I'm very thankful that she is on top of it but we meet now we will be meeting every two weeks on this issue Dr Murphy on on curriculum I I just had a a thought I wanted to share um maybe you can talk to the U your your team um and Dr Schwarz so we had one a couple ofies at RH uh rhs um WRA the rewood Health Professions Academy ories of for health profession we had um an academy for arts and now then we recently introduced an Academy for engineering and um we are going to introduce another Academy for computer science when you mentioned Ashley being a good supervisor that reminded me that she mentioned that last time so um and if if any parents are listening and trying to decide to get into an academy so I recently had a conversation with um with a with a college counselor for my child and my child goes to a a a high school where they have to pick an academy in ninth grade so from 9 to 12 they are in one Academy and the counselor said that because she picked a specific Academy and um all of the courses and everything is related to that when you make your college application if it deviates from that Academy then you really need a lot of extracurricular that are in your news subject because you are basically signaling by joining an academy in high school that that's the career path you want to go in or that's your interest and then if your college application is not in that Academy um then it looks suspicious or it's difficult to to uh to justify that college application so I don't think a lot of when I was at a p parent for my first child who was at rhs we just had an option of oh you have this everything is taken as a challenge that okay getting into rap is a challenge so whether that child is interested in healthcare Academy or not we thought okay rap is a challenge let's try for rap and then you can figure out whether you are interested in Health Professions or not so I don't know whether how true that that assessment or that guidance is from the college counselor but whether the like are we taking that Academy as an experience that okay you can explore and then you can decide whether you want to go into that or not or if you are signaling to colleges that because I took this Academy I was interested in that that's why I'm into the academy and I continued 10th 11th 12th grade so if now my college application is in a different field then that is not so I don't know what the right answer is but I'm just telling you what I heard and what people may need to know when they are picking an academy or when how we are creating theseis and how we are are marketing these academies in our guidance departments uh the outbound marketing to the colleges that how rigid those acmis are or so that's just a data point I wanted to share we actually did talk about the Epic Academy and and continuing on I can just share with you from from a parent perspective my daughter went through rap and Mrs Helman the guidance counselor was well aware of of how the transcript looked because you you do have less selection of electives and again I can just speak for Mrs hman she was well aware of that so when we were choosing majors and schools that now this was a while ago she either reached out or there was something that she did to make the schools aware that certain electives weren't going to be seen on my daughter's transcript because she was in the rap program so again this is a single you know this is just I same thing for us she was in rap but once you continue rap then and if then at the end of rap you want to apply for art history major for example B so how do you justify that in your college application that you were for 3 years um into rap and you did your um the project you did Mrs Helman had a mechanism to let the schools know now again I'm only talking about my daughter's experience so I don't know if it's a part of the routine there and I wrote it down I'll follow up right but I can just share with you that at that point my daughter wasn't going to go into health care and she said I had the thing exact question she said no I will make sure the school knows the schools that she that with this program one of the unattended consequences is the lack of other electives just because there's just no time in the schedule perfect thank you okay thank you uh just on uh Mary did you want to or do you want me to uh access week uh do it please oh sure sure so they um there's a number of things this is coming out of the villages access committee um but um it it has to do with our students and it's in our community so on Tuesday night is the um sensory friendly dinner at steel wheel and that's October 15 on October 17th there's a safety program at Gren pool parking lot and it's pullover properly it's um the police department and access Ridgewood have come together to offer a program designed to assist drivers with developmental disabilities the program will um educate and reinforce proper behavior during a traffic stop um and then on Friday um at uh Ridgewood library at uh from 4 to 5: they're going to have sign with me and ASL Story Time join us in learning the basis basics of American Sign Language with a reading of The Very Hungry Caterpillar um and then um on Saturday there is a fashion show access talent and fashion show they're still looking for models I think for that program and then there on Sunday the 20th of October there's an Interfaith service and celebration starting at 5 o' so it's a a great um week it's been expand Ed from just being a weekend to a whole week of um of activities so um it's really good work done by um the access group um I think that's it then um discussion items we're uh the policies is there anything to discuss or we can go ahead and move them for first reading next meeting okay are we all um are agreement on the a public um just your name and and uh municipality acceptance of minutes August 26th and September 12th uh it's August 26 regular public uh meeting and September 12th executive session um I move these minutes would someone like to Second them I'll second all in favor I I I other business and we'll go to comments from the public and I we don't have any public here but let's see if there's anybody on remote there is oh Jamie Davis Jamie you're on for public comment hi everyone good evening how are you um just had three quick things um just uh and by the way I'm speaking in my uh individual capacity um just wanted to thank Dr Schwarz and the board um for your attention to the review of special ed um I think it's an important exercise that we all go through and and by we I mean parents the administration and uh and everybody and uh you know I wanted to thank Mr Donnie and the other board members who were um asking the questions about making sure this processing includes mechanisms for people to safely and anonymously give their feedback if that's how they feel feel they need to give it and I just wanted to emphasize um you know while the cpeg you know does receive information from parents that we share and the rea may get staff feedback I just don't want to forget about other staff members such as the par professionals who I believe are not members of the Rea and and just making sure we're including them in the discussion um and other interested people like uh Megan berley mentioned on the coffee last week you know there are families whose children are out of District so they would not be included as current uh families and I think their feedback would be important so I just wanted to encourage um you know if this review is is going to happen um that we do it right um you know I wasn't involved at the time when the 2017 review was done um but I know a lot of parents felt maybe the right questions weren't asked or asked in the right way and to the extent um in a survey does go out if there could be a process like was that was done with the state of the school surveys where there were focus groups uh that contributed to the creting of the questions I think it would be important to have parents and staff involved uh in the creation of the surveys and I just wanted to to put that out there but um thank you for the beginning of this discussion I know it'll be one that goes on um and I look forward to it the second quick thing um with respect to the discussion of getting the data on Glenn um I just wanted to Echo uh what miss m was talking about that you know if there is going to be a review of any changes going on at Glenn um the transportation and the um number of students being bust is one of many many data points um to mention a few I mean it could be everything from you know the revenue generated by out of District students being placed there um you know the special programs office I'm sure has thoughts on the benefits of having those programs in that building and not spread out over other buildings and so uh getting that initial data it's going to be reported on at the next Board of Ed meeting I I just wanted to encourage you when reporting on that data um just as to avoid a panic in the community not to you know to present that data um while being very clear that it's really just one data point um among several data points that would have to be considered if the board decided to look into that because I just don't want parents um or the community to think because this one data point was looked at now something's happening to Glenn so I just um and that it sort of goes to the messaging um because uh parents get uh sometimes react when when things are not said um then the last thing I just wanted to um give a shout out to the ridge HSA um in the uh part of the uh agenda where um Miss Brogan was listing the contributions to the district um I just wanted to call out the one donation by the ridge HSA for uh the sensory room I just wanted to um make give a little color on that uh last year the ridge HSA very generously made the decision to include a line item in their budget um that would be uh specifically for the enrichment of the rise students in the school um with the recognition that a lot of the schoolwide enrichment um that all parents contribute towards um is not always accessible by some of the students in rise and they wanted to recognize that um enrichment should benefit all students and so this donation is the first um donation being made um with that line item and so um as a rise parent and um just on behalf of the The Ridge Community I just wanted to thank the ridge HSA um for their generosity of funds and Spirit uh for making that decision so just wanted to to make that to make that point as well so thank you that's it thank you okay no other um comments from the public and um we will I'll move to adjourn the meeting and do I have a second second all in favor good and we will be back on October 14th