##VIDEO ID:-1gMXwHVZb0## e e e e e good evening I call to order a regular meeting of the bong Board of Education today is November 21st and we are starting at 7:05 p.m. please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of the burough of Wong please be advised at this and all meetings of the board and are open to the public and media consistent to the open public records act chapter 231 laws of 1975 and that the advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the Bureau of watchong at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being live streamed on the district website where a recording of the meeting also will be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard shown on the agenda at points of the meeting provided that the public to address the board recording or photographs other than the private use private personal use requires the consent of parents Guardians with children or included in the image I have a roll call please M car Bishop Johson this AG Arrow here Mrs Amo here Mr fr currently not here Mr Gonzalez here Mrs Harvey here Mr graia not here Mrs jet here Mrs Santos here and Dr Vince Kua here you okay so normally we would go into an executive session but at this point we're going to actually move to public comments first just in case and then we'll move into executive session um comment so I'll read the um public comments we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak so you're just moving the we don't have a presentation just moving the executive session down and go right to okay sorry disregard okay so we're going to move the executive session down and we're going to go into um superintendent remarks okay so um we do not have a presentation tonight on the referendum Connor is not available so in his absence I'm going to read the update from Legacy construction management on the referendum projects and then we'll go to Mrs vickner for her report and um Karen and we'll Circle back to me on the district so from Connor progress has continued with the HVAC since the last board meeting over the last two weeks we anticipate the unit ventilator portion of the contract to be substantially complete Legacy is in communication with the architect and the contractor to potentially issue a partial punch list of the work performed up until this point the Chillers are not finished that work is scheduled in the spring and there is some non-critical scope of work remaining the crews in the building will become drastically reduced and only handling the remaining punch list items Legacy will also have a reduced presence in the district but still maintain communication and leading coordination until the next phase of work Begins the projects finances have been reviewed um and credits back from all three projects are anticipated regarding the upcoming projects including the field and Outdoor Learning Commons we are still projecting sufficient funding within the referendum Connor um has met with Karen Bishop Johnson they'll continue to have subsequent meetings to confirm all referendum Associated items and expenses um looking ahead to the upcoming field and Outdoor Learning comments projects meetings with the architect and Middle School stakeholders principal kid coaches teacher representatives are being scheduled during the next few weeks and we expect to start Gathering public input after that um it's the plan to be able to finalize the design for the new spaces advertise and go out to bid at the start of the new year so that work can be completed next summer I don't know if I can answer questions but if you have questions on Connor's update no okay Mrs S hello good evening all right I'll start out with the um the principal report for both schools we celebrated Red Red Ribbon Week October 23rd through October 31st with special activities to reinforce the theme of living a healthy drug-free lifestyle at Bayberry classes competed in candy Wars to support we trunk oret treat uh as a school we collected over 950 lbs of candy so we keep collecting more and more each year but we're happy to support we in their fund fundraiser our winner for the candy Wars was Mrs Smith's class and they are looking forward to their ice cream party I don't think they had it just yet uh students showed off their costumes during the Bayberry Halloween parade on Thursday October 31st students also enjoyed SPO crafts games and special treats during their Halloween parties parent teacher conferences were held at Bayberry on November 4th and sixth students learned at about devali through various classroom activities led by student staff and parent volunteers at both schools the mountain mon mountainer Mondays at Valley View have explored the themes of growth mindset and gratitude at Valley View marking period 1 ended on November 6th and grades were available to parents on November 15th in the Genesis Parent Portal students and staff honored Veterans Day on November 11th by wearing red white and blue and through classroom conversations tomorrow at Valley View there are picture rakes and students will enjoy the PTO sponsored author presentation for fifth graders we are looking forward to the we sponsored friendsgiving at both schools tomorrow thank you to we and PTO for their generosity and support both schools have also begun their service learning projects through adopt a family and the saal sewa de devali food drive please continue to send in canned goods and gifts for the families in need thank you for your support thank you you stay till the end I'll show you the pictures no just this part Karen did you have year the business office you biggest thing that's happening there is we received our preliminary audit report so I that you guys are really thrilled about that but we will be reviewing that in December uh Valerie from nissia Valerie Dolan will be coming and prior to that in committee we will discuss it thank you okay so I just got to you got me still it's going to be the easiest night so far ever so Aaron if you could um start our pictures our monthly fun pictures um to Connor's referendum report I'm going to add um that we have had the team in the Valley View gym you can see it a little bit up there on the slideshow this week reinstalling the adventure course and all the additional components generously funded by we it is going to be amazing I'm excited um when I'm in there I can't get over it um I will also tell you that the students and we'll get to those pictures I guess in a second are actively engaged in the library and the Art Space they are fully in there today I got to this is part of it I got to observe a health class working in the collaborative space um in the art room we have students preparing for shim aasi which is a Japanese technique of floating ink on water to make patterns that they transfer to paper or material it was very very cool I would like to do it myself um and now that um we can start to see progress on the referendum projects we are looking to schedule an openhouse for the public we want to welcome you into the library and art spaces as well as do a ribbon cutting for the Adventure Course in the Valley View gym stay tuned we will send an invitation um not just to our school Community but to our full Learning Community um um and partners in W Chung burrow since the last board meeting we've had a lot of fun at the trunker treat at we's trunker treat you'll see some pictures there they come um and also during the Halloween parade and all of the parties and events that U Mrs vickner talked about um during her report I have to say everybody's costumes and Trunks were incredibly creative and that candy I did take a picture but could not add it to my slideshow you would not believe how much 900 lbs of candy is it it was incredible and passed out and ran out which is also what I can't believe but it was a lot of fun um the deali food collection drive that Mrs pner and um valy view talked about is continuing at Bayberry and Valley View through next Tuesday um donations of any non-p perishable vegetarian items as well as toiletries feminine hygiene products diapers all greatly appreciated um there was staff development at um Bayberry this week awareness and understanding of um any semitism that could occur in schools we're going to be continuing to collaborate with um sang who we doing the um duali food drive with on Hindu culture and awareness for our staff and students this spring um also there you see there he is moy so thank you to creative comfort for giving a grant again this year to visit Mrs Stack's room Moy and fouchi I think he's there he is um and their dogs thank you Mrs Ruth Miss Cindy for um coming in to do that uh next is it two Wednesdays Wednesday December 4th the PTO is going to be providing two assemblies at Valley you one is geared to fifth and sixth graders one is geared to seventh and eighth graders the assemblies will be featuring um Dr Fallon Dr Michael Fallon who um if you've seen him before is known as Mikey that same night that Wednesday evening um he's going to give a parent presentation so that you're able to share and discuss the experience with your child and just a little background um in this oneman presid presentation Mikey takes the audience on an experiential Journey having them reexamine core precepts taught to us as early as first grade using humor performance art poetry storytelling psychology and Theatrical monologues his personal journey is a moving experience for everyone um thank you PTO for providing the experiences for our students the opportunity for our parents and families to continue the conversations at home that are started at school um we found last year how valuable that was and this will be for this year the first and what we hope to be a series of these kinds of parent um conversations continuing the school lessons at home um and just finally a reminder that we have early dismissal on Wednesday November 27th we're closed Thursday and Friday November 28th and 29th for the Thanksgiving holiday um and I guess a reminder our greatest blessings aren't maybe the food on our plates but when you listen to what's happening in the schools um in the community that surrounds us that that's where we can place our gratitude thank you all board Community for being a source of support and sharing Joy right throughout the whole year I hope that everybody is able to enjoy friends and family and if you're traveling stay safe after your committee after Okay so we're going to skip Personnel committee for now on his way you're doing your your committee report right we're going to skip personel we're going to start with curriculum first no's on his way he should be minutes um um do you mind doing curriculum want to do curriculum sure yeah we'll start first okay okay we met yesterday November 20th from 4:10 to 5:40 it was a virtual meeting the people who were there were our committee members myself Dory Harvey Fus Santos Muhammad came in virtually Administration and guests were uh Dr Glazer our principal's kid and fitner special services director was n Nicole doota new business okay there's going to be an expansion of the autism program the children who are in an aut autism program at Bayberry we're looking to see how it's going to be expanded to Valley View the meeting opened with a discussion from uh principal kid and special services director Nicole doota regarding an update on the expansion of the autism program from Bayberry to Valley View these plans have been in the workings for quite a while and when the room and facilities are ready they will be presented to the parents the use of field and Outdoor Learning Commons to support the needs of all children including a place for games as well as Sports is being planned two teachers are being sent to Maine to attend a conference regarding the development of Outdoor Learning space we discussed the pursuit of Excellence program at Valley View in Bayberry is attended in the morning before school begins teachers work with students using a variety of resources to develop needed skills measurable goals principles explain that immeasurable goals are set and continually evaluated by the teachers using a variety of instruments a discussion of the use of AI in schools n j dooe New Jersey Department of Education has been providing resources myself and Jen attended njsba workshop on AI BW librarian Ela teacher attending the NJ dooe Summit on AI policy committee will review when policies begin to be developed cell phones research is finding that students can become addicted to their electronic devices bberry students must keep cell phones and other electronics in backpacks del viw students can't bring cell phones or electronic devices to class they're collected in the main office and parents must pick them up if cell phones are used in school exceptions are made for students who need a device for medical reasons or for a class program cell phone and other electronic devices will be further discussed in the policy committee we will have an annual audit presentation on December the 19th 2024 thanks thank you we're going to go to um uh policy Dory sure uh the policy committee met on Wednesday November 13 the meeting was between 5:30 to 6:36 p.m. it was virtual uh those in attendance were board president Manuel Gonzalez myself uh Danielle Amadeo and Phyllis shuet and um Dr Glazer was absent for the meeting the committee went over the following agenda items um and just so the board knows there was not an agenda in the packet uh so you didn't miss anything we just didn't have one we only had a certain number of policies so we just kind of went with it um we went over policy P 3261 dress and grooming the committee received no feedback from any uh other board members and had no changes to this so it's on the agenda for uh second reading tonight we also went over um briefly um policy 5440 honoring student achievement we really couldn't review the policy we discussed it very briefly uh just basically that we couldn't review it so we're going to wait uh for a second reading on that uh so that we can get more feedback from the administration because board members had uh questions about that one uh then we went over policy and regulation 7510 use of school facilities the committee felt the additional cover letter for the school facilities use form was appropriate and the policy should be on the agenda for a first reading hold on one second I was just making sure the one wasn't on the agenda um for new business we went over policy briefly 9210 which was the community standard response time policy this for some reason was removed from the district website and the committee is not sure why the committee has asked the administration to investigate this and should be on the next policy committee agenda if the number of the policy conflicts with another another one then the policy uh will be brought to the committee to change possibly change the number for the community standard response time policy since it's an originally created policy for our district um all staff should uh understand that the community uh response time policy was not abolished and should still be followed and then um we had a proposal of an additional original Transportation policy um that we discussed during the meeting the committee reviewed the process of creating an original policy the appropriate experts that need to be um consulted will be and the potential timeline it would take to create such a policy was discussed the intention of uh the additional policy is to help guide new and existing staff members contractor shared service employees parents and anyone else who is unfamiliar with the terrain of our beautiful wung landscape and all the challenges that come with it our terrain is difficult and can pose a challenge When developing bus routes so the committee agreed to develop a policy that would define specific problems that um are faced in Watchung the committee also agreed to provide a list of guidelines which any person involved in developing and or coordinating our bus routes and transportation of students to follow in hopes of cutting down any potential problem are areas and unsafe situations in our town the committee agreed to place the steps for an escalation process for parents in the policy in case a parent or parents find their child's bus stop unsafe and a timeline for how long the escalation process should take as a first step in the process a Committee Member will draft a version of what the committee discussed and we'll provide that to the administration and the transportation coordinator for their feedback that's it thank you Dory right so now we'll move back up to Personnel Mr frge the Personnel committee uh met on Thursday November 14th 2024 at 5:30 p.m. uh it was a virtual meeting in attendance were myself Anthony and Gracia J for vinc Kua and Karen Bishop Johnson um we discussed uh a salary Equalization um the Shu affiliation of nurses uh which is just an agreement that we made with SE Hall in order to have nurses and it will be funded by SE Hall University so that's very nice um as for the board agenda items um we have a valie secretary recommendation um we also had some revised extracurricular position we had some revised leaves of leaves of absences um we also have new student teacher um additions to before and after Care staff and a chain sorry and an additional chaperon for the buses okay and then now we'll move on to operations and finance one second the operations and finance committee met on November 12th 2024 and attendance were myself um Manny Conor O'Brien Dory Harvey Jen agilo uh Karen Bishop Johnson and Ricky Boyd um the virtual meeting began at 5:00 p.m. um we got a quick referendum project update um Conor provide an update on the HVAC prog progress um last week or I guess the week before um one of the rooms didn't have heat so we had portable heaters brought in until the issue was resolved which it is now um nor Eastern was working on some lighting uh issues Connor also provided uh that the sorry Connor has provided the business office with an updated budget spread sprad can't even talk spreadsheet the office will check the listing a listing against the purchase order um we also are beginning planning on outdoor projects the chillers will remain on schedule to be installed over spring break uh floor unit vents are easier to replace than the ones that are located in the ceiling um it was also reported that the heating situation has been challenging but it has been getting better uh Karen also reported that the preliminary Auto reports have been received the public audo report will be at the December Board of Ed meeting uh we also discussed a little bit about Transportation which Dory uh did go over um we did happily note that the students are arriving to school on time and then we also discussed again the recommendation for um a valy view uh secretary okay um we're going to move on to um ad hoc negotiations committee um that is myself and Mr fr and Miss Agera and Danielle m u we don't have any Uh current updates for that uh board liaison U reports uh legislation Mr fr uh no update to provided this time Somerset County Educational Services Miss Harvey had we haven't had a meeting okay um Somerset County um School Board of associations leaves on sale um there is a meeting coming up January 27th that people can put in their calendars um which I think is a repeat of the um the workshop uh Jen recently attended on uh for the board secretary's report um so if people want to catch that and missed it last time that's another opportunity I believe it's the same one probably yeah thank you um okay so regionalization committee that is myself we have not had a meeting it um mujc Dr Glazer I was out of the district wasn't able to attend the board meeting okay um committee engagement anyone here from PTO no anyone here from W me good evening everyone Angela mey from we nice to see everyone I guess everybody's already sung we's Praises so I'll just thank everyone had a great trunker treat the kids had so much fun and I had so much fun everybody seemed to have a blast and I think the trunks were just amazing like you said Dr Glazer and we're so happy to provide that it's such a fun event for the community also we have tomorrow our friends giving so we're looking forward to our pizzas for 275 people here at Valley View so that's a really fun event that we look forward to every year it's really exciting and we'll be working with Dr Glazer on getting some grants going this year and we don't have any other events planned but it's been a busy last couple of weeks I thank you all for your support a good night thank you okay anyone here from ceg no all right um so now we will move on to um comments from the public on agenda items only uh we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity for comments on the agenda items is now the second opportunity for public comments is towards the end of the meeting total alloted time for public comments is 30 minutes before you make your comments please state your name and Municipality of residents in the event it appears the public Comon portion of the meeting makes C 30 minutes the the presiding officer May limit each statement made by the participant in 3 minutes duration our public forms are not structured as question answer sessions but rather offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comments New Jersey statutes do not par permit a board to discuss Personnel or hiring in public sessions names of the students should not be used members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for comments that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by the public [Music] H good evening everyone Tod Nat Bey and I'd like to congratulate Dory and team for winning the board election this year and um have a couple comments uh last time we went over quite an extensive report about the grades and the proficiency tests Statewide and we went over multiple slides many slides in fact but there was no big picture no executive summary no context so I went back and looked for the last three years 22 23 and 24 and say where were we then and where are we now so if we look at Ela those who fell below expectations so the bottom three categories right Ela so for Bayberry in 2022 it was 41.5% 23 it was 40.5% and this year 24 it's 43% so we're kind of going in the wrong direction there same thing for grades five six and seven I left off eighth grade because we had that business about algebra and uh geometry and all that stuff and uh since these are percentages it's a little hard to merge all that stuff so for grades five six and seven in 2022 only 21% were not proficient and then in the next two years including 24 it's up to 26 so again we're going backwards there now for math in Bayberry back in 22 it was 35.5% not proficient and now it's 39 so we've lost a little ground there as well and then for grades 5 six and seven we started at 45% not proficient and now we're down to 41 so that's one right spot now it was also suggested at the last meeting and we had a little bit of a discussion about what the goals should be and someone in the audience I think it was Mr craft suggested that if we add in the ones who approached expectations the numbers look a lot better so what I'm suggesting to you as a board that the goal for this year ought to be everybody who is approaching expectations we push him over the top to meet expectations okay now that's no small task according to the numbers I saw from and adding them all up there were 79 of those in total all systemwide for uh Ela we approaching expectations and then in math the number is 103 so it's a lot of students that we have to push over but if we did that okay then the overall pass rate if you will would in the Ela would be in the 80 to 90% range which I think everybody would be doing a happy dance about and then in math it would be even better and the higher grades would' be close to 90% so if we just push those kids up one notch that's all we're asking get us up into the 80 to 90 percentile range and it's not hard well it probably is hard okay and you've got resources You' got student teachers you got all kinds of things but if you could just get him up there and get us back on track that's the challenge for you guys so I leave it in your good hands to figure out how to do that and Dr Glazer will be leading the charge here um anyway that's all I have it's up to you guys to set those objectives thank you thank you good e good evening an at Elenor Drive um I too want to reflect back on the last uh meeting where we talked about the proficiency testing the state tests um I didn't really get a a good handle on you know how we did and how the board feels uh to me the only time you can progress when you understand where you are and if you understand where you are then you can go where you're going now from the presentation that I saw I didn't know where we are now there probably is a lot of ways to look at it but one way which I think is objective because I they don't have an actx to grind is the US News and World Report uh their assessment of schools uh for 2025 came out since our last meeting and I just brought some of those results along because I think it gives us some benchmarking that we can work off of uh for baybury uh they they uh reported they evaluated that out of 1,300 schools that uh fall in the uh uh primary area grades 1 through four or five that uh Bayberry ranks 359 n in the state that's from the top uh out of the 1300 schools so that puts Bayberry in the 73rd percentile that means 27% of the schools are performing better in the state of New Jersey than bayy uh they have the proficiency as math proficient uh in Bayberry at 67% and reading proficient at uh uh 67 for Math and 57 for reading so that really means that almost half of our kids in baybury aren't proficient in Reading I I think you know these are the things that we have to address where are we and then we can move on as a comparison to last year uh last year bbery was ranked 290th so we fell about 60 positions although uh the the math proficiency uh uh was 42% at that time and the reading proficiency was 50 57% um what I found interesting was if I look when we start looking around at towns nearest uh I scann the US News and World Report and I suggest you do that too uh I looked at Scotch Plains I don't think of Scotch Plains as an academic Jager Juggernaut but if you look at Scotch plain's numbers their top ranked school is aiman Kohl's which ranks 107th compared to 300 and something which baby ranks and their math proficiency is 78 their reading proficiency is 74 that's their top school their next school is Evergreen and that drops down to one uh 191 about 90 points lower and the math there still is 72 and 67 not too shabby School one uh is the next one uh and that drops to 198 so it's almost still uh would double almost as much of that uh the math proficiency there is 62 and reading is 72 yeah not too bad and their lowest one there five schools is 322 they're uh and there their teacher ratio to student ratio is 12:1 where we have 9 to ones and 10 to 1es um the math I there is still 72 and reading is 57 so they rank 322 and then the fifth one uh is um again there's the 13 to1 teacher to student ratio uh they're 341st in the state 74th percentile two percentiles above us uh and um their um as I said their proficiency was 71% so Scotch Plains their worst performing school is better than our school that's why I say you know we have to set some kind of some kind of benchmarks uh to you know to do more of a comparison to you know likes to likes um you know there are some Superstars um you have a a book uh it's interesting um when I went through this thing sometimes like Karma there's a place called Brookside School my truly beloved spent four years there she used to drive my Mustang I had a 65 Mustang which the boys just adored when she drove into into school but uh that school happens to rank 96 in the State uh I think Dr glaza has connection with with Cranford also so 13 to1 teacher to student ratio uh math proficiency 77% uh reading proficiency 77% again you wouldn't this is not a you know mendum or place like that it's it's a upper middle class town but you know when you look at those scores they they're lowest School they've got some 3 to8 which you really can't compare Livingston uh is 3 to 5 this is 151 uh you know we're 200 points below them uh 11 to1 student to teacher ratio is uh the math proficiency is 68 and 75 uh you know then if you want to get into some some real Superstars you've got New Providence uh you know again nice town but not a Short Hills 45 uh saltbrook School math proficiency 78 reading proficiency 84 um you know these are things to Aspire to one other thing that uh US News and world does we're always looking for measurements and I and I like to suggest one tonight that the board adopt uh and it's right you know it's objective it's not uh from uh uh something that is interpretive or they they interpret it but you know we can look at their interpretation uh but in their evaluations they do something like okay this is bayb 2025 got too many papers here but uh in their um in their evaluations they put uh ranking factors and they they give you what the ranking factors are I have it here if you want to read it I don't want to read it to you but they come up with how a district should do based upon their socioeconomic uh uh makeup so uh a school district that's economically disadvantaged wouldn't be expected to perform the way you know a high economic one performs but in the ranking factors they put in the uh the reading proficiency this is uh again this is uh well this I'm talking about bbery but uh the factors that they put in is um uh reading performance and math performance in addition to proficiency This Is How They think the school should perform based upon their evaluation and when you look at bbery uh the reading proficiency is 451st in the state out of 1300 I I don't think too many board members would be too proud of that one no I wouldn't uh math proficiency ranking is 195th and then they come up with a performance and this is their makeup their determination to how we're doing against bench our socio economic Benchmark and for reading performance they put us as somewhat below expectations so we're that's probably like a c minus I would think if you look at these in grades and in math performance uh they have us somewhat above expectations now their gradings go from somewhat below below somewhat above and well exceeds so there's a very great gradation so we're we're in uh a math a reading performance of somewhat below expectations uh and then the meth is somewhat above expectations now I'll leave with with this I you know we can talk about this some more but I encourage you that you you you know use that as a one of the benchmarks one of the measures that we use that we at least lead need to get to somewhat above expectations and everything I think we should probably District like watch Young with our show to economic makeup we really should be above well above expectations but I I leave you with this thought if you're a real estate agent someone's confronting you and saying hey I'm going to go into the Union Somerset area and I'm looking for a good school district you think that real estate agent realistically could say you really look order to look at watcha thank you very much thank you Mr Jet and I appreciate all of your um research I I've spoken to this before and if the board would like a presentation again I'm happy to do that there are a number of organizations that rank School District dists each of them have different criteria US News and World Report being one of them very fine ranking what I I don't know about most of the schools you spoke of I do know that Brookside school is a k to 5 School one of the challenges of looking at the data the way you did is that as a k to4 District we only have two grade levels testing not three that does change the proficiency if you read under how US News and World Report criteria works it does skew sometimes the Middle School up and the elementary down or vice verse some districts are K to six and again I I am unaware of many of the schools that you listed well I would just I would I don't I am giving a summary I don't need you to to share my point my point being as we are as a board as a community as a school district I have every confidence in telling any real estate agent any person looking to move to this community in Union County Somerset County or otherwise that this is a community that they should be looking to for for a large number of reasons well that's fine but you're not going to be telling that to people real estate agent is going to be telling that to people and I did not interrupt you I did beyond that that that's incorrect that is my statement was a real estate agent yours is your believe it or not we get the calls all the time from families to tour and from their real estate agents regardless my point is of course our goal all of our goal and and I cannot speak for the board members that are here I will speak for my administrative staff my teachers the the people that are are instructing on a daily basis of course our goal is for a 100% of students to meet or exceed expectations and we are going to continue as our district goals and our other goals to provide the resources necessary to move the district in that direction thank you I we all agree is that is that a going to be a written goal or is that going to be this is what we're shooting for going to be a measurable goal we're going to hit that a certain amount of time or we're just going to keep on trying to get there so as we've explained to you previously each teacher in this district has the measurable goal in math and language arts they have measurable goals for the students that are in front of them the students that they are instructing and those measurable goals are reported to the state every year we use that data njsla is one data point us news and world report rankings might be a different data point we use formative assessments we have any number of measurable tools to look at student growth I understand your frustration that it's not 5% of all students will increase or 10% of this group will increase but our measurable goals from our individual staff members from our district administrators related to the individual students and the personalized instruction in front of them well we're not going in the right right direction with them we deteriorated in bayy by a significant amount in the measurement and by the way uh the point that you make about the schools uh the uh saltbrook school is a k through six School in New Providence and it's has the it's the 45th best in the state so I am only I am only I am only addressing the items you made a point that the measurement might not be valid there are counterarguments to your point where a k through six ranks 45th in a state with 78 and 84th performance I understand what I'm saying is our fifth and sixth graders count at Valley View not at B B that's all I'm telling you and that's all I'm saying and we have half of our students that are almost have our students that are not proficient in math and you make excuses I am not making excuses are I've been here for a year what I have observed we have reported on publicly there has not been adequate professional development for staff there has not been adequate curriculum writing to continue to meet the uh skills expectations and grade levels there has not been a new math textbook adoption in in a number of years if there is not an investment in instruction and in the program and in the staff that is leading that instruction I am not sure how you expect different results we this board collectively and the people that I did not interrupt you the people that are sitting here who asked questions during the budget process as you did as we talked about what the goals are as the district goal was set during the board retreat to use resources to increase all of those things to make an impact to change the outcome that commitment has been clear it's been written it's been stated it's been on TV on the website I believe that again our staff the administration this board are all committed to the exact same things that you're saying are all working in that direction are all making positive gains and using the measurements to continue to Monitor and adjust instruction resources opport o unities so that every child meets or exceeds expectations and we're the lowest performing District in the area you keep on coming up with all of these wonderful things there are 13 to one teacher students and teacher ratios that would mean that those kids aren't getting the time that our kids are getting we are just not performing thank you any other comments from the public I don't have too much more time but if anyone else is okay all right we're going to move on to action items now um we have okay so now we're going to go into um executive session um whereas the open public records Act njsa 10 4-11 permits the Board of Education to meet in close session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolve the Board of Education ad jours to close session discuss a matter rendering confidential by federal state law student matters um the matter relating to attorney client privilege was also a late addition in the executive session agenda in addition to those matters um no action is expected to be taken so moov is there a second second okay any discussion no okay I one in favor I [Music] hi e all right you have to come out okay now we're going to move into action items um um Mo can you please move administrative items sure I make a motion to move items one or A1 approve minutes of previous meeting two affirm the superintendent's Hib report three approved contracts with the NJ commission for the build and Visually mind and Visually Impaired four um accept School Bus emergency evacuation drill report second any discussion call please Mrs agaro yes Mr fras yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Jette yes Mrs Santos yes Dr Vince Kua yes to all and I recuse myself from uh administrative item to um yes thank you just two okay okay got that Mr in terms of airm the superintendent report okay Mr B is absent Mr Gonzalez yes and Mrs am yes motion passes thank you okay um we're going to to uh F can you please move personal items approve change of assignment one approve before and after Care staff approve District staff to provide support services during school district sponsored activities number four approve revised extracurricular positions number five appoint revised District substitutes for the 2024 2025 school year number six approve revised Valley View additional classes number seven approve leave of absence number eight approve student teaching number nine approve graduate externship number 10 approve before school supervision Duty number 11 approve appointment of overnight fire watcher second all in favor any discussion I'm just curious if that uh the buildings and grounds director the $100 an hour if that's um like a a normal after hours rate so that so that if was in particular driven from an emergency where fire panel right so I I how do I explained the two other companies we had reached out to one they wanted $1,200 a night one wanted 3,000 for 3 Days minimum all wanted upfront credit card payments so we felt very lucky that we were able to get one of our own staff who works during the day to just stay here overnight um at first we thought he was going to drive back and forth six times and then he just ended up staying here all night so was that like a union rate then for for no but you know we $500 versus 1,200 or 3,000 and it was like you know just so much so far beyond that we just you know just thought it was a fair thing to be be here from midnight till you know 6:00 a.m. walking the buildings he had to keep a log you know that's what the fire um the Fire Marshall said we had to do so did did we ever fix it's not fixed yes it is fix fixed so we don't have to worry about it isn't but you know I kind of put it on here thinking if this ever happens again it's it's awkward to be in that position where there was no one to call you know from for us you know we didn't have a any position and you don't really want to make one up so it was like I thought you know if we put it on here if you agree then we have it if this ever happens again we're obviously hoping not you know there's been these issues where the panel's not speaking with all the new equipment but they've come today they've cleared everything replaced another panel so hopefully that was the last time but so it didn't actually happen he didn't have to stay here then he did have to one night he had to stay that one night yeah he had to stay here do do you think that if okay so I understand the $100 an hour like it was an emergency and you saved us a ton of money so thank you we quick thinking but approving this like we're approving it for like to create a position it's a stipend in the future that we would pay $100 an hour do you think like I $100 an hour is just a lot so I like do you think if we offered $50 an hour people would put their name on a list to be called in the future or do you really feel like $100 an hour is about what it takes for somebody to stay here all night stay is it like midnight to 5 kind of I get in an emergency situation like I have no issue whatever it's not like that we're going to say next Tuesday can you spend it's like tonight can you come back and stay so I did feel it was fair I felt like it was fair to to a fair uh wage to pay someone for sitting here all night after you know being on staff but you don't have to agree I just felt like that was fair and it was so much less than 1,200 or 3,000 yeah I know and that that is a going rate and apparently that's a um that's a that's a business that I didn't know existed Firewater business so this is as needed if this ever happens again that's all it is all it's only as needed it's only as needed and it may never Jen said 50 $50 didn't sound so bad either but is that are we setting a precedent then by just approving that I think that's what maybe Jen's asking that next time it won't be 100 maybe it would be 50 is that is that what you're saying wondering if like I get I have no issue with what happened at all I she saved us a ton of money I just wondering if because $100 an hour seems like a lot of money to sit and do rounds and watch her fire and a lot of sheet which is assuming about what they're it's really the timing it's really whole midnight to 6 he worked all day yeah I know I have no issue with that that's what I'm saying I'm saying do you think like if you went to the staff and said hey we're putting this new stip on stipended in it's $50 an hour to do just this who wants to be on the call list for the next time it happens I understand this probably very rare and there and the hourly rate of that employee this is probably a double or triple I mean it's rate $500 for five hours right it's $100 an hour it's so there are people I would assume people be tripping over themselves to sign up to be called I just wonder if we could I mean we if you did the math if you did the math if you make whatever you know $27 an hour it's you know it's more than double like it's like a Sunday you know double pay yeah type of thing but that's what you're basing it on sort of it was just yeah yeah but you know we can always we can always react the same way again if there's an emergency yeah we can re visit this and we have to too right yeah we don't have you know would be the same thing if there's an emergency yeah we have to put it we don't have to formalize it we don't have so this already happened yeah we had an emergency yeah yeah no I yeah so we're we're approving it now after the fact you're approving no you were you're not you don't approve yeah that's what I'm asking don't approve emergencies when an emergency happens we react I called the board president like I should do but uh you are what I did was I put a stien on here so that the next time we wouldn't have to call an emergency we you don't have to have the stien it's just there for an emergency basis but but if you think you said that this is similar to what a Sunday a Sunday right now you know when we have all these contractors in they they get paid you know double time contractor not a teacher yeah yeah not an employee custodian yeah custodian okay it's a custodian well if that if it's a similar rate to that then that maybe that makes sense can a teacher even do that can a teacher stay over he's not a teacher he's maintenance has that's what I'm saying though can a teacher do that I don't think so right it has to be a maintenance no yeah they would they're in the building they need a license they need a a black seal license in the building it makes sense that someone like that might have another job somewhere else and get paid that amount for a Sunday or whatever so maybe maybe it's appropriate inapo I mean I really didn't I really don't expect this I really hope this doesn't happen again but you know I I would for me it's easier to be prepared so that we're not scrambling and trying to figure out you know who to call you know all that but it it's it's it's you know either way I mean it is emergency usage so would you guys be in favor of bringing it to $75 and passing it today 75 well I guess the question is if people will do it right like this person I don't I that's why I was asking what the rate was because I don't want to drop it down and then we don't have I just say and I hope we never have to do it again like that's my sure it's it's 27 an hour and then double time yeah just it is still above I mean I I really don't want to have to call it the Firewater company that would that would have been a bummer and especially because we don't have credit cards here and we uh you know it would have been my credit card or some something like that there wouldn't have been any way to pay them there wasn't and they weren't going to come if we didn't pay them up front so right we just we felt lucky at the time I mean if I I have no idea if this is going to pass or not but if it doesn't I mean could we just get more information to find out what they're saying like if you dropped it down would employees still be interested in doing it at a lower rate as opposed to us approving it tonight for this amount I'm I'm sure am I not now know this an option now that they know this is an you know this has been set as an option well it has been but it doesn't mean that the board's going to approve it and that's fine it's it would you know that $75 Time 5 hours would be you know whatever that amount is it's not that much so it's fine either way I'm not saying um for it or against it I'm just asking questions I don't know this isn't goingon to happen anytime soon again so let's ask let's ask and then vote on it next time that's make a motion to table number 11 yeah second yes okay no I don't do we have to I don't think the term is table it though I think you could just say no and then if we rewrite it that's yeah we just vot no and then if we rewrite it you know I'll I can ask if anybody would sign up for that list yeah that sounds good and then if they won't then we'll or we'll just not do anything and we'll react in an emergency if that doesn't work out so either way okay because the the idea of tabling it means we're going to come back to it before the end of the meeting so there's like another term I forgot what it was yeah thank you okay okay roll call please okay just quick okay okay um Mrs AG Arrow uh yes to all no to number 11 all right um Mrs amadea yes to all except number 11 no to number 11 okay Mrs Harvey uh yes except for number 11 okay uh Mrs jet oh yes except for number 11 okay Mrs Sanchez Yes except for number 11 Dr Vincent Kua yes to all items with the exception of 11 okay and let's see Mr Gonzalez yes and um Mr f uh yes to except 11 okay got it okay okay I the rest of the motion passes except for number 11 okay you have to pay me a lot more than $100 an hour for me to sleep here at night no coffee machine in this place the taxes come out you're left with um all right so um operations and finance Dr V schol sure I'd like to make a motion to move items from section c operations Finance um item number one approved payment of bills item number two approved transfer of funds 2024 to 2025 item three accept Financial reports and item four approve shared services agreement with watching Hills Regional High School item five approv shared services agreement with regional with watching Hills Regional High School six um authorized submission of comprehensive maintenance plan and form M1 item seven approved payment application for bayber and Valley View HVAC upgrades item eight approved payment application for educational alterations at Valley View School item nine approved payment application for toilet room Renovations at the Bayberry Elementary School item 10 approve special service providers item 11 accept donation of American flag item 12 accept donation of dictionaries that's very nice second discussion please discussion no please Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs jet yes Dr vinc Kua yes Mr Santos yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mr fr yes Mrs a Arrow yes motion passes right Mr W I got a difficult one for your curriculum she says curriculum I know all in favor in favor for we don't have to do anything there right in this case Okay um um so uh missa can you please move policy sure move policy for first reading uh p/r 7510 and for a second reading P 3216 and P4 26 second any discussion roll call please okay Mrs Harvey yes Mrs jet yes Mr fras yes Mrs Amo yes Dr vincis Kua yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs agaro yes and Mr Gonzales yes motion passes okay what business I have something quick to say so um as the NJ SBA liaison I sort of took um charge of their board goal of professional development and I did send out an email saying you know we've progressed quite a bit on that we've had a lot of members attend Workshop we've had members attending webinars attending meetings we've covered every topic that was identified in the survey um from Financial reports to AI to tutoring to uh committee structure budget preparation um a Word document recently went out that had basically links to every single financial information portal you could ask for including explanations of board secretary reports slideshows from um Atlantic City um that was all from the business administrator and residents from the njsba um so I feel like we've you know all taken you know it seriously and everyone's participated unfortunately um one um um I guess measurement that we had to measure our goal was to get board certification by the end of this year um we have met all of the criteria except for um a policy review by the school boards Association and unfortunately even though we requested it months ago they are backed up so it is we unless they suddenly review our entire policy um and they would not get us a timeline um we are probably not going to meet that criteria we will have to postpone it until next year which means that um our education credits reset so part partially reset so we may have to which I think we all planned on continuing the professional development activities for next year anyways um and everyone has to complete their mandatory training again and then the policy wellness check has to be completed by the njsba and then I can apply so I'm hoping that we can do that before our next board retreat but it's just wanted everybody to know that it's not um the fault of anybody here everybody took it seriously and participated in lots of training and we did meet we as a group met all of our goals it is disappointing because it's out of our control but but yay I'd like to just make a comment and and just really thank you um for taking the lead and organizing along as well with um Danielle and organizing all of the various trainings and opportunities cuz I you know it takes a lot to kind of pull all that information together and disseminate it out to us so um that was really important right to take the lead and be able to kind of share the options so just um thank you very much for doing that thank you yeah right um seeing that there's nobody here from the public to make any comments I have a motion to adjourn so I moved second any discussion all in favor hi hi meeting address thank you everyone for