##VIDEO ID:r-8FGGxIbi4## just we're good all right um welcome everyone happy holidays so before we start our official meeting at 7 uh we have two very special guests here with us this evening uh it also happens to be one of their birthday tonight and he chose to spend it with us so Mr as's birthday so I this is really an honor that I get to acknowledge both of these staff members here tonight uh one of our key goals of our strategic plan has to do with the social and emotional growth of our students and these two staff members standing with me here epitomize the actualization of that in our district uh we have Mr Kevin rice who is our education services professional of the year uh who is our student assist one of our Student Assistance counselors and we have Mr Joseph asales who is a member of our health and PE Department who is our educator of the year and both of them are so integral in the support of our students in the daily support of our students in this building and I have seen it firsthand uh I Mr rice is even though he has an office in the building he is all over the building uh and Mr ases usually when I walk down the hall either he or his students are standing on desks in their classroom um because he starts every day with an affirmation uh for the students and so any of you who have had children or grandchildren anyone who's had them they they've probably spoken about that um but you can hear it down the hallway so um I whenever I need a little extra affirmation I go and eeve drop on one of the classes and sometimes pop in but you also will see both of them at school events uh supporting their students so which is why you know a lot of you will probably recognize them and know them even if your children didn't have them in class um but you are really just integral parts of of the fiber of the school community and a superintendent I rest easier knowing that our students have them as adults that they can go to um so what I want to do is we honored them at our faculty meeting last week and what Mr librera did is he read some excerpts from the submissions for their nomination as our educators of the year so that's what I'm going to do for each of them because I think it it really um highlights some of the the key attributes of why they're being honored here this evening so I'll start with our birthday boy Mr asales Mr asales is a teacher both in and out of the class CL room he's a standup guy for all of his students he knows how to lift spirits and create Smiles someone worthy of teacher of the year as a teacher Joe not only educates the students on the curriculum but he teaches them about teamwork perseverance discipline and resiliency when walking down his hallway one can hear the students reciting a daily affirmation students feel valued and empowered one of Joe's most admirable qualities is his unwavering positivity and dedication to creating a classroom that students feel safe safe and supported anytime one walks by his room whether he is teaching or not kids are surrounded are surrounding his desk chatting and laughing with him and Joe has a warm and welcoming presence as you enter his room kids and staff know they can walk in and will be greeted with his warm smile and genuine personality Joe ases deserves to be teacher of the year due to his exceptional dedication and multifaceted contributions to his students lives his ability to build meaningful rapport with every student Fosters a supportive and engaging learning environment where each individual feels valued so Mr asales I would like to present you with just a token from the board acknowledging your you're being named as the 2024 2025 whrhs educator of the [Applause] year just stay right there while I will read about Mr rice now now to Mr rice whether it be counseling sessions quick conversations initial evaluations parent meetings over academic concerns IEPs or 504 meetings Mr Rice's presence is invaluable in helping to make sure that our students have what they need in order to succeed he helps to diffuse tense exchanges that occur sometimes between parents and children and the needs of the student even when some tougher love is required is always first in his mind Mr rice Works to defend support and promote all students and therefore this entire Learning Community both inside the school and out socially emotionally and academically perhaps most importantly he is a tireless supporter and advocate for our most fragile students in our population he's at the center of a very complex ven diagram teachers administrators students parents psychologists principles case workers doctors therapists and his kindness and desire to help is what allows him to be successful navigating it Mr rice is the exact example of what an ESP of the year should represent so thank you so much Mr rice and you are honored as our 2425 education service profession and if either of you would like to say something you so we have a few minutes till the beginning of our meeting so if everyone would like some cupcakes and cookies or coffee um I don't know if any board members want to say anything with another round of applause for you and thank you for taking the time to come tonight so all right so two minutes before the meeting for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody this the Board of Education meeting for which adquate notice under the open public meetings Act was provided by written notice on January 3rd 2024 to The Courier News Theo Sentinel The Star Ledger tap Warren tap tap into Warren I'm sorry and the clerks of the burrow of wung and the townships of Greenbrook Long Hill and Warren roll call Mr sty Mr maio Mr Gall here Miss Lee here Mr mayek here Mr Morrison here miss Ober M Potter here M pra chour here and Mr Burber Here We rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which stands one nation God indivisible Liberty Justice for All earlier this evening we had a special presentation where we h honored the educators of the year for 2024 and 2025 uh Joseph escal uh educator of the year and Kevin W's ESP of the year so again I just want to congratulate them again very exciting to have both of them on our staff um in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings act we had hereby resolved that the board move into executive session to discuss confidential personnel and legal matters in school security after which action may be taken it's expected that the matters discussed in executive session will be made public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer exists can I have a motion to go okay all those in favor okay uh well we're in executive session and since we have very few people will stay here and the other three will leave no disrespect e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e excellent welcome back everybody thank you uh we'll go right into board correspondence Dr JT so during our last board meeting when we were having uh the discussion about later start times you actually all probably saw an email later that night that came in during the board meeting just from a parent support supportive of the later High School start time so we added that on here as board correspondence okay right into uh your comments uh I really just want to wish everyone a wonderful break and holiday season coming up tonight we actually have our instrumental music concert a week from tonight we have our vocal music concert and then on Friday the 20th we have our uh music showcase for our eighth graders who will be coming up uh for a special concert up here we honored our two educators of the Year earlier this evening our uh educator of the Year Joe ases and our education services professional of the Year Kevin rice who do a tremendous tremendous job supporting our students um both academically and socially emotionally they are tremendous assets to the the school Community uh and I'm really pleased we were able to honor them this evening and that is all I have he thank you uh I too want to wish everyone a happy holiday season this is our last meeting for calendar year 2025 live I want to thank my fellow board members for their support during my presidency so thank you for that U that's all I have Mr sty thank you Mr President I also want to wish everybody a happy holiday season and I also want to point out for the first time since I've been here 17 years that every single board member who had to have their training done was done well before December usually it's December 31st I'm saying come on you got to get it done but this year everybody was done well in advance so great job guys that might have had something to do with the fact that they changed the law forcing everyone to do it within 90 days that too okay great uh students rep and uh unfortunately Sophie is not with us this evening she's behind me or to the side she's performing in one of our concerts this evening and Juliana you have double duty tonight go ahead our student announcements are as followed so starting off with our student achievements Ian kabaria the recipient of the Somerset County Amanda Hydra award for outstanding leadership and community service exemplifies the values of compassion initiative and impact he founded songs for seniors a nonprofit that brings joy to elderly residents through musical performances showcasing his ability to lead and Inspire his peers additionally as co-founder of kindness for kids he helps collect and distribute gifts to underprivileged Children reflecting his commitment to creating meaningful change Grace elen has been selected to represent watchong Hills at the hob New Jersey leadership seminar as an outstanding student leader she is the founder and CEO of with Grace a nonprofit dedicated to supporting pediatric cancer patients and their families by providing gifts essential supplies and fundraising for cancer research as a cancer survivor herself Grace has turned her personal experience into a powerful advocacy platform championing Childhood Cancer Awareness at State national and international levels Sonia shareif is the nominee for the Jefferson scholarship the scholarship is a highly prestigious merit-based scholarship awarded to exceptional undergraduate students at the University of Virginia covering the full cost of attendance for four years and including additional funding for study abroad and summer research it is considered one of the most competitive Scholarships in the world recognizing students with outstanding academic achievements leadership abilities and Community engagement moving on to our school events the recent fall production of the hope and heartache Diner was a resounding success thanks to the dedication and talent of our student actors and the entire script and Q team and The Culinary Club the intimate theater in round setting immersed the audience in the world of the play the delicious intermission pies were baked by B by Miss bonell and The Culinary Club this year the English Department will launched a center to support and enrich student writing during each period of the day an English faculty writing coach is assigned to the center to conduct individual and small group conferences with students the center is also available to students during their study halls if they have a pass from their English teacher The Writing Center has logged over 400 visits since the start of the school year English teacher Lauren gotle presented at the National Council of teachers of English annual conference Heart Hope and Humanity in Boston Massachusetts Miss scly presented a workshop titled from Pixar to Black Mirror engaging students through purposeful low transfer writing experiences for approximately 100 participants this Workshop demonstrated successful strategies for teaching expository and synthesis writing to high school students by implementing high and low transfer activities and finally for our sports update the winter sports season has begun and rosters are just about finalized ice hockey and bow teams have already started their season while the other winter sports will begin their scrimmages this week the athletic trainers will treat all sports athletes including the winter season in their new and improved treatment room located off of gym 56 the gym2 treatment room will only be used when indicated by our athletic trainers students are permitted in this area only if they are supervised by a coach staff member or athletic trainer last Wednesday a athletic director Mr Root chaperoned a field trip to North high school with representatives from each winter sport to participate in an annual sportsmanship Summit this was a valuable experience that provided our student athletes with an opportunity to engage with other student athletes in the Skyland conference and discuss pos positive and productive ways to be a team member on and off the playing field and that is all for our student announcements thank you very much more than welcome to leave and catch the end of the concert if you'd like all right committee reports Mr Mor so the education committee met on December 3rd uh the first topic we uh touched on was College Trends uh Miss kuchi uh provided an overview of Trends and college applications and acceptances she also spoke uh about professional development for our counseling staff on these college Trends additional information are actually in your um uh education committee folder uh online uh we then talked about uh a policy revision of 5516 use of electronic communications and recording devices um for the discussion at our prior board meeting we're looking at revising this policy to become more in line with our uh support for our current procedures in the student handbook um we need to update the list of devices that are included uh the committee um wanted to revisit this at our next meeting um because there's actually been some uh information coming from both the federal government and the state regarding cell phone policies so we're going to take that information into account when we uh next meet before we then bring forward a uh policy for consideration by the board uh we then discussed a warrior watch um the Mrs failin explained the concept of warrior watch and how it was inspired by two key elements uh visits to different high schools including one in Springfield Missouri to study their TV production curriculum uh and then Steve Hartman's on the road segments that used to appear on CBS evening news and Sunday morning which emphasize that everyone has a story um these short yet inspiring human interest stories are educational inspiring creative um and that led us to the creation here of warrior watch uh which comes out every month students from all grade levels develop a wide range of skills including public speaking writing interviewing film filming and editing crafting each story requires collaboration creativity mirroring the Professional Standards seen in Steve Hartman's work uh there are links to the two episodes that have come up uh um in your folders uh Dr laera then mentioned the upcoming holiday concerts the instrumental concert is tonight which we will all go to once we adjourn this meeting and the coral concert on December 17th a week from this evening both concerts will be in the pack at 7 uh p.m. there will also be a special performance of the eth grade students from our sending districts or for our e8th grade students in the sending districts on December 20th at 10:00 a.m. uh we then discussed the idea of the Design Lab openhouse uh they're planning that for either January or February uh Dr JW had asked the committee to share their thoughts and suggestions we talked about invitations to officials or realitors local businesses also discussed having ongoing tours to showcase our new spaces and have students conducting these T tours for the public uh on how the space is being used uh the last item we touched on was followup to guest speakers uh which we just uh talked about in our executive session the meeting adjourned at 5:14 that was the end of my report does any or any Committee Member have anything to add any board member have any comments thank you oh goad is there anything we can Report with respect to Personnel or okay great the Personnel committee met on December 2nd um we spoke about the New Jersey minimum wage increase as of January 1st 2025 the state minimum wage will increase from $15.13 to $15.49 this will affect the hourly rate for substitute secretaries there is a c item increasing the sub secretaries rates we also talked about the spring coaching positions the spring Co coaching positions are posted we want would like to have the listed for Boe approval at the 2nd January meeting njsa spring season starts March 10th and then we have a preview of C items uh which Nicole discussed at our meetings and are on our agenda thank you Miss Lee uh Bob I think you had uh something you want to talk about just real quick on the regionalization I did have a conversation with the leads on the regionalization project from the Rowan team um and they shared with me an update on on where they are in the process currently they are gathering they've gathered most of the data from the districts and have been going through the analysis side of this uh they plan on setting up uh staff meetings in the various districts uh which they had talked about for sometime toward the end of January early February uh for those meetings they'll be coordinating with the individual districts um um the committee itself will be meeting uh sometime in January we're just working through calendars to determine the date to be able to do that um the the they propose that we do a midstudy town hall meeting uh which would occur probably sometime in late February where we' be able to give the public a briefing on the status of the regionalization study uh with the anticipation that um that the committee would be seeing some sort of Report Draft no later than early May um and then we would be discussing the timing of the of the release of that depending on what additional changes need to be made uh following up on that uh additionally we'll be uh looking to coordinate with our uh local media uh supporters local local papers um to uh post an article about the study sometime in January so uh that's all I have on the regionalization fund great thank you for that update I appreciate that we all do okay first opportunity for public comment the first public comment period will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only the second public comment period will be open to any topic all comments are limited to five minutes do we have any public comments anybody I see none moving forward I close the first opportunity for public comment is there any board discussion this sa um yes there was a discussion about using the um the upper gravel I was accosted by my daughter to ask about whether they can start parking there or not because she she walks by it every morning on very cold and rainy days completely empty as she Walks from the lower gravel okay you could just open that up and with the heavy Rings seems like there's a lot of spots right oh a lot there you go I'll sponsor that up no spots it's like if you lined it and all that yeah there's probably good okay excellent action items uh Mr President I like to move items A1 through A5 a second any discussion roll call Mr Gall excuse Mr G uh M Miss Lee Mr May yes Morrison yes m obber i m Potter yes rasa yes shour yes and Mr Burber yes motion is carried Mr President I like to move item A6 any discussion roll call Mr Gall yes but I am just a comment on the shocking cost which number are you referring to6 that's nothing again just calling me shock that's actually anyway yes but yes as I'm yeah I agree it's too high I'll leave it at that uh Miss Lee yes Mr manek yes Mr Morrison yes M sober yes Mr proa yes shour yes Mr bber yes motion carries uh Mr President I'd like to move items C1 through C8 second any discussion any discussion walk add any discussion roll call please Mr Gall yes Miss Lee Yes mayor ja yes Morrison yes over Potter yes CA yes Trum for yes and Mr Burber yes motion carries Mr President I'd like to move items D1 through D3 any discussion roll call please who second is that Eugene yeah thanks okay uh for the board members who reive yeah okay got you uh Mr Gall yes Miss Lee I have to abstain on D1 but yes for the others Mr mayek yes Mr Morrison yes sober abstain on D1 yes on the Other M Potter yes Miss pra yes chour stay on D1 yes to the others and Mr bber I too on D1 and approve D2 and D3 we got five yeah motion carries great simple uh it's now time for that second yeah second opportunity for public comment uh again this public comment is uh in any topic do we have any commenters okay see you none we close this second opportunity for public comment do we have any other business no other business just more comments okay go ahead okay so just want to uh bring up the fact that the traffic patterns in the front of school are still not fixed and tomorrow morning every person is going to be detrimental their safety is going to be detrimental by the the traffic patterns that are in place right now just leave it at that still needs to get fixed I'm just going to keep on banging this drum until it's fixed because it's going to rain very heavy and and people are crossing where buses are going across they're parking and they're walking across it's a mess and I I've been out there and and I've been watching it this year has been the best the best year that I've seen yeah because it's been a drought no that's not why it's it's sure the reason why is because we're not allowing the cars to go in the bus lanes anymore now that may slow down the parents however separating the buses and the cars is really the is part of the key I don't know how else to make it any better I mean there's we we went over this a number of times it is a train I've been out there in the morning it looks good my opinion okay well we disagree earlier there was a comment with respect to opening up the second uh parking lot it's 50 spots does anyone believe that that may alleviate the issue 50 cars are moved isue separate you don't think that helps at all well if it helps us open up the gravel yes I believe any other comments yeah just one thing that I want to just bring to the board's attention there's been a lot of we're seeing an increasing amount of junk bills coming from the legislature targeting education a lot of it is is aimed at uh taking away the authority of boards of Education to to provide proper oversight and govern governance over our school district and I think that the public should become increasingly concerned uh about the way that the state legislature is uh approaching this overreach because it will get to the point where you no longer have a local Board of Education that you elect that provides oversight and governance for what's happening at the school district we will end up with a school district that has run managed by people in Trenton uh I don't think that that's a good scenario in any um in any outcome that we can think of uh and I think that the public needs to begin to pay attention and the public needs to begin to speak up with their elected representatives that we do not want a state where the state is in control of our local schools that the schools belong in the hands of the elected authorities from within the community and I would strongly strongly encourage folks folks to pay attention to this and and I promise to be providing updates as this encroachment in our authority to oversee our schools continued thank you Bob and just to piggyback that slightly I'm certainly aware of other states where they do control it at whether it's the county level or the state level certainly I believe it's Florida it's a county system and you can certainly see how the education is different let's just say when uh the control is taken away because you know whether it's curriculum decisions you know we we have the luxure of tailoring our curriculum to our student needs you know given the parameters of what's specifically required with regard to hours of education and stuff like that but once you give it to county or the state then you get into the concept of one size fits all and that is that's not the best place to be and in the in the history of the state of New Jersey we have never had a curriculum directed by the state and they are in the process right now of trying to put in place a one-size fits-all reading curriculum directed by the state that regardless of what we know or what we've learned about our students or the best practices that have been developed that they there's a move to try to you know impose this on districts and it's a slippery slope we've never the stat set set standards the district sets curriculum and that's the way that it needs to stay otherwise we will end up with basically state run schools any other comments I will entertain a motion to adjourn all those in favor everyone have a great holiday