001i think okay uh i'd like to call to order a regular meeting of the watchmore board of education on december 21st 2020 at 7 30 p.m may we please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states for all welcome to a meeting of the board of education of the borough of wachong please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that the advance notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the board of education of the borough of wachong at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being conducted remotely using communication technology instructions for joining the meeting and participating in public comments have been
002posted on the district's website and sent to the wachong borough and the wachong public library as well as to the school community through an email blast the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board recording or photographing other than for private personal use requires the consent of parents slash guardians whose children may be included in the image can we have a roll call please mr marbella yes mr buccarelli here mrs harvey here mrs ingrassia here mr kraft here and mrs murad here uh mrs o'donnell here mrs possein here this is scharf here all present hey uh before we get to the board member comments i would like for each board member to take a turn reading gail's
003proclamation so whoever wants to start off i'll start off whereas gail o'donnell generously gave 12 years of service on the watch on board of education from 1988 to 2000 and graciously returned in 2019 to fill a vacated board seat and whereas gail o'donnell diligently served on and chaired board committees including human resources and curriculum in addition to her previous service on matters of facilities operation finance technology and whereas gail o'donnell gave highly competent representation for the wachon borough board of education as the community engagement liaison and the somerset county educational services commission liaison and whereas gail o'donnell brought invaluable experience to board issues with her educational background inquisitive nature love of children and passion for the teaching profession and whereas gail donald embraced a culture of diversity equity and inclusion and advocated regularly for the
004training of student teachers in our schools and whereas gayle o'donnell practiced independent thinking gave invaluable guidance to the board and administration and made decisions in the best interests of students and whereas gayle o'donnell selflessly served on the board with honesty and respect for everyone in our community volunteering countless hours with a mission to make this district the best it could be and where is gale o'donnell welcomed and mentored new board members to ensure a cohesive and knowledgeable board that knew the institutional history of the district and whereas gayle o'donnell's experience commitment sense of responsibility and integrity will be greatly missed by her colleagues on the wa chung borough board of education and whereas gayle o'donnell is gayle o'donnell's welcoming personality and understanding made all board members administrators and staff comfortable working in a collaborative environment
005and now therefore be it resolved that the wyotron borough board of education expresses deep appreciation for gail o'donnell's tireless efforts and valuable service to the district recognizes all the people she touched through her dedication her dedicated volunteerism on the board and wishes her continued health happiness and success in all her future endeavors thank you gail thank you very much that was very beautiful i appreciate it thank you i do have a few words if i may is it possible now sure okay wonderful um i would like to say a few words as i leave my last board meeting tonight very sadly we have been through one of the most difficult times in education with the pandemic the time effort dedication and professionalism of this board has been most commendable and admirable we elected to when
006elected to the board your life becomes the board and with that the responsibility is profound to the parents and community don't ever ever underestimate the school board's diligent work that takes place with decisions committee meetings board meetings and continuous education of every board member so to ensure that every student in wachon gets the best education possible the board works with the administration with respect figure and implementation of 21st century learning we all want the same thing a strong educational system for our children the teaching staff our students educators must and will continue to bring the most exceptional teaching to our students but with guidance and support from all of us thank you teachers for all your efforts during this new virtual hybrid teaching that is a challenge every day during this period of time you
007have learned so much and have given your true teacher efforts for our children when we talk about essential workers besides our teachers and administration it is our custodians who have made it possible for our students to be in schools safe and sound without your professional work our schools would not be open today mr alexis your endless hours of running our schools through this period has been gallant your continuous efforts to maintain and keep our schools open has provided our students the gift of education i know when we get back to a new norm you will take this school system to higher levels mr pepe your spirited smile and expertise with finances keeps the school afloat with your efforts to find money write for grants and maintain our budget our school has become more financially sound
008your endless efforts are tremendously appreciated mrs handowski the administrative staff at bayberry and valley view and board office and mrs fichner mrs kidd our principals and mrs datoda special education services you are all saints for your diligent work and professionalism that you perform each and every day and to the board i know that this board is and will be true to their commitment to education for all the students of wachon and by demonstrating the importance of working effortlessly together you all will move the board's efforts forward our schools will continue to be one of the highest educational institutions in this state and will maintain the highest of educations for the student last but not least we must keep our schools well maintained and always looking to develop our schools for the future thank you for
009the opportunity to work with you all i will remember these 14 months being on the board with you since they were a historical moment in history happy holiday merry christmas and a safe and healthy new year to you all thank you very much thank you guys um are there any board member comments i'll go gail you've just been a pleasure to work with and you just brought so i'll i'll miss your view on everything and how your passion and even your your goodbye it says it all you will be missed and enjoy your relaxation time okay thanks amen [Laughter] i'd like to say this echo the similar sentiment you will be greatly missed on the board gail you um had no legitimate reason to come back to this board after serving 12 years after putting
010three of your own children through these schools after serving as a career teacher in addition you're married to a building principal you you are so knee-deep in education and to come back and give us your expertise and your skills was so wonderful of you um you've had such a wealth of knowledge i've learned so much from you it's been a privilege to work alongside you on the board and it's been a blessing to get to know you better and call you a friend we'll really miss you thank you dale you'll you'll you'll be deeply missed and what i love about you gail is that no matter what situation no matter what topic you are always the most positive person in the room uh and always you know encouraging others and you know providing your your
011guidance and it's greatly appreciated and you'll be missed and um you're just a genuinely nice person that really wants what's best for the community so i thank you for the time that you dedicated thank you thank you i would like to say something um congratulations to our teachers that got um a teacher of the year um i do not have on their names i'm hoping dory you'll help me out but congratulate congratulations to them all i also want to say gail you will deeply be missed by not only me but you know all the board and you know i just want to thank you for everything that you've done um and that what you just said kind of helps me because i wanted to congratulate this year's teacher of the year at bayberry stephanie tasco
012and the educational services professional of the year dan rongo along with valley views teacher of the year natalie white and educational services professional uh lauren macleod we also have a couple of retirements on the agenda tonight and i'd like to thank laurie joyce mary rotkowski and robert murphy for their years of service and i wish them the best during their retirement there's also a couple grants and donations on our agenda and i wanted to thank the pto for the schools grant it is appreciated with along with the youth service grants and the donation from the watchung hills regional high school um the other thing i wanted to do was thank the board members for agreeing to postpone the december 10th board meeting to tonight so that our community members could observe the first night of
013hanukkah i know the calendar said that hanukkah started on friday december 11th but it really started at sundown on thursday december 10th so i wanted to thank everybody for their flexibility on that um and then finally 2020 has really been a whirlwind of change in the world and that being said um and keeping this short and sweet i just wanted to wish everybody a happy hanukkah uh kwanzaa christmas and a happy new year hi uh i just wanted to echo everybody's um comments on gail which i hardly agree with and you know can't even add to they're just wonderful so thank you all and then uh it is the last meeting of the calendar year even though it's not the last meeting in school year and i think it's time to just take a pause
014and under these extraordinary circumstances i wanted to just thank the administration um the teachers the parents and the entire community as well as uh my colleagues on the board for um you know so far so good helping us do the best we can to educate our children uh during the worst pandemic in a century i know there's a lot of sacrifices i know everything's not perfect but i think that everybody is doing a really outstanding job and i just wanted to thank everybody for their cooperation in getting through these difficult times well said are there any other board member comments any announcements from the superintendent yes mrs harvey thank you and thank you for those remarks uh mr buccarelli uh and gail i also want to recognize you for your past service and also for
015coming out of retirement in the past 14 months so good of you um it's been my privilege to work with you i got to know you years ago at the high school and we worked on that project together and you've just been such a wonderful board member and i'm so very grateful for your dedication your integrity but really your kindness uh you've been a wonderful board member and the entire school community is better for your service so thank you thank you i'd like to recognize our retirees um we have proclamations that were put together by various colleagues and i'll start with mrs laurie joyce this is a proclamation that was prepared by the watchmoro school secretaries to be read tonight to honor mrs laurie joyce for her more than 20 years of service as a
016secretary administrative assistant in the in the district it reads like this whereas lori joyce was hired as a clerical aide in valley view middle school on september 1 2000 and whereas lori joyce became the valley view secretary slash administrative assistant to the principal in 2005 and whereas laurie joyce became the bayberry secretary administrative assistant to the principal in 2013 whereas lori joyce worked for seven principals during her long tenure in the district and whereas lloyd joyce played key roles and would bear many responsibilities that are crucial to the efficient functioning and smooth running of day-to-day operations and assisting educators principals students and parents of the district and whereas lori joyce ran the office with ease and kindness interspersed with fun and laughter to fill each day and whereas lori joyce will be truly missed by
017her colleagues for her dedication organization knowledge impeccable and precise work habits but most of all her smiling face patience and caring personality which kept bayberry school and the main office functioning smoothly and whereas lori joyce was an awesome secretary we were lucky to find as difficult to part with and impossible to forget for her dedication and friendship and whereas lori joyce will be missed never forgotten and always loved by her colleagues at bayberry and in the watchmoro school district and whereas lori joyce should be proud of her work the person she is and the difference she has made and whereas lori joyce can look forward to happy days ahead now be it resolved that the wachonboro board of education and the entire school community extend our gratitude for lord joyce's dedication and service to bayberry
018school and the district and wish our continued health and happiness in retirement next we have mary rakowski this was prepared by the valley view teachers to honor ms rotkowski for 18 years of service as a library aide and paraprofessional in the district it reads as follows whereas mary rutkowski has been an aide in the wachonboro school district for 18 years initially hired on april 8 2002 as a library aide in valley view school where she created library displays bulletin boards and integrating books and celebrations inspiring students to visit the library and engage in resources and whereas mary brakowski became an instructional aide paraprofessional in 2011 in valley view school and assisted classroom teachers with connecting with students and parents always keeping student learning and engagement the primary goal whereas mary rykowski always recognized students full
019potential and instilled a sense of yes i can in students and whereas mary krakowski touched the lives of countless students over these 18 years helping them develop their own creative spirits cultivating their aesthetic sensibilities and inspiring them to see beauty in the world and whereas mary rakowski was always watching over students and always took the time to celebrate students when she saw their quiet acts of kindness with one another and whereas mary gracowski's boundless energy experience creativity kindness sense of responsibility and fun but most of all her friendship will be greatly missed by her colleagues in the watching borough school district and whereas mary krakowski has been a role model for many faculty and staff and her calm nurturing spirit her ability to create an aura of inclusion and her love of family and community
020have been constants throughout our valley view family now be it resolve that the wachonboro board of education and the entire school community extend our gratitude for mary rakowsky's dedication and service to valley view school and wish her continued health and happiness in retirement and then last but not least is mr murphy now it's a little known fact that murph was an assistant basketball coach at valley view when a certain superintendent was an eighth grade basketball player even though career peaked in the fifth grade i want you to know murph i haven't forgotten your commitment to the team and your passion for teaching and coaching from way back then and what's remarkable is that your service to the students the district and the community actually spans six decades proclamation which was put together by the valley
021of your teachers reads as follows whereas robert murphy was hired on september 1 1992 as a health and physical education teacher in valley view school and whereas robert murphy touched the lives of countless students over 28 years sharing his love of sports and photography with all his students encouraging them in their dreams and whereas robert murphy's hard work and dedication was recognized in 1994 when he was named valley view teacher of the year and whereas robert murphy was instrumental in writing curriculum for the comprehensive wachonboro school district health and physical education program and whereas robert murphy took thousands of pictures throughout the district was the valley view photography club advisor for many years taking student picture taking adventures to new york city gateway national park and point pleasant and whereas robert murphy also used his
022talents to help design the valley view 8th grade yearbook each year and whereas robert murphy served as the long-standing valley view track and field coach where he shared his love of the sport with the students whereas robert murphy was the ski club advisor taking students on trips every winter whereas robert murphy was the valley view coordinator of intramurals getting students involved in after school activities including flag football volleyball hockey basketball and adventure ed and whereas robert murphy was the title ix coordinator scheduling basketball baseball softball games and officials for the valley view games and whereas robert murphy brought his dog reese a therapy dog to work once a week to help students and staff stay calm and focused while learning the importance of how animals help people and whereas robert murphy raised money for the
023american heart association through jump rope and hoops for hearts or as robert murphy worked tirelessly and selflessly to try to get the wachonboro school district staff that winning lottery ticket and whereas robert murphy worked deliberately and collaboratively with the faculty administration at valley view school and whereas robert murphy's boundless energy experience creativity sense of responsibility and fun but most of all his friendship will be greatly missed by his colleagues in the wachon borough school district now be it resolve that the wachonboro board of education and the entire school community extend our gratitude for robert murphy's leadership and service to valley view school and wish him continued health and happiness in retirement and i want to thank all the teachers that helped put this together and of course mrs senkowski who coordinated the entire the projects
024we wish our three retirees all the best we're grateful to our retirees of course and during this unusual school year we are particularly thankful for all our educators and staff members including as miss uh mrs o'donnell mentioned our custodial staff who have maintained a disciple discipline cleaning routine and literally dug us out of the snow with the around-the-clock efforts last thursday so we could have in person school on friday but at the same time i'd also like to congratulate our educators of the year who were surprised by their principles in school last week i was going to let the principals make the announcements during their reports but i guess the cat's out of the bag so i want to congratulate mrs tasco mrs tasco mr rongo mrs white and miss macleod i also want to
025thank as mrs harvey said thank the pto uh for the grants that appear in the agenda and the borough's youth services commission for the grant that's on this evening's agenda we're grateful for the ongoing support um and i also want to thank the borough particularly jim d'amato um for their their hand last week in helping us clear the snow on the school property it was a big help um and last just a couple of reminders to uh we also of course as mr buccarelli mentioned remain deeply grateful for everyone's cooperation and support it's not easy trying to keep a school open during a pandemic it takes a real team effort so just a few remarks about the importance of following the health safety protocols i know i sound like a broken record with this but
026it's important and particularly following the guidance from our health office so we've been very very fortunate as i've said before to keep in-person instruction going and we intend to stay open after the holiday break but to do that we have to continue being as vigilant and cautious as possible especially during these next couple of days and throughout the holidays the last thing we want to do is be forced to do contact tracing during the holiday break later this week or have issues when we try to return in january you'll recall after thanksgiving we saw a rise in symptomatic individuals and positive test results and we don't want i don't think anyone wants a repeat of that experience so thank you thank you for helping us keep our schools open remember that this wednesday is a
027half day with no afternoon remote instruction you all have our best wishes for a safe healthy and relaxing time with your families at home i'm going to turn it over to mr toto for an update from our special services director thank you mr alexis first i would like to thank mrs o'donnell for her service to the district as a member of the board of education gail your comments your questions your experiences your suggestions and certainly your support have truly shaped the direction of the department of special services in particular over the past year and i thank you for that i'd also like to congratulate our retirees thank you all for your years of service and dedication to the district to the students and the programs in particular congratulations to the teachers of the year and
028our education service professionals as well the work you do each day for our students is certainly inspiring um i'd also like to recognize our cpag and thank them for their successful fundraising efforts um the face mask fundraiser earlier this year and the pie sale last month it always makes me smile under my mask when i see the cpag fundraising masks being worn around our schools as the district's in-person and remote instruction continues the staff and the department of special services continues to provide instruction and related services in the hybrid model and our child study team is making great strides in completing evaluations and meetings that were delayed due to the school closure in the spring um i have a quick announcement from the morris union jointer commission this information that i'm about to share is
029located on their website and it will also be added to our special services parent workshops trainings and events website as well uh the morris union joint sure commission has upcoming parent workshops um social emotional learning will be held on january 6th via google meet a transition planning workshop will be on january 13th via google meet and a creating visual schedules and behavior expectations workshop is still being planned for in person on march 25th 2021. the department of special services will have announcements in the new year inviting parents to meet the special services department staff and we'll also be looking for requests for topics for future meetings that we can facilitate discussions around another district announcement the district before and after school program is up and running at bayberry school information is posted on our district
030website and anyone with specific questions can reach out to me to help with those i would like to wish all of our students our families our staff and our school community a happy holiday season and a happy new year thank you mr toto now we would like to move into the njsla presentation mr pepe if you could get that presentation up on the screen that would be terrific and while mr pepe is doing that by way of background i just want everyone to understand why we're doing this presentation the state requires us to report the data each year based on the previous spring's administration of the njsla as everyone knows the test was canceled last year so we did not have any new data to report but still the state is requiring us to present
031some form of data so we reviewed the nj school performance reports and revised the presentation from the previous year you'll see that the special education scores have been added and that certain results overall have been withheld by the department of ed for privacy purposes usually that is driven by a sample sizes that they consider to be too small so i think mr pepe is going to pull that up right now our presentation we can advance a few slides here to the uh i think slide three mr pepe uh well yes when we get to the vision statement just the slide before this one and you'll see that with with the vision statement you'll see that it's characterized by [Music] exploration inquiry and collaboration we don't forget about making this a joyful journey for students and
032teachers focused on discovery independent thinking and creative problem solving not on you know rote learning memorization it's all about trying to get students to grow into their capacities and their potential to actualize that potential in order to do that we need to have a culture of acceptance and inclusion to provide that social and emotional foundation for learning and of course we all know that it's through reflection that we grow in our learning process and understand things more deeply and of course our values of helping students make ethical decisions will continue to guide our teaching and learning in our schools we believe those are the values that will help us teach students and prepare them for a fast changing world and where they can be productive global citizens so in the next slide you'll see that
033what this translates to is a culture that is focused on student engagement in an authentic learning process one where students are learned to think for themselves learn to be independent thinkers creative problem solvers and critical thinkers um by helping them develop their communication and collaboration skills and problem solving skills they will learn and grow together any good curriculum is going to be based on the standards that the state has for uh has produced over the years and continues to revise and of course we believe in the importance of a safe and supportive learning environment as i said for the appropriate social and emotional growth of our students uh the next slide gets us into the data and we're going to turn it over to mrs fichner and mr toto [Music] good evening excuse me um
034we can just go right to the next slide we'll start off with third grade so overall for third grade we saw an increase in students meeting and exceeding from the 17-18 school year to the 18 19 school year as you can see um math there was an increase of 17 percent and language arts and 8 increase um mrs de toto did you want to comment on the students with disabilities sure as mr alexis pointed out that asterix in the 2016-17 school year would indicate that data was not displayed to protect student privacy typically because the uh the number of students the size of the group is just too small um to maintain that confidentiality but we did see an increase from 2017-18 to 2018-19 of students with disabilities who met or exceeded the state standard
035okay so we can go on to grade four um so grade four overall we saw a significant increase for math from 17 18 to 18 19 school year with a 13 increase language arts saw a decrease from 17 18 18 19 of about 11 and then mrs datoda and our results for students with disabilities um in grade four were uh were inconsistent from 2016 17 to 17 18 to 18 19. okay we can go to the next slide so um for um language arts for grades three and four we exceeded the state for students meeting or exceeding in both grades and for math on the next slide so in math as well grades 3 and 4 exceeded the state for students meeting or exceeding and i think that's it for me hey it's my turn
036good evening i'm also going to highlight the change in performance between the 2017-18 school year and the 2018-19 school year so let's let's take a look at fifth grade so if we look at fifth grade language arts our students performed consistently with 78 percent meeting or exceeding expectations and in mathematics the percentage of students meeting or exceeding increased by five percent mr toto do you have anything you want to share about this slide i know there's lots of asterisks there's lots of aspects on this one um from the 2017-18 to 18-19 school year we really don't have um data that we can we can compare because of our sample size okay let's move on to sixth grade um in sixth grade language arts the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations increased by 19 and
037in sixth grade math the number decreased by only one percent we have some more numbers there for you mr tota we do have some more numbers um from 2017-18 to 2018-19 the percent of students with disabilities who met were exceeded um expectations decreased in both language arts and in math okay let's look at seventh grade and seventh grade language arts the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations increased by five percent and in math the number decreased by four percent um in both language arts and math the students with disabilities meeting or exceeding um increased from 2017-18 to yeah there was a nice big jump there i liked that one in eighth grade language arts the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations increased by a whopping 24 and in eighth grade math the number
038increased by 18 and then in algebra one the numbers stayed consistent at 93 all amazing numbers um so in eighth grade i don't have um math numbers that we can really compare but in english language arts um students with disabilities meeting or exceeding went from 19 to 89 in 2018 19. so that was a good number oh yes um and what you'll see in the next two slides are the comparison of our district and the state so here you can see that valley view students outperformed the states number of students who met or exceeded expectations in language arts in every grade level and you'll see the same for math again we outperformed the state for every single grade level which is always a good thing and in algebra and algebra 1 has a mix of
039students from both seventh and eighth grade okay i'm going to let denise do the first couple bullets of our next steps on how we can take this data and we can continue to improve teaching and learning right so our next steps our first thing is to look at curriculum so we want to analyze our curriculum for areas that need to be aligned to the standards identify gaps or redundancies in the curriculum the second thing is to implement research-based high-impact instructional strategies and provide teachers with high quality resources we also want to analyze the master schedules at both schools to identify ways to better support our curriculum and instruction and also make make sure we're given giving sufficient time to teach the curriculum thank you and as denise and mr alexis both mentioned earlier um there
040all of these things um are wonderful to have but part of it is the ongoing professional development and reflection and those are key components to improving the teaching and learning so our plan for next steps regarding professional development includes a focus on refining our current professional learning communities to help them in the practice of using student data to inform instruction enhancing our use of the teacher's college reading and writing project in grades k-8 and implementing a diagnostic adaptive assessment to provide teachers with actionable insight into student need two programs we are looking at are the map and iready assessments mr tota in addition to those next steps within the department of special services we'll also be looking at continued professional development um for us it might look a little different um focusing more on in-class
041resource models of instruction as well as participation for special services staff in all of the general education professional development for the department of special services it'll also be us analyzing our resources ensuring that our students have access to the general education and curriculum materials as well as any additional specialized resources that might be appropriate for their instruction um and it will also for the department of special services will also be analyzing data using that data to guide instructions set goals identify programs and services for individual students and participation in the nwea math assessment or iready along with the general education students that does it for the presentation i know that the principals also have [Music] their their reports that they would like to deliver okay i can go first if you want yeah okay all
042righty principal report december uh our revised traffic plan for parent pickup and drop-off has been successful due to the cooperation from families and wachong police by routing the traffic up bayberry lane to turn around and stage on the northbound side of the road the buses are now able to enter safely and without delay thank you to everyone for their assistance in making this a smooth transition we have begun our student-led morning announcements facilitated and coordinated by our creative director mrs mills the fourth graders are doing a great job delivering school news reciting the pledge of allegiance and announcing birthdays and special events all while practicing their public speaking skills in addition mrs fleming continues to deliver the bayberry morning news and highlights student accomplishments on wednesdays our first trimester ended on december 11th and our
043first report cards were visible in genesis on december 18th we are proud of our students accomplishments and growth over the past few months congratulations to bayberry's educator of the year special education teacher mrs stephanie tasco mrs tasco is a skilled and dedicated special education teacher who goes above and beyond to meet the needs of her students she holds her orton gillingham certification and a master's in reading specialization from keene university she is currently participating in the montclair university's virtual learning for students with disability certification program mrs tasco has been a driving force behind the successful implementation of hybrid learning by leading her colleagues in utilizing classroom technology effectively and developing innovative engaging lessons congratulations stephanie or mrs tasco sorry and also congratulations to our educational support professional of the year mr daniel rongo mr rongo
044is a paraprofessional who is always willing to lend a helping hand and do whatever he can he can to assist the students and staff his enthusiasm shines through every day as he greets everyone with his positive attitude and pleasant demeanor we appreciate mr rongo's hard work dedication and the connections he has made with the students and staff and finally i would like to congratulate congratulate loretta joyce in her retirement and wish her the best of luck in her future endeavors after more than 20 years of service to the district the staff students and families of wachong will miss her dearly we thank her for her true dedication her warm welcome and her ability to make us smile good luck lori thank you good evening everyone first gal i need to say it was an absolute
045pleasure working with you i will always remember your warm welcome at my first board of ed meeting in wachong um i think we started together or you restarted it i should say so that was a very memorable moment and a great indication of what kind of community i was entering at valley view in november we highlighted acts of gratitude and celebrated students accomplishments for marking period one report cards went live on november 23rd and recognized our honorable and high honor roll recipients we are looking forward to our students continued success our math science and stem teachers advanced their understanding of the interactive simulation tool gizmos by participating in a professional development opportunity on november 20th the week of december 7th students participated in the hour of code for computer science education week in the media
046center or online they utilized resources from code.org as well as resources from google for education on december 9th miss houston's and mrs bakasha's 5th grade science students enjoyed a special virtual visit from armani garvin an employee from spacex she discussed her responsibilities at spacex and her work with nasa the fifth graders prepared questions in advance which ms garvin happily answered a recording of the virtual guest speaker will be shared with the rest of the 5th grade students december's theme of generosity and kindness was extended to the community by some of our student clubs student council organized a hat and mitten drive to donate to the needy of somerset county the community outreach club hosted adopt a family gift card fundraiser sponsored by the hearts of wachong they also organized some fun virtual activities for students
047and their families two crafting classes a family trivia night and a scavenger hunt i'd like to extend my congratulations to valley views education educator of the year mrs natalie white mathematics teacher and educational support professional of the year miss lauren macleod kerval our school counselor they are being celebrated for their outstanding commitment to our students and to our educational community during their tenure in wachong both mrs white and ms mccloud served on multiple professional committees helped prepare and continue to improve on our hybrid learning model acted as club advisors and taught students across grade levels they also provide professional support for students families and their colleagues i was absolutely thrilled to notify them that they were selected for our governor's educator of the year committee for this honor on a more personal note like much
048of our educational community our recipients have provided me with invaluable support and guidance during my transition to valley view thank you so much ladies and congratulations again finally i would like to extend my best wishes to mrs ronkowski our beloved staff member and instructional aide extraordinaire and of course to mr murphy valley views beloved physical education teacher coach club advisor and so much more though i haven't had the pleasure of working him for very long he has demonstrated time and time again that our students well-being is his number one priority he will truly be missed but his commitment hard work and dedication to our school community will not be forgotten best wishes to everyone for a safe and enjoyable winter break i'm looking forward to a much better 2021. thank you mrs kidd mrs fichner
049and mr toto uh the last item on this section of the agenda is the enrollment reports our enrollment currently stands at 612 which represents an increase of eight students from the first day of school in september that was kind of a long section of the agenda thank you everyone for your attention gail can you please give the hr committee report um there was quite a bit and so uh um as you know that we finally we did get our bayberry the nurse update we're still working on bayberry technology specialists we will be voting on [Music] staff observations are continuing on and that's about it okay thank you gail rich can you please give the operations committee report sure um we had a meeting on december 2nd we followed up on the phillips field lease shared
050services meeting with the borough committee discussed the phillips field lease and we determined that there should be two minor amendments to the lease agreement the first is a clause stating that any east beyond those stated in the lease agreement would require board of education approval and the second was for the board of education to reserve the right to make improvements to the property without needing the consent of the lessee we have a companion policy that's going with this so i would imagine that the lease will be in final form for the rest of the board to see uh by the next meeting at which time we would uh probably vote on it next we discussed the next steps for the long-range facilities plan and a possible referendum uh the committee reviewed a timeline of action
051steps that would be needed to be completed in preparation for a possible referendum the timeline shows what it would take to have the ref around them in september which is the earliest we could do it and uh in case that is the timing that the board chooses we decided to say let's you know let's go for the first the first date we could which would be you know almost 10 months away the committee discussed the need to be flexible with this timeline if necessary the next step in the process will be to hold full board discussions about the projects to be proposed for the inclusion of a possible referendum and this would be broken into discussions at future board meetings the timeline i'm not going to go into it um specifically but it it basically
052sort of bifurcates the project into two categories category one would be mechanical and engineering building envelope and grounds improvements which you know are absolutely necessary and i think maybe more objective than category 2 category 2 are the improvements basically to the interior of the schools in order to promote a a more modern educational environment we're leaning heavily on uh on our superintendent for uh for um advice and recommendations with respect to this so figure february time frame for category one march time frame for category two with full board discussions about those and then um there is uh a cadence that that goes from there but that's what's immediately in front of us and the board has the rest of the schedule if there's any questions um then let me just get back to the uh
053operations minutes oh okay so um i don't see it but i i remember um what it was the the long-range facilities plan is a requirement of the state we're actually late in submitting it according to our architect and so um the thought of the committee would be to modify the long-range facility plan to put everything in it that could possibly be voted on for a referendum or possibly approved by the board for a referendum with the town um and we would have that you know this is really sort of a ministerial matter even though it does name a lot of the things that would be in a referendum it's not an approval of that if you want to do anything to the school it has to be in the long range facility plan so just
054think of it as an all-inclusive document and not a document that by any by any stretch of the imagination we're saying we're going to do everything with respect to mr pepe do you have any further comments on that i think you said it well mr buccarelli the concept here is the long range facility plan whether we had a referendum discussion or not would have to be approved now to in order for us to spend any money local debt service referendum anything on some of these projects so the long-range facility plan that will come to the board next month needs to get approved regardless of what decision is made for a future referendum okay thank you next we addressed uh tech services update um the administration presented a plan to the committee to replace our current
055technology support vendor with a hybrid technology support model i don't know rich i don't see the pitbull secure technology shared services agreement on the agenda was it intended to be it was is it not on the agenda hold on it wasn't on the first we could um we could approve we could put it back on uh i know you put it in the attachments my only question there rich mr pepe is you know i haven't done a lot of these shared services agreements that are governmental in nature you know i what i was looking for in it it seemed pretty you know boilerplate but since it is a shared services agreement i would have expected a clause that said something like um we are only responsible for the services that we take as a district
056it doesn't really say that do you think that would be uh we could put that in there or is it not necessary in your opinion in this case it wouldn't be necessary because we're going to pay the amount which is for the um support services that it happens when we need it so if we need them every day for 365 days we get them 365 times we need them 12 times in the year we get them 12 times yeah i just wanted to make sure that that would be clear in the agreement but if you or the attorney thinks it's fine then we can we can go with that um we then talked about the uh pandemic costs update there were no changes since the previous committee meeting which showed an increase which was i
057would characterize it as not tremendously material to our original budget uh and with that being said mr alexis uh and the administration and mr pepe are working on the fiscal year 22 budget um and the spreadsheets are due before winter break initial budget draft will be ready in early january we did have a cost for medical benefits increase for the 20 20 21 school year as well as 20 21 22. so the full year cost is approximately 90 000 the part of the cost that's gonna hit us in this school year is approximately forty thousand dollars and there will be a youth services commission grant on the um on the agenda that's all i had thank you rich um jen can you please give the curriculum committee report yes uh the curriculum committee met on
058thursday december 3rd at 3 30 highlights are that the testing window for njsla has been set by the state but the state has provided has not provided any information on how the test uh will be administered remotely so that's just kind of a wait and see and again uh mrs kidd had mentioned the uh the assessments that the district is looking at to monitor student growth so the district's exploring two programs to help the district improve their formative assessments and data-driven decision-making the goal is to unify the approach uh to the assessments throughout the district and measure student progress in terms of the state content standards and then last highlight uh the stem lab the committee discussed that the the possibility of the stem lab at valley view perhaps post pandemic being used for after
059school clubs like perhaps coding or robotics um which i think would be something great for the kids to look forward to after all of this goes away that's it thank you jen uh joe can you please give the policy committee report sure so the policy committee met on uh monday december 7th um we really looked at two primary policies and or regulations uh one is on the agenda tonight which is the second reading of the remote um public board meeting um declaration during an emergency uh which just gives us some flexibility during these times and the other is not on the agenda tonight but in all likelihood we'll be on the agenda for a second read next month which is policy 7510 use of school facilities um so in conjunction with what mr buccarelli stated
060in finalizing the lease of a phillips field we thought it was just an opportunity just to hold off just to make sure we're all aligned in terms of the usage of the school facilities for fields and you know who would be able to take advantage of that so we'll delay it for one month make sure we're aligned and then it should be on for a second read next month that's it for policy committee thank you joe rich is there any update as a legislative liaison uh there's a lot of legislation in the pipeline with respect to uh coveted matters nothing has been signed by the governor yet save um uh an emergency order and i think uh mr alexis has been keeping us you know fully informed on what the state is doing with respect
061to to the pandemic but the latest order um was that indoor sports are canceled until at least january second was the last i heard uh mr alexis i don't know if that date has changed it's probably likely to it's probably likely to but it has not changed yet but you're right january 2nd was the one in the uh in the original executive that's all i had dory okay thank you jen is there uh any update from the town council nope okay uh gail any update with the community engagement or for the somerset county educational services commission um well for the community engagement um i just want to say we had the virtual tree lighting and um it was very successful and um our town looks quite festive this year for the holidays which is quite
062nice don't forget there is the sledding down at the end of watch on lake by the tree regarding the somerset county educational services commission it has been an honor sitting with these board of trustees um it's quite a a huge task that they take on but i have to let you know that besides their school they have developed a magnificent program which is called the new dawn academy which offers alternative education for therapeutic and substance recovery students in grades five through twelve the goal is for students to develop the skills they need for long-term success in all aspects of their life and rutgers university behavioral health program is part of this new new dawn academy and will provide students with the mental health support they need including a clinician and psychiatrist so this is one
063of their programs they were developing while i've been sitting on the board of trustees magnificent commission thank you gail jessica is there a report from the somerset county school boards association no there hasn't been any additional meetings okay for community engagement uh mrs eisenberg connected is there an update with the borough council just the reminder for members of the public uh or any of the representatives to speak you need to click the raise hand button so manny can give you the ability to speak she just said she's not able to there's no participant list or anything for the participants okay work on that oh there's there you go she found it she found it good evening everyone uh so just bear with me we've had three uh borough council meetings since your last board of
064ed meeting so i will try to speed through some of our updates and everyone can hear me okay correct great somerset county has now implemented the smart 911 app you can update your family profiles including any pets or any medical issues you have and that information will be completely confidential unless there is a 911 call from that phone number um so please check out again the app is called smart911 the borough will now be posting weekly updates with the number of confirmed coveted cases within wachong in the past month watson cases have increased from 136 confirmed positive cases to 210 confirmed positive cases that's 74 additional cases in just this past month our planning board has adopted their 10-year master plan the full master plan is available on the borough website council member steve black
065is retiring from council after serving for 26 years he first joined the council in 1994. and we also have now our new official police chief chief kelly um the wider committee that is our watchung committee for inclusion diversity equity and respect has offered recommendations for the borough including codes of conduct additional training for diversity and inclusion and an effort towards more diverse staffing and hiring and the wider committee hopes to collaborate with the board of education on all diversity advancements as well you can now renew your pet licenses on our website and our recreation department will be hosting a snow sculpture contest it's begun already and we'll go through march 1st for the most creative snowmen igloo or sculpture and they'll be a first second and a third prize winner and all the details for
066that contest are available on the borough website and the council at our past meeting has also passed a resolution in support of the installation of a crosswalk across baybury lane with two pedestrian crossing signs along with the associated arrows and no parking signs our borough council annual reorganization meeting will be held on thursday january 7th at 6 pm happy holidays thank you so much mrs coghiata is there a web update or is there anyone here from left to give an update okay mrs newsome is there a cpag update or is there anyone on from cpag to give an update flies were delicious yes they were i don't i don't know if you guys participated in the uh the santa zoom that was great too my kids loved it so i know the cpac i guess
067isn't on but i would like to thank them for that as well uh mrs connecton i'm sorry mrs eisenberg connecting is there a pto update yep we've got some pto updates uh so starting this thursday the pto will be hosting a watchung snowman scavenger hunt we are still encouraging anyone in our community anyone with a building to host a printable watch on snowman you can print it color it laminate it with packing tape and then put it outside or in a window so it's visible from the street then a game sheet will be distributed on thursday to all participants to go and find the watching snowmen around town they'll be given a game sheet with street names only and they'll have to find the house numbers that correlate with the hosting families of our watching
068snowmen i would encourage all of our board members to please participate it's simply printing and posting a pdf at your home and the more houses we have the more engaged our kids can be in a safe socially distant festive activity over the winter break so sign ups will go through this wednesday the 23rd and then the snowman scavenger hunt will be from december 24th through january 10th and all of the information is available on the watch on pto website uh we're continuing our dying to donate programs with mourinho mondays and wassue wednesdays so easy to remember merino mondays aussie wednesdays through the end of the year simply mention the pto when you're ordering and a portion of the sales will come back to the pto um the merino's mondays is from three to eight pm
069and lastly wednesdays i believe is from 4 30 to 7 30 p.m but again all the information is on the pta website the watching pto is also exploring having a coding night led by code ninja in westfield over zoom in either january or february broken out over grade level some more information is to come about an enrichment event coming up in the beginning of the new year again a coding night for all grade levels um and while the ground is still workable and not quite frozen we're going to continue to offer our birthday long sign rental and as always we have our amazon smile program where if you set up your amazon smile account for the watching bro parent-teacher organization a percentage of your sales come back to the pto there's no added cost you
070can go shopping as you normally would and a portion of it comes back to the pto we also are working on our school store.com again you can shop on various websites and the portion of the sales comes back to the pto and our spiritware is for sale all this information is continually available on our website and i would encourage everyone to follow the pto both on facebook and on instagram and happy new year thank you for that uh mrs williams is there an idea update i don't know if i see her on here okay so let's move it on comments from the public on agenda items we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only
071is now the second opportunity for public comment is towards the end of the meeting total time allotted for public comment is 30 minutes before you make your comment please state your name and address in the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting may exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer may limit each statement made by a participant to three minutes duration our public forums are not structured as a question and answer session but rather are offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comment new jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss personnel or hiring in public session names of students should not be used mr pepe can you please read the statement
072due to the recording of this meeting members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for comments that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public okay i don't see any hands raised so i'm gonna move on to the action items uh michelle can you please move administrative items we're thing dory um i move the following action items in administrative a1 approved minutes of previous meeting a2 accepts school security drill report can we get a second second gail any discussion roll call please mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mrs ingrassia abstain on a1 and yes on a2 mr kraft
073yes mrs morad yes mrs o'donnell yes mrs yes mr scharf yes and mrs harvey yes motions pass gail can you please move personnel items personnel approve b1 for the ffcra fmla leaves of absence b2 approve njfla leaves of absence approve change in assignment b3 we four appoint bayberry schools second grade leave replacement teacher b5 appoint manager of repairs work order system b6 a point valley view paraprofessional b7 appoint staff daycare provider b8 appoint bayberry school secretary b9 approved student teacher in bayberry b10 appoint substitute custodian and b11 approved stipend for leave replacement secretary to the business administrator can we get a second second any discussion roll call please mr barbella yeah mr buccarelli yes this is ingrassia yes mr kraft yes this is murad yes mrs o'donnell yes mrs posein yes mrs scharf yes mrs
074harvey yes emotions pass rich can you please move operations items sure uh my move uh item c1 approve payment of bills c2 approved transfer of funds c3 accept financial reports p4 accept youth grant services grant like c5 except pto grant c6 accept donation from watson hills regional high school c7 approved 2020 extended school year contracts with ebs c8 approved modified union county education services commission transportation agreement and with the leave of the board i will add mr pepe c9 as approval of the shared services agreement between the township of burlington and the borough of wachong for pit bull technology services in the future can i just interject for a second sure um i just double checked and that um shared service was not in the public attachments it was shared as part of the operations
075minutes so i think if if you'd like to wait until january so we can you know do the the correct thing and post it with the agenda we'll be okay [Music] and we will do it our january meetings early anyway so that's fine thank you can we get a second second scale discussion roll call please oh i'm sorry dory if i may can i uh mr alexis can i just ask so just by reading this did traps trep started in it ran october and november and then it's taking a break and then starting back up in february am i understanding that that was the original plan but no it hasn't taken place yet it hasn't started at all yet no we were waiting for because of the whole social distancing because of that and every
076other circumstance that we're under but also waiting for the services grant so we um actually have uh an administrative meeting where we're going to be talking about that in the uh pursuit of excellence uh program very and the and the traps as well may be doing virtually okay which i can say i took my daughter christmas shopping last night and she was talking about things she'd learned on in traps and i was quite impressed she was talking about how she should budget her money and it was it was all what she learned in trep's last year so great program well it was actually one of the last things that we got to do in person uh in early march and so i was thinking about that um and what a success that was in terms
077of not only having the kids present their projects to a panel of adults but also having the fair on that one evening where they were able to uh to sell their products just just got it in under the wire program yes we did we got very lucky uh okay roll call please [Music] mr barbella yes mr buccarelli yes mrs ingrassia yes mr kraft yes mrs murad yes mrs o'donnell yes mrs pussing yes mr scharf yes mrs harvey yes motions pass um joe can you please move policy items sure um so um e1 approved bylaw for second reading and adoption by law zero one six four point six remote public board meeting during a declared emergency and we get a second second discussion roll call please mr barbella yes mr buckarelli yes mrs gracias mr kraft
078yes mrs murad yes uh mrs o'donnell yes mrs posein yes mr sharp yes mrs harvey yes motion passes okay does anyone have any other board business to discuss um and then uh comments from the public please remember to state your name and address before speaking and please raise your hand this is on any um item okay um can i have a motion to adjourn so moved second yeah any discussion all in favor say aye aye aye who moved that motion and i missed the the advantage yeah jessica moved it and gail seconded it thank you um any opposed thank you for joining us this evening this meeting is adjourned happy holidays good night thank you everyone bye everybody