001Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting to order. In accordance with the provision 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 and the Pine Street entrances of the junior senior high school. Roll call, please. Mrs. Ron Casease, >> Amy Davis, >> here. >> Steven Wilson. >> Sarah Coen. >> Allison Lipsky is absent with notice. Mark Addie. >> Bill Wilson. Is he just absent? >> He is. Okay. >> Um, absent right now. Danielle D. Franchesco is absent with notice. >> Alison Cox. Andrea Robinson, >> Jonathan Max, >> and Helina
002is absent. Oh, she's coming. >> Okay. Thank you. Whereas while the Senator Byron and Bear open public meetings act requires all meetings of the Ottabon Board of Education to be held in public, NJSA 104-12B 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. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, we'll be approximately 30 minutes. the meeting. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? All right. Once again, I'd like to call the meeting to order and ask everyone to please stand
003for the flag salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> So weird not to hear the little kids saying it along with us. All right. Uh first up in our agenda is our student representative, Helena, who is now in 12th grade. She's our senior representative. [Music] >> I'm a senior. Um, so it is summer time obviously, so not too much to report on. Um, sports started practicing uh last week, so that's fun. Honors and AP classes have summer work to complete. Uh, that's required. And for June, I attended Rya along with three other um students at Ottabon. And it was very fun experience. It was basically a leadership convention conference thing where you got to go to
004Stockton and we got to meet many different people there and form relationships and most importantly we got different lectures every day other than making friendships and bonds. We got to learn about how to lead and how to understand people better and it was a very fun experience and it was great. >> And um who sponsored that event. >> Sorry, I forgot that. Um, the Mount E from Rotary sponsored that. So, >> great. Terrific. And >> I actually found out about the event when I got an email from Helena um saying that while they were at the event that they had one particular presentation that they found was very informative. They enjoyed it very much. It was actually an email to Mr. Leb and I asking if when we got back to school she could meet
005with us to maybe bring that presenter into the school district and do some things. So, it was really neat to find out that she had such a great experience and got so much out of it and she was thinking about how that would um really help the Ottabon community and how the school community would benefit from some of the things she was learning. So, it was really exciting to in the summertime hear from Helena and find out that she was on this leadership conference and really enjoying it and already thinking about the potential of bringing it back here and what we could do with it. So, that was very exciting. Okay, since we are in the summertime, we don't have any of our students to spotlight. Uh, next on the agenda is a presentation, our
006HOSA presentation. So, again, I had a couple of students reach out to me. They wanted to do a presentation about the possibility of adding a new club to Ottabon's U list of clubs. They came to my office with a whole presentation and with Miss Barry there as their like support and I said this is great and I think you need to tell the board about it and we decided August was a perfect time because we didn't have student spotlight and things but it's a very exciting opportunity. I've been talking to the high school administration about it. I've given you guys a little bit of a heads up about it but they're going to do a much better job than I in going over this. Thank you guys. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Casey
007Broadhurst >> and I'm Jack Rosada. >> And today we're here to present a proposal for the HOSA club. So during this presentation, we will be going over the basic information of HOSA, how to establish a chapter at our school, the structure of the HOSA club, competing and additional costs, as well as why we should bring HOSA to AHS. So for the basic information, we wanted to start off with what HOSA is. HOSA stands for health occupation students of America and it is an organization that prepares and engages students in the health health professional career field. In HOSA club members choose their competitive event that is solely based on their interest and skills. For example, dental terminology, phys physical therapy and many more. And then if anyone was interested, we also provided a link where you
008can click and it outlines all the different fields that someone could go for. >> So to establish a chapter at our school, we need to begin by reaching out to teachers within the science department to see if they would be interested in being an adviser. Um, and we do plan on doing that within the upcoming month. Um, and then next we we will request a HOSOSA information packet from HOSA headquarters which is available this month and we will also meet with HOSA representatives to learn exactly what we need to do. Okay. And then as for the structure for the club, there's many different levels that you can compete in. First, it starts with local and then it can go to state, national, and even international. For the club structure, there's a chapter advisor, which right
009now it's Miss Barry, and then we also need to find that science teacher as we mentioned. And then for the co-founders, it would be me, Casey, and my friend Jack. And then along with us, we would have a treasurer, a secretary, and a social media social media manager. And for the rest of the club, everyone would just be general members. And in order to start a club, we would need a minimum of five team members. And then for competing with competing there is first a written test then a skills portion which is scenario based which is a scenario based demonstration of a health related skill that the competitor chooses on their own and then there are also both team and individual competitions and they're often held at convention centers or universities and competition dates for
0102025 and 2026 have not yet been released but they do plan on being released soon. >> Okay. And then for additional costs, depending on the competition level, competitors will have to be will have to pay anywhere from $8 to $15 in order to compete. On top of this cost, the school will be responsible for a few additional things, which include busing and competition attire. As for busing, the current locations for the competitions are unknown, but a bus would be required, and the distance of the competitions will vary. For competition attire, team members would be required to wear appropriate clothing such as t-shirts or scrubs that would needed to be purchased in advance. >> And why we should bring HOSA to AHS? The medical field is an ever growing field and as and as our generation
011grows up and figures out what they want to do with their lives, many choose the path of a medical career. Whether it be dentistry or working at a nursing home, the medical field is a vast area of work and many teenagers want to go into something that has to do with medicine. Bringing HOSA to AHS will give those teens and students an opportunity to grow their medical knowledge and allow them to explore a field they want to go into. With all that being said, HOSA will greatly benefit AHS and its students. Along with that, HOSA offers awards such as the Barbara James Service Award which recognizes students for their service hours. Also below we have a list of already eight students who are interested in joining the club aside from me and Jack which we
012have plenty in order to start the club and form a team. >> That's all. Thank you very much. Do you guys have any questions that we could answer? >> Yeah, just one question. So would this be in addition to the health careers club? So this would be something >> that's what Miss Barry plans on doing and I assume that's what we will be going for. >> Okay. So it's not one for the other. and situation. >> Thank you. Oh, this is your >> uh next um it is not listed on the Well, actually, is it on the agenda? I Yeah. Okay. I have an old agenda. Um we have our SSDs report. Alan is going to lead us through that. Yay. Now you can hear. Now that the one you don't want to hear, you
013can hear. Uh so it's our it's twice a year that we have to do this report. It's the SSDS report. Uh it's a semiannual district report on the school safety and data. Um so the first one gives you the data through December. This one I have to report January through June and full year. So we go through the data for both. So SSDS stands for the student safety data system which collects two different types of information for schools and districts. It's our incidents of violence, vandalism, harassment, intimidation, bullying, weapons offense, substances, um restraint, seclusion, and other incidents leading to students removals from school. And it talks about your HIV trainings and programs that are available in the schools. Oops, I'm saying things that are incidents that we report. This is everything we again most a
014lot of this PowerPoint is the same each time. This is the list of different things that are warranted that would all fall under these categories of vandalism, harassment, intimidation, bullying, weapons, substance abuse. Um the main one that we talk about every year at depth is the other incidents that uh result in students being removed from school. This could be anybody for ISS in school suspension or OSS out of school suspension. And for us, uh, we'll get to the numbers shortly, but I did print out the report to see the different types of things. And it's really your repeat offenders. So, a student cutting class doesn't necessarily result in them being removed from uh, school, but if they're cutting class their fifth and sixth time, then of course the um, consequences start to uh, compound and
015get more and more involved. So, that will be reflected in some of our numbers. So what do we do to keep our students safe? We of course have our board of education policies and regulations that we review regularly and update. We have our school safe wrong buttons school safety plan and school procedures. We have great cooperation and collaboration with the Ottabon Police Department. We have our faculty and staff professional learning. And we have educational programs. Um, in going through looking at this data today, I decided that it would be a good idea to go through with you some of those educational programs that we have at the different levels. For example, at the preschool, the things that we're doing to help the students about safety, about community service, about those things is the giving tree,
016the empathy project, the stranger danger, the parent information sessions, things of that nature. These are examples, not complete lists. At Havlin, we have character ed lessons. We also have the giving tree, pack the pantry, Corey dribbler, fire prevention, pedestrian safety, PBIS assemblies, things of this nature. These are all programs that will go into our data that I'll be showing you in a few minutes. In Mansion, we have autism awareness. We have Black History Month, Community Building Circles, Hib Intervention Programs, Helping PS, Anti-Bullying Pledge, World Kindness Day, PTA Assemblies, Unity Day, and of course our ROAR rallies are some of the things that are listed. Um, and at the high school this year, we had the Stop the Hate Pledge, which we have a banner for and I haven't figured out where to put yet. School
017safety meetings, spirit week, character ed lessons, morning uh message, morning quotes, and unified events. In addition, we also have our guidance department and mental health counselor. And October is always the school safety month. Again, this is a review of last year. We have some other things that you've heard about already this summer coming up for this upcoming year. So, to report out on our data, this is for the rest of that shouldn't say July. Let's just say January through December. Sorry, I have a typo there. January through No, this Oh, period two was two December. should be January to July. I have this backwards, but the second half of the year, this is period two. Forget the dates, but this is period two. Preschool had nothing to report as far as violence, vandalism, substance, weapons
018confirmed him. Obviously, we like that. Uh Havlin also had nothing to report. Mansion did have one violence, one vandalism, one substance, one weapons. I have data or some information on all of those things. Nothing major. um small instances but things that still need to be reported and two other incidents that led to um student removal. And then at the high school we had two violence, two substance, one weapon, two confirmed HI, and 60 other incidents that that uh resulted in students being removed. That 60 number seemed shocking. It was a little concerning to me. I did go back and look at some of the data and just so you know, month by month, January it was nine. February 14th, March 5, April 15, May 16. So it's not as scary as it looks. There's like
019barely 15 or less each month that resulted in something. So our overall data for the year, for the entire school year for our district, preschool has nothing in the violence and vandalism. Havlin has nothing in the violence and vandalism. Mansion has the ones that we just happen to see in the second half of the year are the only ones that are in there for the full year for us. And the high school, when you take last session and this session and add them together, we have five violence for the year, zero vandalism, two substance reports, one weapon, six confirmed HI, and 89 other incidents leading to removal. The other information that we report twice a year is about the alleged HIPS versus the confirmed HIPS. You see them every month. This is the topic of
020our executive sessions. So, you're aware of those, but also the trainings that are being offered and the programs. Trainings are more for the staff. The programs are for the parents and the students. So, in the second half of the year at the Mansion Avenue School, there was four alleged Hibs, two confirmed HIBs, one training, and uh nine programs that were offered for the students. And at the high school, it was three alleged HIS, zero confirmed, five trainings, and four, my thing gets cut off. It's why I keep turning around. And four programs. And I read through for you what some of the programs were that are available in each of the buildings. So if you're looking at the data for the whole school year, preschool had four trainings and six programs. Havlin had five trainings
021and 12 programs for the kids. Mansion had five trainings and 23 programs. And the high school had nine trainings and 10 programs for the students. Um as far as emergency safety, etc., there's there's multiple factors involved. There's fire drills every month. Anybody who's been in schools for any reason, you know that every month they're required to have a fire drill. There's also a security drill each month. Um there's different things that have to be covered in security drills. They could be an active shooter drill, a lockdown, a bomb threat, a non-fire evacuation. Um all of those things are occurring at every building in Ottabon. Also, the emergency bus evacuation drills. We talk about this each time. Also, even though we are a all walking district, we are still required by law to have bus evacuation
022drills twice a year. All students participate in that at the high school, I believe it's the gym classes that go down and do them. Um, elementary schools, everybody does them. In fact, we lend our buses to Mount for them to do their evacuation drills because they don't have any buses. Um, the school bus evacuation is again, it's a code that we must abide by. Okay, it must take place twice a year at all the schools. The students have to board the bus. The attention is called to the location of the function of the emergency exits. Um, students practice exiting out the emergency door, the rear and the bus, the staff is there to assist. I don't know about you, it's probably the same drills that we did when we were in school when we had
023to do the bus evacuations. I don't think they've changed very much. So the commitment to school safety again this is the second report of this school year. So a lot of these things are repetitive. Uh we do have a vestable vestibule for guest entry at all four of our buildings. It is a highly secured system. Many of you have had to use it and know I have to tell you visitors from other schools. My mentor came over to visit me and was like could not believe with the printed out badge and having your ID and and the process. It really is a nice system that we have and it is used um religiously isn't the right word but it is consistently every uh secretary and everything. We don't let anybody in. Everybody is going through
024that system. Um that's the bicata system that clears um from their background slight you know just name check. We have a state-of-the-art camera system up and working everywhere. camera tracking, uh, weapon detection, window tinting, the library, we see it very nicely. And, um, the vestibule and the Havlin front also all have that. We also have a reunification plan that was worked on with multiple districts so that should we need to evacuate a district for a reason, there's a unified place for us to all meet together in the same plan. We also have a vape detector. Much to the students dismay, it does work. um items that we will be addressing. Uh preschool upgrades. Um some of these are already happened this summer, but it goes on my list for next year anyway. And an additional
025sign in entrance for Havlin. We're working on when they have their um assemblies and things and the parents need to come in. Having a second location with another verata and things of that would definitely um help with security with the number of people that are coming. Any questions on our again I go through it quickly because it's the same thing we do a couple times a year but any questions on the information provided >> that graph or that chart with the violence other that other is that chart >> is it mandated to look like that is the other always bothers me there's 60 other instances >> I know it is I am required to report it does have to look like that or can you expand on the others just so like we have visibility
026on what other means It does. Yeah, it doesn't have to be like that. That That's the categories they give me. I have the print out and I was I was going to total things up and and have them for you for that because I was curious what the numbers were, but it ended up being such I mean, uh, cell phone policy, disrespect of staff, violence of the cell phone policy, um, inappropriate conduct. It's really anything that's repetitive that gets to the point of being a suspension. That's what it ended up being. So there wasn't anything I was going to tabulate it but it didn't it wasn't fruitful when I started to go through the data and look at it. So I just didn't go that route. >> I think I ask this every time. Incidents
027could involve more than one person. Like this is a count of incidents and not count of students. >> Correct. >> Yes. So the like that said four fights there was like probably 10 students involved total but it was listed as four. Any others? Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss. Yeah, it's you again back to back. >> Um, so I wanted to give a shout out to Mr. Miller. Uh, he started new this year and inviting every new student that's coming into the building to come in for a personal tour. They were getting their Chromebooks, they got their loginins, they walked around, went over lockers, went over um the handbook, the rules, the the sports physicals. Um half an hour tour for each. At this point, we're at 88 tours that he's uh performed. Uh many
028of those were outside of our summer hours, just so you know. For administrators, we're working 7:30 to 2:30. He's here at 6:00 to 8 at night. He's here on the weekends. He's gone out of his way and above and beyond. That's not to say that we didn't have bumps in the road. As um Miss Cooland helped me figure out, some of the mansion parents weren't necessarily getting the email. Now Mansion has gotten a tour up here. They've been here, but the idea was for everybody coming into the high school to have the ability to have a tour. So, as it turns out, I think he had 20ome not positive the statistics, 20some mansion parents have come up and and students have done a walkthrough at this point, but to date, and it's not just for
029se sixth grade, it's anybody new that's coming into the district. And like I said, as of today, we're at 88. And he still does have a few more scheduled before the school year starts. So, for a brand new program, we're very, very happy with it. It's been very successful. I think there's nothing better than for them to have a firsthand meeting with the principal. It's just him. I mean, we had thought about him and the guidance counselor, whatever, but he took the ball and ran with it, and it's been great. I've seen him walking around with the people, giving them a tour. Just really exciting to see that happening. I also want to give a shout out. We had um Mr. Leb and Miss uh Novik um go to a training called Handler with Care.
030Um they were train the trainers. They actually went to full three full day training to be able to come back and turn key for our staff and our administrators. handle with care is um it's a process of deescalating when students are agitated getting ready to fight just you know within themselves whatever and it's a way to bring everybody back down to um accomplished state of mind. So they got some practices they trained the administration this week we have plans administration was when you can when can you train my staff when can you do workshops for me when can you so um they didn't really know what they signed up for and they came in this week and said that was by far of the things that they've been to in a really long time. They
031really really enjoyed it. They were very passionate in doing their presentation for us. It was a really really good experience and um I couldn't be happier that how the whole thing panned out. Um and then just one last thing is as we're wrapping up the summer, we've been doing weekly uh yes, weekly work sessions as an administrative team. everything from our strategic plan to um some of the goal setting for the for the buildings going over feedback and observation practices um use of AI all these different things we've been very collaborative we've done scenario team building things um problem solving things and it's been a great experience um they have mentioned that flat out when I gave them a schedule at the beginning of the summer of all the times I wanted to meet with
032them that they were terrified that they had too much to do but after each I've been doing surveys and they've been well received. They said, you know, it I didn't want to have to give up two hours, but that was very worth it. That was a really good workshop. So, I think we did a lot of professional development as an administrative team as well as team building. I think it was very eye opening the different things that people learned from each other, but they really did. And I think it it really helped build some new relationships and made people realize that they can tap into each other for some things that they wouldn't have necessarily tapped into each other for before. So, as we wrap up the summer, it's one of the things I talked
033to the board about that I wanted to do and I just want to let you know it did happen and I'm beyond thrilled with the results. >> Mr. Wilson, >> Miss Allen, the um tours that were given or Mount E from kids participating in that. Great. Excellent. >> Um we're going to move on with our approval of the board minutes. I have a motion to approve minutes for the July 16th executive and public session. >> Roll call, please. Alison Cox, >> yes. >> Mark Gaddy, >> Sarah Cen, Jonathan Maxim, >> Andrea Robinson, >> Bill Wilson, Amy Davis. >> I'm also going to as I was also absent. >> Motion pass. >> Thank you. All right. Next, we have our public participation session. Um, in order to save a little time, I'm not going to read
034through all the paragraphs here. Um, I would just remind everybody that this is public participation on items that occur on our agenda. So, if there is anyone who would like to make a public comment on agenda items at this time, we ask you to please come forward now. your name and your address. Okay, seeing that no one is rushing the microphone to speak, we will move on uh for with governance. Uh representing the governance committee this evening is uh Mrs. School. So, I'd like to recognize Mrs. >> Thank you, Mrs. Davis. I will attempt to film Miss Lipsky's shoes uh but probably not with near as much detail as she normally provides. Um so there are a lot of things on our agenda for tonight, a lot of policies and regulations. Um so one of
035the things that had happened is there was a change. Um the entire chapter NJAC623A fiscal accountability efficiency and budgeting procedures was recently revised and adopted by the state board of education. And so there are a lot of changes because of that new language that impact a lot of our policies. So probably for the next several months, we're going to have ongoing updates that are sort of clarifying language or putting those new statutes in there. Um so a lot of the ones on here there were no substantive changes to our policies um such as the um duties of the public school let's see duties of public school accountant revised legal services professional services those all had very little changes if anything um also internal controls um no substantive changes either uh administrative employment contracts um for
036polic 2422 statutory curricular requirements. Um they changed that policy. It used to have the title comprehensive health and physical education. Um and the biggest change is that it added a requirement to include information on the history and contributions of Asian Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders to the curriculum. Um policy 5339.01 Student sun protection is a new policy um concerning students use of sunscreen and sun protective clothing while outdoors at school and school sponsored functions. Uh the district can prohibit use of products that are harmful to students with asthma. So if there are some people with um spray suntan lotions and that exacerbates um other students respiratory conditions, we can prohibit the use of those particular products. Um or any products that present a nuisance to students and staff is the way it's worded. Um and staff
037are not required to help students apply sunscreen. So that was made very clear at the end of that policy. um policy 611 uh semi there was no substantive changes to the policy. The accompanying um regulation does have some some large changes to it um largely having to do with the fact that as a district we're required to um maximize our revenue available through the program. So, we need to see a 90% return rate of parental consent forms for those who are eligible for Medicaid and we need to budget 90% of the anticipated funds available. If we fail to do that, we are at risk of losing um funding. So, it's very important, but Miss Ron Casease and um Miss Bissinger are already quite aware of all of that and are following all those requirements as
038is. Um I think that was That was mostly the change for that. It also says that um any kind of Medicaid services have to be provided by professionals that meet Medicaid qualifications and there's lists of the types of documentation that's required to show that they meet those requirements which again is already being done in our district. Uh going back up to policies, the the remaining two policies or the 6220 there were no substantive changes. Um, regulation 1570, no changes. Uh, regulation 5117, interd district public school choice revision clarified that students coming from a send receive district are not considered choice students and that eligible students of choice students may be given preference in the application process. So essentially it goes through the process for determining what choice students we will accept which is largely a
039um lottery process but there are certain uh groups that we can give preference to such as siblings of other choice students um and it also provides clarification on how to handle the enrollment of non-resident children of teaching staff. So, you know, highly interesting if anyone wants to read it in detail, which I'm sure you already have. Um, and that's that's really it in terms of those policies and regulations. Any questions? >> Alan, do you have any? >> Just the clarification, couple things. Five 5339.01 says revised. That's going to be changed. It should say new. That is a brand new policy. That's a mistake on the agenda. U and then number three is a um policy that's being abolished. Uh I believe it already was but I couldn't find it on an agenda anywhere. So we
040wanted to make sure that it is I couldn't find it in our policy manual. So I think it's already been taken care of but it was a COVID related policy. And the only other thing I wanted to say was I really want to shout out to Allison Lipsky. She came in one afternoon to go over this with me and you can see the list of policies and regulations and that's not even all of them. Some of them didn't apply to us. So you had to take them out and her ability to read and understand a lot of this I am very thankful. >> All right. Um any questions, comments or discussion on nonaggenda items? Okay. I did have a couple of things um that fall under governance technically. Um, I just wanted to make sure
041that we all had a chance to take a look at the retreat notes that I shared with everyone. Um, superintendent goals. Is there anyone that had any changes or any comments to make on the retreat notes or the superintendent goals? Start with those two because if not, then we're going to go ahead and we'll put them on the September agenda for approval. Okay. All right. Um, next was the board of ed goals. Any comments, changes, or suggestions on the board of ed goals? We never really kind of buttoned up the idea for the policy review calendar. That was the only Did that come up in governance at all? >> Quite an agenda. Yeah. All right. Um, Maybe I'll leave that kind of like as as a future a future uh board of ed goal. Okay.
042And then the other item was the Mount Board of Education meetings. At our retreat, we decided that we were going to try to send a representative to each one of the Mount Board of Education meetings. Just to let you know, I reached out to their president, Holly. Um I didn't want her to be suspicious or wondering why all of us. >> Did you? Okay. Okay. >> Okay. Um I didn't want her to think it was odd or, you know, suspicious that we were, you know, kind of creeping in on their meetings. So, she was most appreciative and she thought it was a great initiative. So, they're really looking forward to seeing us there. So, um we did not, but that's also something. Okay. So, if you um have a chance to take a a look,
043you know, board is the same as ours. They haven't declared their meeting dates yet for January on, but you know, once they do their reorg and stuff, I'll I'll add those dates to the chart. Okay. Um, the other chart that was available, but some people said they had difficulty accessing this was the strategic plan uh update meet and greet with the board of ed. Did anybody have trouble getting in there? Okay. Okay. So, yes, you did. Okay. So, Alison So, just take a look at those dates. I know um sometimes it's hard to plan that far out. We're not sure what our family commitments and activities are going to be, but if you're able to pencil in, you know, if you might be available for those dates, an opportunity to have just four of us
044here, not a quorum, give an update on the strategic plan. Um, and then also kind of like an open meet and greet with board of ed members if any of the community wants to come and speak with us. Um, okay. Committee meeting locations. We're going to begin our tour of the district next month. Each one of our committees is going to be meeting at a different um building, different campus in our district. So that starts in September. So September, all the committee meetings will be at the preschool. Okay. Does everyone know where the preschool? No, just kidding. Okay. >> Very excited for you to see all the changes. >> Yes. We can't wait. And um Mrs. Cool and Mr. Steven Wilson and I, we kind of had like a little taste of that last night.
045We went to the ice cream social at the Havland Avenue School and it's it's just great to see like to actually, you know, these things and we see everything in writing, but to actually see like the garden and the playground and the trees that were planted, it's it's really great to see it in person. Um, we have our training with our field rep on October 8th. Okay. And that'll be at 7 o'clock. And is the final final strategic plan now up and available? And great. Okay. Oh, okay. I didn't know that, but I will look into that now. Okay. Absolutely. All right. Any other questions about those non-aggenda items? I'm sorry. I know that was a lot of >> Yes, Mrs. Cox. regarding April >> April the um October 8. Yes. >> Um the training
046is that here? >> Yes. Okay. >> The training will be here at seven. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Also, will those Google docs be opened up again so we can go in there? >> Yeah, 100%. I'm not sure why that was password trouble today. So maybe that was was why. But I will I will look into that. Yep. 100%. Okay. Uh moving forward then with governance. Can I have a motion on items one to three under governance? >> Roll call, please. >> Alison Cox. >> Yes. Gaddy, Sarah Coolen, Jonathan Max, >> yes, >> Andrea Robinson, >> Bill Wilson, Steven Wilson, >> Amy Davis, >> yes. >> Motions passed. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next, we have operations. I'd like to recognize Mrs. Cox. >> Mrs. Davis. Um, we did have our meeting uh August 5th. Um,
047our next meeting is September 2nd at Bond Preschool. So exciting. Um on the agenda, we had discussed the tax levy incentive that was approved. So that was uh good news. Um the title funds as of that time had not been announced, but you'll see on the agenda for approval number nine uh since our meeting they have come out. Um we talked about the preschool. It will be up and running for the new year. all the work that we had anticipated. Um the major work, all of that has been done and I would like to just extend a heartfelt thank you to our maintenance and custodial staff for making that happen reality. Um they did the lion share of the work. Um we still need some upgrading on the Wi-Fi, but uh they do have Wi-Fi
048now, so it won't be as upgraded, but that will be coming. Um keys. I I know I said last month that there's going to be online payment. It's not up and running yet, but it is to come ASAP. Um just takes a while to implement something, but it's going to be old hat once it gets done. Uh we had some discussion as we always do on new hires and salary requirements for some of the positions and all the staff that we know are going to be here are presently on the agenda for approval. Um we have continued to discuss the stipens a conversation about overloads at the high school and the schedule the numbers have decreased from last year and we also have discussed independent study uh received we have received the results from a
049testing on a room in Havlin there were no issues we discussed uh offering a self-funded vision plan that uh um yeah a self-funded vision plan that's item number on the agenda and there is a grant available for lights for our football stadium. Uh we're going to apply for the grant if we're awarded. We'll then discuss the parameters of it and all of that. But just to let you know that we're going to apply for it and see where that takes us. Um I look forward to those conversations. It'll be fun. Um then uh that was all our committee. And then the other items on the agenda that I've not talked about, uh you'll see the June board secretary report, cash cash reconciliation bill list and transfers, uh July and August bill lists, and the ESA
050consolidated grant for the 202526 school year. You're welcome. Anything to add to that? No. >> Okay. Good. >> All right. You got it all. >> Any questions, comments, discussion on non-aggenda items under operations? Mr. Wilson, Mr. Stevens, >> refresh my memory. The work that was done in the preschool. It was entirely done by the maintenance staff or were there outside contractors? >> Outside contractors for a few things. I think we had them laying the tile. They did some door work and contract shades, but the lion share the lion share was done by ours, but there were a few things that needed plumbers for the >> we saved money for that, right? Yes. >> Internally, so excellent job for that. >> I did have one more thing at our human resources last night. We were talking
051about operations and the padding on the basketball Just wanted it didn't come from our operations, but we know that discussion on that. >> One more thing about the vision plan. Uh just wanted to be clear that it's a benefit that we're extending to the staff. Correct. And there's no additional monies on the boards. >> Doesn't cost the board anything. We're making it aware we need a certain number in order to make it uh in order for the the not the for the plan to be offered. They need 10 employees to um make interest in it, you know, do an enrollment form for it to offer the program. >> That was something that teachers approached us about. >> Yes. >> Investigated it. >> Correct. >> Again though, the only I mean the payroll clerk, payroll specialist
052will be processing for items one through 10. Okay. Roll call, please. Sarah, >> Jonathan Max, >> yes. >> Andrea Robinson, >> Bill Wilson, Steven Wilson, >> Alison Cox, Amy Davis. >> Motions passed. Next, we have education. I'd like to recognize Miss Robinson. Thank you. Uh our last meeting was July 22nd and at that meeting we were presented with the amazing AP scores for the district. Um 100% of the students who took AP English composition got a three or higher which is considered passing and there were lots of other really good scores. Um we also looked at more of the NJ GPA data anal Um the new criteria for student of the month was presented and there's a different call it um character trait for each month. So foram example September is respect October is responsibility.
053So the students of the month will be picked based on those character traits. Um and then on the just this past week uh there were the ice cream socials at Havland and the preschool and for the month of August there have been kindergarten play groups on Thursdays and Fridays to get the kindergarters used to going to school um and meeting each other. So that I've heard really positive feedback about that. Um and people have been really appreciative of that opportunity. On tonight's agenda, there are facilities requests, field trip requests. The field trip request is a joint field trip with the seventh grade and Mount E from seventh grade, which I think is really cool. There's conferences and workshops to be approved, clinical practice experience, staff members who want their children to attend this district, transportation,
054um, a list of sites for the community based instruction. Um, the high school book list is on here for approval. The school health services orders, remote instruction, and new curriculum for the class called media technology is on the agenda and our next meeting is this coming Tuesday which is the 26 at 7 o'clock right here. >> Yeah, I know. I know. >> Thanks, Miss Robinson. Miss Allen, do you have anything to add? I I'm glad that you highlighted that the um field trip is a Mount Ephraim and um Ottabbon seventh grade field trip. It was asked at um some meeting. Those chaperones that are going there will be Mount Ephraim and Ottabon chaperoons as well as um Mike Hunter will be going as well. Uh but we're very excited. That's the beginning of one. It's
055in our strategic plan. Some of our it's one of my goals for the year, but it's already in motion and planning these things collaboratively. So that was just very exciting. Absolutely. All right. Any uh questions, comments, non-aggenda items under education. >> All right, then. Can I have a motion for items 1 to 14, please? Roll call. Oh, sorry. I I totally skipped that. I'm sorry, Mrs. Question on agenda item. Okay, so there are two. Um item number three, attendance at conferences and workshops. I was just curious um if there's So I know that the administrators have in their contract, you know, a certain amount of money to go towards the um different um continue education kind of things. I imagine that travel is outside of the amount that they're approved or is like I I
056guess that is a question that travel is included in the Okay. And then a question that I had was um is there I don't know if oversight is the right word, but when someone comes and requests a certain conference to go to, is there discussion about like is there um a way to get similar continuing education that doesn't involve going to Florida for four days or you know those kind of things just from a fiscal? Yes, they they usually contact me first and say, "Is this one that you would approve for me to go to?" Um, and it's not really C Cus like some things. It's really just, you know, for the school-based things. Um, so this one in particular, he's gone to security once for the last couple years. This one is more um
057actually it hits a lot of the targets that are on our strategic plan. So, uh, but they do they have a they can look anywhere they want, but we do have a conversation. They don't just put it in. There's always a conversation first. We look it over and talk about the viability of it and is anybody else going? Are you the best one to go? Should you be going alone? We do have that conversation. They're actually pretty cognizant and not many people take advantage of it. Yes, there are some administrators that go somewhere every year, but um part of the conversation I had with Mr. Burke today was for example, Mr. Lean and Miss Novik going to that training, they came back so enthused and so energized. Sometimes it's worth the money because they come
058back as a whole different person with ideas and they are required when they come back to give us something whether it's to the administration or to me or to their department that they learned from their training. They don't just go and come back and kind of like we did with the school boards. We asked everybody to come back and kind of give a report out. We do have something like that in place as well. >> Okay. Thank you. Um the other item is number 11 which is the school book. Um so this is something that I had kind of asked about last year and I don't know if there's any progress that's been made on that and that is um I had made a request to kind of identify what reading materials or curriculum materials
059might have um particular triggers from a trauma perspective um and had requested that teachers convey to the students and the parents anytime there was going to be potentially triggering material just to make them aware um of what to expect or things to look out for at home. you know, their students started acting a little bit differently perhaps after being triggered by something in the material. So, I was just wondering if you can provide any kind of update on on that process or very funny. Mr. Burke and I talked about this yesterday or today. Um, my daughter goes to school in Delran and her summer reading list was up. She just finally yesterday decided maybe she should start on it. So, we pulled it up and for each title it had a blurb underneath to the
060parents saying like this is um young young love and they will go as far as to talk about their first sexual experience. This one's very racist about a white supremacist. This one and I brought Mr. Burke down and said, "Check this out. I think this is really cool." And at the end they said it was from common sense common common media. So I had said something to him. I said, "This is what we talked about last year." He said, "Yeah, we have things in place. I don't know how far they went, but he's looking at doing exactly what Del Rand did and put the blurb and the links right there with each of the books so that they could have soar it would be more readily accessible. I think it's there, but it's not always
061there. So, we're going to try to find ways to make it a little bit more visible, a little bit more attainable. Um, I was really I didn't know the books and my daughter's like, "This one." I'm like, "Wait, I have this one in Audible. You can do this one." She's like, "Yeah, I don't like that one. I want this one." Um, but I'm reading all the little blurbs and it really was I'm not a literature person. I'm not a reader. I'm not whatever. And I'm not going to pick up all the books and read the back cover. So, this little blurby thing that was on there was it was perfect. is exactly what I needed before I'm going to get it for her. I'm like, "Oh, okay. This one's going to be talking about some
062Okay, now I know. Fine, I'll buy that book for you." But I wanted to know what it's about. And that was really, really powerful. So, I have a whole new enthusiasm towards it, but we did put some things in place. I don't know how much that carried through. I know somewhere, but we have some ideas now on how to take it the next step. >> Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Any other questions on agenda items under education? Now roll call, >> Jonathan Max. >> Yes. >> Andrea Robinson, Bill Wilson, Steven Wilson, Alison Cox, Mark Gaddy, Amy Davis. >> Motions passed. Okay, moving on to human resources. First thing I want to tackle are the two addendums that we have. So under uh human resources, we have a number 46 which is a motion
063to resend the authorized reappoint of the following part-time non-tenured aids for the 2526 school year in accordance with the negotiated 2427 contract between the Ottabon Board of Education and the Ottabon Education Association. recommendation of superintendent schools and that is for uh Miss Grimmie. And then number 47 is a motion to resend the authorized reappoint of the following parttime aid uh for the 2526 school year in accordance with negotiated 2427 contract between the Ottabon Board of Ed and the Ottabon Education Association at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools and that is for Miss Vich. So that is 47 46 and 47 under human resources. Okay. Um human resources committee we met last night and um I I think the main topic of conversation was the ever evolving and changing and shifting staffing situation. Holy smokes.
064Um and you can see that on the agenda. So um one of the um the greatest needs at this point is in the area of special education and instructional aids. Um we are in dire need of filling some of those positions. We kind of brainstormed some, you know, possible um other ways to do outreach. Mrs. Cox suggested in any communications shared with parents going forward, you know, to kind of put a little blurb that we're we're looking for um you know, aids uh in the district. somebody knows someone, someone themselves is thinking about coming back for some part-time work. And then um we also suggested maybe reaching out to the education association. Um again, that's another large pool of people that you know may have contacts, may have others that they can reach out to,
065people that might be looking for employment. In the meantime, we are going to be working with an agency short term to make sure that we stay in compliance with any of the IEPs that we have. Although even the agencies are shortanded. So it it is it is very difficult right now. Um and like I said, you can see that it's on full display in the agenda. Um on the agenda tonight, items 1 to 20 address staffing again for a variety of positions. Item 21 addresses voluntary transfers. Items 22 to 23 speak to the keys program. Item 24 addresses the cafeteria aids at Havlin and Mansion. 25 to 26 addresses our district substitutes. 27 to 28 addresses our coaching positions. Items 29 to 37 uh address a multitude of things. We've got our extracurricular contracts, preschools,
066um the safety team, the Havlin Green Hornets, the Havlin Mathe Math Maniacs Club, and the PBIS and team at Havland and the Havlin School Breakfast Proctor. Uh, items 38 to 42 address compensation for a variety of circumstances. Item 43 addresses compensation for advisors of students with an independent study that occurred last school year. Items 45 and excuse me, 44 and 45 address mentorship and teacher supports and as I mentioned 46 and 47 resend authorization of appointments. Um any questions on non-aggenda items under human resources? I did I forgot anything to add? >> So the addendum and the recisions are because we are moving a lot of staff around. We have had some par profofessionals that we've moved into secretarial positions. We've had part-time people that have moved into full-time positions. It's really great that we're
067promoting some so many people from within. Unfortunately, that makes new holes to fill that are still our holes to fill. But it is very exciting that we see people within the community that are moving up into um newer positions and we're very excited about that. >> Now, any questions for non-aggenda? >> Oh, you look like you were going to make a comment. Okay. Okay. All right. Can I have a motion for items 1 through 47 under HR? Any questions or comments on items 1 through 47 under HR? Mrs. Gulen, >> just curious. So, for those aid positions that are mandated by the IEPs, is there any room for moving other um par professionals who are not in special education roles into those roles? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. We prioritize the it's there's a
068list. We prioritize the one to ones and the two ones and things like that before we worry about structural things. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Roll call please then. >> Jonathan Max. >> Yes. >> Andrea Robinson. >> Bill Wilson. Steven Wilson. Alison Cox. Mark Gaddy, Sarah, and Amy Davis. >> Yes. >> Motion pass. >> All right. Um, moving on to our reports. It's lovely to see a completely empty HIV report. Um, and then our special programs. Mr. Wilson, anything for ED services? >> Nothing interesting or relevant to report about Ottabon. It's just routine business. >> Okay. Um county school boards Mr. Max. >> Okay. Thank you. Um Mr. Wilson, Mr. Steven Wilson, uh Education Foundation. >> Yes. So, uh we haven't had a meeting over the summer. We're having a meeting soon. Um, AF's going
069to be doing a new holiday program in December, uh, called Festival of Lights. I'll send out details as they get finalized, but it's kind of like a holiday fair sort of fundraiser. It's $10 per family. They're asking, that will obviously go to raise money for programming through AF. And the national, excuse me, night out races will be postponed till spring. >> So, it's normally in November, >> right? But with the lack of volunteers and support from the community as far as like doing the actual work doing an event in November and then December felt like much. So we're trying out something new um with the holiday thing in December and then night out races get pushed in the spring. No date for that yet but obviously I'll let you know. Um and then you mentioned
070it a little earlier. We went to the garden at Havland and it was beautiful and I saw that nice AF helped fund that. Uh so if anyone has had the opportunity or not had the opportunity to go check that garden out right now it's beautiful. There's zenas and cone flowers and herbs and pumpkins and it's like >> really cool. >> When my kids went there it was just like >> dirt. Let's be honest. My kids were there too. That's what we were saying. >> Thank you. >> Miss Slack actually reached out to me. We're going to work on um beautifying the web page. I actually sent an email out to the staff and asked if anybody had any projects that were funded by EF AF if they could send me some pictures. I've gotten some.
071I'm going to see if I can get some of the technologies fellas here full time. I want to see if we can do this something we can do to spruce it up, try to make it get a little bit more um make it more attractive, get more people involved. So u she and I are supposed to meet next week, do some brainstorming and see what kind of things we can do to try to community outreach. Um, in terms of recent events attended, Mr. Steven Wilson attended the the preschool's ice cream social on the 18th. Um, Mr. Steven Wilson, Mrs. Davis, and myself attended the ice cream social last night. Got to look around a little bit. Um, upcoming back to nights are um September 10th for Mansion Avenue School at 6:30. The high school will
072be the 11th of September at 6:30. Havland is the 16th of September at 6:30. And the preschool is the 18th at 6:30. I'll add all of these to the spreadsheet that I have for everyone in case you want to keep track of who's interested in attending. Um there's also some orientations and open houses coming up. So, the preschool has an open house on September 2nd from 1:30 to 2:30. There is going to be an orientation for kindergarten at Havland. I don't know the date for that one. Um, it's usually in the end of August. Mansion Avenue has an orientation for incoming third graders on the 26th at 6:30. And the high school has an orientation for incoming seventh graders. I don't know if it's for the ninth graders from Mount from as well or if
073it's just seventh grade orientation just it's on the 27th of this month. Um they have two sessions, one at noon and one at 6 pm. In terms of community events, there's going to be a wag and walk sponsored by Ottabon Veterinary Associates on September the 27th, which is a Saturday, also yard sale day if anybody's interested. Um at noon and they were looking So if we have interest in that, I can reach out to them about seeing if they would allow us to set up a table just to have that community engagement opportunity. Uh and then the Ottabon Police Department night out is Tuesday the 30th of September at 5:00 pm and I'll reach out to get a table for us there again just have opportunities for community connection >> and all of those I'll
074add to the as well. >> Um and then we did get note from the Ottabon. Oh, this is I I didn't read carefully. This is from the Ottabon Park celebration committee. Excuse me. Um they just said, um, "Thank you for participating in our parade. We love that you continue to support our town year after year. We hope to see you again next year." And it's from the Ottabon Park Celebration Committee. So, that was a nice little note thanking us for being in their fourth of July parade. All right. No trophy, but we get hot dogs, right? >> Yeah, it's a very short parade. Okay. Uh Mr. Gaddy, anything for ad hoc? >> Nothing to report. We haven't met recently. >> Okay. And uh Miss Lipsky is not here for board member orientation. Um kind of
075a side note for that. I know that the um Miss Lipsky did send out an email to the committee chairs. The committee chair people are going to be getting together to um talk about goals for the coming year. And I know um each one of the committee chairs is going to be reaching out to you folks as well to see if you have like three to five goals or three to five things that you think need to be worked on in each uh in each committee. And I know Miss Robinson's already on top of that. She already sent her did too. Oh, >> you had a meeting last night. Okay. Uh, next board member comments. Anybody have any comments to make about anything? >> Point out the um superintendent spotlight videos. It's they're coming so
076fast and furious here. It's hard to keep up with them, but they're great. It's a great addition. like to thank uh Mrs. Cox for uh filling in for me last month when I was on vacation. I really appreciated her taking the reigns and taking charm. No informal employee appearance. Sure. What's going on there? All right, we are going to go into executive session. Just want to go on the record. Um, just thanking all of our admins and thanking Miss Allen and our wonderful custodial maintenance staff for all the work that they did this summer to get our buildings ready to go, ship shape. Also, an advanced thank you to all of our staff. I know teachers and staff start their work well ahead of the first day of school. So, I just wanted to uh
077on behalf of the board of education acknowledge that work and uh wish all of our community, students, staff, um parents, and um administrators just a wonderful successful school year. So, having said that, uh may I have a motion to go into executive session? All in favor? Any opposed? action may be taken after. Thank you.