place good evening everyone um call order and start our meeting can we please rise for the flag salute I United States of America to the stands one nation under God IND good evening everybody and welcome welcome to the Board of Education meeting scheduled for January 18th 2024 Happy New Year to everyone uh please note that in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings 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 any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon 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 of public law 19 1975 for the role Miss Stanton here Miss Kelly Miss ER Mr cologne here miss con here vice president Justice here president Cho here you have a quorum very good think uh to start we will have a presentation on our uh midyear goals Super H thank you president Jo [Music] good evening January is designated as the month by which we go through and give an update to the board and the public uh how we're doing towards our annual goals and you know these goals are uh year over-year with some adjustments as we move forward towards our end goal of achieving all of our um Vision with with our various three goals that you'll hear about tonight um over time we have absorbed previous year's goals into some of the goals you'll see tonight because we've laid a good foundation for some of the work that we're doing in order to um project what we need to do for this year and the coming years um so today you'll be presenting with um members of my team as they all have an integral role in each one of these goals coming out of their department so you'll hear from Doran babis special services director of special services you'll hear from Dr Joe Cordo uh director of curriculum and instruction you'll hear from Dr Crystal Mah director of person student Personnel Services so here are the goals as a recap Summit public schools number one will continue to Foster an inclusive School community that values diversity promotes equity and supports mental health wellness and social emotional learning Within it's climate operations curricula and programs this goal is purposely and intentionally place number one um the the board and the administration put a lot of priority in this in the climate over the last several years and we're really really proud of the work that we've done to be able to take on such a an important but yet all-encompassing goal about the well-being of all of our stakeholders and you'll see some of that tonight with some of the new programming that we've introduced this year number two Summit Public Schools will continue to improve its ability to utilize data to inform instructional programming and Implement strategies that target areas of growth for all students again ongoing a lot of great work has been done by the team right now when it comes to multi-tiered systems of support data team meetings I ready using data to make informed instructional decisions interventions and you're going to hear a lot about that tonight as well and finally Summit Public Schools will further the development of its science technology engineering Arts mathematics initiative to cultivate interest and encourage Innovative thought processes that will develop critical thinking and problem solving skills and prepare students for future opportunities and a dynamic Global landscape and we are well into this multi-year vision and goal with our bond initiative and investing in our future and as you can see now here at the middle school and at the high school construction is underway programming and and new course development is happening Staffing projections and hiring will happen in the spring so we're right on target now as we plan to we started this goal a good three years ago um and people are be coming to get excited about realizing how it's going to impact them and as you know we're in year two of our elementary phase of this steam initiative which is just taking off in Ray reviews so there's the goal something that accompanies our goals every year when we go through the process of re-evaluating them and proposing them to the board for a review is we talk about an outcome so the goals can be multi-year but the outcomes are a little bit more of a targeted vision for what we want to do it's still big language but it kind of just focuses us anchors us on some of the programs that we know that we need to accomplish or implement this year so the outcome for goal number one data collected from a Strategic Equity plan and stakeholder feedback is is getting used for an equitable educational experience a sense of belonging mutual respect students staff families and it will'll be accomplished through an increased awareness of mental health and wellness as well as the delivery of professional development seal programming and those of you that have been on the board for a number of years that mental health and wellness piece was new and added this year purposely and I'm really proud to say that we are able to successfully so far deliver program and services to all the stakeholders and the schools which are students teaching staff administrators and soon to come more for the parents in the spring so with that I'll ask director of special services dorine Babas to come to the podium good evening everybody thank you so much so I do want to focus on the mental health and wellness so as superintendent Huff mentioned we are targeting all stakeholders in this uh mental health awareness and making sure that all stakeholders are experiencing a sense of belonging in our buildings so starting with our elementary school students we have expanded our Mentor programs these are adult Mentor programs check in check out they look a little different in every building but this ensures that every student has a trusted adult in the building who needs that and so this is a very important piece we know for for students feeling safe and feeling like they belong in their school Community we spoke recently about an inclusion grant that we recently received where in year one of that Grant right now the pilot is going to be at Washington Elementary school starting next year this uh program is going to fully include all students with IEPs in the general education setting so many of those students with IEPs are pulled out for small group instruction with a special ed teacher for Reading Writing and or math depending on their disability and this initiative is to include students in the general setting with the support of a special ed teacher and gen ed teacher so again this is moving towards ensuring that every student has this sense of belonging and feels included in their programming on a daily basis at Jefferson Elementary School they are practicing trauma informed teaching this is an ongoing initiative at that building to meet the needs of some of the students that are going to that building at the middle school and high school we currently um this year the middle school has launched a we belong series that's happening through the social studies classes the raising awareness about mental health through both student Le mental health clubs and uh teacher-led clubs so that's been that's that has grown at the middle at the high school and is new this year for the middle school at the high school Amy Herbert our sack counselor started off the school year with a um matter campaign so that became the theme for the school year uh a lot of activities around that and making students see their value and the the value in others around them the self-care Fair happened in the fall at the high school outside vendors came in with Resources with giveaways students and staff participated it was really well attended and we got some very very good feedback from that and in your shoes is a suicide prevention program that happened here at the high school this year and there was also a suicide prevention program that happened at the middle school and these typically will happen different activities on an annual basis around suicide awareness week again addressing the uh mental health awareness and the re resources that are available for our students and our community at large and for staff this year superintendent Huff um brought in Robin coaching for our administrative Council we've had two sessions so far and they've been very well received the first session focused on having difficult conversations and so strategies to navigate those types of meetings where things might go get heated and and positive ways to address that and then just this past week at our administrative council meeting the uh topic was striving to thriving so this was about acknowledging the stress that many educators are dealing with uh especially our building principles and dealing with a lot from a lot of different places and and all of us in education I think teachers um and all us staff are experiencing this but this session was really about how to manage that stress and how to uh address it in through positive channels and and feel good about the work that we're doing and acknowledge the reasons that we're doing it and that is Sport children and I think it was really well received this week too we have four more sessions to go over the next several months we've talked about this us Wellness grant that Mr Jess has uh applied for and received and so this is um targeting everybody all staff members across the district and it really is about wellness and I would say that uh the chair massages have been probably the most a favorite so far but we are um offering biometric screenings for our staff as well and there's a whole host of videos webinars and other um uh resources for overall staff wellness and our parent workshops we've presented on raising resiliency with your children we've uh we have um FBI agent John Robertson coming into the middle school next week he's presenting he's presented before in our district and our the feedback has been really great every time he comes in but this year he's coming in targeting seventh and eighth grade students during the day a about Internet safety social media and some of the negative impacts from social media and safe Avenues uh when we are when our students are using the internet and then he's coming back that evening to present to our parents and that is January 25th next week we're in the planning stages of something that we're really excited about and it's summit's Wellness Symposium and this is going to be a wellness fair for parents of students in grades K through 12 and we are I'm excited to share this with you now but we are in the early planning stages it's going to be on April 10th and it's going to be a huge CommunityWide event with multiple stakeholders from uh from throughout the community starting with dinner donated by our food services babysitting available for parents a keynote speaker and 13 or 14 breakout sessions for parents to choose the topics are going to be around mental health and they range from eating disorders to um to dealing with anxiety to Executive functioning and obviously eight or nine or 10 other topics the sessions will be in two 35 minute sessions each presenter is going to present two sessions on the same topic one targeting uh Elementary age students and the second session targeting a middle and high school students so the goal is for parents to walk away from this evening with tools strategies to implement at home right away so we're really excited about this and we are hoping for um Everybody in the community to come out from the uh police department to the community Center the why the connection anybody in our community that can support families and students in any way uh is will be attending and a lot of the sponsorship for this is coming from our pto's and a large part of it is coming from shaping suit together which we're really grateful for so I think I took up a lot of time on that but important information thank you Dr [Music] Moore every time all right so um continuing with Goal one um I will discuss some of the um student staff and Community programming that we've had under the diversity equity and social emotional learning umbrellas so starting with student programming um we are piloting something called Vector Solutions at the middle school this is a self-paced restorative course for students uh who have hi policy violations or student students that are struggling with substance abuse and we've also had challenge day for the first time at the middle school this is something that's happened prior at the high school but this is a 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 and I have to say this is probably um looking at the feedback one of the most impactful days for our students and our staff it really is an experience where they get to see one another from new lenses that they would not ordinarily be able to do it requires a lot of vulnerability it requires a lot of trust with one another and then what what we've seen is that they take that vulnerability and they take that trust and it moves throughout the school year and we see improved relationships both student to student staff to staff and students and staff together um looking at staff professional development we have had three days of sheltered English instruction training for middle and high School teachers with accompanying individual coaching Cycles this is training for uh teachers who have multilingual Learners inside of their classrooms this provides them with strategies to use with their students so that they can acquire the English language while still maintaining the rigor of the content we've also had training for school counselors in our multi-tiered systems of support and development um they're working on tiering the strategies that we have within the district for Behavioral and social emotional supports this was a an Endeavor that we did on the academic side last year and so we're taking what we started and moving it over so that we have a full tiered support system and we have interventions ready to go for teachers to use with their students regarding community outreach um I hope that everyone has seen a sign or two um with our vision campaign Everyone by name by strength by story um this is something that we launched the year with and that we've continued to do um small group um at the different schools we've continued to do there have been student seminars at the high school there have been news broadcasts interviews and um I believe that there's something at the high school that they have in the works right now so it really has been like an anchor for us for the year as Miss Babas said to make sure that we continue to know that every student and every family in Summit feels like they truly belong another piece of community outreach that I'd like to highlight is the dissemination and training on something called pocket talks these are two-way um translation devices so we have a lot of um multilingual speakers within our buildings but we have over 40 languages spoken in our beautiful diverse community so the we trained all of our public facing staff with these devices um as well as everyone in central office and many of the teachers that work with students and families on a regular basis and we've seen it increase access and decrease the anxiety level when you do reach that language barrier and it's been a really wonderful thing even people who may be Tech adverse right seem to be really drawn to it and it's making the communication easier and more functional for everyone and with that I believe I will turn it over to superintendent Huff to talk about goal number two thank you Crystal and dorine very well done so I'm going to read to you the outcome for goal number two staff will increase data literacy through consistent application of data analysis protocols and progress monitoring practices to deliver rigorous learning opportunities and targeted interventions for all Learners through multi-tiered systems of support again that's a phrase you're hearing more and more that you're going to become familiar with and all of these goals although separate they're really intertwined we know that our kids if their mental health isn't supported their parents aren't supporting them if they're not available for learning they're not going to learn and then we move into this goal where you're going to talk about strategies interventions and best practices and instruction to help Target that instruction for those students that are available and feel like they belong I'll turn it back over to Crystal because this still goes under part of her per all right so we've worked really diligently over the year um so far on the utilization of data within our classrooms and so I want to kind of start out by saying that data isn't just a number we use data for our students when we look at student student interests and the relevancy of our curriculum um but also we use it to drive instructional practices so we've developed a districtwide instructional strategy Bank uh for our teachers and our data teams to use so that they have more than just a meeting of the minds they have external evidence-based sources to be able to find interventions and see what fits for the students learning be it um enrichment or remediation the strategies are fairly comprehensive and seems to be very helpful to the teams thus far we have a newly restructured criteria for our tier three Elementary learning Workshop supports and training for all of our interventionists and numeracy and literacy targeted screening one of the things that we're working really closely with them on is progress monitoring data and making sure that at the first sign of an instructional decision right that we are moving in the right direction and that we're coming back and we're reflecting on that and making shifts and changes where it's needed additionally we've had training and multi-tiered systems of support for elementary interventionists as well as coaches and teachers um and then we've implemented a pilot program for a rigorous new literacy instructional materials designed for grades 1 through five again in that tier three support area to ensure that the materials in front of them give them exposure to those grade level texts and the rigor that they would find within the class room and then I will turn it over to Dr Cordo to finish this slide [Music] good evening everyone so additionally we have new instructional materials have been adopted for our multilingual students in grades 1 to five continuing looking at the trends and seeing what the needs are um we've we've adopted the these materials to assist in their learning um our njsla data review meetings back in October when we presented data um we get these results in September but each of our buildings from the elementary schools through the high school they look at the data to identify Trends as well as areas that we need to focus on for our students throughout the year excited to say that we had a standards unpacking professional development our New Jersey standards continue to change and to be sure we're well aware of what's going on and our teachers are well aware we unpack these standards slowly so within content areas in elementary schools that would be across the board from Ela science social studies and Mathematics but in the high school and middle school where is content Area Teachers they look at those standards to see what changes have been made and to ensure that our curriculum is Meeting those standards and that we're aware of what the needs are of our students and how we can properly address them according to those standards uh need-based I ready professional development in our elementary schools and our Middle School uh this is year three of I ready so what our professional development now is based based on how we can continue to get more out of that program to continue to assist our students um most of our PD this year has been focused on the middle school because we have tailored a lot of that to the elementary schools before and now the students are in our middle schools and we want to continue that progress and really Supply our teachers what the tools needed to make sure they're utilizing the program correctly Mr Huff we go through all right and finally goal number three outcome Elementary we have two outcomes because we have different pacing for the um completion of this Vision Elementary outcome continuous curriculum revision and professional development will enhance steam programming and enable teachers to deliver rigorous experiential learning opportunities and in the secondary level steam subcommittees will complete curriculum guides progressions Pathways to expand steam education and guide the design of physical spaces for the delivery of enhanced experimental experiential learning opportunities for all students currently where we are right now is our elementary program is you know very solidly in place we're going to continue to develop curriculum and and better uh learning opportunities around that we're on Pace right now for the middle school program to be fully implemented before the high school program that's just based on projected construction deadlines and the timeliness of when the spaces will be available so it works to our advantage in a way that we're going to scaffold up from elementary through middle and not miss a grade span of students with our with our new programming and our vision towards steam so right now we're really really very excited about it people are getting more excited as they see it coming to fruition um and Dr Cera will finish up with some of the progress we've made so far this year towards these outcomes so some of the items we have completed and as superintendent H said we are looking at an elementary level and then the secondary level so s's Labs training for elementary steam teachers what this is is a coding based program so what we did in late August early September was train all our steam teachers in Sam labs and we're going to start continue to introduce coding at an even younger age now so grade one through five um the teachers are working with them to design lessons currently to make sure we're incorporating this coding and how this is going to work out for us is the kids will get the basic knowledge of coding in the elementary schools and as we transition up into the middle school they'll be ready for that coding and not have to go back to basics they'll actually be an advanced level and ready to continue um we introduced the hovercraft project which was a very successful thing for all our fifth graders across the district um we're looking forward to continuing continuing that next school year um superintendent Huff I didn't get the chance to ride the hovercraft but many of our students did and I'm sure they went home and told all about that excitement it was an exciting few days for all of our students uh some steam course proposal meetings within with District administrators myself Scott U Mrs Seer Mr safery Mrs galdi met to discuss what the steam course proposals would look like and then we had further meetings with the content supervisors to kind of outline what those curriculums will be um ongoing currently is as I mentioned before we're designing lessons to incorporate Sam Labs we created rubrics were three four and five theth grade levels um yes steam is fun but we also were looking at the fact how are we measuring progress Within These School levels so the steam teachers have designed rubs in 345 which we are lightly launching this school year just to see what they're looking like and then next year we launch again to continue to measure the progress they're making year-to year in the steam Labs uh middle school and high school is curriculum writing currently for their new courses and as Scott mentioned before our construction project meetings with the middle school and high school are continuing as we continue with this construction throughout the district so that concludes our midyear review um you know we go through the practice of developing this presentation every year and we look at our spreadsheet a long list of items that meetings agendas um discussions programming um PD and we just kind of the highlights in this meeting and you'll see some more at the end of the year at the conclusion when we demonstrate the completion of our goals I want to thank Joe Doran and Crystal um for their time and effort and it's not it's not just them it's the entire cabinets the entire administrative staff the teachers um we have a lot of buyin and excitement around this and as I mentioned all of these goals feed into one another to give our kids exactly what they need and I'm really very pleased with everybody's work and contribution so thank you and [Music] oh well um I'll add my thank you Scott and the cabinet during Crystal and Joe for the midye goals update and good evening and Welcome to our January Schoolboard meeting meeting as mentioned in our previous meeting we will remain in the Middle School auditorium to the remainer of the school year and I also want to remind parents that our meet with the school board coffee is scheduled for next week Wednesday January 24th in the Washington school media center I want to take the opportunity this month to focus my comments on the district goals related to data goal number two some of public schools will continue to improve its ability to utilize data to inform instructional programming and Implement strategy that target areas of growth for all students you know in previous months I talked about initiatives related to District goals about steing mental health and social emotional learning while you may think data is not as strolling as students Runing across the gym floor and hovercrafts I can assure you when you're talking about data in a school district you're really you are rarely talking about just numbers talking about our school children as mentioned in the goal this data doesn't sit in a spreadsheet it is utilized by teachers to inform instructional programming and Implement strategies that target areas of growth for all students let's dive into a recent event at Linn hubard Elementary School for example on Monday December 18th Lincoln hubt hosted his first day of perspective and play it was a day for staff to learn more about their students their preferences their backgrounds and interests and their learning styles students worked on passion projects where they could choose to build write sing design or speak about a topic independently in Partnerships or groups they participated in a growth mindset classroom Challenge and also completed a climate survey about how their school year was going so far principal Matt Carlin wrapped up the day with the Kid Connect assembly focused on relationship skills and the importance of being kind to one another the teachers and staff observed and documented the different perspectives interests and learning styles of their students in order to cater their instructional practices to meet the needs of their students Lincoln hub's data perspective in play was based on the professional study of tier one and was highlighted in the chapter of this book study tier one in the multi-tier system of support or mtss process which represents the universal level instruction and support that is provided to all students within a school or District so you see data is not punching numbers into Excel for some of public schools data is is about getting to know our students on a comprehensive level to understand their unique strengths challenges and needs it is the foundation upon which we build a positive and meaningful learning environment these incredible efforts by our dedicated teachers and staff will end doubtedly benefit our students by empowering them to reach their full potential fostering a love of learning and equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in both academics and life beyond the classroom superintendent HFF thank you president ch I will start my report as I do most months by welcoming some new staff to our team the board will be approving them after I announce them on the first bit of action for this evening starting with Shannon caravano special education teacher who will be working right here in laon C Johnson Summit Middle School and we also have with us tonight Gabby montisano social worker special education services we uh we really look forward to uh their contributions in the many years to come any need a motion to approve the uh new hires as noted in the agenda is there any discussion Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice president Cho yes motion carries [Applause] congratulations this is also the point of the meeting where anyone who doesn't have have um an appetite for wanting to hear the rest of our work feel free to leave no hard feelings uh we celebrate you now but we understand all right next on our agenda we do need a motion to approve the HIV uh report um I have to finish my comments before we do the action right Derek no we can do the action you can okay you can do that um Miss Stanton Miss Kelly yes Miss erde Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice yes president Cho yes motion carries okay all right uh first an announcement um obviously the weather and everybody hearing OB all week long but the pending storm for tomorrow is gotten everybody wondering what school will look like tomorrow right now the decision is for an early dismissal for all Summit Public Schools um but clearly I'll be monitoring the conditions the forecast well through the night and up to early in the morning and if any additional announcements or a closure is required I'll make that announcement as soon as possible um it's been the timing is not good and the changing in the intensity of the storm um listening to the governor's announcements this evening um really put us in a position to try to give parents as much notice as we can right now to make arrangements for early dismissal knowing that we may have to re-evaluate in the morning and close school uh just a comment about that we haven't had to really make these decisions in over 700 days basically um so I know it it brings back up feelings for people I do recognize sometimes the hardship on parents and working parents and that does go into the calculus um but safety is Paramount uh we have staff coming here from close to 700 staff that come to Summit Public Schools every day from all over the state and as you know the the weather variant in New Jersey with elevation and where you live and the forecast not being spot on safety is my main priority and I have to consider that for for all so thank you for your patience and understanding all right some of the happenings in schools at Wilson Primary Center held its first and most likely annual Glow Run while raising money for our school students ran around the multi-purpose room which was decorated with glow glowing lights to cheer on family members behind the scenes family members donated money to help secure resources that will be used to supplement future learning experiences it was truly a collaborative effort between the WPC PTO WPC families the P teacher Rachel killing and principal Evan kak at Franklin Elementary School and artists in Residence with hip hop fundamentals for our first second and third graders to learn how the roots of Hip Hop and tried out some new dance moves students have been learning about holidays around the world in addition students have been learning about holidays around the world through the grade level presentations with Mrs Mills school librarian students learned about Hanukkah Christmas Quanza Dr L Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Lunar New Year the second graders at Franklin are hosting their annual reusable bag drive for Grace moving along in Washington school last week they hosted their third grade world dance residency where third graders learn to perform dances from various countries this is something they do every year and it's very well received the fourth graders will be performing in their first instrumental concert next week both band and Orchestra will show off their new skills for our third grade students and fourth grade parents to enjoy here at the middle school they've been busy celebrating their 50th anniversary of the Stokes trip for sixth grade students the anniversary year concluded this December when the middle school was named School of the year at the Sussex County YMCA and Fairview Lake YMCA Camp recognitions Awards it's quite a commitment for 50 years students that are well graduated and moved on have experienced and benefit from the efforts we put into this trip the results from the Science Olympia tournament are in it's the first year that the middle school has participated in Science Olympiad and we finished sixth place at the Union County um Regional Tournament congratulations it's a very good first year showing considering there were 12 teams involved and we came in sixth I anticipate many more accolades with that with that committee uh Club as well Summit High School quintessence is a Student Art and literacy magazine that is has been recognized as a superior magazine by the National Council of teachers of English congratulations to all of the students involved in putting the magazine together as well as Jennifer mar martyr adviser of quintessence and English teacher at Summit High School in the world of Arts all our elementary schools are hosting daytime band and Orchestra concerts for our fourth grade this week and next and at the Middle School sixth grade concert featuring band Orchestra chorus and select ensembles will be Tuesday January 3D 30 at 700 p.m. the elementary honors band and Orchestra Festival will be held on Thursday February 1st as we like to do we' like to highlight some of the accomplishments in the athletic world at the high school congratulations to Summit High School boys soccer players for receiving all state honors Akira bofinger All State first team central Sebastian Aras second team central Jack Staples third team Central and Kade Gilbert honorable mention Central and our girl girls hockey senior goalie Molly Ros Smith was selected by the New Jersey Devils as one of their players of the month from December and congratulations to our boys and girls swimming they compete in Union County championships this Sunday and at um on Sunday at Ruckers University the girls are 8-0 and number six in New Jersey the boys are seven- one and number 17 in New Jersey that's outstanding and finally just a couple of items to share this past week of inclement weather caused a lot of openings and closings so as I mentioned um you know be aware of the messaging going out the considerations that we give to make these decisions but also make sure that your accounts are updated in Genesis to make sure that you receive you know either the text messages or the voicemail messages um in a timely way U parents can go in and adjust the settings and the information by which the numbers will be called and next Friday January 26 there will be a single session for all schools due to staff development in the afternoon and that concludes my report report president Jo thank you superintendent Hoff and now we will turn it over to our student board representative report Grace EP Sports happenings um the wrestling team had their senior night on Wednesday at 6: p.m. and they face New Providence their season has been overall very successful with their first win ever over Rosel Park and with recent winds over hobokin the summit girls swim team has remained undefeated their entire season with their second win over Westfield their first win over Westfield was in 2021 with making this a very special moment for the team the team is currently 8 and0 many girls and boys of the cross country team have been awarded all country Union County Awards including Charlotte Zan the third team Maddie Chen second Team all state in all County Abby Zan third team Cammy Valdez third team Nate Roberts First Team all state Sebastiano Vanoni third Team all County Nikita cheviakov third team and Carter Herman second Team all state the girls basketball team had their senior night on January 18 against alj and lastly the varsity boys and girls indoor track team gained seven medals at the Union County relay championships including three Silvers and three bronze some things that have been happening in the school include midterms coming up for all the semi high school students and students have been very stressed however at the recent advisory on January 8th students were introduced to a website the school provides with skills to help students lower their stress levels including non-distracting music links and meditation guides the musical anything goes in which the actors and actresses have been preparing every day after school to bring the show together will be held in the beginning of May and the semit high school semi-formal is coming up on January 26th Junior and senior students are excited to celebrate at the Brooklake Country Club with provided food and fun music some things that have been happening in the student council include currently working on creating a time capsule in which it is undecided what it will be filled with but the capsule will be put in the ground right outside the library and dug up in 15 years and on Monday right before midterms the student council plans on handing out Smarties candies to the students as they arrive to school to remind students that they are all Smarties um thank you board members for listening and I look forward to the upcoming meetings thank you thank you Grace so um next we'll now proceed to the portion of our agenda and any additions or Provisions to the agenda Mr Jess uh no President Joe there are none very thank you all right so now we move on to our committee reports and we will start with our education and Student Activity Services committee Miss con thank you um so the education and Student Activities and services committee met on January 11th um from 3:30 to roughly 4:15 p.m. in attendance was myself president show uh Dr Cordo the director of curriculum and instruction superintendent Huff um Dr Mah who's director of student Personnel Services and Doren Babas who's the director of student services um the discussion items we began with our mid midyear review of board goals which we also just saw um earlier in this meeting um and one item that was shared as part of goal one was um mental health and wellness uh Symposium for the K2 students which will be held at Summit High School on April 10th 2024 providing an opportunity to recognize that Community Health is everyone's responsibility the Symposium Symposium will feature a keynote speaker and breakout sessions for parents guardian or Guardians to attend and attendees will leave the event with a toolkit of skills and strategies to support their children's mental health and and wellness so thanks to um our team at the at the schools and shaping Summit together for for putting this event together um number the second thing that we covered was na testing Dr Corda shared that the national assessment of educational progress in a has randomly selected 50 seniors from Summit High School for a second year as part of a nationwide assessment that results in the nation's report card um that test will take place on January 30th um third we covered the pilot update Dr Cadera shared an update on the pilot reading program happening in Washington and Lincoln hubard um we are piloting amplify CK for grade three in Washington and grade five in Lincoln hubard El education is being piloted for grades three in Lincoln H and grade four in Washington early results are favorable and point to El educ ation as matching suit's curriculum needs next school year the reading program will happen in grades three through five across the district and in grades one through five in Washington and Lincoln Huard um after that we read we discussed I ready midyear diagnostic um Dr C shared that the IR midyear diagnostic will be held in January and results will be shared with the committee at the next meeting in February this is the district's thirdd year using I ready um and finally we discussed the PD that's upcoming on January 26th um the training will include Behavior threat assessment management and I ready midyear data review so the committee has no recommendations at this time our next meeting is TBD um for February um committee members did I miss anything board is there are there any questions from the board all right thank you oh yeah go ahead regarding the midye goals um we had seen a survey at the beginning of the school year uh that uh showcased um student uh about 700 students answering how comfortable they felt you know on varying degrees of of their personality um and physical characteristics and I was wondering if that was going to be redone at the end of the year or commencement of next year to you know demonstrate sort of the effectiveness of some of the sdla programming that we've um initiated for the rest of the year yes that was that was part of our Strategic Equity plan and that we use that information to develop the plan um we will be doing assessments along the way but again not necessarily a 10-month plan we do have multi-year to evaluate students adjustment and feeling of belonging Dr Moore would you like to add any additionally to that certainly I'll just say that um we're looking for and I believe we discuss it as social emotional Universal screener so it won't be the exact same questions but it will be culture and climate and belonging SP that we'll use for students moveing forward that's something our counceling department is working on now thanks thank you anybody else all right so operations committee Mr colog thank you president Cho uh we held our commit Justice Kelly Stanton and from the administration superintendent Huff uh Derek Jess and Kathy Sarno uh the first item was an update on the investing in our future initiative uh and other facilities projects uh the business office confirmed to our committee that the major facilities projects for the high school and this building uh are proceeding on time and on budget uh appreciating that uh it's early days for these projects but they're off to a good start the committee also confirmed that the contractor bid that we tentatively approved in our last meeting uh for the lower high school field upgrade turfing and relining uh that approval has moved forward and was successfully um moved ahead from our by our legal council uh which was the pending part of the review uh and so and so that contract has been accepted and we'll be moving ahead uh Additionally the request for proposal documents for the tatlock Fieldhouse renovation are currently being prepared uh which will then uh the Middle School field upgrade reconfiguration and track installation outside this building as the final project to be bid out to contractors uh which will take place later this year uh the committee reviewed one change order item uh that was presented uh which was for unanticipated casework for the Middle School HVAC installation the amount of the change order is $12,600 which will be funded by the contingency budget uh that was included for this project the committee also discussed additional architectural design work performed by EI Associates uh this work was authorized by the business office and the committee is recommending that our board approve the cost associated with this work based on the authorization and the important fact that the total cost associated with this work which is $80,000 will be fully funded by New Jersey state grants and and have no impact to our budget uh we then moved on to a financial update uh as well as the um the ongoing 2425 budget process the committee reviewed the district's year-to-date interest income uh which has benefited from last year's Federal Reserve rate increases uh we discussed the appropriate cash management approach to optimize this income while continuing to effectively manage the working capital of the district uh a second item we discussed was the availability of Rod grants for Summit the state has approved four Rod grants totaling five slightly over $5 million for our district which can be used to fund 40% of predetermined and standard facilities projects such as roof Replacements given the limitations in the use of these grants and the district funding required I.E the 60% uh of funding for any of these projects uh the administration is currently reviewing various options for how to utilize these grants and more to come on that with respect to the 2425 budget process the business office is jumping over a few hurdles related to State requirements for Budget approval timing which unfortunately overlaps with our spring break uh and so this this issue has been resolved um but was a bit of a hassle to get through but successfully accomplished we then discussed the pressure points for next year's school budget and it became obvious from our discussion that the upcoming budget cycle will be the most challenging Statewide process since the 2% year-over-year cap was imposed by Chris Christie in 2010 uh the 2123 uh period which we've just completed was the first inflationary environment since the cap was put in place and the cumulative cost effects of a multi-year period of inflation are now being felt by every school district in New Jersey under these circumstances our district leadership will be working diligently to develop a responsible budget for our taxpayers and our students and our committee will be staying very close to this process in the coming months Food Service uh something we touch on monthly the November p&l for Food Services was uh positive $826,000 recommendations for the board from the committee uh approval for the $12,600 HVAC project change order approval for the grant-funded payment uh of $80,000 to EI Associates for the additional work previously mentioned and approval to accept the four rods grants totaling $ 5,426 noting importantly that the acceptance of these grants does not create an obligation to proceed with any projects or impose any Financial commitment on our district uh our next meeting will be held on February 14th Happy Valentine's Day to all for that meeting uh at 4:30 pm and with that I ask our committee members if I missed anything good questions from the board okay back to you president CH very good thank you Mr colone and our uh next committee report policy vice president Justice thank you and the policy committee met on Wednesday January 10th for 27 minutes um committee members in attendance were myself superintendent Huff Robert Gardella Kathleen Murphy and Eileen Kelly items discussed policy 1522 School level planning it is recommended that policy 1522 should be abolished as the policy is no longer required policy 3221 evaluation of non- tenur teaching staff members policy 3221 has recommended a title change from evaluation of non-tenured teaching staff members to evaluation of teachers policy 3222 evaluation of tenur teaching staff members excluding teachers and administrators policy 3222 has recommended a title change from evaluation of ten tenured teaching staff members excluding teachers and administrators two evaluation of teaching ing staff members excluding teachers and administrators policy 3244 in service training it is recommended that policy 3244 should be abolished because the policy is no longer needed regulation 32231 evaluation of non-tenured Administrators regulation 32 23.1 should be abolished due to revisions to the policy and regulation guides regulation 3223 point2 evaluation of tenured administrators regulation 32 23.2 should be abolished due to revisions to the policy and regulation guides committee recommendations first reading of policies 3221 and 3222 abolishment of policies 1522 and 3244 regulations 32 23.1 and 32 23.2 second reading of policies 3161 and 4161 our next meeting will be Wednesday February 14th at 3:30 do any committee members have anything to add any board members have any questions thank you thank you vice president Justice and now communication committee Miss ston to mention as mentioned earlier during the presentation this evening the district has beening wellness and Contin to communicate health and wellness opportunities to IT staff members through principles are also echoing these meses staff members at each school and are hosting biome screenings and providing access to personal online p [Music] as from both element and middle school teacher so a great start for sure and the district will continue to communicate these opportunities with staff members throughout the year also as president chill mentioned in his opening remarks the district shared on social media that the next copy with the Board of Education will be held at Washington Elementary School in the library media center this informal opportunity to get to those board members is happening on Wednesday January 24th from 9: to 10 a.m. the school is asking that parents and and community members in attendance enter the school to the entrance on but along Butler and then Additionally the pring the district sent out its press release posted on the website and shared on social media regarding kindergarten registration and the prepa lottery process the district shares information with members of The Summit Community every year in an effort to notify parents intoed en Ro their children in the summit Public Schools this message is um excuse me distributed in English and Spanish and the live stream for the 3K Lottery will occur on the morning of January 18th parents of children selected in the lottery will be contacted by either Wilson or and Primary Center our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday February 1th at thank you Miss anthon uh the negotiations and Personnel committee did not meet uh last month so move on to Liaison reports are there any leison reports to share yes I attended January 16th they are currently getting very excited and have communications and under way for spring for excellence which will take place on Saturday March 2nd from 7 to 11:00 p.m. at the El Club the theme this year is Havana Nights a silent auction drinks and light bites will be provided um the biggest thing they want to communicate currently is that the platform that will be used for ticket sales has changed this year they will be working with network for good so in the past people could go in and all of their previous login information was there this year families may have to reenter their information um ticket sales are going to happen soon but they weren't definitive on the date we're hoping February 1 so please be on a lookout for that this year their donations are up they're very happy about that there was a large donation of $73,000 that came in from the suit High School Class of 73 at this uh 50 reunion the board is looking to expand on this opportunity as a pilot for other alni years thic year reunions as well and the chairs from the alumni association for 73 are going to and they also had AIG for helping along the way the communications committee for them is working on their January mailer as well as their email and social media Communications for excellence the mailer should becoming the Postal Service hopefully by the end of this month and lastly their spring rant cycle officially opens at the end of this month and will close on March 15th all spring Grants awarded will be done at Education meeting on May 13th well a big update from SCF thank you very much Miss all right now we will move on to the public comment portion of the agenda Mr Jess if you can provide the guidelines public comment oh yes thank you president Cho uh anyone wishing to speak shall first seek 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 your comments to the board president and not an individual member of the board and please remember to conduct yourself at the Corum and respect when speaking and addressing the board unless additional time is granted by the board president please keep your comments at three minutes or less in addition please note that this portion of the meeting is for public comment and not meant to be 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 so we'll start with public comment for items on the agenda does anybody wish to comment on items on the agenda seeing none we will move to public comment for items not on the agenda there's anybody here that would like to comment for items not on the agenda please step forward so we will now continue so I'd like to have a motion to close uh public comment please all those in favor any opposed any abion motion carries great so now we will have to approve the board minutes from the December meeting need a motion to approve the December 14 2023 meeting uh minutes any discussion all those in favor any opposed any extension motion carries now move on to curriculum instruction of programs item a motion to approve please any discussion Miss tanton yes Miss Kelly Miss ER Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice president Cho yes motion carries all right Finance agenda items a through R motion to approve please any discussion Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly Miss ER Mr cologne yes Miss con yes vice president Justice president Cho yes motion carries now School Board operations just item a on the agenda motion to approve any discussion Miss Stanton yes Miss Kelly Miss ER Mr cologne Miss con vice president Justice president Cho yes motion carries now Personnel agenda items a through o as not on the agenda motion to approve please any discussion Miss Stanton Miss Kelly Miss ER Mr cologne Miss con vice president Justice president Cho yes motion carries then policies and regulations the first reading and second readings as noted in the policy Amendment and the on the agenda motion to approve any discussion Miss Stanton Miss Kelly Miss ER Mr cologne Miss con vice president Justice president Cho yes motion carries this closes the uh regular portion of the meeting uh we do have a need for a Clos executive session so I need a motion to adjourn and move into the closed session I me can I before we do let me just read the resolution that's okay uh whereas pursuant to njsa tonon 412b the Board of Education May exclude the public from that portion of a public meeting wherein the board discusses any of the matter set forth at njsa 10 col 4-12 B 1-9 now therefore be it resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act the Board of Education shall conduct a Clos session pursuant to the provisions of njsa 10 call 412b for the purpose of discussing the following matters Personnel it is anticipated the length of time of this executive session will be 30 minutes or less no action will be taken and the board will not return to public session after executive session so now may we have a motion to go into executive session please thank you motion to move into executive session any discussion all those in favor any opposed any extensions so moved and may we have a motion to adjourn please motion to adjourn I have a have a second thank you any discussion all those in favor any opposed any extensions we're adjourned at 7:33 thank you thank you Mr J