001thank you all right good evening everybody and welcome to our Board of Education meeting this evening I'm going to start off with some administrative items and then we're going to get right to my favorite part meeting which is recognizing so far as Navy students and Educators so let me just start with uh noting the New Jersey open public meeting law the right of the Public Defense um in accordance with provisions of this act the Board of Education policy zero one six two the Board of Education Department office and down for high school and mail quarterbacks to the careers and any person who has requested individual notice and pay the requirement please stand for the pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it
002stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice thank you okay Mr Dorsey can we do it yes sir here that's awesome here this casino yeah it's Lima Mr Zucker here it's a big house and Mr Januzzi here board president you have a quorum presence this evening sir and we're moving right along why don't we talk about the students okay next up our students thank you everybody for coming at this time call Dr dress up to announce our students of the month for the line in the Miami good evening um congratulations to Valentina Magilla Lopez foreign her favorite school subject is she was to pretend play and playing in the kitchen in the dramatic play center Valentino loves to play at home with her dolls and spending time with her brother she wants to
003become a bigger and she wants to become a doctor while Latina has been chosen a student of the month for all the wonderful girls she has accomplished this year she's always tries her best as an amazing and kind friend to her classmates congratulations Valentina foreign [Applause] the way there you go [Applause] congratulations um congratulations to the annex student of the month Victoria Flores um Victoria's in kindergarten class and Mrs fronseca's class um Victoria's favorite subject is singing in music and math um favorite hobbies to play with my little brother and her career plan to become a police officer congratulations Victoria [Applause] thank you congratulations Victoria [Applause] so tonight I have the special honor um to announce that we have two siblings receiving student of the month from Lafayette school first civil sibling is um Stevenson
004and it Mrs Velasquez class Stevenson's favorite school subject is math his favorite hobbies is play tag with Jefferson and Clay Simon Says in career plans is to be a teacher or a football player congratulations Stevenson foreign [Applause] thank you congratulations to Jefferson Palacio Martinez um Jefferson loves math he has a strong understanding of place value which is Cool Math favorite hobbies is play soccer and Roblox career plans which episode grows up he wants to be a professional soccer player for Barcelona foreign [Applause] mm-hmm congratulations good evening our third grade recipient of student of the month is Reagan Smith Reagan is in in Miss Pellegrino's class and she loves music and men and she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up [Applause] our recipient for the fourth grade student of the month is Solomon
005Suarez Diaz's class he has one sibling older Daniel Suarez Pena his favorite subject are math and music he likes the rollerblade impact is English and he would like also like to be a Veterinary he throws up [Applause] our fifth grade recipient is Carlos he has two sisters and one brother his favorite subject is Matt he likes to play and he's on a team currently and he wants to be a soccer player but he's very smart and has a backup plan of being a chef congratulations [Applause] thank you congratulations [Applause] thank you thank you [Applause] our sixth grade student of the month is uh he is his class his favorite subject is social studies his hobbies are playing video games just like mine and he wants to be an engineer when he grows up congratulations [Applause]
006thank you [Applause] okay yeah Reagan just walked there can you please come up to accept your Awards um [Applause] hello everyone the Community Middle School is proud to recognize as student of the month Damaris gyro Damaris was nominated by her social studies teacher Mr Heiser Damaris has two siblings Willie and Isaac and favorite subjects are science and social studies of course with Mr Heiser uh favorite hobbies is doing they're doing her own makeup and career plans is to be a zoologist and photography congratulations to Mars foreign Middle School is also proud to recognize ernestina Reyes Cruz Ernest ernestina was also nominated by her social studies teacher Mr Bender uh ernestina's favorite subjects are language arts and hobbies backgrounds discovering new music uh ernestina plays the flute and enjoys reading a good book career plans are
007in the medical medical field as either a doctor or a nurse congratulations Ernestine foreign [Applause] okay next up my high school all right good evening everyone all right so the Crusaders citizen of the month award is in recognition of students demonstrating positive Crusader citizenship traits such as responsibility respect kindness Integrity cooperation tolerance and perseverance our first recipient Cheryl castillon [Applause] thank you foreign Cheryl has four siblings Irvin Brandon Carlos and Solano our favorite subjects are English and science interactions her favorite hobbies are watching Netflix especially criminal justice documentary so I do as well right there with you and her career plans are getting to get into college for criminal justice um and ultimately her goal is to become a police officer so congratulations [Applause] not present today but our next recipient is Aileen Valverde uh
008has two siblings Monica and Jeff uh Alvarado our favorite subject is biology her favorite hobbies are playing softball and reading and her career plans are to be either a nurse or a teacher [Applause] all right our next recipient is your friend and mine Sir Anthony Chavez Anthony has one sibling Christopher Chavez his favorite subject is modern world history just a note uh he was inducted into our you know a girl row cat the social studies Honor Society [Applause] the modern world history is his favorite subject favorite hobbies are writing reading and walking uh his career plans are to attend Raritan Valley Community College After High School and then plans to transfer to a four-year college or university thank you foreign [Applause] all right and lastly our final recipient is Elijah Stackhouse Elijah has four siblings
009two twin sisters an older sister and a little brother his favorite subject is physical education he enjoys playing video games and helping the people around him his career plans are going to a trade school to become a carpenter foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign thank you why are you doing it okay folks everybody come on in together here gather up get close get to know your neighbors this is the community you building exercise I'm gonna need another rope no table there we go thank you sir um [Music] here we go all right everybody everybody thank you I think we're good here we go everybody one two three Pizza tacos and salad thank you thank you congratulations right there got it thank you folks everybody [Music] [Applause] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign
010at it thank you thank you thank you thank you congratulations congratulations how we will do the presentation I can I can give you a mouse that's okay I could just step over yeah [Music] put that on the shirt s it's just one step s foreign thank you okay I'm gonna give the NJ gtpa now to the board please excuse my back facing this way so the NJ GTA last year was the first year it's a New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment last year was a field test this test was for high school only with this screen basically says is that the graduation proficiencies assessment last year did not count for our current seniors so all of our seniors are way through the assessment requirement they were all fine in that area once they get there 120
011credits um they're they're going to be eligible for a diploma however our junior class unless this year is another field test which it doesn't appear that that's the case our junior class will have to we'll have to pass this as the first pathway towards their assessment requirement typing bullet for this the MJG pays the first pathway towards graduation the second pass Pathways that substitute competency tests which could be the SAT the PSAT the act the ASVAB there's there's a lot of different ones and then finally the third pathway if this first and second uh pathways are lacking is the portfolio which we did not have to have this year okay so it's a field test that doesn't count as far as graduation does but it still counts for the district the forest reviewing curriculum and
012programming as well as it's going to allow our administrators or supervisors to and our teachers to identify Focus areas in preparation of this upcoming Springs administration of the NJ GPA to our Juniors to our class of 2024. foreign the two sections are Eli and map that the test the assessment um see if the students are ready for graduation what is the ELA component aligned to they're it's applying to a great 10 standards so they're genius when they take it it's based on the Spanish and the man of component is aligning to algebra one in geometry our students have many different baboons and math but we could say that the majority of our students are cast Algebra 1 and geometry by the time they're juniors okay so here are the ELA scores sorry that it's a
013little small but we wanted to get all the subgroups all the relevant supplements up there so Statewide just under 61 percent of students across the state current seniors we're Dean not graduation right now just under 40 in ela for Dean's graduation ideas here at Bambrook just under 79 were deemed not graduation ready and 21.3 were being graduation ready here at Bound Brook now our subgroups downward subgroups okay female to male different ethnicities okay all the way down to [Music] socioeconomic conditions and then IEP status foreign to me on this slide is that the estate designed the test and uh 60 across statement did not meet its its standard that the state was looking for they didn't say to us at the onset of the test that the test would not count maybe that was by
014Design they didn't want you know they wanted our students taking it seriously I think they wanted to see the results so there are the results and again it does not count for this year now the other section is now only two sections Statewide specifically split Statewide in the district almost uh 77 I'm sorry 72 percent we are not graduation ready um this is over 27 are which is a little better than Ela so imagine it a little bit better and then again all the supplements okay notable achievements uh for our high school students we've added another dual enrollment class with Rarity Valley to complement our existing dual enrollment class in English like I said previously at the NJ SLA presentation rsat went up 13 points we've also added dual enrollment options for our students and
015advanced placement courses in English and then in math we aligned our AP staff course so our students in those courses that are aligned with the rdcc dual enrollment courses when they get the grade that they need it may be sat they get college credit for that as well and we have a lot of students who are taking taking advantage of that opportunity foreign strategies so the first couple of slides the state said even though the test does not count for the students the purpose of it was for districts to identify areas where we could intervene with our students so what are those areas we have grade levels analyzing our Lincoln assessments to identify standards not being addressed prior to the state assessments we have such a specific supervisors we have team played in four days
016a week for teachers knew this upcoming year we will have an 820 placement exam in both areas math and Pla get into honors and then overall establishment of course the requirements for both college prep and honors courses in math and Ela at both community and the high school okay continuing the ELA curriculum at the high school has been revised and aligned to these these standards the existing standards of the njsla and the new standards of the energy GPA the same with Mac and then uh our supervisors and high school administrators have established common Assessments in both map and Ela aligned to the state testing okay last slide of intervention strategies um the high school is piloting a program called IXL which is a learning assessment platform there's preparation for the Springs NJ SLA those will
017take place in May selection of new Ela grade level appropriate texts based on njsls recommendations including Seminole U.S documents Timeless dramas of Shakespeare Classics of American literature diverse high quality contemporary works and finally we've added a new public speaking elective course to the high school program studies any questions okay why what start down there so this is this is a test that doesn't count but it might well it's going to so soon right it didn't cancel this year what tests are they going to take away to replace the state has shown that they do not take away they had there's a lot there's a lot of testing so they're just going to add another test we're already preparing for the upcoming one in March who made the subgroups for this presentation uh the state provided
018those numbers okay so the state gives us a whole summary besides individual student reports they give us a summary of uh Statewide districts and subgroups so when I'm looking and we're all looking at the numbers here at the groundwork my attention goes to the ell and IEP numbers and I I just you know I've been in education almost 30 years and you're right the state never takes a test away this will be another thing that'll come on so I would like to I would hope that we're looking at those two groups in particular or ell learners and looking at interventions specific for them to prepare them for this and I know that you guys have been hit with this it just when I came to work when I when I look you know you look
019at charts and you see a zero that that's you know I I think we need to look at as we do and I'm not saying we don't but we need to look at the entire spectrum of our student body not just our A's and Bs that have you know learning disabilities I I just don't want them not that they will but I just want them also I I want an equitable playing field for our interventions that's just a suggestion yeah definitely um I will say the sample size in those subgroups are very small whether the two people or 200 people still correct that's all right see a point but you see I love it a good moment of budget you'll see that we're taking action those two subgroups in particular uh which makes which makes
020me happy as well as every parent who has an IEP yeah and bilingual as well um I go out in the weekend reports uh kind of articulated that and some of our struggles uh equaling personality and we're moving forward we're starting against the person that we have a plan and uh you'll see those interventions when we go over the budget and uh I think a large part of the stuff we have like you said we have to start putting resources into those areas to those interventions in order to get these things going in another Direction what do we attribute the results to like are there variables that we think impacted the students is it do we feel if the results are an accurate depiction of where our students are I would I would say certainly
021not um you know I think we're going to see um I think of course I think this test was it's brand new so you know to our students it was something to put you know completely new to them um I think a more accurate uh depiction of them is that is how well they did on the SATs that's a test that they're more comfortable with so are the students at the high school level doing assessments on Lincoln as well they are yes so did the Lincoln assessments show that they are prepared to score proficient on state exams you know the Lincoln yeah I mean the data varies because what they had is some some students think seriously they they do well and they look at individual growth on all the assessments and it's impressive however
022you do have students that are uh not taking a college path to check out it's just they'll finish link it in 10 seconds and then that brings the overall average down but if you you know and you have three Lincoln tests you have NJ SLA you have NJ GPA you have the AP tests I mean there's so many tested all the tests are important but the kids they just they don't value the test they need to be honest with you and as much we spoke about this at our staff meeting the other day about you know basically being cheerleaders for these assessments but you know look at the colleges that our kids are going to you know we just had a young lady get accepted to LSU Alabama we sent a kid to Harvard last
023year so our kids are going to Great Schools so what you're seeing up here is 100 not indicative of where our kids are in terms of good about and it's you know to sit here and to watch the presentation it's like it seems disheartening like take this personally um but I mean I could say with confidence and certainly reflection of where our students are at this point and remotely close um I agree that there's a percentage of students that are are highly successful coming out of Bound Brook um but I think would be interesting is to look at that percentage of success and measure that against the data that we see in these testing scores and I think that the top one to ten percent of our students are always going to be successful right
024they have it either in themselves or in their home life or in just the culture of where they're where they want to be and how successful they want to be as individuals how do we inspire lower 90 percent to to carry that inspiration and understand the value of getting those test scores where they may not want to go to a four-year school they might not want to go to a two-year school but they're still a value in their education and a personal goal that I think I feel like we're missing we're missing that somehow and I see I see intervention strategies and I see things that seem to affect that upper 10 but when I read some of these interventions I don't read that that's intervening on the lower 90. is what I what I
025read in these slides so I think one approach could be when we look at interventions and how we want to approach that lower 90. what do we expect out of it or what is our role right so if we're going to run a program or run something what is our expectation coming out of that not necessarily well we're going to run it and it'll be successful because we know the top 10 percent is going to pick it up and run with it and be really successful but how do we measure that against the lower 90 and say how are we going to reach them and what is our what is our expectation do we Intervention Program we can get a two percent result and you get a five percent result um and start with with
026low numbers and try to work our way up but I think without setting the tone of how it's going to affect and the and the result of the actions that we're taking I think we're just it sounds like we're just putting stuff out there and it doesn't seem to be taking if that makes any sense so you know we've been working with Dr Freeman and I've met this master scheduling you know Guru as we call it because right now we have no intervention periods you know whatever the teachers do in the class they meet the kids every other day a day there's no interventions you know with lower levels there's academic support ASI and interventions and we don't we don't have any of that at the high school so we're basically relying on the teachers
027to do the interventions but even with IXL and some of these other programs if the kids are not completing the program or working on the program with Fidelity then it's not really it's not going to work so you know we can be cheerleaders and we can Advocate which we we do to I think till we're blue in the face and I think such a great job it goes so far above and beyond he was speaking to my colleague my principal colleagues in the county yeah and some of the things that we're doing here it's they're they're Blown Away by by the students are not doing it with Fidelity you know then right we do the best that we can and we're really trying but you know there needs to be some some give back as
028well absolutely and I and I don't oppose the it's just I think it's a struggle when how are we going to reach these kids right and if you guys are are trying every Avenue what else is out there what what creative thoughts we come up with to help show kids how that success can really really affect them later on in life when they get out of high school and I guess my other question is if they don't meet these standards what does the state of New Jersey do with students that don't need standards and can't graduate on time [Music] so so first I'll say what Ed said about the scheduling committee the uh the emphasis the focus with the scheduling committee is how we're going to reach what we call our our lower tier students
029but you know what you say uh you know the the other 90 so that's the big focus of uh the new schedule that's upcoming so um when the students are freshmen they take the njsla ELA that's their first pathway first opportunity to get a passing score um NJ GPA is another first pathway and the second pathways are the alternate assessments sat PSAT the third pathway is a portfolio so those are set assignments given by the state uh set prompts that our students have to answer uh work with our teachers and answer then we submit them to the state and the State Signs off on them real quick um so they take this as a junior that's it's one and done like if they don't if they're not graduating they get another shot or they have
030to go right to the second half yeah this is it that's the only time so the only thing that I would add for the members of the board is as we're having these kinds of conversations I think it's important to reflect on what we could so as we continue to reflect on what the budget is going to look like for next year what resources look like and when the action plans do come forward from Administration continuing to work with them to refine them and make sure that they really have the resources that they need to go ahead and execute and whether that's scheduling whether it goes back to negotiations with the Union whether it goes to setting our budget for next year that's where we really need to take a step back and say are
031we doing everything to empower the people in the audience right now I just want to make sure that we as board members take that away so agreed but when you see numbers in any presentation and to miss casino's point success what does success mean you know is Success looking at a one you know we have to look at Equitable success and I think that it's a situation that to your credit Mr Januzzi that we want to give the administration every single thing in our Arsenal for their Arsenal that they can do I agree with you but it does and I'm sure if people look in the audience or at home when you see these numbers and and you know it takes us back but to Mr Smith's credit I know that this is not reflective
032of our student base because our student base what I see with my son in high school and what I see with the two teachers do in the administration the staff doing uh it it it it it it's night and day so but it's just it's a little bit of a shock you know it is a little bit of a shot so it you know giving us the ability to empower the administration even more absolutely but you know I think we need to you step back from what you're saying but also taking Ms Januzzi is saying and taking that into consideration when it comes to the overall interventions I agree and and that's what again that's where I tie them all up and say if in the past we've made choices from a fiscal perspective to
033save for investing in facilities correct and we want to redirect some of that money back into the classroom through the next budget process that's where we looked at have some actually demonstration how their number which was resources and then you also and I think you know there's no doubt that there's a massive enough power will be done in the district the question is are we are we working really hard at some things or could we work smart you know we've got that uh that's I think worth worth doing a little self-evaluation to Rich's Point as a board to self-evaluate ourselves are we are we working in the smartest way to facilitate what the district needs um and do we have the right programs in place that are the smartest so it's definitely worth looking any
034other comments or questions for Dr Laurel on this topic are there any specific things that come to mind aside from the scheduling work that's going on that would immediately help the problem or immediately provide assistance to the staff to the administration well I mean it's funny we've swarmed the committee with Dr Freeman we just met today again at District leadership committee meeting District leadership team and you know it's the middle school and the high school and it's like horizontal vertical alignment we're trying to figure out best ways to identify you know whether it's gaps in instruction or gaps in planning um this way we're on the same page so we have some sort of like inner radar reliability I mean I know we have training that we go through like a refresher training in the
035summer but they actually sit down with members of both the high school and the middle school administrative team so we can identify different you know Trends or different issues that were that we're looking at while observing an evaluating teachers so I mean we are we are doing really good work you know but it's it's a process and and I hate to use or to make any excuses but you have to take into consideration if there was a year and a half where kids were sitting home on cell phones really not learning too much during during coven so I'm not I'm not making excuses but I mean it is it is a hard reality even last year um and I'm very very young problem with it it was my my most difficult year in education um
036coming back to school and you know the the academics like behavioral social emotional learning mental health um this year it's to me it's a different ballgame it's a completely different building than it was last year so you know I think um we had the team and we had the capacity to do it and I think you're going to see improvements with you know Dr Freeman at the help we touched upon something that was in my head does this coincide at all with 2020 and the timing of it graduate well I think that's in part why the state is not really reflecting this as the first year where the schools actually count energy counted but I do want to caution and say that covert is not a balanced work related issue from all different communities could
037have been impacted more than others I think when we're comparing ourselves with distinct actions it kind of takes that contemporaneous issue a little bit further off the vehicle I'm not saying it's not affecting us again use but you know everybody had to deal with both and so lagging those averages really is an indicator that we're not probably working as a parent I was on the board when covet hit as a parent I think it's hard for you guys but it was almost seamless um so Kudos on us for that when you know paper packets was not distributed to other districts around us please um you're still stuck on extra tests yeah what's Who We Are clutter whatever that's okay you know and my only response not just Dr freedom but I think part of part
038of the strategy is really to reevaluate what we're assessing how we're assessing whether or not we need to supplement what the state is doing with our own kind of assessments so you know I think that's a fair point and it's part of the plan to address any short companies that we may have in terms of the board is questioning uh why the scores because that should be a question Administration speak about the changes that are being made I promise you that it's going to take a little time but we're in the process all these things you read about your weekend report these scheduling meetings the intervention the Consultants probably going to help us evaluate our work I think a lot of what it boils down to is aligning our work with student needs which uh
039is something that we're finding we need to do a better job of that's the meeting that uh Mississippi spoke of and it's going to be a year-long process it will take some time but I can tell you that we will begin to see the results next year incrementally but you will see results it's not about teachers aren't working hard and administrators are because they are they're working very hard however working hard and having proper alignment and proper resources that's what's really going to make the difference and where in the process of doing that not only uh with the budget but also with our practices we've met as an administrative team and we've changed our probation from Simply building management and operation to focus on destruction our instructional leaders from working with the last few months
040I've learned that they haven't they understand instructions and what needs to be done it's just a matter of giving them the opportunity to have that Focus one of the things they said to me as we're going through our learning today was you know what you never really had time to do that that was never asked of us so we're changing that focus and with that alone and a lot of things that are going on in the classroom and giving teachers resources and professionals development that's in need we're going to make that but I'm never going to end up making uh you know making great gains but for the time being there's going to be incrementally we're going to get momentum and then over the next two years you'll see a slow increase and they'll start
041to pick up in year three and four we're going to see uh significant gains and we'll get to where we need to be um Mr Smith I think this question is probably for you um I noticed that it's just in math I think it said that it focuses or we seem to think it's going to focus on algebra one geometry so let's say do we have a substantial number of students who haven't reached those classes by the time they finish sophomore year so they're taking this test without even seeing some of those topics is that a substantial enough number to say that impacts these scores yeah it's funny you ask because uh Mr Lucy she's the uh that's super so you know she kind of did it uh uh an overall assessment on our students
042scores and what she determined is that when the students were taking these assessments they weren't even presented with the material at that point right okay that was my question what she did she spent a lot of time resequencing and refocusing uh you know the different concepts and algebra so instead of you know just going chapter by chapter through the book maybe taking a look at Concepts towards the end of the book and you know integrating that the beginning of the Fall you know we tried the initially we were having was um say outbreak two so our sequence was algebra one geometry algebra 2. so we thought that reaching changing the sequence to Algebra 1 Algebra 2 then geometry junior year would be more helpful because it would close the gap with the algebra but that
043wasn't the case because a lot of these standardized assessments are uh they're geometry heavy now so we switched it back and now we're back on our normal sequence but you're going to see improvements in Lincoln you're facing improvements in some of these these other these other areas but you know when when kids don't value the tests it doesn't matter if you can provide them with you know ice cream socials or whatever the case may be you know some kids just check out and they go through and they're done these Assessments in 20 minutes 10 minutes and then other kids really tried hard and it was unfortunate that the overall average or the mean score is you know diminished as a result it's frustrating yeah I can imagine yeah yeah it sure is all right so
044again just thank you to Dr more Mile and Mr Smith again I think it was a great conversation I think it gives us a lot to both and some things that we want to continue to be attentive to so it was really time well spent now I thank you guys again for coming here and having that discussion with us all right at this point we're going to move on to the committee meetings um so uh Edith is not with us this evening but thankfully one of her committee members uh Sid is going to deliver the report on her back so sit to you sure thank you Mr President the education committee met last week some of the items we talked about were identifying and recruiting ESL and bilingual staff members the district has survey staff
045members and identified 27 certified Spanish speaking staff members 14. uh Spanish-speaking non-certified staff members about 10 who have an ESL certificate and three of a bilingual by cultural certificate we're exploring ways to attract and recruit and perhaps grow our own teachers in that category there's a literacy project underway at the elementary level focused on improving family literacy and families that is underway there are consultant Works who are working with our school leadership teams and our school data teams on comparing Lincoln results to reading assessment results literacy initiatives Ela and math work in 7 through 12 and school-wide data teams to try to make sense some of the data that is coming in and how to move forward with that in the classroom Mrs Fisher provided updates on professional learning most of our staff members have
046completed the bank's 10-hour option and it's new this year those who haven't will be doing work in January either I mean professional learning requirements and the scheduling committee work is underway at the high school and middle school and all indications indicate that those conversations have been fruitful and productive uh people kind of open to exploring new ideas Dr Freeman and Mrs Fisher really celebrated the work of the staff members on those committees and kind of looking at all options trying to find some needs of our students so we had a very good meeting uh productive meetings trying to figure out how we as the Lord can support our staff and our administrators in trying to provide the best programming for our kids that's great and I just want to highlight the uh note that you
047made about the teachers advantage of backing continuing education I think that's something one of the first things that Dr Freeman relaxed when he came back in in the beginning of the year and it's outstanding to see that the community has really taken that opportunity and location clearly it was a good decision questions for Sydney on education all right hearing none Mr Bell for governance it's gonna be a little bit likely um there are quite a few items that we covered in governance uh the first one as you may have noticed in tonight's agenda we talked briefly I think last meeting about lessening the number of roll call votes uh per meeting so you'll see I think it's items six and seven are no longer uh Elementary and then High School we've combined them it is
048going to be a bit of a task for Edith to take note that that's what if you notice the asterisks uh those are uh really just for you to know what she should be holding and what she should be abstaining on you'll also notice uh the next item I believe it's eight uh we combined what used to be three things into something now called board action resolutions um I don't know that there was financing the special services and I believe there's one more forget that was put in there but anyway we accomplished at least somewhat uh our goal of making you know having us say yes few less times per reading oh I have here it's like policies special services and finance those were the three the next item we as a committee talked about
049and and are hopeful that you guys uh will agree with us that we would like to go out and try to become a certified board what this means is that we need to get 16 credits of training as a board and the next we would like to achieve an annoy in the next two years Gwen can come in and do quite a few of these um but it would basically demonstrate you know to the or our community here in in the schools the staff and the students as well that um we are committed to continuing our education just as we expect the same you know of our staff so um we would have a plaque and we would be recognized by the state as as a certified board who's done you know done the work
050to stay up to date on on latest and best so that's something that we are definitely interested in like I said Gwen can do a lot of them I think things like the ethics training that we do count so you know we've done some of them in the past but we can call on her to do some of the things that we have talked about as a board anyway getting getting better at so we can get hours for all of those so as you can you know I think you can all do the math that's eight eight hours per year so we're it's not quite one a month depending on how long each training is I assume that probably about an hour each but maybe there are some that are longer um so we would
051have to probably do them at least every other month or so to keep up with that maybe even more frequently because that's something that that as a committee we thought we really wanted to but to you guys and hope that you would be with us on that home um we talked about the HR committee which did come up in our retreat at the end of I guess that was last school year um it was obviously in the summer okay um whether or not we're going to keep it right now we're recommending that we do keep it at least for one more year um because we we do have a need for um a small group of people to talk about executive uh items that are executive in nature they can always bring them back to
052us in the executive session if they need to but at least for a year we're going to hold on to that in addition to that or at least we're recommending to do so in addition to that uh we also and this result Dr Friedman's recommendation we also discussed creating another committee which would be ad hoc for now which would be in athletics we first started talking about an Athletics committee and then thought it might be best to expand that to Athletics slash extracurricular um because really honestly Athletics have not been discussed in operations for quite some time so they they are a valuable part of our our community our district and you know they have a rightful place and should be discussed and you know kept up to date so we are hoping that we
053can form an ad hoc committee for the time being and we'll see if it's something that we need to continue and make a standing committee but at least for the time being at home okay there's no more we very briefly discussed an update on how we're doing with our board goals um our board our board goals if you don't remember um focus focus this year pretty clearly on being more efficient for in both our meetings here in our committees um with it kind of an overarching goal there of creating more public interest and engagement that was our goal we have tried to adjust our meetings you've seen the changes we've made there we're adjusting our committee structure so we are definitely moving towards those goals um and again the the interest we have in getting
054certified uh would also help with that we could also get a training of self-evaluation which would help further those goals as well so we are moving we feel any way that we're moving in the right direction goals next we are further another recommendation for the board so uh we should take questions as we go there's so many events we are recommending at this time starting in January that we move to one board meeting per month from two uh Dr Freeman is very much in favor of this because it would help him immensely with his scheduling and his time management he spends a lot of time he and his staff spend a lot of time preparing for these meetings that could be freed up to either be in buildings or work on on other tasks um
055it would be very much like tonight though they would be a little bit longer you know to be transparent about that of course but uh we would only be here once a month um we could still accomplish all the same things and it would you know kind of take some things off with Dr Freeman's plans uh we have not picked formally a day like we would probably say on Wednesdays but we don't know which Wednesday of the month it would be and we actually asked Dr Friedman and Mr Gorski to you know look at their schedule see how they want to align things to the Committees which we would probably keep the first Monday you see how they want that lined up with those Wednesdays looks like you have something the only observation that I
056would make is we you know one of the early updates here was we're looking to become a certified board that's going to take roughly eight hours of your time over the course of the next two years I'm sorry 16 over the course of the next few years There's an opportunity for us to consolidate our board meetings to one a month and that could have the effect of freeing up that time so it could be no incremental change to the amount of volunteer time that you need to make but give us an opportunity to both get through all the more business as well as get through all over so two of those things could be symbiotic if we need structure one last thing that we discussed in the last minute or two of our meeting was
057again ways that we can find new board members to fill our current open position I guess technically it's not open until January because um that's when our new calendar year you know our new board year starts we discussed a few things one thing that we discussed as Quentin is looking at those people who received right now folks seeing if they you know if they submitted their own name as a regular vote they may have interest in reaching out to them and seeing if they want to come and put their name forth once the time comes in January we also talked about possibly a community excuse me a community phone bias um just when we send things out saying and by the way you know more formally than that by the way we have we have
058an opening on the board and we'd love to see you guys um another thing and this goes to miss Casino reaching out to those Community you know organizations that you are now much more in contact with and just you know not putting it on them but asking them hey you know we have a need um you know do you know of anyone or is there anyone who's in your organization who's interested in this kind of work I mean I'm not saying we want to steal the president themselves you know some organization but what I am saying is that they have a member who who had you know has a desire to be more involved in schools that might be a great place to look as well so that was everything we covered again I apologize
059I couldn't be more brief any questions it's clearly yes questions for Mike just a couple um I'm not saying we need to answer this question now but maybe at an upcoming meeting should we explore the idea as a board of student services committee that could examine perhaps the services that we're providing um the experiences for students who may have learning disabilities what that programming looks like in District out of districts is that something that we have support should be considering doing and [Music] um we might want to think about the current committee meeting structure does it afford us enough time um to really dive into the work um and do it justice yeah that is definitely something we've talked about uh with Dr Freeman how we want to do that and I think we've at
060this time said let's I hate to you know kind of kind of make light of it let's see how it goes for a while and we have kind of staggered some things and tried to change it but I agree it does feel like some of our committees still I mean we have a half hour a lot and that's just not enough time for some of them so I I agree that it's something that we should continue to look at and think about for sure I I know we're trying there's a a Renaissance and I know we're trying to streamline and we're trying to make sure that we have a different approach I would just offer that because I'm going on uh said what you were saying um you know I feel like there's a lot
061that's being crammed in especially with with the Committees in a short amount of time and I know that I mean operations this last one we were good but prior to that we might have gone over it was not the correct you but operations went just about double the time we finished in like 55 minutes [Laughter] is that I I I'm excited that we're doing this but I just want to caution us to say um I you know like when we're doing one meeting then we have other board members coming in because all right now we're going to do it I I I just maybe we need to take a step back from all we're doing phenomenal Administration doing everyone's we're all all the cylinders are on right but I think we need to take a
062step back with time management from us yeah because I'm feeling rushed and I just I just agree that's all maybe maybe again giving up that extra board meeting affords us another night to break up our committees I don't know just something I'm throwing out there again and this is also going to depend on the administration and how they feel about all these things so there's a lot of people that have to be consulted in all of this and I I think we all agree that right now we don't have enough time I think it might even be temporary because like you said we are working on so many things the way I feel anyway is we're at the beginning of something like we have we're starting all the way over and it's so much and
063I hope that that will lessen as time goes but I think you might be right for now right something we definitely have to discuss or maybe that's something that we can try and attend to between meetings so before we get to the January can we give me news we don't walk away with that feeling because while you know we haven't gone through a full year of these Cycles we've gone through at least three rounds of committee members and I don't think that the feedback has been unequivocably that in any given meeting we've had exactly the right amount of time so it's that tuning but let's try and see what we can do between meeting so that we don't have that same experience and maybe even though committee chairs reach out to their Liaisons and say
064you know is there another time that we can we can kind of fit more time for our community in there I think we have to move some more even if we probably moved one or two committees to another night we could have that much more time other questions for Mr Bell all right oh are we good by the way since we recommended are we all to is there any Mr Gorsuch is there any formal vote needed to change on our meeting to one a month is anything have to happen yes I sent Mr Januzzi a draft it will have to be approved by the Board of Education and the organization okay okay all right on to human resources not much we're continuing to monitor um our hires to get our spreadsheets um something came up
065about advertising at the Bridgewater Mall um the district for hiring um do you guys see that the handout um [Music] basically like the routers um that we were hiring um it came up that you know our robotics team has that space in the hall and like a good way to do to apply um we've updated our employment tab on the website of navigation and partnered with our partnership with RAC rpcc to see if any of their students would be interested in coming into our classroom to get some experience some classroom experiences all right any questions for join all right moving on Roger you're for operations okay operations we had a long meeting apparently apparently it was but I I got a lot of time just so I know there will be questions so Mr gorsky
066I'm putting you on on notice uh let me begin with our auto update Mr Gorski updated the committee that the annual comprehensive financial report Auditors management report for the year ending uh 6 30 22 is complete the exceptions of 75 host employment benefits which is yet to be released by the state and a few other items he also presented the committee for the draft of a C1 exhibit that indicates fund balance and auditor and management report and shows compliance and recommendations he also indicated that excess Surplus grew to approximately 1.6 million and that there were three order recommendations the administration uh will express some version to the auto recommendations so that we can strive for none for next year uh I just hearing some of his numbers and how the money is stacking up I
067the operations committee was I think a little bit in shock and in a very positive way than really thankful for the hard work that's been doing with that talking about money we have a budget update um that the committee was updated Dr Freeman discussed discuss the allocated as we had mentioned earlier to instructional programs and that was actually um I have to say we had a kind of a breakout discussion and and I want to thank Dr Friedman uh that you know there's a need and we we have to look at there's a need fill it right and and we're looking at our need um for looking at taking not taking away a hundred percent real reallocating a smart way from facility program and staff and student needs and and that was something that the
068operations committee really sort of uh that uh part of our Renaissance to to go forward I think needs to happen uh we also have a Democrat demographic report update uh that um the Assa has been initially filed and this is a process Harbor and associates we use the data to perform 10-year projections and that's important because we need to know where our population is going and for future enrollments we also have some construction updates uh Mr divorcement provided the information that there was a uh the HB AC project was moving where was that at was that on a that's on smallie school was uh turning out to go a little slower than meet me but the weather didn't cooperate all the rooftop curbing had been sold almost moved up and in some places Smalling um
069they have not started any interior work on the annex as they're waiting to make a decision as best as tiles and attend classrooms and there were also some weather conditions in relation to pouring concrete at Lemont um cafeteria also needles are in and almost completed um they're scheduling to break Eric Brown on January weather permitting um we're going to be using a contractor the Pharaohs and he has an excellent uh if he has an excellent is that correct pharaohs yes and he has a good track record we're going to be using him finally the field Turf project which is interesting because I know everyone's going by the field and saying what's going on what's happening with it uh it's slowed a little bit Mr Gorski if you want to update us on that since we
070had talked last week but I know that it was cold weather rain equipment issues but it's over halfway completed and with any luck with equipment whether it would be able to get back on track field lighting project has not started um we were waiting for permits from the world and it was an additional dental plan options as per the Moa Mr Gorski presented the committee with an additional dental plan is required by the BBA and random agreement and it could be appreciated the options looked at the options that were there so it's a lot but we're going I have to say I've been here a while as you know but I am very excited that we're going in a really positive forward Direction so um I yield back to you Mr President thanks and I
071would just offer two additional comments the first one being to draw everybody's attention to Rogers comments around the uh audit management observations and note that those have actually been reduced from year to year that's in part due to some of the immediate work that Nick Patel did when he came in on an intro basis and with Dr Mr Gorski have continued on so I think generally our trajectory there is good and we're aiming for completely clean audit when we talk about the next fiscal year to be closed in June 2023. and then the second thing I just want to be mindful when we talk about the budget and reprioritizing where we're allocating our funding I think it's important to know that we collectively want to do that with an eye towards the fact that we
072still have needs in facilities whether it's maintaining the ones that we do have or growing and acquiring new ones and the question will become how do we prioritize and then how do we become creative about the things that we may or may not be able to solve from so um take care of both the immediate operational needs as well as incorporate our long-term facilities plan into that budgeting process so I just want to make sure everybody walks away with that same understanding any other questions for Roger comments what was the issue with departments I defer to the president I think it actually had to do with the need to file them and the application for them being done in a timely manner as well as just waiting for the processing to happen which does tend
073to take a bit I'm not sure if we've gotten any updates yeah the Auditors are going to present that the next operations committee meeting so the you know the time consideration is valid we may need a little more time uh they're going to present the audit recommendations for the year end of June 30 20. many of those items have been rectified already and um and Dr Freeman and I are very adverse to audit findings we want to impress upon the public that we are very serious about these safeguards and internal controls that are in place and that all of the budgeted funds that the taxpayers are affording us are going to the programs that they're supposed to and now we're in full compliance with all the regulations there so well said the question though is
074about the permits for the rights in the home field I think I think it's a little difficult to hear that yeah the the permits for the lights in the mafia we had a notification today that the permits were ready and uh they were being picked up today perfect thanks sorry good news yeah no less value all right any other questions for Roger on operations all right Lisa you're welcome for Community engagement okay so we had a great meeting last week uh I I'm finding that our our last like bullet point agendas and they were like really amazing conversations nurse last week we had Agatha Perez who's the leader of our PTO um we had a great time discussing her role all the amazing work that she and PTO have done in the district um sort
075of a little bit of her history you have she came to be the the leader within the PTO and some of her kind of upcoming desires I know they have a big event planned tomorrow which is the ice skating um which sounds amazing he is a very creative uh thinker and she finds ways to Source these amazing events including this uh I have to check it out it's an iceless ice skating rink where you can put your skates on but there's no ice you're basically on a smooth surface um so things like that we uh we want to engage with her a lot more as the district and and really um tap into how we can work together collaboratively I know uh she normally does not line PTO events at the high school level so
076we discussed that a little bit of maybe collaborating all the way up through 9 through 12. she had mentioned a maybe some additional Tris for our students which is a great idea we you know we'll continue to work with her and talk with her about that but really it was more of just a discussion getting to know um her a little bit getting to know what types of events they're doing what kinds of of thoughts she has in her head and then continuing that collaboration um some of the things that we started on the first week when we met with the Alumni Association president uh we're going to continue working and collaborating with them as well so I I kind of feel like uh a lot of what I'm going to bring to the board
077is more of just a a status on where we're at we won't be hitting targets at every meeting but it's more of like ways that we can connect better and ways that we can reach out um I know there's some next steps on working on the trophy cases with the Alumni Association I have a an agreement to go to the January alumni meeting I reached out to Joe we wish everyone a happy holiday um great guy and uh he'll be ready um in January I believe it's the 9th uh with the upcoming alumni meeting um plan on reaching out with Agatha more often we'll see how we can collaborate what she's kind of got in the pipeline for the PTO um other things following up on some of our initial uh agenda items one was
078our social media outreach and how we're reaching the community um Dr Freeman Fridays I'm super excited um it's pretty awesome and I believe we have one coming up this Friday so uh I'm excited to see what kind of questions he gets uh he gets his way but things like that I think are huge steps for us to take um using social media and really getting some engagement from the community so um we'll continue to to follow that and add to it as we need to um let's see uh presenting District Board District goals at board meetings so we had a poster design uh I believe Tom is uh working on a larger uh horizontal version I believe it's 93 inches by by 40 inches tall so I know he has the artwork in hand on
079that so I believe that that he's working um that belt so that should be really impressive and it'll it'll present the district goals as well as the board goals on it um some things that we're talking about you know for 2023 uh maybe some additional social uh events like social media events um using Instagram Tick Tock Facebook um also additional Community leaders coming in and meeting with us I sent a note out to Katelyn's Bishop she's our downtown city manager she's very excited to come and sit with us and meet with us so in January we will set up for our next committee meeting to meet with her in person and kind of get a feel for some of the programs that she's running downtown and how I know we already partner with some of
080the businesses downtown I know with like the window paintings and things like that but how can we further that connection um so those are just some of the things that we have going on more for 2023 and a lot of it is just kind of making sure that we stay connected to those Community leaders and I will do the best that I can to keep the Outreach up so excellent update so I will just add two comments the first one is I think you will wishful thinking that today was Thursday because the event is going to be on so Friday thank you in the uh [Music] um and then the second thing that I'll just mentioned in our meeting with uh Agatha was really the um the interest that she had in supporting fundraising activities
081for additional experiences and I think about the conversation you had around making sure that everybody had access to the trip to Washington DC the eighth graders and even just other experiences that could be added on to the existing extracurricular programming that we have up and down all the way from pre-k through 12. so I think those are opportunities yeah any other comments or I should say any comments or questions from the members for Lisa you're doing a good job yeah um so Sue's not here with us tonight I do believe that there was an uh a Somerset County meeting that happened last week uh we don't have to hold our breath in anticipation of that next report hopefully should be back with us in January so before we wrap up any last comments questions related
082to committees I will make more comment than just say how much I appreciate all the work that you guys are putting in there particularly the committee chairs who uh I mean the the performance has been the day compared to last year I think not only the depth of information that we're covering but the command that each of the members has on the their respective area so I want to just acknowledge that make sure you don't know how much I appreciate it all right at this point we are open to the public for agenda items only uh and it doesn't seem to be online any comments no questions I think we're good okay so on to number five people of meeting minutes resolved at the Bound Brook Board of Education meetings regular and executive session for
083November 30th 2022. you have a motion thank you second second thank you Mr Brown any discussion all right can we have a roll call please Mr Bowman yes Mr Dawson yes yes abstained yes yes and Mr Januzzi yes motion passes thank you item 6.1 resolve that the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions is outlined in District Personnel resolutions there's a bunch of these this is 6.2 through 6.246.26 can I have a motion motion thank you Mr Dawson a second second thank you Mr Zuko any discussion I have a question um regarding 6.19 for Art Club and of course Club since we're combining I'm assuming this is Community Middle but there's nothing in the note that mentions um and smaller oh thank you you're welcome awesome we'll have to break you up with the next movie
084any other questions or comments sections okay hearing no can we have a roll call please Mr Bell yes Mr Dawson yes yes yes Mr Wilson a big breakfast Joanna yes um yes and Mr januzi yes thank you 7.1 be resolved at the Bible report of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in District education Solutions this is 7.2 through 7.8 I have a motion motion thank you Mr battle second thank you Miss Muscle Man discussion foreign would you say that I am very ready for the start of winter sports season and cannot wait to get back to the gym and watch the kids 7.2 all right here you know can we have a roll call please Mr Bell yes yes yes Mr Januzzi yes thank you we are up to item eight this is our new
085Mega section be resolved that the Bible report of Education approves the resolutions as outlined before action resolutions this is 8.2 [Music] thank you Mr battle second thank you Mr zipper discussion well just thank uh all the groups for the donations I believe we had two donations yes [Music] any other questions or comments thank you all right can we have a roll call please Mr Bell yes Mr Dawson yes yes Mr Januzzi yes motion passes thank you now if that feel felt like unless yeses that's because we've now reached the end of the yes portion of the agenda so again I want to thank um Mr Bob for bringing back that recommendation to Mr um for uh carrying it through so we are now up to do business if anybody has anything to discuss that we
086haven't yet I have one item um in section six we have all these new gloves being created which is wonderful and I think we can all agree as a community that more clubs the better I would I would welcome any club into Bound Brook School into the school that I work in I think they're wonderful for the students the one thing that that's been practiced since I've been here and I'm sure long before that is that um the advisors need to hold the club for three years before they earn a stipend I believe and to me as a teacher who who you know in my school has many clubs and and has advised in the past this seems like a barrier to getting more teachers to do the work uh to stay after school if
087you ask me uh being honest as an educator to stay after school for three years without getting paid before I finally get paid I would say I don't think that club is going to happen honestly uh if it was one year maybe but three years feels like so long to do all of this good work and not get paid for I feel like that's something that we could revisit um I I know other districts don't have a policy like this I know that I know why I could put a place initially at least I've heard from people why it was put in place but it seems like a long time because again I would just like to see as many clubs as possible get the you know get the kids after school going back to
088our previous discussion about coven kids you know missed out on a lot of socialization together with each other so the more we can do the better and at the end of the day if the desire of you know previous administration previous board was to prevent low volume or spurious clubs from being created but having to pay a teacher basically the same amount whether we have 15 kids in the classroom or two that maybe we can come up with some other guidelines that actually accomplish the same thing without asking for people to donate the time wow any thoughts or comments on either Mr Bells suggestion or anything else to be discussed in your business just one small item uh I attended a meeting of the The Advisory board for the Russian I just wanted to know
089we had several staff members from the district attend so The Advisory Board is a group of Educators and people in the community who uh basically offer feedback to the Rutgers program on how they were doing and preparing student interns for education and these are folks who are volunteering their time too cultivate a relationship with audience which I think is a great thing for the district and there's one of those staff members it's a great opportunity any other comments questions foreign [Music] and three they have a solution motion thanks Mr Brown a second second thank you Mr zip code all in favor aye we are currently adjourned to Executive thank you [Music]