##VIDEO ID:9cuJYqEoyHY## good evening welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset Hills please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public in media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a meeting of the Board of Education of Somerset Hills at which formal action may be taken the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda Miss special roll call please Mr Baker here miss Ballard here Mrs D gor pry here Mr Joy here miss Nathans here Mrs Roy here Mrs fenda here thank you okay um we are going to go into executive session the open public meetings act authorizes a public body to exclude the public from that portion of a meeting at which specified topics are to be discussed under circumstances where the public consideration of such topics will clearly endanger the public or where the personal privacy or guaranteed rights of individuals whose activities or Affairs are to be discussed would clearly be in danger of UN wared invasions and the matters about to be presented for discussion clearly meet the circumstances test of such act the Board of Education of Somerset Hills now adjourns this public session to reconvene an executive session for the purpose of discussing the following Personnel student matters contracts negotiations and litigation can I please have a motion to go into executive session Miss Ryan a second Mr gr prite thank you if you could please rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay I will hand it over for to Dr brel for the report of the superintendent thank you Mrs friender uh first and foremost I'd like to welcome uh Debbie Bessel to the team here she's uh filling in U with a team of folks uh for the remainder of the year in our business office so welcome Debbie thank you uh our first order of business here are to welcome in our student speakers and we have two from the Middle School we have Miss Grace Healy uh she is on our climate and culture team at the Middle School uh in addition to playing basketball so we're going to invite uh Grace on up and then uh she's going to be speaking uh with prier uh Sony so um very excited uh to have them here so Grace perier comea good evening my name is Grace Healey and I'm in the Rucker's house at BMS I'm also on the girls basketball team this is my first year playing basketball for the school and so far it's been really fun one thing that I really like about playing on the school team is that It prepares my teammates and me for playing sports in high school our coach coach OK Conor talks with Coach Visconti the girls varsity coach at the high school and asks about what plays they're running and what drills are doing and I'm honestly really happy that I'm able to get accustomed to in Scholastic Sports the way the team is set up is a varsity team who plays the regular game and a junior varsity team who plays at halftime however if we're in a comfortable comfortable position in the game junior varsity players make it out onto the court during the regular game I have played in both the 10-minute halftime games and the regular games and I've loved every second next as a culture and climate team member I'm going to report on some culture and climate activities yesterday BMS fifth and sixth graders participated in a fun winter themed event that we named the reindeer games some of the games that the students were able to choose to play were Bob sledding reindeer feed and inlo battles some other upcoming activities that students will have to look forward to are National spaghetti day which will be celebrated at BMS on Friday January 3rd students will be served a fun Italian style menu of pasta and sauce in addition to our lunch election the tables in the cafeteria will be arranged to form a large Square creating a cozy and communal atmosphere the square Arrangement makes the space feel like a gathering place where everyone can interact across the tables and the energy of the room is Lively and festive now I will turn it over to prer [Music] thank you Grace my name is PIR and I'm in the Princeton house at BMS thank you for allowing me to speak tonight I'm also on the BMS wrestling team wrestling is a fun sport many think it is a strength sport however wrestling also uh requires a very alert mind a lot of agility and light feed to be able to anticipate and make the next move there are 12 kids on our wrestling team and I feel extremely fortunate to be part of this talented group talking about talent I have to tell you about our two coaches coach Tim and Coach Tyler are two of the most talented coaches out there they truly care about making the kids on their team successful in wrestling but more importantly they want to ensure that every kid becomes a better Sportsman so far we have played against many teams including Somerville Bridgewater Chester and immaculada it has been a great learning experience for all of us especially for someone like me who is new to wrestling I've only played a few matches but it see seems like I've been part of this team forever as my dad says you will win some matches and you'll lose others but each one of them will teach you and make you better I'm very proud of my teammates who have won against some of the toughest competitors if you came to a practice sessions and matches you would uh witness how we support each other and wish the best for our teammates being around such talented and like like-minded kids makes me feel at home joining such a sport is also a great way to make F new friends since we have kids from different grades who come together to form Perfect Chemistry finally I want to provide an update on an important school council fundraiser student council fundraiser we are running at this time the fundraiser benefits Ava's voice Foundation whose mission is to empower youth with Usher syndrome and to educate families in school communities we are selling candy canes and the sales are going really well the students at BMS are going crazy for these candy canes so much so that in just 2 days we have sold over $150 worth of candy canes we hope to continue to raise a lot of money and make this a very successful fundraiser for a very important cause in closing I would like to thank all teachers coaches counselors and staff members at BMS for making my learning experience so special thank you have a good day [Music] from the high school we have Nora jerac here to speak and Nora is having a terrific day uh she just got some positive news from two schools and uh she now has her path charted and some options so she's just thrilled um and she's going to give us a great report I'm sure thank [Music] you hello hello everyone I hope you're all doing well I know speaking for myself and many others that we are very excited for winter break just two more days I am counting it down I will admit I thought today was Friday I was very disappointed when halfway through I realized it was not but that's my own time management uh this evening's update is going to be a little bit shorter but it is all good stuff currently we are in our holiday spirit week so today everyone was wearing blue in support of Hanukkah and yesterday was red and white so everyone looked like a bunch of candy canes but I loved it um many of the staff and students have been dressing up to match and it's really nice to see I have to say the guidance office does a fabulous job of going with the theme they are always top tier yesterday both girls and boys basketball had games and they won so the season is looking to be very good overall winter sports have been proceeding very well and you know it's looking like it's going to be a successful season um we also had our choir concert last night it went very well and last week we had our instrumental concert and they will actually be doing a in school concert this Friday on our half day so that's very exciting I know we're all looking forward to that uh speaking of the choir magicals has put out their holiday album very nice uh and their funds are going towards their trip costs our clubs GSA and Campbell flutterflies are also fundraising right now uh gsha is hosting a food drive and team Campbell flutterflies just finished their blanket and food or book drive and they are also making holiday cards to go to children who will be spending the holidays in the hospitals so it's very nice to see a lot of students been getting involved you know during lunch or they're um coming in after school or even some people are just dropping them off after classes so it's a really great way to support them um as far as senior season goes we have had a ton of college commits in the last few weeks which is super exciting to see I mean I can say just hearing back I'm super excited you know seeing all my friends get into their dream schools it's just really amazing uh and it's senior year is becoming very real um a lot of Ed and early actions have are or they're coming out and they will be continuing to come out over the next month two months um senior t-shirts did come out today so a lot of people were you know showing them off and like oh look we have our senior merch um so it was great but overall um it's been really good month obviously things are slowing down a little bit before break will have a lot in January hopefully you all have a great break and holiday season with your families thank you Grace PIR and Nora it's always great to have uh students giving their perspectives on uh how things are going so we do have some items to update you all along uh we have gone through our processes at um arriving at our Governor's educator of the Year award recipients and we have uh from the high school uh Kelly Clark who teaches social studies uh she was honored and recognized uh at the middle school Annie o' howerin um at Bedwell Holly jablonsky and we have a district Educational Services professional the year and that was Michelle douly uh so what happens next is all of these folks have the opportunity to move forward into a process um that takes place at the county level and um the county kind of vets out all of the different uh candidates and um who knows maybe one of them will be the county representative and then move on to state level competition uh so but they're all Superior Educators uh they all uh contribute in a variety of ways and um you know we're just thrilled to have them they will be coming to us in May uh we're going to have um the retirees and also the governor's educators of the year that we're recognizing uh we have some news coming out of our Latin program at the high school uh the American Institute of Archaeology is celebrating the work of uh Jared coko who uh teaches Latin and in addition to a student uh at the high school as well Kaye mcowan Kenny um she is in his uh AP Latin class um so Jared incorporates past archaeological experiences um as he's worked on sites in Italy as a way to interest students in learning about Hands-On experiences in archaeology um and he participates in the annual International archaeology day um k is a senior in his AP Latin class and she's embraced um his approaches with great enthusiasm uh Jared has the opportunity to do some extensive travel and having been in his classroom personally I've seen uh firsthand uh the artifacts and um the connections he's able to make uh between his travel and um the work in his um Latin class uh we have a Latin club now at the high school uh that Kaye is spearheaded and overall our Latin program uh is growing and thriving we have nearly 100 kids we have 95 kids and um we are also able to offer AP Latin um Kaylee is considering majoring or minoring in the classics in college and uh it's great to know that you got to start here um so that was covered uh in the media uh recently we had um the high school student council hosted its annual dodgeball tournament uh and that is um that is an event that has become very popular with the students uh there were 140 students that played uh during this event uh there was a round robbing competition followed by an elimination bracket uh we did have some staff members on hand um to help support and I believe that Dr Nigel was a referee uh there were 21 teams um and um there were a host of folks that donated money um and this year they supported the makea wish Foundation um that was selected by the student council and they donated $900 to make a wish uh in the honor of Ari rosen's brother Bryce as many of you know uh Bryce uh died in 20121 uh but is very much connected um to the student body here so great tournament um and the student council's done a lot of great things this year as well uh from Pep rallies to Spirit Week uh and a very very pop very very well attended u homecoming dance um our science labs at the middle school are um you know definitely an area of excitement and certainly from a long range perspective it's an area of focus uh for me and for the board uh as well to be able to enhance um our science uh lab specifically um in future um these folks did a a lab exercise on the diversity of Life uh these are sixth grade students and uh students were divided uh into pairs with research partners and worked through a variety of elements uh in the scientific process and analyze the results uh from the lab experience um so in this particular lab uh students were given carnations to disect they observed the carnations and Drew their flowered they labeled the parts from the petals to the stem they removed uh the seil and then they counted them uh so we are looking to put kids into the position to uh to really learn and grow and this particular lab uh at the middle school caught our eye and um happy to be able to bring that to the board the high school has a new everyday hero for December uh Andre costabile is a uh a constable I'm sorry is an everyday hero here um and she is a captain of the girls soccer team um she's very very committed U there um however her impact does extend far past the classroom um she's an officer in our student council she immerses herself in culture and climate at the high school um she is a um a good friend a very good student and is somebody that her classmates have been um able to count on and and um have noted as a leader so congratulations uh to her we have our uh youngest Learners here at Bedwell um although Thanksgiving has passed it's always time to give thanks um our first grade community service project students uh they worked in pairs to weave Thanksgiving plac mats and those placemats were sent along with bags of donated food and table wear to the Market Street Mission and we thank uh Miss Emma Davis from Bedwell for spearheading [Music] this as was introduced last month we have um the history hallway here uh the girl up Club started an empowerment initiative last year as one um and one component is for every Club member to create an informative display in the history hallway display case every month for various Heritage Month celebrations with the goal being to decorate to educate and to celebrate um so we are highlighting modern Native Americans who have contributed to NASA the military politics activism literature and the Arts so always a great addition to the hallways here uh at the high school we recently hosted the National Honor Society uh induction on November 21st we had 81 senior NHS student members uh who were admitted either in the spring of their junior year or their fall of this year um and so they had an induction ceremony and were um inducted in by and and and introduced by a particular staff members who they held in very high esteem the National Honor Society also ran an annual blood drive um six students 16 years and older were allowed to participate and the NHS members ship volunteered during lunch to talk about the event uh and to get interested students to sign up for the appointments uh we had two staff members and over 30 students signed up to give the gift of Life 27 units of blood were donated and special thanks to Teresa Murphy for uh spearheading this event Bernville middle school has an art Club it's open to all fifth 6th 7th and eighth grade students who want to expand their knowledge of art uh there's a lot of great things that are happening here um the Somerset Hills Education Foundation has also been active in their um in their um Grant process and Chef is in the process of donating uh funding in order to um to gift a clay recycler um to the Middle School um we're seeing a lot of work certainly in these photos uh and Beyond um in the area of clay work and so um you know we're thankful for the um for the support from Chef this year the High School tennis team had another successful season this PA this fall uh capturing its second consecutive State sectional Championship um that's a big deal that makes them uh the um the sectional winner two years uh two years running so congratulations um to the girls on the tennis team and certainly the coaching staff we are looking forward to March and um Legally Blonde is going to be the spring Musical and uh that will open on March 7th of 2025 uh seems like a long way away but it's right around the corner um right now it's looking like we have 50 students that are participating and uh we're starting rehearsals right after winter break um so I'm looking forward um to attending that kindergarten registration is beginning uh for next September uh that will open on January 2nd when we return from break uh all parents and guardians of children who will be entering kindergarten in 20125 can go online to our website and they can pre-register uh for that process uh so more information will be uh available on our website shortly uh as well as um you know other various means uh we do have a dedicated District regist this year um and uh we're looking forward to this process um March 10th 2025 at 4M we will have a meet and greet um that is uh that will include uh our teachers and staff members and our home and School Association Representatives um at Bedwell for our incoming kindergarten meet and greet again that's on March 10th uh it will be in the courtyard and we'll be able to offer tours uh of the buildings and we certainly uh incourage um families of every new student to attend so we will continue to host uh information in our Friday folders and 2025 is just around the corner um looking to 2025 we are going to be able to launch a new District website and we're in the process of examining our current website and we're reviewing multiple platforms I'm going to speak a little bit about uh the different platforms and some of the feedback that we've received from the community and some feedback that we have receiv received received from um a a task force that is that is examining uh the different websites uh the long long version short is that we have two options uh that are both very very good uh that both uh meet ni Seed where I believe uh the uh stakeholders and the parents and the staff members have asked for and it's just a matter of kind of arriving uh at a final decision but there are some things um that I will share with you tonight you know in advance of that decision uh we do have a flash survey out there for uh parents and students and staff members uh and even community members um to give their feedback regarding um regarding your thoughts on a website as of this afternoon uh we had just under 300 participants um in that initial survey 115 parents there were 64 staff members who don't have children children in the district there were 133 staff members who do have children in the district uh two community members participated and 65 students uh from the high school participated uh we asked um it was a short survey we asked um questions that were connected to the task Force's work and the task Force's questions uh regarding kind of being able to get some direction from the community uh so the first prompt that we posed was uh had to do with social media um and uh the The Prompt was official social media feeds are an important component of a district website um 56% of the respondents agreed 18% didn't have an opinion one way or another with that um creating and posting content to a district news feed on a district website is important to me um 64% agreed with that state statement and 21% did not have an opinion either way um so we're finding that um there are essentially two different options when it comes to um what is becoming more prevalent and more popular with um hosting platforms um one item that we're seeing are district websites that have uh a variety uh one or multiple depends of social media feeds that the district populates and supports um a second type of um website that we're seeing is a um almost like a a locally grown news feed that on some platforms looks like a social media feed in how it appears but the content is created um as as an example by like a Communications coordinator you know in on our on our site it doesn't go out to like an actual social media site but it does appear that way on the website um so that was kind of like well what direction do we want to go in um we do have an in-house content creator here um in the area of communications um uh Mia bivet does a uh terrific job creating content so um you know we kind of felt like we we had that we were well positioned for a locally grown kind of news piece uh the feedback from the community survey supported that um that assumption um by and large there uh 89% of respondents agree that a functional activity calendar on the district website is important um that message has been received um and completely understandable uh we asked folks to rank items in the area of importance to them uh they were given five things and they had to put them in a particular order um so the the predominant order that participants um submitted was that calendar function functionality uh is an absolute Community mandate that they are placing upon this project well over 70% have ranked this as their primary desire um number two was the ability to host a district app um this is important uh because there is a there is a percentage of our um our parent group here that are predominantly Spanish speaking that rely on quality apps in order to get their information uh they primarily utilize uh handheld cell phones in order to get that information uh they don't typically have a uh a desktop a laptop an iPad or a tablet that they rely on to get that information so um having a quality app uh came in as number two and again is essentially a non-negotiable for this project uh District created news feeds uh translation services and um interestingly social media came in as last um and that's kind of in concert with some with some thoughts that I've shared with the board uh probably a year ago about you know my personal perspective on um on hosting and monitoring social media um at the district level we really want our website to serve you know as the mouthpiece because there are a variety of platforms that people you know probably prefer to look at you know when they consume their information and their news and you know I feel strongly about having a quality website that is like that one stop that they would make at the district level so those are the items of importance um from a ranking perspective so here's a slide here we create our own news feed these are the last three stories that we uploaded to the district website uh it is a bit tricky to find um but this is content that we have created uh on our own um we've done well over 50 news stories in the last year and a half if not closer to 100 you know I would venture to guess at this point uh so we have the content here and I'm going to show you on a few slides um what some websites have um as far as like a news feed and a news function uh so this is Virginia Beach's website this website platform um is a platform called final site um if you look on the left there's a blue um there's a there's a blue thing right on the left and that's essentially a pop out for news um so that second that this following slide shows what happens to your website when you hit the blue tab on the left um a news story pops out um typically they would be um in sequential order um they would take essentially all the news stories that we produce we could put them there and they' be right on that homepage Virginia Beach happens to have it uh on the homepage and it is a sharp look and this is kind of a side by side or top bottom of what um What that particular website does um all of these websites whether it's with final site or with you have the ability to customize the website um through um to to meet what your particular needs are as you arrive you know at them um so and and that really is unique to the district it's Unique to the user and um you know I'm pleased that they have the ability to offer a template but we also have the ability to customize to um to meet what our needs are uh final site has uh some exemplars and um so we have some national exemplars a regional Exemplar and a local Exemplar and um I'm not going to review the exemplars tonight however this will go out and be put on our website and we you know I had hundreds to pick from and again I just wanted to have a national regional and local um so final site is a very big company and is is in every state in the country and has um a lot of good examples and um so um you can examine that at your leisure um I have a very brief video here uh before we hit play Ricky um I I do want it noted that I figured out how to put a video into the presentation uh which was kind of a stretched me a little bit um the apps are very important to um the district and to the community and we do have two very brief videos that kind of show um two different apps for two different platforms [Music] D oh you you go [Music] [Music] and uh moving moving forward we have also apig which is the second platform we looked at there are National Regional and uh local exemplars um so again at your leisure they also have an app uh this is more of a tutorial from a school district but um it does offer an opportunity to understand um its reach introducing the brand new app for Muro Central School District on Android and iPhone it's everything Maro in your pocket this is the home screen tap the schools icon in the bottom right to select a specific School tap the three horizontal lines in the bottom left to see all the menu items to turn on push notifications tap settings and select turn on notifications the event section shows a list of events throughout the school you can use this button to add an event to your calendar or tap here to share the event with friends and family the feed is where you'll find updates from Administration about what's going on throughout the school whether that's celebrating a Student Success or reminding you about an upcoming deadline search marbor CSD New York in the app store or Play Store to explore the app for yourself it's everything marble in your pocket so our current status is that um both of the platforms that we've looked at do meet the needs as stated by the district and now by its stakeholders um to the task force uh we will prioritize calendar functionality we'll prioritize an app and developing a local news source within its website uh both FL both platforms are at similar price points both platforms have the ability to customize we haven't made a decision but you know once we turn into the new year we'll definitely be making one uh we got great feedback from a dedicated uh task force that does include um some parents that know a lot about uh websites and some of the behind the scenes um functionality of website so I thank them um significantly for that and uh we'll kind of turn it over to the tech team to look at uh some of the um more particulars about um just the roll out and and just the functionality from a from a district perspective but both of them are are very strong products and we'll be happy with either one um so this winter and spring and into the summer we offer um some Community engagement opportunities in order to review programs into in order to do strategic planning and even budget uh so we have operation responding for excellence uh we have three sessions planned um one in January and two in February we're examining our student services programming as a whole uh on January 23rd will'll focus on Norm development um on public sector organizational um communication research and how those structures are applied here uh we will discuss at at De the Paro princip we will have a Hands-On desert survival activity uh for those uh participants and we'll debrief that session we'll start February 4th with a review of the Paro principle uh we will then uh dive into what I call fishbone activity to determine uh fatal errors inside of the system um as far as our processes uh we will talk about systems control we'll talk about systems Improvement and we'll debrief that session um the third session will start um with um briefly in the area of humble inquiry uh we will then um kind of all hands you know on Deck develop long range student services strategic planning we'll develop um understandings between multiple parties and develop um not only special education parent advisory groups but we'll identify the structure of those groups the leadership of those groups and the continuity of those groups uh the responding for excellence will continue to be led by me on a quarterly basis as well in parallel with the special education parent advisory groups so we have three initial sessions planned uh in February and um I'm excited to do this work certainly uh we also need to um develop a strategic plan for the next 5 years um so we have Imaging 2030 uh we will conduct that work um during March and into the spring and and early summer as we develop a strategic plan and very coordinated action plans in order to um to meet and exceed what those plans set forth um and we do need to have uh extensive participation from the public uh we will begin that um solicitation process right when we come back after the holidays when you know folks are you know kind of past the the hustle and bustle of just through December um and um ramping up for for March we will be developing the budget in the winter and um we will also be having a public session on a Saturday a budget Retreat for the community um and really that gives the board and the community a deep and Broad understanding of what is included in the budget why it's included and um you kind of talk about some of those goal pieces uh as well as we look ahead we we we do close on Friday and resume on January 2nd uh we have a reorganization meeting uh on January 2nd that'll be the night that we uh say goodbye uh to Mr de gr pre and Mr Joyce and thank them for their service um and then we will welcome um two new members uh to the board as the board re organizes uh we will then start our committee meeting process uh shortly thereafter um with with some luck during the week of January 6th um as far as you how quickly you all are able to reorganize and get your committees together um and then we have our regular public meeting and then our first session um for operation responding to Excellence I wish everybody on the board in the community a happy holidays um and certainly um is a time to reflect and I'm certainly very appreciative not only of the board but of the community and um their unswerving support uh for education in the Somerset Hills so thank you uh for that and miss frienda that does complete my report okay thank you so much Dr brochel um so then at this time we're going to move into our first public comments for actionable agenda items we very much welcome input from the public public comments are welcome at this time on any actionable agenda item towards the end of the meeting there is a second public forum on any topic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you'll be interrupted and asked to pause to allow any other members of the public who would like to speak an opportunity to do so an individual May return to the podium to complete their statement after everyone else has had an opportunity to speak for a total of two times at the podium please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in instances where the board feels there is a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss matters regarding specific Personnel public comments will be limited to 30 minutes a reminder for all parties and attendance to remain respectful and that there should be no interaction between the speaker and the audience no members of the audience should interfere with or interrupt the speaker's comments we thank you in advance for your input and if you do come to the podium um Miss Bessel who is serving as our board secretary will um have her timer going and we'll turn it around for when they're at the podium so that they can see how much time they have remaining because at 3 minutes I will have to interrupt um for anyone else who would like to make a comment so if there's anyone who would like to make a comment on an actionable agenda item you can take the podium now no okay can I get a motion to close public comments Miss Santoro and a second Miss Nathans thank you very much okay before we go into the um action and business part of our agenda I just had two quick housekeeping and informational items that I wanted to share with the board and the public the first Dr brochel just touched on so we're not going to go into depth here because we will be honoring our um departing board members in January however um December is always a time to um as we're closing out the year and it's another year of service it is a time to to Express gratitude um to all to all of you to all of us for the service that you do um I said last year and I'll always say um it is it is a lot of work it is a lot of time it is a lot of heart and energy and departing board members Mr Grand PR and Mr Joyce um you have brought a great deal to this board you have made us better and um we are very grateful for your service and we look forward to being able to honor you in January so thank you very [Music] much um the second thing that I just wanted to touch on is um organizational board governance related items um in the last six months to a year we are certainly and we always are but we are certainly striving for the greatest adherence to our parliamentary procedure which is Robert's Rules of Order and um last month I went back and I watched our meeting and there were a couple of things that stood out to me that I just kind of wanted to highlight so that as we go into the business portion of the meeting this evening it's at the top of mind and just kind of Refreshers and reminders for us we all do governance training about best practice and adherence to Robert's Rules so um the Robert's Rules of Order they're the greatest thing that it does is maintain order and have an you know a a a fluid and very organized um procedural meeting um some basic principles that I just wanted to um reiterate that I I thought we needed to kind of tighten up um after looking at last month's meeting was that um no person should be should speak until recognized by the chair this is as per Robert's Rules of Order personal remarks or side discussions during debate are out of order and should not be taking place at the table only one question at a time may be considered and only one person may have the floor at any one time um so that is uh that's all under Robert's Rules of Order and um those are just things that will keep our our meeting moving and keep it organized and keep it um calm the next thing that I wanted to just just for everybody's edification because I think the role of President um sometimes poses a little bit of not necessarily confusion but mystery I think there if that the president has some type of power or that that's not how it works it is added responsibility and at a meeting the role of the presiding officer is to introduce business in proper order per the agenda to recognize speakers that is an official uh role to determine if a motion is in order to keep discussion F focused on the pending motion to maintain order and to put motions to a vote and announce results um um and then the general rules of debate for boards which is what we do when we go into discussion after we have made a motion and seconded a motion and just things for us to be cognizant of that all discussion must be relevant to the immediately pending question and when they talk about the pending question that means the motion so if we're in finance the motion the action items what has been read out um by the chair uh all remarks should be addressed to the chair no cross debate so even though you know we we tend we tend to be relatively casual and it should be able to be that way but board members aren't having discussion with each other it's you're speaking to the full board so um everything gets directed to the chair tonight that's me January that could be somebody else so this is just all edification for the future um and debate must address issues not personalities so the things that we are speaking to should be content oriented and should not be personal in nature or any asp aspect of personalities or you know things things of that nature um and then just it because it was something that I did that night and it is something that I have done in the past kind of when uh discussion has gone on for an extensive period of time and maybe some board members uh comment that it's time to end the discussion um and we've moved it on I I do tend to make sure that everybody is an agreement but there actually is a very specific way to End discussion if it doesn't formally and that way naturally and it's called calling the question or calling the previous question and that can happen when we are in discussion and you cannot happen while someone else is speaking so while someone's speaking you can't say I want to call the question but if you have been recognized for The Chair by the chair and it is your turn to speak at that time you can say I'd like to call the question you need a second which the second then would be closing debate and would be asking for roll call after the second is had it would be asking for all those in favor and that would be a visual it wouldn't be an actual roll call it would be a visual and you need to have it's not just a simple majority it has to be a two-thirds majority um of the board to call the question and to go into roll call which that would be the end of the discussion on that debate it is a formal way of doing it and that is the appropriate way to do it if we you know if we want to End discussion um and then the other thing that I wanted to to point out which um this has happened in the past where in kind of like the chaos of discussion it has not been heard but um a point of order so if there is a if there is um a difference of opinion or you feel the procedure that the chair is not handling things properly if procedure is not being followed properly that is an interrupting thing that you can do and you can say I have a point of order and at that time everything stops you're asked what the point of order is and the chair then rules on that point of order so those are official ways to kind of if there if there are you know differences of opinion in the way things are going or questions about the procedure and process of the governance in that particular evening those are the official ways to um to participate in that so I just kind of wanted to make that clear uh and if there are any questions we certainly um you know they can certainly be answered at any time so just things that you know came came out of last meeting and I I know it is something that has been brought up and that we all strive to make sure that we are running an appropriate well-governed meeting so um those were just my notes from last meeting since this is my last meeting of uh this school year the 24 um 23 24 school year as president so with that I would like to move into the approval of the minutes um would someone like to make a motion to approve the minutes for the public input and action and executive meeting minutes for November 20th 2024 Miss Ry a second Mr Baker and is there any discussion for the minutes nope okay Miss Bess roll call please Mrs D Mrs de pre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce abstain Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Beller yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs fenda yes thank you okay thank you we are going to move inter finance and in a rare event Finance did not meet this month um but before we move into any motions I just wanted Mr Baker if there's anything that you would like to note on our action items or regarding Finance from the past month I wanted to give you the opportunity to do so uh yes thank you um yes the finance committee did not meet this month um which is a rare occurrence it will not happen between now and June I guarantee it um I want to call the board's attention to uh items 8 n and 10 because they're not everyday item as you would see I think we want to thank the anonymous donor for the $13,700 for uh helping the brard uh School culinary arts scholarship um they do a great job down at at fotek and the food is excellent and I um I think our students will benefit from that scholarship then the SEC the second item is number nine um I know the curriculum committee talked about this in their report but this is a grant that helped um learning acceleration so that's that's over $4,000 there and then the last item is we we touched on this at the last meeting we're Hiring Our architect to do a long range facility plan which will help us identify things for the referendum um and we're also G to hire them to uh help us with the pre pre-re pre-referendum work we're going to conduct between now and next year so those are the only items that are unusual I think the public should be aware of okay in the board thank you so much um then at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve action items number 1 through 10 on the agenda Mr B in a second Miss Cooper and any discussion for finance nope okay Miss b roll call please miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs R yes Mr Baker yes Miss Balor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D pre yes Mrs frienda yes thank you okay thank you um and before we move on to F and O is there any old business that anyone would like to address for finance or new business no okay then we will move on to facilities and operations and another committee that did not meet this month equally as uh rare but that was the case and um misso if there's anything that you wanted to I know that we're pretty brief here on the agenda um we're just going to be moving the hi reports this evening um but I do just want to note and thank Dr brel and the administration and the team for all the work you've done on the website it's wonderful to hear and I know um as a board member and a parent I'm really looking forward to the launch of that so okay it's great work thank you excellent I appreciate that I want to point out that Connor Flynn is a newly hired employee um that works in the district uh he went through our school system um when I got here he was like working here for free um and I kind of asked like who is that and he oh it's Connor and um he's done a terrific job not only assimilating himself to the district uh but also taking the lead on a a very challenging project um it's not easy to do a website so um I have very little to do with that presentation he's he's really done a terrific amount of work uh on the back end and um you know I appreciate him great yeah that's excellent thank you thank you okay so then at this time I would like to ask for a motion for um action items number one and two on the agenda Miss Soro and a second Mr Grand pray and any discussion for FNL nope okay let Miss special roll call please Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs R yes Mr Baker yes Miss Balor yes Miss Cooper she said yes yes sorry thank you Mrs Jor and pre yes Miss gills yes Mrs fena yes thank you okay and um again if there is any old business or new business for facilities and operations nope okay then we will move on to curriculum that did meet and we do have a report Miss we met uh the curriculum committee met Tuesday December 3rd for an hour and a half Miss frienda Miss Santoro Mrs Ry and I attended along with Dr brel and Dr Butler uh before I report out out on our meeting I just wanted to respond to a request from our last public board meeting uh board member asked us to look into the possibility of changing our opt out policy regarding our health curriculum to an optin policy ultimately our committee decided against considering the suggestion in our committee for several reasons first satutory obligations require us to make curriculum our curriculum accessible to all of the students res serve since parents do have the ability to opt out of certain specific content our district has and our district has Prov our district has provided clear and explicit guidance both in English and Spanish on how to opt out of certain components of the health curriculum and will continue to do so second our board has discussed the suggestion before in 2022 our board did uh agreed that our changing our policy to an opt-in polic policy would not meet our obligations to make our curriculum accessible to all our students third the question of whether boards could use an optin policy for health standards was posed to the new Jersey school ethics commission which found that instituting an opt-in policy would violate educational laws and regulations designed to ensure that districts provide access to content supporting State mandated standards and violations of these laws could have significant consequences uh we as board members have all taken an oath to uphold and embrace all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders uh pertaining to schools um as a result Dr brochel and the majority of our committee agreed that allocating time to this topic on our agenda would not be productive so instead we began the meeting by discussing our dist the district's progress on developing an AI policy an initiative that is nearing complet completion Dr Butler indicated that the policy provides General guidance on the use of AI by students and faculty but leaves room for the district to adapt to the technological advancements expected given the rapid evolution of the field the New Jersey Department of Education is currently working on AI standards but they are not yet available additional pro professional development on AI is needed uh no concerns were raised regarding any of the PD or field trip requests and then Dr Butler informed us that we received additional funds to support high impact tutoring which we'll be voting on which we just voted on which uh Mr Baker briefly discussed the district will most likely be using these funds to support additional tutoring for our uh English language Learners uh next we briefly discuss CPR training for our staff according to Dr Butler Dr CPR training is among the most popular of the PD programs offered to our teachers but there's a need to streamline this training in our district to address this need scheduling CPR training will now be managed out of the central office Dr Butler then provided a brief update on the status of the district's progress on realigning the math curriculum between BMS and the high school Dr ederton will be attending an upcoming curriculum meeting to provide more details but Dr Butler reported that the district is making significant progress in recent weeks administrators have met with their ad Bedminster count parents to ensure alignment and uh Cross School articulation between teachers at the middle school and the high school is also underway administrators continue to look for ways to provide more instructional time at in the Middle School in math to increase the robustness of our math curriculum parly for our eighth grade students finally we reviewed we briefly discussed the status of the bilingual kindergarten program uh which is new to our district this year um while Mr Catelli will be attending our meeting in January to provide a more comprehensive update Dr Butler emphasized that the program is going extraordinarily well thanks to our enthusiastic and highly trained talented staff and in and in part to the expansion of our preschool program and that concludes my report thank you very much so then at this time I would like to ask for a motion to approve action items number one through four on the agenda I'll make a motion Miss Cooper and a second Miss R and discussion for curriculum yes Miss G my understanding is um so you guys didn't even discuss opt-in opt out so the whole thing of put it in this basket and we'll discuss it at the meeting it was just dismissed without discussion we went through quite long rationale about why it was not worthwhile to discuss and would probably be violating our oath as board members to move that move in that direction so as I think the majority of the board disc majority of the committee decided it was not a valuable use of our time so can I speak again so we can play this game where I bring something up and it's not worth our time discussing um you made that no offense you weren't here that decision was made in 2022 you were not here yet what do you mean I wasn't here yet no no no Dr uh brel sorry the be is get me um why didn't we put put in as much effort about this that we did for the lights I think I want it on the agenda I want to speak on it in January at the committee meeting we've already decided that we're not it's not worth fine I still want it on it but you're speaking about it right now so if you're if you're speaking about it right now as long as I can speak on it it's not a problem um and I'm I'm so sorry I'm just going to interrupt because um Miss Bessel pointed out an inaccuracy I made I just wanted to amend that motion um I had made a motion for Action items number 1 through four and action items number one through six so I just want to make sure that the the motion and the second still stand okay my motion is still okay thank you and the second okay go ahead Miss SKS I'm sorry okay um I don't understand how it's against the law to have an optin option for that it would not dissuade anybody from participating if they wanted to my child had to take a bus from BMS to BHS two-page permission slip with doctor's names allergies food allergies doctor's phone number that was just for a what three block ride but you're going to be teaching kids sensitive information that parents may want to deal with themselves at home and you're putting it in opt out and I'm telling you the Hispanic parents are missing it I don't care if it's in Spanish they're they are missing it so if I was told the first year we had a 6% non-participation um the next year last year was 1% nonparticipation what is the fear in putting an opt in I'll tell you I for Oh I thought I was supposed to address the chair yeah yeah yeah yeah but if there is someone are you are you still speaking you she can answer me that okay or Dr would you want to take this I can I I think the simplest way to explain it is what you're asking for the Comm committee to review um is not permissible in Administrative Code um in statute um to the point where I haven't been directed to any statute that permits a school district to restrict access to a particular curriculum um which is what an op in process would do um so it's ABS in any language in statute that permits us to do this because you see as a public as a board of education and as a public school district we have to Avail all of our curriculum to families and students um they have in this particular case the ability to opt out of it um and so there is a carve out there for them to be able to do that there is not a caral to not offer it which is what an opin policy would do um so I also shared with the committee that this exact scenario has been considered by the school ethics commission um and in in particular a board member had reached out to the school ethics commission and asked the following question if I or my board does not or elects to have a optin policy specifically to health um instruction you know will myself or the board um be put in Peril for you know violating the school ethics act uh and the commission came back in in short version and said essentially yes because of the facts or the information that I just shared that it's not permissible in statute to do that and we have to Avail the curriculum to all the students that were serving um so you know for those reasons you know it is my opinion that it is set forth in statute and it has been considered by the school ethics commission that it's not permissible and to even at this very moment nobody has shown me any statute or or or law that permits any school district from restricting access to curriculum so you know it's for those reasons that um I don't feel like it is a discussion that is worth having the committee can have it however the majority of the committee I has made their position clear on it that they want to follow statute um and they don't want to put themselves or the board into a difficult position with it in particular because there is a carve out for families to opt out now I will say that if we need to redouble efforts to uh further communicate and further educate um not only the Hispanic Community but the community in general uh we will absolutely do that can I have I want to ask you a question about something you said I just want to make sure that there's no one else that has there's no one else that has anything to say right now Nicole did you want to say I just wanted to say that the reason why opt in versus op opt out opt out would I mean opt in policy would exclude students is a lot of just the research shows that op in policies generally are not a lot of people miss them people people who probably would want that would not get the be would not have access to the education and that's that's the the problem with the opin policies will be missed so what is the statute one minute yeah can I Sor can I speak I just wanted to say I I do want to reiterate in the um committee members felt very strongly that we have looked at the process for op opt out when this was initially brought out and the uh Administration made improvements to Brian to sorry Dr brell's point if we need to do that again we are all very supportive of that notion that if there are ways that we can make it more the opt out process um more understandable or accessible to people who do not feel that it currently is the committee fully supports that but that's an administrative role that is not a board role and um so that was you know given the specifics regarding opt in versus opt out and that we need to ensure we offer our curriculum to everyone we felt that if improvements to the opt out process need to be looked at administrative would Administration would certainly do that so I want to make sure that the committee is supportive of that is there anybody else okay Miss goes Dr brel when you say it's statute what Statute opting in or making education accessible to everybody so can you clarify your question because you're the way you're it's almost like you're conflating the two some people might understand it to mean that it's against the law to have an optin for the health curriculum is it against the law to have an opt-in for the health curriculum it's not permissible to my knowledge in statute so it's against the law it's not permissible in statute to knowledge and here's what I'm saying there's no language that I have ever been directed um to review that suggests having an optin policy is permissible and the school ethics commission did review this matter on behalf of a board member who had the very same question you had and the short version is that it's not permissible to resp restrict access to curriculum um to your students but I'm not asking to restrict access to the curriculum that's where I think it's getting a little uh fuzzy so can you clarify what you're asking for I want just like I had to fill out that paper for my daughter to take a three block bus ride to opt in for these classes I don't think opt in is against the law I think what you're saying is denying kids this curriculum is against the law but I don't I mean unless you're telling me that opting in is literally against the law so what I'm saying is and and and I'll say this you are equating an extracurricular program getting onto a bus for A Chorus Event to a curricular program so like they're not the same field trips it's extracurricular but tied to a c to to the curriculum usually so it in in the case that you are presenting you're presenting an extracurricular program that you are authorizing us to put your child on a bus and move them to another facility for uh in this case I Would Imagine A Chorus practice so the best and I and I felt like I communicated this with um specific code citations which I don't have right Nowa in in those emails I would suggest that you review them if you feel like I'm in error I would like to know like where and I'd be happy to review it okay um more than happy but the the best answer I can give you is that there is no statute to my knowledge that permits a board to restrict access to curriculum that's not what I'm saying I'm not saying to restrict the curriculum from the children but when a board implements an opt in policy that is what will happen how so though isn't it easier opt in I for me personally I see the paper I sign it it goes to school rather than me going to the Friday folder to opt them out it's it's just a much easier step and then you're just m that much more certain that the children in those Health classes are wanted there by their parents so in the event that my analysis wasn't deep enough I will re-review no no I'll do it don't worry okay but I I'll do it on behalf of the board I'll re-review the relevant statute um and I'll certainly report report back to the committee but don't do it like during Christmas time or break well um I I serve it your pleasure and uh you know it's it's enjoyable for me yeah okay I just also want to that end is um the opt out is specific to the house standards curriculum the standards and Dr I won't put you on the spot right now to speak to what it means that something is written in code and how statute is developed for the purposes of Education um that sort certainly I think you know that's something that we could certainly do at the committee level um if necessary but um but we have to offer curriculum to all our students and while for one of us it may be the opinion that it's easier for it to be opt in well if we're going to do opt in to curriculum we need to do it for all curriculum because the carve out specifically from the state is to opt out not to opt in it is specific it it allows for an opt out so if you are going to have opting ins or curriculum you're going to need to have the option to opt into all curriculum um so that's first second is um the just because one of us or whether it's us or Community member feels that opting in and you know you get the permission slip you fill it out and you send it back um when I was teaching that was not the case um you hunted parents down to get back permission slips and you know to ver to clarify whether students were permitted to go on trips weren't permitted to go on trips um so the fact that there's you know that there is an opinion based on whether um it would be easier that's personal opinion and we have things that are written into statute and code that specifically say it is an opt out based on moral um religious Etc preferences and it is the only area in curriculum where that's allowed so it's specifically written in in that way it is not unclear that is exactly what it says so I just wanted to add that and I think Miss Soro you wanted you I'm okay actually I just have one more question if I can remember [Music] it why would I remember it wait let me just read what you wrote you were I was writing what you were saying Sam hold on okay this is it um are there any districts in New Jersey that have opt in not to my knowledge no okay not to my knowledge no thank you yeah okay is there anybody else okay then can we have roll call please miss pel miss Nathans yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs R yes Mr Baker yes M Balor yes M Cooper yes Mrs dor pre yes M gills yes Mr Joyce yes Mrs friendo yes thank you okay and now we are going to move on to Personnel Mr Grand pray we did meet we met on December 5th um from 4: to 5:15 all committee members were present as well as Dr brochel And in regards to Personnel besides reviewing the agenda we actually can comment on a few things this month um so we had a very nice discussion about how well the bilingual program has been doing and how well it has been received um at the students have been making great strides and great achievements which was wonderful to hear um we also reviewed our current demographic report for the district um and we looked at the current amendments to the organizational chart um with the title changes and position adjustments that were um completed this year and that is the end okay thank you okay so then I would like to make a motion to approve an action items number one through 15 okay on the agenda can I get a motion Mr Grande and a second for personnel uh Miss gills thank you and is there any discussion on Personnel no okay can we have roll call please Mrs Soro yes Mrs R yes Mr Baker yes M Ballard yes M Cooper yes Mrs D pre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs frienda yes thank you um and just before we move forward my apologies we wrapped up curriculum so I'm going to do it for both I I will ask um if there's any old or new business for curriculum no and also for personnel is there any old or new business for Personnel then we will go right into uh policy okay so during the policy portion of the meeting we discussed policy 50 7510 um which is facility use so the discussion we had was around um prior recommended changes to the facility use policy um and that was just as a reminder the removal of Pop Warner language the removal of the fees for usage of Lights um and the change to submitting requests for field usage um and other facility usage to the business office versus the principal's office um and we recommended the policy to come here in second reading this month um we also dis discussed the um life's policy the current policy is more extreme for removing students from the school than is necessary based on the Department of Health recommendations as well as um more extreme in notifications of parents um to note with this for any parents that have concerns we are not required to notify parents of cases of strep or pink eye which are much more easily transmissible than lice um so they are working currently to update this policy um to be more in line with Department of Health standards and changing the notification process as well um to help to reduce stigmas for students in association to license the schools so that will be coming back to committee um when it is amended uh we also talked a bit about policy in terms of extracurriculars at BMS there was a request um from outside the district for students from Bedminster to possibly join some of our extracurricular Sports programs um due most specifically to the wrestling program being added at BMS um the committee unanimously discussed and was not in support of this as there are community- based programs for wrestling locally currently and um we're not having challenges in Fielding any District teams and we wanted to ensure that our students within District were having adequate access um to our sports teams um we also reviewed um any updates with the AI policy that is under discussion um and reviewed what's going on on there uh we did talk about cell phone policies which was brought up by a board member for discussion in our last public meeting um Bedminster is currently doing the same in regards to cell phones so we looked at a um a review of a survey that will likely be coming out in the near future and the US doe information regarding cell phones um and currently our policies are at BMS and bees any cell phones that are present are in bags and lockers until the end of the day and it be HS students can carry their cell phones and use them when they're in the hallways or in between classes and lunch some rooms in the high school do have as the kids refer to them cell phone jails where they generally um are very well accepted by the students and they Place their cell phones in a secured location um usually a shoe cubby or something like that at the front of the room and they can collect them at the end of the class um so this survey will be coming out to students and parents um looking at current practices and how we interact with our cell phones um throughout the district um and after those discussions we reviewed the draft of the current agenda thank you so then at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve action item number one for policy Mr Grand prite and a second Miss Ballard and discussion for policy yes m r um I'm sorry Mrs Nathan I didn't remember that you brought up the cell phone policy last uh last meeting and um given the uh the directives we're getting from the Department of Education right now and the American Pediatric Association about cell phone use and it's delerious shall we say effects uh in particular in an educational setting I think it's really good that we're taking a long hard look at this um as a former teacher um I could see what was coming down and I could see it getting worse and worse each year and um I feel like we've kicked this down the road for a while not we in general but like all schools have kicked this down the road it's time to take a long hard look and um I'm forgetting the name of the book what is it the anxious generation yeah yeah it's a very enlightening read I will say that thank you okay is there anybody else for policy I was just going to say sorry that's okay go ahead yeah I just wanted to thank the committee for for starting to look at it um and I'll keep up with Bedminster and doing the same so that um I think we all get a little bit too anxious when we look at too much so thank you just so you're aware Dr G and I have had um extensive discussions and you know I'm pleased that we're in initial alignment um as far as what you're doing and what we're doing at the kadat it's pretty pretty identical so I'm sorry Mr Joyce yeah no thanks um so I think there are a couple hot topics on this too because of the cell phone and the AI conversation which again being that this will probably be my last discussion um I guess if if I were to say a wish or what what have you on the AI also is not to allow it to get kicked down the road I know the state is coming out with certain initiatives and things but to remember that we we can also Implement our own policies around it too because we don't want you know in the same conversation as cell phones and all the detrimental effects we there's a lot of excitement about Ai and how to use it properly but then also how to not over overly rely on it so um to healthy balance but again these are some hot topics and then the only other thing and the third third one was the facility usage I was happy to hear that um the athletic director was involved in the conversation about um numbers uh the the the number of nights we could use past 10 p.m. um and it sounds great I just never want to see it restricted for our students but again we have um significant amount of lights right now so hopefully that doesn't change but if it does it'd be nice to have that flexibility so but uh yeah I just want to follow up on AI it's a bit like learning how to ride a bike um for the professionals the administration uh so we do have a plan that we're going to communicate out uh in the early winter uh which we're happy about and excited about uh we wanted to have something that allowed us to grow I mean we wanted to have something that from a technological perspective we weren't biting off more than we could chew uh so we are offering uh particular resources to start uh that we have a team kind of vetting out and searching um particular platforms and then we're also talking about um growing our Platforms in like kind of like a sensible targeted way um as they hit the market also um so we'll probably be in a scenario where we're looking like maybe twice a year at additional resources so we at least have an opportunity to vet them out um frankly the the main area of concern and this is more for policy but I want the whole board to be aware that how these third parties utilize student data is uh very much a risk an unknown we just we just don't know enough and again when we when we leave work in school and go about our day everybody is probably using AI in some way and you know our data is being being you know shared and stored and whatever and it's a fact of life but um being that we are responsible for uh overseeing children and and and their data like our our Network team needs to be kind of comfortable with that too and I think that's like that's the overriding piece that I think every District in the state would tell you they're concerned about um that we just don't know what the the answers are we don't know where it's going to lead and it gives us some pause so there are some AI mechanisms and tools that we are examining that um have been out on the market for a while you know and I every week There's a new platform right but there's there's a few major ones that um many people are aware of that I think we're going to kind of get our feet wet on and then review so um so I just want the board and the committee to to know that we're uh pretty active there and we will have something but we'll also you know be growing into it so so look at like the policy is like your starter home you know you know someday you may have something bigger but you know this is good enough to start off on I appreciate the time and attention too can I ask a quick question MH um what are colleges and universities doing uh I don't really know the answer to that question okay um I I know anecdotally from my children that many of them are utilizing Ai and in a very extensive way um in a very way extensive yeah so my college age kids are are suggesting as much so um but we haven't really dedicated a lot of time at like the higher ed um but I know they're doing something and particularly for the kids that are currently in high school we want to you know at least give them you know some semblance of you know having access to some platforms but um you know that also takes willing Partners at the classroom level and you know we're not at the point where we're like mandating you know artificial intelligence you know we're you know certainly encouraging people that have have ideas on how to implement it and want to implement it we're kind of supporting them so it's um you know colleges certainly are using it I just don't know to what extent thank you I just also want I I I wanted to just um clarify because I know it's something that we had seen in some trainings and that we had discussed um in curriculum and in policy the there are distinctions between AI that our Educators would be using in trained on in platforms they would have access to and anything that we would be allowing our children to have access to so you know it would we would our Educators would have vetted platforms that we would endorse for lack of a better word for district usage but that would not correlate necessarily to what our kids have access to so I just wanted to make that distinction okay is there anybody else okay then roll call please um Mrs Wright yes Mr Baker yes M Balor yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D pre yes M gills yes Mr Joyce [Music] yes Miss Nathans yes Mrs Soro yes Mrs frienda yes thank you okay and is there any old or new business for policy no okay then student services Miss Ballard thank you uh the student services committee met on December 5th at 5:30 p.m. in attendance in attendance was myself Mrs dega ran pre Mrs Santoro Miss Cooper Miss fenda uh Dr Brill and uh Miss kky who is the director of student services and we continued our discussion with Miss kuransky and Dr brochel as we Tred to seek a better understanding of special services so we're talking about the Section 504 of the Ada and uh Miss K kuransky discussed the differences between Section 504 versus an IEP in that 504 ensures access while IEP is an individualized special program the IEP impacts the 504 for example limiting a major life activity we use Frontline for creating IEPs and 504s this year a rep from the federal Education Association came to speak to our school counselors and administrators about 504 attorney Eric Harrison spoke to them as well about legal issue issues pertaining to 504s he also spoke with the child study team at a faculty meetings in all three buildings regarding I IEPs during the 2023 2024 school year 504s are gen Ed and sometimes there are speech only IEPs there are over 100504 is in the district 504 plan's goal is to provide access where students with disabilities have the same opportunity to succeed as their peers without disabilities iips focus on individual PL and specialized instruction and related Services IEP meetings are required to be done every year and 504 meetings follow this practice as well to review the students needs and necessary accommodations although an IEP does not carry over to college students can get support in college through an accommodation plan there is no independent funding for 504 comes from the student services budget Dr brochel added that we need more layers of help to be available a board certified behavior and an analyst role could help with classroom management um also from a PD perspective there is a need for more tools to deal with challenges versus sending students out of District uh there also was the creation of the lldd language and learning disabilities program for grades K to2 students in this classroom primarily are eligible for special education under the categories communication impaired and autism uh we also spoke about caralis um car Solace the goal of car Solace is to bridge the gap for folks who can't get an appointment with a therapist quickly and there's been a lot of anxiety spikes since August 23 so this is a wonderful program for our school to have uh there was a meeting with the somerset County's Prosecutors office um there's a special needs registry where uh there's work with police and the registry contains info about certain folks and police underg safety care and training so they're prepared to deal with situations psychiatric screening is done by agency risk assessment could result in a referral for psychological screening um and then HIV data uh more cases open than a year ago uh Middle School cases have a focus on ethnicity um there was also a meeting about reunification planning uh so how to reunify students um both at St Elizabeth and at our district um as to where students stud faculty and staff should go in an emergency and that's the report okay thank you um there are no action items for student services so um there's nothing to vote on however does anyone have anything for old or new business for student services nope yep Felicia you're doing great put that on the agenda um okay we'll move into board announcements the views and opinions that are that are may be expressed by individual members of the Somerset Hills Board of Education during board announcements are solely those of the individual board members and do not reflect the views opinions policies regulations and or positions of the Somerset Hills Board of Education and or any other individual members of the board so at this time do we have any board members that have anything for board announcements uh Mr grand um since it's my last public board meeting I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you um for letting me serve on the board um for the past three and a half years um through the great leadership of the board I have learned a lot but more importantly we as a board have accomplished a lot I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot but a few that came to mind when I was thinking about it was we have increased transparency to the public with our adjustments and how we cond conduct board reporting and have more open discussions we've established norms and seen strategic plans come to fruition and we've created new ones and we'll shortly be creating another one we've made improvements in facilities curriculums budgets student services extracurricular activities School cultures and Union relationships and we've accomplished all of this by choosing to work together to move the initiatives forward in keeping students at the centers of each of our decisions there's always more work to do and I have no doubt that under the leadership of Dr brochel Dr Butler and the board presidents of the future that will continue on the correct path um I want to thank all the board members for sharing this experience with me um and I wish you civility in 2025 in your meetings as well as a happy and healthy holiday thank you no was there anybody else me if you don't mind um first I went to the show I think that was last night right the choir that was last night right my my days room ex blending in it was beautiful if they shut the lights off at one point it was really cool I liked it secondly I want to apologize to you Kristen cuz I was last month's meeting was quite hectic and I'm sorry really truly I know it's the third time I've said it but I did it publicly so I should apologize to you publicly thank you truly I am okay is there anybody else for board announcements no okay then we will move into our second public comment session um public comments are welcome at this time on any topic please state your name and address comments are limited to 3 minutes at 3 minutes you'll be interrupted and asked to pause to allow any other members of the public who would like to speak and opportunity to do so an individual May return to the podium to complete their statement after everyone else has had an opportunity to speak for a total of two times at the podium please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board with the board in instances where the board feels there's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with New Jersey statute the board will not discuss matters regarding specific Personnel a reminder for all parties and attendance to remain respectful and that there should be no interaction between the speaker and the audience no members of the audience should interfere with or interrupt the speaker's comments we thank you and advance for your input and again we have a timer that will be set here and um will be turned around so that you can see where you are in your three minutes because at 3 minutes I will need to interject to let anyone else go if they'd like so at this time on any matter if someone would like to come to the podium squeaky shoes hi I'm Kelly Hunt um from Valentine rad in berville um I wanted to say uh that um my son's thirdd grade class um got very lucky this month because some people worked very hard to get Mrs o to come back as as their substitute which was um greatly needed for them and um she's just such a wonderful teacher um we felt I think I don't want to speak on behalf of all all of the parents but the parents that I know um are incredibly grateful um and uh yeah so that's wonderful um my middle schooler um who uh has really grown to love the um fifth grade team um was in the um uh choir concert last week and um I just want to mention how much he loves Miss Jurgens and she has just done an amazing job and everyone I know um who child has her is fantastic um fantastically excited about her um and I also just wanted to say thank you to Mr Joyce and U Mrs Dr Grand Pre you guys um I can't imagine how much time you put in to volunteering so um and your voice has been really uh impactful so thank you thank you Mrs hunt appreciate it wait I'm so sorry hold on one second we're having technical difficulties probably I won't be 3 minutes I promise you to it just looks big because the is big I got it good we're all good okay okay my name is Meredith panic and I am a district school psychologist working at Bedwell elementary school I have been a member of the child study team here for almost 12 years and I can't believe it but I've been working in the field of special education for 25 years I live in this community I have children who attend school in the district and I have the unique experience of being employed in the special education department in the community in which I live um and through this opportunity I hear concerns regarding my department shared at meetings here throughout town at meetings that I hold in my office at work I am here tonight to share my experience as a Somerset Hill School District employee working in the special education department my intention this evening is to share my perspective with the hope that it will help others to see that special education can be viewed differently and perhaps clear up misconceptions about what it is that we do special education is about ensuring that every child regardless of ability has the tools and support that they need to be educated appropriately in special education no single individual holds all of the answers nor makes all of the decisions decisions regarding a child's education are made by a multi-disciplinary team including Educators Specialists and parents or Guardians in our district the child study team or CST is the Center of that collaboration the CST works together with teachers Specialists and parents to assess the students strengths challenges and needs together this entire group of stakeholders develop an individualized education program IEP that reflects an understanding of the student throughout this process effective teamwork requires open communication mutual respect and a commitment to the child's success there are other factors which shape the outcomes of special education that are beyond the control of the decision-making team these Encompass larger scale issues such as funding resources and systemic barriers which impact special education decisions these barriers may exist at the district level or Beyond and must be considered as they directly and consistently impact special education I stand here tonight to share with our community that the Special Education team works hard to meet the children's needs in the most appropriate way possible in L of challenges mentioned earlier effective collaboration amongst all relevant stakeholders including administrators Educators related service providers ERS and parents is what yields the best outcomes for the students we serve the department leads that charge by following the special education law which informs the ethical responsible decision-making needs to meet the students needs the district has planned a series of meetings in the New Year operation responding for excellent Excellence the purpose of these sessions appear to be to examine some of the barriers to special education and to share personal perspectives of the decisionmaking process I am eager to participate in these meetings and I look forward to working collaboratively with all who attend thank you thank you very much Dr [Music] [Music] Panic put moment time just in case yours breaks I'm just Kidd I'm kidding uh I would want to I want to re reiterate what a couple just me and oh sorry Ash Davis uh Rolling Hill Road in Burnville I just want to reiterate what a few people said from the board as well as what Kelly Hunt said and thank Mr de grume and Mr Joyce for your service I appreciate what you've done I don't come to all these meetings but I come to a few and um um yeah it can't be easy so I appreciate what you've done and you've made a lot of progress the second thing I would like to say is also uh reiterate what and I didn't get your name but I apologize just how much yeah um I know you work for the district but how much the special education department means to the families in Somerset Hills education District it's been a a a big help to our family uh as a personal uh uh experience so I just want to reiterate what you said and and the work that you're doing I hope to be a part of I signed up for that Dr brochel uh in addition to that recognition I just want to say at the middle school where one of my boys is uh how much I appreciate and I know a lot of parents appreciate uh Miss pascarelli who works in U you know helping children with some of their um anxiety that we talked about uh just to use that word a second ago has been a big help to our family and I would also say uh with regard to the cell phones uh as a parent uh get rid of them in school I don't think they have any place uh when you walk in that school your focus should be on that school and anything you're doing on that phone um should not be done while they're in school um that's just my opinion so thank you very much thank you very much Mr Davis is there anybody else for a public comment this evening no okay then I would like to um ask for a motion to close public comment Miss R and Mr gr prite um and we need a motion to adjourn I'll make a motion to turn and a second a second and all in favor hi hi hi okay everybody have a wonderful holiday season wishing you peace and joy