[Music] and to the [Music] [Music] [Music] for be our [Music] I'd like to call the order the June 20th 2024 regular public meeting Mr Jones can you please call the rooll Miss Barbie here Miss Bower here M Boral here miss Brody here miss serani here Miss Williams Miss Winkler here Dr Kowski here Mr M here Mr President please rise for the pledge of allegiance to FL of the United States of America and to the repblic stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and okay we just uh left the executive session we spoke about Personnel if legal status and the suspension and detention report we have three additions to the agenda and I will now move to dror mass for the superintendent report thank you doctor Dr I didn't earn that thank you I haven't got that but I'll take it so so this has been a a fantastic season of Celebration from our fourth grade of celebrations of learning our eighth grade moving up our high school graduation and I just want to thank all of our staff Educators family and community members for everything that they have done to celebrate our students and we've also been very busy um preparing for the referendum for SPF future and Christopher Jones will say a little bit more about that yeah so today we announced that we're going to um only do three questions for the referendum so the first question will be uh the new school in Fanwood and the second question will be around expanding agback and fire alarms so um we just want to make sure the focus is on the top two items uh that are that are important to uh the school district and we'll continue to do the roofs over time and of course it'll take a lot longer but uh we're looking forward to uh to rolling out of our message and communication uh this summer and into the fall thank you Mr Jones uh update for tonight just we've started the uh pretty deep into the construction at Evergreen now so pretty excited about that we got a lot of things on the on the agenda tonight uh items related to that construction um in addition on the agenda tonight I wanted to point out was the um High School Fields um um football and a lower field sound system um a dual system it's really two systems be putting in so I'm excited to start that uh process after this meeting thank you Mr Jones for president announcement the New Jersey open public meeting laws in acted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT to Scots family board of education is to cause notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and police thereof posted by the Board of Education officers located at 5own Cedar Street such notice was also provided a written notice form to the uni County Hall Star Ledger in the township cler of Scotch Plains the bur Clerk of Fanwood in the revised annual notices of regularly scheduled meetings as adopted April 28th 2022 I will now like to pass over to our student representatives for their reports um so the first thing the first thing good um is Sports Seasons all ended at the beginning of June and then secondly senior project presentations were all on Monday so all of our senior project participants made slideshows trifolds and like other ways to present what they learned and they presented it to a bunch of people came in and ask questions really got to know what we did for the last like month basically and it allowed this project allowed our students to get a glimpse into what their future careers might be so I thought it was really beneficial and an awesome way to end up the year June 11th was a really exciting day for our theater program we had the paper mill rising star awards and we had two winners David Gomez for best performer in a leading role and Ashley hberman for best performance in a future role and it's such a great experience to go it's so cool to perform up on that stage and it's my second time doing it this year this year I watched in the audience I wasn't on stage but it's just such a cool experience um for our theater program we also had prom the past two weeks Junior Prom was May 31st and senior prom was June 14th and I attended Junior Prom and it was a lot of fun and I know CRA had fun at senior prom so yeah and finally uh graduation was on Tuesday so it was a great time it was a little bit hot but it was awesome to be there and it was very sweet for a lot of seniors but at the same time we're all excited for what comes next thank you both okay we have um recognition and structural update we have a presentation this evening so so we'd like to ask Dr slum and toer Wheeler to come up to to present the juneth vote good evening everyone my name is t wheeler I'm a proud educator here in our scash Fanwood School District but I'm here tonight representing as the current president of social justice matters Incorporated and the chairperson of the sjm juneteth committee thank you Dr mass and members of the scotch PLS family board of education for allowing me to speak during this special moment of your board meeting I grateful for the support and connection that our school district has with our community organization and for allowing our students to learn about and participate in the celebration of juneth through our freedom Quilt Project juneth marks the day when the last enslaved Americans in the United States learned that they were indeed emancipated and no longer bound to a master and viewed as property I Ed the word Americans because all of those men women and children were indeed Americans and entitled to the rights and freedoms that all Americans can enjoy the continued study of this holiday is important not only to African-American history but American history it is with great honor and pride that I introduce to you all the social justice matters Incorporated 2024 Freedom award honores and the recipients of the beautiful quilt created by our third and fourth GR students I thank the students the teachers and Mrs Cavalier especially for creating such a beautiful gift and I have asked Mr and Mrs Simmons for a short bio but just as I stated last night at our Jun program for Legends such as they are please permit me to read their bio in ENT its entirety thir Thurman and Ruby have been residents of Scotch Plains for over 57 years and are the proud parents of Thurman PJ Simmons Jr and Karen Denise Simmons and the grandparents of three awesome beautiful grandchildren Thurman and Ruby celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary in 2024 Thurman retired from Merk and Company Incorporated in royway New Jersey in December 2013 after 35 years of service he is a licensed New Jersey State realtor licensed in 1990 Thurman became a part-time employee for the DPW in Scotch Plains upon his retirement from MK Ruby retired early from AT&T Basking Ridge in 1998 and pursued a career in teaching teaching English language arts in the planfield district retiring in 2008 and continuing as an Adu professor in the English Department at Union College Cranford New Jersey and as an Ela Mentor coach at Union County Teams Charter School and planfield New Jersey to date the John ship and Memorial Golf committee commenced in 1991 Thurman led the initiative to form a 501c3 foundation in 1996 becoming its chair with r Ruby AS co-chair Scholarship chair as a history buff Thurman knew that John Matthew shippen Jr and the Shady West Golf and Country Club were a gem right here in stotch Plains John Matthew shippen Jr was the first American and the first African-American to play in a USGA tournament in 1896 in 1924 shipping became the golf pro and Greenskeeper at Shady Rest he remained at Shady Rest until his retirement in 1960 he was buried in 1968 in an unmarked grave in Rosedale Cemetery Thurman diligently and patiently researched records to locate shien's grave site and the foundation and committee members placed a fitting Tombstone with the words the first American and the first africanamerican golf professional in addition Thurman and Ruby were voted volunteer couple in Scotch Plains receiving a New Jersey Senate and general assembly joint resolution signed by the president of the Senate and speaker of the general assembly dated May 1st 2015 Ruby served on the scotch plane zoning board for three years Thurman is the founder CEO of the John shippen youth Golf Academy JS yga which was started in 2003 and continues annually at Shady Rest at Scotch Hills through the gratus partnership of the township of Scotch Plains and the recreation department the JS yga is on Hiatus looking for a grus coach to receive an important aspect of teaching young students the game of golf and the history of John Matthew shippen the shippen foundation has awarded over $50,000 in scholarships Thurman and Ruby are the original members of the save Shady West committee and continue as members to date they are members of social justice matters Incorporated Ruby has served on the presid ation New Jersey Board for 3 years a John Matthew shippen Jr US postal stamp initiative began in February of 2015 and continues to date a golf legend A Memoir of our journey to honor a forgotten hero John Matthew shippen Jr launched on Amazon in May of 2024 they are the proud authors of that book the foundation supports and donates to Scotch ples Rescue Squad Patrick's downtown 5K race 2023 social justice matters Incorporated the National Council of negro women Thurman and Ruby have appeared in documentaries and newspaper articles on John shippen images in black and white on ESPN in 2004 the history detectives cable station validating Shipman's crafted putter the New York Post in June 2018 the record press in 2007 The Star Ledger New York New Jersey in 1993 and 2008 JS yga was featured in The Courier News bridgeboard New Jersey in 2005 and they were on Fox Sports 2018 US Open John shipping feature to me they are my modern day aie Davis and Ruby D activists in the movement for education and Equitable resources for all they are researchers authors and Scholars and I count them among some of our great scholar SCH such as Henry Lewis G Jr Cornell West Catherine Johnson and Angela Davis to sit at their feet and listen to their wisdom is an honor and I will cherish this moment for all of my days please join with me as we congratulate our 2024 Freedom award honores Mr and Mrs Thurman and Ry Sim [Applause] distri Comm we present this beautiful quilt to both of you thank you for all of your work that you have done thank you maybe you can do it this way and everyone can see it beautiful [Applause] on behalf of Thurman and I we would like to thank the juneth committee for selecting us as their freedom for two 2024 little uh taken away uh as a teacher you know you're constantly talking and now I'm looking for Words uh we really have enjoyed our journey and we have published a book A Memoir of our journey of going through and getting uh John shippen recognized in the United States uh Thurman received received his PGA card in 2009 in his place and we have been diligently working and keeping Shady R and John shien a part of scotch plain's history uh we will be giving a book to the library uh so that it will be there for uh students to uh read and it will take them through uh 1998 to date of of how Shady R and John chippen have become a part of Scotch Plains uh I think I'm running out of things to say and I don't want to cry so um keep going would you like to say something yes I'd like to thank the uh board of education for having us here I'd like to thank the uh Jus matters committee who nomin us we had something the other day they made me cry I don't usually cry but I'm glad that I'm here in Scotch PLS Scotch PLS have been wonderful to our family we educated our children here it's a great system uh you guys do a good job keep up to the good works it says that I wish the the town of Scots PLS had recognize the gym that they have here they don't understand the history behind this man and what he had to do to get to where he had to go and I thought it was a shame that the golf world didn't do what they were supposed to do about it so I just took it upon myself to do it and uh it looked like it turned out great because we're going out to Detroit tomorrow for for the third year where they have the John shipping National invitation every year is held in Detroit Michigan if you watch the last round of the rocket Morgan classic which is coming up the week of the 27th uh an hour before the broadcast of the final round of of the rocket mortgage tournament you'll see a whole hour of the John shipping National invitation that's going to be played at the Detroit the Detroit Country Club Saturday and Sunday of this week so we'll be in Detroit you know enjoy what these guys have actually understood what we were trying to do and they've done a good job so far thank you very much appreciate everything for those of you who are not aware of the shien Invitational uh John shippen was uh not able to receive a PGA card and play in many of the PGA tournaments the shiping Invitational is an opportunity they play for two days and the winner of the shiping Invitational on the men's side and on the women's side get an opportunity to walk on to an official PGA tournament many africanamerican golfers do not have the opportunity to play in the PGA so the shipping Invitational gives them an opportunity to show their skills and the winner of that shipping Invitational will play in the rocket mortgage PGA uh we just went to the um LPGA at the Mont CLE golf course and the winner of the women's shipping Invitational was a awesome 15-year-old from Arizona uh she won the Invitational and she had the opportunity to walk on into the official LPGA tournament so we it has been um a journey of love to uh expose African-American golfers and keep uh Scotch Plains Shady Rest and John shipping uh part of the United States and part of our community thank you so much and we really [Applause] appreciate and I know a special thank you to social justice matters they do an excellent uh participation here in Scotch Plains and we are just honored thank [Music] you thank you very much for this time thank you thank you I am so thankful that you are continuing continuing to keep his memory alive and being an advocate for Shady Rest um as a resident of Scotch Plains for almost 50 years I had the pleasure of going to school with your children and I appreciate the hard work that at the social justice matters committee does as well as John shippen I was actually at Shady Rest a couple weeks ago and to see the transformation in the museum is remarkable so thank [Applause] you so certainly this story is an inspiration to all of us and we're so happy that our students could have a hand in making that quilt to honor your work thank you for for taking the time and thank you for to social justice maners for for bringing it to the Board of Education thank you thank you okay we're going to move on to public comment in accordance with Scott Public bwood public school be 0164 and 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comments maximum 3 minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions and other board business will be heard first and time remain speakers May address other matters speakers please state your name in the town in which you reside please note board use the public comment period is an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into question and answer session or cross- examination between the public and the individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issues to the super attendent or her designate so I will now open up public comment for 15 minutes if you have something that you want to say please come to the mic speak your name and town which you reside ready uh John Denning scos CS for many years my wife and I were strong supporters of the public schools believing that a free education was one of the great gifts this country had to offer my wife was a room mother and headed up sharing lunches at M I cut and stapled thousands of slips for that program and lugged 50 lbs of soil in for a demonstration on career day we even got our church to sponsor one of your events however as we peered beyond the facade of this District hides behind we saw an ugly truth all the more disturbing because it involved a disregard for the safety of our children it started when our child was placed with an activist teacher we trusted she would leave her activism at the school door but that was not the case as related by other parents and District staff including close co-workers she had a history of using the classroom to promote her own personal spiritual social and political views and aggressively so naively we followed the rules we wrote to Dr soken and we expressed our concerns as they related to our beliefs we included a very explicit statement at the end that for the safety of our child their safety their identity was to remain confidential there was no mistak in the directness of our language it took Dr schok a mere 10 minutes to violate this sacred trust we placed in her when she forwarded that email completely unredacted to Dr Mast I believe Dr Mast has made her stance on Christians who want to follow their beliefs plain not through the empty word she has spoken but by the way she has judged a Man simply for being Christian this was not the first this was the first endangerment of our child in this process the next day was related to us by sources within the administration that Dr slokum and Dr Mass met their first priority should have been the safety of our child but atas it was not the first priority was assisting this te teacher in using the classroom to P push her woke religion upon the children you see after meeting with Dr Mass Dr slokum that very evening forwarded our message unredacted to the classroom teacher imagining our feeling of betrayal when a few days later our child innocently informed us that the teacher had had all the Christians raise their hands that day we also know that other emails with sensitive information were carelessly and needlessly forwarded around the district shortly after that we believe our our child was targeted for special political re-education being sent home with a steady stream of books authored by Heroes of the liberal Faith there is no excuse for this Behavior I understand that elements of this Administration feel that non-conforming beliefs should be eradicated and actively work with group who is that stated goal to remove other people's beliefs there's nothing you can do to make this better the damage is done this was the beginning of the process whereby we had to liberate our children from this District shamefully I have seen no effort to improve but rather the problem grows only worse you cannot fix what has been done but you can do better this District must be reclaimed for the benefit and the protection of the students if you're not willing to act for the students each of you should submit your resignation tomorrow our child's privacy was violated our parental directive for confidentiality was violated our child's safety was compromised our faith was targeted our child was targeted no other parent should have to go through this but many other have thank you Mr Denning does anyone else have a public comment good evening I vard Vinnie Puchi a pl we came to you in November we came to you in December we came to you in January we sent an email to Dr Mass Mr Jones and Mr Miller and we asked you two things with a lot of words with we asked you to please reinstate the JV ice hockey coach at the high school and we asked you for a more robust season for these children so that they could learn develop and play to my knowledge you heard us and you listened and as far as I understand the position for the JB ice hockey coach was posted on the district website and if if I'm not mistaken if the word gets around you might be voting on that tonight so we came to say thank you you voted for our children you heard us this is a SM small Niche group of kids in a small sport that isn't ice it it isn't soccer it isn't other sports like are in Scotch planes so you listen to us and you voted on these children for their safety for their development for their part of being a Raider so we came and we brought some some of them tonight and I'd like to introduce you to Anthony Janella Jonathan skinsky Kyle Ricky Santino Barcelona ni coochi John noera and Jack B these are just a few of the kids that you voted for thank you thank you colen jel andella Scotch Plains um I would like to uh Echo the sentiment that was already expressed and certainly offer our gratitude we are excited about uh the talent and the ideas that these new individual will be bringing to the position I uh do want to just make sure we continue the conversation around the importance for a complete JV season for next year um with the appointment of an assistant coach you know there's certainly some flexibility as to how that position can be applied um last year the uh families who paid for a JV ice hockey season uh watched their children play in four essentially scrimmages uh with local communities and I know that we plan um as a community to do better um for for our players and for their families who work very hard to support an extremely expensive sport um this year uh we have few students leaving and graduating who played varsity hockey so there will be very few positions on the varsity team number of students moving up and you graciously are supporting them with the appointment of an assistant coach the next step is to make sure that following that appointment very specific action and very thoughtful consideration is given to how to make sure that there is a comprehensive season for them um I just want to end by wishing of you an amazing summer congratulating you on very very very beautiful ceremonies outside um thanking you for the work that you do and wishing you all the best for a happy and healthy summer you can maybe catch your breath before we start to think about just what that JV seeson looks like next year thank you thank you [Applause] hi my name is Jane Reidman and I'm from Scotch Plains some of you may have heard my name some of you continue to ignore my emails people are here for many different reasons today and I'm here to speak about anti-Semitism within the district and in becoming a statistic the swasa incident was the fir at TMS was the first to catch my attention I did appreciate the assembly the call back from Dr mask the acting principal discussing it then but after that my email suggestions request and the his promises were all swept under the rug then came the book the book which originally was titled the scar of David but was presented as mornings and jennin that's how indoctrinate indoctrination of our teachers to students begins and as you know in the country it's growing rampant healthy debate should not include my homeland being wiped up the map it was concerning to see this choice in between anxiety and art books as a discussion that should exist among faculty at school one a child presented a map with the word Palestine written over Israel I added printed out brought it to Dr M we should be teaching accurate history and there should be some factchecking done by teachers I have concerns regarding a very vocal teacher in District posting on social media that Israel should not exist I'm worried that she'll be unable to be impartial to her Jewish students if we're committed as a district to fight anti-Semitism how can we be employing an anti-semite I've submitted proof of her vocal comments against Israel's right to exist in public fors we shouldn't tolerate this kind of hate speech amongst our own faculty I sent email after email after email all ignored you might have seen my Facebook post on a daily basis talking about a holocaust Survivor I've written numerous emails got one reply from Dr McGary telling me that he needs assistance and possibly finding Holocaust Survivors I provided over 20 I sent I made a Facebook post reached out to hundreds of people I gave him emails phone numbers and everything crickets email email after email post after post on Facebook nothing was even said in TMS about Jewish history month or Asian uh history month until my emails got more and more rampant actually I've heard from students that people that teachers and nurses were talking about me I don't know I became famous and self-appointed anti-semite and anti- anti-semites are needly being squared away and to file while they are continued to be ignored but at the same time these incidents are also being recorded on our end I've only named a few and as the self-appointed SL elected Jewish boys for the for Scotch planes there are many more that won't fit into the three minutes that I have to speak but hey if someone would ever email me back call me back I'm always ready to talk and discuss any of these incidents have a new school we have a new school year coming up do better thank you for your time and have a nice summer thanks Mr R Morris um I always have be when I get it's just thing anyway um I want to talk about the uh the new uh the referendum uh um I think looking at that school and the property I think the thought of making that for 500 students is not right um I don't think it's fair to the kids to have such a small property 3.88 Acres I did some research um the the recommended size of an elementary school property is 5 acres plus one acre per 100 students that would make it a 10 acre requ requirement it's not a requirement it's a suggestion um I happen to go buy the the school the other day it's currently being rented and there was probably 60 to 100 kids on that little tiny playground there it's just not right it's 10 ft from a road how are you going to secure that none of our other schools have a play area that's 10 ft from a road it's there's also a lot of things that have to be done with sidewalks in the area which I get that um but I I think we really need to look long and hard at the number of students I'm not against purchasing the school um but I think the uh the proposal to to invest $71 million into it when again if you look at the projections of uh the number of students when you compare the 2022 uh projections to the 202 24 projections they're very different that means 2022 wasn't accurate but that could also mean that 20124 is also not accurate um because again you're projecting to the Future from what I understand there's going to be an enrollment Cliff around 2026 investing $71 million just seems kind of foolish if we could potentially have hit that clip the birth rate is just not cutting it right now um and again I understand different communities have different rates of you know uh population but I think we need to look long and hard at I don't think that that facility should have more than 200 students why not repurpose it for the Schoolboard offices so we don't have to rent for the time being and it's already a school right there's already a school in that school can't we use that for prek get with minimal cost to the community and then in two years if there is this population explosion we could always invest later is it possible since you just went from three questions down to two could we go back to three and have the first question be buy the school and then have the renovation as question two and then have the the air conditioning as question three is it possible to do that because bearing in mind the decision to uh have this boat we didn't have the projection the 2024 projection of the population so again that was based on on to me it was kind of hasty to push that out before we even knew what that new projection was going to be because it changed in the month of May uh again I really think uh I implore you to take another look at it that road is extremely busy we had a road closed the other day and that I live on that road okay the cars were as far as you could see so one little hiccup on that road and having 500 there finish okay so if having 500 students having to to go there we don't have the sidewalks uh Amy you live you live on that road you know there's not sidewalks on that road that's a dangerous road to walk on for small children there's no doubt about it and and I don't you can't put it on your side of the street it's going to have to be on the other side of the street those people are going to be very upset when their sidewalks going in on their yards uh it's going to it's going to be a battle as it is but I think pairing it down my understanding it was it was 200 before let's keep it that way thank you Mr Merc John Denning scotch C Mr Den before you go is there is there anyone else we just usually if there's anybody else for public comment before Mr Denning takes the secondary thank you go WR uh so John Denning Scotch CS um so I want to start with a little historical correction first because earlier one of our teachers said that juneth represented the freeing of all Americans uh and it did not uh represented when Union troops entered galvaston Texas and freed the last slaves under the Emancipation Proclamation but tens of thousand of Americans remained in slavery legally after that until the passing the ratification of the 13th Amendment much later it's also important to remember that slavery still exists in this country today and of all things we're going to go after we should focus on eradicating that uh instead of other things uh couple quick comments on the referendum on the SPF future site May 13th the projection for the 2627 school year was 5,727 3 days later that projection was 5,959 232 additional students and the current enrollment lost 50 so a 280 students swing how did this happen how are we basing numbers plans on numbers that change like this that's one two during the public forum I asked about redistricting and I was told that that had not been considered yet yet the district was in possession of a demographers report that supported exactly what I said which that 30 % of our elementary students will have to change their schools when this plan goes into effect 30% almost one in three finally the referendum is intended for the public to decide you have linked the referendum items together claiming priority the point of the referendum is that the public gets to decide the priority you should decouple these referendum items and let the public decide instead of trying to influence towards purchasing the building by holding the air conditioning hostage if that's what people want thank you thank you Mr any other public comment seeing none I'll close this portion um we're going to go back to an instructional update I believe drus you have a report an update thank you good evening this evening I have the ssds public report the ssds combines two State Testing reporting systems the electronic violence and vandalism reporting system and the harassment intimidation and bullying investigations trainings and program system the ssds data presented is based on five identified categories by the State Department of Education and is entered by anually into the reporting system this data is reported publicly to the board two times a year the following data is for the reporting period of September 2023 and December 2023 in the area in the category of violence there were two incidents reported vandalism one incident weapons two substance zero Hib had 10 confirmed cases and 15 alleged cases the Hib cases were investigated by The District's anti-bullying coordinator lendra mcfaden and the school's anti-bullying specialist Jessica NES lendra mcfaden Amanda wolf Lauren marovitz Christy kovski Jason cross Lori lowski Amanda Moser Denise palazola Candace Kilmer Su Suzanne woek and um additional investigators were April chestang April France kin France excuse me Kathy Hoffman and Katie pH Phelps regardless of the outcome of each Hib investigation each case identifies remediations for the students involved including bystanders remediations included plan check-ins with the school counselor SAS Andor School principal class and grade level interactive lessons focused on understanding cultural biases and how how they play out in people's behaviors class and grade level lessons on how to to be upstanders and establishing common language to respond to biased Behavior SAS L discussions on how to navigate peer relationships deal with challenging situations that arise between friends and how to resist peer pressure student centered poster activities detailing anti-bullying behavior and how to be an upstander and reflective drawing strategies to use for deescalate conflict and engaging and positive peer talk each school also conducted trainings to support a safe School climate this year there were District assigned instructional time at the elementary level for morning meeting morning meeting also includes responsive classroom activities to support its implementation instructional AIDS were also trained on responsive classroom activities and the importance of the morning meeting time so they could support the teachers in the classroom the elementary school continues to implement the Second Step social emotional curriculum and training that supports its implementation the district also continues to focus on one of its strategic goals by implementing professional development for all teachers and AIDS on diversity equity and includ inclusion our district also held trainings and meetings on implementing logical consequences for infractions reviewing and updating the suicide risk assessment protocols reporting procedures for the New Jersey anti-bullying Bill of Rights implementing Crisis Prevention strategies de-escalating students in in crisis and energizing Educators navigating burnout shaping culture and leading with positivity finally students and staff have have participated in programming to support safe School climates it is divide I'm going to present our programming in three tiers tier one is program focused on large groups of students tier two on smaller groups of students and tier three on individual interventions for students I'll just highlight some of those areas in tier three we had curriculum um interventions and programming on Second Step anti-bullying classroom lessons morning meeting and responsive classrooms at the secondary level we had our Pals program our leads program star program using the rer approach our seventh grade project adventure and at all um levels we had classroom um lessons on diversity equity and inclusion we also held weekl long special programming we had the week of respect the Sandy Hook promise start with Hello Health and hel health and wellness week World kindness day diabetes Awareness Week school spirit week antiviolence and Awareness Week physical education Health Fitness and Wellness this week and Hispanic heritage Spirit um week activities for specific activities at the school levels we had student ambassadors orientation programs socials freaky decky food drive staff kickball games specific clubs community service activities the Tuskegee Airmen challenge morning announcements kindness shoutouts andal word of the month activities the schools also held assemblies um for focused on school climate and culture um the Great and Powerful Dave anti-bullying assembly um and Mikey Fallon presented at the ninth um for the high school at the ninth grade we had student recognition programs character race programs and student spotlights for our tier 2 programming we had social skills groups SAS classroom lessons new student programming Getting to Know You activities lunch bunches new parent orientations and a new student Mee and greet with the pal students our tier three programming for individual students we had one-on-one check-ins with the sas's school counselors and child study team members we had interventions implemented by ruver Behavioral Health counseling and effective School Solutions wraparound program for students who um were recommended and um accepted into that program so those are all of our um reporting for the fall of of 2023 thank you Dr rben Miss anybody have any questions great thank you thank you so we'll move on to additional reports letters to the board for emails were received and we sent to the appropriate administrator going to move over to committee reports who wants to the curriculum committee this working okay the curriculum committee met on June 11th uh we had a few agenda items the first was talking about um partnership with Kane University um and pre-service teachers in our public schools here uh specifically in mcin school uh two teachers Amanda Mar and Dorothy Lusk disc discuss their roles as adjunct faculty in the early childhood department at cane which grew out of the grant that our district had with Kane in teacher mentoring that began in 2016 which we've spoken about before in their current roles as adjunct professors mes Miss Mar organized pre-service teachers for 50 hours each year for field instruction in the classrooms at mcin uh the goals for these teach pre-service teachers are supporting the teacher's early career to stay in the Prof profession improve satisfaction of pre-service teachers harness teacher leadership and expertise at mcin increase pre-service teachers engagement in the classroom and increase their conscious confidence they also connect pre-service teachers with their specific interest areas like perhaps special education and provide explanations of instructional practices student learning profiles and modifications General engagement in the classroom creating an effective classroom environment communicating with families equity and inclusion they are discussing how to continue and expand teacher leadership and support within the district to retain new teachers and increase job satisfaction um and just to hear their energy and passion uh with this initiative of of bringing pre-service teachers to begin was was really um exciting for our committee uh the second agenda item was was discussing summer assignments for various courses it says for informational purposes but that's an error we are we are voting um on that tonight on the agenda and the third agenda item and the board received a copy of of the summer assignments third agenda item is the curriculum Matrix for 2425 we are also voting on that we vote on that um every year at this time um and this includes updated course proficiencies and the board received copy of the entire curriculum Matrix as well our next meeting will be TBD the end of August to about all the summer work thank you Mr any questions from mrani I just had a comment um I was so excited and and yeah you're the way that you just described it seeing the teachers energy I was really excited when I read the report that you gave about the program especially just having those two teachers and it's just it's so aligned with our strategic plan and keeping and um young Educators interested and it's such a great role model for students and everything that we're doing so thank I I just great highlight thank you hopefully some of them will come back and teach here yes M bir you can okay Community Relations Committee met and we dis discussed the referendum communication strategy with Laura bishop and once we have the final figures from the state we can effectively communicate via the different modes that we discussed this would include print material as well as attending community events and more details the following and finance committee met um we had an evergreen project update um the scope is being adapted to include two bathrooms and new windows on the sidew wall and one classroom is going to be larger the space is still targeted for completion in September except for the two additional bathrooms there still will be bathrooms there's these are just two additional bathrooms there was a food service RFP and and only pomptonian at the time of the meeting had come to the schools to tour the lunchroom there will be an RFP annually for this service with specific parameters for submission and Survey results will be reviewed with p tonian as well we discussed the lunch past due balances and the policy committee is reviewing the current policy to see what we can amend to help deter this issue all who had overdue balances have been called 61 students make up 90% of the overdue bance balance which at the time of the report was $23,000 um subscription busing the proposed uh increase will is from $950 to $1,100 it's a 14% increase this affects approximately 25 Families Our cost is 2,000 per student so it's still less than what it cost us uh we discussed wireless access points 234,000 for updates to the equipment that we currently have equipment purchased in 2016 expires in 26 and Equipment purchased in 2020 also expires we need to upgrade the equipment because there are no longer any software updates the funds are coming from extraordinary Aid and this cost already reflects our eate discount of 40% um and the sound system at the time of the meeting Mr Jones was waiting for one more quote of the football and lower field and that is it thank you Mr biry any comments any other reports okay move on I think there is a we did the policy later yeah so I think you replacement right y so we're going to move to F super curriculum 2324 of District placement pleas move Bo approves the additional 23 24 um school year out of District placements two move that the board approves the hi discussed an executive session on May 7th three moveed that the board acknowledges the receipt of the 2024 by annual gifts for the High School Evergreen m Brunner for the board approves the report that Dr rimus just gave on Hib and ssds for the time period of September 23 to December 23 and five move the board approves The Matrix of forms six the board approves the 2024 student summer assignments and seven votes that the board approves Wayne mlet to serve as the administrator for the 2024 creative summer workshop motion Sol we have a second second do we have any comments or questions all those in favor I opposed motion carries we're going to move on to now superintendent curriculum 2425 school year move that the board approves the additional extended school year 24 and 2024 2025 school year out of District placements two move that the Board of Education approves the Danielson rubric for Teacher evaluation and the mar the Marshall rubric for administrator supervisor evaluation and three move that the board approves the curricular me s that Mrs serani just mentioned for the 2425 school year and four move that the board um provides the superintendent authorization for summer decisions we have a motion who was that second Amy Miss Winkler and second was Miss Brody no you second it okay just want to make sure Mr Jones has because we're going to do roll call for all that because we have to do roll call for curriculum yep so do we have any comments or questions on any of this Mr Jones can you call the rooll Miss barve yes Miss Bower yes Miss borov yes Miss Brody yes Miss serani yes Miss Williams yes M Winkler yes Dr Kowski yes Mr Murray yes motion pass all right we're going to move on to Personnel Dr M move that the board approves the superintendent's recommendations for personnel as discussed in exec this evening and two move that the board approves the following the the listed board official appointments for the 2425 school year and that's do we have a motion second miss borov any comments or questions Mr Jones please call to roll Miss barve yes Miss Bower yes M borov yes Miss Brody yes Miss serani yes M Williams yes M winlar yes Kowski yes Mr M yes motion passes all right Mr Jones business functions 23 24 school year okay staff training related Services the special ed agreement we talked about and then four through 14 are all um Evergreen we have to uh the one thing here is the emergent project is we have to pass this in order to um get State approval quickly to upgrade the fire alarm at Evergreen um number 15 is the wires access points that bro talked about 16 Don of Runner Garden 17 is updated resolution for the referendum that the state wanted wanted to tweaked a little bit 18 is an easan at The netting ham field for about 10 ft for some construction there they're going to give us some uh trees as well uh as part for part of the deal uh for them for us to allow them use to 10 ft um free and reduced lunch balance for this that we uh Miss Brody discussed uh 20 is for the end of the year audit uh 21 library book disposal and then uh 22 fire drills 23 Financial reports payment of bills and disbursement do we have a motion to approve the current year business functions Su M bro second M Williams is a second any comments or questions see none all those in favor opposed carries Mr Jones we're going to move now to the 2425 school year functions y uh food surfacer again PM Tony was the only bidder um 2425 lunch prices three is the transportation rales four mny vinto standard uh resolution yearly five is our Professional Services and this will be advertis in the newspaper as well uh our district Insurance um our facilities applications this is for the um modular uh temporary instruction spaces the Terell hand um eight is a standard resolution for athletics nine is for our SOS and new agreement 10 is our technology renewals uh 11 is our votch students 12 is with Union County uh ESC um for special education and for managing our non-public funding from the state 13 is our for our policies management uh 14 is uh for our insurance broker 15 is for uh medical broker uh 16 is our yearly grants it be another one in August they weren't uh usually we have additional grants on here they weren't released yet so put on August even though they start a week or two um standard the TD Bank is our bank it's number 17 18 this is uh we use at data for classroom supplies at data puts uh uh classroom supplies out to bid um selects the lowest bidder and then from those lowest bids are teachers uh purchase supplies so the approval of those 19 is subcription busing we talked about uh 20 through 24 is um these are vendors that we use uh through State contract uh or ESC they've already been bid for the lowest amounts but anything that's over the bid threshold of 44,000 needs to be board approved 25 is our yearly asset inventory that's required by the audit uh 26 is renewing uh with our New Jersey school Insurance Group these are added uh to the agenda our parent Transportation contracts we want to get these on because um esy starts next week and 28 is the um High School speakers uh that I talked about previously a lot of items you guys have all we all talked about so have a motion to approve so any comments or questions Mr Jones I I have one question sure um last year was um P also oh last year was PP pump tonyan our only bidder so we hav been uh bid for over 5 years so you required by the state to do a bid every 5 years and so they were up so this the first time it's been that we put it out okay so I I don't know five years ago oh okay yeah I don't know I didn't number either so yeah I'm not sure yeah okay any other comments for Mr Jones all those in favor I opposed motion carries all right procedural okay these are just the yearly uh procedural for uh for next year starting in July um authorization to pay bills when they're due so we don't pay late fees um we use Robert's Rules of board meetings chart chart of accounts for New Jersey schools um I maintain records budget transfers between meetings our petty cash fund our 403 457 vendors and our policy R option second borov to it any comments or questions on the procedural all those in favor opposed motion carries we are now on to board policies so we met on June 11th policy committee to discuss the he the policy committee met on June 11th to discuss the um excessive lunch account aers that both M biry and Mr Jones mentioned earlier in this meeting uh we are discussing possible changes to our policy 85 500 on food services so that we can find ways to address this just add that we I um after we printed the agenda I uploaded um a draft of the wording we not the complete wording but the the content of what we're thinking of doing in in there so I think uh there can review that um it's part of last year's audit we have to do something we're required um so um hopefully we uh will approve this in in August and start the execute Thank you new board business anyone other board business the aison reports mine's a short one um so we had our final cpad meeting it's always the first well in 23 24 it was always this the first Monday of the month um it was a a great meeting we um they shared who the elected uh elected staff members are to the the board um and then we also had um our special services team came in and they reviewed the transition process from both 8th to 9th grade and then um just a general sort of discussion about uh high school but mostly it was really informative parents asked some really good questions I'm very excited to share um that feedback from parents is being related to staff and administration conversations are taking place very constructively um and I'm really PR proud of the parents that have come together and I really encourage other parents um to get involved um and learn from each other and that's it thank you m b um Garden State Coalition of schools had their annual meeting on May 22nd and I just picked out a few things to highlight the um the president of Garden State um talked about um and we had a great group a lot of people here were in attendance uh and um she started off talking about vuka which is volatility uncertainty chaos complexity and ambiguity um that all the school districts are dealing with and um went on to talk about Garden State being a uh Beacon uh in terms of advocating for school districts in Trenton um the keynote speaker uh was the acting commissioner Kevin damer and um he started off by talking about uh Garden State and what a unique group it was and how much he appreciated the input uh the variety of schools and and so forth um he went on to talk about some of the challenges facing school districts including hiring funding uh he talked about the high impact tutoring Grant of which we which we have one he talked about literacy mental health and wellness and Ai and information literacy then there was a panel uh that included um state legislators Senate uh a senator two an assemblywoman assemblymen and two superintendents um and uh they discuss some similar topics uh funding AI um there are lots of new legislators on both sides uh and uh and uh they're hoping to make sure that education um is viewed through a bipartisan l so that's what we can hope to um they talked about um you know the irony that uh New Jersey is the top state in the country um or one or two with Massachusetts and but if you listen to the news that's not the impression that you get uh The Residency requirement for teachers was discussed and um and the fact that um um uh teacher preparation programs in New Jersey used to be producing 7,000 candidates a year and now it's around 2200 because there of the lack of enrollment in teacher preparation um and um there was also a discussion about um the testing and how um there are probably lots of problems with the test in addition of the fact that we can't look at the test scores like we used to um because the tests keep changing the cut scores keep changing um talked about updating uh qac which is used to evaluate districts and um Scotch Plains Fanwood has been a trustee district for many many years and was reelected to a new three-year term thank you questions not a question but I I would just add to that that um as is typical at the Garden State annual meeting the legislators who were present represented both sides of the aisle that that's that's how they do it any other reps no okay we shall move on to workshops request to attend workshops Workshop reports no we have a resolution to um name the naming of the school hallway between the old and new buildings as the heisy hallway so do we have a motion to approve the naming of the heisy hallway inance with it's actually the highway highway sorry yeah it's any comments questions concerns happy that we were able to honor dris all those in favor oppos motion carries is there a speed limit if you don't run into all the tables uh do we have a motion to approve the minutes from the May 7th meeting B any comments or questions all those in favor opposed motion carries we are now on our second and final public comment section in accordance with Scotch Family Public Bible 0164 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes or public comment maximum three minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions and other board business will be here first if time remain speakers May address other matters speakers please state your name and the town in which you reside please know board common period is an opportunity to listen to Citi and concerns but do not debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or cross examination between a public and or individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information by delegating authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or or her designate so I will now open the second and final public speaking portion of the 2324 school year check else D Morris andwood um first of all I'd like to give a shout out to Dr heisy um I don't think I have been to a sporting event a football game or any sporting event that that man has not shown up at and showing up is such an important thing to support the kids and I really appreciated that in him um I really think um we need to look at the published numbers for um the teacher ratios obviously that doesn't match the classroom sizes is there some way to produce something I'm trying to help you to get you know the word out hey look these have they have 25 kids in this class they have you know 25 kids in three AIDS or or whatever is there some way to get that drilled down for the like the the the the prek through fifth grade I get I I get it when it gets older it gets kind of messy with you know different electives and everything but is there some way to get that out to the public so that we could see that um secondly and this is going to seem kind of weird coming from me but um I'm a math guy okay uh which that's not weird uh but I'm a little bothered by um finding out what a teacher Aid makes in this District I think it's travesty here we're having them take Dei courses while they're almost slaves it's really wrong the most important thing in a family the mo the most important thing is getting food on the table and we're not giving them a living wage you literally could get a job tomorrow at Chick-fil-A and make more than a teacher's aid in this District it's not right and here we're giving them them extra training and everything you know every extra training you do is another you lowering their hourly wage can that training at least be online training so that that if they have to get another job which most of them probably have to because they can't live on $22,000 a year um there are administrative assistants in our district who make three times what a teacher's aid makes it's not right this is we're supposed to be all about the kids and we want to we want to have nice facilities and everything but let's look at the employees too and this one is is I think it's egregious and it it we don't marry up to what other districts are doing and I think we should do something about it um and and I know that's going to be an unpopular thing with taxpayers totally get it but I think we got to we got to get our priorities in order and uh last of all congratulations to the softball team they had a great great season and I was very pleased that that that Coach G has been uh uh crushing it and uh I I was actually planning to go to the next game and then you you went and lost that uh nailbiter um and another shout out to to the volleyball team uh the boys volleyball team had another tremendous season man I wish they won that game oh but um it was just a really uh really good season but anyway like I said if there's something you guys could do about reformulating compared to other towns this is what all companies do they compare similar jobs in surrounding towns and we want the best teacher aids and I know there's nobody else here so is it all right if I just continue for a second or do you want me to sit down and get back up nope keep going okay so again with one of the things in this just I we get 15 minutes yeah there you go all 15 can I sit down while I talk um one of the things obviously we heard about shortages of teachers right do we have a pipeline from teacher Aid to teacher is that something we could look at um maybe help them out getting you know uh create create a program with with Union County College where you could get some extra you know courses and things and and maybe you know you know I'm sure the teachers know the good teacher aids that maybe are the ones that you might want to talk to about uh going into a program like that we're doing it for students why don't we do it for these teacher aids we have an awful lot of them and those are potential teachers and I know personally I know some are certified teachers as it is right now so again maybe if if that was uh you know uh available to them that would be another uh you know benefit anyway thanks thank you Mr Morris any other public comment seeing none I will close the second and final upcoming scheduled meetings um are listed below for the good of the order who wants to start okay I'm wishing everyone a fun but safe summer and coming back to what Nancy said about the Garden State Coalition of schools several of us were at that meeting it was very informative and Nancy herself was uh elected vice president so congratulations to Nancy [Applause] and most of us were at the various moving up Ceremonies for netting ham and Terrell as well as the graduation for the Scotch Plains High School and all of the events were beautiful and moving the students did an excellent job the administrators teachers and PTA members did an excellent job with each of the ceremonies and the seventh grade uh bands playing for each of those and then of course the band at the high school and the special choir we really enjoyed in in spite of being 90 plus degrees and we're so proud of all our graduates and I really thank them all and wish them well in their future endeavors so thank you thank you Dr k i I want to thank SRA again uh for being our our student rep for the last two years on the board and I want to congratulate you on your graduation and wish you all the best in school and warn you that we we may show up for some of your home games so and if I may footnote she's our first student rep who has come back to a board meeting [Applause] postgraduation we should hallway after um Steph I definitely second that and appreciate Ma and look forward to having him next year um I did want to mention because um I am one of the people that waited um despite being on the board waited until my child was a senior to go visit and see the senior projects um and so it was an awesome surprise um to see the commitment that these students put into the work that they did and um many which will lead to Future projects just even the courtyard and how much um for the environment the Improvement in the courtyard is and the educational opportunities the as Cyra mentioned the career opportunities but it was just so impressive to really uh walk through the senior projects and watch two kids that had created nine levels of game and then at the end you solved a math puzzle it was quite amazing so kudos to everyone for that have a great summer and that's it that was the largest collection of senior projects to dat was it it was amazing the largest gr other things for the good of the order anyone no no drop off so good to I just want to thank everybody um you know I think we had a you know it was a really good year I also do want to thanks our grounds and maintenance um crew as well as our custodians because I think without them um they don't get enough recognition you know the graduations wouldn't have went off like they did our athletic fields wouldn't look like they do our setups for our musicals and everything else wouldn't wouldn't be you know as they are so we definitely need to you know make sure we continue to thank that that group um they do a really great job it's tireless job and a lot of them are working outside this heat so kudos to them congratulations again Cyra you know obviously was fortunate enough to congratulate you on stage and uh enjoy the summer just to add to that um Evan CA thank you and for for recruiting our students to videotape our board meetings it's very important that we share this information with the public and we couldn't do it without you [Applause] I just have one last thing to say to make a a note um and and we recognize that there's certainly a gap with the teachers AIDS but to make a reference about slaves was inappropriate I just wanted to say that it's deplorable sah oh sah I just wanted to say thank you guys for this opportunity it's been really am amaz being on the board thank you anyone else seeing no one we're going to reconvene into executive session to discuss subjects concerning the superintendent evaluation no action will be taken so do we have a motion to go into exact so mov we have a second second any comments questions no all those in favor I opposed we are going back into exec