001okay I yeah I talk about the turkey Drive okay and I thank you all for being here thank you all for being here tonight we're very excited to celebrate our fall athletes and with that I'm going to turn it over to Dr Mii welcome it's so great to see everyone here tonight for such a wonderful turnout and to acknowledge the contributions of our uh fall athletic team accomplishments this evening we're going to begin by recognizing the teams hearing a little bit from your coaches and of course recognizing the students after that um we'll take a brief break so that members of the board can congratulate you personally and we have some refreshments and we urge you after our brief recess if you are interested to please stay uh we'll also be doing a review of
002our goal progress for the district goals for the upcoming year so it is my pleasure to introduce our director of Athletics Mr Horton um who will begin tonight's presentation thank you but good sir thank you I'm sorry I may not thank you to the members of the board for having us here tonight thank you Dr muchi as well thank you to our parents and coaches and athletes were giving up your time tonight to come here and uh talk about our fall and our recognitions uh what a fall we had multiple nights here under the lights three divisional uh winners uh conference winners State sectional Champion as well so a lot of people to introduce so we're going to Jump Right In coaches I sort of told you the order that we're going to go in
003uh what we'll do is coach you'll come up little description about the season call up your athletes faing the front I'll Stand in the corner take a picture turn around so family members can take a picture and I'll call up the next coach all right coach Cil you want to start us off good evening everybody thank you board and Mr Horton so much for having us here tonight it's very very nice to be able to celebrate our athletes and all their accomplish lient accomplishments this fall I am here on behalf of coach bino who could not be here um so I'm going to talk a little bit about both the boys and the girls cross country teams so um the boys cross country team had one of the most hardworking Seasons that they've had in
004the past they had a significant number of freshmen join the team and Coach Chino was incredibly pleased with the effort and the commitment that these boys put into the season um the members of the boys cross country team that were awarded the N Jack all conference this past season and helped MHS achieve a winning record of four- two include first team Junior llin Neville second team sophomore Anthony Mano and Henry KY and an honorable mention of Brendan sophomore Brendan Doyle behind coach for me please stand behind coach thank you are you bringing up your te I was going to that okay all right um so and for the girls team we graduated eight seniors last year two that graduated to run D1 so this was a rebuilding season but we are still going to be
005returning several talented Runners next year um the girls cross country team members who earns NJ all conference this season include um second team Juniors Jessica Kane and Julia suilly all of the members of the team that you see behind me will be returning next year so we are incredibly excited for our season next fall and uh they're already all putting in the work doing a winter track so thank you so much so for your fans F thank you co coach BL good evening everyone uh thank you to the board uh Mr Horton and congratulations to all of our Ball Sports uh the football team went four and six for a second year in a row um we've made the state playoffs um all three years under me being the head coach um and we finished
006uh ranked 113 from the state of 348 football teams um this is the first time in uh a long time that we've had nine uh people recognized for All Conference um so I'm going to go on reverse order so honorable mention n ly second team defense Lucas res first team defense Reed [Music] Donan also first team defense Ryan [Music] Meyers and Demetrios mihalakakos and our first team offensive representative tonight is grden carich that could not make it um Josiah Brown was first team offense Chase brgh was first team defense and Jeremiah Moro was second team offense and it's going to be really hard to graduate 18 seniors this year wow but we thank them for what they've done to help this program thank you guys turn around for your fans please you mind going next
007for me please uh thank you everyone thank you to the board for continuing this tradition and uh recognizing our amazing fall athletes teams and coaches a very big thank you to the entire Community especially our fans they were a big part of our success this year and uh we're very thankful for their energy this year's boy soccer season was a very historic one besides ending the season 145 and three and having back to back winning seasons they are the first team in the history of the program to start the season 6 and0 uh which ties the longest winning streak in team history they scored 50 goals for the team that stirred all time they were undefeated for the first time at home and we only have two losses in two years at home currently we
008have a 14 game winning streak spaning three years on the MHS Turf so again thank you to our fans for the big home field advantage we were a top four in Morris County we were the maroon and white Champions and uh Mr Horton said we were also a Division champion um there's a strong CH chemistry on this team we had seven individual players receive receive recognition for either all NJ All County and all state recognition I have three of them here with me today Enrique jge estas second team NJ and honorable mention all County Mikey Chong second team NJ third Team all County and all state attakus Lindley he was second team NJ First Team all County and also All State recognition we also have uh these guys aren't here either for team commitments or
009they are at work Rosel Rees second team NJ Jonah sulen honorable mention all County and Jermaine Campbell first team NJ First Team all County and all state and Harold FZ he was first team NJ First Team all County all states and he was one of four more County players that were invited to the uh State allstar game the two weekends ago so please ofuse thank you to everyone for your support and hopefully we'll see you at our home games next year thank you than oh got one we got we got [Laughter] F good evening um I want to thank the board and Mr Horton for all their support this year um the girl soccer team had a wonderful year uh we finished 156 and two this year uh we won the national division uh title
010and they also won the team's sport award um we Advanced the state sectional semifinals where we lost in PKS um we were led by a very talented senior class um that I think is showing us you know the way things should be done and we're hopeful have good Seasons years to come um this year we had seven players make some kind of All Conference or old League honor um our first player is Aaron aronin um she's all mentioned all League K McDonald another Senor she was second Team all league in all mention all County mag Gerald uh she's Junior she do second Team all league and third Team all County Dakota Carr uh another Junior she was second Team all league and all mention all County Anie Goa senior she was first team all league
011and second Team all County uh Rosalia laa uh senior First Team all league and First Team all County uh Marin Fitcher senior First Team all league and First Team all step in the [Laughter] middle there you go hold on perfect there you go all right we can turn that somehow and face out season um I uh I'm going to talk about the girls tennis season um we came off a a terrific season last year which we were 16 and two and we won our conference and and so we were we moved up to the most difficult conference in the county and uh losing starters you never know how exactly how that's going to be so um this team we had a really exciting season uh We've Ended the season 11 and six and uh of
012those matches nine of them went all the way to the last court and we had a lot of 3-2 tennis there's five courts you had one three and a lot of went to uh 32 in the end so it just speaks to uh the GD and determination toughness and playing your best in the moments that they need and that I try to coach and that the girls exhibited so I was very proud of the te uh team highlights were we um made it to the semis in the state um in our group uh for for the state tournament State team tournament um we also as a team won the sportsmanship award for uh our conference which was always nice and we had out of our seven starters three of them were recognized um for their
013accomplishments on the board so first was second doubles Kier Fitzgerald and Hannah Cohen well fantastic they were 13 and three in their position so they so many times the came down to them and they uh they showed a lot of toughness so they were just really PL when they needed to be and second at second singles uh honorable mention for our conference was zye vason con had a tripic season she was 11 and six and uh recognized by the coaches she was one of our team captains so uh all in all it was okay before we wrap it up with volleyball I'm going to go with field hockey I got a call from coach Dei who had an emergency she unfortunately is not going to make it here but do we have Lucy Delia Lucy's
014here okay Lucy second Team all conference come up stand in the middle we miss that name it's Lucy delat Oh I thought you said it second oh no no no uh Mia oi second Team all conference all County honorable mention ell or trombetta All Conference honorable mention uh I did not mention that Lucy is a sophomore Mia is a junior all right ladies I'll take your picture step to the side of the mic and one for the fans thank you so much for having us here um I am so proud of my team I'm uh probably one of their biggest fans they've worked so hard this season they came off of a incredible run last season and I know they came back hungrier this season than they showed it um We've Ended up our season
01519 and7 we made a run to the Morris counties they fought very hard they had thre set Thriller unfortunately it did not go our way however it made them even hungrier for a bigger title and we came across winning uh the state sectional back to back Champs so I'm very proud what type of Team these ladies are uh to be able to come back after a very big big upset you can go either way and they chose to run with it and uh to do very big things this season and I'm very proud of them um out of my 12 ladies 10 of them are seniors um so it's going to be a very very big loss but I'm I'm so proud to have your guys' coach and it's so awesome to see uh what
016big things you guys are going to do after all right and um along with that I have a lot of a lot of names to give out right now so let's start off with Gwen Atkins and Jack Player of the Year group four player of the year All State First Team all group for first team and all section first team before you go on ladies when you line up line up on this side because we're going to have so many we're going to have to spread across you can say that up next I have Haley Atkins first team All Conference All State honorable mention all group second team and all section first team WHL Mary was named at second Team all conference up next Ashley Pia Pia was also named second Team all conference up
017next give me one second I'm sorry Isabella St Isabella was also named second Team all conference and last but certainly not least honorable mention for Casey bush Okay so these are my ladies who were uh selected All Conference but certainly everyone deserves to be named up here because every single one of you guys had a great role in this uh team's success you guys want me to name you one by one or you guys want to just come up all right come on no too what too short can I ask Smitty a question Smitty can I just ask you a question because I I have my own thoughts about this question it's don't worry I'm putting you on the spot but not really what kind of impact do you feel like having the lights on
018the football field has had on the district yeah come up come up know because he's undefeated here so passion being here on the so that's why I figured he'd be a good person to bring up um you know playing here at the high school I always say I don't know if anyone ever been to like London and gone to some of the stadiums there but and the way they're set up is like you just turn the corner and boom there's a stadium in the middle of the neighborhood the high school kind of gives that feel of a it's just the big HomeField Advantage here and even when when I host the alumni game they just love playing here and being under the lights for them because you know they had the grass field they played
019at Harder um it's just a good feeling it just gives an energy what do we say invincible Under The Lights say so it's a it's a big factor and uh hopefully we can play some more only football teams at night but we're one that has field hockey at night soccer at night so I think it's been enjoyable awesome well thank you all um most importantly for your leadership and regardless of of how your Seasons went I know there are a lot of kids in in this District that love coming out to watch you play and cheering for you especially on those exciting um exciting games and under the light so thank you for your leadership and for all of um congrats on all of your accomplishments and we'll have um a few refreshments and just
020give a chance to say congratulations to you as well thank you you the going everything all for re are you ready e ready go you defens you need BS yeah good friend of mine went good I think for oh thank you than this in my was yeah yeah glad to amazing yeah I yeah I told yeah wait it's not she'll just say that I that's fine yeah I just because I just saw it was still there and I didn't know I know that was like a very thing thank you okay so we have one more element of Dr mci's report but we're going to have the students give their committee reports so that they can get going um and then we'll do goals after their reports good evening everyone I'm Isabella Master Mano and I'm
021going to be giving the SEO update s has been working on lots of projects this holiday season the No Shave November fundraiser was able to surpass our goal of raising $1,300 which was donated to the American Cancer Society the fundraiser was a huge success with many students donating and teachers enthusiastically participating s's holiday decorations have also been put up in the main Atrium thanks to lots of hard work from our sjo members sjo has also had lots of success with our annual holiday gift drive if you guys can see we have all the gifts in the back over there and um those have all been wrapped by S members after school school today and they're on schedule to be distributed to the gift Drive families um s has also organized a really fun Spirit Week
022for the final week before break this week um and today's dress up day was pajama day and the rest of the week will include more fun dress up days such as class colors Winter Wonderland ugly sweater day and anything but a backpack day and there will be a lot more fun sjo events to come after holiday break thank you good evening everyone my name is Garrett Gregor and I'm the junior board liaison I'd like to to give a recap of a few events that happened around Thanksgiving break and some ongoing events that we have um going on before winter break um in sports as was mentioned before for the second years in a row uh the girls volleyball team repeated as section one group four New Jersey state champions and now winter sports has started
023up and the boys basketball team has their first home game against Montville on the 19th uh the girls basketball team will have their first home game on the 17th against Pope John Boys Hockey took their took home the first win of the Season against kelan in a three to2 win the MHS swim team had their first meet of the season last Tuesday with a 89-80 victory for the boys in uh music there's been a lot going on and last month the school's fall drama Shakespeare and love had a great turnout with production now starting on the spring musical lay Miser Rob and the band and Orchestra concerts took place on December 5th and December 12th respectively with a great turnout and some great feedback from the audience on this year's selection of songs the choir
024concert will take place on January 16th at 7M here in the auditorium and I'm happy to report that 11 students from our high school made it into the north Jersey honor band with some of them earning the highest spot for their instrument while competing against the rest of North Jersey students uh in SGL as Isabella mentioned um we decorated the main Atrium before Thanksgiving break we raised around $1,500 with our cancer fundraiser um and additionally I'd like to talk about how we raised 50 turkeys and other food items for Mr jury's turkey turkey drive it was his last U turkey drive as he's planning to retire this year so it was really um important that we made an impact there um as far as our school environment goes uh students have been looking forward to
025winter break the end of the semester um but also towards our spirit week as Isabella mentioned we have a lot of events and fun spirit days planned for this upcoming week or this ongoing week and uh we're really looking forward to it um on a different note many midterm tests and exams are going on around this time so it's a pretty busy time for a lot of students um but also a very productive time and overall overall Spirits are going are high going into the holidays thank you and I'd like to wish the board a happy holiday as well thank you thank you happy holidays enjoy some well deserved rest um on your bra thank you have a great winter break all right back to you as we've seen tonight our students are champions on
026the fields and they're also champions in the classroom the Board of Education in addition to the meetings that we publicly hold uh is very unique in their commitment to our students and the work and seriousness of purpose which they approach monitoring student achievement four times a year in addition to our traditional board meetings we have Retreats we had our most recent Retreat last week and we had the opportunity to riew how the district is progressing in our various academic hols um so much of this is not new to the board as it is part of their work in committee part of their work as a team guiding the district uh so I'd like to just review uh generally our progress as we approach the midpoint of the year and today was really an exciting day
027when Isabella said and not just because it was pajama day but when Isabella said that the school had pajama J A group of members of our administrative team at the middle school and at the high school were hosted by the County College of Morris to look at our partnership uh program and the first thing that they said to us at CCN was all of these high school students have Pama day in school but they changed in school got into work appropriate attire and came to the advanced design and Manufacturing program for the second part of their day so through our partnership programs with County College of mors we value uh all of the skills that students need to be successful in the workplace and also in college so in addition to learning welding and Manufacturing
028Advanced designs of engineering they're also learning how to be punctual how to dress for work how to write an appropriate um email how to interact on a team and all of the skills that are essential uh to be successful in College and Career and I thought about those exciting few moments and hours up at County College today in the context of our goal presentation our overarching goal is that we increase the rigor for all students regardless if they're choosing to go straight from high school into work and developing craft such as welding or if they are searching to be admitted to one of the most competitive universities in the country we are working working as a board to uh raise the intensity of our curriculum and the exposure to the various um avenues that are
029available for our students so generally all of our skills and um goals center around the concept of increasing rigor what does this look like um for example at County College of mors and the partnership programs that we have we will be expanding our jeal involvement programs um meaning that student students in lown high school and have choices here at the high school taught by a high school teacher that will and credits for college uh we're also expanding our dual enrollment program and offsite uh opportunities for County College so that students can get courses like statistics and English completed at the Collegiate level while they're enrolled here at marown high school we are also looking we often hear those phrases what about the students who are in the middle it's so great that we have such
030outstanding special education and bilingual programs sled um by Dr Pino Gomez and her team we've been discussing so much how we can improve academic performance at uh the advanced placement level but what about our students who are traditional they're in college level preparation courses what are we doing to ensure that they have the most rigorous opportunities available to them we are adding additional courses such as calculus a um so that students can achieve a college prep level Calculus class but they might not be ready for AP but they're still going to complete those four years of math culminating in calculus and when we think about our vision for math in the district we would like to see uh as a long-term aspirational goal 80% of our eth graders completing algebra one by the conclusion of
031eth grade and then the natural follow to that is that up to 80% of our students would be completing calculus at whatever level is appropriate for them by their senior year we know that reaching these benchmarks will not only increase our academic performance across the district and better prepare our students for College and Career but it will also increase our scores and our representation uh as the outstanding high school that we are that that whole uh that 80% Algebra 1 calculus that's kind of our Guiding Light it's going to take us a few years to get there and there will be interim steps in the process um I did mention AP we thrilled that tonight on the agenda you'll see a number of motions to fully scaffold and support our advanced placement students so for
032two years in a row we've shaken off the co Blues we've increased the percentage of students who are registered to take AP exams and we have increased the performance across the board um so we are very much looking forward to enhancing those programs by offering greater opportunities for peer-to-peer tuning after school assistance practice exams and pram sessions before the exams are administered in May our earliest Learners are engaging in comic based reading programs which you have heard us mention through the curriculum Community which is the CK language arts and literacy program one of the that we realized is that while some of our building specific goals this year will still use I ready as a measure it's something that we're going to slowly be moving away from because our CK La climate Arts resources and
033the new math program that we will be offering will have traditional diagnostic tools I already does take a good deal of time to administer in the classes um so we will look to use the integrated and curricularly of the items that are aligned to the curriculum as part of our assessment just some general overview on BS we develop action plans at the building level we're monitored by the state and then if you want to look at a snapshot of what we're trying to achieve at each grade level with our earliest Learners uh in our kindergarten students we're focusing more on social emotional learning as well as the traditional reading and writing we've been seeing see as you may notice in fact we were even talking about it the other day whether it be that everybody
034gets their groceries delivered um you know or door dashes there's not as many people out in the grocery store and if you think about our experiences when we were younger we had to go to the grocery store with our parents we had to wait online we would be sent to go and fetch things from the aisle and bring them back into the shopping part and that's something that would be very IAL for a preschool or a kindergarten or a younger Elementary student to do so when these conveniences of Life having everything with an iPad or a computer and the devices sort of change the way we move and then you add to it that during the pandemic these students didn't have Library time play dates at the park our youngest Learners are presenting very differently
035they're very impatient they have trouble waiting they have trouble taking turns sometimes they have difficulty not interrupting their PE and this is not just in the mor School District if you talk to colleagues in any District you'll see that our younger Learners have trouble with relegating uh their emotions and developing empathy and good um turn-taking and social skills so our first goal at the earliest level for kindergarteners is developing a ability to control emotions and also working to be able to develop um a stronger understanding of classroom rules and procedures so we developed a screener um with a number of skills that we're looking for students to develop it was observed at the first week of school and then each of the group reading lessons that our kindergarten teachers are doing reinforces those skills we'll
036administer this test at the end and we anticipate that we would see approximately a 30% increase in the consistency of our youngest Learners regulating their emotions and also having Mastery of social emotional competency when we look at our 35 grade level we would like to see a greater increase in map and language arts specifically about an 8% increase of overall orance and then um I'm sorry just noce the typo in the green box that's our Middle School the one on the right I'll correct this before we post on the website um a 20% increase in the percentage of students that should be in grade six to8 who meet or exceed expectations on NJ SLA ma um the board has been spending a good deal of time deing the importance of increasing our math performance we
037introduced a uh program for math ICS at the middle school we also added another level of pre algebra to give more opportunities um for students to be appropriately placed so new curriculum new supervisor of mathematics more after school opportunities for enrichment and toring in that and more standards align assessments along the way all of this should push us to regular student achievement and map in the middle SCH on the second page you will see that each buing level develops its own smartes as I mentioned are connected to I this year and that'll be something that uh we continue to move away uh from as we go to more State the line uh standards assessments so those goals are there for you to review a big push this year when we looked at our physics one
038and our AP Physics performance and our math performance uh we really noticed that a more traditional sequence that sign curriculum would be better suited for our students so beginning with next year's fresh new class students will come in at biology then follow chemistry and then go to physics this will naturally follow the development of their math curriculum allow them to te greater success in the classroom and I think it will show a stronger um presentation of student achievement in all of the data points AP tests um standardized science Testing and then avoiding some of the inconveniences of forcing students to double up with difficult science classes and were taking two at the same time so the rationale for the 2526 science sequence is there and then um the other page is just kind of our
039running list of each of our three goal areas and the various projects that we are doing within those areas to achieve our goals so specifically with the first page you notice some of the actions that you've taken to increase the academic rigor for all students in the various grade levels that um assessment is mentioned as well as the different um goals that we have for supporting our teachers with the implementation of new curriculum and paring um and perform with the at the highest level in the high school our social emotional goal and uh facilities which you'll be hearing more and more about through all of our committee meetings and our committee reports tonight are also detailed this is just a a quick overview of where we are going with the goals happy to answer any
040questions uh from the board on any of these topics or if you feel that there's something that I need spend enough time on that you'd like more information or having expand on it please uh let me know so questions thoughts additional information to ask this won't be a surprise but I'm excited to see smart goals again for the second year in a row um I would be curious to to understand the building goals better in terms of where we were last year versus where we're trying to be this year so what's the the change that's my only question thank you awesome what do those percentages look like in terms of the achievement from last year exactly thanks other questions comments areas where we need more information um I'll just add that I'm very appreciative of
041some heavy lifts I know the FMS schedule is a heavy lift but is is such a critical um piece of of what we've all been working towards and talking about and and I'm really grateful that that's hand inand with the the update to curriculum so just kind of some larger appreciation for things that are written here simply but knowing that things like a change to science sequence and a change to a schedule are a heavy lift but so important for for the students so I appreciate that goals that change for the middle school every day yeah best requir a lot of Shifting of personnel and making sure that we have the best teachers match each class so thanks for I'll just Echo what Katie said but um something I wanted to point out with the
042new science sequence as a parent of a child who was in the STEM Academy what I like about this is that it gives kids more flexibility to do non stem things because my daughter basically had almost no electives until sophomore year of college which is a hard time to learn that you might like something different so yeah are also connected to making sure that we're exposing students to all different types of career paths uh a lot of effort and guidance to begin the College admission process and counseling earlier the inclusion of e gr interest a survey so that when before students even set foot in the high school they've already conducted an interest survey see how that matches with their aptitude so that they can start talking about careers that match their abili love it
043that's great other questions or thoughts we look forward to the formal presentation of the MJ data in the late spring and a reminder that um in June we will have Sophia Kenny here as the Director of guidance to publicly report out the College and Career outcome so think about all those faces that you saw of our seniors and the fall athletes and I'm sure like me you asked them the same question where are you well when the time mes around for the June board meeting we'll be presenting data on our college acceptances and uh giv some preliminary information on a student uh exam thank you very much for thanks um and I don't have much else to add other than to remind everybody of our off Cadence Friday meeting um next time and then with
044that we'll move into committee reports um Susan can you give us a curriculum report sure the curriculum committee met on December 4th and we approved the following items the November 13th meeting minutes a field trip for MHS and FMS students accepted into the Mars area onor choir to participate in a full day dress rehearsal this is educational matters motion number two another approval is for MHS students enrolled in AP research as well as MHS teachers teaching this course to be trained in Social behavioral educational SBE research through the online collaborative institutional training Initiative Program AP research will be offered next school year at marst toown high school this is part of the AP Capstone program MHS requests that the institutional review board be registered through the office of human research protections MHS wants to pair
045this registration with education by having both students and teachers trained in SBE research the cost for students and teachers to have access would be $279 this is educational matters motion number three Building Bridges a social skills curriculum pilot program was also approved Matt kryy informed the committee that the pilot will take place at Woodland and Thomas Jefferson Schools the committee has asked that data on the outcomes of the program and overall feedback be presented to the committee upon completion of the pilot this is educational matters motion number seven the committee also approved an Orton Gillingham cohort motion number eight lists the 11 teachers that have been selected to become certified in Orton Gillingham which will be instructed by Fairley Dickinson University teachers will meet weekly at marown high school starting January 7th this is funded
046through title 2 Advanced pre-algebra has also been approved Dr Leah lendis principal of Freeland heisen middle school and Alex gentle supervisor of mathematics for grades 6 through 12 have been working with algebra 1 teachers at FMS and have identified students who would benefit from moving down a level but are too advanced for our current pre-algebra course the plan is to follow the pre-algebra curriculum at a quicker Pace than usual and then cover the beginning of Algebra 1 curriculum in the spring this is educational matters motion number nine lastly the curriculum committee also approved math coaching and instructional support at FMS the purpose of this consulting position is to provide instructional coaching and support to Middle School Math teachers to improve instructional practices enhance student engagement and increase student achievement this is educational matters motion number
04710 Matt kryy director of Elementary education shared a preliminary schedule for the summer program with the understanding that changes will be made the committee discussed the importance of a pre and post assessment to measure effectiveness of summer programs the committee also welcomed Mr Anthony Lewis Ley msd's gifted and talented coordinator who updated the committee on the kd8 gifted and talented program and initiatives we also reviewed the proposed 2025 curriculum committee meeting dates and propose revising the calendar to include a March date and to remove the meeting scheduled during spring break we suggested reviewing the schedule again in the new year as there may be new members to the committee our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 15 and that's all I've got but I would like to wish all of you and your families
048a very happy holiday and a joyous New Year thank you Susan um Linda can you give us a fin answer sure can uh we met on Monday December 8th um just as a as a a quick note we were able to meet our new executive director of Technology at the beginning of our meeting um Adrien saparo he will uh we have a motion uh under HR in this agenda uh to appoint him to his new position so it was nice to be able to meet him for a few minutes and um and then we proceeded on to talk about a number of Finance related issues there is some good news in that the high impact tutoring Grant which if you recall last year was uh excruciatingly delayed so uh the 2324 uh Grant has been
049extended now through December 25 the original amount of the grant was 305,000 uh we had only spent 30,000 a little over 30,000 through June 30th so we had a very substantial balance that we were fearful that we were going to lose um more school district has been awarded uh also uh additional 8% as uh almost $225,000 in addition to the carryover amount um so we'll end up with close to $300,000 now that we can use through December 25 for high impact tutoring so I was estatic to hear that and I'm sure everyone else was as well uh that's motion 11 under education matters um as usual we have an asset Surplus list um these assets on the agenda today are for disposal are from the community school and the things include office furniture technical equipment
050and so on the um offices for the community school are being refurbished uh the worn and older Furniture is being being replaced and the technology equipment um is that's either broken or outdated is is being replaced as well so that's uh motion nine under business matters um we um are working on uh Insurance renewal of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield this was discussed also in November if you recall the increase for January 25 through June 25 will be 8% based on a previously negotiated cap uh and there is a motion on the agenda it's motion 10 under business manag to approve the 25 rates in the spring our broker is going to uh obtain some quotes for us for an entire 12-month period from July 25 to June 26 to coincide with our new budget
051year and we'll review the options uh associated with uh potentially other insurance providers and possibly even a self-insured plan so more to follow on that um some good news too in terms of our facilities we've uh had a lot going on uh as you've heard over the uh past few meetings uh some new projects that will be coming up in September 25 um are the Hill Crest roof there was a bid opening for that that took place on the 5th of December and we got bids from eight vendors that had a $2 million swing so we'll uh we'll be looking at the low bidder which is still over our original budget from the rod Grant application that we submitted in January of 23 um the bids are currently under review by the architect and the
052attorney and we would expect to award in January of 25 um in terms of other projects we're currently out to bid for the uh HVAC for culinary arts Phase 2 uh as we reported last time phase one is completed and the students are uh now in that space we're also looking at the high school roof and the uh Middle School boil uh these bids will be opened in December and we anticipate award in January 25 on those as well um the current projections from the architect is that we should anticipate an increase of between four and 6% for these projects because in spite of everything prices keep going up so we'll stay tuned on that um we also for the harder Road Turf project have two vendors that will be approved as Professional Services to
053assist us with surveying and DP applications um there are wetlands that are near the fields uh at the harder Road facility so the entire property needs to be surveyed that's put us back a little bit in terms of timing but once we get that done we expect that we'd be able to uh hopefully we'll be able to proceed um and uh uh update from our buildings and grounds effort there's a there's a project going on right now that's looking at um uh updating some of the things that's are going on in uh buildings and grounds and one of the most exciting things is that there's a new online training system being ruled out to all of our custodial staff in all 10 of our schools the training is in both English and Spanish it includes
054uh videos tests on topics uh you know giving them sort of best of uh best practices ways to keep things clean it's they're also suggesting some echo-friendly cleaning products uh which are good for the environment and good for people in the environment um and and uh it gets pretty specific in terms of uh you know things that they can and should be doing it might be a little bit different from what they've done before and we're really excited about this because we're going to get everybody on the same page be able to set uh performance expectations that are standardized and um hopefully you've already seen a big Improvement um in many of our buildings so if you just walk down the hall here in the high school you can see polishing the floor twice a
055week instead of once a week has made a huge difference and everyone comments on it including all of our visitors um I also wanted to note that we're uh accepting a donation in the terms of five $55,000 from Eileen wolf that's going to Sussex which is one of our elementary schools for a poetry and dance residency that's motion six under business matters uh Anthony is always really good about sending out a thank you note for everyone who contributes to the school system so that will take place from a food service standpoint um everything continues to look good there the meal counts for November continue to show increases breakfasts have increased from 15 to 177% lunch from 4 to 10% and at FMS with the new service lines they've increased by 20% so that's really fantastic
056news um the our our pomptonian provider uh uh are down to two openings they need one more cook and another food service worker at the High School um and there's some new staff at ah that have been receiving some training from the vendor so we're really pleased with the way that's been working um and now to transportation we uh we're required to do two bus evacuation drills annually we've completed the first that's um that's on business matters motion 8 uh on the agenda tonight we also learned uh kind of to our dismay we were hoping that New Jersey Bill uh 82180 and uh Senate Bill 3000 was going to allow us um to create a Type S business certificate that would allow um people to drive Vans and whatnot to help with some of our
057Transportation uh challenges however these bills received a conditional veto by the governor that doesn't mean it's dead it just means it's not going through in its current form so for now the tpass bus certificate will not be available for us the law will EXP B the existing statute which allows School Personnel to transport students to school related activities so again in a smaller in a smaller vehicle not a bus uh because you do still need a CDL to drive a to actually drive a bus um and we'll get some additional details from DMP and then share that with the board um Greg reminded us that we have four buses uh that have four additional buses that have been retrofited retrofitted with alumin ated bus signs that brings a total of five in our Fleet these
058are great particularly at this time of year where it's dark when the kids are getting on the bus going to school and sometimes it's dark when they're getting off the bus and we have recurring issues with folks who don't seem to understand that they have to stop for the buses these signs make it impossible to miss you you know that the bus is there you know that it's stopping the lights are flashing um and and we've gotten really positive feedback from the bus drivers um especially um in an area like Franklin Street which frequently experiences cars passing our school buses so it's a big safety issue for us we're really happy that we have that and probably more of our buses will end up with those illuminated bus signs as well um first light safety
059will be visiting our location in January to showcase our installation of these illuminated signs uh this is a feature not typically used with school districts in New Jersey so we're expecting we can get some good promotional uh support from them and um highlight the fact that we're actually using this and has been very positive for us um I also wanted to just uh do a shout out to the three bus drivers there there were there were two bus drivers in an aid who gave us referrals for uh new drivers all of whom have passed their pration period so each of these uh folks who gave of a positive referral are being awarded $500 so that continues to work well for us and we're very pleased to see that those people are joining us uh from
060a long range uh fertilities planning standpoint um they're we're working uh Glenn Miller our new buildings and grounds director and Anthony are working on a uh RFP that will allow us to contract with a program Ally that that program Ally I guess is to be named that's not the name of the that's not the name um anyway we'll be using the uh jcpnl direct install program for replacement of uh certain lights lighting fixtures and perhaps even certain HVAC equipment um and uh there are continuing meetings being held with uh buildings and departments although they're expected to be completed by tomorrow December 17th and uh once they are completed a uh completed an additionally up to-date list will be provided for board consideration uh and a summary schedule by building a by project category so there's
061there's going to be um more sorting and uh information associated with all this that'll be coming to us shortly um so I want there was also a question that came up last meeting in November having to do with sports team Transportation uh specifically around shared buses uh the board has already heard and seen this information but because the question came up in public session I'd like to respond publicly so people know what we found um and um the question was are we are we sharing buses for financial reasons or is there another reason the answer is well we're always mindful of financial impacts of our decisions the transportation department organizes busing uh particularly shared busing based on information received from the athletic department so it's not driven by um budget considerations per se but by
062the transportation preferences of the coaches in the athletic department um as was reported we had 188 uh trips to either away games or tournaments for the high school and 25 for the middle school out of the 188 for the high school 20 of them were shared um and um the team sharing buses were uh varsity and JV field hockey varsity and JV volleyball and freshman girls soccer and varsity and JV girls oh oh VAR V excuse me uh JB and freshman girl soccer and varsan JB soccer so there were there were 20 of 188 pretty small percentage that was shared and they were all generated as shared trips at the request of the coaching staff um fing heisen uh which had 25 trips to either away games or tournaments does not sure bues for any
063of their teams they don't request it so we don't provide it um with um Anthony's assistance we also reached out to Smitty Horton to get his perspective on the situation and uh Smitty came back with some interesting things first of all if you remember when we did the sports report um a few months ago we were talking about creating a pipeline for our athletic students going from the rec programs into the middle school and and then into the high school through JV and and the varsity teams and smitti says part of the reason that they request shared buses is that the varsity and JV teams can ride together uh The Varsity players often meet with their coaches before the game and then cheer for the JB team uh this is a great form of team
064building in his opinion and the scenario also provides the varsity coach with an opportunity to assist the JV coach and watch the JV players develop so they sometimes will move up from the lower ranking to a higher ranking and that can be done during the course of uh you know game observation so that's true of uh sports like well all of them basic but lacrosse field hockey volleyball soccer the all the ones that we talked about that were sharing buses and he also mentioned that um uh things like that take place on for sports that occur in the winter season and in the spring season as well so um so basically it's not a financial issue it's a it's an athletic department uh request and um and we were very proud to announce last time
065that we were able to serve all of those requests with our own buses and drivers so uh I just wanted to put that on the public record so you know that we did follow up um okay so I think that might be it our next meeting is um January 22nd but that's going to occur after our reorganization meeting which is uh right now scheduled for January 3rd thank that's it thank you um Melissa can you give us a an HR yeah so HR met on Tuesday December 10th um you know everyone can see um there's you know kinds of typical comings and goings one thing I wanted to highlight is a new job to description for a network manager that's sort of like a cascading change from our receiving a recommendation around this time last
066year um to restructure Our IT department I'm expecting that there'll probably be more changes like that once our new executive director starts I think this is kind of just step one uh something else that Susan already pointed out or no actually Ann you pointed this out in your presentation um the three new opport unities for AP um for extra help the three hours that are either going to be a practice or a crunch exam peer-to-peer tutoring that will be happening and then also tutoring by uh in teachers four days a week which I think is a really exciting addition to our the program I think you know having Mr Rooney kind to spearhead AP I think this is a great next step for that and then the thing that Susan already mentioned uh she mentioned
067the change at freeling heisen but we she what she did not mention is that um the person that's going to be filling that role is Mr Bruce Chamberlain who was in my opinion a beloved former teacher of our district and he will be filling those shoes and I know he's really excited to come back and do that which is fantastic our next meeting is on Tuesday January 21st thank you uh Beth can you give us an update on policy yes sure we last met um as a committee on December 6th we started with um 12 policies that were reviewed um requiring mandated updates um so we look through those had some questions um things were answered um just as an example like for um uh why can't I see a policy 2452 Adult Community Education
068we noted that it makes mention of an Advisory Board and we have been advised that a new Advisory Board is actually being uh worked on and built as we speak so things like that were addressed um one uh policy 2312 has just been removed um and tabled for January um we have um a board member who just had some questions with regard to class size and so we're going to put that up for discussion then um after re reviewing and approving um the remainder of those they are on uh tonight's agenda for first read we then moved on to revisit um policy 5756 the gender identity and expression that we had me made mention of last meeting um specifically there were some questions with regard to um transgender athletic participation um as well as our
069membership in the njsiaa and how that policy those policies rather um came into play so what we decided to do was really just to add um some language to indicate that the district will adhere to the policies and guidelines established by the njsiaa um this is basically with regard to um uh competition and safety and any issues that may or may not come up but again as I mentioned at uh last meeting we don't have have this issue at this time um apparently we do not have any transgender um students playing uh Sports at this time but if needed we have made mention of the policy and the FAQs and also provided a a link so people can um refer to them as necessary um so that has been revamped as I had mentioned and
070is on tonight's agenda for first read then we reviewed our 2025 policy committee dates um current committee has agreed keeping the midday Friday virtual meeting date and time so we are good there we can always revisit those in the new year just in case but as of now a okay um then on for our normal review for information we review The District Individual School counts reports and the K5 section counts as well um and that was really about it our next meeting is scheduled for January AR 17th and um happy holidays everybody thanks for all your hard work this year thank you um amus did you want to give a governance update sure um we also met on December 6th um as one of our board goals is to improve engagement with stakeholders we discussed
071our regular agenda item which is upcoming board uh recognitions and presentations as we had a lovely one this evening um just uh to alert you the first meeting will be the reorg in January and then on the 27th there'll be a presentation on math and stem programming as well as our audit presentation and then at the end of February we will have a um curriculum update on our new um Ela curriculum in elementary the elementary level um we also re reviewed our Retreat agenda and we followed up with the policy committee inquiry about uh the policy requiring all committees to have a list list of their functions and duties and the next steps there include meeting with all chairs to review what other boards um are doing and some language there and to um come
072up with a game plan so um last um you know what that's those with the highlights I did not go over a proposed calendar for next year so I'll be sending one out in uh via email this week so look for that folks are on the committee thank you um okay um and with that we will uh move to public comment 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 including 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
073the board from speaking about specific students and about Personnel matters for this reason the board will not answer any questions on these subjects finally the board's policy limits each speaker to 3 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 provide your full name and address okay um if there is no public comment we will close public comment and move on to business matters okay moving minutes motions one and two second thank you okay please call the r Mr Lloyd yes Miss Murphy yes Mrs pedalino yes
074Dr Rodriguez yes Mrs biota yes Mrs wall yes Mrs Davidson yes Mrs Cole yes moving policy motions 1 through four with pulled uh policy 2312 from motion number two and New Motion number five second please call L Mr Lloyd yes Miss Murphy yes Mrs pedalino yes Dr Rodriguez yes Mrs spota yes sorry Mrs wall yeah yes Mrs Davidson yes Mrs col yes moving educational matters motions 1 through 11 second any discussion okay please call the rooll Mr Lloyd yes Miss Murphy yes Mrs pedalino yes Dr Rodriguez yes Mrs spota yes Mrs wall yes Mrs Davidson yes Mrs Cole yes moving people Services motions one through three second any discussion okay please call the rooll Mr Lloyd yes Miss Murphy yes Mrs pedalino yes Dr Rodriguez yes Mrs spota yes Mrs wall yes Davidson yes Mr
075Cole abstain moving Human Resources motions 1 through 21 with revised motion number four second second any discussion okay please call Ral Missy yes Miss Murphy yes Mrs pedalino yes Dr Rodriguez yes Mrs spota yes Mrs wall yes Mrs Davidson yes Mrs Cole yes moving business matters motions 1 through 15 with revised motion number 11 second thank you any discussion okay Mr lyd yes Miss Murphy yes Mrs pedalino yes Dr Rodriguez yes Mrs spota yes Mrs wall yes Mrs Davidson yes Mrs Cole abstain on number five and yes to all others okay um any new business yes um I would like to add a new business on Wednesday December uh fourth I attended the FMS a winter music concert at maram high school for uh grade six seven and eight it was an excellent excellent uh
076concert we had a full house uh with their selections of the performances were beautiful and especially one young lady who who sang a beautiful holiday song and received an ation uh I must say that uh the audience was very attentive uh the staff was very well pre prepared and professional and lastly and most importantly the students were amazing their performance was uh nothing less than professional and made us so very proud uh to have such wonderful future m positions and in our Mars Town Mars school district and overall it was an outstanding night congratulation to all and best wishes for the holiday season thank you thank you um and with that and hoping everybody has a wonderful holiday um break until we see again each other again in January could I get a motion to
077can I just ask a question are we 5:00 or 5:30 on the 3D because I've seen both 5:00 5 p.m. 500 p.m. okay on the third that's what I thought we had talked about and then I saw it 5:30 somewhere backs okay 5m on Friday thank you okay any second okay anybody want to move in I'll make a motion to adjourn here you did second awesome all in favor thank you we it's