001There's some honestly Are you hot? I mean, >> evening everyone. Thank you for uh being with us tonight. Um we have a pretty comprehensive agenda with um some board members joining us, recognition everyone who um um has recently exited. Um a lot of good stuff first night. So we did open our meeting in executive session earlier tonight. So we will be starting with agenda item E the swearing in of our new board member. So Henry that I would support. United States.cation. I am not qualified. SK [Applause] I'm lying. Oh, wait. >> Yeah. Just right there. >> Yay. Thank you. What? >> Congratulations. Mccardi, it's a pleasure to have you with us and we're excited to uh work with you over for the bare minimum the next four months, but hopefully for uh the next four
002months and three years. So, thanks for being with us tonight. Um um since it is your first time um you will now that you're sworn in be receive all the communications from the board um primarily from Safana. We receive a packet um every Friday before board meeting since you didn't receive that being sworn in tonight. Um if you're comfortable voting on anything, you are most certainly welcome to cast your vote. However, knowing that you may not have all the background information, you're also welcome to abstain and that's totally understood given you're brand new to the table. But thank you for being here. I look forward to getting your >> um next student representative report. >> Good evening. My name is >> one second. I don't we already Yeah, we did that last time. I think
003we're okay. >> Sorry, Sandy. The floor is yours. >> Good evening. My name is Hire Andy and I am honored to be serving as this year's student council vice president. I'd like to share some highlights of what has been happening around the school. Starting with old business, on September 17th, we hosted our annual student council powder tournament with 10 teams competing. The event brought incredible energy and school spirit and it was a huge success. We also raise an incredible amount of $500. Our classes are also meeting daily in preparation for homecoming with hallway setup scheduled for October 19th. In addition, many of our clubs have officially kicked off the year and are beginning to organize fundraisers. Community support and donations are always greatly appreciated. Moving into new business, today marked the first meeting of Key
004Club and we're excited to see even more clubs launching in the coming weeks. class student portraits will take place during study hall on September 26th and September 29th and senior portrait retakes are scheduled for October 7th through October 19th. Looking ahead, our districtwide pinkout will take place on October 10th to support breast cancer awareness. Then homecoming spirit week begins on October 20th, leading to two of the most anticipated events of the school year. The pep rally on October 24th and the homecoming dance on October 25th. Tickets for the dance will go on sale beginning October 16th. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next item on our agenda is public comment. This is for agenda items only. Okay. Seeing no public comment, I will move on to agenda item H, recognition presentation. We have two items
005tonight. Um the first one is the recognition of Mr. Joe Dean for his service on the board. For any of you that Mr. Dean, why don't you join me up here, sir? So for any of you who don't know Mr. Dean, he faithfully served the board for um five years. Um along that time um several of us I think got to >> I mean you can make a speech if you want. Okay. Um faithfully service for five years and um it was great getting to uh serve with you and um getting to know you both as a fellow board member um but also as a friend um in honor of you tonight to our little nods. Um for those of you that don't know Mr. Dean and I I used to sit where Miss Fab
006was sitting and Mr. used to sit where the party was sitting and uh on the longer board meeting minutes or on the longer board meeting nights I'm sorry I would frequently bring a uh a large waw wa coffee and um get the nice nod from Mr. Dean. So I uh I have my uh coffee here in honor of you but thank you so much for your service. Um it was an honor to serve with you. Um district is great of your service. [Applause] I also wanted to offer that um Mr. Dean was the last hanger on. He was the last person that was here when I was here the first time around. So uh you made it the longest. You're the last one. I scared all. So, uh, you want to take a picture? Take
007a picture. >> Unless he wants to sit around the whole time, but he's got his kids. >> There he goes. Would you come over here? We'll take a picture and bring the kids to >> your friend. [Laughter] You would like the whole board to come up. >> Come on. tighten a little bit closer. >> One, two, three, No more. >> Thank you. All right. And we also have uh the presentation of our SLA test scores by Miss Louis Kenny. Miss Kenny floor is yours. >> Thank you. >> So you know testing is the uh vein and the bomb of the existence of school district because it marks our success and our reaches as we go through our school year. We have to do it. It's just saying exactly what it is. They really started the
008the SLA started up again in 2018 2019 and the the GPA we did in 2025, but it only started in 2022. They keep changing the graduation requirements. Um, in fact, this year's graduation requirements haven't been officially released because the last time they did it, they said it through 2025. I haven't said it yet. Um because we're on a block schedule um and we don't do an AP block. We do a fall uh spring block. Our uh testing scores sometimes are a little bit funky because it depends on what classes land in the fall and what classes land in the spring. Um they we always test our language arts because we always have language arts in both semesters. Um but we don't always have math classes in both semesters. So sometimes the the numbers look strange
009because you'll see one person or when students um get in, you know, we don't really we only had one student who actually did algebra 2 last year. The numbers came in kind of funky. Um so just you kind of have to take everything with a grain of salt when it comes to the reporting and the scores. The normal things are you can get up to five levels, but as far as it goes for the state, level fours and fives mean you are proficient. You're meeting proficiency. So when we get scored for QAC, that's what they are looking for. Um last when you're doing um the uh the QAC scoring, sometimes the test scores because we don't control them are what can really be very difficult. And we actually kind of had a back doorway last
010year. They allowed us to apply to the state based on our testing scores and instead of having our pure test scores, we chose to go for our growth scores, which is actually why we passed CUAC because our math growth scores were so strong because our especially our middle school math teachers do such an outstanding job with expanding um what their growth numbers are. So, I Actually, I'm pretty excited to share this year's results of everything with you. Um, when you're looking at this chart, this is just showing our school versus what the state proficiency was for 2025. So, the high school in math was a little bit lower. Um, but the middle school, I want everyone to hear this, was above in math. All three grades. They hit it. It was beautiful. Um, McFarland was
011above. usual above. Um we in fact when you're talking about um ELA this one in here um we met or exceeded the state proficiency in three four five six seven and eight in ELA. So if you're looking at everything for ELA our overall proficiency is 56%. We had a 6% growth last year in ELA which is pretty high. Um, we've been worried for a long time about our scores. So, this is just a plot showing the scores from 2022, 23, 24, 25. And you can see where the different ranges are. But again, I just want to draw your attention to looking at the gray bars in six, seven, and eight. And see how strong they were last year. Really incredible. This is the ELA. This is by school. Um, It's just showing where their scores
012are each year. Um, you can't always norm the scores every year because the test changes every year. So, it's not always fair to compare last year's score to this year's score to next year's score. It's more of an even comparison when we do against the state average because you see how all the other students in the state are doing it. But this is just a chunk so you can see where um we've performed year by year for that in the ELA. Um for the proficiency when you're looking at the ELA, we had the map before. I want you to also look at where the high school did with ELA. The high school significantly above the middle school hit right on it. And this is something that we have been working and working and working at
013for a very long time. Super successful. Farland was above. Peter Mel was above. We did really, really great this year. I'm so proud of the students and the teachers in our school district for this year. When you're looking at math, we had a 52% overall proficiency, which was a 3% growth from next year from last year. Sorry, not next year. And again, here's a nice chart of looking at where the scores are. But look at the middle school right there. Last year, uh, the math proficiency in the middle school was 43%. This year it was or the year before it was. Last year 62%. So extraordinary growth. They really, really, really worked hard to get all of those scores. And again, looking at your gray bars where we have been working hard to achieve everything.
014Six, seven, and eight is above everything. And in fact, almost everything. And again, algebra 2 is kind of in his his notebook um because it's not statistically um the same amount of students as everything else just because of how we work on the block schedule. Um but you can see that steady growth and application. Everyone did so well last year. Um science is a bit of a mystery because the science has actually been um not accepted well by the science community and the science teachers in the state. However, that being said, we uh did great improvements on it when you're looking at how we did. Um fifth grade we went down a little bit. Eighth grade we went up and 11th grade we went up significantly. So that's a pretty good slice there. Um, comparing
015ourselves to the state, the high school is above, the middle school was above, McFarland was above, and Peter Mushel was above. So, we are above everybody statewide for science testing, even with this awkward science test. So, our teachers really spent uh a lot of time trying to prepare students not for the content, but to make them be aware of testing and testing protocols. Some of the that we did last year that we talked about before is that we get a lot of social emotional learning. We do a lot of responsive classroom in the elementary. Um we do summer before and after school program for our at risk students. We do very targeted intervention um for our basic skill students, for our ML students. But the K5 elementary redistricting, one of the primary reasons why it
016was so strongly advocated by the administrative team was to get all of the schools grades in one place so that our curriculum can be delivered evenly and so that we can even out the ums and the have nots across the district in one place. It's one of the absolute benefits of what we've got. middle school considerations and endeavors. Again, based on last year, we had been doing restorative justice. Last year was the third year in the grant that we had been working. We again, last year was the last year for implementing the lifelines. We invested a lot of time and energy in social emotional learning and we're seeing the payoff now. So, we still have these areas. We still have the Bobcat D. We have students who are in need in the middle school. They
017have a place that they can go. But I really want to draw your attention. One of the things that they did last year was the supervisor of literacy and the supervisor of mathematics did very specific test practice. It's not what was on the test. They just created something so the teachers could take the students through the action on the Chromebook. Because what we had found, and we've talked about this before, is we had students because they didn't have mice, they wouldn't click the next part on the test. So, we were trying to just ameliorate any of those problems by giving them familiarity with the test, not content because they got the content in the classroom, but the comfort with that and we the payoff was in spades. We saw it. Um, we also have uh
018pushin support. The tier 2 support happens at the middle school. The middle school also has library access throughout the school day. That's something that we've even with all of our craziness. This year we're working again um on this year to uh have happen. These are just the graduation requirements. Again, 2026 is not quite out yet, so it's the same as last year so far. Um high school considerations I talked about at the beginning. You know, sometimes we might have all honors classes at one time, and that tends to skew what types of uh scores that we get versus proficient, highly proficient um in fall versus spring. But it it's all a wipe in the end because we even out um and we're going to get to our graduation proficiency. The NJ GPA just talks about
019students. Are they graduation ready? Are they not graduation ready? Our numbers didn't particularly change. much from last year. But um what I did for you is I created a uh comparison. So the four bars on the left hand side um or the two bars on the left hand side go uh 2024 to 2025. That's us. And then the other two are the state. Um so we're pretty much in line with the state when it comes to just overall graduation ready. And then it's broken down into subgroups. And you'll see that we have some subgroups where we really do have work to do inside the district. We need to pay very close attention to what we're doing with these students. Um we have significantly more last year females who are graduation ready than we had males
020graduation ready. If you look at we had a higher population of white students who were graduation ready as opposed to um lower numbers where we're seeing in African-American, Hispanic and that's going to change um moderately based on um what economic background because sometimes there's cross population with those areas and we're going to see right here we have students with IEPs where you have graduation ready not graduation It is um not remarkable to have students who have disabilities to not be graduation ready. Um we have alternate avenues of being able to graduate and different avenue ways that we can um assist students this way. This is why students have individual education plans so that we can help them uh get through their uh year. um students without IEPs we have was 86% and students who have
021504s which means that they have some kind of major disability that the school has deemed they need assistance with. So um that means they get an accommodation. So it might be extra testing time or um some other need that the school determines that they need to help them through. Uh 75% of those students were found on this test as graduation ready. Um more concerning ones that I really want us to pay attention to is that our students when we look at just economically disadvantaged students, 64.9% of our economically disadvantaged students are graduation ready and 35% are not. So if we're looking at a focus of one area from this entire presentation, that's the one area that I think that the district needs to invest uh time and energy in is why we have the disparity
022and what we can do to address the disparity. We do a lot of you know titled at risk programming. Um but I would like to see more success in this and see more growth in this area as we go up. Um graduation ready for math. We just we talked about the math scores already. Um and this is just looking at gender subgroups for math more. This is pretty in line with um American statistics. More males were math ready and um ethnicity. This is also in line with what you see with the United States. We're not too off the state average. And again, um subgroups, economic subgroups, we the same see the same reflection in ELA that we did in math. And again, something pay attention to. Um this is the overall kind of like the
023the meat of the moments. We had 170 students who graduated last year. We had 41 students who graduated under substitute competency test. So they, you know, went through a different avenue. They may have gone through their SAT scores, their PSAT scores, which means they didn't have to go through it or they didn't through their ASBATs. Um we had 33 students who graduated with a portfolio appeal process. That's something that really does help our students with disabil Um, we also had students who graduated using alternative requirements as very specified in their IEP. We usually talk about those students when we um are doing the DLNs. We did have three students that just didn't make it through graduation last year. That was mostly just credit and attendance um not skill. We have been working pretty hard with
024trying to get our students into school and into class. And that is something um that kind of into what have we been doing with secondary school. As you saw last year, we were doing mice. We practicing with the Chromebooks. We're starting to bring in the MTSS, the multi-tered system of supports. Um, this year, BRMS has begun uh an RTI MTSS program for students in math and students in ELA. Um, and the high school is doing some specific MTSS math to support seniors. We see this as um a strong element. We're going to continue doing it. Let me give you an example of what happens. So, we we uh pulled senior teachers at the end of last year who had students who were on the edge of graduating, but they were having they were they were
025struggling with their math classes. And we pulled those students into specific tutoring sessions to try and make sure that they could graduate. Um, and that tutoring was a great success. It really helped. And that's kind of what MTSS is, is finding the students who are at need. And it's really a variety of reasons because it can be that, you know, they have uh family trauma going on or they're working. There's there's so many different areas that can happen, but we opened that to those students and it helped a lot of them um just pull themselves out and not have to worry about that last second scramble to get to graduation. We still do the zen den. We still have the strong lifelines program. Um, and just as part of our strategic planning from last year,
026the year before, you recall, we um work on all of these secondary uh considerations. Last year, we changed how we do the course presentations for our eighth grade parents. So, we're trying to get them to understand exactly how the scheduling process does, what classes you can take, um, and moving all of those elements. This comes right out of our strategic planning. Um, We want a student centered classroom. We want critical thinking students. We want academic independence, civic awareness. We want to see technology into our instruction. And we want to support our students based on their individual needs. And so proud of our middle school and all of our teachers and they did a great job. [Applause] >> Thank you, Miss Kenny. I will hold it out to the board if there's any questions for this
027report. >> Um I just have one. How do we determine economic disadvantage? >> Um it is by free lunch. So it's based on what the state requirements are. So our students who will qualify for title one as the ones who have their application on more. >> Absolutely. And we always do to be honest because we try really hard to reach out to get people to make the application but they don't always do. So >> I have a question about not that report but if I can about this year because we just got the testing schedule and now we have the the field test for the fall. Um, so is that those tests? I'm assuming that's like it seemed like it was like like they're trying it out. Is the fall like for like like for
028instance the fourth grade this year is going to take a fall as well as a spring and like will those fall um scores count as well as the spring or just the spring since it seems like it's like a trial. >> So generally when they're field testing something the scores don't actually when it comes to readiness and graduation readiness um or and it doesn't count in our QAC scores. U you reminded me of something else to say. I know that we had some questions about the actual score reports for testing this year. So, we just got the individual ISRS in like two weeks ago and because we had a change in our district testing coordinator that that's all going out school messenger in like the next five days um from uh Mr. Zavo to all
029the parents. anyone who if they say to you, I haven't got those scores yet, they're getting them because they were just um Mr. was just working with them to get all the Adobe to make sure they didn't get the PDFs of the scores. Um but the answer to your question is it's not uh they're not help. >> Yeah, >> the state requires a lot of things that not >> Can I ask The other um thing that was on there was like PA I don't remember that but it was like in January or March and it was like if your school is chosen do we is it on there because our school was chosen I don't know what that was so I just >> Oh the letter >> follow to those that ma meet don't meet
030the math requirements and then there's alternative categories. So when like I know my daughter didn't pass it, but I know others that hadn't and then they're selected for say the the tutoring option, right? But when that letters gets when that letter gets sent out and we know these 10 students did are not beating the math requirement, are they are their files looked at to say, "Oh yeah, they did because they did the PSAT or they they did score high in SAT so that the parent knows and they're not like out that the child isn't going to graduate, but it's identified in the if it's a form letter or another letter that says, "Oh, but >> so yeah, the counselors go through all that." The MTSS program that I was talking to you about is one
031that we the counselors all spoke to the student and the parents about it to ask them to invite because we actually had students and parents decline to participate in it but we made sure that both were aware of this opportunity to do so. Um you know when a student um does not have the opportunity to graduate because of testing there's usually different rounds of retesting and a number of different happened before we got into that. >> I can You're referring to the NAPE. >> Yeah. Now, the Nape's a the NAPE's actually a federal uh clearing house of information. So, it's it's basically how we compare uh New Jersey versus California, Louisiana, all these different states. No, no, it it's it's it's forced volunteerism and that um if you're one of the luckily luckily selected people
032to take that or districts to take that test, then you're required to take it. We don't know that requirement as as of now. Well, eventually they'll notify us, you know, which they might say we need one class of fourth graders or your whole fourth grade class or something like that uh to take a name for social studies, you know, they'll pick a specific test and other districts will get different grade levels, different tests, but we don't know if we're taking that. >> Yeah. And I don't think we've been for a number of years. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay, having finished business, we move on to agenda item. It's the consent agenda with motions 1 through five. I will ask for a motion to open discussion. >> Thank you, Miss N. >> And that's all.
033Thank you. Discussions consent agenda 1 through five. >> Discussion, please hold. >> Mr. James, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Estee. Thank you. >> Thank you. And there are no reports from committees. So that will put us on the agenda item L superintendence report one through four. Dr. You want to speak beforehand? >> Just a just a couple of what your motions are. Um the the sidebar was to create uh equal head coaches for boys and girls bowling since they are separate teams as to having as opposed to having what we currently have as a head coach and assistant coach. Um it brings us in line with um uh title N. But it's also the right thing to do. Two different teams should have two different head coaches.
034um the the graduation results we have to acknowledge that part of the reason we did this uh presentation today as opposed to in October when it's often given um is that there was a requirement that by October 1st we present the graduation results the last part of Miss Kenny's um presentation so that's just recognizing that they were presented and then finally we have a school calendar and this is also based on testing the the high school was just notified that um the seniors were excluded from a certain test So, um, rather than try to run standardized testing in our high school and then have the seniors like sitting in the cafeteria or something like that, what we've done in the past, and unfortunately it's it's last minute because we were just notified, is that we'll
035bring the we'll actually run the buses twice uh that morning and uh seniors will get a two-hour delay that day. So, that's that's we are changing the calendar, so we need board approval for that. >> Thank you, Dr. So, for a motion to open for discussion. Superintendent 1 through 4. Thank you. >> Miss discussion on L4. >> What's the date of that change? >> I'm seeing no further discussion. Go ahead. >> January 30th. You said the third >> January 30th is also red in January. It is red, too. >> I'm color blind, so I don't see red literally. So, >> yes, I have a heck of a time for this stuff >> because it's only the number in red. >> And then it's red on the calendar. I I just think that's unless that's >>
036so the the calendar published on our website also has it read and the description there >> BRHS uh half yeah half day it's it is the same on the website the current >> yeah we need to even like the meeting and that's still Thank you. Good catch. >> See no other questions. >> Yes. Thank you. >> There's something listed in their announcements, but did you have anything else to add, Dr. Forel? >> Really legitimately brief this time. >> Um uh so yeah, I've been working with um we we're uh I know we had a conversation about the ambulances and the football games. I think we're pretty much resolved on that that um Mr. Lazo has been an email. We've been kind of in communication the past couple weeks just kind of trying to make sure
037we all understand it. I mean it it is what it is and quite frankly we've made the decision that because Robert Wood Johnson actually has a pretty wonderful response time seven minutes you know from Robert Wood Johnson but we've just decided to air on a side of caution and going with the the committed ambulance there um for the football game. So that's why we have that we've incurred that you know this is big but it's not a you know even in these tough economic times it seems like it's a worthwhile thing to to encumber. So, so we're going to keep doing that. And um and you know, it's good to know that ambulances are that close that we don't have that much of a time time lag, but I'd rather have zero for now. So,
038we're just going to stick with that. Um the last two things just is basically a sales pitch. Not a sales pitch. It's a we're hiring. We need aids. We don't need aids. ESS needs aids, but um we have a number of aids vacancies right now. And we could bolster our um transportation numbers. also people with CDLs. So if anybody knows anybody with CDLs, we're hiring even for substitutes. You know, they work every day, but um you we've already had our director uh had to do had to drive for two separate days and we're only 15 days in. So um so but when she's out driving on the bus, she's not there answering phones and you know solving problems and all those kinds of things. So um they're the two areas and they're the two areas
039where we really didn't make any um financial reduction. We didn't cut transportation at all because we just can't. But we just also got to fill the fill the voids right now. Our we have all the drivers in. We've just had a couple people who've been out and um and we only have two substitutes, I believe, as as of right now. Um and our aids, we we still have over a dozen vacancies and um we just need to get them filled. We just we need to come into compliance. And it's not for lack of trying. We interview everybody who ESS sends us. We're now re reach out to different agencies for aids, but it's just become a problem that we're just unable to to get people who are willing to do that right now. So, if
040you know anybody who's looking for something to do, um send them our way. Even if it's for an aid, we'll send them to ESS. We'll we'll we'll broker that. You know, send it to me, send it to Mr. Messenger, uh and we'll um we'll make sure that the contact information because we need bodies right now. We need people who are committed to this. And that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. We're now moving on to agenda item N curriculum. It's motions 1 through eight. As for motion to open, thank you. >> Second >> and this man. Thank you. Any discussion? >> Mr. Mr. James. >> Yes. Miss, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Miss Nazi, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Ma, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> We're
041now on agenda item N, personnel report. It's 1 through 16. I will ask for a motion to open. Thank you. Discussions on personnel discussion. Please hold >> Mr. Jones. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> Miss man. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. >> Miss. >> Yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> We're now on agenda item O, business finance items 1 through eight. Motion to open. >> Thank you. >> And I discussions on business finance 1 through eight. Henry, please call the board. >> Miss McCarti, >> Mr. James, >> yes. >> Miss Black, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Ma, >> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Uh, we do not have anything listed in policy for
042tonight. So, we will move on to agenda item two, public comments. The public should be reminded that they should attempt to follow and only bring things before the board um after all those venues have not produced results. We do not have anyone signed up. Is there anyone wishing to speak up? Okay. Um I will now open yours. Um, so I just have two questions. Um, I was curious about where we're at on the retaining wall like sidewalk area. Um, and also wanted to find out what was happen. >> Yes. Um, I should and it's funny you halfway through like after I spoke and this I'm s oh we had that meeting today I should have mentioned that. So with respect to the rotating wall we met with the architects and the um successful contractor today
043we had a virtual call so Miss Henry and myself and um our director of facilities. So yeah it right now they're they're um they're picking the color of the brick and all that kind of stuff getting ready to start. Uh permits have been filed. We're waiting for the next set of permits to have to come through. Um, and they're doing a walk through next week because now we're planning on where like, you know, their equipment's going to be going because parking is a premium in here. Um, you know, like where we're going to put different different parts that are going up to it. So, I I don't know. They're they're not going to start for a few more weeks. I'm correct considering right, but uh but they're doing their walk through next week. They're planning
044everything out, plotting it out. Um, you know, there going to be communication with nextdoor neighbor just so he or she's aware of what's going on um with the um not the we call it the >> change. Thank you. I I my understanding. >> Yes. Currently um the board city is asking for a bid requirement. It's a little bit more um convoluted than what we thought. I initially I think sent an email to the sponsor saying that um they require concrete slab and that will be additional cost. So we are going out for quotes for that and know that concrete slab would be um he did mention that it is a dangerous um situation that's why they wanted to make sure that the engineer look at the installation of this gazebo um if there's a heavy
045wind or storm. His concern is um that it would be more detrimental to the district. So they wanted to make sure ensure that all safety measures were taken care of before they for [Music] >> it was almost the same. I think um when we looked at it they were saying that the permit is prevented by the city. So regardless what Bill Brown said the city said this is what is required and once they did that direct facility had to reach out to our engineer to make sure that they are able to be all the parts that the city requires for the permit. So that's kind of where it landed. Although we did our research and we thought it was okay, they said no, it's not. It's going to be very strong. >> I hope. Well,
046I hope not, but I I I say I hope not with the full hope that I hope you're resurfacing the engineers. >> Yeah, but the cement slab, I would think. Um, >> well, I don't I don't know if if they're going to butt up to that. Yeah. Where the >> No, I'm sure they're going to carve out carve out the asphalt and put the in there. But whether that's going to come out later on or not, I don't know. >> The whole reason was because they were afraid as >> well that's why I always said that not to do it because it's not condition for it. I recommended to the board that that should not happen because of the state that these um playground aspires in. So the city just reconfirmed some of the concerns
047I had in reverse that saying that if they wanted to um they have seen um in other I guess circumstances where these types of shades have been dangerous to not necessarily school but I guess other facilities cost and we've already told the parents that this is kind of like our Sorry, we took out those trees, but we're going to give your kids shade. Oh, >> well, let's see when the permit comes through. I I mean, I'll give it another week or two, see where where they come with the permit because, you know, we can go from there with the cement part of it. Um, and we have actually working with Lisa who's working with Tom. >> Thank you. Um, now we're selecting the types of trees. There's a certainty and he knows everything about Like
048the main concern of doing this kind of quickly was >> to get it. Luckily, it hasn't really been hot, >> right? >> but next spring, >> it's going to get hot. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Follow off that. Um, what about the cement? >> Oh, that that was the first thing. That's what the meeting was today. >> Oh, I was calling that sidewalk. Okay. because we're doing that, you know, where the trees are. Well, because I saw the architects out there the other day and I was like, >> "Yeah, that would be to be >> I was asked to be on this that nothing on the board. Um it's called women of impact and they raised money they basically give their own money to organizations and needs specifically within board city and they came and um
049I don't know if anyone's heard of in shine and inspire um it's a nonprofit organization based out of Mercer County that sets up needs closets in schools and so for displaced obviously and children and they work with the school nurse or counselor or principal and schools apply to be to get a closet and then um basically it's what shine and um inspire because we shine you up a little bit and you go inspire what are you going to do and so the only thing the schools have to give back for having this closet is that they agree to pay it forward and whether that's like painting rocks and leaving them in nursing homes or writing letters to troops or doing is teaching kids that people give to you, you give back and obviously it's not
050giving to every kid either and they don't even know why they're doing it, but just to come up with some kind of small service thing that the kids take ownership of and give. And so they came to me and asked if I would come to the board to see if this was something that well first they asked me and I went just to the counselors and nurses and just ask like is this something that you think would even benefit our students? do we have a big enough population of displaced students that a closet in each school or one school or one central location went up and of course they all said yes our displaced population has grown recently um the amount of kids that just are in need of basic supplies and things like that
051is growing and that they thought it was a good idea and so um they normally only do this group does things in the city but I because I said we no longer have city schools it would have to be a districtwide whether it's just elementary and intermediate level or all five schools. And so basically my question is to you guys is if this is something that you would want to pursue because I know I'm assuming it would have the donation would have to be approved and they this um they're in through the PTO. So because they be donating to the school >> because the PTO all our money goes to the school, >> right? But anytime we're doing anything physical >> like a but a closet is different, right? I mean that's it's like if
052you wanted to put sponsored I don't know. >> Well, they said like even like sometimes it's like two shelves with the nurse's office or something in the secretary like it's just like a place. They use the word closet because that was like the big deal. Like Tryon District has literally in their central office a room of stuff like they they disperse it to like um and a lot of times an administrator is taking charge of it. So, I didn't know if it was something like that has to be approved or if it's okay for the individual schools to apply >> um or fine as taking it on, but I didn't want to do it if it was going to be like donations and you can give that information to us and then we are having
053leaders meeting tomorrow. >> Okay. Yeah. And tell them that the PTO is definitely willing to >> Well, they think I was Well, no. I mean our school like the school tell the admin that you know >> this isn't something that you that you're going to be like okay now another thing that's dropped in your >> No. So what happens is actually this the the organization goes out then and so once like say Claire Barton applied for the closet and they got approved then the organization finds a local business that then sponsors that closet and they take care of like restocking it and reaching out to the nurse and the nurse says you know what we don't really actually need a whole lot of hygiene supplies but we need our acne gift cards or what we
054need our our lunch boxes and shoes and winter coats and so they handle all of that. that comes out of the administrative anyone. It's really was them identifying then the students that that need it. Um so I thought it was like no brainer. >> I would agree. Yeah. I would >> fantastic. >> Yeah. I just had stuff. I I'm familiar with Hamilton because I worked in Hamilton and I know that we've had those. I didn't know. >> Yeah. This would be their first time in Burlington County. They've only been in Mercer County. They were I'm like so they were willing to bridge over. Okay. >> I just want to let you guys know. Thank you. >> Yes. I just want to point out and I'm very happy to see that we are starting to record
055our sessions. Um that was one thing that I on my personal agenda wanted to see happen before the end of this year. So um just wanted to clarify if anybody wanted to go back to see the recordings, they can go on the website. >> It'll be on a different website. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Is it always going to be at the back of our heads? >> Your seat. It needs to move around. >> Okay, we'll just update the public um real quickly on the superintendent search. So, the board has um reviewed. We received 21 applications. Um we have uh we met tonight as a matter of fact to go through and review those applications and make selections for first round interviews. So that process is complete. Um the next steps are we conduct
056that first round interviews and move forward through the process. So um just to keep the public informed about what's going on there. Um we are moving forward with looking for our next uh permanent superintendent. As much as I enjoy working with Dr. love to see as it's not really not really an option. So, um if there's nothing further from any of the board members >> and Mr. Jens, thank you. All in favor? >> We are closed. Thank you everyone for your time today. Welcome to the club.