001All right. Um, good evening everyone. Sorry for the delay. We were on a tour of some of our impressive facilities um, within the high school. Um, we're going to get started with the lace committee. I'm actually going to just change the order around a little bit because um, what I was we actually got some good news. So, I wanted to start off with that. Um, but we've been discussing the idea of working with the township to have part of the Mandro News, which is the quarterly township newspaper that goes out to every resident um and being able to work with them to have space in there. Um and so um learned today that um we reached out to the township um Miss Kennedy um who handles that and she is allotting two pages of the
002newspaper to the school district every quarter. Um so really excited about that. Mr. Moralda I don't know if you want to talk a little bit. Yeah. So, uh um public information officer for the town. Um we spoke today wonderful conversation um that uh with as an expression of partnership um offering us the opportunity to be engaged full happenings in the Monroe News. Um so what we're going to do is we're going to absolutely take them up on that offer and we're going to talk as a team about what and and and how and what it seems like we have a little a decent amount of creative liberty. Um, you know, obviously this is a partnership, so we'll we'll have to keep both partners uh in mind, make sure that it works with how they produce
003their publication and things like that. But we're looking forward to what this might mean for the district. Um, a couple of the ideas we had right out of the gate would be just kind of share some news with the community that we take for granted. Not everyone goes on social media or as a Blackboard Connect subscriber. So, this is another way to get out to more people um in another new way that we haven't previously done. Um, but I really was appreciative of uh Miss Kennedy's willingness to be creative. So, what we talked about a little bit um was what type of content we think uh the residents would like. Um it was a great conversation uh to have with someone in that in that field based on her expertise. And uh we've talked about
004how not just with school news how we could do things like set up I know one of the thing bit spoken about is concert calendars um events um any key messaging that we want to get out on behalf of the district. Um and uh I spoke with uh one of the instructors at the high school Mr. Gwinto who is works in our workbased learning program and oversees our sports marketing and management interns. And one of the things that we're going to prioritize as an initiative for next year within that program is uh publicizing um and giving our students the opportunity to get published in real jobs. So this will be a nice opportunity for us to take the natural next step of that program getting kids involved and Miss Kennedy was open to this idea
005under our supervision of getting kids in in in the mix of providing content for the Monroe News as well. Um, and we think we can we can provide a unique service uh to the community but also leverage and meet some of the goals of the district. Mr. Mora, do we have a like a journalism class at the high school? We do have uh well, I don't want to misspe. I do know that whether through the club model or they used to be an elective. I don't know if it's Dr. Roselle was here. She would know. Um, but uh I do know that those skills, whether they're not taught as an elective, I am fairly certain that within the ELA curriculum, they do address that style of content. Right now, Kelly Little is rolling her but
006somewhere. But yeah, that that that is that I I don't I don't know off how they address it, but it is addressed. They do have a digital newspaper here at the high school. So, but I know we're I know we're you know, short on time. I know next month we'll have um citizens advisory committee so maybe we can maybe expand on this a little bit more next month to talk about you know possible topics. I will say one thing someone shared with me today was that they didn't really know a lot about the unified program and I mean honestly until I was a board member I really knew very little about it as well. So that might be something great to share with the township um athletic calendars things of that nature. So they have
007a deadline of Friday for this next. Oh, so we're going to try to get So we're going to try to get something to get it a month a month or so ahead of time. Yeah, but it comes out a couple times a year. So yes, we we'll be ready to go for I I imagine the the early late summer, you know, calendar. I'm going to try to do something um probably related to what Mr. Snder talking about there. Y that was um just because anything and again our goal is not you know purposeful other than the fact that we want to share happening and good news about right and so thank you and uh thank you to the township for the collaboration there um really quick the other thing just kind of under municipal collaboration
008which um just wanted to touch on was and this happened in the fall but it's been discussed um in other ways was the township had passed um an impact fee resolution Um just supporting the idea of impact fees. Um which you know we had a resolution about as well. Um I I'm actually going to talk about a bill that was discussed on Saturday that is sort of aligned with that idea, but I wasn't sure given that they had passed a resolution and that we've done that as well, maybe wanted to try to work together um to sort of lobby to our legislators to try and get something done. Um, so I just figured I would bring that up while we were sort of talking about municipal collaboration. Um, I'm happy to reach out if I
009guess you're okay with that. Um, I know usually are, but I was ask just in case. Um, all right. And I guess does anyone else have anything on that? I know we sort of talked about impact fees a lot in the past. So, okay. Real quick, we have a journalism one and two course that are offered and it's also integrated in standard track. Well, in the ELA curriculum, but then we have the clubs that support it as well. Sure. Thank you. Yep. Um, next is a delegate assembly recap. So, I am I watched it online. Um, Miss De is our delegate from our district who attended in person. So, I'm going to let her talk a little bit about Yes. Thank you, Miss Ratton. I attended the May 10th delegate assembly. Um, there were three
010resolutions on on board that day. Resolution number one was from Woodbury Board of Education regarding um this resolution seeks to promote student particip participation in intercolastic esports activities and encourages local boards to award varsity letters for such participation that passed with flying colors. Um the second one was from the Franklin Township Board of Ed in Warren County. It had proposed new policy language supporting the belief that the state should modify the criteria for the nurse school nurse non-instructural endorsement to eliminate the requirements of holding a bachelor's degree in completing the New Jersey Department of Ed approved college curriculum for the preparation of school nurses with a minimum of 15 semester hours. In lie of the 15 hours credits, NJ DOE approved college curriculum, Franklin Township proposed requiring a candidate to complete three classes related to
011school specific operations within the first 18 months of beginning employment in the school. There was a lot of discussion on this. There was quite a few nurses who were uh board delegates and there that day and it passed by I think 50 to 48. It was it was one or two votes get passed. So that's going to go further on. Um the shortage of nurses is what's driving this. So but the nurses themselves were not very happy about it. So we'll see what happens when it gets through. The third one was from the Kinatini Board of Ed. Cessups County proposed new language for NJSBA manual of uh positions and policies supporting the belief that attendance regulations should include state ex excused absences for students who are completing steps necessary to enter the skilled trades professions
012or union. So that went that pass with flying colors also. So there was no discussion. It was a very easy delegate assembly except for the discussion regarding the nurses. So, thank you. Any comments? All right. Um, so then the next thing that we have on the agenda, I lost my agenda. Um, I believe it the legislative committee. Let's say recap. Um, so I attended the schoolboard association uh legislative committee this past Saturday um down at their office in Trenton. Um the way that it works for those who might be newer um is there are two representatives that are board members from districts in each legislative district. Um so as an example um I represent I believe we're legislative district 14. East Brunswick is a different legislative district than us as is South Brunswick is a
013different one than that. Um, so it's interesting to sort of see the division and how these towns that are very close together are all in different legislative districts. But, um, what will usually happen then is that there will be several administrators from New Jersey school boards there. The vice president of legislation actually resigned after delegate assembly. So, is that the one sponsor? No, no, no, no, no. Um, Shandra Jackson. Oh, she did? Yeah. I know. Um so it's after Panel ran the meeting but um generally speaking um she was running the meeting and then there are people there from the legal department, governmental relations um and then there's usually one or two guest speakers that generally speaking have been legislators. Um this time we were actually fortunate to have somebody who had been a schoolboard
014member for 12 years that is now on the town council um in Woodbridge. um Dan Harris Dan Harris, but he also has been the kind of like the right-hand man for Craig Coughlin um as a deputy assembly speaker uh something high level like the assembly. Um so he was actually able to provide a lot of information to us and really get into the laws more than someone who might be newer to the state legisl legislator legislature wow um has been able to do. Um, and so I wanted to share um, one of the bills that he actually brought up um, that has been something they've done in Woodbridge that um, I found really interesting that wasn't um, part of the new the legislative committee's recap because it's already been signed into law. Um, which was
015A4496. Um, and what was really interesting about this is he was sort of talking about some of the things that they've been successful in getting past and doing in Woodbridge. Um and so this is what he essentially dubbed as the nonreferenderendum referendum. Um which like my ears kind of peaked up. Um and essentially what they've been able to do is use pilots um which is payment in le of taxes when there's new construction. Um so basically it allows a school district to raise money for a school facilities project without the approval of the voters. um if the school district enters into a contract with the township and then the township provides the district with the essentially it's kind of like impact fees without being dubbed impact fees. Um and so the municipality provides the district
016with a portion of the taxes that are paid and the district uses money that they're given from the township to pay off their debt. Um and so we said that they've done this in Woodbridge a couple times. We had so we had a meeting about this I think a couple years ago. Yep. And if uh specifically I believe we were the county superintendent um if I'm not mistaken and I thought and maybe this is where any monitor I want to say that it was very like the the construction project had to be like tied to some sort of park or open space. Wasn't it there was some sort of caveat there was there wasn't a variable or a that we don't necessarily apply to us. Yeah, I can go back and check my notes. It
017was either like reconstruction, re revitalizing an area or maybe it was a parks piece or something. Right. I know there was a grant that was for that recently as well, but I would be curious to hear of any evolutions to that. Well, because what he also said is they were working on new legislation regarding the similar topic, which I couldn't find the bill number four. So, I actually reached out to our board attorney today um and they represent Woodbridge as well. So he said he was going to um you know look speak to the people who are working in Woodbridge and kind of get back to us about that. But you know I found it interesting especially because you know we do have certain needs within the district that if we can do it without
018raising taxes um would you know kind of be like a win-win for everyone. You know what I think North Brunswick just had a referendum up like that no raise in taxes and it passed. So it sounds sim similar to what you just said in Woodbridge. What's the catch that? I didn't know. I mean, I don't know, you know, I don't know. I only know a couple board members. So, I I've learned with other districts, I don't know, this was North Brunswick, was that when the debt payment from something else had been paid off and they were able to start a new debt that wasn't raising it because didn't say like after rebate or I don't know for sure if that's what's happening there. I just I just know that's what the rebate happened. Yeah. Um
019I'll take a So yeah, and then um just a couple of I put the um legislative committee report um on as an attachment to our agenda. Um but I'll sort of just go through it. I I took out a couple of the ones I wanted to mention that I thought were relevant to us. Um the first one is the sunscreen policy they talked a little bit more about. This has been signed into law. So my guess is we'll get something from stress hazm soon, but essentially it's about allowing students to apply sunscreen at school because it's technically considered a you know medical. So right now it's um I don't know if we have anything in our policy manual right now for that. But the idea is that every district would have to create a policy
020about that. I don't believe we have anything sunscreen specific. our our policies and protocols are related to if you think of its Yeah. like Advil, Tylenol, and then and then it goes to like um there's certain ages that can track their blood sugar levels, uh you know, monitor insulin, you know, insulin injections and stuff like things like that. Yeah. I think for me it would be interesting like especially the aerosol sunscreen, right? Because then you could potentially be Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm curious to see if they do anything with that in the policy. My experience usually yelling at kids to put on sunscreen. Well, especially if they're going out for field day. You'll know that we send the instructions that you have like you have to come to school with sunscreen on. We
021can't put it on for you. And those cloudy days really do not they don't they believe. Um so, let's see. The next one that I took out to look at um there they have a statutory clause. They extended it on the collection of student growth objectives um which I know from what I was told there's a lot of support for that but apparently sorry an understatement but apparently this I forget if it's a senator or assembly person who was sort of responsible for the teach NJ bill is still very like this is my baby. So it hasn't necessarily gotten, you know, completely erased yet, but it's extended with the student growth objectives. They there's like a data tracking mechanism that factors into evaluation of the of the teacher. Yeah. Um the next one I was
022like briefly talking about with Mr. Alder like right before we started the meeting um which is the TPA. Um so it's the teacher pension and annuity fund reinrollment change. Um, and this is something like I will share personally I'm very excited about. Um, but it extends the membership in the teachers pension fund to 10 years after discontinuence of service. Um, and up to 15 years for those who were laid off or had 10 or more years of continuous service upon voluntary termination. Um, so just to put that in like layman's terms right now, you know, and I personally am someone who has to deal with this. If you left teaching for more than two years, um whether it's to raise children or for any other reason or if you were even laid off and you
023don't go back for two years, um when you go back in, you have to start right now. Anyone who started prior to 2006, yes. um around that time is considered something called tier one which was like the the dub of it like the best benefits that you know you could retire at 55 your pension is calculated using um 25 years um you 55 and 25 yeah right um whereas if then there they created tier two tier three tier four tier five and so tier five is you know they got inferior as they went so if you're in tier five you can't retire until you're 65 and it's divided by 30. Um, and you need 30 years of service to get health benefits instead of 25. Um, and I know firsthand if you were someone who
024this applied to, if you had more than 10 years and you don't go back, you can get the your pension. Let's say if you had the 10 years and you're vested um at 55, but if you go back into the system, everything that you would collect would then be considered the tier five. So then you couldn't retire until you're 65. Um so they said that this is the highest level priority for New Jersey Educators Association, which makes sense. Um but it's also a priority for the governor. They were talking a lot about lame duck session because this is the end of a gubernatorial 8-year term. Um and so they think that there's a good chance that this will pass. So then I actually did ask about whether people who let's say went back after let's
025say seven years and had to enter tier five if it would be retroactive for them as well and they said it would not be basic because the idea is to incentivize teachers to go back into the workplace. Um so um curious to see how that becomes you know turns into a law but um I definitely thought that that was interesting. Um, I'm hoping that it helps with teacher recruitment, um, you know, for especially for subjects where there might be that need. Um, any thoughts on that one? I think it's great. Uh, the next one that was sort of discussed with a little bit more depth was the anti- choking devices legislation. um which I found interesting that there was a lot of resistance for um from certain members of the committee but I think from
026what I gathered they're not really used in like the field that much and so their thoughts were we shouldn't be using them in the schools if they're not don't think it's FDA approved but something of that nature so I think that's why NS JSBA is monitoring it instead of just supporting it um I don't know if you know anything about this. No, I mean I don't feel like it would be something you'd want to support like any help with student safety, but also I understand that if it's not an FDA approved device that yeah, you don't want to take that risk. So, and here you go with your nurses again and nurses would have to be educated in how to use it the proper way. I would suspect any resistance is coming from professionals from
027the nurses and the doctors. Yes. andor the potential that it's going to be an unfunded mandate where you're going to require districts to then acquire these specific devices and have a certain ratio per number of students or you know whatever it is. So that'd be my guess where the any resistance is coming from. Y I um see it was discussion about school meal programs. Um and I think the interesting discussion was that there are a lot of there there was someone who mentioned from their district that a lot of the parents and students don't fill that especially at the upper levels because they know that the school has to provide a lunch to them anyway and they don't want to give that income information but then the school districts themselves are losing a lot of
028money because they're not necessarily getting the funds for those meals. Um, and so we sort of had that discussion of how, you know, I brought up what we did this year where you had to acknowledge that you received the form. Um, but just about getting people to either fill out the forms or at least be aware of them um to sort of, you know, avoid that because they said like, you know, they had to write off a few hundred,000 worth of meals in one district last year because of the things they had to provide. Um, I don't really know if that's something we deal with here as much, but I haven't heard of us writing off anything related to that. So, you know, we have a healthy food service program, self- sustaining. You know, our
029our price adjustments have been a reflection of, you know, increased costs related to food and things like that. But uh you know, we certainly made the effort to reach out through the before school form completion process to make sure everyone was aware that they could fill this form out if needed. Um I think that's, you know, one of the strongest pushes we can make. Can't make someone fill something out. Exactly. Everybody has a different reason why they would would or would do it. So, um so then there were two more that I wanted to highlight and then if there's any others that you guys saw on the list you want to talk about, feel free. Um, one was, um, it's under curriculum and instruction. It's S3910. Um, and I got a personal shout out at
030the meeting about this one because it mandates full day kindergarten in all school districts. Um, it was re and so Jonathan Pushman was like, I see you, Kate. I was like, great. Because then we found out that actually there are representatives from two other school districts um that don't have full kindergarten yet that are on this the committee. So, it's a good representation when you think about it considering there's only eight of us in the state. Um, but so they're saying NSBA is monitoring and supporting because they realize that every district that doesn't have full day kindergarten yet has a reason for that. Um, it wouldn't mandate it until 20 the 2029 2030 school year. Um, so there's time for that to happen. Um, but then there's also the component of um the aid for
031universal preschool. Um and I guess additional benefits that come along with that that are part of it which they support because it's not mandated. Um then I had asked like you know would they change it so that districts that don't have kindergarten can apply and they said the idea that because they're mandating it you would have that and then you would be eligible. Um but that was a you know an interesting discussion um about that. And then the other one was the IEP. Where is it? Oh, it's under special education. Um, and so it's the IEP meeting guidelines and working group. Um, and so there was a discussion about how IEPs are information is provided to parents. Um, so this bill, which is S3982, um, would require the IEPs to be provided to parents at
032least two days prior to the annual IEP meeting. Um, and there were actually people on both sides of this because there were some board members who, you know, also either work in special education or have children in that field that said parents are supposed to be part of the meeting to write to the IEP. So, they shouldn't be getting the papers with that information beforehand, whereas there were other people who said it's good for parents to know what they're going to be looking at when they're going into the meeting. Um so that was sort of the discussion that took place about that. Um so any comment about that? Is there anything else on here um in terms of the bills that anybody wanted to discuss? No. All right. Um and then just at the bottom
033of it, it sort of gave that website link for Capital Lunch, which is their quarterly newsletter that sort of shares a lot of the bills. um they talked about that and making sure we all share it within our school districts um with other board members um to sort of just keep track of a lot of these bills. I think their goal eventually is to update that more frequently based on what is happening. Um they anticipated that this next month like so June will be very busy and then from what we were told the legislature doesn't go back until after the election. Yeah. Um and then November and December will be that lean daughter period where they expect a lot of actions that happen then as well and okay is that [Music] everything. [Music] Um yeah
034I think that is everything. So I unless anyone else has anything else they wanted to bring up community engagement. Um, we will call it a night. All right. Thank you very much everyone. Have a good end of the school year. Thank you.