[Music] welcome Township Board of ucation regular school meeting today is Wednesday January 24 2024 public of this meeting is given to all board members and Associates in the January 5 2024 public hased time it was advertised in the cover post posted in all schools the administration office the municipal building the library the Cent El and Township Post offes this is our the mission of the W Township School District en large divers building community to educate all students to become independent LIF Learners critical thinkers and caring and confident members of their Community The District in partnership with the community and in the climate of cooperation and mutual respect will provide an academic environment which values excellence and diversity encouraging students to stve for personal excellence and assist them in acquiring the knowledge skills and attitudes necessary to contribute positively to a rapid changing World roll call please M here miss Martin Miss Peterson Mr shw Miss Thomas Mr Thomas here m p thank you [Music] stand st34 stent Achi continue to imp bestes for delivering instructions to students through the Liv all available and appropriate instructional model this shall include a develop plans to increase graduation rate B decrease chronic absente C increase in benchmark scores in fourth grade EA in the D accountability for All District staff and state holders to increase parent caregiver engagement in education and provide opportunities for two-way communication with District stakeholders B implement the culture climate service and dream Market our strengths and achievements to all stakeholders to increase capacity for greater parent caregiver Community Support a work with the communications associ B continue with our public relations marketing plan C continue to work with the various advisory committees in the district indeed focus on refining our communication methods messages better Market our school thank you Thomas yes M presid MERS of community we do have presentation evening at this time to call representing principal from school and he will introduce our presenters for this evening this thank dep our students from collaboration project I would like to good evening um in order to start this project last I had decided that in the real field people need to learn to work together and so you might be a CER but you need to learn to work with someone who is not in your field and you need to be able to work with somebody maybe in the Arts so we took the graphic design students designs and my students were able to add a digital element to them to create these lanterns a lot of the tools we used this is always way go uh I'm a technology teacher but of course this will happen online my watch uh so this is one of the images that we created as the samples so that we could uh show the students what we were looking to create uh so the students created the landscape that you see at the top and then they are lit back terms with just a t so we wanted to step it up the notch and show them what you know our students will move towards in the future and we wanted to show them how coding could impact simple project like this so we have some new equipment it's Cutting Edge Equipment um you may have heard of the cricket uh a lot of people use that to do simple Cuts people make t-shirts things like that we use it to cut paper and things like that so that we can create these designs um but the two biggest things we have the school are things that a lot of schools aren't working with at this level in middle school we were able to uh get a grant last year for the glow forch and you might have seen this in ads on Facebook or on Instagram so this is a laser cutter so this is able to Edge wood this is able to cut paper this is able to uh Edge the top of a Macbook so it has so many different possibilities that this is our testy surface as is something that we can do with the students to introduce the project to them um the next one is ouro so we code all types of different devices and one of the ones that our students use um that they're very comfortable with is the arino so if um later on down you'll see in the slides you'll see a picture of the arino in action and that's what our students use to do these projects so this is what the glow Forge does we send an image through the computer to the device we press a button and it does all of the measurement all of the cutting in order for us to place the items together it's a wreath that we're making with a wooden Bas score in this case we find the wooded bases of our lanterns with it in graphic design we are able to expose our students to the Adobe Creative Suite software which is an industry standard um for professional graphic designers for this project we specifically used Adobe Illustrator which is a software that is used to create vector graphics so if you have a glow Forge or you have a CET you would normally be buying your SVG files to cut but here our middle school students are able to design those files export them and cut them on the Cricut and flow Forge and this is an image of a digital version of the R so our students learn to program on the digital image of the of the ARA first and then they use that as their mapping so that they can program it in real life and do their work all of these lines and connections you see would be wires we call them jumper wires uh because we use breadboards so that the students won't have to do any Sovereign connections at the middle school level that we're going to leave that one off I'm going to turn the microphone over to rosin and rosin is going to talk about the background of the coding portion first and then we'll hand it off to the dra design students so they can explain what they did for their Banks hello I'm R Porton and this is Alex we are students of coding design 2 this year we have learn to Cod physical devices the device we are using to light the lanterns is called we learned python code last year and this year we added C++ in class we have learned how to use the gboard for our connection so we don't have to for this project we learned how to use code to light up an LED working with the gra design class we integated ouram into the so that the LED is on so it turns off automatic hi I'm Alex Luana a student at the graphical design here at school for our project we worked as a group together together and determin the te for our we then use doe illustrator to draw our own individual layers for the group L we learn how to use the patter and shap Builder tools to create our practice hi I'm after creating our files illustrator we learned how to export our files as sbgs or scalable vector graphics an SBG is a unique type of image format and instead of being made of pixels of most images they use mathematical data which means you can scale them up to any size and use computer computer control cutting machines to create a variety of objects from your files hi Marie and we created topical Manion we created a sand layer Flamingo Palm cheese and Sky creating a one color continuous design was a challenge we had to figure out how to use our drawing tools and new ways to create details with cutouts instead of cols hi I'm Maggie and I created one of the big things we had to think about hi my name is Julian this is Asia and we create the Paris Center the three layers and the eiel Tower of French cafe and a one of our biggest considerations was how to design the so the light will shine through our okay so it's a little uh bright in the room but as you can see uh when the students were able to press their buttons didn't you just like that one again uh it does illuminate and so it illuminates seal the different cutouts and students have the the flamingo that you can see in the palm trees you can see on this one and then you describe the others yes we have the city of Philadelphia with the Eagles and the Phillies and we have the Paris L as well and we're going to leave them up here so you guys take a closer look you can come up and then just press the button so you can see the light thank you very much thank [Applause] you members can speak for themselves I am amazed there was one word only one word that they talking about that I was even slightly familiar with when they kept they talking about soldering and I associate that and so it the same conne it do make design attach that is amaz least do a job and so and I'm thinking about our mission statement we said that that we provide an academic envirment which Val excellent and encourages our students to uh to stve personal excellence and assist them inquiring the knowledge attitudes to contribute posit positiv to a rapidly changing world this is a rapidly changing world and these students are I'm I'm pleased to see that they are really moving us into the 21st century absolutely this is just amazing thank you so much oh thank you and thank all the P out here um who are responsible for these these Geniuses and I'm saying Geniuses because I'm amazed these are seventh and eth graders i w tell you all I it wasn't this it wasn't this so I very very impressed and thank you so very very much any any other comments Mr Shide thank you so much for having them share that is like out to see Middle School students thank you very much and you know what I'll take this opportunity and I'm just going to say this later on but as many of us know there is something that New Jersey does especially here in C County it's called the eighth grade dialogue and in that case what happens is that um each district picks a DAT when they invite folks in to speak to the best in w e graders we W I think it was last year yes and we even offered it again I just this year but this year is be Israel so I just wanted to let everyone know and trust me I'm sure that Mr sh he want to send one of our students to that take thank you so much thank you president M Pres members of the board I just want to reiterate some of the things that were stated here earlier um to gra design classrooms have cutting as mentioned by these classes have been offered in the school in the middle school for S years now we believe that we give our young people opportunity to be prep to to high school classes are level uh we are proud of the fact that we give our that opportunity so that they can be AE so at this point we're very proud of working that we provided middle school and that this coding and graphic design is two examples of parts of our um stem program that we offer at the middle school there several other programs that we offer so we believe that uh we are right where we need be in many cases and I like to commend staff members who were presting here tonight there are two of our best teachers who do excellent job work is always on display so I'm hoping ladies and gentlemen uh you come to visit the school with the middle school for our visitation days and you have an opportunity to go to sever classroom and see the your children are doing here at w Township School we're really proud what each young and congratulations course for giving us just a simple and a very small sample of what we're offering here mid scho thank you very much that presentations Moving Two correspond with correspond thank you withs to minut moving on now to our board committee reps start th evening we not but I do have all of our sters all distri number all basketball basketball now our Bo TR at the 19 Champion J darl domic to second in the 8 the same group of boys ran the number one time in New Jersey fit in the country but a whopping 33903 in the spr M that's under the direction of Coach C now our girls girls are doing a lot of girls want group three state champions six consecutive years in a row M Tile since 2011 The 4400 girls Olivia doic and c pro qualified for the middle World King they had the best time in New Jersey rank number one and number three in the country with a to of 3.5 Now The Identical four girls are ranked number one in New Jersey number five in the USA with a time of 1.42 for the 4X 200 the sh Mar T peacock and sarahy play first running a 3176 the fastest time since 2014 Olivia in a smoky 55 D an best of 7.15 rer number five New Jersey number 40 in the USA and number8 amongst the6 Olivia also fth in the 300 call another career time 3934 breaking the school record of 40.7 set in 2018 by Dak her number one in New Jersey number 17 in us now Messiah both the long and the Triple J of the 19.3 in the long J rank number one in New Jersy number n in the country and that's all under the dire of also want to pull up we have a girl wrestling team girls wrestling team we have Sab Mar with the girls wrestling team this five month I just want to add the winning must be catching over now the cheerleaders will be in the first ever competition down at LOL University on January 28 so they can compete and that is my athle report to Mr Thomas's report um the young ladies of but one thing I'd like to emphasize is fact coach Miss Brown Miss Brown has been our coach for a number of years the girls change every year but the outcomes and the success will be the same year after year after year after year as we always say there's no substitute for good teaching and there is definitely no subs to good coaching Mrs Brown Coach Brown is a phenomenal coach and for her to be able to take differents year after year after year win state championship year after year after year it's phenomenal and one of the things I like to emphasize about Coach Brown 94% all the girls past 10 12 years think probably longer than that 94% of those young ladies go and finished 94% of all the young ladies and that girls TR program whe it's cross country IND track out track 94% of those young ladies go to college and recee many of re add phenomenal coaching phenomen sucess usually team9 academic program compl the athletic program those young ladies are we like to at least the fact cook is the only consistency that we have have names change but consistency of achievements Chang and I like again to emphasize the fact that Coach Brown doing excellent job and Beyond the Athletics she's help toen in thank [Applause] you thank you for that moving now to our report is there report from our education yes theary attend jul discussion topics District L New Jersey partnership for Student Success learning acceleration as part of the American Rescue plan ARP Grant addition supporting a 4729 cated learning coach and educ to provide evidence based professional learning and coaching opportunities and to address the AC social emotional mental health students the funds ref used to pay teacher sings for attending the summer teaching Training Academy teacher Trainers for Teacher trainer program training resources and needing educational instructional resources additionally we receive two $40,000 the evidence based summer burning and virtual Grant funds were used to pay teachers s and Pur and structural supplies for the summer program the evidence based comprehensive beyond the school day Grant fses teacher s before and after school tutoring and transportation as there are one time range all funds must be extended by September 30th 2024 we are confident that all funds will be expended attendance concerns no major concerns that are not being addressed attendance policy honors induction statistics in the middle school for 2023 24 we inducted 50 students and the high school we inducted 61 in 2022 23 64 in middle school and 20 high school and in 2021 22 Middle School 16 high school was 14 tutoring statistics count program numbers school one before school tutoring five after school tutoring no after school tutoring talented 11 School Number 27 14 after school tutoring 22 GI School 3 16 School 14 after school T and 12 inal School four 24 before school no after school talent 27 School 5 18 before school 4 after school and talent at 62 School number six before school tutoring 15 after school tutoring 14 and talented 55 total for schooling 4 After School jior 82 IND did mentality 189 upcoming supplemental parent engagement opportunities parent Workshop parenting in the digital world for greeking families which was held on Thursday January 18th from 6 to 7 p.m. at 4 WTA families and schools together activity strategies Tuesday January 30th 2024 from 6 to 7 p.m. in school 5 [Music] next yes M president just like to add to U mrs's report um the numbers that we have participa in before after school program may appear however it's not because the program is not available what we find is a lot of parents are not participating not bring their children or for whatever reason they just not Tak advantage of this opportunity that we provide many many more students were given that opportunity pay permissions requesting participation available for limited reasons a lot of these young people are not participating so the program is available but unfortunately a lot of the young people aren't participating in a program that we believe is thank you moving now to our operations committee we be report to report I'm sorry okay thank you policy committee policy committee will not be reading um this month January because we have no policies that we need to take on and discuss uh so looking forward to next month February and I will stand by policy committee and make that cens yes good evening everyone um CAC meeting was held on January 11 2024 our read as follows our meeting begin at 7:00 with the super flag board members that were present was Cheryl pittz Joe Thomas Mar committee members present Diane McKenzie mar mar tomel jua Rosary Hoffman May Clen Jennifer M and F Crooks we open up our meetings with introductions by the Board of Education to president Cheryl pittz by president Jo Thomas and Miss Rita Martin the new CAC members were welcomed which are Meg Hogan dinner foras and f f Brooks and we open up the floor to allow our new members to discuss their wise that they wanted to join the CAC committee we had a CAC chairperson election W was nominated and unanimously voted as the chair person to represent the CAC for Township the meeting began with reviews of the purpose of the CAC and the process in which we will be providing recommendations to the Board of Education we discuss the interaction with the public with the parents taxpayers and our students to make sure that when we bring recommendations to the Board of Education we have sound and formed information that will go to the board of education for discussion we also discuss um the board education meetings how we as the SKC will go out and promote parent involvement parent engagement that come out to the board education meetings and ensure that we can get more participation after meetings on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month the CAC also um talked about past business from last year we had an um a presentation by one of our previous CAC members discussing a team synopsis however um that was incomplete but that is still still on the table for discussion for this St we discussed the culture and climate survey results we're waiting for the results and how um they panned out for our district this year um we also discussed how um a few of us on the CAC work contacted by Educators as well as parents how they were in the middle of doing the survey they got kicked out and unable to respond to the survey but we also discussed how that was our first survey and that we know that there was going to be a couple obstacles in the way but we're going to look at it and make sure that we offer the survey again that we're able to make it more efficient so that every parent every student and if we open it up to the district the district are able to perform the C the climate survey appropriately so that we can get a true um result back when it comes back um we also discussed um movies and Pearls with Diane McKenzie um she shared how she opens up her nonprofit um every Saturday for girls from 5 to 18 years of age they do a multiple things so we open up to the CXC and we told most of the we told all the on to the CXC promoting in the community so we can get more young girls who are out there that may need interview job interviews or be accustomed to cooking and sewing and um get them involved and doing positive things in our community um we also discuss um designing a calendar um to involve more people from our community and school events um from the hsas and from school calendar to get more Community involvement at events of the school there was a Lim discussion dealing with the safety in our schools um it was a couple concerns that were brought to our table describing um rough Behavior as a lack of emotional regulation as many students and teachers feeling unsafe um we will continue to discuss that on our board as well um to come up with remedies that we can bring and present to the Board of Education as possible solutions we also discussed alternative agenda items for our February 1 is to review restorative practices and see if it could be um an initiative that we can recommend to the Board of Education after we do our um informative research on it um we also discussed um the CAC having a grp pictures so that the community as well as students parents know who we are so that we can they when they see us out of the community they can come and they can recognize us and we can recognize them we can have more uh conversation with our community we also discuss um putting information from the schools in zacc that's already on the website for the WIS Township Schools on um different platforms so that we can get more involvement from our community and our parents um we also brought up um it's called a mental health first aid respond course for 11th and 12th graders also for any facil any faculty members who will be interested in getting it I one am a mental Aid a mental health first aid responder and um I brought the information up so that it's a it's a nonprofit organization that offers this free and any student who takes this course gets four credit College I mean credit colle so we're still discussing that and we'll have more information after our next meeting um and we also discussed as I mentioned before about a calendar that we're coming up with um one of our young ladies is May is actually working with all the HSA um members to get all of the events because HSA has been saying that they haven't getting a lot of involvement and attendance at their events so we're trying to build this community along with the Board of Education to ensure that we can actively involve everyone in our community to grow W Township and bring more people out to see events like this that this happened tonight that I find to be super incredible for the Middle School to present tonight so we want to have this room filled up with people seeing what we're doing inside of our schools and the only way that can be done is work hand in hand with the marketing department our marketing committee with um the Board of Education and help see what we can do to assist them or vice versa and last but not least it is our mission to be aligned with the Board of Education here at w Township and assist with the achieving the 2023 24 District goals with our main focused on student achievement and increase parent care caregiver engagement and involvement uh yes M president I I have a few questions or at least for clarification um there was a a comment made in reference to um The Cult that problems not finishing the survey never heard the problem now the survey name online for two weeks par one report was given to theist so if there was problem I'm not sure who because we were available and we did not receive one building administra and I'm almost certain that most parents have issue concern called principle if there was something that could have been corrected that we believe we would have corrected on the other and we did not um indicate through our checking process on a daily basis we did not find any problems in the system at all so if there were problems I'm not sure what happened didn't happen on our because as we assess our programs on regular basis we find thees the company that was working with us setting up the dashboard they did not indicated that issues with that so I'm not sure um where that coming from but no one everbody teen the other concern that I'm I'm listening to um teachers feeling unsafe in that schools well again haven't heard anything directed to me principles that orted it um I had conversations on a regular based President W they have a process that is in place allow teachers to express any have not one issu to that the point I'm making is there are concerns out there and no one tells the administration or somebody within the system how can it be addressed if they never reported and to hear through the C tonight uh it's just unacceptable so I just have to make sure M president how us to express those concerns and lastly um there was a request a final report uh on the CL culture what final report is C excuse me I'm not sure you mean final result survey has been conducted the survey is done has been complete which outest I don't the number of people participate well you gave that information out right that's why I'm asking that information but the information that we seeking is that survey has been done right what did we oh uh I had and was going to report to the board tonight on our initial findings those c those principles staff identify the three top issues that to address with the uh building princi the staff and the students I had that tenative information available tonight which was given to me this week I will make it available to the board at that next board meeting because want to have an opportunity to discuss it with the leaders and if there any additional questions that I have the get back to build principles that will take maybe week or so but I will make sure that I did not know the C was exp us well as you as you report information now at the board meetings I make every attempt to take that information I just need clarification the building principles are just we have identified based on those issues which they want to address make them a part of their long range planning for next school all right so that is available I will to thank you okay so may I speak um you had a c you have a couple questions I in yes so on the unsa school situation yes um that was just a discussion in our meeting um and like I said we cannot go by just he say she say so when we have a discussion in our meeting discuss in our meetings it goes in our minutes so I discuss what happened in our meeting and it's not a throw at because I do believe that this school is doing a whole lot better when it comes to our disciplinary actions when it comes to our students that are unruly so I know that that's work in progress but it may have been an isolated event that was discussed at our meeting so I did bring it up to this meeting to let you know what is being discussed in our CX meeting the other thing other thing ISS to the survey um we were inquiring for the results because we would like to know what our clment is and our school district not just the CAC but the parents students and the Educators and our school have the right to know how did that survey turn out we were also aware that during that survey it wasn't 100% flaws there were some flaws in that survey when it was when people were trying to interact with that survey whether or not they called or whether a call was received I didn't go into detail regarding that I just gave a report to tell you so that we are working on the next survey how can we make it more friendly for the people who are not computer s because there are a lot of people who are not at and maybe it was a simple fix and they just didn't know how to do it or maybe it was a number that they could have contacted but they just didn't see it so we'll just make it that was our feedback from the feedback we received from our community and that is our job is to give this board feedback from what we're getting from the community without any bias or so and and there nothing and no personal attack to anyone on this board but we have to be transparent and the C plans are being transparent to this support education as well as to the community this year may I respond you sure May sure now Mr no offense St um it is my responsibility of course uh to respond to certain things particularly when you talk about safety of the schools uh which is our main number one priority we want to make sure that our schools are safe for our staff and students but with that type of statement is made in the public meeting those individuals who are heing whether they are present or at home uh definitely needs some clarification because I don't want those kind of statements to be made without some type of response and at this point my responsibility is to make sure that in the event those kinds of things are occurring without knowled that there are venes in place for those things to be addressed all right and um as far as um when when we talk about um the survey itself I'm sort of confused because um I thought the survey was us training and didn't to think we are we are told repeatedly time and time again what the community with the parents want we had so few parents participating in the survey we couldn't even add that number into that find at the vild level you know we have close to 5,000 students and I would reason to say we would have at least 253,000 parents uh associated with our young people and you have less than 300 parents participa way less than 10% I don't understand that I don't understand it either as well but communication is key to anything being accomplished and I'm pretty sure that the communication you did your best we're not about the survey we think because it is the stepping stone to doing more and more challenging events with this survey however if only 300 CS responded to that survey out of 4,000 students that survey that surve really isn't us a proper climate of our school because 300 people out of 4,000 5,000 students how par they have more than multi they have multiple children in our school district it's not going to be enough for us to be able to really even set up an old AC well I AG and at this point as you know we took a lot of time in promoting calling Ro calls information available on the website you couldn't even use our computers without the alert popping up I would more than happy uh to be able to reach resolution of find out why we didn't have participation so I agree with you and and no we will not be able to get um a true finding based on Parental participation however within the schools itself teachers and the students we will do the best we can but I just wanted to say that um if there is something else that needs to be done in order for these surve be more effective and I'm more than happy to address and work with you getting that done I the whole I mean the participation is so L that the parent participa be a part of the fin bu and I and I I agree with you on that so moving forward I'm sure next time we do a survey we'll have more participation because the CAC Mission like I said is to get out here to our community and get more parents involved and engaged in our students and their achievements their academic success and the accountability held by the school district right thank you M now Bo members so that um before we move from our community for as you see we have our student representative here with us this evening and we don't want her to be overlooked um she is a busy lady um she uh does come to us at least once a month so I'm going to um turn it over to her I want her to again reintroduce herself to us and uh let us know what uh she has to report to us thank you so I TI I'm the Senate President of high school and I would just like to start off by saying what Mr Thomas and Dr said about the girls track team which I hold an honor being a part of and I can also second the great work that Coach Brown in and I can attest for that she is great and she is very and I would also like to um update on schools so yesterday we had our grade LEL meetings and in our grade level meetings we were um the topic was just conflict resolutions so we had a presentation that gave resolutions to conflict and just giving students proper way to deal with conflict rather to make decisions that would consequences for decisions and also tomorrow we are inviting our eighth graders up to the building so that we can show them our elective to show them we have to offer just so that they can make the decision what elect choosing they get to high school yes we will have S helping with that and weing TS students does that conclude your report time yes thank you very much 30 seconds just to report out had to school 6 School a quick report AB I Vis school before I was the school school and it was a a pure joy I mean culture was good joy we had principal there that had everything in place he had a la promise for our kid name on the wall and stays here of our youth there grade also have of mon it's not just based on academics B certainer thisif responsibility whoever in performs and show responsibility student iach mon down there just overwhel joy to see [Music] atmosphere um what I'm going to say is this I I promise I won't do this again but this is the beginning of the year and as I look out and I see our ministrators I know it's been a long day so I'm going to ask you just to stand up so that the camera can see so that folks know that yes these are our ministrators so all of our principles just stand up please thank you very much moving now board members we're on page two uh at the superintendent report I'm asking for a motion to approve the superintendent report as it appears top of page two and then continues through to the bottom of page six is your motion [Music] second by Martin any further comments or questions com finy I just want to let the community know that we do have prated for financial literacy if you look at number 14 the financial ly not just for the student for the as well com questions hear pleas M yes M Martin yes yes M Peterson yes Mr sha yes M Thomas yes Mr Thomas yes M yes thank you now Bo I'm at the top of page seven I'm asking for motion to approve the J administrator board secretary report as it appears the top of page s and continues through to the top of page 11 is there a motion motion by second by and any further comments or questions hearing call please M yes M Martin yes Mr yes Thomas Thomas yes yes thank you moving now members on our Personnel report before I uh call for a motion to approve I draw your attention to number three under our person report where it says resignation we will Del that okay so therefore I'm asking a motion to approve our Personnel Report with the deleted item number three as it appears on page 11 continues through to3 is motion second any further comments or questions hearing your call please M yes Mar yes yes M Thomas Mr Thomas yes yes thank you moving now for I'm at the top of page 14 and this time sure that we had an opportunity to this so therefore I asking for motion to approve the items on our agenda beginning with the business administration board secretary report as it begins on page one and continues through to by any further comments or questions please M yes yes yes Mr yes M Thomas Mr Thomas yes yes thank you moving now board members to a personel report I'm asking for a motion to approve the personel disappears on our agend beginning at the bottom of page continuing through to the Bott of page is there a motion any comments or questions M yes Miss Martin yes Mr yes th Mr yes yes thank you moving now our agenda to Page open yesod Jan thank you very much members to interal Islands Dr yes M president MERS of I have three information it two of which have already been discussed some uh but I'll just reiterate again um Mr mentioned about Family Wellness social emotional running strategies Workshop which is Tuesday January 30 um I will have tomorrow night to remind all parents and families that they are invited to this work hoping that you will come out and participate um just a reminder to everyone the end of the second Market period is Friday January 26 report cards will G and available February 8th for all parents uh parent teacher conferences or shortly there after on February 14th and 15th and uh teacher in service day is on the 16th which is that Friday not School for students I'm encouraging all parents to please come out and have those discussions with you excuse me with the teachers about the student acemic progress and any other issues or concern that you can have so please come out and uh visit our schools for this very important time lastly uh we talked about briefly recing the culture survey I do have a draft copy of that survey with me tonight I was just going to mention that we have gathered that information from each build principles I'm in process of assessing that data if I have any additional questions for clarification I will meet uh black for that purpose uh and I will make sure that the climate carve uh outcomes will be made available to the board at our next Madam president that concludes my information thank you board members moving now to Old business would there be any old business that you to discuss you speaking to the mic you a very soft voice it's not working okay can you hold on for a minute that check person we to get a m to I'm sorry my mom voice isn't working today um now I wanted to Circle back to um the November chat board member uh the community recommendations um one being that board members attend um that board members attend their building agencing meetings the board had any feelings on that Bo M uh mam president I know that school 6 has have a book fair this week and I will be there priv to fill the this to assista this spit I would just indate my um concern that there be four or less at any type of gathering where the business of the district would be discussed so that we don't run a foul of the open public meetings act and have a forum where the business SE very fuzzy I know we're not taking any specific action but where you're having discussions that can still be problematic I have absolutely no problem with four attending each every meeting five to 10 each meeting could become problematic from a legal point of view thank you Mr I hope that at this point most board members are absolutely aware of that because that was also mentioned with regards to and any time members to um step into and be a part of and attend the citizen advis I think um it really does um help treat well I think the easiest way considering each of each board member has a school that they are representative of they just attend that school HS I keep us from the of that issue that would be my recommendation very soly that's that's um one of the reasons even why as a district initiative that after to school so that each board member each building would know that at least there is a board member assign to um that would be available to assist in any possible next it stand um another recommendation that had come forward for that was uh again having I don't know again we kind of didn't really the itet out to well but webinars or some type of interviews being recorded not necessarily by our high school Studio Department as Dr mentioned that we couldn't utilize you know the high school department too much they have their own curriculum but even if our tech department kind of put together some informational videos for parents in regards to you know how systems worked and how hsas work that sort of thing you know I can recall helping out at the HSA back to school night in the high school and the number of parents who came up to ask what the HSA was at the high school level was concerning to me um so that might explain why we have no participation of the HSA um meetings um there was some suggestion that that might be something that the CAC would take up so be okay and Miss Martin if that's agreable to you um so I just wanted to put that back out there um the last item that I wanted to bring back and this one will go to Dr and again this hopefully might help with the building level HSA participation where building level text messaging to the parents and regards to HS important things that you know about uh Mrs M this I'm not sure um what is the communication between HSA president and SCH build princi I do know that they collaborate quite a bit uh presently uh I know that um the principles are using uh parent portals they do rooc calls they use their websites emails flyers I can't speak to text messaging uh or how many of them and how often uh they text parents um that's a conversation I can have with build principles one of the things I do know even with the calls a lot of them because I can check the very next day through our system how many parents receive goal call how many see how many phones are blocked and one of the issues that I had is a lot of the telephone numbers are blocked and there's still a lot of parents out there not provided us with those numbers so along with those conversations I think I ask the build principls along with myself to encourage all parents to make sure that we have their upate contact information and that they allow us to communicate with them uh through through a u VI telephone number or whatever and we'll see how that works out for us but I know all these other vehicles are being used at this time to communicate parents um I'll put that on that agenda for discussion Mr in reference to the hsas as you heard this FL we're in the process of putting a challenge together to make sure that those things happen thank you so that leads me into the next thing now that we dealt with the the last chat with the board member we had said that we wanted to do these chat with the board members accordingly um we had talked as February May time for our next one um I did pose the question as whether it should be in person or virtual um the dates that I was looking at at this point are February 7 or February 21st uh so those are the other these days when we do not have board meetings um and just something interesting talking about a a district calendar as I was trying to pull together possible de I was thinking a distri calendar would be really great to not have to go to each school's individual website to see if there was anything that would you know kind of coincide with those things who have the participation and then as I was looking count on our we even know at this point contradict everything that's going on in schools um so maybe you expand in that I know the HSA usually out their events throughout the year so if we can kind of an entire year calendar and add things as along it be helpful not only to planning things like this but to parents as well and members who may want to go out to these Mets of the CAC has kind of brought that up several times over the years okay um so those are the two dates I'm looking at um virtual or in person if anyone has any feelings on well since we're starting out here again with our chat I think I that at least the first that we have should be whether committing and of course we do commit notify people but I I would I would say that the first as soon as we can make sure sett on the date and the availability of the building location comments one of you looking at a specific location for that meeting yes I was actually going to ask given appr in this room whether utilizing the administrative building would be an option for that in first the administration building is an option um I'll check with Mr Cur to see if we have anything plan and at this point I don't think so as long as it's not on the board meeting night you've already indicated so I don't and then I would probably lean towards February 21st that way you know have a month to get the information out there give you time to put up Brer calls and emails and you know that sort of thing as well just to give us a little bit more Le time um then the only other thing that I would ask of the board I know our last chat with the board member the kind of gave topic to kind of keep the conversation Focus um so our last topic for the chap board member was parent engagement um did any board members feel any way about continuing that topic of conversation or introducing top I actually that's a that's a a great way to started out because of course it goes along with one of our our goals and we said that this year going forward we absolutely to increase parent participation because parents in school that's what's going to help out get our achieve our which always in student achievement student achievement ACH so I think that certainly understand that be an IDE top to continue and I would agree for the date of February 24th get us supp mon as say to be sure that we February 21 ICT Fe I think that's what we I think when we did it virtually we might have went to 800m but I think for an in person 7M seems to be a little bit better um then you know if any board members who are interested in attending I know we need to keep it to Bo soard members want to volunteer to let already thank you so check the calendars and let me know in regards to that and that was all I had for possible that can consider doing a Faceook Facebook and not my only I agree with that or even streaming it we know our streaming capabilities are better in that building what I've heard from the community and you know I'm opening to suggestions is people tend not to be as candid as they would be if they feel like it's being Streed and recorded um but I have no problem with it do you let us know should be consult with the CAC or Community I know what do you that they would have commun [Music] Facebook and evenight but I I think sometimes ask or would be Facebook I'll tell you that right now that's Instagram Snapchat but for our parents I would say it would be Facebook um to have that type of utilization um I believe it's m MCC that manages our Facebook account Dr yes okay so somebody would need to have our Facebook account live the camera pointed at whever need to be in the room and they would need to be monitoring the comments as they came in and then we can speak to that so we would need access administratively to the Facebook account to set that up in that room I've done this before somebody need to be monitorings I can do as as I'm um we just get streaming down to where it needs to be try to do a little more faith and having someone do that it may take a little time I don't want to cause another issue where it's not working we don't have to right in such a short Peri of time so uh we can move forward live streaming and from that point if you want us to look at some of the other we can do that right now I'm not comfortable yes Facebook right so are we are we okay that sett that members yes yes yes we will have that appear February 21st at Administration Building at 7.m and we we have our topic and is that we have some way a way of being able to find out exactly those who are attending because we have we have we sign continuing well with old business one other things that of old business uh again have even with regards to um holding our meetings here in this room we have discussed several times that very Tim the technology is the the best um um I've been told and I think we we all have been told that some people who try to um join us that the U the a was that and we had talked about a couple a couple of ways of address that one to upgrade our bikes or two simply to move the um this this meeting in this second meeting to another location perhaps aor now uh based on what we did last year it appears that is working well and that is that the first meeting in the month is held at the administration building and of course the second meeting of the month is held here because this is where we have our students present and it's it's working it's it's working pretty well however there is still a problem with the audio um in this particular m president uh as I've reported out on numerous occasions here in um our meetings it's more than mins in order for us to advol uh stream these meetings without any problems there's a lot that need to be done first of all we talking about account this room was not designed for my and we will continue to have that problem as long as we here um the wide open spaces sound bouncing off the walls the floors what had to be carpeted um and we don't want to do that because this is cafeteria we want to keep in cafeteria and U I think it be too expensive and money wasted trying to put this or make this room conducive to what we're trying to do now um I've given recommendations of the high school as you well know a lot of M high it's just a matter of showing up of course is conducive uh to what we want to do M system is there I just have to check make sure we have enough M for school Bo but it's just a matter of moving from here to high school other than that we going to continue to have the problems that we have here and the parents in the community continue to have problems of not being able to he saying for multitude of reasons right now uh trying to reconfigure and place money this room to do what we want to do this money was particular when we already have place all we have is move to another location that would be my recommendation and um we need to leave this cafeteria as it is it meets the needs of middle school and for the purpose of this design not for what we're trying to do tonight Dr is it possible for us to yeah there's always that possibility I speak with Mella um first of all make sure we're not conflicting with anything that they have plan but I think the soon we try it better it will be for us uh because right now um I'm repeatedly being asked can we do anything to make it better at the middle can we do anything better and I'm saying no not unless you want to SP amount of money to rec put the sound they call lower the ceilings the floors similar to what we've done at Administration that's why the Acoustics sound so better because the room is designed what we want to do this cafeteria will never be able to do that without us spending a lot of money to do what need to be done do decide to Mo to the auditorium um would that still be the second meeting in the month so that the students will be able to absolutely absolutely and just so you many many school districts across the state of New Jersey and across the country have I mean it's not something un to us I mean in many school districts because uh for what we're talking about plus you had seing and all the other things we need in order for it to happen so it's something that encourage on a regular basis we have access my why don't we just do it so we can stop frustrating our listening Community every second board meeting mon when we know we can't make this situation anyway okay so Lord members um let's uh let's a decision here with regards to making sure that our needs our second meetings are certain and I would say as and so when we do I'm not sure back pocket but I think it's worth TR we don't lose anything by trying to improve what we're doing right exactly make sure that once you speak with Mr that we can tie down that um second meeting in February so of course as you know we've already approved our meetings in the locations office so we have to make absolutely sure that we get the uh the word out so are we agree board members there P agreement that we're going to do a trial run for our second meeting in February and have aitor yes yes yes yes Mr that okay so that's so Dr [Music] that's thank you moving now M business yes Madam president I was very impressed with presentation today by oh she want to extract from the Mee just I think that's and reason why I this because Summer vill of Entrepreneurship um these students be [Music] entrepreneurs okay thank for any more um business yes th yes wellend B AC I've been having with various businesses and different corporate sponsor and as you can see as we not we're not local we're across the country peopleo one way or another so I was I've been doing some research I've been talking to the about respons and what opportun that our district could benefit sponsorship put on education seminars put on webinar helping us do things to that won't distract additional fund from our budget I'm just asking continue work with to see what opportunities could exist once again we're not Mak decisions just research see how the pred corporate business structure help the education process well certainly Mr I think that's certainly worth exploring and I believe that you also the marketing committee yes sir and so that's right in your okay you're welcome um just last but not least speaking about um W getting out there I I don't see her in the audience uh tonight but there's a reporter who for the last several months and name is Gena and she's from Theon news she's been coming to uh both of our and um just um if you have an opportunity uh this is a copy of she did at our last board meeting and I thought that she did a great job the heading his wio Township Board of Education squares and board members and she took pictures so it'll be up here if you want to take a look at it any other new business I had one thing kind of a request um so I know we just had this long conversation about the Acoustics in this room um full disclosure I am a band parent and we know concerts are coming up soon and we talked about how much better the others are in our High School auditorium so I was wondering Dr and since we have this around here if it's possible to Mo our schools five six and Middle School Gang concerts through the High School auditorium as opposed to having them in the less acally conducive buildings where they're currently going to be uh m is that process has been in place for quite some time we have said to our building principles if you want to use the high school for an activity function is just a matter call Mr and set up the time you need so that there's no conflict in anything that he's doing at the high school so they are aware of that so if they're uh hsas or anyone who requesting to use the high school through the building principal uh for their concert it's just a matter of calling setting it up make sure not conflict or whatever the available are and we make happen okay any Mr yes ma'am W Township Board of Education highly values the input of citizens and making the important decisions that affect the children of our community we believe in the rights of citizens to observe for beings to ensure that all of our citizens have the opportunity to attend Schoolboard meetings and offer comment and to ensure that the board can conduct the important business of the district we ask that the speakers follow the guidelines for making public comment tonight miss Chico will recognize those individuals in the audience who wish to make comment we'd ask that you kindly re respect the following procedures one all members of the public addressing school board meetings and attending school board meetings must treat each other and the board with respect two State your full name and address three limit your comments to four minutes for in the event we're unable to answer your questions please submit your name address and telephone number where you can be contacted and your question will be answered within a reasonable time and lastly individuals offering citizen comment are not permitted to make personal attacks on any District employee board member or other testifier or member of the public thank you thank you Mr at this time Bo members I'm asking for motion to approve our moving into public comments motion to into public comments by martinet all in favor thank you sign at time Department thank you therefore I'm asking for motion to proove our moving into executive session yes accordance to the requirements of the open public meetings act the board will be entering into an executive session on January 24th 2024 at 8:33 p.m. of the U 9 uh exceptions we'll be doing um item number one uh which Matters by law are required to be kept confidential and they are matters relating to student discipline is the need for confidentiality I would anticipate that um given the number of items we have to cover we may be in excess of an hour to 90 minutes uh in in executive session uh dealing with those student matters so with that uh we would have a ask for motion second for motion to approve moving ex session yes Martin yes Mr yes Thomas Thomas yes to ex