001Smith. >> Okay. All right. Good evening everyone. I would like to call the meeting to order. In accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act of 1975, the Ottabon Board of Education transmitted notice of the meeting scheduled at 6:30 p.m. in the Ottabon Junior Senior High School Media Center to the Retrospect newspaper and the Burough Clerk and by postings on the Ottabon Public School District website and at the main and the Pine Street entrances of the junior senior high school. Roll call, please. Mrs. Ron Casease. >> Amy Davis, >> here. Steven Wilson >> here. >> Sarah Coolen. >> Allison Lipsky absent currently. Uh Mark Gaddy. >> Bill Wilson will be >> Late. He gave us notice on that. Um Danielle D. Franchesco here. >> Allison Cox is absent with notice. Andrea
002Robinson >> here. >> Jonathan Maxon >> here. >> Thank you. All right. While whereas While the Senator Byron M. Bear open public meetings act requires all meetings of the Ottabon Board of Education to be held in public. NJSA 10 col4-12B sets forth nine types of matters that may lawfully be discussed in executive session i.e without the public being permitted to attend. And whereas the Ottabon Board of Education has deemed it necessary to go into close session to discuss certain matters that are exempted from the public and as are noted in the agenda. We have a motion to go into executive session. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? All right, we will be approximately 30 Then the meeting. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? All right. Uh once again, I would
003like to call our meeting to order. I ask you to please stand for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> There's no little voices here tonight to say it with us. >> All right. Next on our agenda, um, we have our student representative, >> Elena. Can you reach? There you go. >> So, we had our first full week last week. So, school is getting into its full swing. Clubs and programs are starting again. And both the boys and girls soccer had their night games recently. So, sports are doing great right now. And counselors are meeting with seniors to talk about college. Everything's just getting prepared for the
004year. And our school, something fun, our school is on Fox 29 because four academic challenge students competed against our teachers. And people involved in clubs or extracurricular sports got to be on the news, which was really cool. very much. And we understand that the election for the junior class um board representative is going to be happening fair fairly soon. So pretty soon it will not just be you with us, Elena. We'll have a junior class representative. Thank you. All right. We do not have spotlight program this evening for our students because school's just getting started. So we don't have any students of the month yet to nominate. We're going to go on uh with our presentations. We have a couple of presentations this evening. First, Miss Allen is going to give us a brief summary
005of our strategic plan. Um many of you were involved in that process last year, participating in community forums or completing surveys, answering questions. We're terribly excited that the plan is is in place now. We're working on our goals for um the first year. It's a five-year plan. And um Miss Allen is going to give us a a brief overview. Are we I got nothing hooked up. Mr. Smith, >> can we dim the lights, Mr. Burke? Oh, we're gonna have mood lighting. >> Nobody wave their arms. So, Dr. Oswald and myself presented this a couple of months ago with the full report. Uh, we did not have anyone in the audience on that day and we said that we would have an abbreviated version in September so that everyone could uh be a part of it.
006I also did a superintendent spotlight, a shortened video and sent out via social media and our blast email so that everybody could see it that way. Just to be sure, the entire full colorful well done um strategic plan can be found on the school website. If you go to the Ottabon Schools website, you go to the board of ed tab, there's a tab for strategic plan. When you get to that tab, you will see the strategic plan big and colorful. In the center it says press here and you can go through all of the goals, everything that was established through the plan. Obviously, we used the public, we used the staff, we used the students, we got everybody's input in order to come up with the plan and create our goals for the future. So,
007one of the first important things was the mission and the statement for the school district. So a strong mission statement is a concise phrase that states or that sets forward what the um organization does, how it does it and sometimes why. This is the why we exist statement. So a vision statement is a shortened one that describes the future facing goals for and the ambitions what we want to achieve. So knowing that those two things, we had some board members and some community members and staff work together at one table while other groups were working on other parts of the action plan. We've always had a mission and vision statement. It's been very long and cumbersome and something that most even teachers if you walked up to them couldn't tell you what it was. So
008now our mission statement is the Ottabon School District offers a safe, collaborative community where students and staff belong and connect through personalized learning and exploration. Our vision statement is that the Ottabon School District strives to be a place where students, families, and staff are empowered to envision an optimistic future through engaging learning opportunities and enriched experiences in an inclusive and welcoming environment. We felt that that really embodied a lot of the things that we had talked about, which we'll get to in a minute, which were some of our goals. the seal, the future, the inclusivity, like all of these things were very important topics to us throughout the process. So, we really feel that this mission and vision statement embodies all of those things. Um, there will be more publicity with it. It will be
009posted in more places throughout the school. We wanted to wait till after we had this meeting and it was already board approved but we wanted to have this full unveiling shall we say and then you will see it more prevalent throughout the buildings in the classrooms emails things like that. We're also talking about some posters and signage around so that everybody the students also embrace and acknowledge what our mission and vision is. Throughout these surveys we came up with four strategic areas of focus. One of them is curriculum and instruction. In our curriculum and instruction area, we're looking to provide rigorous student centered teaching and learning that relates um and meets the broad academic needs of every child. This is from preK to 12. We have a variety of needs, a variety of students, everything
010from your accelerated through those that that need the remediation and the extra help. everybody in between needs to be serviced and have those services all the way up through high school where you're talking about your college and career focused students versus your um even military or other types of trades. So, we want to make sure that we're meeting the needs of all students of all different areas. Success options after high school, ensuring that every student can envision an optimistic future after high school regardless of whether or not they choose college or careers. This is when we were talking about we're looking into doing more internships, exploration of the different trades, going to college campuses, but really helping each and every student look at their future, not just the handful that manages to go down to
011guidance and say, "Hey, I want to apply for college. Can you help me?" But really making sure that everybody has a vision for their future. Inclus inclusion and seal. This is cultivating an inclusive environment where every child feels they belong by building positive relationship uh relationship oriented climate prek to 12 to support the social emotional health of every individual in our schools. Um in a minute or two when I do my superintendent report I'm going to allude to a few things but we've already started to work on a lot of SEAL programs um throughout the district. Uh Rally is one that we will talk about. We have the mental health counselor. CLA will not be brought in for a little bit, but the nurtured heart, we've already started with some of the training on nurtured
012heart. So, all of those things are for students, staff, and families to make sure that they're getting the services and the support that they need. And then community engagement. This is also one that I personally am very excited about. Building positive school, family, community partnerships that encourage a cross-section of community members to support our students and our schools. We are in a great small town. The neatest thing about this town is that it's a small town and everybody knows each other. But we got to get those businesses and those experiences into the buildings more. We have a board member happens to not be here today. She's being a grandom who has a car shop. Like why isn't she We have a board member that's a lawyer. Why aren't we bringing these services into the building
013and helping our children explore those different options? We have a huge senior citizen population. Let's have them in doing reading, visiting the classrooms, doing the things. I know parents work and can't always be in, but there are people here that can come in and be a part of the educational process in a lot of different ways. Um, we're also looking at at the high school level internships or little field trips, visits out to go to the uh police station for that matter and see some of the things, obviously not everything, some of the things that go on in those kinds of services, go to the library for a day, go to walk to the areas that they can and explore some of the businesses and the great things that we have in the town. So,
014a goal without a plan is just a wish. Um, we had to take all of this information and remember it's a five-year plan and come up with just the things that we can start with off the bat and build out over the years. So, we came up with our list of things, the administrative team sat down in the summertime here in this uh media center. We looked at the entire plan and we tried to isolate the things that we thought were very doable for year one. Again, these are goals. This doesn't ensure that all of these things are going to be accomplished, but this is what's in our forefront of our minds to make sure we're working towards as the year goes on. Obviously, it's a working living document. It'll change and modify as things
015go. Expanding the preschool classrooms to secure more space for further expansion. Obviously, the board knows we've already done that for one. One of our board agenda items tonight is helping us do that for next year. Uh build articulation time between with the teachers between buildings and grades. Um, our opening day inservice, we've already started to mix up our groups, make them more heterogeneous, having a preschool and a high school teacher at the same table having conversations. It's surprising when they find out that they both struggle with similar things even though their kids are very different ages. Require all teachers to do new teachers to do peer observations. This is something we have put in place this year. Uh, our teachers are one of our biggest resources, but if you don't know and you haven't been
016a teacher, it's a very isolated u career. You're in your own room doing your own thing. You honestly have no idea what's happening in the classrooms next to you, what their classroom management is like, how they run their room, things like that. You hear from the kids, but you don't necessarily see. There's a lot of great stuff going on in these classrooms. I'm trying to encourage people to go and see, go see Next Door, she's using this new computer program. You got to check it out. Go see how they're using these manipulatives in the math class. It's really cool. So just trying to build that that kind of a um sense and build that collaborative piece so that they can show off their things to each other. Expand our AP offerings and advanced courses and
017encourage student enrollment. Um again we have great data on that. You're going to have an AP presentation this evening. This is fortunately why our crowd is so busy tonight is because we're doing very well in that. That doesn't mean we're happy with it. We still want to continue to grow. One of the biggest pieces I feel is not just offering but getting students to take it. We have a lot of offerings, but we don't always have a lot of students or a variety of different students in it. So, we're exploring options there. Begin conversations with students about all the different career options. Explore certification options for students. There's things that kids could be getting certified in even before they left the high school. Uh establishing college fair and career fairs. By the way, we already
018went to a college fair and Hadenfield um Hadenfield hosted it. We publicized it and we had a couple of people come back and say that some of the colleges said there was more students there from Ottabbon than there was from Hadenfield. So it was well um attended which is good. So that means we got the information out and we will continue with that. Gauge parent community interest in being a school resource of the community people who and how can I get them in to help out collect contact information for alumni. Apparently, we had a very active alumni association years ago that has dwindled and we don't have as much. Our juniors and seniors will listen a lot more to the people who have left two or three years ago than they will to those of
019us that left school a long time ago. Uh so, if we could get their peers to come back and say, "Let me tell you what college is really like. Let me tell you what this job is really like. Let me tell you when they say homework what they mean or studying." They listen to them. See, I got Helena over there nodding quite a bit. We're moms and dads. We don't count, but they're peers. So if we had that alumni, we could get them to come back and have some talks with our sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Developing a comprehensive list of SEAL and climate and culture programs, everything that's available. Create a safe place for all students and staff. Build professional collaboration between schools and Mount Ephraim, and we're already working on that, but obviously can
020always be expanded a little bit bigger and better. and create student opportunities between the buildings and with Mount Epher, which again we're already in the process of. Um, our first seventh grade trip is coming up in a week or two. It's the entire seventh grade of Ottabon High School along with Mount Ephraim are going together to Citizens Bank Park as their beginning of the year get to know each other kind of a a trip. All are involved and going and it's going to be a great time for them to when the students were told in the auditorium that Ephraim was going with them, they all cheered. So, it just, you know, the kids won it. We're making it happen. So, um, thank you, Ottabon. I very much appreciate everybody's input and help with doing this.
021This is one of the things that the board had said they wanted to do when I was first hired, and I'm very excited that we were able to have that all completed, come to fruition, and all prepared for this year's planning. So, all of the planning of school goals, teachers goals, school goals, etc., this was used in the development of them. So, thank you. Any questions? You've already heard it before. So, >> yeah. All right. Thank you, Miss Allen. And um thank you also to all of the administrators that participated in developing the plan. You know, a lot of times you hear districts spend money and they they create the strategic plan and then it gets placed onto a shelf and nobody looks at it for five years. And that definitely was something that we
022as a board and as a district did not want to see happen again. So, we're very encouraged by the fact that the admin team took that to heart, really set up achievable goals for this first year of the strategic plan. And to that end, we're going to have four meetings during the year where we'd like to update the community on how we're progressing with those goals. The first one is going to be Thursday, October 30th. It's going to be here in the media center at 7 o'clock. Miss Allen will give us a little briefing on how we're progressing on those goals. And we also are going to have um four board members here just for kind of a meet and greet opportunity. So if there are some things that you'd like to discuss with us
023about the progress um of the district, we'd we'd love to to have those conversations. We can't have all of us there because then we have a quorum and then it's a full meeting and it has to be advertised. So we're going to have at least four of us for um each one of those meet and greet opportunities. So again, thank you Miss Allen and thank you to the administrative team. Okay, moving on. We um have some other wonderful things this evening. We're going to acknowledge our AP students and uh their teacher accomplishments and I believe we have some staff member. Oh, Mr. Leb's going to do it. Okay, >> start. >> All right, Mr. Le, take it away with some amazing news. All right. So, if if I know it's hard to see it's it's
024behind you guys, but um we have some pretty incredible students here. Um and not just in this room tonight, but our entire school and our staff is is amazing here at Ottabon. But when I saw these numbers like that, they're they're kind of astonishing these numbers. So, I wanted to um thank Miss Allen and the board for giving me an opportunity to uh present this in public and have some of our students and staff here tonight to show this. So, um if you look at these numbers, the top or this chart goes from from 2021 to 2025. So from since since 2021, we've had a 93.5% increase in number of our students who actually take AP courses. So in 2021, we had 46 students. Uh this year we have 89 or this past year 89
025students. So um it's a huge increase for us. If you look at the next one down, we've had a 66% increase in the number of AP tests actually taken from 2021 through 2025. We've had a 247% increase in the number of students who've scored a three on their AP test. That's gone from 19 to 66. And the last thing on that chart is we've had a 33% increase in students from 2021 through 2025 who have scored a three or higher um on on their AP exams. So that's a a true testament to all of our students, their hard work, our teachers, all the hard work they do with our students. And for 2026, we're we actually are anticipating having 156 um exams taken by our students. So our number continues to increase. So congratulations everybody.
026[Applause] This chart just is a you know it's it's a depiction of what we just talked about for the total number of AP students with scores of three or above from 2021 through 2025. This is the largest number of AP students which is 89 um in the history of Ottabon High School which I said it's 93% increase. It's the highest percentage of students earning a score with three or higher with 74% um which is a 33% increase of our tested students with a total um of 95 total scores of three or better and we've had 48 scores of a four or five. So these numbers are absolutely out outstanding. For AP language and comps scored a three or higher which is um 15 out of 18 students scored a four or five in AP lit
027and comp. 11 of our 13 students scored a three or higher. Five out of 13 scored four out of five or four four or five. Uh AP pre-calc, we've had 22 of our 23 students score a three or higher. 16 or 20 um or of 23 earned a four or five. Thanks, Mr. McKe. Good job, buddy. uh AP biology a record setting results of 11 of 15 students scoring a three or higher which is the most in school history and our AP chemistry the number of students scoring three or higher tripled um over the previous years. So awesome awesome increases by all of our students and our staff and some new AP offerings. This year we're offering AP AP pre-calc or I'm sorry in 2025 we offered AP pre-calc. uh this year uh AP Spanish
028and culture and in 2027 we're going to be offering AP French language and culture. So we're increasing more of our courses. I want to take one minute and I just want to we we had we I think we invited a large number of students so we didn't know exactly who was coming. So I'm just going to ask all the students in here who are participating in AP classes um and took all the tests last year to please stand up be recognized. So any students please stand up guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all your hard work. You guys are an absolute representation of autobon, what it's all about. So, thank you guys. I also want to recognize um you guys sit down. Thanks. I also want to recognize um we we
029have two of our AP teachers here tonight. One is going to uh speak a little bit about AP, but I do want to recognize uh Mr. Mark McKe, our AP pre-calc teacher. So, thank you, Mr. McKe. [Applause] And I'm going to welcome up to to talk. I told him he only had three minutes, so we're going to start the clock. Mr. Kid, but uh Mr. Kramer. Mr. Kramer is our AP calculus teacher. >> Thank you. >> That starts ticking, I'm going to freak out. >> Good evening, Board of Education. I'm Mr. Kramer and one of many of your AP teachers from both last year and this year. Um, Mrs. Maguire is also here, one of our AP Spanish teachers of the past and current, right? And Mrs. Morrison, I want to point out, is our
030new AP English teacher this year. So, we've had a lot of turnover and a lot of people are changing. So, there's a few uh names in the room. I was happy to get the opportunity tonight to say a few words in recognition of the outstanding achievements of last year's AP students. Not thinking about the numbers and passing tests or the earning of college credit. As Mr. Leb just summarized, I'd like to focus more on the AP students work. College Board sets up a standard of rigor and mimics a college curriculum in subject areas such as calculus, chemistry, pre-calc, Spanish, US history, English lit, English comp, and biology. These are all the courses that our small school offers. And our recent students, the classes of 2025, 26, and 27, have done an excellent job rising to
031the challenge, and absolutely flooding our AP classrooms with their presence. Here's a choice. Let us offer you a course with the toughest material we can find, deliver it to you as fast as possible, and grade you on the most stringent of scales, or take a course that matches the experience and level you were already comfortable with. More and more of our Audabon students are rising to the former. The students we are acknowledging tonight are a prime example of challenging yourself at the highest level when the opportunity arises. As young children, we strive to level up in video games, in sports, and in the classroom. As we grow older, the desire to level up waines. As the ease of not challenging ourselves at a high level becomes more comfortable, our AP students leveled and succeeded at
032representing our entire departments, our entire school district, and our community at the highest academic level. For perspective, a quick snapshot of what's been going on in my AP class this year. So far, we've completed the equivalents of eight college calculus lessons. They have submitted one test, two quizzes, two homework assignments, and we have done three classwork assignments. It's currently day 10. For most of my students, I am just one challenging piece of their schedule. Many of ours take multiple AP courses. As Mrs. Allen pointed out, we are a small school, so our students are involved in everything. Some of them are taking AP courses on virtual high school. Most of them do sports or work a job. They're involved and help run our extracurricular clubs. They're involved in marching band and color guard and spend
033countless hours preparing for the spring musical. As Mr. Leb just presented, we have more AP students taking more AP classes and passing the exams at a higher rate. Districtwide, we should be proud of their accomplishments, and I commend the Ottabon Board of Education and our administration for allowing the time to acknowledge the work and success of these students at this meeting. AP comes with an overload of material and a high level of rigor. The next time anyone from the town or the board of education or even our district staff learns of a student who has taken an AP class, I challenge you to not ask how they did or how they are doing, but instead just congratulate them for making it to or making it through one of these courses. The challenge is the initial
034commitment to work that will and the work that will follow. to the AP students in the class of 2026 who may be here tonight, the class of 2025 working hard at college or their future careers, and any AP students for this school year. Way to challenge yourself to be better and work harder. Congratulations to all of last year's successful students. Thank you. [Applause] So, I I I just want to add um you know, I am super proud every morning to wake up and be the principal of this school, but tonight is one of those nights where you're really proud of your students and and the staff that we have and the families who help support us, support your kids and push them to be the best they can be. Um, and I know Mr. Kramer
035talked about the the rigors of our students. But I do want to recognize for a second that there is a lot of rigor put on our AP teachers as well. Um they have to take a course, get certified for the course, they they have um assign the work, they have to grade the work and all that kind of stuff. So I do want to recognize them very quickly. Even if they're not here, um I do want to recognize um Mrs. Kacini who is our AP English language teacher, Mr. Kramer, AP Calculus, Mr. Duset, AP US History, Mr. Mr. Marina, Mr. Marino who retired um AP chemistry, Mr. McKe AP pre-calc, Mr. Nelio AP bio, and Mr. Moran for AP Lit. So, I want to recognize them along with our students. Um and thank you guys
036again. I really appreciate it. Thank you. All right, on to another impressive achievement for our district. Um Mrs. Magcguire is going to make a presentation for our students who achieved the seal of biiteracy at the risk of sounding like an infomercial. But wait, there's more. >> There is more. Okay. Um, good evening. No, in French. Who are French students? [Music] Okay. All right. I am so excited. Sorry. I am so excited to speak to you tonight on behalf of the world language department. A few years ago, we decided to participate in the New Jersey state seal by literacy program. This is an achievement award given by the New Jersey Department of Education in recognition of students who have studied and attained proficiency in at least one language in addition to English by high school graduation.
037The AAPL testing contains four sections that assess interpersonal listening and speaking. Uh presentational writing, interpretive reading, and inter interpretive listening. Ratings are assigned in accord to the actful performance descriptors. For language learners, students must score above intermediate three level for all four sections to achieve the seal by literacy. This past year we had five seniors enrolled in Spanish five honors achieve the seal by literacy for Spanish. Ella Bradock Palo Derso Pamela Flores uh Francis King and Ashley Sinatra with the support of Sheamus Burke and Dan Howey as well as Christine Karis. Um, juniors in Spanish four honors were also tested in hopes that test scores would provide us with a benchmark data that would support their growth as they moved on to Spanish 5 honors, French 5 honors, or AP Spanish. This year, our juniors
038scored exceptionally high. Nine juniors achieved the state seal of biiteracy. Some achieving top scores in proficiency even in speaking skill which is ex exceptionally difficult. Joanna Alexander, Kyle Brown, Lily Martinez Abi, Noah Solerno, Jessica Pierro, Anthony Duban, Zack Fyer, and Yavan Irizari passed uh proficiency in Spanish and Emma Cochran passed in French. If you could stand, please rise for a minute. the students who were able to come tonight and a round of applause for them. We congratulate these exceptional students for their accomplishment. The state seal biiteracy is a designation on a student's high school transcript and diploma that also provides employers and universities with a method of identifying bilingual candidates and those who have prioritized the study of other languages and cultures. Additionally, students will receive college credit for their achievement. It is very exciting
039to see what our students are capable of. Offering this testing has also served to motivate and encourage our students to work harder and continue their practices outside of the classroom. We are extremely proud of their hard work and success. Congratulations. I do have the certificates to pass out to all of you. Um I can hold them until class tomorrow if you prefer. It's up to you. I can give them to you tonight. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. [Applause] And congratulations again to the students, their families, and all of the staff that made that possible. Okay. Uh the next thing that we have on our agenda, we have a uh district report on HIV that is going to be given by Mr. Corley. [Applause] Deming, you're you're leaving on my HIV report.
040>> Sorry. >> I'm I'm kidding. It's quite all right. I'll give you a second to uh leave. We're very proud of this though. >> I appreciate you staying. All of you that are here, we'll take care of you afterwards. It's not bullying. [Laughter] >> I I don't even even the little one's leaving. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. No, I never do such a thing as the HIV coordinator. I would never do uh good evening. Uh my name is Frank Worley, uh vice principal for grades 10 through 12, but also the district HIV coordinator. Uh this is actually very good news. So I'm very upset that people left. So uh all these other reports were phenomenal and we also have great news to share uh by the state of our district with harassment, intimidation, and
041bullying. Uh I want to recognize the people who kind of make this happen. So each of the buildings our principal Barb Le Bard at Havlin and Ottabbon preschool in addition to Miss McCutchen is is well the counselor there looking at Mansion uh Bonnie Smeltzer our principal there in addition to Karen Novik and Rachel Simonetti her name just changed uh in the high school Michel who with us tonight and our four counselors Christine Deio Nick May Thomasi Emily Warren they do a lot of work with all the investigations in district and I want to just thank them on behalf of our school and district for their time. Investigations are like legal proceedings uh and we treat them that way. So I just want to recognize the time that they spend not only on investigations but making
042everything in district HIV happen. I also want to thank the teachers. Um I'm always asked all the time about presentations. Why aren't we bringing speakers? Our speakers are our teachers. what we embody each and every day with the uh levels of respect, the rapport, the classroom morals, values, respect levels. They do a phenomenal job every day. I'm not going to replace a speaker who comes in once a year. So again, I'm always asked about bringing in people. Our teachers, our counselors do a phenomenal job. Uh and you'll see this in the presentation. Uh some important information. All this will be on the website. And I don't realize I can't see this because it's so far away. Uh, I might I might be I just turned 51, so I think I need glasses. All right. Um,
043we did a lot of things in terms of district by adhering to state reports, doing everything like we're supposed to. Uh, last year we did a Oh, thank you so much. Uh, a longer presentation and we really talked about was each school and what each school does for HIV interventions. Uh, things that we do. We adhere to district timelines. Uh we are constantly increasing the levels of participation of our kids in lessons in the high school. We just became a ADL no place for hate for the first time ever in school history. Uh you'll see that on the website in school newsletter the wave as well. So we're very proud of the things we're doing in our schools each and every day. Uh two years ago we counted how many lessons we had uh in
044the high school with teachers looking at respect and tolerance and there were over a thousand in a school year. So, elementary schools have themes for month, themes for week in the high school. We rely on our teachers to incorporate lessons throughout the year uh that really has to touch on respect, tolerance, and HIV lessons. What is HIV? Real fast for people that are here. When we grew up, HIV was making fun of somebody and harassing somebody. That word was used often. for HIV in the high school, elementary schools in the state of New Jersey, there's five prongs or it has to hit all five to constitute an HIV offense. So me making somebody making fun of somebody might not be HIV because there's no distinguishing characteristics. And that's the one main word here that when
045we talk about HIV, that's the one thing that usually is missing. Can't just be because your friends, you don't like them anymore. It's conflict. but a distinguishing characteristic really separates HIV from inappropriate comments and conflict. Uh areas of strength. I'm going to come over here because I can't read this year. 22 We had 22 total investigations. We only had 11 confirmed cases last year. Before that, we had 19. So, in terms of trends, uh, over the past three years, we're doing a great job, I think, eliminating the number of HIV investigations in the district. Uh, things that we're doing in the high school, uh, also in Mansion. Everything's listed for you due to brevity and a respect for time. I just want to go in terms of everything's on the website for you to see.
046We have so many programs that we offer uh in all three schools and in preschool. Uh it's kind of overwhelming amount of things that teachers are doing in the classrooms to kind of do this. Uh and in terms of our grade report, for the first time in uh since 2011 when I began this, all of our schools are increasing in terms of the state report and also the scores. We all scored 72 out of 78 in our um reporting ventures to the state which is a huge improvement. Uh and we're all doing things simultaneously and together which is also a thing. Uh ways that we can improve, keep on working with students, keep on uh giving more resources to teachers. Um and that's that's the HIV report for the school year. >> I'm sorry you
047said that this is available on the on the website. So, what I'll do is uh tonight I'll send that to tech department and tomorrow it should be live. >> Okay, fantastic. And that's available to the public, correct? >> Yes, it is. Uh last year's report's on there. Everything else is on there. And all the initiatives that I didn't kind of get into in detail are also on there as well. >> Sure. Okay. Great. Thank you very much. >> Okay. >> We have another set of recognitions. We have some of our faculty members who have received advanced degrees or are um have received continuing credits towards advanced degrees. So, Miss Allen is going to uh offer us that presentation. Just as proud as we are of our students and all of their accomplishments, it's a lot
048for teachers to take on their day job and also be going back to school and doing the things they need to do to further themselves and to get additional degrees. So, we wanted to recognize we have four teachers that are on the board agenda. I believe three of them are in attendance tonight. That is Sylvie Galvin, Elizabeth McCertie, Linda Linda Rizzo, and John Walsh, I believe, is unable to be here. Thank you very much. Again, I know I know what it's like to have to teach and be able to do all that schoolwork and work outside of class. It's a lot. The internships, the things like that. It is appreciated. It definitely benefits you. It benefits us. And we want to make sure we acknowledge all of that hard work. So, thank you. >> Thank
049you. [Applause] Very well done. All right. Um, we're going to go ahead and uh >> Oh, sorry. It's It's underneath that. I apologize. I took the mic right away from you, didn't I? All right. >> All right. For the superintendent report, I have a couple quick things. All the board members have two things in their folder. One of the things you have says, "The gardens in Ottabon, New Jersey, Sustainable Ottabon." Uh, Sustainable Aottabon reached out to our high school art department and asked for assistance in putting this together. So, if you go on the inside cover, it recognizes a handful of students and our art teacher who the students went around Aottabon, found all of the different flowers that are present. The back cover tells you about the flowers that are present, where they found
050them. They turned it into a coloring book, which yes, I have already started to color. They turned it into a coloring book. There's a little blurb about the different flowers and things. Just very cool. But yet another way we were talking about in strategic plan, the community and the school working together. This is something that I was unaware of was happening until I got one given to me. I wanted to make sure that everybody else was aware. Also, in your folders, you will see a little flyer card. I don't mean flyer as in the Philadelphia Flyers, but a little postcard. Um, but it is u rally is a program that we're using in uh Havlin and Mansion. It is a way for students to use screen time to get exercise to realize that there's movement
051and how important movement, breathing, stretching is. We think of screen time as time of sitting and being u um sedentary. It doesn't have to be. So there's this program Flyers has partnered with Rally so that we could have it free for all of our students. So they are paying for all of the memberships, all of these subscriptions for our students. So the day and nighttime they can have it. It's being incorporated into the classes as brain breaks, as some different things. When we see kids having stress and anxiety, we're encouraging them to learn how to use these tools. So, as a thank you, Rally has and the Flyers have given us um some free tickets to preseason games. So, each one of you has a flyer a card in there for that. They were at
052back to school night at Havlin yesterday giving out some other freebies and giving a demo. Um, as our schools earn some things from the use and that they get prizes within the game and real world prizes for the amount of time that they use it, we will get different things like relaxy gritty gritty will come to one of our um pep rallies and things of that nature. So, it's just another one of the things that we're talking about. It's just another one of the programs that we're bringing to the district. Uh, I I know you're I you got your gritty. >> I know. >> There you go. Um, two other three other quick things. Uh, I want to thank you to the maintenance department and the technology department. We do a lot of thanking for
053our teachers and our students and that's great, but we have behind behind the scenes people that people forget about. Our maintenance and our technology department works harder in the summertime than anyone else. I mean, the administrators, we do a lot of work sitting in our chairs and the air conditioning and doing whatever. They are climbing in the ceilings and on the floors and taking out materials and doing a lot of work goes in over the summertime. All of our technology is in excellent shape and it's because of the hours. We have student workers. We have I mean tons of people working on stuff and the maintenance department as well. And again, we have student workers there as well just to make sure that the buildings are gorgeous for us to come back. And that doesn't
054take into account the projects like I don't know I want you to expand the preschool and move a wall and add classrooms and paint them and do the floors and while you're also cleaning up the rest of the district and any other things that have broken and need to be taken care of. So I want to make sure that they get their due um acknowledgement because we really do recognize a lot of what the teachers do, but these two months was really all about maintenance and technology. Um the other thing I wanted to note was something that Miss uh Davis alluded to earlier. We do have three new uh candidates that are for the student rep apprentice. Um I'm interviewing them this week. They met with the committee last year at the end of the
055year. I'm interviewing them this week to make sure they're still interested. They will be campaigning next week. They get a day on the um opening announcements to give themselves a little plug. They get to make a flyer 8 and a half by 11 and have sent out to all the students in 9 to 12. And then next Tuesday we will do the rank choice voting. Got it. rank choice voting on September 30th. By October, we will have our new next Friday school will know uh for our October meeting. We will swear in a new person to sit next to Helena. In light of that, we are also working on some board supports for our student reps. Uh we're working on a handbook. We're look at working on some expectations. We're working on some building their
056leadership. Um Mr. Burke and I have been talking about some different things that we want to do to help elevate what those positions do and just help help elevate them in their leadership so that they can take this um responsibility and really really learn from it and really grow. I think that has happened. But again, as with everything, we want to just continue that process. Those are all my things now. I promise I'm done. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Any questions for Miss Allen about what she shared with us? All right. Uh, I'm just going to move on with one more item. Uh, can I have a motion to approve the minutes from August 20th executive session and August 20th public session? >> Roll call, please. >> Andrea Robinson, >> yes. >> Bill
057Wilson, Steven Wilson, Danielle D. Franchesco, Mark Gaddy, Sarah Coolen, Alison Lipsky, >> Jonathan Maxon, >> Amy Davis, >> yes. >> Motion's passed. >> Thank you. All right. At this time, the board has need to go into executive session again. May I have a motion? All in favor? Any opposed? All right, we will All right. May I have a motion to reconvene the meeting? >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? All right. Where were we? Hey, public participation now that we've cleared the room. >> I'm not going to read through the the thing. Is there anybody from the public who would like to? All right. Moving on. governance. I would like to recognize Miss Lipsky for governance. >> Thank you, Miss Davis. Uh we met last week and we got to since the new thing is
058is that we are having our committee meetings at different schools. >> Our first stop for the governance meeting was the Ottabon Preschool and we were very excited and happy to see just how beautiful the rooms are. Um I for one really wanted to go back to preschool because it seemed like a good time to spend your day, you know. >> So fun. There was like all sorts of fun play things and >> yeah, I really I also really enjoyed that they had they they had where you could have your orders, you know, because it was like it could be a little restaurant and it was it was >> it was wonderful to see and it makes me really happy for >> um the littles of Ottabon to be exper and Ottabbon Park to be experiencing
059that. So that's wonderful and obviously thank you to Ottabon Park for, you know, continuing to work with us and to the preschool expansion, everything. So that's just wonderful. And actually, I think even Miss Allen told us that for the library that's there, they're going to start working with like senior citizen groups are going to be doing work with the littles and kind of having that. And I know there's been a lot of studies that show that it's good for both groups and is very beneficial. So that's wonderful. It was lovely to be there. Um, so for first read today, uh, we have policy 3281, inappropriate staff conduct. Um, I believe that was mandatory. There weren't major changes to it. Academic integrity, that is what, um, we're now calling plagiarism. That was our old plagiarism. This
060is now academic integrity. Interestingly enough, they refer to both as AI. So, that's fun. Uh, but this academic integrity, it expands on plagiarism. So, it's not just what we think of the traditional plagiarism of, oh, I copied off of someone or I took credit for someone else's work, things of that nature. This is dealing with deliberate malfeasants and wrongdoing so that you can get ahead. But you know, like you're ripping pages out of books on a on an assignment or you're giving someone the wrong information and said the teacher gave it so that they'll do bad and in turn you'll look better. Um, unfortunately that is something that happens and it's not just in in lower education, it's also in upper education in colleges and things and universities. So this is just was basically making
061it in line. um it was mandatory uh food services. The big change is instead of it being the United States Department of Education that is putting out the rules and requirements and things like that in food service and um free lunches and and meals and breakfastes and things like that. It's now the US Department of Agriculture who is doing that. So that change had to be made. it has always been the New Jersey Department of Agriculture apparently because that was the same. Um, and then there were some certain mandatory things about notice to parents and things like that. All of which we already do. So, we already do all of that, but now that is part of the policy and it was mandatory. Uh, use of electronic communication devices. This is where um Miss Allen
062was validated by the state legislature because they said, "Hey, this is something that should be in schools and kids should not be around um their, you know, their phones and devices 247, particularly when in school because they're supposed to be learning and engaging with their peers and their teachers. So on this we just made it consistent with because a lot of it was like what do you want to do in your schools and we just made it consistent and said this is what we have in our code of conduct. This is what we agree with and then for the specific schools please refer to Mansion Avenue and Havlin Avenue schools code of conduct and please refer to the Ottabon Junior Senior High School's code of conduct because it has laid out explicitly what the um
063what the disciplinary practices are going to be for the first second and third infraction where in this policy they were like here look at this for a first that's already been done by the administrators and everyone so and what's been approved by the board so we just said refer to that so there would be no confusion and complete transparency and electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds. That's something that we've kind of had sent back. We wanted more information just to make sure that this isn't something that someone could be sitting in a in a police building watching our students without them knowing and things of that nature. And so, Miss Allen got the information. This is solely uh the only time that the police would have access to our uh surveillance equipment
064is for specific emergency situations and it would only be for that area and during that emergency and that is part of the memorandum of agreement um or sometimes it's called an MOA sometimes it's called anou so memorandum of agreement or a memorandum of understanding between the Ottabon Police Department and the Ottabban school Um, so and then the second motion is a second reading. My understanding is Miss Cooland did an excellent job of letting everyone know what we talked about with those. Many of these things were very minor changes and were mandatory change and it was mandatory what needed to be done or to that we had to adopt it. Um, but most of it was just, you know, this was instead of saying board of education, you change it to board and things of that
065nature. But for the most part, um, they were mandator what was mandatory, we did it. And if it wasn't mandatory, it was something minor and we did it consistent with our code of conducts and what the school already does. Exactly. That was the big Yeah, that big statute had changed and so it was just putting that in in the new numeration of it. Thank you. Um, and in case no one ever saw this before, although it's been on every year I've been here, the board of education has goals for itself, too. And we uh continually continually review them. And uh, usually it's what we do at our retreat. We have a retreat in the summer. We have the retreat in January. We go over school is what data, how can we measure, did we succeed,
066did we not succeed, is this something we feel that we've met this goal or that we still have to work on it. And so these are our goals for 2025 and 2026. That's about all. And what's very nice is we are completely caught up with our updates on policies. So yes, can her poo poo poo I'm doing everything. If anyone has some salt, throw it over that shoulder. Um so this is this is a wonderful thing and now um I know that we're looking at what are because each of the committees have goals and so I think we're looking at those. One of the big ones for governance is AI, an a artificial intelligence policy since we have the two AIs. Um, and an ethical digital uh use policy that would include, but it wouldn't
067just be like regular policy language. It would be how do we use it and a step by step for teachers and students and other staff. So, that's a big thing. But we will be convening our AI round table group again. And so that is that is a big thing that's I know for me as as the chairwoman and in talk I think to everyone I think that is something that you know it's not just the AI policy it's really that ethical digital use. Um and it's going to incorporate having the administrators like we've had before because this is something that AI is here to stay and and everything. And so we really need to have our students, our teachers, our administrators, all the staff understanding how it's used and not just the negatives of it,
068but also the positives so that we can harness its power for good rather than evil. So, you know, no Skynet is what I'm saying. No Skynet in case that I will put that in. I I saw Terminator that scared the Jesus out of me. So, I do not want that to happen. Um, and that's about it. Have you not seen? Okay, that will be a a sign to Miss Coolen to watch at least Terminator one. Well, you have to do Terminator 2. So, you understand that Arish watch is a good guy. >> Just a note that the board goals are always put on the agenda. It's actually on like the opening page, the page before that. And right now, there's three bullets. They will be updated next month once we have this um board approved.
069Those will be updated and reflected on next month's agenda. Okay, thank you. Any questions, comments, discussion on non-aggenda items for governance? All right, real quick, just a reminder that we do have our New Jersey school boards training is scheduled for October 8th. It's a Wednesday night at 7. We'll be here in the media center. Um, when the committee chairs had their meeting, one of the things that we were going to ask Dr. Bllo to go over with us is the new board self-evaluation process because we are Uh we decided at our retreat that we're going to begin that process on October 10th. So if Dr. Bandlau is here on October 8th, she can give us a preview and then we'll be ready to go to complete our own board evaluation. And um just wanted to
070reiterate again that we are trying to attend some of the Mount Ephraim Board of Education meetings. last um the last meeting for September. Miss Allen was there, I was there, Miss Lipsky was there, and I know some people have signed up for the October 6th meeting. Is it October, Mr. Maxon? Is it October 6th? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Um so October 6 is the next meeting um of the >> We'll have to make a decision. >> We'll have to divide and conquer. like >> um and then the other thing too is that um a couple of us have been able to make it to the back to school nights across the district. We have one more to go tomorrow night. Um and it's been really great. Miss Allen's been there and she's been um
071talking about the strategic plan. We've been handing out flyers on the strategic plan. I think we put a flyer in every person's hand last night. I felt like um so they have like a a synopsis of it and then also the upcoming board dates, the board meeting dates are in there as well as the meet and greet dates. So we were able to to get that uh word out to all to all the people that attended the back to school nights. Um and I think that's it for non-aggenda, right? Ottabon Park council meeting is October 6th as well. Okay. So, I'll maybe you can can you put something out uh because it was nice that we were able to attend uh that meeting last month. So, maybe could you include that in the weekly wave
072and then if anybody is able to make this is the Ottabon Park Council meeting. >> Yeah, it is the 6th. Same day is not even but that's it's early for you because October 6 isn't the second Monday >> it >> is okay that's why okay so it is an anomaly this time okay >> okay Sure. Sure. >> Yes, you do. Everything's outside. Great. You're gonna build the forest. Hey. >> Okay. So, uh, Miss Allen will include that in the weekly wave. If anybody's able to go to the Ottabon Park, uh, council meeting, that would be great as a as a show of support for them. Okay. Moving on. Can I have a motion for items one to three under governance? >> Any questions, comments, or discussion on agenda items under governance? >> Oh, you look
073like you were going to say something. Okay. All right. Roll call, please. Bill Wilson, >> yes. >> Steven Wilson, >> yes. >> Danielle G. Franchesco, >> yes. >> Mark Gaddy, >> yes. >> Sarah Coen, >> Alison Lipsky, >> yes. >> Jonathan Maxon, >> yes. >> Andrea Robinson, >> yes. Amy Davis. >> Yes. >> Motion's passed. >> All right. Uh, moving on to operations. Real quick, we have an addendum under operations. So, this would be motion 10. There is a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding lease agreement between the Burrow of Ottabbon Park and the Ottabon Board of Education. So, that would be number 10 under operations. All right. And I would like to recognize Mr. Gaddy. He's going to be presenting on behalf of Mrs. Cox this evening. It's not a student of the
074month. I'm okay. Um, >> yes. Uh, Miss Lipsky stole my thunder about touring uh, Ottabban Park and Amy stole my thunder about the work that's been done over there and us attending the meeting. Our meeting was at Ottabban Park. Um, it was scheduled to be at Ottabban Park. It was at Audabon Park, but we did um, it worked out that we could go to their council meeting also, which was right after ours. and it was very informative. It was good to see so many people come out to that and and you know give their opinions on our relationship with their school. Um so we toured the preschool and and I guess as operations I could say that we are grateful for the work that went into making it look so good. Literally um Sandy wanted
075us to know it was seamless. You could not tell where the doors had been moved. Um we made sure of it. We looked a few times at that. So, it's very nice. It's very functional. It's it it it's not shoehorned in there at all. It's a it it flows very well. It's very nice. Um so, we look forward to having additional space next year. And again, we're appreciative of the uh residents of Autobon Park for having that relationship with us. Um the online payment for keys is still not it's progressing and um it's pretty close to going on board. So that we won't be doing it in the 19th century style there. I guess um all title funding was received and we missed being able to use it for summer bridge but we will use
076that money for atrisisk students at the junior and senior high school. Um we can't bank it for next year's bridge because you have to use it by the end of the school year. Uh on the agenda it's mostly just the usual uh you know secretary reports transfers. There were no drills in August. Obviously, uh the build list for August and September and then uh our statement that our par professional staff are up to snuff for federal and state rules. >> That's it. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. All right, Miss Allen, do you have anything to add? >> I don't. It was just a understanding just to make sure everybody understands that is really just to allow us to open the The problem we had last year was that we didn't have the space um solidified
077in time for the upload or in time for some of the state reporting. So, if we have a lease in hand by the time we do our reporting for next year, we have a better chance of getting the monies that we need to do it. So, we're really kind of on fast forward. They at the council meeting passed the MOOU um and it came to us for our signature so that we can get moving on having those discussions. It's not about the new lease or anything of that nature. It's just to open those conversations. >> Okay. Thank you. Any uh questions, comments, or discussion on non-aggenda items? >> Mr. Steven Wilson. >> Uh you Miss Allen touched on it earlier, but how much work was done in the preschool by the maintenance staff? um was
078excellent, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, we saved a lot of money by not having to go to thirdparty contractors to do a lot of that work. Our maintenance staff, as you alluded to earlier, excellent. Very appreciative of all that work that was done and um saved money for us as operations were into that. >> Yes, good quality, >> Mr. Gaddy. Um no, it's I thought it was operations meeting that was moved, but it's going to be human resources that correct me. >> Yes, no worries. Okay. Can I get a motion then for items number one through 10 under operations? >> Any questions, comments, or discussion on items 1 through 10? >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Stephen Wilson, >> yes. >> Danielle D. Franchesco, >> Mark Gaddy, >> yes. >> Sarah Cen, >> Alison
079Lipsky, >> yes. >> Jonathan Maxon, >> yes. >> Andrew Robinson, >> yes. >> Bill Wilson, >> yes. Amy Davis. >> Yes. >> Motions pass. >> Thank you. Okay. Next, I would like to recognize Miss Robinson for education. >> You uh our last meeting was on August 26th, so we have not been to the preschool yet. >> Really looking forward to >> um at that meeting, we discussed our goals for the year for the committee. Um we were presented with the student of the month criteria which represents a every month it's going to represent a different sort of pillar of expectation. Um and then the student who represents that pillar will be awarded the student of the month in each grade. Um, we talked about potential instructional council projects and we also looked at the professional
080development plan for the year. On tonight's agenda, we have student statistics, 1,47 students in Ottabon. Thought that was a noteworthy number. uh facilities requests a lot of dancing at Havlin, some yoga, very athletic endeavors. Our first field trip is coming up. Uh well, maybe it's not the first, but it's it's a field trip next Friday going to the firehouse. Great community use of resources. Then there's some more field trips, more singing, dancing. Um attendance at workshops and conferences. Our very own approval of going to the school board's conference is on there. >> Okay, that's that's about it. >> Yes. So, I just want to point out that that first page with all the facilities requests is our community ed. We have a new person in charge of community ed. This is all um things if
081you haven't been on the the district website, you click on the community ed, there's a whole menu of options there and um trying to get it a little bit more life blown put back into it. I understand it was very active at one point. COVID was one of the things that kind of um diminished it, but we're trying to breathe new life into it. So, that's what a lot of those are. So, we're very excited about that. >> Excellent. Thank you. All right. Any questions, comments, discussion on non-aggenda items under education? All right. Then can I have a motion for items 1 through 12? >> Second. >> All right. Um, any questions, comments, or discussion on agenda items 1 through 12? Okay. We have Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> Yes, ma'am. got really scared for
082a second when it had the Ottabon Firehouse 76 students and the purpose of the trip was to teach fire. >> Oh. >> And I was like safety and then I flipped and I was like oh >> oh yeah safety >> don't teach fire. >> No fire bad. >> Okay. So uh I just want to caution everybody when we go to roll call you need to So this would be for item number four. So for item number four, you need to say yes to if if you choose say yes to the um to that motion, but you need to recuse yourself just yourself for the New Jersey School Boards Association workshop. Okay. Did I explain that correctly, Miss Garren? >> Yes. You are just um you're just abstaining from approving >> yourself, right? >> You still
083need to vote on everybody else. >> Everybody else, right? Okay. So you recuse yourself from voting for you, >> but you you approve everyone else to go >> or if you don't want. No, just kidding. >> Okay, I got I called for a motion, right? >> Okay. >> All right. Any questions or comments then? Anybody else? Okay, roll call, please. >> Okay, the first one that's up is Danielle de Franchesco. >> So, yes. This looks bad. >> Hey, I have a whole thing. >> Perfect. >> You abain from yourself. >> Mark Gaddy. Sarah Coen, >> Alison Lipsky, >> Jonathan Max. >> Yes. >> Oh, yeah. >> You're not even on our list. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You're not even You're not even >> to go on this. >> Yeah. You're not even You're on Mount
084Ephraim's list. They're paying for you. >> Andrea Robinson. >> Yes. All items except for number four. Bill Wilson, >> Stephen Wilson, >> and Amy Davis, >> okay, motions passed. Moving on to human resources. We have two addendums under human resources. Okay. So number 40 will read a motion to approve the following extracurricular contracts for the 2025 2026 school year in accordance with the negotiated 2024 2027 contract between the Ottabon Board of Education and the Ottabbon Education Association at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools is for Roella fine world language contractual rate is $1,489 and then motion number 41 is a motion to approve the first year tenure track special education paraprofessional agreement for Brandy Gentiel for Mansion Avenue School effective on or about October 1st, 2025 for the 2025 2026 school year in accordance
085with the 2024 2027 negotiated contract between the Ottabon Board of Education and the Ottabon Education Association at step 10 full-time employee.87 87 29.5 hours per week pending the completion of all autobond board of education and New Jersey Department of Education requirements at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. That was a mouthful. Okay. Um HR committee met last night. We pivoted. We were supposed to meet at the preschool. However, we had previously been there as we are also the members of the operations committee. So, we we kind of stayed in place at Havlin since we were there for back to school night and that's where we had our meeting last night. Um, we reviewed any of the open positions that we have in the district, talked about how we are going to make sure that
086um, we have all of our power professionals covered. We reviewed the overloads that you see in the contract and I or in the agenda and I Miss Allen is going to share some good information with us about that. And then we reviewed the upcoming NJSBA conference and um mentioned to uh Mrs. Ron Casease to make sure that she extended an invitation to our buildings and grounds director since he is new. I wasn't sure if he you know knew about the opportunity to go to that workshop and that they do have um not only a plethora of vendors there but they also do have uh sessions and workshops that pertain um to buildings and grounds. So we're going to make sure that he knows about that. Um, on the agenda this evening, items 1 to 14
087are address staffing for a variety of positions. Item 15 addresses a voluntary transfer. 16 to 17, we have FMLA requests. 18 addresses district substitutes. 19 addresses some salary adjustments in light of um some of our faculty receiving advanced degrees or additional credits. Number 20 addresses a recision. 21 addresses a revision in hours. Item 22 through 25 and 29 address payment for facilitators of professional learning. Item 26 is approving our Lego club advisor. Item 27 authorizes cafeteria aids to work at school sponsored events. 28 addresses additional evening chaperones at Mansion. Item 30 and 31 address a recision and appointment for INRS. Items 32 to 33 address mentor assignments and compensation. Item 34 addresses our overload payments. And then I already spoke about items our addendum items 40 and 41. Um Miss Allen, do you have anything
088to add? So open positions are getting less and less. Yay. uh paraprofessionals, we are the addendum has one being hired. Um we're interviewing and hiring every day. Uh we do have a few more interviews set up for this week and then after that any openings we have, we may need to go to an agency, but we wanted to wait and do that last. It cost us a little bit more money and we wanted to get all of our um eligible people, especially since we did the plug for Paris. Um locally, we've had some people locally reach out overload. So, I want to look at that real quick. That's number 39. Um there's 13 overloads on there this year. Uh 10 of them are special ed, which we always talk about a need for. Three of
089them are um two are foreign language, which we need six just because we have that many. We probably could warrant a new teacher soon, but there's just very very full classes. And one of them is business, which again just needs the sixth class because it's the only teacher that teaches it. Uh the partials there are are teachers that have labs. That's why it's a 1/5if or a two-fifth. I may have lab two days a week, things of that nature. The buds at the bottom that are prrated, this is because one of our new hires is not released yet from their district. So, we're having teachers cover an extra class until that's um that person is joins us. As a frame of reference, we have 13 people that are getting paid for full overloads this year.
090We had 40 that were paid for full overloads. I'm sorry, 33 that were paid for full overloads last year. We have seven that are or four that are partial this year. We had seven that were partial last year. We had budgeted 24 for this year was what we had forecasted and we're using 17. So our scheduling process was much more efficient this year. That's not to say it can't still be improved because there are still areas that we need improvement. There is no doubt. But every year we are making strides. I know it was something the board was very concerned about cutting them down and why did we have classes the way we were. We we really spent a lot of time and I think it shows with us going from 33 to 13 that
091we did a really nice job in in scheduling this year. Again, still still room for improvement. Always is, but very happy with how that came out this year. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh also, very quickly, I want to make sure um item number nine, we have the addition of the word Havland in there. Everyone has that. Uh that's on page 11. Page 13, item number 22, the inclusion of um Miss Jones, substitute custodian, and Miss Holch, substitute teacher. And I thought I had another one. Oh, on page 14, item number 31, it says following staff members as RTI coordinator. Okay. >> All right. Um, can I have a motion through for items 1 through 41? >> Second. >> Any questions, comments, or discussion on those items? >> Okay. Roll call, please. Mark Gaddy,
092>> yes. >> Sarah Cen, >> Alison Lipsky, >> yes. >> Jonathan Maxon, >> yes. >> Andrea Robinson, >> yes. >> Bill Wilson, >> Steven Wilson, >> yes. >> Danielle D. Franchesco, Amy Davis, >> yes. >> Motion's passed. >> Okay, moving on. Uh, you can see we have our HIP district report and now special program representatives. Uh, Mr. Steven Wilson for Ed Services. Uh in the August meeting um again nothing was particularly applicable to Ottabon. Uh they approved the June minutes, financial reports, contracts, um discussed some personnel changes, transportation contracts which are enormously expensive as I learned since I've been on the board. Um, superintendent noted some successful collaborations, staff development, um, ongoing staffing challenges. Um, some advanced readings on absences, budgeting, legal services, um, standard CCES stuff. >> Okay, that's it. >> Great. Thank you.
093Uh, Mr. Maxon, school boards. >> No, we don't have a meeting until September 30th. >> Okay, great. Uh, Mr. Steven Wilson, back to you for Ed Foundation. So, I had mentioned at the last meeting, uh, they're going to be doing the night at the races in the spring. There is no date set for that yet, but in the holiday season, they're going to celebrate the Festival of Lights, uh, on December 10th, 11th, and 12th from 5:30 to 8:30. It's going to be at the Rec Center. Uh, it is not going to compete with the holiday store the Mansion Avenue does. It's more of an experiential event. Uh there will be um displays, lights, um photos with Santa. There will be some vendors there. U hot cocoa. They're anticipating trying to get some entertainment from the
094choir and the band. Um we haven't finalized the pricing yet. Um but we're going to be asking for donations to participate and attend uh because it is a fundraiser for the AF. Uh and we are looking for sponsors. So, if you have a local business or know someone has a local business, um please reach out to the AF uh Peggy Slack and we're looking for donations to basically build build it out. Um it should be fun. It should be nice. Hopefully the weather will hold out. It won't be too cold or snowy or rainy or anything. >> Yeah. >> And um it's the first time for the event and we'll see how it goes. >> Okay. Um, I'm just picking up on the fact that they're asking for sponsors when they do the night at
095the races. We did sponsor a race as as a board as a whole. So, if that, you know, is something that folks would be interested in. Again, is there like a a level of sponsorship or is it just donations? >> We haven't finalized that yet, but we're thinking around $200 to sponsor one of the >> litup displays. Okay. That will be reusable. So, they'll believe what we're envisioning is an a initial investment of $200 and then maybe next year less than that. >> Okay. >> Like $100 or something. >> Okay. >> Again, first time, so we're kind of feeling it out. >> Sure. >> But um there'll be a nice little plaque or display of some kind um showing that your business or your organization sponsored it. >> Okay. Um we do that. You're interested
096in participating in that, just send me an email and we'll go from there. >> Okay. >> Sounds good. Okay, thank you. Great. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Coulen for community outreach >> very much. So, um, you had reported out earlier about the back to school night participation. Um, as well as, um, the Mount board of ed meeting. Um, tomorrow there are pedestrian safety assemblies at Mansion Avenue, Havlin Avenue, and the preschool. I don't know the time for those. Um, so I apologize that I don't have that information, but um, if anyone was interested, I'm sure they'll be able to find out if you have availability during um, the school day for that. Um, upcoming events. Um, no one had expressed interest in the wagon walk event, so I did not reach out to see what
097the vendor type situation was with that. I I think they had maybe paid vendors for that. Um and in the absence of anyone reaching out to express interest in it, I have not set up for that. Um I have registered us for the um Ottabon Police Department night out which is Tuesday the 30th of September. Uh the event is from 5 to 8:00 p.m. I did find out that they would like us to be set up by I believe 4:15 in the afternoon. I put myself as available for that. No one else has signed up just yet, but if anyone else would like to participate in that event, please reach out to me and so we can co coordinate. Um, >> it start the event itself starts at five o'clock. >> Yeah. So, the idea
098would be to have some sort of activity once I know if anybody else wants to attend, I'll coordinate with them. Otherwise, I'll come up with something for that. Okay. Okay. Awesome. It's It's probably not going to be a lot of setup. So, if you have another Yeah, if you have another event, I wouldn't worry about that. >> Okay. All right. Happy to have you for whatever amount of time you can be there. It's September 30th. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um I did update the uh spreadsheet for this school year. So I sent out an email about that if you ever want to see when the events are and can put your interest in those. I did add the Mount Ephraim Board of Ed meeting dates that we have for the rest of this year. Um
099as well as our meet and greets which go into next year. um for signing up. I just linked to the signup sheets that Miss Davis had created before to keep them all in one place. Um other than that, the only thing on our calendar at the moment is the Lions Club Halloween parade, which does coincide with our first meet and greet. Um so the the parade is always the day the night before Halloween. So um I don't know if that'll affect our attendance here. probably those with little kids might not be able to attend that meet and greet, but maybe those with older kids who don't participate in the parade could still meet us here. So, just just so that you know that there are two events on that same that same night. Yes. I
100did. I added it while while you mentioned it. I put it on here. So, it is it is there. I don't have the time on there yet, but uh the date is on there as well. >> Yes. Well, I think so. Yeah. I I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. The only other thing I had a question um for the board. So, Miss Allen's putting out the weekly wave for us and it has upcoming events for each of the schools. Do you want me to incorporate that in this um spreadsheet or is the the wave enough of that notice for for those upcoming events? I'm happy to do either, but I just I don't want to be redundant if it's not helpful. Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't think Barbie sent out our invitation yet for the Ottabon
101preschool trunk or treat, but you know it's happening and I just want you to know this year the theme has changed and it's going to be Barbie, but it's gonna like the Barbie movie, but also Trixie Mattel Barbie. I'm gonna be pocketsiz Trixie Mattel. In case you don't know, drag queen who looks like a lifesize Barbie doll. Awesome. And so, um, there >> you should. And I want you to know there will be sashes. Um, I know that my daughter's going to wear her scrubs and she's going to be Dr. Barbie. Um, >> Barbie is going to be principal Barbie. >> Can I be teacher Barbie? >> You can totally be teacher music teacher bar. Yes. Yes. And so understand and men, I know you might be wanting to go hardcore to be a Ken,
102but the world needs more Allens. And you will have a sash that is spelled Allen with two L's. Uh and an A, which is where we think my grandparents came up with that spelling for my uncle Al. Um, so >> I'm not shocked. No. Um, >> I'm not watching this. >> I know that's the only thing I have to say. >> No, you don't you don't need to be part of the trunk or treat that is absolutely fine. >> Um, so, but anyone who would like to just let me know and if you want to be a specific Barbie, let me know because everyone's going to get a sash. I'm going to get the sashes and my bestie has a cricket. >> Wait, we don't have the date. What kind of Barbies we can choose
103from? Is there a list of Barbies somewhere? Oh, I could get you a list of Barbies and you can make it up. >> And I already have some friend who said that they'll come as weird Barbie, which kind of makes me upset because if I wasn't Trixie, I'd be weird Barbie, but that's okay. >> I really am. And I love it. Uh, so yeah. So, I'm very excited about that and I've already been getting a lot of different stuff. Um, so hopefully whoever wants to be a part of it and be an awesome Barbie, uh, there we are. And I'm looking to find some other Barbies so that we have a nice representation. >> Not yet because it hasn't this date hasn't been sent, >> but that's why I put it in this just to
104know that it exists. Would love to have you guys there. I think it's going to just be very positive and fun. >> Else for community outreach? No. Okay. Um Mr. Gaddy for ad hoc. >> Nothing report this month. Okay. And Miss Lipsky for um orientation committee >> spoken to uh the new board members who at this point they're not new and sparkly anymore. >> You know, you're kind of, you know, you've been roughed up a bit. But um I did talk to >> I did talk to Allison Cox who is the other mentor with me for the two right now. and um we were going to meet about the board re the board review but then we realized it's brand new. So that is one of the things that why we talked and said hey
105since we're having this the board rep come maybe they can do that for all of us but I did speak to Miss Cox and for both of our um Miss Coulen and Miss Francesca we are going to meet with you afterwards that if there's anything you want to talk about and I know someone out reach out to you but obviously everyone's available. >> Okay. >> Any board member comments? >> Mr. Max, >> I feel like it's been a foregone, you know, >> but it's on the agenda and it's official. That was well accent. Well done. Wait till you see your list tomorrow. >> I would like to congratulate Miss Allen because more and more of the things that she's doing and talking about collaborating with other organizations, other schools, things like that to find some
106type basically what's mutually beneficial to both parties that we don't have to pay extra money for. And this was one of the items on the agenda was the nursing agreement with Rowan uh University and their nurses who are going for their masters in nursing, but they need to go and have um kind of like an internship in in a school and they are actually going to be sending these you know licensed nurses who are going for their masters and they get the benefit of this is going to qualify for those internship kind of um qu that they need to get their masters and we get more >> nurses that we are not having to pay out of pocket for y >> and so it's just a win-win and one you know excellent that's exactly the
107type of stuff we we asked you to do and be looking for and there we go stuff so thank you good stuff >> anyone else Mr. Steven Wilson >> I'll be brief I have enjoyed going to all to the back of the school nights in the last couple weeks and at Havland I engaged with a kindergartener parent and she said that she and her family decided to move to Ottabon because of the high quality of the school system. And I thought y'all should know that because I know everyone puts in a lot of work and I want to thank Miss Allen and all the teachers and the staff and I mean everybody. It's a it is a community effort to create a strong school district and it really benefits everybody and we have people moving
108to Ottabon because of the great job that everyone's doing. So everyone gets a pat on the back. the woman that I interviewed today to be our new paris said, "Well, I met you last night at back to school night, but um this is nice." I was like, "Oh, okay. That's kind of cool." So, yeah, it it's like you say, and it's working getting community people to help and come into the school and do some of these roles. So, that was really fun. And we had last night she's probably sorry, she came up and spoke to us and spoke to Miss Allen too about wanting to, you know, get a presence of of Ruters in the building and I she wrote her name down with all kinds of notes on it and this >> great posit
109from being there last night. So, good things. All right. Uh, public participation session number two. Any takers? Is that Miss I can't see Miss Martell. Is she back there? >> She's over there. >> Oh, who's all the way back there? >> Oh, okay. All right. Retrospect. >> And Greg. Greg, you got anything to say back there? >> Anything, Mr. Smith? Okay. All right. our >> our next Okay, we're not going into another executive session. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, October 15th here uh in the media center. Human resources folks, make sure you check the invite from Sandy because there was a change in our meeting date and time for next month and place. Yes. Thank you. All right. Um I have a motion to adjurnn. All in favor? >> Any opposed? All right. Thanks,
110folks.