##VIDEO ID:iWNYpeOh7WY## e e e e e good even good evening everyone and welcome to the board retreat for Tuesday August 27th 2024 please join me in saluting the flag to flag United States America stand thank you again as a reminder to the public this is a board retreat there will be no executive session this evening this time I'm going to ask our board secretary Mr Smite to please read the sunshine statement and perform roll call this is the Walt Board of Education meeting for adequate notice on the open public meetings Act was provided by no coar Asbury Park Press all Wall Township Public Schools the municipal municipal building and the board Administration office on July 25th 2024 take aoll call Mr anio M barbier Mr buff here missani Mr Mal here Mr Nasser here M shimo Mr wandra here M here thank you at this time we're going to be opening the floor for public comment in the event that you have public comment please come to the podium Betsy cross I live in Wall Township um I've had a couple of uh old M parents just asked me to ask what's going on with the asbestos removal and some were asking why it took so long to like find out that there was all that asbestos in there like so I'm not sure how long people knew I do remember there was mold years ago when it was brought to the attention of Mr SM by a parent by ripping off the radiators and the father said it was one of the biggest regrets he ever had was not reporting Brian SMI back then um I did send in I did at the last meeting hand you these documents that are forged by mobile lease signed by a person that didn't even work there um so I haven't heard back um and I did send that in uh so somebody could get back to me on that um I did forward it to Christine stes and James malof and Kathleen D Giovani um and I did not hear back um we also didn't get an update there was a wall patch article that came out and um you know I I can't believe everybody's just s sitting there eating nobody's even looking at somebody talking um there was a wall patch article that came out that had mentioned that Ralph Adano had posted and nobody has received a respon nobody has received a response if it was Mr adio that actually sent that into the wall patch um it would be really easy to get an IP address in this day and age so I will be opening um contact information from Tracy handerhan and Christine sites to see if you have reached out to to the wall police and the MTH County prosecutor's officer should take a matter of seconds to find out who did it um if it didn't if it wasn't Mr Adano you need to let everybody know if it was somebody else you probably need to press charges uh some people are wondering why what's going on you're not doing it um you know wall has just been the laughing stock of the newspapers um and you know this really didn't help that went out to thousands and thousands of people um croman Foster doesn't like to pay fraud claims so I will be reaching out to them on the 240,000 they paid for the Central School trailer case um you need to have on an agenda the two lawsuits the one for the um first pedophile in Wall Township and for the Central School trailer case we have not heard back we have not seen it on agenda I was hoping somebody would be here from the doe I do not see anybody here maybe because you didn't want anybody here for the retreat usually I thought that I thought there was somebody here from The Retreat or in the past we've had the attorney here and there is nobody here uh so if you could give us an update on the patch article my emails to you I would appreciate it cross thank you if you could if you could answer my question is there anyone else for public comment seeing none we'll close the floor for public comment M stes okay the floor is closed for a public comment thank you can you please return to your seat Mr adio yeah I'd just like to say uh last Thursday my identity was stolen somebody submitted a story to the patch said it was submitted by me uh which I did not do um I don't know that individual I didn't even know that individual was a teacher until everything transpired um that being said police report was filed with the Wall Township police on Friday and that's all I have it's in the police hand and you know hopefully they will uh go after IP addresses and do what's necessary and get anybody involved that should be involved so that's all I have thank you Mr adio I appreciate that that all right at this time I'm going to be moving into the president's report um so I would like to update the community as a whole Wall Township um there will be more to come on this topic um at the direction of the board as a whole as the president of the board I'm a spokesperson and when I speak um it's really my job to reflect the committee of nine that we are um I would however like to um assure the public that the board of education has not been sitting idly as different allegations have been thrown I have been in touch uh not only by mail but also with telephone conversations with the com controller's office um regarding allegations of being not transparent or po potentially uh being involved in fraudulent activity or or illegal activity and any number of claims um and I was educated by the folks from the com trollers office that they are a nonpartisan um office and that they are obligated to take any kind of concerns complaints reports from anyone in the community um in the event that they decide to hold an investigation and there are any positive findings there there would be a report generated that would then be published on the office of the com controller's website to my knowledge and to the knowledge of the people that I spoke with or the person that I spoke with there are no reports on the office of the com controller with any positive findings of any investigations that have been conducted by the com controller's office regarding the Wall Township Board of Education or the administration of this school district now regardless of claims that you may hear the controller's office cannot control how people in the community choose to present or um characterize their relationship with the com controller's office but private citizens are not in fact deputized by the controller's office that's my words not the controller's office so I think that if anyone in the community is concerned as far as the com controller um findings or in this case lack of findings they should please go to the com controller's website and look up the Wall Township Board of Education I do believe that what you'll find are Financial audits um which is customary but in terms of any kind of Investigations and positive findings those do not exist um next topic I have contacted and this board of education attorney has contacted the mammoth County prosecutor's office um on a number of different issues and tried to be cooperative to the mammoth County prosecutor's office very recently um documents were provided to the Board of Education that were forwarded to the mammoth County prosecutor's office they were presented here indirectly through security guard at our meeting they were turned over to the prosecutor's office and the response says our office does not currently have an open in investigation into the trailers that investigation was closed in 2020 and you have a copy of Barbara suppa's letter explaining the reasons if the allegation from the attached documents is a forgery back in 2008 we would be well outside the statute of limitations 5 years for a fraudery forgery to bring criminal charges and I will not be reopening the investigation into the trailers at this time if the community members Who provided these want to reach out to Sergeant Baldwin we are always willing to discuss with them so once again as recently as this week we have been told by the mammoth County prosecutor's office that there is not an investigation into the trailers that the statute of limitations has for any of the allegations that have been made rendered this a closed case statutes of limitations have closed the board of education is not a law enforcement agency we have no ability to interject ourselves into certainly a law enforcement agency and tell them what to do um so I think it's important again for the community to recognize that we have in fact been in touch with the mammoth County prosecutor's office I think that the mcpo and the school district have a very excellent working relationship and I think the community I would hope has confidence in that and there is more to come and we will discuss it in September um regarding comments about asbest at Old Mill the Board of Education was immediately forthcoming with reports of asbest and we held special meetings at Old Mill school where parents and faculty were invited to attend in community members um if folks were unable to Avail themselves to that meeting um I'm sorry but I actually attended the meeting myself and we did have our industrial hygienist there again the board of education has been very open and forthcoming um in terms of completion of that project I can let Dr handerhan speak to that but once again this idea that parents weren't informed is absolutely untrue um and this board has worked very hard to establish relationship with our community and I'm not going to allow someone to stand here and claim that members of The Old Mill Community weren't informed because that is absolutely 100% untrue my next point of business is actually going to be for the board to discuss um it occurred to me uh based on some comments that were made um at our last meeting I thought it was very helpful when uh our board secretary was able to our custodian of Records detail for the community um the number of Oprah records that we have received and the number that had been met and in what timely manner they had been met despite um suggestions that they were not met and that they were tardy Etc I think it may be helpful um and I think the board may want to consider potentially making that part of our board meeting or our board report um at the meetings just a quick update for our community so that they can understand um the kind of Demands that are put on our school district um and our Administration teams uh so they have some idea and a better understanding of what's coming in on Oprah requests what kind of numbers of pages are being um generated uh and in appreciation for you know the time that's being taken away from business of the district uh and I would be curious to know if anyone on the board thinks that that potentially would be a valuable addition um to the board report moving forward so I'm going to open the floor for board members at this time if anyone wants to chime in on that as a possibility uh Madam president Mr Buffa I I think that my thoughts would are kind of simple and in that I feel like Oprah itself to some extent here in Wall Township has been used as as somewhat of a weapon against um certain entities within the town um and I know it's Statewide but I'm I'm just con really concerned about us here if there was a way that we can do that I think that would be a good idea uh but I also think that the business office and so many staff members are taking so much time already to kind of handle all these requests um if this was something else that added additional time to that I I don't know I don't know if it would be worth it if there's a way to streamline that so that we could present it and and not put hours and hours of workload and tracking and everything else on the people that are already doing this then I would be in favor of it Madam president Mr Mal thank you I uh hearing everything that uh Mr buffer had to say I certainly can agree with that and just the uh the title of the open public records act I mean if it's open public records act it certainly is something that would be appropriate to be uh presented at a board meeting so uh again if it if it can be done in a streamlined fashion in a way that wouldn't take a lot of uh time away from the the people do it I think it would be entirely appropriate to include it uh in a portion of our meetings going forward thank you anyone else M DJ Ronnie I I agree I think that the public should be made aware of the absolute volume that is coming in and the minutia with which uh they are citizens are seeking records things we can't even find things that aren't even records I think if the public were made aware of just what this district has to go through I think they would have a better understanding um and can put some of the allegations into context so I think that would be helpful for the town is the board amendable to my addressing it with the custodian of records at another time so that they can kind of digest it and get some kind of an idea as to again we're not looking to over you know burden just a you know this is how many came in this is how many have been filled Mr Nasser um so according to this new law that was passed a few months ago there is the encouragement to post more of the opras in a fashion that they're searchable um electronically being that a lot of the op requests we do get are repeats and I know the town has looked at uh digitizing their oer process um you know I would love to see it explored here in a way that it automates the process so that hopefully it saves time on the back end for Mr Smite and anybody else that's involved especially if it's something that we've already answered then it's out there it's public it's searchable and you know all everybody can it's accessible by everybody great Point okay so that's something that I'm going to explore with our custodian of Records if that's acceptable great Super Mr Smite and I think with the new legislation they're they're pushing to have more documents online uh not necessarily the actual oper requests and uh you know in the past the district you know a similar conversation that this board has had uh with you know in an attempt to be more transparent we listed all the OPA requests on the district's website uh kept track of them the status of them and what we we we found happening kind of just like Facebook and other social media that became you know the means to to weaponize accusations and you know to to ask questions in a way that were accusatory to individuals whether it be board members employees um either other residents but uh they were put forth in the form of a Opa request which we then posted on our website for people to read um so um all for uh reviewing the new legislation they got uh professional development coming out actually this week on that as far as making the documents more available to hopefully in in an effort to avoid op requests um but not to put the oper request on the district website uh and I can discuss in more detail what we would look to report on on a monthly basis with regard to op because we do in fact track them now so just to report on them I don't think would be overly difficult great is there anyone else with any comment for that seeing none that is going to conclude my president's report just one moment Miss stes May I'd like to um also add to the conversation regarding Old Mill I just like I would like to share that a comprehensive information has been provided to the families and to the district um in at Old Mill and uh for anyone in the public that was that is not aware of it or does not frequent our website I invite them to go to the superintendent's communication tab on our website and uh if you U many straddle into the archive 2023 2025 school year and you will see very detailed reports detailed explanations um additionally U we have been reporting out on uh during certainly during my superintendent report on the fine work that our operations and our teams that we have hired that have done it oldmill to do an amazing um EMB batement job and uh the and also the um opportune lighting project that we were able to utilize the time that with the building shut uh to um to really uh reinvigorate the entire uh Lighting in the building which I I am so happy to say makes a beautiful difference U our operations staff and our our Summer Staff our teachers packing up the rooms and all of our staff have at Old Mill have just done such an amazing amazing job and they have been uh very busy the last two weeks um preparing their classrooms for the students returns um I'm I I know I'm not alone in sharing my enthusiasm for um Old Mills reopening and um I do know that principal ananello has been in touch with the families and to let them give them updates so um I also want to point out that on our facilities tab on our website U and they're hyp and many are hyperlink in my sub my previous letters u all the all the lab testing is on our website um the the U remediation all the uh testing afterwards the air quality they're all on our website um we we actively try to provide as much information to the public as possible obviously um any type of any type of um asbest project or similar project is of power and mount interest to our parents um and to our community members to our staff and certainly um I and I and I will say this because I you know I spend a lot of time with the high school students they are very interested in this uh because we really have a a great environmental stewardship um in our student body and I would imagine probably Intermediate School although I haven't had personal conversation so U again we put a lot on our website that may be of interest to you if you're a parent of Old Mill if you're a grandparent of Old Mill please reach out to our website we provide a tremendous amount of information and also the correspondences uh we put a lot of time into writing our letters um so try to take try to digest it as much as possible and every time that there was a primary document to support everything that I'm saying I hyperlink it in the letter so I think it's really important that um you know I'm taking a note uh taking a note from um you know the humanities department and you know the stem areas for when you write a paper you provide documentation um and you cite it and at every opportunity I have I do that so um I hope that the public will take advantage of that and um again hats off to our staff because they have just done an amazing job and I will say it extends be our operations Department extends Beyond Old Mill school because this was wtps this was a time to shine for our operations staff because everybody was involved in emptying emptying all the classrooms and building it back up so our we have the most amazing um custodial operations staff maintenance staff around and I'm so proud so proud of their work so um I'll continue to um shine a light on them because they deserve it thank you Miss SES thank you Dr hander hand at this time we're going to open the floor for public comment on agenda action items floor is open for public comment Betsy cross I live in wall um now that you went over what you can do with the opras I mean what you should do is put what the re is so if you didn't have this go on with ratell then I would not have been uh putting in oah requests 13 Oprah requests for ratell so if you're going to do the log you have to put what the topic is to just say uh people put in 23 Oprah requests for the month means nothing to people and um that is not going to show um what you're doing um setting goal District goals for 2024 God we never do the goals for the prior year like nothing ever gets done communication um it's just terrible um and if you could give me the name of who that was in the prosecutor's office that signed that letter miss you never gave a name do you have do you have a name there you can rattle off so it's on the record tonight I would appreciate it uh you read what they said but you did not say who wrote it so so this way I don't have to open it and Mr Smite doesn't have to add it up um just say the name um glad to hear that Ralph adania went to wall police I would have liked to have heard that Tracy handerhan also contacted wall police Mrs cross is that an agenda item uh it should be an agenda item not you should be trying to find out Mrs cross that is not an agenda item do you have anything on any other agenda agenda items at this time it should be an agenda it do you have any other issues for agenda items at this time um I don't have the human resources report I'm not sure if anybody else has left any new people leaving in the district that we're not aware of um School physician I see not sure who that is um yeah so if you if you could give me that name and appreciate it and I the mammoth County prosecutor's office isn't going to open up from 20 years ago that is something look that's not an agenda item thank you Mrs cross I sent it to you because you need to look at it thank you m that we need to know who the trailers came from before agenda thank you thank you m item and get the money back get the money back from Anthony for that bogus Report with for docents in it if you have anything on an agenda item please share it with us um if Tracy hander hand could just let us know did she reach out to wall PD on thek you Mrs cross it does not sound like you have anything else for an agenda item if that's the case then that concludes your public comment all right if you can answer me answer my questions thank you thank you have a good night thank you you too prior to moving on to the superintendent uh report I would just like to highlight the statement that we don't revisit our goals that actually was the entire presentation of our meeting here last week the entire meeting was a summation of our goals how they were met last week our last year and that entire presentation along with all of the supporting documents was uploaded to the website I encourage our community members to please do your research do not take what you here at the podium at face value that was the entire topic of our special presentation at last week's meeting I find it incredibly ironic moving on at this time Dr handam will you please proceed to your superintendent report thank you so much Miss Stites and I want to thank you for uh reiterating the fact that we uh we had a very um in arguably impressive uh presentation uh by our assistant superintendent last week detailing all of the hard work of the Wall Township Public School Employees in every capacity across the district so um I thank you for uh reiterating that because our employees are working so incredibly hard for the children of this District um and I will tell you that if you haven't had a chance to view the probably it's about 21 22 page document of of the accomplish ments uh that took place across the district to support the um multi-year objectives and goals I invite you to do so because um I think you know it's it's very detailed and it shows just how hard everyone is working in this District to Pro provide the best education for their children their grandchildren and their their their family members and for those that do not have students in the uh the district we are very cognizant of including them in this Community as well and um we want to do right by them as well so um and that includes being fiscally responsible and uh utilizing our resources as responsibly as we humanly can so um with that I want to thank you for shining a light on that um as we mentioned last night during uh last week during our um 2324 District goal um summation of accomplishments uh we set the stage for the working meeting it's a workshop meeting at this point for um refining our 2024 2025 District goals our district goals and objectives are strategic multi-year objectives each year we are uh changing and hitting different specific activities to support the goal so they're multi-year goals multi-year activities they're uh broken down into five different categories and U this summer as we were wrapping up the completions of last year's goals during our administrative Retreats we worked with our district administrators and we refined specific activities that we are going to build upon from last year and so that we can carry all of our really carry the ball further down the The End Zone and I'm I hope I got F not the end zone further down the line so I'm trying with my athletic references sorry so I'll get these athletic rules right yet I was in track and I played tennis so there we go um but anyway um what we want to do is we want to build upon what we did last year and so we can zoom into the F zoom into the future so tonight as I mentioned we are now uh working as U an central office administrative team and a board of education in refining the outputs of our administrative Retreats where we identified some projects to work on for the next year now what will happen is we will go back uh central office will go back and refine the um feedback from this evening and we will craft a document that we will review in committees once again and we are pois to approve our 2024 2025 District goal goals and objectives at our September 17th meeting so that is the charge um and in the spirit of being respectful of everyone's time oh I'm so excited about the district goals I know you are I know you are so I'm setting the table thank you prior prior to doing that uh I would like to take action please I would like to take action on the agenda item so uh please uh for the interruption my Zeal M at this time may I please have a motion from a board member to approve the agenda items Mr wandra Mr Nasser Mr Smite would you please take roll call yes just confirm this is uh under the superintendent report under items number five all action items yes thank you take a roll call Mr anesio yes M barier yes Mr buffler yes Miss dgani yes your Mali yes your Nasser yes Miss shimko yes Mr wandra yes Miss Stites yes thank you all right now is your time to shine thank you very very much Miss Stites I appreciate that no problem I would been very bit disappointed if we didn't you know take care of the business on the agenda item so I appreciate app it okay so clearly I'm very enthusiastic about 20 2024 2025 so without any further Ado I'd like to introduce our assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Miss Jennifer McAn as she presents the um the drafted activities that were made in concert with the administrative team this summer in the area of curriculum instruction so goal one miss McAn thank you Dr henryan um so our first goal um has been the same as Dr Hanahan mentioned from last year to this year for us to foster a culture of academic Excellence Innovation and Equity where students are provided with personalized learning experiences rigorous curriculum and supportive resources to achieve their full potential our first strategy or objective in order to do that um is to enhance the district's instructional programs to improve student outcomes so in order for us to achieve that we are proposing um within our elementary grade spans um that we are going to continue with our reading initiative specifically um in grades three four and five with the magnetic reading program and transitioning our upper um elementary teachers in utilizing strategies that are aligned to the science of reading while also continuing to support and implementing the program in kada 2 um we are also going to be looking at um new math materials um for grades four and five we have um pretty much every teacher that teaches fourth and fifth grade math across the district will be piloting different programs for us to be able to evaluate which one best fits the needs of our students our teachers in our community um one of those programs is enVision Math which is is the program we currently use um but an updated copyright um reveal math and then ready math um are the three programs um in addition to that we'll be working with our teachers um within our win period which is what um what I need period which is attached to our Ela classes um and that is where our teachers will really be honing in on individualized needs for our students enriching those who need need enrichment working with the um students who need just a little bit of extra support and also starting to provide those tier one interventions for the students who need um additional academic support without receiving services from our basic skills program at the intermediate levels we'll be looking at different Master schedules um different models across the state in terms of maybe um making a change at the master schedule here at intermediate school as well as looking at different elective options to try to build more opportunities for our students um instead of them being locked into certain things in different grade levels um as well as starting to um look at the grading policy as well as our academic achievement policy and how we recognize those students and what those recognitions are going to be in addition addition to that um looking at our ESL program right now all of our students who come with all different levels within our MLS um are all in one class so we're looking to branch that out for a beginner class an uh intermediate class and an advanced class so that we can really hone in on the individual needs of the students and our Math teachers at Intermediate School will also be participating in the math pilot um but they selected one program hmh that they really wanted to hone in on and decide whether that was the program that they wanted to move forward with or not at the high school uh in terms of our instructional programs we'll be doing a similar aspect with our ml students um we'll be assessing the new schedule which is the rotating drop making sure that we have um our eyes dotted and our te's crossed um and getting feedback from both the students and the faculty in terms of its implementation um we'll be conducting a School counseling audit in the counseling office um to get some feedback in terms of our college readiness procedures um as well as other aspects of that office um we'll be looking similar to the intermediate school at how we are doing our high school grading how we do our transcripts um how that is with ated and the impact it has on the college application process and class rank we would love to continue to enhance our nncc program in offering more opportunities for those students um we'll be having a Marksmanship team this year as well as other drill teams um which has drawn our enrollment numbers to go up which is fantastic um and we'll also be looking to include more courses um for dual enrollment with Stockton our partnership with them um we were able to have 19 courses offered for this year and we have a list of additional courses that will be submitting for approval um for next school year one other program we're looking to implement at the high school um is we'll be doing research on implementing a CTE program for our students as well and expanding some of our options um at the high school so that's the first objective um our second objective is our do you want me to stop and answer questions for that first okay that was a lot so you guys there's a lot I'm proud of this so any questions on that first objective Miss dtes thank you um CTE Career Technical education thank you sorry and no no no don't be sorry and um I appreciate all the different things that um my gosh you guys really are not holding back are you pedal to the metal um I do know that it makes people a little bit nervous when they hear oh re-evaluating student achievement um scheduling specifically at the Intermediate School um just for clarification you're not necessarily looking to make any changes to the schedule for this upcoming school year could you just sure let's reiterate when that 24 25 which is starting in a number of days um that schedule will remain the same and it could remain the same moving forward in terms of our number of periods the number of minutes in each period um and just the way our the rotations that happen as well um we're exploring different options that we have across the state talking to different districts in terms of what would might be able to best suit our students to be able to offer them different electives and different options um but again that all comes down to how does that possibly impact personnel and budget and so forth so there's a lot that goes into it but we're just opening those conversations to see if there's other options versus what we're currently doing for the possibly 25 26 school year and I I would I would like to just suggest that if parents are interested in as these conversations happen throughout the year our principles at our different schools will have parent advisory groups and there's certainly uh if if you are looking to be part of that conversation or updated not only will you hear about it here at board meetings but the schools are very um open and there are some pretty active groups and times for interaction so parents are looking to hear about this you know this is not all being done behind closed doors there's more than enough opportunity so please um mention at one of these meetings you know you know your thoughts are get it get involved in the conversation because you know this is a community and that's how we're also trying to make some decisions does anyone help anyone else from Miss mccam before I please when you were considering the courses to dual enroll with Stockton I think you also have some currently with Brookdale did you look at the transferability rate or transferability option of those credits to universities as a whole because if you're going to take the course you want to obviously be able to use the credits going forward so what did you look at in deciding what courses to offer great question so um Miss Misa the director of School counseling um Mr Davis and Miss Kerman um really to answer your question yes did look at that every University is different um in terms of what courses they do accept the majority of the classes that we did wind up partnering with and having accepted by St in this school year most of them were transferable but again it just it depended on the specific University so what our guidance has been to parents is that if they do have universities that they know that they're interested in many of them on their websites have a list of the courses that they do take from other universities and making sure that it was worth them take paying the dual enrollment fee to have that course and be transferred to where they could possibly we be interested in going Mr MTH I was going to ask a question similar to what Mrs uh sites asked for about the uh the intermediate school schedule I just wondering I have a couple points but I was wondering about um is there uh a reason that you believe that there are currently issues with the current Intermediate School schedule that need to be looked at and what might they be so in hearing feedback in terms of some of the scheduling constraints with the way that we're currently doing it um and also looking at my main Drive was the way in which our elective courses are offered um in terms of there are certain courses in sixth in seventh and eth that the students have to take and in some cases don't have an option to take multiple electives given the number of um core content courses that they have to take so is there way to maybe offer semesters or offer classes that are one per marking period or something around those lines to have them have more opportunities in their hands in different courses okay thank you and I also want to com I'm very much excited about the uh high school schedule and what we're doing there with the with the drop I think that's a great idea and I think that's going to be of great benefit to our students one other question by the high school there's a a comment a bullet here that says begin to create create common assessments common rubrics to develop protocols for data discussion to what extent do you really expect the teachers to be given common assess do they still have freedom to create their own uh tests for uh content in terms of ma majority of the time within their unit assessments there are similar common assessments but there are times where right now there are some lingering courses that don't necessarily have that um and our drive in this particular situation is within strengthening our data analysis and our assessments within the district we're utilizing a program for next school year called linkit at the high school that is a standards based Assessment program meaning a lot of I shouldn't say a lot there are a number of our assessments that have questions on them that don't necessarily always relate to a p particular standard that we're required to teach teach so ensuring that the assessment questions that we're utilizing are assessing what our state expectations are in terms of the standards let's just say for geometry um so ensuring that one they're aligned and two that we're all utilizing the same so that when we do a data analysis it's Apples to Apples and not apples to oranges you're welcome thank you so much you're welcome do you want me to continue to the other sections I'd love it all right hit it um I'll be brief because I know we have other people so in terms of providing ongoing support to implementing best practices again within Elementary really honing in on the science of reading and making sure at the elementary levels we're providing that strategic explicit foundation in terms of phonics and K 2 and in three four and five honing in on vocabulary and comprehension um and also ensuring that we continue to utilize the best practices that are in our in our evaluation model or tool instructional model through Marzano's focused teacher evaluation model um in terms of touching upon strengthening the district's data analysis practices using linkit across the district at the elementary levels it'll be used primarily as a data warehouse where they'll be able to log in and see all of the universal assessments that we administer in the district so at the elementary level um all of the students I ready scores all of their dible scores um their math benchmark scores um as well as um I'll touch on this Bond our snde scores will be in there so our Stu our teachers will really be able to get a holistic view of how the students are performing across all areas njsla will be put in there as well for those tested grades um and they'll be able to create what they're going to call a fingertip report which will give a profile on every student for the teachers so they can see specifically where the students may need some assistance um at the intermediate level um we're going to dabble um in our high school level courses only so it would be Algebra 1 and geometry at intermediate level where they will be starting to use it for not only a data warehouse but also as an assessment platform so they'll be taking assessments or utilizing the platform for making tests and administering the tests and then at high school it will be for tests and data warehouse having all of that data allows not only us from the district to do our work and making sure that our curriculum aligns with what we need for state monitoring and state assessments but also allows the principles and the teachers to hone in on specific needs within their building within their grade levels and within their classrooms that's all I got thank you very much you're welcome any questions comments from board members thank you Miss mccan you've really been working incredibly hard oh Mr wandra so sorry goad Mr wandra those of us who were around prepandemic and pandemic and there was nothing no help from anyone you couldn't find anything from the state you couldn't find any and the teachers superintendent we had an interim superintendent we had an interim assistant superintendent we had all kinds of and and staff changes uh for the better every staff change was for the better and when this whole thing came together and here we are now we just take it for granted but I have to tell you there's a lot of people that killed themselves trying to get this thing to where it is now and not only is it just okay I think we have some pretty good grades we we have some pretty good markers out there of the direction of which the uh school is going so I I just think there has to be a congratulations to you know without even the teachers that would come in on their own time and try and put some of this stuff together I mean my God and it took you a while it took me a while you know you had to keep up with it and and try and understand because we were doing new things besides just putting a program together so I think it's a credit to the uh superintendent and the staff they didn't did an excellent job thank you here here thank you very much Dr hran are we ready for gold two okay it's my pleasure to introduce the director of intervention services and student wellness misss Tiffany Steiner to illuminate um our hopes and plans for the 2424 2425 goal to thank you Dr handerhan thank you to our members of the Board of Education um cultivating the wellness of the community Through intentional programming and supports focused on the whole child the physical social emotional behavioral and technological development of our students staff and parents and Guardians is our Wellness District goal for the 20242 school year Under the Umbrella of Wellness are three specific areas that I'll speak about this evening a comprehensive program for all students K to2 which is our research-based program seven mindsets a respon response system for crisis called postvention that infuses research-based practices and safely manages situations and finally a comprehensive and coordinated system of services to meet individual needs which is also what often what we refer to as our tiered system of supports and meeting children where they're at providing the services that they need so the connection between these areas is that we're hoping to lay a strong Foundation through developing skills necessary within our seven mindsets program and then as individual needs surface we want to respond to them using the expertise of our staff data best practices to develop targeted intervention plans while securing and making sure that our environments are safe and healthy so the system that we most frequently use to do so in general education arena is really our school's intervention and referral services team so that is the comprehensive um system which includes a variety of Staff members and it's coordinated as it has some standard operating procedures that we ensure all buildings apply all buildings subscribe to so if we begin with our first objective which is about our our seven mindsets program um you know we're in year two of implementation of the seven mindsets curriculum implementation consists of three areas there's a professional development piece to grow staff competencies there's a student instruction in each mindset and then there's also our community engagement to kind of Outreach to our community our professional development this year will consist of presenting each mindset at monthly building faculty meetings to build a good culture of and connection between faculty members we're also going to highlight an activity for staff to experience the power of the mindset so we are trying to build those competencies through doing and then we'll also use the expertise of our school counselors our district select leaders and administration to take a deeper dive into the mindsets with departmental training including our media Specialists our technology teachers our physical education teachers and our intermediate social studies teachers at the high school level over the summer our nth grade counselor and school family liazon counselor wrote a ninth grade transitional curriculum which will lead the conversations about the seven mindsets at wall High School the curriculum brings the mindsets to life through large group experiences and extension activities to build a sense of community and belonging for our freshmen instruction on each of the mindsets the student instructional piece will be extended to four lessons per mindset and the lessons will be delivered in a various um curricular areas for example through K to 8 all PE classes will be doing one of the mindset lessons one of the elements per mindset we also have the media classes we have um our social studies grades 6 to8 or social studies teachers will begin instruction on the mindsets and in grades three through eight we're going to be very Innovative and we will be doing wellness webinars and so this will be a counselor delivered instruction by grade level via a webinar um to be able to facilitate discussions across various classrooms so the goal is is to really reinforce technology use technology responsibly um get kids familiar with the skill that they're going to find way into the future as far as webinars are concerned and participation on this platform and to also um have a discussion and a lesson be presented in a small group but then have the discussion and the sharing extended across the grade level so as we deepens our students knowledge we're also with this going to be infusing leadership opportunities for students in grades three to five through mindset mentors um these will be student leaders they'll be selected in trains and they will help facilitate the wellness webinars and kind of serve as a class representative in leading those discussions finally in regards to the seven mindsets we continue to engage the community Through of course our Board of Ed monthly mindset showcases with Miss gilar um we're going to highlight the application of the mindsets we'll continue with our Wellness in the works newsletters and we also will continue continue to offer our parent workshops we will be partnering with the wtea and special services to offer family nights which we've done in the past our first family night is September 5th from 5:30 to 7: at West Belmar um the presentation will be from integrated care Concepts they will be highlighting uh the power of showing up and instilling um in parents the importance of attendance and developing a sense of belonging to the school community will also at that evening have some kiosk set up so that we'll offer assistance to parents in filling out the Genesis Parent Portal forms um lunch applications and such that is our first objective is there any questions about seven mindsets Mrs Steiner um for the September 5th meeting at West Balmar that is open to All Families All Families not just west Balmer families not just west bmar families thank you so and help with Genesis I know some of my tribe are out there they need some help yeah September 5th West bmar place to be and our new director and our new director of Technology will be assisting that evening as well so any other questions okay our second objective has to do with um postvention response and that's always framed around uh research based practices and our lifelines Trilogy program um our avenues for implementation include a school and District based crisis management team and then also the state mandated thre threat assessment teams uh the basis of our actions are carefully developed and they've been formalized in a traumatic loss manual that was authored two years ago um as we approach year two of putting our response teams and our plans into action we're going to continue to test safety through scenario training uh we also have um a great Focus this year on the individuals who encounter hardships and what we're doing for individuals post crisis we absolutely want to ensure that we have a tight holds on those individuals who have been effective so we will focus on channeling postvention needs through services in the last support that I spoke about um that I'll be elaborating on shortly which is our coordinated system um another interesting highlight in this area is we'll be partnering with mha and we'll be offering some training and workshops for our PTO and for our community leading leaders so that we can begin the discussion of how do we heal as a community and what's appropriate for the responsibilities of the school as opposed to other community Avenues so is there any questions in that area okay and our final component of the Wellness Plan speaks to the coordinated system of staff and programs that we use to meet individual needs as I mentioned we typically use our inrs committee of professionals which includes teacher leaders counselors interventionists special services members and School nurses to engage in planning sessions for individual students it broadens the lens in which we look at how can we help students they review data they observe the students in classes communicate with families um with the intention of best understanding what a student needs and then further identifying the programs that would best meet those needs and the counseling services as we do this we create this in a formal action plan and um our goal is always to restore areas where skills or gaps may be uh present so that we have learning opportunities through small groups and Individual Services that we deliver to students for support a new program that we'll be introducing to our counseling and support staff is What's called the Bas program Bas is a portal of teaching tools that's aligned to seven mindsets that offers many lessons to facilitate instruction on topics related to mental health and wellness so um you can use this in two Fashions you can use this as a counseling tool we can also use this as a restorative tool so if there's disciplinary infraction ctions um there are portals that we can go to there's elements in this portal that will help support and builds upon competency so misbehavior doesn't continue um with the implementation of individualized data- driven plans and the application of these evidence programs like Bas you know we're hoping that our students will be successful and that of course we'll continue to adjust goals as appropriate and celebrate successes so we have an exciting year ahead of us is there any questions about any parts of the wellness Mrs Steiner thank you very much um the board has really appreciated the tremendous strides that the district has taken in the area of Wellness again I think our community has had the opportunity through uh the different events that you've hosted throughout the you know Community nights and family nights also our monthly presentations the board is looking forward to continuing those uh presentations and partnering with you miss Gary um again to Echo what Mr wandra said we have made tremendous tremendous strides in this area um and it's very important because not only are we educating students we're ultimately developing future community members for all of us you know students are graduating and becoming policy makers Community representatives there are neighbors um um and I I appreciate um everything you've done I've also appreciated how your department has helped the district in times of tremendous crisis and Trauma um and I hope that the community recognizes that your department is there um with appropriate responses uh that are research-based and best ways to respond um sometimes out of goodness of our heart we may think saying or doing one thing is appropriate but sometimes we can kind of compound so I appreciate the education that you've given um the board and our community and I look forward to seeing the continued development thank you thank you thank you Miss Steiner at this point I would like to introduce our assistant superintendent of special services Miss Kelly bond to uh really shed some light on the uh proposed activities for goal three hi everybody um goal three is to strengthen engagement and expand opportunities that Foster a sense of belonging and purpose through inclusive experiences that promote positive peer and Community relationships so the two strategies within this um goal every almost every activity um engages both students and their families so I'm going to lump these together and really talk about each activity and how it's going to support um families and to the students of Wall Township so um um there's many things that are districtwide there are some things that were specific to special services um that have kind of uh branched out so starting with the implementation of The Rise program which we started talking about back in December I think of last year when we were planning for budget and uh this program really um came from looking at the needs of our students and identifying that there were some students in District who were exhibiting some school avoidance and some school phobia and we wanted to create a very nurturing helpful and caring environment where those students can feel safe and happy to come to school and receive their high school diploma so that program will be starting in September which um I'm very very thankful for that program certainly will support the students within it but there are also going to be portions of that program that will Outreach and support the families as well um we're partnering with Ruckers University behavioral healthc care where we will have a full-time clinician at the high school who will work with the students by providing individual and group therapy but it will also Outreach to the families where there will be family counseling and an opportunity for the clinici to potentially go into the home and and support these families um which is which is a wonderful wonderful thing to try to support students who are having this significant need in addition to that we will have a psychiatrist which will be with us one day a month that will support again the students in District who are in need of that level of care um can provide them some medication management if the family is struggling with insurance or something of that nature and can't get access to those types of um you know get can't get access to that and their child really is in desperate need um so we're really excited for for that um again in talking about the family component of this and family engagement and the inclusivity Factor we like to keep when when we have um situations that are sensitive we prefer to do things inous as often as we possibly can we feel that um the interaction between staff members and families when a family may be in crisis or having high emotions um we like to control that as much as we possibly can as opposed to having to send a child and a family member to to an outside a physician or an emergency room if if we were really in so so we're hoping to bring that all back and have families feel really supported as well um this clinici will not only help students at the high school in The Rise program but we're looking to identify students at our elementary level who may be experiencing and exhibiting some signs of school anxiety so we can uh start working with those students and their families before they need the Rise program we will um be continuing our ER class at WS that program was started last year and and will continue into this year we are very thankful for the opportunity it allowed for us to keep many of our Wall Township students in District and also to support um students in surrounding towns we will be expanding our uh reading intervention for special education students who have those types of goals and objectives in their IEP we started it this past year um and the year prior each year we've been expanding by grade level we utilize the win period that Miss McAn was referring to earlier for many of our students who are educated in the general education environment we um are finding success with allowing students to be included in their general education environment while still receiving this type of intervention as opposed to having to pull them from their class to receive it so we're looking to push things back in so that the children can remain with their peers and we are finding great success uh with that we will also be looking to um continue to expand our Unified sports program which certainly creates a a strong sense of belonging and inclusivity in the district we moved it from the high school down to whs we are looking to expand that even further by adding more Sports and we keep trying to find anyone else who has applied for the grant so we can almost create our own mini conference if we can get there so we're we're working on that um we will also continue to increase our involvement with parents by um the special services department intends to send out um needs assessment or um a questionnaire to try to discover how families feel about inclusivity do they feel we're doing a great job in certain areas do they feel we need to do better in other areas and also just what's your belief on inclusivity are we speaking the same language so we intend on doing that so that we can use that information to create future goals and uh Miss Steiner already discussed the uh combination of our departments and the fast grants we also intend on using Rucker's Behavioral Health they can provide us almost unlimited PD and we can use their clinicians so something I heard from our cpad group last year which is our special education parent advisory group was that executive functioning skills was something that they want more information on on how to help their children with this endeavor so this is not just a special education issue this is all students which is why we decided to combine departments as opposed to having it simply be a special education presentation so we will have um after our September um that that Miss Steiner just explained our January presentation will be about executive functioning skills and um also the district is working to work on our extracurriculars and certainly that is a way that students feel a sense of belonging and inclusivity in their building things so uh they intend on creating a secondary extracurricular committee which will be inclusive of students teachers administrators community members will'll be looking at again what are we doing well where do we need to expand so that will be happening in the um future we will also be looking and analyzing information we've received from committees that have already occurred we have some recommendations concerning uh students daily experience in school Food Services curricular collaborations School culture so we'll be looking at all of the information we receive from these committees to then analyze that and make future goals which you'll hear about at this time next year probably um so we will just continue with our community outreach eliciting stakeholder feedback um and really reflecting upon everything that's happening in the district schools to um make ourselves as inclusive of an environment as we can any questions yes okay uh certainly I fully support every effort to uh provide for students who who are in need of special services in our district I think that's a great thing and and I know that Rise program is is going to really do that I'm just asking you know as far as the in in uh tuition in students uh I assume that you will be the gatekeeper to make sure that these the students that are coming here will not present a burden to the district or to the students that they will be contact cont uh contacting within our schools we we'd like to have uh tuition in students but we have to ensure that they're going to work out here absolutely and and we have quite a uh strategic and lengthy process when we're looking to accept a tuition in student it it starts with myself and and a fellow director of another District but our child study team goes and observes the child where they are currently we meet with their families we bring the child to our own District to have them participate in the class for a period of time where we can assess is this a a student who um Not only would work well within the parameters of the program that they're going to participate in and with the students that are in that program but can we benefit this child so we're looking at it really from all angles uh and sometimes and I believe Dr Hanahan spoke about this uh when I was doing my budget presentation in the past sometimes we want to start a program because we have a cohort of students who need it but it's so small of a cohort of students that it's not always beneficial for for two or three students to be in a classroom all day together so it's often beneficial to us as well not simply financially but but because it makes the program more robust and more the students can have access to different types of students to learn from and just one more thing with that sorry and in addition to that that is something that's reviewed annually because we accept a tuition in student does not mean that they will remain with us through graduation we consistently at each IEP meeting look at that and determine is this program still appropriate just as we would for any of our own students in in District how do you see the intervention at home do you mean academic intervention well I I I think we're doing a really nice job in collaborating with curriculum and special services I think that all of the changes that we're making in our curriculum in the general education classroom help parents to understand and all the Outreach we're doing to help parents understand what are children learning and how can you help them um so I think the more specific we get with our standards and Link it scores and linking to specific things that we want parents to work on can only benefit us it's it's a lot about parent educ educating our parents on what we're doing and I think that's great about all these discussions that we have because if you know any parent who's listening we're all here to answer any questions you have we're happy to talk about any of those um any of those topics Miss Bond um again our special education students are our community members their families are our community members I'm thrilled to see the advances that we're making in our special education um initiatives this Rise program is going to be amazing I think the ER program has been fantastic the addition of mental health providers partnering in um ads and ads and ads to the experience uh thank you to our parents who took up the special education parent advisory group I think that's added a tremendous piece to the conversation um and I really appreciate the fact that our general education students are part of so many these different in initiatives because this again is a community um and I do think that wall in this area also shines and you're not resting on your laurels it's continuing to grow um and it's really exciting and very appreciated um and the entire Community should be very um proud of everything that's happening in in this area specifically um of this of the you know our school district so thank you for everything that you and your team are accomplishing thank you thank you Miss Bond um moving on with tonight's Workshop it's my pleasure to introduce our business administrator board secretary Mr Brian SMI to uh illuminate the activities plan to support goal four Mr Smite thank you Dr anderan yes gol four uh which is practice fiscal responsibility while maintaining facilities for student learning in the 21st century uh that fiscal responsibility includes clear and accurate reporting to the stakeholders we have three strategies under this goal the first strategy is perform supervision of the design bidding and construction of referendum 2022 projects and provide regular updates on finances and progress uh in collaboration with the communication staff um so this referendum which was approved in December of 2022 we're going to have construction projects that started and were completed in summer of 23 we have ongoing work in the summer of 2024 and uh the projects will uh optimistically complete in the summer of 2025 hopefully we'll not be uh having this discussion in the summer of 2026 um but it is uh still open so the act the activities that we plan for uh the 2425 school year which are going to be similar to what we were doing in 2324 um with regard to the status of the projects because we have projects that have been completed projects that are in construction and projects that are under design uh getting ready to go out to bid for construction in the future so uh we report at Board of Education meetings on a monthly basis we have the report from Mr Nasser as the fnf chair uh based on the reports provided at that month's committee meetings we have the reports from our superintendent Dr handerhan who likes to regularly uh visit our construction sites and and report on the activities and I will say she is very knowledgeable in the areas of construction and renovation so it's an asset for for the school district it's better than Sports Mr spite okay um that was dangerous so uh um with regard to uh additional information reported at our monthly board meetings all formal action with respect to the referendum that would be uh awarding of contracts based on bids or perhaps the rejection of contracts or the rejection of the bids received as well as any change orders that would change the dollar amount of any contracts that were previously awarded are all done by formal board action and are listed on the agenda uh we also include all payments that are made with referendum funds as a separate fund and as a separate bills and claims report on the monthly bills list so we have our current expense bills list and then we list all expens for fund 30 or the referendum funds on on a separate list so that they can be separately tracked um we reporting on the website we have our financial summary which is updated monthly based on the activities for those those months any contracts that were awarded and any payments that were made um the most upto-date one is for the month of August uh based on the uh the any payments or changes that were awarded at the August board meeting and that we we provide the bond referendum Financial summary which lists what the original budget was uh for each one of the projects any adjustments to the budget that I've made because we do have the ability to transfer funds from one project to another um also we have the ability to transfer funds from the design or contingency side of the budget to the actual construction uh side of the budget uh but we have it all listed so we have the original budget any adjustments we have what is the current budget uh we have all projects that or all contracts that have been awarded listed separately and what the amount of payments we've made against those contracts and also what is outstanding on each one of those contracts or Awards and then finally we have the available balance for each project and the available balance for the uh overall referendum which uh as of August the available balance is just under 40 million so we've uh We've approved contracts just under 27 million we've we've paid just under 8 million uh and we have outstanding $19 million worth of contracts so if there's any suggestions that we uh that the board wants to make with regard to how that is reported on the website I'd be open to have that that discussion and if we can make improvements we will additionally on the website we have a narrative of the projects that are completed the projects that are ongoing uh under construction and those that are planned or upcoming coming in the future which again as mentioned are in the design and bid phase with that work being done next summer as well as a whole host of photos for uh each each school or each each job site that you can see the before pictures as well as the projects um projects to project photos to date and then by the end we'll narrow it down to the hopefully just the uh the before and after which will be uh pretty impressive also with regard to this strategy we are managed the funds and we're going to and we have been investing the idle funds for the duration of the project so and if you recall after the referendum was approved we had a bond sale the bond uh we had a closing date uh that was publicly bid the results are on the referendum page uh the bid results and on a you know six $66 million Bond referendum the award was uh based on a difference of $998 uh because the bids were basically the same except for a premium that was applied to by one of the biders which I thought was pretty interesting and extremely competitive um but those funds uh are being maintained by MNT Bank they're a custodial Bank uh the bank that we use for regular business which is Provident is not a custodial Bank uh and is not permitted to handle uh security Investments which the IDE is through the duration of the project uh to uh ensure the best return on our our referendum funds that are sitting idle that they will be invested uh the interest rate has been such that they've been able to be maintained uh in MNT and we're earning uh a little over 5% uh interest on those funds I will point out uh well and we will continue to uh keep the funds in MNT we have set up a construction account in Provident Bank so all payments that are made to uh any vendor related to the referendum is funneled through Provident Bank through a specific account that was set up for the referendum uh which is identified as the construction account so all all payments will wash through uh The Provident construction account and again that's just for more accurate reporting and makes it easier for the auditor at at year end um with the possible movement in the uh uh federal rate we anticipate that funds will be uh will be going out to bid in order to lock in uh some current interest rates for the next you know possibly six to uh nine months depending on the pay down schedule provided by the architect uh but that will be continue to be managed uh by um not only MNT but we utilize Phoenix advisors as our Financial Consultant to help uh manage those funds and on a monthly basis every payment that we make um we do a transfer from from MNT to Provident Banks so we will continue to report on that with the financial summary and we will continue to uh manage the funds through MNT Bank uh additionally as we've been doing all year we're supervising the construction and I won't go through all the projects because we we have a a lot um but I will mention you know the projects that were completed last year was the Allenwood site work which we're still uh finishing up they have punch list items on that uh we did the roof single roofing project at the high school which is 100% complete for this summer we awarded interior alterations which includes bathrooms at all of the schools with the exception of the Intermediate School uh we're completing three of the uh toilet room Renovations at three schools this summer and we have three which again that contract is awarded but the work will be continued uh and the work at Central Allenwood and Old Mill uh will be performed next summer um we also have HVAC upgrades at three schools that is awarded again we have such long lead times for some construction equipment such as electrical switch gears for new services that are going in that we had to award the projects before this summer just so that we had enough lead time in order to get the material so that they can perform the construction next summer in summer of 2025 um so they were uh bid and awarded and we you know there will be some um some coordination between now and next summer and ensuring that uh the materials are secured we're probably going to be paying for stored materials uh but that will continue to be managed uh we're also doing the roof uh roof recoding at all of the district schools uh this summer and that project is slated to be completed um by by next week and then upcoming we have the HVAC projects at Central uh the intermediate school and actually just lost the school Intermediate School sorry uh I will mention uh talking about the office of State Controller we just received approval to uh advertise that project because of the uh value of the project will be over 12.5 million we had uh obtain pre- advertisement approval from The Office of the State com controller uh and then which we have recently secured and now we are advertising we're going to be taking bids at the end of uh at the end of September or early October for the HVAC uh we're taking for the uh hva uh the interior alterations at the high school and intermediate school this fall as well so we will I'm sorry not to get into too much detail but we're going to continue to uh uh report on the projects on a regular basis with regard to those projects strategy number two analyze and ascertain facility needs in relation to enrollment and instructional needs uh this basically relates to affordable housing in the in the district and what our facilities as they are can accomodate it's basically how we're going to accommodate the number of students projected over the next five years the last uh demographic study that was performed uh was in August of 2021 uh one of our first steps in that regard is updating that study um in conjunction we are analyzing our current enrollments based on the projections that were provided in 2021 uh that's something that's going to be discussed uh in the month of September at our finance facilities commit committee meeting uh we do need to update that we secured a proposal Al for that service which will be going through uh the fnf committee for approval as well so we're going to be essentially um meeting with the municipality to ascertain you know the the developments there uh the demographers will be doing the same review reviewing housing starts Etc we're going to be reviewing our school configurations our grades and discussion with uh Central Administration the building principles on how best to utilize our buildings based on those projected enrollments um you know that's going to impact our student transportation obviously if we're going to look to do uh grade change configurations U so there'll be Transportation studies that are involved that ties in with the demographic study obviously uh there's going to be review of facility Improvement uh or Renovations not necessarily additions but just uh Renovations that may need to be made to our existing facilities based on the those uh projections and utilization uh of our facilities and then obviously a timeline based on the the projections uh and our cost estimates I mean I know uh you know the first step in I guess to summarize that would be an analysis to to consider redistricting in order to accommodate projected enrollments um but the first step is to see you know what are actual enrollments have been since the last uh projection and then update them accordingly uh and lastly the the third strategy was to uh look to provide adequate uh facilities uh adequate and collaborative facilities for the district Support Services which include Central Administration operations and student transportation uh I mean Central Administration is located in no less than one two four buildings uh which is not necessarily conducive to you know a good central office or Central Administration working environment uh although we make it work um would be ideal if uh if all if not a majority of the services were housed together and it would probably uh provide some efficiencies for the district uh but additionally U the operations Department our mechanics uh the bus mechanics are not with our student transportation uh that's been an issue for 20 years uh so we're looking to house them together as well as our operations and the one inherent benefit of of finding or constructing a facility to house those Support Services it removes them from the high school campus and it enables us to um make our high school campus um more of just simply a high school campus I mean right now to to attend events at the uh Stadium uh you have to walk through a maintenance yard to get there which again is is not ideal um but you know the first step in that is um you know we've we've looked to master plan the development of a Support Services complex or something to complex that house our Support Services uh we have had uh discussions with professionals uh but the first step will be to bring in a professional to master plan um you know that complex uh The Next Step would move into hiring Professionals in order to put documents together for the construction of a facility and as part of this and it was in 23 24 was one of the goals was to find housing for our student transportation which we did um but I'll point out to to the board that our current accommodations we have a two-year lease with an option for a third year that and the Board of Ed has the option for the third so we can uh select it or we can decline it however there's no guarantee into year four and as we all know you know two years and especially the third year is going to come very quick so this is something that we are definitely going to have to move on and keep on schedule um so that we're not in a crunch situation you know three three years from now uh and that decision for um you know moving into the third year has to be made obviously after the second year and subsequently a fourth year we'll know in in three years um but then the three bullets that are included is basically obviously will'll be funding dep dependent on being able to construct the facility and that's one of the uh steps also is ensuring uh or developing uh the funding in order to being able to construct such a facility and one of the ways uh we continue to do that is our year-end resolution taking um excess surplus funds or funds from certain accounts and moving it into our capital reserve account so that we have the ability to uh fund capital projects on an annual basis including improvements for um you know the district Support Services complex any questions I have a few um I appreciate the fact that we are meeting with our municipality um discussing the affordable housing plans um to have a sense of our demographics when we talk about I think the ideas of um when we hear redistricting I conversation I think that probably raises concern um for families throughout the district and since these are 24 25 goals I wonder if somebody could expand a little bit on um who's going to be having those conversations when those conversations are going to be I'm sure they've already been some conversation but you know at what point we are jumping in with both feet and what that's going to look like and how our families are going to be included um in those conversations that that's my first question I can absolutely address that this is not um this is something that is a very very um cumbersome and very um it impacts everybody in town and it's something that these discussions are going to be happening in public these discussions uh certainly will be happening at board meetings there are there's going to be a tremendous amount of staff involvement U the uh the parent advisory groups that you have me that you mentioned earlier in the meeting certainly will be part of the communication um and it is right now and you mentioned and Mr SM mentioned affordable um housing and all of the require construction that is happening in the district um it's been quite a bit of a moving Target um we had um as Mr SMI mentioned in August 2021 we hired a demographer for an updated study um things have even changed since that short amount of time so um part of the charge and even on this um months fnf committee is looking and analyzing and the board will receiving what was projected and what was actually actual and um and also working closely with the town so we can and the demographer to see okay well which projects are moving forward and which ones aren't so uh the 2021 was really um an intermediary step um um towards that conversation we will be refining that even further there will be continued discussion uh because it's um it's not as simple as oh well we need another building um I have had Communications with parents well we um with all this construction do we need another school well not necessarily because we have um there are you need in order to build a school you need to show um you need to really essentially you need to be overcrowded before you can move forward with a school we are not overcrowded we still have uh we have capacity in the district um the challenge that we have right now is um you if you regularly watch our uh Board of Education meetings or attend you'll hear about kindergarten enrollments um periodically I think it was two or three summers ago Allen wood we had a surge of kindergarteners at Allenwood this year we had a surge of kindergarteners at um Old Mill and students once they're once we're at capacity at the elementary school students um depending on the date of registration are um are assigned to it not the anticipated school um for their neighborhood or their you know or the one that their parents thought um we communicate uh it very clearly uh Miss McGowan our district register does an amazing job communicating she goes to Recreation she goes to um Town Hall she goes to preschools to um make sure that W parents have access to our Flyers um to let them know that hey you know February is our you know the that's our kindergarten registration also preschool registrations so in order to get accurate numbers as quickly as possible that said grade conf there um is a tremendous amount of planning there'll be a tremendous amount of um Communications and goal five I'll be um I'll I'll steal a little bit of my goal five because I think it fits best which goal five is Communications this um there will be correspondences there will be website updates there will absolutely be professionals that we have to bring in because we have to we the thought we can't have an addition we can't have a new school we can't have these things if we're not at 100% capacity and we're not at 100% capacity so we do have room so again um earlier I spoke about being uh responsible to the being fiscally responsible to all taxpayers um that is a big part of our job so we have to make sure that we are using our buildings efficien efficiently so that means that we have to see okay let's look at um you know we need the Consultants to really help us dig deep work with the demographers and say okay um how do we uh how do we maximize our enrollment so that we can and that may or may not include grade level adjustments because I'll tell you one of the difficult things um conversations that I have is telling parents that um you know that they're there's no there's no seat room left in a classroom where that they moved to a town and they anticipated um going to so it's a very so we have to we have to be um long-term and strategic and um it's going to be a big job certainly for the next two years I can speak to and the communication will be a huge part of that and again our website is a huge um really deposit depository of information for us so thank you I think also just to clarify and I apologize if I I misled uh you know the steps being taken are not for in preparation of redistricting or not for the purpose of redistricting they're being done which are done on a on a regular basis because we've done a number of demographics over the last 10 years it's just something that the district should be doing to assess you know what the projections are and what our facility um capacities are to to to to identify if in fact we are going to have any issues moving forward and then we could have the discussion on possible solutions uh if if in fact there are uh accommodation issues thank you for that clarification I mean obviously a school district is a living breathing um entity and it's always Dynamic and I appreciate the fact that there's so much work is done um on the part of um our Administration including our business administrator and our superintendent and everyone of involved so that we're ready to meet the needs if and when they do arise um my second question would be about the development of this District Support Services complex again I certainly appreciate how much work has gone on um in considering how we can best maximize where our staff is and the function of the district um just for the sake of clarification as as that is continues to be fleshed out will that be fleshed out um through our fnf committee um and then report it out to the board at the meetings um just a little bit of information about what that process is going to look like uh a absolutely so uh you know the discussion with um Professionals for the purposes of Master planning would uh be vetted through the fnf committee uh and all steps uh taken in that regard would obviously go through the FF committee and it's also being done as part of this discussion with the the uh Athletic Facility improvements at the high school um for the referendum because the math because there's certain um projects or portions of the project that are included in the referendum such as improvements to The Stadium Field uh but as part of this process the high school campus is being master planned uh and everything being planned for the high school or every all the wants that we have for the high school complex are not going to be able to be funded by the referendum Alone um but in master planning the high school campus it kind of um Segways into the the need to have a complex for Support Services because again our support services are housed on the high school complex and our operations yard is you know adjacent to the uh to to the girl softball field right now uh and it's just taken up valuable space on the high school complex that could be used uh better used for the the high school students I'll say it with regard to certain sports that are the Varsity Sports that are primarily housed remote from the high school complex on 18th Avenue the goal is part of this referendum and the discussion with different groups is to bring those Varsity Sports back to the high school campus and even though that's included in the master plan it can't be done with the support services being housed on the high school campus as well thank you very much so short answer is yes everything's going through appr appreciate that does anyone else on the board have any questions for Mr SMI on this goal I would like to say on behalf of the board thank you for the hard work that has happened um um you know through your office um thank you to the people in Wall Township who supported the referendum um I think if you take a look at the website the amount of projects that are happening um that have been complet completed and or slated is really again it's it's unbelievable how much progress that is Galloping forward um and thank you very much to fnf for all your hard work um because that committee accomplishes a tremendous amount of work Mr Smite thank you for um everything that you're doing and all the updates and very much appreciate it and uh I'll continue to give the updates however I would not be able to do that and I have to give a a shout out to Mr Van Sickle William Van Sickle bill is our facilities manager uh he's here uh every morning that guy's jumping school to school uh he is in constant contact with the contractors on a daily basis trying to coordinate their work as well as the work done by um the school maintenance staff and custodial staff in order to get these schools open for September uh I know people walking around the schools are like can't imagine how it's going to be done or they couldn't imagine it you know a week or two ago um but with his efforts uh and you know we're fortunate we've had very good contractors uh that were that we've been working with this summer in order to get the work completed and to get school school open for September but uh a lot of credit goes to Bill vanle thank you Dr handerhan hi thank you very much Mr Smite um and goal five our our final goal it is rooted in Communications and this evening it's it's not an accident that goal five is the last one which is Communications because clearly we have a whole lot to communicate this upcoming year um we have to share um really uh our goings on with our families with our community but we also need to share some really good news we need to share all the wonderful things that are happening in the school district with others because I will tell you I have a huge privilege in seeing everything that goes on on a daily basis and um I want everyone in Wall Township to be as proud as I am every day coming to work so there is a tremendous amount of communications that have to take place um this year we have um we're are continuing the um to really bolster our building newsletters and um certain some of our department new newsletters student wellness um we have uh newsletters coming from curriculum instruction special services and our s'mores platform um if you are um if you have any interest in some of the wonderful F things that are taking place in our buildings um you know go out on our website and our schools are doing and departments are doing amazing jobs really um putting together uh newsletters that come out twice a month it is a great awesome way to organize information certainly for with some of the busy schedules of some of our families I mean it's just a great place to have everything located um in a nice handy way uh we've gotten a lot of positive feedback and we will be really um doubly down and bolstering them them up because um they really have been an I I think an asset to the district based on the feedback that we received um as um Mr um Smite was talking about a lot of the projects the this we've turned a corner and a lot of our projects are going to be very um visible projects the students many students are going to be coming back seeing new bathrooms so they're projects that people are going to notice um so much of the um referendum you know a lot of our work has been syst um electric boilers um I mean it's you know first day of school you don't really notice that we have you know there's going to be a new boiler you know next summer but let me tell you you're really grateful in January when the new boiler is here so um so a lot of things there's going to be a lot of visible projects happening and we'll be communicating them as such certainly with the athletic complex um planning Master planning at the high school um so I want to take this time to really um invite people to go to our website because um Mr Van Sickle um Miss sertz Miss Wier has been they've been very and Miss mcau have been very busy posting things on our website so um we have lots of pictures befores and afters and this will be happening over and over and over again so um so please uh check that out and that continues throughout the year each year and um one thing I would like to mention as far as Communications is really getting the word out about Wall Township and we um administratively have been writing proposals to speak at um you know different conferences different workshops uh to really share what Wall Township is doing because um I think it's really important that um we share with the greater population um all the wonderful things that we're doing so that we're definitely paying a very close attention to that um our director of curriculum uh of K5 Miss Ain mbon had the opportunity to um to uh be part of a um you know a science of reading pedagogy um Think Tank Miss Steiner uh participated at a national conference and she presented at uh seven mindsets in Florida so there's just some we're really trying to actively get the word out about the wonderful things going on in the school district so um you know stay tuned um I'm hoping that you know we we continue to write proposals and we'll get acceptances and uh yeah um another big Communications piece that we have is um our website we will be going through a ma a major platform change this winter so we'll be running needing to run um systems concurrently as we make the switch over um that our vendor was purchased by another vendor so there's going to be a lot of busy hands be behind the scenes working on that so that we can provide a seamless transition to our community because our website was designed to be a like I said a depository of so much information for our for the community at large and uh you know we want to share the good news um and again we are actively trying to get more social media um followers so just a reminder um snow days are posted first on social media just a reminder so if you want hot off the information before the robo call follow us on social media so you will that that that is as fast as you're going to get it so um I think that every after every snowfall that's when we really have a peak in um of followers so you know beat the rush that made no sense I know that but um but anyway um are there any questions it's really about um getting the word out there um about wal Township Public Schools and also communicating a lot of the programming and projects that we have going on in the school and and the school district and much of that certainly is um to follow up on goal four referendum minded and um and future planning because uh you know it's not we're not planning for the 24 just the 24 25 school year we're planning for the 2035 36 school year and that I think it's really important that um that I stress that because it's not just we're we're looking far beyond what we're up to in the next school year so um that is uh a big part of our charge so are there any questions with respect to Communications okay Miss Stites thank you Dr handerhan I think again progress made on this is incredible and I know that we're not going to sit where we are and that we're going to continue to move Comm Communications forward very excited I'm really excited to see that we're going to have student Communications interns um and helping out uh I think that's going to be great for our students um so that's awesome absolutely and and it does tie directly into the CTE goals that you um asked miss mccan about specifically Perfect all right at this time do any of our board members have anything to add any questions any um input regarding these goals there's anything that that you think of before our next meeting we will be uh adopting at September's meeting these goals I thank everyone for your hard work again I thank my fellow board members for everything that you've done sitting here for several hours again um on a summer evening but it's tremendously important work that you're accomplishing um and as a fellow board member and as a parent of students in this District I thank you for everything that you are doing for us at this time may I please have motion to adjourn Miss D Giovani I have a second Mr Buffa all in favor anyone opposed okay so we will see folks back um in September and have a wonderful safe remainder of the summer for