call to order flag salute M sard welcome everyone testing welcome everyone to the uh December 14th Board of Education meeting please rise for the flag salute I PL of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with and justice for all in accordance with the open with the requirements of the open public meeting act I wish to announce that the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of bodies at which business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon no notices announcing the date time and place for this meeting were sent to All concerned individuals associations and sent to Union County local Source in accordance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 and now for the role Miss Danton here Miss Kelly here miss ER here Mr cologne here miss con here vice president Justice here president Cho here we have I think we have we start with the presentation there is a good evening and welcome this is one of two my faor times of when we go through thef educ Foundation cycle and gener generosity hard is always doing out their assistance so thank you so much welcome the SEF hello all right so Susan and I are going to present together I'll begin and then Susan will follow up um my name is Shelley Donnelly Susan Daniel is my partner and this year it's our pleasure to award all the SCF grants for the fall cycle we just finished that cycle and we are excited here to share the results with you tonight our committees and the SCF board have worked very hard reviewing the grants and we've approved 24 grants for a total of $165,200 uh our superintendent Scott Huff Director of Education Joseph cadero supervisor of Technology Doug or nope I didn't think so and our business administrator Derek dress Derek Jess the group provides a pivotal partnership in the initial reviewing of our grant applications in order to assure that we align with the SCF Mission as well as the district goals we'd also like i' like to thank our presidents Heather Thomas and Melissa Madden and our grants review chair Don rampel and of course our entire board the ASF board and our committee members thank you for all of your endless help and dedication we all know that none of this happens without our amazing teachers and the supportive administrators who year after year submit creative and Innovative grants and finally we'd like to recognize the families of the Great Summit Community for their continued financial support that make all of this possible the SEF is extremely proud to be involved with these Partnerships working together to continue our mission the 24 grants in the fall cycle are spread across all of our schools tonight we are going to be presenting the grants to align with the district goals first we will start with social and emotional learning and culturally inclusive program programming grants that align with District goal number one next we'll cover learning through Innovation and language arts grants which are tied to District goal number two goal number three is where we will discuss our steam grants that include experiences for all students in the areas of science technology engineering arts and math and finally we will present some of the learning environment Awards now we'll take a look that's some of the grants we'll start off with social and emotional learning in this category we have five grants totaling over $14,000 these grants teach critical life skills for building confidence problem solving having healthy relationships and respecting others in this category we will fund three therapy dog grants this ever popular program brings certified dog certified therapy dogs into our schools to connect with our students and as one teacher in our committee remarked having the dogs in our schools makes everyone smile and seem lighter of these three grants we will continue to fund the insurance and certification for the return of Shelby and Mulligan at the high school Shel Shelby will attend therapy Thursdays while Mulligan will work with all district schools reading with students and participating in study skills days sorry and the Middle School Steam Carnival beginning in the spring our first graders at Lincoln hubard will be visited by therapy dogs once a week during their reading block to take turns reading to the dogs and last we are happy to bring therapy dogs to Brighton Elementary for the first time in their resource room and counselor's office also in the category of Social and emotional learning SCF is happy to fund a program that was piloted last year with much success the third grade at Washington will receive mindful morning tubs mindful morning tubs are a Hands-On alternative to traditional morning work it supports teamwork steam skills and an opportunity to problem solve and interact with peers settings do students up for a productive day of learning the last Grant in the social and emotional learning category is to fund calming centers in the library gym music and steam rooms at Franklin and Washington these self regulating areas provide students the option to take a break reset and re-enter in an independent and non disruptive manner the centers have proven successful in the academic classroom at Franklin and Washington and now this will extend to the related arts classrooms also aligned with the district's first goal are the grants that promote culturally inclusive programming this spring we have three Awards in this category totaling more than $3,000 these grants include Living Voices at Brighton it will bring history to life for the third fourth and fifth graders these live historical performances will give our students a glimpse of how the world looked sounded and felt during significant times in history also at Brighton SCF will supply the library with bilingual and Spanish books for the ESL students the books will encourage independent reading at school and at home with their families as the ESL population has grown epon the need for more bilingual and Spanish books has risen and SEF is proud to support this grant our last Grant in the culturally inclusive programming is flamco performance for the Middle School Spanish class during their annual lunch outing which is at the Spanish tavern the live show will immerse the students in an interactive experience of dancing music and language okay now I'm going to hand it over to Susan for the rest of the categories thank you Shelly so uh I'll be covering a sampling of the grants and the remaining categories moving on to the district's second goal and the learning through Innovation category which are often the most creative and exciting grants we receive this fall we are awarding five grants totaling over $21,000 one of these grants will fund new sound systems for the elementary school music classrooms nine systems in total will be purchased for all of the music band and Orchestra rooms this grant will reach every Elementary student in the district we also have two SEF grants this cycle which will provide students with soft software to enhance their classroom experiences the first software Grant provides Albert IO to students in US history classes this program enables teachers to assign AP style questions to students which assists them in preparing for the AP test Albert IO is already successfully being used for many High School AP classes this grant expands access to the program to additional classes the second software Grant is for padlet which will be available to both lcj SMS and Summit High School this software helps students to collaborate and brainstorm assist teachers in creating interactive lessons and helps build classroom communities next we move to the language arts grants SCF is proud to continue to its support of the district's science of reading curriculum over the past few years we have helped to provide over 200 ,000 worth of decodable books to kindergarten first grade and second grade classrooms districtwide this fall we have two grants in this category for a total of $ 38,5 44 the first grant adds to what was provided in previous grants with additional decodable high-interest fiction and non-fiction books for kindergarten and first grade classrooms the second literacy Grant adds complete sets of decodable books for all ESL teachers in the district as well as providing sets for two new first grade classrooms at Brighton and Franklin Now we move to the district's thirdd goal and our steam category SCF has funded many successful steam grants for the district including the steam Innovation Labs at the elementary schools and last year's very exciting hovercraft project for the fifth graders we are happy to see this support continue this fall with five steam Awards totally nearly $24,000 the first grant in this category will purchase lighted planetarium models along with solar eclipse glasses for the entire lcj SMS community and for select classes at the high school the students and teachers will use these glasses to view the near total solar eclipse that will be experienced in Summit in April of 2024 SEF has a long history of funding pilots in the district this next Grant is a pilot for a new SCI curriculum this pilot will begin in the spring and will include one unit for sixth grade and one unit for the seventh grade science classes if successful the district could Implement additional units in the future also in the steam C category we have two exciting music grants for the high school the first grant provides a music residency with two industry Prof music industry professionals including a submit High School alone these professionals will speak about their Journeys in the music business perform for the students and work individually with students who are aspiring songwriters and instrumentalists over the two-day residency approximately 250 high school students will be impacted every year Summit High School holds a parade through the hallways to celebrate Carnival this February event will be elevated with the help of our second music Grant which funds a visit from a professional Broad way percussionist and conductor this broad impact Grant will bring together music students for drumming with lessons and conducting from the visiting musician art students for the carnival mask used in the parade an additional collaboration with Spanish 3 and Spanish club students to create an even more exciting Carnival parade in our final category we have four learning environment grants totaling over 63,000 as instruction involves so does the furniture and equipment in classrooms SEF continues to be in support of these new Innovations this fall we have two grants for adjustable sit-stand desk totaling over $50,000 combined these grants will purchase new desks for three classrooms at Lincoln Hub and two classrooms at Washington these adjustable desks were piloted through an SCF Grant last fall in one classroom at Lincoln Hub and in the spring for one classroom at Washington and will now be expanded to these additional classrooms in another Furniture Grant SCF will be providing surf desks to be used across four first grade classrooms at Lincoln hward these surf desks had previously been funded by SCF in other classrooms at Lincoln hubard this is a good example of how Creative Furniture grants can Inspire other teachers to transform their own classrooms finally we'll help Lincoln Hub complete their sets of front row Juno Speakers schoolwide by supplying systems to remaining classrooms that need them these systems many of which have been funded by SCF have had a huge impact in classrooms across the district as you can see from the wide range of approved grants across all district schools summit's teachers and administrators have once again found Innovative and creative ways to enhance the the education of our students and support the district's curricul and goals including this current Grant cycle SEF has funded more than 2,000 grants totaling over $10.8 million These funds go directly to the summit school district and ultimately to our students this is something we should all be proud of we're looking forward to continuing our Partnerships with both the Summit Community and the school district creating possible for years to come again we are pleas pleased to announce Summit Education Foundation is awarding $165,200 to the summit public schools for the fall 2023 Grant cycle thank [Music] [Applause] you there before we continue I need a motion to approve the Su Education Foundation fall 2023 grants on the rooll Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries so good evening and happy holidays Welcome to our December school board meeting and on behalf of the entire School Board I do want to thank the SCF for their commitment to our school district and funding the many grants we just learned about the educational enrichment for our students is a product of the hard work from the board and the grants committee to raise the funds and review approve the grants submissions of course none of this would be possible without the financial support of the community for SCF and also our instructors who are thinking of ways to enhance the educational experience of our students you know we are once again in the Middle School auditorium as we discover the audio and video works much better here than in the high school so our plans are to meet here for the rest of the school year and we've scheduled another meet the board coffee for Wednesday January 24th at 9:00 am. at the Washington Elementary school media center this month for my remarks I want to highlight the programs at Lon C Johnson Summit Middle School related to our board goal of fostering an inclusive School community that values diversity promotes equity and supports mental health wellness and social emotional learning within his climate operations curricula and programs last week the Middle School hosted challenge day for about 100 eth grade students and 25 staff members challenge day is a transform transformational day of fun leadership and power that can change the way people view each other forever the goal of challenge day is to unite a school into a cohesive supportive place and provide a positive School experience for young people every day through a variety of games trust building activities and presentations students were given the unique opportunity to see themselves and the people around them through a new set of eyes challenge day is meant to increase personal power and self-esteem shift the dangers of peer pressure to positive peer support and eliminate the acceptibility of teasing bullying and all forms of Oppression students who participated in challenge day were asked to provide feedback on the event when asked a question how would you describe challenge day for someone who was not there some of the responses include one it was a very moving experience has shifted my perspective about many of those in our school and helped me feel more safe within our school Community I would describe challenge day as a way to break down barriers and be vulnerable about your feelings and see people in a new light challenge day May me look at everyone in that room in a different way and see how much people are going through it personally helped me be more vulnerable and helped me become closer to people who are going through the same things a roller coaster of fun activities vulnerable moments meeting new people making deeper bonds and really understanding your peers more when asked to share some way you will carry on the challenge Day message of notice choose act be the change students responded I will try to be more understanding and quicker to forgive than hold on to the past I will act as an ear for my peers you need someone to talk to even without needing aice I hope going forward my peers especially those who went to challenge day would do the same for me I will be more empathetic and understanding towards my peers and try to make sure they feel safe and happy as school no matter who they are or what their lives look like as you can see challenge day had a tremendous impact on our eighth grade students and the staff members who participated as well thanks to Monica glasso Student Activities Student Assistance counselor at the middle school and the PTO for sponsoring this event and now on separate by related note uh lcj SMS is happy to announce a new club students helping students a Club focus on Bening the mental health of our student population this club is for eth grade students who are committed to thinking of new ideas discussing relevant issues our students face implementing schoolwide mental health campaigns fundraising for mental health organizations and Student Activities focus on these topics and educating students on Mental Health disorders in addition the club meets periodically for chat and choose to relax practice mindful activities and decompress with busy school days these programs and initiatives continue to showcase our district commitment to the well-being of our students and District Community the enthusiasm of our students who have participated in the program is testimony to their desire to learn more and play an active play an active role in making our schools a better place for everyone thank you president CH I begin tonight with the annual reporting of our harassment intimidation and bullying self assessment data for the 2022 2023 school year every year each School in New Jersey is required to complete a self assessment on how well they implement the requirements of the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act the assessment consists of eight core Elements which are HIV programs and other initiatives training on HIV policy other staff instructions and training curriculum and instruction on Hib Hib Personnel Hib incident reporting procedures HIV investigation procedures and HIV reporting the minimum score required by the Department of Education is 54 and the maximum score possible is 78 our scores are as follows WPC reported a score of 75 JPC and all of our elementary schools reported a score of 76 laon C Johnson Summit Middle School reported a score of 70 and Summit High School reported a score of 71 with a district average score of 75 once the uh Department of Education certifies these scores we will post them on the District web page as well as on each individual school's web page any questions or comments this is an annual practice that we do every year and this is the time of year we report out those results okay next I would like to continue we do have one new hire the board is going to approve tonight and as you know I like to just give a little introduction unfortunately the person couldn't make it here but but it's listed on the agenda so oh she is here she came back I miss you coming in excellent I was all prepared not to say it so we do have the the vote as follows and we're going to Welcome to our team uh Mrs zelia vegi and she's going to teach Steam and Technology at Summit High School so welcome so we need a motion to approve the new hire Aion to that start date I'd like to communicate uh just a revision to that agenda item under report of new hires um as a a aah vegi start date should be January 2nd 22nd 20124 or sooner approval to approve the new hire with the change in start dat moved second any discussions Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries congratulations [Applause] [Music] welcome we've all been here when we've had a Litany of staff to approve and sometimes in the double digits and dozens um so you get the spotlight all to yourself ton I so welcome congratulations we look forward to your contributions I'm going to continue next I want to expand on President ch's comments about the challenge day at the middle school thanks to shaping Summit together we were also able to provide challenge day at Summit High School 10th and 11th grade students were able to participate in a similar and in a similar method the school collected feedback from students after challenge day concluded one student commented it made me realize the profound impact my words and actions can have especially in a positive way towards other people additionally I never felt as connected to my peers as I was during challenge day another student commented it was really healing for me to hear from not only my classmates but from adults about the challenging experiences we've been through together even if we didn't know it it also opened my eyes to issues that I have never even imagined and finally a third student commented I felt a strong sense of Pride for my accomplishments of myself and my family and I feel much more empathy for many of my peers the feedback was tremendous from this event from this activity and it's certainly something we are planning on bringing back year after year it's rewarding to hear this Feb and I'm glad our students took away important lessons from challenge day challenge day is just one event that we facilitate that builds Community peer relations and creates a sense of belonging I'm proud to share that we have ongoing and continuous events and activities in all of our schools that create a positive climate and culture for our students and staff our counseling department and child study teams deliver instruction and provide group and individuals to support to students every day when there is student conflict we use restorative practices and educational programming to help students grow as individuals and learn from their mistakes as you know social emotional Wellness mental health and a sense of belonging is a priority goal of the board of education for Summit Public Schools our entire staff work incredibly hard to make our schools safe places for our children I rout ly meet with the administration from each of our schools to discuss and assess how the students are doing our Administration reports that our students are doing extremely well and our schools remain a safe and welcoming learning environment for all and we will remain committed to this goal continuing many of our schools have hosted their winter concerts featuring students in our band chorus and Orchestra programs the high school chamber choir also recently performed at the festival of trees event at the Reeves Reed Arbor bedum and the annual holiday luncheon for the local lions and rotary clubs along with our chamber orchestra it's a joy to see our students perform and preparing and working so hard for many many months for those performances thank you to the summit Educational Foundation for funding the successful author visit at our elementary schools primary centers for Peter Reynolds author and illustrator of The Dot he spoke to our students about the writing and creative process during an assembly at each school he helped them with their drawings skills and echoed his message to create bravely which is a theme from one of his books the Summit High School speech and debate team enjoyed many wins at the Princeton University tournament earlier this month which 99 schools from 14 States competed last weekend they host the hill topper annual Holiday Tournament right here well we're usually at Summit High School but at Summit High School in January the team will travel locally for the hunon county winter Invitational best of luck to our students competing I'm I'm confident we'll have more good news to report on behalf of the speech and debate team at next month's board meeting at Jeff Jefferson Elementary School during the month of December the student council is running a toy drive toys will be donated to families and Summit the student council is also making holiday cards that will be going to Sage Elder Care before the holidays Washington's thirdd and fifth grade leadership group groups work together to organize socks giving collection during the month of November the socks were delivered to Bridges during the first week of December and at Lincoln hover kudos to the Lincoln hover Pride Pals the fifth grade students recently organized a food drive for sage Elders care Meals on Wheels The Pride Pals not only made posters and shared morning announcements but also filmed videos encouraging donations the students collected over 40 bags of non perishable food to distribute to the homebound seniors in our area Lincoln hubard fifth graders hosted the school's first them Thanksgiving parade the students designed and built her Thanksgiving floats in the steam lab then used a coding program to drive them through the hallways for all the students to enjoy was pretty cool in Franklin in a similar fashion Mrs alone students worked on some previous third graders who worked with previous third graders who turned key using ozobots in a coding activity that featured a Thanksgiving Day Parade the Franklin students created a Parade route and crafted balloons inspired by Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade like Snoopy Pokemon and a turkey they had fun learning the history behind the balloons after reading the book balloons Over Broadway at the middle school earlier in November 10 sixth grade students comp competed in the NFL play 60 flag football tournament against local middle schools the Middle School physical education staff in connection with the New York Jets introduced this program to the sixth grade PE classes earlier this fall NFL play 60 promotes kids getting at least 60 Minutes of physical activity every day at the primary centers students engag and read alouds and discuss many of the customs and traditions that our students and their families participate in this time of year the idea that similarities between Customs meaning lights family food and presents help guide the discussions we are lucky to have so many families come in and share these Traditions with our Young Learners next week our Primary Center families will come together for our annual singal along event and finally just a reminder the district will follow a single session schedule on Friday December 22nd schools will be closed for winter break from December 25th to January 1st students return to school on Tuesday January 2nd and for me and on behalf of the Board of Education I wish everyone and their families a happy healthy and restful winter break that concludes my report Mr chairman all right um now we do need a motion to approve as far as the superintendent report the uh HIV and suspensions any discussions Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries next we have our student board representative report Grace EP welcome hi everybody um so to start off some winter sports have begun and the girls and boys winner track team have their first meet on Monday December 18th and have been preparing for it since November and we're hoping for good results um the boys basketball team has their first game against oratory at 7 tonight and the turnout will be tomorrow we'll find out if they won or not girls ice hockey had their first game last Friday December 8th which kicked off their season as well as their game yesterday that they did in fact win the summit swim team won against Governor Livingston on Monday which was a great way to start their season so some things happening around the school auditions were previously held for the spring musical which as anything goes the actors and actresses have been preparing every day after school to bring the show together the musical will be held in the beginning of May recently the fall play was held as well which was Sense and Sensibility and had a great turnout the High School chorus had their Winter concert this week on Tuesday and it consisted of songs in Hebrew and English in which parents and family were invited to listen and enjoy the festive music a new club in the high school the nurturing Minds Club just began its first few meetings this club allows for communication between girls and boys from Summit to the girls in the sea School in Africa the club plans on creating pen pals where each Club member gets to write letters to their specific pen pal at the SE School each month in the student council the student council hosted the annual holiday party for children on December 10th and it was a huge success kids were able to make many memories through sharing hot cocoa taking pictures with Olaf and many other games and activities in the high school cafeteria the student council also is hosting a spirit week this upcoming week with all holiday theme days to increase the overall school spirit in the high school thank you board members for listening and I look forward to the upcoming meetings thank you thank you gr thank you gr right uh next we'll go through any additions and revisions to the agenda Miss s yes under Personnel uh revisions to the agenda include um item F approval of maternity leave family leave for the following staff Irish Amaya custodian Franklin Elementary School unpaid leave effective dates dates have been changed to January 2nd 2024 through February 28 2024 under Personnel item J the resolution should read approval to pay Francis wolf security laon C Johnson Summit Middle School for three additional hours per work day um under the uh an addendum under Finance item n Summit High School New Synthetic Turf field this one's a big one whereas the summit Board of Education advertised for bids for the new artificial turf field at Summit High School project and whereas the putative low bid for the project submitted by pno geordano Construction LLC failed to meet the requirement under Section 321 18132 of the bids specifications that require five successful installations of turf fields within the last 5 years and whereas the lowest responsible bid for the project was submitted by applied landscape Technologies Inc with a lumpsum base bid in the amount of 3,1 the board hereby rejects the bid submitted by pno geordano Construction LLC because the contractor failed to meet the requirement under Section 3218 13 13.2 of the bid specifications the board hereby Awards the contract for the new artificial turfield at Summit High School project to applied landscape Technologies Inc and a total contract amount of 3,153 27 which does not include allowances and unit prices this award is expressly conditioned upon land applied landscape Technologies Inc Furnishing the requisite the requisite documentation as required in the project specifications and as requested by the project engineer within 10 days of the date hereof this award further is expressly in conditioned upon the board attorney reviewing the bid submissions the board president and the board secretary are hereby authorized to execute such agreement and any other documents necessary to effectuate the terms of this resolution and under Personnel item a addition approval to appoint the following leave replacement teachers and long-term substitute teachers pending criminal history review background checks as required by law and the ability to obtain New Jersey substitute teacher credentials Mary Ellen righty School Franklin Jefferson and Lincoln Elementary Schools leave replacement literacy coach salary ma30 step 4 40 8,32 uh 320 prated and 850 prated second master's degree effective January 16 2024 or sooner and date to be determined and under Personnel approval um item P approval to appoint Greta texiera as substitute teacher at $62.50 per half day effective December 15 2023 pending criminal history review background checks as required by law and the ability to obtain New Jersey substitute teacher credentials that's it very thank you next we will move on to our committee reports and we will start with our education and Student Activity Services committee let come thank you um education and Student Activities Services committee met on December 7th from 3:30 to 4:20 so 50 minutes in attendance was myself president show Jennifer ER Joseph Cordo director of curriculum and instruction superintendent Huff Crystal Mah director of student Personnel Services Stacy Grimaldi principal at Summit High School and John safery principal at blon C Johnson Middle School um we started our discussion with uh course proposals principal safery and principal principal Grimaldi presented course proposals to the committee principal safery shared two new course proposals for the Middle School in the 2425 school year Standard English for multilingual Learners a multiple level course sequence beginning with an introduction course and continuing through level four and introduction to computer programming a new 12-week 8th grade elective at the middle school that will begin after the completion of the new computer lab and is part of the curriculum development that is possible because of the investing in our future Bond project principal galdi presented several course proposals over the high school apus government and politics Chang in from a one half year to a full year in 2425 AP Human Geography in 2425 a full year class on economic cultural political and urban geography Advanced robotics in 2526 a course building on the intro to computer programming students that students can take in either 8th grade or at the high school data science and business applications in 2526 a course that allows students to learn statistics and its application to business dance in 2526 an introductory semester length course unified electives um unified art and unified materials and processes in 2425 digital art 3 and digital art 4 in 2425 changing both from a semester long course to year long courses changing the course name of video production 2 to digital film making in 2425 to better reflect course curriculum AP or honors anatomy and physiology in 2425 for students who want to take a deeper dive than the current one semester introduction class non-l conversational language classes in 2425 which include French 1 and two and Mandarin 1 and two classical Heroes and heroins in 2425 a semester elective course on classical mythology intro to ESL which is a name change for the current Port of int course and Heritage Spanish literacy 2 a course that will continue to De a course that will continue to develop a native Spanish speakers literacy skills building on Heritage Spanish literacy one um another item that we discussed was the safe return plan um Dr Joseph Cordo shared the safe return plan with the committee this plan has not changed since it was last reviewed in June 2023 but it is mandated by new Jersey state that we review it every six months and we will see it in the agenda later in the meeting after that we reviewed the 2425 school calendar um this was the committee's second review of the calendar um in advance of the December Board of Education meeting um then we got the um Hib self assessment which we just heard from from superintendent Huff Crystal Mar gave the presentation um to the committee and um that self assessment will be certified by the state um as was noted it's based on eight core elements the required score is 54 with 78 being the top possible score and the district score was 75 and then um last we discussed the US Wellness AC mental Wellness the school district received a 30k grant towards staff Wellness initiatives um the initiative will support um chair massage biometric screening virtual Health seminars and a wellness portal um there will also be a there will also be six one-hour workshops for administrators and I know Communications committee also discussed this so I think we'll hear more from their report um recommendations the committee recommends approval of the 2425 calendar as it appears in the agenda and our next meeting will be Thursday January 11th at 3:30 thank you oh sorry are there any questions or comments just one question um go ahead on the calendar we had some parent feedback back in September to consider single session days to become afternoon as opposed to morning days was that at all discussed yeah we we did discuss that we brought that up for the first time this year um the the support for or against that was not convincing either way um so for the current year going into 2425 we are going to stick with the current structure and we'll revisit it again for 2526 is there anything else okay thank you very thank you m con next is our operations committee report mrone thank you president Cho the operations committee met on December 6 uh at 4M meeting lasted an hour and 45 minutes uh in attendance from the board myself uh Kelly Stanton and vice president Justice via video uh from the administration uh Derek Jess Kathy Sarno uh were in attendance the um let me start with the primary work of the committee this past month which was to engage with the district's new audit team Kathy mantel and Caitlyn Orin of nisoa uh Kathy and Caitlyn presented a synopsis of the district's fiscal year 23 audit report and I'm happy to convey that the report is unqualified uh and cited no major issues the audit team was complimentary of the financial work and controls within our district and for those of you who have kept a breast of the district's audit reports over the years it will come as no surprise that the only formal audit finding of the report related to maintaining timely deposits for Student Activity funds and receipts which I think has come up in five of my last six years here on the board of ed so and is a common matter that arises uh throughout the state of New Jersey the report has been finalized and delivered to to the county and the state uh and with the completion of the process I would like to thank Derek Jess Kathy Sarno uh and the full business office team for for a job well done this year thank you facilities update uh investing in our future uh and and one minor point on another project uh we were updated on the bidding process for the lower high school field upgrade turfing and relining which is one of the three remaining uh investing in our future projects that is pending bid and contractor approval from our board uh bids were received and reviewed for this project and as Miss Sarno uh noted uh in the addendum we are uh recommending approval of a bid from applied landscape Technologies in the amount of uh the amount that we're approving is 3,153 327 um the amount inclusive of contingency is$ 3,299 327 uh so inclusive of the contingency the amount is still below what was budgeted for this project which is which is a fantastic result um updates regarding the two remaining projects requiring bid and contractor approval which are the uh the Middle School field upgrade uh including the track installation and the tatlock field house renovation um updates on those two initiatives will be provided in the coming months the one additional item related to facilities outside of the investing in our future is a small change order in the amount of $6,700 uh that is required for steel reinforcement of the high school weight room hbac system Food Services uh the September p&l for the districtwide Food Services was positive 25,00 ,100 33 uh bringing the year-to-date uh p&l to $6,185 which if you recall from last month's meeting that the majority of that amount for the year 86,500 is the result of federal SCA grants one other important item that the committee discussed was reviewing a proposal to increase the tuition of prek the prek program from the current level of $4,600 to $5,000 per year the committee discussed the cost to run the program and reviewed the current pricing of other prek programs in the community which range in price from $6,200 to a bit over $9,200 per year the committee recommends approval of this program given the cost to operate the program the pricing of the program relative to alternative options and the continued financial support that will be offered to families who are unable to pay the full tuition amount recommendations uh for the committee or from the committee for the full board approval to accept the 2223 audit report including the annual comprehensive financial report and corrective action plan approval for the Summit High School HVAC change order in the amount of $6,700 and pending attorney review approval of the Summit High School lower field contractor bid from applied landscape Technologies in the amount of 3,153 327 and approval for the prek tuition uh program uh of $5,000 for the 2425 school year uh our next meeting will be January 10th at 4:30 pm and I believe I will ask my committee members fellow committee members uh did I capture everything or not I try my best all right uh full board any questions okay president CH very good thank you Mr clone we'll move on to our policy committee report from vice president Justice thank you president Joo the policy committee met on Thursday December 7th at two um for 21 minutes committee members in attendance superintendent Huff Rob gardel Rob Gardella Kathleen Murphy board members in attendance Jennifer ER and Eileen Kelly policies discussed policy 3161 Examination for cause teaching staff provis this policy addresses the district's ability to require a fit for Duty physical or psychiatric examination of a teaching staff member whenever in the Judgment of the superintendent a teaching staff member shows evidence of deviation from normal physical or mental health to determine the teaching staff members physical and mental Fitness per to perform the revisions mainly focus on updated code citations reformatting and adjusted language policy 416 1 Examination for cause support staff Revis this policy addresses the district's ability to require a fit for Duty physical or psychiatric examination of a support staff member whenever in the Judgment of the superintendent a support staff member shows evidence of deviation from normal physical or mental health to determine the teaching staff members physical and mental Fitness to perform the revision is mainly focused on updated code citations reformatting and adjusted language additionally there was a correction from Strauss estimates policy 8500 which is up for second reading on page 7 of 14 in policy 8500 the last sentence in the seventh paragraph under Section D the word shall needs to be replaced with cannot as noted below District cannot notify the household of adverse action by phone only committee recommendations first reading of policy and regulation 3161 and 4161 second reading of policy and regulation 3212 4212 and 5111 uh policy 8500 an abolishment of policy and regulation 8540 and 8550 the next meeting will be Wednesday January 10th at 3:30 any committee members have any questions any board members have questions thank you right thank you vice president Justice and we'll move on to our commun Communications committee miss santon the communications committee met on December 6th at 12: p.m. for approximately 40 minutes uh committee members and attendance we're myself board member Eileen Kelly and Cabinet member superintendent Scott Huff Loren Dickinson and Doug or we began our meeting with a discussion of ongoing projects the ongoing projects are all in a very good Rhythm the summit scoop went out to parents on the last Thursday of November which includes information about classroom highlights District news and updates on initiatives from different departments for example a piece was done on the life skills program that was moved to the high school this year on behalf of special services if you didn't read or see this you should definitely check it out it's a wonderful piece on Wednesday December 6 the staff Circle went out which provides the district personnel with Department details important information and human resource updates we then talked about the winter weather protocols as we enter and prepare for the winter months the information was sent out to all parents about procedures and protocols for winter weather in the November edition of The Summit scoop as always ensuring the safety of summit students and staff is our top priority so these Protocols are Paramount for all to be aware of we then discussed the US Wellness for staff and support of this year's goal foral social emotional learning and mental wealth Health excuse me and well-being for all students and staff the district applied for and was awarded a $330,000 grant from our insurance company that tied us to us Wellness as a result the district is providing services for all staff monthly ranging anywhere from chair chair massages and biometric screenings which will occur in January to a wellness portal where they can go online earn points and actually get cash prizes at the end of the month Additionally the district is exploring other Wellness initiatives like healthy cooking workshops and mental health Seminars the initial roll out of this program started earlier this month with chair massages in each school this initiative was very well received as time slots in the schools for the massages filled rather quickly so we're hoping to bring that back later in the year we are very excited about being able to provide our staff with mental health services and support and we'll be asking all of the staff to evaluate these Services before the year end to help plan future Wellness programming and additionally we talked about construction groundbreaking earlier in November we had a groundbreaking ceremony at the high school to celebrate the beginning of the construction related to the investing in our future initiative on Friday December 8th at 11:00 a.m. another ceremony was H hosted at the middle school for the beginning of its investing in our future construction a press release with both pictures from each event was emailed to members of local media some attendees at these events included mayor raist School principls District administrators Board of Education members and the Union County Superintendent and finally we talked about the coffee with Board of Education president Yano the next coffee as he mentioned will take place on Wednesday January 24th at 9:00 am in Washington Elementary Schools Library our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday January 9th at 12: PM we have no recommendations at this time Eileen do you have any additions does anyone have any questions from the board okay thank you President Joe I have one point of clarification if if anyone is wondering our Communications coordinator is no longer lorine calender it's Loren Dickinson so when you hear that readout that's who we are referencing thank you uh superintendent H the uh negotiation of the Personnel committee did not meet this month so we'll finish up with our Lia on reports there's any Lea on reports oh go ahead M so SCF had it meeting for December um last week and obviously the most important thing to report out is the fall Grant cycle update as you all saw in tonight's presentation 24 grants were approved for the fall Grant cycle totaling $65,000 200 I'm sorry 1,65 wait stop Kelly just stop it's a large number and I can't even get my head around 165,000 $274 um on behalf of the entire Board of Education and the district I just want to say that we are so grateful for your tireless efforts on behalf of the students the parents the teachers it's it's absolutely amazing um additionally they discussed that the spring for excellence planning is well underway for next March so be on the lookout for the save to the date in January and they were reporting that as of early December they have collected $119,000 for their annual membership dues and have been receiving some donor support from a a graduating class of 1973 and they are hoping that more funds will be coming in from that group soon so very exciting stuff sorry to butcher your total very good thank you well great so now it's time for uh the public comment portion of the agenda Miss tno if you can read out the absolutely procedures anyone wishing to speak speak shall first seek recognition recognition by the presiding officer please come to the microphone and state your name and address in a clear audible tone for the record please direct all comments to the board president and not an individual member of the board please remember to conduct yourself with theorum and respect when speaking and addressing the board unless additional time is granted by the board president please keep your comments to three minutes or less in addition please note that this portion of the meeting is for public comment and not to be B meant for back and forth board members and administration will not respond to questions or comments at this time however information will be provided by the appropriate individual as soon as possible great thank you so we'll start first uh any public comments for items on the agenda okay seeing none uh next will be public comment for items not on the agenda all right good so now we need a motion to uh close public Comet Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries all right first is next is the approval of the board minutes from our November 16th meeting motion to approve any discussions Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries now agenda item 12 the curriculum instruction and program which does include the 2425 calendar as noted by uh Miss con and superintendent H motion to approve any discussions Miss Dan yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries then item 13 is finance items a through n which is the lower field uh agend addition to the agenda motion to approve motion second any discussions Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries Now we move on to school board operations items a through e motion to approve please so any discussions Miss ston yes Miss Kelly yes Miss erde yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries then the Personnel agenda items a through P motion to approve please any discussions Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motions carry now move on to policies and regulations the first and second readings as noted on the agenda motion to approve no move any discussions Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion's carry uh there's no need for a closed session so I need a motion to adjourn please second all those in favor any oppos any extensions meeting 7:31 disappointed