001The mission of the Freel Township School District is to honor and support every learner every day on the journey to become curious and engaged members of a diverse global community. A notice listing the time, date, and place of this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all Freel township schools on the entrance door to the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website at the office of the real township clerk published in the Asbury Park Press on January 11th, 2025 and sent to the Star Ledger on January 8th, 2025. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Can I
002get a roll call? Mrs. Brand Casey Miss Crosby here. Mulo here. Mrs. Lambert. Mr. Spear here. Mr. Williams. Mr. O Sullivan present. Mr. Amarosa here. We have a quum. Thank you. May I get a motion for the approval of the May 13, 2025 regular meeting minutes? Motion. A second. All those in favor say I. I. Any um body abstaining? Thank you. Yeah. Understand? Okay. Can I get a motion for the approval of the May 13, 2025 executive session minutes? Second. Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? One abstension. Yep. two maybe three. Well, he's not here, so he's a ghost. He's not here. Okay, got that. I got that, sir. All right. Thank you. President's remarks. Um, I really don't have much to say tonight. This is going to be a long
003meeting because we have a large agenda and we also have um a pretty lengthy executive session. So, in an effort not to prolong things, um I will start and move right to the administrative report. Thank you. Uh Cindy has sent all board members a list of the moving up ceremonies, the fifth grade moving up ceremonies and the two middle school graduations. When you have an opportunity, if you can go on and indicate your availability for all of them, we like to inform the principles who will be attending so they can recognize you accordingly. So when you have an opportunity if you can access the Google doc and just put your availability in uh what you um plan on attending. I RSVP my email only from Barklo only from Right. Yes. Some do that but we
004the one the email Yes. the one that Cindy has sent has all of the dates and times and locations in there the chart. Mhm. So if you can reply there and of course as you're going through you can change. We let the principles know a couple of days or a week in advance. So, if your availability changes, feel free to make those changes. Um, and since our last meeting, um, we've had five incidents of harassment, intimidation, or bullying. Three of those were founded, two were unfounded. And when we look at the totals, I'm proud to report a 33% reduction from this time. We had a board meeting May 28th, 2024. So from that time last year to this time this year, we're have a 33% reduction in the incident of harassment, intimidation, and bullying that
005were reported. Excellent. Anything else? That's it. Okay. Um then we will go to uh public participation. We only have two people here. Are you guys going to say anything or no? Okay, then we're going to skip over that and we're going to go right to personnel policy and communications. Mrs. Spieler, good evening. Um, our it would help if I didn't do that. Uh, our committee did not meet tonight and um I'm going to read through um the topics um here. The com comprehensive equity plan as listed. Three, affirm bullying investigations as listed. Retirement as listed. Resignation as listed. Change of assignment. Salary adjustment as listed. Salary adjustment. Adjusting. Adjustment as listed. Leaves of absence as listed. Unpaid days as listed. Number 10, student teacher practicum observation placement as listed. Number 11, resend honoraria as listed.
006Number 12, stipened for teacher assistance as listed. Number 13, summer curriculum committees as listed. Number 14, family engagement nights as listed. Number 15, ESY 2025 staff as listed. Number 16, ESY volunteer as listed. Number 17, summer evaluations as listed. Number 18, summer computer technicians as listed. Number 19, substitute summer teach computer technician as listed. Number 20, job descriptions as listed. Number 21, certified substitutes as listed. Number 22, non-certified substitutes as listed. And um and that completes the list. I do want to make a comment. Can I before we vote on this? Do we have a second? I'll second. Thank you. Um, I just want to bring the attention of the following. I know you guys worked really hard on the comprehensive equity plan like you always do and I appreciate it. I just want to
007bring to the attention that we have a policies to protect everyone and I agree with them and that everybody should be treated fairly. Um like there's even a policy about pregnant students and I I like that obviously everybody's included and every group every protected group and this is what we should be doing. So on the policy 20 I know this is not about policy also but I would just I'm bringing this up because I'd like one time to come and review this. I would like you know to discuss this more. So equity in school and classroom practices, I agree with this. Ensuring there's no differential requirements for completion of course offerings and programs of study solely on the basis of protected categories. Everyone's treated the same. Everyone's entitled to the same education. And I love
008that. And this is what we should be doing to educate everyone fairly. And then but the part of it that I'm in disagreement with is where it it takes it lacks common sense and it allows for biological males in the classroom with sensitive material with biological girls. Uh in addition the policies unclear about the sports being separated and the facilities. So um ensuring that courses shall not be offered separately on the basis of protected categories. That's number two of 2260. Portions of the classes that deal exclusively with human sexuality may be conducted in separate developmentally appropriate sections based on gender identity provided that the course content for such separately conducted sessions at this time. So, I'm reading that that depending on your gender, you can be participating in whatever portion of the biological um portion
009of that class of sexuality. Are you following me? I'm sorry. What that means, what that intention behind that is when you're teaching family life, right, that you can separate if the district chooses to into teaching males separately than females separately. And and I'd like it to be like that. I think that's smart. That's not our current practice. It just allows it in the policy if we choose to. But also, Neil, just out of curiosity, I remember this came up once before with the the sports and I thought there was there was a state law too with regard to I could be confusing, but I remember this the comprehensive equity plan is simply uh review of do we have the policies and regulations in place that are required to by the state and that's the the
010plan itself. the specifics of the policy are not part of the comprehensive equity plan review. So I I don't I haven't Okay. Well, I just want to make one one other statement. And so then the part of it that um how will all this fit together? Policy 1523 comprehensive equity plan description of how federal, state, and district policies, programs, and practices are aligned to the C. And um how when we have federal law now saying that male and female being separated based on biological gender um and the state having a conflict. So I I just New Jersey is also one of the states that are suing the federal government because of so we don't have any gu we don't have any guidance on that yet. I know we do have we actually do have guidance.
011Yeah. So, um the state of New Jersey, we we are New Jersey, the state governs education and New Jersey issued multi-state guidance. Um which I can share with you. I shared it with when it came out with Mr. Amuso and Miss Sullivan. Um but at this point it says um there are several states in light of a US Department of Education dear colleague letter um state laws and regulations continue to require school district to implement curricula that promote inclusivity safeguard students from the harms of bullying and harassment based upon their actual perceived characteristics just as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression or a mental, physical or sensory disability among other characteristics. Ensure students are not subject to bias-based harassment from students or staff in a way that creates
012a hostile school environment and other crucial protections that empower all students to reach their full capabilities. So there's a document which I can forward to the entire board if you'd like that provides the guidance from the state of New Jersey in um the implementation of anything that seems to be in conflict with the federal government. So we are state we we are run school districts by the state. So the state provided the guidance that says um in addition executive orders do not create new laws, change existing ones or provide legally binding rules for schools. Instead they direct federal agencies on how the president wants them to enforce current laws. Without action from Congress or courts, many of the orders cannot directly change legal requirements for districts. So schools do not alter their policies or practices
013based upon executive orders. We wait to receive guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education and the New Jersey Department of Education. When Biden instituted diversity, equity, and inclusion, everybody followed it. That's up to the state. We don't everybody follows, but we locally don't make those decisions. The state of New Jersey and the Department of Ed makes the decision and then tells us gives us the guidance on what we are required to do. So, New Jersey has issued that statement and is in a lawsuit. What happens is when guidance I would like when one political party is in power and the state happens to have the same political party a lot of times these things happen expeditiously. So Biden being a Democrat and this state being a Democratic control legislature in your perception that happened
014quicker. But there are probably some Republican states that immediately adopted some of these federal requirements. New Jersey is not going to be one of them because it's mostly a Democratic legislature. So there'll be a delay if ever that any of these things are changed because the state is going to control what happens at this level. So I hope that makes sense. Um I I hear you and I understand but I and I know I'm sorry and I don't want to detract from this any longer. It's just something that I would like to revisit and if there is a way that we could follow federal policy or make it more common sense because the state dictates I understand I understand if the state isn't following the federal regulation it's never going to find its way to
015us until the state somehow adopts all of you know this administration's I'm I you know what and you may be 110% % right, but I'm still not going to fight for keeping what is common sense and safe in people. And so that I'm going to close at that and I appreciate it and I do your policy committee. It could be looked at to the extent that we follow state law and then if as a citizen you can advocate in Trenton for the things you believe in and possibly it could be changed at that level. Well, we're not a legislature, but I hear you. And if you have a stand on something, unfortunately, as a board, not even a matter of the legisle, but as a board member, it's not our position to come in and
016just create a stance. We we take an oath when we swear in that we're just going to follow state laws and run our schools. But I hear you. We all have our personal opinions outside the boardroom. Well, I think keeping just the way everybody wants to keep subcategories safe, I just want to keep everybody safe. Understood. Mike, as a follow up on Caral's point, as a board, don't we also have the right to vote things that we feel morally and ethically? We don't vote for things like that. We're here to work on school related issues that come before us on this agenda. But remember what happened when the other districts changed the other policy and they didn't do it the correct way. The state came down hard upon that. back because because they were no
017longer in compliance with law. But I don't think until we get f other guidance from someone, there is no other way. It's state law. It's still federal law. It's not been changed. Part of it is following the laws of the state of New Jersey. But he said, right, even if whoever gets elected in November as the governor, he's still going to that I think the the Senate and the Senate and the Assembly are going to resign pretty much the same for all intents and purposes. and they're the ones that are going to call the shots on this, not even the governor. So again, I think, you know, we have to follow what the state hands us. We'll see what happens moving forward. 756 was overturned was because it was brought to light. So like and
018when that becomes state law, hopefully soon we'll fix that problem, too. Well, that's for another uh Well, I just want to point out that 5756, we abolished it because it was redundant. there's pro protections within our existing policies. Thank you. So, we had a second on that motion. Do we have any other questions? Um the policy? Seeing none, can I get a roll call? Mrs. Brand? Yes. Dr. Casey? Yes. Miss Crosby? Yes. Mr. Garulo? Yes. Uh Mrs. Spieler? No. Number one, two. two. No. Everything else? Yes. Yes. Mr. Williams? Yes. M Sullivan? Yes. Mr. Amaroso? Yes. Motions carry. Thank you. Curriculum committee. Mrs. Brandt. And uh the curriculum committee did not meet this evening. So, uh I'd just like to move the following agenda. There's only one item. Number two, home instruction as listed. Number
019three is listed. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. Do we have any questions for curriculum? Just short and sweet today. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Finance. Um, Mr. Gul. Yes. I'd like to thank myself for dating the bills. I brought them in early. There was a couple of questions, but everything worked out just fine. I do not need a microphone. I'm going to talk loud. When I get home, I'll talk gently with my wife. I'd like to move the we did meet the finance committee did meet and we discussed various items. Forgot about that. Uh we have currently have 25 sinks that don't meet standards. Uh Bob explained what happened with the lead. He feels that that may work out uh because of the usage of what happened
020and there was downtime and accumulation of lead. I feel like Jackie Mason talking about this, but that's okay. uh the goal of July for the new custodian supervisor to be in place. Uh we reviewed agenda items a little bit. Um we discussed RFPs/bids on agenda. How many people on job? Uh big discussion because we have to do this right. If there's nine uh seven projects going on, how many people are required in each project? You don't want to under bid it because then the contractors could say that you didn't give us enough people. So Bob has a good strategy. He wants to let them tell us what it is, how many people per project, and then we'll get back to them. Uh proposals for this work uh is to come back uh this coming Tuesday
021hopefully. He gave a referendum update. I was not part of that update. Was it critical? That wasn't the We Yeah, we talked about construction manager RFP that's coming back next week. Me being late didn't matter. Okay, good. All right. I'd like to move the following items. We're going to do this in two sections. We're doing age finance appointments and secretaries. Number one, legal depositories as listed. Two, signatures as listed. Three, retirement savings program as listed. Annual appointments as listed. Five, uniform minimum charge on accounts as listed. Six, board attorney. Seven, labor attorney. Why did why you didn't go to school to be an attorney? It's beyond me. Uh, eight, special education attorney. Uh, nine, architect of record is listed. 10, auditor is listed. 11. Continuing disclosure agreement is listed. 12. Tax payment schedule is listed.
02213. Section 125 cafeteria plan as listed. 14. Extraordinary unidentifiable services. That sounds like CIA. USES PCL insurance broker as listed. and 10 uh 15 extraordinary unidentified services EU health insurance broker as listed. Want to stop now? Yep. Okay, we have a second. Do we have a second on that? Second. I'll second. Okay, second. Perfect. Any questions? Yes, Bob. Y lead in the water. I I not I I watched it was a little So every 3 years by code we have to uh we have to test every sink for every water fountain uh in the district and so and I know 25 seems like a it's probably a small percentage. Yeah. So what what happened was they came in over spring break and there was 25 out of I don't remember the total number. It was
023probably eight buildings. you're looking like four 500 different I'd say test. So the building sat there for 4 days before they started the testing process. We did ask um a custodian to come in to run them all. They might have missed a couple and so they test hot. So what happens is as per the law, we have signs that the uh testing company gave us and they went up immediately. It says uh for handashing only that you can't drink out of this anymore. Um we're going to rerun the test again. I'm just waiting for a date from TTI. I'm sorry, no, this was Lou who did this one. It's different company. Um, and then they'll come back and they will give us those results and then the letter goes out to staff and to parents.
024Now, this is this the third or fourth time that we've done the lead testing and the last time I went back and looked at the stats, we had 30 different sites that didn't um they were tested above slight over the 15 parts per billion. So, it's not uncommon. So, it's not that the water had lead in it by itself. It's safe. Remember when they soldered these buildings together, whether it was the pipes or some of the fittings inside the units themselves, what was the solder made of? It was made out of lead. Absolutely. So if that water sits there for a long period of time, it can contain trace that. So um yeah, this is cross is it you may or may not be able to is it contained to maybe one, two schools or
025is it kind of like every school has at least one one more and so some of them tested I guess the same. I went back and looked at compared to the previous three years results. It was the same one item. So, it's obviously a sink that is not run that often or a water fountain that's not run that. Even West Freehold, even West Freehold had one or two, but in 2000 they were still using lead. They might have been still using lead in solder in 2000. Plus, it's coming from the city and I don't know. But it they had to that's just I find that surprising that West Freehold would have fell. It should it won't have any asbesus in it. But guess it's not like you know I'm waiting for and if there's a
026if something comes back hot again they'll um if it's an old classroom bubber we'll take it out. Got all right. So we may just have to clean some of the filters too on some What was the number? It was slightly over 15. Some of them were 15 and a half. Some were up as high I think as is 60. Um we've had them in previous tests but over during COVID when they sat there I think I saw numbers in the 100s. You know that's because you had almost six eight months of no one actually turning the sink or the uh water fountain. So interesting. And what what we were told by the consultant is that for a district our size the number that came back positive is common. Right. So unless you have a brand
027brand new school that was built in the last year or two, you know, everyone's going to have unfortunately it's just the way they designed the systems back in the day. How long did you say? Three years. Yep. Every three years. It was seven when the law first came out and then after we did the first cycle, um we didn't even make it six years and they changed the law to every three. Are all of our drinking fountains filtered? I don't know what the old porcelain ones are. So, we had we started to put in the newer bottling stations in the schools. Um, they still have to put some more in. The only issue we have sometimes they when you take the old porcelain ones out, the new ones don't fit in exactly. So, we kind
028of have to create our own template and hook them up. So, no, we're starting slowly but surely add more stations. They have a filter in them. So, I don't I don't know what's in the common sense. For me personally, every building that any child is drinking out of should be have that filter system. Yeah. I don't know who's drinking out. And nobody should be drinking the water unless it's coming through that filter in my spend a lot of money on those beds and all the fancy page bottles that they carry around. She better be drinking out of a fountain. Our committee could look into that. We should start doing an audit of like what the f how many fountains there are in each building, which ones are filtered, which aren't, and even the I agree.
029And even in the uh cafeterias where they're cooking, all that water, we should be filtering. So, we should look at that as a committee. All right. So, um are there any other questions for uh finance facilities before we vote on that section? Okay. Roll call. We have to roll call. No. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed. There you go. Thank you. Section two. Section two. To continue to I finance facilities transportation committee. Like to move the following items. Um three disposals as listed. Four bills and claims. We had the total [Music] 3,888,478.59. We have five travel and related expenses. Six, transposes listed. Seven, correction as listed. Eight PTO honor area stool as listed. 10. Nine. Wellness policy assessment tools as listed 10 renewal of RFP for assisted technology services for 2408
030as listed uh renewal of the competitive contract for absence management applicant tracking for 2025 2026 251 as list renewal of the competitive contract and IEP management program for 2025 26 25-4 as listed renewal of commit competitive contract for an online data management analytics assessment and intervention manager for 2025268 is listed renewal of the competitive contract for bench uh benchmark assessment and adaptive learning platform from 2025 2026 2513 as listed. Number 15, acceptance and approval of school vehicle maintenance bin 2025 26 2601 as listed. 15. acceptance and approval of competitive contract for course curricular digital content and skilluing platform with integrated lesson delivery and assessment tools for 2025 2026 year 2608 I don't even know what that means have listed I can tell you no I'm not focus grant program that's listed and That's it. Double
031duty. Nice. Thank you. Do we have a second on all that? Second. And do we have questions? Actually, I had a question. I forgot to ask it. I'm apologize for Gina Piro. I saw that was a rather large amount. Yes. So we had train all of our um staff members who work in uh with specific students in safety care and to send each of those staff members to be trained out of district be costly. She is a in district trainer. We maintain four indist trainers. Gina is one of them. So that is the cost for her to be certified by the organization as a trainer so that she can turn key the training to our staff here rather than send every staff member out for that training. Is that travel cost or is that just
032No, that's just the to be certified as a trainer. That's the fee they charge. Mhm. A week long course or something that I'm sorry. It's a week long course. I don't remember how many days it is. It was 84 to 86. Yeah, it's three days. Yeah. It's like you go through the Wilson trains. Exactly. Oh, can I also you can answer that question number 16 if you can. So I can I'm just curious. I can. Um so we put out um an RFP seeking um a company to provide uh digital resource for us in terms of um uh paired digital literature with resources for teachers to use. I think I spoke um with the board about this several years ago when our district goal was around readingformational text. We started using a platform called Newella
033that um really has a really expandable library of digital umformational texts. Their library has expanded exponentially um in the years that we've been using it and so it was time to go out for an RFP because it exceeded um the cost. We will be using it across curricular areas, reading, writing, math, science, social studies to access um original uh primary sources,formational text. They have a large comprehensive um recently added fiction area to their platform including drama and poetry. Um they include lots of things in the area of um math and science literacy. So to support kids in um being successful on NJSLA and math and science, reading graphs, using data to interpret data, all of those things combined and connected to it is an assessment tool. So I can select uh text that I want
034to um teach kids about whatever content area, elementary, middle science, social studies, pair two sets, a video and a text, and give them an assignment that matches with it. And it's all um comprehensively connected in one platform. Um and it pairs nicely with Google Classroom so teachers can select assignments and then assign them to kids digitally. Thank you. Welcome. I thought you were going to ask about the focus grant. Would you like me to just speak to that? Okay. Um the New Jersey Department of Education uh recently released a notice of grant opportunity for districts across the state to support the new legislation that they put in place in supporting early literacy across the district. So ostensibly every district in New Jersey is eligible to apply for and receive this grant. $10 per student. It's
035based on our October enrollment enrollment report. So every student in K through third grade, we get $10 ahead and we can use that money to offset the cost that's already in our budget to support our universal early literacy screening in students K to3. So I will be submitting that grant at the end of this week. Um I've already run the consistency check and it passed. So how how will you spend that money, do you think? it we it will just offset the cost of money the money in our budget that's already um set aside for I Ready because I Ready is one of the state approved tools to use as that early literacy screener. I see. And we are no surprise to you ahead of the curve and having already identified that as our universal
036screener and and already having it in place. Thank you. Now I have a question. Sure. How many platforms and tools do we have? Um it it certainly is. It certainly is. Um I I don't have a number off the top of my head. I could go through and and um put a like a a summary together of how we have we have several platforms. We are actually um eliminating the use of one platform with the approval of the RFP for Newella tonight because the the two platforms are redundant. So we're constantly looking at how are we using our digital platforms and is there overlap. Um, the other thing that I do annually, and we did this several years ago when I first took over in the office, is do some really comprehensive usage review, like
037looking at all of our usage data and auditing and and not renewing or um changing usage around platforms that aren't being used as comprehensively. That may be a nice little presentation one day. I think we did it a few years ago just looking at what platforms we use just so the board is aware at some point in the future. It doesn't have to be How much of that is budget goes towards that's all in my budget that I can think when we you know when we do that during budget season um it and it depends on the platform some platforms like Newella will be used comprehensively K to8 other platforms are specific to content and grade levels so TCI we only use in middle school social studies so um it's not really apples to apples
038you can't really compare costs across platforms Um, but I can certainly put together a a a chart and and share some information with everybody about what that looks like. That'd be cool. Okay, we can keep up. It's your biggest platform. I think link it and um link it is our biggest platform because it is our data warehouse. Literally every piece of student assessment data that happens in the pre at prek started using it this year. So prek to 8 lives in linkit. Um, we're also going to be expanding our use of linkit next year. Um, one of the things we discovered this year in our um, implementation of Envisions in grades three through five is that the assessments that come with the Envisions program are wonderful and comprehensive, but they're also really long and there's
039a lot. And so, um, we have some summer curriculum committees working this summer to build common assessments at each of those grades, three, four, and five. and the um committees are going to build those common assessments in the linkit platform. The students will take the test on the platform looks just like NJSLA. So it's great practice for the kids. They'll learn test taking skills like how to solve problems on paper and then enter their answers on the digital on the digital side. And because all that data lives in link, we can get some really comprehensive analysis like at the push of a button. So yeah, but linkit is our largest. Yeah. And some of the some of these platforms replace textbooks. I think we've only had two textbook adoptions in my 10 years here and
040they're both for math and and and most of them are we are are used almost exclusively electronically like we buy hands-on textbooks like old school textbooks to have as ancillary supports in the classroom. The kids and the teachers access everything digitally. Now, if you looked at budgets 15, 20 years ago in the textbook line, you'd see a big number in there every year because you'd have a new addition that would come out for, you know, or curriculum revision. You buy a new textbook for whatever content area and then the principles would have to keep a stock on hand for new students from rolling it up or if somebody lost one. Um, that number is typically zero for us, maybe a couple thousand. I think again, the last two times we spent money on textbooks in
041my ten years here was for math. So that's that that's the trade-off because I had a hard time like when we when I first came back here I'm like why do you got okay then I understood it after a couple this makes sense to me now. That's okay know that you brought so much attention to yourself. So this RFP, right? So could you like when it's implemented and everything, could we see the link and how it runs like you like so how how the newella platform runs? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So is it like I'm dating myself like discovery schools used to pay discovery and there were like digital things. I'm not familiar with what discovery is or even like Ed Puzzle stuff like that is it's probably more advanced than that. It's it's far more
042comprehensive than that. Again, it it has two sides. One is a digital content library which is fiction, non-fiction, cross content, thousands and thousands and thousands of articles, uh, stories, resources, poems, podcasts, videos, everything. And then the other side of the platform is the assessment component so that teachers can build um, multiplechoice, open answer, multi select, all different kinds of assessment questions, summitative and formative questions to align with the content that they select. from the other side. So, it's like a two-sided tool. It's wonderful. And again, I will just remind the board that it was um it was a a critical tool in helping us to support teachers and meeting our district goal several years ago. Um and it has continued like the the platform has only grown and so it will continue to support that.
043Thank you. Thank you. We have any other questions? Can I get a roll call? No. Then all those in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, you got it. We're going to move into old business. Um the only old business I'd like to bring up is our retreat. We uh promised ourselves that over the summer we would have our retreat to go over our board goals. So I wanted to um open the floor to people uh having potential time frame June July. The way I collect for our administrative team seems to work well. It's a Google form. I can create it for you. Okay. Everybody checks the dates that are available and then when you click one of the tabs, it'll show you when the most people are available. But we can propose maybe
044some dates. I put every for the administrators I put every single date in July and August. And then you see who the you see who which date has the most availability. Maybe we'll keep it on a maybe pick a Tuesday. Do you want an open calendar like that or do you want just do open for two weeks and knocks two Tuesdays out right there. Then you'll see what everybody has. You can narrow it down. Okay. It'll narrow it down for you. All right. usually meet in the evening. A little bit different. I mean, it depends. Our retreats usually we do a dinner and then it has to be an open public meeting. So, we usually do a meal and then we we roll into our agenda. Cousins. One, one time we brought in dishes. Maybe
045we could Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we splurge. So maybe we'll do that and you could whip something up. All right. So then look for an email from me, but we have to get that that date together so we could do our board goals. Uh that's all I had for new old business. Do we have any other old business? Any new business? I thought tomorrow night. And for those who don't know, it's Mrs. Felman's last concert. Uh, two weeks from now is American Young Voices for the um, Applegate Forests. That's huge event. I went last year going to go this year. So, I won't be next the next board meeting because for some odd reason it falls on the night of the board meeting. Um, so that's another big event. I mean there's so much stuff going
046on and those are the ones that I could talk about off the top of my head but tomorrow I miss Mrs. told me it's a kind of an important one. I think it' be an emotional one. My daughter already said it. I went to two recently and one was at the schools I was at. No, Apple Gates was recent. It was it was great. The kids are outstanding. Outstanding. So the two that they had the chorus and singing or I went to Oh, was it back in back in black or something? That's because they had the chorus and they were back in black. My daughter I was at Applegate the same night and they did a great job with her too. Ericson Ericson. Yeah. All right. Um, president's remarks. Um, we talked about the retreat.
047Don't have a lot of guests today, but thank you for coming out. Always like a little crowd. Um, this is the second time for public participation. I I don't know. Do you guys have anything? So, we're going to skip over that. And we thank you for coming out. We're going to go into an executive session now. So um whereas pursuant to NJSA 10 col4-12B the board of education may exclude the public from that portion of a public meeting at which the board discusses any of the matters described at NJSA 104-12B1-9. Now therefore be it resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act the board of education shall conduct a closed session pursuant to the personnel and legal exceptions prescribed by NJSA 104-12 for the purpose of discussing the following matters
048personnel superintendent evaluation pending or anticipated contract negotiations for our non-affiliated staff. It is anticipated that the length of time of this executive session will be 45 minutes and that action will not be taken in public after the executive session be further resolved. That said, discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in close session no longer exists. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Okay.