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 e e e e e e apologize for starting a little bit late thank you for being patient um the Bridgewood 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 a roll call Mr Donnie Miss qua she is she's here miss mcau Mr Mahmud Miss Brogan here um and then uh I hereby move that the board go oops excuse me where is that pursuant to the requirements of the open public meetings acts advaned notices has been given to the Star Ledger the record and the clerk of the village of Bridgewood in addition notices were posted in the office of the board secretary in all school buildings please join me in a flag salute Pledge of Allegiance United States of America it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay Dr okay Dr schw um we have some presentations tonight one second okay all right I am very pleased welcome everybody hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable viewing of the eclipse hopefully the clouds were not in your way um we have some really nice presentations tonight we've got some of our uh delegation of students from George Washington Middle School we're so glad to have them here today to give a report I'm going to start by inviting up Dr Lauren Shon inum principle of George Washington Middle School to introduce her students thanks for being here with us Mrs Dr Sean awesome thank thank you Dr Schwarz and to the members of the Board of Education we are incredibly excited we have been practicing and we are feeling good about reporting the wonderful things that are going on at GW they're really amazing kids and we're so happy to have this opportunity I do have with us this evening our team Dr malucci and Mr Maham that were also instrumental um in helping prepare our kids so uh so with that said we have an order and we're good to go thank you all right and so we have with us Cara Costa Madison doy ptoy EJ Hamilton drick Jones and Shiloh Joseph so whenever you all ready we'd love to hear from you good evening Dr Shores and members of the Board of Education my name is EJ Hamilton and I'll will be speaking to you this evening about the many exciting Media Center events that have taken place at George Washington Middle School this spring students rep participated in February's reading Marathon by reading all month long to support and raise awareness for r public libraries annual fundraiser last week students had the opportunity to visit the schoolastic book fair during home room and English classes to purchase books last week next week author Jennifer neelson will be visiting our school to provide assemblies to all students and specialized Workshop to a select group of students writers in the afternoon thank you for the opportunity to share these great experiences with you this evening good evening Dr Schwarz and members of the Board of Education my name is Maddie do ptoy and I would like to thank George Washington Middle School HS HSA and Miss f for organizing another annual Inspire the future day thank you also to all the members of our community who volunteered their time to speak with students every student in our building experienced six different presentations on various careers and were all quote unquote inspired for the future some of the highlights included presentation from the rdwood police department the rdwood fire department the Hocus EMTs media specialist Miss Brown Ela teacher Miss Pera RPS public information officer Miss porus GW assistant principal Mr Monahan and of course RPS superintendent Dr Schwarz thank you for having me here tonight and for the opportunity to speak about Inspire the future good evening Dr Schwarz and the member of the members of the Board of Education my name is Derrick Jones and I'll be speaking about the incredible number of social events that the gwms students have have enjoyed this year thanks to the gwsa both sixth and seventh grade students have attended evening social events for their grade levels complete with DJs photo booths costumes food and party games the GW and bf sixth graders will also have combined social events this June 8th grade social events for June will include the annual HSA sponsored Carnival held after the student recognition ceremony and the end of the year celebration held after the 8th grade promotion ceremony thank you to all who have made these events happen for gwms students for the opportunity to express our gratitude this evening good evening Dr Schwarz and members of the Board of Education my name is Kiera dasta and I the student counsel president at George Washington Middle School our student council committees have greatly contributed to the livelihood of our school by planning Spirit weeks door decorating contests charitable events and exciting social events student council Representatives publish a monthly newsletter and student council officers have begun making our morning announcements student council officers have also met with many esteemed leaders of the ridgwood public schools including pomptonian food service director Miss deera armar operations manager Miss Baker RPS public information officer Miss corus and the rhs principal Mr Nas we greatly appreciate so many members of Ridgewood Public Schools making time to hear from students I'm proud to represent George Washington Middle School this evening and appreciate the opportunity to do so good evening Dr Schwarz and members of the Board of Education my name is Shah Joseph and I'll be speaking about the extracurricular music programs at George Washington Middle School our after school music Pro music groups have been busy entertaining both GW students and the community at a large Westside Jazz recently delivered a stellar performance at the RPS coffee coffee house and George Rock George rockington performed in the rhs art beat concert our AC capella group The Herd will be providing an opening performance for the rhs AC capella groups at the First Presbyterian Church concert in May our chamber orchestra will be performing at the upcoming teacher of the year ceremony as well as well as our e grade promotion ceremony and of course students involved in this year's spring musical GW Cabaret have been preparing each day after school for their performances on May 3rd and 4th thank you for the opportunity to share updates on these exciting student performances with you this evening thank you for that wonderful detailed update and we really appreciate the time that you took clearly you were very well rehearsed you spoke so clearly and you present yourself so professionally thank you everyone really appreciate you members did you want do you want to say anything real quick great job it sounds like GW is doing a good job and you're happy there so this is good yeah and if parents would like to take a picture if you'd like to where St over here if there are parents in the audience who'd like to take a picture of your kids here at the Ed Center yeah if we can do a group photo we'd really love that so kids come on up that's that's showing you want to go yeah yeah oh okay yeah absolutely the team say GW come on are are you okay oh absolutely yeah are we'd like to go good job all right next we have some uh retirement recognitions we have some great Educators who will uh sadly not be returning with us next year but of course course we are so happy for them as they uh they they ride off into a new chapter of their life of retirement uh unfortunately um Miss bani couldn't be here tonight but we're going to invite up for starters uh principal Caroline Hoffman of Willard Elementary School who is going to introduce and say a few words regarding Miss Monica Bosler hello okay good evening everyone thank you for having us tonight we honor a very special person my go-to person my problem solver my Keeper of the calendar my protector Monica Bosler Monica has been in her role as the assistant to the Willard principal for 22 years nine of which I have been lucky enough to be the Principal her moving on from this role is a very big deal as she is an integral part of our school community and daily happenings funny enough when I announced to the HSA the other day that Monica was retiring there were shock there was shock and tears and the inevitable how are we going to function without her to which I thought to myself well I do a few things around here not just mon but it was a chuckle and really speaks to all that she does there is no doubt that Mrs Monica bosor is one of the main reasons why our school runs so smoothly first of all she knows everything and everyone when a new family moves to town Monica can be heard in the main office telling the family the history of the house who once lived there and something special about the location she makes an immediate connection with all who meet her my Monica takes great pride in ensuring that students parents and staff have all they need to function to the best of their ability at school every day whether assigning substitutes registering a new student Consulting a child purchasing materials scheduling assemblies repairing a pencil sharpener as you did the other day um or troubleshooting an issue with the PA system Mrs boser gets the job done and well Monica is a leader among her department when there is a problem question or concern in regards to purchasing time cards attendance or Staffing she is the go-to person Monica has the years of service to know how things have been done but is also very forward-thinking and flexible she is a creative Problem Solver who strives to find the most efficient way to get a job done because Monica takes pride in joy in her job her contributions to the school Community are endless she knows our school like her own home she can tell you about prior repairs construction paint colors roof leaks and where all items are stored if you have a question she will likely know the answer and if she doesn't she will get you the answer Mrs Bosler is an incredible support to me her Forward Thinking problem solving attention to detail and emotional support are things I will greatly Miss not to mention she monitors my school spending very well keeps me fed with her homemade treats and never lets me miss a meeting Monica I thank you with all my heart for all you have done for Willard School I wish you all the best in your retirement may you enjoy lazy mornings long weekends at the lake and lots of cross stitching and cooking and don't forget to keep your phone on because I will be in touch happy retirement thank you thank you Caroline I have thoroughly enjoyed my 22 years at Willard and had five years before that as a substitute throughout the district without ever having set foot in Willard School I I will miss the daily contact with my colleagues throughout the district as well as Willard School the Willard families and of course the students of Willard thank you all for the Memories thank you oh I just wanted to say thank you because I whenever I come to Willard you are the welcoming voice and a smile and it's really lovely so thank you for that yeah I would EO that Miss Bosler I would not know how to find way within with Willard without the Bosler Avenue or B bouard right whatever so that's the first stop to get into B after you get into toer so thank [Music] you thank you so much Mrs Bosler congratulations oh let's uh Miss boster can you just stick around because we're g to do some photos after we do after after we have our next all right and next I want to invite up um we have uh Miss Wendy picula and picula excuse me I'm sorry Miss Petula please come on up and we have with us also director of special programs Dr Michelle Fenwick to introduce Miss peda thank you for allowing me the pleasure of coming tonight and uh welcoming and celebrating Wendy pacula and her uh announcement of retirement uh we have known each other for a very long a very long time and I'm sure uh Wendy has just moved into my town I am sure that I will continue to know Wendy for a very long time so you all can miss her I won't have to um so let me go into reading my my uh appreciation to you so today We Gather to honor a special individual Wendy pakula whose dedication and passion have left such a mark on the speech language specialist role particularly here in Ridgewood for decades Wendy has been more than a speech therapist she has been a teacher a learner an advocate and a friend to all of those in need many of you may not know but I first met Wendy when was teaching a class in the late 1990s early 2000s at William Patterson entitled school-based speech language specialist what to expect in public schools and Wendy was an active member of the class who asked great questions then and there was just this wonderful relationship that was sparked where we remained in those talks throughout all of these years through to today uh Wendy's uh Journey began an unwavering commitment to helping others find their voice with a genuine compassion and empathy for each person she's worked with Wendy pakula as a member of our speech team has understood that communication is at the heart of human connection and has devoted her career and her life to ensuring that everyone should experience the joy and empowerment that comes from being heard throughout her time in Ridgewood Wendy has been an example of Hope and been a source of strength for countless individuals and their families she has worked to provide care but also and to let others know that they are not alone her dedication to an inclusive extracurricular clubs um in and outside of the district uh her willingness to introduce and connect equally passionate members of the speech language community and special education Community has inspired others in great ways as she steps into retirement we celebrate and give thanks to her years of service she has given to Ridgewood and Beyond and in closing let's celebrate Wendy pakula for her unwavering dedication and her career Wendy thank you for your hard work and your compassion in helping others find their Voice May the next chapter of your life bring you as much joy and fulfillment as you have brought to so many others and I have a quote here that says knowing that I made a difference even for just one made me realize my job is not only fun I help kids learn to communicate well while work with me that's why I love my job that's why I'm an SLP good evening Dr Schwarz and members of the board it is know such an honor to sit here in this um School District with its tradition of Excellence because it's given me and my profession a PL platform to use my creativity my intellect my heart um when I get into the trenches and I'm with the CH the children of this District I am able to just feel so like the Joy from being with them and it's given me um a lot of fulfillment to connect with parents who um might have challenges and to um help them and you know underg them as as they walk their Journeys and honestly anyone who works for this District it's a feather in their cap and it's something that they'll hold dearly till the end which I indeed will so thank you thank you thank you Mrs patula and Mrs patula and uh and Mrs Bosler would you mind coming up we can take a couple photos is that okay all right great soor okay enough time okay little never I'll be call a few more oh are you really yeah let's make sure yeah she maybe Michelle is right there the posture was so good oh yeah that's right Miss bronstein and next we have our high school student representative report from Miss Sarah bronstein thank you um there was a big week for the acabellas they won the Mid-Atlantic icsa the international competition of high school AC capella semifinals against nine other groups from the Mid-Atlantic region ranging from South Jersey all the way down to Maryland senior Bianca David won best soloist in sof more Ava fontas won outstanding bul procussion out of the whole competition the finals are on April 26th at the the New York City Town Hall against nine other groups from across America and even one International Group this the farthest acabellas have ever gotten in their years competing in the nsas so this a huge accomplishment Shrek performed five soldout shows and added a shorten show to make the musical accessible to families with smaller kids and also to show new families emerge what new what new players is auditions for improv were Wednesday the 3D this will be the first time time Ridgewood is putting on an improv performance in six years it will be directed by ridgewood's own David Turner a new player Alum and Broadway actor ape students went into the brook behind Ridgewood High School to conduct a micro invertebrate sampling classes were able to help see how healthy and to our local Brook was and I had the pleasure of joining in Project indir volunteered at the Easter in the park at Vana Square on the 30th for all for all youth in Bridgewood apart history has a field trip plann for the MoMA in lady April the Y whff and poofs the most well-known Collegiate AC capella group visited Ridgewood High School Acappella program they performed three of their songs and taught acapella students one of their Arrangements the Ridgewood acquire has a concert at Westside on the 23rd and the Ridgewood band has a concert on the 24 at Westside both at Westside green Club is working on a video for a grant for sustainability Jersey about the trees planted along Stevens in the recent flooding they're also preparing their projects for sustainability day on April 19th that we are celebrating at the high school this year birthday is in late April and students from apes class green club and Beyond will have presentations encouraging students to be more sustainable within and outside of school on April 5th the green Club is having a trash audit to see how well Ridgewood has done in recycling this past year an initiative promoted by Green Club students at the beginning of every year Stevens and the stadium fields are both fixed and ready to be practiced on and as you guys have likely seen there are a lot of kids now practicing on them third marking period ends next uh sorry this Friday um for any students with missing assignment or tests it is important that they make sure to finalize those um students have off this Wednesday for E for anyone celebrating a happy end of Ramadan seniors have the last month to decide on colleges and an extended period for some schools with the delay of fasta this year many students have made or plan to make their final decisions very soon as for sports a lot are starting up boys varsity lacrosse went to Delaware for preseason training and had a big win against Ridge last Thursday the girls the first girls flag football game was last Friday against Indian Hills the boys won their first baseball game against Bergen Catholic 3 to2 boys golf also had their first competition at Fort Le high school and the girls had lacrosse had a big win against Highlands last Tuesday thank you that's very exciting about the Acappella yeah right yeah so they go to um Nationals yes now they go to finals so this is like everyone it's a huge deal yeah it's great thank you Mr bronstein so many good things always happening at the high school okay we'll move to uh comments from the public um is there anyone no one's back there right okay and let's see we do have um a comment Betsy Closs hi can you hear me yes oh hi um um oh I'm glad I I just uh saw you were having a meeting I decided to listen in congratulations to the AC capella groups um I'm calling from another town I live down south and I always look at Ridgewood because you're doing such wonderful things and you have uh such great scores and um I'm always impressed I did have a question I was looking at your Miss cross if you could just um give uh your address it's just it's so your it's your name and your address and then please continue yeah I just have to say the town I live in Walt Township okay yeah um sure I was looking at your budget and or you know I think whatever you had online for your budget presentation and I noticed um I was looking at your health benefits because I'm trying to compare wall versus yours because wall is self-insured and um trying to compare uh just wondering um if I could I I don't know if I sent in an Oprah for it but I was wondering who your health broker was oh no I do have that and they're paid I think 29,500 a lot less than malls um [Music] so yeah I just wanted to see if they if you do compare like every year to be sure that if you're in the state health benit benefits plan it's shaper than being self-insured and and things like that like what you go through uh to check since it's such a big line item and it's really I'm looking at walls information but I'm comparing it to other school districts thank you thank you for that and I I I guess that um to answer your question I would just um refer you to our manager for human resources uh Jamie and perhaps you could talk um or uh you could send an email and she could respond I think would be um a way to do that um so that you'd get the information that you'd like okay perfect thank you so much you're wel thanks that's all thank you Mr Molton hi Peter Molton 294 West End Avenue um so I had a couple items from the last meeting uh I I was able to watch the replay and um was wondering if uh intramurals were something that were a a consideration I know it's uh I've brought it up and it's come up uh during a number of meetings and in the uh the coffees so I wanted to know if that was something that was considered or if there's going to be any uh action on that next year um in ter you know one of the large items that we had the previous year was uh the uh inadequate pay for uh substitutes power uh AIDS and so forth that was reconciled by the board it seemed like things were working much better this year in regards to um acquiring Talent uh was wondering uh through the budget process uh if there was anything else um uncovered or what what some of the findings were in terms of competive iess And in regards to uh pay for those uh for those people um the um there was a New York Times article recently in regards to um the alarming rate of rising absenteeism and I was uh if that was something that we were seeing in the district and if there were uh any considerations uh for why that was occurring if it was occurring in our district um and the last was in regards to the calendar that came up um in NE the uh 2526 year bringing us towards the end of June um it was addressed that there was a lengthy December break which you part of that just the calendar item but I continue to um ask if there's any con if there can be consideration to um possibly make some of the um religious holidays non- test Andor excuse absence days uh also to and to uh which maybe would shorten calendar but also hopefully to bring back um a February break because we have um a very long time in between breaks on an annual basis now since February Brees break's been whittel away down to one day other than the holiday and so um maybe that also goes into absenteeism maybe people are valuing other things other uh um in terms of uh travel or Community or solar eclipses and uh um so just want wondering if that was a a consideration as part of the uh the calendar this year as well thank you thank you I don't see any other um hands raised so I will close public comment and we will have another comment uh period at the end of the meeting Dr Schwarz do you want to respond to anything yeah sure I can just just acknowledge Mr Molton U what Miss cross thank you so much for uh for taking interest in our district here um and please feel free to reach out to um Miss Jamie Murphy or Miss Julie cot who are our um business administrator and um and uh Human Resources Director they can help you with some of that information uh we have we we do talk about that annually as as part of our budget process and I know they got some good answers and support for you uh Mr Molton thanks so much for joining us as usual um so there's a bunch to be said about about some of the points that you raised um inal Sports we have had some conversations about that we don't have a significant amount of funds allocated for that right now because we have many competing needs but um there is a possibility that we could be doing some expansion of some sort of inal sporting uh provided that it doesn't have an significant cost impact or an impact specifically on our facilities demands which are consistently under demand so we're looking at that just a little bit further and we can uh provide some some closure on that uh either with a with some move forward um or something we'd have to look at later as part of our final budget presentation which we will give on April 29th um substitutes we have not since recently looked at here this year but that's something that we always want to monitor to make sure that we're staying competitive uh we do actually have an automatically generated AB chronic absenteeism report that goes to all of our principles to help encourage them to have the information they need to ensure that our students that they're aware of students that are absent in the school and students do need to come to school to do well in school generally so it's important to us that's that we'll watch and something we can also maybe we can include some analysis on in the state of the schools and then uh we did have some convers we have had some conversations about the calendar and I think the board the board and our committees we did have some conversations also about religious holidays um and it is a bit of a challenge to figure out you know which holidays are you now not going to be open for and I don't foresee us uh being open on Christmas so uh I think that really when you look at across the holidays I think we're trying to be as inclusive as we can but but it is clear that with all the inclusion that we're trying to do with all these days off it is making the calendar very long um and really the only only really significant place where we can add more time is either at the end of the year or before Labor Day in in August um so those are those are those are bigger conversations to be had for sure but thank you so much for your Insight and uh we certainly I think we all we all heard what you had to say so we appreciate them thank you and as and as usual I would say just I'll put a plug in right now real quick um if we're done with were we done with public session so am I going to the superintendent report just yet I guess I'm not but while I'm on topic I'm going to squeeze this in just say please please uh please remember superintendent coffee is also a great place where we can talk about things a little more freely and a little more openly because we don't have the board business that we have to attend to but appreciate everybody's comments here and thanks for the opportunity to respond Miss broen and I believe your next coffee is um April 25th I the Thursday before the 29th so I believe that sounds about right 25th yes um yeah so we look forward to having folks out for that you have a presentation right at this point I'd like to invite up uh some some important people in the district um who are doing some really great work but particularly um I want to introduce everyone to Doug aday Mr aday uh does a lot of things around the district uh he's a teacher uh he is uh he he's a summer administrator he does quite a few things for us but one of the things that he does is uh he is really involved in our uh Unified sports group and so or IFI group excuse me and so uh we have him here today and he's joined by uh director of special programs Dr Michelle Fenwick and supervisor of secondary special education um Mr Amanda Zenus I'm sorry I always I always want to whenever I was freeze when it's when it's h you and Mrs uh an nembo because I met you at the same time and your name both starts with a so I'm sorry my apologies so Mr nembo thank you for being here I'm sorry about messing up your name there and in the meantime Mr aday uh and we're going to turn it over to you thank you so much all right well I appreciate you guys having us we're we're we're very excited about uh unified obviously U it's something we've put a lot of time in not not just us but teachers staff members parents students um so uh we've kind of built on it um so I will go through our our PowerPoint here and answer any questions that you might have um but it's a fast growing uh uh group so we you'll see in the PowerPoint we kind of split up into different um sections so we call it unified group now um and it's got an umbrella over the top of it with a lot of branches coming down um and this is our uh special uh programs office mission statement um to model dignity and empathy while providing support to students with special needs in recognizing and using their abilities skills and strengths to Foster Independence and success as lifelong Learners and productive members of an inclusive community so when unified originally started we started want to say five years ago we started uh five years ago um it was just Unified sports um and as Unified sports grew there started to become you know kind of some avenues that we felt needed to be addressed to be more inclusive um so our UniFi group has an umbrella with Unified sports um friends of unified unified events and then unified electives so I'll go over each one of them kind of explain the difference between the four um there are some similarities but they're unique in how they help us address you know uh the the inclusive uh environment that we're looking for so the first one is Unified sports uh actually today um we were a unified Champion School four years ago um we got an email this morning that both BF uh Middle School and rhs High School were both um uh nominated and we accepted this morning to be a unified Champion school for the next four years again which is awesome which is great yeah that's uh great yeah good news on a Monday morning love that um and uh that's a credit again to everybody that puts in all their time from the top all the way down so we're we're excited about that um but Unified sports is just how it sounds this this is currently sponsored by Special Olympics New Jersey um they are on the last year and a half where they are financially sponsoring the programs their goal was to get it into high schools in New Jersey and then you slowly become self-sufficient uh um to continue the program so um the sports program we've had here uh for five years um some past events that are listed um soccer um basketball um Spring Track and Field which we're starting this Thursday bowling um skills clinics and a variety of things what's been great about the soccer and the basketball is our um guys and girls team at the high school they volunteer their time freely to uh team up with us so the town has teamed up with us um as well and soccer and basketball which has been awesome the more they participate the more our numbers increase which is great in terms of special education students and general education students um so uh this fall it was the girls soccer team um the boys basketball team and then right now spring we've we've got well over 50 uh students volunteering to help with their time which is awesome um we also uh bowling is is where we've kind of got into our competitions so Unified sports has different levels so we compete with other schools in the area uh we we competed three times this past uh winter with Ramsey High School uh which was a great team up ability so we're starting to get into more um competitive situations for our students who are ready to take that that jump which is which is a great addition to the program uh some of our upcoming programs times are listed there we also communicate those um with the district cpeg um who communicates that in their newsletter we send out Skyward messages as well um so we have track coming up uh track track and field uh we also have karaoke night uh which falls right into uh unified on May 9th at Travel um so the Unified sports is what's growing the most um at the at the highest rate um which has been really good um Keith cook thead has been awesome with uh giving us facilities because as we grow we just we just need more space so um so we appreciate that as well and we look forward to it growing as as we keep going um friends of ified um this was actually started um by a student at the high school we had two students at the high school who saw what we were doing with Unified sports and um Wanted to Branch it out to friends of unified which is a subgroup um that involves Community involvement so um it's field trips together it's um Saturday events which we're planning our first one um in uh uh late April um where we would come on a Saturday the students who are the coordinators of friends of unified would come uh with a variety of students and we would do some sort of community outing like movies and dinner um things that get in the community to help our students um that's what friends of unified um started their addition to uh we've had a lot of success this year uh we've been to Ridge School multiple times this year and we go during lunch and recess where our students in the club volunteer they go on their free period they give up their free time and um we go to the rise classrooms at Ridge school and uh we engage in um uh recess lunch we did the science fair which was a lot of fun um we've had uh bingo night we've had ornament decorating we've had the Halloween haunted house so one of the things that friends of UniFi noticed was a lot of our students with special needs were having difficulty engaging in after school events because there just there wasn't support there in the past so um so they've done a great job of building that support um which has been you know reciprocated from the top down to to allow do those things so we're we're trying to have our students not just for sports but also be as involved as any other student in the building with anything that's offered after hours as well and that's that's gone really well and we look forward to um building on that as well um this is their first year friends have unified um and it grew a little faster than than than we thought it would which is a good thing um so that's going to continue as well into the fall um unified events um these include anything in the building um that's not after hours could be during hours could be at night unified events are a little different than friends of unified uh because it can be a building event such as the week of inclusion which was two weeks before the break um we have activity skills Clinic we've had gingerbread house building movie night um we did a fundraiser to help us be more um self-sufficient when special olymics New Jersey is no longer sponsoring the Polar Plunge the Don Bosco Musical and then we have our end of the year every year which is field day so field day is open to students who don't necessarily have to be interested in sports but want to you know get out and and be a part of what we're doing and and have some fun um so this is Unified events um the unified events vary a lot depending on the year um and we're trying to build that inclusive community um and it's really centered towards students who really want to be a part of the club but Sports just aren't their thing right that's that that's that's what we're looking for so you know with the unified events so we want everybody to feel like they have a voice and they can be involved um and the unified events we try to have two a month so we try to have two a month um one thing we'd really like to do which we'll talk more about at the end we would love to have a unified rep at every building starting in September um because of the growth so much so fast it's it's hard to get as many people involved as we want to at every building without a rep there so right now we have a rep at BF we have a rep at and we have a rep at Ridgewood High School um and we have a um a rep at Ridge so we're hoping to build on the unified events as as we get more representation IND thees um unified electives which I believe you would you like I mean oh okay okay all right you want to share the unified sure Unified the Oh The Good the good news the good news I wasn't sure you knew yet so I was I was thinking I was making so unified electives um the classes that we're going to describe they elective classes at Ridgewood High School that allow our Prep students and general ed students to team up together um we had uh described that to New Jersey school boards for their Innovation and special education um recognition we've gotten that recognition in the past for our steps program and our Pearl program as a recognition but this year we've gotten the actual award which is the only four of the awards are given 27 schools will be noted for their recognition of inclusive and initiative uh Innovative initiatives but we are one of the four that are actually winners this year and it is for unified electives so I came to present Sheila you with the um letter from the New Jersey school boards but and also to show the um winner uh badge that they give us for digital display they will be sending us a plaque and taking a video here which will be on the New Jersey Schoolboard website it will also be um recognized in the New Jersey school leaders um uh brochure that comes out newsletter that comes out um I think quarterly so uh great recognition um on all behalf of the hard work that Amanda zenas and Doug aday have been uh you know so dedicated to so thank you yes thank you for that thank you um and I and I I we definitely couldn't do it without the teachers at the high school um the administrators the support from the top down the students have been awesome um um both special education students and general education students so much so that we we had some trouble of uh we had we had too many people that uh general education students that wanted to be involved which is a good problem to have so we're excited to grow on it um you can kind of see from our our unified electives uh we're very excited about these because these are every day um these are things that we're doing in the school building um each day in Ridgewood High School um currently uh at the high school for the first semester we had unified foods and nutrition and these are classes where we have general education students and special educ students in an elective together um this has been something that I know all all the way back to U you know three four years ago we've been trying to you know get off the ground and get running and it um it just it just takes time and we're where we want to be which is awesome um we're planning next year to have two unified electives we'll have Unified Dance and we'll have unified Studio Art um which we're very excited about um the first semester couldn't have been been any better uh with the unified electives um uh it took a lot of collaboration so again we we thank the parents the students the teachers it was awesome it was a lot of fun it was incredibly productive um you know one of our big pushes that that we felt with the unified electives was sometimes inclusion that's pushed if it's pushed too much too fast there's no Rhyme or Reason of what the inclusion is supposed to look like so to be able to plan it and have the electives and have the support from the administration on down with the teachers it was it was great it was awesome so we look forward to building the unified electives um and we are currently in second semester of unified uh unified foods and nutrition too um at the high school and we will carry that out through the end of the year um our goals going forward um you know we want to continue to expand um our unified group build inclusive programs within our community um and second one always the big one is become financially self-sufficient to support unified programs um so we have fundraisers that that we're doing we've had um you know uh the ability to bring in income to help pay for supplies and things like that which has been great um but the the more students that participate the the the more support that that we need so we know that's a part of the of going forward and and what we need to do on our part as well um we would love to have an a unified adviser in each building which we I kind of talked about earlier um that would give us great access to um every building in terms of promoting inclusion and what it looks like and not just saying get it done you know it would give us us the support and structure we need to do it properly where it would be constructed for all students in the district um a districtwide week of inclusion we we we got to most of that this this year which was awesome we were able to get to people in each building who kind of on their own free time were able to help us implement it and other buildings which was great um and then we want to increase participation in the elementary schools we started with our high school program we went High School to steps then we went High School steps to our Rise program at Ridge then we went to L School this year with our students and we'd love to open it up to every Elementary in the district um so that will be our goal come September um to have every Elementary School involved uh which will put every school in the district into unified which is what we're looking for so um we're excited about it um if you would like to join the group spot this is how we communicate you know if there's rain or anything happens um that's the code um you want to add to that on the group spot I know we have the uh the QR code there um we have the the code on the side if you'd like to join um and we will certainly accept you into the group uh in the group spot and uh continue to grow the group like I think that was a perfect um presentation on it um I think that there was just an article from Special Olympics um entitled sport as a catalyst for inclusive education the role of special education and I'm going to share uh one copy and I'll send a link out to you it was just um just published I think two weeks ago and it really speaks to how Special Olympics has kind of morphed that unified um philosophy and emphasis and moving from the sports arena into exactly what we are doing and promoting here in Ridgewood with uni with unified um programs that are really truly an umbrella and offer so many points uh ports of entry for our students that may not want to participate after school well there's something unified within the school day or may not see themselves Jo joining something well now you have a classroom where your classroom has um classmates who are there and there with purpose and understanding and support so it's it's really just a you know a fabulous uh way to Encompass all of this uh good support that we've been trying to put in place so thank you for allowing us to to privately speak to it this was terrific thank you so much for your work I um you know I've been hearing a lot about unified um and all the things you're doing and I heard particularly about it um when we were thinking about how to include and provide an opportunity for some of the special education students to uh come to super science Saturday be part of that and then I heard that you did sign tonight and everything just came together so um I thank you for your work um it's really important and it's a great addition to the uh District thank you if I may I have a question um first I want to thank thank you for the presentation It's really informative and um the recognitions and the award is truly welld deserved so congratulations um when you talk about one of the um uh the future goals one of them was about the rep could you talk about the role of the rep and what um this may be an opportunity just in case people are interested I didn't know what that role was yes absolutely so our each rep for each building would be the point person for unified week of inclusion um we have to each building has to hold by weekly meetings with leadership group special education students and general education groups um in order to be recognized as unified so we would need somebody to hold those meetings um help organize the the sporting events so the sporting events have gotten so big um that having everybody at track and field at one time is is hard it's it's hard to give the attention that's needed because there's so many um the plan would be maybe two elementary schools would combine for an event so if we had a rep in each building they could coordinate together um and it's it's just a an Avenue to help provide information um right now I'm providing all the information to anybody that requests it which is part of the job but I feel like sometimes I'm missing somebody because there are so many schools in the district um there are a lot of questions that that they have specific to an age group um so that that unified rep at each building would um be the point person for that um there's also a lot each Elementary School kind of has their own after school activities that they do one has Bingo nights you know um some have karaoke night um we would be able to support all students at each building if we had a better idea of what was going on in each building so that would be the the Reps Avenue to help us get to those students who would need support is it a student student position or is it more a faculty or a parent it's a faculty member that was in charge yes so it' be a faculty member and then there would be a leadership team of students underneath that faculty member who would help coordinate so it would be like at the high school um a club so it would be it would be classified under a club great thank you very much you good luck thank you so much for a great presentation and thank you for all that you're doing for our students and uh you know Mak sure our students feel included is is so the way to go it's great for our special needs students but I would but it's also just as beneficial for our general education students uh that we that they can be educated in a school where where uh where we can all be all be educated together which is awesome so thank you for your work and congratulations again yeah congrats on the award that's fantastic so when you get that plaque we'll need to see it thank you thank you Michelle congrats again so we um have the superintendent report but before we do this um just if you haven't already received your uh student leadership magazine uh lead article in it is the mystifying school rankings and ratings and it is co-authored by Dr Schwarz so thank you um I think you need to sign this and then we frame it and I'm sitting next to an author so that's pretty cool so congratulations and thank you for the information on this oh thanks so much yeah I I appreciate that very much um uh yeah again thank you to my my co-author Dan Ross who's superintendent of denell in public schools who also was my assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and Personnel uh in uh in Madison before I we we came before I came here so grateful for that um and we'll be talking a lot about rankings and ratings in the state of the schools address and that was really the origins of this article uh we had the idea to share it as a talk with school boards and uh so two years ago we actually had a talk where it was um we had um a packed room like I mean we really standing standing room only I don't know if any of you were any of you were there that day so that was that was two years ago so we didn't even know each other at that point in time um but it was a really really great turnout so I was a little surprised when they didn't uh accept our we proposed it again this year and they didn't accept it so I wasn't sure why that was but then they turned around and very and asked us to please write an article about it and then they've asked and then and then it's now the front page article which is cool and on top of that uh I was asked I think I shared with the board but I was asked to uh present with uh with with my colleague Dan uh for uh one of the leadership series that they're doing across the state with njsba so we'll be able to uh to present this week which will be really nice too and they'll do a little interview with us also which is which is fun so it's always a it's I get a kick out of it and I hope hope it makes the district proud um with respect to the state of the schools to the uh to the super superintendent report um again I just like to use this time primarily to to point out um that we have our coffees every month we had a really Lively discussion lots of different topics at our last coffee which I really appreciated many academic topics ICS so what I wanted to just bring to people's attention is that when we um when we get to uh the superintendent is that is that the AC system some old V unit ventilators in here um with with all the with all the earthquakes and uh and eclipses I'm like a little jumpy right now see the old univ events so uh that's inside joke about univent with the facilities committee um but but in all seriousness um uh superintendent coffee is are great place for conversation um but this is a great time of year because you know the preliminary budget we talk a lot about the core finances of the district but in this in the final budget we were able to talk about some of uh a lot about um some final decisions that are made about the following year so we've painted a picture that we're you know our budgets going to support uh school year that M that sustains the the programs and services that we have but there are some Nuance Chang that we'll be able to talk about then so if you don't have April 29th on your calendar I would advise I mean obviously school board members I'm sure you all have it on your calendar but uh for any members of the public that are listening if you want to tune in that's a really good meeting to tune in because we do talk in Greater detail about the finance the financial picture of the district and we also talk about as I said um any particular uh augmentations or improvements in Greater detail for the coming year so please feel free to join us there also you should put on your calendars please um we're hold we're holding the superintendent the superintendent coffee in May which is on the I don't have it in front of me now it's the 18th 18th or 16th 16th 16 all right we'll confirm that she's right all right 16 very good Sheila wins uh so yes I it was a competition but I'll take it so on so on May 16th um we have a superintendent coffee scheduled I would like to tentatively plan for that to be the state of the school's address and the reason that I would shoot pick that time is because people are I don't want to put too many too much time on people's calendars and we're already booked for superintendent coffee and uh that's a great time for us to give the address because um it's already scheduled first of all and secondly the coffee in my experience works really well when it's not a board meeting because it allows the public to have lots of free engagement whereas at board meetings we have to be we have to be deliberative about our time and there's all kinds of rules we have to comply with in this environment people can come and we can just talk and and and I can M see it and our board members can uh can can uh can still attend but it's not official meeting and they wouldn't they they won't be conducting business or conversing with each other um so I'd like to put that on everybody's radar the reason I'm not saying it's absolutely certain right now is just because the state still has not released the comparability data that is so important for most of our analyses so if you all know that the school performance reports are the systems are the the accountability tools that they that they advertise interestingly with rankings and ratings it's a time of year to talk about rankings and ratings because this data file is going to jop very soon and once the rankings and rating agencies have it actually I think one of them already does I think they might have actually just opened it uh but uh once that school performance once the school performance reports are released that data file becomes released and then we can see everybody else's scores so we already have our own scores but if we want to do comparability analysis we have to be able to access other school scores of course if you haven't put this together these are scores from ex this time exactly last year um because one of the things I want to talk about in the report here is that we are going to begin our our state test testing our njsla testing particularly uh which is our which is very important to the schools for us for our data to have data for our students it's also important for us for program evaluation and it's also important because it's the publicly available data that shows how our schools are performing so uh so we want to do a a a a an important look but it's going to be a look back at the state of the schools address this is not necessarily or we don't necessarily have we're going to try to find some current data we try to use current data we do have systems that give us more current data from the current year but the gold standard which is the njsla scores they always do come with a year-long lag so our students will be taking those assessments so parents please encourage your students to take those seriously uh because we do we do rely on that data it's important and it's also important for students to get in the habit of taking tests seriously but additionally um we are going to be using that data file to to to gain a picture of where we stand as a district in the state of the schools address just Clarity on on May 16th uh there'll be an opportunity for in-person as well as remote yeah that's that's our intention would be would be to changed the format and actually have it be an inperson event with remote accommodations that's right um thanks and then I just wanted to thank everybody for uh just for for for their support and their and their um we've had we have had a rather um um rather dramatic week with with nature so I want to thank everybody for their their working very calmly and staying very supportive and everyone in the schools uh our administrative team uh during the earthquake I know it wasn't uh particularly dramatic in the fact that we didn't there weren't wides SC large scale damage to buildings or injuries but uh but it was a rather startling event we did have the students in the schools um we did we did have some communication out a little bit later uh I would we'd love for our communication be able to get out a little quicker but we're we've been airing on the side of making sure that what we're putting out is really accurate so we're going to do an after a brief after after action review with our principles tomorrow regarding how we handle that situation we'll also talk about the eclipse today and how that those procedures went as well um to my knowledge we didn't have any issues at the end of the school today um I do think it was the right thing to stay open for school it was as as it as was expected it was plenty bright out to see um but that said uh many parents did take the opportunity to pick up their kids just just to be on the abundance just have an abundance of caution at the elementary level for sure so thank you everyone for your cooperation and your participation and just making sure that our students are safe and following our Communications and uh please continue to uh provide feedback if you have any for us thank you Miss Brogan that that concludes the superintendent report okay um so now we'll go to um consent items regular and routine issues the first is attendance at conferences are there any questions I move attendance at conferences could I have a second a second Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss M yes Miss Broan yes Administration Someone Like to Move It Mo Administration I have a second I'll second Mr Donnie yes Miss clar yes Miss M yes Miss Brogan yes uh curriculum and instruction and um would you just uh Dr Schwarz would you like to just comment on three that's the establishment of that there was last we a little confusion last time uh we just as a on our side of things you know we know why everything is up there but it didn't occur to us that it would cause a little bit of confusion that we were emol Asing one course and it was being replaced with another um so uh but we did we did put on a resolution here just for clarification purposes and to make sure that we're we're we're uh we're dotting all of our eyes and Crossing all of our tees with the Department of Education so we're officially asking the board to approve the creation of an integrated 3 to four-year-old uh Early Childhood class which would take the place of the program that was abolished the year before and just to be clear uh this is not there's not a reduction in services or reduction in number of students that are served um so so I think at the meeting just to be clear on the record I think that I said that we didn't need this other resolution so we're putting it here as as an abundance of caution sure and thanks Dr SCH for that and for number two here in curriculum and instructions I think miss m um mentioned it the last meeting or the meeting before as a summary of our curriculum meeting that um Mr fredman basically came up and presented this plan about uh middle school program of studies that will uh that goes towards uh uniform standards of studies or at least on the academics SP that between the two middle schools if you're going to either BF or GW you can refer to the same uh program of studies um you can expect same uh class names uh class sequencing and it's the same you can expect what's going on there just like high school there's a guidance booklet so this is very similar to that so thank you very much for that um and we have some new programs on program name changes here but I had a question on this um when we originally discussed that the algebra and geometry sequence was still in uh draft and um I don't see that change so is that determination made as like has there been any determination on that or is that still being discussed we're at the final stages of that discussion so I anticipate having an update to that section as well moving forward but we didn't want to hold the the whole document okay so if if there is an update then we'll just v on it again correct okay yep thank you so with that clarification I move curriculum and instruction would someone like to Second it I second yes Jon Miss quar yes m m yes Miss Broan yes on human resources um and we have um an addendum on this too do I need to read that aloud okay so I I a copy of oh I'm sorry it's okay yes and it has that has a correction to that typo that we discussed so you're ready to go just I don't know that's okay no no it's been correct um so um included in human resources is an addendum um number uh four termination the gr Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools approves the termination of the contract employee number 7095 effective April 9th 2024 employee number 7095 shall be compensated for the full remaining balance of his her salary for the 2324 school year upon termination of employment on April 9th 2024 um so would someone like to move Human Resources with that Ed them I will move it someone like a second I'll second it I I just wanted are there some qu any questions I just wanted to make sure that it was clear which I think it is that what you just read is in addition to what's also on the printed agenda that went out which was which regarded another termination so I didn't know if that would end up being you know A and B in addition to that but I just wanted it to be clear that they're together yes okay thank you thank you what would be the right number for this it would be number well it's um four uh but we we could do 4 a 4 B does that work I think the easiest way to look at it is it's item it's it's D4 with two two employees being impacted employee 9220 and employee 7095 okay so the item that was read into the record applies to employee 7095 thank you does that answer your yeah I'm sorry with that I second that clarification thank you okay Mr Dar yes Miss quack yes Miss M yes Miss Broan yes Finance um would someone like to move Finance okay I'll move Finance someone like to Second it I'll second it like to um just read into the record the acceptance of restricted donations uh Ridgewood High School boys lacrosse for $1,926 to be used to pay for the extra costs for the charter buses for the boys lacrosse team Bridgewood High School $33,000 to be used to defay the cost of diploma covers for the class of 20 2024 Haws home and School Association $15 with gift and kind of a international flag for the cafeteria William S Collins Jr and Barbara R Collins $100 to be used towards a scholarship award to honor Jake B stroker James D stroker bill account $11,000 to be used uh towards a scholarship uh award to honor Jack B stroker paw home and School Association $800 to be used to pay for the field trips that support curriculum at Haw Elementary School and Willard Student Activity account $49512 I just wanted uh to clarify the um the line item number four eii education um that was added later is that coming from the curriculum budget or is that also part of that whole it um lease replacement budget that those are sr3 funds being utilized for that so but that's if there were not not S3 then I in a regular scenario that would be from curriculum right this correct the math manipulative is part of the curriculum correct yes than and this is the last year of the SR funds right so this not last year the the June 30th 2024 this June 30th we're done correct so this is the last time you have an additional until September or something to roll down all the funds but you have to have them all encumbered by June 30th and is are we paying for multiple years in for this ma manipulative or is it just for one year the math manipulatives that's a that's a one-time cost but they're going to stay for multiple years they're not consumables they're okay they can stay in the class so it's not it's not U like a licensing annual contracts it's not a recurring cost okay yep one time so um to understand the SR benefits anything that um in terms of all the funds everything will hit the agenda before June 30th because that's when it needs to be approved and that's how the incumber happen everything may not hit the agenda if it's under $44,000 the reason this is on is because um with this particular vendor this purchase would put us over the the bid threshold yes but anything over 45 you're right you will see okay um otherwise we will just do it as a regular purchase order okay great so thank you thank you you're welcome any other questions on finance Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss mcau yes Miss Brogan yes resolutions and motions not included in consent agenda do we uh can we take these all together or um okay I'm going to move all three a b and c do I have a second I will second any questions Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss mcau yes Miss bro yes okay approval of bills um I reviewed the bills and um make a motion uh to have the board accept the bills as listed again Mr Donnie yes Miss clar yes Miss mcau yes Miss Brogan yes okay uh board member announcements the only thing I have is um there's a Earth Day that's going to be celebrated on April 21st and um this year um the green Ridgewood collaborated with the schools and uh Mr Freedman and Dr Schwarz were very helpful to accommodate that and um there were new initiatives for posters so U every school I it's my understanding that most of the schools have submitted students have submitted posters and and there are some local community members who have businesses they are sponsoring Awards or prizes for those so if you uh can stop by at Wess on 21st I think it's between 11: and 11 to1 so 11 to1 um there will be and those posters will be um for sometimes they will be displayed at the uh empty storefronts so in the downtown so um uh there was good collaboration between schools and the green Ridgewood team this year for the Earth Day so April 21st is the Earth Day so uh is oh that's Earth is that Earth Day the Earth Day celebration as well April 21st yeah yeah yeah she I I also just wanted to make an announcement um about a new initiative in town um the working title of it is the Ridgewood Wellness Advisory Group um which was uh kind of the brainchild I think of Dr Karen ladimer who's a uh a mom in town a physician uh and um a very intelligent and uh committed uh individual and what she did was she brought together a group of uh people she asked uh me to be involved in it as a member of the Board of Ed Dr Schwarz was there Mr fredman was there we had members of Faith groups there uh Jim shoker was there and there was just a general discussion acknowledging that there are a lot of one off in a lot of efforts to uh work on mental health and to really help the kids in the community with mental health but you know is there something that we could do that maybe is a little bit more coordinated you know across the community to as Karen always puts it move the needle a little bit and the discussion kind of naturally evolved into a discussion on what is Wellness versus you know a mental health crisis and really kind of educating the community on um you know what's what's uh what does it mean to be well and and if you're experiencing stress or sadness is that always a crisis or is it part of you know developing resilience and is a part of life so um it was an incredibly I thought it was it was actually inspirational the meeting because the commitment and the different perspectives around the table um was really I mean I certainly learned a lot and I think that you know she she arranged a group of people who were very interested um uh she's put the word out to a couple more people people we have a couple more people there will be another meeting on April 11th I want to give a shout out to the Y because the Y hosted the meeting and really helped with the organization and Ramon hashe was there and he was amazing and um so just be aware of it what the goal is to introduce the concept A little bit more formally to the committee um in in time for May which is mental health awareness month um we're talking about uh a newsletter we're talking it would be great if we could have some kind of kickoff event I don't know if that's going to happen but we're really talking about something where you have resources you have education support groups and the community working together across all um all levels really to help not just the kids but you know the community as a whole parent education things like that so be on the lookout for it and if anyone is interested in it feel free to contact me or Karen um because I think you'll be hearing a lot from it so it was a great thing really was so uh Mary Maybe could um intertwine with uh stigma free exactly so if the I don't know if the Department of Health is already involved with these meetings but uh there are a few who've been really um instrumental in um again moving the needle for stigma free so yeah well yeah stigma free worked I think they were a big with angst right and introducing likes so there was some conversation about introducing somebody from the Department of Health maybe getting a Federated rep you know there's all these different initiatives going on and I think it would be a great idea to to bring everybody together yeah but it it was very heartening to to see that everyone had that same real commitment to how we can really you know improve Wellness that was great great thank you for that uh did you have anything uh announcement no I wanted to wish uh for those who celebrate um blessed Ramadan that's why Mr mmud is not here normally he'd be here so just went to see that um and this uh maybe it was last month um Mary and I had the opportunity to go to the um cpeg uh March sensory uh friendly dinner at McMurphy's this was the fourth dinner I think uh this year um and the participation of the different restaurants in town um and the participation of the families and really the enthusiasm I saw uh for the families to be there to have an opportunity to go out to dinner at a early hour in a quieter setting um it congratulations really to CAG to um have that move forward um and um our our restaurants so um it was uh great and if you have an opportunity at some point to um go to one of the dinners I would I would encourage you to do so so and actually she I'll finish up with that because on my cpeg report I have um we actually they have another uh sensory friendly dinner scheduled for April 29th and it's going to be at uh Lisa's Mediterranean Cuisine so be on the lookout for that flyer and they also I guess while I'm talking about it right they also asked me just to mention that there will be an informational meeting uh this Thursday actually on uh April 11th here on in the third floor um and Christine Durano diano I hope I'm um is a multi-sensory reading developer and she's going to present on structured literacy and tips to avoid the summer slid so that's something to look into you can also see that virtually and finally on April 30th cpeg is sponsoring a virtual parent event on Middle School and High School school transitions it's parenton panel discussion you need to RSVP there will be no recording of that particular event to Pro uh protect privacy concerns so if it's something that you're interested and you need need information about make sure that you are SVP so that you get access to the virtual panel discussion great it's great so for April 29th um are the dinners earlier because that we have a board meeting um yeah so usually what they do that's a good question usually they start um and you can go anytime between like five and seven and then the parents will kind of Reserve like a a spot and come uh I got there early for example and there were just a couple of younger families and by the time I left what was really great was you had parents at one table and then you had the kids at another table and it was really they really enjoyed it so yeah so there's just that little bit of time sure thank you and um just another announcement just a reminder to the board to complete your self- evaluations um and uh it would be great to have them done um this month uh board committee reports I not sure we had too many committees meet but um are there some reports uh we had a quick Finance meeting um uh we just went over um some outsanding items I came from the last agenda I think the minutes have been distributed or shared yeah um and um I I don't think so oh but okay I can definitely it was it was brief yeah um it was just uh some outstanding questions based on the last agenda in preparation for the budget presentation for April 29th um just just I think clarifications that we were interested in um and um and we talked about um you know uh how to make sure that the information gets distributed to the larger public who may not be attending at April 29th or anything like that um at the last meeting we tabled one item for finance meeting uh was that discussed and are we so should we be expecting the next meeting yes so it will come come back April 20 I mean what what item that is it was the max allocations for different yes absolutely and um I sent out a revised yes it would be coming at the next it be on April 29th yes yes so that was you know discussed and and figured out um and um and for me um we do have our Fields meeting tomorrow it's once a month it's usually the first Tuesday but for this month it will be tomorrow which is a second Tuesday it is 7 a.m. the link is on our website you're welcome to come in person or on online most of us are online but certainly um in person is is fine too and we do have an agenda and everything is posted um on that um I would say that uh I am very committed to uh the field situation it's it's a it's a group that works with the village fields and with the different constituents include the sports teams if there are any concerns please don't feel like you need to wait or just uh you know reach out to to miss broen or anything please feel free to come to me directly if there's anything specifically that you want to handle um either in a public setting or in a private setting um it's just you know it is uh I I understand it's a it's a large group of us and it we do have a public comments and you know it's it's an ability for everyone to understand where we are with the fields today tomorrow so on that um on your board liazon role um I just want to clarify your comment so you're saying that if somebody has a concern um you can they can reach out to you but even if they reach out to miss broen she can direct that this is a a Le on they should be reaching out to you yeah absolutely I mean you know uh we have a great relationship with the Village um Council leaon you know she and I talk all the time and it's Don't Be Afraid anybody to reach out on specifically uh to either me or the Village Council on um at all okay on the facilities we've had a couple of um meetings um this month I don't know did you want to um speak to any of them I don't think we had a meeting after last board meeting uh well we met with um students from Colombia and that was after uh and chair of the ridgewood's Green Team uh the students were coming uh to the board of education to um understand more about the flooding and um and they're looking at it not only the schools but also in the village and also um how we would lessen our carbon footprint so we did meet with the students and uh they took a lot of notes and asked some follow-up questions and the Columbia students will be presenting to the Village Council on May 1st about their findings and ideas so I just wanted to bring that to your attention um maybe want to tune in or attend just to listen to um some of their thoughts that's right so uh Village basically or the green team not the village the Green Team engaged with the uh the postgraduate student at Colombia that it can be their Capstone project so uh because Village and the green team are really uh making efforts to reduce our Cardman footprint and to go green um in a lot of spaces and uh they are even talking about um updating our master plan um to rest L the zoning um standards uh when for new permits and new plans and increasing like permeable surfaces and drainage because each each homes and each School whatever we contribute eventually um impacts the village impacts the community at the large right so uh they do expect that schools also uh raise our standards when we are taking any actions or we are doing making any big Investments um and we do consider environment uh and we are being considerate so that's their expectation the facilities committee also met with a group of community members um who are affiliated with some of the rec sports leagues um and there um have expressed um um interest and support uh to help fund a Fields facil uh feasibility study to address flooding and looking at the sports Fields uh we also um had um our new architect engineering firm uh Gian fararo um Matt and Anthony there um so that they could listen to some of the concerns some of the ideas coming from community members I think it was a a really positive first meeting and um the um uh our firm the firm uh will be um putting together a proposal for a feasibility study that will come before you and we'll take a look at that and cost and and and go from there but it was a really good first step I thought and then on Safety Committee uh the village has budgeted money to install sidewalks on the west side of Clinton to improve safety for the students walking to Ridge school and money has been budgeted my understanding is to continue the sidewalk installation uh and the architectural uh requirements uh for that West Glenn Avenue area between Heights and Monroe which is uh which is challenging um uh with the the slope of the and the walls and things that are there so they're working on that would that be because of the um the traffic the the children uh the students already go that's their path and that's why it's being implemented it's it's the anticipation then that that work could happen over the summer which one GL sidewalks no both I I just assume because it we could do all of it at once but I didn't know if it actually that's a question is it staggered is it like one will be done and what's the sequence well they budged the money but I I don't know the exactly yeah you know there has to be plans drawn and all that so I'm not not 100% sure of all of the timing okay but most of the side work walk work has to be done before uh wner right before yeah probably before September good I would think before the start of school okay yeah um any any discussion items yes so I um I looked at Village budget presentation or the uh the village manager posts uh about the budget and one of the slides mentioned class three officers for schools um are we paying any money into that or um do you know which schools they are assigning these class three officers to yes yes thanks for raising that question so uh we currently right now uh work with one school resource officer who's an active duty school resource officer so the school district contributes $100,000 towards that particular salary U we've been I've been discussing um I know that police chief has a real interest in uh um in uh us having increased uh presence in our schools and that's something I actually generally agree with uh it should be part of a a meaningful program where police officers are not part of discipline processes but just like our school resource officer is now they should be integrated into school culture um but if we leverage the use of retired officers like class three officers um they're they're available to us at a significantly reduced cost so um so I am proposing in the current budget we didn't talk about it uh at the at the public meeting but I anticipate in the final budget um recommending to all of you that we would discontinue our uh active duty SRO that we currently have AR that Arrangement and replace that roughly with with about a $220,000 increase over the $100,000 for two class three officers so they need to budget accordingly so they asked me what I would anticipate um I don't remember which we talked about this in one of the Committees I don't remember which one exactly um but uh I anticipate recommending to the board two class three officers and replacing the one SRO officer because that will give us uh an increased Personnel um right now we don't have a set plan for exactly how to distribute that one additional person but we have many schools and the high school is quite large um and so uh so I'm I think it's the right thing to do to um to increase the usefulness of that officer right now uh that one officer is pretty frequently on the move and is not able to quite integrate into school culture as much as ideally uh is ideal in SRO programs so the um the cost difference for school is about 20,000 and cost difference for Village would also be about similar because I think we trading 5050 currently or is so they have to budget so the way a lot of these Arrangements work and we would want to we need to formalize this so this is a currently at is at a level of of proposal but it's it's a serious proposal for me is that um typically an arrangement would be that the school district would pay for the salary and that the police department would pay for all the training all the equipment um and all the other incidentals that go along with it and ends up being pretty comparable so for us the salary for a retired uh a retired individual is in the ballpark of $660,000 for a retired officer they have become a part of the RPD so they're not just random people so they become part of our police force that they may they may have been an RPD officer who's retired but they also can be they can be officers from other other police departments uh they're trained they're part of the police force so they have to budget accordingly for that um something that I didn't anticipate um is that it's a little bit more of a of a um financial burden to the village for us to make this change we benefit but they they now are absorbing one a full-time officer back into their budget so I think it represents a little bit more of a cost for them than it normally would um so I'm not sure how they exactly how they plan to address that but uh but this is what I have discussed with them and this is this is what I anticipate my proposal would be for the board thank you so on that um are the they're retired but do they have active permit to have hold Firearms or they're not going to be they have all the same all the same uh safety requirements and requirements the key difference is that being that they're retired um they they have much more experience and they have um uh they don't have to work as much and we don't have to pay their benefits either because they're in the state pension system it's state benefit system so they they'll be armed um and all the insurance the trading that will be handled by the police department exactly the same Arrangement it's it's on paper it sounds it looks different because we're going from having an active duty SRO to a class three officer but in function the experience of the students is is is identical um as a as a as a SRO officer right now with the police department also it is they do they do frequently uh attend to responsibilities outside of the district as well as needed and then class three officer can be pulled as well but more typically it's they they're a supplement to the current police force so one of the um one of the questions I have is well will they be what vehicle will they have a police vehicle yeah so two separate they're not going to be sharing it so it's like they'll be allowed to they'll be accessible and roaming across our those are the costs that the police department will manage they they'll be an official police vehicle it will be an RPD vehicle they'll each they they may each they may they will each have their own I would anticipate okay and again just to be clear this is not a the program is not changing so you know we have we we started this year actually with two full Duty sro's uh we were paying for one the other was just uh was through some sort of arrangement was existing before I was was just a police was was one of our officers who was just working with us full-time over the course of the year they saw fit to phase that out that's fine but I would like to be we we're much better supported when we have at least two officers and to be clear these I've worked with uh with class 3 officers and active Duty Officers my entire time as a school administrator and um and I've had active duty officers who aren't great and I've never had a problem removing them and replacing them with excellent officers um and so so the majority all my time that I've worked with school officers they've been tremendously helpful there's data that could be alarming that some people um some people pull from that's from around the country in places where police officers are actually used as part of the discipline process where police officers will actually investigate and discipline students that is not the practice in New Jersey that is not a practice that we would condone they are actually prohibited by the prosecutor's office and by the memorandum of agreement from engaging in school discipline they cannot investigate in schools they do not do arrests in schools um is really about connecting the police officers in the the police department to the schools in a productive partnering way and the reality is we are partnered with the police department whether we like it or not through the memorandum of agreement uh if we believe a crime has been committed we must report to the police if there isn't a police matter we must defer to them and we need to cooperate and coordinate so the more more closely we can coordinate the better for our students not to mention the fact that when students do find themselves in a difficult circumstance where maybe they've made a bad choice it's much more helpful when we have people folks on the force who are already familiar with the kids who are already a familiar face so that way have the police do have to be involved it's not some officer that nobody knows showing up at their door it's officer Tom who we know and love at the school and is welcome in our home it's a very it's a much much better way of being able to address the the law enforcement matters that we need to from time to time um with someone who becomes very familiar and a part of our school community so one um final comment for me at least is um there was a period of time unfortunately because of the um number and um School uh violence tragedies that there was a lot of grants available for um additional resources like these class three officers are those grants still available has that window kind of closed that was like a one-time reactionary kind of funding source that's not really available now well we get a small allocation for school security which I don't remember off the top of my head I don't know if you have that Miss copet but that's but it's not it's not a it's not um there are other school security costs that we have as well okay do you want to share anything that no that's just part of the um State um state aid it's spoken out into four or five different categories and security Aid is one of them I am not aware of any grants that are available for this particular purpose thank you yeah I would love love to love to look into them if we have them but uh you know but again this is one of the challenges is that if we wanted to say have you know an officer in each school that would be a significant impact on the budget that thank thank you for those details because I just saw that on the on their marketing slides and I was curious because there were a lot of discussions about class three officer um in schools in 2019 or 2018 time frame or uh just before I joined on the board and at that time I think I remember the board discussed two at two or three meetings and um they decided not to do that uh so I was just curious uh and thanks for providing those yeah no no problem my pleasure and to be clear something that I didn't I didn't anticipate in our pacing of of the conversation of this change is that they were going to need to budget also and then declare what they were buding so I was figuring that I again I don't remember which which which group which committee we spoke about this in but um the plan was to roll this out with the whole board going into the 20 going into the April 29th budget as a conversation but it they had to they had to share their they had to plan also in case this did happen on our side of thing thanks um acceptance of minutes sorry add another discussion item if I may um so it has to do with also um the fields committee uh I was thinking that one of the concerns that seems to touch on different areas and this has come several times is flooding um would it make sense to have a flooding committee rather than it being kind of you know part part of it with Parks part of it with Fields part of facilities um there was uh somebody actually thought we had uh like a village like a coordinated flooding committee and as far as the Board of Ed we don't have one um given that it touches so many primaries it could be a committee of the whole um but if it is um a standing committee then you know we'd have to go through the process of approving it at at the at the majority if it's an ad hoc it's something that um you'd be able to do but I think in ter you know something that I think with ad I can't remember the rules exactly but um it's just something I think it's it's very valuable if we did have such a committee and and I just throw it out there as a discussion item it doesn't have to be discussed right now it can be discussed later on but I just throw it out as there's um a definite interest in having um a deep dive in the flooding uh for flooding in a coordinated way I think some sort of regular people are expecting some sort of updates on what's happening on flood yeah so I I think that's that's the was the beginning of that conversation and the um development of a feasibility study that we will bring to the public but I think the feasibility study is very limited that's being paid by a group of parents for a sports group of what they are looking for uh from schools perspective we should not be limited just to the fields or what that specific group wants right that's uh they are funding a study uh for specific to certain sports but and we don't even have the full scope of that study what they are for our residents are expecting is updates on long-term Solutions what are we are looking for as a school like which we will have to do regardless whether somebody's funding a study or not right from flood perspective and there is a joint Village and School uh committee already I think Dr Schwarz is on that um and Village Council is providing regular updates on that so we should be providing our updates on anything that we are doing on floods but if we are doing it I'm sorry I'm not sure if are we asking was that directed at me like is in you either you or I I don't know like I'm just supplementing to what she's saying about the flood flood being a concern of our residents and uh some sort of regular interval updates that okay what are we doing as a school district for our long-term solution so so my intention has been to use the facilities Committee just because I'm trying to think through my lenses primarily my committee lenses um so that's why we invited you both as a facilities committee to that meeting I just and again for what it's worth from my perspective you know I I hope that I made clear and I I think I have to the people that are involved as a community members who want to donate the money that that that it's something right from the early phases when they were when they were coming together with this interest I was very clear that if you wanted to do a feasibility for the schools the school had to own it so they could fund it but the school had to own it so for me when we had that meeting it was really about hearing from some of these folks who represent these constitues who don't even know each other really and just starting to build some sort of a norm and and an expectation around what we're trying to accomplish and so and again I I don't I don't know if it was conveyed fully successfully because I don't know those folks here but I thought that the way at the end of the meeting how within like 10 minutes we were able to pretty much just boil down to the fact that like kind of what we could all agree upon would be a reasonable scope which is effectively just to look build a scope of work that involves looking at all of our facilities and all the possible solutions within our facilities um which then effectively um The Board needs to own that process so if the board's architect puts that together then we would take a look at it and as a courtesy to our donors we would include them in the process to provide some feedback but that would be them providing feedback on the board's feasibility study and the board would own the feasibility study that they would then fund so I think and and the whole notion of the idea of this thing coming up was that when the fields flooded in October uh last year or the word of November and October a lot of people were very concerned and they said we need to we need to figure this out like right away and so I was saying well I can't commit funds to this right now because we're in a very opaque budget picture and I I can tell you that we can I will in the budget process attempt to commit funds for the following year for this kind of purpose but the idea was we don't want to wait until June or July one to be able to do take our first moves so the whole point of the spirit of this funding was that we don't have to wait till July 1 so we're getting close to July 1 so but I still think that it's it would be really great to initiate some work beforehand um and so if they're willing to to and I think that's their primary expectation is just that we're going to get the ball rolling on this as far as how you want to govern it as board members that if you don't like the idea of that I had the facilities team doing it like I know I know because I know I know I know there is I'm sure you have I'm sure the PE sure you had some representatives of the fields Committee in that meeting and if you didn't that's a little weird we probably should try and include some of those folks but um I'm happy to work with whatever structure you want to but I just want you to know my intention is to make sure that we own the process but that we're being respectful of the people who are committing funds and including their feedback and so that they feel like the funds are being used in a way that's productive I guess the question is um from uh from the ones who are not in a in a position to donate funds but yet they want to have a voice because they are directly impacted by the flooding being good neighbors if you will what is their Avenue to be consulted or to be provide input short of just coming to you know public comments or something to be kind of understanding where we're because it it clearly the people who are donating they will have an opportunity to speak and to understand but for everybody else without a checkbook it's hard is what I'm you know other than you and and whoever's in the in the group sure yeah well I think I so so what something I would like to do is to attend the fields meeting unfortunately just the way that our Cadence has worked out this year inadvertently they're at 7 o'clock in the morning after board meetings I know trust me almost all of us are remote I try to see if we can do 7 a.m. 7 P.M to make it a little bit more accessible and it just didn't work yeah I know I understand but I was looking at the future meetings and I don't think those 7 amm I'm not opposed to being here at 7: a.m. but when I get home at like midnight at these meetings then it's it's a little it's a little rough so um but we but on other days I would like to go and be there for the entire of the meeting I mean we rely on on on you and Mr cook to really represent the district I know Miss corus goes to a lot of these meetings too so um but I have not really actually formally attended an entire meeting I came to a chunk of one and I really just was passive I was really just listening and and attending but I would like to be able to go and before we launch the study be able to just let people provide some input and really I would Envision that the fields committee would be a great resource for our for our Architects to consult with as they are trying to narrow down how to spend their time best and how to how to how to cultivate institutional knowledge so they're not just trying to make it up from scratch so bring it up uh tomorrow maybe there's an opportunity to have a have an agenda item that would yeah so so maybe like if if you're there tomorrow maybe you can relate this conversation absolutely and maybe one of the things you could share with them is that we're moving in the direction of a feasibility study and if there are any ideas that you think that our architect should explore they should start putting those together now and then whether it's it's fully enumerated in the scope of work or something that's just inferred by the scope of work we can pass that on to our Architects and before we actually launch for the next one I guess in May do are there there are they B monthly or monthly no they're um every month every month so may second 7th or the F we're back to the first Tuesday yes okay so I so I I and I believe I can make that meeting I already have it on my calendar so that would be a great one for us to to say okay here's where we are with the study okay great thank you and on the on the fields committee was there any um ask for from schools for our U utilization of fields which fields are being utilized how much I think there a public comment to that but from Village have they asked formally for those numbers from us that has not come up because they've used are uh the fields pictures and some of the numbers and the the reports and they are supposed to be providing updated numbers fairly soon so have they asked us anything new not to me well I mean that I will ask tomorrow that would be something really clear to pull for the feasibility study too we need some data in terms of utilization yeah but I think they have to submit that in in April April you're talking about the in response to the the shedler application right so and I'm not an expert in this at all but I know that again and and so to your point about how information is kind of parsed I agree with you because at parks and rec there was a discussion about a field inventory and use of the field inventory which I think addresses the utilization my understanding is because the district is not the district sorry the village is submitting the application for shedler the information that those updates have to do with the use of the village Fields not necessarily and I could be wrong because I know in the application and when when you look at the first page of the application they use the image of our sadium field and uh the numbers they've referenced School multiple times there okay yeah if they providing updated numbers and even if we don't have that Clarity that what's the field utilization right now at the board level I don't know how can the village provide schools utilization if if schools don't know what our utilization is no that's I mean that's a fair point that's a fair point the only thing that I heard them discussing was the the um the municipal or the village organizations you know like Maroons right and and what their um utilization was um so I guess that's a question I have a Parks my Mee well you probably will see somebody before I will my Parks W meeting is next week okay and I'm happy I'm happy to ask the question about the field inventory the field which I think is part of that because I think there's a large ler a larger field inventory going on and you know I think that might have to do with Master library and I'm I'm still learning all these different pieces um but I'm happy to ask that question to see whether or not they need that information from us if you don't get that answer question and that communication will actually help that if they are doing an inventory then any work that they are doing can be utilized by our architects in their study so they are not duplicating that work right so if if they right and if if they are representing anything for schools I think that it should go through schools they cannot just uh take im images of our schools and uh claim that uh there is a need for the schools right yeah and I like I said I haven't read that application so I have no idea whether you know where the image is is you know correlated to some text or something I I don't know but can I just go back to just one kind of very basic thing um the feasibility study that that is being funded by our donors is really just to address the problem of the high school Fields really the fact that when they flood four times in six months we then have no place for our athletes to play right so that's that's that's a very limited scope of work as I understand it and then once that scope of work is defined and is presented is there then opportunity for certainly for The Neighbors and cuz your point is well taken that there you know we're we're in close quarters here right so a lot of people will have you know thoughts on that but wouldn't that come maybe after the there's the scope after we have a presentation on what is supposed to solve the problem so so to be clear what the one of to take as I recall M Broan and Miss Don Mr Donnie you remember differently or please let me know or let me know if I'm right too at the end of the meeting after much discussion and people are just sharing all their different observations what we came to is that we should focus on this partic if this is a board of education feasibility study the focus should be on board of education properties right so we're not getting into other properties that are outside of our control we're just looking at what are the different options with the properties that we have so that means are there certain are there certain Fields like so for example there's some there's some property at Ridge there's some property at Glenn can even if they're not even if it's not large enough for a full size space can there be like a practice space that's set up that's safe can be viable as a as a as a as a pressure release from our systems is there is is turfing the BF field something feasible and something that would that would help in some way shape or form those are the types of questions that that we that we're seeking so but we're not getting into other properties within the village we're not getting into and I think we're we're steering away from initially some of the really really intensive large scale projects we're focusing on there's a b there's a big focus on maybe Nar narrowing down like what some of the those maybe large scale projects would might be but recognizing those are very multi-year projects right whereas if we have other other facilities that we could better utilize we want to focus on that too do that did I do all right with that you did but and but yes I mean um the focus is also going to be on flooding and talking to the D and and what are the op what opportunities and options do we have to reduce or I don't know if we could ever eliminate but maybe reduce the flooding events so that was it was it was a that and looking at other fields so it's basically solved the problem of the fact that what we have doesn't always work and creates big problems when it doesn't and again very plainly said you know not terribly worful right but that's that's really what's happening and so then first you start with that and that includes an inventory of what what exists like you said what's behind Ridge um but and also solving the flooding problems and then after they've kind of assess that and may maybe have a couple of ideas that's when we get to the situation of well okay what are the people that are Neighbors at all these you know how is this going to affect them we want to be good neighbors you know and go down that road am I correct it's a multi-step process is my point that's correct but we're also recognizing that like part of the issue of our conversation was that this is an absolutely enormous topic yes that we could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just studying right and the point the point is to try to f Focus this a little bit more to things that are more immediately actionable so so as I recall I think there was conversation about maybe there are smaller things that the D de would allow us to do but but but there's there in addition to this conversation there's also the conversation with the Army Corps of Engineers which which is the most long-term but it does involve some other conversations around the D and other things that we might be able to do with within the D so there's there are some other conversations there but but as far as this this study is concerned I think what we're trying to look for is like what are some first and immediate things that we could do like right and you were talking about like can we can we come up with like like some sort of screen system just to at least keep the silt off the field right that's a little more doable than like and we don't want to do anything compromise anything large scale that would be more of a permanent solution with D or the Army cor Engineers either right we don't want to do that so we're really looking at something I just talked about just Stevens first Stadium andum okay so but right and and um from our last green rewood meeting Mr Lou and uh M carlen Jacobi would always say that grass is the um number one thing we can do quickly which will stop a lot of the sil going into the field so if we plant more grass or natural shrubs or natural trees those type of things but uh when Dr schar asked that whether my question was directed to you when I was making a comment just that one part was direct Ed that if you are hearing anything new that is happening on the Army Core of Engineers side that will impact our our schools uh or the fields if they're because that project is also I think moving FAS and you are on that coming well it's moving it's it's really I'm sitting in with the village it's not it's we're having a there's a lot of activity but it is not moving fast okay okay so to be clear I think conversation I think I think that the way they explained was that we can go two routes one was the longterm through Congress and appropriation and the other one was shortterm where they can come up with proposals of what can be done to fix it um and if any of those proposals do include um any solution that gives some light at the end of tournel for our properties then please update us at that meeting that was Point yeah and that's fine I'm sorry I I'm sitting here like acting like I don't have the ability to pull up all my notes here so I'm pulling up my notes right now so just while we're on this topic Not To Beat It To Death we're on this topic the full project timeline for the narmi core of engineers total solution of this problem would be would be estimated to be completed somewhere in the ballpark of the Year 2040 so so that if we go through the Congress right but yes yes so now so that so and basically it's a couple years of of getting approval for funding for feasibility a c a bunch of years for completing the actual study and these are like very comprehensive studies couple years for Congressional authorization for construction couple years for agreement uh to actually develop the design and to get agreement for the design and then to actually another like four years or so to actually do the project and that's what puts us out that far so but there is also this came up in the meeting there is also a technical assistance program that is offered that involves a 5050 split between uh I believe this is a I believe this is a sure exactly how I'm not sure exactly how this splits between the feds and the state but it's basically a federal it's a federal assistant program to States so you still need the states to invol to help us out and uh these plans could start pretty quickly um and they're they're but they're more like uh they're more like you get the Army corpes expertise consultation so that can happen very quickly in fact it can be six months to a year for actual for an actual full consultation and report back so that so that's where I like so so the village is working with that and that is a great potential solution for us and probably the best option for working around the D right so if if as I understand the village has uh decided to opt for that program like both of them in parallel both approaches in parallel the long-term solution and the technical assistance so if that solution does include our Fields then whatever we are working with the architect is that going to be duplicating or is that going to complement what they are doing no no so these are these are flood Solutions they're not field Solutions so that that's how my brain splain so at this point like we kind of have these two flood Solutions through the state and the feds and then what we're talking about is really a more of a Fields based solution so as in is again using using property in other places is that a better bet are there are there simple things that we can do to to improve our fields are there are there better materials so for example Le uh there are a bunch of different and again I know this is not this is this this isn't like the answer to everything it's not perfectly environmentally sound but there are other systems other than crumb rubber systems that that are artificial and have durability but don't necessarily have that crumb rubber should we be looking at those types of systems that have maybe a better drainage possibility can can we can we can we do something else and just have a simple Civ as as as like like some sort of Civ screen that lets the water pass through but keeps the dirt out I don't I can't that that's more along the lines of what we're thinking about is what can we work within the confines of our property with the feasibility St thank you so with that um is really helpful and clar um really clarifying um in terms of what you were talking about just the fields um not the flooding but with the fields as you look at different things I would um like just like to put in a um a consideration for not just immediately going to Turf but really think about grass as well M you know um especially like I said I think grass um has really become there's a lot more hybrid Solutions out there a lot of different blends and mixes there's been advancements in that in addition to advances in Turf with the alternative products you mentioned um so whatever the field solution is it I would ask that it be very comprehensive not just Turf but be really mindful of the grass component as well yep especially with respect to the floods that was another big part of the conversation is that you know something that makes that takes a you you might not like artificial turf and crumb rubber to begin with but you but nobody likes it in a flood zone so so that's something that we have to keep consideration of and and on that note of uh alternative materials this last Wednesday there was a speaker at the Village council meeting a scientist and she basically said that um even the blades have Bas and there's no company that has claimed so far that uh they don't have BAS yeah and to be clear I mean they I I we would have to dramatically decrease the utilization of our of our of our Fields we're not a not a community that has vast open spaces and can have tons and tons of grass fields that can be rested and rotated so um you know we have to pick our poison here because it's either going to be actual you know something that's that's concerned to be actually poisonous like posos or a dramatic reduction of the availability of our Fields um which the demand is absolutely wild in this community um right that's the data we have to see and uh also what to what should we be doing before um saying that we like all the are all the current Fields being utilized the current SPAC is being utilized right including there are some that are not in service for last few years or some that are U not preferred by the sports so why are those not prer we have space that is an outside of flood zone and but that is just not preferred so what can we do to make it preferred that's exactly the spirit that we're focusing on in the Pres in the feasibility study okay acceptance of minutes March 4th and March 18th someone like to move that I'm move it second I'll add a note here um within minutes um Mr Donnie I think you had a question about linking the minutes and making sure that they were all PDF and that the we weren't relying on links so they were updated uh you can't pull it here I'm going to pull it up on the the folder but I did have Miss uh went over that with Miss Papa Michael so uh she's producing for all the minutes documents she's producing the actual printed out PDF so the links may still be in there may still work but in terms of the final minutes documents um all those attachments will be PDF and I think they're in the draft so I can pull them real quick perfect thank you so much that's second all in favor I I and yes they are they all the all the attachments were PDF and added to these minutes um other business if not we'll go to comments from the public sorry I don't want I don't want to I'm sorry one second you know you gave me Flyers to talk about and then I forgot to mention them so can I mention them now sure that would be okay I apologize two seconds um there are just a couple of really good um presentations coming up Thursday April 25th navigating neural Divergence techniques and tools do support a child on the Spectrum and these are sponsored by the village and I apologize I didn't mention them earlier and parenting a neurod Divergent child workshop and that's going to be on Thursday April 11th uh 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. so I just wanted to make sure that that was um mentioned I apologize that I forgot thanks um I know that it's also been in our um newsletters that go out the newses so thanks Mary um okay we'll open up for public comment Hi how are you um my name is Susan Madison 428 Lynwood Avenue Ridgewood um I'm here tonight because I want to uh thank you Dr Schwarz for putting so much time into reconsidering our math curriculum um and I thought it might be helpful to have some stats on the record so we can understand how important this is um just so members of the board are aware uh according to the 2023 um injs laas 32% of our children are not proficient in Algebra 1 according to the state and if you exclude the um accelerated class that that starts early in sixth or seventh grade that number drops down to 63 or 64% so I'm sorry about 36 to 37% of our children are not proficient in Algebra 1 if we move to geometry 65% of our children are not proficient according to the state in Geometry for reference the state average is 55% so Ridgewood is 20 points below the state in Geometry I would like to point out for the record for those board members who were not on the board when the decision was made to change to our non-standard math curriculum those scores are below where they were when that change was made five years ago so I think for a district that values data the data is very clear that our change in math curriculum has not helped our children with algebra 1 and is severely hurt our children with geometry and so I hope you will be accelerate the change back to a standard curriculum and in case you haven't been following this at the national level the move to take algebra out of 8th grade has been repudiated at some of the very first places that started this such as San Francisco where the parents of San Francisco went to the polls and voted to bring algebra back to 8th grade um aside from the fact that this has not worked according to the data my question for you Dr Schwarz is what are we doing for the children who have already gone through this system with the changes in the New Jersey state testing schedule children who did not pass Algebra 1 or geometry are never tested again in Algebra 1 or geometry the only time we ever have another data point on whether they know these subjects is in 11th grade and for members of the board 12% of our children in 11th grade failed the um the 11th grade test which means they can't score of 400 on the SAT this is not something we can drag our feet on anymore you need to reverse the um curriculum back and quite honestly an excellent School District needs to address the damage that was done to the kids who have gone through this this program for the last five years um I would be happy to talk to you at another time to go over these numbers but I really want this on the record and I really want all of you to sit there and think about this you're about to send out kids into the world into college who cannot pass the state Algebra 1 exam and that is really a travesty and is not excellent thank you we do have some um remote also um Jamie Davis y hi everyone how are you good thank you good good so I just um quickly wanted to thank um Sheila and Mary for oh I'm sorry uh my address yep Jamie Davis 204 Evendale Road um just wanted to thank Shaya and Mary for coming to the cegs dinner last month um and I wanted to extend the invitation to any other board members or Dr Schwarz to come to any future ones uh wanted just not not be remiss in saying that uh we've been doing these in partnership with um some Village Council Members we've had their support um mayor vaganos has been the one to connect us with the restaurants each time and we also have had uh members of the fire department and the uh the police department at every event which has been great um just to have them get to know uh our community as well and uh as a result of that they've actually offered the fire department to host our June dinner um which will actually be a lunch on a weekend but we're going to be having our June event as a barbecue and Touch a Truck Event um that we're going to be doing jointly with the fire department in June some more will come out about that later um but I also wanted to uh congratulate um Doug and unified and everyone else working with them uh as many of you know with the cpeg this year we've been making a lot of effort with each school's hsas to make uh their events more inclusive and a lot of that couldn't have been done without the support of UniFi and having um the students in that club attend the HSA events and lend that extra helping hand and uh you know sort of taking my cpeg hat off and my parent hat on um as the parent of a special needs uh student um it's been such a pleasure uh having these great kids at all these events um they're really just such a great group and um their parents have a lot to be proud of and I don't want to underestimate um how much it's meant to the the uh the special needs kids um to see the same high schoolers um at each of these events because you know when when some of the unified students came to ridge's bingo night you know my son and the other um students in The Rise program recognized these kids from from soccer and other things and it's giving uh our students more of a sense of community and the last thing I wanted to say you know a nice um I'll call it a side effect of the unified program that um I just don't want to go uh noticed is what it's doing for the parents of a lot of these uh special education special needs students um because as you know I many of you heard me say before when you're a special needs parent you're not spending your week nights or um you know play dates or or uh practices so you you miss out on a lot of that connection with other parents because you're not standing on the sidelines at baseball practice or things like that and what I've been seeing um you know having things like the unified soccer and basketball and the upcoming track program uh is that a lot of these parents who live a very um styed life because of the needs of their children um are being brought together as well and seeing a lot of the same parents at these events and it's I think helping Foster Community among um parents that uh you know miss out on a lot of the HSA events and and other community events that others might um you know take for granted so uh wanted to thank unified for that as well um as a parent and just congratulate them on the well-deserved Awards because I think it's it's a phenomenal program and I'm glad they got to be spotlighted tonight U because they deserve it and uh look forward to what they have planned in the future so thank you um Etsy Betsy you're on she St she put her hand Betsy you're on mute we'll come back um telephone number ending in 252 hello hello yeah hi this is uh Boyd a loving 342 South Irving Street I'd like to follow up on a question or a comment made by Mr Donnie a little bit early on um with respect to the field utilization it is my understanding that the njde sent a letter to the Village of Ridgewood indicating that they wanted data about field utilization for the school system as well as the village of Ridgewood uh during recent Village Council meetings the mayor has been touting the fact that the village shares a lot of fields with the Board of Education in particular they have been mentioning that the varsity uh baseball team from the high school plays on a village field I don't know how this data uh collection is going to take take place unless the school system has been contact by The Village to supply data about how the School System is using their fields it seemed like to me when I was watching the meeting tonight that Mr Donnie asked that question the staff went completely silent as if nobody knew that this data needed to be collected so uh at the end of this public comment section I would appreciate if the superintendent could make some comment as to whether he has been contacted or a member of his staff has been contacted by The Village to supply this information if the answer is no I am really alarmed because the villagers indicated that they wanted to have this data in place by the middle of the month so if the data is not coming from the school system is the data being made up that would be really scary so again if the super can comment uh following the public comment section as to what is being done to supply this data to the The Village I would appreciate it because the state has asked for the data and somebody's got to give it up thank you um next Susan Susan you're on hello um Susan ran um 705 Kingsbridge Lane um I'm calling primarily um for the steps program I do have a few other points though um one is the steps program um I do like the location my son attends the steps program in the morning um and he um and I like the location of it that it's inside it's in the middle of Ridgewood and it's very amable to the to the different places to to go shopping to work even to catch the buses however the being in the basement is very dingy which I do um do think that needs to be addressed I also think it also needs to be addressed which I'm not certain why it hasn't because this is my I think the steps program has been its third year at the same location um is that Transportation um I drop my son off and pick him up um and but I have noticed that the buses there's no designated place for um other kids have busing and there's no designated place for the busing to show up granted it is a van but it is a school it is a program that there are kids that require additional support have one-on-one AIDS have to have a special um a matron on the bus for them and yet there's no designated space for these buses so they will drive around the block to avoid getting parking tickets and again this is the third year that the program has been in place and that should have I thought ironed out by now um so that is something that I will also be bringing up to the Safety Committee en Ridge with The Pedestrian Safety Committee because again this is the safety of some kid some students that do need additional help and yet to have adequate places for the parking for these buses especially during drop off and pickup drop is a little bit easier because the businesses aren't open but as soon as the business is open you're having to deal with traffic um and the other is um as for the fields I did hear a portion of the conversation and want to know when um how people can get access to that information as well and the usage of the fields for the students that are there for the different sports I know BF has a track and field but I don't think um GW does and so that means a m a majority of the sports are really concentrated in the high school um so again we would like to that information should be shared with the public and how the public can access it um and finally um I want to say kudos to all the parents that are doing all the things for the special needs Community it does help I know that there have been programs since my son has been little in rwood and sometimes it happens for a few few years and then Fades away hopefully the motum continues on and the parents stay connected with it and rard continues rard Public Schools continues to support that all right thank you thank you cross hi thanks yeah Betsy cross again from Wall Township I just want to say great um great meeting I try and follow the best school districts in New Jersey you guys are ranked number five on that Niche Wall Township is ranked 72 and uh so I definitely kudos to you you're doing so many things right um and that was just a great meeting to listen to um so yeah I will I will um you know there's a couple things I have like a spreadsheet going because I'm I I've been in contact with doe because I just can't figure out why walls numbers are so much higher than Bridge Woods I mean you're we're spending almost $2 million more just on health benefits meanwhile you've got um 2400 more students and wall has more staff so and then I've you know in my spreadsheet I have chadam and Marboro Milburn Homedale um so yeah there's a there's a couple things that that you could help fill in the blank on uh well we're our broker Brown and Brown we pay almost double um I know you got rid of skillo and Athena Cornell we still have them lots of lawsuits attorney went to jail I mean the the superintendent went to jail years ago we still have the business administrator there and we just don't get questions answered so great job by you I like um listening to the meetings and um I'll reach out and uh hopefully you can just fill in a couple blanks of some numbers that I need before I talk to the doe about wall so that's it thank you okay thanks so much okay byebye okay um any other comment okay I'll close public comment acknowledge a couple things sure yeah if you want to close it yeah do you want to close close comment all right so uh so thank you all so much uh Miss Madison thank you for being here in person it's nice to see you in person thanks for attending to coffees too I appreciate your your commitment um if you could just give me those numbers one more time I think I followed them and I just want to be able to to confirm them so if you want to email them to me uh we'll do an analysis of that I think we'll be talking about this probably before this dat of the schools address but we'll be doing a comprehensive analysis of particularly these data points hand was raised before or after I don't well after um so so but but thank you for that we'd be happy to look at those numbers with you and help provide uh help incorporate that in in our in our conversations around the state of the schools for sure um and uh thank you for the invitation Miss Davis actually unfortunately I had a I was planned I was I was booked for one of those sensory events and I had I can't remember what it was I had something come up but I'm looking forward to that we used to I Really Love uh spending time with our with uh with with our students uh with uh with our families of students with those special needs and um love supporting them so thanks for that invite um Mr Ling I would suspect that uh there was Data provided by directly from the school because most of our field use goes through the athletic department so I can't say with certainty about that right now um I probably wouldn't be the one that they would immediately ask for for that data but um but we can look into that and circle back with you and give you a sense as to what occurred and what was shared and then uh Miss Daren thank you so much for your feed back about the steps program I mean I think I think we can all agree with with the basic assessment that we'd prefer for the kids to be to to have more windows in their spaces or I don't know if they have any windows in the space but uh I I do know it is kept clean um and it's a nice location but I I would I think we'd all prefer for it to be in a place where uh the kids could have a have have windows so that's something that we are looking at um although I can't make a commitment to change just yet um and then thanks for your other comments and then miss cross thank you for your interest in our schools yeah if you want to call over we can certainly help with some of that information um and uh best wishes in Wall Township Dr SCH if I may comment on uh just one of the public comments uh for Miss Madison because she has been the champion on the math program since the change was done almost four or five years ago and I've seen um I've gone through with my children into that program and I've seen that what the concerns that she has raised so um from the curriculum committee perspective and uh miss onmo Mr fredman uh in Guidance with Dr Schwarz there are a lot of new stuff that is happening uh there and primarily because of all the awareness that was raised um so there is a new course called math applications that is being added um so that's a I think one quarter course math applications for 8th grade so miss Oro has identified the topics that were missed or that are needed to support our students um and that would be offered even if we switch the sequence to algebra and math algebra and geometry even if that sequence is Switched she has identified specific topics that are missing uh from skills perspective for our high school students so she has added so in addition to a regular math class there will be a math applications class for eighth graders so eighth graders will go through those two classes so that's a one quarter just those specific topics that need uh some extra attention math applications and also um Dr Schwarz identified some of the data and that basically uh says that we really need that math 8 class that you had once pointed out that we are missing math 8 class so math 8 is being reintroduced so those are I think three big initiatives one is all the research that is done for algebra and geometry sequencing and we'll have the results of that whatever decision they make pretty soon uh ma math applications and the math 8th Class so those are the three uh initiatives I hope going forward our students will be um good in math at least from the Middle School perspective um so thank you for that can I just end with one correction too um I was just pulling up the performance report data just in response to M Madison and I said earlier that the new reports are not up but they are up now so if you're interested the new two the two I mean the new reports they're from last year but they just went up um and the data files accessible now to us too which means that we can do all the analysis that we want to do so great I I think um another public comment um was about uh pick up and drop off um having a space in front of the steps program um I thought there was but if not I think that is um important um to talk to our village and and the place about yeah one of the parents had brought this to me and I was going to tell that to Dr Schwarz that she's noticed that the bus just has to make circles until they can find place or the student is out to pick them have to find out how that how that could change okay I can look I'm sorry thank you for that I didn't I missed that when I take notes we'll fix that we look at that okay um okay uh we don't have an executive session so um I I just want to um repeat that on Monday April 29th is our Reg regular public meeting and the final budget um adoption that will start at 7 o'clock here at the Ed Center so um and we'll answer more questions about the budget have a presentation on the budget and hear from the public um and then I'll vote on it um and with that I would move to adjourn the meeting I have a second would you like to say I'll second all in favor everybody have a good evening