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 and 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 roll call please Mr Baker here miss ballor here miss Cooper here Mrs D grume here miss gills here Mr Joyce Miss Nathans Mrs Santoro here Mrs Ry here and Mrs fenda here okay 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 be clearly in danger of unwarranted invasions and the matters about to be presented for discussion clearly make the circumstances test of such act the Board of Education of Somerset Hills now adjourns its 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 Miss Ry and second Mr Grand pray thank you okay well since we have a quorum as the rest of our board members filter in I'm just going to ask everyone to rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pled 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 thank you everyone for being here this evening and I am going to hand it over to Dr brel and the report of the superintendent thank you Mrs frienda uh first item of or uh first order of business tonight is our student Representatives report and um we have Chloe and Nico that are here from the Middle School coming back to talk to us uh with some great news uh regarding the science league so come on up Nico and and Chloe [Music] hi my name is Nico Stefani and I'm representing the BMS earth science team and the track team the earth science team just wrapped up and it was it was a really great success we're the third place Statewide even even just being like the only Middle School Statewide doing earth science so that was a good success and it really bounced back cuz it was shut down for all these years after Co so this was the first year we started it back up again and uh we had two two people place eighth in the state overall which was a good success and maybe five or seven people able to attend a lot of competitions three it's like three or more you get like a certificate and stuff like that and Mr Mr King was an amazing teacher um he loved the science SE and like I said to all the success placing third in the state and the team overall was just a great experience over the past few months not only that but I've also been doing the track track team track was a fun experiences experience the practices were challenging but fun and the meets are such a blast I did shop Hood in the 800 which I I really like those events I found them to be a lot of fun the coaches mr' howerin Mr LV Mr Marlin and and Mr D Simone are amazing coaches they did a great job of making sure everything ran smoothly throughout the season and it really improved our times throughout the the whole season both there science team and the track team made the past few months such a great experience now I'm going to turn it over to Chloe uh hello members of the board my name is Khloe Cauley and I participated in peer leaders in course here at BMS now since the school year has coming to an end peer leaders are engaging in activities with the fourth graders from Bedwell that includes putting together a lesson about conflict and how we could resolve it additionally here at BMS uh we want everyone to feel welcomed so the peer leaders have been given uh giving tours of the school letting all the students like know their way around the building also as the days go by the eighth graders are a day closer stepping into the high school as freshmen but because we're still in eighth grade we're going to um we're going to close it out the best way we can that includes preparing for graduation a graduation party house days a pool party and field trips while we're on the topic of field trips bms's astonishing chorus group succeeded to obtain a superior for they singing while on their field trip uh to Dorney Park despite the fact that the weather was not on our side um we still enjoyed the amusement park uh after acquiring a trophy for our um singing lastly while I do not participate in softball or baseball I'm reporting on our school season the boys baseball team earns uh earned six seed in the up and cominging County tournament and will soon face uh whippy in their first round of playoffs uh next Tuesday on top of that the girls softball team had a great win last week against Floren Park and now they're also preparing for the county tournament thank you so much for listening and have a great evening it's been great hearing from the middle school students all year and I just want to uh point out an uh point of reinforcement uh that Nico spoke about uh Bernard's uh burners middle Burnsville Middle School uh competes with high school teams uh in their competition and wins and uh that is a really important point so thank you so much uh our next um set of presenters are from the high school uh Gabby and Madison I believe are here just Madison good evening I'm I'm Madison and I'll be delivering the student updates for BHS for both myself and our other student representative Gabby denola starting off strong with our sports teams the girls across team is 10-5 overall and 7-0 in the division as always our boys lacrosse team is also doing well this season they hold a 12-1 record and our six-1 in their division the team will start their first round of playoffs next week girls softball have a 13-5 record and are 8-1 for their division They just won a big game yesterday against delal boys baseball currently has a record of seven and 10 and one and they're four and three in their division boys and girls track are running in the Somerset County championships as I'm speaking both doing well so far some highlights Carson Crane so far whose class of 2024 has got second in the 200 meters and first in the 400 meters Brody W class of 2026 and John Richardson also class of 2026 placed third and fourth in the 1600 meters Lucinda putam class of 2025 placed fourth in the girls 1600 M and Zachary baral class of 2025 placed fourth in the P Vault B hs's musical department has also been Super Active recently with performances from the band Orchestra and the chorus the Crimson Cafe took place just last week where the jazz band performed alongside the Middle School the magic gos are singing at the Somerset Patriots game this upcoming Saturday and are also going to Ruckers on Wednesday May 22nd to sing in the music festival they're also going to Hershey Park on Friday May 24th the string in the spring instrumental concert happened just recently where the band performed many musical numbers and the spring Coral concert is set to take place on May 21st where the magical and all other levels of the chorus will sing the peer leaders have just finished conducting interviews and inductions for next year's peer leaders pulling from the sophomore junior and incoming senior classes for the 2024 2025 school years they also have organized the e8th grade orientation with the peer leaders which is set to take place on June 3rd this event shows the incoming freshman what life will be like for them in the high school organized and ran by the club both the Crimson newspaper and the Bernardi and yearbook have things coming soon the newspaper has another issue coming out this week and the Yearbook Club has just wrapped up the making of the 2023 2024 yearbook the senior prom was just set to take place on Thursday May 30th at the Maple Grove in forest lodge in Moren New Jersey AP testing has been taking place all of this week and last week where students have been taking exams to commence all of their advanced placement courses this is in place of final exams for a lot of students and wraps up on Friday class class Clash capture the flag is taking place on the 17th this event gathers students and has them playing in an after school tournament have captured the flag there are other class class events placing next week where the students will compete against one another to decide which CL which class is best njsla testing is taking place this upcoming Monday and Tuesday where freshman sophomores and juniors will all be testing various subject matters on a Statewide level and now never seen before the senior class has lobbied and been granted option 2 PE class study halls this gives seniors the option to now come in late and leave school early if they have study hall not just built into their schedule but also for gym exemption study halls last but not least decision day is taking place both May 1st and May 15th the seniors this year due to fast foot issues have extended time for their decisions but the general deadline for all college decisions is taking place tomorrow May 15th commitment day has been moved from May 29th where seniors all show up to school deck in their new College apparel and they share where they're decided to go to school for the next few years thank you once a year we take a moment and pause and give thanks and recognition to the students from the middle school and the students from the high school that have contributed to these Board of Education meetings and at this point uh first I'm going to call up Miss Garo who is the principal of the middle school thank you very much thank you thank you very much our BMS students who speak at board meetings give willingly of their after school time to share updates and happenings from the BMS School Community I am appreciative of their efforts and I am always so impressed by their ability to be composed and speak in front of a group a phrase they hear me say often at school are we're rock stars and these are our rock stars here with us tonight so I'd like to call you up one by one um and thank you again so much so I'd like to call up first Alexis black Teddy de gr pre Roco parente Catherine East Caroline soul Alex rutz is not here with us tonight Gabby pno La [Applause] Davis Owen [Music] Wolf great job Nico Stefani Abby Ren is not here with us tonight Luke saxel Amaya Ram is not here with us tonight Isabella pagata is not here with us tonight and Chloe cofle and for those eighth graders heading up to the high school Dr Nigel knows how great you are and he's expect big things going to miss you okay for the high school we got quality right not quantity we don't quite as many um but this year we uh selected were uh Gabby de Nia and Madison FIA and I'm going to just say a little bit um they were chosen to represent BHS uh because of their involvement in school activities leadership qualities and passion for academics I've been so impressed with them this year in our meetings and their presentation during board meetings both Madison and Gabby have worked hard to consider the most important student issues and present them to the Board of Ed I'm very proud of the way they've represented the high school in their ongoing communication with the Board of Education uh Gabby uh couldn't make it tonight but next year she'll be attending uh headed to the University of Wisconsin Madison and uh Madison fuia is headed to Sacred Heart University so huge thank you and a job well done to Gabby and Madison next on our our agenda is a recognition for the district teachers of the year and this is an honor and a recognition that uh certainly is well deserved and we have our School principles here tonight uh who are going to speak about uh individuals uh who have earn this recognition uh so our first principal is Mrs Jasmine Allen good evening board members good evening students good evening all of our community members that are here I am truly privileged and honored to stand before you today to congratulate and celebrate an exceptional educator who has been chosen as bedwell's teacher of the year Mrs Jessica marani oh miss marani I love you so much Mrs marani is a thought ful Master teacher who invokes rigor while nurturing the spirit of young minds her dedication and passion for teaching are unmatched and it is evident in the impact she has on her students every single day one of her nominations perfectly captured the essence of Mrs Mariani's influence at Bedwell it reads Mrs marani is invested in all of her students progress behaviorally and academically she is compassionate and informative when discussing students needs this is a true Testament to to the tremendous care and commitment she shows toward her students I commend Mrs marani for establishing a rich culture of learning her classroom is known to provide positive enrichment and encouragement to students she demonstrates a great balance of differentiating students needs while also allowing students to have a healthy struggle with challenging task on behalf of the entire School community at Bedwell I want to extend a heartfelt congratulations to Mrs marani for this well-deserved honor thank you for your unwavering dedication your tireless efforts and your commitment to helping every student Thrive and succeed you are an inspiration for us all congratulations Mrs marani we have Miss Galo uh up next good evening again I would like to present to you bms's educator of the Year Don Russo the word that comes to mind when describing Mrs Russo is simply beloved by students parents colleagues and AD Administration Mrs Russell is the embodiment of a collaborative colleague she is sought out as a mentor willingly volunteers to lead to help or to join in any situation even with years of teaching experience there remains joy and wonder when entering her classroom she continually seeks out opportunities to learn through professional development and graduate work she sets an example of a lifelong learner quite simply Mrs Russo is an Exemplar and on behalf of the BMS community and Somerset Hill School District congratulations on being bms's educator of the Year Jo and we have Dr Nigel who's going to represent the high school so BHS teacher of the year is uh Mrs Christine Whitlock Mrs Whitlock has been a chemistry teacher at burnner high school for 24 years and exemplifies the qualities of an outstanding teacher she's incredibly passionate about her content and her students working tirelessly to help them succeed every day Mrs whitlock's lessons are thoughtful and Innovative always is exploring new ways to engage students in learning she utilizes interesting Hands-On activities to bring the study of chemistry to life helping students both understand and appreciate the content Mrs Whitlock has cultivated respectful relationships with her students and finds ways to make learning fun even in her rigorous honors and AP courses outside of the classroom she runs several co-curricular activities including chemistry club and chemistry team offering opportunities for students to further their study of the discipline she consistently volunteers on committees like the school Improvement panel principal's advisory committee and exploratory committees for new initiatives she has hosted stem panels for students to explore potential careers in the field and has mentored many new teachers in her Department despite being a master teacher and a revered colleague it feels like each year she only gets better while maintaining the same passion and enthusiasm for teaching she is most deserving of the recognition of Governor's educator of the year for Bernard High School BHS is truly fortunate to have this year's educator of the Year Mrs Christine with I'm going to call up Miss Allen again uh for um Bedwell and she's going to be followed by Lisa G Buffalo for the Middle School greetings again I am thrilled to stand before you to congratulate Mrs Donna zarowski on being named Educational Service professional of the year for Bedwell Mrs zborowski is a dynamic reading specialist who goes above and beyond to support her students and the mtss team one of Miss debow's nominations perfectly captured the impact she has on her students the nomination stated Donna Works magic with her students and she that she is given and through all of this she not they not only gain a joy of reading but their self-confidence blossoms this is a testament to Mrs zal's dedication passion and Innovative strategies in helping her students succeed Mrs zal's advocacy for her students and her commitment for helping them reach their full potential is truly inspiring this is evident through her student achievement data by the middle of this school year nearly 33% of her first graders have shown so much growth that they are no longer in Reading support Donna you are a miracle worker congratulations Mrs owski on the well-deserved recognition thank you for all that you do for our students and for the Bedwell Community congratulations hello I am presenting bms's educational service provider for the year Mrs DOL culo Mrs culo has been sporting students as a power professional in summers at Hills School District since 2017 she is consistently kind and caring teachers report that they simply couldn't do it without Mrs cerulo that having her in the classroom is a gift she goes above and beyond for our students at BMS often staying after school hours to support students in their clubs and extracurricular activities Mrs cul's tireless dedication to BMS and its students is truly appreciated thank you so much [Music] I have the great opportunity to be able to see Excellence at work every day uh in our schools in our hallways working with kids collaborating with adults and um these are repres Representatives uh that are at the very very very top of their craft and it's an honor to be able to call them colleagues so one last round of applause for the teachers of the year we have some retirees this year that are also leaving us at the very top of their craft and the very top of their game and it is uh always difficult to part and we do have some recognition of District retirees uh with us this evening um is are a few folks from the Middle School of Miss G so I'm going to call you up to speak about um your folks first thank you so much thank you well what are we going to do at BMS without Mrs Craver student centered a true child advocate and patience Beyond patience that is Marcy craer in a nutshell admired and respected in Somerset Hill School District as first a school psychologist then a guidance counselor and most importantly always a trusted colleague Marcy has truly served the children of this District in all capacities since she started here in 2001 and since 2018 Marcy has been a true partner to me as principal of the Middle School Marcy you will be missed beyond measure and you are truly Irreplaceable the magic that you make at BMS does not simply happen in your office it is the embodiment of the heart and the culture and the climate of the BMS School through peer leadership through our climate teams through the many interactions you have with staff and students and parents sometimes just simply in the hallway I wish you the best in your next chapter and I can't believe you're leaving but I do wish you the best thanks Mar Marcy and next I am honored to stand before you tonight to celebrate the retirement of a truly remarkable individual and that is Mr Steven STS Stephen has been an active Advocate at the somerset Hill School District for the Performing Arts since 1996 he has helped students literally find their voices and embrace singing as a form of self-expression he has provided countless opportunities for vocalists to explore and both grow in school and the Greater Community throughout his tenure here at Somerset Hills Mr Sans has not only taught notes and rhythms but has led with an unwavering belief in the power of music to transform lives and that is evident in the work that he has done through our concerts performances and musical competitions on behalf of the BMS Community I offer my heartfelt thanks and best wishes to you Stephen as you continue on the next pace of your journey I've reached to students at BMS and I asked them what words they would use to describe you and they said fun talented Goofy and a good singer and I told them that I would be here tonight speaking and what would they want me to say to you on their behalf and they said and I quote you have helped so many students Mr Sans and we're going to miss you so much thank you and we have an Honore here tonight from the high school and I'm going to call up Dr Nigel don't believe we do okay um so I'm going to ask you to say a few words for Miss Silva okay okay Miss Silva here tonight I was told she wasn't coming I don't see her okay um I will say though um Miss Silva she I I believe was the longest 10 year teacher here that we had 32 years her entire career here at Bernard's high school and so when you look back in the yearbooks um you see there miss Silva uh teaching biology and she really is an institution at Bernard's High School um you know really cared about her Craft um worked a long time in the science department trying to make sure that uh you know students who come up for the from the Middle School to the high school had a smooth transition they learn how to be a successful student really good with study skills getting students to understand uh what it takes to be a successful student um she had riger in her classroom but she did so in a compassionate way um she's going to leave a tremendous hole in her science department I know she works very closely with her colleagues um and uh you know great spirit true team player tremendous colleague um we wish her the best in her retirement so congratulations to Karen we have some folks uh that are retiring and are on the agenda tonight as well uh some of the recognitions that that we're sharing tonight uh are for folks that are out front and in front of kids and and working like directly on the front lines and then there are some that support us uh kind of like behind the scenes as they say uh so Debbie Thorp uh is a Works in our business office uh in accounts payable and uh she has uh proven over time to be an unswerving um loyal uh member of our central Office Team and of our business office and we certainly uh thank her for her service and enjoy and hoping that she enjoys um her retirement uh as well and um we also have Debbie rodenbach who is traveling and couldn't be here tonight but does send her best to all of her folks here uh at the board and at the high school uh and she too is enjoying her retirement she worked uh in the main office at the high school and uh handled a lot of of those tasks for Dr Corbit and she um got a head start and started her retirement in January uh and um case in point she's traveling already so uh so I think she's doing okay so congratulations to all of the retirees on behalf of the Board of Education uh we wish you well and thank you sincerely for your service get out while you can now now it's the time oh wait our bikes are my first [Music] R going to make a transition into the superintendent report uh we do have some news uh to share with the folks um want to report on uh what ended up being a galactically famous Student Activity inside of um uh inside of Luke uh lak's social studies classroom he he coined the Lark tank uh which is a play on a popular television uh series that I know I watch uh where entrepreneurs um Pitch ideas to some Venture Venture capitalists and it was a very successful program uh in our Middle School um Mr lasack has um executed this in his world history 2 classes uh for nine years here and uh he really has used it to expand uh some of the outcomes in his classroom students are engaged in research strategies uh and analyzing different challenges um regarding different types of inventions that um that have been used over time such as wood block printing vaccines the magnet magnetic compass and how gunpowder uh impacted lives and um Mr lasack couldn't be here tonight uh but he has uh communicated a lot with my office regarding um how much he enjoys his work uh and how much he enjoys this particular component of his world history 2 classroom so um you know with that this was covered in the press and certainly uh was a popular event amongst the students that he's serving we heard about the Crimson Cafe tonight uh the Crimson Cafe is in its 15th year uh as an event at the high school it has two purposes to raise funding to offset costs for field trips and for professional level Endeavors uh which includes recording opportunities and having artists uh come in and offer clinics um it supports students that are in our instrumental music program and it's meant to promote student involvement in our jazz band and um certainly jazz is one of the more complicated complicated disciplines so having Crimson Cafe really has been um a game changer for our arts program here at Bernard's High School uh so programs do take place at at Bedminster at our middle school and at our high school and they get together and they perform music um as a group and also as soloist so it's an awesome program and it's been great to see we also celebrated in April um some news from the middle school regarding student Samuel Emory um and uh he was recognized um as the legacy of Paul Robison um in the 33rd annual Paul Robison youth achievement awards um he was a scholarship Honore and a scholarship winner uh so that event was held at veriton Valley Community College in April and that ceremony celebrates High achieving African-American students uh not only in the area of scholarship but also Athletics the Arts and Community Service uh Sam is a bit of a renaissance man um as he goes about the different activities uh in his life he sings on stage he dances on stage he plays the trumpet he plays basketball he plays baseball uh very active in community service and he's an active member of the climate and culture committee at the Middle School uh and on top of that um I have personally seen him giving uh very sound and Sage advice to his classmates uh which has been uh really great to see um so he's an avid supporter of his peers and uh for good reason he was recognized by the Paul Robison youth Achievement Award so well well earned in about a month ago we had the newest unveiling of the wall of honor at Bernard's high school that's sponsored by the student council it's our fifth annual wall of honor and it's right outside uh the room here by the Performing Art Center uh we honored seven alumni um that evening and um originally this was scheduled for spring of 2020 and this was our kind of force first foray back into um into this recognition uh it was a beautiful evening and uh very very inspiring uh we honored Mitchie Collins uh he's a musici and lead singer of the American alternative music group called lovely the band um we also honored uh Chrissy holbeck um who's an actuary and she's been an actuary for more than 20 years she's been featured uh in trade magazines um across her field uh we also recognize Ley lenel uh and she has dedicated her life to making the world better than when she found it um in 2005 she founded the African people and Wildlife Foundation and has made a significant impact uh in the world uh leel odenweller became an acclaimed classical soprano soloist uh she also founded the Venice music project which is dedicated to preserving music from several hundred years ago uh we also honored Robert Terry who became a flight instructor for the famed tuskiji Airmen um and um certainly uh it was an honor for him um as a congressional Gold Medal winner so we had a great night um and really enjoyed meeting some uh alumni some recent alumni and some not so recent uh so that that was a really a great evening the Bernard's high school student that was named everyday hero this month is Mary McDow she's a junior uh and she um was nominated for this program is having a positive influence on the student body through exemplary qualities uh it's been cat categorized that she has an explosion of posit positivity uh great Vibes light heartedness um she's very happy um she's also quiet and reserved and and she helps breaks those quiet and resered kids out of her shell uh she's kind to everybody and uh certainly you can tell by her photograph uh that she puts a smile on everybody's face um including her own uh and she's hosted a host of fundraisers uh to support leukemia and lymia and Lymphoma Society called hope heals staying in in line with our uh Arts programs here uh we have some great news to report uh coming out of the high school uh the 2024 Central Jersey Marquee Awards recognized the 2024 BHS production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor dream coat uh with the host of accolades uh best overall production best lead actor best supporting actor uh two of them uh best student or ra best costumes best lighting best scenery best hair and makeup best choreography and best directing uh winners will be announced tomorrow um and that will also include a solo performance uh by the BHS lead actor nominee who happens to be a nth grader Nate deola so that's going to take place tomorrow uh five nominations six honorable mentions and uh certainly the Arts are alive and well here uh in the Somerset Hills so it's always great to highlight that we had a um the Key Club at the high school had an intergenerational prom a few weeks ago and what an amazing event uh very positive and really enjoyed meeting uh some of or really joining uh some of our youngest um Somerset Hill students together with or residents together with um some that aren't quite as young and uh it was very well attended and uh really enjoyed watching the kids interact uh with the prom attendees uh the Key Club put a tremendous amount of work and preparation and great care into the event uh and it showed and um we have just a few photos here um of uh just folks dancing having a great time and um enjoying the night so um intergenerational prom is back in action after what I understand was a Hiatus our school media specialist at Bedwell has returned um to Great Fanfare Miss brutin uh certainly uh celebrates all things literacy uh she has spent um tremendous amount of time in putting together uh great resources featuring books and authors that reflect the daily experiences of Bedwell students and it's been great uh welcome welcoming her back um um and uh seeing that program grow uh she's done a lot of um a lot of work around some important themes some holidays and diversity as well uh she teaches lessons hosts read aloud and provides resources for uh teachers and students alike in uh in important and critical areas so it's great to see the literacy work that is taking place at Bedwell High School uh is in the new news as well in our did you hear section uh we hosted a an escape room actually in this room uh and it was through our ninth grade English uh English program uh they participated in a Shakespearean escape room experience they decoded Clues with flashlights and solved a variety of puzzles and collaborated um with each other in order to uh complete a host of tasks and they were actively engaged this day I was actually here for this and uh it was just an awesome display of having kids applying um uh applying different concepts to um to their learning and seeing seeing instruction um combined therein bwells HSA hosted a bed Wells Got Talent event and uh certainly this was awesome to be able to see teachers and students uh performing all sorts of different fun stuff and as you can see from the photo uh there was a lot of fun that night uh 30 acts and um the evening did in also include a stage crew which hosted um several um changes of of of Acts and and repertoire Etc so um HSA is at it again for bedwell's Got Talent and again a very very popular event and our middle schoolers um took place or took part in the annual 7eventh grade car wash and bake sale uh they're are soon to be eighth graders uh took place on May 4th and all proceeds are going towards the eighth grade class trip in 2025 there were 55 sth graders who participated there were 15 parent volunteers special thanks to the Middle School HSA board members and co-chairs uh who helped organize this event um so I heard a lot of great positive praise um over the weekend for that our Garden Club at the high school continues to grow Mrs Snider is doing some terrific work um as it relates to the Garden Club there was a Mother's Day terrarium building event uh here in our cafeteria we have some photos here that we were able to promote uh in the local press uh we had over 60 attendees uh and you can see multigenerational there um as well and uh very much um a positive event and and well-received um overall for sure and we have our annual pin wheel project here for the team Campbell Foundation you'll see outside of ulot uh the annual pin wheel project fundraiser um is is out and and um you know collecting donations Etc and it's a uh an important reminder of um the importance of supporting the Campbell foundation and and um um supporting families that are suffering um the loss of loved ones with pediatric cancer we have some anticipated openings for the coming school year we have a social studies opening at the high school we have a music teacher and a special education teacher at the middle school Bedwell as a kindergarten teacher a classroom teacher at the elementary level uh we have a pair of professional for special education um a lunch regular pair professional and a self-contained uh teacher at uh Bedwell um as well we have a leave replacement position uh early in the fall for the high school in the area of physical education and we also have some a variety of District level positions uh as well you can reference our vacancies at our website at shsd.org and I'm going to um make a trans a bit of a transition here and talk about the um some of the work that has been uh taking place at the board level um in the area of developing collaborative Partnerships um the uh I want to give some context to what this work is and and just kind of remind the board um there have been very constructive dialogue uh between the board and the Somerset Hills Education Association and I've worked very closely uh with a an ad hoc Committee of the board um and in addition to an ad hoc committee from the somerset Hills Education Association uh I'd like to kind of give a quick primer to the board on how collaborative structures uh can enhance student achievement can enhance the Frontline experience that teachers para professional support staff members and administrators experience and how that influences uh the bottom line uh when it comes to teaching learning professional development curriculum instruction and marrying uh student achievement there um so I know that we have um the board has this presentation at the de behind you is a photograph uh in that photograph um it's taken from about 1905 uh there are two um there there are a host of vehicles this um eventually will become uh the Model T uh there are a host of vehicles there uh there is a master Apprentice that is charged with constructing the Model T um a master Craftsman rather and then there's an apprentice who is there that um is learning how to do that he's learning how to create a Model T and this is how uh these vehicles were constructed in 1905 um so if you were The Apprentice it took you a o imately 7 years to get to the point where you were a master Craftsman where you were able to switch spots and build a vehicle on your own so back then they built vehicles um from the ground up um Master Craftsman builds it and goes through quality control and then and then it hits the marketplace okay so um probably I know they made iconic vehicles uh but it took a while to create that and to produce that iconic vehicle uh so fella named Frederick Taylor came along uh he studied uh industrial production and he does uh although his work was done um initially in the area of um the automobile industry it it did end up having an influence on public education um so he created essentially the assembly line model so you see a second photograph there where there's a line of cars and uh they started to separate separate tasks and and and offer areas of specialization so um in the Taylor model uh got a lot of clicks here um they essentially separated management from Labor Management were the folks that were supposed to do the thinking labor were the folks that were supposed to be the doing uh he split a task up into uh several different simple Parts uh so instead of needing to know how to create an entire vehicle uh if you were employed in this industry you were tasked with um one particular area of contributing to the vehicle uh so they created standards for each individual part that ended up contributing to a vehicle um they created classes of employees uh through this process possibly unintended uh there were thinkers and there were doers uh and then management alone was responsible for dividing labor and compliance and so uh what that created was uh over time the particularly in the United States the automobile industry um became second fiddle and really third fiddle to other countries uh predominantly Japan uh with the onset of Toyota um and Honda um and the the the automobile industry in the United States to took a significant hit uh so that system failed uh that system wasn't responsive uh to the folks on the front lines um so that system also um Prov that it was not flexible when having global competition um that system lacked focus on quality um it in it put a particular emphasis on um quantity um that system undervalued the knowledge that the people in the front lines had regarding how to enhance a particular way of conducting the work and ultimately we talked about how it divided labor um between thinking and doing uh so throughout you know this process the Frederick Taylor's influence uh was about 60 years the automobile industry ended in about the the mid 70s once um fuel crisis um emerged and once competition emerged from other countries uh so it shifting our our work in the area of Labor Relations from mass production to more of more of a systemic organizational shift we we started to see that employees were highly skilled uh professionals they were not interchangeable uh and they had the ability to influence uh the final decisions they may not have made the final decision uh but they had the ability to influence it uh you started to see more team based structures uh and more emphasis on groups um in general and so there's a lot of value and a lot of knowledge and a lot of ability on the front lines of in this case the automobile industry but the aut automobile industry is no different than what we do on the day-to-day in education you all are are governance I am management right there there's a way that we can engage the folks on the front lines that are working with our direct consumers our direct clients we can engage them in a host of different ways in order to uh reform the way that uh we are enhance our relationships with the front lines we enhance our relationships with kids we enhance our relationships with the folks that are working with kids and we can change the way that we conduct our work um in order to make our flow a little more circular and a little more inclusive and a lot less linear uh so um I am you know supportive of the board and supportive of proposing District level and school level Partnerships with our associations our Collective associations so we have the Somerset Hills Education Association we also have an association with the administrators uh as a way to engage those folks and Empower them um to be at the table of um decisions at the table of implementing um curriculum professional development uh things along those lines strategic planning um engaging in in shared decisionmaking and ensuring that goals are aligned to uh what we are charged with as a school district from the State Board of Education um enhancing our relationships with the folks in the front lines does underscore the importance that Educators on the front lines in our classrooms in our hallways bring to um innov uh from from teaching methodology to um different ways to you know Implement curriculum to ensure uh that the students here in Somerset Hills are getting the best of the best and in in order to enhance that we can certainly uh focus on um teaching and learning as as an important piece here take a bit of a walk down memory lane this is a bit of a second order change right um you know there's a there's a graphic here two circles Union management um and uh there's a line in the middle and and um you know that's kind of a a traditional look at how how the different groups uh interacted um certainly there's a collective bargaining component to this and collective bargaining is ensuring that uh the folks that you're employing are um have a have terms and conditions terms and working conditions in which they can expect to be consistently applied every day uh so this process has um has the ability to enhance and improve the um the process of collective bargaining certainly over time um there are common interests that we have um regarding um how unions and management um align their Collective work together um so they are and I'll speak for the folks that work here um in in our local associations that have partnered uh with the board here um they are focused on teaching they're focused on learning they're focused on becoming better they're focused on professional development and being able to have an influence on um implementation of change and um that slide that you're looking at now um shows that there's uh some partnership and there's some overlap between U between the two um and there's some commonality between the two uh there's a deep rooted passion uh that parties from from both circles have uh around instruction and and enhancing uh their Craft um so we elect to collaborate because we want our decisions to be better we want our decisions to be solved by the people that are closest to the problems uh we want to be able to arrive at solutions that are focused on uh teaching and learning and focused on supporting the folks um that are doing the work um which will certainly enhance our quality of implementation and certainly will enhance the manner in which the Educators uh in our district um are heard and how those voices are applied um so that's kind of like the why um we dive into collaborative relationships to begin with um developing Partnerships between union and management and I'll even group uh the governance structure in there at the board level are critical because they will enhance the way that we collaborate around different issues whether it's a collectively bargained issue or whether it's the implementation of a math program as an example um it will enhance our relationships with one another it will enhance the manner in which we conduct ourselves with each other around a common cause and uh certainly our outcomes our instruction and the culture in which folks work and and live the majority of the hours of their days in our district will certainly um will certainly see an impact and certainly will be influenced in a very positive way um so there's a there's a concept of Union and management and governance Partnerships that serve as a catalyst for Education educational collaboration um enhances our climate develops greater levels of trust uh directs more resources to where they belong and where they need to be um addressing issues and challenges that we have in our infrastructure enhancing our communication enhancing the level in which we share information across departments um for a variety of reasons uh certainly enhancing and um capitalizing on the development of Social Capital inside of the different structures in our district is such a critical piece to moving forward and I think the steps that the board and the association have taken are critical and overall having a defined partnership uh with your management and with your leadership um alongside with governance is going to add uh value to our system uh there are a host of things that you can collaborate around you can collaborate just as an example around instruction um practices um mentoring curriculum development and student performance data uh there are a host of areas in which we can uh formally study um the level of our collaborative culture uh in the district we can um and those include uh teachers efficacy goal alignment shared decision making the level of discretion that a teacher has um viewing your principal as a resource viewing your union representative as a resource psychological safety mentoring and problem solving uh these are all areas of collaborative cultures that have been studied um pretty significantly and uh they do have an influence on uh teaching and learning um nationally um over 500 school districts have proven over time that uh student achievement results in language arts uh have increased 12% and student achievement in math results have improved 4% uh again over 500 districts um you'll see an increase in um the research has seen an increase in seeing School principles as resources it's seen an increase in seeing your Association representative as a resource an increase in shared efficacy mentoring Communications problem solving Communications and integration Communications all of these have uh an important connectivity to uh your work here as board members uh and your desire to uh partner not only um with the management uh but also uh with folks that are on the front lines um like in our in our education associations so there is an intended consequence here around having um strong uh board relations with our uh collectively bargain associations uh to enhance those relationships so then when you get to things like the bargaining table there's uh typically a seamless experience um can be realized uh so the research has inform the practice here over time uh there is significant uh increases in host of different areas um that we spoke about so things that I've uh brushed on uh briefly before that um more collaboration um between union and management and I'll put the and I'll put the board in there as an important governance piece leads to extensive collaboration in Educators between schools uh so you know as we talk about transitioning from Bedwell to Middle to high uh we're also seeing an improvement in student achievement uh even after we control for poverty uh we're also seeing increases in uh climate that leads to the attractiveness of our schools to uh current teachers and our schools to perspective teachers uh down the line and again um having strong and stronger collaboration between the parties here does reduce the impact of poverty on teacher turnover and does increase teacher engagement in their work here uh so as a graphic here uh over time we have seen through this work the role of the associations change okay so on the left is an example of like what's a low partnership um there's there's a big circle there with uh uh around collective bargaining and grievance matters uh Collective bargaining is important grievance matters are important the way that contracts are applied and interpreted by the administration uh and and the management is important um but that's an example of like low partnership there aren't a lot of examples uh around teaching and learning implementing curriculum uh influencing professional development uh having a voice and budget development uh you don't see that on the left-and side on the right hand side you do have communication around collective bargaining and communication around grievance issues right that doesn't leave uh that's an important Lane uh it's a critical Lane and it's one uh that that I personally uh spend a lot of time in in developing relationships to ensure that there's um there's strong communication uh between the parties but there's three other circles in there too uh ensuring educator voice in decision-making processes uh and educational quality uh communicating about school Improvement uh both internal and external you those are now pieces where our associations have a um an important role in and an important voice in and much like the um they have an important uh role in the outputs there uh they have the ability to influence uh our end decisions and uh I've often found that um those folks in the front lines um have their finger on the pulse of student need programmatic need and their voices need to be heard uh and supported and and kind of shared universally um on the leadership side and and even appreciated you know on the governance side as as we all kind of team together so um Union Leader roles has changed over time since the 70s um but I think that um I think there's been an enhancement here uh teachers have a voice in quality now uh they have forums to participate in school decision School level decision making um policy development um School Improvement uh opportunities to to articulate and to verbalize uh this all leads to enhancing job satisfaction and again viewing the the quality of their Association and the quality of their Union as being something of high value to teachers um so since the 70s you've seen uh a changing of the roles with uh with respect to that so this is a graphic here um that shows what it was like maybe in 1973 and what it's like in 2024 so 1973 you had uh a linear um examination of um how work was conducted uh you see here there are multiple Lanes um you are in one maybe two lanes but not more than that um with a circular flow you're able to engage the webs of your organization much more comprehensively which ultimately you know engages their um connectivity to their particular School their particular district and ultimately makes the quality of decisions better um and influences the front lines in a much more significant way um so from a um Labor Management and governance perspective um I've given you sort of like the the quick 10-minute drive-thru primer on on the why uh but where are we now um in my time here I've seen personally enhanced relationships um between um parties across the district inclusive of the Board of Education um and the uh folks in our associations um I've seen transitions enhanced um and I've also seen the very beginning of redefining how we are conducting our Norms with each other uh amongst um whether you're articulating with um the Teachers Association or the administrators Association or as a board itself uh I've seen the redefinition of our Norms begin to germinate um we've asked ourselves in in some meetings that have taken place in the winter how do we want to conduct our work what will we do when we don't agree with each other what will we do when we agree with each other um what can you expect from me what can I expect from you um and the concept of accountability has become within the parties has become a very significant um piece to the work that uh Somerset Hills Education Association has done with uh the Somerset Hills Board of Education throughout our time in the winter um I don't want to um give too much of a preview uh but at the June meeting there will be a joint report uh which may turn out to be a historic joint report between the parties uh they are going to collectively um the parties that are involved uh report out to the public about what's what have they been working on together uh throughout the winter and again that'll take place uh in the um at the June regular public meeting um I presented um some research tonight um that uh research has been conducted in large part uh by the school of Labor and management relations at Ruckers University uh the primary researchers actually um uh do a lot of work in the education sector uh they actually started out oddly enough in the automobile field um they actually studied Saturn uh vehicles um as they were as GM um transition to Saturn uh about 25 years ago that's where a lot of This research kind of started but now uh there's some significant applicability to um education and they do a lot of research um in this field uh around teaching and learning and around student achievement and how we can engage all the parties in the district uh in the same way so it's um little bit of a primer tonight for the board more to come uh part two next month uh looking ahead you're working on the evaluation of the superintendent I know that the board is scheduling uh some Norm development and some goal work um the OT lights feasibility final report I'm expecting to be able to uh present that in June as well in addition to our communication plan uh your final draft uh we are implementing Genesis and continuing to do that at the district level and as we move into the early summer uh we'll have some rollouts for parents as well um and certainly student celebrations are on the agenda uh the high school at middle school and at Bedwell so um this is friender that finalizes the superintendent report for this evening okay thank you very much Dr brochel um and excited for what June will be bring and the presentation that lies ahead um we are going to move into the public comment section 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 will be interrupted and asked to pause to 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's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent May address the comment in accordance with Jersey statute the board will not disc matters regarding specific Personnel public comments will be limited to 30 minutes a reminder for all parties in 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 thank you in advance for your input and anyone who would like to make a comment Mr Marco um starts her timer at 3 minutes and you can reference that throughout your comment to see how much time you have remaining is there anyone that would like to make a comment on an actionable agenda item at this time NOP okay seeing none can I get a motion to close public comments Miss Ry and a second Miss Santoro thank you um next we will move into the approval of the minutes um I'm going to ask for an uh motion to approve the minutes from the public meeting um and executive minutes for April 24th and a special meeting for April 17th can I get a motion please Mr Baker and Miss Cooper second and is there any discussion on the minutes no okay roll call please Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard Miss Cooper yes Mrs D gr pre yes but 17 Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay thank you before we move into the report of the finance committee tonight we do have as we are starting to close out this school year um we do have a number of organizational items to approve I would like to ask the board for a motion to approve organizational items number 1 through 44 on the agenda um Miss Cooper and a second Miss ryy and is there any discussion on those organizational items no okay seeing none roll call please miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D gr prey yes Miss gills I'm a little confused with this one it's yes but for just yes okay confusing Mr Joyce yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay and now we can move into the report of the finance committee Mr Baker thank you um the finance committee met on April 29th for about an hour um all members were in attendance along with Dr brochel and Mrs DeMarco we talked about six it items the first item and we uh we have we actually approved our health care benefit program but I think it's important to understand we're in the uh uh we're in the school health um program which is a um a Consortium of about 80 other schools and so in the first two years you have to take the average premium of the group increase so that will be 7.3 for medical and the prescription card went up 9% so the Blended rate is 7.6% so between those two will be 7.6 uh we had budgeted 8% so that's good news um the Delta Dental is we're in our first year of a two-year policy so there's no change there and next year when we finish our two years in shift we will be able to go either up 2% or down 2% on the average based on our own experience so if our loss experience is good next year we're going to go down we could go up so um that's the way most insurance is working so but we still are in the group the group sets the it's the midpoint uh next year we also will be able to benefit from from a dividend plan if the conser of all the schools makes a profit uh above what the uh loss ratio is we can share in the profit so that's a profit sharing [Music] um we did the Bedminster tuition reconciliation so what we do is we estimate what the tuition is for the coming year like we've done that for the coming year but then when we get done with the year 2023 to 200 uh 24 we actually look at what it cost for for the Bedminster students it's very complicated formula it's a giant XEL spreadsheet and we use a third party to calculate this so the actual tuition for Bedminster was 2,245 and we estimated 19,200 so we're off about um about $1,000 so Bedminster would owe us $245,000 and change how whoever the resource room we calculate that's a special pullout um calculation and in that case we would owe them $88,000 for that special case so the net from Bedminster to us is 157,500 [Music] um the upcoming uh contracts for the assistant superintendent and the business administrator those will be we will have a public hearing on those in June okay he's Dr brochel is submitting those contracts for the county to be approved so that will happen at the end of January um next item was our food service contract is up for Renewal and we're voting on we actually voted on on renewing with maos and they have a slight increase in their management fee which is only $279 which is quite reasonable for the for the Improvement of the service we've had this last year um they've also recommended so we don't go into the into the negative to increase the lunch um fees by 25 cent so we're voting on that tonight on item number five and six and so it'll be 425 for Bedwell 435 for Middle School 450 for the high school and they also recommended rates for breakfast because we're going to serving breakfast for all three schools so this is their best guest based on their other school experience so they're recommending 250 for Bedwell 250 for the middle school and 275 for the high school we also discussed the um the hour rates for bus drivers and we're voting on that tonight and item number 40 under Personnel we we agreed to raise their hour rate by $2 to be competitive with the school districts around us so that' be $34 an hour so that we'll be voting on that later and the last item we talked about which is probably the most complicated item uh we're just starting um the administration and our Architects have put together a a revised long range facility plan we had an old one um and I'll let Heather talk about a little more about what those projects are I'll talk about the finance side so they came up with everything they could think of for the next 10 years that our buildings need uh from infrastructure from education Labs stem everything like that and came up with 50 projects for $82 million that sounds like a lot of money and we're not going to do all 50 projects next week but we wanted to see what we could go to referendum on for a bonding since a lot of our bonds are coming off what The Debt Service is so the bond council did a calculation for a break even that break even is we're going to add more debt but the taxpayers aren't going to pay anym instead of the taxes going down they're going to stay flat so they came up with 35 million would be the size of the bond in 2027 at 4% at a 20-year Bond now that number might change slightly because as we f- tun in it and and we go down the path we might not want $35 million in a referendum but we have to start thinking about that now and um we need to come to a decision by this fall whether this board wants to go to referendum The Following fall of 20 25 right so just start thinking about that what's your appetite for that what do you think taxpayers appetite for that are we need to do these projects this would be the start of getting not 50 projects done but maybe 10 seven I'm not sure what it come up with but I think the committee told told Dr brochel that we should they should now prioritize these 50 projects from high low and medium and then figure out what projects can fit into the $35 million as a start and we'll be discussing this in in fno and finance and any other committee that is going to touch for these next few months we need to make a decision by the Fall um and so it's going to take a lot if we make the decision then we have a full year to implement how to get it how to get the voters to vote on it and that's a lot of work I've done it once already it's not simple um you have to sell it you have to prove that that we need these things done and um I think this is a start so um they've done a great job at the starting line here now so we're at the starting line we got to now go go to the end so um I'm hopeful that we can get there okay and that's my report I'll turn it back thank you okay um then at this time I would like to get a motion to approve action items numbers 1 through 18 on the agenda I'll make a motion Mr Baker and a second Miss Cooper and discussion for finance I have a few questions Mr Raper um so you'll go into more specifics next month about the projects that were right so so they have a spreadsheet and I'm sure I'm sure Dr brocho he shared most of us already have it in the in the two committees so probably seven or eight of us already have it so if if if you look at the spreadsheet you're going to see various things on there and I'll let Dr brochel talk about that if he wants to sure we um at this point we had a walk through with uh with our architect our current Architects and uh we looked at a host of areas um in all of our schools and uh we identified 50 kind of higher need and some needs are higher than others um I think that some of our science labs need to be enhan I think we need to think strategically about stem and Robotics um we do have some roof work uh we have some infrastructure work um at all three schools in the area of uh sa and security as far as like wiring Etc um I'd like to see a more dedicated vestibule at uh Bedwell um many of the areas that we identified are what I would consider um if it's not um instruction related like in in science and Robotics and stem um or security related it's it's more maintenance of what we currently have um just kind of keeping up keeping up with it like you would in your own home um I'm not sure if um Mrs Santoro is speaking to what we came up with specifically tonight but we can certainly uh take a deeper dive with that in in June and then in my uh in in my update to the board I can provide the uh long range facility plan as it stands now uh so the concept behind long-range facility plan approval at the board level is um you have to have a longrange facility plan um um approved by the Department of Education in order to move forward with um any um shared financing proposals that you would propose with um for the Department to share costs so that has to get approved by them so doesn't mean that if we put all 50 things in there it doesn't mean you're like on the hook to implement them it just means that they will will will have gone through that review process as at the department thank you yep thank you Mr Baker okay is there anybody else can I so um for lunch prices they we' we've had to raise them the past couple of years do we anticipate holding steady with those hopefully going forward and then also are we in how do we compare to other districts and you may not have this information right now as far as like lunch prices go in general yeah we can we can get the comparable uh but the committee was pretty clear with us that it has been multiple postco uh increases that have been Cally forwarded onto us you know from our vendors uh but the appetite for that is is it sounds like is uh no longer um after this next increase yeah actually I want to Pigg you back off of that I have a question so the total increase for us is $325 for the district from mashio is that right the management Fe that's the management fee so so the manage so we pay them a management fee that's their Pro that's the run the man but we pay the wages in the food every month on on the bills list and and that varies so the cost of the lunch pays for for a lot of that the federal government pays us a lot for the free and reduced so it's it's so so the money is coming from different places it doesn't so raising the lunch prices or doing machos doesn't cost the board much more okay so it so it costs us what 325 that's the cost I had two I I had 279 is as the management fee increase okay so we pay maio's 18, 887 to manage our food service that's an increase of 325 from this school year and so to offset that we want to raise 25 no so the the food service is an Enterprise fund so it operates separately from our general fund so it's kind of like its own business okay so the food cost the labor cost everything it is offset by lunch prices and the money we get from free reduced lunch so we have been this past year in the red meaning we're not making any money we're barely making even and that's because the increased food cost for mashos which we all see in the grocery stores and increased labor costs so they're saying you know they recommend that we increase 25 cents so that hopefully the next year we'll be at break even Point like we're not trying to make money but we can't lose money okay so we're not raising it just for that 320 no no okay that was my misunderstanding can just can I ask um I thought in committee we discussed that we weren't even greem and we were right this year yeah this year which is why we are agreed to uh right now I think we're I I don't know the number off top of my head but we are you know in the red so they're trying to make us bring it up um and I think we will get you the comparisons at our next committee meetings but um I do believe we are on the low side for the County so okay that's right thank you Mr Baker um I know or I don't know we are still intending to go ahead with breakfast yes from the fall now um those prices will be comparable for bre I mean I know on the free and reduced I understand how that works right but for I mean let's say I come in and I want breakfast that's going to be comparable to the lunch price or no it's going to be it's going to be $250 at at the at the at the two lower schools and $2 and right so that that I just want the thing is they're trying to guess because they don't they don't know what the take up rate is like one thing we talked about I we want to know what the takeup rate is for lunch you know what what number does a population actually have lunch every day um I can guess it's maybe 40% I have no idea that's a guess but for breakfast your takeup rate is not going to be as high is lunch we know that so they have to figure out based on their o their other experience at schools we're going to prepare this much food so the first couple weeks for breakfast are going to be kind of like well let's they might have too much food or might not have enough they got a plan for that um and and the pricing they'll see how it goes you know um you know so we may come back maybe you know half halfway through the year we might have to change a price if it's if it's not adequate but I think it is you know because they're they're very experienced at other schools as I assume um correct me if I'm wrong we don't even get the numbers on free and reduced until into October maybe mhm no the status for free and reduced lunch at the end of June stays and Carries into next year but they have 30 school days to reapply because it's an annual application okay thank you thank you Mrs dear is there anybody else for finance um just quickly and it is finance related but I know when we discussed the breakfast options in fno it was a nutritionally balanced meal right that we're not like you said Bob we might have to change the the pricing depending but we're not skimping on nutritional value or anything like that they'll be protein we're in the national food program so they have to abide by the same uh guidelines as when they serve [Music] lunch the pricing I my guess would probably be to um Mr Baker's point is that the price it's probably going to EB and flow in the beginning like as more kids become aware that it's available and you know may want to great so like all of those things and the the take up like it's it'll probably take time to level out and figure out and that's probably where the price adjustments will come in thank you okay is there anybody else no okay then roll call please miss Cooper yes Mrs D Grande yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carried okay thank you and Miss Santoro facilities and operations please okay so facilities and operations met on April 29th um we um had our alternate Felicia Miss Bard um join us which was nice to have you our first time on fno and um Mrs DeMarco and Dr brochel was there as well um we discussed several items the first of which was the engineering service um RFP that has gone out as of the time of our meeting we had received some interest a walkthrough for interested bidders was conducted on May 8th and bids were due today those bids will be evaluated based on a predetermined point system um we briefly just reviewed the TM tnm contract that we had approved last month which was just a specific contract for Engineering Services for the lower fields and um we just discussed that briefly again in committee um we then moved on to school start times and this has been through the lens of discussing it with regards to our students that are taking the train um from PEC GL Stone and Far Hills and the very tight time frame for them to get to the high school to start um Administration is open to discussion around this topic and has begun to do some preliminary research with regards to those students in particular however it is um being suggested that we might want to consider this in a larger conversation around school start times in general as we approach moving forward with a new strategic plan so that is something that the board should give some consideration to um I know we've brought this up a lot of times that prior to covid the board had um started to embark on consideration of moving High School start time back later in the day and um you know as we start to consider where we want to go strategically for the School District board members should do um some research and consideration around whether we think that would be an important topic so uh we did discuss that and which led us to strategic planning our Uh current strategic plan sunsets at the end of next year here Dr brochel is recommending that we use an outside firm to assist the board and the district and the community with conducting our next plan and the committee just briefly discussed this at a high level and sees benefit to considering this and hearing more about Dr brussel's experience in his previous districts and um you know how he would like to kind of conduct that strategic planning process um we then just briefly discussed The copier contract and Dr brochel and Mrs DeMarco reviewed um how that process took place and how we were able to reach the decision um on who to use for the copers um we briefly discussed co-curricular transportation and how that is prioritize and as we now have all of our own in-house Transportation the administ is going to just review the policy for that the fire department is going to utilize um after some further discussion with Dr brochel the high school on June 4th for their competition and um we briefly touched on the long range uh facilities plan which uh Mr Baker and Dr brochel has touched upon so we certainly anticipate looking at those projects in more detail and the upcoming fno meetings and we briefly touched on culture and climate within the district and particularly at the high school and would love um to get um some recommendations from Administration on how to provide further information um to the board about the culture and climate and the student experience so that is it okay thank you then at this time I would like to ask for a motion to approve action items number 1 through six on the agenda I motion okay M and a second Mr gr pre and discussion for FNL I have a question or maybe a comment and J I don't mean any disrespected to you are we not going to address publicly about The copier contract and how we came to that provider given what was said at last month's meeting like in the interest of transparency wouldn't it be good to go into some detail why we're with that company rather than another company oh so um our copier contract expires this June uh some May June so last year uh I asked Jeremy to look at several different companies um for their services um Marco being the current company that we have um we were not satisfied with their service and um one aspect is we were trying to do the print release so our Focus was providing copers with that feature so um we also looked at Marco who we spoke to and they gave us a um review of what they could offer us um Atlantic tomorrow is a vendor that was recognized in our nation in my National Conference as the vendor of the year and um he belongs to my County round group um I did not know him um except for he was in my meetings so uh one I think in the early fall he happened to sit next to me at one of our meetings and I asked him what he did and he said he was in The copier business so I said we are copiers are expiring so he came and spoke to us um subsequently he had been in our district years ago but um had left and so anyways then also um when Jeremy went to um texo which is a technology uh conference in January down in Atlantic City he also met with Canon so that was the third so we had predominantly looked at those three contracts and um you know our purchasing for services like this we look at two to three companies and services and do comparison now each company offers different things so we it's not comparing Apples to Apples to oranges to oranges it's kind of you know a little bit different so what our Focus was ability to give us the copers that we need which all of them can but we were looking for the print release um software that we can use that we implemented here um toward the middle of the process Mr hoppy recommended um Frasier to Jeremy so as a courtesy he reached out to them and spoke to them so he he also became part of our um evaluation process um and so through all those you know Jeremy did a due diligence and compared all three services and we found that Atlantic tomorrow had the best service given what we were specifically looking for had the best relation ship with the print release program that we were trying to implement and so that's why we chose them and that's okay the bottom line thank you okay yeah quicker um I just okay um just wanted to thank the EO committee for uh talking about the the delay you know changing the start time um I do I of course I would have loved to have seen uh like I dis like delay in the start time just to make life a little easier for our PG and Far Hills kids um I do think but I do think a Global Perspective would also be useful um I do think that we it would it later there's so much evidence saying that later start times uh tremendously benefit the health and wellness and academic achievement of high school kids so I think we should really look at that in our iic plan if possible to get as much input as possible on that um also do high I'm not on the committee but I just wanted to add my voice to the need for um just looking at again at the culture and climate at the high school I think that also really important and uh I also was just wondering if we would hear more um next month or in the future about using an outside firm for strategic plan um or if if we can discuss that now or what what what is is that going to be discussed more in next month or uh I can certainly discuss that you know more next month certainly great thanks I have to agree with Nicole about the later start time I think it would be beneficial not just for the travel but lots of Studies have shown and chadam is a school that did it it might be a school we can speak with than and uh yeah as noted it would be part of the Strate the work undertaken and another strategic plan um is there anybody else for have to know no okay the roll call please Mrs D gr pre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes and Mrs fenda yes motion carries okay Miss Cooper curriculum all right uh very short report today um the curriculum committee met Tuesday April 30th for two hours very short report oh sorry not usual yeah yeah all committee members attended and we were joined by Dr brochel and Dr Butler we were in person also which was an added added plus um during our meeting we discussed initiating a school-based analytical approach to examining student achievement using a variety of different data sources this multifaceted approach to examining student achievement and outcomes will allow us to ensure all our programs and all of our students meet or exceed their academic potential during their time in our district um we then reviewed and approved professional development and field trip re requests and uh that's the end of my report okay thank you okay so then at this time I'd like to ask for a motion to approve action items number one through five on the agenda yes Miss Ballard in a second Miss Cooper and discussion for curriculum okay and roll call please Mrs Santoro yes Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs D rpre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carries okay then moving on to Personnel Mr Grand Pre so the policy and Personnel committee met on April 29th from 4 to 5 we were also in person this month um and Dr brochel Miss frienda Miss Ballard um and myself were all in attendance in regards to Personnel um we started with the review of the agenda items um for May and we also discussed um the job description for the retitling of the executive assistant to include Communications um which is part of our strategic plan and moving forward the communications plan um and we talked about the job description for the new Web Master role that we've been advertising for um and how this will also have integration with our Communications plan um and our ongoing um media distribution approach to the community um and I believe that is it in regards to person he okay then thank you then at this time I would like to ask for a motion to approve action items number 1 through eight on the agenda I'll make the motion Mr Grand Pre in a second Mr Baker and discussion for personnel yeah okay then roll call please Mrs Ry yes Mr Baker yes Miss Ballard yes Miss Cooper yes Mrs dgr pre yes Miss gills yes Mr Joyce yes Mrs Santoro yes and Mrs frienda yes motion carried okay thank you and Mr gry policy please okay so we started the policy discussion um with an exercise on um hoping to bring some light for us for the conduct of the board meeting we conducted it with all the members present and we look to see if we could determine where various topics would fit into our board meeting agendas and categorize them to demonstrate the areas of discussion um for all board related topics additional changes were made to the policy or the um bylaw at this time to include the definition of the first and second motions as well as adding in future discussion topics as an area in all committees for discussion points there was subsequent discussion after the meeting actually about the potential for the need for an ad hoc committee or other committees related to Student Services considering that we were still in the draft form of this bylaw I took the opportunity to write this into the bylaw for ongoing discussion um with the overarching board um it was drafted and sent out to everybody um there was also discussion on the removing of the time limits as part of the board announcements um we felt since there were only three of us present in the committee meeting that this was not enough to make any decisions so we do ask that we bring it here for discussion and recommendations um this evening and we look forward to hearing that feedback this PO this bylaw is not complete it's still up for discussion it's not even in first reading um so we we are still open to any amendments and tweaking that the board may like um we also had on our agenda the substance abuse regulation um we've been talking about this regulation and policy for probably three years now um and we were at the point of bringing back a revision to the committee but again due to limited attendance um we tabled this until our June committee meeting so I do ask that all committee members please read that prior to our June meeting so that we can have an ongoing discussion about potential changes to this regul um beyond that we uh reviewed agenda items which at that time and still there are no actionable agenda items on the agenda for the policy committee at this time um so that concludes my report okay thank you and there is nothing to move for policy this month so I'm going to open it for discussion would anybody like to specifically Mr grand pre's um conversation regarding policy 0164 and conduct of a board meeting um at this point in time uh Mr Grand Pre you can certainly interject here but we have you know it's been two months in policy um we really need the import input of the full board this evening as to um thoughts and on the information that has been presented so far if anyone has anything for discussion first of all I would like to say thank you for waiting to make any decision since I wasn't in attendance I appreciate that um I have comments to make but I just don't think it's a I just have some questions still about changing supplemental to board announcements because I know we were we had changed the placement of supplemental last year and now we have to make a decision so I don't know why we're deciding to get rid of it when we were just supposed to decide if we were keeping it where it is or moving it back to where it was so that's part of my confusion as well as the timing of it so I think the initial the initial comment is it was in pause in terms of the placement of where it was in the meeting but we took the opportunity and looking at this this guideline um to really revamp it and make it for what we need for now and so that it is sustainable beyond the this board right we have a lot of knowledge and a lot of tenure on this board but a lot of people may choose to move on in coming years and that knowledge would be lost and the intent of the policy and regulation needs to be there for committees Beyond ours um so that's why we took the time to really Define that it would go through a first motion and a second motion and that we would be able to have future topics for discussion and each committee meeting those were all additional additions additional additions that's really great speaking those were all additions to um this regulation um and at that time we also took the time in the exercise which honestly I think would be something that maybe if we can find time in our Norms meeting to possibly do with everybody it was really impactful for even those of us that have been on the board for a long time to have the pieces of paper of potential topics and see which bucket you would put them in and be able to determine okay so if I have a question related to Student Services right now that could actually be in two or three different committees which then brought up the discussion of do we need a different committee specific to that where those discussions could happen and if it's something in relation to you know I don't like the way this regulation is being implemented in the school that would be in policy um for us to have a discussion there and for you guys to bring it up in the committee discussions at that point so in doing that exercise you really saw that you had no papers left in your hand that should be in supplementary matters okay and that really would be where we would be doing board announcements of things like it was a great trip to Dorney minus the weather it was you know a great Crimson cafe or whatever different pieces we would want to bring up as board members and what if there's something that doesn't fall into one of those buckets so that would be something that we could potentially bring up an executive if that was needed or we could certainly work together to find out where it would fit CU there ultimately would be a bucket for where it would fit cuz if it's board Rel Rel at business it should be discussed in some sort of commit okay I mean I I can't agree with that I I'm sure some things can come up that don't fall into any of the Committees um we could not find one in the exercise and we probably went through 30 or 40 different things that um were on the pieces of paper that you could put into the different buttons um so ultimately should have a home within the board business if it belongs to the board okay and to your point Kristen the like you said this conversation and this is also you know Dr brell's experience that he's bringing to the table regarding the student services committee and that although that isn't a pre-existing committee as things stand now and the way we have our committees aligned those items do currently they they would fit into different compartments within existing committee so they would they still currently have a home but there are enough of these issues that it makes sense to undertake the approval of a new committee if the you know the board in um its majority feels that that's and and that's the type of discussions in an if we're seeing that things are spanning you know multiple committees or you know we're we're working to find placement in homes then that's a conversation oh like we're starting to see this theme develop perhaps we need to find a new committee so that they have have a more easily identifiable home and discussion place but that doesn't mean that there aren't currently places for them to live and be discussed so and that addition would come to policy to then change the regulations that or bylaw I keep doing that change the bylaw so that then we could put it into a new committee so it still has a home still has a path to get to the pieces that we need and I can I just add one thing on committees I would say you know also um there is a place that if there isn't a need for a full committee which I'm not suggesting in this circumstance um you can also as a board have ad hoc committee so if there are specific topics that are going to be shorter in nature but require attention you know we as a board could also say well this is going to be a particular topic that we want to have an ad hoc committee on for this defined period of time until it's through completion and we've done that in the past with strategic planning and everything there have been other AD committees that have developed so if I happen to think of something now like we've just gone through everything and I think that I want to address something and we've already we've already gone through the Committees um done till next month well I think what they're saying is you would have the opportunity to bring it up to a committee chair and discuss it in the committee so you have to wa two weeks and then next board meeting and Sylvia here's why I wouldn't not see a foresee a problem with that because by this point in the meeting or when sorry not this point cuz we're still in committee discussion in supplementary matters all voting is done MH so if you have something that's important and you do have to [Music] wait I understand sometimes when you want to bring something up right away but waiting is not going to influence a vote in any way because we're not voting on anything else so that is why you could bring it to the appropriate Committee in the next month and have that conversation right because the action to be taken on whatever you would be bringing out would have to be recommended in that committee to then be placed on the agenda for us to take action the following month okay but sometimes it's purely informational and it doesn't need to be voted on and it's just to keep the public informed I mean I get what you're saying everything has its place but I don't think everything has its place I know you did the exercise which I think was brilliant um I think to address if I can miss gills the concern that you're raising um under robbert's rules you always have the ability to call a point of personal privilege to the extent that you want to so um if you were to revamp the process um I think that you'd always have the ability to raise a point of personal privilege which then you'd be recognized by the chair and then you'd make whatever statement that you or any other board member wants to make I I don't think that that is ever taken away it just may not be formalized at the end for every meeting you know a special section but anyone at any time during the meeting can raise a point of personal privilege and ask to be recognized by the chair and if the chair doesn't recognize you that's a different issue um at that just speaking as the chair there is never and I Mr Baker I will apologize right now because we did have a meeting where Mr Baker tried to raise a point of um a point Personal Privilege and there was a lot of conversation going on and wasn't necessarily audible enough and it and when I watched it back I reached out to him and said that that was a huge oversight on the entire board because when that is made everything stops there's no can I if I want to or if I don't want to that that's unequivocal you make that point that is recognized and everybody stops until it's acknowledged now then it is determined if that is something you know okay yeah right but in turn like as far as you know for for information for the public that still is you can raise it but it's not going to be for dialogue or a conversation it would be as a recommend it would still be as a recommendation for discussion even if you're not voting on it there are things that Mr Baker read out in finance tonight that we're not voting on now they're informational so that would go to the committee and then it would be read out and then discussion could take place within the context of that committee the following month so nothing is ever excluded um it's just a matter of that is the process by which a board of committees operates well Mr we's explanation I totally get it um understand it it's just I felt it's a bit stifling to one's to have one's opportunity to speak on something that's not on the agenda as a board member it's just stifling it's it's it's it gags you just like I was stopped from speaking in February that still hasn't been addressed that it was incorrectly done it's still a gray area apparently for some even though it's not I'm just going to interrupt you there because actually there was and and I am going to look to the full board since everybody spoke that evening in terms of if anyone would like to give input to that but actually yes there it was it was discussed by numerous people at this table that there was reaching out to njsba and clarification was undertaken um and that there that there was disagreement in terms of you know it being in supplementary matters in the actionable part of the agenda having passed all of that being said as it having been raised in the context of that that follow-up conversation there were suggestions put on the table in terms of if there were still ongoing concerns for adherence to Robert's rules that as a board we that's something that we could discuss in policy and as a board we could make the decisions to um appoint parliamentarians and to do to engage in goinging um training so it was not ignored it was not that there was no discussion it was not that there was no reason given it's that those those were the explanations and that was the information that was then handed off to the full board and any member of the board as we've just discussed by committee process can make that recommendation to put it back into in this case policy for further discussion so there there certainly are mechanisms by which to continue to explore that I'm not going going to explore that anymore I mean I know in in reference to the statement that you just made that there were no explanations given and nothing ever happened that I mean well the explanation was it's a gray area okay but we also went beyond that in terms of suggesting Solutions if it was a concern so those are available if if we're not going to take advantage of those then you know we're you know I'm going to do the best that I can in conjunction with our business administrator and our attorney present and um certainly he' the the commentary and advice of every member of this board of education all right I don't agree with you I don't what is it that you don't agree with I don't agree that um many people try to explain that what happened was correctly executed um I remember you saying it should be a we should we can ask for it as a training and I do I think that's a very good idea I think we can all use a training on Robert's Rules of Order um or a refresher for some but I don't think stopping someone who's in the midst of speaking is appropriate and certainly is not allowed under Robert's rules to my understanding and I'm not expecting any action because nothing ever happened in February or March or April but on the heels of that then we start with this supplementary issue and it's no longer just about moving it but eliminating it it's a bit chilling for me me I'm not saying it has to be chilling for everybody but for me it's chilling and I feel like I feel like it can stifle a discussion if one comes up if it's not in Committee in the agenda portion of the meeting um th those are my concerns with removing it entirely and and you I mean just it's common sense that it's I think I understand why it's being done you may agree with me you probably will not agree with me um but it's it's it's just very clear why this is being removed is there anyone else that would like I'm going to beg to differ on that it's not clear to me that there's any un reason why it's being removed I mean of course not being removed it's just being better defined and the name thank you for the clarification if we ascribe ill intent to everything every change that happens in a meeting then certainly if that's your your viewpoint on things that's the lens you see things through then everything is going to have ill intent I know that there have been many discussions um Miss gills with you in terms of you know the minority voice and I have difficulty trying to figure out whether it's your voice as a specific Latina um minority that you're talking about or whether it's the fact that say you know six people on the board you know disagree with you and four people on the board agree with you which of course then would put you in the minority because we are a majority board um certainly when I look at this policy and I have looked at it I don't look at it through the lens of let's shut up the minority um last month's meeting showed I think without question that when something is discussed in the right place and I'm going to put air quotes around right place um in in a place in which it might fit so that action can occur her in so far as what you're talking about that the meeting runs much more smoothly and The Business of the board which is and we say this all the time and in all difference to the people in the audience this is our meeting the public is invited to watch that meeting but it's important for us to get our business done I think Mrs drr pre has done a really good deep down dive into this I think the policy committee and and I know that you Mr Joyce were not able to go to the last meeting um and I think it's laudatory that Mrs de pre said we're not going to do anything with this because we don't even have a quorum in the committee I think it be speaks a great deal of fairness and attention to everyone's point of view thank you okay so I did thank Kristen for for doing that I didn't say you didn't okay just sometimes an implication may be taken by people who are listening um and I don't think that every change is born out of ill intent I just think this specific change is and when I do speak of minority I do speak as a minority of ethnicity not not minority of vote and when I am in the midst of speaking and I'm completely shut down I do look at it as that through that lens I've explained it you don't not you specifically but some don't want to accept it that's my lens I in the middle of a sentence and I'm shut down I take that as they probably wouldn't do it to anybody else on this board it might be just me that's that's all I can say about what you've just said I'm I'm not looking at as a lens as I'm a minority on this board and and meaning of way of thinking but ethnically speaking yes I do view myself as that and I am sensitive to that and I don't think that's a negative thing I think it it it's inclusive and when I say this is how I viewed that action and why I view it like that it's showing you a different Viewpoint coming from somebody who's a part of a group that has been oppressed and I'm not saying that that's happening maybe that's not what happened in February maybe that's not what was the intention that's how it was taken because it's happened to me before for that specific reason because people can get away with it and that's what makes me really nervous about having not having the ability to speak off topic and maybe bring up issues that aren't comfortable to speak about or to address but can only help the district in the long run and it's to me it's I mean other than attorney Weiss discussing it right now and I feel much more comfortable after that I was very nervous to think that if I think of something afterwards I can't bring it up and that was my biggest concern that our speech would be stifled so thank you for clearing that up Pat since you brought it up yet uh Kristen I do Echo the sentiment um and I think I said it last month thank you for putting the words to paper on this I also shared it with the board president vice president Superintendent at a different time that might be hard to believe but I actually understand the reasoning why we're doing this um the I have positive sort of belief as to what the intentions are so just to address Pat you you brought it up that I wasn't there um it was my daughter's birthday change of plans so I I put that first but I appreciate delaying it um not necessarily opposed to it but I will continue to ask the board to embrace diversity of thought along with any other type of diversity we're talking about so I guess that's my only comment is there anybody else that would like specific I I just want to reiterate that this is it wouldn't make sense at this point to take this back to committee so this is like the opportunity for the full board discussion to be able to weigh ining so I think the the intent um is to hopefully get this to the point of a first reading which would then be in committee the first reading would be in committee first reading so at this point if anybody has any additional changes that they would like to make to it we need to know what those are so that we could bring them to first meeting so as I stated in the last meeting and I will say again um I had written this as restrictively as I could and the um time limit on um the board announcements was recommended by a minority of the board that provided feedback um so if people want to keep that 10minute time limit in the board announcements that's the way it's written right now now if we want to remove that we need to have that feedback prior to moving it to um first reading um and then if anybody wants any differences in anything else we would need to know what that would be before we move can can I just make a suggestion uh for consideration with regard to any time limit that you put in there I also would suggest that you um put in a mechanism by which that time limit can be overridden if it's necessary such as like a 2third vote to extend the time okay um something like that might not be a bad idea just to consider not saying to do it just think about it yes um Kristen I'm sorry I don't have the the draft in front of me is it 10 minutes in total or 10 minutes per speaker we add it as 10 minutes in total okay oh gosh I'm sorry I thought that you guys had that you all had agreed that the the time limit was not going to work no I mean there was discussion that it might be challenging but we did not feel like we had enough of a for and at the last meeting the board did not make any comments on anybody choosing to remove that so that's what we're doing right now discuss if we don't want a time limit we don't have to have it we don't have to have it um or if we need to change anything in anywhere else in the meeting we should be discussing that otherwise I think as is if I receive no feedback we will push it to First reading which will then be further discussion at next month's meeting to get it through first read so um I'd like to say that I think the 10minute time limit is not enough um and in listening to um members of the board and uh Sylvia in particular I just believe every person's voice obviously I think as we all do needs to be heard we were all elected to represent our community and so everybody's voice has equal weight that being said the exercise we did in committee really helped me personally understand how no matter pretty much what the issue is we're going to be able to find a place to say it and I think uh Mr Weiss gave us an option if that is in in the case of an outlay or that you need to say something that doesn't fit into one of those boxes for a lack of a better word that there's places for that and I think as a board we need to be committed to that to listening to all voices and I think we are um so but I would suggest that the 10-minute time limit I personally feel like that's not it's it's not enough time I agree with that so I could go either way on the 10- minute time limit um really so if maybe I mean everyone will have to weigh in on that but I'm I'm fine either way honestly if we keep it and try it and then it always needs to get extended probably don't want to look at the policy every month but you know we so whichever way um I do think sometimes too understanding the committee structure takes time and there are Boards of a whole that I think Sylvia to to some of your points those discussions kind of spontaneous are um probably happen more frequently because you're all meeting at the same time on the same topics so I think committee structure sometimes takes some getting used to to your point if something comes up at the end of the meeting you can refer it at the end of the meeting to committee you can call the committee chair you can email committee chair so I guess it's a level of getting comfortable with figuring out where to have the appropriate board discussions and I think you know that we can do that and we can all work together to help figure out where things go if it doesn't appear to be something I do think there is it sometimes in this particular instance that we've gone through I think there was a fundamental difference of whether this was a board topic or not and that is where some of um I think some of the challenge was and so operating under the guidelines that it's a board topic then we can find places in the appropriate time and nobody's limited like in this discussion nobody is limited everybody can say what they want to say for however long they want to say it it's just that supplementary matters was kind of getting to the point where it was in in one way you had an opportunity to speak but then it wasn't really it's not really a place for board members to have Diet dialogue it's not I mean we don't have supplementary matter matter excuse me supplementary matter discussion right you make a statement and it had kind of gone into discussion at some points but it's really just making a statement and the point the point of being on a board is having that ability to have that dialogue so I I'm fine either way with the 10 minutes um I just I do think a definition as I said I'll go back for years sometimes it's been more of a problem than others but supplementary matters has never been well defined and so it's always kind of been this topic that's hanging out there and when it es and flows as far as being challenging to us so I think putting parameters around it defining it committing to that Robert's Rules training understanding our rights as board members to how we can have our own voice and then making sure we help each other put things in the right place you know I I hope that we can work together and have everybody feel like they're being hurt you stand on time on time time just kidding we'll go either way I'm not for I just would add one thing like just I mean we owe it to ourselves and to our community to run our meetings efficiently and effectively and so let's just keep that in mind as we work to shape this I think that was well said Felicia a good point thanks both all of the points and um I just think from the optic standpoint maybe start with a greater time and dial it in instead of start small and go large so start take the time out does everyone want theity is take the time out take the time out okay so I will make that revision um and ensure we have all the various pieces it does look like my definitions are not on this oneth so and I apologize for that um but you saw that last month um um so I will get the right one in full entirety back out for first reading for next month thank you okay uh just one clarifying question you not to belabor the point but there was some dialogue about adding a umal services not only that but a comment period at the end of each committee report or committee vote for uh to solicit additional topics that the board would want a future committee to examine that did make it on this gra that says future topics for discussion committee y great so that is there you mean in public meeting at the end of each committee discuss so we vote and the the that month's discussion is closed and then if you wanted to discuss start times in facilities and operations that would be your time to say can we revisit that in fno y okay okay and the well okay never mind so like I could bring something up now and say this may want to be discussed next month cuz that's so much easier for me I mean on in the way I work my mind works theoretically in PMP in policy person right you had something for policy and Personnel if we were closing discussion now since we have no voting items then under the new guidelines it would be any future topics for discussion so we could take notes and get it on the agenda for our next meeting okay that's great and it would or an appropri I would just add an appropriate committee Mee because you can't sometimes there's you can't always get stuff on the next agenda meeting but I know that becomes tricky on a future Ag and would would the committee chair raise that or would the the for the next agenda I'm sorry when you're asking for new new business so yes it would so it would be right at the it would just be on the agenda so like after discussion and voting is closed then it would be does anybody have new topics for fno does anybody have new business for um yeah and so that way that could right then and there the chair and the superintendent could make a note and everything is captured at that point in time and that you know and that would be a public it would be uh memorialized publicly the request yeah yeah I think that's great yes and I want to thank Dr brel for that recommendation that was something talk um yes everybody okay yes okay then not supplementary matters but we are going to move on to public comments public comments are welcome at this time on any topic please St 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 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 and 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 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 I'm going to thank you in advance for your input and um Mr Marco sets her timer for 3 minutes so while you are making your statement please reference that to know how much time you have remaining and um just because um it is something that comes up from time to time in the meetings twice during the course of a meeting I read the protocol for public comments and in those public comments it is very clearly defined that there is a three minute time limit and that you will have a second opportunity to come to the podium to complete that there are times where it you feel like you want to extend that and you feel like you don't want to cut it off but this is a procedural and a process issue and it has to be applied exactly the same every single time so I I just for for the purposes of equity and to run a meeting effectively I just want everybody to be aware that no matter what the statement is no matter who is making it at that three Minute Market is going to be cut and with that if you would like to make a public comment and come to Podium hi am uh Greg de grandpre 7 Flint Law Court in Burnsville and uh now that we're back in testing time I remember in the fall there was a lot of discussion people were trying to comp us to other districts and I think like my takeaway was from and and again like much of what was set up here was we're a pretty unique District so I would be curious to know going into the result season what our goals were for what we're trying to where we're coming from and where we're trying to go to and Dr Butler I know you and I spoke in the fall about it and at the time maybe there wasn't something concrete but before the results come out I think like the public should know where we're we're off to and what we're trying to achieve so we can measure our success thank you thank you very much is there already anybody else that would like to make a public comment at this time Mora mcgrail 36 Steven Street Bernardsville New Jersey obviously um I haven't been to a board meeting in several months truthfully it's because I couldn't bear it each time I come to one of these meetings I walk away questioning where I live because of the circus that these meetings have become I've silently watched from home though supporting my Brave friends who continue to focus on what we all should be focused on the students and advocating for what is right and what will make our schools better during Co and up to earlier this year I ly attended these meetings supporting you defending this District that I so fully believed in against ridiculous allegations and the bullying you face from attendees who would get up and scream at you but now I must admit that I'm questioning if this school district is right the right fit for my family as it seems we have completely lost our way instead of focusing on the children and What needs improving these meetings have become about personal vendettas or agendas instead of on focusing on what needs improving these meetings have become about personal vendettas or agendas or working through personal childhood traumas that while are important are personal matters while I don't think personal experiences should be driving agendas if you must use your experiences to enact changes in the district within our schools versus attacking each other our Board of Ed meetings have become an embarrassment because of this Focus you have lost sight on all that needs fixing in our district we have wonderful amazing teachers but there is so much more that they and our students need are you even aware to list a few key issues that you could have or rather should have been focusing on here are a few continuing challenges with our student services department that are impacting children getting the services they need while I'm not overly concerned about test scores I know that many of you are yet you can't seem to see the correlation between our test scores slipping and children not being taught in the proper manner that they need to succeed in these tests lack of consistency and filing of hibs across our three schools I was told that this was a state law and there is absolutely no wiggle room even if a victim does not want a Hib filed yet it seems from last month's meeting that our high school administration doesn't even know what constitutes a Hib the front door to Bedwell was broken and not locked for weeks with no security measures in place were you aware of that there are numerous behavioral issues at our Administration across all schools don't seem equipped to know how to handle leaving many students who do not feel safe or supported so now we have major social behavioral and educational issues across our three schools were you even aware do you even care I must choose to believe that you do care that you came into this thankless board rle volunteering of your time because you truly care about these students and want to help but I haven't seen that lately instead some of you seem to be here because of personal perhaps political agendas I haven't heard recommendations I've heard accusations attacks complaints and defending if you're not here for the right reasons you can come back and complete it if you want if there's anyone yeah if there's anyone else that would like to make a comment hi my name is my name is Ash Davis I live at uh 18 Rolling Hill and uh we've been in town I guess two years now and uh I've come to a couple of these meetings and I just want to say that uh regardless of what goes on here and what gets uh commented on and shared via video uh you know my kids went to school in Charlotte they went to school in Verona they went to private school in Montclair they went to asex Fels and now they're here and this is the best school system my kids have been in um so for all the personal uh things that go on here uh I get it but uh your principals your uh superintendent your teachers your in classroom AIDS um your janitors your custodians uh Miss hannes at the front desk are all committed to um making sure that our children are taken care of and are educated and are safe and uh come home happy and I can tell you right now my two boys in the sixth and the eighth grade feel that way and um I've had the opportunity to go back to private school particularly with my older son who was here a minute ago who's like you know this tall um it's not something we really want to look at we're very happy with Burnsville and we plan to stay here uh and I just want to say similar to what the the lady was saying before me is um just sometimes just get past the stuff the nonsense and just focus on the kids because there people right now doing good stuff that are a few levels below you and um maybe sometimes take take a cue from the them and what they're doing and just and just don't let all this cuz what happens here is this this is noise right this is just noise and it's nonsense and it takes away from what's Happening the good that's happening in this school system and and and and how they're growing and developing and feeling good about themselves and being confident and being kids and learning and growing and aspiring and being motivated that's what your teachers are doing and I I would just encourage all of you to um think about that when you walk in here once a month and you have your committee meetings a couple times a month and then the last thing I'll say is thank you right I I don't care what political side you fall on I don't care what side of these arguments come in I don't care how long you get up here and read a letter sit down read a letter other people yell at you you still volunteer you you raised your hand and you got elected and you show up here for free till 10:00 and uh you you need to be commended for that so just I don't know keep doing what you're doing but don't do some of the stuff you're doing thanks just use is there anyone else that would like to make the public comment okay if you're not here for more mcgrail 36 demon Street if you're not here for the right reasons or in over your head please step down there's so much work that needs to be done that I do feel we can do if we start working together please ask yourself what example you're setting we need more from you our administrators teachers and students aren't getting the support they need nor are we parents if we can't trust that you will have the best interest of our kids at heart then we as parents must take action and I wouldn't be surprised if enrollment drops and parents seek other private educational options the ball is in your court thank you very much is there anybody else at this time okay can I get a motion to close public comment please miss Ry and second Mr gr pray thank you okay we are going to move into supplementary matters supplementary matters the views and opinions that are may be expressed by individual members of the Somerset Hills Board of Education during supplementary matters 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 Andor any other individual members of the board before I turn it over I just would like to indicate um we have raised it a few times and I just want to make sure that we adhere to this um strictly that supplementary monitors is not a time to address public comment and it most certainly is not a time to address public comment at to specific individuals who have spoken so before we enter into that I just wanted to clarify that and and um I will open it up to anyone who has anything to say uh Madam president I do yes okay uh I have a report from the somerset Hills Education Foundation okay uh they met on Monday May 13th and I want to apprise you of uh that meeting uh they had a presenter from flx networks uh who is offering to do a uh 90-second video for for the Somerset Hills Education Foundation for promotional purposes and they have elected to engage uh with this organization um in order to uh promote their organization which is to uh support the district uh they did have a um a a role in the um intergenerational prom um they did donate uh some money there and they did have a presence at the intergenerational prom um and from what I understand the entire Chef organization feels strongly about continuing that relationship um there uh is some discussion uh that I'll follow up on regarding a offer to um underwrite a mural um in one of our facilities uh particularly in the E gr hallway uh and also engaging students so I'll I'll inquire and learn a little bit more about that and I'll follow up with fno as a appropriate and um they do are they are soliciting folks to um work with the district to make presentations uh to particular classes on a subject area basis as uh as appropriate um and there is an upcoming fundraiser uh that um I'm just trying to locate here I believe it is in the fall and I believe it will take place at Upton Pine uh in advance of uh the hunt uh it's called Tweeds and and feathers and I believe it takes place on uh September 29th um and that concludes my Somerset Hills Education Foundation report and I wanted to take a moment and compliment uh the board for the robust discussion um around the conduct of board meeting policy I know it's been multiple months uh I want you to know that from my lens um having done this work uh before uh the work that was done tonight uh was Superior uh around this particular item and uh I just wanted to convey that and thank you for the time thank you um is there anybody else for supplementary matters Mr Grande just one quick thing um it doesn't call neatly in but um I'm really excited for next month to have this partnership discussion between the collaborating agreements and the board and administration I think it can only do amazing things going forward and I'm really hopeful to see what you can present in terms of student achievement as well as just improving the relationship overall in the coming years we have some key points coming up in the next few years and we can do better than we've done in the past so I'm excited to see that anybody else I would just like to um say how wonderful it was to have the intergenerational prom back I know there were other board members there and what a wonderful event put on by the Key Club Mr Kaplan all the students the parent Volunteers in the community um both with kids in the district and those that have alumni now so it was really wonderful and I was so thankful to be part of it again anybody else I have quick M I would plead with parents to come out to the meetings and and talk to us if you have any concerns if you have any issues board business always gets done sometimes it takes longer like with this um supplemental issue um sometimes it's quick but some of the topics brought up last month were eye openening and I learned of it because of that meeting and because those parents took the time to come out and speak to us I can't tell you how much I appreciate that whether you're ripping into us or just giving us information it's always welcome and I would urge more parents to come out I know it's a long wait for you to speak and if I could move it I would but it's it's deeply appreciated and thank you for coming out I would actually like to piggyback on that in terms of because it is long and sometimes Child Care is an issue and sometimes there are other intervening factors I just want everyone to be aware that if you can't address Us in public you can always send correspondents to Mr Marco and she can disseminate it to the full board there should never be a time when there is an issue that is relevant to the community that it is not being relayed to this board of education um for consideration and discussion with Administration so while I agree with Miss gills wholeheartedly please come and please talk to us if there is an impediment from being able to do that please do not hesitate to communicate with us by the other means available um I did just want to also Jump On intergenerational Prom because I've waited a long time for that one to come back and to be able to experience it and just to be able to say watching some of those seniors and I think there are people here tonight that and in the audience and at this table who had their parents with them um to watch the joy to watch that literal intergenerational connection to watch our I'm like I to watch our students engage with our um gold the golden members of our community um it was something to behold and um I I just loved it I can't say enough um and before um we leave I just really wanted to also um move back to the teachers of the year and our retirees that we honored tonight um Dr brochel did a wonderful job as did our building level Administration and honoring everyone um but seeing seeing Educators that you're that have had such an impact on your children move on and also to see those Educators that have had such an impact on your kids recognized for the extraordinary work that they do um I hope if they're watching right now if anyone else is watching I hope they understand that um how meaningful that is and and that it's such so so welld deserved these recognitions and how appreciated those individuals are um is there anybody else that has anything for something matters no okay then can I get a motion to a Jour I'll make a motion to adjourn and a second Miss Santoro all in favor good night thank you everyone