001foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you I'd like to call this meeting of the Eastern Township Board of Education to order pursuant to the open public meetings act to adequate public notice has been given by the Secretary of Eastern Township Board of Education in the following matter posting written notice in the official bulletin board of leadership education Board of Education Office emailing Rick notice to the Burlington County Times and Courier Post filing written notice at the municipal clerk of hm capture Mr Bach here Mrs Cabello here Mr physicaro Miss Fox Mr Katherine Mrs Knoll here Miss Lee Mr Thompson we have a quorum thank you Mr Cynthia this time allows for a motion to go to Executive session and the motion to approve items 2.1 or two point four whereas in njsa 10
0024-12 allows public body going to closed session during the public meeting and whereas the Board of Education of each encountered to think the necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters or Transit from the public whereas the regular meeting of the board will recommend following the end of the procession approximately 7 30 pm now therefore it be a result that the Board of Education will go into session the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10 4-12 items 2.3 group 2 through 2.4 uh they have emotions Dr capella second please Mr Thomas Mr Bach yes Dr Capello I I should use your official title now okay Mr physicara yes Mr Canton yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson motion carries [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]
003foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] because foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] Township Board of Education if we could all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge
004allegiance the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you we'll now turn to the reading of the mission statement by the newly anointed doctor of Education Marianne Capello thank you president the mission of the Evesham Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and Community the district provides a strong Educational Foundation that will Empower our students to achieve their unique potential Embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk taking and responsible decision making respect themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Dr Capello we'll now move into presentations and I'll
005turn the floor over to miss magulik I think you just said okay good evening everybody um so this is about the time of year where we do our annual School HIV self-assessment summary um I'm going to talk through the process but before we do I just wanted to give a little background um so when we're talking about HIV it's not just about the state has made laws connected to the anti-building Bill of Rights really to strengthen as it relates to HIV however the law or the rules really come down to enhancing your school climate so when we talk about school climate and why it matters it's always a good slide to start with so a positive School climate is associated with and this is some just research about more satisfied students parents and staff improved
006academic outcomes better attendance lower suspension discipline referrals reduce violence and aggression and lower reports of substance abuse and then that last one actually reduced harassment intimidation and bullying behaviors that one is highlighted in a color because that's exactly what we're talking about tonight so again before we get into the actual report [Music] one more time there we go thank you um we just want to talk a little bit about prevention because obviously that's what we are in school for we want to prevent it doesn't mean that bullying is never happening in our schools it does and what's important is that we're addressing it but all that we can do to prevent um is obviously our our Focus so we have on the left side school-wide preventions so our goal or what we're looking to do
007every year is with that positive respectful inclusive School Community we have a focus on diversity equity and inclusion we reinforce the tenets of responsive classroom that is our SEL program as a district and we teach cares explicitly and I'll talk a little bit more about that we have school-wide campaigns and initiatives that happen both at the district level and the school level so a couple examples of that kindness matters the sheer cooperation is key we have no place for hate at our middle schools and then obviously looking for those times where where they're unstructured times that we have supervision there because that's more often than not where bullying can happen in terms of class prevention on the right so again that idea of our goal particularly in these first six weeks is to set our
008students up for a successful year of learning and growing together so that happens by building that relationship positive respectful and inclusive classroom communities as well second part we have a couple features within our day that'll or during our month that lets that happen in elementary or morning meetings they happen every morning at middle school we have monthly advisory meetings these are an opportunity to build community and set this the positive school um a positive experience to start your day rule creation we ask we ask kids to be involved we don't just create rules and tell kids what they are we actually take the time to brainstorm to come up with what are the rules what should they be agree upon them again so that we can keep ourselves our classes our schools safe uh in
009interactive modeling so again very important in these first six weeks of school so we're not just telling kids what to do we're showing them what does it look like what does it sound like we model for what that would look like and then showing kids that they're actually can do it and do it in different ways providing academic choice is another one so making sure that again there's no one way to learn that we have opportunities and different ways that we can do things whether it's something simple like um you know am I going to use dice or am I going to use teddy bears or it could be something more complex am I doing a project where I'm doing a poster I'm creating something a PowerPoint presentation the teaching of responsive classroom as I
010mentioned that is our SEL program we have a social emotional competencies lessons that we've created it's our cares curriculum teaching problem solving tools and then we have what also is called a closing Circle at elementary school so those are some of the prevention things that we're very actively doing throughout the school year and if you could click for me again Frederick it's not working thank you in terms of district-wide programs so the idea of teaching kids about relationships character education diversity social skills we do that through a responsive classroom we do that through social studies lessons connected to community service learning Comprehensive Health and PE different climate Wellness lessons in our technology curriculum we have lessons on digital citizenship cyber bullying prevention and our school counselor program so those are some of the main programs
011that have different elements or units that focus on those areas the next in terms of the actual anti-bullying Bill of Rights has a self-assessment component so each school has a school safety team or School climate team basically what that team does is they are meeting throughout the year at different times there's representation from administrators teachers there's a parent representative to really talk through and look at Trends things that are happening in the school and then make recommendations or things about how to improve so throughout this course of the year that team meets in May or June of every year they have their finals school safety team meeting and basically there they're kind of reflecting on what's happened during the school year they assign themselves ratings and then we're reporting those ratings to the to the
012state so then in June is when the state release their kind of documentation or what we do online to report those scores in the summer all the schools submitted them individually for district review tonight I get the pleasure of sharing those results with you and we always do that at a board meeting so there's certainly public comment opportunities it is due to the state by the end of October and then basically the state will then take time to review all the different districts across New Jersey their self-assessments and then they will publish or finalize those grades and that is why it's to be determined because we don't know exactly when it comes out it's usually the spring but it can vary once those scores are actually released we get a broadcast from the state that
013says the scores are released We compare those to what we submitted we have to have those posted on our websites within 10 days and then from there we report out those grades to we let the board know I talk about it a board curriculum meeting and if there's any variations or things like that we talk about them so that's a quick overview of the process this kind of just shows quickly I swear really eight areas so what are they scoring themselves on it all connects to these eight areas so the first one you'll see are just basic programs approaches and other initiatives connected to HIV the second is on training so are we reviewing our principal share with our staff policy every year and procedures what are our requirements as it relates to reporting the
014third one connects with staff instruction and training programs the fourth area is the curriculum instruction on Hib and related topics the fifth is specific personnel so our principles have anti-bullying specialists in other schools there are counselors we have an anti-billon coordinator who oversees for the district that's me we have school safety teams who I talked a little bit about so making sure that you have all those Personnel in place and then we have different meetings and times that we articulate and talk about and strengthen how can we do you know what can we do to enhance what we're currently doing the sixth area excuse me is incident reporting so there's timelines in terms of when an incident is reported how it has to be reported the seventh goes into the investigation procedure so again are
015you meeting those timelines and then the eighth is reporting as it relates to have we submitted that to the state when we were supposed to be post it on the website within those 10 days things like that so basically you have two to five indicators per each of those elements and this just shows you the rubric that the schools use so they can assign themselves zero they can assign themselves a one a two or a three zero being I'm not meeting any of the requirements I'm partially meeting to a meeting or three I'm exceeding once each school scores themselves you'll see at the bottom that's talking about we as a district get the average of all of our schools so this is a quick and I realize that this is small this will be posted
016on our website um but basically what this has on it is all the schools along the left side each of those core eight elements I talked about are across the top and then you would follow that down if you're looking for each element or a cross if you're going school by school and what in terms of pointing out is that total score column all the way on the right you see a total possible points of 78 and all of our schools are within that 72 to 76 range so what that translates to is we are meeting in all areas the requirements that the state has but often exceeding what we do after tonight is we you know are talking about analyzing and I started talking already to our principals and our school counselors about those
017those summaries where they were with that self-assessment so we go through the data look at that we develop and share recommendations and then the schools then turn key that to their school safety teams for additional follow-up and create initiatives and the process starts all over again so some of the recommendations that we've talked about or that we're actually doing in these next few months so we have a cooperation as key as our theme as a district this year and we've asked schools that they're going to carry that forward in whatever school-based initiatives that they have we're putting a great emphasis on those social emotional competencies in September all at elementary school all of our teachers k-18 have lessons on cares where they explicitly teach what does cooperation look like assertion responsibility empathy and self-control and
018then we reinforce that as kids go into Middle School we actually have next week next Friday a cares day at middle school where they're talking about what that translates into middle school and how that continues next week is the week week of respect so we have some enhancements there we have character matter units at elementary school so introducing and talking to kids about what's tattling versus telling when to report how to work with others so different topics all connected to the importance of not developing into any kind of bullying behaviors we also have or do our first fall activity as it relates to no place for hate at middle school and that's connected to respect um other things we'll talk about as a group a spring survey sometimes we'll do a parent survey sometimes we'll
019do a staff survey sometimes we'll do a child survey so looking at what this year might be and that would be something we decide to do in the spring and then in terms of at the individual school safety or climate Team level always talking to them about making sure that they're looking at their recommendations and then actually assessing if they wanted to do something connected to cooperation did they actually do that at the end of the year or what they can do to improve upon that so those are just a snapshot of a few of the recommendations for the year and that is my report [Applause] thank you miss magulic any questions from the board Miss null of course I have a question Ms mcculic where on the web in our website can I find
020this presentation you have this so you will find it tomorrow morning right on the home page so there'll be a link right on the home page Yeah so basically on the home page I was like oh I could show you but we've put the screen up that's okay um but right on the homepage you'll see there's a section on harassment intimidation and bullying and right underneath it there right now is last year's presentation and then we'll switch it tomorrow morning presented it tonight to the new one wonderful and just a comment I did get an email from Marlton middle school regarding some uh presentation coming up and I think it's later this month and it has to do with digital safety and mindfulness and cyber bullying and so on for parents I'm very interested can
021you just tell me briefly about this continuation um [Music] that he drills into the fact that when we think we're doing something online and it's Anonymous it really is it really has a nice connection with the kids with some really relevant um examples and some relatives so it's always so we'll do sixth grade seventh grade eighth grade he does vary it as can be requested him too based upon the specific age appropriate grade levels and then the presentation at night for the parents so I so if you if if this gentleman then is going into the classroom for each grade that's what I mean like I mean by grade level okay so my question is so I don't need to drag my child to the nighttime one he's already going to have it during the
022day to give some information okay well thank you that's good information thank you thanks Mr Hoffman any other questions or comments from the board seeing none let's move into public comment um this will be our first of two public comments we have one right now for agenda items only and then we have one at the end of the meeting for any items uh that you wish to talk about so the meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comment pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person and when you speak please start with your name and address
023anyone like to talk going once twice all right see you none let's move to the approval of the minutes I need a motion to approve item 6.1 through 6.3 motion by Mr physicaro seconded by Mr Thompson any questions or comments from the board Mr Ashanti roll call please Mr Bach yes Dr Capello abstain 6.1 yes to 6.2 Mr physicara yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll yes to 6.1 and abstain to 6.2 Miss Lee yes to 6.1 and abstain to 6.2 and Mr Thompson yes motion carries thank you now need a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.6 superintendent's report and administrative items motioned by Dr Capello seconded by Mr visicaro uh before we move into a vote I'll hand the floor over to Dr Smith thank you Mr Canton so I'd like to start by
024celebrating several points of light and I haven't had a chance yet I feel like everybody has gotten a chance but I haven't had a chance yet say congratulations to Dr pillow for earning that doctorate which is um can hope she took faster than seven years as it took me so um I know you did I know you did congratulations so since school started 17 days ago we've seen our staff work in all roles to help our students make a smooth transition back to school which includes the routines expectations and they most importantly start developing relationships and connections that are the lifeblood of learning and and the positive impact that we strive for in our district as our mission and it's palpable if you could be with me in the hallways and in the classrooms you
025can feel it in every school and in every space in our district I want to say thank you to all of our staff from our teachers to our paraprofessionals our administrators secretaries clerk typists custodians bus drivers and more and more to everyone for seeing our kids hearing them valuing our students and making them feel that so that they can learn thank you as well to our staff for their efforts and the excellent back to school nights that extended over two weeks this month and thank you to our parents and families for attending those back to school nights and their support of our work as a staff as that Partnership of schools and families is of Idol an essential ingredient in Student Success another point of light on the agenda for approval is our first batch
026of extracurricular activities for the year and as I do every year I challenge anyone to find the district that provides the the breadth and depth the robustness of extracurricular activities that ours does truly second to none I'd encourage All Families to talk with their kids about signing up and discovering the fun the growth the belonging that comes from those activities um which forged some of the best and Lasting memories of our time in schools they look a little different those activities do at each School depending on variables like the staff their interests and availability and gratitude to our staff who committed again to serving as advisors and coaches to make those opportunities possible I'd like to recognize that it is currently National Hispanic Heritage Month which runs from September 15th to October 15th in which
027our schools recognize in a variety of ways the month celebrates the histories cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain Mexico the Caribbean and Central and South America lastly I'd like to encourage everyone to check out the new link on our homepage for information about our separate proposal ballot questions which are up for Community vote on November 7th this is very exciting this vote more information will be added the goal of question one just as a reminder is to make tuition free full day kindergarten a reality for all students supporting student growth and equal opportunity and it Bears mentioning strengthening property values the goal of question two is to increase Mental Health Services for elementary and middle school students including prevention intervention and support thank you to the parent staff and community
028volunteers who involved in our full day kindergarten committee which met earlier this week our website flyer with the Goldenrod color will be shared in various ways at events and in neighborhoods over the weeks ahead I'd encourage everyone to take a few moments to have at least one conversation with a neighbor about the importance of these questions and this effort if we all do that thousands of person to person one person at a time conversations understanding will will spread like sunshine in that Spirit I'm bringing back I'll call for lack of a better term tent day when I had my canopy out in front of the administration building three years ago about was August 2020 um and in front of our administration building pending weather of course because it's been crazy rainy but anyone who wants
029to come by who has questions or wants to talk about our ballot questions I'll be there from nine to three please come by especially anybody who may be undecided or on the fence not that there may be many of them but I would love a chance to have a conversation with anyone in that boat would be wonderful and it's so exciting for our district and Community to be working on this school which is our number one district and board goal for the years 2022 through 2025. providing tuition-free full day kindergarten for all and that concludes my comments Mr Camp thank you thank you Dr Smith any questions or comments from the board I'd like to reiterate the Gratitude to our public committee for full day kindergarten the enthusiasm in the room was um palpable everyone's
030really excited to get the word out to vote so thank you to everyone who's volunteering for that process with that Mr Shinji we could head to a roll call Mr Bach yes Dr Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes motion carries thank you with that we'll move to Section 8 curriculum and instruction I need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.5 motioned by Mr Thompson seconded by Miss Lee any questions or comment from the board all right roll call please Mr Bach yes Dr Cabello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr canthan yes Mrs Knoll yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes motion carries thank you we'll now move to item nine finance and operations I need a motion to improve item 9.1 through 9.20 for
031finance and operations motioned by Mr physicaro do I have a second by Dr Capello any questions or comments from the board Mrs no yeah I have a comment about the advertisement oh yes on our buses this is fabulous news I'm very happy and thankful for and I don't know how to say her last name but she's well known Carl Carolyn fucus Orthodontics advertising on our buses come one come all advertise your businesses with us I second that any other questions or comments from the board Mr fiscuero I briefly wanted to talk about uh number 19. which is the before and after school program uh we're about to approve Archway programs that come in uh for our our new ECC 2.0 so to speak uh I've never been a huge fan of privatization inside inside school
032districts I've always was worried about it um I had the opportunity in the finance committee to meet with the uh with the leaders of the archway program and had the ability to ask numerous questions and I felt very confident on a on a couple things one that the way the program is going to be is going to stay pretty much the same and I say that I feel with confidence will be like that number two because this was really important to me that the staff that exists will be retained upon whether they wish to be retained with some bonus to them as well continuity in kids lives is key the ability to have somebody whether it's a an educator a bus driver a counselor an after-school counselor someone to look up to someone to be
033a part of their lives to share in their triumphs their Joys to help them grieve in their sadness is so utterly important and these students typically these these ECC counselors who are typically high school students all right who who are coming primarily from Cherokee High School are typically phenomenal and they're role models to these kids and one of my biggest fears Was A disruption that would allow a discontinuation of those counselors and Archway which separately by the way is a phenomenal program for special education I felt extraordinarily confident that they were going to continue that excellence and the leaders of ECC who are there were going to create a wonderful transition so I was very appreciative of that time and to be able to uh ascertain all that information from them and ask as many
034questions as I was allowed to ask so I appreciate the opportunity and that's why I feel I feel very confident about this thank you Mr physical any other questions or comments from the board I thought we could move to a roll call please Mr Bach yes Dr Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes motion carries thank you we'll now move to Personnel I need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.10 under Personnel do I have a motion motion by Mrs null seconded by Mr Thompson any questions or comments regarding Personnel from the board seeing none roll call please Mr Bach yes Dr capalo yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes motion carries thank you I
035now need a motion to approve items 11.1 through 11.4 under policy do I have a motion motion by Mrs null seconded by Miss Lee any questions or comments from the board regarding our policies just a quick question because I forgot to ask this earlier today uh these uh both these policies their Strauss s May these are mandatory policies just a uh just direct as just recommend it which one I apologize I I okay fantastic thank you I believe we're updating the sick leave one per the new regulations from the state correct Mr denteen okay all right any other questions or comments from the board seeing non-roll call please Mr Bach yes Dr capalo yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes Miss Lee yes Mr Thompson yes motion carries thank you uh moving
036to item 12 committee reports do any committee chairs have a report they would like to share I'll just say real quick that for finance I pretty much gave the assessment of Finance previously so I just wanna relay that again thank you Mr physical Dr capella for curriculum and instruction we really took a deeper dive on that ADR self-assessment presentation that was presented earlier this evening thank you and we also had a first look at the district professional development plan awesome thank you any other committee chairs Ms Lee um policy had our quarterly meeting about two weeks ago and we discussed those policies that were on first reading for today the sick leave and threat assessment so if anyone has any questions about them anyone from the policy committee would be happy to discuss awesome thank
037you anyone else like to speak all right with that we'll move to Old business of which we have none we can move to new business now I need a motion to approve Kelly Wilk to the vacant seat on the board of education do I have a motion motion by Dr Cappello seconded by Mr Thompson I don't think we're gonna comment on this one so okay yeah go before we before we take the vote I do and I don't want to step on your toes on this one if for any chance I've been a part of this process in choosing uh board members to replace board members for longer than I'd like to say it's the part of the grace that's inside of my head um [Music] that's correct yes and he did okay uh um
038but I wanted to say this and and I and profoundly say this um I really enjoyed this round because the the applicants that were there first of all the applications themselves were phenomenal but then getting to hear the candidates in person and hearing what they had to say uh it made me it made me feel good about the future of this board because even if even if you were not selected there is that chance to ultimately run for for board seats here and it makes me feel good about the future that there are good people that are interested in doing this job more than just one and it's nice to know in the pipeline that you have that connectivity uh and and those good natured people who just want to do good so I'm very
039grateful and thankful for everybody who put themselves out there and put and that's the case put themselves out there because it is not easy to sit down in front of a group of people and then be curled several questions and then be able to answer it so succinctly on the fly like that as as they did I was highly impressed and extraordinarily grateful and hopeful for the future of of leadership for this board thank you Mr fiscare yeah I I don't think it's any secret that I interviewed for for the board for my first term as well um I'm pretty sure I perspired through my entire suit during that interview um so it's uh I I do commend everyone who again put themselves out there because it's not easy and I hope to see more
040people getting involved as a result so so thank you to everyone who put their name out there for it any other questions or comments from the board Dr capella I also have the same experience on both sides of the fence as an interviewer and an interviewee and just overall impressed I will Echo those comments that the passion about the district about the students was was palpable in the room and I just really appreciate the time and the effort that they can all the candidates put forth can I can I think you back off that um I direct musicals and unfortunately in in that position there are students who audition who don't make it and when I talk to them about that audition I always tell them the story of listen there are people who were
041who didn't make a show but eventually became leads Marianne is a phenomenal example of this because we we didn't choose her in that in that run and then she ran the next year I thought man she's gonna hate me uh she she ran she ran the next year and to be honest one of the best board members I've ever had a privilege of working with so she is a story about hey if it doesn't work out for you that doesn't mean your road ends and I really believe that and so like we have two board members here who have interviewed and then both uh got elected as well and um both of those stories whether they were chosen or not chosen are phenomenal stories and that should hopefully resonate with you in your futures thank
042you Mr physical and Dr Capello uh with that I believe we can move to a roll call Mr Bach yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Kenneth yes Miss Noel yes Miss Lee abstain Mr Thompson yes motion carries thank you with that we'll move to open public comment um so now the meeting is going to be open to the public referencing any items of Interest agenda or otherwise however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes and please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments would anyone like to speak all right seeing none we can close that out and move to
043board member announcements would anyone on the board like to speak on any items [Music] seeing none um we can motion for a German do I have a motion to adjourn the meeting motion by Mr physicaro seconded by seconded by Miss Noel all in favor aye we will see you next month thank you [Music] foreign