Dover Public Schools BOE Meeting - 11-15-2022

001Miss Munoz will you please introduce yourself sure good evening everyone I'm Rosa Muniz I'm the district translator I'm here to help with any comments or questions you may have thank you buena noches thank you welcome Bienvenidos to everyone here and watching the live stream at home to the November 15th Dover Board of Education meeting for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6 30 and remote com those remote comments will be addressed in the second public comment section this meeting which is hereby called to order at 6 37 PM is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law public notice was posted in the office of the Board of Education and communicated to the municipal court and the daily record on May 17

0022022. Kobe please rise for the flag salute I pledge allegiance to Jesus Mr crew would you please do roll call Miss grazales present Miss Mendez here Mr Miller here Ms nutting here miss Phillips here Mr Robles president Ms Ruiz Ms riveros president Dr saner present we have a quorum thank you Ms grassalis will you please read our mission statement working together as a community our mission is to Welcome All and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative empathetic resilient and who choose to make an impact thank you for our first presentation tonight I would like to welcome Ms Irene Lafave to the podium Ms Lafave is the current president president of the New Jersey School Board Association and we are delighted that she has made time to

003be with us tonight hi I'm Irene Lafave I am president of the New Jersey school boards Association and I'm really not here to do a presentation I'm just here to make a suggestion a recommendation your board took the time to research and write a resolution that you presented can I put this down here that you presented to the school boards Association resolution subcommittee it was I was on the Zoom meeting where that resolution was considered by the subcommittee and the subcommittees response to the resolution was that it did not meet this didn't create new policy and it didn't create an additional policy of a magnitude that they felt that it does result should be presented at the delegate assembly for the consideration there but I heard passionate passionate defense of the resolution I heard your

004representatives at that meeting speak from their hearts about how important that resolution was and is to your community I felt that it should not be ignored and shouldn't die a death of young what do they call them pocket vetoes you know it shouldn't have just been just so so I looked at as the president of the association I looked at what could we do that would meet the spirit and the intent that I saw in the resolution that you presented I have to agree that I don't think that the delegate assembly is the best place to accomplish what it seemed to me that you were trying to accomplish in your resolution which is to create a safer New Jersey for our children a safer atmosphere in which our children would grow up and be educated

005the delegate assembly is by policy by bylaws the policy making organization arm of the New Jersey School Board Association the policies that are created out of the delegate assembly guide the efforts of our legislative committee and guide the efforts of our governmental relations group I call them lobbyists they don't call them lobbyists they call them government relations people so call them what you want to call them the people who talk who Walk The Halls uh in Trenton and who speak to the legislators it seemed to me when I read the details of your resolution that you were looking for action you were looking for a change in the way New Jersey sells guns okay I mean let's let's be honest that's what it was about selling guns and you were looking for a change in

006the age at which these guns could be purchased okay that requires legislation it doesn't require policy it requires legislation it requires a change at the legislative level I do not find that our legislators pay any attention to New Jersey School Board Association policies why should they they're not members of the New Jersey School Board Association when we pass a resolution into a move it elevated to the policy level we want the policy to be as general and as broad as possible so that a large number of legislative actions would fall into that General category I don't know if that makes sense to I don't know if I'm saying it well but the more specific a resolution is and therefore the policy is that comes out of that resolution the more specific it is the more

007it tells our government relations people or our alleged committee people to take a narrow Focus so if the policy that is engendered that comes out of the resolution doesn't Encompass a broad enough scope then it doesn't allow our gr people or our alleged committee board members to speak to a broader topic so let's say um I want cars that weigh more than 5 000 pounds to do whatever and somebody presents a resolution that says cars that are more than four thousand five hundred pounds okay well now four thousand five hundredths not included in the scope so we tend to try to stay away from the narrow focus and make the focus as broad as possible so that's one thing the other thing is I find we finish our delegate assembly we spend three hours approximately

008on a Saturday morning and we're passionately involved very interested in the State of the Union message that we get from our director we're very interested in what has been accomplished by the various committees we're very and we go through the policy updates and the resolutions and we get Maybe two inches of press in the paper and we put it in school notes and all the board members in the state get access to it but not a lot of other people read that just like if I was to publish the um Congressional Record which they publish all the time I don't know about you but I haven't read it since I was in college it was taken a course and had to read it then I haven't read it since then we don't get a lot

009of of other organizations reading our minutes and paying attention to it what I am here to suggest to you is I know you have a plan to attend the delegate assembly this Saturday and bring up your resolution from the floor and that's your right fine okay and I'm sure you've talked to Carl and you've talked to whoever you had to talk to about the procedures and whatever that's fine I don't know if it's the best thing to get the actions that you're hoping for what I would like to propose to you as the president of your organization is that we form a task force New Jersey school boards Association forms a task force Irene says we should have a task force and they say okay we'll have a task for it we have found that

010our task force studies and the resulting task force reports are well received that they are red that we have because we've had a task force and we've gone through a procedure form a task force we make sure we have membership first of all obviously in this case the task force would include people from your committee from your from your board but it would also include people from boards throughout the state who have an interest in the subject we would also bring in resource people who who have information and from other organizations we would also bring in our staff who to work with us on from the legal's perspective from the legislative perspective I would like to see it be a short-term task force three months let's say get your work done cut meat get the

011work done and then they generate a report so I don't know what this report will look like because it hasn't happened yet but I can tell you we had a big concern a few years back about special education special education funding special education wasn't meeting the needs of our students special education we were putting kids through special education programs and that we heard they were sitting on couches and never getting jobs special education in that we heard that kids were being educated more kids were being educated outside their districts than inside their districts kids were kids were getting having IEPs develop when they were in first grade second grade and they still had them in 12th grade and they were really no longer needed the services there were lots of things we heard special education

012special education task force worked for several months gathered information from other states as well as our own State put together a report that report was so well received it was distributed to all members of the education Committee in both houses it was sent to our legislators in Washington from New Jersey to read it was received by the superintendents Association by the principles and supervisors Association I can tell you for a fact by the Department of Education I can tell you for a fact that the response to intervention the IRT program can that we have adopted at the state level in New Jersey came from a recommendation from that report okay action occurred because that task force existed and that task force report was disseminated among the people who make the rules the people who make

013the legislation the people in the State Department of Education who have to enact uh regulations the similar thing happened with we had a problem with some received relationships a lot of animosity among people who were involved in them we referred that to the committee there was an ad hoc committee that issued a task force report that report resulted in legislation that changed the formula for calculating the cost of to the rescinding district for the cost of from the receiving District it also generated a standardized contract that all districts could use as a basis for forming their own contracts similarly recently we had a task force on what to do on providing opportunities for our non-college-bound students the state of New Jersey we're supposed to make sure kids graduate from high school college or career ready

014right well nobody was doing anything about the career ready we were all focused on the college ready so the task force was formed work was done it became a very large task force because because other associations asked to join us and a lot of things have happened there are more opportunities at trade schools there is more recognition and acceptance of kids who go into careers more apprenticeship opportunities more funding in the apprenticeship programs in the state of New Jersey and I hope things a lot of it goes to the work that was done by that task force I'm suggesting to you that rather than simply bring a resolution to the delegate assembly that we form a task force we ask the task force we give it very specific guidance and direction we let them put

015we have the task force put together in a way that will allow them to consider gun safety that will consider the ages of people purchasing guns and other aspects these wonderful commercials on TV recently about parents should ask when they drop their child off for a play date at somebody's house whether guns are secured there's a lot of aspects of gun safety okay gun safety as part of security but not to Security in the general form gun safety because that's the topic that you guys brought up to this I would like to see that task force initiated at this delegate assembly meeting before any resolutions are considered I would like it to be part of the presidential report at the beginning I would like to see it reinforced by the end director our executive director

016that we will have a task force that Dover will participate in that task force the task force is a direct result of the fact that drove a broader resolution forward and the resolution was not considered to expand the policies that exist and therefore is looking for actionable items okay I can assure you that that task reforest report would be due to us by let's say March and that we would have time to then include that task force report in the May delegate assembly booklet that comes out before the before the meeting but that task force would report would be distributed to the appropriate people the Kim in both houses here in New Jersey that it would be sent to our representatives in Washington and that it would be shared with other appropriate associations and organizations

017that have an interest in gun safety in general or in kids in particular I am not here to tell you that you shouldn't go to the delegate assembly I'm not here to tell you that your resolution shouldn't go through that route I'm telling you that I don't think it's the best route I don't think it will get you the same purchase I don't think it'll get you the same traction I don't think it'll get you the same attention that working through a task force will get you and working through the task force does not prevent the task force for recommending a resolution it does not prevent you from going in May to the delegate assembly and saying hey they gave us a task force and it didn't do what we wanted to do we're bringing

018our resolution back okay it's your choice okay you're the board it's your resolution I came tonight simply to offer you an option that you might not know was an opportunity available I came tonight to tell you that I'm on your side in terms of making sure that though that the work that you did that you put into developing this and we've had lots of resolutions come before the resolution subcommittee that died right there and I have not gone to their meetings okay and I am not necessarily a gun control Advocate I am not an anti-dun control person I'm simply telling you that I saw a passion I saw concern and I saw a time and effort that I didn't think should be dismissed and I also didn't think that you should if if you bring

019the resolution forward at the floor from the floor at the delegate assembly and it dies then the topic dies okay if it's not accepted by a majority vote okay there it dies I don't want to see a die I think by referring it to a task force we can make it live and we can involve other people and we can turn it into something that has becomes actionable recommendations coming out of the task force you get recommendations they can be actionable I'm going to leave and let you guys discuss it and somebody will let me know okay what your decision is I have no problem if your decision is we're going ahead and we're bringing up the resolution from the floor I have but I promise you if you quilt only and you say we

020want to see that task force exist then part of the pr the president's report which is a second item on the agenda after the flag salute okay is the will be the formation of the task force and the fact that the first meeting in the task force will be in December and it will have the mission of what the task force is and we'll go forward from there it's entirely your choice I'm your president I am not okay that's the only reason I'm here I felt that you were entitled to that attention okay does anybody need anything or is that good enough thank you Ms LeFevre are there any questions from Dr saner if I may uh good evening and thank you for joining us um I appreciate it I I want to preface was

021saying I don't speak for the board only Dr saner speaks for the board but um we obviously want action yes that is the ultimate goal but I think as members of your organization we also would like your policies to reflect our Common Sense beliefs related to gun control um and I am disheartened and sad that the delegation doesn't seem to have the courage to pass that policy um and take the stance um that to me is common sense um so I have a question if we were to present this on Saturday um and it fails uh are you would you still be open to the task force or if we go and present it are you the task force is off the table my understanding is that if the if it fails there that that

022would be an indication to the um to the association that there is not an interest in enough of an interest among the membership to create the task force would it absolutely die I can't say it would I can I can tell you I can guarantee you that right now there's an interest okay in developing a task force if the policy is presented and it dies the resolution is presented and it dies I can't be sure I'd have to go back and start all over again to build momentum I can't tell you today whether that would happen I can't tell you today how long it would take me to make that happen I can't tell you when a report would be come out okay but certainly I just don't know the answer okay I'm only the

023president I'm not the association right one more thing if if we were to agree to the task force idea um how do you see the members of dover's board that will be on the task force how do you see them taking part in that what they are well are you open to them leading the efforts I I and I think by definition a task force starts out with all people sitting equally okay we don't they we usually have a member of the staff serve as the initially as the leader of the thing because the staff is responsible for actually doing the writing is responsible for making sure that we meet the time deadlines and providing us with the resources we as board members don't want to be the ones that have to sit there and

024type every detail and do the things um the in the past the task forces that I've been on there was always um someone from staff who kind of headed it up and somehow a leader kind of comes out of the first meeting where there just seems to be a person that everybody seems to look to and I can't tell you who that would be if that was a concern of yours I would volunteer to have one of the officers serve as the leader of this thing if you felt that that was a something that was a concern of yours okay I would not want it to say I would not want to start by saying I would not want to start by assigning a person to be the leader I would like to see the

025leadership come out of the committee as it forms thank you Mr Miller um one of the things one of the concerns I had and we had talked about in the past was the fact that if our resolution fails then according to the bylaws of New Jersey school boards we can't bring it up again in May so I'm all geared up for Saturday but at the same time I kind of like the idea of having the task force that could influence the policy and be able to bring it back to May to have a real opportunity to have change and I like the idea that the information that we've provided in a report would go to the legislature so that's a direct communication that we may not have had with just trying to change the belief

026in the section that's there I mean it's very hard to understand and even look at all of the information of school boards that make sense so I don't know if anyone would ever get anything out of that so um to that point I have never found that a resolution that we passed a policy that we created that that policy affects anybody except us okay the policies that we create affect how we as 5 000 board members might see something but they don't cause our policy does not cause representative so and so or Senator so and so to act in a specific way it causes our government relations person who talks to them to say to them this is what we would like to see you say or do but it doesn't cause them to say

027oh you have a policy therefore I will do X Y or Z as important as our 5 000 votes might be we're only five thousand votes out of the entire state of New Jersey plus the hope is that the information the task force puts together is more comprehensive than what's in our resolution now and so I would be in favor of making a motion that we go forward with having the task force formed on the basis of the fact that our resolution was brought forward so that we have an opportunity to bring change by the May delegate assembly worst case Scenic worst case scenario based on what you just said is that instead of your policy instead of your resolution being considered in November it would be considered in May because you either because the

028task force would recommend it or because you would be fed up with the task force and you would go back and bring it up yourselves so either way you would have the option in May I hadn't thought about it from that perspective but you've just phrased it very well that would be that would be a reality are there any other questions from Ms Lafave MS gracelis evening good evening I was just curious I wanted to make sure I understood correctly and when we're talking about the governmental relations staff right um which are njsba Representatives right right if um we don't know how to phrase this um if you are feeling that we are as njisb are not listened to as much as we would like to by the policy makers then what is the role

029of the governmental relations we I don't I'm not saying we're not listened to on a saying we don't have control over introducing a law we don't have control over writing a law a bill okay we we influence the people so if I have a passion about special education for kids um 18 to 21 years old all right I didn't I let's just use that as an example why I have a passion that children from the ages of 18 to 21 should have more programs available to them whatever okay the I can't do anything about that except go to this legislator and that Senator and talk to each of them person to person our government relations people know all of these people and they go and they spend hours and hours talking to them but until

030one of them writes the law writes the bill nothing happens we can be very influential and we do have a seat at the table these days in a sense of them listening to us but but they have the power to write the legislation and they have the power to pass the legislation once they write it we spend a lot of time talking to them about the foreseen and unforeseen consequences and we spend a lot of time pushing them to pass the legislation that we support that's where our policy comes in What legislation do we support What legislation do we oppose but What legislation do we support and that's where our gr people and our the members of our alleged committee do you have somebody from your board on the ledge committee the NJ no okay

031the county does someplace but the the ledge committee people also go out and talk as individual board members we go and talk so the thing is that we have a lot of influence but we don't have power of course I as board members we understand that situation okay thank you I just want one before we go um if uh when our gr representatives are speaking to this the ones who make the laws right um they're advocated advocating on behalf of the policies that we have yes currently in ajs right so should we not pass this right and the body not approve it um right and and fail right um there there will be no policy to support itself what I got out of the commentary okay that night that and then since then is that

032they felt that they already had policy in place that was broad okay and since it was broad they could support the more specific types of resolution those types of legislation that you're talking about that's why they didn't feel it was necessary to support your resolution what I would be hoping personally what I would be hoping to get out of a task force is actionable items and actionable activities being told this is what we should do this is what we like let's go back to special education because that's a field I'm more comfortable familiar with and comfortable with let's say we felt that special education should be a place that you came to for as long as you needed services but you didn't have to live there for the rest of your life okay a place

033to visit not necessarily to to reside permanently although many children and adults do reside there primarily we understand that but but that became like a little cry that we used with the education committees and we help them to understand that we needed a lot more money spent to meet the needs of kids as they came into special education and then we needed summative programs at the end to meet their needs of a narrowing group but okay that's what I would hope would come out of a task force on gun safety is we have a lot of concerns how do we narrow them down to 10 12 recommendations that are actionable some of them would be part of would be referred to our alleged committee some would be referred back to our Partners in other War

034associations the whole task force report would be read by the legislators that are on the Committees which committee should this thing go to and how do we make sure that they read it which ledge committee members from which communities can go to those legislators and talk to them okay that kind of thing thank you are there any more questions because you got a lot of other things on your agenda for tonight a lot thank you Ms Lafave we whatever you decide I'm still the president I'm sure you're president Dr Cena yes um when do we address the motion by Mr Miller under he has not made a motion yet but we will discuss this during old business thank you thank you Ms serigliano will you please introduce our next presentation okay I'd like to reintroduce

035Mr Patrick pandolfo who's quickly becoming our favorite test result presenter for this school year um Mr pandolfo is here to talk to us about the NJ GPA test which was given as a field test in the spring of 2022 and he's going to share some history about that short test and also our results all right so this is gonna I apologize it's like Groundhog's Day I hope I'm not boring you to death but it's going to be very similar to what we did last month so the NJ GPA New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment uh when the students took it 11th grade students took it in the spring they were told it was the first pathway for a graduate for the graduation requirements required by the state but in July Governor Murphy signed a bill saying

036that it was not uh it was just going to be used as a field test for the class of 2023 and that notepad they didn't have any pathway requirements for the class of 2023 however going forward the class of 2024 in the class of 2025 this is and that starts so with the test starting this coming spring this will be the first pathway graduation assessment that they would be required through the past if they do not pass it the second pathway includes showing competency on tests such as the SAT and the ACT then the if that's not a something that is feasible then the third pathway is a portfolio assessment where the state provides different CRTs constructive response tasks that students are required to show competency on they were they require that it's returned to

037the state that is graded by the school with with a rubric and that would be there then that would meet the requirement as that third Pathway to graduation so the uh what we're going to do with the data just like any formative assessment type of test and that he exam that we have the data is going to be looked at by supervisors along with the teachers as one piece of data to drive instruction so the design of this exam is with language arts and math now again this is 11th grade students taking this test and they are taking a language arts test from 10th grade standards and in math they're taking the standards that are aligned to Algebra 1 in geometry so how did we do overall so with our so everything's about what they

038call is great the purpose of this test is to see that our students are graduation ready so according to the the data and the expectations of the State uh our district our our students our 11th graders 46.8 percent of the tests in this field test remember it doesn't count for this year uh was great we're graduation ready and that's about seven points over seven points over the state average uh in mathematics 40.5 percent or considered graduation ready which would be nine points below the state average but again the state average is not ready is over 50 percent so again this is it shows that this is a pretty challenging exam as the majority of students are not meeting expectations throughout the state so just like the NJ SLA we have to report on subgroups and

039uh the the findings are very very similar you have the one particular subgroup that's a little bit higher but that group is so the subgroups are 10 or more we have to report uh so the sub the subgroups that it's a little higher only has you know a few more than 10. um and again the challenges of students with disabilities in our English language Learners are definitely there so what I was told with the English language Learners when that is about 18 of the students who took the test I think it was about 50 students um that going forward most likely their pathway would be the third Pathway to do the portfolio assessment for many of them and with our students with disabilities it would be a line their Pathway to graduation be aligned to

040their IEP their individual education plan and with with map the the data is almost identical to the language arts with subgroups so a couple of different strategies some of these strategies are ubiquitous throughout the district and somewhere specific to high school so some of the strategies that I was provided to me that we're using is of course I ready which is definitely something that is found throughout the district but I've read a diagnostic placement for math was used to uh identify students who needed more support in algebra geometry and out in Algebra 2 and so those students instead of having one period of math a day they're those students have been identified having two so they have that support that they need the launch of the building thinking classrooms is a pedagogical strategy that really

041focuses on what students are really thinking really breaks down what students are thinking about and it's done in a collaborative manner the get more math pilot that is a online program that scaffolds that has that support of previously learned Concepts that are practiced over and over again for Mastery so when students are able to master such skills and can do them more efficiently and quickly they're able to apply to higher thinking and higher order type of operations and then of course I think this was asked the last question do we use yes we do the the different practice exams that are given to us on the njag NJ GPA website njsla there's resources there for both math and language arts that we use it's I don't know if the the rigor of those those particular

042problems are the rigor that the students actually face on the test I think that's a little questionable but definitely the format and that's probably more important uh when they're when they're going through this the format is the same so at least it won't be any type of mistakes where students are unfamiliar with the process the format of what the exam actually uses in language arts the red ink diagnostic is the writing tool that is Works in conjunction with I ready there's going to be a focus on non-fiction uh novels and the strategies that are applied there just so that mirror is the type of genre that they're going to see students are going to see on the exam of course more I ready and just like the math there was diagnostic test giving so students

043who need more support in language arts have two periods of of English so they have extra supports built in and then of course like I said before we're going to make sure that we're using the format not just for uh the test but also for the types of writing prompts that are often given on the standardized tests such as the NJ GPA so um that's pretty much all I have you know especially again this was a field test so it's not something that is counting right now but it's something we are definitely preparing for thank you Mr pandolfo are there any questions from the board you might have mentioned this but I maybe it didn't register in my head and in the beginning you mentioned some other Pathways to graduation for students who may not

044be ready right it seems like our percentage is over 50 percent um can you are you able to elaborate on those other Pathways well with the second pathway the main ones are the SAT and the ACT but they didn't say what the cut scores were cut scores hasn't been established yet they do mention the NJ SLA which is given in ninth grade as a pathway but I you know and I'm reading this off the state site I didn't see anything where it says well if they don't pass the they don't pass the NJ GPA in 11th grade they take the NJ SLA in 12th grade because which really wouldn't make any sense because it's a ninth grade test so I'm not that I would have to figure out more clarification on that um and that

045the third pathway is they they give they they're going to list tasks that students have to uh accomplish and put in a portfolio and I believe it has to be assessed at the school level with a rubric that is provided by the state and then that portfolio is submitted and then counts as the third pathway thank you you're welcome MS grisalis I'm like talking backwards um for Temptation I'm curious to the numbers are scary right and I know I I wasn't here last time but I watched your presentation um and I'm curious what do you know how our schools are preparing to work all the kids that may not meet the requirements with this test well I mean I think that they're they're constantly using I mean they're using the eye the I ready is

046definitely set up to the standards and the one thing that wasn't mentioned in the previous uh presentation was that so this the the tests are are aligned to the standards and our curriculum is definitively aligned to the standards however every stand the the curriculum is is vast so but every standard is not covered on those tests so sometimes there's there's even and sometimes are presented also differently than that you would have no idea that that's coming so it's we're doing our best to look at every different piece of data and you know using the I ready using the different types of uh assessments such as this and also I think I have to do a start strong presentation pretty pretty soon too and and all those different pieces of data are kind of put together

047and they try to work out as much as possible but like I said the the curriculum itself is is aligned to the standards but not every standard is tested so we're teaching all the curriculum but there's that but not every single standard is going to be on those on those tests and I don't know if this question is for you Mr pandavo but if we're foreseeing that 50 right our need extra support because of whatever I'm sorry my mind for whatever reason right pandemic or whatever situation we are um still the side effects of that for our kids um who does that fall on um when it comes to supporting our students and which path they can take if this is not the test result that the way to graduate is this test result and

048they have to do those alternative Pathways who who would be able to support that uh the the all the pathways are made open to students so students who don't meet the primary don't meet the primary graduation assessment uh when when this becomes the primary uh we'll we will look at those students and all the Alternatives that exist um and Mr pandolfo mentioned some of them uh I don't know if that's all inclusive and we probably won't find out because typically the Department of Education revises that year to year um but for example uh the accuplacer sometimes is a uh one way or other types of commercial tests that the state says okay you can meet you can meet the ASVAB for example is another is another test that often is used as an alternative means

049so all of our students would be given those opportunities to uh to meet the testing requirement ultimately the students who don't meet any of those and Mr pandolfo said this before go through the portfolio process now that typically is the the the the the option that we do when the other ones don't don't work because the primarily because the portfolio takes time it takes time out of a student's instructional day um and uh typically students are successful through the portfolio process uh so I'm confident that with uh with looking at those options we can get the majority of students who For Whom the testing requirement is an issue uh to the graduation requirement I think there are other implications about testing you know obviously at all grade levels not just at the high school level

050um that we have to look hard at our district thank you one more and does that let's say the portfolio fall into the hands of who oversees that for each student the guidance counselor the homeroom teacher who gives them that support throughout that loan process this supervisors oversee that so it's too supervised well actually three our guidance supervisor our English supervisor and our math supervisor because you're looking specifically at math and language arts so and then our guidance supervisors overseeing the whole process ensuring completion for all the tasks that they're scored that they're aligned with the requirements for the prompts and and just making sure that everything is together and submitting that through the portal so that it's reviewed at the doe end I just wanted to reiterate that the department determined that there is

051no assessment graduation requirement for this year's seniors so seniors graduating in 2023 in June there is no assessment for them I don't have Insider information but I think that this test in my opinion was released very quickly and with a very quick determination that yes this is it this is the graduation assessment you know everybody give it and now that's all being recalled because I have a feeling the state department saw the results across the state and said wait a minute something's gone on here our students are changed there were schools like ours that were closed for eight months out of that school year we're not seeing the same students in front of us in a classroom so to create a test immediately after the void of in-person education is going to give us different

052results I think they're now trying to figure out what does this mean because they put a field test out there they got results that maybe they weren't expecting and now they have to revisit that it went out very very quickly it was really a surprise to all of us when they said here's your test for this graduating class Mr Miller I know when Miss Rosales asked the the question about the portfolio I still don't quite understand what that is as an Avenue towards graduation it's looking at a body of work in what way yeah so um sessions are held after school teachers are paid that want to participate in the program they stay after with the students and they work through the the prompts for the writing piece and the math curriculum that's assigned and

053the students have to demonstrate Mastery on those particular items that's all collected scored completed and and then sent through saying yes this student you know completed everything okay thank you Mr Robles thank you for the information um a couple of questions regarding the numbers first one is the you said 50 was the number of testers yeah it's about 18 it was about 50 it was about 50 50 students for the ell okay and was that random selection or how was that well it's students who are enrolled in the bilingual program okay but that's not the entire population right of the no bilingual program no no it's just it was that's how many 11th graders took that test right but you just said bilingual program well in that yeah the English language Learners at the high

054school okay so sorry I'm trying to understand the population of 50 is of the entire junior class no 50 is about 18 of the entire junior class okay but of those 50 are you saying that some of those are bilingual or part of the bilingual program or by mixing two things that are not no they're those are the English English language Learners students where Spanish is primarily their language they could be receiving bilingual Services they could be receiving ESL different varying levels at the high school we have intensive ESL we have advanced DSL so they could be working their way out of being in the ESL bilingual program they could just be beginning and entering into that program everybody's kind of on their own path with that okay but the the breakout of the the

055bar chart says subgroup charts Ela Ela is language arts okay so it's the English Learners it's a subgroup of all the people that took the test right right so all those different categories make up the 50. is that roughly that 18 no all the all right so if you look at this this is if you break out um the percentage of students that were considered um ready for graduation graduation ready that's the term they use graduation ready and then in these subgroups these were the percentages of the students and the subgroups that were graduation ready so for instance two percent of the uh English language Learners were considered graduation ready gotcha and that made up about that was about about 15 for students about 18 percent of the junior class which is now the senior

056class okay it's a little challenging to make those numbers understand those numbers the way you just explained it but um and then the second question so we're saying we're not doing that um like this coming the end of the year they're not going to do again the test is that correct the juniors are going to take because it's it's still according to what I've read the class of 2024 the class of 2025 it's going to count as the pat those that's going to be the first pathway but it's not applied but when the governor signed that law he rescinded it for 2023 because I think originally the original o was the class of 23 24 and 25 he rescinded it for the class of 23 and just made it a field test okay thank you

057thank you Dr saner Ms Mendes one last comment um I think that it's important to clarify for myself and and I think for the public and correct me if I'm wrong the numbers right that that that one number that keeps sticking out that 50 of students um who are not graduation ready it's not because um they're not receiving the instruction or because our curriculum is not up to the standards it's just because this test um they didn't do well on this test and this test came out of nowhere after just coming off the pandemic am I correcting assuming that I I think that it's important to understand that graduation requirements are multi-layered uh attendance is considered uh obviously performance in the classroom and students grades and then any assessment that the state decides to put

058in place are considered so as you've mentioned these this is how the students performed on this particular test that is intended to be a graduation requirement um but you might have students within that group who are performing very very well in their classes getting credit for their classes attending school regularly Meeting those requirements but not meeting not meeting the particular requirements of this test and it's I think Mr pandolf will showed that seems to be an issue Statewide in this first Administration um and maybe I should know the answer to this question but I guess my question is how do you determine the effectiveness of these intervention strategies because I guess if you're saying these are intervention strategies that are put into place due to the fact that um whatever the percentages is not graduation

059ready if they're not retaking the test how do you know that these are the strategies that are effective to address the issues that they had and I I recognize not everybody takes tests well and that's a piece of it but just generally speaking not that they're bad strategies but just how do you know that these are the right strategies to help overcome those numbers well in general when strategies are formulated that they have to by law they have to be based on Research so they have worked in other places and researched that the the types of interventions and things that we are using have worked in the past and then we do have like our internal data like through iready to see how students are you know actually making progress okay but they don't actually

060like they don't retake this test no I do not believe so no right okay so all right that answers thank you thank you Mr pandolfo thank you very much thank you thank you okay at this point we will move to our first public comment section the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of three minutes public comments limited to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities

061to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation are there any comments from the public okay seeing no one approaching the podium I will close the first public comment section and move on to approval of the minutes

062can I get a motion to approve the minutes from October 19th so moved second I have a motion from Mr Miller and a second from Ms nutting are there any questions or comments from the board seeing no comments I'm Mr cook could I have a roll call vote please Ms grzalez I abstain as I was not present Miss meant this yes excuse me Mr Miller yes Ms nutting yes Ms Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Ms riveros yes Dr sandor yes of motion character thank you thank you very much um Communications uh I the whole board received Communications from Robert seewick questioning his employment um well I just I apologize I clicked off that was received on October 19th we also received communication from John Coniglio with a question about unpaid leave and then just today

063we received another email from Robert seewick regarding his employment can anyone discuss the communications about the school-based use school-based Youth Services programs since Mr um slam is not present yes we received correspond as as you know we uh many people on the board individually and then the administration also advocated for the continuation of funds for the school-based Youth service program we had forwarded documentation to our legislators and we did hear back from Senator Buco who indicated he was in firm agreement and supportive of of our stance we also received a letter from assemblywoman or a Dunn of a similar nature thank you Dr McLaughlin and thank you to the board members I know that I was cc'd on some of those emails others you may have sent without CC me which is fine but thank

064you um to those of you who supported um that by sending an email um moving on to item number seven uh Ms Calderon Alvarez would you please present your report good evening as you may know Dover High School has recently implemented a rule where all students are required to wear their student IDs it is a strict requirement in order to be let in the building and on school grounds if for some reason excuse me I'm sorry is there a way to turn her mic up or could you move it a little close some of us are having trouble hearing thank you of course is that very yes okay so I'll just start again good evening as you may know Dover High School has recently implemented a rule where all students are required to wear their

065student IDs it is a strict requirement in order to be let in the building and on school grounds if for some reason you are not wearing it like if you forget it at home for example you are giving a bright colored Circle to place on your shirt where it is visible to staff along with the sticker your name is written down or registered registered in order to regulate who is entering the building soon there will be harsher consequences for students who decide to ignore the newly implemented rule this has been a great change for Dover High School since it is the first time students are obligated to wear the student IDs around their neck when asking the students questions regarding the use of their identification cards the majority understood their purpose they understand that they

066are a form of keeping us the student body as safe as possible our high school wants to prevent any unfortunate events from occurring such as an intruder infiltrating into school grounds I believe that it is a smart way of dealing with the safety of the students since there are many precautions that in individuals must be recognized in order to enter the building or come or come in contact with others inside of the building although there could be a better way to enhance this tool a couple students mentioned this as well when I asked them what the purpose of the IDS were they stated that creating a system like a technological system where the students had to scan their IDs would create a safer environment it could also make the ads more useful since the IDS

067themselves are not exactly checked only the lanyards that they come with destroy these come attached to a yellow lanyard that must be worn at all times by students to help the staff recognize recognize Us in the Halls there are still problems with students who refuse to wear them due to the color of the lanyard I ask students questions such as would you change the color of your lanyard why or why not if so how would you like it the majority of the responses that I received were in favor of changing the color while a small fraction of them stated that they did not mind the reasons to change it were that it did not represent Dover High since there is no yellow in our school colors also the yellow is kind of random since students

068argue that the color ruins their outfits and makes them not want to wear them colors that were preferred were black and orange in support of Dover High and if it is too much to ask black with orange colored letters would be very much appreciated by the school body although I understand that the color is used in order to easily identify the students and that the arguments that I am presenting in order to change the color may not seem very strong or important in other eyes they are to the students of Dover High School I have I have had some students come up to me personally and ask me to change the color because they simply don't like it and although this may not seem like a reason for the change when all the students get

069together they become a voice that is speaking for change regarding something they dislike and although some may believe it is just a color it is distracting students due to the fact that they that is all they are talking about some even refuse to use the student IDs just because of the color of the lanyard this can cause more problems since it will become harder to implement the rule with students refusing to cooperate by changing the color of the lanyards it is expected that more students wear their IDs on a daily basis when on school grounds sometimes a little leniency can come a long way and bring positive effects on the long run thank you so much for your report and for moving the mic from wait I I I do speak for the board and

070I will speak for myself right now that this is probably my favorite part of the meeting so it was important for us to hear thank you Dr saner yes Miss Mendez um thank you Miss Calderon Alvarez for your report I agree this is my favorite part as well um I have two questions if I may uh I I feel like I've previously asked this question maybe in a committee meeting um Miss Conroe and Alvarez brought up a point about uh some sort of a system to uh scan the IDS to get into the building so I'm wondering if one if you can maybe elaborate on the possibilities of that and then two um is there uh was there a security reason that we chose this particular color of the lanyard and what would it what

071would it cost us to you know just change the color and why did we not go with orange and black from to begin with uh I will I have no idea why we chose yellow uh so I'm just going to be honest about that I the only uh thing I can think of is that they were trying to distinguish staff who wears an orange lanyard from from students uh some of our younger staff and some of our older looking students might you know get confused uh but there's probably room there for for adjustment uh and uh oftentimes this is as as we've heard a brand new Endeavor I was actually very impressed we were just at the the high school yesterday and how many of the kids were wearing them I was happily surprised to

072see the amount of students who were being cooperative with a very very brand new Endeavor uh the so um as far as the scanners go absolutely we um are using the whole intent one of the intents in addition to security for the for the badges is to have a more automated system that replaces passes uh there's a there's a system called the Turn Style system that can be used for the nurse that can be used for guidance that automatically takes care of where a student is at a given point in time and takes that record-keeping off of the hands of teachers and for kids getting passes paper passes that they have to have back and forth and the plan is the same for uh for students entering school so that we can reduce that Log

073Jam of uh tardies that happens and sometimes exasperated at the beginning of the day because of the old-fashioned method of writing out a pass giving it to a student who would otherwise be two minutes late but now becomes 12 minutes late for class waiting online so that's definitely a part of of what's occurring if we are going to or you are going to consider changing the lanyards I would also ask that we're considered for the safety lanyards for if they're pulled they become a part rather than the ones I don't know how the top looks right but the ones that um tear off um I don't know what they're called uh they're magnetic or they or right or their clip-on so that way if we're going to address and and spend money on changing the

074color then let's also address the safety of it thank you Miss Chrysalis Mr Robles thank you once again for the sharing of the thoughts from the school body very worthwhile I think it's also a good opportunity for not to downplay the importance of the color but to teach a good life skill because once we get out of the school system we need to wear IDs wherever we go to work and sometimes we don't have a choice of what color that is but nevertheless perhaps we do have a choice here so I look forward to perhaps exploring the opportunity but I think it's a good idea that we have that security for the students and I'm glad that the students are on board with that and they understand that all set aside and all kidding set

075aside it's about the safety of the students first and foremost so thank you for for conveying that message too thank you very much president's report this would permanent but it has it has slipped past me and made it onto the agenda I can talk the agenda for one final time I would like to use this opportunity to invite everyone present and watching at home to please attend the referendum Forum on Thursday two days from now 11 17 at 6 30 pm at Dover middle school or by Journey joining virtually via a link which will appear on our website we have promised that we would answer questions and in addition to Dr McLaughlin there's staff and board members our Architects Bond Council and financial advisor will be present for those of you who choose to attend

076in person you will be offered the opportunity to hear the presentation interpreted into Spanish in real time via headphones if you are attending virtually you will be able to choose the language you will hear the presentation in after a brief but not too brief presentation community members will be able to ask questions again in both languages and the meeting will be recorded in both languages will be available on our website we have done everything we can to make this accessible to anyone with a question and to make sure that anyone with a question can get it answered there will be follow-up sessions and anyone can submit a question via our website at any time and just as a final reminder you will vote yes or no on the bond referendum on December 13th at your

077normal polling place just like you did last Tuesday thank you um Dr McLaughlin your report please thank you uh tonight I'm happy to share that the American Legion auxiliary has announced its recipients for the winter adopt a teacher project and they are Jamie Corson fifth and sixth grade special ed teacher at Eastover Elementary School and Roger Jones uh math teacher at Dover High School congratulations to our recipients and many thanks to the American Legion auxiliary for their continued partnership on Monday Miss sergliano and I had the opportunity to visit visit each of the Dover Schools to announce along with the school principals the awards for this year's educator of the year and educator Services professional of the year so I'm proud to share the following names of this year's award winners in Academy Street School

078the educator of the Year Carolyn sekola and the educational services professional of the Year Giselle Jimenez at Eastover the educator of the Year Kylie eisensmith at North Dover the educator of the Year Emily James and the educational services professional of the Year Oscar kovalevski at Dover Middle School the educator of the Year Marley Carroll and the educator Services professional of the Year Amy mulhern and at Dover High School the educator of the Year Dawn Sperry and the educational services professional of the Year Johanna schwenk so we are very proud of our recipients it is a great joy to be able to walk into a classroom uh to announce it to the group of students who are in front of of that teacher I have to say the uh the enthusiasm that they have seeing their

079teacher given that award is is priceless I think we in one particular visit every student ran up and gave a group hug to their teacher it was a very special moment so we'll be sharing out some of those pictures and of course these uh individuals will also be able to proceed to the county and regional state level for further recognition potential further recognition and we are very very proud to be able to to put forward those applications to the next level Dr McLaughlin I apologize for being rude because we take them all were awarded those [Applause] thank you the board will have an opportunity um to see those individuals come forward as you know we we have a um a over time a little tradition of providing a golden apple to those individuals and the

080name plates are being engraved as as we speak so we look forward whether it's at the December or January meeting to be able to invite those individuals to be here and to be formally recognized along with anyone who may come to the public to see that as well I'm pleased also tonight to point out that among our teacher appointments this evening is Felicia Sperry who will serve as our district as a district ESL teacher and Miss Ferry was a district power professional and she participated in the grant funded TCNJ program you may recall that we were a a partner in that Grant where degreed professionals whether they be teachers or power professionals were given the opportunity to have a class here that was Grant funded heavily discounted from TCNJ and then further reimbursed through the

081district so to go through the program and to either acquire a bilingual or an ESL credential so miss Ferry was one of those participants and I also want to highlight the fact that because Miss Perry was a power professional she still had to do her student teaching so she had to leave us to go to another District in the county um Morristown uh that uh allowed her to do her student teaching there um but she wanted to come back to Dover and be a teacher so we're very very proud of that um we're happy that she participated in the program and thrilled that she is rejoining us to work in this new capacity as a teacher as we have uh been doing each month I'd like to give an up attendance update uh to the

082board and to the public and these numbers are accurate as of October 31st at that time we had 3466 in-district students that's our five schools plus our preschool uh students we had 77 we also had 77 out of District students specialized placements so that is a total District enrollment on October 31st of it also includes uh within that 12 students who have future start dates so they are registered those are preschool students who are on the verge of turning the age and will be joining us we have presently enrolled 308 preschool students now that's a pretty similar number to the one that a stable number with the one that I provided at our last board meeting and I'm going to continue to provide attendance updates each month so that we we can continue to focus

083on on our enrollment and what our enrollment needs in space needs are as the board is aware last year we provided staff students and our community with a survey to obtain feedback and how on how we can better meet the needs of our school Community the district selected and entered entered into an agreement for the use of the Panorama survey that was administered last spring the board has received initial results of the survey and I would like to at this time to acknowledge the 17 members of our survey committee who have begun unpacking those results at our first meeting on October the 18th in that first meeting the committee formed five subgroups who will and are in the progress of examining uh each constituent group responses are our teacher responses or staff responses or student

084responses and our community responses they will be reflecting on its implications and provide recommendations for potential actions the depth of the data as we began to look at it is is very significant and there's quite a lot to look at we extend our appreciation to this committee for both the time they are devoting to the full committee and also in their separate subgroups our next full committee meeting is Friday and the group has committed to a monthly meeting each month so that each portion of input that we received in the survey receives full consideration uh the committee also did decide at its last meeting that we will re-administer the survey uh this coming March so um I'm just saying this approximately we may be able to provide a presentation from the committee we hope around

085that time or if it's or close to that time if the work isn't yet completed so that uh the committee's considerations of what these results meant to our school Community can be heard by the board and and recommendations that flow from it and that completes my report thank you Dr McLaughlin especially for the uh such great news at the beginning and then uh the climate survey has been important to this board for quite a long time and I am very glad that there is a core group of Staff working together to unpack it and really look forward to that presentation Mr Miller yeah I submitted a question I'm thinking maybe it's a good time to ask about the class size numbers um so looking at the numbers when you take away the students that are

086not in District um it looks like the numbers are 32.35 around that area I'm sorry the when you take away the students that are not in the district using the buildings the total number is 32.35 which is still slightly higher than it's been in the past and so part of what you know we've had discussions but it might be good for the public to hear is the how addressing the class sizes is a is a real requirement for you know building and having more space because we can't meet the needs of our students in in cloud craft classrooms and some of the comments have also been talking about well can you ship students from one Elementary School to another if there's fluctuating class sizes between schools so I thought it might be good if you

087could talk a little bit about that sure uh thank you so uh on Thursday at The Forum I'll actually have some information we've been spending a lot of time looking as far back as we can at numbers of class sizes through the years and where we stand now in terms of class sizes class sizes in our district tend to be large larger than most districts um however I think that's only part of the story uh and uh I I just you know I think it's a good opportunity to talk a little bit about what else takes up space in school outside of your first through 12th grade classes um and and and candidly um those areas which four years ago we did not have in our school buildings a take up size that you know

088by their nature they have to so I just want to give some examples of that um one of the biggest priorities in coming into the district that we heard from in different forums and in personal conversations was the need to improve special ed services um actually and I recall the board uh even saying at the time that's our number one issue you know we have we have test score issues we have issues of providing services to our English language Learners those are our challenges that our district face but our number one challenge was special ed as I've continued to report we still have a sizable amount of students who are in out of District placement 77 as we stand and that's consistent with the number last last board meeting as well now there are students

089by the nature of their disability that require a specialized placement a private school or a specialized school that attends their disability but the fact of the matter is that the district has for a long time been sending many of its students to other district schools in Randolph and Rockaway in Morris Hills that are are not specialized schools they are just schools that have classes that we don't have so special ed has been a big area uh and and uh for the the first time uh in its history uh Dover has an Autism program we have three classes which is really just the beginning of an Autism program but those three classes are new and that just for example if we're talking about class size three autism classes which by their nature may not sound like

090a big number they might have six students in them uh but that's a classroom because they they may also have six adults in them if it's a one-to-one type of situation um four years ago we had one special ed teacher in Dover High School we had over 80 students with an IEP which meant the vast majority of those students did not have any services in their IEP today we have close to 10 special ed teachers at Dover High School that's good it's progress it's not where we need to be we still need to grow more but those 10 teachers also need space so it's it's not just a matter of one-to-one class size along with providing these very very necessary Services space goes along with that four years ago we didn't have a single basic

091skills class now as I listened to Mr pandolfo today and last month talk about test scores uh whether they be at the high school or any other level we know that we have students who need support they need remediation and acceleration and some of that can be provided by a classroom teacher but we know that basic skills teacher Orton Gillingham teachers reading Specialists all of whom have been added are critically necessary for our students they deserve it they should have it um we we have grown that program significantly not not enough but significantly and all of those individuals need a space to work with kids uh in addition uh to the basic skills in Norton Gillingham and the reading Specialists we've added counselors to our schools we've added clinicians to our schools we've added ESL

092teachers to our school bilingual teachers to our schools and all of those again requires space um it's it's just a necessary you can't bring a person and not have a space for them to work with kids so um great kindergarten through 12th grade we'll look at those class sizes but we also need to look at all those other services those services that are that they are not they're not bonus they're not extra they're absolutely required uh we've been as the board knows because you review the budget every year and we talk about this that these These are critical to our students success and and they require space so um so I will be prepared on Thursday to share out some class size numbers but I'll also be emphasizing some of those those pieces thank you

093very much Miss chrysalis I understand if you cannot answer this question as I was unable to check your update um when you sent it earlier today when it comes to the ESL District teacher Miss Berry which is wonderful that someone from within and was not stolen by Morristown yes we got her back I'm excited I'm curious um the title District ESL teacher does that mean that she will be providing ESL instruction at all schools throughout the district no no it doesn't uh I I didn't mean to suggest that we we are trying to as much as possible keep our teachers in one location if we can sometimes they do need to split locations but um we as you can see in the board we've been trying to add ESL teachers it's a very very I

094have to say that too it's another reason why we're appreciative uh for for her coming back to Dover is uh it's a very competitive market right now for ESL teachers everyone everyone is looking for good ESL teachers thank you do you um one more question do you have the specific schools where she would be working at maybe on the board it says District it says District I can get back to you on what school that would be wonderful thank you mrigliano would you please give your report sure good evening I'd like to begin my report this month by highlighting the professional learning on the agenda for approval tonight beginning July 1st our staff has attended over 100 professional development events for which the board of education has approved their participation to add more context around

095this that is over 100 events in approximately 100 days that is almost one event per day this does not include the in-district professional development that is also taking place regularly which is focused on the following readers and Writers Workshop sheltered English instruction executive functioning co-teaching and dual language and ready math our staff continue to be eager and active participants in all professional Learning and Development and we are always looking to accommodate and support as much as we can on the agenda for approval tonight is also the three-year operational preschool plan the goals of our preschool program for the 23-24 school year are identified as the following ensuring and reviewing the inclusive practices to make sure we are addressing the needs of all of our Young Learners training and providing support to staff about the implementation

096of the pyramid model the pyramid model just to give more clarification it provides guidance for Early Childhood Educators for early intervention Personnel for families and other professionals that are working within that classroom on evidence-based practices for promoting young children's healthy social emotional development and another goal is ensuring Fidelity to our curriculum which is the creative curriculum with the gold standard assessments with our new staff and new directors at our new preschool sites I'd like to thank the following staff who came together and worked to complete that plan Marie hardenberg our director of preschool Jacqueline adames supervisor preschool johani Jimenez Bosch our family engagement Specialists and preschool social worker and our preschool instructional coaches Tony Ward and Joanne Papa Marcos this concludes my report thank you Mr rigliano and I said it in the curriculum meeting

097but that was not televised so I would like to say it again um where tens of people are watching um but thank you for providing the professional development uh that was that has been a tremendous change in our district over the last four years um and uh I'm so happy that our teachers are taking advantage of it and that it exists uh for them to take advantage of are there any other questions or comments okay um is someone presenting Mr slam's report since he okay so we'll skip over that nobody wants that one got it okay 100 okay um Mr Miller would you please give the Morris County Ed Services Commission report uh yes we met uh last Wednesday we had a presentation on the special special services presentation that I provided a copy to

098Dr McLaughlin and we're going to meet to discuss later if there are any new opportunities that I could bring before the Morris County Educational Services Commission that could help us in other school districts thank you Mr Miller are there any questions okay seeing none Ms Ruiz is not here but Ms Mendes has agreed to give the legislative report tonight thank you thank you yes or Mr Reese is not here but she left me some notes so bear with me um regarding science technology engineering and math education or stem on November 2nd Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation amending the New Jersey Department of Education grant program for stem teachers established in 2019. the amended Law incentivizes Public School stem teachers to participate in the program and ensure that non-public school students have access to stem education

099it expands the number of Educators who are eligible to provide stem instruction at non-public schools in addition to their Public School duties the law also broadens the hours at which Public School teachers can teach at non-public schools in addition to increasing teacher compensation for participating in the program regarding the health of our school Community shopping for 2023 health coverage started on November 1st 2022 open enrollment began at the state's official health insurance Marketplace get covered New Jersey at getcovered.nj.gov consumers will benefit from historic levels of financial help that remain available for the upcoming year and more plant options with the addition of a new insurance company offering plans on the marketplace all consumers need is their zip code birthday and income and they can view the plans available and the estimated amount of financial help

100they may qualify for to lower premium costs the safety of our school Community is our priority so I'm pleased to share that it can combine 20 million in state and federal grants as available through the community-based violence Intervention Program and hospital-based violence Intervention Program the program is designed to work with victims in the wake of violent incidents and with individuals and communities impacted by gun violence and those at risk of violence non-profit organizations in our school community may benefit from exploring these grant opportunities the Department of Law and Public Safety is now accepting applications for these Grant funds and that concludes the report thank you very much questions okay Ms nutting will you please give the Morris County school board report okay so Morris County School Board we actually had our last meeting here at

101Dover which we had hosted Mine Hill did receive an award for being a certified School Board which is a very nice thing that we are partners with them too also we had a couple of our members show up which was a nice little turnout of um talking and just going over little laws and what was going on so it was nice updates thank you thank you Miss nutting are there any questions okay moving on Miss viveros will you please give mine Hill ad hoc committee report we met with the Mine Hill Board last Wednesday November 9th they graciously gave us a tour of the preschool classrooms Pre-K classrooms to date we are still in negotiation with the send and receive contract that's it thank you thank you Ms faveros are there any questions okay um

102moving on to item 11 could I please have a motion for administrative approval so second okay so I have a motion for the approval of a uh through D made by Ms nutting and seconded by Miss Chrysalis Mr crook could I please have a role I just wanted to point out that the hand carry uh replaces A and B it's a revision of A and B in the administrative uh agent uh portion of the agenda thank you for the clarification Dr McLaughlin um when you're ready Mr and I just have to find the right page give me a second page four yep okay Ms Gris Alice yes Miss Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Ms nutting yes Ms Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Ms riveros yes Dr saner yes motion carries thank you Ms nutting you

103get personnel which is always a challenge okay so I like to make a motion upon the recommendations of the superintendent and the board approves the following Personnel resolutions a one through seven with the updates at hand carry um one through seven and adding 8 through 12. I believe there is did that include the um item there's one change that came in after the revision um Stephen delaporte who appears twice has indicated that he will not be moving forward having taken a position in a different District thank you I have a motion from Ms nutting second a second from Mr Miller and Mr coot when you're ready could we have a roll call vote please second MS grazalis yes Ms Mendes yes Mr Miller yes Ms nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Ms riveros

104yes Dr saner yes motion carries thank you Mr crew Ms nutting will you please take negotiations okay sorry no wait I apologize too soon I'm in the wrong place um it is sorry yeah I have four copies all right Ms nutting for the third time negotiations please okay so we have upcoming coming meeting December 12th with the daa uh with the DEA we should start looking at dates um to start our negotiations again and with the dssa we are finalizing the contracts thank you Miss nutty moving on to curriculum co-curricular Ms Mendes please um the curriculum committee met on November 1st at 5 pm at the Belmont building uh Miss heinemann gave us an overview of anatomy and physiology one which is in line with the 2022 standards we discuss professional development and a teacher

105learning day um I I won't name them because Mr rigliano name most of them in her report um we discussed the difference between i-Ready classroom and I ready my path so with that I moved at the board approved items one through twelve with the hand carry items 13 through 16. thank you second okay so we have a motion from Ms Mendez and a second from um Miss Phillips are there any questions Mr Miller I just have one um I was looking at the um the facilities that we send our students for preschool and one is the Dover Early Learning Center and I would like to know where it is because I looked it up and it says Dover Delaware oh that's that's our new um that's our new facility that we rented in Rockaway uh

106it's on the premises of St Clements the Dover Early Learning Center one is there and when we open at the uh property in Wharton that's owned by Saint Mary's that will be the Dover Early Learning Center oh we're gonna have a special sign of course okay yes is there going to be a fight like m s one and two where people are convinced that one is better than the other hopefully they'll be equal um any other question Ms gracelis um I was wondering I know I presented these questions ahead of the um meeting um so one comment it's great to see the many mentorship and internships opportunities that are taking place in our district um and obviously similar to what you were saying Dr Seiner and that our staff are engaging in them um and

107I know that this will definitely possibly impact the learning of all our students um so I'm very happy to see that and thank you so much for that um I'm also curious what does the kefir no key fabric I don't know I don't know how to pronounce it key favor artist residency Granite War entail for Eastover um how will those students benefit from that so that is a continuation of the partnership with the mural that was done for um for the Middle School uh the artist uh in in wrapping up the project for the Middle School decided that Eastover Elementary needed its own um representation in in that part of the school which I think was a very fortunate thing for Eastover and for us as a district it's nice to be recognized Again by

108that organization so they're actually awaiting the policy to be finished that covers murals and then they're ready to move ahead awesome can you um pronounce the name so they get respectfully and I don't know how to say it do you I do I can try to pronounce it but I would be doing exactly what you're doing before a nest task thank you I have there are no other questions Mr crook could we have a roll call vote please Miss Chrysalis yes Miss Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Ms nutting yes Ms Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Ms riveros yes Dr sander yes motion carries thank you very much now Ms Phillips community relations please try to get through it without choking so the community relations committee has not met so I actually don't have an update

109to that end I do have a question though that I didn't send you but I think you can still answer it so at the last meeting I went through some of the suggestions that the community relations committee had come up with as far as Community engagement we've not done anything with that presumably given that it is November and there's going to be a reorganization in January the Assumption I guess would be that we would the community relations committee would not move forward on any of those things until January or not if not I'm fine and we can certainly proceed I'm just not really sure I think the please correct me if I'm wrong but we were supposed to our board goals were to have two community relations board run forums yeah yeah and that's separate

110right right those were separate from the like the other I mean that was there and that's one thing there was other suggestions of proposed ideas that could be done separate from that that those are like a given that things would happen um we can certainly discuss this my concern is we're running out of time right so while there is a reorganization the majority of the board will remain the same and while a person or two may come on or off of community relations and we have also discussed discussing whether community relations correct but I think um I would be in favor of moving forward and at least coming up with narrow you had a really large and robust list okay if you could narrow it down to a top three or top five to move

111forward with I would personally appreciate that that's fine I'm fine to do that is there anyone else on the board that wants to weigh in Mr Robles yeah I guess the after we narrowed that down would it be just making a motion to move forward with those activities that are narrowed down and taking a vote on that is that the expectation I I think that that we would as a board decide agree I hope that those would be the hour uh you know someone who's not on community relations agree that those would be important and then um the board would vote to task our Administration with implementation of those um in the you know it's a Sticky Wicket in that we are not micromanagers we don't get to decide but that would be a recommendation

112to the administration that's fine okay I can do that Ms viveros I have a community relations item I would like to share with the board sure isn't up to that yet okay Ms viveros please wait Miss Phillips is not done yet Ms Phillips please continue what I was gonna say was that so I'm going to give you the entrance because I was sick last week so I didn't do anything other than sleep so I didn't attend any any kind of community events I do know that the play is this Thursday and Friday but that's all I know so now if anybody else wants to say like Jackie Miss viveros over the weekend one of our 2021 graduates Brianna Ochoa opened her own business in town I would like to recognize her accomplishments and skills to

113be career ready and also the compassion to give back to her community congratulations and thank you okay thank you that I can't even imagine 2021 grad that's amazing and a testament to our the Ingenuity and hard work of our students so thank you for sharing that in under 21 still wow yeah um any other community events that anyone wants to highlight um moving on Mr Robles policy thank you the policy committee met November 1st and my apologies I was not able to attend but thank you Dr Cena for the notes so we have policy 5561 use a fiscal restraint and seclusion techniques for students with disability the policy has been in place we asked for review of this policy our se Attorney made two main suggestions explicit requirements for prone position restraint and explicit annual

114notification of the policy regardless of the date of the last IEP staff is currently in professional development for Handle With Care where de-escalation is taught policy 5512 harassment intimidation and bullying revised due to Major legislation changes um policy 5513 care of school property this was updated to include a new legal citation and minor revisions to language and regulation use of physical restraints and seclusion techniques for student disability it goes along with the policy mentioned before and then we have the policies listed for second reading five five one seven seven four eleven seven four four one zero one five five point zero one and two four two one six and then we have also regulations seven four eleven murals on school property and 7441 electronic surveillance and school buildings and in school grounds oh those are

115second readings and then job description for teacher student mentor it's also up for approval mentoring small groups of students with attendance issues and addressing barriers to attendance and uh so with that said I move that we approve items one through five second okay we have a motion by Mr Robles and a second by Ms grassalis thank you very much Ms grassalis sorry you get it um and Mr Miller you have questions okay so um my first question well it kind of goes along with the the Dover High School attendance report which I didn't bring up because I didn't see where that was but um and this is related to the teacher student Mentor position but I'm just going to ask the question about the attendance report first that there were a number of tardy occurrences

116and obviously that's the reason why you want to create this position but I wanted to know looking at those numbers is it a number of the same students that are causing the number within a grade to be high or is it a lot of students all together that are tardy like if it's 300 tardy sessions in a month is it attributed to 30 40 students like how big is the problem well I think there there's a lateness issue uh for sure uh and I probably would I'm ballparking this and I'll get you some more specific information as we go along um but at the high school for example one of the issues that I already alluded to uh is that our system for late students also contributes to the lateness uh so one of the

117really great benefits of where we're moving with the badge should be to see some decrease just in the way that that's processed uh that being the case that doesn't mean that we still don't have students who are late so I know that that's an area that um that the new Administration new High School administration is paying a lot of attention to and working with kids on I I don't know that I would attribute that to us I have not been given the information that that's a small subgroup of students who's just repetitively late um but I will get you some follow-up information okay so the the follow-on question for the mentor position just trying to understand how that would be implemented um it mentions an accountability system and so I'm wondering what is that so

118um mentors uh first of all just seeing as a background we'll have a roster of 10 to 15 students each depending on the needs of the students uh they'll be given 10 10 hours a month to work with their mentees and also with their parents um so they'll they'll be Outreach that's involved in that creating an action plan when it concerns attendance having students uh conversations with students and parents about their weekly attendance um mentors are going to be given a preliminary training on working with students regarding their attendance and authorities and at this time we do have a list of students who fall under the category and will be pleased with a mentor so those students who do have who are identified as having chronic issues would be assigned would be assigned to Mentor

119the accountability system mentors have to log into the system with their login log their communication with their students and with their families on a spreadsheet that the dean of students who's overseeing the project here at the high school will be keeping student accountability will follow you know our standard procedures for absence he is some and tardiness but the goal is to have the teacher Mentor be in constant communication with the student and their families to head off any issues with absenteeism before it becomes a loss of credit situation the salary uh is the one that's negotiated in the contract for hours and that's at 10 hours a month and as I mentioned before the dean of students is going to be overseeing this project so I know a lot of data analysis has gone into

120this in terms of identifying how many students lost credit not because of academic proficiency but because of absenteeism and and that's the goal of this particular effort oh that's great I think that I think that could really help my last question in this area that's not an absenteeism is policy 5313 the care of school property I'm just interested in understanding well how are we going to instill a feeling of Pride with the to our students in regard to school property and how is this policy being introduced to Administration teachers and staff so that we're all in well I I think what you're asking probably exceeds the language of the policy you know I think um uh obviously we have to have we have to have standards where school property is is um valued and appreciated

121and taken care of um I have to say I think one of the things that uh that we've been able to do is the district and I know that there's attention to um we have a number of members of our I.T Department here so I can look over and see if they they agree with this or not but we we entrust a very valuable device to each one of our students you know that school property um one of the things that that we've considered is you know perhaps an incentive program where a student who has a device for a long period of time might be able to walk away with that device you know at the end again we have to look at that situation and see if that's something we could we could accommodate

122uh but I think by and large the fact that we have you know nearly every student from the from grade 3 to grade 12 who goes back and forth with with with the device in their backpack and are able to take care of that it really I think speaks a lot of our kids um so um I'm not saying that it's that it's perfect uh certainly in that situation or generalized throughout the area but um you know I I do think it's it's it's a fair piece to to bring up thank you following up with Mr Miller's um questions I was wondering if um our student rep Miss um Calderon Alvarez who helped the board out in finding out right whatever what are the students feelings in regards to tardiness what are the barriers what

123are they facing right what what can we help them with um as part of the njsba workshop I attended a training in regards to moving the start time of school to later right starting later having them there's a pediatrician spoke about all the research of the of what we're doing to our kids by forcing them to be here so early quote unquote right and so there's a lot of more involved with that in sports and you know everything after but that got me thinking right what are what are the challenges that our kids are facing in order to get here to school early and is that something that could be you know explored from a student to student um right um level and similar to maybe the value of school property right what are they

124seeing right and kind of hearing from the students more directly I'm wondering if those two topics are appropriate solma you are now fully indoctrinated to the board you've been you've been tasked that's that's what happens here asking a question I love it I typically just just write a lot of email wait to hear what everyone says in December thank you okay and thank you Miss Gonzalez for that I think that's really important thank you okay and so I have questions about um some of our policies and I was curious if we can get to that business because I I have about four or five so bear with me please I do wanted to comment that it is extremely helpful to see the revisions in each of the policies that are being presented for approval thank

125you for presenting them in that format as a non-policy Committee Member it makes it completely very much easy for me to see the work of the committee in that way so thank you so much for all your work and all the crossing out I saw a disclaimer because I was about to write that question as I read Dr McLachlan's explanation of why there were so many crossouts in the two policies that I had so I'm like oh I'm glad I read to the end because I would have asked a question that was already answered Isabel Machado States the district did not previously have a regulation 5561. please note as the board allows restraint and seclusion techniques regulation 5561 is mandated end of quote can you explain in general terms what are the benefits of having

126a regulation and why the district did not previously have this regulation we uh we are currently uh making a significant effort to provide both support and training to our staff in the area of restraint and seclusion as as it has been noted already in this meeting the district does not have a long experience with programs that by their nature may have had a num the need or high need for this type of of policy so in addition to uh providing some of the training that Mr rigliano mentioned before we're also doing policy and regulation work so one of the things that that we asked was that our special ed Council Isabel Machado look at our policy and uh in the course of that she indicated that we should also have this regulation so those as

127we discussed in the policy meeting this was not something that came through Strauss Esme it wasn't part of an update it's part of our effort to do this uh the right way also Mrs Machado is working with our special services department because there are a number of forms that have to be developed around An Occurrence where um where a restraint might have to be utilized which should be uncommon it should be uncommon that I don't want anyone to read this and say oh Dover is is looking to restrain students um that that certainly is a part of uh the training and support uh as as was mentioned is really the pre-intervention the work to make a restraint unnecessary and and that is part of the work the group Handle With Care is doing with our

128student with our staff however uh and the occasion that it is you do need to take certain steps so that's where this float from great thank you further on 5561 the district policy states quote the superintendent or designation annually inform parents of students and with disabilities about the board's policy regarding restraint and seclusion end of quote can you share how this is completed or how it's planned to be completed I typically what happens in districts with this as we utilize the IEP process so that parents can be advised of that through the IEP document for their individual student certainly can provide that in an update to your whole population but I think where it's most likely to be seen would be in that specific document a follow-up question incent is is this something that can

129be in collaboration with CPAC or is that the right well uh certainly it could be if CPAC was interested in having you know a session on this you know that could occur now moving to policy 5512 in order to nurture a trauma-sensitive environment um and languages is important is it possible to change the language across the policy from offender to actor and from victim to Target I'm I'm probably going to defer to Mr crude on this one but I think when it comes to HIV when there's regulatory language where we are usually better off using the language that uh comes through the legislation um I I think that's an excellent question I'd like to look at the regulation of the statute and see how exactly how it's worded but I you know I think it's

130possible because uh particularly you know I've I've lectured recently on the new law and you know I'm trying to explain cases and sometimes it's in some of the cases especially with young children correct it's difficult to use some of that terminology um so is this on something for first reading or second read uh this is on for first reading yeah so I'm and that's a that's a relatively minor change that I don't think would have impacted if we were so let's I would suggest leaving it as it is for now and that's something we could look at and talk about for this it would be great to see uh this address by our second reading thank you um same policy I am struggling very much and perhaps because of my training um with reading that

131an adult staff member may be considered to enact bullying behaviors towards a student rather than considered an act of potential allegation of emotional child abuse by our district rather than bullying I'm concerned that this can limit the required and mandating costs to dcpnp when there are concerns of what I Define more as an emotional verbal child abuse than a bullying incident from an adult staff to a student can you speak to that um my concerns just point out to me where you are in the policy um and and I I can't I didn't write down specifically a um but most of the policy or their sections where um an adult is addressed as an actor of a bullying act towards a student um I would have to go back to the policy to look specifically

132but there are specifications where an adult or staff member can be investigated for bullying a student yes that is absolutely true the the the the HIV law first of all it's important to understand only students can be the uh I know the target the target or a victim um but uh other students can be the offenders or staff members can be the offenders and they're and that's been that's been the case in the law for a long time right since the beginning so so I do not have the policies in front of me so I'm not sure what the specific question is but yes staff members uh can be found to have bullied students and that's and so my question is yes that's the policy that's the law what are we in our district doing

133about ensuring that you know I personally believe that it is not a bullying incident when it comes from an adult to a student that is child abuse or could be alleged as child you know just just so you understand and it's the same thing with student on student Welling there are there are many things that can be horrible situations from one student to another but they don't they aren't necessarily considered to be bullying or HIV and the reason for that is the bullying law Lays sets forth um very specific um standards and tests for what constitutes bullying and what you know what doesn't constitute bullying and so for something to meet the standard of bullying it has to meet all those um require those tests and standards and certainly some conduct could buy a staff

134member to a student could rise to the level of of abuse or something and that doesn't just because it's considered bullying doesn't mean that there wouldn't be other avenues to pursue that if it was Rose to the level of abuse or and there wouldn't be other actions that could be taken just as with one student against another in addition to the finding of bullying there could be other discipline imposed and other sanctions and things that are imposed okay thank you um lastly on page 38 um paragraph J2 I believe it is or section J2 I I don't know if it's incomplete the phrase or that paragraph ends with and a-n-d so I'm wondering if that's just a mistake or if there was something missing I'm scrolling yep I I hear you so page 38 the

135paragraph that is the section J2 oh yes it should have been correct that the Yan should not be there okay thank you Miss Chrysalis if this therapist thing doesn't work out copy editor might be a backup choice for thank you very much for your insightful questions are there any other policy questions before we move forward okay Mr crute when you're ready a roll call vote please okay Ms Gris Alice yes with the exception of five five one two that is a no from me Miss Mendes guess with the exception of five five one two Mr Miller yes Miss nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Miss Rivers yes Dr saner yes motion carries thank you moving on to finance and Facilities Ms chrysalis two agentas or am I the only one with like extra

136copies so I was not present at our last Finance meeting um so I was wondering if those members who were present can provide a short update and if not I can certainly read off of what we were yes I'd be glad to give thank you we discussed under finance that our discussions on the tax levy with Richard Gardens was ongoing we also discussed the SDA funding for regularly operating districts and that we have put our list together so when the state is ready we'll be able to put our information together there was also 75 million dollars in the state budget for emergent needs and capital maintenance um and uh we had submitted what we would want the state has not released you know how much we would be getting last year we received 75k which

137was used for the bottle filling stations in our schools we expect to have the auditor on the ground in December to produce an audit report before the end of the year uh and we did uh note that we switched Auditors to nissavakia um in our Dover Early Learning Center one in Rockaway uh we did have uh Township approval for some variance relief that was being sought for that site there was discussion on the pre-planning meeting with our Architects and consultants for the referendum meeting uh upcoming referendum forum for our food service we talked about Dover being provided uh 16 409 dollars from the Department of Agriculture to Aid in the purchase of local Fresh Foods which we received last year as well under facilities we discussed the ongoing work here in the cafeteria that the

138wall covering on the back was incorrectly placed and the vendor had to order a new wall paper and we'll be installing it the proper way um and that we're still waiting for some of the equipment for the the digital board uh uh the we talked about the science lab the replacement flooring uh should have been installed uh at the point that we had to our meeting it was supposed to be just installed that week and then at Academy Street the school trailer um you know we're in discussions with the town as there were some issues with the existing sidewalk that they were looking at the pitch and also working on um getting the fire alarm and security system reprogrammed under the long-range facility plan um we're we're looking at you know what the total amount

139of those projects would be in uh in conjunction with what our capital reserve can then be based on those projects and we will be the district will be listing the items um uh running list of items that are color coded um and you know we'll see not sure exactly how they're going to happen but it's all going to be part of the plan going forward um and then there was discussion on the uh the HVAC system um repair from our schools and and that we're exploring um a reimbursement for HVAC projects up to 75 percent um if that's what we're awarded and um and what is not funded will be funded with the sr2 funding thank you that was a long one uh just as we have been doing month to month providing a referendum

140update under finance and Facilities um Dr saner had mentioned and the reminder about the public forum I additionally wanted to make sure that we are um oh mine away but remember reminding everyone to share these and if anyone from the public is interested those are our car magnets there are plans for additional virtual forms after Thursdays there is a bond referendum video that highlights two of our board members on the district website both English and Spanish and it takes the viewers inside the schools to show the higher enrollment overcrowding impact on our students education so please take a look at them there are yard signs card magnets and flyers postcards and business cards trying to promote the information about the referendum the board really is looking and encouraging all community members to visit dover-nj.org backslash

141vote for the most accurate and up-to-date information on the referendum vote and with that it concludes our um finance and Facilities update I move that we approve one through 11 with a hand carry of 12 through 14. again okay I have a motion from Ms grisalis and a second from Ms nutting gotta get up earlier um are there questions about finance and Facilities Ms grisalis I do some of many of my questions were specifically to Mr slam so I won't put everyone else through that I was curious to see if Dr McLaughlin would you know about the district's choice of um with a contract with Platte Psychiatric Associates do you know if there were any other Alternatives sought or were there the only ones sought by the district uh there's um a number of considerations

142that that have gone into uh where to seek um those types of evaluations for our students uh one of which is proximity another is timeliness uh so I know this this may not be the exclusive uh so you may see other other people approved as well great thank you for that I also have questions uh that I shared already but they are again geared towards Mr slam so I will follow up with him they do not affect my ability to vote on any of the items seeing no other comments Mr recruit when you're ready could we have a roll call vote please Miss Gris Alice yes Ms Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Ms nutting yes Miss Phillips yes Mr Robles yes Ms riveros yes Dr saner yes motion carries thank you um informational uh our

143next board meeting December 20th our reorganization meeting will be January 3rd and our following meeting will be February 23rd and a lot of 24. yes I can't read it's February 21st thank you very much and I see a lot of requests to use our facilities for recreation basketball a little bird told us that those were coming um so it's nice to see that um I just uh and I'm sorry I didn't catch this on the agenda uh so it's important to note that really our only confirmed board dates are through January 3rd which is the reorg meeting there will be a regular January meeting that's not listed here and also the Forum which will occur on Thursday is advertised as a board meeting because the the majority of the board will be there thank you

144for clarifying that okay moving on to Old business um I was going to put each of you who attended Workshop um on the spot and ask you for your favorite session um but Ms grisalis stole mine um it would anyone like to speak to not all of them um a favorite session I have asked the board members who attended we are populating a Google folder so that you could go in and you know look at something that looks interesting and then find the information and then possibly reach out to the board member that attended but would anybody like to bless you share any information Mr Miller yes I attended a session called leading with a governance mindset and it was presented by The Long Hill Township Board of Education and their superintendent Dr Anne muchi

145and so basically what it was about was how can we make the board better how can we make our governance more effective and so part of what establishing a governance committee and a lot of school boards have them is that they make recommendations to the board for the adoption of new revised bylaws and policies and board regulations uh they also monitor board member completion of superintendent evaluations and board of self-evaluation and they also assist the board president and vice president with new board member training and our new committee uh chair training when needed so there's a lot more information in the PowerPoint that I put on I used Google forms and Google drive but we appreciate it okay I got it and uh Long Hill did provide us a copy of their new board member

146orientations that we can look at and they also put together a little tri-fold that they had for members of the public if they attend meetings they kind of explain what's going on that I can you know provide as well so I thought it would be something that we could consider in January or next month for January to consider creating this committee that would help us with our governance ability within within the board um Mr Miller would that replace the policy committee since a lot of what they do you said they advise on policy and regulation policy for the board on how so on the bylaws just our bylaws and all of the pieces that go along with that okay thank you anyone else want to I don't know why Mr Robles yeah one of the

147workshops I attended was called or titled exploring inherent bias marginalization and Prejudice and it was led by a gentleman by the name of Vincent the Lucia and he shared about just some of his experiences and encouraged districts and schools to have diversity equity and inclusion training and also for board members as well he talked about how some of our experiences shape how we deal with people and how we approach life in general and he also encouraged us to um understand that the things that have happened in the past while they happened they are learning moments and opportunities and we should continue to strive for not repeating the things that we see in the past that we're not uh prone to promote diversity equity and inclusion and understand that the people that are living in today's

148world were not alive years ago to be the ones that uh delivered some of those situations but instead we should be promoters of change and it was a great great workshop and he uh offered his services to bring to the board trainings that are geared to this topic which I think is very could be very productive for our team so um yeah it was it was really great thank you Mr Robles other item of older goal um to discuss how we want to move forward with the delegate assembly which is Saturday um before we talk about that I want to thank you uh to the board members uh first of all thank you to miss Chrysalis for drafting the template email to reach out to uh the board members or the delegates from various boards

149across the state um uh and thank you to the board members who actually uh went through and sent about 15 emails to various board members about our resolution to try to Garner some support um if you haven't yet done your 1 9 of the list um it's not too late so please do that if you have questions reach out to me or miss Chrysalis um but how do we want to move forward Mr Miller can I please talk about the process as I learned um what was to take place on Saturday so they have that background so I spent a lot of time going back and forth with school boards trying to understand how do we present this resolution and so what they indicated to me is that there will be a portion on the

150the agenda in which I would have the opportunity to go to the podium to uh make a recommendation um and once I would make that motion someone would have to second it I already know that we have someone who would second the motion that then in turn allows me to give a three minute uh speech on on the resolution which I've already written a draft and we were looking to revise and add some other words to it but the the process of putting this together they call it a remedy since it was already rejected by the resolutions committee um in order to sort of not change the context of what is intended but the wording of how we do it like njbs SBA believes that the purchasing of Guns by youth can you know we

151go through all the same whereas is that we had um the issue is that once I have my three minutes then the attorney from school boards that countered us at the uh the committee the resolutions committee will have his three minutes there is no discussion afterwards they simply go to the vote and if we don't have a majority vote it's dead so after hearing what the task force is about I feel more encouraged about having the opportunity of getting a comprehensive report in the hands of legislators that could actually make a difference perhaps in presenting this which would keep this alive at least until the next delegate assembly if we go there this Saturday and our six minutes are up and we don't get the majority it's done we cannot bring it back before the

152delegate assembly for another year so I believe based on what Miss Lafave brought up that we should take the opportunity to go with the task force their comments I just I wanted to share that um after I sent the email um of my 15 assigned contacts it was great to see um you know one of the persons that um Mr Miller was talking about responded to me in regards to hey send me the actual um uh resolution because it was not shared with the delegates since it was not on the agenda for them because it was turned down it's what I figured out after the fact Mr Miller so they didn't get the resolution to look at because it was already right at the committee what is it called again though the committee that does

153it the resolutions committee thank you um so it was nice to see the interest they actually one of the members also shared that they moved things as well and shared their resolution that they passed for themselves I also received a comment um or an email response from another person um I can call Pamela Thompson I remember the name in regards to their support and how they want to hear more about the discussion so I mean that's two people obviously we need a majority so it was very interesting to see the response and of people who don't know us but are on board with at least hearing more about it Dr saner if I may yes um I'm totally in agreeance Mr Miller that we should um explore the task force and see what can come

154of that but also making sure that if nothing comes of it we still stick to bringing that resolution to the floor in May I think believe it is my only concern is do we have the capacity to commit to that task force I'm ready okay my perspective is why can't we have it all why can't we present the our resolution now and have the task force the way Miss love fave uh explained it is that the product that I I the report the task she said that task force reports are well received um and that action quote action occurred because that task force existed so I my feeling right now is I know that that um that we run the risk of the resolution um not passing and therefore um not being able to bring

155it back for a year but my thought is if the task force is what really gets things done this issue is hot we've worked really hard on it um why can't we have it all and I I quite frankly did not understand her answer to whether the task force could exist afterwards because the feeling might the passion might we're passionate about this let's um let's go and try to get both so that we can actually have an impact on future legislation Ms grisalis just to clarify when I asked her or maybe it was Miss Mendes and I'm taking credit for it here but when she was asked about could we do the task force at the same time or right after um you know her response to me was very valid in regards to it

156they will if they're not going to pass the resolution they may not have the interest I don't think she's talking about our passion she's talking about they at that table will not have the passion to support a task force is my understanding so I don't think that is you know I think she came here because the passion that she saw from us right so I I I do think that um I don't think we could have both um at the same time I think we said you do not I don't think we can have both because it seems like they work hand in hand right if they don't approve the resolution they are already receiving their recommendation from the resolutions committee not to support this resolution why would they support a task force if the

157majority are not on that same line then why would they support it now like that that's what they're probably not right if we we have said from the beginning that is this was going to be an uphill battle right that we it was probably very unlikely that we would be unfortunately successful but we were still willing to move forward with the precedent of it Mr Miller and the other thing that I liked is that if she addresses in Her speech that based on our resolution this is the reason why they want to create the task force and I think that's a very positive thing for us and for you know any type of movement with something that's actionable that could make a difference Ms grossalis if I can just make a motion Mr crude has

158a comment first if you don't mind if you don't mind hearing a comment before the mode I apologize I didn't realize you're about to make a motion but um I just want I don't know what the rules are on how those delegate assembly Works other than listening to what everyone's been saying but I listened to what she was saying tonight and I I do think that the message she was trying to convey was that if the resolution is voted down on Saturday that may kill it it may kill it now she kind of left it open maybe there was a way to do uh you know do the task force afterwards but she seemed very iffy about that and I she seemed concerned that it would kill the the idea at least for a year

159so it did that's the message I think she was trying to say and the only other thing I wanted to add was that by virtue of what you've done so far you brought the president of the New Jersey school boards Association here tonight to talk to the board about this issue which I just thought was was interesting and uh you know I discussed it briefly with her as she was leaving as I went outside so I I that's all I those were the only two little comments I wanted to make okay yes I would like to move that we maintain the motion that was passed last month to present the resolution as is this Saturday okay we have a motion to present to continue with our plan to present the resolution as is is there

160a second I'll second it discussion Ms nutting um I'll kind of say what Mr Root just said group just said about the president came and told us the best way to go about this definitely probably a task force would probably be our best option to really be heard um Mr Miller then miss Chrysalis the Mr Miller I think I was making a motion early about wanting to move to the task force when we first had the discussion so was that something that was valid or because we didn't second it at that time second it so the motion on the floor right now is to Ms grisalis's motion to send the resolution to the floor on Saturday Mr Robles so we are with this motion saying that we are willing to just give up the year

161if they turn it down at the at the session versus taking the advice from the president to do the task force I I really don't see the value of moving forward with that motion if really all we're doing is trying to prove a point instead of taking the advice that I think makes total sense that everybody seems to think that it makes sense so I I don't see uh how that motion is is in our best interest considering the odds that we're against thinking about this um I think even if written perfectly this resolution faces an uphill battle amongst the what is it 600 and something school districts who have representation um I think one of the things that Mr Miller could do in his three-minute speech is call for a task force if the

162resolution doesn't pass um again I want it all so I think it's um worth a try Mr Miller I don't think I can ask there's only one motion that I could be working on it's based on this resolution so not having having this school New Jersey school boards president of the state making the recommendation of the task force ahead of time based on this resolution will Garner support from people who really want to see something happen that's how I feel okay seeing no other comments Mr crew when you're ready could we have a roll call MS Ms grazales yes Miss Mendes no Mr Miller no Miss nutting no I can't read my own reading I'm writing Ms Phillip I had to write a new chart for this Sorry Miss Phillips no Mr Robles no Miss

163riveros no Dr saner yes motion fails okay I would like to make a motion Miller yep like to make a motion that we uh go forward and support the New Jersey school board's president with not uh presenting our resolution on the floor and uh indicating to her that we are interested in the task force second I have a motion from Mr Miller to um not to take the resolution to the floor and indicate to Ms Lafave that we would like her to start a task force and I have a second by Ms Mendes I'm going to give Mr crude a second give me a second sorry I have to write it's also working in a very limited amount of space just have to write out the list of names again so I can do the

164Roll Call hopefully I'll catch everybody we'll let you know if you don't Miss Gris Alice yes Miss Mendez yes Mr Miller yes Miss nutting yes yes Mr Robles yes Ms riveros yes Dr saner yes motion carries okay thank you um new business I did not receive any requests for new business I would like to remind board members we are trying to capture as many people who have questions about the referendum as possible I believe the district posted a um an announcement of sorts tonight for the referendum Forum on Thursday if you would all please share that to your social media and again tomorrow and again on Thursday so that we capture as many people as possible Ms viveros Dr saner if we could release Miss Calderon Avila I'm sorry she is allowed to leave she

165knows that she is allowed to leave at any time I feel bad yes she knows that she's allowed to leave at any time we are not keeping for all of you at home we are not keeping her here against her will and not permitting her to do her homework she's here because she wants to be Dr saner yes before we get to public comment I don't I have access to the regular remote public comment format um but not the Excel sheet so if that could be shared with me since it's hard to correlate which name goes to which common I'm actually looking at the actual form not the Excel spreadsheet that usually I have access to or Google sheet not Excel I'll wait to start public comment until you no I I I will they

166share pretty quickly okay Ms nutty um speaking of our Communications with our community members have we actually asked the town to put it on their electronic um sign that's on 46 right up JFK park that's a really great idea Dr McLaughlin could that could we try to make that happen can that request at least be made thank you Miss nutty thank you I have received access okay okay so we're going to move on to the second public comment the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of three minutes public comments not restricted to items on this agenda shall be

167entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer for those who wish to provide public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6 30 PM remote comments will be read by a member of the Board of Education the Board of Education will alternate between in-person and online comments please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employee

168have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation um Ms grasalis why don't we start with you okay I have fork or we have four comments let's read one and then we'll see if anyone here would like to make perfect comment by Miss Susan shower good evening my question is a follow-up from the December 7th 2021 meeting minutes Miss grisalis asked Dr McLaughlin if he could provide data on average class sizes Dr McLaughlin responded that a brand new report was received today and it will be provided to the board next week was

169that information ever provided to the board members or the public to clarify I do not mean the grade level numbers the superintendents shared during the October 2022 meeting in regard to minutes from same meeting December 7th 2021 Dr McLaughlin stated that the new registration as of that date of four year was plus 600 as opposed to the prior 2020 of plus 300 newly registered my question is does the 600 figure used include the newly registered Pre-K students and in total as of school year as of school year and June 2020. how many students left the district this was relevant information the board members did not have prior to voting to move the referendum forward that evening December 7th of 2021 correct okay um would anybody present like to make a comment foreign good evening John

170Coniglio 24 Taylor Town Road Montville I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of the DEA exec board on one topic the issue I am addressing tonight is the request of Dr Kalina Who currently works as our elementary enrichment teacher enrichment is a 30 minute a week class where Dr Kalina has the ability to present steam activities and other Hands-On projects to all elementary students when Dr Kalina is absent this position does not require a substitute teacher because it is not a prep period for teachers to remind the board Dr kalino was requesting to use all of her personal days and had requested to use three unpaid days actually two and a half unpaid student contact days due to one of the days being a single session day for students and staff right before Christmas she requested

171these two and a half unpaid days to take an educational expedition to Antarctica where she would be a part of a science lab with researchers from the University of Cambridge at Cornell University guiding the research Dr Kalina was excited to attempt to even live stream from her journey so that her students could have a memory that sticks with them forever she planned on using the information gleaned from this experience with her students in her enrichment classroom and use it as an authentic learning experience for the children in Dover and the community this was not a pleasure trip to the beach unfortunately Dr kalina's hope to bring information from a continent that 99.9 of the people in this room tonight will never have the chance to visit and their lifetime was rejected due to the climate

172in Antarctica these Expeditions only run during the winter months and cannot be run during summer recess while the unfortunate decision has been made to reject Dr kalina's request I would be remiss if I did not bring our associations disappointment to the Forefront tonight Dr Kalina has been a staff member in Dover for 41 years she is also a lifelong resident of this town of Dover you will never find another person who cares more about educating her students than Dr Kalina does I have been a colleague of Dr cleaners for many years and she has the same fire for learning now than she did when I first started working here at Dover you will be hard-pressed to find anyone who adores this profession and her students as much as Dr cleaner does news of Dr cleaner's

173Expedition has made it has made its way to her colleagues in other districts when Dr Kalina thought she could attend her journey she was contacted by a principal in another school district asking her if she would be willing to give a presentation to their school upon her return from the trip what a missed opportunity for us in Dover the DEA was also planning on contacting the local media to run an article about Dr kalina's journey and the educational value this had on her students and the community yet here we are having another Local District not ours excited about this once in a lifetime learning opportunity thank you Mr Coniglio Ms grisalis will you read the next comment please comment from Mary Walker Dr katlina Kathleen Kalina is as the News Network CNN says a HomeTown

174hero our own Hometown hero she has dedicated over 40 years to the students of the town of Dover a town in which she herself lives raising money for scholarships collecting and distributing pajamas writing grants her list of contributions goes on and on all to better the lives of the children of the community to deny her three days of time to be clear she requested three unpaid days of time so that she can travel to the Antarctic and share her unique scientific experience with her students it's short-sighted and at best and cruel at worst and any other school district in the area would be calling CNN and other news outlets right now sharing Dr kalina's extraordinary opportunity and her desire to bring her discoveries to the students of Dover I failed to understand the rationale behind

175this decision and fully throw my support behind her requesting the board to reconsider its position on this matter thank you is there anyone else present who would like to make a comment okay Miss Chrysalis will you read the next comment please comment by Melissa Matarazzo I am requesting that the appropriate party to reconsider the decision regarding Dr kalina's proposed explanation to Antarctica in December Dr Kalina has requested to take two and a half unpaid days to participate in a once in a lifetime expedition to enhance her expertise on climate change weather and geography sadly this request has been denied Dr Kalina has so much passion for educating her students and she is a devoted lifelong learner allowing Dr Kalina to go on this educational trip at her own expense would not only benefit our students

176but it would further enhance the enrichment program she is building for our district from the ground up it is clear to see that the benefits of such opportunity would outweigh the perceived drawbacks at no monetary cost to the district the only thing our district is losing right now is the opportunity to have Dr Kalina bring back a flip a plethora of knowledge and first-hand experience to our students at Dover thank you for your consideration to change your mind on this matter thank you Ms crystals will you read the last comment comment from Kathy Patrick I am writing tonight to express my disappointment in a District's decision to deny 2.5 unpaid days to Dr Kathleen Kalina as has been noted Dr Kalina has dedicated more than 40 years to the students of the Dover Public School

177District it is clear that Dr Kalina is a lifelong learner who believes in the power of Education the power of Education is this not a value of every faculty member staff member and administrator to the Dover Public Schools what message is being sent by the nine this most amazing opportunity to one of the district's most accomplished teachers bringing this experience to our students seem to be the optimum opportunity to embrace science Adventure the power of education and the belief that learning matters and that learning continues throughout a person's life we should be celebrating Dr kalina's dedication to her own learning and the learning of her students the students of Dover the decision to deny Dr Kalina these these days not only impacts Dr Kalina but also it is a missed opportunity for our students and

178the district as a whole as this excursion would demonstrate the wonderful education afforded to the students of Dover uh there are no more comments from anyone in the public present no more comments on the spreadsheet Ms grassalis no more comments okay at this time I would like to close the public portion uh the public comment section um Dr McLaughlin are there Dr Steiner if I may make a comment um yes thank you um Mr crew if if you may clarify for me being that our only the board's only employee is the superintendent what um if any oversight do we have over a Personnel matter um specifically right if we disagree with the superintendent's decision not to approve um time off for a teacher so what if any oversight do we have most Personnel matters when

179it comes to like you know hiring and firing and things like that um have to be at the uh on the recommendation of the superintendent right that's true for most things um an item like uh approving personal days um or the use of unpaid days in this case not personal day so much um you know that that is something that the board could consider uh well our uh Mr crude if you don't mind the rdea contract indicates that the requests of this nature are not appealable that's that's correct I thank you for reminding me I did actually look at that issue um and uh the the contract with the DEA uh indicates that it's it's the decision of the superintendent whether to do that so in this particular instance based on the contractual language I

180I don't think the role the board would have a role in it really so just to clarify the board has no role in making Personnel decisions specifically about taking days off in this particular item yes thank you thank you Mr Miller Dr sander I'm just hearing this it sounded to me like having more information that sounded more like it was an educational opportunity so if there's any way to reconsider it I think that would be great because it just sounds like there's more opportunity for students to learn from this experience than what I would imagine are there any other comments Dr McLaughlin is there anything that you wanted to address I know I did want to I did want to indicate because I know at least one of the comments did make an appeal to

181the board and I wanted to make it clear certainly uh so that it was clear to the public that it wasn't a board decision so I didn't want to uh that pressure to assume that the board was responsible for that decision um so decisions of this nature are made administratively and and certainly with uh with due consideration the other uh comment in regard to um Miss shower's first comment about enrollment I think it's very important to indicate that the decision that the that the board was asked to make in December regarding the referendum was one that was based on on house students it was not based on uh the reports although those have supplemented what are um demographer uh in his first report indicated in terms of on how students and which the state and

182I think that's the most important thing the state has confirmed that we have 700 unhoused students that was at the time that they received our application and based on the numbers at that time so I think that it's important just to continue to come back to that number because it's been confirmed by the state of New Jersey that the space we have is inadequate for 700 students I've provided additional information to show that that number is even higher but I think conservatively we can stay with the 700 number and I think uh that alone um is confirmation that that absolutely space is needed I think to go to continue to dialogue back and forth about the numbers of students who leave and come in uh really gets beyond that very basic point of confirmation that

183we do not have the space that the state feels we should have for the amount of students that we have and by a very significant number so I and then finally I did want to just add that uh we do have a couple of follow-up uh virtual performance forums so on Thursday we will have our bond Council our financial planner our two of our Architects uh myself um and uh which one of our board members is participating I think a TIA will be along so there'll be a number of us I'm sorry I forgot who who uh was part of the panel that night um and and I know all the board members will be in attendance as well uh Mr slam will be in attendance uh and Mr rigliano um and we will go

184through although that information relative to the uh to the referendum however um if someone can't make it that night uh it is recorded um so that will will certainly remain on our website but uh Mr slam and myself will also be conducting sessions on November 28th and on December the 5th those will be virtual uh and those will be done via Zoom they will have a translator uh you only get the two of us as opposed to what's coming out on Thursday night but Thursday night's presentation remains uh available for anyone who wants to watch it and uh Mr slam and I will be available for those two additional virtual sessions uh just to make sure that no one is denied the opportunity and we do also have a presentation scheduled with the uh with

185Victory Gardens so all of those are additional information sessions uh to Thursday thank you very much Mr Robles um thank you for the updates on the additional forums um I just want to go back just so I get better understanding and unfortunately I didn't researched this before but what is the overall task or job description of the enrichment teacher if you could share what exactly is is that the scope of that work so the enrichment program runs in our elementary program in our elementary buildings so there is a trimester that was created for Spanish World Language instruction technology and enrichment so that teacher is part of that Tri trimester and they go to each building for one of those trimesters so students are exposed to Spanish instruction technology instruction and enrichment that was created to

186help alleviate what we previously had which was 20 minutes of Spanish instruction that was rotated with technology instruction enrichment did not exist gifted and talented was the only program running that addressed sort of a broad applicability of skills and knowledge for students but that was a track that's right so we have students in that track this enrichment program allows for students to have exposure to projects and self-directed learning in a variety of educational activities that Dr Kalina and the supervisor that worked with her to create that curriculum can expose them to for example they did the cardboard challenge which was very well received I don't know that the space I selected at Belmont can house actually how big the buildings are that the students built that's just one example of some of the activities that

187they do within that classroom right now they'll be finishing up in the schools that they're in with the within the next week or two because the marking period ended so the trimester goes a little bit longer um and then they'll rotate so uh Dr Colleen I believe is scheduled to go to Academy Street Spanish instructor goes to another Elementary and the technology instructor goes to the Third Elementary and then they'll rotate again before the end of the year thank you for that um I'm just uh impressed by somebody who's been in the district for 40 something years I think that that speaks volumes and while I think I only interacted with Dr Kalina once actually during the opening of the school this year when the fire drill took place or in the middle of the

188opening day I met her outside and I greeted her I didn't know that that was her but um I commend her for her attempt I think it's definitely worthwhile and I think uh definitely a once in a lifetime type of experience that I think Dover would definitely benefit from so thank you for her and the D.A representation of her support um if there are if there are no more comments I will take a motion to adjourn Al I have a motion from Ms viveros second second from Mr Miller all in favor aye all opposed motion carries have a wonderful night everyone oh