6-9-25 Denville NJ BOE Board Meeting

001Okay, it is now 7 o'clock and we'll continue on with the agenda. Uh the next item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. So, if everyone will please stand. Okay, we um we have a special guest here to do the bo the goals recap, board self-evaluation and goal setting. But before we do that, um we still uh we would like to follow up with our last meeting and officially present Mr. Jeff Barnes with the 2025 community uh member of the year award. Yeah. So, we um we'd like to have uh acknowledge our partner and friend um Mr. Mr. Barnes used to be our um foundation president and he was also my neighbor. Not anymore, but he used to live next door. Now won't be living there much longer either. But um it's great to

002see him. I know he was he had an issue last meeting. We couldn't get him in, but I uh asked him if he would come and he graciously accepted. So just want to acknowledge Mr. Barnes as the community member of the year. And this comes with a nice plaque. community member of the year, Mr. Barnes, and a $200 gift card to Kazabella, which he says is one of his favorite places. So, we got that. And that we just wanted to say thank you. And if these gentlemen want to say anything, too. Uh I just want to quickly uh say thank you to to Jeff. I've uh I've known Jeff for quite a few years. We've coached together in youth sports. Um Jeff is uh intertwined in this community more than anyone I think we know.

003um his business is here in town. His business sponsors every sport uh youth sport in town every year. His business actually uh donates part of their land to help uh some of the youth sports in town. Um he has personally coached many many sports in town. Um he has also been involved in the schools uh the education foundation. Uh Jeff has been uh the golf uh chair. He's been I think vice president, president. Um Jeff since he's been involved in the foundation has literally uh fundraised and donated over a hundred thousand dollars, probably hundreds of thousands of dollars in his time with the foundation that directly supports our schools. Um he's in the schools all the time. I've seen him uh handing out lunches, uh volunteering, um at field day, uh numerous activities. So I

004just want to say thank you to Jeff. Welldeserved honor and uh truly a privilege to have you in our community. [Applause] Uh, listen, I like you shy away from the mic. I I I truly feel like I don't deserve this. Um, you know, I think education works best when there's community and familial involvement. Um, and if you get more people to buy in to the process, then it's it's got a ch better chances of succeeding. And I was just that was it. I just wanted to be more involved. I got involved in it in the foundation and uh you know I I feel like you have to you should give back. Um so and it's been a pleasure to work with not only the board of ed but to you uh Dr. Forte. you know,

005we we had some some rough roads when I came in and when you came in with we had to mend some fences of the past and we did that and I think we move forward and you know I'm still involved. I'm not sound like I'm stepping away completely. So I think the foundation does does really good things and I hope uh that it continues to do so. Thank so thank you very much and we're lucky about his spacing of his children. Yeah, we'll be have him around for a few more years. Thanks again, Jeff. Oh, here you want your mop. Let me know when you want to go to Casabella. You're welcome to stay. Uh we'll be now presenting uh the goals recaps, the board self-evaluation, and the next year's goal setting. So uh I'd

006like to introduce Miss Charlene Peterson from New Jersey School Board. So thank you Charlene. Thank you. So, I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to be back one more time, right, for your goal setting meeting, thinking the last time I was here was going to be my last time with you. Um, and I just again can't tell you how much I appreciated the recognition that the board provided to me and it really has been a pleasure to work with you. Um, so I wanted to start out acknowledging I guess two of your members, you know, at the um, Spring Morris County dinner. Um, both Mike and Dino were recognized for their length of service of 10 years of providing service to the the students and the Dville community. And I think that again

007that's a great testament to this board and people willing to to serve and give back to their community. So I just um wanted to acknowledge that their length of service and thank them for that time giving back to your community. So thank you to both of you. Yeah. So this is kind of our annual process where we we come together to talk about planning for the the next year. And as we talk about, you know, the work of a board and the importance that um we play in our governance role of helping kind of identify the what of what is the direction that we're going to go in in the next year and kind of the the value in having that conversation. Um that's really kind of you know one of our most important work

008that we do and the way that we really do help make a difference. Um so we usually you know have kind of two different sets of goals that we talk about both the work of the district through the district goals and then the work of the board through the board goals. So for the benefit of the public and kind of um explaining the difference between the two. So district goals are identifying say those four things or so that we think are so important to move the district forward that we that that is what is going to be our focus for the year and that we are going to hold the superintendent accountable by putting them in his evaluation. So that's how important we're saying these things are. Um and we call them district goals because

009it touches everyone in the district from the board's perspective. We're having this conversation here tonight. I like I said identifying the what and then that should kind of set the stage then for what happens in the rest of the district. It should have an impact on you know what the other goals are in the in the schools and in the district. It should have an impact on what's going on in the classroom so that we're kind of working together in a stairstep approach of everyone in alignment recognizing that you know the kind of that the stem of this whole conversation is your strategic plan right that you know your district has just done an amazing job of bringing the community in to be part of this process for us to be able to hear from

010them what's important to them so that that way we make sure that the work that we're doing is in alignment and you know I have to say that you know your district has figured it out better than most the value in using that as guidance and the importance of that um helping keep the focus of the work that you're doing. Um so that then are kind of what the district goals are. And so we typically in terms of a process look at what we accomplished or what the goals were last year and then um ask the superintendent to um you know provide us with a frame a reference framework of things that thinks are important for us to focus on for next year and then have a conversation with the board. And then separate from

011that are the board goals. and we say, you know, that there's more and more evidence that high-erforming boards that work together with their superintendent can have a positive impact on student achievement. Um, so from the board's perspective, then we need to keep looking at our work and saying, how are we doing? What can we do more effectively as a governance team? Um, and so part of the way that we can help identify that is through the board's self-evaluation. So again for the benefit the state used to require that boards took a step back and reflected on their own work about I don't know it's been a little over five years now that the state relaxed that requirement. So we say that boards that continue to do that do it because it's a good governance practice.

012So each one of the board members fills it out individually and then New Jersey school boards compiles it into one anonymous document that serves as the basis of conversation. Um, so you know, your board has continued to to do this practice all the time and one of the things that we find is that it helps boards stay grounded and helps you stay focused um and sometimes kind of helps us continue to just reflect on our work and it is one of those identifiers of a high-erforming board. So, one of the things that you know I just wanted to say about the board self-evaluation particularly in this year um is that I was really um just kind of amazed at how your board is evolving and just the language that the board was using and the

013way that the board was talking about your work that I feel like you have moved beyond um just a board that works as a collaborative team and that you really are count kind of now having conversation and talking about the work you do is if you are a strategic team that has a governance mindset. So you are not kind of plagued or not even talking about maybe some of the things that most boards do because you have moved beyond that and you have settled into like a high performing governance role. So one of the things so I had put a summary together of the board self-evaluation but I attached a page on the second page and I just wanted to show you like from the book uh it's from the book the governance corps which

014we use in New Jersey school boards a lot but they kind of looked at when you look at the positive drivers and saying that this is kind of the ultimate things that boards should be looking at. So I just wanted you to see how closely how that just mirrors the work that you're doing right as you looked at your own board self-evaluation said you focus on governance have a governance mindset you you know you're beyond just having board presentations like for the audience but engaging the board that you take true ownership in this work. um making sure that you have uh you know an ongoing understanding that you're just not trying to get the votes but it's important that everyone understands what you're doing that you are driven by strategic goals and that's what helps

015drive your agenda you're proactive in forward thinking you support the governance functions of the board and you have board superintendent cohesion so as you look at that to me that just describes you perfectly so I just kind of wondered just kind of wanted to get your reflection ctions or thoughts as you kind of put this board self evaluation together and kind of as you, you know, look at how you work together as a board team and just kind of wondered what what your thoughts are in terms of your work. And if for those of you that have been here a while, if you too see yourselves as having evolved and kind of now at a level of work that is, you know, kind of beyond what a typical board would be doing. Yeah, I I'll

016start it off by saying that uh from a board perspective, the the the power or the the influence that the board has is down to the policy level. And it it wasn't until recently where I began to ask the question more frequently, what policies do we need to look at to uh instill some of the changes that we might be having discussions at any given time? And so I think that um having that mindset and having a a governance committee to have that conversation uh beyond just what we talk about here during board meetings have allowed us to really um dig into deeper issues uh you know issues that might come up, issues that might uh not be in line with the strategic plan. So that you know, all right, then how do we um

017perform better as a board and guide the administration through policy? And I think that from my perspective has been a a lesson learned. So good. Anyone else? Yeah. Yeah. If you don't mind. Yeah. Charlene, I think I had said this to you once a while ago and I think you even called it out in a uh at a school board's uh function that you know one of the things about working with this board particularly and I count myself lucky to be a part of this board is that uh we all know that we we come at this with the right there's no agenda there's basically it's all about student achievement it's all about serving the district so that I think gives us kind of a framework or a base where we can then look at

018these strategic things rather than being tactical right and kind of not mistrusting each other but kind of you know treating each other tactically and kind of you know from a uh from a point of view of like you know just trying to convince somebody of something to so that I win. Um that's never been the case in this board. So and that's something that I think we've come to over a long time but I think it's now it's baked into how we how we do things. Yeah. I I don't think um uh I entered into that culture. I don't think I had anything to do with making that that happen. I mean, it was kind of um uh refreshing to come in and and see that we weren't, as Dino said, kind of tactically trying

019to get enough votes to get something passed. But, excuse me, they were all trying to uh get a consensus as opposed to try and uh you know, win some kind of kind of vote uh that I hear happen in so many other boards. It's a discussion to try and figure out what what solution as a whole we're best um uh satisfied with as opposed to trying to you know um manipulate and and and get uh you know the the the allotted number of votes to to get something moved forward. Good. Anyone else? Okay. You know, I think that's important that the, you know, the board has really demonstrated that, you know, to your point about policy that it's really become your voice, right? That the board has kind of really kind of championed that and

020using it as your voice. Um, so I just kind of wanted to go through a few things in here and then, you know, and then allow any of the other members to bring up any points that you found to be important to you. Um so you know one of the things that was one of your board goals and something that we have you know talked about throughout the years is you know kind of looking at um you know in the the first area of mission vision and goals and looking at that um you know kind of the the the reporting out and kind of the understanding of where we are. Um and someone had mentioned that you were starting to build like a foundation. So, just kind of wondered kind of what like what steps

021you're taking to um to take these goals conversations and make it be, you know, kind of an ongoing part of the work that you do. Well, for one, I I like I'll start it off by saying I like the new New Jersey school board's tool. Okay. that was uh that that to me um allowed me to revisit a lot of the issues that we might have had um something that I might have forgotten and allow me to say yeah you know that might be an area that we could address and so uh I think the process that we're building here um can can help us be a better board in the future. I also think that like I keep mentioning governance committee, but I think uh having that committee allows us to even discuss board

022goals or district goals and and um you know have a formal place that we can then summarize our thoughts, introduce other board members ideas as well and uh have a discussion around it and then uh make a recommendation around that too. So good. So, one of the other thoughts then that I wanted to to bring up to you too was when I was looking at the way the board was talking about the the student achievement piece of it. And so sometimes I feel like from a board we you know we recognize that how important it is how vital it is to our work but sometimes we are not really sure kind of what our role is and right or how how much do we have to dig into this and I feel like one of

023the things that like was evident to me that I was wanting or hoping you know to point out to the board as well is that if you look at like last year's district goals that that we set and I looked at the language in them and talked about like increasing achievement for all students and then again on the looked at the the tiers of support and again mental health and needs for all students. So it really comes down to the board setting a priority and establishing an importance that says and that voice needs to come from the board level of saying it is important to us that every student in this school district has the right to be successful. So that's kind of what our role is to make sure then that we are sending

024that message and sending it clearly and you know and then your administration takes that message and then translates that into the work that they do. So sometimes I feel like from just some of the comments I was reading that I feel like as a board you didn't give yourself enough credit for understanding the importance of that wording that's in your goals and the importance of sending that message. So just from a board just wanting to make sure that you understand and value just the fact of the fact that your standards are high and your expectations for all of the students has to start here at the board table in order for it to happen in the district. So Charlene, what does number H or letter H mean under accountability for student achievement? I don't I

025don't understand what that statement let me find. It's on it's on page four of the Yep. So that was one of the areas, right, that the board had evaluated itself a little bit lower. So it is just kind of making sure that everything that we do, how do we tie it back to student achievement? So like if we are putting in a new program, why are we doing that? If we are, you know, getting new books, if we're looking at the the facilities, how are all of those things tying back to student achievement? So that when we send a message, when we send a message out to the community, it's not we're just doing this, but we're doing this because of the impact that it has on student achievement. So kind of making sure that

026we always include the why kind of focused around that is student achievement in in our message. [Music] And then one of the other things that I just kind of want to bring up to the board that the board had mentioned about itself was, you know, when you talked about um orienting new board members and had, you know, there were, I think, a couple people that mentioned that your your current orientation process is more kind of strictly the work of the administration and thinking that perhaps the board um should you know have some a role in that. Um so I mean I don't know if you've given thought or talked about in the governance committee you know that boards seem to be um now putting together like a new board member orientation handbook that you would

027give to a new board member that kind of you know explains kind of the work of the board and how the board you know what your committees are and those types of things. So I have a couple examples that I would be happy to share with you if that would be something that the board would be interested in considering and you know because as we look at you know like you said the culture that you've kind of developed now it's important now that we kind of memorialize that right and so that we that we keep it going. Um and that was really all you know pretty much that I had in terms of things that stood out at me. So, I just wanted to see if anyone else had anything that you wanted to to

028bring up about the board self-evaluation. Other than the fact, you should be very proud of the work that you do here. Yeah. Okay. Well, then having said that, I guess we will turn it over to the goals discussion then. So, I will turn it over to the administration here and have them lead us through like a recap of last year and kind of what the thoughts are for this next year. start. Sure. Yeah. I'm just too small. No, I mean you want me to read 10 schools. I No. Are we Yeah, I can read that. 24 25 step. I don't mind. Okay. We always put our strategic plan in this because we always reminds us that our goals come from the strategic plan. So that's the purpose of this slide. We always add it to

029every conversation we have. And going back to it for one second, um it brought up before when it when it expires, it's 2023 to 2028. Okay. M Dr. Collus, you're up. Sure. Our first goal was to increase achievement for all students inclusive of all curricular areas with the focus on math and science. Go ahead. This there you go. I cannot read that at all. There's a list of all of the things that we worked on this year. um looking at where our students were, coming up with intervention plans, making sure that our students were getting both in special education and general education, we're getting our intervention uh program started. We hired a supervisor. So, this goal also ties with goal number two as well. Um we provided training to our math and science teachers. We

030added uh practice science tests in Lincolnit that were similar to NJSLA um because one of the issues that we noticed is that students have difficulty in fifth and eighth grade answering questions that are listed over three pages, right? So they have to manipulate three different tabs to answer on the science assessment. So really practicing those. We piloted two math programs. Magma Math, which is really a tool for the teachers to be able to do the thinking classrooms, building thinking classrooms where all students are working at the same time and then you can post student work anonymously and um have students kind of look at how the work is moving along. And we also added a program called do math as a pilot in the elementary level for our resource centers. uh just a different form

031of the same content but delivery is a little different and we found it to be really useful this year. Okay, turn. Uh so here are two we don't have a lot of the data back yet because they just took NJSLA. We should start giving our operational reports uh June 30th which is early. I'm excited for that. But here is some of our linkit benchmark data. We do benchmarks three times a year except for kindergarten. So the first column of kindergarten where it's orange is actually form B because they don't start taking assessments till January. The purple is form C. So for the other grades you're comparing the beginning of the year meeting um to the end of the year meeting. This is not a percentage. So at the beginning of the year to be meeting

032because they have haven't learned the material yet is probably much lower like around 60% to be meeting the expectation whereas at the end of the year it must be 80% or higher. So yes you want the purple to be higher but it's even if they're equal it does not necessarily mean that they went down right. So um because the expectation is higher. So let's say for first grade um students about that percentage of students were meeting the benchmark which was only 60% they had to get 60% right at the end of the year they needed to get 80% or more. So those same students at least had met u the exact about the exact amount of students met at the beginning of the year as at the end of the year. If you notice the

033other grades however we have far more students that are meeting that. So it's not just they were meeting in September and now they're meeting uh in June. We actually have a large number of students that have surpassed that. And if you see both our geometry and this is the first time we've had this since we've been doing the benchmarks is our algebra and our geometry at 100% um meeting the expectation which is really good news going into NGSLA. I hope we see this carry over uh to that assessment as well. Also if you look at the eighth grade which you know is our struggle area is is in our eighth grade math we had very few students at the beginning of the year meeting the expectation that's like 60% right so very few had that

034but if you look how many now are meeting 80%. So for me that's a huge area of growth that's an area we've worked really we've been working really hard on um this year. So our three eighth grade programs are core, algebra, and geometry. And all of them are significant growth. So that's great. But all of the grade levels except for first, which the same number of kids that that met at the beginning of the year seem to meet at the end. We didn't really surpass that. Okay, next slide. And this was just a comparison of the C to C. So end of they're not the same students, right? So, it's like the third grade, how did the third grade do at the end of year C last year in 2024 and how did they do

035this year in 2025? So, again, not the same students, but you could look at the third grade green and compare it to the blue fourth grade if you'd like to see um how that is. So, this year, most of the um from the testing grades from third grade on or fourth grade on seem to do either similarly or slightly better. Um, again, eighth grade seemed to really skyrocket there. They seem to do the best over how they did as a seventh grade at seventh grade to eighth grade. Go ahead. The second goal was to expand our tiered systems of support. We started by creating the supervisor position and then we hired Mrs. Heising and she has overseen the TSS process in all three buildings. We worked with linkit to create our own forms and really

036streamline the process so we can monitor it much more closely. We took the students who already had TSS plans and transfer them over to to link it and we were able to monitor those students but then took on new cases as well. Uh we after monitoring through the year some students left the program and are back to just our general education. Some students were then were moved on to CST evaluation, but no students really do that until they've had at least three rounds of TSS monitoring, and that's about four weeks to eight weeks each monitoring cycle. Um, and then I'm just waiting on the two things that are not completed. on June 30th, the end of the year, a report will come to me and that's just our whole once we get all of our

037testing data back fully analyze the beginning of how these students were doing at the beginning of the year and how they're doing now and looking at all the data, the benchmark data, um, fact fluency because we really only have the intervention mostly for math and language arts. So, all of the language arts categories and all of the math categories. So, Mrs. size and we'll analyze that and then I can provide that report to the board as well. Okay. We also had some goals and operations. The first goal, goal three, is to investigate and report on possible solutions and challenges in the district transportation. Investigate solutions to the bus depot flooding issue. Review current um re review recruiting and hiring practices. consider different options and discuss with the DEA. So, what do we do here? We

038had a uh proposal from EI on possible um places where we could move the bus garage that has been shared with the board. We had the task force that that met on September 25th. We purchased a new flood alert system at the bus garage that's in cooperation with Dville OEM. We did hire four new drivers. Um unfortunately, two resigned and two more are retiring. So, we feel like we never really get ahead. We're just kind of staying flat. Um, one thing that we did, Dearis and I worked with um with some of our staff members, created three bus lunch aid positions that are full-time. Um, and one of the reasons is we couldn't find bus aids as well. So, that was an air that was a way in which we were able to make full-time

039positions. Obviously, they come with benefits, which is a pretty big expense, but we weren't able to hire people before. or so. That was something we did. Um, we do have posters around the town and businesses. We post it on social media. It's been in the Friday folder. It's been added to the township electronic sign. And we even have um vinyl signs around the town at at strategic places like on Route 46. Um, we did get some traction from that, so it's a good thing. Um, unfortunately the process of training the drivers is is pretty long and um, we we invest a decent amount of time and money into hiring them. So when they when they resign quickly within the first two years, we do have them sign a contract that they'll have to pay back

040$1,500 in training costs. Um, but it's not it's still not really holding people. So we're we're having difficulty attracting and retaining in that department. We updated our demographic study with Dr. Grip that was presented to the board and that shows some increases in student population which we'll talk about later. But I just wanted to bring that up as as a solution as some of the things that we need to consider when we talk about some types of solutions for the bus department. Are we going to move the bus garage out of the flood zone? Um it it it has flooded and this is a complete flooding. I don't mean like the property floods once a year on average, but the entire facility has flooded completely flooded three times in the last um less than 15

041years. Two times last year and another time before that with Hurricane Irene. So, we've had, you know, three total losses to that building where we've had to do remediation. Um we are looking at different options but we're not sure which way to go with that but it's going to be on a lot of board committees to discuss. Goal number four implement a district communications plan to strengthen and enhance communication coming from the district. That was work with the technology team and communications consultant to implement communication goals and work with the communications committee uh report of 2024 to update and modernize district communications. So we met on on uh June 13th of 24, September 16th, December 10th, February 2nd, and April 24th. We made some changes to the Friday folder, which received some pos positive feedback

042and a little bit of data. Our Friday folder open rate went from 55%, which is really good, to 67%, which is amazing. And um we're continuing to investigate website changes and we're looking at keeping the existing company but to upgrade to a more modern template. We did not budget for this and we did make some cuts this year to the to the U personnel and technology when we had to make the had to have a balanced budget. We did reduce their funding in the summer and one and they had to go down one full staff member. So, that's a challenge, but our our provider offered a free upgrade. So, we're going to try to take advantage of that. I shared it with everybody so you could see the types of uh changes we can make.

043And that would be with very little cost. We pro we might have to have somebody like the web master do a little bit more work on it, but it should be very little cost. Um, we did make sure we previewed all the changes on different types of devices because we're finding that more people are reading our messages on um handheld devices rather than a computer. Um, we also ensuring compliance with the with ADA requirements. And um, the good news is just on June 2nd, we got the email from the, uh, provider that they would be interested in, um, in giving us a free upgrade. So, that's going to save us a few dollars and we'll we'll work on that. And um we did investigate uniform two-way communication with staff and families, but that is not

044something that is going to take place next year um as there is no funds dedicated to that. And um Dr. Coohl's and I talked a little bit about some goals for 2526. Um would you like to talk about um maybe one and one, three, and four, and I'll talk about two? Sure. Um I think we always have to be looking at increasing our achievement. We're still really working at math and science. Those have been our academic areas that have been the lowest. We seem to maintain our ELA and social studies, but in science and math, those are the areas that we need to continue working. I am really excited to see how we do on NGSLA uh this year to see if we have the improvements that we want in both math and science. Um

045I only can see it a little bit on the benchmark, but hopefully we'll we'll see that out. So I do think that that goal still needs to be continued. It seems to be that the whatever grade level, you know, we have that intensive coaching model and whatever grade level our coach is working with seems to skyrocket up that year and then the next year if those we get new teachers in the the previous grade or um she's not working directly with them as much, they seem to taper a little bit. So we need to re that model and see if we can somehow increase the time that she is with not only with her uh focus grade but also with some of the other grades as well. Um that's goal one. For goal three we

046need to evaluate our current special services programs costs our classification rates and our offerings and consider some possible additional programs that we have many students that go out of well we have some students that go out of district. Are those programs that we could be offering? Do we have enough students that we could have a program here? Could we be offering something else? We have already made some changes this year um so that we the title and the scope of some of our programs so that it can include different students. Um but we would want to still investigate that. And then this was one that is number four is really directly from the strategic plan. there was a request really from the group to develop a vertically aligned progress of social emotional learning skills. So

047we don't really have a social skills class. I mean we have them in advisory. We have it in our um our social uh emotional health class in the elementary school but we don't h and and obviously infused in all the areas but we don't think we have an articulated aligned vertically aligned kindergarten through 8th grade uh skill set. And number two is something that's going to be on our minds for a while here. Continue to discuss, investigate, and report on possible solutions and challenges in the areas of instructional space, class size, finance, and operations. That that includes just in general budgeting as as you know, and we just want to make sure everybody knows this. It's for the first time we did have to cut we had to raise the tax levy by 6% while

048cutting 4.6 positions. So we need to continue to work on challenges in the in finance operations meaning transportation instructional space and class size is going to be a big issue for us considering the uh report from Dr. Grip and we expect to have additional students coming into the district soon. um within the next five years we should have about 200 more students and then if the next five years is the main concern from our demographer um he feels that we could we're pretty close to being able to handle with some modific some minor modifications that we could handle the uh influx of students till 2030 but it would be the next five years that would be a challenge. So, I think that this goal, as a matter of fact, I think a few of these

049goals are going to need to be on this on our goals um sheets for the next few years. And now, we went over our goals and now there's a slide, I believe, for the board goals recap. If um James or somebody else from the board would like to recap the board goals, that'd be great. Sure, I'd be happy to. Um I I want to ask the board a a quick question before I proceed. Do we want to uh ask the administration after they've made that wonderful presentation? Uh Dr. Forte, Dr. Cullis, thank you for that. Uh specific questions regarding uh those slides or would you like to hear our uh 2024 25 uh boards recap first? I'd like to go over the uh what the district goals were. very good presentation and some great ideas

050there. So I guess I guess I'll start. So um on the space consideration which is u something we discuss a lot. So um based on the outlook from the the demographic study and Dr. Forte, you also mentioned that, you know, the rubber hits the road 2030 2035 where the crunch is going to come. So, you know, and we've had a lot of, you know, good ideas that we and something recently fell on our lap that we're looking into. So, who knows what's going to happen six months from now. Something else could appear. But with the uh the financing and any renovations or building that needs to be done, you're probably looking at a three-year timeline where we're probably going to have to make a decision. I mean, it'll be tough going if we wait till

051like, you know, when 2030 is here and, you know, dra drag it out. And I don't think we're dragging it out because we're not working on it. We've been working on for a long time. And again, we have a lot of a lot of discussions and a and a lot of options to look at. So, um I just think we have to keep that in mind and work towards that getting to the the final decision. And as we mentioned before, you have some great ideas for Valley View School as a possible expansion there. Um the students from Lake View, the annex and rear view are all going to be going to Valley View at some point. So, that's where you really have to uh fine-tune what the space needs are going to be. um the

052special services evaluation we to me that would be one of those you know a work in progress type of goal um and it's a good idea that we we spend a lot of lot of money on that it's very important so we have an evaluation going on as a goal but after the evaluation you're probably going to come up with some ideas maybe some new programs have come up that we can utilize special services etc so the following goal would be that we would implement them those that that makes sense to do, but we want the evaluation turn something that we can do and then measure the results of that for improvement. Thank you, Mr. Cass. Any other board members uh would like to ask questions? Then I'll Oh, go ahead. Yeah, Mr. Anderson. I

053just have one question for Dr. Collus. Um you mentioned the coaches we've been using and the success we've seen, but also challenges. Um, so help me understand, are they working with the teachers to maintain that continued growth that they're seeing or how does that model look like? I don't know necessarily exactly what they're doing and and what that looks like. So, it's a little different between ELA and math, but ELA continues to work with every grade level and meets with at all of their CT times that are in their schedule. So, that's part of um their meeting time. For math, we uh Jen Kofford selected one particular grade and works with them multiple times a week. So we started this two grades. So she'll she did third grade and sixth grade at the same time

054and then seventh and and fourth grade and then this year was fifth and eighth grade. And every year that she's doing that intensive coaching, we see that grade just soar, excuse me, uh sore. But the next year if the teachers move different grades or um she's not with them consistently several times a week it seems that they go back they slip a little bit. I mean that's the only thing that I have been able to pull out of that benchmark data right now. Initially I just look at it and I say oh look at every year the year she's working with that group they're they go way up um and they go way up in NGSLA that year too. Uh so it's a matter of how can we either change the model. We don't have

055the finances right now to hire. It sounds like we need another coach as well. Um but we're not able to do that. So how are we going to spread her time a little bit more? Now that she's done all the testing grades, she can spread herself a little bit better than the intensive coaching. The loss of teachers in math has been difficult because it's then retraining a new person every every time. Um so that really has been the challenge um with that. So totally makes sense. I guess when she is going in for that intensive uh kind of infusion into the classroom, is that like a co-taught environment or what is the environment with the existing math teacher and her coming in? What does that look like? Typically it's a mix. So she goes to

056all their department grade level meetings and that's where she'll work with them individually on this is what we're doing to planning um different strategies. She also goes in and models for them and shows them how to use the strategy. Sometimes she does co-e. Sometimes she shadow teaches which is their teaching and then she whispers in their ear. Okay, say this, do this. Really depends on the the um really the the length of time that teacher has been teaching which model. But all of those are in play and it really works. I mean it has shown that it really works. It's just that we have only one ELA coach, K to8, and we have only one math coach. So, uh, like fifth grade had new ELA units and work with Jen. So, that was a pretty

057intensive year for them. I bet their scores are going to be quite good, uh, because they spent all of their, um, team time and planning time with a coach. So, that'll be interesting. But that's really what I can pull out at this point is that we have to figure out how to use how to duplicate her, but how to actually pull her into the other grades as well. Like we have she hasn't worked with first grade. First grade looks a little flat to me. So I think that's going to be a focus and we'll see on that. Got it. Yeah. And I think you you hit the nail on the head, right? think it's to me if her benefit gets so much greater, exponentially greater as she works with teachers to then use that knowledge

058and use that ability instead of students, right? It's like then there's four of her out there uh each year she can kind of expand. So appreciate the focus there and the information. Any other board members? All right, then I'll go ahead and proceed with the next slide, which is to discuss the board goals. Uh the first goal was to represent the needs of the districts through advocacy on matters of concern at the state, local, andor national level. Uh over the past 12 months, we've uh approved a resolution that was uh discussing the um uh new developments that were occurring in town. in which case we had uh requested that the um local politicians review that. Uh we actually created a cover letter. Uh the governance committee reviewed that cover letter and we uh asked the

059administration to send the letter and the copy of the resolution out to the local uh politicians and the local legislators. uh actually um even the department of education as well as the Senate uh majority leader, Senate Minority Leader, Assembly Majority Leader and Assembly Minority Leader as well. So um so we are continuing to uh look to develop uh resolutions and then uh send those out to the legislators to uh so that our voice could be heard down at the education level. Uh the second goal is to regularly monitor progress toward district vision, mission and goals adjusting as needed. Uh that was why the governance committee was commissioned so that we could and get a better handle from at least from my perspective get a better handle of all the dates and then uh see if

060we can get updates. So um uh over the past 12 months we all we were getting updates regularly with regards to board goals and district goals and um was able to communicate with the rest of the board members uh all the things that were coming up including uh evaluations etc. Uh review the Dville public school board and education bylaws and revise as necessary. Uh that was also another uh task for the governance committee and uh we were able to review about uh 15 different uh bylaws um that that needed to be reviewed and so uh we're we will continue that as the time as we move forward. And then finally to increase the pres presence of Dville Board of Education members at community and district activities. Um we were able to capitalize on Dr. Forte's

061uh suggestion about having a book study on the anxious generation and I thought that was a very uh a very good way to reach out to the public and a lot of board members were present and was able to uh provide feedback and we took it upon ourselves to now use that and see how we can further um move forward with the result of the book study. So uh I want to thank Dr. Forte and the rest of administration on that and uh yeah it looks like there's uh possibilities of further activities or further um things that we could do. Um and my hope is that we can have more book studies and discuss other Tom relevant topics moving forward. So that'll be uh that'll be something that uh I'd love to continue to discuss.

062So, uh, would any other board members like to comment on our board goals for this past year and how we did the the one thing I would mention is um I I think board goal number four increase our presence at board of education members at community and district activities. I think we did good in certain times, but I think it's really important that we show support to our staff when they have events in the in the building. Dr. Fort has done a really nice job of getting us that information, getting us the calendars, putting it in the board reports. Um, I I can speak for myself. I think I've done an okay job with it, but not great. And I think it's an area that truly um our our staff work so hard and they

063seem so appreciative when we show up and just show face and say thank you and be there for them. So um and and the entire community, right? I think the community recognizes it. I can't tell you how many times I'll show up to an event at the elementary school and they're like, "You don't have a kid here." I'm like, "I'm here for the board." And they're just they kind of look and they realize that we're we it it puts us on a different level, I think, as a board. um and I think just makes everybody feel like we are even more engaged and those are the type type of events I think they almost expect us at. So, I think it's still an area that um we can do better as a board. And that

064being said, I also recognize that every single one of us have wear a multitude of different hats, whether it's a full-time job, whether it's a parent, whether um a lot of different things, community, other volunteer events. So, I recognize the challenges, including myself, and trying to get there as often as possible. So, I understand that. Um but uh I would say it's uh still an area I think that we as a board I think I feel like when I talk to other boards they are more active with being at school events. It's like almost like thought of like you're going to be there um as opposed to us. I feel like we aren't as active in that area. Thanks Mike. Anyone else uh that wish to comment or add a few thoughts? So I guess

065I just want to add it on that one. You had mentioned that you are, you know, aware of the activities, but some boards actually have you sign up for them ahead of time so that maybe five people aren't coming to one thing and nobody's coming to the other thing. So if you kind of look at it from a bigger, you know, a longer time span and then not try to have everybody go to everything, but kind of make sure that you have more representation at things. Thank you. Um, I just want to bring our attention to the second board goal. Regularly monitor progress towards district vision, mission, and goals, adjusting as needed. Um, I think we would do well to adjust as needed. I think sometimes we just we see what our goals are. We

066have our strategic plan. Um, and we do a well I I think a good job of pivoting sometimes, but um just I I don't know how I would uh add to that or I think there is just a mindset kind of shift of this is not you know in stone like our goals are not in stone. we can we can modify as we move. Can I just add something today? I I agree that um it's a it's been a challenge for us and I think part of the problem is is that it's a goal for all seven of us and not a committee and I don't know if it would fall and I guess I can ask Charlene what she's seen monitoring district goals and I know there or board goals. Um, have you seen

067like governance committees take that on as just kind of a lead for that? Um, or has it always been kind of the entire board? I think we I think the reason we struggle with this, it's like we're we're it's it's like too broad or I don't I don't know. I don't know if we can refocus. I mean, I think Dr. Forte and the administration actually do a really nice job of updating us, but it almost gets lost in my mind with so many other things we have going on. and um and then when we come down to the end of the year and we're recapping it, we're like, "Oh, did we really get an update on that or is it enough progress that we think we accomplished it and things like that?" So, I don't

068know. I think we could do a better job throughout the year monitoring and like Andrea said, kind of adjusting as needed, but Charlene, what do you see other boards do? So, it would kind of be a combination of the two. I mean, so not every board has a governance committee, right? So for those that don't, they might assign the the align kind of align the goals with what their standing committees are and then make that standing committee be part of that committee's agenda is to talk about the district goal and to talk about you know the progress that's being made in that goal. So that it is the work of some committee of the board because to your point um the full board needs to have an oversight but you can't perhaps dig as deep

069with the governance committee making it be that responsibility or sharing that responsibility for those committees that are aligned to those situations and then sometimes the governance committee only maybe does those that there's not an exact alignment say perhaps to a board committee. So um you know so looking at it that way um and then kind of use your 12 month kind of schedule or calendar and say okay in these months these months and these months we're going to have full board updates and then other than that throughout the year the work the the updates or the conversation about it will happen at the committee level. I mean that seems like a good model because like two of the goals are clearly would go fit very well with IMP and so we we do discuss those

070things but maybe um when we're making the agenda we can really highlight you know like here because we've been we just had a presentation from our special ed director and talking about one of the schools and um we could have noted goal number blah blah blah you know make a real note of it so that we realize Yes, we are doing those things. So now I guess that we've discussed the goals now we just kind of make need to make sure that we're in agreement for um you know moving forward. So it sounded like the board was you know in agreement that the district goals that were proposed are goals that the board agrees with right should be a focus for next year. Um, so just kind of wanted to get that consensus and then

071I guess have a conversation about the board and its goals to see if are we repeating all of them again, you know, recognizing that there's work that can be potentially done in all of them or is there some other direction that the board would like to go for its goals? You know, we talked about the onboarding thing. Of course, that could just be part of the work of the governance committee. I don't know if that necessarily needs to be a goal, but I think it's something that, you know, came out prominently in the board's self-evaluation. So, it is something that the board should work on. Yeah. In terms of uh board goals, we did discuss uh possibly introducing two new goals. Uh one was the actual onboarding for new um board members. Um the second

072new proposed goal was to become board certified with school boards again. Um that was something that was discussed. Uh we did have an email from a board member that also um made some suggestions too, but that might have been more district-wide goals. So, um I think one lesson that I'm learning here today is, you know, how often do you see boards align their personal or there's, you know, board goals with district goals? Like is there often a disconnect like we saw here where they're just like not the goals were not similar or could there be goals that was uh a district level goal and then a board level goal that could be uh very specific like for example policy and that was actually discussed during governance uh during our last committee as well. So, so

073I mean for some boards that is only what their board goals are is kind of saying okay if these are the district goals what can we do but in more often than not kind of say the language is usually well we'll support it or we'll provide the resources for I mean the board is limited many times in what it can do if we kind of take that distinction of you know board goals only having to be the work of the board and the district goals. The how is typically the work of the administration, right? So in if there is opportunities for us to support that, for us to provide resources to do research on um then then it makes sense to have them aligned. Um so you could have you know maybe perhaps some alignment

074but then you've also always focused on your work too and then you can see the benefit of that as well. Uh the specific example that I wanted to bring up um our board has had a number of conversations regarding HIB. Um we found that uh HIP at the state level was uh a a tool that could sort of cover boards, you know, from a uh um sort of a lawsuit or liability perspective, but it often might miss the mark in terms of protecting a student. Uh there were a few cases where Hib was uh voted like it was not voted as Hib or you know um or at least the administration found that it was not HIV and we voted on that but the the the the victim still felt unsafe. And so um we've

075had a number of conversations that said well all right what's the purpose of HIV at the state level? You know where does the code of conduct fit into this and how do we challenge it? How do we challenge the state's definition? How do we challenge the state to be better uh with the HID process? Because it's, you know, sometimes it's boiled down to a process. Uh and then how do we ensure that uh or how do we develop something that ensures that the uh the individual feels safe? And I think that's sort of where we've had a number of conversations where maybe we can make this a district-wide goal, but then uh impose a board goal to look at the policies and, you know, sort of see how we might challenge the wording on the

076policies so that um we can still ensure that the child or the student feels safe. So then what is the board? I'm thinking you don't want to go to six goals, right? So I'm thinking so which ones were you thinking we were going to replace? I think um I I do think it fits into the first goal to represent the needs of the district through advocacy on matters of concern at the local, state, andor national level. So I think it is a tangible action that we can take without changing the goal specifically and I think if you get too specific then you you know we we did discuss this in governance and it was about cultivating a safe environment for all students you know uh building resiliency for children and and um and that and

077that is part of our administration that's part of our community. So I do think that it is incorporated within our current goals. Um we just have to be specific in the actions that we want to take uh once we once we u approve these goals. Okay. So then in that in that case then we as a board should be looking at the our specific goals board goals and also do we agree upon uh what the administration is proposing for the district level goals for next year. So so my one feedback on the potential district goals is um on on possible goal number three. I don't like putting in classification rate. It makes it feel like we're trying to lower the rate of classified students, which I don't think is the intended goal. It's just to

078look at it. Um, in fact, I think we've talked about this before. I think that possibly trying to classify a student earlier would help benefit that student by then becoming unclassified potentially before they leave the district in middle school, right, and going into high school. So, I just I'm not sure if that part of the goal is going to be misinterpreted or I'm just not sure what we're trying to look at there, I guess, is my question. I mean, I think the goal really is evaluate the current special services programs. And then, um, those were just some possible things to look at within it evaluation, but um, I agree with you, Mike. It's it's not about lowering it as much as are we providing all the services that we need to provide. How are we

079monitoring those students? So maybe it's just a matter of I don't know if we need those things like that would be a a coal or semicolon here. I think we could just do evaluate current special services programs. I agree with that because the other one is cost. I don't want to it. We're tying those two together which in this goal which I don't feel like should be tied together because then it says also consider possible additional programs, right? So we're look it kind of feels like we're being pulled in a few different direction. So I agree with you and there may be opportunities to have cost savings and there may be opportunities to have to reallocate those costs to an area that are going to be more beneficial. Um, so I agree with evaluating current

080special services programs and either a period there or you know something else, but I don't like cost and classification rates being in there is my opinion. How does the rest of the board feel? Um, I I agree. Uh, you can absolutely take that out. I would say consider possible additional programs and even you know we love the word innovation like innovative programs. Um so something along those lines uh just to add to to to the purpose of the goal or the the path in which we want to take. Right. Yes. I think that's I think it's just taking a hard look at everything that we offer because we've grown so much in the last decade um as far as offerings that we have. Taking a good look at are we are we meeting all the

081needs? Do we have more than we need? Do we have less than we need? You know, how can we be streamlining it? Just everything an overall look at it I think is great. So, I like your wording with that. I like the words efficient and effective, right? Because that's what we're really looking for is efficient and effective programs that would benefit effective and innovative. You've got three. So do we have the new wording for goal number three? Then evaluate current social special services programs. Consider possible additional efficient Mike. What was the second word? Effective and innovative programs. Okay. Or do you need the evaluate um the effectiveness and efficiency of our current special services programs? All right. I like that. With consideration for innovative possible additional innovative programs, something like that. So, evaluate the efficiency

082and uh effectiveness of current special services programs. Consider possible additional innovative programs. I I'm only hesitating because it the wording then if you're saying to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of our current programs implies that we may not think that they're currently efficient or effective. and we have been talking about the improvement that we've had. So, and like we just had that great meeting with Grace. So, why would we say that we're looking to not saying that we're not looking into them, but I think that putting it ahead of implies doubt. We could remove those two words and just say evaluate current. But, but even saying evaluate current is going to feel like do I mean I think we're always evaluating, right? So, I don't know. And we always want to be more efficient and

083effective, right? And you can also evaluate with a positive lens. Like, it doesn't have to be that you're investigating, right? It's different. But I do like the inclusion of efficient and effective after the fact, right? If we're looking at revising or adding on, then yes, we would want those programs to be effective, efficient, and innovative. I just wouldn't put the words effective and efficient in the beginning. You could also consider continue to evaluate. So as Mike just said, we're always evaluating things and sometimes you have to change things very quickly. sometimes after a couple of years. But that's a good uh perspective brought up that um we don't want to have anybody misunderstand that their issues that we have we all a sudden we need to look at them. So one thing I think we

084need to keep in mind is let's put ourselves 12 months from now as we're trying to evaluate did we accomplish a goal, right? And I think we had this meeting recently on some of our goals. So I think goal number one is easy to determine right increase achievement that's pretty straightforward as we've got data to be able to prove that continue to discuss innov uh investigate and report on possible solutions to challenges in the areas of instructional space class size financial operations I'm going to be honest with you it's going to be really hard to figure did we I mean we're going to always discuss investigate I I mean that's like a I'm not sure if we need to be a little bit more specific on that goal This third one, evaluate current programs. I

085mean, I guess I don't need to read all of them. I just need for us to think through are how are we going to feel evaluating did you make satisfactory progress made, little to no progress, or uh met the goal. And really, our goal should be to meet these goals, guys, right? Like our goal should never be to not beat a goal. We should be like, we met that goal, right? That doesn't mean that you're going to have that same goal again and you're going to try to meet that goal again. you're going to kind of try to up the bar every time, but we should be I think our goal should be to meet our goals. Should we be looking for number three more of an audit where we're really we're auditing all of

086the programs that we currently have and giving um commendations and recommendations at the end of a report so that we actually have like a report at the end of the year. We're saying, "Okay, we've looked at all of the programs. Here are recommendations. Here are here are commendations of things that are going really well. Here's the data to support it. Here's a what are our recommendations of things we want to to either add new programs or revise. I had my hand on the button just now just to say that report an absolute report for for all three of those. And then the last one develop vertically aligned progress of social emotional learning skills. That's going to be I'm assuming some sort of curriculum or something that we're going to have a tangible for. Yeah. Three

087reports please in 12 months. Uh you said three reports. Is that like a specific number? Well, one increase the achievement. So we're going to see that through a report, right? We're going to have our presentation that we usually do uh continue to discuss, investigate, and report on possible solutions. So there should be some tangible from that instructional space, class size, finance, operations, and we will definitely always be discussing that, but we should also report on it at the end of the year at least uh fiscal year. uh evaluate current special services programs, consider possible additional efficient, effective, innovative programs or report. Okay, I actually like all three of those. So, any other um comments or suggestions? Uh yeah, well, just not not limiting it to the the end of the year report, right? but having

088some kind of regular check-in um some way to kind of uh report progress at least a few times during the the course of the year. So would that be in be like a midyear report type of thing? It would be up to the administration I would assume too you know to provide some tangibles from you know the midyear the benchmarks you know things that are reported on annually. Um, I would also say, and not that I want to make us stay here longer, but uh, I I do appreciate the the comment of of looking back at the code of ethics and looking back at the HIP stuff and incorporating a cultivating a safe environment for all students type of goal. I know that's very broad. So, you know, if you want to bring me down

089to earth a little bit with that, if anybody has any suggestions. Um, I know technically if we look into our caring community goals on the second slide, caring culture and and family and community connections, that's kind of involved in there. So, I don't know if it needs to be an annual goal. I don't know if if we want to incorporate that some way, but I'm just throwing that out there. Cliff, you were about to say something as well. Um, did you want to uh I I don't think so. I think it was included in there. I guess I will make a comment based on because I I do kind of have you're raising you you've raised concerns and and Mr. Sadelis has raised concerns about like what to put in and I just find this

090process to be a little problematic. Um, you know, because every year we're not satisfied with the goals and it seems like part of it is because we're rushed during this process. Like we we we get a few of these goals and we're forced to process that and then talk about it in an abbreviated period of time and and and sort of vote on it and uh there's something just doesn't seem efficient or productive about this and and it seems like we end up in the same place every year as a result. like there's may maybe nothing comes of these suggestions, but how much can we talk about it and process it? I'm a I'm a slow processor, so sometimes ideas are going to come to me in the middle of the night that I wish

091uh I had said earlier and there's no opportunity for that. Uh so, uh I don't particularly like this process. I would say that kind of goes back to the board goals of adjusting as needed, right? So if we do have concerns we can raise them here and then if we do think of things and process things some it does you know sleep on it you know think about it if we want to come back to it and change things that the mindset again is just none of this you know this is these are our goals for the proposed 2025 2026 year right um over time things change we could have emergencies there's you know so nothing is set in stone I you know I I don't I don't know how to respond really, but um

092you know I do agree to an extent. Um but I do appreciate the administration. I know you guys have worked on these goals and we've have seen a lot of progress over the past year. So um I do appreciate that they have changed for this year. Um and and the goal of of course is to make sure that we are efficient and effective as possible and we can kind of move forward with uh with uh having a decent board here. Charlene, do we have to approve them today or can we approve them during the next meeting? No, you typically would not approve them today just because there would be, you know, some wording changes, some more thoughts about them. Um, you know, the other point I guess I would make to the, you know, about

093the process would be that, you know, and it's, you know, something that your board can consider if you want in the future of some boards just have a special meeting just to talk about the goals so that it's not incorporated in a regular meeting, but they literally just have a kind of call like a goal setting retreat where the intent of the entire meeting is just to spend the meeting talking about goals. So, um, you know, if you wanted to kind of dig a little deeper and give it a little more time, that might be, you know, another alternative. And would that be an executive session or would that be a public session? Okay. It's a public. Yeah. Do you find other districts do that? Majority of them do them. You know, we're probably only

094spending 15 minutes other than this today. Yeah. on the rest of your really like the most of this is really that the same thing we'll probably never do where there's nothing because there's always some kind of resolution that we have to pass. So it's probably pretty close to being a a full meeting about this today. So one of the ideas and and I don't I don't disagree with uh with Cliff on this. I mean, we can assign the possible goals to each of the committees that are going to be responsible for them and then we could have a committee meeting next week to refine and and then report back to the entire board as to what they feel because they're going to be the one responsible for it, right? Put it in those three members

095hands to say, "Hey, do you feel comfortable that you're going to be able to go to the rest of the board and describe what the progress has been every quarter or every so often?" um and then kind of come back at our next meeting with any recommendations and vote on them potentially at the next meeting. But I mean just an idea if we're going to have committees responsible because I think you could take the first one and put it with IMP. One and three with IMP two probably goes with operations, right? Um and then four probably IMP also too, right? Because which by the way isn't a bad thing. We should be focused on instruction and program for our students. So, um, but anyway, I mean, you could take potentially if you wanted to kind

096of offload, I guess. I don't know. Maybe the I don't know. They're all imp. So, yeah. And and moving forward, we could also bring this up by a month. I feel like we can begin the conversation in May and um and at that point, you know, we can uh um look to finalize it in June as well. So I think the key is to not just sit on it from now until the meeting we vote on it and then get here and just vote on it because we'll we get busy with other that's why I say maybe having a committee meeting would force us to talk about it again in a smaller group and and and if if some other board member who's not in that committee has some an idea just bring it up

097to that committee so that they could discuss it and and talk through it because I think the it's valuable that other people are involved too. Does the uh entire board feel the same way with regards to having this conversation in a committee? So, we're are we looking to have a committee meeting next week then? That's the last day of school. So, you might want to maybe we were planning on having these approved um in July. So, we could do it in the July committee meetings if you want. Yeah. As long as it's before the next meeting, right? I guess before then the time you approve them. So, so we would need to approve them by July, right? Is we typically do because the school year starts on July 1st and that gives us some time

098to make our charts and we typically So, the process just to remind everybody is we do this now. We approve them in July. In September, Dr. Cullis and I um present it to the board in chart format. We update that chart in January. Then we update it again in May or June. and then we're back at the same boat starting for the next year. And uh in terms of future goals discussions, we'll make sure that we have this conversation much sooner as well. Okay. So the only one I see is the fourth one. I I feel that the fourth one is important as well. I'm not sure if all the board members agree with that. It's very important on the district, but something we may want to do. People might disagree with me is there's

099no metrics with that. I mean, I have to go back on my calendar and figure out what I went to. Most recent was the Rotary meeting with Steve's presentation there, which is quite an experience. I think everybody should go to a Rotary meeting and see what it's like. Yeah. I I apologize, Don. I was referring to the district goal. So, so then we'll take uh these four goals and uh discuss it in committee and then finalize it and look to approve it um first meeting of July. Maybe we can do number three with governance just to give to give two to IMP, one to ops and one to governance. What do you think? The other thing too is the board goals can also go to governance. Yes. Yes. I I have no objections with that

100in terms of uh handling the board goals. What four B board goals do we want to look at? And I think that's the the first question is is the first goal do we want to continue that um for the next year or of all four goals which do we want to continue or uh the other two that I mentioned earlier with regards to onboarding process for new board members as well as um the board certification. How would all six rank uh amongst everyone? All right. So then governance will make the recommendation for the four board goals and then we'll uh present that to the rest of the board then. Okay. Hey, I think think we have a plan, right? Yes, we do. Thank you. No, thank you. And I'll let you get on for your

101last 15 minutes, right? Thanks, Charlene. Yeah. Good night. All right. Thank you, Charlene. Have a good night. Okay. So, that concludes the special presentations. will move forward with the superintendent comments. Uh Mr. Barish, you're more than welcome to uh make an exit if you'd like or you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. Okay, we'll see you next month. Thanks, Jeff. Okay. Um just a few reminders. School starts September 2nd and the back to school nights for next year. Lake View is September 9, Valley View September 10, Riverview September 11, and Mars Nullles is September 18 and 25. Um, our graduation for Valley View is June 17th at 7 p.m. at Mars Nolles. I sent an email out to you. I only got back two replies. As anybody else wants to go, please

102let me know by tomorrow so I can inform the principal. And if anybody else wants to do anything, be part of the of the graduation ceremony, please let me know as well in an email. I did tell the principal that I would let him know by tomorrow what the uh final tally is. The graduation again, it would be one week from tomorrow. So it would be on the uh 17th uh 7 p.m. and that Mars Nolles. We also did get some good news from special service monitoring. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah. The fact that the biggest thing is we we scored the highest in our comp group of 12 12 districts in the special service monitoring. We were the top the top score receiver getter whatever it was. So, uh but it

103was good news because there's some things that we were working on and it showed some uh some good um results. Right. Definitely. So every year the state provides a score for your compliance meaning you have completed all your evaluations on time. The students have u met with the parents and students have signed off have met the parents and schools have signed off on their APs on time. You have worked with the kids that were found through early interventions. So all those things you're given points and it's out of a hundred and I believe we had 92 um which is great. And then it's based on the number of points you were even allowed to get. So some of these items a high school couldn't get compliance for the preschool programs and so forth. So we

104were the highest in our comp group but we were also the highest in um not only our size of school but also all of the schools. So um it's really great. We we only lost two points total and that was really we were well aware of the situation. We consulted the county and they advised us in the family's best interest to not hold it to a certain date and so we still lost the points but it was I guess a a better it built a better rapport and relationship with the family. So that was really the only points we lost. So we were well aware of it. So it's great news. And that's it for my report. Dr. Call us up. Thank you. Yeah, assistant superintendent comments, please. Just an update on kindergarten. So, right

105now we have 167 kindergarteners registered. We have 68 at um that should be 78, sorry, 78 at Lake View and 89 at Riverview. So, Riverview is going to have uh five sections and Lake View will have four next year. So, right now it's a low group. I mean, we have low numbers, so we'll see what comes out over the summer. But right now, our class sizes are all under 20. And at this very moment, they range between 15 and 18. So, they're pretty low in kindergarten, but we'll really we'll see what comes over the summer. So, I can't say they'll stay that low, but right now we're solidly under 20. Thank you, Dr. Cas. Business Administrator comments. Couple of comments. Uh we were just recently notified by the Hunter Co-op Transportation Department that they would

106not be unable to accommodate us the district uh for the four routes that we currently have with them for the 2526 school year. As a result, we needed to go out to bid with the Sauset Co-op. uh they were bit out the transportation route for the district and the bid results came out May 28th and the results were not too favorable to the district. They came out to be $100,000 over budget. Uh this is uh critical for 2526 school year budget. We are starting the year already with a $100,000 under budget. According to the Susset Co-op, these results were considered favorable given the current high demand and the shortage of drivers. In my opinion, despite the increase in cost, the district required this routes and we have it on the agenda for approval tonight. Well,

107when you said you said 100, you meant a h 100,000 over budget, right? Over budget. Under budget, right? So, it's $100,000 more than we had budgeted for these four. apologize. So that is over what we budgeted. Correct. On a positive note, uh the district for the sixth consecutive year received the certification of excellence in finance for the June 30th, 2024 school year. Thank you, Miss Grosski. Congratulations on that award to you and your staff, uh the entire administration. So, uh, that is, uh, incredible. Uh, could you repeat what the final bottom line number was for the Sussex route? I don't have the specific numbers in front of me, but they were $100,000 over budget from what we budgeted for the 2526 school year. So, if we budgeted 100,000, they came in at 200,000. Is that

108what I'm hearing? That is correct. Isn't it on the agenda? It's on the transportation on the action. Yeah, because Okay. Uh when we get to that section, I'll I'll go ahead and further ask uh ask further questions. So, uh was there anything else, Mrs. Grosski? No. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Uh we'll go ahead and open it up for public questions and comments. It is 8:30 p.m. Seeing no one online and no one in the chambers, we'll close it at 8:30 as well. Old business, no action to be taken. Mrs. A Delos, can you walk us through that, please? Sorry, I sure can. Sorry. Um, either myself or someone else at the next meeting, we'll go through the following resolutions. the board reports for May 2025, the education reports for 2025, and the minutes for

109May 12th and May 19th. Thank you. Any questions or comments? All right. Next item is uh new business action to be taken personnel. Mr. Capello, can you walk us through that, please? I'd be happy to. If there are no objections, I'd like to move items 1 through eight. Uh one includes uh new hires, resignations, retirements, employee leaves, extra pay, salary and adjustments. Um B includes a uh rather two sorry includes a uh personnel item being rescended. Uh three is the staffed master list for the 2526 school year. Number four is retrofactively approving employee leave under FMLA. Uh number five is another FMLA approval. Number six, the leave of absence under FMLA. Um, number seven is a retroactive leave of absence under FMLA. And number eight is approving uh one new hire substitute. I'll second. Thank

110you. Questions or comments? I would just like to uh call out um item number one, we have uh three staff members moving on the guide. Um, we have uh Lindseay Ben, Ashley Butler, and Lissa Smith. So, congratulations to them. We also have a number of retirements I'm noticing as well. So, congratulations to the retirements. All right. Uh, if there are no Mr. Corman's going to be uh really bored in his office. He's going to have two incredible uh secretaries that are leaving as well as a secretary from uh Riverview. So, I know like uh Mrs. Eststerino just said, they're uh incredibly important to the district, the face of many of the communications with the parents. So, um, and, uh, I personally have interacted with all of them and they're incredible, uh, staff members. So, excited

111to see them retire for their own good, but, uh, sad to see them go from the district. For the record, I did try to get the two Valley View secretaries to hang out with me for just one more year, but they said no. All right. Uh, roll call, please. Dr. Moore. Yes. Mrs. Melis, yes. Miss Asterino, yes. Mr. Cass, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr. Capello, yes. Mr. Kim, yes. Dr. Moore, can you walk us through IMP, please? Sure. I'd like to move the following uh resolutions under instruction and program. Under item number one, workshop and expenses. There is uh one uh workshop for the NJASA uh school administrator residency program. I'll second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Miss Mr. Dillis, yes. Miss Asterino, yes. Mr. Cass, yes. Mr.

112Anderson, yes. Mr. Capello. Yes. Mr. Kim. Yes. Uh there's no items under governance. So Mr. Anderson, can you uh walk us through finance, please? Sure. If there are no objections, I like to move under D finance the following resolutions. Uh resolution number one is that the board accept the check from Sweeney Richards and Summer Incorporated regarding the cyber security incident during April 2024 in the amount of $16,563.95. Uh resolution number two is the be resolved that the board of education based upon the evaluation of the proposed re proposal received and the recommendation of the school business administrator and board secretary hereby accept and renews the contract for the commercial vendor simply gourmet LLC. Uh on May 22nd, 2024, board receives one response of the advertisement for the commercial vendor contract RFP01-2425 vend. Uh this contract

113was procured through the competitive contract process pursuant to NJSA18A18A-4.1 etc. Sequential and the rules and regulations of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. Purpose of this contract is to provide commercial vended lunch meals to the students of the district. Response from simply gourmet was as follows. Price per lunch meal $5. Total amount of meals 2025 2026 $141,100. Total amount of the contract $75,500. This contract with Simply Gourmet LLC is a one-year contract renewal for the 2025 2026 school year. I'll second. Thank you. Questions or comments? I want to thank uh Dr. Forte and Miss Garowski for the hard work on getting that check from Sweeney Richards and Summer. Uh they were able to find a discrepancy and they took action. So thank you for your uh diligence there. Roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Misselis,

114yes. Miss Asterino, yes. Mr. Cass, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr. Capello, yes. Mr. Kim. Yes. Dr. uh Mr. Cass, can you walk us through operations, please? Glad to. Under transportation item 1.1, I'm asking the board to approve to place an advertisement for a bid solicitation in connection with the sale of two school buses as follows. Uh bid number one is for bus number 184-54 and bid number two is for bus number 187-54. Item two is asking the board upon the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the participation in the joint transportation agreement with the Sexus County Regional Transportation Cooperative for the 2025 2026 school year at the following rates. Route 304 tiers are two annual cost $85,975. Route 307 tiers are three annual cost $89,595. Route number 308 three tiers 95,25. Route number 358 annual

115cost of $17,152 [Music] on the building and grounds. Ask the board to approve the attached quote from EI Associates in connection with the review annex roof replacement project in the amount of $7,000. A second. Thank you. Questions or comments? Uh, Miss Grosski, this is Are you saying all four bids are now going through Sussex County instead of ESC? Sussex County bid out the route and a private entity or multiple private entities bid on this. Yes. And it it would not be Sussex County transporting it. It was a it will be a different company. Okay. Because uh I think I misheard because I thought it was just route number four that Sussex County was going to take over, but they're taking over all four routes. All four routes. And so that's why it's over 100,000 because

116the the accumulation of all four routes is uh going to exceed. That is correct. We were paying about $70,000 a year uh per route in the past few years. And as you can see uh the numbers came a lot higher. So just to just to kind of clarify this for my own understanding and for the public, we were paying previously somewhere around 275 278,000. Now we're going to be paying 378,000 correct. I again those are rough numbers but right. Okay, that is correct. Okay, thank you. And just uh once again I think for clarification um all four of those routes uh are being bid out through the co-op, but it's one company that's going to do all four routes. That's correct. That is correct. One company will be transporting all four routes. So, if you

117don't mind, sorry. Um, just I think it's I think it was worth bear, you know, bears un the public understanding. So, this is the first time that we're going to have a public company uh doing the transportation for us, a a private company rather. Correct. In the past, we had a co-op doing these routes. uh they are in the corporate in a co- cooperative and this is the first time that we had to go out to bid. In the past the co-op had their own transportation and they will supply the drivers and the buses. This time all their vendors will bid on these routes and whoever the lowest bidder uh is those that will be the um the bid that we will go with. So when they're organizing these routes, do we have any control

118over what drivers show up? Is it up to them to pick a driver for the day? Is it going to be the same driver on a particular route over time or is it going to just be whoever is available? Do you know? It will be whoever is available. We do not have a choice to pick the drivers. However, they do try to keep the same drivers consistently, but that's not a guarantee. Correct. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I just think that that's worth the public understanding because obviously we don't have a choice here. This is something we have to do, but this is definitely a change and busing has always been an issue in Dville. It's been something that local busing has always been something that I think the community has been liked. So, this is

119going to be different. Um, so I think we definitely have to understand that there may be some uh some feedback there that may not be great, but we have to I think we have to kind of roll with it and uh try to make the best of it. So the shortage of drivers has caused a lot of chaos not just for Dendel but uh New Jersey uh statewide. It has been a lot of communication and um the regulation has changed to make it easier and better to pass the exam but it still is not a great incentive to motivate people to drive school buses. Sorry, I keep jump I keep jumping in. But um so if there was an area for ad for continued advocacy, this would be this would be a big one on

120our list. Um because you know there there are rules and things that they put in place that make it more difficult difficult for us to keep drivers, make the incentives less for drivers to want to drive buses rather than drive for Amazon or other commercial services. So you know I think if there's something we should continue to advocate for with the state, I would put this very high in the list. Thank you. Yeah. Uh if I can go back to our district goals for a second. Um obviously we're going to discuss this through operations. I think that's definitely a conversation we want to talk about in terms of projected cost over time. Um obviously for next year, this is what's going to have to happen, but at least start planning for the future and what

121works best for the district. and um thinking forward of how maybe perhaps it's a separate type of flexible um position for drivers as opposed to hiring them full-time or this or that or something to that extent. So, you know, we we do offer literally almost anything. AM only, PM only, AM PM, AM PM lunch, AM PM middle route. So, it's like a menu of things. So, we we've we do a lot of different things. Um, and we have some subs. We have people who retired and came back. So, you know, we're trying the best we can. But I think the biggest thing that you really the biggest takeaway is that county ed services provided us the buses and the drivers. Hunton County Ed Services is like another board of ed. It's a public entity. This

122co-op is just a group that that organizes and and bids out your your bus routes to private companies. So, the biggest difference here is we've had outsourced routes, but this is the first time we'll have a private bus company driving our kids to school on the regular routes. This is the first time that'll happen. And and the worst part of it is, I mean, it's it's grown from started off at three routes to four routes. We're we're having a hard time keeping it where just at four routes. So, it's it's going to be a challenge just keeping it at four routes rather than growing more. So, and and there will be messaging going out to the public before the school year about this so everybody understands. U Mrs. Gowski, you have two buses that we're

123selling as well. Um, are there plans to replace those two buses even though we don't have the drivers or what was the um I'm not sure if the buses were actually on the budget uh for this coming up year. These two buses will expire at the end of June 2025 and we do not have it in the budget to replace those buses. We couldn't fit it in in the budget. So that does effectively reduce our sort of uh pool of buses fleet. Yes, we still have couple of spares available. Uh yes, it will be reduced by two buses. So if through some miracle we were able to get four new drivers, we would have to put in an order for uh two buses to cover those. I guess my question is do we have enough

124buses to even cover the four routes that we're outsourcing to cover the four additional routes? Uh maybe not. No, we do have some spa two spares, but not four. Mrs. Mrs. Growski, about how many drivers do we currently have? About 29 drivers. Okay, cuz I'm starting to do the math and say, how much does it cost us extra divided by 29 drivers if you added to their salary? Like at what point can we increase the salary enough where you actually, you know, recruit more drivers? I'm not sure if that's the only piece to it. I'm sure it's not, but it's got to be a piece of it. a quick question and maybe a comment. We'll see how I feel at the end of the question. Um, Dr. Forte, this might be an a silly question,

125but I know that, you know, sometimes we put uh staff on on school buses for various reasons and things like that. Does that impact that at all? Do we still have the same amount of um ability to to to to do things on the school buses we need to? Um, do you mean like when we put a bus aid or we have like a vice principal rides the bus? Sometimes the vice principal rides the bus for disciplinary reasons, stuff like that. Right. Right. And can we still do that? We still have all that kind of access even though it's a private company. Sure. Sure. Okay. We've done it. We've done it with the edge services as well. Okay. Seeing no other questions or comments, roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Miss Sidellis, yes. Miss Asterino,

126yes. Mr. Cass, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr. Capello, yes. Mr. Kim, yes. All right. The next item on the agenda is new business, no action to be taken. Mr. Capello, can you walk us through personnel, please? I'd be happy to. At the next meeting, I or another board member will be moving items under personnel. Uh at this point they include uh one new hires, resignations, retirements, employee leaves, extra pay, salary, and adjustments. Uh two, uh staff listing for summer 2025. Three is an attached list of for staff of extracurricular and stipen positions for the 2526 school year. And finally, uh, that the board approve the attached sidebar agreement for the with the Denver Education Association regarding article 33 of the DEA contract. Any questions or comments? Dr. Moore, IMP, please. Uh, yes. Uh, either myself

127or someone else will move the following resolutions under instruction and program. Uh, item number one, workshop and expenses. There's a summer writing institute uh virtual workshop and the IST live 2025 annual summer technology conference also virtual. And item number two is to approve the adoption and purchase of a six-year contract of the updated 2025 middle school essentials health text program. Uh for number two, was that already in the budget and we're just approving the um the contractor or the contract? Yes. Great. Thank you. If there are no other questions or comments, uh the next item would be governance which is uh which is empty. Mr. Anderson, finance, please. Sure. Myself or someone else? Uh at the next meeting we'll move under finance uh the typical checks list as well as item number two will be

128the capital reserve transfer which we do uh each year. Um item number three will be the maintenance reserve transfer um that we do once again every year. Item number four will be the uh approval authorizing the board administrator administrator uh business administrator excuse me board secretary to proceed with all necessary entities for the 2024 2025 school year including cancellation of purchase orders uh stale dated checks transfers etc. This is once again an end of fiscal year uh process for us. Number five will be to approve the standard operating procedures and internal control manual. Item number six will be to the board to approve the attached district bid award letters for the education data services commission for Morris County for school supplies for the 2025 2026 school year. Then finally item number seven will be the

129board to approve the agreement between home care therapies LLC uh DVA Horizon Healthcare staffing along with Horizon staff re restaffing resources both referred to as Horizon and the Denver Board of Education. Horizon shall provide the Denver school district on an as needed and as requested basis the full range of staffing services including registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, certified nursing assistants, health aids, pair professionals as well as clinical and nonclinical staff here and referred to as temporary staff for the 2025 2026 school year. Questions or comments? Mr. Cass, operations, please. Under transportation, I'm going to ask that the board approve the following parent transportation contracts for the upcoming school year. They're listed items A through E. And on building grounds, I'm going to ask the board to approve the submission of the anticipated facility requests for

130the upcoming school year to the Morris County Superintendent of Schools. The DEL Board of Education does not anticipate applying changes of use and/or dual use for the 2526 school year. Item 2.2 is for the board of education to approve the attached revised facilities usage forms for 2025 2026 as referenced in CC3 and FC3, questions or comments. Maris, did you have something to say about the facilities form? I know you were talking about some changes. We the orange the yellow change is just um aware making people aware of any allergens but I know you talked about something too. We're just making slight changes to the fee for the profit organization by $5 just because especially for a a Sunday usage uh because uh we had to pay the double time to the staff. So we just

131want to make make sure that we cover our cost not to the nonprofit. The nonprofit stays the same. Okay. Uh, next item on the agenda, good of the cause, committee reports, correspondence, discussion items or other topics germanine to the district. Uh, good of the cause. I had the opportunity to go to the farmers market this past weekend and see all of the work of the green team and the students presented uh you know information regarding composting information about uh you know native plants. So I was very happy to see the the great work that the administrators have been doing there and all the great work of the students. So hopefully you caught it at the farmers market this past weekend. Additionally, um uh last Friday I was able to go to the New Jersey School

132Board Association's uh presentation on AI. Um I met a lot of administrators and board members who are hesitant to work with AI. I think we have a real opportunity to jump ahead of this and create some policy surrounding AI pre specifically for teachers teacher facing what they can and cannot do. Uh kind of getting out in front of the situation as opposed to trying to catch up later. Um I have just the agenda here if anybody would like to look at it. I was able to do to go to a number of um presentations for the day. I I will say I did send all of you the a PowerPoint presentation that was provided by East Brunswick School District which is a K through 12. Um and they already put together a workg group with

133the community bringing everybody all the voices together. I think it's a opportunity for us to do something like that consistent to what we did with anxious generation um to bring in that information to the community and have them voice their opinions and perspectives of how it can be used. I understand, you know, we are a K through eight. Uh we would probably more focus it within the middle school because they know about it. They don't know how to use it. Well, I mean, if if we want to stay ahead of them, we have to learn it before they do essentially. Um I also was able to stay for a student presentation. Uh and I will say that they were high school students. They were seniors talking about their experience with AI. And a lot of

134them were discouraged by the fact that teachers were using it. We weren't we are not allowed to use it. But the conversation really was that, you know, K through 8, they're learning the foundation within high school. They're going to be using this when they get to college. They're going to be using this when they get into the real world. Um, you know, this is the real world regardless. It's not just, you know, so um I think it's a conversation. We can start it in governance. I and then we can kind of go from there. It is a real opportunity for us to like I said jump ahead and create the policy now broad a broad policy just so that we're protected in in in one way or the other and also so that the administration

135knows what our stance is um because right now it's a free-for-all. So at least have a conversation about our perspective and how we can assist the teachers moving forward. And of of course this is teacher facing making sure that they know what they are responsible for or not and and that sort. So I can pass this if you want to say it. It is a state requirement that we convene that committee. So I'm sure that's why the district's doing that. So we already have that on our our on our um yeah radar. Thank you. Uh that we have to do that. Um so because it's a stakeholder issue. We already did pass a um one policy that does oversee it and in that requires that we create this committee and then there's specific things that

136have to be uh accomplished by that committee. When you say committee, are we saying an ad hoc committee through the board or through the stakeholder engagement? The stakeholders with the community, right? You mean parents, students, teachers, community. the presentation, the PowerPoint that I sent outlines it perfectly. So, I think we can utilize the information that we've been provided, maybe use AI to see how it can work in Denbell. Um, so the like I said, we'll we'll get on that. I do do we want to create an ad hoc committee for that or I mean it would be just with governance or I was actually going to suggest maybe we roll it into IMP. I thought so. I would suggest that we coordinate with MHRD because the policy should be fairly well from a broad perspective

137aligned um just because like you said we're limited from a student perspective but also I think it just makes sense for us to think about and they see if they're interested obviously they need to be interested but maybe a good idea we often try to align things and thank you for going to this because this is excellent and I did look at the PowerPoint you sent earlier so thank Thank you. Um I will definitely contact MHRD. It is a state mandate that we do this through instruction. So I mean it came to me from the state. So we'll definitely be getting on this. Um if the board would like an additional committee, we certainly can and or we can go through IMP. Well, I I think um AI will affect many different layers, right? I

138mean we have to discuss the impact on the student level. there's the uh uh the staff level and the their usage of it which is what I sort of inferred from uh what you were saying Andrea. Um I I think the board can benefit from using it as well. I mean just taking minutes uh during committee meetings but I think there should be some limitations and obviously that's going to be something that the state might be looking at the state level. So uh I know Dr. Forte mentioned during governance committee that Shesme is already looking at putting together some policies. So once those policies are available then governance can take a look and uh vetted out as well. So uh but yes I definitely agree that IEP should be in the thick of it especially

139uh with the impact of the students and how it's being used uh in the classrooms. Uh and I love the idea about MHRD as well. So, um just all of it makes sense and I think it's uh I don't think there's a need for a special committee just yet until uh unless there's um urgent need uh for a specific topic. So, we'll uh we'll discuss it with our existing committees. How about board highlights? I have four. Um the board approved the contract with the Sussex Co-op for four bus routes. the New Jersey school board's um representative presented the board self-evaluation. We honored Mr. Jeff Barnes and a recap of the 2425 goals as well as goal setting 2526. That sounds great. Thank you. I would add uh the audit dearis what is it six years

140running? How um with transportation being such a hot topic as well, uh I'd like finance and operations to maybe take a look at the conversation we had earlier with regards to bus garages and and just the overall status. I mean, um I'd like to talk about it more during this board meeting, but I think we're uh sort of all a little blareeyed at this point. So, um, we'll go ahead and open it up for public comments at 8:59 p.m. Seeing no one online and no one in the chambers, we'll close it at 8:59 p.m. Uh, there will be an need for an executive session. Mrs. Eststerino, could you please uh walk us through uh that, please? I move to convene an executive session in accordance with section 8 of the Open Public Meetings Act. The

141purpose of this closed session will be to discuss negotiations, legal, security, and personnel issues. Minutes of this session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I. Any absentions? We are an executive at 9:00 p.m. Just for the public record, we will not be voting on anything after the executive session. So, we'll be adjourning immediately after. Thank you everyone.