001compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as specified in the ACT proper notice of this public meeting was provided in the notice of May 9th 2011 said notice was posted at the entrance of the Board of Education offices mailed to the Nutley Sun The Star Ledger the north JY girl news and the nut Journal mail to the Nutley Township Clerk advertised in the Nutley sun on May 19th 2011 posted on the district website this is an official meeting please stand for [Music] question flag United States of America stands indivisible andice for all the here Dr re here Mr Rogers here Mrs Russo here Mr scal here Mr here Mr here approval of minutes I have a motion to approve the minutes as
002distributed motion to approve second discussion all those in favor I minutes are approved as distrib correspondence we do not have any superintendent thank you Mr the Bo knows last Thursday we suffered a traffic loss of one of our students Daniel I had not met Danielle in my short time in my short time here but I have learned a great deal of badro over the past few days she was a tremendous student she was a leader in the building in our community she was a star in our culinary arts program uh and a trusted employ to a number of places in town when an event like this occurs along with three we are left with questions and questions that unfortunately many times go unanswered as a district I can report that we get act immediately we
003haveed to support our students as well as our faculty and staff um we've also reached out to Daniel's family since Thursday um and done our best to support the community as a whole in any way that we can we we've leveraged every resource that was available to us uh and have done as I said I think um everything we possibly could to support our leadership team was exampler I have to thank them uh from the high school and across the district our counselors and our team of special service providers were phenomenal they've been there for every single student they haven't stopped in five days uh they've worked with parents we've worked with community members and just through it all have just been fantastic so a heartfelt thank you for me personally goes out today they
004certainly God love and beond from early Thursday morning so about an hour ago out in the rain uh all of our staff has TIR have tirelessly given to ensure the health and safety of our community um we've communicated again using all media and attempt to reach every single person and disseminate accurate information as it was appropriate And Timely I do want to thank the police the fire Emergency Medical Services providers um as well as our staff that act as leaon with um Mr Ferrar Mr nicholet this the level of cooperation that's happened I think the board recognized through our has just been I would think exactly what need what we needed I am still in contact with the police and also with Daniel's family and each of them has asked me to convey one clear
005and specific message at this time there is no evidence that this tragedy was caused by or linked to any harassment intimidation or bully out of respect to the family and the information that's come out I can't really say more um but what we can say is that as of this time again I'll say again that fact this is not linked in any way sh per form to harassment intimidation or bullying our young our students our children are dramatically influenced not only by the loss but also our reaction as adults to it we have to be responsible for our behavior um we teach our kids with what we do and what we say and how we say um we need to make sure that the information that we as adults are giving out is accurate and
006has been substantiated um and is given in the best possible way the situation we need to make sure that when information is shared we have the right professionals on hand to help young people when with the questions that they're going to have and I think that we've done our best to make sure that we do that through the process we' worked with the tri loss Coalition reach out to them immediately um as well as a number of State organizations uh and student groups what this event has brought to light in their words is that our district mle Public Schools is doing all that it can to support and teach our students we receed pra for the programs that we have in place as well as our for our response to this unfortunate incident um we
007encourage everyone to help us to continue to help if you see something say something it's a message we've been saying to the students um I cannot say that strenuously enough sharing information allows us to provide help where when and how it is needed it is especially critical that we teach our students this they must know is better to reach out for help while help is able to be given case in point we were alerted by a student of a comment on the internet this weekend um she had the insight and the wherewithal to inform us and because of that uh we were able to identify and provide help to a student in need even when we were closed so please encourage people if you see something say something that said please understand that we're an
008age where technology makes it almost impossible to monitor everything um we are committed to doing everything we possibly can ask for your help as as we serve our community as for formal business there uh there was an outstanding complaint against the board regarding trash disposal I've met with the complainant and the complaint has been dropped uh will most likely be refiled against the uh trash company in the inim though Miss jam and I continue to communicate with company regarding our expectation that town ordinance always be fed following up the presentation of the superintendent's goals and the conversations that have exploded since uh I'm happy to present for the board's approval night a partnership with performance matters and uh an assessment warehousing analysis tool tool not only ate our conversations regarding data on external assessments such
009as uh State tests like the hesa and the as but National tests as well it also will allow our teachers to mind the data that they choose uh to to produce uh and inform decisions from the classroom level all the way up to the district level as well goal number two we wanted to um let everyone know when the final stages ofation for strategic planning I've been in contact with Dr a number of times over the past two weeks we've outl a timeline for work that will allow us to complete the goals as planned and involve each of the stakeholder groups uh in the most efficient and effective way possible moving to facilities we have already attained one quote through our pared Spring Garden gym floor we have classic rescheduled to commit a meet with
010Mr Ria uh and we will have a timeline to communicate to the board uh a week from today budget preparations have been ongoing at the building level set to receive plans from our principles by this Wednesday at this point we'll begin the central office phase where we will be rightsizing those proposals and communicating back down so that we can make one clear and reasonable budget presentation to the to the board's final commit uh finally and I think on the highest note I continue to meet with administrators and faculty regarding teaching and learning we continue to have meaningful conversations and as we progress we'll start to have public presentations on the work that we see in front of us and the work that we're doing as we move forward we have we have challenging exciting conversations
011ahead of us excited to say that based on our response to recent specific challenges I know that this board this district and certain this community are prepared to beet the challenge so I look forward to thank you Mr Les I'd like to commend you and the staff for handling a very difficult situation this past month secretary's report it was all covered by the superintend next on the agenda is a presentation by Dr and commissioner scarelli good evening everybody um I'm here on behalf ofic Association just a little history on the scarelli civic association and I'll make a short presentation but uh scarpelly Civ Association has been around for over 30 years it was started by my grandfather I guess Mr SCA and Mr spado with um a great guy and that was continued by my
012father after being elected um was uh I was encouraged to reinvigorate reorganize and start Poli Association the organization in the past was more social although it did charity work we thought we'd uh organize around a specific area and we chose Autism Awareness is that um the focus of our organization very appr propo since a longtime president of the star Pell Association Mr scavone has family who uh has autism and also Mr brow who's the current president has a daughter of autism so we thought that was very AF uh we started with three goals our first goal was to give a scholarship to a high school senior who was in a special education program was going on to postsecondary education we raised enough money to actually give two scholarships this past June uh $500 for those
013who are going on our second goal was to support the autism program in the schools uh and that's what we'll be doing tonight our third goal uh we hope we will'll be able to accomplish very soon is the start a Varsity Sport within the high school for those uh in special education uh tonight I'm pleased to present uh six Apple eye touches seven Apple iPads uh otter boxes Otter Box cases for them um those are for the Autistic Program we have a Edmark level one and two Deluxe combo reading series that are for the self-contained classrooms uh they're presently being used in the classroom but they share them this will be able to provide uh more individual instruction uh and we also have two calone spirit stereo listening centers so that the students can learn
014without being distracted uh we also uh should have been delivered today a 25,000 BTU air conditioning to R school for the autistic classroom and tonight we also have a HP 8500 printer and scanner um this was uh all derived from a meeting with the teachers at the end of last year um we continue to with the superintendent and uh Gina bani to have a formal way of us receiving requests we will continue to raise money we will continue to support this program I'm very happy to be able to do this the autistic children in this District thank [Applause] you behalf of the board and the district i' like to thank you for your efforts and group's efforts and much appreciated this with good new thank you very [Applause] much at this point uh since there
015were some changes to the agenda for tonight um this is not something making a habit of but for the for this particular occasion uh we're going to go with close executive session for about 15 minutes so that uh we can discuss those changes with respect to personnel and a contract whereas the Board of Education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion pursuant to njsa 10 4-12 now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education recess to closing executive session at this time to discuss personnel and contractual matters relative to the assessment management system he have further resolved that the results of the discussion made public by inclusion on the agenda of a subsequent meeting of the Board of Education when the reasons for discussing such matters in closed session no longer exist so
016move second second can move quickly to Executive [Music] back want here Dr Reed here Mr Rogers here Mrs R here Mr here Mado here Mr here committee reports uh first like to make a comment that um as everyone knows the the uh full board met with the Commissioners to discuss sh sh Services uh subcommittees were formed and I report that the subcommittees have been meeting in preparation for a meeting on December 5th to get together again uh any other committee reports Finance um on November 15th the finance Community Met Myself and Trust met with Miss talk about a few agenda topics um we discussed in general terms the budget status and the development and the process going forward um we talked about um some of the negotiations and talked about flexible spending account proposals um
017that were reviewed in L of changes in the law and the issues we need to address um we discussed some of the construction payments and change orders that were um up for of review we had some questions um and request for clarification um operational reviews are underway by the district and the administration um and we will be anticipating additional information to be presented to the finance committee at the next meeting at our next meeting um we discussed that qac review process is is going forward and that our order report for the district is being completed and a presentation will be made to the finance committee and then to the full board in December thank you Administration thank you Mr I'll given this for Mr kazinski um we had a tremendous uh meeting on November 3rd
018one of the topics was to discuss solar was a great great meeting um and also I'm following up to our meeting with the Commissioners but commissioner Tui was there um talking about possibility bpa's energy sharing audits that he's had done tremendous meeting he really wants to work forward and work with us between the township and the district and the more solar we bring to the project the better it is for all um we had a consultant met with us there um we will be developing RFQ um we decided since then we'll be adopting the procurement committee's uh start the adoption tonight but but as per the new document we'll draw up an RFP to go out for a consultant to assist us and the Township in preparing RFP for solar um so that we're following
019all the new guidelines um the committee also recommended which is on tonight the adoption of the aab procurement committee which is also on our agenda here this evening um we reviewed some of the hiring process the RP policy policy review um and the uh we'll be moving forward in the next month with RFP for the board attorney which I think is posted now and also the athletic position was discussed and Strauss Esme as the policy man who review and updates at no cost and we'll be proceeding with the review all policies after we hear back from Strauss s thank you very much thank you very much any other committee reports re uh yes Mr kushka on November 15th the academic committee met to discuss the various technology issues impacting the district uh superintendent L provided
020an extremely thorough overview regarding uh two particular products regarding our student Information Systems along with a computer-based teacher and student assessment system I know a lot of research has been conducted by Miss bani Mr lzic in terms of identifying a product that would suit or best suit the needs of the district an RFP has been prepared I know that's going to be going out shortly in regards to identifying or at least securing a student information system um On a related issue the district is also narrowing its search for a director of technology so at least once we secure this individual or identify this particular individual he or she will be better able to address these particular needs in terms of integrating this sis system uh with the broader District plans um as described in our
021meeting by superintendent lvic the student information system will have all the bells and whistles that we've been seeking as a district and as a community that being true online report cards um attendance information a parent portal which will hopefully give us the opportunity as parents to um access homework assignments for our children progress reports and in addition uh regarding a special module that will address the special services reporting requirements which are pretty heavy for the district on the state as well as the federal levels um and then i' also like to thank and commend superintendent L for um informing us this evening that we have secured performance matters as our computer-based teacher and evaluation I'm sorry teacher evaluation student assessment system this will give us the opportunity to incorporate and correlate student data with teacher
022evaluation information um it's important to note that this is not a punitive Endeavor directly towards our teachers if anything it's an opportunity for growth so as a Committee Member as well as a board member we're extremely excited and supportive of this endeavor and again it will provide us with the opportunity to run common assessments and leverage these data to improve teacher teacher uh teaching as well as learning last but not least we were also given Insight regarding a program of study that's taking place at the high school and the academic committee will be surprised of the uh this report come I think latter December early January but this is an opportunity for the school district to Embark upon a comprehensive needs assessment at the high school in which all programs study will be examined recommendations
023will be made for improvement uh again our AP requirements uh grading system course offerings class size it allun runs under that gamut so we look forward to that report come the latter part December early January so thank you thank you Dr re hearing of citizens we now come to the portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board in this session we allow questions or comments on only the resolutions addressed in tonight's agenda our board regulations allow 20 minutes for these communications each person shall be limited to 3 minutes and we ask you to try to stay within this requirement speakers may speak more than once only after all others wishing to speak on the topic have been heard all statements will be directed to me as the chairperson
024and no one may address board members individually please be reminded that if your statement is too lengthy personally directed abusive obscene or relevant or redundant your participation may be terminated please remember to always state your name and address each and every time you address the board the first person please step forward good evening Mr President Thomas 108 McKinley Street Mr President I have a question regarding Finance resolution number 12 approval of a partial payment of GPC uh who is GPC here a General Grant contracting service the district had hired to coordinate multiple contract as the situation with the spring guard J resol decid Who's going to pay the repair yes and who right now based on the test by name sunfield responsible for the in the roation C actual separate [Music] Mr President I I
025inquire because I'd like to know what provision of our contract would GPC allows us to retain $10,000 until this the the intent is to to retain that money until so that we it's leveraged making sure that the the gym FL is I I understand the purpose I'm wondering what is the provision of the contract of GPC that allows us to back okay and I asked that because I'm wondering why only $10,000 is being reped it seems to me that your your contract probably has a provision that a payment can be withheld into satisfactory delivery and services compl the final payment or some other payments and just to see an arbitrary number like 10,000 makes me wonder whether we are are essentially amending the contractor GC to only withhold $10,000 when in fact we are entitled
026to with more I don't know that's the case because i' have to see the contract but I do wonder about that get back okay well I would appreciate if the board would not approve any further payments of gpcs until that issue is resolved the contract needs to be examined to see what the board's rights are in terms of withholding payments to our general contractor until we are fully satisfied with their performance and to pick an arbitrary amount is simply going against what the board's rights are under the contract maybe against what the board's rights are under the contract and to do so without that knowledge I think is impudent for the board it might be an Optimum amount to make sure that work is just proceeding in a Ely fashion yes and that would be
027a subjective decision what we're talking about the is the contractual rights of the Board of Education until that's examined I don't think you should approve this resolution thank you thank you Mr President anyone else wishing if not close Mr President Finance resolution number 14 yes approval of the change order for the HVAC upgrad High School this is a change order to install sheet rock on the existing exterior wall yes Sheck exterior wall there was air air conditioners embeded in those walls close it up but the central area we don't need those uh units exterior wall mean the outer wall of the school building outer wall on the inside well I see exterior that tells me it's the exterior wall of the building inside okay fine and it's per the owner's request I you have an
028option of leaving the units in the wall or taking them out no you're the owner okay thank you if there no other I have just one more anyone else thas thank you Mr President um I just wish to congratulate the board for putting a resolution administr ad of resolution number three theur policy on the agenda [Music] tonight needs to say uh this is a proud moment for the board I wish You' gone further with it as you know you and I have discussed uh but this is a great step forward it's so important that for the Board of Education to maintain its credibility with taxpayers and with the state and with all other stakeholders that proper procedures be followed and as Mr Dr re pointed out in his committee report at the last I think
029it was the last meeting meeting okay we are now spending lots of money on attorneys because proper procedures that were in place by law back then were simply not followed and when I say proper procedures I mean not just the letter of the law but the spirit of the law as well and I will bring up the tri situation okay this was a contract that was approved by the board okay based on a recommendation by somebody else by one of their trusted officials that this did not have this contract did not have to go out to public B Mr Thomas I thank you for your appreciation for the resolution I think that the tric matter is still in their litigation and we would not want to discuss it I don't expect to discuss Mr I
030would like to finish my comment if I may short almost done before you interrupted me that is a contract that should have sent red flags among old Board of Education members because it necessarily involved the board paying a contractor millions of dollars in fees okay that should have raised red flags with all board members as to can we really approve such a contract without going out to public bidding for it but because you relied on somebody's recommendation not this board of course but the board at the time relied on recommendations they didn't they didn't ask that simple question and I encourage this board to ask such question thank you Mr anyone else now I close this portion of the meeting Dr Reed move academic resolution than Mr President I'd like to move academic resolution number
031one discussion the RO please Mrs Mar yes mlyn yes Dr Reed yes Mr Rogers yes Mrs R yes Mr SCA yes Mr spado yes Mr yes Mr Scola we move administrative resolutions 1 two three sure I make a motion to move Administration one two three second discussion call the roll please Mrs St Martin yes Miss yes Dr Reed yes Mr Rogers yes Mr R yes Mr fera yes Mr spado yes Mr P yes Mr spado will you move Finance resolutions 1 through 14 please I move Finance resolutions 1- 14 as written we have a second second discussion this one um Mr President I would make a motion to um table resolution uh Finance resolution number 13 um there's been a number of question I've had um M did get back to our contract had at
032the finance meeting and back to the contract we got additional information but it still raises more questions and answers so I would just like to make a motion to table it second discussion r on the motion to table Mr St Martin yes Miss Flyn yes Dr Reed yes Mr Rogers just have one question before I vote will we run into any problems without paying this bill is there a time constraint this is only a change order right change order is there any all right so there's no legal issues if we don't proce but it's a change it's not a payment so it's I'll yes Mrs Russo yes Mrs yes Mrs bado yes Mr [Music] yes okay any other discussion pleas oh excuse me Mr President just I'll be abstaining just standing on number okay please
033this ston yes M Flynn yes Dr Reed yes Mr Rogers yes not all but communication Builds on resolution number yes Mrs SCA yes on everything I stand up with him Mr Fado yes Mr K yes Mr scal move Personnel resolutions 1 through 13 Mr President I move Personnel resolutions 1 through second discussion please you want to read 13 May whereas is with a sense of deep sorrow and regret that the butley Board of Education recorded the death of Mrs Florence gby on November 2nd 2011 and whereas Mrs gby was employed in September 1978 as a teacher in Nutley public schools and had a distinguished educational career until retirement July 2005 and whereas Mrs Gibby won the admiration and respect of her fellow teachers and the friendship of fups who came under the influence of our
034understanding and capable teaching now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Nutley extends deep sympathy to the members of her family and be a further resolved that this resolution be made part of the minutes of this meeting and a copy sent to the members of her family Mrs D Martin yes M GL yes Dr Reed yes Mr Rogers yes Mrs Russo yes MRSA yes Mr yes Mr yes hearing hearing of citizens in this session we allow questions or comments on all School related matters our regulations allow 30 minutes for these communications again each question shall be limited to 3 minutes and we ask you to try to stay with this requirement as stated earlier all statements will be directed to me as chairperson and no one may address the
035board members individually please be reminded that if your statement is too lengthy personally directed abusive obscene irrelevant or redundant your participation may be terminated please remember to always state your name and address each and every time you address the board the first person wishing to be heard please step over good evening everybody Sharon Baza 68 R Street nle New Jersey I do have some packets that I would like the board to be presented with I don't know if you want me to just hand them to you guys is that okay we'll pass good evening again superintendent lassic and the Board of Education members since the last time I attended your meeting I have continued to move forward with great effort in my Endeavor to Institute a school uniform dress code for the c m I
036had the pleasure of meeting with our superintendent to discuss the issues at hand and his input showed me that his primary concern is the children of our school system I also had the opportunity to meet with two of your high school students who work on the ru and gray newspaper I thought the article they presented captured my point of view and I was very impressed with the voluntary poll they took at the high school which stated that 29% of the students P wanted uniforms that would be three out of every 10 children mind you it wasn't the entire school it was a small percentage so that's a pretty high number for that lastly I started a petition signing which brought in approximately 500 signatures there's about 300 included in your packet there signatures of residents
037and school AG parents who were in favor of seeing this change in nothing and I have been contacted by so many parents over the past few weeks who have joined that force a few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to gather information from a superintendent that encouraged a School dress code uniform in his district after reviewing everything I have taken the Liberty to put together a package for each board member to review included in this package is copies of the petitions that have been signed some of them along with the basics of how to structure a dress code uniform within our own District as I mentioned earlier the school paper did a voluntary survey that would be the next item on the agenda allowing parents to be surveyed I have included a sample document
038which includes the questions that could be addressed due to budget restraints mailing may be very costly so may I suggest that you email them to each pan just as we receive all the other information from the school via email another concern was the cost for some families although through previous research it shows that the cost of dress code uniforms today are much less expensive than trendy clothing we currently have a total of 3,955 students enrolled in all of our schools the Nutley high school has 2,293 John Walker Middle has 631 Lin at 469 Radcliff 324 Spring Garden 367 Washington 402 and yanal 469 with close to 4,000 students 439 are currently receiving aid for reduced or free lunch which would mostely qualify them for some sort of assistance with the school dress uniform if indeed
039the school board had to incorporate assisting some of these families the cost giving each child $100 it would be less than $50,000 into the budget I was also exposed to the fact that this might go to the taxpayers well if it goes to the taxpayers and you give each child $500 children $100 each it comes down to $567 per household per year because we send out 8,817 tax properties in this Township I cannot stress how important it is I feel about making this change if this gets put onto the back burner you as a board are making the decision to not allow the students of all children who attend our public schools to be a part of the decision making do the survey let's see how our parents feel about making the change if indeed
040our parents of today's students want this The Next Step would be uniform committees including the board teachers and parents and this can be accomplished and be put into place by the 2012 September school year as long as we all do our part thank you thank you anyone else wishing I am Molton 53 link Side Drive um first I would love to thank commissioner scarelli for donating those um items to the autism program for those of you who are not aware kids on the Spectrum uh really benefit from the iPad and the iTouch they're valuable teaching tools it's not just a game um additionally I just want to let everybody know that I have been working directly with art Monaco in creating the CPAC the parent advisory group for special a parents it's also going to
041be inclusive of parents um of non-disabled students Educators community members um with the hopes of really um you know creating a coalition and working with our district to um create a more inclusive environment um for children with special needs um lastly um on a completely separate note um Chartwell the new system is a dis which I'm sure is no surprise to you guys um in Ence at the elementary level what they have to do is um pay in advance which I'm totally in agreement with but it's kind of hard to get the younger ones to order their food two weeks in advance and whoever's sick or when you're in fifth and sixth grade you can go out to lunch you know if they want to do that on the Fly you lose the money that
042you give to Chartwell you know do they give it back to are they just pocketing it you know um it would be nice of course to be online would be ideal but that's a stretch but even if we could just like you know have something in place where we can pay in advance and just let the kids choose on a daily basis or or something along those lines so there is a method for them to order the food and for the parents to receive funds in the event that their kid can't make it to school um you know I can't tell you how many times my daughter went out to eat and I have no IDE where that $265 went but you know you add that up over time and it does add up to
043a nice chunk of change so that's it thank you anyone else wish be heard now I'll close this portion of the meeting no it was for old business any old business yes on the issue of shared services uh and the meeting we had with the Board of Commissioners uh this is something that uh we've talked about for quite some time and it's long overdue and I'm really happy to see this moving forward one of the uh requests that I made with the r PTO I I'm a rep at that school and I make this request of you all here today in the public if you have any ideas uh that would help make government more efficient and help save tax dollar please don't hesitate to share that with one of us or a commissioner you
044know sometimes the best ideas come from the people that are being affected by the decisions we make so don't hesitate no idea is is too small we're living in tough times and challenging times as a superintendent said so please uh get in touch with one of us or a commissioner or the superintendent if you have an idea and maybe we uh we can you know move it forward and it may save us U uh some tax dollars and make govern a little bit more efficient than it is now thank you Mr thank you I buiness just on the same subject um you know and I want to thank the president and the superintendent for putting together but we had a tremendous meeting with the Board of Commissioners if anybody had followed that up and you
045know I I've been with to town many years and many times people have talked about talked about getting together setting agenda setting times we have committees put together we have future meetings time set we have a date set those are great things for the township and that I want to thank everyone for the board and the Commissioners it was a great meeting and I think it's going to be huge success Mr coair thank you for you setting up as the president thank you old business I know we discussed this CH before um and I thought we asked I know I did uh to have them either come and meet with us make a presentation which I'm sure has to be done in public because we can't do it in private uh because I got a
046lot of questions you know I'm hearing from a lot of people about a lot of issues and what we just heard before um we need to address [Music] asmp I have one question maybe the answer that's gotten a few you we have the close days because of the uh the early snowstorm people were asking questions about what should they do in L of that because they paid for lunch should they get a credit and some people are saying just write a credit on the form I don't know I don't know if that's right they don't lose their money no one is losing their money most parents will write that there's a credit due because of those days but something was also um should have gone home in the newsletters from each of the building principles
047and I'll follow up to make sure that they continue to put that in their newsletters home to the that's the process yeah maybe on their future forms that they send home to pre-order maybe they should just know maybe put like a credit like I don't know any other old business new business Mr thank you Mr President I went to direct you before this but um uh Mr Viviana everybody called him Mr Viv um passed away um longtime teacher football coach here iny pass away this week um was here when I was at school Tommy um else but uh great gu if we have a quick moment of silence for him I'd appreciate it thank you thank you Mr President any other business quick question I promis Lincoln School P that I would bring this up
048um Can anyone give me history as to why we have the half day before Thanksgiving what people are traveling anticipation it's probably something that's been going on and it's a pretty common practice in business I believe I when I was working uh we always leave early the day before of not have half for Thanksgiving and it makes it very inconvenient fortunately we have the extended dat program that Still Remains open but is that the ongoing reason because of it's always been done that way well I think we approved that now when we uh approve the uh back in day think we should have asked that I think we should ask before year before we approve get a half day before Christmas Eve we're in development of the calendar right now I know in the past
049it's been developed certain ways we're going to make sure that it's it's more more of a collaborative process this time so we've been taking feedback on this I will say the first time I heard that question but we make a note of it yeah on that issue with the month of November being an interesting month school year wise there's a lot of questions about you know the half days during it's it's just a disjointed month in so many ways and know talk about as a board going forward and I think we just rening it with that might also be something with in negotiations with contracts said for days off half this is a half day only half a day now well I mean the calendar has to they have to have 180 days of school
050right so however you do that it's the half days that are more flexible any other new business I went to I just have a report on the Washington school PTO meeting um it was a a very good meeting I just wanted to report back because I think it should be highlighted um the fact that the Washington school PTO pay they're paying for clubs that we could not otherwise authorize through budget constraints and I think that says a lot about that PTO to really step in and one particular I think that we hold near and dear is public was here as the student council that they decided to fund that so I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention good job good job any other new business close that whereas Board of Education will
051be discussing Matters exemp from public discussion pursuant to njsa 10 4-12 now there be resolved that the Board of Education recess close executive session at this time to discuss student matters we further resolve that results of the discussion made public by inclusion on the agenda of the subsequent meeting board of education or when the reasons for discussing such matters in Clos session no long exist move in favor session