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You're going from a place that was deeply contaminated, heavily contaminated, uh, to being cleaned up and to now being a site of ecological preservation and really a celebration of, um, of, like I said, vegetation that's, uh, native to the region. So, really looking forward to that. Wow. Yeah, we got some uh, we got some young young visitors here. So, it's awesome.
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Any questions for Mr. Dawson and the education committee? All right, hearing none, we'll move on to governance. Mr. Bal is not with us this evening, so I'll just briefly run through the topics that we discussed. Uh, following on to Mr. Dawson's report, we also have been discussing option two uh, in terms of how that fits into our policies and our strategies. Similarly, we're very happy with the developments. We think it's a good direction for the district in general and we were thankful for the additional ways that that policy could be extended to populations beyond athletes to help us achieve district uh objectives. So that was all really well met. I believe we will be finalizing that between now and the May meeting and hopefully reviewing a final drafting committee and then voting on it at the next meeting. Um we also reviewed the spectator code of conduct.
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Any questions? That does make me sad. Language is very important. Yeah. Curriculum and programs. Miss have a couple of things. We decided with the break in the middle and then we're going to have a meet in two weeks. We're going to have a meeting. So, we just had a couple items basically to support the budget. We had a kind of an email meeting. Um, so math program, we're doing a lot of extensive research. They're gathering the prices like I said before. They're doing site visits and talking to people actually experience the program. They're looking at one closely called Reveal Math. Um, right. We're in the testing season. Uh, they had a faculty meeting where they trained all the staff to be proctors and handle the NJSLA materials on Monday. Today they ran a infrastructure where tech um tested out that everything rolls out that everything is working with the students computers because that's a nerve-wracking experience to do it on the day you're actually testing aka o'clock this morning.
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Um, any questions related to that? atmosphere questions it won't be negative again 19 minutes you very bored of me well I guess yes before Ed that place would have never moved an inch off the danger list but Ed would his distinguish and neighborhood proudness and pride did bring it to fruition to get it worked on to where it is now. We thank the EPA for their help and thank and thank the um government that is pushing forward still this. Yeah. Can't forget about You can't forget that the original the building was cracked, broken down fence, a lot of discoloration on the on the ground. It was that nice green color. Remember that Mark? Yeah. it gave the rival to to U Nansa and um now now that it's where it is now to this to this Warren article Ed the main source bringing this forward was the positive influence to where it is now to where it's going to be going and it should be voted up and down with no problem.
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This is something that I believe is being driven really by the NJSIA and expected in all districts. It's a new addition to our policies and we will be voting on it tonight. It's agenda item 9.16. Uh and the last thing that we talked about was the board self-evaluation. So, thank you everybody for completing and contributing to that. Um overall the results were very strong. Um we on a scale I think of 0ero to four ended up with an average assessment on uh of 3.63. Um so higher on the uh the scale. There were a few common themes of areas for improvement. They included um communication specifically regarding board policies as well as how we share uh our goals and objectives as well as our accomplishments uh with relevant stakeholders in the community. So that was feedback well received and something that we'll start to work on and internalize as we prepare our goals for the next school year.
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So I lived it myself. Um but a special thanks to Miss Pearson, Mr. Greenfolk, and Miss Sedo there and all the counselors for organizing it and they're going to be ready now for May 12th. That's when NJSLA will begin. The budget presentation will be held tonight and that will support all the programs that we're currently discussing at each meeting. Um, this week is Earth week. I'm sure your children have come home or talked about it. The kids are excited. They're doing doing all sorts of different things in collaboration with PTO. Each day they focus on a different theme to raise awareness about the importance of the environment and how we all play a part in caring for the earth. Um, we're having our lovely third round of enrichment classes. Uh there are a lot of great offerings this this session and a lot of the students are loving being after school and trying out new skills and learning new things.
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Thank you for your support Mark. Um, article nine is an appropriation of CPA funds for digit dig Oh boy, I knew I was going to have a hard time with this one. Digitization had to say it very very slowly of documents um again for historic preservation. Um this was brought forward by our town clerk Cindy Livingstone. Jen, would you like to talk a little bit about this project? I know you love talking about it. Um, so this project is um for up to $110,000 and it will be um bringing a vendor that will come in and help us archive. So go through all of the documentation that we have in our vault. Um they'll help us organize and then also um put that on um electronic. So hopefully we're going to actually move it some of the uh information to our website so it' be searchable.
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And that was it for governance. Happy to take any questions. All right. Hearing none, we will do human resources. Mrs. Hi, it's going to be brief. Um, you know, every month we go over the the positions needed, the positions that are filled, etc. So, uh, that's an ongoing process. And um one of the things that had happened this year was um the attendance at the college fair visits where there were some really wonderful candidates for for positions. So um we had some administrators Dr. Freeman um and just met with these people really to get things rolling so that we don't want to scramble. We want to you know get people as they're eager to come out and just very wellqualified. Um the other thing was we had a a presentation from Integrity Consulting Group and that was for an insurance and it's just looking at um cost-saving strategies, plan um plan management, wellness initiatives, etc.
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Uh May 6 is a great art show that they put on and they combine the art band and choir concerts. As you walk the hallways, you'll see all of the art on display, encourage community members, parents to attend and enjoy the talent of the students and also hear the performance. Um, and then these last seven weeks are really exciting in a elementary school, especially at K8, because there's so many fun activities, field trips, and kids are just celebrating a great year. And we have field day, battle of Blazers, and then we commemorate this eighth grade class is going to have a lot of exciting things because this is their culminating experience here at EBS. So that's it, and we'll hear more in next month. Thank you.
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Um and then also preserving on microfich I think is the right word. So that that's actually how you have to reserve some of the um documents that were required to keep um but there'll be um old you know there's some birth certificates um for for obviously we have um death certificates so people can do some research and so the goal is that we'll be bring some of that that's been living um in the archives and we have to sort of sift through all of the information and make it actually um usable and accessible to the town. Can you say digitization to microfich? No. Come on try. No, I intentionally skipped that word. I was like electronic. [Laughter] You did that really well. You sure you want to leave? Come on. Um, all right.
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And it was Chuck Grant and Anthony Tanzini who came and just presented um their program to us because one of the things that is happening is the the rising cost is you might could say it was 7% but they were like average is at least it's going to like 12.5. So really exploring our options so that we can get the most for for the plans and that really is it. Thank you Mrs. High. The only thing that I would add is just a thank you to Mr. Gorski and the administration in general. I think we continue to be impressed as a board by the creative thinking that is brought to the table from all of the district staff. You know, we're driven from the top down. And so the idea that we can explore, you know, consortiums or group buys or even self- insurance are concepts that we wouldn't have even thought of uh prior to you guys coming on board.
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Any questions? I have I have a question. I'm not sure if you're you're going to be able to answer it or you guys. I just in in regards to A7 on the action items. I know this isn't new, but if someone could kind of refresh my memory and clarify what was the genesis of this, what it's for, and what it's what it's all about. I know that the state passed something that we had to do this, but maybe you can. Yeah. So every few years the state requires districts to complete the comprehensive equity plan and basically that is um certain things that they require you to demonstrate to show that you're not discriminatory. And so the affirmative action team their job is to put that comprehensive equity plan together. Our comprehensive equity plan is due to the state at the end of June. Um, and basically again it is a a set list of I guess requirements that the state has and then we align policies to demonstrate that we're meeting those requirements.
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Any questions related to this one? Oh, Mark, I could have guessed. Yep. Real quick and short. From microfilm to digital artication, we're in the bright time of century to do this. Thank you. There you go, Mark. That should go on a t-shirt, my friend. Um, so article 10, it's another appropriation of CPA funds for um additional money for dog park site improvements um sponsored by the community preservation committee. Jen, you have been working so hard on this project for a long time, so I think it's only right that you speak to it. Um, so this is for additional funds up to $60,000. Um, prior to um, preparing for town meeting, we actually went out to bid for the dog park, the construction of the dog park. Um, and that came in uh, significantly higher than anticipated. And part of that really has to do with a lot of the storm water um, upgrades.
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So, just our thanks for continuing to bring your best to the table all the time. Other comments or questions for Sue. All right. Thank you, Mrs. High. Um, so Roger also not here tonight briefly on operations. We too sat in on the discussion regarding uh health insurance possibilities. I won't recover that, but just know that operations was briefed on that as well. Um, we were also in receipt of a brochure regarding bus safety rules and regulations. This is something a resource that hadn't existed up to this point. Uh, and the business office was instrumental in creating and hopefully will um both help our uh families understand how important we take safety for um people that are riding the bus as well as make sure that there's uniform knowledge of expectations as people are participating in the bus rides. And then uh as we moved already, we reviewed uh the 2526 budget noting that there were no material changes uh prior to the meeting.
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Um, and then we get a board resolution saying that we've completed it and then that gets sent to the state with a statement of assurance. This is the first step of that because the first thing is we have to show that this isn't just done by one person but that there are there's a teacher administration um involved in the creation of that plan. Is this new like in the last five years? Um no I I don't know how long it's been going on but the last plan was a three-year plan. So this is also a three-year plan. It comes up every few years, but I don't know how how long it's been in existence off the top of my head. Quite a long time. Yeah, quite a long time. Those flyers have been hanging in my office and school for as long as I can read it across.
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and our initial conceptual design didn't really take into consideration the permit that we would need for storm water. Um and then doing some a little bit uh additional work to the site. Um and then also we are receiving $250,000 grant from the Stanton grant and they have some requirements like shade structures um water bubblers and all of that has really increased over the number of years that we've been working on with with um the estimate that we've been using. And so we have a solid number now. This would allow us to have a proper contingency for the construction, then also purchase the structure uh directly um to make sure that people who are using um this park will also have the ability to um you know be shaded when it's in most use in the summertime.
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And that was it for operations. Comments or questions? All right, back to Mrs. Hive for Somerset County ESC. So, at Somerset County, um, one of the things that they're doing right now is they're negotiating presently with, um, the Security Guards Association. This is a new addition to their, um, bargaining unit. So, that's that's just that just started. So, that's it'll take a little time. Um, at the last meeting, it was really nice. We took a tour of the building trades program. And in that program, they have a huge area. And in that they framed out a little house, um framing, plumbing, electric, uh siding, roofing, everything. And this is from the kids. So they they put all this up, they um then take it down at the end because it's, you know, it's a a semester. So they go through it and then another group of kids comes in to do it.
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Yeah. You have to the mandate is that you have to have an officer and it has to be publicly. You have every building room shows that that's the person you go to if there's something that comes up. So this is good. And actually it's a long long time and at at some point many years ago they switched it to requiring that the person be a certified uh staff member. Didn't used to have to be here. Thanks. All right, Miss Walsh. Thank you very much. Elant informative. Thank you. Uh next we have human resources. Uh I chair that. We did meet last evening. Uh we met for about an hour. It was myself, Miss Pulsra, uh Miss McDevik, and Miss Huck. Uh the majority of our dialogue focused around the uh enrollment and the placement of teachers uh based on certification. I did not have time to create a formal report.
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Any questions? Oh, Rob, you tricked me. I thought Rob was going to get up close. Um seeing none, I I'll move on to the next one. uh which is ex article 11 which is except section 40 of chapter 653 of the acts of 1989 very specific legislation um and what this legislation would allow us to do by accepting it is it would allow the assessor's office to adjust their um basically when they capture new growth instead of having to wait till the following year would allow us to capture it in the current uh fiscal year. many many reasons uh for doing that. Um very very technical, very very I guess you could even say bureaucratic. Um but it would allow any new construction or improvements that qualifies new growth to be added to to the value in the first six months of the year. Um it also reduces the lag time uh that occurs between the construction of um these improvements and then also the taxation.
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They love the program. And to be involved in that program, you have to earn your way into that program. So it's the the kids who are there really are taking it seriously and it's very nice because it is preparing them for some sort of a trade going on. Um we also discussed the new dawn academy. This is a therapeutic alternative um learning c environment where they have preventative care and they also have therapeutic and psychological services and it is being very well received. We went over wellness policies. It was thrilling. Not really, but just as in general, just going over the different um policies. Looked at the renewal of transportation contracts with everybody associated with Somerset County ESC and then did the facility review update where they are taking the second floor because they their population is increasing. So, they are now making three more classrooms and more space for um counseling opportunities for the kids.
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