001okay great uh good evening everybody I'd like to call to order uh for the committee of a whole uh meeting of the Board of Education March 5th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the administration building at 70 Conover Road coltsneck New Jersey uh Mr masasa can I please have a roll call yes you may Mrs Cameron here Mrs harwitz here participating remotely thank you Mr Oro here Mrs Ramirez not present Mr Retta here Mr scales here Mr SCPA here Mrs vulpi here Mr Walt here you have a quum great thank you Vince um pursuit to the open public meetings act chapter 231 this meeting has been duly advertised in the Asbury Park Press and is scheduled of meetings dated January 16th 2025 notice of which has been filed with the deputy clerk for
002coln Township and the requirements of posting of notices have been met if everybody can please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge of allegiance to the pl of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay good evening again everybody um at this time I want to open the floor uh for comments for all attending constituents if you'd like to get up uh please state your name and address for the record and you may do so at this time okay all right since we don't have any comments we're going to close uh public comment and we are moving on to um our information items if everybody could take note uh of number one under the information items and
003then we will roll right into the action items for approval tonight uh we have seven of them uh tonight um I would like to read a statement about number seven uh first and then I will open it up to um uh questions or comments for that time um okay I'd like to thank uh Mr Robert scales for his work and leadership as our policy board chair he has spent hours drafting this resolution so that our position on Title 9 is clear I'd also like to thank all the gentlemen on this board who have never wavered in their commitment to defend women's rights and especially our daughter's rights they have stood firm on their position to protect women's privac spaces our Sports and our dignity for this we are grateful and I thank you with that
004being said I urge Governor Murphy to comply with all federal laws to uphold Title 9 and to avoid any loss of federal funding I'd like to have Mr scales Now read uh start us off with part of the resolution thank you cols neck Board of Education urges the state of New Jersey and the njsa to affirm compliance with Federal Executive Orders regarding fairness in women's sports whereas the coln board of education is committed to ensuring fairness safety and equal opportunities in athletics for all students and whereas the board recognizes the importance of maintaining the Integrity of women's sports and protecting the competitive balance in accordance with Title 9 of the education Amendments of 1972 and whereas president Donald J Trump has issued executive orders and policy directives aimed at preventing biological males from competing in
005women's sports reinforcing the principle that female athletes should have a fair playing field and whereas the board acknowledges that executive orders must be codified into law and stands ready to enact newly drafted policies IES that Implement these directives in full compliance with federal law and whereas the board is mindful of its fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of coltsneck and recognizes that Governor Phil Murphy has a record of vexatious litigation in our courts which has resulted in the blatant blatant waste of state tax dollars and furthermore stated his unwillingness to comply with federal law and and whereas in an effort to uphold the financial Integrity of this district and avoid unnecessary legal expedent the board will Implement these policies upon confirmation that the state of New Jersey is in compliance with federal law and now therefore
006be it resolved that the coltsneck Board of Education will formally adopt policies in accordance with the executive orders issued under the Trump Administration regarding fairness in women's sports standing prepared to implement them once the state meets its legal obligations and be it further resolved that the board reminds Governor Phil Murphy and the njsiaa that they are not above federal law and strongly encourages the administrations to comply with these legal mandates to avoid unnecessary financial and legal burdens on the taxpayers and school districts and be it further resolved that the board believes allowing biological males to compete in girl Sports May disadvantage the biological female students by hindering their ability to achieve their athletic goals which could in turn impact their academic progress and discourage their continued participation in sports and be it further resolved that
007the board affirms its commitment to protecting opportunities for female student athletes and ensuring compliance with federal and state law while upholding the values of fairness and competitive Integrity be a further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the township Committee of coltsneck our state and County legislative Representatives Governor Phil Murphy the New Jersey Commissioner of Education the njsiaa the Office of the President of the United States and other relative and stakeholders this will be adopted this fifth day of March 2025 by the coln Board of Education I just don't want um to make it clear this resolution was put out um over week um and every single board member had the opportunity to review it and put input uh as they they saw fit so uh at this time um i' like
008to go back to the action items for approval and um yes if anybody would like to comment or have any questions on any of the action items including the resolution you're welcome to do so at this time yeah I would just like to think thank um member of scales are putting this together a concise resolution once again and for being so open with everybody on the board for adding their uh critiques and adding their ideas to it as well and um I would say even being even more open as to asking us to to write our our own addage to this and you helping make it more precise for us uh even though whe whether we're on the policy committee or not as Board of a whole you're open to all of us thank you
009again so much you're welcome yeah I just like to reiterate the saying from a point of communication I think Mr scales did an excellent job in communicating this out to the full board early and often he certainly provided the opportunity for feedback feedback was received and implemented uh and it's a good example of a cohesive working environment that has set the standard for this board and future boards to come so thank you Mr scales for that work you're here i' like to thank John Donald J Trump stes second that anybody else okay I apologize I went out of line so I'm going to make a motion a motion to move uh these items one through seven at this time second fil his camera sorry Vinnie yeah okay can I get a roll call yes yes
010yes W yes great thank you all right if we could just uh take notice of the communications listed um under there and then we will move right into our board liaison reports uh we will start with U Mrs harwitz uh who will be speaking virtually on parent advisory committee okay um good evening everyone um so the parent advisory committee we have our meeting set up up for Tuesday the 25th at 700 p.m. and Wednesday the 26th at 10:00 a.m. emails were sent out by Dr G yesterday to all the parents who attend so uh we we should have that at the end of the month we be good great uh thank you uh Sarah can you roll right into the PTO yeah of course so the the gala is uh as everybody knows is right
011around the corner uh RSVPs were due on Monday they are still accepting late entries so just uh you know send them in if you haven't already done so the readathon is still going on till Friday and as of earlier today when I checked uh nearly 164,000 minutes have been read maybe I read that wrong but that's incredible and uh over $43,000 have been raised which is a huge achievement um the book swap was today and that was also a big success with 1,200 donated to the elementary school and 2,000 donated to the primary school uh the remaining books about 700 will be donated to uh the friend of the cnck library I know my son came home with a ton of new books and was thrilled so it was a it was a great um
012it was a great event today um spirit wear is available for purchase you can get it right on their website there's some new attire to check out um and lastly the pto's general meeting is Wednesday March 12th at 6 PM in the admin building uh this is a great opportunity to hear all the events and um everything that they have planned coming in the coming months uh great I'd just like to add something to that Zarah um Mr Allan Ryan uh he is a member of our community he reached out to me about a week ago uh with a generous donation of uh encyclopedias to add to our library so he has made that donation uh to our district and I want to publicly thank him for always keeping our student students at uh the
013Forefront of his intention so if you're listening Allan Ryan thank you uh so much we do appreciate your donation okay um moving on to uh the colz neck Township School newsletter Mrs camera okay um Brian I Brian and I are excited to share that our first Board of Ed newsletter was sent out via email on Tuesday February 25th and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so thank you to everyone who took the time to read and share your thoughts we are grateful for the community's support and enthusiasm we look forward to Growing this initiative with fresh ideas and engaging content in the months ahead one of our goals is to expand the reach of our newsletter to more residents including our seniors which Kevin thank you is going to be taking the um initiative on
014that families without schoolage children and those whose children attend private schools or beyond the K District so to help keep everyone informed we brainstormed and are considering creating a signup link We like to work with Mr capasso where other community members can just opt in for updates so we'll you know post more details as we get them to continue improving our Communications I will actually be taking a professional development day in midm March focus on canva and s'more and these tools will not only enhance my work professionally but will also help strengthen our Outreach efforts here on the board of ed so I'm looking forward to putting these new skills to good use and as always we appreciate your support and engagement we'll be kicking off the spring edition with Vinnie as the next featured
015Board of end member in the spotlight so thank you Vinnie great thank you very much Mrs camera um uh we are going to move on to the uh col neck Township School Arts Sports and extracurricular activities Mr Retta thank you um looks like tball and baseball registration has closed uh so if you're anybody who's still um looking to sign up I would reach out to to um them directly on the from col Sports foundation.com each sport has their own page and each sport has their own contact uh the seasons both start uh Saturday April 5th so uh good luck to all who are participating especially the softball preseason clinics have started so good luck to all of them and also the uh the flag football season is upon us I'd like to announce that um
016BR remember Brian Scarpa and I are will be coaching together our sons at fourth grade level so and we did it last year and um so we're looking forward to doing it again hopefully have a little bit better season this year we were defeated last year very defeated last year but it's all in good fun and we're looking to have fun with all the kids and uh and parents as well too um uh so we had the draft last week and uh so everyone uh listening now if you guys have um signed up for flag football look out for your coaches to reach out for to you guys for um the first uh uh practice uh the spring musical uh for Cedar Drive uh middle school will be Friday March 21st ands at 7 p.m.
017and Saturday March 22nd at 2 pm and the con over World Elementary uh band concert and Choir concerts will be April 1st at 6 pm and 7M thank you and uh thank you uh vice president Phyllis for asking me to be the next Spotlight in the news letter thank you great thank you Mr Retta um moving on to the coln township committee um Mr scarper and Mrs camera you're more than welcome to both speak okay um so the township committee has revised its public comment policy now responding immediately to Residents concerns and questions um there was a proclamation mayor bus declared March as cctl Cancer Awareness Month Michelle Batista was recognized for her advocacy receiving certificates from both the township committee and um the assembly woman Margie donlin the designated day to wear blue is
018the first Friday of March known as dress in blue day and this will fall on March 7th and I encourage our community to wear blue in support of those affected by coloral cancer and I personally want to thank Michelle who continues to spread awareness there's a affordable housing here hearing scheduled for Friday um March 7th at 9:00 at the mammoth County courthouse and the town is objecting to parts of the agreement and during public comment I introduced the first issue of our newsletter and distributed copies to committee members and the public so thank you to Dr Garay for printing hard copies aome thank you Mr scarper do you have to add anything nothing to add thank you okay great um the colene Township senior citizens Mr Walsh I'm excited that a newsletter is being sent
019to the senior citizens the uh Dr gy thank you for sending that to our senior citizen president uh Mr shabelle and they're invited to Matilda a musical Jr on March 20th at 1M so it's a dress rehearsal and I think they're GNA have a I think you're gonna have a good turnout on that day so I'm excited um that our seniors are going to really participate and see our kids at their best and the musicals are fantastic I'm looking forward to opening night on 21st so thanks again dror for reaching out to so they all got to fill us all the seniors excellent in the newsletter right here um speaking of seniors is a great program I like to you know inform them about I'm sure they may know they may not know it was
020brought to my attention by board member scoret and Dr garay's colleagues um B the program is basically called stay New Jersey and reimburses up to half half of the property taxes for eligible applicants which is great it freezes their property taxes and they're eligible up to $113,000 with the cap at 6,500 so next year and our property tax gets frozen so great information with the you know tax burden everything going up this is a great one in New Jerseys few programs I actually works it's right here it's really going to help our resident so hope all the seniors take advantage of it it's fantastic that's great news it we share with our seniors but uh via Dr G and that's it okay great um Mr Walsh um moving on to uh Naval Weapon Station Earl
021um Jessica's not here tonight um but Mr Scarpa if you can uh pick up with that sure uh M Ramirez and I met uh earlier this week to discuss uh our go forward strategy for our work with the naval weapons station uh we do have an invitation out there we're working on invitation out there to to uh meet up with them to to see what their current needs are at and where they would like to go forward going forward we would also like to extend an opportunity to use the new platform of our newsletter to our Naval we station students we would like to highlight we're offering up the opportunity to highlight one of two students should they become aware or should they be interested in that platform so uh we're looking forward to extending
022ending that platform and uses this as an opportunity to better our relationship and um and contines to explore its possibilities we we do anticipate other opportunities for the town that are can be born out of the weapon station so uh more to come but uh M Ramirez had a report but I'm sure she'll carry it up with that report next week at next meeting thank you uh thank you Mr Scarpa um State and County School boards that would be me um just a reminder uh it's pretty much coming close to the deadline for your um Financial disclosure forms please make sure everybody on the board has handed those in I'm assuming everybody um satisfied the um the New Jersey uh Schoolboard training courses um and lastly I'm sure you all received um this in the
023mail uh this is the workshop invitation for 2025 it's just been announced for October 20th through the 23rd in Atlantic City at the convention Center um and the registration I believe starts uh a y it's right on there April 1st there's an early bird special if anybody wants to um take that into consideration it's all written there and I know Dr gabay is motioning to add something y just as a reminder for uh returning and new school board members registrations go through Danielle Deo and we usually do the group rate so that there's what if there's uh for a decent amount how many is the group right for again I think it's for 20 or more I want to say it's pretty 20 for up to 25 up to 25 so is a group rate
024and Danielle Deo usually moves forward with that so if you are going specifically registering you just have to do that for put in for reimbursable expenses okay we are going to uh start uh the committee of a whole work session at this time I'm going to call um Mr Robert scales uh to start with his uh ad hoc affordable housing committee report great thank you um so moving right along um great momentum um continued from last week uh last meeting um Dr gbay was able to provide us with a a listing of how many nonpublic students we have did you want to touch on that how you der how you derive that number I'm just I don't know the science behind it but whatever you did was fantastic so well thank you Mr SC the
025um the we are required or we track our non-public school students through Transportation because as per New Jersey uh laws the students parents who are uh receive or uh choose to have their students go to uh uh non-public schools are entitled to either Aid andl payments or we provide transportation for them so that is actually managed for us uh by Freehold Regional High School District and the forms that they filled out they actually acquire from the non-public schools themselves and they bring it back to their transportations and then it's all processed that way so that's how we get our formula it's through non-public schools now do is is it possible that there not every student is reprar representative in that count it is possible um but that's but it is a very close one that
026we actually use for not just State reporting but we also use for our like our Title One counts or Essa our annual Essa applications as well for outreach to nonpublic schools it's excellent and so that will that'll allow us to do is essentially create version two of our one pager um that we had created a couple meetings ago um and that'll give us again more further data to remove another estimate of non-public students again there's you know no no percentage that's a guarantee bless you as with everything but what it'll do is it again it'll cement a foundation for us to then say okay well we know that you know out of the 200 non-public students that we have in town how many of that you know is a ratio of the public students that
027are coming in so it allow us to remove some of the numbers as you know you were aware the numbers that we generated were just assuming that 100% of the students that come into those units um attend the public school we wish they would but you know we we know how things will work out so we had a couple more um responses from the community Community as well to provide some just some updates on um some of the equations that we were using to equate to you know I showed you that was the nj.com that I got some information we got some information from Forbes information from just the government agencies on affordable housing so it allowed us to get those percentages to start essentially an equation in the algorithm so it's updated um the
028minute I get some information from any constituents and then anyone from the board as you come forward with any more information that you're hearing but again what it's doing again if we would all kind of we have to decide where we want to post this so the public has access to it all the time so that's just a discussion point for today as well too is that where can we post it and then also receive comments um from this document because rather it's just me going on the Community page and sending that out which is not necessarily to all constituents in town because not everyone has um Facebook as we saw um but again what it does is it's giving us a firm base now we have okay what we expect the tax revenue to
029be and then it'll allow us to then prepare Dr G you also has said a great idea about you know talking to some of the other administrators to see if there's a blueprint that we could draft of what a reconfiguration of school would look like so again another proactive approach for us to say Hey listen we know that the Middle School school has x amount of students and x amount of room which I put on the sheet as well so you know instead of six seven and eight does that change to 45678 or 5678 like other towns do so again I'm very satisfied with the results um so far because we've got more information that we had previously um what it also did is um a a Mr Chris pesi had reached out to me
030from the affordable housing Alliance um they're also they're very similar to what we had gone to from Soldier on right it's more of a it's an affordable housing committee that is designed to help towns introduce affordable housing on that onetoone basis and as we all you know are trying to do is trying to avoid overdevelopment in the town but there's only so much that we can do as a school board so he has offered um to come in and present to the board to just teach and and inform us a little bit more on how towns decide affordable housing and and what sort of the development of affordable housing is behind the scenes as well um there's a lot that I think we could learn from it um whether or not it's by Zoom or
031he can come in for 15 minutes um but what I'll do is I'll introduce um him to the board and then you guys can all have satellite conversations with them if you want to learn a little bit more about this Alliance but again I think you know we've got great momentum because what it's doing is it's created a little bit more of a buzz I think affordable house looks a little bit more you know sexy in town people are actually coming out of the woodwork it's you know people are are pretty passionate about it um and there's a lot that people need to learn um myself included so what this is doing is is just allowing to advance things so we are better prepared and then I can take any information that I learn from
032the field as I educate myself and then come back and and present it to all of you as well so kudos to the idea of the subcommittee but I mean I think within the first you know couple meetings that we've had I mean we've had some pretty pretty um amazing advancement of of where we need to go I just again the I hope I'm wrong right I'm hope I'm wrong about the the number of students that are coming I'm hope I'm wrong about the tax revenue because what that means is that the tax revenue would be increased and it would be a lower amount of students for us but you know as the town advances we'll keep updating this and I'll keep um updating you with the committee report as well so thank you very
033much great thank you so much for your time okay moving into uh advocacy and government relations obviously we touched on the resolution um on February 25th uh Governor Murphy uh touted record high funding uh for K through uh 12 districts in his budget address uh yet we've just learned that Colts Neck uh has suffered a severe blow under his uh state aid plan we lost about I believe it's $179,000 uh for 4.9% cut one of the largest cuts to a district in New Jersey um I have uh it's very disappointing and disheartening how colck always gets the shaft um I'm assuming because it's a conservative town and that's his way of uh punishing us and that is my sole opinion um I've yet to hear anything from our County officials along with Senator Vin goal
034on how to combat these losses and what their plan is to advocate for this District I reached out to Dr garbay last week um and discussed having uh uh inviting Mr uh gopal to sit down and discuss these pressing issues in a closed meeting um these issues will include uh the cut to our state funding the recent executive order signed by President Trump with regards to Banning men in women's sports recognizing there is only two genders male and female and how this district will uphold these orders regardless of Governor Murphy's disapproval this district will not risk losing Federal funding and we will remain steadfast with regards to protecting women and girls rights in every aspect of Education Governor Murphy also said he needed to support a new priority uh which is working with districts across
035New Jersey to ban cell phones from all Kate through 12 uh schools um I do not support or condone the Banning of cell phones um in any school district and I will continue support uh to support uh the rights of parents in regards to cellphone usage um president Trump also put an end to all Dei and federal agencies initiatives across um the country and I also support that executive order um once we meet with uh Senator gopal I'm not sure how long that will take to set up a meeting I will certainly report out uh um what his uh uh plan is to hopefully uh advocate for uh Colts Neck school district U moving on just a quick comment if you don't mind um I think it's it's good what you're bringing up too and
036I think it's good for um our residents to understand as well as the the reduction in state funding so these are these are not actual like common sense um measurements right they're algorithms so they're refer to is the Robin Hood algorithm right so for example the tax revenues in Colts Neck went up substantially right so there there's going to be a a large increase in Revenue to the town so that trips this algorithm and that algorithm then says well there's enough funds coming from the local um the local town where we can pull back some of our state funding but if you think from a common sense perspective what am I working towards right from the affordable housing subcommittee what what is our town looking at an influx of infrastructure and an influx of more
037students so the last thing an Administration should be doing is mandating an affordable housing mandate number one and then number two taking money away when we need more money right if they're going to require us to build in town then they are required to give us more money if we don't get more money from them that's coming from the school budget so as you know from the finance committee and what we'll need to do to do a balanced budget is we have to find the fun from somewhere else to balance that budget right so they're actively taking money away from the school and forcing us to build housing in town so just wanted to highlight that for everyone too because it breaks it down a little bit more if you think about it from a
038common sense perspective so great uh thank you for your Viewpoint thanks um yeah well we have about 10 months to go so okay um moving on um we will uh give the floor to Mr Walsh for buildings ground Safety and Security okay I had a concern about lighting at Cedar dry Middle School insufficient and as a result a a study was commissioned by Mr morasco and the cost of the study was substantial for CTO Drive school which is $10,800 which is I find extremely ridiculous to spend $110,000 on a study without any work being done whatsoever I come from the school of corporate side security I I manage a budget of2 to3 million construction projects we have vendors come in we get free estimates part of those estimates that determine what the actual costs are
039going to be uh included engineering cost whatever Associated contractors are needed for that project are included it's free my belief as chair of of building and grounds is to have a different attitude towards projects that don't require studies if studies are required if they're very complicated I I'll be in agreement with it for instant demographic study for affordable housing cost example for C to drve middle school project manager $221 an hour they want two hours electrical engineer 33 hours to walk around the SE Drive Middle School which is a small parking lot at $189 an hour Junior electrical engineer I don't know what that means3 3 hours long story short absolutely ludicrous I want to protect our taxpayer be efficient with any projects that are conducted in the school district working in partnership with Dr
040Gay and Vince moresa they have a job to do and they do it well they do it by State Statute any bids that are required for $44,000 and above by law has to go you know has to go out a bit if we can do anything that if you can save the taxpayer money for example reaching out to vendors and contractors who need work in our County who need work in Clank Township or live in Township and pay taxes so be it um that's right we'll wait for Mr Scarpa okay yeah so thank you very much Mr Walsh so to be clear this is to commission a study and Mr W's point now the study does not include the actual work to do the projects so if we have the need to supply Lighting in
041this case we there might be some element of need at the different schools uh we are looking for the opportunity to pursue it via a a professional and licensed and approved contractor in that space at that time so the interest is not to pursue forward with a study but to forward and to not waste taxpayer dollars in this space and go towards a approved electrician and vendors to support the product should they get the should they get the bid that's that's that's the general discussion on the table any other comments on it I uh agree with both of you I I do not see uh the reason to go out for a study on something like that um that's an enormous amount of money um to have those Services when we could use that money
042like I said to get a free estimate um and see where we are from there so uh I agree with uh yeah I understand Mr Walsh I I agree um the lighting is definitely a concern to me but um I'm committed to the zero tax impact and at this time um that will probably have to be on the back burner for a possible project for next year um and then we'll just keep up with the maintenance on the lighting at this at this time V Vince did they did they give any explanation why they needed 33 hours to walk around the parking lot that's a good question um we haven't had any uh followup questions or or meeting with them to see that night time and then I guess during the during Twilight but 33
043hours they sit in the parking lot they sit in the parking lot through the entire time our our our approach from the start of this and and why we presented a proposal could be one of many there was many firms who do this kind of stuff right was that a concern was raised to and the approach we took was well how do we address this this concern in a professional manner I am not a engineer we don't have engineers in house so to properly study the situation requires sometimes Professional Services to come in and look at something that was the fundamental approach that we took the concern was raised and it's a valid concern so how you go about it is decisions to make you don't have to use it no no I just if
044if we bring up the issue again U to go forward if we can have like more detail from them why they need to do that or anything any other details and well if yeah we could talk after the meeting if you want to explore it more I'll set a meeting with any company you want sure thank you all right I'm Miss uh Dr G they I wanted to have yeah and I think that that was the point it was the case of saying here was one way it could be addressed right if we wanted to go in that direction but based on the meeting that we had with the adop finance committee the consensus was from the group that we're going to go in the direction of a commercial getting vendors and to look at
045it differently to see if that's a different cost for the board you know and looking at and what those recommendations are in the interim I also don't want to be remiss in mentioning that in the interim Mr Moretta and his team of Maintenance people went and did change out some of the headers in an attempt to kind of brighten the lights and throw a larger light it doesn't add lighting it changes the existing lighting so there are changes there um I myself went over and sat in front of a parking lot went had the lights go on and saw yeah it does look a little bit brighter it doesn't add light where lights are not so that's the one thing that we you know we keep doing it did change the lighting because those are
046original Light lamp posts from 1964 so those lights have been changed out before um and I think I explained in an email um with regard someone I think had raised the question about regarding the esip they weren't eligible because we had tried to make them brighter in the past by making them to led the only lights that could only change in lighting that could be addressed during the through the esip was if we had not already tried to go LED because we had already tried to do that to add lighting and conserve energy in those areas they weren't eligible for the project so any changes we make at this point in time are part of it but we did also say that there's opportunities there our fields are used multiple time the one the fields
047that are adjacent right there they're used used by uh town and and different organizations so when the time comes and when we go through the process of looking at you know proposals from vendors now at this point that that's the direction that we are going in that we can look to say you know are there opportunities for cost sharing and other things that we do for based on it being a a a community Resource as well especially with the opening we leave the Tennis Courts open maybe that's a a draw right the the pickle ball and Tennis Courts draw maybe there's an opportunity for some type of shared services that we could I to say adding lighting to keep it the places open for the community beyond the school hours because that's what we always
048look at for things it's during the school hours right and then the parking lots at nights except for in the winter when we have basketball and different things but the school events except on occasions where their night functions are over by 5:00 or 5:30 so everything after that is Town use with the exception of plays that go on or things like that that are nighttime functions so the focus has always been in Prior years when we've been looking at to your point it being a priority is that we're looking at it with regard to it being a school property where the majority of the time School related events are over by dark you know except with for basketball games and things that go on sometimes in the winter which will go until 5 or six
049o'clock so we'll proceed and then uh provide the board an update yeah yep yep through rental okay all right because there's I mean I mean I don't know if there's law is there laws on how much lighting we have to have so there's there's there's recommended spaces you know that's what in terms of the spaces there are standards of lighting that um I'm assuming an electrician will will know um we actually have the original study from 1963 with the parking lot with the recommendations there Mr Moretta has confirmed with the the person who provided the proposal as well as with the our engineer uh that we worked with for the um or the lighting um expert I should say that we worked with through our um esip that those standards are not in place anymore
050they don't meet today's standards so what's in place does not meet the lighting standards it wouldn't have passed an inspection it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have been approved so we know that but because it's existing there's a grandfathering in we don't have to update those types of things so is there a standard there absolutely is for public spaces and schools and things because cold snuck in general just we don't have lights anywhere I mean but that's by Design you know what I mean and they think about it neighborhoods behind there like I you know that might be an issue for the people who live there well many years ago we explored getting electronic signs yeah and that was that was not um received because of you know because of the the the the lighting
051so there something though for consideration you know from a consideration the local police ever make a comment about so um we've never necessarily had a complaint you know with I want to say in terms of dark in with the exception of being wow it's kind of dark out here um for the times that we're outside in the dark um but that said there are events coming up that and M morasco pointed out we're going to partner with them because they do have the portable lighting you know that they they'll use sometimes at Buck Mill when for the nighting events and things um we're going to look to to add some additional lighting for those night functions that are coming up right and those are shortterm you know if it's not if lighting is a priority
052end those are some short term remedies y cool thank you you're welcome Mr was uh do you have any on uh number one under buildings and grounds or uh just the installation of the Pras yeah asso also the placement of the pergolas I believe jcpnl had to get back to seear dry Middle School make sure you go have so so we are um yes it's mostly mostly get mostly getting funded through the PTO Legacy Grant there are some additional costs that we're discovering that are having to do with Landscaping to you know grade a base ET Etc so those were in discussion and we're addressing there's some additional um minimal costs um that will be passed on for to to complete the perit application through the town a schematic has to be drawn up and
053that's a that's a another cost would this be ready by the 60th anniversary well that's what we're yes I was just gonna say that the one pergola for the court of cdms so it's just a matter of now we're bringing in some an additional landscaper to um give us proposal on both spaces but that's going to be the first great space that's going to get worked out and kudos to our student representative yeah Dr G just mentioned that uh Emanuel Diner will be reporting out on the 19th on this project as well so um just so you're aware of that uh anything else Mr wasal no that's it thank you all right um moving on to uh Communications Mr Scarpa okay so you're good okay um then we're going to skip right to uh curriculum
054uh Mrs camer okay the first thing um I am going to defer to Sarah because this is her idea so thanks M so as some people on the board know I'm involved with the Jewish Federation here in M County as well as an organization called 3G which was founded by grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors as a granddaughter of a holocaust Survivor myself I always want to share any kind of opportunity um for our younger generations to be able to learn more about the Holocaust uh I understand from Dr gar that we we have a very strong um Holocaust curriculum but you know given the rise in anti-Semitism over the last few years I think it could be um incredibly impactful to invite a 3G speaker to share their grandparents firsthand experiences of their survival and their
055strength and um I know a lot of other local school districts have already Incorporated this type of program uh and I wanted to see if that was something that we could potentially Implement in the near future yeah I mean just send me the invitation and we can uh send me the information and I'd be happy to excuse me pass it along and then we can look at it and then um you know we're always looking for building up the robust those those multigenerational in the past and all the it's a a a really special and unique thing it's actually going to be highlighted our partnership with with change is part of the I don't want to give away all the surprises and the good things that are going to happen at the 60th but it
056is something that we are going to feature because it is a it's a we're very proud of that experience that we provide for our students so absolutely just send me the information and I'll share with Dr Rigby and the staff there happy to great thank you okay um the next thing is the jrc program inquiry so I'm going to defer also to Dr gabay but my my last correspondence was with her um with her was just about reaching out to our Colt neck high school for some additional resources and maybe a possible curriculum for our middle school students so now certainly thank you Mrs camera I am uh I've been in communication with um uh Dr Hazel and Dr Donnie who at the high school level we are tentatively trying to set up a meeting
057uh between myself and Dr rgby and Dr Reynolds next week potentially or schedul are trying to kind of coincide as well as when um major pensac is available as well so we're trying to get everyone in the same room I'll keep the board updated when that date is Set uh just so you know the tenative budget the ones that we've been reviewing and ad hoc does include funding for not only a facilitator of an after school program but also program development so it is in the current budget both of those programs okay or tenative budget excuse me the tenative budget development excuse me thank you okay moving on to the ST Math inquiry um tomorrow Dr Erica Reynolds and Mrs Tina Ken Kennis um the district mathematics coach have a meeting scheduled with a representative
058for St Math um I'm really looking at this point I'm really suggesting that we just pilot this program for our special education and tier one students to help close the learning gaps um first of all for cost but also um this this program has has the data backing it that it it has um just phenomenal data and so we can look at teacher feedback and then we can consider expanding ST Math um for all students if you know based on that feedback so for about 150 students it's about 3,500 for the year so that's about $23.33 per student but they'll obviously get more information which then we'll we'll update the board at the next meeting um the digital resource inventory oh of course may add that because the meeting was actually Monday it said March
0593rd so it's the it was Monday oh good and so I just want to I I want to definitely coincide and cross reference some of that because at in terms of stmath we met with uh Lance midus who was the representative for our area um he provided us with quotes and the the the numbers aren't matching what you what you're providing and stuff so I want to make sure that you're aware of that as well uh it is not a per student cost it's by site license so we would be required to purchase two site licenses regardless of how many k children we have in the program and that those site licenses range from K to three and then four to five so four to five uh for those two site licenses if we went
060and pilot it and we we if for a full implementation it would be uh in fact the $12,000 that was originally associated with it and a pilot would be uh approximately we would have to pay for it would probably be about $2,500 to Pilot it they don't give away free Pilots at this time so it would be $2500 to pilot program they gave us uh the names of other Mammoth County districts who are using it uh currently Marboro man alipin uh Spring Lake Heights and Long Branch are the only four in Mammoth County who are using it I would just like to caution with regard to those mix and blends with data and research you know we we certainly can look at it and bring it forward but we use ISL math ST math is
061strictly for mathematics and Mathematics only whereas ISL feeds from NWA map for math language arts and science and then develops individualized excuse me lesson plans or individual learning plans for students so this would be an additional program um also the other thing that was a little concerning with the representatives and since we're and the cow was that they recommend um for students for Effectiveness we also look at the implementation it's not just about the program it's the recommended time that the vendors say should be online for that and they recommend approximately 90 minutes of online time per week for Effectiveness for students so that's something we always look at when we're scheduling or picking programs like how much is in uh recommended by the actual vendors through the research and the development is that it
062is a fully online program and that there is a recommended minimum amount of time whereas I EXL is about 45 minutes per week you know for for that type of thing but they did and we can definitely get into the implementation conversations and things and we want to bring back that information to the teachers to see if they're interested and then we can provide that back to the board okay thank you you're welcome okay um in terms of the digital resource inventory I had requested Administration to complete a review of the current computer programs the district utilizes across all subjects um including data on the program usage so you just kind of Hit Upon I Exel and hopefully we you know possibly we have some programs that are underutilized just so we can you know
063make some better decisions for the budget I'm just gonna leave it on I'm sorry I'm just gonna leave it on for the sake of time um and yes and the what's reflected again in The Proposal of the tenative budget right now is part of those efforts and work I shared in my updates what the work that was done in 2024 we can also break that down by cost because you're going to have things like savis that are used throughout the K to 5 they're obviously going to have a per pupil cost that's lower in terms of usage and those usage about three or four years ago we did a full technology audit especially postco when everyone was grabbing it everything free and then and so many vendors were giving everything away for free and then
064things weren't free anymore so then we had to really hone in and say okay what did we find a value what didn't we so few years back and I can I'm happy to link that in or share that as well that work that was done that we Whitted away with um and what we've eliminated throughout the years and really tried to hone in on because we do we while we definitely certainly want to provide a l a toolbox right for teachers to pick from we also want to streamline the resources that are being used because then we can measure true Effectiveness and impact on student learning when you have a whole array of things that are being used for different purposes you know you you you always ask yourself in reflection of student performance to
065what do we attribute those results and if we have five you know it's it's about comparison of things so we've actually tried to streamline the program so that there's more consistency even through the grade levels of what's being used so a a a teacher or a student actually doesn't have to stop drop and learn another program as they're progressing through the SC through the grade levels um but we can I I'll I'll update that for 20 24 25 the one from last year is in uh has been in the updates but I can continue to do that great and I I definitely agree less programs that the students are utilizing more to really finish the program is better than just a little bit of everything exactly yeah so yes I definitely agree with that okay
066so moving on to okay our savis program so um at the last Cal meeting I believe it was confirmed that our third through fifth graders um do not have the additional practice workbooks that accompany the savis and vision math program and Erica Reynolds had actually stated that teachers in grade 3 to five had expressed that they did not want the additional workbook um so however as a parent when I previously discussed this resource back when my now this is years ago when my um my own children were in third fourth and fifth grade teachers that that I asked at back to school night were completely unaware that this additional resource was even available so like I said while this was several years ago I find it concerning um and I I I'm kind of in
067disbelief that Educators would not want an additional resource to support student learning um whether for Benchmark or midterm review the additional practice um you know just for parents even seeking enrichment opportunities or just extra support for struggling students because what makes that that additional workbook gr is it has a sample problem for parents because a lot of times the parents will say I don't understand this new math um so I know Erica said parents have access to printing out these these resources but I don't I know I wouldn't do that I don't know if any of us would and I can say that it is not the easiest most userfriendly program unless you're you're somewhat trained in it to just go around and printing out the pages so I'm just requesting and maybe we could
068vote on this that a survey be sent to parents and teachers in our third through fifth grade to just gauge interest in providing this extra practice book um you know even if they just use it before the njsl testing and the feedback could help the board determine if budgeting for the resources a priority for our families and staff it might not be you know I might just think it's a great resource but you know I'd like that feedback can I can I just add to that because we for prep in preparation for tonight so I just want to make sure we we can level set and go back to what Dr Reynold said at the presentation there are two books that are used and as as a as type of workbooks volume one and volume
069two as part of the instruction students are doing all the work in all grade levels K to five in those books that's what is happening okay those books are also available in the digital resource through the Chromebooks that are given but there are tangible books there is also something that is called the practice buddy which we also have and and we that teachers are using and students are using you know in terms of the practice Bud which is an online component to the program at the K2 level we have the additional practice workbook okay because of the age differences and and looking at what we had talked about all the things that we had talked about the additional practice workbook is something that has become almost like a regular homework a practice reinforcement of exercises
070at the K to2 level okay the additional practice workbook is a component of the digital program that current exists 3 to five as well as three days when that additional practice workbook uh homework is assigned at the 3 to five level and I'm sure as parents you've seen this they are doing it online right in a math notebook nobody's inputting anything into a computer students have math math notebooks that they're working in okay and so that is part of their homework a teacher can decide based upon the individualized practice that a student has has whether or not they need more homework or practice in either volume one or volume two whichever one they're working on some give the pages it's very individualized it's not a case where everyone like when I went to school everyone
071gets to do you do even problems you do odd problems you do the problems based on the small group work that's being done and that is either assigned through the volume one volume two work the addition the practice Budd or the additional workbook so the additional workbook I I mean I think that another question that could be asked if we wanted to have if you wanted to propose this way is how many people are using the additional practice workbook at the K to2 level that we already provide before we survey if you want this let's find out if it's being utilized at the K to2 level you know the way it's the way it's h happening because there are so many different facets and personalized ways that parents are addressing it's almost like we're telling
072them that that they're using I understand it's additional practice and I I I totally get everything and understand completely your perspective on it it's an additional you know thing that we don't provide in print it is available and if a child is assigned homework they are just accessing it the same way you would access a book or anything online and they're doing the work in a math notebook that they bring back and forth to the classroom teacher if that's what's assigned to them or it could be something in the in the practice buddy or it could be something in the volume one and volume two and when we were when our teachers were provided professional development and training in envisions math they were told that they had that those options to be providing so I
073that's just I'm just lending that perspective as well to it so I I defer to whatever the board wants us to do but I'm just giving that additional piece no I idea of survey surveying the kada 2 to see if they're using it um but I I do think at least from my experience with my children were in the three to fifth grade A lot of times their their homework was actually online and it was it was not individualized it was just assigned homework 12 problems you know I'm just basing it on my my experience and there are you know we do have Learners that might benefit from doing the homework with pen and paper versus the online version so it just gives them the option but really it's just such a great resource as
074a study guide before benchmarks nobody has to print out papers they have this additional book at home that at least the parents now know okay my my child's struggling with 15.4 I can go to 15.4 I see a sample problem of of you know modeled and I can help my child because a lot of parents really have a problem with the way the math is taught because it's not the way they learned so it just it really is I just think a great communication for parents and again you know my idea is just to put it out to the community is there an interest and if there's not then I'm fine with that as well um do you feel it fair that we do the survey first for the K through2 would that be a
075fair see use it absolutely okay would you be willing um sure to do that for as a preliminary uh route and then we'll move on uh to see if it would benefit the older grades I I agree with you um you know having the workbook I know a lot of parents like that as versus the computer but if it's not feasible or they're not going to use it uh certainly we don't want to waste funds so move on with this surve and then uh we'll report back and as for the request of the board you want to preview all surveys before they go out to the community correct yeah thank you but not staff you're fine with staff with internally it's just the community because I think that's an internal operation you need to see
076what's written to the staff or would you like I think that's an internal operation if it's goes out to The Community I think that's fine thank and you and Phyllis you'll um when we get the policy to um policy 2330 um you can click on that link too you'll see there's new verbiage in there that Str es is asking to put in and recommending that kind of highlights like the communication that you're talking about okay yeah all right um for the summer bridge program I'll defer again to Dr gabay for the update my mic off I'm sorry so yes again once again um the uh Summer Bridge is uh being proposed and developed and included within the working uh towards the tenative budget it is there it is on a scale back version um as
077of this morning there were 90 uh responses for participation what was last year um I want to say we had it wound up with 12 120 130 with about a 100 regular attendees okay and when when is the um the response when is the deadline for that is that ongoing they could just no I think it's this week I think it's over I think it's where so that number can definitely change them okay and it will and we've had fluctuations I mean we've changed the program um we've adapted it based on what uh parent surveys were that were given at the end um we try to find that sweet spot um between summer religious classes and football and all of the things like that that happened and also recognizing Fourth of July we try to
078find that sweet spot in between so that's what we're looking to do and um any knowledge I know last year it is it has um been something that the state actually gave the school grant for is that correct we actually applied no we actually applied it was a competitive grant that we won it was $138,000 that we applied for and we got we were the only District in Mammoth County that won that Grant okay so we were very proud of that and then we so we funded it the first year with that and then we went um after another grant that was the the high impact tutoring Grant and when you looked at the specs for that Grant we went after that Grant again and we got that Grant too so it was Grant funded
079and then it was also co-funded W with um ARP funds so we it was it's been completely Grant funded this is the first year it's in the local budget okay and and right now there have not been any grants and obviously we're just I'm just watching and waiting and saying looking so there's nothing we can do to help with that that's just and like there's nothing we should be looking at as well no because I think that the the specs of the of the grant when it's when the when the grant specifications come out from the state it they're looking for certain things to Target certain student populations and growth and Ms and stuff especially postco those things were available for us to to look at so um we're always just looking at opportunities to
080supplement and and you know provide services that don't fund on the budget so yeah okay great okay thank you you're welcome all right moving on to being a writer we also had the um wonderful presentation by Dr Reynolds and I I did get them some numbers today because um we had a budget meeting before so the program for K to2 is a o imately 23,000 which an additional um $3,000 or training and then it would be the same for 3 to five another 23,000 with another 3,000 for training so my suggestion for um for this program is to implement it incrementally I think I had mentioned that before we start with the kada 2 for next year and then as that second grade cohort is moving it um reduces obviously it kind of spreads out
081the finances over time as well as the training and um you know I found like just you know three advantages so obviously it's reduced immediate financial burden it's gradual teacher training and it just really helps sustain the budget management so you know spreading the cost over multiple years and maintaining a balanced budget and generally um when you're starting a new program because it's new language it's just a new way of doing things it kind of makes sense to start with your youngest population and then as that population is moving up they they're continuing with that program so that's just a suggestion it's more F it's curricular and finance it kind of overlaps with both yeah and in preparation for tonight and thank you for for that definitely we are looking at our on demand writing
082pieces one of the things as the Board Writing is a component of njsla and our it as we've gotten into our data Dives writing is a place that continues to kind of hold us back a little so that's why we even went out to a pilot we knew that that was something that we needed to look at very quickly so in our on demand writing pieces you know um I hear you and I think that we can definitely have further conversations at this point in time you know know that the recommendation from the recommend from the administration is to to not to do the K to 5 and that's because of the results we're getting on the and On Demand writings for example like in our uh grade four pilot classes on demand writing um
083whereas classes that are not in the pilot are you know getting at or above grade level 39% 50 uh 58 and 35 we have 62 who are in the pilot so we're seeing those immediate results in our writing which I think is what we want to and when we are doing programs we certainly W do want to professional development costs are going to be the professional development costs whether it's in year one or year two they don't charge by teacher they charge by consultant these days so that cost you're just going to be repeating the cost if you don't do it in one year shot plus our teachers are working with it so I do feel that it is something that um they are seeing the benefits and through articulations I think we we are
084hearing that teachers want this for a cross grad level so in terms of cost and as we're developing the budget together for curriculum and all across all areas that would be an area that I would strongly advocate for maintaining that kto five implementation for next year we're ready for it our students need it and I think when we look at these things we look at it just like a security ISS or any other sh was something we want to handle immediately this is an academic priority to in to increase our writing scores so I wouldn't um recommend delaying unless it was absolutely necessary to do so okay thank you for that and um the last thing I guess um we were not at least Dr Reynolds never presented anything about the social studies program so
085I was just asking you to give us a little bit of background because um it is a again over $20,000 in our budget so just you know want to learn a little bit about our program is it a new program is there something we've already been using so that was I wanted to start there it is not a new program so but it's a newer program to your point it is a newer program but it's the first time it's in the budget because it was something that when we were looking to enhance our social studies program again uh that was a couple years ago it was in 2020 uh two that we started the process and we had a committee and teachers worked together at the K to 5 level they selected three programs that
086we went out to we were able we for for this pilot we were actually able to secure free resources for all three programs they were giving them away uh for free to Pilot at the end of it we chose this one uh for implementation last year to your point was year one of the full implementation we Ed stabilization Aid to do that which was that onee process that we used we sub we subsidized using using that as we talked about in finance so this is the first year it's appearing in the budget so that's why it looks like it may appear as a new program but it is not a new program newer yes a newer to your point uh what were the programs you piloted just do you remember out of curiosity I do
087TCI young citizens and savis my world interactive oh okay so it was just one out of two it was just TCI TCI is one young citizens young citizens and savis my world interactive okay those three and we have all the rubrics we have everything from the pilot was presented to the board I want to say in 2022 okay great thank you the curriculum committee excuse right so yep just was already approved so thank you that's what I was interested in uh okay is that it for the uh curriculum okay I didn't mean that rudely I was just I didn't want to cut you off in anyway um okay we are going to start uh with the finance uh part of our um cow uh Mr Oro you want to store it yes so the uh
0882025 2026 preschool tuition rates I believe it's uh it was approved 8,300 and we have that's from 9:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the afternoon Monday to Friday and the busing is no busing okay it's not but well um so we're not going to be doing that Cur that Transportation piece of it this year and the reason because is is twofold we have in the past based on Spaces that we had available because we are required to provide transportation for our preschool disabled students okay where we have run into some issues re regarding the length of those runs with some of our youngest learn some of our our L youngest children is that as students come in through the summer we've had parents who have taken a tuition spot and it's created a little bit
089of a an issue regarding the length of runs and the volume of students on buses as we we' had more preschool disabled students enroll in the district before the start of the school year so a very strong recommendation from our it really offsets it doesn't bring in like a revenue it offsets the cost of a run that's already being facilitated so the recommendation this year was to not offer Transportation as an issue we had a limited seats anyway for it there weren't many people that were able to take the option of Transportation so that won't be an option for them this year okay okay okay um the fiscal year 2020 six state aid I'll just go over those numbers real quick um categorical Transportation Aid this year was 824 categorical special education Aid was $1,244
090categorical um security Aid this year was $131,900 military impact Aid 1,523 650 uh $650 and the uh total there is 3,453 n84 um the 2026 budget updates we're still working towards a 0% tax increase for colen taxpayers um Brian if you want to add anything uh so thank you Jason uh yeah we continue to meet uh W with the administration to go over our proposed budget for 26 uh we're working line by line by line item to appreciate any opportunities of efficiencies of scale uh we are looking at obviously keeping close eye on cost infrastructure as we proceed forward for this year as well as the the the next years uh we are getting there uh more meetings to come we just had on earlier today we'll continue to update the board as a whole
091as we proceed forward with our carve out of numbers and better appreciation of anticipated expenses especially due to the rising cost potential infrastructure due to the housing responsibilities coming our way for the next three years uh is that it for finance uh just one note of Finance um you know as evidenced by Dr gar work with the summit Bridge program the board definitely wants to uh uh commend the work and drive and the initiative to obtain grants uh and that was a fantastic opportunity that you seize and we appreciate that for the first few years so uh a Keen Eye on opportunities and grants for the state is needed and we appreciate the work that you did for the summer bridge program because we do know that that is very well received by the kids
092and the parents uh but thank you for the for the work on the initiation of Grants anything else okay um we will move on to uh policy uh Mr scales um yeah just give you a quick update um and then I'll if you want to add anything Dr G as well but there's a a large alert um from Strauss s May 234 um on numbers one through seven um essentially what it's doing is it's um it's really it's clarifying the roles and responsibilities of the district the administration and then law enforcement um kind of to your point before Mr Walsh about being surprised about like something working from the state I was surprised with these policies um and surprised with the verbiage that was added in espe uh specifically electronic surveillance and cooperation with law
093enforcement in years past um their you know cooperation from our standpoint was great but the state did not have Mo like good cooperation with them it's adding verbiage in here that allows us to understand fully what the Police role would be if we need them and what would happen if there's an incident in the school um so it it sub substantially defines um the roles and responsibilities and God forbid if there was ever an emergency as well too um and well yeah you want to comment on those first before I move to the others yes thank you and as as Mr walon know there's an annual MOA our memorandum of agreement with law enforcement which uh is done every single year and perfectly said these policies and regulations really just put into place what is
094already required um by those by these things so these are all things that are not new they are but it basically pushes it into Thea and any guidance for the so it links them together which is really what it should be doing anyway um uh Mo the mo MOA is B for those of uh who might not know it is a public document but it is customized uh and reviewed by local law enforcement I meet with the uh chief of police and uh the lieutenant uh for schools to review and make sure as see if everything in accordance our district I'm very proud to say exceeds the bare minimum requirements of the mo MOA regarding communication um uh we do a lot of things that are beyond the expectations of what the minimum is that
095is required the one point I will make about state aid the numbers across the board in security um actually and Safety and Security actually increased a little bit throughout the state and um I know that the current board members but in terms of advocacy I actually testified between uh in front of the uh The Joint Committee for Public Schools about school safety issues and shortfalls that were throughout the state so that was I was um there was a lot of aacy I actually did that twice both La this fall and last fall to ask for more funding um in that area specifically for schools knowing that we've done the board has always prioritized with Administration the Safety and Security being with our sleo our school safety the infrastructures um that's Colts Neck and that's obviously
096our main concern but on a larger scale um we wanted more State funding because there are districts that have to choose between this and that and that's compromised and every student in my opinion in the state of New Jersey deserves a safe and secure environment to learn as staff so I was very pleased to see that increase um uh that they committed to uh in terms of providing additional funding on schools through state aid for Safety and Security excellent that being said dep we do we do we do dep that is true excent offic y yeah the student um student smoking was interesting we're not using Lucky Strikes anymore it's a lot of like smokeless tobacco so I was shocked that they were still calling it students smoking um but what what that was doing
097is um it's enhancing the verbiage for as the young kids say zins the uh the pouches the non-tobacco pouches it enhances um smokeless tobacco the use of like vape pens and things like that so specifically calling it out um and then before we move on to the others um the first one for Hib what that does is that clearly defines when the authorities would take over so from obviously following the chain of command when we report an incident and then it comes to the board then if authorities do need to be um involved again it clearly defines the role that the actual Administration has to take and then who takes over the investigation um and I thought that was a great update as well too because previously there was no really differentiation of when the
098authorities would be involved so I thought um that was great so I don't know if anyone has any questions on any of these but pretty standard and and then one question I had is that there's a lot of um like just like language updates in here too like just a lot of like capitalization is that common like we'll get an alert for just upper case versus lower case we will yes and sometimes it's it's a number statute change that's minor we'll get an update for it um and sometimes the the changes are significant in those minor change enough to just say you know we're going to we're just going to adopt this the way it is because there's so many minor small revisions it's easier just to take the larger revision and the way just
099to in the process and I've been working with Mr scales in it everything in bold is new everything to strike through is current and uh recommended for removal yeah so um and just so you know um uh these policies have also gone to the building administrators who deal with you know at the building level with them for review so if there's any feedback prior to March 19th with these possibly going um from feedback from the board or anyone has questions for first read on the 19th those policies 1 through 7 I will certainly share that with m scales and um the board ahead of time if there's any recommendations from the administration prior to first read okay excellent any questions on one through seven before we move on to that old homework so philis did
100you want to pull it up so I can show you where that is do you have it I have it oh you do okay cool so if you read the um on the bottom what philis was asking before on the regulation the policy itself is standard verbiage but if if you look at the last paragraph on the regulation which is different than the policy the regulations for the administration the policies for parents and things like that in bold um it'll it'll call out sort of like the roles of teachers and students and the actual communication that's not necessarily required but encouraged between um actual instructors and parents so that might help clarify some things as well too but it doesn't specific specifically call out um sort of I would guess that we were referencing is
101like the additional homework assignments and things like that like I don't think we would consider those homework then right like if we're if we're asking a child to use that extra book or to you or if one teacher's not using it and another teacher's using it they're not talking about consistency in that regard but I don't we wouldn't consider that homework would we we consider that extra or right additional practice okay so I don't know if there's I mean if there's verbiage that you'd want to try to add into this I mean we could look at that as well too but I just don't know what constitutes again homework versus extra instruction but that's just my two cents on it but it does it was interesting to see like your comments versus what is on
102here there there is a a specific call out on it so if that helps at all but okay great and uh you want me to talk policy so um the previous board actually change the homework policy and I'm you know complimenting them what was that the regulation the regul right we're back to the regulation aspect and I do think though um that I would like to make it a little bit less gray it still is where um I would like to remove um and this is something we can you know talk about further but the line that says exceptions to this regulation shall be permitted based upon the unique nature of a teacher's program upon approval by the bill building principal or design designate in the middle there right yes okay y um there have
103been parents who have contacted me um just saying that they are not able to access the um homework on the Google Classroom that that is right now the online platform that our school district is using so I would like it um changed really that teachers you know will post the homework assignment to the Google classroom or you know or the online platform the school uses for communication to ensure clear and consistent communication with students and their families and the line that's crossed off right now um I actually would I I don't believe it should be cross off that teachers of students um shall post all homework assignments to the Google Classroom um I I think that's really important I think that's important for communication I think that's important for when our students are sick or
104whether or not we agree but they go on vacations so um I would just like to once again just relook at this get rid of the gray make it a little bit more clear and um that's that's just sort of what I'm proposing so like consistency across the board like everyone submitting Google absolutely I got you okay and and if I so in listening to that the exceptions were based on specific programs because not every program gives homework so to be words you know in terms of all teachers so if you're looking at all teachers does that include our preschool disabled par have to be posting homework if there's no homework no so I think that's like so if you're in a program I think that that was language that I remember with last year
105we looked at and we gave consideration with and I know that working um you know with policy chairs and and things that there was a case where it was program specific so there might be um do your preschool teachers have a Google Classroom to communicate with parents it's an example I don't know but was program specific based upon like the example that you know because if you know and I don't know if they do but if they do it's still just a great way to communicate with the parents as well you know obviously they have email but it is just not even homework just letting them know oh today's Spirit you know Spirit day or whatever Communications they give it's just another way of of communicating so um but yes if if obviously if a
106teacher is not giving homework I would think this whole policy then would not apply to them okay because it's a HK right it's it's um a homework policy okay excellent yeah that's it for that then just the um open discussion for cell phone store uh yeah uh Dr gar is gonna um basically give us the results and go over this cool thank you my apologies Mrs Horwitz I didn't send this to you so I will send make sure that you send this what I just gave to the board my apologies so um this was the survey that was provided to the families by Dr Rigby um as per the request on uh at the February 19th the second page has the results of the survey okay which has a 75% yes to 24 75.7 yes
107just noting to 208 potential students and you would take out the ones that may have seventh and eighth grade parents that are of two uh 74 responses for the week with 24.3 no not in favor and then for the board's pleasure pleasure I'm say but in terms of there were some that provided comments I provided that for uh the board to be able to review as well if they if you would like to do that um with that so those were the results I think we had the survey um I think the this we can certainly have comments I know that we were looking for a majority um we didn't get a majority response but that is also indicative of surveys I will tell you that is a a very typical pattern uh in response
108rate I have a question is this mandatory for children puton there's no policy change this is a practice change remember the policy would come as a matter of fact that's that was one thing I wanted to make clear that if we were going to be changing a policy we would have given and wanted feedback on the policy we certainly would have sent that language this is about trying out and then we can that pilot this practice so really right is it mandatory for the practice the practice is the cell phone should be in the locker we're going to give you an opportunity to store it there if it's not there it's in your locker you know or that type of thing so that's that's what we're looking to do in seventh and eighth grade and
109then we'll take that feedback again continue feedback we'll put another survey out if the board gives us the okay to go forward with it then we'll take that feedback and then policy language will come from that if a policy language is going to change because we that's what we said there's um it needs updated it needs to be looked at and and as we're moving into to school boards as well we're going to be changing it anyway so I want to make sure that we're having uh what we want done okay okay I'm just reading over some of the comments um um I I notic that say that oh I'm sorry I notic that one there's one comment here that's adversely reflecting the Board of Ed you know then and they're indicating that it's if
110it's coming from the school then we're fully suppor if it's coming from if it's being instigated by the board of bed then they they are not in support so that's interesting uh that said was I'm going look at the message the message is clear that it's coming from the school uh and I appreciate the communication channels that you use you used and I'm surprised that wasn't picked up in the actual message but thank you I appreciate the I appreciate the communication channel that was effectively used to get out this message anybody else so I I can look to the first meeting in April to give an update you can put survey out back to the community you know to to our parents again and students and the teachers okay you know we can I can
111provide that feedback but uh like um just make sure like I you know we discussed I just want to make sure I know that it was a little um I I felt uh that it was a little skewed that you know um when the actual question in the box came out um I obviously supp I support not it's mandated I support yeah that you support having it as ver the option I'm just just right and I and I clarifying and I'm sorry when you were out I mentioned this we're not changing a policy this is like hey let's try it out so I didn't want if we were doing policy language we would certainly want to you know do to make it clear what we're asking someone to mandate to do this is you still
112have the two options you were just trying it out so I wanted to make sure everyone was still clear about that thank you okay that's just the one question I have too sorry um is it like the ultimate goal of it is it do we want to mandate or give them option I think we I think we would we'll see how the pilot goes you know I think what that's the choices we're looking at some parents you'll see in there feel you'll see in the comments F felt strongly that no they shouldn't even have it on them right and some feel strongly about no why they want it on them so I think this is that option in the looming background of a band let's try to put something in place that allows us to
113satisfy whatever the definition of word ban means yeah well you know when that comes Behavior right right right so you know the goal if you want to know from a philosophical point of view the philosophical point of view is to encourage a student to detach and engage in the student learning environment and not feel yeah that they have to be there understanding though access is still important on many different levels for many different reasons and wanting to find that happy medium like we said I just want to make a comment here um on this response here it says uh teachers should also put their phones away and focus only on teaching the lesson um it was brought to my attention by um a number of students uh when this basically came out a few weeks
114ago that um the teachers have a record of having their cell phones out as well so it's going to be very difficult to ask my daughter to not have her cell phone out while teachers are using their cell phones uh in the view of our students so keep that in mind I I want to just say one thing though um just I know that when there's lockdowns and there's certain procedures as a teacher I have to communicate through my cell phone now obviously if it's personal that's that's very different but there are times when there are reasons where a teacher might have a cell phone so I just wanted to bring that up I I think they should uh you know have the right to do so but the feedback that I received that was
115not happening so our teachers used to smoke in school so you recall those days so did you Rob so did you I'd like to bring attention to this the one one comment um and I think it's a really good idea and maybe something that we could maybe pilot as well too uh I I believe the entire policy needs to be revised Stu students should be allowed to carry their cell phones in their Chromebook cases and the pouch policy should be implemented as a consequence for students who fail to keep their phones in their Chromebook cases uh I really I think that's a great idea and I really agree with that especially when you go back to times when we were kids and if they saw our cell phones they took it and put it in
116the teachers put in their desk y um so for putting in a pouch like that is almost going back to that kind of mentality that kind of thinking and if and I I think an emergency situation I think as just as a president believes that students should have it on all times in case of emergency and keeping it in in the in the in their B cases I think is a is a good is a good um compromise to that idea I think it teaches good behavior too yeah you know responsibility I mean the you know other schools not in our district but you know nonpublic schools if they confiscate the phone and then you have to pay to get the phone back you have to go into school and you have to pay a
117fine to get the phone back I used have to find my teacher we're definitely giving options here versus yeah I used have to find my teacher at the end of the day I have to find my teacher at end of the day you come find me I'm not going to tell you where I am come find me so I don't know if that's something that Dr G if that if that's an idea after this pilot is we could pilot it this way is it could be something that we talk about as part of this is the the pouch one is step one right and in terms of saying like let's do this let's see how this works and the issue let's take this step you know and then go for it and then take the
118feedback and I could come to you by March 19th and say this is a disaster we're pulling it I'm not doing it right that could be feedback and that could be a real thing but we I want to we want to see it in action as as an attempt to detach so and that's and I think that's what you have to try you know I think that's what we encourage our students to do so I think we encourage a different way of approaching something that is a known recognized issue right of people being detached to their cell phones as well as disciplinary referrals for doing so y so I think that we want to I agree not cultivate a a school culture where kids are constantly being like you know understand it's a pro it's
119an issue and we want parents to have you know the communication and students have their cell phones and feeling though they shouldn't have them at all but that's not necessarily always a reality so let's create a culture and a practice that is comfort from you know addresses all concerns excellent or try one at least at least try it that's why I all righty um okay uh wrapping that up uh there's nothing under negotiations or uh Transportation so we'll move right into personnel with uh Dr gab um those are all just anticipating the things that are coming up on the 19th you know it's a time we'll have some movement going on there are instructional assistance one of the issu that's on there is regards to a nurse uh for an after school program that we
120may uh that we're running at the primary school there's a a couple students that with u medical conditions so they may be stiens where the the role we're working with the families for that at this current time so uh if more information is needed but those just looking at recommendations moving forward into March 19th that's it that's it okay um I have a few things for new business if I may and then I will open it up to everybody else um just a report out uh uh Mr toia the chairman of the planning board uh reached out to me last week to discuss adding to Liaisons uh to his subcommittee to help gain Insight uh with the affordable housing challenges um I appreciate his transparency and willingness to include this board with his discussions and
121decision that will affect all Colts neack residents I'm confident that his leadership and the ability to think outside the box will bring new vision and ideas on how we can satis satisfy the Mandate yet still keep Colt snack uh the Colt snack we all love with that being said I have appointed Mr Rob scales who serves as our board chair of affordable housing uh Mr scales has put in countless hours uh researching and navigating possible outcomes uh when all affordable housing mandates are completed and I have also appointed uh Mr Kevin Walsh uh with Kevin's 27 years of Public Service uh to coltsneck as a police officer and Sergeant uh he's familiar with uh police needs traffic patterns and a need for strong relationship with our Police Department uh thank you both uh for taking
122on this appointment uh I'd like to thank uh Mr toia uh for including our Board of Education to hear their voices um uh despite um Mr Viola uh voting no uh to having uh committee Liaisons um with that being said Mr Scarpa if there's any reason that um one of these two gentlemen cannot attend uh can I have you as a fill in to uh okay perfect uh thank you very much um lastly um as Dr g bay mentioned March 19th is going to be a fantastic meeting for our students uh uh like I said I proposed uh earlier on this year uh to honor our honor rooll students our high honor rooll students and their great achievement um I want to Spotlight them um and let them know how proud We Are of all
123the hard work that goes into becoming a high honorable student um me and Dr Garay and Dr Beck also discussed honoring um somebody uh that has a special needs program that has met their Milestone or reached um sometime of achievement within their uh classroom studies we are still working on that um and uh you know we will report out uh on that and also um I think we'll be uh are we going to be representing the child at the uh the the thing I'm going to on Tuesday as a child uh at the Ocean Township High School okay we'll be recognizing that person as well uh so if you'd like to speak to that yes we have our uh uh Mammoth County School boards years ago started an eighth grade dialogue where uh they have
124Stu eighth graders who come together and it's a great event where they meet every year and they POS some questions about reflection before they move on to high school and so Mrs bupy will be joining uh Dr Rigby and myself and a student uh that was selected by teachers to represent and just have a great conversation so that student I don't want to give it away that student will will be invited to a board meeting to talk about his experiences and just as a reminder the meeting on the 19th is at primary school because it will be a large grouping of people so uh parking will always be at a premium on nights that we're highlighting to students so but just as a reminder that meeting it will be at we will also on the
12519th be introducing our 2025 student Representatives yes to the board and Mrs VY is meeting with Dr Ry and I again uh next week on Wednesday to provide an overview of the program um and I'm excited to meet all the um you know the new Liaisons and see uh what kind of ideas that we're looking at for this year um and uh yeah I'm looking forward to it you have a lot of work ah are you're gonna be seeing a lot of me this week um so yes if they're listening we are we are so looking forward to meeting all of you so with the mention of the student aison we had talked about a few times about some kind of funding any any new information just on yeah I feel like I keep bringing
126it up but so excited f i i we uh Mr Moresco can speak to it a little bit more but we reached out to our actually our auditor and he confirmed we probably shouldn't be doing a gold fundme just because of the legal ramifications for it but that that's not an impossibility so we're working with um the auditor I if you want to speak to that and setting up something for the board with regards to people being able to streamline because we do accept donations you know we do accept it it's a letter the PTO does does a legacy Grant they uh we accept it on board resolutions and that's for more formal proposals but if it's simply a way of saying um you know there's there's different methods out there like that they have
127um donors chooses those kinds of things that are also mechanisms that are put in place so we're looking if people wanted to um find a more streamlined to support specific events I want us to just be have a little bit more conversation about it because I also want to be encouraging and supportive of our students and I don't want it to be like a case where it just go into the student a fund of some kind or are you picking a uh something to fund you know I want to make sure everyone feels good about the work that they're proposing and all that stuff so maybe a little bit more conversation about the structure of the actual funding itself and then we can certainly find a mechanism that would be uh appropriate Through The Eyes
128of of the a to do so yeah with regards to internal controls absolutely yeah so it's not it's more of like just a continuing conversation but it's on it's on the plate it is on the plate mov forward just Babys right now yes yes yes okay great thank you you're welcome um also um Angelique and I participated um in a call with Bill spadia a republican candidate in the upcoming governor election we joined this discussion as private citizens not in our capacity as Board of Education members and during the call um Bill had emphasized the critical need for school boards to establish a parents Bill of Rights and given the importance of Parental involvement in education um I believe this is a topic that our policy committee Rob sorry back on you again um might
129want to consider exploring in the future okay and then um the last thing so I had shared with Dr gabay my my proposal of you know putting this incre um incrementally K to2 and 3 to five so you know she was obviously very well repared with what I was going to say um so I just kind of thought about the data she shared um it took me a little bit to think about it and um and I think that's that's wonderful that you have this data but I just want to remind the board that we really want to be mindful when we compare teachers directly that way our classrooms because of the unique you know composition of each class factors like the number of tiered students the special education needs in each class the varying
130teacher skills and abilities I mean there's better teachers um you know all also influence this data so for budgetary reasons whatever we decide I I'm fully in favor of um I still do recommend maybe starting with k to2 but I did I did like her feedback on that the training it's one group so it's K to2 is 3,000 3 to five is is um 3,000 so it might be better to implement it if we decide to you know again for budgetary reasons split it it might be better to just do K to two one year and then three to five and not do it as incrementally as I wanted um it's just sort of a playoff of of what you were saying so that's that that's um my thoughts and that's all for me from
131new business so thank you and not I will certainly link all of that in terms of just having the the the data I want to make sure the board has it so I'll certainly share everything that was there with it so you can internalize it and you know look at it more anybody else for oh yeah real quick I just like to thank uh president vby for updating the layout of of the table so every every board member has the opportunity to be seen on screen thank you very much I I'll be honest even though I put the request in um Dr garab and her staff were very kind to reorganize um the layout so I want to thank them thank you guys as well then thank you thank you thank you for being so
132accommodating great thank you U Mr Etta uh anybody else for New or Old business oh I'm sorry we just got them the budget um so uh uh Mrs harwitz uh Mrs vulp Dr Beck and I have attended the parent advisory committees and I know that Dr Beck has been partners with me for um two years as we've been going through so now a year and a half into it and one of the things that we've been talking a lot about and even at the board level has been um ex uh Chromebook screen time all of the things that we've been talking about and hearing feedback from parents um on pretty vers you know looking at it from way so one of the things that um hearing the viewpoints of different parents and having the the
133time that's spent from there I would like to propose to the board allowing us to work together to put together something specifically maybe for the K to2 level where we really do a deep dive as a team uh and when I say as a team I mean with stakeholders at the table board members parents teachers at the table where we say to ourselves okay again looking at the resources that are used but also the value and what we're doing because if there's a a um um you know teachers come out today trained and ready for using technology they do it's part of their course requirements for being a teacher these days and the fact that they're you know using it and is is different from when I taught as self you know definitely self- admittedly
134um and I there's we want to work together to put together something um with regard that is also recommended for screen time for you know the American Association of Pediatrics but also blending we talk about balance so I recommend as a team as a as a group of stakeholders that we Define what balance means what does that mean you know rather than saying okay it's this much a day no matter what um let's work together to do that so I'm interrupt you when you um talk about this the problem wasn't so much in the K through second was it was more in the elementary I think it was I think i' like I think it was I on I mean like I said I don't I'm not in the classroom but I don't think um
135the complaints were coming from the K through second grade so I think there there was a combination of things that we were working internally on I think sometimes three to five we were looking at consistency and I brought that back with Dr Reynolds who is working with people Sarah wants comment too um so good I wasna say the same thing that you said Dr G that um it it was a lot of feedback that it was K through through two and I mean I I know with having a first grader myself I have similar um you know concerns the way that a lot of these younger grades do so that was definitely a big concern was the the amount of screen time for K through through two okay maybe that was last year could have
136so but but there's always feedback that's good about consistency and and whatnot which can be another component of it but I I say let's take a deep dive together as a group and then have that work use research-based practices talk about it and then make it part of a goal moving in throughout the year where we have scheduled meetings with teachers stakeholders people and everything and as a board we come together and say this is our product you know I think at the of the year because I think taking into consideration the tools that are available to teachers the tools that the teachers want to use they've embraced in using will also balancing that point of view I think it makes it a collective Community project that everyone can be proud of at the end
137of the year that's just my opinion okay I I appreciate your initiative on this so thank you you're welcome okay um anybody else anybody else uh okay oh I'm sorry um I know you've been working on the um the entry it's called updates in the um Innovations and special education award and I received an email today I think all all the board members did and it was just a reminder that it's due March 21st so once again are there are any more updates on that and it's actually due at 4:30 pm on March 21st right did everyone get that email about it it's a um Innovations and special education Awards am I am I the only one getting these emails yes yes yes we had I know that Dr Beck is working diligently with staff
138uh for the submission of that um and and we are proposing um just I mean it's no secret we had won a national award for our Ables program and work in physical therapy and interventions that we're doing there that is the program we're going for because it has the most detail the most data and it also has record of uh some really great student data um that we'll be able to present so that will be the program that we're recomend in and um although we are commonly known for working right up to deadlines I assure you you have my word it will be uh submitted right until the right uh before it's is there a way of um when it's submitted either way like maybe the public being able to see some of this uh
139maybe like could Dr Beck or you present some of it at it doesn't have to be everything application or just the actual the sort of just all the work that went in and you know just to the application yes like oh yeah I mean we're we tout it out as much as you want we can actually I can share if you want I can share the presentation that Dr be and I did at a national school boards Association conference we were selected to present it in Florida two years ago two or three years ago at this point all right I'm more interested in in um what what you're doing W yes personally but yeah thank you I like I said I I look through it and listen anytime we get to to brag about what
140we're doing I'll take you it's fine absolutely i' love to learn about it thank you sure okay um just at the time 8:30 we're doing very well for this calice uh thank you for all prioritizing um your chair positions uh okay if there's no other new business um we're just going to open up the floor uh to comments for attending constituents for the last time this evening on all subjects please come up to the podium state your name and address for the record welcome to do so just um can you turn your mic on please hello testing wait yeah it's on I can't hear it though can you hear me no it's not Amplified all right okay all right okay so don't start my time yet okay my name is Alice finny on 96 Five
141Points Road um I want to just commend the board for um um uh all that you're doing and I love that we um that you passed that um women's sports and um no men and women sports rule policy I don't I forget the name of it but um I just reading up recently on Payton man McNab from high school that was um violently um hit with a volleyball and it um even um gave her concussion and some brain damage so that was only high school and it ruined her college career and all that and I think it's just a great precedence I would love to continue talk about but you guys had so much that I wanted to just ask you some questions um I think it's a great idea and I wanted to also
142commend um Mrs camera for I know she ran on um trying to elevate our schools to the Blue Ribbon status and I know that it sounds like a lot of the um information that she's working on with the curriculum committee is looking uh towards that um I also like the idea of um it's always difficult as a parent to find um the students um information for each class I know with my son is it in Google Classroom is it on their website did he put it in in his book bag where is the the information for that subject so I think for me as a parent to go to one place and know it's in Google Classroom I guess I can have access um as a parent invite Guardians to get in there that I
143could um observe that and find it all in one place to be able to find if he if that child has homework so I think that's an excellent idea I just gave up honestly with my son and I think he would have been a much better student if I was a little bit more on top of him he was very bright and he really did well in school he got by because he tested really well and he um he told me later you know Mom I rarely did my homework in high school like oh my goodness so um it would help because we're busy some people are busy you I work as a working parent so it's always that would be a big Advantage okay and now I would like to just take um let's
144talk about the cell phones in the um in the pockets um well I've been a teacher in high school and the cell phones are a huge problem our Middle School had kept the cell phones and the lockers and when they came to high school we got a little advantage on the Freshman but um what happens is that the kids are really addicted to these cell phones and sometimes they'll even put um I shouldn't say what they're going to do but they will put cases or second phone or all sorts of things in there and then they'll say oh I'm talking to my mom I mean it gets really out of hand I think in the lockers is the best um if you if they can handle putting in the backpack the good students will but
145there are kids that are not going to and then you're also at the risk of bullying where kids had an emotional issue something happened during lunch they're looking at their cell phones and then it affects them they may not be doing it for academics I just recommend just keep it out of the classroom you can try it but it's a mess when it gets to high school and we're all having problems and then they have so many writeups that the administration we feel a lot as teachers Administration doesn't do much so um I really think and it also interrupts the teachers instruction Sally you didn't put your cell phone away or you need to or take it or put it on my desk now I have to get my thoughts back on where I was
146and then you have another student because once one of them is doing it then the other ones start to follow and I just really highly recommend don't even start it um they're kids and another thing that was mentioned about yeah the teachers using a cell phone I have a food order that comes into my school and on that day I tell them I said listen I got to check my cell phone you're teachers are different than kids and I really want to get away from this that that we're on an equal plane you know they can have that rule and teachers should be allowed to change your rules I tell them listen I'm allowed to change the rules you think I made you a promise well something came up and I'm the boss and I
147can make the rules so I really think that you guys you know have to remember that a lot of the problems in our world right now are that parents are letting kids do whatever they want and they think they have a right to make this decision oh they need to feel good I think we'd be much better if we are had set some standards and some boundaries and say and let them understand it's okay well that's a teacher and they're allowed to make the rule and when they when I call home it's because I'm really having a problem with that child and the child will go to the parent and the parent will say well my child said that you did this instead of standing up for the teacher because there was an issue there
148and um anyway um don't get me started you already did so um please reconsider that because I think you're going to have a lot of problems um and also we need to teach the kids social skills because sometimes they go to the phone because they're bored and we see it I you could watch you have five 10 kids in the room and kids are going to be all of a sudden taking out on their downtime they think they have this thing on their downtime it's almost like smoking it's like when you put it I used to say smoking was like putting a menu in front of you so that you don't have to deal with the other people in here so the more we can teach our kids those social skills and to talk to
149other kids or to take out a book if they had to and the downtime because I really think if they have their Chromebooks they really don't need their phones they don't if you want to say get it out of the lockers they have to be in a backpack or something that they can't access it but you know I I still think that that's you're playing with fire there okay and uh I'd also like to mention one more real quick thing to consider um in the curriculum area in the future and I want to talk about in the future uh to introduce the the theory of creation into the science department because it is a theory and evolution is a theory and um I think that it's amazing some of the intricate um things that we
150can find in nature that are indicate that there's an intelligent designer um so that's it for that I appreciate your time thank you great thank you very very much for your input and uh your comments tonight thank you I if I May and I I certainly want to appreciate the fact that we have this open forum and two opportunities during our meetings for the public to hear the public that's the exact reason why we set this up your comments are absolutely spoton and extremely valuable for our board as we develop us I do want to lean on I sh a question I believe we have a policy and just checking on this with Dr riby was presenting it we have a policy that all cell phones should be in the lockers but as an alternative
151this is used as a as a sort of like a a safety a SA that but teachers because they've got to the disciplinarian State keeping and policing it so there has another option okay now it's out of the locker here's the second option to throw in I believe that's what I heard as an alternative that's why it was structured this way it's not being driven to get the locker put it towards a pocket it's still about be trying to be in the locker as much as we possibly can but because these students don't pay attention sometimes you know it's another alternative for the teacher to leverage while it's on the floor why if you will checking on that is that is that the approach that's correct there's actually two policy one is older and deals
152with a cell phone it says that they have to be away and all those things which we need to revise as it's being combined the other one is about electronic recording devices of which a cell phone is which is the newer one that has to be away in a locker so because a cell phone an iPhone or whatever all phones today you got carryed most phones I don't want to be generalize carried by phones today by children today have a recording ability to it they are supposed to be a way in the lockers so yes you are correct in your what you said as an alternative Dr G the constituent also mentioned social skills is that something that se will do to try and get kids to focus away from their phones and to talk
153to each other so that wasn't something that was brought up um and we talked a lot about that in the parent advisory committee which we talked about which is that last year a recommendation that they T that um was uh made that we put into place at the end of the year was no Chromebooks at indoor recess right and so having activities just as you said books talking to each other and and I I I we really like the feedback that we received um from some of the parents that there were growing pains some students were not happy about having that they couldn't have their Chromebooks at at recess they were not and but now they're one parent shared their child designed during indoor recess the kickball game that was going to take place outside
154right put that together they're reading they're playing games they're doing all of those things so there will be growing pains and we know that that's why it's a this is a pilot but you are correct so our positive action curriculum that we use is all about interpersonal skills and it is about communication it is about social skills that is one of the things that we really embraced about the program itself and we even said that if we you know whether it's co character education whatever it is it's about uh being good people communication um conflict resolution those are the those are the things that we concentrate here on in supporting so yes to all of that yes okay anybody else yeah I'm good okay hi uh mallerie Reen 165 l Road um just to piggyback
155real quick on what Mr rugnetta just said um yes I can personally vouch for the Seal program helping my son with um social skills um learning how to lose learning how to collaborate with other other students on like a project and everyone got to pitch their own ideas and they had to learn how to accept that their idea might not be the one that was chosen and still go forward on it with you know working on the project with someone else's idea so me personally I've definitely seen that um out of our our programming but um I wanted to speak to something that Miss vulpi said earlier in the meeting with the um the cut to the amount of Aid that we're going to get this year I think that that is an issue that
156can appeal to our entire town no matter which side of the political spectrum that you're on and um I just thought that your how you said you felt like maybe colck was being punished um I just looked really quickly at some other towns some of the other numbers so Tom's River Regional District actually got a 6% raise in funding um who else did I look at middle Town Township also another conservative area got a 6% increase and then actually I also noticed that um Red Bank burrow which is I believe that is a primarily Democratic town they took a 3% cut in funding so um I just really wanted to you to to encourage you that this doesn't need to be like a Republican versus Democrats thing or that our Town's being punished I think
157like I said this is an issue that every everybody in the town could get behind and it doesn't really have to be about politics it can just be about wanting what's best for our kids and not wanting them to lose funding so thank you absolutely I definitely think it's a a bipartisan um topic and I agree uh it doesn't have to be either side and uh I'm hoping that um Senator Vin goal will definitely have some answers for us even though he is on the opposite side of the political aisle as I am that uh he will come up with some type of um advocating for us us and uh I'm looking forward to meeting him and discussing it so thank you very much I appreciate your input may I add one thing um so
158I think what really frustrates probably our superintendent as well as board members and as well as probably all residents is that the state will not release the mysterious funding formula they use to make these calculations there's a lack of transparency so I I agree with everything both both of you said but I I I wish we there were some way that we could figure out you know see the math that's being done for all these towns um I just you know again we want transparency on every level and you know we should hold the state to the same um to you know to the same standard of releasing that formula so we all how I don't I don't disagree with that transparency is always a great thing um I just don't want it to turn
159into like a we think Governor Murphy's punishing us when I I don't think that's it I'm just really sad that we lost funding you know thank you very much Mrs re um anybody else uh like to come up and make a comment on any or all subjects nobody else um okay let's uh close uh comments from attending constitu um we I'm going to make a motion uh to move into executive session no action will be taken at this time um and uh we want to thank everybody for attending tonight oh uh I'm sorry no more than yeah it's for litigation and Dr gab is informing me it'll be about no more than minutes can I get a motion to move into executive session Brian Scara second and Mr R okay thank you very much all
160in favor y oppos motion Carri thank you yeah and what was it it was uh two uh two hours and 15 minutes