##VIDEO ID:hKn9u1Z5jFg## e Mr Matthews we'll take a roll call and we'll get the meeting started qu Mr M Mr mmud here M Brogan here please join me in a flag salute and pledge of allegion pursuant to the requirements of the open public meetings act advanced notice has been given to the Star Ledger the record and the cleric of the village of Ridgewood in addition notices were posted in the office of the board secretary in at all school buildings uh the board had been meeting in executive session pursuant to njsa 104-112 to discuss matters pertaining to uh student uh litigate student Personnel uh the minutes of this closed session will be released when the need for confidentiality no longer exists and um I think that's it I think that's all I have to read okay um we will start the meeting with a presentation from um our student represent oh let just so for the audience to know um Dr Schwarz could not be here tonight um he um wasn't feeling well and so he is at home and he might be on uh just listening uh but we are thrilled to have uh Dr uh Murphy lead the meeting as our um assistant superintendent director of curriculum instruction I'm not really sure of all your titles here but um in any case um I just wanted to make that known um and we'll go ahead with our student representative um Harrison hello um good to see you all um so as I was sitting down to do this report I realized uh getting caught up in all the festivities uh around homecoming I missed some kind of cool stuff that was happening um and that actually ended up kind of working out because in the past two weeks since I've seen you all not uh a ton has happened it's been the end of the quarter at the high school so just a lot of kind of tests uh and that was a weird week with uh the election and teacher convention um so not a ton of school time has happened uh but I will get right into it uh so ridard high school recently participated in the hosting portion of its uh banial French Exchange program uh 17 French students uh from just outside of Le visited uh Ridgewood and lived with corresponding students uh for 10 days uh the French students followed their Ridgewood High School uh correspondence throughout the school day to experience what a typical American School was like uh they also got to spend two separate days in New York City uh and the host families planned fun activities on their weekends uh to give their exchange students a fun American Experience uh rigid students will reunite with their exchange buddies when they visit the school next year uh it's a it's a really cool program it's one that I did my sister did it this year uh it's a really cool experience uh I've been fortunate enough to travel all over the world and uh my experience traveling there was was definitely one of the the best trips I've ever been on it was it was really kind of a life-changing uh experience so uh very cool that they get to keep doing that uh the American studies AP research students went on their trip to New York City last month as part of their study of immigration uh students got the chance to follow the stories of immigrants early Urban gangs and the workingclass people that they study in class uh they visited the tenament Museum tour the Eldridge Street synagogue walked through the five points and finished the day at Ellis Island uh the ridard high school French National Honor Society celebrated national French week uh with the school last week um the festivities included French music being played each morning French students sharing a brief summary on a different topic of French culture each morning over the loud speaker uh and there was a big sale on Monday so that was fun uh the annual 11th grade uh parent meeting uh occurred on Wednesday November 13th at rhs the event kicked off the college search process search process excuse me uh for 11th grade students uh as they complete their sat or act tests uh so exciting times ahead for that uh for sports activities uh the rhs orchestra will have their Winter concert in two days on Wednesday November 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the Campus Center uh good luck to them uh and they will be followed by the Acappella concert on Friday the 22nd at 7M in the Little Theater uh the Cabaret fundraiser will be Sunday the 24th at Parkwest Tavern at 7M to raise money for the new players that's a big annual fundraiser for them um the Alps Club recently had a 4-day backpacking trip through Harman State Park uh it's it's a student club uh for students who love hiking camping and other outdoor activities um they do all kinds of cool things uh they've gone like white waterer rafting and done these long camping trips through the mountains and it's a it's a pretty cool experience uh with a lot of great opportunities for students to get in touch with nature um and the boys soccer team defeated Montclair last Tuesday in the state's semi-final round at rhs by a score of 3 to one uh the game took place uh at like 2: p.m. right at the end of the school day so a lot of teachers actually brought their classes outside and it was really cool was kind of an end of the school day thing uh a lot of energy all the students kind of out there supporting the team uh it was pretty pretty fun uh and then they you know they played again on Friday in a nailbiter against Clifton um it was a scoreless game until the last six minutes where they scored two goals uh and the energy was was very high uh at the end because I think everyone was waiting for that uh but they got their State win and they and they move on uh to an away game which is tomorrow so good luck to them in that but congratulations on on winning that State final section um girls volleyball made it all the way to the state semi-final round before losing to Livingston uh girls soccer also made it to the state semi-final round before narrowly losing uh also to Livingston funnily enough uh and a you know a crushing at home defeat uh the boys football lost to East Orange 14-3 uh also in the semi-final round so uh a lot of good runs from from all our other sports teams too uh so these losses do mean the end of the road uh for the teams this season but they still had a great a great uh playoff run after after a pretty strong regular season so big congrats to them um and as fall Sports wraps up and Thanksgiving approaches winter sports are gearing up um most teams have hosted interest meetings and we'll jump right into practice uh sometime next week or maybe after the Thanksgiving break um so rwood says congrats and see you next year to soccer cheer cross country football tennis gymnastics and volleyball uh and we welcome and wish luck to skiing basketball bowling ice hockey indoor track wrestling and swimming uh and the last thing I just want to mention is that the uh Ridgewood High School uh senior slideshow is happening right now at the high school so I'm actually going to run over to that now it was great to see you all uh good luck with to the meeting and uh I'll see you in a couple weeks bye have a good Thanksgiving and we'll see you in December yes enjoy the slideshow thank you uh we'll open for comments from the public and you will note that on the um front of the agenda we have now made the permanent change where we ask if you come up to speak that you just give your name and your municipality no longer do you have to give your address good evening my name is Dana jarella I live thank you good evening my name is Dana jarella I live in Ridgewood and I'm an eighth grader at Benjamin Franklin Middle School my classmates and I are here to make the board aware that a planned trip to Quebec for the eth grade French class at BF middle school has been cancelled an email was sent to the parents last week stating that the reason for cancellation was that nurse could not be secured my understanding is that the nurses within our district were asked in September if they would join as there is a requirement for one when traveling internationally unfortunately no nurse was interested in participating next my understanding is that the administration looked to outside private nurses as a way to fill the opening however the budget is not large enough to afford pay paying an outside nurse fast forward to October 28th registration for the trip was sent to the parents whose children are in the eighth grade French class prices were given based on participation with a minimum of 20 students needed to make the trip happen I was the 20th student to make a deposit so we all thought that we had the green light last week we were notified that the trip is cancelled this cancellation has been difficult on my on myself and my friend standing with me for us this was a trip we all looked forward to more than any other event during our time at BF listen I understand that things happen and I have to accept what I cannot control however the situation gave me a chance to think about what is happening in our school District why wouldn't a nurse sign up to be part of a trip with a small group of students going to a historically and culturally significant City the itinerary was filled with exploring Quebec seeing the old city at top the St Lawrence River and even visiting a school to establish a penp pal program with communication in French not texting we're talking actual handwriting here so why wouldn't a nurse want to be part of this trip and if no nurse is secured why was the trip even offered I mean going to Quebec in February is cold so there's that our biggest worry is that there was no interest from nurses because of the issues that occurred on previous group trips and it feels like that's being projected upon us it feels like the tradition of Excellence that we as a district expound upon is slipping away what future events should we not be excited about because it can be taken away thanks to the actions of others before us are each of us accountable for what others have done should we accept this as our new normal for my classmates and I we have to abide by the decision that the trip was cancelled our question is how should we feel about this tradition of Excellence especially when those of us who want to excel can't sometimes we are not sure how we should should feel about now or our future thank you all for your time good evening good evening my name is Mary Lou H I'm a resident of Bridgewood I'm really happy to be here in person and not at home finishing dinner folding laundry while I watch you you know on the small screen I'm glad to be here tonight with you but I am here to introduce myself to those who I have not had the pleasure to meet at one of the home and school meetings or one of the meet and greet um events that I was able to attend and meet many of the voters in Bridgewood I would like to thank the voters in Bridgewood for the recent support of my um election to the esteem to the Board of Education um I will begin in January 2025 but I just wanted to be here in person to start getting ready the best thing I guess for me is that I'm a night person and I've been watching you guys go late into the night so I think that I should be able to fit in in that area there but I just wanted to say um that I look forward to serving the children families and all of the residents for the next three years to the best of my ability as such I promise to listen to learn and to act to support the goals of our board and to contribute to the tradition of Excellence um that my esteemed and soon to be colleagues have done so for many many years I would like to congratulate Miss Brogan and Mr mmud on their reelection to the board of education and I look very forward to working with you and Miss mcky and Mr Donnie Dr Schwarz and the esteemed and their very talented leadership team at the Ed Center and I would really like to thank Miss quac for your many years of service to the Ridgewood community and I wish you well one thing um that I would like to do um is again to say thank you to the voters again for your support and I will see you all next year thank you thank you any other comments let me just check the uh yeah we do have a hand raised hi yes all right thank you hi uh good evening uh my name is Sean sapan U from Ridgewood in the Summerville District I wanted to bring your attention to the class size in kindergarten and Somerville as we feel is larger than desired um there are 21 students in my son's class the other two kindergarten sections at Somerville also have more than 20 students and we've heard up to 23 students in kindergarten class at Somerville in the previous years uh we feel this is too much especially for a young grade and it's in contrast to the 14 to1 r itio that we see posted on niche.com um my son's classroom does have a behavior Aid I'm not sure if that plays into the ratio posted on Niche um but that Aid is necess is necessitated by an IEP my son happens to be on an I um she's doubling as a classroom Aid uh and we see she's she's having to help all the kids in the classroom which sort changes the kids on IEP who need the extra Behavior support we appreciate the teachers they're doing the Great and the best job they can where the class size is high despite the poster ratio on nich and we feel it's a stretch for anybody um even the physical room um you know I want you to imagine 21 students one teacher one Aid in a room that is half or at best two-thirds the size of the room you're in um I'm not there in a room right now but I have present I've been in the room before so I know like how big you the Boe room is um with all the associate Furniture you know five to six student desks two teachers multiple shell for study materials and 25 chairs for everybody plus space for the rug for Circle time the space can be rather cramped um we've seen we looked at the district policy on class size I think it's p number 2312 on the bo site it doesn't mention any maximum size class size or at what class size the teacher gets the classroom Aid um so I think from our side I would we would urge the booe to look into the class sizes in the district and maybe for kindergarten add you know shortterm add another section you at our school or at a school if a cohort at a school is particularly big um as we're seeing in kindergarten right now at Summerville uh so they have better learning outcomes for all our kids um I would also urge the Boe to provide Clarity in the class size policy about the max class size and support and provide to the teacher if the class size you know exceeds a certain amount um so that class sizes don't increase later now we don't know how it was in past years but certainly the you know what we're seeing this year uh compared you know compared to the poster ratio on that is certainly much different and we're not sure if it's good for the kids um we're happy to disc continue discussion offline with the board they choose I'll probably send an email at some point uh the board members to discuss more but again I'm happy to collaborate and see what you know I'm to see what the board thinks to to REM the situation thank you Miss million hi Christina Millian Ridgewood resident um I wanted to ask for um an an update on the the state of the water fountain at schools that currently don't have P filters on them and I just wanted to ask if we could either turn those fountains off with no filters which seems to be a pretty like cost effective solution or um in speaking to a few other parents they had advised that fountains with uh posos filters have a have signs up like letting people know that there's a filter on them and so maybe we could put up signs with water fountains that don't have posos filters on them advising about the health hazards of drinking that water um so that was my first question I also just didn't know if the Boe tonight could potentially give an update on the turf assessment that you're current currently evaluating at Ben Franklin Middle School and just also to ask how medical and environmental experts are being consulted as part of that review process and then uh through a few other parents I had heard that on the fields committee uh call and also this was echoed at Village Hall uh last week that um I believe the Boe is in touch with L Associates about our turf fields I guess there's some sort of uh promise that someone's pushing Turf that can withstand floods and so uh same questions there just like how are we holistically looking at this issue and Consulting with medical and environmental professionals um I know you guys know but like Mount Si wrote a letter that we all had shared advising against turf and as much as we seem to love to push green ridgewoods Columbia study when it's convenient uh It also says um and advises that we should be ripping up our turf fields I think that's on page 18 so I'm just curious again how we're just taking a holistic look at all of this and if you could just provide an update tonight that would be appreciated as well as um I'm just trying to think of some cost effective ways to better educate uh the water fountains that don't have P fos filters so our kids can avoid that water thanks thank you okay seeing no more um hands raised uh I'll close public comment and um Dr Murphy would you like to um comment on anything first I want to thank Dr Shores for being absent tonight there's nothing like answering questions that I really don't have a lot of background information on but before the young women from BF leave I know they have to go to dance thank you very much for coming out it's not easy to speak in a public form and you should all be applauded and thank for advocating you did a wonderful job speaking and kudos to your English teachers for helping you craft that so and I feel your pain and um I do EMP aize with the disappointment that at this point the district is not able to find adequate coverage um on that end but thank you very much uh for that um to the question about class size I will look into the policy and byebye everyone thank you I'll look into the policy on class SI um and I just want to clarify when you when you look at average class size that is taking into account all the different classroom settings that we have small group um and so forth so class size can often be misleading that it's 14 to1 that is generally not class size when you're talking about a a Home Room a first grade a seventh grade eth period in English you know in the high school so um I'm not sure if that that parent is new in terms of the just to clarify class s is um an average of all the classroom type of settings that we offer in the district not just um what we call Home Room so to speak so there's a difference between uh what uh you might see on um ratings like Niche um 14 to1 I think it was or or even if the state 12 to1 ratio is all of our certificated sta um and our students and so that is not it's very different than the class SI correct yeah so and it is misleading especially for parents who are new to schools right you read that and you say oh we're going to have a class size like a private school that's not not the case right we do have some class sizes uh we do have some parameters um and I'll have to go back and look but I think it was 21 up to 21 in first uh in kindergarten in first grade then I think it's 23 in second grade uh and then third grade and maybe fourth and fifth is 25 or something like that uh but we'll go back and look at that and get an answer um uh for that and and to the f felters um I can't recall what Dr Shor stated but if you go back to the last coffee with the superintendent last Thursday he did give an explicit update on the labeling and his plan I C I can't remember it at this point so I would have to get back uh about that in terms of the turf and so forth I don't have we don't have an update this we don't have an update we don't have an update so I won't be able to give that on on anything that about BF at this point we're still in the exploration stage as far as I know um that that is correct and she had mentioned I think she was trying to say EI Associates is the company that um that I had called out too a survey at the high school I sold them down at school boards and they had some literature marketing information on actually putting turf fields in flood zones so obviously our high school is at a flood zone so I reached out to them they came out to us last week I believe it was they did a little semi survey and actually are putting together um a draft for the next facilities meeting I believe is on December the 3D they've been invited to the national facili meeting to give us kind of an overview of what the things they can and cannot do regarding the uh the turfield at the high school at the high school yes yes great okay um uh we'll go to we don't uh Dr Schwarz isn't here we don't have a superintendent report unless you did you ju just a reminder that the next coffee with the superintendent is December at its regular on 7 PM it's a great opportunity to engage with the superintending and the central office administration and then I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone um and I want to thank the Board of Ed uh members here they give up their time away from their family so I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving it's well deserved so thank you Dr Murphy um Mr Matthews I just wanted to add F FYI or for your information um EI did a comprehensive Facilities Review for our district in 2017 somewhere around that time frame so uh you may have that I don't know if they did anything with the fields at that time but have okay yeah okay okay uh we'll go to consent items regular and routine and I will move attendance at conference this conferences plural second CI Mr Donnie yes Miss quar yes Miss MC yes M mmud yes Miss Brogan yes yes motion passed Administration b i second oh motion by Mr mcmo second by m Rogan oh I think it was actually Mr Donnie Mr Donnie yeah sorry Mr Donnie yes Miss quar yes M mcau yes Mr mmud yes M Rogan yes Mo pass I'll move curriculum and instruction C second motion by Mr Donny second by Mr mmud Mr Donnie yes M qua yes m m Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes motion pass I move Human Resources motion by Miss Brogan second by miss m Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes M mcau Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes pass okay and um next we have Finance um I'll move Finance second and I would like to read into the record the acceptance of restricted donation uh the first is from uh Stephen and Georgiana Jones $2,500 should be used to enhance the Carol gjones Science Education Center at rhs this um is an additional amount of money to improve uh the center already um the uh the Joneses had donated a significant amount through the Alumni Association uh for the U Science Center so uh Summerville dad's night $33,000 a gift in kind of student student assemblies conducted by Young audiences arts for Learning and our friends of music for 782,000 $82 sorry to be used to support the ridge Ridgewood Groove Collective Club at Ridgewood High School um we thank we thank our generous donors for that are there any questions on finance they're not we can go ahead here N Miss Mr Donnie yes Miss quar yes Miss MC yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes pass um I will move approval of bills um I did get a chance I I could not see all of the uh Records because the computer was down when I was there but I did go over the bill list and did talk to uh have some of my question answered so I move those bills can I have a second second motion by Miss Fran second by Mr MCM Mr Donnie yes Miss quar yes M MC yes Mr MCM yes Miss Brogan yes any board member announcements on okay um I'll keep it brief but um I just wanted to note that um the New Jersey Board of Education had actually passed a resolution designating November as the official PTA or here we call it HSA homeschool Association recognition month just uh recognizing the uh energy resources and times that the um hsas donate to their schools and I thought it was worth mentioning because our volunteers and not just the hsas but all our volunteer groups do so much for all of us and I I think they should be commended so that's my announcement thank you oh I have an announcement um so this uh typically uh we do have it uh on the agenda so I would like to read that into the record the this information is current as of today and it has to do with the School Board elections and as Miss handy pointed out um she is will be the new board member in January congratulations there were three uh open seats and there were three candidates uh starting next year we will have annual Schoolboard elections so I encourage everyone who is interested to consider stepping up and giving your time to this position um in this election congratulations go to miss handy with uh these votes are as of today so they could change as counting goes on uh 9,146 votes Mr Mahmud uh with 5,300 to 24 votes and those two are for three-year regular seats and michila Brogan for the one-year term with 9,639 votes congratulations thank you for stepping up and um giving your time to the community congratulations thank you yes the um the votes are finalized as of November 20th will be the final count but they did the provisionals today so V counts did go up across the board um but thank you for that um I just wanted to um you know just say a shout out to the high school who had their first maroon and white recital this um last Thursday and again the talent and enthusiasm of our students is wonderful and certainly um having staff there supportive and I know um you were able to also go Miss qu so that was great um and congratulations to our marching band that are national champions um so uh wonderful I guess this is their uh maybe the fourth time they've been national champions uh during um their history I think they celebrated their 100th year history um 100th year anniversary a few years ago so that was um welld deserved so uh and you already mentioned the superintendent's next coffee so did you have anything right we're moving right along here uh committee reports uh I know we didn't have many committees but um uh sarav and I were um at jrc um at will for Willard this this is our third jrc as we are um reconstituting this uh committee um we do have a new manager at Aramark for the district in Rob young uh I guess he's the interim general manager uh and um we did have an opportunity to have manelo there um and they are in the process of all their Leaf collecting and all the schools uh we did uh spend some time talking about sustainable New Jersey and Willard's efforts um as as far as the fields go for um aark their fall aration and seating was completed as of November 5th Willer Willard field as noted is in poor quality um and they are working to rotate where they set the goals for soccer being played and so that one area is not completely worn it as it is right now so um spreading it around a lot um and um it was noted uh that um there are some systems that need to be um put into better shape in terms of supplies getting to schools and um also continue training and transition of of new staff to The District in terms of um aor Mark staff um so um all in all it was it was a satisfactory meeting and um did you have anything yeah I think so and I just want to add that Mr Matthews has come up with some suggestions at two elementary schools I think to improve the fields and uh add some U improvements there that those are being considered do you want to talk about that Mr Matthews are you talking about so yeah oh yes Willard is one of the schools um travel and Willard so BAS basically that's all grass INF field and you're dealing with first second third graders so in terms of preparing and training and developing them at an early age they should play on a skin in field it's not going to take away from the soccer field that's more out in the middle of the field so I should have numbers by this week for those two Fields I did speak with the principles and I spoke with the uh the softball and the baseball guys we had a separate meeting and they were all supportive of it so if we could you know make it work for this budget Year we will but most likely we're looking at next year but we we we are getting numbers this week and I don't think will be a major expense but it's going into again 24 25's money that I don't think was budgeted for but we got to see what the numbers come in at okay wait could you clarify what is that for you said for those fields what would happen you have a section on on on those schools Willard and travel for first second third graders maybe fourth graders nine and under to play softball and baseball so right now you have cutouts on those fields that are all grass in terms of hitting a baseball or softball or reduced injury factorable it's very lumpy and kids can get hurt and by having the feel skin it's much safer to train them to to play on those fields when you skin that infield for first second third Maybe up to fourth grade kit and the material on it is the clay right or the clay sand rather than grass and Clay right that's the difference yeah thank you for that any other questions on that um and then Mary and I were um part of the strategic planning first session and although we won't go into a lot of detail about it um it was really an opportunity to um hear some of the feedback from are um 1100 people who participated in the survey and the focus groups and our task at hand for this week is to define the portrait of a um learner or portrait of a graduate whichever way you want to say it um it it is an interesting process um in weeks to come we'll be looking at um goals and action plans and and this is a four to five week every week uh process about two and a half hours for each meeting um HS um hya has done a great job in in organizing um the information and uh people on the call are both are all our parents and staff administrators uh Mary and myself um Comm some Community leaders so um it's a nice it's a nice group students and oh students too oh yes students really participated in our last meeting so it's great Mary did you want to did you have anything else yeah we just a you covered it brief overview yeah oh wait I have a um wait I had a question and then I do want to report out on the fields committee meeting um is the JC meeting in person it it is um online I mean it's a zoom call are there plans to do go back to being in person because we did go to um when I was on it we we pivoted to online during Co but there was a interest in in doing it in person because then you really see the the the issues literally in hand and you would go to a building by building so that's just something if there's if jrc is interested in doing it up again it's helpful um so we had a we had our Fields committee meeting and um there were updates in terms of um uh the scheduling issue with um it was fairly short and it was about master Library updates on that uh Mr Matthews was present and that's when the discussion um touched lightly on EI Associates and what they could do uh and it was reiterated uh again um in terms of um uh request for assistance financial assistance from the village to provide additional lighting um at one of the fields for um girls girls games so that request has formally come to us now we had discussed it had just been uh uh you know lightly noted um at the fields meeting uh but now the request has formally um been submitted uh it would be about $160,000 that's the Delta uh and it would be um on a non-b Ved property so um that's something that the administration and the board will have to make some kind of determination on thank you can I ask a question on that um so there the village is asking the board of ed for the full 160 or a contribution towards that the full60 the full 160 is the latest that I've heard uh it's been mentioned twice uh do keep in mind that this is a non-bb asset and we are heading into qac and finance is one of those areas that we will be be um scrutinized on right okay thank so M Broan in your time has the board of fed or the village ever done that before other than the High School tennis court where they alternatively repair that because both are using it so it's an alternate repair uh agreement but has there been uh times when we spent uh Improvement money on the village property or Village improved B ofair properties and how does that work from a accounting perspective that uh from the bidding laws and that perspective uh you know I don't recall anything in particular but um this my understanding is this is to light the girls softball uh varsity team field which is at the um South End of vets um and um interesting because vets is our field for our baseball and softball teams so it's an interesting ask my understanding um is that they would accept less than 160 um and they were looking for a contribution we'll see um and this is under further discussion I guess in finance right yes so I know I know Dr Schwarz is GNA work with Mr Matthews to figure out financially what can work for us potentially then it'll that is the plan of action right but if Village Council has like they they are doing bonds for several things 160,000 is really that big a money for them that they need to ask B of it because it just opens up new uh like something that miss brogen is here for 20 plus years if it's never been done like what what type of agreement are we opening up yeah so so there their feed the villages feedback to us is that they are short on the money they admitted that um right and they're and we are asking can we split the difference potentially uh and so that's kind of the work in progress I think between Dr Schwarz and the village and maybe there'll be non-government organizations that can help pitch in I think that's something that the village is going to look into uh because in the end right the goal is how can we light the field for the girls softball team so that they can have a lit field because everybody else will have a lit field so you'll literally be at is is a very good cause but I'm saying that from their perspective they they have four wordss that can get a referend like get a bond and if they need $160,000 they can if they don't have that in their budget yeah it's forwards and they have those forwards for us if we run out of this money for our capital projects we have to go for a referendum we don't have the capability of just raising money from exactly yeah no you're right and I was told that we don't have money for water filtration and we have to go and ask hsas for water water filtrations so I would be surprised that okay if we have money for that and not to improve our water filtration see what Dr Schwarz comes back with and and what comes to the I don't think any decisions been made that I am aware of on that um on uh I have to give a report on cpeg oh yeah and um that so uh we have the there's a virtual coffee chat for the cpeg parents tomorrow night at 7:30 um the link is either in the cpeg enw or um you can go to Ridgewood cag.org and you'll see the link for that that's tomorrow night um also coming up uh before our next meeting um you know we have downtown for the holidays on the 6th but on the 9th on December 9th um there's going to be an access Ridgewood sensory friendly dinner with a VIP um Christmas tree lighting for for the students um at perza East which is right next to where the tree is they did something similar last year and it was an enormous hit for the kids so I would encourage anyone who wants to attend that to um go to Ridgewood cag.org make your reservations for that and then there's another cpeg information meeting uh the last one of 2024 which will be on December 11th at 9:30 in the morning great thank you um discussion items I just wanted to um At Last At the last meeting uh I brought up the idea of doing a self-evaluation but in thinking about it and also um hearing your responses I I wondered if it wouldn't make sense because it's we are the same if we did it now we are the same group who did it um last spring uh so if we waited until next year um in October to get into the to a sense where we are evaluating in October and November and then that leads to goal development in January with reorganization um so NE at the next meeting I'll just report on on the goals um and our progress towards them that we made last January for the 2024 year and then in January we'll look to see what board goals um uh the board would like to identify for 2025 so um acceptance of minutes and we have to add September 30 I I'm adding September 30th but it was added onto the agenda right it's just on my notes I I'll move acceptance of minutes but I just want to note that on my the agenda it says that it's the minutes from November 18th which is tonight I think it's the minutes from November 4th oh yes so I just I just want to yeah we're very good very we are exactly so so with the with amending it to the acceptance of minutes times I read that well you know what after a while you read so many things right I can't believe I caught it uh so it should be November 4th but then I would move acceptance minutes yeah did anybody else catch that thank you s so um we're going to be moving September 30th executive session October 14th uh executive session and November 4th regular public meeting uh so I move does anyone have a second second by Miss MC and all in favor all I we don't do a roll call on the minutes right um and are is there any other business um yes so I just wanted to uh put something on the record um in the minutes um I attended uh The Village Council debate uh for the elections and there was something that was raised there and um I did not bring up at the last uh Board of head meeting because that was the day before election and um I did not want to give up and even a projection that uh I'm speaking it's for the election so I waited for this following meeting for that so at that Village Council debate um multiple board members were present including the board president and um the uh one of the candidates for the uh debate um mentioned that our uh teacher to student ratio has increased and the numbers that were mentioned there basically implied so if you take the number of students that were is in our school district in 2020 versus the number of students that were in our district um now um and the numbers that were mentioned by this candidate at the Village Council debate if you take those numbers that would imply that we had a reduction of 80 teachers and that issue was then discussed a lot on Facebook and our board president was aware of this um I made her aware immediately after the debate at the debate and um I was disappointed and I'm still disappointed that it has not been clarified to the residents because uh for our resident it's it's uh it's a big confusion that did we have a reduction of 80 teachers or not so the board president was uh present there and in by our bylaws basically say or policies basically say that she's the only one officially who can clarify that she has not clarified that yet so I wanted to put that in the minutes um the other thing I want to put that um uh on the record that there was in the last few weeks there has been a lot of chatter um about the reorg um and um people who have been talking on the social media about that are connected to the board president uh so I'm pretty sure and she's in those groups so she's probably seeing that if you have not seen that you can I can give those printouts to you and I think we should as a board um reaffirm our um support for the reorg and and if we don't do that then um those confusions or those chatter will just continue so that's my opinion that we should just reaffirm that yes we we are supportive of that um and if we don't do that that's a disservice so those are my two comments and I think those should be mentioned in the I would like to mention those in the minutes okay so I'm gonna um I I actually I'm not familiar with the chatter on the reorg the reorg is not a it's not a voluntary thing it's a statutory thing after an election you have a reorg talking about the reorg of the uh the admin admin team at Center oh I'm sorry okay the admin admin team at the Ed Center oh I see so there was some chatter that uh about why was it done or the work ethics or time um spent on the um like who has how much time okay and I just want to like the board should unanimously support that that okay we are behind that reorg or we support that and if somebody doesn't support that they need to speak up instead of being quiet thank you okay so the clarification is the new organizational chart for the administration Administration that was um uh unveiled and approved at the last meeting that's what we're talking two meetings ago two meetings ago yes approved by all of us yeah since then right approved by all of us so I don't see that there's any yeah I mean we voted for it and it is in place so seems to me that that is support for it so I think uh you know answering answering criticism on on Facebook people can comment here at at the board meeting if they have have something to say but to to go through Facebook and answer yeah I'm not talking about talking on Facebook I'm just saying at the board meeting um I think Dr mury you were talking about some upstreaming and anticipating problem so I'm just anticipating that before something becomes a rumor or it it becomes a bigger thing the Board needs to step up and just show the support that if we really stand behind that we need to support that I think okay yeah that's what I just wanted to hear uh but on the I I would still like I would still mention that Miss Broan has still not clarified the teacher ratio comment that was made in her presence uh at the debate at at a debate so um Christine corus are um did as I understand it did um make a correction on the website um the original 16 to one that was mentioned was on niche as I understood it um it is um if we are we I think as a district and that is something administratively need to determine what source we will use to make to have those statistics up there my suggestion has been um to use the doe um statistic which I believe is a ratio of 12 to one um and there appeared to be some confusion around it um I don't think it's an a longstanding um confusion I think it was momentarily though I believe a conversation can happen and I will suggest to Dr schores U maybe in his coffee that that and we h heard the comment tonight where clarification needs to be made between a ratio um because if you are if your student is in a class um at the high school and there are 26 students in the class then it would be hard to say that there is a ratio of 12 to one so how how do we Define that um you know that we know the number of students we have and then what are you know what's being counted for our staff and it appears that different um groups may be count counting may not be count may be counting differently so maybe you're counting certificated staffs or you're counting certificated staff and Par professionals um you're usually not counting your administrators because there is usually a ratio for administrators to students administrators to staff so it um there needs to be some clarity on that but at this point I would say that using the D o e statistic and it's in there um taxpayer user friendly statistics that they what is it thank you using that statistic probably would make the most sense when we're posting it um onto our website but I believe that on our website it had been 16 to1 and that was a uh from Niche so confusion about bounded about that I don't think there's much more to be said I think the election's over and we're moving forward um any other business I had a question about um an update on um the safety practices that would be rolled into coaches and the athletic um usage manual what is the status of that since the last I don't have any information on that I guess we'll wait till Dr Schwarz comes back okay because um I believe that that doesn't require that's an administrative issue correct we went we went back and forth a bit on that one yes yeah we voted on the minutes that to clarify that got it thank you but on the discussion about what the two points I mentioned Mr Matthews I would like them to be part of the minutes memorize them thank thank you okay um comments from the public gonna be a record we do have a comment from the public um Mrs Millian you're on with the board hi can you hear me sorry there was a lag in the unmute which is fine yes yes okay great Christina Millian Ridgewood resident um I just wanted to go back to my turf questions because it it really isn't about like a status update on the assessment at Ben Franklin or speaking with EI Associates to complete the semi survey I'm I'm just seeking information on how the Boe is making sure that medical and environmental experts are being consulted as part of any type of review process with Turf and I say that because you know life's about tradeoffs and it's typically easier for one side to disagree and commit as long as we know that like every aspect of a decision has been considered by experts and not paid vendors who push plastic on children and so I just want reassurance uh from the Boe that like before decisions are made we're just going to pause for one second and like hear out the different experts on all the sides and then we have faith that like you'll drive the decision obviously or whoever makes this decision but I want to know that you're considering that and what steps you're taking to make sure that uh aside Beyond Turf venders are being heard so I I look forward to that answer tonight thank you okay I don't see any other is there anyone in there who would want to make a comment all right saying none um we will uh close public comments um Miss program I just wanted to clarify or um add to miss Milan's comment that um I had forwarded uh some information on Massachusetts um Fields uh Springfield Massachusetts in another town that they are successfully using some grass fields um they have come up with some specific guidelines on uh the height of the grass how often to mow um how to maintain those and they've been successful for several years and I I believe I had forwarded that to all board members if anybody does not recall that please let me know and I can forward you again um or if I missed forwarding it to you earlier I'll forward it now now so there are towns in Massachusetts who have successfully maintained and uh without rotation without putting those um like uh not in service they've been able to maintain grass fields for several years and they have come up developed the best practices so that's one point I just wanted to mention that I mentioned or forwarded that and the other thing is that um we did um I don't know where we are or what what we are doing but we did request uh um opinion from the district physician uh we have a district physician and I think some of the residents brought up a report to us and we asked the district physician to provide feedback on that so that's where that's what I'm aware of Mr D I would add um you're on the facilities committee so I would ask you if we can focus on because we kind of have a test case right now with BF I mean BF is natural Turf so if we can really see can we really maintain that natural Turf will it stand up and keep its condition maybe it's more pressure on Aramark or maybe we get a grass specialist maybe this is maybe this is the test case we look at unfortunately I've seen it it's already wearing down even though it was just SED yes it is but you know our limitation that we can bring the suggestions we cannot go and actually there is a c like I've provided the suggestion a few times it's not just one time I provided that report I provided that in facilities committee also that there are these are the possibilities so who manages our gr arar right AR Mark so maybe we can ask the rep to Cod your facilities meeting and just they they are there so maybe Mr Matthews is has recently came on board so I'll uh provide him so those details and then let's that could be a great test case like if we can keep maintaining the natural grass there and it stands up to all the sports then that's a good good right so I like from that perspective there are multiple things we we need to be looking at one is whether we can follow that same model that Springfield Massachusetts is doing following and whether that improves or not and then we have heard that uh in extreme rain then the grass fields are not available for play so I'd ask okay how many days we were not able to play because of extreme rain on grass field versus how many days we were not able to play on the turf field because of extreme heat so we need that type of data right instead of just defining that this is what we need so how many days we were not able to play because of rain on grass field and how many days we were not able to play on tur field because of heat and have we tried at least one field um trying to maintain because we have several fields and we are not uh replacing all of them with Turf so at least the ones that we know we are not replacing we should start following best practices there and try to maintain them and see what happens but we have to do that right so we'll also have an opportunity not uh but the village will have an opportunity because they are um renovating um HW um in putting Turf down lower lower Haws and upper Haws this year so we have an opportunity to to look at uh best practices in in Grass maintenance and see if we can you know I don't think anybody would argue with um wanting grass fields but it it is utilization that always ends up um having a problem and I also went over to BF and saw that it's degrading and I know that a sprinkler system part of the sprinkler system or one of the sprinkler heads um uh wasn't working and so that might have contributed to it but it is more likely um a utilization so so that's been been um mentioned before and given the um interest in the this topic and how the far-reaching consequences Beyond just athletic uh opportunities but in terms of the health and safety of the neighborhood um is there an option or an is there an opportunity to have the experts and the vendors or whoever come and speak to the public and address this in a very comprehensive manner in 2025 before any of these other decisions are being made I think there is that will um it will be in the ethos of being transparent in terms of our decision- making and it will be educational for all of us so I do put in that request uh I think will be very helpful to get the latest information on Turf and grass and all the questions that we answer and none of us are experts here we ask these questions and I personally as a resident would like to hear from someone who's that's their expertise any other business if not um I will uh make a motion uh to adjourn the meeting do I have a second seconds all in favor I hi great um uh I do wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving um enjoy your time off and um we are back on December 16 uh for our uh last meeting of this year