001Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Okay, thank you all for being here and we will start with the superintendent report. >> Thank you very much. I'm happy to report that the first day of school uh went very smoothly across the district. A huge thank you to our buildings and grounds team for their extraordinary work over the summer. Our schools looked beautiful and we were ready for all of our students today. Our teachers and staff came back early last week for robust professional development sessions and that preparation was evident today in their classrooms. As always in the first week, we do ask for patience with the bus routes as families and drivers are adjusting to new schedules. I will note that uh our afternoon drop off today was in record
002time for the first week of school and incredibly uh on point with the scheduled and appointed time. It's always helpful to us if students can arrive at their bus stop in the morning a few minutes early to keep things on schedule. At our September 29th meeting, our director of buildings and grounds will present a full review of the capital improvement projects completed this summer. And we will also honor the late Christopher L. Martin, an extraordinary community leader, engineer whose decade of service helped shape Morristown and left a lasting le leg legacy of civic engagement and public service. Looking forward to our October 27th meeting, the district administrative team will present a comprehensive report on the results of all spring 2025 state assessments and AP exams. We're hopeful that you can join us at those meetings
003and we will also uh post the presentation from those meetings online. I want to thank our parents and community for your continued support. I will be sending out a detailed district welcome back letter later this week which will give you full updates on all of our program improvements, ongoing projects, and upcoming events in our school. Now, while we will be presenting at the October 27th meeting on all student achievement data from the spring assessments, the state of New Jersey requests that we report out the access score results within 60 days of receipt. So, I would like to invite uh Dr. Diana Pinto Gomez, assistant superintendent for pupil services and bilingual education to share those results with us now. Good evening, Dr. Mucci and fellow board members. Thank you so much for your time this evening.
004Um, I'm going to present on our state uh results from the 2425 admission for um administration for access. [Music] Let me know if you can hear me. >> Okay, fantastic. All right, thank you. We can go on to the next slide. So, the access test measures four domains of listening, reading, um speaking and writing. So, would you have a problem? I apologize. >> Well, sure. Can you please just explain to everyone what the access scores are and what they as that's sure? So we give the access test every year to our multilingual learners um in our bilingual program. Um so the access test measures four domains reading, writing, listening and speaking. So what you see here on the left hand column um are the scores. So they take the four domains and they give us
005what's called a composite score. The composite score can be anywhere from number one to number six. Number six being the highest and number one the lowest. So what we see here on the left hand column are you know one through six. And then what we've done is we've given you the grades pay one two three four and five on the top rows. And we've shown you what each student scored in that grade relative to that score. So for example, it's very common to see our kindergarten students um you know really at the one level they're they're um entering learning acquisition for the English language right they're coming to us they're learning they're picking up in English they're speaking it a little bit more understanding it a little bit more so it's common to see number
006one so here we have about 61 number ones for our kindergarten what we want to see and what we see here is a nice progression in first grade where our students start to go into number two, which is emerging. They're using the language a little bit more, comprehending a little bit more. So, we're really proud of all of our students, but number in grade one, you'll see 39 in entering, 45 emerging, um, and 36 in develop. Okay? And then we'll see our second grade, we start to see once again students in the twos, threes, and now we see some four uh, some students in fours, which is expanding. So once you get a 4.5 as an access score, you are considered exiting the biling. So here we start to see some fours um in our
007second grade. Okay. And then if you see our third grade, once again, a nice progression into more threes and fours, 47 students in the threes, and 25 in the fours. Okay. So we want to each grade level kind of >> Diana, >> sorry to interrupt. the zoom screen is blocking the numbers at the bottom. Is it possible for that to be moved up? So that num that number is in the screen or Yeah. Great. >> So in number four, grade four, we um see the same thing. We see our students uh uh in developing 26 and then we're you know 37 in expanding. Uh we had 30 students in grade four exit the program which means they scored a 4.5. Okay. So they're they're not considered bilingual students any longer. They're now in our um
008you know monilingual classes and we will continue to monitor them and their progression um for a few years to come. All right. Our fifth grade uh once again seeing the progression into threes, fours, and fives and 21 students in grade five completely activated the program here. Any questions? Uh K through five. Is it safe to say the reason why you don't see a lot of people in the five and the six is because they've ex exited the program? Yeah. Our 612 data. Um it's important to note that here we see a little bit more transitional students entering into our school district transferring out. Um so here we see um our sixth grade we had 62 students tested. um 12 in um entering uh 12 emerging, 30 developing um and then nine in expanding um and
009we saw two students exit the program there. You do see a lot of entrance once again in sixth grade into FMS in our multilingual program. Um seventh grade uh we see you know our students once again um in developing and expanding. Uh four students exited the program in seventh grade. um eighth grade uh we're very proud there and all of our students but 27 students in developing uh 16 and you know number four expanding one and five and then 11 students exit the program there. Okay. Um so in our ninth grade here is where we see the most transition for our students in ninth grade. We have a lot of students coming in what's called newcomers. Um and so they're coming in with very very limited English language. Um and so we expect to see
010several ones and twos here as our students are adjusting to high school, adjusting to the culture here um in Morristown. Um and once again starting to develop their language uh 10th grade that's >> any thought why the sudden jump in ninth grade of the number of students >> we have a lot. >> Do we get a lot from Morris Plains that don't speak at all? I assume we don't. >> But where do they come from? We had a lot of new entrance last summer. >> Did suddenly at 9th grade >> to the entry? Yes. >> Yeah. It was a big big entry last year. We took about 70 students or so over the summer for nth grade. >> Just in nth grade. >> Just in ninth grade. >> Well, and it's it's nth grade because
011they've come here. They're a certain age. They have no credits. So, it's not that they're freshman. It's that they don't have any education. So, they're put in a spot. >> So, they could be >> the entry spot. Well, they they are 18 and 19. Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> Yes. >> There are newcomers in Right. So, last year we had quite a bit um newcomers into our um >> whereas when they're younger, they're put in age appropriate grade levels. >> They're putting according to their birthday, their age. Interesting. And you don't um you don't put students who coming from other countries in age appropriate grades if they don't have any any transcripts. >> Well, it depends if they come with a transcript. They will not come with a transfer or any credit. You put them
012in the ninth grade and try to give them as you know as many courses as possible graduate on time. >> Yeah. Otherwise, you're putting them in as juniors or seniors which then they have no chance of graduating. So, >> but I think the question also speaks to grouping students together by age, which we would do within the program. >> So, we have an income program that we definitely try to put our students, you know, by age there and then we have level one and level two as well at the high school. So, it depends where last year we did see quite you know um a number of new entrance and nth grade. We developed two newcomer sections and we definitely leveled off the ages at that point. That answer your question. Okay, thank you. >>
013No, absolutely. And then our 11th grade once again uh we start to see you know level two and level threes, four students exit the program at that point um and then our 12th grade um 35 students um in level one, 10 in level two and 19 in level three. So we had two exit for senior year. >> It's my ex it's my understanding that it takes approximately five years to become fluent in language. Can you speak to that and how that affects all of this? >> Understanding and comprehension. So our students may start to understand some of the language but it's the speaking component as well. So what we see here that holds some of our students back is our speaking. We are very proud of our reading and listening for us. Um but the
014speaking is still difficult for some of our students and they have to speak into headphones with a little microphone for the test. And then obviously it's being recorded in between. Um we we have we're working on that. That's something that we're working on um specifically at our you know middle school and high school to have our students speak more um and publicly so that they're more comfortable. that you know any one of those components can adapt the story. >> So for the first through K through four fifth graders, it's typically four or five years before they get to that 4.5 >> test score level. >> That's what we saw the greatest exit was in our fourth grade. Correct. And is there a score that we move them from um what do we call it a
015pure bilingual >> right? Yeah. To the inclusion. >> Great question Mr. We look at several pieces of data. So we look at the access score. We'll speak to the teacher. There's obviously I scores dibbles this year and different CKLA. So we look at all that together and then we start to really look around 3.5 3.6 to see if they're ready. Once again, we have a lot of different data points when the teacher and if the student is ready and they showing growth in reading, which is really important for us, we begin to put them in what's called an ESL only program. So, we have seen that um we >> they're still scoring at that 354 level. Okay, great. Thank you. >> So, our overall analysis, uh fewer students in level one, which we're very, very
016proud of. Uh more students in levels four and five. So they're, you know, expanding the bridging now at the English language. Uh 94 students exited our program in the district as opposed to 86 last year. Um so we are very proud of the growth and I want to thank our teachers um for all of their hard work. They work with our students every day and nothing positive about our amazing teachers and obviously our wonderful students who've been working hard every day uh to acquire a new language. Um but um any questions? Yes. >> So in general um clearly this is a success having more students. Is it can you just speak to some of the you know overall successes of last year and then what we'll be doing this year to you know constant program
017certainly. So last year we focused greatly on reading. We wanted to assist our students with the reading and this you know blending of sounds. Um and so we saw progression in our access for reading. So we're very proud of that and obviously reading and looking for fun also being learning. Um and so at the middle school we purchased an intervention kit um and we worked with our students after school in our after school program and that proved very successful as well reading and writing at least the progression there. Um our high school as well uh we have a teacher at the high school who is getting OG certified in order to continue to support our students in reading and writing. Um so this year um our push is to be able to have our students
018speaking more you know we have smaller we ask for smaller sections where possible 9 to 10 11 students in class so that they're more comfortable speaking so that we can you know assist them with any errors removing them speaking. Um we've seen that that was still an area of focus for us when we gave the access testing. There's you know the extended they're shy because they have to you know they have to speak into um obviously the microphone and now who's hearing it or what's going to be kind of judged you realize that that was some of their concerns and we met with our families um afterwards for our BAP that was still something that our children were very shy about speaking um and so as Mr. What else? We, you know, push our kids
019into ESL only. Some of the parents call us over the summer and say, "You think they're ready to speak?" um, and so they want to really work on speaking with us to make a clear realizing English. Yes, sir. >> I'm curious how big the program is, how many students total it, and what is the percentage of the overall population? >> So, we have approximately a thousand students in our multi-in program right now. That's about >> I understand >> there's classified at this time and that includes students that you know are ESL only as well as like >> but the clarification they're not all Spanish speaking student that's all my question right who are speaking a second language >> or their primary language is not English you're not saying that a thousand students are a Latino
020or Hispanic >> no I'm alert. >> But what is that percentage for the >> not very >> Thank you, Dr. All right. Um, thank you for that presentation and all of that hard work. Um, very good to see. Um, I just wanted to welcome everybody back. Um, I kind of wish we had more fresh sneakers and backpacks here tonight, but I saw lots of pictures on Instagram, so I'm really grateful especially for how this space looks and all the spaces look. So many thanks for all of that work. Um, and I thought we could go right into committee reports. Our students will join us. Our student representatives will join us at the next meeting on the 29th. We'll have one familiar face and one fresh face. Um but for now, if we can go on
021to curriculum. >> Sure. The curriculum committee met on August 13th and we approved the following items. The July 9th meeting minutes. Two field trips for seniors at Marstown High School to visit Monontlair State and Kane Universities for college exploration. This is educational matters motion number five. PreAP summer virtual institute training was approved to prepare for the implementation of preAP English courses. This is educational matters motion number six. The purchase of the following AP English language and composition textbooks. The language of composition and AP edition of English English language and composition was approved. This is educational matters motion number seven. The committee also approved the memorandum of understanding for a workplace mentoring program between Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Coastal and Northern New Jersey, Marstown High School, and Sony for the 2526 school year. This
022is under educational matters motion number four. Our last approval was for professional development for new preK teachers, teacher assistants, and instructional coaches on creative curriculum, the pyramid model, and the New Jersey preschool teaching and learning standards. This is educational matters motion number eight. The curriculum committee welcomed Dr. Pinto Gomez who presented the access testing performance as she just did this evening. She discussed the primary bilingual education goal for the 2526 school year, providing more opportunities for students to practice formal speaking and conversational skills. We were also pleased to welcome Sophia Kenny, director of guidance and program development, and Kevin Rooney, MHS's AP coordinator, who presented the AP cultural report and student performance data review. I'm truly grateful for all their dedication and collaboration alongside the MHS administration and of course all of our wonderful AP
023teachers. The progress we achieved this year would not have been possible without your collective hard work and commitment. Thank you all again for that. I would also like to thank Alex Gentle, grades 6 through 12 supervisor of mathematics for joining our meeting and sharing an initial review of the NJSLA math data. A full overview of the NJSLA results will be presented to the board at an upcoming meeting. Dr. Mucci, Matt Kryley, and Mr. Gentle review the 202526 goals and discussed how data is used to guide and inform these goals. Dr. Mucci and Matt Kryley also provided a strategic plan update noting at the time that supervisors are currently reviewing curricular documents which will be brought to the committee for approval in September and October. Lastly, the committee discussed the dual enrollment program with the county
024college of Mars for sociology for spring 2026. And um that was about it. Our next meeting is on Wednesday, September 17th. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um, Linda, can you give us an update for finance? >> Sure, I'd be happy to do so. It's on. >> I don't know. Um, so we have some good news to report. Um, Matt Kryley uh applied for a uh schools for trees grant in conjunction with the Morristown Shade Tree Commission. Um they actually walked our schools and uh submitted an application for this grant and were awarded $22,400 [Music] for planting trees at our schools. This is a state grant and we were delighted that we were so successful. We didn't anticipate we were going to get so much money, but yahoo. Um uh I wanted to also report that um
025we've been looking at our current and historical participation in athletics and there have been some requests from board members uh looking at cost per sport and cost per athlete per sport. So we're in the process of collecting up some of that data. Uh let me just give you a couple of highlights without getting into the weeds on it. So, we looked at the 24-25 season. Uh, at the high school, we served um in the fall 431 students, in the winter 455 students, and in the spring 510 students across the sports that were relevant to each of those seasons. And there's a good mix of male and female students in uh in the participation numbers. Uh it ranges from um a high of male students in spring at 60% and a high of female participation in
026winter at 57%. So uh we get a lot of students in every one of the sports from both um boys and girls. So we're very happy to report that. Um what I did in addition to that was uh work with Laura Clark, our um HR director, and looked at the what we are paying coaches to try to get closer to a cost sport number. Um that's not the only cost factor. Of course, there maintenance costs and um you know, maybe some support costs and whatnot that we're still working to collect. But just to give you again sort of a a placeholder here, uh in the spring um just from the coach's perspective, we spent $443,000 that's rounded up. um in the winter 200 202,7 excuse me 800 rounded up and in the spring it was
027uh 233,000. So we we um we have a very good coaching staff. Some some uh of the sports have more coaches associated with them than others. So if you think football, you have a you have a laundry list of people who are supporting that sport. And others sometimes you have a head coach and two assistants. Sometimes you just have a head coach or or a head coach with one assistant. So it just depends on what's required for the sport. But um so we we happily support um this for our students because it's part of the school experience and um is part of what makes spokesman memorable not only um we also spent almost $55,000 in clearly identifiable support costs. There are others that we we know we pay out on a per event or per
028hour basis. We're still running calculations on that. So, there'll be more to come in the future. So, if you're interested in cost per sport or cost per student per sport, we're eventually going to get there. We're going to work on the numbers so we can get um you know, a better total on that. Um the other thing I'm really happy to report u after we got bad news that we couldn't turf the harder road flow. You remember that? That was because of EDP restrictions both for wetlands and there's a endangered critter over there that kind of put a monkey wrench in our plan. So instead we turned our attention to uh Finley Heisen Middle School and there's a plan underway to do can can I have uh Carrie can you have the light over there
029so we can see this? Um this is the plan that we are putting in place for Turpin uh area of the field in the middle school. Those of you who are familiar with the middle school, you see the building there and in the um kind of in the upper right is the area where we're going to be chirping a future turf field. Um there also requires that we make some other adjustments to the use of the fields not only at harder road but also at failing. So uh it mostly affects those sports that use fields. So fall and spring sports primarily. U varsity boys and girls soccer will come over from Greystone. We won't be using the Greystone facility anymore. So we'll save a little bit of money there. JV and freshman soccer will still
030play at Harder Road. Um although the fields will not be turfed there, middle school soccer and field hockey will be relocated to the upper fields of filling heisen. So if you look down here in uh I think it's in the lower corner lower left corner um we're going to see um soccer and field hockey for the middle school. The turf field will be lined initially for field hockey. Uh and uh I'm happy to report that we are gaining a lot of flexibility. people get more parking that is available at Carter Road. Our PE classes at the middle school can utilize the space as well. Um there's uh more uh town use for practices and uh weekends. No team is getting bus that isn't being booked already, so it's not really impacting the time that they
031have to spend getting to and from. Uh we're going to increase usage by an estimated 50%. And um another side benefit is we have parking space for some of our buses. As you know, we have a lot of transportation buses that we used to students around. I'll give more on that here in just a second. In the spring, the varsity baseball team will now practice on the turf field. JB and freshman baseball will have their own fields at Harden Road. The freshman baseball can play on the turf when varsity plays away. Uh the varsity softball team will play and practice at the turf field here in Philly Heisen. And here you see the pictures of what this new space is going to look like. Very innovative design uh which includes a softball field, a baseball
032field, and also a field that can be used for soccer, lacrosse, or field hockey. Um and then we have some plans to have moveable leisures for people who are observing the sports. So we're really happy with the way that turned out. Um there's a side benefit. We always are concerned about middle school students who are transitioning from middle school to high school and sometimes they're looking at going to other schools as opposed to staying home, if you will, here at Washingtontown High School. And one of the benefits is that our middle school can host county championships now here at this facility. And our middle school athletes can see their peers uh from high school playing on these fields as well. So there's a there's a connectivity there uh by sport that we didn't actually have
033before. So we think that that's going to add some value also. So um anyway, we have uh I believe we have uh funding already secured or about to be secured uh for a payment plan gives us five years to pay this back. So it's a capital project but we don't have any immediate capital outlay. So that's working in our favor as well. Um, so more stay tuned as this begins to unfold. I think we can start that as early as next year. Is that right, Anthony? >> You hope to be complete by spring of 26. >> Spring of 26 is uh anticipating completion date. >> All right. >> Um, so then I want to also mention that we had two requests for filming at Lawrencetown High. Some movie production companies think that our school is
034really special as we do too. Uh if you remember, we did the class act filming here. CBS uh was last year. Um and we're generally in favor of this. We do get compensation if they film at our school. We uh don't have students or faculty film without permission. And the only request that we had as a finance committee is to make sure we understood the plot of the films to make sure there was no unsavory content that was going to have our school featured in it. Um but other than that, there's really no downside uh for that. So, uh, you know, as we get the additional information, uh, it's likely that we'll probably move forward with that. Um, we have finally gotten our allocation from the ESA grant. Uh, increased by $88,000 from the prior
035year. That's not counting any carryover. And we're submitting our formal application on September 19th. The total amount will be nearly $1.5 million. Um and you'll see on motion 11 there's an update to the preschool education grant is just correcting for of about $300,000. Uh the total grant is uh 11,892,000 for preschool and we do provide uh preschool for I think in excess of 90% of the three and four year olds in our um school community service. So we're happy about that. We had a very busy uh summer with summer projects installed and made operational. The FMS elevator did some new parking lot islands at FMS so the children the students can have easier and safer pickup and drop off capability there. Sometimes can look like a little bit of a free-for-all out there mornings and
036evenings. Um, we also redesigned the guidance suites at Marstown High School to allow uh much better interaction between the students and the counselors and the counselors themselves and finished the uh high school roof. Um, not without some difficulties, I might add. We did have a few problems with um uh the contractor finishing the work properly, but that's been corrected, I believe. And and now we're uh ready to rock and roll. I also want to report that our new buildings and grounds director Glenn Miller was featured in the blueprint magazine talked about the work that he's been doing for our school. It was a very very nice article. Um, and I I don't know if that's on the website so people can get to it or not, but it might be a might be something that
037we want to see. It was it was a really well-ritten well-ritten artifact. And the transportation update, there's a lot to report here. We're now serving uh 31 different fac uh different schools or facilities. All of the usual suspects here in our own district, of course. Um there are four YMCA locations. Uh, a couple of locations for Kitty Academy, Head Start, Neighborhood House, Primrose, Children of the Green, Temple, Ben, New uh, five different BOT locations. Assumption Church, Unity Charter School, Mountain Way, the Burough Schools, Savatini, Shepard High School, Pepsco, Delton, Bill. We do transportation for all of those schools. Some of it is just sports related and some of it is um doing the complete transportation offer. Um in this coming year we're going to have uh students on our bus routes. 5,249 students are going
038to be riding the bus and uh the bulk of those of course are our own students and then we have a breakdown by the by the schools that we serve. Um couple of highlights. Um I think it was last year or the year before. The time flies when you're having fun, but we uh we we started some additional busing within the 2 and a half mile radius that's required by law because we were trying to address an issue with tardiness and absences. Um and as it turned out that was very successful. So this year we're adding another 67 high school students will get busing within the 2 and a half mile radius as a courtesy from Abbott, Jardine, London, Liberty, and Hazel Streets. uh because it has such a positive impact on getting the kids
039to school for so they can learn. We felt the investment was worthwhile to um help help that uh situation. >> What was also >> did we have the improvement level on that? I don't know if I ever saw that. >> Off the top of my head, we did see >> additional buses will be uh picking up more riders on Franklin Street, Martin Luther King for the same reason. Um there however is no additional cost for the added high school routes because we have a wonderful person Grim uh Greg Subsky as uh who does all of our transportation and he's tearing buses with the current middle school routes so that the same buses are running both routes and therefore we don't have to have additional drivers or additional buses. So that's working well. um get some
040reconfiguration on prek roots because we have a new prek site over at Cedar Nolles and uh we are we had an analysis of the GPS times from last year. So the new routes are created such that the stop times are as precise as possible. Those buses run like clockwork. They're pretty efficient. And um we've added some late bus runs for students who are participating in clubs, co-curriculars, and sports after school, both at the middle school and the high schools. Those are four:00 runs. And um we've added some additional bus pairings for the 245 bus shuttles from the high school road, Cornine Field, and the middle school. Um we made uh some centralization for meeting points for the vote shuttles. So that's made us a little bit more efficient as well. And from a driver standpoint,
041you hear about the difficulty of finding drivers with CDLs and whatnot. We had new nine new drivers joining us in September. Two former employees came back after leaving. They were with us left and came back. Uh we have four new aids and nine sports drivers that with two still in training who transport um athletes between the various schools. And we're going to have live stream camera upgrades beginning um actually began in August. It should be completed by now. Plus all the buses were buffed and polished interior and exterior. So when the bus run bus started uh yesterday, they were all bleeding. They look pretty good. Um, so let's finish here. One more. Food service. Um, Ptonian, our new food service provider, has beat their original sales forecast by over $500,000. It's a 24% increase largely
042because of better quality of food. We changed the cafeteria lines to make it better and faster for the kids to get in and out with their food. Um and um we have uh about almost 1300 directly certified students. So that these are students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch but they can get certified directly through the state. So um that works very efficiently for us and we have only one opening in food service staff. So that's that's running really well. And I think that's probably about it. lots of lots of activity getting ready for the school year and so far it's there's nothing really well so this do >> thank you um Melissa do you have anything for HR >> sure so mine will be much shorter than that um HR met on
043August 19th and just a couple of highlights um as we do every year we are you'll see the more school district teacher framework um which is the evaluation standard that the teachers are held to where is for approval with a couple of changes for um some nuances of some specific positions. The MSD mentoring plan which is for alternate route um teachers and I'm excited to share that we're going to be appointing the new assistant director of human resources uh Christopher Arjenziano and our next meeting is going to be I believe either the 23rd or the 24th. I missed an email from Laura while I was on vacation and I just got back to her tonight. So, we'll firm that next date up um shortly. And that's that. >> Thank you. Um Beth uh is not
044here tonight, but said the policy minutes have everything and also thanked those who had reached out to her with direct questions and if there is anything else, feel free to do so. Um so that's the policy update. Um, and Meredith, do you have anything for governance? >> Uh, yes I do. Um, governance met on August 6th. Uh, as usual, we started by reviewing uh our calendar for board agendas and um recognizing uh special guests and celebrations. So, we went we went over that, which looks a lot like last year, which we're happy about. Um, we decided to review uh defer review of our uh formalization of the committee functions and duties to the next meeting which is going to be on September 18th. Um, next steps include reviewing the policy and curriculum calendars and then
045bringing the um calendars for each committee and the narrative description of each committee's function and duty to the October 6th board retreat. Um, so we'll be sending out further information for full board review before the retreat. Um, we also spent time talking about our retreat, our past retreat agenda because we did have a retreat on August 12th. Um so we talked about um uh the the agenda items of reviewing NJSLA results, goal setting which has been mentioned earlier, um referendum and uh and we also conducted an HIB hearing. Um last we uh talked about board certification and we regularly pursue uh certification through the NJSBA to demonstrate our commitment to uh effective governance and um uh continual improvement. We have a couple of things to take care of to get reertified. Um, which includes, uh,
046having our labor agreements reviewed by NJSBA. Um, and then going through with our board's self- evaluation. Um, which brings me to the reminder. Um, I've sent out uh the link to the self-evaluation uh last week. It's due on September 19th. I'll be sending out reminders. So, I just ask everybody to get that done. Um, and then our NJSBA, again, which is the New Jersey School Boards Association representative, will help uh us process the results of that uh at the October 6th retreat. That's it. >> And a reminder for the convention NJS meeting. >> Yes. Which is in October. Okay. End of October. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Tina, do you have an update for Morris Planes? Excuse me. >> Uh yeah, we met August 26. It was mostly routine business preparation for start of school
047year. Um but we had two presentations. We also um discussed our access results and presented our strategic plan um for the first policy and it'll probably be voted in and approved next meeting. >> Thank you. Okay. Yes. Um, all right. Before we open the meeting to public comment, we wish to remind you that our meeting is now video recorded and publicly aired. While the board welcomes and encourages public comment, we ask that you be respectful in any comments you might make about staff. The board does not endorse any comments made by a speaker, nor will the board be held liable for any comments made by members of the public. The law prevents the board from speaking about specific students and about personnel matters. For this reason, the board will not answer any questions on these
048subjects. Finally, the board's policy limits each speaker to three minutes. We ask that you respect this policy in the time of your fellow community members by concluding your comments once you reach 3 minutes. Public comment is open for an hour or until public comments are complete, whichever comes first. At this point, I would like to invite any members of the public to come forward and to please provide your full name and address. Bruce Bingala, 81 Ledgerwood Parkway, Morristown. U first off, let me uh thank you all for volunteering to be on the school board. I know it's very timeconuming having spent nine years as a school board member where I previously lived. I uh I totally appreciate what you're doing. Um but my question is uh recently Marstown had a very significant tax increase. So
049I wanted to ask about how the assessments in the formula are uh used. Are we looking at um the assessed values that are uh represented or is it the um equalized ratio of the assessed values that are represented in that formula because clearly that makes a difference in the numbers by 20%. >> Um do you have any other questions? Want to make sure we get all of them at once before we respond. >> Was that primary? Any follow? >> That's it. Okay. I just I just wanted to understand how that how the assessment values are used in the formula, whether they're current numbers or equalized numbers. >> Thank you, Anthony. >> Yep. So, since we're a regional school district, we use the net the equalized value to to determine the split between the town and
050township and then the local tax assessment is based on the the ratables. >> So, I'm sorry, you said you use the equalized values. >> Yeah. We have to determine the split between the town and township of our total tax levy. So for example, if it's $100 and we determine how it gets split, 60 40 or whatever the percentage is, it's the equalized value. It's determined by the state and the county. It's the same percentage that's used for county. >> But I I just I'm having trouble understanding the math because uh there was a 34% change based on how the levy was divided this year. All right. So, when you look at the numbers, Marstown went up 26%, Mars Township went down 8 and a half%. And what you're saying is that that's based on equalized
051values, which should have been consistent with year-over-year. >> Well, except that Marstown had a reevaluation. So, their numbers went up. So, then it re-equalized. >> Right. But if you're using equalized values, Mars Township number would still be the same in the balance, right? Because they're currently at 80%. >> My understanding, but >> yeah, they're currently at 80%. So if you use the equalized value, it's at 100%. Right? So it wouldn't have mattered that Marstown moved. >> To be fair, what I will ask is to have the the central office reach out specifically and then answer more specific questions if that's okay. and then if that needs to be shared out at the next I just want to make sure that they're prepared to answer the specific question and we're not um >> going off memory.
052Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Hello, my name is Robert Fraser, 37 Chimney Ridge Drive, Morris Township. Um, good evening everyone. Dr. Mucci, thanks for having uh the public here and for all the volunteers on the board ad. I appreciate your time and your service. Um I was here in June June 9th meeting that was over security issue. Um I was pretty clear that uh you know I think there's some major concerns here at the high school. At that meeting we were assured there was going to they're going to work on a vestibule. They're going to have some regular meetings uh with the chiefs of police. Uh clearly when I walked in tonight other than having a heater uh there is no vestibule yet. Um there was a pretty serious incident May
05317th. My uh conversation was June 9th and it's now September 2nd. Uh probably somewhere around 85 or 90 days. I know there's other projects, but I think the priority that security is and safety for again um the students, the staff, um and everyone else that's here in this building is paramount. And uh it's great that we fixed other things, roofs and things that are needed, but I I just I'm I'm shocked that we didn't put the brakes on uh everything else and or find that that vestibule was as equally important um as the other projects. Um you know, it would be like if my h my roof started leaking, um it would get fixed immediately because it's important, but clearly it's not a priority. Um, that's clear. That's it's obvious. Um, I know you hired
054somebody over the summer um to take over security. I think he was hired July 1st. So, all of July and all of August is 60 days. And all we did was put a heater in the roof outside. Um, I hope when you guys meet privately and you guys discuss this matter again, I hope you did after I spoke the last time, but uh I'm I'm not sure what you're waiting on, but uh it it's it should be addressed uh like immediately and I hope you guys reconsider that because uh obviously a lot didn't get done since June 9th. If you guys have any information, I'd love to hear it. I'm sure everyone else would, but uh really disappointed to say the least trying to talk my wife not to have to pay for private school.
055Um I'm pretty frugal and I don't want to have to spend extra money, but it clearly is looking that way. So hopefully you guys can help out the public. I'm I'm here tonight, but I know a lot of people have this opinion and uh clearly not enough was done. So thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Frasier. I do agree and share your disappointment. I'd be happy to walk out to the front of the school and show you what was done in the summer. We're sending a letter to detail the hold up on the manufacturers's end regarding the vestibule at Morristown High School. Um, when you see the heater, uh, we've done everything, relayed the concrete, set up everything, and the doors or the glassear and the storefront, which would close off the
056vestibule, were backordered at the manufacturer. They predated all of the dates that you mentioned. They were offered um over a year, ordered over a year and a half ago. Uh we were guaranteed that it would be ready for the opening of school and unfortunately delays from the manufacturer stopped the glass and the storefront. We anticipate it'll be fully operational within 3 weeks and I can explain to you uh at the conclusion of the meeting, how the foundation was laid, how the ceiling was opened up and everything's there but for the glass. I recognize that that's an unsatisfactory answer. I share your frustration with the supply chain issues. I apologize that the um providers did not have it ready for us on the first day of school and I will be sending out a letter as
057I mentioned in my comments later this week detailing why we had the delay. We're experiencing the same issue at FMS and Woodland. I can assure you that all the footings have been laid, all the construction has been done and Mr. Lef Franco, do you want to add anything about why there was a delay from the manufacturer? >> They didn't give us details all through the summer up until our August 8th construction meeting. They told us it was going to be on time and then the week after they said, "Sorry, it's nothing. It's it's delayed. We'll get it in mid-sepptember. So, we're doing the best we can working with the contractor, the manufacturer." Right now, we expect them within three weeks. >> Commissioner come back up. It's I mean if you have an additional question typically
058>> response to what was just stated. >> Pardon? >> I just want to have a response to what was just provided by Dr. Mucci and Mr. >> Well, what the the response was a courtesy to to the comment and that's why initially she said if you have multiple questions but that's well and and as she said we can also feel free to follow up. stay here. She said she'd speak to me after the meeting. I just wanted to present what I had to say. I respond to more than she said, but I'll just email all of you. >> Thank you. >> I know you're working on it, but she's been employed here two years and coline happened in 1999. You're just working on it now. >> Well, you're way behind. You're way behind. >> Thank
059you. >> You guys have missed the bus. Well, I would also I think the the courtesy response was meant to share that the timeline. >> Thank you. >> Well, if >> that's good. >> Thank you. If there's nothing additional, we will close public comment. and if you could read your statement. >> As appointed representative of the sending Morris Plain School District to the Morris School District Board of Education, I would like to clarify that my votes on tonight's business agenda items will relate only to those items that are identified as applicable districtwide to grades preK to 12 or to the high school grades 9 through 12. I am abstaining from voting from any agenda items pertaining solely to the elementary and middle schools grades preK through 8. Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. Um moving minutes motions
060one through four. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> Okay. Please call the role. >> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pedalino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. phone. >> Yes. >> Moving policy motions one through three. Second. >> Any discussion? >> Okay. Please call the role. >> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Penolino, >> yes. >> Miss Perry, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. Moving educational matters motions one through nine. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> Please call the role.
061>> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pedalino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. >> Moving pupil services motions one through three. >> Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, please call the RO. >> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pedalino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> abstain number one. And yes to all others. >> Moving human resources motions 1 through 34. >> Second. Any discussion? Please call the role. >> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy,
062>> yes. >> Mrs. Pedalino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fota, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. Moving business matters motions 1 through 14. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Okay, please call the RO. >> Mr. Lloyd, >> yes. >> Miss Murphy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pedalino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perry, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fiona, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davidson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Cole, >> yes. Okay. Any new business? Okay. Could I get a motion to >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn. I'll second. >> Thank you. Thank you. All in favor? >> Thank you. We're journed.