Dover Public Schools BOE Meeting - 10-19-2021

001Good evening, if you can just give us a few more minutes, thank you for your patience. How do you pronounce your last name in English? I would make you roll the R. All right, good evening everyone. Thank you everyone for your patience. Get started. We are 6.37, I'm calling the meeting to order. This meeting is, which is hereby called, oh, let's do the translator please, now that I think about it. Okay, hi. If there's anyone who is in need of a translation, please reach out to our handy dandy interpreter. So again, we're calling the meeting to order. This meeting, which is hereby called to order at 638, is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law. Public notice was posted in the office of the board. education and communicated to the municipal court and

002the daily record on may 26 of 2021. may we please stand for a flag salute and then remain standing please i pledge allegiance on september 26th our school community experienced a great loss rob ambercino a veteran teacher athletic coach and a committed student educator passed away suddenly Rob was truly a connector, someone whom students and colleagues alike speak of as a supporter, an encourager, an optimist. As many already know, Rob's legacy continued through his commitment as an organ donor, and these gifts of Rob will directly support life for a number of individuals who received those donations. Such a loss leaves many individuals in need of support. and in the wake of Rob's passing, counseling services were arranged and provided, inclusive of Saturday and Sunday following this tragic event. I would like to thank all our

003providers who gave of their time for the support of our students and our staff. Rob will continue to live in the hearts of all he touched through his service as an educator and through all his interactions, both private and personal. A committee has been formed to develop fitting tributes and a celebration of Rob's time with us. Please join us in a moment of silence in Rob's honor and in support of all his family, his friends, and those whose lives he made better. Let me have a seat. We have roll call, please, Mr. Slab. Ms. Catano. Present. Mr. Miller. Here. Ms. Mullen. Here. Ms. Nutting. Here. Mr. Robles. Ms. Robles? Here. I heard Ruiz, sorry. If I pronounce anyone's name incorrectly, just chuck a piece of paper at me or something. No problem. We might have

004to move the microphone closer. Closer. Just lower. Ms. Ruiz? Present. Dr. Sanor? Not here. Ms. Viveros? Present. Ms. Grisales? Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. May we have a board member read our mission and vision statement to remind us of why we are here this evening, please? Ms. Viveros, thank you. Working together as a community, our mission is to welcome all and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative, empathetic, resilient, and who choose to make an impact. Thank you, Ms. Viveros. Dr. McLaughlin, would you like to introduce our presentations for tonight? Yes, so tonight we have one presentation by Mr. Jaime, our principal of East Dover Elementary and Dover Middle School. He'll be presenting on the beautification project that was just completed at the school. Mr.

005Jaime? Good evening everyone. I'm Mr. Jaime. I'm the middle school principal for Dover Middle School and I am the East Dover Elementary principal as well. So tonight I'm going to be speaking a little bit about our project that we've been working on for the last few months with Home Depot. So one of the things that we've done in communicating with our families and our teachers is that they've mentioned how much they want to do more beautification for our building to really create an environment that our kids, our parents... our staff is very proud of and in doing that we wanted to kind of exhaust every resource we can and we took it upon ourselves to go up to home depot and just do a quick cold call and say hey listen we need help you

006know it's a lot easier for uh people to sometimes say no over the phone but when you're in person and you're saying listen we're doing some projects for our families and we need so many supports for our community they jumped right in which was great and over the course of the months we were just talking about what we needed to donate for the building and we were looking at three areas that we really wanted to focus us on we wanted to focus on our courtyard which is not used as much but we want to keep using it as we move forward we've added benches and now we've added raised gardens and in hopes of spring we're going to be then working with our kids through science and mathematics and working on creating our own little

007garden our own little area for our students to really be proud of and be interacting with the other piece was then we wanted to target the entrance of the main entrance for the middle school as well as the main entrance for the elementary what i thought was going to be Amazing experience. They really dug in. We were taking all that grass out, putting down all the mulch. It was fun. And we're going to be continuing to work partner with Home Depot as time goes on. One of the things that they did mention to me is that they want to continue to maintain those areas and seasonally. change the decorations. So we'll continuously keep adding decorations to the entrances to our both buildings, which is exciting. And we're going to be also looking to do further

008projects with Home Depot as we continue on our course to beautification of East Dover Elementary and Dover Middle School. And I do have some pictures that I want to share with everyone. But instead of me talking about the pictures, we'll put together everything in the video. Please enjoy. And the last piece that we did is that all our kids from K to six either created a card or they wrote a letter thanking Home Depot. I dropped off the letter to Home Depot. Just really grateful for the opportunity they gave us and the fact that they want to continue this partnership. And we'll continue working on more projects. Thank you. Thank you so very much, Mr. Jaime. You're welcome. Anytime to show us more pictures. Now I move forward with opening our public comment, first public

009comment section. The board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters. To ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment, each statement should be held to a time period of three minutes. Public comments limited to items on this agenda should be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer. Please understand the public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer questions. are not structured as question and answer sessions, but rather they're offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. The board may or may not respond to public comments. However, all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights

010of others when providing comments. Comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, or irrelevant. Please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections. The board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees. Please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk. Any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to legal liability for defamation. Are there any public comments? Hello? This mic is working, thank you. I have a question. I'm sorry, may I have your name? I know, I know. Maria Chacon, 82 East Blackwell Street. Good, thank you. All right, I have a question. I work for Novartis, and we had an event, an art contest, and two of Dover's students won, so we're here to present. That doesn't have

011to be part of my five minutes, right? No, no, we have that scheduled for presentation. All right, so my first comment is. I understand that we're making these meetings public, but I would like to ask if you could do something a little above and beyond just doing what's permitted by law, which is offering a telephone line or a Zoom line for parents or caretakers that are homebound or working late. for them to be able to participate because this is so important to all of our kids and people at home that can't make it here if that would be possible. I also have another comment. I have a comment on behalf of EDGE New Jersey. For those of you who might not know EDGE New Jersey, EDGE stands for End Discrimination Gain Equality. EDGE is the

012first and only LGBT plus pride center in Morris County. Our mission is to respond compassionately and responsibly to the LGBT plus communities by providing supportive services, behavioral health counseling, housing opportunities, education, prevention strategies. and medical services. We see and value importance of community partnership to ensure that all youth feel safe in their surroundings, especially within the public school system. The EDGE recognizes the challenges all school administrations are facing as you all transition from virtual learning to an in-person atmosphere, both academically and socially. With that being said, LGBT youth, especially transgender youth, continue to face the highest level of behavioral health challenges. The National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health 2021, The Trevor Project, reports 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. including more than half of transgender non-binary youth. EDGE

013has found that the lack of support a transgender youth receives both within their home and also in their social networks can increase a youth's feeling of isolation and truly be devastating to their well-being. EDGE recently had the opportunity to connect with Principal Luis Jaime to bring LGBT plus cultural awareness to the Dover School District. We will work on providing two tracks, one towards youth and the other towards staff administration. EDGE New Jersey believes that all people, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity, deserve kindness, love, respect, and most importantly, equality. Our center is where the LGBTQ plus community, along with their parents, caregivers, and allies, can gather together and feel at home. we welcome you all at edge new jersey and we look forward to continue to be a visible voice in morris

014county thank you thank you miss checklund any other public comment at this time please approach the podium and just state your first name and last name on agenda items only yes correct carney hillside avenue this is regarding correspondence can you repeat your first name and last name darren carney sorry one more time darren carney Darren Carney. Yep. Thank you. Sorry, that microphone's not the best, so you may want to approach yourself. Thank you. Prior to the last meeting, my wife and I sent correspondence to the board regarding our concerns with reopening the contract of the superintendent and assistant superintendent, despite of the ongoing issues with lack of preparedness by the central office administration, poor communication, lack of efforts to reopen schools last year, and usually high staff turnover. At the meeting, it was stated that

015our communication was regarding concerns with safety of reopening schools, which was not being part of the correspondence. I would like the purpose of our communication corrected for the record. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carney. Are there other public comments at this time? I hear none. I see none. I will close the public comment session at this time. There will be a second one for all items. Approval of minutes for... September 21st and regular and executive session. Is there a motion to approve minutes? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Nutting. Are there any questions or comments from the board? Ms. Grisales, in response to Mr. Carney's statement regarding his communication to the board, I didn't... That wasn't present in my mind when I reviewed the minutes.

016I'm wondering if we could just have a moment to make sure the minutes accurately reflect Mr. Carney's comments and if any amendment is necessary that we make that amendment before approving the minutes if it's not readily Available we can certainly make an amendment or any of the board members can make an amendment that if there is if if it was not accurately captured, that it is approved only after that edit. So I would move that the minutes be amended to reflect that Mr. Carney's communication to the board included his statements about the superintendent and assistant superintendent contracts. Second. Any comments about that motion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Abstentions? Perfect. That amendment is good to go. And I just want to add that the minutes aren't in our administrative folder, but it's just

017pooling, so I can't actually see. Right. Is there a motion? We have a motion and we have a second for the minutes with the amendment. Yes, Ms. Mullin. I just want to clarify that the minutes did need an amendment. They did need an amendment. Thank you, Ms. Mullin. And I can forward you his direct communication so that way you have it and can make sure it's there, Mr. Slim. Thank you. Okay. May we have roll call, please? Ms. Katana? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Ms. Mullin? Yes. Ms. Nuttting? Abstain. Mr. Robles? Yes. Ms. Ruiz? Yes. Dr. Sanor? No, thank you. Ms. Viveros? Yes. mr. Grisales yes motion carries perfect may we move forward to communications we started a document to ensure that we don't miss communications again as we did last time. And I believe for

018this month, we had only one communication from the community to the whole board. And that was from Ms. Chacon discussing and presenting and asking for the sharing of information for the 2021 14th annual art show contest sponsored by HLN and Pride through diversity and inclusion of artists. any other board member have or know of other communication that did not come through me or administrator none at this time administrators do you have anything thank you then we move forward with our administrative reports dr mclaughlin thank you so i'd like to begin tonight uh and each month we will uh report on progress towards the district goals uh so Beginning with the first district goal this year to increase the array and effectiveness of services and programs that promote the academic development throughout the district schools, I

019would like to highlight that the dual language program is fully underway in all of the district's kindergarten classes. that there is sustained and embedded professional development that is being provided by Dr. Elizabeth Willem and her team in regard to that program. We're excited to view the progress of that program as it proceeds throughout the year, and we will keep the board up to date in that regard. The second item within that gold category refers to our CTE program and the Dover High School students who are participating in the first CTE program for the Dover School District. Under Ms. Rigliano's oversight and the direction of Ms. Gaynor-Matante's supervision, our CTE program in graphic design has been launched and the first course in its sequence is underway. Patrick Gallagher is a professor from the County College of

020Morris, and he provides direct instruction in three of the five class days per week in conjunction with our teacher, Mr. Magaro. This semester, our 16 enrolled students are completing Art 122 Drawing 1, where students learn the methods, materials, and visual information needed to draw what we see. In the spring, students will complete ART 130, Two-Dimensional Design, where students will learn how to control and compose visual forces on a two-dimensional plane. As the board is aware, students earn college credits paid for by the Dover schools for each class in the CTE course of study. The second goal area that I'd like to report on is the expansion, infusion, and reinforcement of programs that promote social-emotional growth and provide support for students in each of our district schools. The Rutgers Behavioral Health Care Program has been expanded,

021and mental health clinicians are all in place through Rutgers with three full-time staff at the high school, one at the middle school, and one clinician that is servicing our elementary students. Rutgers has provided Mr. Slam with information for the submission of the DCF grant for this school year, and that submission was just completed today. The third goal area regarding adoption, support, and mobilization of practices and policy that provide Dover and the Dover community with a true community school district. Excuse me. We have made a pledge at the district and the Board of Education level thus far to the mission and the values and the principles of a community school district. Our district at its September 21st Board of Education meeting committed to these principles and approved them on its board agenda. Our district administration is

022also committed to the community school pledge and efforts are already been initiated with specific attention drawn to our lead district and our school-based community liaisons. Our second area of that goal to deploy community liaisons at the school district and at the school building level has resulted in our lead school district and school-based liaisons who have all been hired and board approved. Our team represents a wide variety of experiences and expertise that will lend themselves to the pairing of our families with students with the resources they require to support their children in their educational achievement. I would like to move from the report on our district goals to the item of resignations that was raised at our last board meeting. The Board of Education has been consistent in its commitment to the retention of performing and

023contributing members of our staff and to providing all district staff with the resources necessary to fulfill their job responsibilities and maintain a healthy work-life balance. To that end, the district has invested significant time, resources, and funds to the following. Ongoing and sustained professional development. Student supports outside the general ed classroom, including increased special ed staff, the onset of basic skills instruction and the expansion of basic skills instruction, the hiring of reading specialists, child study team, mental health clinicians, and guidance staff. Technology tools, inclusive of a full internet infrastructure rework, access to the Google Suite, the most up-to-date student devices and teacher devices. The creation of and the expansion of a human resources department, inclusive of an onboarding and an offboarding process with accessible state mandatory training and guidance concerning timely topics such as employee-related COVID

024procedures. Increases in substitute pay, inclusive of this evening's COVID rate for substitutes. to ensure the greatest extent possible appropriate class coverage and protection of teacher preparation periods. Expanded graduate course reimbursement opportunities through specific partnerships with higher education that leads to specialized certificates in Orton-Gillingham, ESL, bilingual certification, and teacher of students with disability certification. an employee assistance program through Atlantic Health to assist and support staff anonymously in regard to a wide variety of needs. With all of these items being mentioned, we are aware, however, that education is a challenging profession, and there are many demands on our teachers, our support staff, and our administrators that may influence their decision to remain in the Dover schools. We are also aware that this has been compounded by what the U.S. Labor Department's most recent job openings and labor

025turnover summary report indicates, namely that roughly 4 million Americans are quitting their jobs each month in a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. The Labor Department report indicates that roughly 50% of employed Americans intend to make career changes because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 41% are seeking flexible and or remote work. 39% desire a raise or a promotion. And 33% are interested in changing industries. Again, these are statistics from the U.S. Department of Labor. These are not local statistics. In this climate, we continue to seek the best ways to meet the needs of our staff in the best way possible. Last year, the district initiated for the very first time an off-boarding program with both a survey and an interview component. The number of participants in the off-boarding process is not yet significant

026enough to present in a manner that protects anonymity. However, even the data already acquired is quite valuable as we move forward in our efforts. Another significant effort will be through a staff climate survey, one of the major undertakings that will occur during the 2021-2022 school year. I would like to acknowledge the Dover American Legion Women's and Men's Auxiliary, who recently reached out to the Dover schools, looking to present a contest called Adopt a Teacher from our school district. as one of their missions, values, and principles, family and community engagement. I am happy to announce that Christine Donatello and Lillian Quiroz have been selected as the winners for 2021. These teachers will supply a list of supplies that are needed, and the American Legion will give these items up to $100 each. In January, the Dover

027American Legion will run this contest again and another two teachers will be adopted. We would like to extend our appreciation to the American Legion for being a great community partner and their investment in the education of our youth and support of our teachers. Congratulations to Ms. Padakowska, ESL teacher at the high school here, who was named one of the Macedonian Dyspora 40 Under 40 Award recipients. This is a celebration of accomplished young Macedonians globally who impact their respective communities and professions. We are proud of Ms. Padakowska's accomplishments and applaud this very special recognition. Ms. Chacon has shared that two of our Dover Middle School students won last week at the Novartis HLN 14th Annual Art Show Contest. I would like at this time to ask Ms. Chacon and also Mr. Jaime to come forward to

028introduce the students and present them with their awards. On behalf of Diversity and Inclusion, Hispanic Latinx Network and the Pride ERG of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, we want to congratulate you for your beautiful art that you submitted. You did a beautiful job. You came out in second place out of more than 30 students in Morris County. So congratulations. Felicitaciones. Congratulations. All right, on behalf of Novartis Diversity and Inclusion, Hispanic Latinx Network, and the Pride ERG, we congratulate Luisa Abarca from Dover Middle School, fourth place out of entries of more than 30 students in the whole Morris County. So congratulations, Luisa Abarca, and here, Principal Jaime, you can give it to them tomorrow. Thank you. And thank you so much for advertising with us and working with us. And our students jumping in, we're very proud of them.

029And we're going to continue to promote and work together. Thank you. Finally, I'd like to publicly report on violence, vandalism, and HIV. These are required reports that occur publicly twice a year. At this meeting, I am providing data on all of the 2020-2021 school year, and in January, I will report on data for the first portion of the 2021-2022 school year. Since the majority of the last school year was fully remote, the data is extremely limited. Therefore, instead of reading the entire report, which I have provided to the board in advance, I can simply state that there were two incidents of confirmed HIV at North Dover Elementary School and that all other categories of violence, vandalism, and HIV were zero for all schools and for the district. And that completes my report. Are there any

030questions or comments from the board about that report? I just didn't hear the name of the first student who was awarded the prize. The first student's name is Chacon or Mr. Jaime. Got it? Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Rigliano, please. Good evening. As part of my report this evening, I would like to focus on the work that our new community liaisons have done since school has started and they have begun their new positions. Our first event was hosting the Navigating Hope Bus at Belmont Building. Navigating Hope is a mobile outreach program designed to provide social services to Morris County. They offer on-site benefits, eligibility screening, and application assistance for the following services, SNAP, Medicaid, Utility Assistance, TANF, and WIC. Our first round of hosting the Navigating Hope van resulted in 59 SNAP applications completed, 13

031housing applications completed, and six Medicaid application inquiries. This was a total of 76 individuals that were assisted in our Dover community. We have had such a successful turnout of hosting the van that we will now have a permanent date each month for the next four months. when Dover Schools will be the host site and we will reassess this with Navigating Hope after that time. These opportunities are available to those beyond our school families. Anyone can seek assistance during the VANS visits. Our goal is to continue to partner with Navigating Hope in a variety of ways. Recently, our liaisons came together with the Rutgers Mental Health Clinicians and the liaisons and the clinicians had a shared knowledge meeting. Each group discussed their role and service in the district, and together the group was able to identify

032many avenues of mutual support for future events. We will continue to meet with the Rutgers clinicians on a monthly basis. Currently, we are planning a busy and robust November 2nd Professional Learning Day. This will include more opportunities for our staff to learn and debrief about dual language, writer's workshop, and social-emotional learning. In addition, we will also have dyslexia and foundations training. Our secondary staff will be meeting with our partners at NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools. This particular professional development workshop will focus on conceptual foundations, impact, and significance of culturally responsive and sustaining education, with an emphasis on what culturally responsive and sustaining curriculum looks like in practice, in the classroom, and emphasize why the CRS curriculum is a requisite for equitable education. This is the first in a

033series of professional trainings that the secondary staff in the district will participate in in the 21-22 school year. It is also one of the many contracts on the agenda for your approval tonight. That concludes my report. Board, any question, comments? Mr. Slam, administrative report, please. Good evening, everybody. I'm excited to be here for my first... Can everybody hear me? Bring it closer. How about now? There we go. Now you can hear it. Good evening, everybody. I'm excited to be here for my first board meeting as VA, second board meeting because I was here the one night with my daughter. So I just want to give some notes on some things that are happening in the district. I've been familiarizing myself with the current business office operations and accounts while looking for areas for future improvement.

034Is that better? I submitted the ESEA final report last Friday. Once that report is approved, an amendment will be submitted for any carryover funds that we can utilize in the current school year. We are still reviewing free and reduced lunch applications. There are a number of applications that are missing signatures, so we'll be reaching out within the next couple of weeks with more information on that. In addition to the above, currently working on the IDA final report, which is due Friday, quarterly semi-financial report, which is due Friday the 29th, and the district comprehensive maintenance plan and maintenance deposit sheet, which will be approved at next month's board meeting. And then also, I know the practice here is to enlist the dates for the next few meetings. in the finance section. I just wanted to have

035a note on that. The next board meeting will include a schedule to be approved for the meetings that will be in the next year, 2022. And then the last but not least, I wanted to kind of have a shout out here. Thank you to Mr. Edward Douglas of Douglas Electrical Engineering for their generous donations to the scholarship fund. which is on the agenda tonight. And we appreciate your continued support of Dover students over the years. So that concludes my report tonight. Thank you, Mr. Slam. You got through the first one. One down. One down. Will you move forward? Any questions or comments about that report? Okay, we move forward with our BO Board of Education reports. Mr. Miller, are there any updates for the Morris County Educational Services Commission? Yes, they actually provided a report

036on transportation services that they provide. I think in the past I mentioned that they're not physically doing a lot of the transportation as they did in the past, so they've sold a lot of their buses. But they talked about the services they provide with coordinated transportation and their cooperative bidding program. And so they talked about the fact that they've had an uptick in their participation in helping districts find transportation for students. And in particular, they did mention Dover for some of the increase that we needed. We talked about the fact that they helped start with a cooperative bidding program in order to get students transported there for preschool. And then part of their coordinated transportation would be like if you were going to Vo-Tech and you needed transportation, they would look for students from all

037of the different areas that would need to be picked up and they would coordinate that reducing the cost of the overall transportation for the student. And when they perform those services, they charge the 4%, which is very low, to coordinate all that effort so that they can provide lower cost transportation for students. One of the things that I did talk to the superintendent about, they mentioned... that they are looking at nursing services for public schools. They do it for non-public where there may be a need at some point for if our nurses are out and we need substitutes or we can't find a nurse, they may be able to provide services in that area at reduced cost. But I know that they are talking with all the superintendents now about that. And that concludes my

038report. Thank you. Ms. Ruiz, legislative report, please. Thank you, Ms. Grisales. Our state has been very busy on educational legislation. On October 12, the Governor's Interagency Council on Climate Resilience released their final version of our state's very first climate change resiliency strategy. This is a science-based blueprint for protecting our state from the impacts of climate crisis. The climate change resilience strategy includes over 100 recommendations to strengthen us against climate crises such as sea level rise, chronic flooding, rising temperatures, and more frequent and intense storms. Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Ida are just two of the recent climate crises that have directly impacted our students. Each climate crisis impacts our students' ability to achieve at their highest potential because, of course, these storms can leave our homes flooded and our community without electricity. And sadly, for some,

039it could even cause a loss of life. Our students led a climate school walkout and they are as much contributors to this historic first climate change resiliency strategy as any government official. So I thank our students and their educators for their bold leadership. On our related note. The New Jersey Department of Education announced this month an extensive online resource that we can use to incorporate climate change education across our K-12 classrooms beginning in this 2022-2023 upcoming school year. Educators and other members of the public can obtain more information on the New Jersey Department of Education's Climate Change Education Resource website. In exciting news this month, our state government announced plans to invest more than $700 million to help parents and legal guardians pay for childcare, provide bonus pay to childcare workers, and distribute grants and

040increased support for childcare providers. This is great news for our students, as some of our students are themselves child care providers for younger siblings or work as child care providers after school or have parents or guardians that work in the child care industry. Of course, when families have more financial stability and childcare resources, their children can reach their highest level of achievement much easier. On September 30th, the covid19.nj.gov forward slash youth help website was announced, and this is designed to help parents, youth, and educators with resources and supports to address youth mental health. particularly mental health challenges exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. In the last two budget cycles, Governor Murphy has invested more than $100 million in annual funding to modernize and rebalance the children's system of care in recognition of the need for a

041strong mental health care safety net for all children, including our students. Same day, the governor signed six bills into law aimed at combating food insecurity. And these new laws will benefit, bolster school meal programs and establish the office of the food insecurity advocate. We know that hungry children have difficulty focusing in school or on their homework. So this new legislation packet positively impacts our students' level of achievement. Thank you, Ms. Ruiz. That concludes your report? Yes, Ms. Grisales. Thank you. Ms. Nutting, do you have any on Morris County New Jersey School Board's report? nothing to report their meeting is actually tomorrow night on the 20th they did give us an option of doing a hybrid so you can actually sign up and do it virtually or go in person but you would have had to

042sign up i guess by tonight perfect thank you we look forward to hearing your report next meeting then Dr. McLaughlin, anything on the ad hoc, Minehill? Ms. Grisales, if you don't mind, I'd like to go out of order. Our second student award recipient has arrived. Yes, of course. And I'd like to take a moment, if we could call Ms. Chacon and Mr. Jaime back up to present that award. Welcome. Mr. Jaime, when you get to the podium, can you clearly state the name of the... first students so we can have it into record because we haven't been able to hear it correctly. No problem. So our first winner was Maiev Ayala. So it's... Ayah Ayala. Maiev. Spell that. M... I'm sorry, hold on. Trick question. I have the spelling. Oh, good. That's what McLaughlin has

043it. Oh, he has it? Okay. Go ahead. Tell us your name. E-V-I-V-E. Yes. Thank you so much. And congratulations, Ms. Ayala. Both of you, both of you, come up. Congratulations. Congratulations. I want to thank you for participating in this. event that was available to all students in Morris County. I want to tell you that you won fourth place, Luisa Alarca, Dover Middle School. Out of all these children that entered, you were one of the winners. So congratulations on behalf of Novartis Hispanic Latinx Network and the Pride ERG from Diversity and Inclusion. Thank you so much. Muchas gracias. Congratulations and felicitaciones congratulations thank you so much that's a great interruption thank you and proceeding with the uh ad hoc mine hill report uh as i shared at the the last board meeting we are scheduled uh

044to meet on the send receive contract with mine hill and dover on october the 25th at 5 15 p.m thank you very much we move forward with administrative approvals Is there a motion on the table with a hand carry for the COVID rate that Dr. McLaughlin mentioned before to approve A through with the hand carry? So moved. Second. Thank you. Moved by Mr. Miller and second by Ms. Nutting. Are there any questions or comments regarding those items? Yes, Ms. Ruiz. Thank you, Mr. Salas. On item D, the memorandum of agreement with law enforcement, our vote is more perfunctory. This is a requirement by the state. Changes were made to this agreement. This is presented annually. And the changes were alleged to better respond to the school-to-prison pipeline created when law enforcement officers are present in

045our schools. Those changes are not enough. While very rare in New Jersey, the tragedy of mass shootings in our schools is real, the tragedy of domestic terrorism is real, the tragedy of white supremacist terrorists is real, and we must prevent such a tragedy here. However, this memorandum of agreement doesn't do that. It's insufficient to protect our youth from the school to prison pipeline and from mass shooters. We saw in sadly many of the tragedies from Parkland to Newtown that police presence is not enough to protect our students. We need to invest in the infrastructure necessary to make our students and every school district staff member safer. We've had trainings from the New Jersey School Board Association where law enforcement professionals have presented options. They are expensive. nothing is worth more than the lives of our

046students and our school community. So while I don't support this memorandum of agreement, I do take advantage of this time to look to the point of it. It's to keep us safer, then let's act. to get us safer there are some of the recommendations have included bulletproof glass and vestibules and safety doors and we have taken a lot of those recommendations and implemented those already i'm grateful for that we we do need to do more thank you any other questions comments from the board mr slam may the board have roll call please miss katana yes mr miller yes miss mullen yes Ms. Nutting? Yes. Mr. Robles? Yes. Ms. Ruiz? Yes, on items A through C. No, on item D. Yes, on item E. Ms. Viveros? Yes. Ms. Grisales? Yes. Motion carries. Ms. Mullen, may you

047please lead the personnel items, noting that item 25 would be tabled at this time. move upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board approves the following personnel resolutions and it's a 1 through 28 minus 25 which has been removed and this new personnel employment appointments are contingent upon the required state and federal criminal history background checks in accordance with nothing closer to the microphone please in accordance with the New Jersey State Administrative Chapter 116 PL 1986 and completion of required employee paperwork including pre-employment verification thank you there is a motion at table wait miss Mulling is there a second second I heard miss Viveros second are there any questions or comments mr. Miller Yes, I had a question that I submitted about the fact that we had a number of resignations, but we also had

048a lot of new hires, and what I don't understand now is how many vacancies do we have? Where are we in that process? We have a few vacancies. Not all of those were anticipated. We continue to have... We continue to have growth in our student population expanding needs we recently had a meeting with the high school to project some new staff so Approximately four to five positions at the high school are currently posted but a number of those are due to Expanded class size, okay One of the other questions I asked and I know that we talked about it as a board is Conducting a climate survey because there was concern that the number of vacancies Is there a negative work environment that we should be aware of? And I did see further into our

049reporting of Work with NYU Metro, but there was some part of that they couldn't do till next year I was hoping that we would be able to get a comprehensive climate survey out to the all the staff before the holidays so that we can really understand if there's issues that we just don't know or perceptions that we are just not aware of. Ms. Grisales, point of order. What is your point of order? The climate study for NYU is under the curriculum. I think we're on personnel. And if we're proposing a climate study, which I fully support, that may need to be addressed under old business or new business, not under personnel. Mr. Miller, can you relate what your comment is for personnel? It has to do with the number of vacancies. And so that was

050part of my question. Can you restate your question so it can... I would just add that the vacancies question was asked and answered. When I submitted the question, it was both of those things together. i mean in regards to discuss it it just needs to be discussed in a different personnel items how is that related to um vacancies please mr miller because we need to know if there's a reason why that's happening because we see a number of vacancies so it's really a part of that conversation go ahead please move on So the question was concerning the vacancies when when we have Comprehensive climate survey so that we can understand if there if there's a perceived problem or not I think the Climate study I do want to comment that that goes beyond looking for

051a problem with staff. I think the climate study Serves a number of purposes and I think it's a good practice for school districts to engage in on a regular basis to support staff And also to see what feedback is in regard to the overall climate of the buildings which also influences students. So We are working with NYU, as you've noted. That is our preferred provider since they're doing some comprehensive work and they have committed to a secondary climate study. Right now I believe they are investigating the capacity to do. the remainder of the district and I think that they're being cautious. Ms. Rigliano can correct me if I have any of this wrong because I know she's been in direct communication with them, but I think that they're being cautious in terms of not over

052committing to something that they can or can't do. Our preference would be to be with NYU to have one source of data, not to have dual types of climate studies happening. so right now what we can definitely say is that uh secondary climate studies in the works and we can certainly continue to give progress to the board in that regard okay are there other questions or comments regarding personnel i thought i saw someone else mr robles do you have a personnel question no okay uh yes mr miller i just had one more and i i know that number 25 was taken off correct but the question that i had submitted at the time was you know, what was the purpose of that contract and was it specifically if you needed a substitute? Got it. Mr.

053Crude, may you be able to clarify for us the reason for moving 25 out or answer Mr. Miller's question? Well, let me just say at this point, we have a pending motion and that item has been removed from the agenda. So I think at this time, the discussion, I would say, would be best limited to discussion of items that are currently pending. thank you mr. Krupp no questions comments further that I see from the board mr. slam can we have roll call please miss katana yeah mr. Miller yes miss Mullen yes miss netting yes mr. Robles yes miss Ruiz yes miss Viveros yes miss Grisales yes motion carries thank you Ms. Catano, may you give us an update on negotiations, please? Yes, thanks. On October 6th, we have started negotiations with the Dover Support Staff

054Association and have a session scheduled for tomorrow. With regard to the Education Association, the parties reached a settlement on June 9th with the assistance of a mediator. The memorandum of agreement was finalized on September 7th and has been signed by the board. It is simply awaiting the signature of the association. The sole remaining issue are the salary guide. The guide set the salary structure for the teachers based on their years of experience in educational level. Ideally, each year of experience would be of equal value. Since the start of negotiations back in 2020, the board has emphasized the need of address starting salaries and bubbles in the guides. Bubbles refer to relatively large percentage increases at the upper level of the guides, while those on the lower levels receive relatively smaller increases. In other words, the

055more experienced teachers get larger percentage increases and the less experienced teachers get smaller ones. Addressing starting salaries and reducing the bubbles are important factors in attracting and retaining quality teachers. A goal we believe is shared by the board and the association. This is also an issue of quality and fairness. The board strongly believes that the salary structure should be fair for all staff members. The entire district suffers when starting salaries are low and teachers in their first years of employment also get very low salary increases. The board acknowledges that all issues with the salary guides cannot be fixed in a single round of negotiations. But we believe more can be done to address our concerns with the current guides. We continue to work with the association to make guides more equitable, especially for our newer

056teachers. That concludes my report. thank you miss o'day towards curriculum and co-curriculum miss nutty may you leave those agenda items and provide a committee update place okay um our board our committee meeting actually was we met on october 12th at 5 p.m at our belmont building we discussed the i ready pilot program was presented to us by Mr. Rory Carl, our mathematics director. The program is the help tool for teachers and an adaptive assessment for K through 12. The data information can be used as a guide in the academic areas of math and reading. The assessment will be given three times a year in K through 12. K through 8 also has the ability to do computer-based learning activities. 9 through 12 is used as an assessment tool to help in areas of growth. Parents

057can access the process that has access to a my progress feature to track their child's progress across time. Committee members inquired about the parents access in different languages. At this time, it's available in English and in Spanish and other languages are to follow, are being worked on by i-Ready. Additional resources available for the teachers and the students in order to increase the positive results. The resources are available based on their skills. Frequency of the test and who determines this frequency, the teachers and administrators are going to decide the testing if it needs to be done more than three times a year. Accommodations and modifications for each student's learning plan. I-Ready is set up for IEPs 504 accommodations through the student's profile and the teachers can manipulate the student's path to adjust to their learning needs.

058We also discussed the English Honors 1 curriculum changes. So that was all that we had discussed at our meeting and I would like to have a motion for the board to approve the following, one through, sorry, four. 16. 16. Are you presenting a motion, Ms. Mullin, to move items one through 16? Yes. Yes. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Rivera's second. Are there questions or comments about items one through 16? Yes. Mr. Miller? I just had two, the first one for the sponsorship dollars for the robotics team, were there certain terms and conditions that they needed to meet in order to receive that sponsorship? Do they have to put the name of the company on the robot? That's what I was wondering. I mean, we want the money, so I don't, you know. But I

059just was wondering what, if they do get it, what do they have to do for the sponsors? I'm not aware of the requirements in terms of the sponsorship. That's something I can trust our robotics team of teachers. I don't know that we've ever applied for a sponsorship program, so this will be new learning for all of us involved. Okay, all right. And then the other question was the cybersecurity grant. If we receive that, what exactly are they going to use it for? That's direct material curricular products for the cybersecurity course. Oh, for the course. Yes, that's for a course. Okay, that makes more sense. All right, thank you. Thank you. And Dr. Sainer is not here, but dealing with family duties as well, but she still did her work and submitted questions, so I want

060to present those in regards to curriculum. She mentioned Chapter 27 emergency virtual or remote instruction programs. What is the turnaround time for getting hotspots to students if we have to go virtual? Was that devices? I couldn't hear you. The emergency virtual remote instruction programs, chapter 27 she's referring to. Right, was the question about the deployment of devices or the deployment of hotspots? I think, what is the turnaround time for getting hotspots to students if we have to go virtual? Hotspots are quick. So right now it's a Google form and they're released through the school buildings. If the district needed to go virtual in a quick fashion as we did in the spring of 2020, we would make arrangements for those to be designated and sent out through the school buildings as well prior to the

061closure. If things were really to the point where we couldn't do that, they could be delivered through our transportation service to the students' homes. Thank you. And she had questions about the NYU school climate. What is the difference between school climate survey and school focus groups? Focus groups in a survey context are where small groups of people that represent certain congregations in an organization would come together to discuss a topic. Does this say that we could conduct survey and they could analyze? Do they have a recommended survey? They do have a recommended survey. And while you're at it, how many staff will be able to take advantage of that? The recommended survey is the panorama survey. And I did not hear the last question. I'm sorry, because I'm talking while you're thinking. How many staff

062will be able to take advantage of that? Well, it's a survey. So the survey would be open to everybody that would be designated to participate. So that would be at this point, it's all of our secondary level staff. Perfect. A few more questions about this. What does Contract with Arts Ed New Jersey provide? Professional development. And wide variety of professional development. Why are there two virtual events with mileage? That was so those are virtual professional developments listed on the spreadsheet. They do not require mileage reimbursement. We just have been very efficient in noting mileage when it's on the form, but they are virtual. Okay. What does the digital social studies courseware provide? So the My World Interactive K-5 Social Studies is a curricular program we're piloting because currently we don't have a purchased social studies

063elementary curriculum. So we have teacher-created materials that are addressing the curriculum. The second portion of that contract is for U.S. and World History High School programming. That is our normal purchase. The company just chose to combine those two on the same document. Which students or grades will be served by the Stop School Violence Program? That's at the high school. She had a question about MOA, but I don't see that under curriculum. No, that was in administrative reports. Thank you very much. the culturally responsive and sustaining training that will be given by NYU Metro was that for all teachers or staff no that's for the secondary that's the professional development that we are for the 21-22 school year focusing on the secondary staff so that's middle and high school thank you and if i may miss

064gorsalas of course miss mullen when we talk about the climate study i reached out to school boards because we have been in dialogue about the climate study over the past few years and they offered resources and carol reminded me that they had resources so i reached out and they had two resources and that was the panorama using that as a survey that would be able to be given out to all of our stakeholders our parents our staff our students across all grade levels and the New Jersey School climate improvement survey which also has Out to all the stakeholders and has all the categories of the areas we have been discussing I don't know the cost of them. I'm hesitant to approve number 16 for $60,000 where we can only, they don't have the survey ready.

065They're going to be meeting with groups of only 30 stakeholders. I'm always concerned how those stakeholders are gathered and who's all represented. You know, we're talking about tonight about including parents on a Zoom. interactive because they can't be here. So I'm always concerned when it's so limited and it's so expensive and I'd like a cost analysis of these other surveys that are ready to go now that will be analyzed and we'll have information. Then if we take this next step, they might use this to help develop the survey or future. Things we started working with NYU. We've just started they're starting our development I'm not sure what the outcome of that interaction is going to be or what the impacts going to be Before we're investing more money with them. That's just my concern and

066I'd like to know the other prices and They're ready to go. So that's my feeling on number 16 so I also had, I'm sorry, hold on, Ms. Mullin, before you move forward, administrators, would you like to respond to that comment, question? Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to respond. We have presented to the board on the mission of the NYU Equity Center and what their goals are. It's a comprehensive approach. I think, as I mentioned before, in terms of the question about climate study, If we start piecemealing surveys out among different groups or in different ways, the likelihood of getting really reliable information, I think, is compromised. One of the reasons we engaged with NYU, and no, they're not cheap, but they are experienced. They are transformative in nature. That is what they have

067built decades of experience around. This is part of a much bigger picture around equity and inclusiveness in our school district. And the product itself might be available off the shelf to give out, but I think the analysis combined with stakeholder groups and again I just want to emphasize this is this is not a this is not a fly-by-night group that that's coming in and just putting out invitations to people to come together this is work that they have done in in large cities and in communities throughout the United States I I feel confident that their expertise that's one of the reasons we presented that to the board so I think at this point to to start looking at options. I mean, certainly that's the board's prerogative, if they wanted to go in a different direction.

068But up to this point, I hadn't heard, I don't think Mr. Regliano heard, any feedback that NYU was not a good group to work with. And again, it's been many months in progress. And if I may, I think we were in, sorry, I think we were in. for the equitable and when this popped up in Friday's package for the climate study and I'm looking at the engagement level and the cost doesn't include the survey creation and we're up to $60,000. So I see equity and I see climate engagement document as two different issues. We were fully supporting the equitable. We looked at the work they've done in here. we've had the time to process all that before we move forward on that component this i feel like i don't have enough information me personally that's

069just my feeling on miss grizales thank you uh yes i i agree i called school boards also but i didn't get an answer because If we have the opportunity to use them as we've used them for other things, I think that that data would be valuable and it could be used and fed to the NYU piece to further look at how we're gonna go forward. But I think we really need information sooner than later. And if we could use school boards for that piece, I would prefer to do that. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Ms. Ruiz? Thank you, Ms. Grisales. We had this conversation many times. The first time that I was part of the conversation as a board member, I was hoping to encourage the full board and the administration to go with the New

070Jersey Department of Education's climate study. That is something different than what is listed under 16. my understanding is that it isn't an either-or what's listed under number 16 is part of what this board already committed to when we committed to racial justice when we committed to equity when we committed to working with the NYU Metro Center that is that is more in-depth work just like increasing the safety of our school district is an investment it's not something that can be done quickly and it's not something that can be done cheaply because life matters and is valuable. The same goes with equity. So I just want to be clear, and please correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding, that this NYU Metro Center school climate engagement and analysis is something different than the New Jersey

071Department of Education climate study. And just because we do this now... Doesn't mean we can't do the full climate study with the New Jersey Department of Education later I've been asking for a climate study since at least 2014 so I'm certainly in a rush to see it get it done I Will do my best to practice being patient because it is better to have it done right than to just have it done Can I just make a comment about the New Jersey Department? I have used that survey when I was a building principal there's no support with that survey. So I think we would need to consider how we would implement that survey because nobody comes with it, it's free, you can access it online, but there's no analysis support that comes with that. There's

072no implementation support. So that would be something we would need to plan and organize internally to complete in the district. that that is something to consider, that we are the ones doing it, that it's not an outside party coming in and doing that analysis. Thank you, other comment, questions about this agenda or this group of agenda item? I actually have to make a correction, I misspoke previously and picked up an error on number six. The My World Interactive Pilot is only our dual language classrooms. I just want to clarify that because it does say K-5 and I think I said that when I was speaking. It is not K-5. It is only our dual language that are piloting that program. Which the dual language is only K. Kindergarten. Ms. Gorsalas, if I may just. Yes,

073go ahead, Ms. Ruiz. To follow up on Ms. Sirigliano's clarification. While I'm sure that... many of us trust our administration, we'd be foolish to think that all of us trust our administration. And if it is the administration that is doing the climate study and not everyone trusts the administration, that could taint the results. As opposed to a climate study being done fully by the NYU Metro Center in which we can trust that there is no hidden agenda, no like look, this is the survey, this is the results. There is less of a fear of any retribution or I don't wanna fill out a survey that my boss might read. I think that there's an integrity piece to having the NYU Center guide us on engagement and analysis. Thank you. Yes, trying to close up this

074section. Yes, Mr. Miller. So can we... say that we would like our administration to engage school boards to look at their methodology since we use them for evaluations and things and they have a very good process, perhaps that might be a good way to do the climate study. Right, you can certainly present a motion to do that as a full board and suggest it to your college. Well, I don't think it has to be a motion. right if you're going to task administration with a task yes sir well i guess we need to finish this first correct okay is there any other questions or comments all right we have a motion and do we have a second mr slab i believe um miss mullen presented the motion correct and i think ms vivetta seconded or

075yeah that's correct no we're under curriculum so it was miss nutty not miss mullen it was miss nutting who presented the motion and mrs who seconded it okay so can we have roll call please ms catano yes mr miller yes ms mullen yes except for item 16. ms nutting yes mr robles yes ms ruiz yes ms viveros yes ms grisales yes motion carries Mr. Miller, community relations update, please. Yes, I was unable to, I was looking forward to the long-awaited meeting with, joint meeting of community relations with Mine Hill, but then we had a COVID scare and I had to, I had to stay home and everyone tested negative, so we were okay, but Mr. Robles is going to report on what went on in that meeting. Thank you. Yeah, so we had a great

076meeting. We had the fortunate attendance of our Minehill Board of Ed members. We had three members, the superintendent, Mr. Lee Nittle. Also, Katie Bartnik was there and Brian Homer. And we spoke at length about the current situation of our schools. Dr. McLaughlin was able to share. how we've been able to allocate some space by the move of the administration offices to the Belmont building. And we also shared some of the struggles that we're having with the demographic studies and how the schools are obviously overpopulated and the developments in the towns, how they're impacting the growth of our student population. We also shared how the fields and the sports are in high demand and we're able to share our fields with the town for their use for recreation sports. And we got some good feedback from

077the Minehill board members who shared that they're really excited about opportunities for the Minehill folks to get engaged with Dover community, especially since their students are able to attend our schools when they finish out their elementary years. and they just wanted to be more engaged earlier on in their academic careers for the students to know what's going on in Dover and to know the good things that are happening in Dover. They shared how they're excited about Mr. Jaime and the work he's doing and the videos that are frequently shared and they shared that everybody enjoys those. They also shared how they're excited to see things like the Trojan Run coming back events in the community that are really a good opportunity for both communities to engage and spend time together and just to highlight some

078of the things that they shared additionally that they're excited about the fields their condition that they're in and how the students are able to use them And one of the things that they really highlighted was the robotics team for Dover, how exciting it is to see the work that they're doing. And they requested for Dr. McLaughlin to schedule a visit for the robotics team to the Minehill School and be able to share with them the work that the students are doing as a good way for the students to be excited about attending the Dover schools and remaining with such a great program. And so Dr. McLaughlin is going to be scheduling that sometime soon and also trying to see if we could schedule a parent forum meeting with the Mine Hill parents. Also another action

079item that came from that meeting. But it was really, really great to share some of those outcomes and really good information that was shared between the two communities. Thank you, Mr. Rowley. And I just had one other thing that we had discussed at this point. having board members talk about any feedback and I think you said concise meaning keep it short of back to school night I attended to the Eastover Elementary and Academy Street both of them there was a lot of positive feedback there were two things that came up one group of parents at Eastover they asked about busing and I know subscription bussing in the past was looked at for parents about 10 years ago and the cost at that time was like $400 a month per student. So, but they are interested

080and if the administration can look at that, I mean I know maybe working with ESC, there might be an option for some parents that really have difficulty with transportation. If enough parents can do it, maybe there's you know, a reduced cost. I think that was really the big thing that I came away with as far as concerns. Perfect. I'd like to share additionally, sorry, about the back-to-school nights I attended the North Dover one. It was great to see the turnout in person of a lot of parents coming out. I had a chance to interact with a few of them, and they obviously are sharing their concerns. I think, you know, the fact that we were there present. was a welcome sign. A lot of them gave that feedback. It was good to see us in

081person. So I look forward to more interactions with the parents and the community, not only during the back to school nights, but at general events in the community and obviously in the schools. So thank you for the parents who attended. I think it was a very good turnout at North Dover. Thank you. Yes, Miss Muller. If I may, I was able to attend the Special Education Parent Advisory Group meeting, which was excellent. Our new Director of Preschool and Special Services, Marie Hardenberg, gave a presentation of getting to know the department and who was in it. And Franklin Yerkelis? supervisor special services was the translator and it was a really dynamic group of parents that were there it was it was good and they were looking to continue to expand and increase their voice in the

082district it was a very positive meeting great to hear any other experiences from board members at our back to school yes ms. Ruiz I attended the Academy Street Back to School night and was really impressed with Mr. Robles and Ms. Viveros' management of the most popular table of the night, the BTA table. I also met Mrs. Maureen Burnett. She's our library media specialist, and she raved about the district, about her students, and of course her love of books. She's been with our district for 27 years and an education for 33. So it was a great privilege for me to be able to meet her. It's clear that she's working miracles with the limited library space after the decrease to allow room for our bilingual classroom. I also got to see our new community liaison, Miss

083Madeline Aragon, in action, and it was so impressive to watch her engage with our community and to hear the knowledge of resources that she has and shares. I loved meeting the special education team, including, and I apologize if I mispronounce these names, Mrs. Bechtel and Mr. Talley, and they too raved about their work and seemed very happy to be back to school night. One of the counselors, Mrs. Jimenez, had a brochure that said, counselors don't judge you or punish you. And I loved one that there was a brochure explaining that role and that quote I thought was very important. Several parents shared some concerns, which I've shared with the administration, and of course encouraged the parents to themselves share their concerns with their teachers and their principals and the superintendent as needed. One parent raved

084about miss von figlio and it was really great to hear praise for our educators The same same parent also said since the new superintendent has been here. There's been phenomenal changes So I wanted you to hear that as well and one of our students was there who had some ideas about after-school activities and Miss Grisales one parent wants you to be at all the Board of Education meetings because she thinks you're great. So Sorry, all of the back to school nights. I explained that we wanted to share the fun and we would be at some of the back to school nights and you would not be at all of them and she was very disappointed but understood. Did you teach her about shared leadership? I tried and she, it's not about that. She just thinks

085you're great. I was a little jealous, I must admit. In the past, I've attended back to school nights alone or with a friend with a... or a family member who has a child in the district. This was the first time that we attend, or that I attended as like, here I am, I'm a board member, there's a table. And I really like this format. So if we're thinking about keeping it, I vote yes. Thank you so much. I wanted to, please let me know who that parent is so I can thank them personally. Thank you. And Ms. Rivera, go ahead, back to school next though. Yes. Perfect. I just want to remind the board that Dover High School's back to school night is this Thursday at 7 for those who are assigned to the school.

086Perfect. Thank you. I wanted to really quickly mention we have been going out to community meetings as well in addition to what you all mentioned, right? We are going to the town hall meetings. We're going to the Victory Gardens town meeting. and I feel like there's another one that I'm missing. Mine Hill, thank you. I noticed that we have a sign-out sheet that has two, sometimes three people there. Ms. Mullin and I were at the VG one most recently. I would like to offer you that we don't need more than one board member at each of those board meetings or committee meetings. It's nice to be with a partner, but I know that we're all busy and we volunteer our time. And as a counselor and therapist, I... ask you to please take care of

087yourselves and your families so i would suggest that we have all those people that are there that only the first person attend if that person cannot go then that person is to ask the second person and if not the third person let's not all do double work if you guys are okay with that i don't think we need a motion for that great thank you so much miss viveros may you move forward with policy um update and items please thank you miss grizales The policy committee met on October 12th in person. I will start with item number one. One of two readings. Policy 0131, bylaws, policies, and regulations. This policy has been revised to now reference and define the term regulations. Because boards are required by statute and administrative code to adopt certain regulations. Policy

0882200, curriculum content. This policy has a language change from the New Jersey Core to New Jersey Student Learning Standards. Policy 2421, Career and Technical Education. There have been minor revisions made to this policy which require a school district to determine the career and technical education program offered to their students. Policy 3134, Assignment of Extra Duties. This policy has been updated to clearly define the board's rights to assign these extra duties consistent with the provisions of a CBA, Collective Bargaining Association. Policy 3142, non-renewal and non-tenured teaching staff members. There are no revisions that affect the existing procedures regarding the non-renewal of non-tenured teaching staff members. This update clarifies calendar days and working days. policy 3-2-2-1 evaluation of teachers policy 3-2-2-2 policy 3-2-2-3 and policy 3-2-2-4 these policies have been updated as the board shall annually adopt

089evaluation rubrics for all teachers which shall be submitted to the commissioner of education by august 15th of each year in a district evaluation advisory committee may be established in accordance with the requirements of njac Policy 5111, eligibility of resident, non-resident students. Language has been added to this policy, which is very specific situations in which the state will assume financial responsibility for a child living outside the district for more than one year. Policy 8600, student transportation. This policy has been revised to the new code section in which provides the Board of Education the option to adopt the provision in a policy that requires the compilation of a list of students transported by a school bus to school sponsored activities. This policy also states the Board will transport students with a temporary disability. Item number two, second

090reading. All items under this policy. We move forward with what I would like to point out. In the last meeting, Policy 2467, Surrogate Parents and Resource Family Parents, there was questions about this. After Dr. McLaughlin had conversations with Phil Nicastro from Strauss-Esme, and he advised the terminology is right from the law and doesn't think it is smart for us to change the wording. And also Policy 8540, School Nutrition Programs. There was questions about the waiver. We are removing the district waiver from this policy. Item number three, abolishments. The two items under there. And item number four, we approve the modified job descriptions. So I move that we approve item one, two, three, and four under policy. Second. I'm sorry, whose second was that? Linda, I think. Ms. Mullins second and Ms. Rivera moved the motion.

091Are there comments, questions about this section? I have a couple quick questions. One is about the 3223 and I believe 3224 that the district has an evaluation advisory committee and who would that consist of? That's part of the policy that we have one in place and the other one is 8600 and that we approve the busing and the walking routes. I don't remember ever doing that. I don't even know if I would be qualified to do that. Or I don't know. so Linda would you mind just repeating the question on 3-2-2-3 it's that the policy includes a district evaluation advisory committee that's what the and so your question is who is this who is it do we need that do we follow we follow the the evaluation procedure that we adopted do we need an

092advisory committee uh so we have a d act in the district that could certainly serve that purpose which it's it's uh not required to d act the um district uh education advisory committee i think it's education but we continue to have a D-Act and the primary purpose of a D-Act is to score evaluation feedback so certainly I think it could serve that purpose. Alright so it would be our D-Act. Okay and who is compromised of this D-Act? We have stakeholders so each There's a member of each skip committee that would, so each school has a skip committee. That does actually continue to be required by code. And one of those skip committee members would attend from each school so that there's representation. and then your question on 8600 miss mullen is about busing and walking

093routes yes i believe it says the board needs to approve the walking and busing routes it discusses if you read it it's the students transported by a school bus for school sponsored activities okay so they just compile a list so they could know who's on the bus that's what this pertains to there's nothing about walking or any of that other stuff okay you don't see that miss viveros administration did you see that do you have a line number miss or anything paragraph page i have the policy here right that's yeah bus routes for all non non-remote students who must walk to and from school along hazardous routes will be designated and approved by the board This the board may consider but it's not limited to the criteria in administrative code in determining hazardous routes. I

094don't know, although certainly I could say that we probably have hazardous routes at least on a, we might call it that. I don't know if it meets the criteria of what a hazardous route is. So for example, I know that where I previously lived, students how to cross Route 22. That was considered a hazardous route. So there was something, actually there was a walking bridge that was built because of that. So this is not actually not a new part of the policy. It's an existing part of the policy. to my knowledge and I'm gonna yield to Mr. Crute or this looks like Mrs. Slam might have something to say about this. How hazardous route is defined. Usually the town is involved in the designation of hazardous routes as well. I find them more appropriate than

095the board. Of course, that makes sense and I think also as a first reading, I think this would be good for us to research it and do a little bit more of that. our next policy committee so that way it's clear and i know sometimes these policies have put on responsibilities on the board that we may not feel fully prepared to the policy if everyone is in agreement for the policy to review this before our second reading please and mr slam yes i was just going to add that uh just kind of echo what has already been said is that a hazardous route is a very specific designation and has to meet certain criteria and many times it's actually um you know it's not just hazardous in a way that we would think, oh, be

096careful there. It actually is a specific designation, and as we kind of said before, you would kind of have outside parties that would be involved in that designation, and that's kind of when it would be approved. We have to recognize it at that point, and then we have an obligation to provide transportation to that route, even if it would be within our normal walking mileage. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other questions regarding policies? I have one, Ms. Viveros, I don't know if you can answer this, but regarding second reading of 2467, we had concerns about the wording. Can you specify, or administration, if you remember, what wording were we concerned about that the Strauss-Esme's contact is telling us not to change? What was the actual wording? I think there were questions raised in

097our last meeting by Ms. Ruiz in regard to 501 and 2467 that, and correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Ruiz, but that could we replace words such as homeless with unhoused? And when I did speak with... Mr. Nicastro from the Strass Esme Consulting, he indicated that they are dedicated to using the words that appear in the law and although he felt that there was, I believe his term was momentum for using new terminology that he thought may or may not come about in legislation until such time as that happens, he felt it was better to use the exact wording from legislation. Thank you for that clarification. We have a motion by Ms. Viveros and we have a second by... Ms. Mullin, we're ready to move. Mr. Slim, may you please roll call for those items?

098Ms. Katana? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Ms. Mullin? Yes. Ms. Nutting? Yes. Mr. Robles? Yes. Ms. Ruiz? Yes. Ms. Viveros? Yes. Ms. Grisales? Yes, but no to second reading of 2467. Motion carries. Finance and facilities miss Mullin may you leave this but I believe I would be Miss Ruiz was going to present it since yes. Yes. Sure Just give me a second to I sent this via email. So I just have to pull up my email. I'm sorry I wasn't ready. I was still looking at the Last vote on the policy Okay Yes Our chair, Ms. Mullin, was absent at the last finance and facilities meeting, so please excuse my report instead of hers. The Finance and Facilities Committee met on October 5th. The committee continues to explore solutions to the challenges of space in our

099district. The committee will present a recommendation to the full board as soon as a proposal is finalized. The committee also heard from our new board administrator about items on tonight's agenda. The committee's... Minutes can be found in our committee minutes shared drive. And the next meeting of the Finance and Facilities Committee will be October 25th. Thank you. Is there a motion? Yes. I move that the board approve the resolutions listed in this section. One through ten. Thank you. One through ten. Is there a second for that? Second. Ms. Vivero, second. Is there comments, questions regarding those items? Ms. Mullin I have a question and I apologize for not being at that meeting it's about I believe it's number 10 what is the timing do you think on that situation as soon as we can have

100it done we're hoping very early in the school year maybe January February the modular spaces is really needed we have built The guidance counselor doesn't have a private space. The SRO, which is required by our agreement, doesn't have a space. The community liaison for the building doesn't have a space. Our speech and language instruction presently is being given in the hallway, so we're looking for space for speech and language and other small group instruction as well. As I look through that proposal, I see that there's a lot of permits that are going to be required. So you've been working closely with the town because we're going, I don't know if things can go faster, but it seems like there's a lot of work that is our responsibility before they can bring this trailer in. Our

101architect is taking the lead on all of that. Okay, great. Thank you. Other questions, comments? Dr. Saner presented a question regarding the check register. Why are we paying NJDOE $5,000? I believe it was a question about the TPATH FICA reimbursement. It was over $500,000. So essentially each year around July or August there is a memo that is issued to all districts with a percentage of reimbursement for TPF which changes from the year and then FICA which remains the same from year to year for any salaries that are funded through federal funds. so any federal grant funds that we receive each year we then at the end of the year have to reimburse the state of new jersey for the t-path contribution and the fika so there's a calculation with the percentages and then once that's

102all added up that's how we arrived at the number on the check register There are two more questions that you presented, I believe were answered. What is the modular classroom for? Which I heard Dr. McLaughlin explain it in Ms. Mullins question. And ASE, is that Academy Street Elementary? Yes. Support services that were discussed or other, is that what those modules are being used for? The modular space is being used for those offices and the small group instruction space. Thank you so much. If we, Mr. Slam, then have roll call, if there are no further questions or comments. Do we have a motion and a second written down? Yes, I do. Okay, perfect. Ms. Catano? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Ms. Mullen? Yes. Ms. Nutting? Yes. Mr. Robles? Yes. Ms. Ruiz? Ms. Fiveros? Yes. miss Grisales yes

103especially to number 10 let's get it going motion carries thank you informational yes so our upcoming Board of Education meetings are listed and As Mr. Slam mentioned previously, the board will get a draft of meetings. Of course, that can't be approved until the January reorganization meeting, but a draft what the likely meetings would be after January. Actually, there will be another meeting in January. There's always two. And then the facility requests that have been reviewed are listed. Those are informational only don't require board approval. Thank you so much. We move forward with our business agenda item. I'm sorry, Ms. Grisales? Yes. I'll make a motion for a bio break. Say that again? Can I make a motion for a bio break? Definitely, yes. Are we all in favor for a short break? Yes. Yes, any

104opposed? It is 8.29. Could we get back here at 8.35? Yes. Perfect, thank you. Thank you. Second. There we go, thanks. I think we're all back, so we can start. If we can reconvene at this time. all right we are reconvening and starting with old business i have no agenda items that were presented to me for old business mr miller do you have one um well see the difference yeah i'm wondering if because of the climate survey is that is that considered old business can i make a motion at this point So I would like to make a motion that we ask our administration to look into school boards as a viable option for a climate survey. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Is there questions, comments about that motion? Ms. Mullins second.

105Mr. Slim. Ms. Grisales, if I may. The only concern I may have is that Ms. Sirigliano said it doesn't have much backup and assistance, so I don't know if that would be. the proper one okay perfect that's your question um mr radiano would you do you know it was about that that was not new jersey school boards that was the new jersey state um they have a free like a climate survey you can take off their website thank you for the clarification i'm not sure what's available with school board right so this is specifically for the school board climate study not new jersey department of education climate study right You were referring to the New Jersey Department of Education climate study. And Mr. Miller has presented for New Jersey School Boards Association study climate, correct?

106Ms. Mullin and then Ms. Ruiz? So New Jersey School Boards recommended two surveys, Panorama and the New Jersey. conceptual domains you know that the one you talked about that you had done the New Jersey School climate improvement those are the two that they recommended I don't and one is free I don't know how much panorama costs I went on their website and I printed out all of their domains and the different areas for the different stakeholders But my question is, so we have this motion to look into it and to maybe we need a small committee to look into it, but we've already approved up to $60,000, not including the cost of them designing a survey. So we've already approved that. So I don't know what the discussion is. So I- Ms. Grisales, point of

107order. yes New Jersey School Boards Association does not do climate studies the New Jersey School Boards Association recommends as miss Mullen just explained panorama or the one through the Department of Education so we cannot have a motion tasking our administration to research something that doesn't exist so my understanding in regards to the and Mr. Miller, you can explain your motion. My understanding is of the motion that is to use one of these two surveys, but NJSBA will not come and do the surveys for us, correct? talking to them to see if there is a viable option for us that would work that would provide the service so that they can do the analysis school boards provides recommendations like that for all kinds of topics so I'm just wondering what they would recommend for a situation

108just to be clear as I understood the motion on the floor it wasn't to approve any particular survey or do anything else it was simply the task of the administration to look into it and talk to school boards about it. And it may be that they would come back after doing that and say school board doesn't do it, or it may be that they'll get some other answers. And then just to, I have a question. How would this search impact, or in any way, what we have already approved with the Metro Center? Is that clear? Yeah, I don't know that I can answer that question not knowing what school boards does. The only thing I'll go back to is a comment that I made earlier and that I think mixing and matching. methods of doing

109surveys and different types of data collection, it doesn't lend itself to a reliability. That's just a preliminary reaction. But if the board tasked the administration with looking into school boards, we certainly will. Thank you. Ms. Ruiz and then back to Ms. Mullin. Ms. Grisales. I'm trying to speak slow because I'm feeling very impatient. This is old business, which means that it's something we've discussed before. This is also information available with a Google search. Our administrators have been tasked and will continue to be tasked by this board with doing very, very important things, including a climate study, which we just approved for a significant amount of money, as Ms. Mullen explained. If you just Google the New Jersey School Boards Association recommended climate study, you will get the State of New Jersey Department of Education Climate

110Study, New Jersey School Climate Improvement, NJSCI, which Ms. Mullin has already referred to today, which I have been referring to for six years, and which Mr. Guiliano already clarified. does not include support. It's here's a paper, hand it out to all your parents, students, and educators, have them fill it out, you figure out what to do with the data, you figure out how to collect it, and you figure out any trust issues. So if we are going to task... our administration to do that climate study, the New Jersey School Climate Improvement Study recommended by the New Jersey School Boards Association, I fully support that. I've been asking for that since 2014. And if I... remember correctly, our administration said they would do that study. They just didn't want it to conflict with what NYU is

111doing right now. So if we are saying once NYU is done with their work, we then want this full school-wide New Jersey School Climate Improvement Study. Then that I certainly can support but I can't support tasking our administration to do something that we all can just Google so before we move miss Mullen had Raised her hand and then you mr. Miller. Are you suggesting or are you presenting an amendment to the original motion? Mystery no, I'm just complaining that we've discussed this before and have already made decisions. Thank you Ms. Mullen? And the surveys can be paper. The surveys can be web-based. They are compiled. There are charts for these surveys. I believe when we discussed the NYU, that survey has not been developed, will not be developed for a while. It's going to take

112a year or so. Just to clarify, what they're saying is they are revising internally their survey. the absence of their own survey they're recommending the district use panorama that's that's what the message was from NYU okay and that is one of the recommended from the school boards now on this climate engagement because we get these engagements and other things the price does not include the survey creation I'm not sure what that means another survey they're gonna do after we do panorama so no the survey panorama is a is a company I own survey so the district would have to purchase probably accessibility to that survey so NYU is just the vehicle to get the survey out to hold the focus groups to analyze the data to present the data So the focus groups would analyze

113the data collected from- No, focus groups are part of the survey. They do both things. They put a survey out that's anonymous and then they hold small groups that are focus groups to discuss specific topics. So I don't know how much Panorama costs, but it can be covered by some of the grant monies according to their website that we already have. I would be curious to see how much it costs. I couldn't ascertain that in that short period of time. With giving my contact information, they have not gotten back to me with pricing out for the whole district. So you, Ms. Muller, are saying that you would like to see that pricing and what that would entail? Well, this is also what our engagement is saying. Use this survey, which is one of the recommendations

114from... and yes the school board right but I'm not a free survey there is a free one too but not kind of around have the same kind of categories I'm mr. Miller so the reason why I'm bringing this up is because in the report it says that they wouldn't be ready to do something for a while and I think there's some urgency that we look for some other option Whatever it is school boards or whatever this is not rocket science to get information at least some preliminary Information so that we can do something to act now. I don't think we should wait until next year So I'm not making suggestions that people could just google it That's why I didn't talk to school boards, but to see what other districts are using they may be

115able to supply some other Ideas on how we could do it so that we can make it a priority regardless of when anyone wanted it from 2014 or 2026. I think it's important that we try to look at it now because there's a real need. And if it can't be done, that's fine. But based on that report, it didn't sound like they would be able to do anything until next year. Okay, perfect. So your motion then presents, and I repeat it, to task the administrators to explore what climate study can be done before the NYU one, correct? That's correct. And there was a second. Comments and questions, anyone else? Yes, Mr. I just want to understand so from what Mr. Guglielmo just shared it sounds like this and while you might even recommend panorama as

116a source for the survey itself so the absence of a survey is there they can modify whatever they have or use panorama is what they're recommending I just want to understand that clarification that you made. Yeah, it says we do have the capacity to provide survey analysis and reporting to Dover Public Schools on an externally conducted survey and have recommended the Panorama survey. So from that, I conclude that regardless, they don't have their own survey. They do they're revising it so in absence of that survey they're recommending to utilize this third parties Instrument that has already been vetted tested, you know gone through the works to be a but they're still the ones Administering the whole thing. It's just that tool is being used for the survey, right? Which has already been recommended by the

117New Jersey school boards, so I don't see why we need to wait For something else if they already say you could use this one Why don't we just use that one? What NYU communicated to me last week in our meeting, they need to make sure they have the internal capacity to add our elementary as part of that climate study. This proposal was for the secondary. We have asked them to expand that. They need time to look at their personnel, make sure that they have the capacity before committing to adding another section of our district, just to have the complete picture there. And we don't have a time frame for that, right? Ms. Sirigliano at this time from NYU? I meet with them on Thursday. Right, but to have the survey implemented is what I meant

118in the time frame. They don't have the personnel? No, I think... Right, so you don't have a timeframe or we don't have a timeframe when they can implement that survey, the panorama survey. The expanded one. Okay, Dr. McLaughlin, were you gonna say something? That's okay. Okay, all right. So are we ready for a vote in that motion that we have at the table? Mr. Slam, roll call please on that motion. Ms. Catano? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Ms. Mullin? Abstain. Ms. Nutting? No. Mr. Robles? No. Ms. Ruiz? No. Ms. Viveros? No. Ms. Grisales? No. Motion does not pass. Thank you. Any other old businesses that we want to address at this time? We have several new businesses that I sent the board later or right before this meeting. One second, please. My computer locked up. If

119there are no other old businesses, I will move forward with new business. First one of priority, keeping the time in mind, is we need coverage for the November 20th NJSBA Delegate Assembly as our representative is not available at that time. Can anyone attend that November 20th NJSBA Delegate Assembly? I believe it is remote still. Is that correct? I believe so. It's 9 a.m. to like 11 on a Saturday morning. Right, and it's a Saturday, and you will be tasked with coming back with giving us a legislative update. Can someone volunteer for that? Please look at your calendars and let us know as we need to resolve this today. Anyone? If not, then we simply just will not have a representative at that time. Are we good with that, everyone? Yes? If it changes, please let

120us know. And if you're available in last minute, things happen on the 20th. I appreciate you. Thank you. We are moving to second new business. Ms. Ruiz, the town redevelopment topic that you presented to us. Thank you, Ms. Gersalis. I move that the board approve the letter I will read to send from our Board of Education to the Town of Dover's Board of Aldermen. Esteemed Mayor Blackmon, Town of Dover Board of Aldermen, and Town of Dover Administrator, Senator Bennett, we, the members of the Dover Public Schools Board of Education, are grateful for the open lines of communication between our Chief School Administrator, Dr. McLaughlin, and the Town of Dover's Municipal Administrator, Senator Bennett. Similarly, we are always pleased to see Mayor Blackman and members of the Board of Aldermen at our Board of Education meetings

121and welcome your suggestions and concerns. Working together, we can reach the best outcomes for our community. The Dover Board of Education members committed to regularly attend the Dover, Minehill, and Victory Gardens municipal governance meetings to ensure stronger connections with all members of our school community. In attending the Dover Mayor and Board of Aldermen meeting, we learned of the proposed redevelopment plan for apartments at 80 East McFarland Street with tax abatements. We request the opportunity to meet with you and explore the possibility of ensuring compensation or proper credit to the school district from any redevelopment plan that enjoys a payment in lieu of taxes, also known as pilot agreement. Specifically, we propose a meeting with members of the Board of Education's Finance and Facilities Committee and the Mayor and Board of Aldermen's Economic Development Committee, including

122our Chief School Administrator and our Town Administrator. We recognize that the structure of payments in a pilot agreement is the result of a negotiation between the developer and the municipality. Pilot payments can be calculated based on a gross annual revenue or as a percentage of total project cost. In either case, the developer receives a tax exemption on the development and pays taxes only on the land portion of the property. The school district only receives the limited tax revenue on the land for a property that has a pilot agreement. Given that our school district is already underfunded and that our school district is facing an urgent need for space with a growing student population an in-depth discussion between our respective committee members may inform the municipalities negotiations with the developer To ensure accurate taxation on the

123land, regular reevaluation is necessary. Property assessment is based on two factors, land and improvements. If the town completes a revaluation during the term of the pilot agreement and the land portion of the property increases, the payment of taxes based on the land would increase. This increase will benefit the school district since land taxes are still collected and the school district will get its pro rata share of the tax revenue. Careful monitoring and enforcement of the pilot participants requirement to submit annual financial audits is necessary. In the best interest of our community, we respectfully request a commitment to ensure monitoring, compliance, and enforcement of pilot participants requirements so that the school district receives the accurate amount of taxes based on the land. We are confident that the Town of Dover's administration will ensure the best outcome

124for our community in any negotiation. We seek to listen to any information you may share regarding proposed redevelopment and to ensure that any new property that directly affects the school district and receives a pilot agreement also includes the school district with compensation or appropriate credit. We also hope to share information about our school district that may be helpful to you in the negotiation process. We look forward to meeting with you. Best regards, Diana Grisales, President Dover Board of Education. And now this letter is being presented at the table right now as a motion for all board members. Yes, it is signed by me as the chair, but it has to be something that all of you are okay, or the majority of you are okay with it. Is there a second for that motion? Second.

125Thank you, Ms. Odez, I mean, Ms. Catano. Is there a comments, questions about this letter and motion? I have some questions. Mr. Robles. So my first question is who drafted the letter? And then the second question is if we could sum her up in a nutshell, what is the... What are we trying to gain as a school district by submitting this letter besides just communication? I see a lot of talk about the taxes. I think one of our major concerns within our district is the space that we are lacking in our schools. And I don't see any mention or focus on the need for space with this conversation, although we do mention that we are overpopulated in some regard. But my question is... who drafted the letter and then also in a nutshell what is

126the summary of what we're trying to gain. Perfect. So I can answer some of that. This letter was drafted by Ms. Ruiz as she brought up this topic as a new business and I asked her to then put the letter together if she wanted to present this to her colleagues. And second, I believe, I don't know if Mr. Crute, you can help me out with that, but when it comes to spacing, if the town has already made a determination that that space is to be used for their reasons and development, we would have no say in how that space is being used. Ms. Grisales, before Mr. Crute continues, can I just add a minor thing to that? Sure. So I did draft the letter. However, prior... I think the full board received the New Jersey

127School Boards Association document on explaining pilot agreements, payments in lieu of taxes. And you will recognize much of the wording from that document here. I put it into my own words in some places and other places I just copied and pasted. So the information explaining how pilot agreements work is directly from the New Jersey School Boards Association document. Thank you, Mr. Crew. Yeah, I was just going to say in response to your question, Ms. Grisales, there's actually a couple of phases to when they do redevelopment. The first aspect of it is that they have to designate a zone for redevelopment, and I think that already took place a number of years ago. So that was done. However, in subsequently developing the redevelopment plan, which is apparently the stage they're at now, now I'm not precisely

128sure where they are. There's specific rules for how they designate. But then when they do the plan, it's adopted like a normal ordinance. So they have to have two readings. The first reading is kind of perfunctory. They don't even have to have all the details at the first reading. But in the second reading, that's when they have to allow public comment and have the whole thing produced. So I'm guessing that's where they are now, where they're already up maybe to the second reading. I'm not sure. If I may miss Grisaldas verify that so the first reading if I remember correctly was August 31st The redevelopment plan that was attached to ordinance 22 2021 that was the ordinance that mr. Kru referred to on that first reading is on the website and I believe was attached

129to I don't know if it was attached to the full board, but certainly to the Finance and Facilities Committee. But if you don't have the redevelopment plan, it's on our town's website. The second reading is scheduled for October 26th, which is why this letter is on our agenda today. Because if we approve the letter, then it gives the Board of Aldermen and the mayor time to read it and consider it before their vote on the 26th. If they vote no on the 26th, they have time to revisit and talk to us. If they table if they don't vote on it on the 26th, they have time to talk to us. And if they vote yes, they still have time to talk to us because... The redevelopment plan gets approved and then their next step is

130a site plan. And they continue negotiating with the developer in terms of what, if any, tax abatement plan they'll receive. The goal of the letter and I apologize if it's not clear, but it's essentially for our district and our board to have the opportunity to share with the Board of Aldermen and the town administrator information that currently is really just at the committee level for us. As you heard in the finance and facilities report, we don't have a proposal yet. and we are working through challenges with space. So we can't just publicly say here's our proposal, here's the problem because we're not there yet. It's still in committee. In our finance. In our finance and facility committee. Given the good relationship between our board and the town board and our chief school administrator and the

131towns. we may be able in conversation to say, hey, by the way, this is what we're discussing in committee, this information may be helpful to you in your discussions. We can't control what if any development is approved, what if any tax payments or abatements are approved. trusting that we have the best interest of our community at heart and the Board of Aldermen and the mayor have the best interest of our community at heart, if they have that information, that may inform their negotiations. That's the point of this, for us to be able to share information in a collegial way and to essentially have a seat at the table in their negotiations. We're likely not going to be invited to meet with the developer and we have no right to be. But if their committee hears

132from our committee, they might use that information in their deliberations. And this is to clarify the Finance and Facilities Committee from our board to have that conversation with them. With their Economic Development Committee, which is the committee working on that redevelopment plan. So essentially, both boards are in such early stages of redevelopment or... figuring out space on our end um that just like we meet with the mine hill committee um on on some issues that meeting with their committee might help us get the best outcome for the for the community once it gets to the full board on our end and once it gets to the full board on their end great thank you for the question mr robles and thank you for the answer are there any other comments or questions specific question about

133because of the timing that yes they've already designated an area for redevelopment but in deciding on the redevelopment plan the statute has specific languages things that they that they have to consider and that the one part of the statute says the relationship to definite local objectives as to appropriate land uses density of population and improved traffic and public transportation public utilities recreation and community facilities and other public improvements. So I think to the extent, it sounded like there was some mention in the letter already about population and numbers. I do think that's something that could be considered by them also at this time, as well as those important tax issues. At this time, I would ask if there's any other comments or questions. Now we're going to move to... I have more questions. Yes, Mr.

134Reblin. Yeah, so I guess to understand... Unless we submit this letter, we really don't have any communication with them in this regard, and they don't know of our needs as a district, is that what we're saying by submitting this letter. I'm a bit surprised. I mean, I favor the effort to make this connection with them, but it's unfortunate that it takes us to have to do this to get their attention in this regard. I really think that... they should be more aware. If we think as a district, school district, that the needs of the school district are not being really considered in the decision making, as I think from my just reading the letter, I'm getting that impression. Maybe it's just my own personal impression, and that's not the message that we're trying to relay,

135but that's what I'm understanding from the letter. What are thoughts or comments about that? Yes. Thank you, Ms. Grisales, if I may. That's not the intent of the letter. I trust that, so just like... I, as a board member, took it upon myself to go on their website and look at the redevelopment plan. I'm sure I'm not the only one. Many of us have been at their meetings. Members of the Board of Aldermen have been at our meetings. It says so in the letter. The mayor has been at our meetings, and when they're not here, they have their meetings virtual, so I presume they're watching this meeting virtually. I don't want to give off the message that they're not aware or they're not interested. I imagine they have read our demographic report on our website

136and that they are listening to what we are doing, just like we listen to what they are doing. They are not at our Finance and Facilities Committee, and our Finance and Facilities Committee is not public. Those of us on their committee obviously know what we discussed and the entire board has access to what we discussed based on committee minutes But no one else does at this point it will be public right that the finance and facilities will present a proposal, but we can't Discuss that publicly just yet because there isn't anything to discuss publicly yet. There is no proposal a Committee to committee meeting would allow kind of that insider baseball for lack of another term between the two committees there may be something That our finance and facilities chair may ask or share with

137their Economic and Development Committee that will help them see oh, maybe there is an impact on the school, or maybe there is population growth we weren't aware of. I presume they're looking at our census, right? We just had the results of our census, and we know that the Latino, the Latinx population in Morris County is growing. We also know that we were undercounted. Not everyone in our community filled out their census, but we can count every student registering in the school. right so i see you mr miller if if they're if they're not looking at our registration um and i i don't know that our registration numbers are public day by day right so they wouldn't even be able to get that information that's something we can share hey the census says this but our

138schools say that Thank you, Mr. Miller. So I know Dr. McLaughlin has a great working relationship with the town administrator. I'm just wondering, at any point in time in your conversation, did you share the demographer's information with him just so that he had that? Well, we've discussed the fact that there's a demographic report. I haven't handed it to him, but it is on our website. So I don't know if he's accessed that or not. It just might be good to send him the link and ask him to take a look at it. thank you yes I just want to say that I did send it to the town administrator they have it the mayor the board of all they have it I'd send it in my personal capacity not as a member of the board

139thank you for clarifying that you saw my eyes any other comments or questions no all right mr. slam please lead our roll call you have the motion and you have the second yes perfect thank you Miss Catano yes Mr. Miller abstain Miss Mullen yes Miss Nutting yes Mr. Robles yes Miss Ruiz yes Miss Rivieras yes Miss Grisales yes motion carries and we have two more new business items We have the cyber security presentation that Mr. Miller attended and he wants to give us an update on their new business. Okay, I attended the Somerset County School Boards Association presentation last week, understanding the cyber threats that can impact your school district. They put some interesting statistics out there that last year was a landmark year for cybersecurity with COVID forcing the need for school districts to

140adopt new technologies to support distance learning. So there are a lot more opportunities for hackers to take advantage of our systems. In 2020, 377 school districts experienced 408 publicly disclosed cyber incidents. So it's a big increase. The hackers can earn a lot of money by getting school records and they can get between 250 and 300 dollars on the black market and they take that information to form profiles of people that they use to apply for credit cards and mortgages and whatnot. And so someone that graduates school and they finally get to the point where maybe they want to have a mortgage, they find out they already have one because they've used information to create these profiles. So the information that they presented, and I sent a number of questions, some of which the answers are

141not probably appropriate for the public because we don't want the hackers to know. how we're preparing for them, but there was a slide that talked about, and I gave this to the administration so they have it, a minimal level of cybersecurity controls to have in place in the district, and they recognize that it's difficult to do it, it's expensive, but it's something to work towards with some of the plans, and it deals with everything from cybersecurity awareness training for our students and for staff. I know one of the things that they mentioned is that a lot of times it's our students that are the vulnerable link in the whole process that can introduce issues from hacking from... third party individuals. But there's everything to look at from asset management, password management, antivirus software, network security.

142So at some point in time, it might be good to have a conversation if it's appropriate for closed session about cyber security to kind of answer some of those questions that I sent forward. Thank you so much for that. Are there any questions or comments regarding that at this time? And one last new business item is the consolidation study grant. And Ms. Ruiz, you have presented this item. Ms. Gersaldes, I'd rather present it in November. I know several members of our public have been waiting some time and that may take discussion. We will table it until November. Thank you. Please make sure you bring it up again. Oh, I will. Oh, I shouldn't have reminded you. we are moving forward to the public comment section at this time i do want to make a short

143announcement based on comments that we have received earlier let's be reminded that the board of education members are tasked with the role of being a body of policy making and evaluators of the superintendent and on behalf of the board please know that we are digitally digitally working to approve policies that place all of our students on the forefront because we are aware that last year was absolutely traumatic to many of our students and staff. In addition, we are very in tune in our school board work of the climate and pressure and culture that having new administration brings to all. Please know that the entire board works towards an effective, safe, and culturally aware and equitable environment for our school community. At this time, I would like to open the session for public comment. And the

144board recognizes that the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters. To ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment, each statement shall be held. to a time period of three minutes. Public comments, not restricted to items on this agenda, shall be entertained to approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer. Please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions, but rather they are offered as opportunities for you to share your thoughts with this board. The board may or may not respond to public comments, however. Please know that all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when

145providing comments. Comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, or irrelevant. Please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections. The board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or their employees. Please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk. Any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to a legal liability of defamation. If you can please approach the podium with your first name and last name. Thank you. Good evening, Daniela Mendez. Once again, my tall self. It's great to see you all again. I want to start off by saying teachers are superheroes. They work long hours that go beyond the classroom setting. They have access to limited supplies and often purchase them out of their own pocket. They are

146constantly having to evolve and adapt to the needs of students. Teachers do not get nearly enough credit for all that they do for our children. Teachers have a hand in shaping our future. The pandemic showed us all how important teachers are. Teachers adapted to a remote classroom setting and work twice as hard throughout the pandemic. So all I can say to you is thank you for all that you do. With that being said, I share the concern that the board, the administration, and the teachers union has about the increased rate of resignations the district is receiving. I know from speaking to members of the community that they have the same concern. In order for us to better understand the issues causing these resignations and work towards solutions, we need a climate study. We need to

147ask teachers and staff, what do you need? How can we help? And actually listen to their response. At the last meeting and at this meeting, the climate study was brought up and the administration said that they do not want it to interfere with the study that is already going on. But I'm confident that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. For that reason, I am asking you to conduct a climate study immediately. I would also like to know what is being done to attract the most in-demand educators. How competitive are the starting salaries? Why are there not more black and brown teachers? Why should a black, bilingual, or special education teacher that grew up in Dover teach here when Newark will hire them for way more money? I know I'm pressed for

148time, so I will end with an interaction I had with the mother of three students in our school district, who spoke to me passionately about her concerns. She told me about many instances where the white teachers would single out her black son and accuse him of things that in the end were untrue. She told me how awful it is that none of the students in our district can look around and see an equitable amount of teachers of color. specifically black. I happen to agree with her. All of our students benefit from a diverse school district. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Mendez. Is there any other comment or question? John Coniglio, 24 Taylor Town Road, Montevideo. I have four items tonight that I'd like to discuss with the board. 12 staff members have been board approved

149at the hourly rate to teach remote home instruction. Four were approved last month and the DEA recommended sending out one more posting to staff to see if staff was interested. And due to that recommendation, eight more staff members are being approved tonight for a total of 12. To my knowledge, no staff has been assigned to teach remote quarantining students at this time. When will this be starting? Number two. To clarify on resignations that was mentioned earlier, many staff who resign are not leaving education. They are now or will be working in other districts. At least three staff members that I know of have resigned and are working in other schools for less money than they were making here. One individual in particular is making $30,000 less to do the same job somewhere else. I am

150disappointed that we have not self-reflected. but continue to reel off the various changes in the district and say it's not us. There are eight more resignations tonight, four of whom are bilingual. Negotiations, number three. I am disappointed in the report that was given tonight. The association disagrees with the extremely specific statements that were made because your opinions do not accurately reflect the current situation. If this board plans on opening Pandora's box and making specific comments about negotiations information public, that's noted. If that's the direction we're headed, the association will be ready for the November meeting. However, at this time, the association will respect the current ground rules that were signed by both parties and not discuss the extremely specific nature of negotiations in public. Thank you. thank you mr carneglia are there um other comments

151questions from the public i see no gestures for a public comment at this time i will be closing the session at this time then is there a motion one second apologize i do have two more things uh dr mclaughlin i was wondering if you can comment a little bit on the busing situation that has come up And I know that Mr. Miller, you mentioned last time that there was a study for educational purposes or informational purposes of our community. He had mentioned that there's 400 per student. And you, I think from your interaction at back to school nights, Dr. McLaughlin, can you tell us a little bit about why we don't have transportation in our town or with our students in our school? I think what Mr. Miller brought up was subscription busing. Yes. Which

152is when people pay to travel on the bus. So we are a walking district. We have a very limited pool of buses. I would say in the present climate. We're on the more fortunate side of districts that our routes are covered. We did expand our own fleet, but that is to cover students who require transportation, particularly from the school district to the Bo-Tec school or from their home school to North Dover if they are being transported there for one of the magnet programs. So at this point, although I have not received any requests for subscription busing, I would say that it would probably be... really tough time to consider that just from a capacity point of view we did I you know just on the subject of busing we've increased four drivers in the district

153using our own buses and we we have an agreement with with Roxbury this year for our students at Victory Gardens and at Vine Hill so again fortunately all our routes are covered And I would say if subscription busing became an issue, it might be something to consider in the future. But right now, given the extreme shortage of bus drivers everywhere, I think it would probably be something that would be premature to look at. Thank you, I appreciate that. And I wanted to clarify, currently, what do we offer in regards to our meeting? I know that people can access it live on YouTube. It is not interactive, correct? All our meetings are online, so they are accessible to people at home. What we don't have are hybrid meetings where there is public comment between those who

154are remote and those who are here. And we did decide to go back to in-person meetings back in the summer, at which time public comment went back to the way that we had done that prior to COVID remote meetings. I want to speak to those of us that are watching us then online at this time. A public comment was mentioned before about... having a phone line or accessing that please know that you can certainly send your comments via email right you know um by by the meeting um um you know to the full board and and those were certainly things that we can share um we don't have the capacity at this moment to do that and um it would be um adventurous if maybe administrators can speak about um maybe at our next meeting

155the pros and cons about that for our district and the cloth and all of that if you can i just add miss chrysalis you know again i think our public knows this and and hopefully feels that when they do this they're responded to in a prompt way but in addition to board meetings which it's great when people come out and that that certainly is an indication of the involvement of our community here and uh the interaction with the board but in addition to that our administration is always available to address issues particularly if they're specific to an individual or an individual family. And so in addition to board meetings which occur on a monthly basis, we're available on a daily basis to address anything that parents may want to bring to our attention. Thank you,

156I appreciate that. I am aware of parents who cannot make it, who are putting kids to bed, who are trying to participate. So I do ask that if you have something to say, please send it our way via the current... Ways that bathroom involvement has expressed any comments questions from board members. Yes, mr. Robles I just like to share my personal concern with some of the statements that we've heard this evening I Respectfully disagree that the color of a teacher or the Assimilation from a student to a teacher disqualifies our teaching staff from doing an excellent job I think when those statements are made in that regard, it makes it seem like our current staff is not up to par because of their color, specifically. That's the way I interpret those comments. And I think

157my experience in the town of Dover has been the total opposite, that regardless of color, the teachers have done an excellent job. And while I understand the representation that needs to be made for certain minorities, I think we unfortunately lose sight of the ones who are doing an excellent job regardless of the situation that we perceive as a need. So I would just like to express my own support for the staff that we have, and I would like to see more representation, but not at the expense of losing qualified staff that we currently have. So I just want to make that statement, and I hope that our teachers understand that. My experience from the parents that I speak to is that they're doing an excellent job and yes, there may be moments where things are

158not going the way we would expect them to and I hope the parents take the opportunity to reach out to the administration as that is the proper channel to raise those concerns when there's a teacher who's doing something like something that was mentioned here tonight which is very concerning. Something like that is really happening to a student. There's no place for that in any school. Nevertheless in Dover. But I really do recognize the effort that our teaching staff is doing and I really appreciate regardless of the things that we need to do as a district to better represent it doesn't diminish the job that is being done currently. If there are no further comments or questions then I will ask for a motion to adjourn at 9 26. Is there a second? Second. All in

159favor? Aye. Any opposed? Have a good night everyone. Thank you for coming.