##VIDEO ID:QZDZJUPVa7Q## have a packed house so we're going to get started give me one second I want to make sure that our agenda refreshes okay so pursuant to the open Public's meeting ACT public notice of this meeting has been given by board secretary in the following manner posting written notice of the official bulletin board at the Vorhees Township Public Schools administrative building on July 8th 2024 sending written notice to The Courier Post on July 8th 2024 filing written notice with the clerk of Vorhees Township on July 8th 2024 posting on the Vorhees Township website on July 8th 2024 please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge flag un States stands indice good [Laughter] job uh board secretary will you call the role Please Mr Bryce Miss Kover here Mrs Mion here Mr Rosen here Mr Ros here Mrs ruer here Mrs Stewart here miss verie here Mrs Watson here there will be an executive session later but there will not be one right now um are we going to change the agenda yes uh perfect so that we don't keep all of our lovely Signal Hill students we're gonna switch the agenda around and allow them to go first so I'm going to hand it over to Dr Hackett okay thank you so much good evening everyone I am pleased to have this evening our wonderful amazing principal of Signal Hill Miss Sal and she's brought some amazing students with her and I wanted first before I bring her up acknowledge that we have our parents here so of our parents on Signal Hill welcome and thank you for coming this evening and we also have a lot of Signal Hill staff here so our Signal Hill staff thank you for coming uh so now I like to bring Miss sales up and she'll introduce her wonderful students thank you Dr hacket president Watson and members of the board good evening I am Mrs SS and I'm the principal of Signal Hill school and tonight I have the honor of recognizing some very exciting husky happenings uh while we certainly have several programs and initiatives that we are proud of tonight we would like to Spotlight our after school clubs all of which our exceeding expectations at Signal Hill school we offer six after school clubs which include chess club our club advisor is Mr Chad Justice recipe Club our club advisor is Miss Aaron toy Art Club the club advisor is Miss Ashley [Applause] mazzagatti move Groove and Get Fit club our club advisor is Miss Leanne [Applause] Binkley St I'm sorry stem Club our club advisor is Miss Danielle serani and the Lucky 13 Club our club advisor is Miss Gina [Applause] leonetti I want to take a moment to thank these six amazing teachers for generating clubs of high interest and ones that students look forward to each and every week without your creativity and dedication none of this would be possible tonight our students are eager to share with the Board of Education what they have been learning in after school clubs the skills they have acquired the new friends they have met and the fun activities they have completed before we begin our presentation I would like to thank Dr Hackett and the board of education for providing this opportunity for our elementary students the profound impact of these extracurricular experiences is immeasurable while receiving positive feedback is always encouraging I believe actually witnessing it takes it to new heights so without further Ado who better than to share what they have been learning than the students themselves at this time I would like to introduce Club advisor Mr Chad Justice and members of our chess club thank you good evening my name is uh Chad Justice I'm the band director at Signal Hill but also the chess club director um at chess club we learn the basics of Chess and some basic strategy so students who are brand new get to learn uh the basics and then we do a little tournament and uh see who comes out on top so we have a couple students tonight that are going to speak about their experience in chess club Elijah hello my name is Elijah B and I am a fourth grade student and I'd like to share to you what I like about chess club chess club is very fun I like chess club a lot because you get to connect with friends after school Mr Justice is a great teacher he helps explain the game very well and makes the game interesting chess is a new hobby I learned last year in chess club and I've gotten better as I have learned I've played more this year chess club gave me an opportunity to explore a different interest this is why chess club is the best [Applause] hi my name is Brody Buchanon I'm in fourth grade and and I'm also in dress Club dress club is a good way to play games with friends I really like playing tress my great grandpa is actually a famous tress player it is a really fun Club it is probably my favorite club during chess club there will be a chess tournament and people will get paired up with people to play in chess tourament I mean in chess tournament Mr Justice gets us all randomized on his chest tournament website for who's playing who above our names are words that say white pieces or black pieces and we also get Beed up um with whoever is next to our names um whoever whoever gets her cane captured or our check May loses and whoever captured their opponent's K wins but if none win then it's a draw after the last game of chess tournament Mr juses puts on everybody's status of of the tress on the tress website of um andurs whichever place someone is in chess club is a really fun Club to be in hi good evening my name is Aaron toy I'm a speech language pathologist with the district and I'm also the adviser of recipe Club in recipe Club students are learning to make both edible and some non-edible recipes which they're I've learned they're not too happy about so I guess we got to go all edible examples include after school snacks such as fruit rice cakes holiday treats like snowmen donuts and frosted sugar cones and then some of our non-edible things like sensory Play-Doh and slime um students are working collaboratively in small groups and practicing following multi-step written directions measuring ingredients and slicing fruit with child safe knives um each student also has the opportunity to write out their favorite recipes in personalized recipe books which they'll get to keep at the end of Club I've really enjoyed advising these students as a speech therapist I to typically monitor a room of 20 plus so kudos to my colleagues who do um and I hope that these students get to continue exploring cooking and creating in the kitchen and now I have Delany and [Music] Aiden hello my name is Delany I'm a fifth grader in Miss cardone's class and I'm here to tell you about recipe Club one thing I really like is when we're making recipes we get get to sit next to our friends also we make all kinds of recipes some edible and some not we're also learning a lot like how to cut fruit and many more things it's also very cool to come in and see what we're making that day now you can see why me and a lot of other students Love Recipe Club hi my name is Aiden I'm a fourth grade student I like recipe Club because we get to eat food and do experiments like yesterday we made made dough out of flour chalk and oil my favorite part is when we made Snowman from donuts and chocolate chips also I get to take home I get to take it home if I want that's why I like recipe Club hi my name is Ashley masatti I'm a second grade teacher and the art Club adviser uh the art Club is a creative space where students can explore their artistic talents and express themselves through a variety of mediums including painting drawing and crafts uh each week we have been diving into exciting projects and Inspire in um Inspire imagination and Foster collaboration two of my art Club students Everly and Rowan are going to tell you a little bit more about the art club and why they love it hi my name is Rowan oh yeah hi my name is Rowan and I'm a third grader my favorite thing about art Club is doing fun projects and making new friends my two favorite projects are creating my own stickers and using Clay Art Club made me want to be an art teacher and I when I grow up I want to be the world's best artist I think the art Club will inspire other kids to become to become an art teacher too hi my name is Everly and I'm in third grade I love art Club because I get to be creative and make art with my friends we have done many different projects so far with miss mazzagatti my favorite project was learning how to make my own stickers I even taught my friends how to make them good evening everyone my name is Leanne Bingley and I've been a health and physical education teacher at Signal Hill for quite some time um I'm very excited about our move Groove and Fit club um it is given our kids um an opportunity to take the skills and knowledge they learn in PE class just to the next level we've been doing all sorts of Fitness activities which include hit workout sessions interval trainings um we've even do done some dance dancing the kids actually are learning dances and enjoying it we're having a blast with that um a couple other things uh we're currently working on Fitness levels and fitness goals learning on how to set our own personal goals and ways to be successful in meeting them so the club has been truly a pleasure for me and I feel that the kids are having a wonderful time as well and here is one of our students Valentina she's here to talk about Club as well good evening my name is Valentina kopa and I am in fourth grade I belong to the move Groove and Get Fit club I love this club because I get to see all my friends from third through fifth grade plus it is a chance to make and meet new friends we play some of our favorite gym activities like playing drums on yoga balls and trying our best to make the minute club by staying in a CH position for as long as we can the games help us teach us how to set goals for ourselves also motivate us for our very best we play all different kinds of sports like soccer basketball and volleyball every Club day feels like an adventure we learn about teamwork and communication while having fun the best is when we encourage and cheer each other on I look forward to run jump and move around with friends after a long day of school after Club I always feel energized and happy from all the fun we had Miss Bley is one of the best teachers because she's super creative with her games makes everything so fun and exciting lastly this club is a great reminder to stay healthy and active is super important it's always fun to move and get fit [Applause] together and our other student was unable to attend tonight so we have another uh reading for us yes so this speech was prepared by 4th grade student Ryan Gallagher who couldn't join us tonight but asked that we share what she wrote the move Groove and Get Fit club with Miss Binkley is an awesome club all of the kids get to play and have fun we get to play sports stretch and learn dances I would also like to add that Miss Binkley is an amazing teacher she makes the club so much fun she is one of the reasons I love this club so much thank you all for listening today I hope you have a great rest of your night [Applause] hello my name is Danielle serani and I'm a fourth grade teacher at Signal Hill and I'm very excited to be the stem Club adviser this year um through Hands-On activities collaborative projects and interactive challenges students explore essential science technology engineering and mathematical Concepts this club aims to inspire the next gener generation of innovators and problem solvers and I'm going to turn it over to two very creative stem club members hi my name is McKenzie I'm a fifth grader miss gy and miss trunk 's class today me and Brody are going to tell you about an after school program stem class Miss Miss arani has taught me Brody and the whole class A Lot in week one we did a zipline project we worked in groups and used the materials missani gave us here are some she gave us a foot of tape a nain scissors and more we made a little box and put a little eraser in it then we tested them and scored how fast they went down the zip line it was really fun we also made a Harry Potter one we used copper popsicle sticks a magnet a light and tape at the end of the project it was really cool because it was glowing and we got to wave it around in the air [Applause] hello my name is Brody Reid I'm a fifth grader in Miss lynches class today I'm going to tell you about how much I like stem so in week to a stem we made a lava lamp we used an empty water bottle a little bit of water food coloring vegetable oil and an Alka-Seltzer a few steps later and we were done another thing I like about stem is problem solving we have limited time and materials to do these projects that why stem Club is the best place to [Applause] be good evening my name is Gina leonetti and I am the adviser of the Lucky 13 Club fun fact that the Lucky 13 Club got its name because Taylor Swift's birthday is the 13th of December but it is also the birthday of both of my children November and March 13th so some it's like it was meant to be the Lucky 13 Club is about all things Taylor Swift we listen to her music learn about her life and career and create projects related to her album themes Taylor's lyrics offer valuable lessons in storytelling adaptability and resilience in a way that our students can relate to just like poetry read in the classroom her writing is full of figurative language and hidden meanings that we spend time decoding discussing and even read writing some of our favorite activities include making friendship bracelets redesigning album covers making paper rings Cal down jars and Beed glasses all nods to Taylor's lyrics and songs The Lucky 13 Club celebrates teamwork creativity and friendship just like Taylor Swift and now we have Amelia and Penelope to tell you a little bit more about it hi my name is Penelope Hamilton I am a third grader we have lots of fun at the Lucky 13 Club hi my name is Amelia sers I'm a fourth grader in Mrs rups class every week we have a theme for our club meeting according to Taylor's albums we listen to music from the albums and dress in the colors that go with the albums for example last week we listened to 1989 and we wore light blue we made our own Polaroid frames just like Taylor's album covers we play lots of cvia games to see who knows the most about Taylor and her songs we talk about her inspiration for writing her songs and albums what some of her song lyrics mean we also make friendship reles for ourself and to share with our friends the lucky 2013 Club made each board member a personalized bracelet for you to remember us thank you Miss leonetti for making this club happen oh she it even has my name on it oh my goodness and as they pass these out I just want to say they they are such a great Club because they made me a bracelet and they broke down and put it in Dallas Cowboy colors so I really appreciate I don't I don't get a lot of uh good vibes from being a Cowboys fan but they made a bracelet in Blue and Gray so I want to to say I appreciate that thank you very much thank you let's all give them one more round of applause Huskies thank you so much for positively representing Signal Hill school tonight you all did a phenomenal job and I could not be prouder and thank you to all of the families for joining us tonight and bringing your children out especially on a very cold wintry night uh to help us showcase our clubs your support means the world to us this concludes our presentation and on behalf of the students and staff at Signal Hill we once again thank Dr hackit and members of the board of education for providing such an enriching program for our upper elementary students thank you it's perfect it's literally perfect yeah thank you thank you I didn't expect to get one one group photo sorry can we give them another round of applause thank you so much to our teachers our parents they were wonderful wonderful thank you very much this is such a clear Testament to thinking outside of the box coming up with really engaging programs um I think principal Sal told me we have about 50% participation I that's incredible for after school activities especially when we all know how incredibly busy these kids are these days so for them to commit to these clubs is is a tremendous tremendous Testament to their engagement but also the creativity of the teachers and the staff for coming up with really great ideas so thank you thank you thank you you all did a really good J job coming up here and talking to all of us is hard so we are incredibly proud of you um but we also recognize that you all it's late and we're not gonna hold any of these young students and families hostage for a board meeting you're more than welcome to say but we totally understand if you decide to leave so we'll give you a couple of moments to to exit if you want to um thank you again for all coming out and supporting them I know there like I have these kids dress better than I do they have a style you know my you were trying to give it away I'm like I can't take this is for a board member and I'm like you're like has your name my heart justed so sweet oh my God I okay we're gonna get back to business um we have a couple of board appointments I do want to State what they are um and thank all of the members of the board who are participating Mr Rosner um we are putting up as a representative to the Camden County School boards Association executive committee Miss birdie as a delegate to the New Jersey school boards Association Miss Kover as an alternate delegate to the New Jersey school boards Association excuse me um Mr Bryce as a legislative representative to the New Jersey school boards Association and Miss Branch Stewart as representative to the Camden County Educational Service can I get a motion to approve all of those appointments so moved rder second C over online voting open forgot what we were doing Mrs Pion is yours working no not working uh you we can verbal yes I'll mark it for you thank you Mo the motion unanimously passes can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the November 25th 2024 regular meeting so moved 30 second Rosen online voting is open this is M Manion yes yes okay Mr Rosen okay um we have seven yeses and one abstention from Mr Rosner and I get a motion to approve the minutes of the January 6 2025 regular board meeting board reorganization so moved Rosner second Rudder online voting is open Mrs Manion yes motion unanimously passes I only have a couple of very brief comments it is um it is the board appreciation month um or school boards appreciation month so I wanted to actually express my appreciation for this board um this is a tough job uh more people should do it I think it actually builds a ton of character because it is difficult to sit up here it's difficult to get letters from angry parents it's difficult to get letters from Angry community members it's difficult to get um just all of the things that come along with being on the board not to mention we don't get paid for this I think people think we do but we don't um but things like today and seeing the students is why we do this and I'm so grateful that we include something like that in every single board member in every single board meeting because it does always remind us of what our purpose is and I am incredibly incredibly lucky to be on a board with so many intelligent bright people I I must give a special thank thanks specifically to my board vice president miss Kover um she keeps me grounded and focused and it's fun to be on a board when you can also spend time with a person who teaches you how to lead but also is your friend and you consistently learn new things as you navigate these really difficult Waters and times um but I also want to recognize the rest of the board who are remble individuals who bring intelligence and patience and kindness um to what we do every single day so thank you thank you thank you um I am honored to be serving on this board with all of you fire drills and safety drills are are shown on the attachment the harassment intimidation and bullying report is also attached as well as suspensions we have a couple of Oprah requests that we've received received um the Albert Anderson Philly photo film um has been received and closed out Michael roast Oprah request is is open um and Randy stuper has made an Oprah request which also remains open moving to board secretary report thank you I have several items under my section tonight uh the first is the presentation of the 2023 2024 audit report and the official title of that is the annual comprehensive financial report or Acer and there's also the AMR which is auditor management report on administrative findings uh this year we have zero findings in the past we had some related to Food Service uh just with some excess funding from the from during covid that has all been utilized to buy equipment uh for the kitchens and also the equip kitchen equipment in the new building um we have to go over some items with the audit because that's part of approving it um available to the public is the summary of the audit report um it's the whole entire thing is the entire report is at 20.10 under Finance but the summary report just goes over highlights of the financials um so what it starts out with it's a balance sheet of the governmental funds included in governmental funds our general fund our special Revenue fund and capital projects fund uh there's also Enterprise fund which is our uh CER and food service um I won't go over all the details of this of course but some highlights are um we did invest money this year what's broken out is only the New Jersey arm investment of about $2 million but overall we invested 17 million 15 million of it was in CDs but the CDs are included in cash and cash equivalents um let's see what else with those amounts we are with those two Investments we earned 157,000 but we also invest just in our regular bank account so the total interest earned is about $98,000 so that's very beneficial uh for the budget at the bottom part of that page it shows the breakdown of our reserves we often talk about capital reserve emergency Reserve maintenance Reserve that's all detailed at the bottom and those are all balances as of June 30th 2024 um this this actual report is detailed in the audit on uh exhibits B1 and B2 and there's also C1 but again this is just a summary uh we skip forward to page three that shows the revenue section of the governmental funds and then on further down is the audit recommendation summary you'll see that we had zero findings or recommendations and it mentions the status of the prior year finding it says a review was performed on the prior year recommendations and corrective action was taken on the one prior your finding so it is it is a good audit report we're very proud of that and I would like i' like to thank uh Miss Kiri out in the audience my assistant business administrator she she really handles the overall audit she deals with the Auditors personally all the time I'm only there on the side doing a few of the schedules she really does the whole audit with them and she does a great job she's also our Treasurer so when you see uh the the cash report she does that she does the bank reconciliations and she prepares all the board secretary's report I just have the honor of presenting she does all the work for that but thank you um okay so then just to move forward for a little highlight on the actual Acer there's different sections to it there's the transmit transmittal letter the auditor's opinion is a clean opinion there's management discussion and Analysis there's the different financials for the governmental accounting and there's financials for Enterprise funds that those financials are at B4 and B5 which is like I said food service and CER uh Food Service even though we had excess cash during the covid time when when we were reimbursed for all the meals that we served overall um Food Service runs at a deficit on the financials at B5 it shows Food Service had a loss of 43,000 if you adjust if you adjust out some not it's not grant money but it's assistance that we received for supply chain if you adjust that out and you adjust out the equipment that we purchased it really would be a loss of about 27,000 and the year before was 64 so that's why we always have to analyze meal prices are and so forth just to make sure we don't run at a deficit consistently but we do still have Reserve money there another section of the financial audit are the footnotes to the financials and that uh describes all the different sections of the balance sheet and the income statement um it also highlights our investments um it talks about how we have a smaller amount of money invested in New Jersey arm because that's not insured in the same way that the CDs are any money in CDs or Bank accounts are guaranteed by uh FDIC and goodus so we we kind of maximize our investments at that level so I won't go into any more of that but I just wanted to give you the Highlight we're very pleased with the results of the audit and uh we work very hard all year to be in compliance and this is the result of it the AMR just shows additional testing that the Auditors have to do and again we have no findings so I will go on to the next topic the next topic is the application for school state school Aid we it's the Assa report every October 15th every school in the state has to do a count of their students so our I know there was a report that was shared with the board before that showed that we had 362 students that represents our on-roll number of 2,976 plus our provider preschool students that are 86 students that are at providers so we have a total of 362 um when we compare the on en roll students um from last year to this year we're pretty much flat in our enrollment um overall our enrollment went up by 15 students uh seven of them are in grades prek to eth grade the regular ed students um and eight are in the special ed category we have to break out special ed Elementary and special ed middle separately uh that's just how the state requires it um when I when we do an analysis of the regular ed students it shows that prek went down by two students um our kindergarten went down by 16 students and our grades one through five went up by four and surprisingly our eighth grade went up by 21 but again it's a net increase of 15 so we're pretty much stable we'll see more of an increase next year or later this year when we expand our preschool um so the Assa um is done every October 15th and the Auditors review that to make sure we're okay then the next item on my list is uh the Burlington County Insurance Pool joint Insurance Fund uh we are part of a jip we call it the GIF it's a joint Insurance Fund of many districts I would like to show that we were awarded $4,000 at the annual GIF dinner this represents um our safety initiatives claims reporting and financial excellence and I would say the people that are most involved in this um are uh Clark matthysse Tom higs uh Trisha Mady and let's see our nurses and Danielle Ki so I would say those are the people that are mostly involved in this making sure we're safe making sure if somebody does get hurt it's reported right away all this stuff is analyzed by the GIF and they reward us accordingly so 4,000 is a good number to get from them and then we have to use that for other safety items to purchase safety items sometimes we roll it over and save it up for something to use later I think one year we might have bought our cabota did we didn't we buy that yeah we bought a Kota to clear snow so it does come in handy all right the next item on my list is maintenance projects Mr mathys and his staff were in over winter break and some of the items that they did um were they they installed some charging stations in conference room tables they changed HVAC filters throughout the district uh they did a lockdown active shooter alarm system testing where the police were involved in that as well and our alarm company um they installed a new New Heating and AC unit at Signal Hill they also investigated a storm water infiltration issue at Signal Hill there was some roots that had gone into a drain pipe and caused some backing up of water um that was all cleared up so that's fixed now they received milk during break they replaced Library lights and upgraded to LED lights there was hard surface flooring installed in the music room at H at ET Hamilton and again hvhc filters and just general repairs so they try to maximize the work 're not here so it's really always impressive to see how much they have gotten done when during this this break so thank you for your hard work uh the next item is School Board recognition month so we would like to recognize and thank all of our Schoolboard members each of them has received a token of appreciation and I would like to read a resolution uh on their behalf okay so this is uh the resolution for the 4 Township Board of Education whereas the New Jersey school boards Association has declared January 2025 to be school board recognition month a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the Vorhees Township Board of Education is one of 581 local school boards in New Jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the Vorhees Township Board of Education Embraces the goal of high quality education for all New Jersey public school students and whereas New Jersey's local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in Pre kindergarten and TW through 12th grade and whereas the New Jersey's 5,000 local school board members who receive no remuneration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they work with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public education and whereas School boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs and whereas Boards of educ ation provide accountability to the public they communicate the needs of the school district to the public and they convey to school administrators The public's expectations for the expectations for the schools and whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best in key achievement indicators such as the national assessment of educational progress scores and the preparation for college through advanced placement offerings and sat assessments now therefore be it resolved that the Vorhees Township Board of education does hereby recognize the services of local Schoolboard members throughout New Jersey As We join communities Statewide in observing January 2025 as school board recognition month and be it further resolved that the Vorhees Township Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local Boards of education and Public School staff towards the advancement of our children's education thank you very much for your service that concludes my session thank you Mrs haly superintendent report okay good evening again everyone um as we celebrate School Board appreciation month I'm reminded of the powerful words of an author and educator Dr Steven kovi and he says leadership is not about being in charge it's about taking care of those in your charge this quote perfectly embodies the selfless dedication of our school board members your leadership and volunteer service are reflection of your unwavering commitment to our student staff in the entire School Community thank you for giving your time expertise and energy to ensure that our district continues to thrive and evolve once again happy board appreciation month uh during the board meeting in November there were a few questions asked and I will answer them now one of the questions asked was why was the word Community removed from the district organizational chart in June of 2024 as a point of clarification the decision to remove community and Implement other organizational changes to the Chart were made or actually made in March of 2023 and while we deeply value and welcome the feedback from our community it is important to note that organizational charts primar primarily reflect the structure related to the day-to-day operations of a school district I received various questions or comments about regulation 5600 with is student conduct uh one of the um the first comment was that for arson the superintendent was not listed under arson so the um superintendent now is included for all three offenses for all grade levels under arson another comment was the superintendent is not listed until the third offense for assault for the Middle School only superintendent is now added to all third offenses for all grade levels comment was made that the on assault on a staff member superintendent was not listed until the third offense for Middle School only superintendent is now listed for all three offenses for all grade levels uh comment made about falsifying a fire alarm superintendent was not listed until the second Offense for middle school and the third offense for other grades and there was also a question about whether we should charge a fine the superintendent is now listed um on the second Offense for all and we did not add payment of a fine announcements for this meeting I'm pleased to inform you that we've created a link on the district's website that provides information about various Community state and federal resources available to our families this link will be regularly updated as the district receives new information my next superintendent Forum will take place on January 30th at 6:30 pm in this building our parents and community members are invited to come out and have a session with me there's no set agenda for these sessions it's whatever uh the parents and Community m MERS want to talk about so again my second Forum of this school year will take place on January 30th 6:30 in this building and our next parent virtual Workshop will take place on February the 12th at 7M Miss Colleen Nolan who is our district instructional coach will present a workshop on problem solving in mathematics so I hope our parents are able to join us for that wonderful virtual Workshop 7 o'clock on February 12th and I'd like to end my report by bringing up Miss Julie Lions she's our director director of Early Childhood K to 5 literacy and ESL she has a couple of roles and she's going to present a very brief presentation on the alternate access scores for our English language Learners Miss Li thank you good evening everybody president Watson Dr Hackett members of the board thank you for allowing me to present this information this evening um I would like to call us this almost a part two of the presentation from the Summer where I presented access for L's results at the time we had not received our alternate access for L's results so I did not have that information to share but now I have some additional information to provide so the alternate access for L's is another assessment but this is given to our multilingual Learners who have the most significant cognitive disabilities so this test is in individually administered to the students it is a large print paper based test and the students who are taking the alternate access are typically our multilingual Learners who are also taking instead of the njsla they would be taking the dlm the dynamic learning Maps assessment as well um similar to the access for L's the alternate access is still testing English language proficiency across the four domains that I talked about in the summertime which is speaking listening reading and writing and Alternate access meets all the US Federal requirements under idea individuals with Disabilities Act um Essa every student succeeds act to Monitor and Report our multilingual Learners progress towards English language proficiency so this year like I said we did not have those results at the same time as the access for El's because the state was um or weda was in a standard setting event and they had to recommend cut scores but receive final approval from the State Board of Education so those cut scores were not approved until November 6th which is why we didn't have them earlier and that delayed the release of the scores to school districts we received our hard copies of the scores on November 27th and as required we made sure that those individual score reports were sent out to parents and Guardians within 30 days of us receiving the hard copies okay and as far as the results um there are suppression rules in place and because we had less than 10 students that take the alternate access for El's we are not at Liberty to share those results because we need to maintain and protect student confidentiality so I can tell you that they took the test that we sent the results home but I can't actually share specific data because of those suppression rules um what I am showing you though is a report that parents receive that helps them understand their child's access um alternate access scores so you can see there's some color bands there it's showing the Four domains that I mentioned it provides the students overall proficiency level when you look at how they scored in each of the four domains of listening speaking raing and writing there is a sample individual score report at the bottom right um so parents can see how that might look um compared with their child's report and then there's a nice section at the bottom that says what should I do next and based on the child's scores it provid some information for what parents can do at home to help support their child and this is just um reiterating some of the intervention strategies that I had discussed over the summer that we're continuing to do which is conducting ongoing data analysis with our team um making sure that we're collaborating between departments as needed and we're making sure that all of our staff and administrators are provided with annual professional development so they can better understand the access and then also just how to better meet the needs of the MLS in the classroom um some of those trainings are going to take place at upcoming faculty meetings in the next month or so and then once again um the intervention strategies some of these I mentioned in the summer we uh have provided sheltered English instruction training for our ESL staff and next year we're looking to roll out some additional training to the general education staff so that they have some of these strategies as well and then we continue to utilize our District programs to meet our students individual needs between the M period RTI basic skills our morning program differentiated small group instruction that's provided in the classroom and then the daily ESL services that our MLS receive and then we are now entering the test window for this school year that was reporting on last year's alternate access results but the window for Access for L's and Alternate access for El's is opening on February 3rd that window closes March 28th so our ESL team is busy creating schedules for the principles in their building so that they can seamlessly administer those assessments and um we provided access test Administration training for the ESL team back in the fall in November um they have to take some yearly online modules just to refresh and make sure they're ready to administer the test I have to take those as well and then in January I did a follow-up training with the team because the Department of Education had released some additional slides in January um that I needed to turn key to the staff just to give them the most up-to-date information so that was taken care of so we are all set for this year's assessment and then I will see you again in a few months to be sharing scores for this year's access for L's and Alternate access for l um once again thank you for your attention and that's all I have unless you had any questions I have I have one quick question yes um so just the the uh reports that are sent home to the families um are they sent home in the family's first language yes they are and we also send them in English so they have sets to compare with one another Wonder thank you all right thank you okay thank you Mrs Lions thank you Dr hacket moving to the committee reports um Mr Rosen can I get a report on the finance committee yes um the finance committee met on December 3D virtually the attendees were Julie Kover Jacob Rosner Randy stuper Dr Hackett Helen Haley Daniel kry and me the finance committee discussed the annual comprehensive financial report which was reviewed just a little bit earlier in this meeting um re reports that impact state aid the district report of trans transported resident students um and the district will be reviewing options to improve Transportation efficiency we review the Assa which um Miss Haley uh spoke about earlier at this meeting uh we also um talked about the demographic projection analysis report um that is awaiting input from boy East Township unplanned residential construction projects and once the demogra the demographic report is received from Sundale Associates I think there's an editing um the district will review the available capacity within the school buildings to accommodate potential de demographic changes we reviewed the balance of Reserve accounts and spending on Capital and maintenance projects um we also talked about changing certain contracted services from a calendar basis to align with the fiscal year the school year uh which was actually done at the last board meeting and we also talked about um the uh original Cresent school and if I'm correctly I think it's the what the building on that corner of the property pointing the right direction um and brainstorming options to preserve the building and its potential uses uh the next finance committee meeting is next Wednesday uh which we will be focusing on Transportation great thank you Miss rder could you provide the academic Excellence committee report sure the academic Excellence committee meeting was held on December 11th virtually from 6:00 to 7M it was myself Mrs Branch Stewart Mrs Kover Mr Rosen Dr hacket and Mr moscowitz um we talked about the after school clubs thank thank you so much um we went over all of them in all of the schools and we discussed possible expansion of them for the future we talked about after school tutoring we discussed the summer Learning Academy and what that will look like this summer we discussed the Spanish program and um H um having more curriculum written for Spanish expansion over the summer we got an update on the win period as it is wrapping up the first phase we discussed accelerated math and we also discussed contracted uh prek vendors thank you thank you Mr Rosner could you give a Personnel committee report yes the Personnel committee met on December 16th um to hear an Hib appeal from the board um Mr Bryce Dr hackit um me Miss Rudder and um Miss DaNell was there and we our recommendation is at 16.7 on the agenda thank you thank you audience participation anyone wishing to address the board please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet while the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving Personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public relating to items on the agenda for this board meeting comments are limited to 3 minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take hi good evening um I'm TR Saka a third grade teacher at Signal Hill uh uh sorry Vorhees um Vorhees resident for 30 years now and I am the current teacher VTA Association president so that's why I'm standing here tonight to speak to you on behalf of the staff um but before I do want to say happy board appreciation month as you know your job is very hard and I have to tell you that being the president of the association is harder than being a mom a wife a teacher uh any of that so um but I am here on behalf of the staff to ask for consideration in the calendar that I know is on the agenda for approval tonight um so as you know our current calendar that we're working under um has undergone a ton of renovation uh it was approved last January and then uh reapproved with a a bunch of changes in June and then currently with our snow day uh there's been a lot of discussion about other potential changes so looking for forward to the 2526 calendar the staff asks that you I don't know how long you've had the calendar I don't know if as a full board you meet to discuss the calendar I don't know if you discuss all the changes that were made in the upcoming calendar I don't know if you realize that the staff is coming back in August that we're talking about not being able to plan spring break that we've taken holidays away um that we have taken away personal time for staff to to work um on their own uh we've had like half days or early dismissal days to work on our grades so with that being said I just want to make sure that before you vote on the calendar tonight that you have all had the opportunity to look it over and that as a board or as a board committee as a calendar committee that you have considered the changes considered the effects on the staff and the community because if one snow day threw us into this type of chaos that we've experienced the last couple of weeks trying to figure out what to do about one snow day um I just want to make sure that when we tell the staff what to expect for next year's work schedule that we can stick to it so that's all I ask thank you seeing no other comments comments from the board I have a comment um I would like to take just a minute to respond to miss stup's parting speech she gave at our last meeting or her last meeting I had things to say that night but felt it better to take time to reflect before I spoke nobody in their right mind and I do stress right mind runs for the board of of Education unless they care deeply for the children's education in the school district I do not appreciate Miss stup's call to the rest of us to step down I do not appreciate being thrown into her reference of the most toxic group she has ever worked with nothing Miss stuper said has been my personal experience which is why I feel the need to publicly State my opinion tonight I deeply value my fellow board members and more than anything I appreciate Dr Hackett and Mrs Haley I hold these two polished professionals with the highest regard that's all I look forward to continued collaboration with everyone thank you I have some questions and comments um so before I get to my my remarks I have a couple of questions so on the academic Excellence committee report the cut of after school tutoring for children needing supports was discussed um after I asked for it to be added to the agenda I want to note that I am not on that committee so I am not privy to the conversations in that committee and must rely solely on the brief minutes provided so my question is what was the committee's consensus regarding the administration's decision to cut the program I see that there was a note in the committee report that staff prefer before school tutoring not after school I'd like more information about that since we are now providing the after school clubs so there does seem to be at least some faculty interest in Staffing after school um activities and uh is this the end of the conversation regarding this program or will there be additional considerations for the program while I understand budget and Staffing concerns I am also concerned of prioritization of limited resources um to children who need additional supports I also have a question um regarding the uh approval of another progress payment on the Vorhees Early Childhood Center tonight um we've been told that the opening of the center has been delayed um again I want to remind the public that we have been paying for staff for the center since the beginning of the school year I'd like some clarity about how foreseeable these delays were and if the administration knew or had reason to know in October when this board was asked to approve a change order for the kitchen and told that we couldn't ask for more information or seek alternative options to the costly change order because if we didn't approve the change at that meeting we would delay the December opening by four weeks perhaps more if I'm remembering correctly um we can refer back to the recording of the meeting as to those questions several of us had about the change order and the additional expenses so I just love some additional clarification as to what was known about potential delays back in October on to my report my remarks um which reflect my personal opinions and obviously should not be construed as an action of the board as a whole there is a quote about the importance of dissenting voices it states we all think alike no one thinks very much these words resonate with me especially in my role as a board member where I believe my duty is not to conform for the sake of comfort but to challenge to question and to speak up when I believe it is necessary this District deserves thoughtful deliberate decision-making and that cannot happen if every voice is an echo of the last A diversity of thought is how we uncover blind spots identify unintended con quences consequences and ensure that every decision serves the best interests of our children and our faculty in our community unfortunately dissent is often uncomfortable for those in power tonight I want to address something that I believe the public deserves to understand over at least the next 11 months you will see me question the administration about things like why we've cut the after school uh tutoring program for kids who need the most help or why our budget for projects like the administration building sewer project was so immensely underestimated you'll see me explain why I'm voting no on things like raising the price of school lunches because of the impact it can have on those living paycheck to paycheck you'll see me question proposed policy language like if the policy committee tries once again to pass a policy to prevent me from speaking as I am doing right now you'll see me question why projects like ballooning budgets uh why projects have ballooning budgets like the Early Childhood Cent 's kitchen change order that I referenced earlier you'll also see me ask for greater transparency like I did for six plus months when the administration and board leadership stopped the recording of our meetings without a v vote from this board to the public I want you to watch what happens next when I speak up I believe you will see what has been happening behind the scenes for my entire time on this board attempts to silence discredit embarrass and punish me for not being a rubber stamp and for not falling in line maybe it'll be through being routinely reprimanded from the day like was so often done to my colleagues it could be in Long condescending bullying tactic leaden emails telling me to essentially shut up when I raised concerns over the Stark racial disparities in our suspension data for two years where I was told there was nothing to see here just for now finally a new committee to be established on this very issue that conveniently excludes me but enclosed those who tried to silence me and refused to even discuss a policy I drafted on the issue in committee perhaps an Ethics complaint will be filed against me at as was done against Mrs stuper the decision of which is now public and we collectively paid for as taxpayers to defend and adjudicate it could be that the powers will try to ignore me exclude me from Key committees like policy academic Excellence Personnel discipline or the finance committees as was already done or by treating me like a pariah rolling their eyes when I speak basically all the things we teach our children not to do in school to their classmates and if you're unsure what I mean you can listen to the recordings of these meetings the recordings of which I believe are necessity to safeguard transparency and accountability and when you hear in a few minutes the board president read the statement about how all of our questions and concerns should be raised before our meetings in committee or through email please note that this is the same board president who imagined a policy out of thin air that board members may not email the superintendent to ask questions request information or otherwise communicate directly with a superintendent without copying or going through the board president or vice president on every single correspondence again as usual before this meeting I have not seen a single question asked by my colleagues on this agenda and as to committees if you exclude board members from the commit where substance is actually being discussed there is no opportunity for debate except right here and right now so let me be clear I will not sit here and allow my voice to be silenced or relegated to committees that don't meet I will continue to demand more to demand better I may not always win a debate or a vote and that's fine I will accept that because that is how a governing body such as this functions but I won't attempt what I won't accept is attempts to sign silence me I am here ready and willing to get to work because uh no matter how good our district is I believe we can always strive to be better and better I ran for this position because I believe in the power of Education to transform lives I believe the people of Wares deserve Representatives who are willing to hear all sides even when it makes them uncomfortable that is what leadership requires especially in the times ahead to my colleagues and colleagues in leadership I urge you to set aside person Grievances and focus instead on what truly matters the students and families of this District punishing dissent does not build trust or improve outcomes for our community it only stifles the debate that essential that is essential to making sound well-rounded decisions where all think alike no one thinks very much I truly hope I am proven wrong on all of this that we can all work together in a more positive respectful way that values not fears differences of opinions let us not allow this board to become a place where critical thinking and healthy debate is replaced by silence Conformity and complacency let's work together be bolder and be creative thank you I have some comments um first um it's really really it was really really nice to see the tangible impact that the clubs have made this was a Um passion project of uh Miss Rudder and I just want to say it was like awesome to have that's my first friendship bracelet or whatever it's supposed to be called I will cherish it forever uh it always amazes me how well the students it's really hard to speak in public I'm nervous now so to think about you know the kids coming up here and speaking through those nerves is really really impressive and I'm always amazed every time that they do it so that's the first thing so thank you um second is I don't often make public comments but I watch the November meeting I know I need a new hobby but I believe that the statements from former Board member Miss Randy stuper misconstrue the actions and motivations of the members of this board who did not speak in the November meeting you know I prefer to keep my head down and do the work I would like to offer a different point of view for the public to hear I'd like to start by saying that I believe every member of this board's hearts are in the right place and believe they are acting in the best interest of the community Randy made several comments in November such as quote the board priorities are not the children's teachers and community members but their own power that this is the most toxic board that she's been a part of and telling people to resign to give others in the community a chance there are other people on this board who completely disagree including me this has not been my experience I've had a cordial and respectful relationship with my fellow board members and the administration the only reason I serve is to serve those constituents not some perceived power it is wrong to come up here and speak generally about the actions and motivations of others another comment so few of us are up here for the right reasons saying only a few are doing their job I read everything that comes before me I ask questions when I need clarification we do our work before the meeting we ask hard questions some easy questions we get answers we push when we need to it's unfair to broadly assert that people are not putting in the work or rubber stamping everything the administration does finally I don't agree with everything the administration does nor do my other board members I may want to see some things change and have expressed my opinions respectfully generally I think the district is moving in the right direction Dr Hackett and Miss Haley are running the district with competency and integrity for that I am grateful I am also grateful to my fellow board members who take time out of their lives to serve the community thank you thank you any other comments moving on to the business portion of the meeting um as we move into the business portion of our meeting we want to recognize that as that it may appear as if the board takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote before an item is placed on the board agenda it is Thoroughly reviewed Red by the superintendent and administration the superintendent then presents the recommended action to the appropriate board committee and works with the committee to ensure that the F members fully understand the recommendation once the committee is satisfied the item is placed on the board agenda for discussion and action at a public meeting board agendas are made available to board members several days in advance of the meeting giving us ample time to review the agenda and have all of our questions answered further we have kept we are kept up toate between meetings on the ongoing work of the Administration and the important issues in the district all of these efforts ensure that we are well informed and prepared to take action at our meetings moving on to policy can I get a motion to approve all of the items under policy so move Stuart second Rudder online voting is open Rosen uh yes motion unanimously passes moving to curriculum can I get a motion to approve all of the items under curriculum so moved Rosner second Rudder can can I ask that 16.5 be pulled out and vote it on separately and I get a a motion to approve all of the items under 16 oh do we have to vote on her motion to pull it out's a second never had a second on we've that's not how this has happened and if we've asked for something to be pulled out to be voted on separately that has been respected at every other board meeting right so just I just want to clarify are you making a motion or just a request I'm just requesting that that one just be pulled out so it can be voted on separately so the current motion to approve all items under 16.1 but without 16.5 so 16.1 to 16.4 16.6 16.7 so moved second we had a motion the first and second that that was my that was my question so the original motion was for all items 16.1 through 16.7 so if we're amending that motion we just need to be clear about that so we had a first and a second I'm assuming for the amended motion that is that we can consider that yes okay do I change my first and second so yes because what we're voting on is 16.1 to 16.4 and 16.6 to 16.7 correct right yes yes Mr Mr Rosen I was the first and Mr Rosen was the second so should we not vote for what's on our thing right now or is that the I think you can okay that's the right am everyone what you're voting on correct yeah okay motion unanimously passes okay now can I get a motion to approve item 16.5 under curriculum I'd like to be able to have a conversation about that so after the motion in the second we'll go into debate thank you so moved second so I was not aware that um any there was any faculty concerns about the um calendar so I am a bit concerned about that and would ask us to table this to the next meeting so we have an opportunity to understand those concerns fully and make a more educated decision on the school calendar can I ask you a question about that what would be the impact to not voting on it in this meeting versus like does it impact anything if there's a delay um it just we were trying to get the information out to the staff and the parents so that they can make their plans for the school next school year so we just want to get out as fast as we can can I I I don't know if this is appropriate so tell me if it isn't but Mrs Saka I appreciate what you said I am curious what this specific asks are from the teachers sorry if that's not yeah so this isn't with respect this isn't an opportunity for the public to participate there's a motion on the floor so um to the extent that there is you know can I make an amendment motion debates questions this is the time on the motion that's on the floor but this is just for board comment and debate so can we amend the motion to table this you just just make yeah make a new motion to table this until the next meeting so that the this board can get that full information and make an educated decision thank you second you're waiting for a second is that right I'll second that [Music] ask for any any debate on that on the motion to table okay I'll call the rooll Miss K over this is a motion to table yes Mrs Mion yes Mr Rosen yes Mr Rosner yes Mrs Rudder yes Mrs Stewart Miss verie yes Mrs Watson yes motion carries the table moving on to Personnel can I get a motion to approve all the items under personnel as recommended by the superintendent so moved second Rosner voting is open motion unanimously passes I again a motion to approve all of the items under transportation so moved rder second voting is open motion unanimously passes can I get a motion to approve all the items under buildings and ground sounds so moved second Rosner online voting is open motion unanimously passes I get a motion to approve all the items under Finance so moved second Rudder onl voting is open motion unanimously passes public comment anyone wishing to address the board please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet while the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving Personnel litigation negotiations and attorney client privilege the board will now hear comments from the public comments are limited to three minutes the board will not take action this evening you will be notified at some later time by letter electronic mail telephone or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take board comments we will be going into executive session to talk about a matter of personal confidentiality um including but not limited to staff or student discipline matters I would imagine we should be in there for about 20 to 30 minutes um and then we will return to public session um we are we do not expect to take action when we return you need a motion can I get a motion to adjourn to Executive session so moved second second all in favor I I hold on are we good to are we good okay can I get a motion to return to public session so moved Rosner second Rudder all favor I this isn't right this is the January 20 am I crazy January 22nd oh January 25th hello I'm like what is happening um our next meeting is January 25th 2025 it's the board retreat here um on Saturday all right can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved secondos all in favor I