##VIDEO ID:86dtfnXSi-g## e e notice is hereby given of the regular meeting of the board of education of the town of Westfield in the county of Union New Jersey at 700 p.m. on the evening of Tuesday November 19th 2024 in cafeteria B of Westfield High School 550 Dorian Road Westfield New Jersey purpose of the meeting is to transact the regular business of the board and to transact any other business to come properly before the board this is to advise the general public and to instruct that it be recorded in the minutes that in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings Act the Westfield school board on Thursday November 14th 2024 calls to be posted at the office of the Board of Education located at 302 Elm Street Westfield New Jersey and delivered to the Westfield leader The Star Ledger the Westfield Library Town Clerk of Westfield tap into Westfield and patch.com a meeting notice setting forth the time date and location of the meeting Patty we have a roll call please rob bonio here Kent diamonds here Brendan gallagan Charles jinus here Leila melli here sonal Patel here Kristen Sonic schmeltz Julie Steinberg here I didn't see my microphone Julie Steinberg Mary wickens here um Mary would you lead us in the flag salute please before we get started um this is our first meeting uh since last week uh when our district got um the very tragic and incomprehensible news that one of our seniors uh Brandon guot had uh had passed in an accident uh um Brandon was a respected student senior a respected teammate in the volleyball team uh someone you know I didn't have the pleasure of knowing but by all accounts is someone who knowing was always nothing but a pleasure um I want to have a just a brief moment of silence from the board uh and just you know wish bren's friends and and family um you know the comfort and and benefit of time uh you there's obviously a void here with uh with him being gone uh but hopefully that void will soon be filled by the warmth of his memory so a uh a moment of silence please if you can want to thank you very much um the um for those you know this is obviously this isn't something that's going to be very easy to get over uh last week the superintendent set out an email to the community uh with different resources that are available for students who may still be struggling with things for community members um you know those those resources are still available our counseling teams are still available so if at any point in time um you know you need them uh you know please feel free to to to um to refer to those resources and to utilize our counseling team uh and I do want to end with a thank you to to those counselors and to our teachers at the high school um you know when you get news like that you know we're very lucky to have a a very close-knit community of of teachers and counselors here and when you get news like that you know this isn't just you know some student you didn't know um our teachers and our counselors mobilize very very quickly before they had any chance to process what is going on to be there for students at our high school who really didn't know what you what to do with the news so I just want to thank them for you know for for putting their feelings aside and and focusing on on the students that they care about the most that's it's extremely appreciated and we're very thankful to have you here for them um there's no good way to transition from that but uh but we will do what we can um we'll move to uh to some announcements uh CJ if you I don't if you have one sure congratulations to the cast and crew of our intermediate school productions for their successful performances of James and the Giant Peach at Edison and Little Women Meg Joe Beth and Amy at Roosevelt this week marks the last of our fall dramas with the production of The Madwoman of Shu at West field high school this performance follows eccentric CEST Aurelia and her quirky friends as they unite to protect their beloved Paris from greedy businessmen seeking to exploit its charm blending humor and Whimsy with poignant themes of resilience and Community Spirit Advanced ticket sales only at wpvp a. booktix.com backde Department whst I would definitely looked at that on the online before you copy that down no no no tickets will be sold at the door thank you a quick link to the Genesis Parent Portal has been added to the district's mobile app the mobile app is an easy to navigate customizable tool that provides the latest updates and notifications all in one place search the Westfield public schools New Jersey to download for free on the App Store for the iPhone or Google Play for Android devices Lea 13 Westfield High School student athletes sign letters of intent with colleges and universities signifying recognition of the senior's accomplishments both academically and athletically the following student athletes will continue to compete at the college level for girls lacrosse we have Emma Blake at Dennison University mateline Cohen at mberg college and Aaron Hazard at Trinity College for boys lacrosse we have Colin Coyle University of Massachusetts Garrett Ferguson Washington and Lee University Luke gurnie Oberlin College forgive me Luke I maybe said that wrong William gurnie great um at Trinity College so we have Luke gurnie at overin and William gurny at Trinity Christian Gilford at Sacred Heart University and Drew Prav at muber college for girls soccer we have Brooke Morrison Gettysburg College Olivia Thornton Gordon College and audre to Bucknell University for boys swimming we have Owen wayel duke it says wayel here so I apologize weel at Duke University congratulation and welld deserved uh Mary in November we celebrate the rich traditions and histories of indigenous communities in recognition of Native American heritage month on November 11th we paid tribute to the courageous individuals who have served in our Armed Forces expressing our deep gratitude for their sacrifices and on October 31st we extended heartfelt wishes to all those who observed dwali the Hindu festival of lights as a district and board we remain committed to honoring and raising awareness of the diverse history and TR Traditions that make up our vibrant School Community the Westfield public schools and the town of Westfield are recipients of the 2024 green team collaboration award from the sustainable Jersey for schools program this award recognizes their joint efforts in creating and promoting sustainable practices in our schools and the community visit the news section of the district and school websites to read the full story and the Westfield High School marching band wrapped up its 2024 season with impressive performances the marching Blue Devils placed first in their division at the Scotch Plains and Piscataway competitions while being named Grand Champion for the highest score among all competing bands while in East Brunswick they play second in their division and second overall the marching band finished the season performing in the New Jersey marching band Directors Association state championships where they placed third in class AAAA and received the fourth highest score of the over 30 High School bands in attendance congratulations to the nearly 120 members of the marching Blue Devils and to band directors Chris vital and Gabe bees thank you okay there's still time to provide your feedback about our school's counseling program please see last Friday's e newsletter from your principal to participate in a quick survey to help the counseling department better understand how to improve the support services available at your school your your feedback will help to create a more supportive environment where students feel comfortable addressing personal and academic concerns the survey will ask about the types of issues addressed how sat satisfied you are with the current services and what improvements you'd like to see your input is invaluable and will help shape the resources available to you please submit your survey responses no later than Friday November 22nd thank you all Westfield Public Schools will be closed on Thursday November 28th and Friday November 29th for the Thanksgiving recess additionally all students will have an early dismissal on Wednesday November 27th that was the good one uh the next regular public meeting of the Board of Education will be on Tuesday December 17th in cafeteria B at Westfield High School beginning at 7:00 p.m. the meeting will be live streamed via the district YouTube channel which viewers can access on the board tab on the district website the complete agenda will be available on Friday December 13th all right we'll move right to the uh report by District administration Dr Gonzalez thank you uh good evening I'll keep my remarks uh tonight brief uh to ensure we have ample time for Dr Bolton's presentation on the upcoming changes to the master schedule at both the intermediate and high schools for next year since the adoption of our strategic plan we've made considerable progress towards our district goals and this progress is reflected not only in board meeting updates and our principal and District newsletters but also through direct Community engagement such as the recent morning coffees at each Elementary School in Lincoln in the first year of our plan we laid the groundwork by focusing on Research exploration and planning across our five strategic plan goals and now in this second year we're beginning to see those efforts take shape in ways that directly impact our school tools new curriculum development additional Staffing the introduction of our observance and Heritage initiatives and our facilities referendum just to name a few each of these efforts aligns directly with our road map setting a clear path advancing us closer to our District's future I'd like to thank the board and the community for supporting this vital work and I'm incredibly proud of our team's dedication in creating meaningful opportunity that will benefit our students for generations to come before I close I want to provide a brief update on the referendum last month we submitted all project applications to the New Jersey Department of Education the county superintendent and the Westfield planning board we are currently awaiting the department of education's review and confirmation of approvals and the final decision of Debt Service Aid by January in December we'll present to the Westfield planning board and over the coming weeks and months ahead we'll meet with our community Communications advisory committee and various communic Community groups to discuss the proposals in more detail tomorrow will present to the Westfield special education committee as part of our ongoing Outreach as we wrap up 2024 I'm looking forward to the exciting possibilities in store for the Westfield Community in 2025 but until then I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a restful holiday season with family and friends at this time I now would like to invite Dr Bolton to the podium to for presentation on the intermediate in high school's master schedule update hi everyone thank you to Dr Gonzalez and to the board for allowing me an opportunity to speak this evening uh about some work that's been going on for the better part of a year um actually it's been going on for way more than that so when I arrived in the Westfield public schools in the 2006 2007 school year as the assistant principal at Roosevelt school one of the first things I was confronted with was the challenge to examine the potential for Block scheduling at the intermediate schools so this has been an ongoing discussion for a very long time at least in the 17 18 years that I've been in the district um it goes beyond me to Mrs sendis who's held committees on on this topic and Dr Nelson who has has um developed committees on the topic as well so so I would say in in our current form in Earnest our um this presentation is just going to give a a overview of not only the planning and and work that's gone into the block schedule or the the program changes to our schedules at the intermediate schools but also into the rationale and purpose behind those schedules so um in the current iteration are this this planning began as part of our strategic planning process where multiple stakeholders shared thoughts and and and ideas about having this be a priority for the district to examine the way that students and teachers use time in the school day and um in in my recollection this is the first time that this was publicly stated as a desired goal within a strategic plan in our district so as a result of those conversations in strategic planning this became an objective within goal number one of the Strategic plan examine the school structures that ensure best practices for teaching and learning to promote Innovative and collaborative uses of time so once that goal was established we really got to work in gathering feedback and thoughts from people who are currently doing this work in other school districts from groups of Committees of teachers and administrators and from students and community members so some of the things we did we formed a high school committee on scheduling in January of last year that met multiple times throughout the year that committee was composed of Administrators and teachers we also formed an intermediate school committee to do the same work identify values priorities goals with as we examine the structures of our school schedule at the intermediate school as well um then we also surveyed surrounding District we Ser we received responses from about 21 surrounding school districts just to see how they were using time and um many of them operate in a block schedule with a block lunge so that was helpful to learn from from their experiences and to just gather data around the number of students the size of the schools and how they function so learning from our neighbors was extremely helpful we also had school administrators from neighboring districts that we consulted and spent a good amount of time with the people who've done this work prior to us in in meetings and then visits to other school districts to see the schedules in in action um we also shared a thought exchange with our students at the secondary schools and a thought exchange with our families at the secondary schools so that was um and and I'll provide a a little bit more detail into the thought exchange results as we go through the presentation so as we gathered this feedback from these various committees and and from other school districts we started to gather some priorities as well and we thought that some of the priorities in examining the way in which we School use time in our school should really focus on learning and teaching and how that process works and so that we can provide ourselves and our students with deeper and more engaging experiences in the classroom um some of the things we heard from teachers were things like um you know it I don't know that we need to double the amount of time we have but we need it would be nice to have some more time to engage our students in Hands-On experiences um deeper discussions and um provide small group experiences which we don't always have time to do in the in the current structure we also wanted to look at another priority within our iic plan which is um student stress and teacher stress so that became an objective of this this task in looking at how we use time um our current schedules and I I'll go through those but students experience every schedule every course that they have in a a given day um that means every course the same amount of workload the the um in the same time period in the same day um so we looked at different schedules that provide somewhat of a break from having the entire course load in a given day we also set a priority on teacher collaboration that was a piece of feedback we heard from our teachers that and and we know this from the research that providing time for teachers to collaborate providing time for them to engage in professional planning results in higher quality instruction so we wanted to find a scheduling opportunity that gave enhanced time for for Teacher collaboration um and we also wanted to look at flexible uses of time and increased um retention and focus so flexible uses of time being how can we use the school day as an opportunity to provide students with extra help support clubs activities so what we heard about our current schedule is some of the things that I already mentioned a straight nine period day forces students to experience every class every day at the same time which can often result in heavy workloads uh the current length of class periods restricts teachers from providing from going into the type of depth and and instructional practices that they often would like to we also heard that the shorter periods in our current schedule often results in students that cannot uh have an opportunity to complete all of the classwork which if you're a parent you recognize often times students who who uh work at a specific Pace that would result in students bringing the classwork home and then the homework home so they get a double dose and the stationary nature of our period day can result in situations where students just at the end of the day if you have that really challenging class and you are just spent in your ninth period That's the class you're going to have every day during nth period throughout the school year um same thing goes for that class after lunch where maybe you're not as focused or that class in the beginning of the day when you're not really woken up so we looked at ways to provide variability in the schedule at both the secondaries um at the high school and the intermediate schools provide some variability with with some rotations of classes throughout the day so class periods meet at different times throughout the day um the current schedule also restricts students from Pro from Gaining access to extra help during the school day so that's something that we set as a priority as well which um if we could provide students with at especially at the high school with an opportunity for study halls or office hours to access teachers the reality is is that our students as we hear all the time at our board meetings are highly engaged engaged outside of the school day whether it's through music and the Arts or sports or other extracurriculars like clubs um our kids have a lot going on as soon as that bell rings and to only provide students with access to extra help after school um can really be combersome and restrictive on our students so the more that we can provide that during the school day access to teachers for extra help um the better so the thought exchange that we shared with our students um was fantastic I mean we had a high number of participants over 40,000 ratings of thoughts um it it it was great because it it very much represented our students from grade 6 through 12 and in some cases some students want to express the desire for a later start time shorter class periods a much longer lunch and an earlier end the day so they don't want school at all no school for them um but in reality there were a lot of really good engaging thoughts that were provided by our students and you can see in that that um that word cloud that's up there sleep became a high high priority and um having enough time with friends having longer lunches um having a later start time those all became um clear thoughts that came through from the thought exchange we also provided students with opportunities to rank some some areas that we ranked as priorities or that we expressed as priorities and when the students ranked these they put having a study hall option and again this is this represents students in Middle School through high school um having a study hall option is number one new elective offerings time for activities supportting clubs in the school day and not having every class meet every day as their top priorities our thought exchange for families or our our parents um with similar families engaged in in the thought exchange and and express some some different sorts of thoughts but also expressed a desire for later start times at the high school they had concerns about lunch duration overall student stress and concerns about science labs and AP scores and how that plays out logistically in the new schedule families rank those priorities as number one new elective offerings a study hall option for students longer class periods and opportunities for clubs and activities and support during the school day as their highest priorities so get just a graphic of some of the objectives that came out of all of this work with with various groups and the feedback that we received um really focused on a later starttime professional collaboration deeper learning experiences um building co-curricular activities into the school day providing some Innovation with our elective offerings particularly at the middle school all became scheduling objectives so as we gathered this feedback developed objectives thought about the rationale for a change in these schedules we started to recognize that a rotating block schedule as we looked at various types of iterations of schedules that high schools use a rotating block schedule really did meet a number of these objectives such as providing us with opportunities for a longer class period of at the high school specifically 55 minutes fewer transitions throughout the day um more Choice flexible schedules and and time for extra support throughout the day so the current W whs schedule as I'm sure many of you are familiar with and I won't go through all of this but it really does provide a a traditional nine period day where every class meets at the same time every day students generally um engage in seven to eight classes throughout the day depending on their course load it's interesting and and an interesting contradiction is that more than 70% of our students elect for an early start the interesting thing about the high school schedule is that and I couldn't find it represented at any other high schools that we surveyed um the high school runs two concurrent schedules they run an early start schedule where students start at 7:30 and and some staff start at 7:30 and then they run a late start schedule that begins at 8:17 where students essentially block out period 1 um the interesting thing about that is more than 70% of the students opt in for the early start even though many students are expressing a desire for a later start and I think that has to do with certain restrictions that are often placed on a schedule when you block out a period you don't have a lot of other options in your schedule and that flexibility is limited um we run multiple lunch periods throughout the day so we start lunch in the current schedule at 10:02 during the fourth period and end lunch at 8th period the last time we eat lunch is at 1:57 so those are five lunch periods throughout the day um 43 minute periods 5 minutes in between classes eight transitions between periods throughout the day students don't necessarily have a study hall option right now they have free periods throughout the day that presents a concern for us just in terms of like accountability of students where they are in the building are they checking in with someone um students have generally have one day a week without a physical education class that results in a free period most students um elective opportunities can be restricted because of a block that's caused by science labs structuring science labs becomes a tricky thing in the scheduling process in in most buildings whether you're running a rotating block or any other type of schedule so in many student schedules they're blocked out of a period for choosing a different type of course because they have to block one day for a science lab um and there's Limited opport unties for academic support and limited opportunities for Teacher collaboration throughout the school day in the proposed schedule we're looking to fix many of those things um we're looking to have a single start time with common start and common end times we're proposing to push the start time back later this would be 30 minutes later for More than 70% of the students with a 7:55 a.m. start time and an end time of 2 hours and 49 minutes um we're proposing 55 minute periods students would generally take anywhere between six seven or eight classes um they could register for up to eight classes there would be a block lunch for all students this would provide students with with access that they don't currently have where they could access all of their friends during lunch um Juniors and seniors would still be allowed to go out for lunch if they choose um this would result in less transitions between periods students would register potentially for those eight classes but only six classes would run a day so morning classes would rotate and I'll show you an illustration of how this would work morning classes would rotate on a 4-day rotation an A through D day with four classes assigned to the morning but three rotating and the fourth one plugging in um the following day same thing in the afternoon and I'll illustrate that in a second um this schedule would also provide us provide us with office hours for teachers during the lunch block so students would have time to access teachers during a lunch block they would also have time to go and potentially visit the fitness center or go to an open gym so there's a lot of opportunities that we could logistically plan within the structure of this schedule science courses would still have lab periods but we would be looking to link those labs to the FED courses so I'll just give you a little bit of an illustration of what the new high school schedule would look like just to show you on the the column on the left is a list of courses that a student might typically register for you'll see in the current current schedule there's they're listed as periods on the left and then as you move further over to the right you'll see how the blocks are structured the time in which they run the 55 minutes a 4minute passing time and a home room of 9 minutes which is what we have currently and then you see that lunch block of similarly 55 minutes so as they rotate through you can see where that introduction introduction to architecture class is in Block one on a day it rotates down to block two on bday that algebra morning algebra class which is period four rotates up to block one on bday and then rotates through similarly um the biology class on bday during the third block would then rotate out during the C day and then back in at the top of the top of the day in Block one on the dday so the classes so again four classes in the morning you're experiencing three a day four classes in the afternoon you're experiencing three a day and the lunch the common lunch block so that's a lot to digest as you're digesting it I'll talk to you a little bit about the intermediate school schedule so one of the things that we we notice we we initially set out as a group to um do something similar with our intermediate schools we really did look to see if we could build a a rotating block schedule in our intermediate schools and we um worked diligently on on structuring this process however what we realized after meeting with a couple of experts and a couple of principles who are already doing this is that intermediate schools are just fundamentally different than high schools which we knew we knew that before we entered into this but what we soon realized in this schedule when when you program this schedule it's really designed for high schools in that it's mixed group mixed age groups mixed grade level groups of students in an intermediate school for electives let's say kids are assigned by grade level to their electives so there are currently three electives offered in our sixth grade to students they have three periods of electives seventh grade has three periods of electives and eighth grade has three periods of electives so all told that's nine periods that need to be plugged into a rotation when you look at a rotating block you only have eight spots to do that so there would be potentially one block where you would have two grade levels on a an an elective period at one time and um while we we met with schools middle schools that are doing this they are much larger have much larger facilities have much larger staffs that can accommodate it um and we just saw the the um the restrictions written all over this so so we pivoted quickly and said so let's focus on the other objectives and the other objectives that we really wanted to to dive into in the middle school schedule were the VAR variability in the schedule so providing some level of rotation to these students who have the same class at the same time every day and want some level of variability in their schedule um we also wanted to provide opportunities for study halls that's something that came through loud and clear from students at the Intermediate School um to give them some level of break where they can focus on the development of of soft skills and organizational skills and get some work done in the school day we also wanted to provide more effective opportunities for our interventionists so we have fantastic interventionists that thanks to the support the public support of the budget we've been able to hire and staff at the our two intermediate schools we have interventionists in Reading Writing and math and often times they are required to pull students from electives that they love in order to provide that intervention service so that's that's a tough sell for a student who needs an intervention to come out of something they love doing to go to something that is challenging for them so we and I'll show you in a second how we paired the study halls and the interventions to provide them with that access to students and not have to pull them out of a class um we also really wanted to focus on the electives so the electives at the Intermediate School um at the intermediate schools haven't changed in a very very long time so we thought about some of the current trends and needs that we identified in middle schoolers and so as we develop these new courses so new courses that were proposing and planning right now one is a sixth grade digital literacy course that would be an elective course for all sixth graders and that course would really focus on things that often are implied but never formally taught and we recognize the need to formally teach these skills such as as kids transition into Middle School most of them get cell phones spend a lot more time on social media and the internet and they need explicit instructions in how to do that safely ethically carefully um so that whole notion of digital citizenship and digital footprint would be would be uh a focus of this this markting period class this would also really dive deeply into teaching students um effective and ethical uses of AI technology and I think that's that's an important thing that we need to teach students even in sixth grade they need to start learning they're it's in their face they're experiencing it they need to learn how to use it appropriately seventh grade students were were developing a new course for 21st century communication and the teachers that are writing this course are really excited about it it ranging the the gamut to um podcasting to voice overlays in videos to all sorts of ways that we're communicating in the 21st century and even face-to-face communication being able to communicate with somebody and look them in the eye and have a good conversation so some of those fundamental skills we're also developing working on right now um a new course called modern music currently in the sixth and seventh grades students are given the choice in music to either take band Orchestra or chorus and if students don't play in the band or the orchestra they are required to take chorus and there are tons of students who love chorus there are also groups of students who don't want to sing and they don't want to perform so yeah so they don't want to perform on stage they don't enjoy chorus so we're going to provide them with another option in this modern music course and the the focus of this course will really be on digital production of Music the behind the scenes of music production so there's a lot of really neat things coming out of the the um Fine Arts courses that are being designed we're also giving our our art six and art s coures a makeover they're going to be more closely aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards and have more clearly defined units um units of study throughout their course and then we also that are being implemented this year we have new computer science and technology education courses that were approved in last spring so those courses are in their first year development so a lot of really exciting things happening with electives at the intermediate schools so just to show you the the current Intermediate School schedule again is a straight nine period schedule with three lunch periods um we begin teachers report at 8:00 entr spell is at 8:07 dismissal is at 2:47 the new schedule again it doesn't change a good deal in terms of the amount of time dedicated to a course or or a class period but what we have done what we were able to do is create some of that variability in the schedule so working with some of our really amazing teachers who are are are just Geniuses at this this sort of scheduling um we were able to break these the the the school day for each grade level into from those N9 periods into three distinct separate periods so each of those you can see in for example when you look at the sixth grade schedule you'll see an academic an academic elective an academic Al lunch and elective an academic academic and elective and that pattern follows for each of the three grades which allows us then to rotate those schedules so on an a day the sixth grade would have their their a day schedule and then on a b day the sixth grade would have the could have the seventh grade schedule the beauty of this too is that it's iterative right so as we implement this we can develop do we want to have an a week and a B- week and a c week or do we want to have Monday be an a day Tuesday be a b day Thursday be a Wednesday be a c day so those are those are good conversations that we're engaging in with administrators and teachers to collect that feedback about what that schedule should look like so so this is the variability that was built into the new Intermediate School schedule so not major structural changes to the intermediate school schedule but definite changes to the content of the elective courses and the way in which the courses rotate through the day so our next steps for master schedule is doing what we're doing right now communicating the schedule I had an opportunity to spend the entire day at the high school meeting with high school teachers and got a a lot of really good feedback from high school teachers about their thoughts High School teachers from from the course of today essentially they shared that they are interested in the rotating block they see the they see the value in a longer period they see the value in the rotations I think High School teachers as as well as some of you might be concerned about logistics and that's that's the next level of getting into the details of the logistics getting into the traffic patterns getting into the block lunch and how we're going to um accommodate all students in the school throughout the throughout the Lunch Period so so those logistical things are things that we're still working on and and um excited to partner with administrators and teachers to gather their feedback so that's the first step in this process is communicate this publicly gather as much feedback as possible and then make whatever necessary changes we need to make um to these schedules we need to also provide professional development to our teachers especially at the high school level who are going to be changing and while it may not seem like a huge change to add 12 minutes to a class it is a big change for them they and and all of the research and the references at the back of this presentation that's really if you summarize most of the research on any of these schedule changes and you ask that question of so will this schedule change enhance AP course AP scores or will it create Better Learning it's the answer is it's what you put into it right so if we put time and energy into the professional development of teachers in working in this new schedule in maximizing the time that they spend with students in building um learning structures that support students um in all sorts of ways in that 55 minute period Then yes it'll have we'll have really great outcomes um so and again at a future board meeting the next step for the Board of Education would be to approve start and end times that's part of policy that you would approve start and end times each school year um and then we also have to do the logistic work of adjusting any documents for example like program of studies and things like that that reference the old schedule and then finally we have to do the nuts and bolts and that's where our scheduling Guru assistant principles at the intermediate schools and the high schools come in and get into Genesis and design the new schedules and plug students into them and and run the schedules and then that's the the final part of this process but again we're in the information gathering the communication Gathering feedback stage of this process so we are um one of the questions that did come up when I met with high school teachers today is part of this it said um on this the road map here it one of the um one of the bullets said tus run schedule changes schedule change in start times at the high school and that's what we mean is we really want to do as much as possible so for example like during a half day next week even having the start time be similar to a start time at um what this new schedule we proposed so to see what the traffic patterns look like when everyone's starting at the same time evaluate that with our experts speak to the town um and the police force to come together as a community to see the best way to accommodate traffic as as we enter into new schedules so that is the presentation it's a lot of information I'm happy to answer any questions oh one last thing I I will also say another part of this process is to share more information with parents um and families and students um so we're making screencasts of the high school schedule and the intermediate school schedule presentation so it'll be my voice overlay on this presentation that we're going to be spent sending out in the next Community newsletter so parents can watch it understand it and then develop any questions that they want to share with us we'll also be sharing a form for families and students to ask any questions or offer any suggestions about the the new schedule if we have questions when don't we do we'll start over here we'll just kind of work our way around that's all right go ahead Mary I'll use my mic um one one part I didn't get and you probably said it um but the science labs at the high school how will they work with the block because right now they either miss a lunch or they miss a gym so we would align them so years and years ago they were aligned to Fed so students would be pulled out of a day of fed there's a long complicated mathematical answer to this question yeah and there's is it kind of the same basically it's similar except we're going to try to clean it up so that students don't have to block out a full period to engage in one day of a lab okay so that when you pull out of fed for the lab then it's just aligning La science and fed together okay got it okay I'm can I do it just okay um then I heard you say the um there's nine there's still nine periods so there's eight periods in the current schedule there's no there's no periods there's eight opportunities courses to be enrolled in but like a lot of the kids now will fill up their schedule and not have a lunch because they want to MH stock up 45 credit day class yeah are you going to allow that like because I'm thinking of like social emotional like stress levels so that's that's absolutely a concern okay um I I'm concerned by students who are taking nine periods a day and I'm concerned by students who don't eat a lunch in a given day yes and and I understand I get it um I I I I don't think it aligns with our goals in terms of the wellness of our students um so that this this schedule does not allow for that so you're saying it's not going to be they have to take a lunch at least yes okay and and I will also say that that's one of the reasons a lot of many school districts that run this type of schedule will do lab lunch where lunch the labs science labs will come out of lunch we're we're working diligently and again there's a million moving pieces but we're working diligently to not have that happen because what it does is deteriorates the sanctity of that lunch period because as soon as you have that lab lunch then kids won't be able to access well one removes the entire science department from providing any office hours of support during that lunch it also removes kids from the experience of having that block lunch and having lunch with their friends and going and getting meeting with teachers for support during that time um and it also opens the door for other things to happen during that lunch because it's just the crack to will we do this during lunch why don't we offer this course during lunch why don't we offer that course during lunch and then the next thing you know you're back to where you started right yeah okay thank you um and then um I think you said you were going to say more about how the in the Middle School um the study hall oh yeah works and the interventionists yes so study hall would happen twice a week for students they would be pulled from one day of fed and one day of music and they would go to their study hall and that would be study hall/ intervention period so that's where the interventionists would access students for intervention so if they're if they're scheduled to go to an interventionist they would do that if not they would get a study correct and being that two times a week if they have intervention once a week then they would have study hle once a week oh okay yeah that's great okay but again that the priority there was not forcing students to miss their gym or their art class that they love or their music class that they love to go to the Intervention Program yes which which oftentimes puts kids and families in a really tough spot to say no to intervention right okay um and then you answered my question about the test I was like what's that but I get yeah the test run is not creating a whole new schedule and just testing it out for a deck the test run is testing the it to see what the traffic patterns look like yes okay I conclude thank you K thank you I just have a few questions but they're 27 Parts each that's fuid I'm putting my finance hat on um you talked about new elective offerings is there a need for new resources new teachers or how's that looking so no we're we're using current staff so for example the chorus creating a new that course class is team taught so if you offer another course we're we're again we're expecting students to sign off for this course so then what it would do would split those teachers so one teacher would teach chorus the other teacher would teach the modern music class and then vice versa for other other sections okay thank you one of the things that I know Dr Gonzalez and and Patty and I were committed to in this process was um one not not spending a huge amount of money but then also making sure that we are not losing any teachers in a new schedule and sometimes that happens when you build new schedules there's um efficiencies and things and you know we we all agreed that if we find any efficiencies we would design new courses and new programs okay so then that that leads to the second one so overall and I know Patty's alled to this there's no cost additional cost really overall with moving the block SCH yeah the only real cost in involved in this is really just teachers that transition between two schools so we do have teachers that travel between schools and because of the rotating nature of these schedules it doesn't always work so that's where we're going to have to and Patty and I are already working on that diving into it's not many teachers at all it probably is just a certain number of adding certain numbers of sections of a teacher um that travels just to kind of fill in holes in different in different schools yeah uh and then lastly uh I know I think I know the answer but saying you're meeting less classes per week you know math is not everyday anymore but the the material covered today is still going to be the same material covered now you're not losing any you're not you're not losing much at all and if anything I would argue that the quality of the 55 minute period would enable us to enhance what we're doing um so the idea and again and I get that that's a concern especially for certain teachers teachers um not seeing students every single day having that one day that drops out but I would argue that having that extra time in that period is as equal of as or better than seeing students every day okay thank you I'm done Kristen um I have a couple of questions also how are we how does public speaking work at the middle school in this because they're taken out of music yeah so also for that right so the public speaking is one of those classes that we're going to be using public speaking to do the new seventh grade elective oh I missed that sorry okay um and then Humanities how does that work in the high school are they going to get minutes so those classes would still be double blocks they would just be blocked back to to each other and then again as they rotate through one might drop out one day and then pick up the next day got it so those those those idiosyncrasies exist in every part of these secondary schools where we have program that need to be accommodated for we have special education programs specific programs that need to be accommodated for and that's why you know during the development phase of all of these the principles were involved Dr Weissman was involved um that's that's why we had an eye on those programs and can say with confidence that anything that those students are getting now in those programs they'll still get in a new schedule okay um fitness center you you mentioned that there might be access to a fitness center for kids do they currently have access to a fitness center during the day uh not during the school day okay so like during a block lunch if that's somebody's assigned space where they're they're monitoring the fitness center and students are able to go to um to office hours for a for a teacher and that might be a teacher's office hours then they can they can go to the to an open gym or to the fitness center and see a coach see a fizzed teacher so the gym that they use in fizzed could potentially be open during lunch time for students to use I think there's going to be some some part of gyms I don't I do not think the main gym but some gyms that are used to support lunch because there's so many students eating at the same time yeah right okay that makes sense okay I'll I'll interrupt for once I'm meeting with Chartwells to go over that because there'll be a satellite lunch location where they'll they'll move food from here to another area and set up kiosks where they can sell some food there too oh nice so almost like this thing in different spots but a little more elaborate yeah like well it'll be something they move along with them and they put everything on and so that so that all the students wouldn't have to come to here they could go to another location to buy lunch to okay um last question in the referendum do we have um extra space available where we're going to have access to including like student I'm going to call it a Student Success Center but when I was here we called it Resource Centers where the teachers are going to be able to provide their office hours or so so some of the office hours will be built into the lunch that's part of the the lunch block and then the so resource classes I think they've diminished over the years just oh wait I didn't mean that like we you know how there's like the math the math lab yeah that that will still exist every subject had it though right years ago I know and that's and again that's something that we're working to develop in this new schedule um it does provide increased opportunity for courses such as that like a resource course for different subjects got it okay cool thank you no question thank you okay uh thank you again that was a great presentation uh very informative uh and the schedules were quite intimidating to look at the uh I don't know I don't know how you guys do that your amazement is shared by me that's impressive my one question for you um pertains to um you had said that you you had done uh some research with respect to to some of our nearby you know similar school districts um as part of that you know I know there's a desire for the the um the change to the schedule were there any you know I'm not going to say objective key performance indicators but there were any like performance indicators that you looked at or you got data on with respect to those other schools just from an objective standard you know like grades performance whatever yeah so no it's a good question and I think it's it's again it's hard to measure too because you're talking about different schedules for different sizes schools um so I I don't know that we said like let's look at the top performing five schools and try to mimic what they have because again there are very much idiosyncrasies in all of this these schedules there are there are schools who have a similar schedule to what we have now there are there are a number of schools that have this rotating drop schedule there are schools that have a double block schedule with 80 minute periods um so there's there's lots of different schools and I wouldn't say that there is one you know 90% of schools that have a rotating block perform at the top temp like that that wasn't uh something that came through but but what we did do is when we surveyed these 21 school districts we were able to get a sense of of um you know the the types of schedules they're running it and it was really interesting to us to see how many schools surrounding school districts are running a similar type of schedule I think it was something like 17 out of the 21 schools had um a block lunch so and a block lunch is daunting for for some people when you look at a block lunch you say how the heck are you going to do 1900 kids at one time but to know that 17 of the 21 schools that we surveyed are doing it effectively one it gives us uh justification to say like this is doable and two it gives us the the direction arrow to say these are schools that we can tap and say how did you go about doing this so it it was really helpful to to survey those schools um so first I want to Echo my colleagues um um praise for so much good work um such a complex and detailed undertaking um that clearly has been well researched uh I really share Kent's um uh gratitude for the fact that you not only put this together but you put put it together and made it incredibly coste effective and were able to not only keep all the teachers but also didn't add costs um into that I think that that's I wanted to but Patty would Patty wouldn't let me I I know but I I just want to say that that's an extraordinary accomplishment and I I really think that I I I just want to say how how impressed I am and I know that there were a lot of factors that went into this and this is my second time seeing your presentation it's the second time I've been very impressed with it so thank you and thank you to everybody who helped you with it um as I said last time um I just want to um reiterate my my concern about the transitions so correct that the transitions at the high school will now decrease in the current plan from 5 minutes to 4 minutes is that correct that is correct okay so my concern as I mentioned before is that that becomes um a universal design that is benefits everybody um and and the whole point of this is in in many ways to take stress from students from staff from everybody and it takes a Universal Design component and it's the one thing that perhaps makes things feel a little more tense a little more stressful so uh and and it doesn't matter whether that's because somebody's able-bodied because somebody has to stop off at the restroom because somebody has to start off from the third period science ring and get over to the orchestra pit it doesn't matter what the situation is it's it's just stressful and I I liken it to you know when people say well it's just one minute well the math also says that's 20% and I try to think about what that one minute or 20% is for somebody who's commuting and has to get to track five with one less minute or 20% less time so that's how I've been trying to think about it when I think of the kids and the teachers and so my ask is is it possible when you're doing these tests whether it's next week or upcoming to treat it almost like user acceptance testing and not only include the teachers but include all the support staff the guidance team the child study team the Paras the nurses and also the students and I would nominate James um if he would be willing to um to possibly participate in this and give feedback um and and students of all abilities and all backgrounds um because it's really important that they can tell you guys you know and in a con in a controlled manner like what's working what's not working what's hard what's not hard what would make it easier because that would give me as a board member who's going to you know uh support what you're doing no matter what confidence that you guys have all the information you have and I just wanted to see whether or not that's something you would be willing to consider yeah and again I said we're in the feedback phase of things so I I think that's a good test to run I ran the test myself from the third floor San Wing to the orchestra pit um which are two the two farthest points in the building um I made it in four minutes I I ran no I didn't run um I did get stuck behind a group of people that were not walking very fast but um so but but again I think it's it's a point well taken and it is a change so we have to examine the the impact of that change thank you so wait your test run was during an actual change time yeah nice job I like it how long did you uh prepare physically for that you cannot you you have no control over the pace of the hallway that's for sure no control of course did you wear a backpack no backpack but I carried my cell phone with me the whole time um so I just wanted to thank you I I had sent questions to the curriculum committee and I know that they brought them up with you but I just wanted to say it out loud for you know those joining us from home um I was concerned about uh specialty programs for example like ESS or um even project 79 whose kind of whole Essence and reason for success is you know when they meet how they meet the flexibility of even that many of the project 79 kids eat in Project 79 and so I I just I think that it's important that while we're embracing change we're also keeping intact the programs that really for the these kids their social emotional learning is so important so a a block lunch might not work for some of those kids and some kids were not in those programs so just that we're flexible and that there are alternatives and that all of the staff from those programs are included absolutely um and I appreciate that and and you know I know that the due diligence is done there for sure I just you know they all need the voice um I've done a lot of um research on block scheduling also like when we first started running for the board and um one of the things that always comes up is issues with retention MH um I don't have a firsthand experience um with my kids in Block scheduling um or my district even but some kids really do benefit from like frequent and constant repetition and the fear is right that if there if it's not that frequent and constant repetition that they will have a difficult time retaining Concepts I I know that there's you can argue both sides here so I really do know that but I was just wondering and you know Dr weissman's here also so if this is something that specifically affects a child with an IEP or a 504 could that be like written in as like part of their programming um it since you're having longer time like a review period or something to offset if they see that retention is an issue is that something that the special ed teachers have brought up things like that I just wanted to look at it from a special education lens as well yeah I mean I I I can't commit to saying like what would go in but I think those are obviously considerations that the entire team would look at and any accommodations that need to be considered in light of a new schedule right I just met with um the high school's child study team today as a matter of fact and got some really good feedback from them about the their perspective on things and what things might need to be changed from from their lens um so it was a good meeting okay great um so so and it seems like they're open to to making any of those changes that are necessary within a new schedule um I would also say and again agreed you could look at it from so many different angles the the this notion of cognitive load theory is something that I've been researching a lot about and how much and what types of information can be shared with students in a given day and I think this schedule gives us a really good opportunity to provide an appropriate cognitive load for students and not overload them with information so that's that's again another side of yeah I just wanted to add on to that for my fellow board members and Dr Bolton and Dr Weissman if they want um no but because I have a daughter who is a freshman in a block schedule high school so I have experience with a student and I've been teaching in or I'm a case manager for 10 years in a district with block scheduling at the middle school and high school so if you ever want some feedback on what it's like especially with the from the special ed perspective you know you know you and I can talk about that for hours Matt I would love a phone call if you have questions absolutely or if you don't Dr B we will provide either way thanks we'll provide brunch we missed you Mary so I know you had fun question to jump in on yeah there was a question that has been coming up because typically the swim team for for example leaves early yes in the during their season so how would that be or have you looked into how that can be accommodated we have I already met with the Y and work that out for next year so that's already been changed yeah so the Y is is more than actually willing to work with us around changing the times for the practice so that swimmers don't have to leave school early it won't cut the length of practices either it just will start after full practice um so I want to I guess I want to add I should have said this in the beginning but James anytime we're in the middle of a discussion like this feel free to jump in ask questions I mean this is certainly something that affects you directly and I realize by talking directly I'm kind of singling you out and seeing if you have any direct comment which I don't mean to do but I'm going to do anyway but it's just but if there's any I mean just feel free to jump in especially I mean you live this on a regular basis so if you've got something to add in just jump in if not you can tell me no I'm good you however I just want to make sure you got the the invite okay excellent question excent all right that may have been braver than actually asking one was just tell um I I have just just two quick things so first I'm going to focus about on the electives so on the sixth grade elective uh especially for the digital citizenship um I had the opportunity to attend an education law seminar during the the school boards Retreat and this came up this was a a huge chunk of time dedicated to everything from cell phone use to Ai and all the rest and the one key fact nobody could agree on just about anything because there's about 75 different ways that everybody wants to try to approach this but the one thing the panel of experts that were up there who were discussing this did agree on is the earlier you start this sort of learning the better chance you have of reinforcing certain habits you know and they said listen they said you know you know 30 40 years ago people were were smoking as if it was nothing else and and you start learning about the negative health benefits of it and all now I mean 30 40 years later you know the idea of of smoking is an athm that it most gets are you kidding you know why would we do that so their main focus was look whatever strategy you implement try to get it as early as possible so you're developing habits as opposed to anything else so I think starting it there in sixth grade is a great idea um and that just kind of rolls into my question I I know um you know these things are in development is this the schedule I think we're looking at for for a next year implementation the electives that you're talking about the Intermediate School are they also on target for next year or is that going to be something further down the road they are already in process there's um shaa Longo is meeting with her teachers um she's probably already had three sessions with them to start planning this curriculum um so she is she's already running EXC so if you have a rising sixth grader you're going to be able to look at some of this stuff correct awesome that's great thank you any other questions wonderful thank you very much Dr Bolton appreciate it please thanks to the whole the whole team for all the work that went into this this is a lot over a long period of time so thank you guys thank you uh we will now move then to the uh student representative report James good evening everyone as Westfield High School ended its first marking period and approaches a long than Thanksgiving weekend the high school has been full of excitement last Friday November 1st the sgaa held our annual homecoming dance despite the fire alarm unfortunately being triggered the dance was very successful and both students and our staff chaperon had a great time additionally we have three Varsity Sports who competed in state level tournaments boys soccer played SPF last Friday and unfortunately lost ending their season and girls volleyball also lost to Williams Town last Sunday however girls soccer is still going strong yesterday they won the state semifinals for to Z against Monclair and will play in the state championship this Saturday against Eastern at Franklin High School Additionally the school's theater department is wrapping up the rehearsal of their fall play The Madwoman of Shalo with performances this weekend on the 21st 22nd and 23rd the Wednesday before Thanksgiving SGA is having their annual pep rally this year's pep rally is going to be completely different in hopes to encourage more students and staff to to participate and attend we will have fun grade level and staff challenges amazing prizes that will be raffled off at pep rally and so much more finally on a much sadder note last Monday senior Brandon JLA unfortunately passed away in a car accident Brandon was a beloved member of the Westfield High School Community he was on the boys varsity volleyball team and a frequent member of the high honor role Brandon left us way too soon and will be remembered for his vibrant Spirit his kind heart and his humor thank you thank you um next we'll move to our board committee reports we'll start with uh curriculum instruction and programs sonnel uh the Sip committee met on Monday November 11th the primary focus of the meeting was Dr Bon's presentation which we saw tonight of the master schedule changes to the middle and high school and that was presented tonight at the board meeting so the SI committee used this opportunity to ask Dr Bolton several clarifying questions about the master schedule change and offer feedback and suggestions as he works with Bill and Department administrators to continue to refine and implement the new schedule the committee also reviewed revisions to policy 2270 religion and schools which is on the agenda for first reading tonight the changes to policy 2270 reflect the updated guidance provided by the United States Department of Education on constitutionally protected prayer and religious expression in public elementary and secondary schools the updated guidance replaces the 2020 Guidance the 2023 guidance which has been Incorporated ated into the updated policy eliminates the need to revise policy guide 2270 every time there is any change in any subsequent guidance released by the Department of Education in addition to updating the federal guidance for schools on constitutionally protected prayer the new policy also requires that the Board of Education must annually certify in writing to the New Jersey Department of Education that no board policy prevents or otherwise denies participation in constitutionally protected prayer in public elementary and secondary schools as detailed in the United States Department of education's guidance on con constitutionally protected prayer and religious expression in public elementary and secondary schools this certification will will be done at the board's annual reorganization meeting the Sip committee also discussed components of a draft of the district's AI intelligence artificial intelligence plan which is being developed as a result of the adoption of the district's new AI policy 2365 which was adopted at the Octo board meeting the district's AI plan is designed to provide students teachers and families clear guidance on the acceptable and ethical use of AI in the Westfield schools components of the plan provide Clarity on procedures and guidelines for when AI can be used in a school assignment approval of AI tools prohibited uses of AI and consequences for inappropriate use of AI and finally the Sip committee reviewed the application for two overnight field trips for the Westfield High School model un club and Washington School annual trip to Fairview Lakes which can be found in tonight's agenda thank you sonel um I guess we move to finance and Facilities report Kent thank you uh finance committee met last Friday where a good time was had by all uh Patty shared the 2025 2026 budget calendar so please check for it in the finance and Facilities meeting folder for November 15th and we are still waiting for the state to confirm the election date in April next uh FKA our Architects and Patty and Ray will go before the planning board on December 2nd for the referendum projects it's a courtesy review by the planning board so they're up to speed uh Roosevelt Roofing work for phase one and two are underway currently looking at an estimated substantial completion of phase two by the end of December weather permitting be a nice Christmas present uh drafton playground equipment has been installed and is open very good and the Franklin Equipment and poor and play is surfacing are currently being installed both projects had fundraising efforts done by the project playground group and lastly the fanklin handicap accessible path now has a final quote and the vendor has been selected to perform their work that project is being funded in part with a local Recreation Grant of $63,000 which will help defer the overall cost of $139,000 our next Finance meeting will be December 13th thank you thank you Ken uh next we'll do a report by policies person in governance Mary okay that's me um first I want to thank Kent um for all of his humor thank you and second I want to thank Leila for um reading all of these concurrently while I was Ill so thank you so much for that and I'm going to do the whole thing tonight just so you know okay um we just met um for policy personel and governments meeting we didn't have as much fun as Kent on November 14th um and the committee addressed several topics beginning with Personnel the meeting started with Dr Greer providing an update on a time sensitive need for a substitute teacher hire at one of our elementary schools the item will appear on tonight's agenda for board approval as part of as part of this year's policy review the committee revised bylaw 0169 which was last updated in 2020 this bylaw currently combines guidelines on board members use of social networks and electronic communications to make these policies clearer and align with recommended best practices we decided to separate them the committee recommends introducing a new bylaw 069.0 2 that focuses solely on board member use of social networks and then revising bylaw 0169 to cover only email and internet use both appear on the agenda for a first reading tonight we also reviewed a few District specific policies unique to Westfield to determine whether updates were needed after some discussion we recommended repealing bylaw 01741 which details the duties of the board attorney because this content is already addressed in bylaw 0174 and an and an attorney engagement letter we o suggests repealing policy 1214 covering conflicts of interest since similar guidelines are already in place for certificated and support staff under other policies to further clarify terms used in policies we recommend adopting bylaw 000000 .02 I love that which defines terms like teaching staff to include all certificated staff members additionally we suggest repealing policy 8221 on emergency closings since these procedures are managed by Administration and available on the district website and policy 8830 on flag display as the district follows state and federal guidelin federal standards on this issue for governance topics we explored possible tools to provide board members with easier ways to answer questions and navigate key areas such as school board ethics Hib and school funding using authoritative resources from the New Jersey Department of Education and New Jersey school boards Association lastly we're continuing to collect feedback from board members about issues in New Jersey public education that may be worth bringing to state legislators board members are reminded to complete the legislative issue feedback survey that was recently sent out as this will help us identify and prioritize the most pressing topics to discuss with our state representatives the next PPG committee meeting is scheduled for December 5th excellent thank you Mary you're welcome and just so everyone knows Mary and Kent will be here all night second show starts at 9: uh we will now move to recognizing the public uh on agenda action items only uh during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only agenda action items are items the board will actually be voting on uh they're identified as numbers 8 through 12 on our agenda uh if there is public comment regarding items that the board is not voting on there's a second session of public comment that'll be held today once the vote is through so I'd ask to hold any comments uh until then uh as a courtesy please allow any current current students or staff of the Westville public schools to speak first first board requests that individuals sign in and state their name Municipality of residents and group affiliation if applicable for the record the specific action items they are commenting on and ask that all remarks be directed to the board president or design and not to individual members or staff the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of under of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal superintendent of schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond to items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting each speaker's statement will be limited to three minutes in duration right so seeing nothing on agenda action items we will close that portion of public comment uh and we will move to uh to taking action uh first is regarding the minutes uh I'd like to make a motion to approve approve the October 15th 2024 regular board meeting minutes and executive session minutes so have a second CJ we can do this by a Voice vote all in favor any opposed any extensions that motion passes uh next moving to the governance items on the board agenda sonel I'd like to move item a under the governance section of tonight's agenda can I have a second thank you Ken is that me oh any does anybody have any comments ready okay Rob bonao yes Ken diamonds yes Brendan gallagan Charles jinus uh no to number nine and abstaining from the remainder Leila Morelli um yes to all except for S and 11 which I need to abstain from s and 11 sonal Patel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg no to number nine and abstaining from the remainder and Mary wickens yes uh now move to Personnel Mary okay I'd like to move items a to W under the Personnel section of tonight's agenda is there a second can't any discussion okay seeing none Rob bachio yes Kent diamonds yes Brendan gall Charles jinus yes Leila melli yes sonel Patel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg yes Mary wickens yes that carries next to finance and Facilities Kent thank you uh I'd like to move items eight through nine on the agenda um do I have a second thank you Kristen uh I'd like to highlight um item K which is the donations uh we have a few of them tonight we're lucky uh the first ones from the Westfield Coalition for the Arts in the amount of $750 to fund a master class presented by Tom Hanam for the Westfield High School Marching Band secondly Matthew Brown donated $ 5,447 41 to purchase auto equipment for the Edison uh Intermediate School next mckenley PTO donated $250 to purchase an ozobot EVO classroom kit for the maker space in McKinley library next the Westfield Youth Soccer Association donated $591 15 for the Elm Street field renovation Lincoln PTO donated $330 for two pole pads for the playground canopy Franklin PTO donated $292.66 to fund a xylophone for Franklin school's Music Room mckenley P donated $1,250 to purchase two indoor adjustable basketball hoops for ouon and McKinley School gym and the Westfield boosters Association donated $12,500 to purchase a pole vault pit for track and field these donations bring our year-to dat total to $ 63,360 66 thank you to all these organizations for the generous donations any comments or questions seeing none Rob bachio yes Kent Diamond yes Brendan gallagan Charles jinus yes Leila melli yes sonel Patel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg yes Mary wickens yes uh next to policies I think Mary you're taking the whole uh the whole load on I'm doing everything all right let's go for it I'm on fire okay I'd like to move items a to d under the policy section of tonight's agenda is there a second so um any comments see n i just going to say my comment is you're doing such a good job today you know it makes me want to come back for the next meeting when you say that thank you okay I think we're ready Rob bonio yes Ken Simons yes Brendan gallagan Charles jinus uh no to A4 religion in schools yes to the remainder Leila melli yes sonel Patel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg yes Mary wickens yes okay and finally curriculum instruction and programs Kristen what I'd like to move items a under the Sip section of tonight's agenda it outlines eight field trips one at tamaka one at Washington one at Edison and five at at the high school um do I have a second jul oh Julie and then um any discussion seeing none we can vote Rob bachia yes Kent diamonds yes Brendan gallagan Charles jelus yes Leila melli yes sonel Patel yes Kristen Sonic schmeltz yes Julie Steinberg yes Mary wickens yes okay call the board's attention to the notes for the record uh there was no unfinished or new business submitted for the agenda we'll move next to any leaon reports Julie's got one okay so uh UC ESC met um we are looking for ways to expand our footprint and at our last meeting we approved an agreement to enter into a memorandum of understanding with a local real estate firm not to exceed 7 .5 million the property in question is 53 Cardinal Drive also known as the linderberry building here in Westfield this is an exciting opportunity and if it moves forward we will see synergies in terms of both administrative space as well as possibilities to enhance the learning environment for hundreds of children across Union County excellent thank you uh sonel um I met with the McKinley PTO virtually on November 11th and uh they are excited to get working on Project playground following Jefferson and which will include uh resurfacing new equipment and adding accessibility they also are implementing or getting ready to implement I'm not sure if they've started it or not yet after school classes in Steam for their students so this was something they picked up um that had that got fell by the wayside at during covid and that they just picked up and then lastly they're looking to um put together a multicultural night in January which I will provide more information for next time anyone else all right um I attended the high school ptso uh meeting uh most of what James reports on is is generally discussed at that meeting they continue to support the work of the sgaa um they also support the work of the counseling office uh strongly uh especially as of late uh we had a college fair uh here at Westfield uh the high school um High School ptso provided you know funding for refreshments and some guidance uh they're also supporting a uh I forget what they're calling it sort of like an alumni returns to school uh a day I think it's December 17th it'll happen during the activities period with the panel of of Westfield alumni uh able to talk to students during the day as opposed to trying to you know Corral everybody back here at night so ptso continues to support these events where they can um with that uh I will uh recognize public for the second time oh I'm sorry go ahead jul um I know we don't have a liaison but I just wanted to also mention that we did have um a great college and you reminded me when you said that that the um special education committee did have a great um session last week um for college education for and and post-secondary opportunities for students with special needs um I think it probably went on for about an hour hour and a half maybe and um the presentation is going to be made available online and I do have the contact information for the person who's conducting it I also wanted to thank the guidance Department who sent um a representative who was extremely helpful during the entire course of the presentation and I also wanted to mention that tomorrow is um the referendum which Dr Gonzalez has kindly um agreed to provide for the special education um uh uh PTC um and encourage everyone to attend and I just wanted to thank you again for for doing that for the community perfect thank you now I think we're good um now time to recognize public uh for uh comments during this portion of the meeting members of the public are invited to address the board of education on any topic as a courtesy allow current students and staff of Westfield public schools to speak first board requests that individuals sign in and state their name Municipality of residents and group affiliation if applicable for the record and ask that all remarks be directed to the board president or design not to individual board members or staff board ask that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals while speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no resp responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident that matter should be referred to the responsible building principal superintendent of schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond to items raised during the public forum all public comments will be considered please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement contined disrup ions may result in removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration okay all right hi good evening um my name is Colette Walsh I'm a parent um a student at Roosevelt School and I'm appearing before you because 18 months or so ago I appeared before you and I described the Dreadful experience that my daughter had at the Roosevelt School theater shows um we had no no prior theater School experience and I just I just knew that it could not have been typical and for my child or the children at at Rosevelt um I come before you tonight to give thanks um for everyone here and for everyone who worked hard to make sure that those changes were made in the um Staffing uh for the Roosevelt Theater Productions um as last year's shows were the start of the new theater um this is this praise is already overdue um but last week students at Roosevelt put on a production of Little Women I come here tonight to publicly acknowledge the teachers at Roosevelt who devoted their efforts time expertise and knowledge to ensure that our kids had a great experience I thank Miss sui Miss urriola Miss Michaels Mr Loco and a special thanks to miss Fogle and Mrs Miss Burke for their tireless contributions to the theater program as you know Miss Fogle and Miss Burke came to Roosevelt last year and are true assets not only to the Roosevelt Theater Community but as Educators their dedication to their students is evident Miss Fogle chose the Little Women this fall as this fall show and there are some who might say that this show is beyond the grasp and the talent of middle school students yet miss Fogo believed that our children could rise to the challenge and yes frankly there were times that the theater experience was difficult and exhausting for the children they all worked so hard but they took their roles and responsibilities seriously the cast and the crew came together beautifully and delivered a wonderful show for the community during it all Miss Burke and Mrs Fogle ensured that our kids felt supported and gave them the confidence to get to give it all on stage and off it is because of teachers like this that our children gain confidence develop a love of theater and literature and are inspired to reach their true their full potential thank you thank you uh seeing no other comment we will uh close public comment and I will make a motion to adjourn to I have a second Mary I will do Voice vote all in favor any opposed any extensions we are adjourned oh good thank you