WHRHS BOE MEETING | 5 - 19 - 20

001this is the Board of Education meeting for which adequate notice under the open public meetings act was provided by written notice on May 6 2022 The Courier news the echo Sentinel The star-ledger tap into Warren and the clerks of the borough of Watchung and the townships of Green Book Long Hill and Warren roll call please mr. sighs yes mr. Fallon here mister hey excuse me mr. haic here mister Hunsinger Mr Morrison mix is over here okay here dr.xu Bilski is your bond here and his bro here please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance as soon as we there's one over my head there's a cloud in front of it okay all right I pledge allegiance it's hard with the delay I think it's crazy very hard all right okay so the first part of

002our agenda is the strategic plan phase 1 engagement report discuss um so I'm gonna turn it over to our guests and Rita do we just just for the public of course we invite everyone to stay but just so everyone knows that we'll go from 6 to 7 then 7 to 7:30 we'll go into closed session and then at approximately 7:30 we'll come back out and do the rest of our regular routine just so that everyone who's in the public is aware of that ok hey I start yes please well we dr. dr. max and I dr. max McGee Papa and I were here with you virtually on May 5th and we delivered a fairly extensive report of the findings from the engagement phase which is the first phase of strategic planning and yeah it was

003long and it was detail it not that evening did not provide sufficient time really to hear being back from the board to answer any questions from the board or to proceed with a couple decision-making areas where it would like to take take you tonight if we can before we go into the next phase to describe we're going later now what's important to understand about the engagement phase is that it it wasn't it before it is extensive and it's somewhat hard to digest if you're reading it for the first time we tried to do some digestion for you through the slide presentation that we made and we have some additional work tonight that we want to share with you that we help we think will help you with that that phase is very important because it

004provides the data and the information that is then used not only by the board but by the point lead design team to come back to you with suggestions about a mission a vision new new initiatives continued initiatives activity as yours a whole bunch of things that follow that flow from this engagement phase it is the one time where there's an opportunity for anybody and everybody and your constituency to tell you what they think about what you're doing well and what you what they think needs to be improved and that's why it's so but virtual vitally important that that we spend a lot of time on that and we gather as much information as we can and again that was done through a survey and through focus groups through personal interviews and through open forums and

005they've got good participation in all those areas so that's kind of where we are in the press and we did have some individual questions by board members that were submitted and you may have other questions tonight that you want to ask we can spend time on that but then I want to make sure that we have sufficient time to really explore with you where we are with goals which goals you want to keep which goals you might want to make modest changes to or if there are new goals and we do have a suggestion on that that that you should consider based on the additional input that we got so that's kind of the agenda for the evening so I just wanted to tell you that in advance so that we allow sufficient time to

006go into the major discussion about goals and then of course timing or where we go when we go forward and how we go forward with our plan in the midst of coab of 19 so that's kind of the introduction to that though so we can you want to start with questions redone or do that we'd like to begin this conversation so I think that if we start with some questions but board members might have some questions about the detail but getting to the point where what that detail means I think might help facilitate the discussion a little bit more so I don't know if people have questions more about like what like how we got to certain data or or results from certain data that from the last report versus like what does this all

007means where do we go from here Susan well I had I did have some questions and I submitted them to dr. Jewett and I guess I I'm fine with either starting with our questions or I was under the impression you were going to see those ahead of time Judy and maybe address them in your comments tonight anyway so however they dress I think I think it's helpful to have a I questioned how we got to from all of that data to what the different sort of summaries were but that was just one of my questions and I have them here I can go through this quickly I think the the main idea though that I want to share with you is regarding your questions is that what we tried to do the data was given

008to you as raw data but then it was also analyzed since we have synthesized and triangulated to provide you with what we think are the major findings and the major areas where you be you should pursue in your next plan so method applies to your question 3 which is you know how did you arrive at what we do in our 2020 plan is it different from aspirations or guiding principles or the big ideas and the answer to that is no they're all they're all really triangulated into the conclusions that we presented to you about where you should go next we ask different questions and some people answered questions about aspirations but some that we can pull a lot of interesting but you also see what priorities are when you look at aspirations so there's a

009lot of overlap in the question areas though I don't know make sure that really clarifies for you is there's some point your question was except that I could go through each one and show you which you know which areas we tapped for those conclusions I think the main thing is for you to having read them and is just say oh yeah I see that in the data or oh I don't see where she got that from or you know that's that kind of a thing I'd like to have the board general reaction to yeah I stated I can see where she or he or both of us came to the conclusions that we came to in the presentation that we made so so if I might add and Susan thanks for your question advanced and

010you too Georgiana kind of the the big picture for me that emerged you know we're major themes one of course you know social emotional wellness progress on the goal last time let's continue it there's still more work to be done a second piece was the the Dei the diversity and equity initiative that came up again and in surveys and focus groups and forums and again whether that stands alone as a goal or falls under something else we certainly do not want to lose sight of that a third big theme that arose was a student in the middle and you know I guess it would fall under academic achievement or success for all and we we heard a lot about the great progress you made with the innovation initiatives a more chorus off range and the

011great success in AP but it continues to I mean even the test data that we examined showed that the mathematics achievement really does lat significantly frankly behind the reading and writing achievement and you know whether that's due to kids in the middle or at lower-end I can't say but they had up that student in the middle and assuring that you know they graduate prepared for career college or and life and our life I guess was important you know I think the the fourth theme was the idea of the culture and climate creating a more cohesive culture behind a share her vision and mission building more trust among various stakeholders and the final piece was at global awareness what are we doing for global citizen so just if someone were to ask me a give me

012the elevator speech and that I realized just took us to the 60th floor versus six but in 30 seconds I would say that those five areas were the big themes that emerged from that extraordinary 47 page report it might be I don't want to rush it but if you'd like to look at a couple of documents we pulled together today to try to focus the discussion around goals and topics would that be helpful to move into that next do you think yeah I think so oh you want which one do you want first Judy that one or this one maybe start with the goals I think because max just gave the like the big topics and they do actually I you know one of the findings was and you should be very proud of this

013there's a lot of support for the goals that you have in your first plan and for the for the direction you were planning to take the district long term we feel very strongly that the first three goals are fine just the way they are and they certainly cover all the areas that max after that there's a thinking about doing a little restructuring there is a one new area and that is something around the culture for learning culture climate whatever you want to call it I think the main point here is in order to hold everybody together and get everybody marching to the same drum and feeling feeling positive about it there is work to be done on the general culture of the school and it covers a lot of areas I put together a statement

014that kind of covers it just to help you understand what what we're talking about here that goal would look something like build and sustain a school district culture that instills commitment collaboration and responsibility you hear a lot of feedback from from teachers in particular and their supervisors about some of the bumps and starts that you had in getting everybody thinking in new ways and working together on things so that's why we're looking at that as something that's really important you surveyed identified as the highest priority I believe the trust and communication and trust area that's that needs to be that needs to be humming in order to get all of the other and very important goals that you have implemented so that's why we're suggesting that you add that fourth goal and then as Max

015was talking about we had a discussion today with with Rita and Jordana in preparation for the night and theirs as well on the child in the middle and what that try but who is that child and what are the issues around that if we there seems to be from the is for the abbreviation then it is the goal itself goal two is great it talks about if you look at it and it's its specificity he talks about engaging students in developing their individual potential experiencing success success in high school and empowering them to plan and prepare for post-secondary learning so when you abbreviate that and talk about post-secondary you're leaving out two very critical elements of that goal not that you've left it out with the activities but the emphasis in terms of its its

016short cut its short version its slogan whatever you want to call it so if you rename that success for all that means academic success for all students in high school realizing potential it means success in getting them ready for their their next phase whether that's a career or secondary post-secondary college education know that that's why we came to the conclusion of success for all versus post-secondary planning as the short version of that goal not changing the goal just highlighting a different aspect of it for the purposes of planning in the future and there you could put we'll talk about what things go in there in a second oh I was just going to Peter I see peter has his Henry so I wasn't sure Judy if you want to take questions kind of in the

017midst of this or if you wanted to wait till you were all done finish the one piece which knotted look at this the full three again the short version of it focuses on how you're going to do it versus what it is you're trying to achieve so we're suggesting that you retitle your short version something like global citizenship as when you look at the wording of your goal its integrate creative innovative and interdisciplinary learning throughout the district in order to empower and inspire students to succeed in a changing global community so if you change the focus from how you're going to do it to what your what outcome you're looking for it it I think it it focuses it more on what your your real goal is oh that's go ahead Peter and that Peter

018Judy what why don't you go ahead and finish the rest of this page and then I'll my questions well we did we talked about that culture for learning that would be new and then just just really minor tweaking to not to your goals themselves but to your short version how you identify them in your literature and your in your planning just just to help categorize the activities a little better and and also explain to your public what it is you're trying to achieve so the one thing that's new and I'm deserves your discussion entirely I think tonight is this this issue of culture for learning is that a goal that you saw in the feedback that you feel is an important one just something you'd like to include as you go through your planning for

0192025 well if if I could and I apologize for not getting questions in in beforehand but you know going right right to that point I actually had raised my hand before we got into these these goals because one of the questions that I had in looking over you know what we had done last time from from your survey report you know one of the one of the things that was rated is you know for the future for a positive professional climate of mutual trust on faculty students and administration was rated high by some people not not high by others but you know what I'm trying to understand is is this your version of what that looks like and and more than that from from the fact that it was in a survey report where it

020was what is it that you think we as board members should take from that it you're absolutely right when you look at the detail responses by individual constituent groups it's an extremely high response you're certificated staff 81% put that in their top categories were for future priorities and that also came through in the focus groups and and the survey the written survey that teachers responded to because they did not have the opportunity to have a in-person meeting with us so I'm happy if you don't have teachers feeling that this is a productive culture in which to do their work then you know your planning is going to be useless you have to have the teachers working with you and behind you alongside of you to make all of this happen and I think the there's

021a there's a feeling among some and it's certainly not all but there's a feeling among some and a significant enough number that work needs to be done there and it's begun it the work has begun it's begun with collaboration with professional learning communities and but it's but you only had a couple of years to really work on that so I think it deserves a little bit more attention in this next round well then let me ask you because help me understand a little bit more what four means what go for means what would you see us doing to fulfill that goal I think it's a it's a communication is one aspect of that and that came came through as an area of need as well you never can communicate enough but there's a there's a

022sense that people don't know what they need to know as fast as they need to know it they're not included on everything there's a little bit of a a sense that well administration tells us what they want to tell us but or the board tells us what they want to tell us but they don't tell us the whole truth and all of this could just be perception but it's if it's what people feel it's important to change that so communication is one involving people extensively in decision-making is another building systems where people work together and I learn to trust and respect and like each other even have opportunities to agree and disagree with one another and all that is very time-consuming but it's people work and people work is important in school districts how do

023we as board members know because we have you know staff members who say we're not consulted on anything it comes from the top down and we we have administration tell us you know we collaborate we ask them for input and then we make decisions in in the end you know I think the board wants the administration making decisions but it's hard for us as board members to to draw the line which is why I'm struggling with this as a goal for up for us to set the struggle Peters going to be in finding ways to do it and that's in the design phase of your planning you know figuring out strategies that will improve that relationship and establish it end up doing that survey that University of Penn gets to you and you could customize

024and tailor it so that you get some good baseline data you can eat you can either confirm or or modify the importance of this particular goal but I think that's important to do unfortunately doing a survey after koban 19 is maybe their worse time to do it because people's attitudes will change significantly better or worse I'm not sure it may in fact turn out to be better than it was when we talked to people but but that's where I would go next with that is getting a valid reliable survey that really tests this and having a extensive if not a hundred percent certainly close to 100 percent response rate from faculty to that if it if that's the area where you're worried about now this is the culture for learning is also has to do

025with other things like student attitudes about school they they feel that the ones we talked to felt like there was not enough school spirit there was not sufficient opportunity for students to go to games there are a lot of things that they complained about Judy I'm thinking that actually in here that's great maybe this will answer some of those questions when we max I tried to take the take the areas these are not goals and or they're not objectives but they are topics that came up over and over again and we put them we kind of classified them by these four categories if you had a goal that dealt with culture for learning it would potentially have diversity equity and inclusion so that covers the whole issue of some of some of the areas that

026are sensitive with it within your student body you heard some reaction to social economic status differences and you know even that transition that in high school where students from certain the strengths are certain places didn't feel as accepted as others so there are things you can do there with articulation on transition and support and certainly the whole effort that you've started with the diversity committees and it's a consortium that's a very highly regarded consortium as I understand it that's doing great work in this area that would improve and improve your results in acceptance of people who are different for whatever reason school spirit and pride this came directly from the students they were supported by teachers as well but there's an area that needs to be worked on you have a big district in the

027size school and it's hard to do that but there may be ways that you can approach it through changing structures and changing schedules or whatever that that allows students to work on supporting school as a not just teams we're not talking just about teams but having great pride in the school communication and trust that came right out of the survey collaboration even social I I put social responsibility on this so that came out loud and clear in the portrait of a graduate that was an area where people felt students needed to have more opportunities for personal responsibility respect for others the whole host of characteristics and traits that are in the report that fall into that and the whole idea of focusing on the importance of learning versus grades and GPA is another area that

028is cultural in its nature he's this isn't the whole list of the things that popped up at us as we as we looked at categorizing them global awareness is under the creative and interdisciplinary learning if we if we change that to something called global that actually would become the header but there's there's a lot of a lot of work that's already taking place here it's good work it's not done but we certainly need and if you change the post-secondary planning as we suggesting to success for all and you can look that again would change that would go up into the header or secondary planning content needs to continue with all the supports that you've put in place and more to help kids who are going to college know how to prepare for that and be

029successful in accessing colleges that they want to access or their parents want them to access but it also involves this child in the middle and the career pathways and the opportunities that that child may be seeking after high school that would go into that area I've talked to oh I'm sorry I got carried away I and probably over answered your question either under I'm not sure I don't want to monopolize so I'm going to hold off for a few moments of people have other questions but I do have more okay does anybody have any other questions any other board members jordana yeah I just um I guess kind of questions with reflection if we can't go back you know mind flipping back to the slides I guess I'm kind of this is very helpful by

030the way so thank you so much guys for putting it together because it helps me connect the dots a little bit better and and and respond I think hopefully a little bit more intelligently with my with my thoughts but I guess as I as I respond as I look at these four goals the first two I think makes sense to me right the first one is kind of easy social emotional wellness big area we've made some strides keep going got it the second goal as I understand your recommendation perhaps given the way we worded it unintentionally focused on post-secondary learning perhaps for the more college-bound again that was not necessarily intentional but you know words kind of guide us and so we really want to make sure that we really more reword it so it's

031super clear then this success for all whether a student chooses to be college bound or not we want to support them and make sure that they are the best they can be either way that is kind of my take away are we is that basically essentially at me an agreement that that's kind of the suggestion coming out with words good Jordana Jordana yes I think words do main things and I think it was it was not inadvertent that post-secondary planning was included with the second goal because a major part of that was was trying to make sure that we would be spending money on improving our guidance department so that kids could get to whatever places they wanted to be whether it was college college or whether it was you know working so it was

032intentional and you know I words do matter ya know they took they totally do but might take away from from this suggestion that this is more of a tweak that we're gonna make sure that as we develop the wording for this goal right success for all is the shorthand that it's going to be super clear that it is really you know making sure that we take care of the college bound and not college bound whatever their choices are we're gonna guide them and the guidance Department will guide them so their success for all so it's more semantics as my understanding the recommendation for this goal is that is that everybody's understanding and maybe I should pause and say are we all in agreement with this direction I think that's correct in terms of the way

033I also heard the data being yeah explained in terms of what was coming out was not what was coming out was we're not getting enough support from the guidance Department because we want to be there it was you're not focusing the guidance department or whoever whatever the supports are for the next level for our students we're not focusing enough on those who may not want to go to college who are left in the middle yeah or you know and you know people you know that whole idea like people in the bottom get the support in the top at the support it's that whole thing I think I think that success for all is a is a good shorthand of what the data was telling us anyway yeah it's very hard I'm finding it hard you

034know normally when we talk I can see everybody i I just opened up my screen because I know I'm still trying to share the other side oh I can see try to understand a consensus right so that's the only so the rest does have his hand raised okay Jordanna were you done with your question like you know maybe if so I have some thoughts about each but maybe given the complexity of going do you guys think perhaps going through each one of them separately like because I have some thoughts about the other two I'm happy to just throw those thoughts out and then we can open up the floor for others we don't you know doctors Jews whatever you guys think is the best way to to facilitate this complicated way to discuss the rest

035are you talking about goal one or two in your question yeah about two and three okay all right so Jordanna why don't you finish oh my god an arrest next that's good alright so this is my so go to very good three and four just as the high level III I guess I struggled with a little bit so I hear you in terms of three your recommendation you said that you were thinking like as there's a lot in that in the written the full goal there are a lot terms and I think Judy you said I'm really thinking about what is the outcome that we're trying to achieve and what you guys are recommending as global citizens should be really the focus I guess as I read through you know all your wonderful material and

036as I'm kind of thinking through what the outcome is that's maybe bubbling up for me again that's for me it's I think maybe more semantics but I feel like what are we trying to achieve high level isn't it more empowering and inspiring Student Success right that high level under that as you showed a nut others chart right like steam and critical skills and global and price those are all the elements that will help us make sure that we have students who are empowered and inspired to succeed so for me again semantics words super super important I'm just throwing out there and challenging whether it's a global that should be there for the inspiration and empowerment so I'm just gonna leave it at that I'm throwing kinda bad at you guys and then the last one

037I think you know Peter asked a ton of really good questions on that one I also think that culture for learning to me is a little bit generic and I don't know what to do with that either like on the one hand I feel a job we better have a culture for learning so I'm kind of like you know how can we make it a stronger goal that's not kind of genericized you know max I think you mentioned actually when you were listing III listed five goals one of them that's not on here was the diversity and equity of so is that really the culture like I don't you know culture of diversity and equity is that really so again to me I feel like from me to be on board and saying I'm with

038you guys I feel the devil is in the details here of how we are articulating the breadth of this goal then I think the details underneath will be super easy right now I'm personally struggling one thing I'll just add to that in terms of the conversation around that fourth goal is the Dei is everyone knows has been a big focus for the past two years and especially over this past year that was folded into goal one in the last plan that was a hormons indicator under the SEL goal and so it it I think that it's become enough of a priority and it's you know gotten enough gained enough importance that it should probably be its own goal so that I think is the thought of putting it separately and one of the things if

039you notice the goals it's kind of 2 1 & 4 are eq & 2 & 3 are IQ in terms of you know which is kind of a nice balance to the goals but that being said that you know in terms of taking 4 and tweaking it so that it's more specific for you know i think that that's a good suggestion but just to give you an understanding of god jordana but I think yeah I'm supporting the spirit I think this is a really really important area right a culture of a school a culture of any organization is critical right because it guides the what in the how so I love I just think we need to you know articulate a little bit so you know the DIA component like you're right the school spirit

040was coming up everywhere I think that's you know critically important so so again to meet my only you know challenge to you guys and feedback as before I can hop on board I would love to to really see the articulation because it is such an important area that I think you know we anyway I'm Rick I'm repeating myself and my kids hate when I do that's all shut up man all right let's go to the rash clarification what do you mean by global community and global citizenship post-secondary learning you know how do you define them and for all these goals what is the what is the measurement metric how do you measure whether we are meeting these moles or not meeting how are we going to measure it the success so so far if I

041might and I want to answer that question and also address jordanna's question about the culture for learning because I think we you're absolutely right we need to be in this gets past appears points well very clear on that and at least my reading of the report and the data and in the comments was really to a specific a culture of trust engagement and connectedness and an engagement engaging student and staff voice connecting and feeling in a sense and that goes with the whole school spirit that is connectedness and belonging and the trust trusting presence and you know back to Peter you know it is I have all kinds of ideas but those are not big Goliath so I think we could be more I think you're right Jordan be more specific about that and the

042rest how do you measure that I I think you you know there there are several different surveys a questions on that whether it's your the the one you've used before whether it was a Pennsylvania group we used to ask all kinds of questions about belonging connectedness would you recommend a staff met would you recommend to somebody that they would would work here there's all kinds of different ways and there's all kinds of ways to look at yo the lack of complaints or decrease in complaints there's ways to look at you know interconnects to a student and staff wellness so I think you're on there needs to be measures for them and and that's just that's just one example as far as de I you know whether that's a separate one or whether it falls it

043needs to be emphasized I think would be a significant mistake not to find a place to emphasize it because it was mentioned so many times by by really every stakeholder group might and my question was that like use goal number two for secondary learning right are you familiar if that we would like to see that twenty percent more students go to college I mean I'm just giving just number you know I mean there must be some metric to measure you know whether we are on the right track or not so we must be sending say X percentage students to college are we going to say we're going to say ten percent maybe you could respond like the next step yeah Norrish what you're saying is right on is we need a way to assess if

044we're actually achieving these goals but so that's part of the the next steps in the process but you are a hundred percent right that we need to be able to gauge our progress on these and some of the measures will be quantitative some will be qualitative and and all of that will come back to the board you know to approve those pieces as well to make sure that you know we're using the right metrics but yes that's absolutely a part of it but how do you define that global citizenship this is I'm not clear we what we'd have to do and we have to do more work on that goal in terms of you know it could be everything from the types of courses and experiences were offering to students to a survey of graduates

045in terms of their experiences at college and you know how prepared they felt you know different kind that's obviously one that's a little bit harder but it's also you know doing kind of looking at almost the curriculum audit as well to see if we're infusing those things into instruction and curriculum in our courses does it mean that you will be comparing what Japan is doing what the kingdom is doing what Canada is doing Global means to mean that we going to make some comparison what other countries or other communities or other colleges in the United States they are doing right now it might just be it might just be increasing our students understanding of what is going on outside of the US outside of the US a greater understanding of what's going on in the

046world cultural exchange programs perhaps I don't know I said integrate creative innovative interdisciplinary learning throughout the district to empower and inspire a student to succeed in a changing global community right succeed in changing global community the global community today you know everything is changing you know we are you know at the beginning of the fourth Industrial Revolution in manpower well we need to talk about these and and further yeah I think it sounds like what that it definitely sounds like to me that that is the third goal is still up in the air I think that the abbreviated version is a suggestion by Max and Judy but the question is whether or not that is really what we want where we want to go let me just get see if I can get Barry's I

047think Barry had his hand up you said yeah so I'm looking at number four and it seems to me that those are all things needed for a culture for success but we have number two as success for all so I don't know if we need to redefine - or if we can have two things with talking about success well I think that you know the commitment collaboration responsibility they're all tools for success so you create that culture you're creating a culture for success okay maybe number two could be I don't know something else right to that point is that we are rewording number four and and this whole like we need to kind of align around what that full wording is but it's something I actually really like max the way you articulated and even

048a culture of trust engagement and connectedness yeah lives in number two this is you know more thing into something that includes Dei that includes school spirit it's just it's it's a school culture that and and and that needs to really be requested and rethought Peter I guess a couple of things one in terms of number four well you know one of the things Jordana said before struck me as about you know being about with goal number three being to empower and inspire students to me that has elements of what we want our culture to be what but for me the biggest reason that I've been struggling with this this culture one and I'll return to to what you're done I just said in a moment is you know for the last several years several board

049members have been saying hey you know let's let's have a culture survey you know what we've been getting from the Association is is not as rigorous in some users as a culture survey and as I said before you know we want our administration to collaborate with the teachers but we want our administration to make decisions so I be more interested in doing that pence pen survey and finding out if we really do have a problem or if we just have a lot of the certificated staff telling us they want things better than they are now before I'm willing to say we need to change the culture and foster do more than we're doing to foster a positive and professional climate the one of the things though that Jordana just said about having a culture sighting

050what Mac said about having a culture of trust and engagement I think I think it's necessary I think certainly we have put some perceptions that it's not there I'm not sure though until we have that pen survey that we really know whether it's there or not and isn't like for right now we're talking both culture in terms of the students culture and their feelings about trust engagement and connectedness and then we're also talking about the staff and their feelings about trust engagement and connectedness and that really is two different things in my brain yeah melding it all into one goal and trying to make it really broad and I just wonder if if they can be put the other ones are all student centered right there are other three this one is is getting both

051things in there and Judy's point it's important that our staff is with us otherwise we can't do anything right right yes but but I do hear you Peter that like this and she did also say that we would need some sort of valid survey to really tease it out I know go ahead Peter I was just going to say with regard to the Dei you know I would disagree with you Liz I would leave that in in the first goal and you know make it more of an emphasis but I would still leave it in the first goal it goes to you know what we're doing for for our students and and no and Peter one of the things with regard to Dei in the survey and so the this is what the piece that's

052difficult about that is more work needs to be done in order to determine what our areas of focus need to be for that so one of the things that we had talked a little bit about in the strategic plan committee the the survey it's this it was through our UPenn consortium but it's through the Center for school climate and learning and dr. Preble who is the who heads that and who would be overseeing it he suggested basically integrating the you know the survey as part of our really as part of our action items within the strategic plan that we can then each year you know develop kind of the the objectives from because it entails students and staff choosing the most appropriate survey questions from the master survey based on the things that were most

053concerned about so that's it's so the goal you're right when we can't necessarily say it you know the Aries were trying to target in the goal other than we want to identify what we need to do to improve the culture and climate and then work toward that and I understand that you made that reference at our meeting two weeks ago and and and while I understand that I also struggle with this as this is going to be the blueprint for what we as a board devote resources and money to for the next five years and and so you know I want us to have a situation where if we find out that we're better than then we're being told we are that it's it's not going to be become a focus of spending or resources

054there what I could tell you is that I'm confident from the feedback not just from these surveys but from the students you know from the student diversity Council from the parent feedback that there are areas we need to address in there there absolutely are in terms of you know improving our culture for for diversity equity and inclusion I just can't confidently say these are the specific areas we need to target but I but I am I can confidently say any other administrators and staff members who have you know met with the students and and gotten this feedback that that is definitely something the students want as a priority okay the fuck'd the final point I wanted to make because I know we have more to do here is I just wanted to tell the other

055board members that that Bob Morrison who can't be with us tonight send an email to Liz and to Rita and Jordana just about the strategic planning process and and you know trying to go through it in this period of of Kovan 19 and you know he actually said he's writing to request that we suspend further work on the strategic plan he's concerned he was concerned with the speed of the process originally current conditions have only amplified this concern he goes on to make other points but I think we've also shown tonight there's still a lot of questions about this I don't know if now was the time to be drawing the consensus of the board I was not I agree with you I think that tonight in my mind was to get the questions out

056to Judy and you know we all seem to have a lot of questions and I think we have to have another discussion on this and it may be that we have to have another discussion in a couple weeks after we get through a couple other things that we have to deal with with I don't know that I'm like suspending it is the best idea but I don't have a problem slowing its down a little bit I think that makes sense reader and so I think that like to again tonight do we have any more questions where we're trying to pull information from X and we only have a couple more minutes before we have to go into exact I have a short question sure my question is relating to to a number to the survey

057in the survey deeply contact universities also some feedback from them you know if something is missing in our high school students when they go to college which we must be attention to did you get information from University we did we do that on an ongoing basis and as part of this goal are we actually started it and then the County you know all the schools in the county joined in where we actually did a survey send a survey to directors of admissions at colleges but this is something that we do you know on an ongoing basis if we're looking for last questions first I want to thank max and Judy for being so agile and fastened analysts as we didn't get many of these questions to you beforehand and I again apologize for that but

058Judy I want to go back to the PowerPoint presentation last time one of the things we had on there was modify systems to improve equity and access and as I was looking at over earlier today maybe it's just me but I didn't stand what that meant there was a student's had a lot of concerns about being able to get into the electives that they wanted to take okay yeah you have them on the books but you know because now I understand what you meant by modify access I just I didn't make that connection I and the other rows the levels you know whether or not levels allow students to access the courses that are best for them or that they feel they want to take or that will get them where they want to go

059in life so those that's really and parents had that to say as well there was a lot of concern about formalism okay thank you okay so I think what we're gonna do is we're gonna figure out you know I don't have any problem putting this on the agenda like every single time we can have an hour discussion and see if we can move it forward you know it may not be best to have it on the next meetings agendas we've got a few more things to deal with yeah after that right yep that was fine and maybe we even want to do a separate night to just talk about this yeah that's probably a great idea too yes I think that I think that there's concern you know Bob's emails has concerns about you know

060we got an even Judy set at you we got data before Cogan 19 and is this gonna change anything I mean I don't know in some areas it probably isn't maybe in others it will you know I can't see it changing social emotional wellness obviously we're gonna even need more of that but you know - it's gonna be a big focus because you know they're saying that this is gonna impact the kids yes right economically so I think that you know I think slowing it down is not a bad idea and having a one night where we discuss all of it in the next you know few weeks or month or so it's not a bad idea would it be would it be fair to suggest perhaps just in terms of structure for discussion would

061it be helpful if the strategic plan committee met and we can think about how to best facilitate a productive discussion so that we can continue moving forward that's not that's a good idea committee I love committees who like help us stay structured because honestly guys you know I I respect you know Bob's opinion and and I you know was very saddened you know when he would when he you know wasn't able to come but I do feel strongly that we need to be moving forward slowing down okay but we need to be moving forward I mean as I think about our culture as I think about you know the portrait of our graduates and our staff I think of one word word and its resilience the fact that the world changed and we were able

062to move forward is that almost nothing happened this is is this community's incredible resilience and I have to tell you this resilience was enabled by a really strong strategic plan by the way that set the stage for them to be able to do that so for me to to kind of stop and pause it's just not the right thing to do in a very weird way I'm gonna go out and say it and you guys are gonna think I'm completely crazy but what the hell I'm glad I am glad that we have a pandemic in the middle of you know strategic planning because it's a torture test because that's exactly the purpose of the strategic plan right it's to establish an infrastructure to guide us when not when everything is rosy but when things are

063tough you know damn it when things are tough to tough get going right and and I speaking of culture I do think that this is the culture of this community and so I I really would urge us you know to find a way to kind of keep punching holes in the Swiss cheese as they say as opposed to pause just you know things are not perfect there's never gonna be perfection there is no such thing as perfect progress is really what shapes us makes sense Peter do you have your hand raised oh I'm sorry no that's okay it's gonna make sure that I wasn't missing you so I'm hearing you georgeanna we want to set up a strategic planning committee meetings yes okay thank you that was a really long way of saying I got

064the mic my action item from okay so we got a lot in our exec so I don't know if we're even gonna get through it in half an hour so but I so I think we need to start so I'm gonna think I'll take a motion to go into executive session yes thank you I will so what I'm going to do now is put all of the public into a waiting room and then everyone in the public if you want to sign out you know and notes for the next half an hour and sign back in that's fine but either way I'll let everyone back in around 7:30 and I will just say that in accordance with the provisions of the majority of executive session to discuss confidential personnel student legal matters student safety and

065security peer and PSA negotiations after which action will be taken all right we need a second second all those in favor aye okay everyone is back in okay so the next thing on our agenda is for correspondence and we have been getting several multiple email correspondence pertaining to graduation and the superintendent's going to have her comments on that and we've been responding to them as they come in and I think also some have come in to mr. Phelan and he's responded to some of them as well and I've responded to some of them about you know what are the plans for graduation so that is [Music] corresponding somebody's phone okay everybody should be on mute in the public right please at this point that's what I'm checking to make sure they should be muting themselves

066otherwise I'm gonna take care of that right now okay so why don't we make sure everybody's on mute before we go to the next agenda item yes we're good okay so now it would be it will go into your comments okay so a couple of things to share so tonight actually our guidance department is hosting our very first virtual college panel so its intention is to help our juniors and seniors navigate some of the issues around college application and admission decisions during this very uniquely challenging time and we have a couple of college admissions representatives that are part of that panel tonight from NYU from Northeastern Penn State University of Richmond Quinnipiac and TCNJ so that's actually occurring right now and on June 3rd we are going to be hosting a virtual 8th grade orientation

067with a panel of 9th and 10th graders and they're finalizing the plans for that right now so one of the other items that I want to address tonight and I assume that's why a number of the public are in attendance is graduation I am heartbroken that we cannot celebrate our class of 2020 in the traditional ways that our watchon Hills community has grown to love and embrace graduation is a very meaningful event for me both personally and professionally I have been attending a minimum of one graduation ceremony per year since I graduated from college whether it was my own masters or doctoral ceremony a ceremony for a family member or a friend or the graduation of the district which in with in which I was working I've never missed one and I'm actually one of

068those strange people who gets emotional out of graduation even if I don't know anyone there and I have attended those when I was a high school principal I would attend graduations of other schools to see how they ran there's two good ideas and if I'm watching a TV show where they're playing pomp and circumstance or graduation I I tear up so it's it's a very meaningful experience for me and and if I'm feeling this way I can only imagine how our seniors and their parents are feeling so you may have heard that the governor's the governor's comment yesterday during his press conference that we should remain hopeful for a July in-person graduation ceremony this comment is in direct contradiction to his reopening guidelines that indicate no mass gatherings will be allowed during phases 1 2

069or 3 but only when we return to what is considered normal which has been indicated will be when there is a vaccine so therefore indicating that an in-person graduation ceremony would be allowable in July is a bit perplexing to those of us trying to plan these events however if the governor is saying we should have hope then we are going to have hope so we are still keeping our options open should the guidance change we've been working diligently to plan a virtual ceremony and we have two options for the timing and I'll share those and we're likely going to to survey send some surveys regarding some of the different options to see what people would prefer and then what's you know based within the guidelines of what's allowed what we can do so our first

070option for timing is to hold our virtual ceremony on June 19th and to keep the option open of having an in-person ceremony later in the summer if the restrictions are lifted this has been our approach however based on recent parent requests we're currently considering a second option where we postpone the ceremony to a later specified date in late July or early August that's when the students had indicated beyond that they would not want a ceremony as they'll be preparing to so hopefully lead for college this does present some unique challenges as those of you have who have attended ceremonies on our turf field before in June before the weather has gotten into the summer heat it's still extremely hot on that field and over the summer it can get a lot hotter so that's something

071we have to consider but what we would do is postpone the ceremony to a later specified date and if the restrictions change and we're allowed to have an in-person ceremony at that time then we would do so and if not we'll go ahead and air our virtual on that date I've also spoken with the the PTO who is been more than willing to help us and the Alumni the class of 2020 alumni plan some kind of celebratory event later in the summer or the fall as they did not get to have a prom nor project graduation and so that they will likely be sending a survey out to students to see what kind of event they would want who would be interested in participating so that's another option we're looking at as well with regards

072to our current plans leading up to the virtual ceremony this is what we are in the process of trying to plan right now and we have not said sent out specific guidance on all of these because we are awaiting additional guidance from the Department of Education and the governor so we don't want to send out plans that we then have to change but we will be sending out more information this week and also be looking to gather some feedback so I have reached out to the Chamber of Commerce in each of our communities to ask the all the small businesses in our towns to display sign support in our class of 2020 on lawns windows vehicles wherever they see fit and how they can get whoever creative they want we also are working on getting

073all of the pertinent items to our seniors the caps and gowns honor cords diplomas the senior gift baskets and we initially had looked at possibly trying to deliver those via bust to student homes but then we realized there would be some difficulties with that because we do have some houses that are hard to get to we worried about timing and weather with leaving things outside plus some of our families have had to relocate temporarily to assist family members who have been affected by the the current pandemic so we are actually looking at doing a pickup at the school and we will be sending more information out about that and so we're actually planning that around when we get the caps and gowns delivered to us because those have been delayed due to some of the

074plants closing due to the pandemic following that we're working on a schedule for students to come back to the school to take pictures in their caps and gowns and so we're working on the details for that we've looked at some different options you know the students have expressed that they want that would like a stage set up that they can walk across and some various pictures so we are going to have our professional graduation photographer available we were just trying to work out some of the details of how to do this safely and so that may mean that we are not able to use the turf because there are other areas that easy more easily allow for cars to pull in and out which would also allow us to potentially have parents be able to

075get out of the car with their student for the photo so those are some of the options we're working on as well and then we're finalizing the student speakers coming to the school to record their speeches the plan right now is that the administrators announcing student names the principal myself will all be actually in the pack live on the the day of graduation socially distanced from each other so that we can give our speeches and present the class and call their names live in the pack so that's our current plan which is continuing to evolve as we consult with police our local health official the different vendors working out logistics getting feedback from the students and parents so it is continuing to evolve and I promise you that we will continue to remain as flexible

076as we can if we get different guidelines that allow for more social interaction and so that is the I think I've covered all of the the points about graduation and so I will turn it over to president Barone thank you dr. Jewett I just want to be clear to everyone that this board and the district's main priority is the health and safety of the students their families and the staff in any decisions we make with regard to graduation graduation reopening all the decisions that are going to come in the near future for us and that this board is so is 100 percent supportive of the administration and we and the staff and are so proud of them and in how they are weathering all the different complications and [Music] changes that need to be made

077almost every day as the state provides additional guidance as in all these areas that we're facing we've gotten many emails and I know there's a lot of people here tonight who want to make some comments and we welcome all comments and suggestions I would just ask that you give us you know be patient with us and understand that we are going to listen to all of your comments we can't answer all questions tonight that's not the purpose of the comment period but where you take everything in and make sure it's feasible given the again the main priority is the health and safety of all the students their families and the staff and remember that the decisions that we make there were within the constraints of what the state guidance provides us and [Music] we are

078responsible to act within those restrictions we're a public entity we can't go beyond those restrictions we can't make up our own guidelines we aren't that we don't we're not the you know we don't have a public health official that we rely upon that's someone that we can control within the public schools our public school system we rely upon the public health professionals that are within our state government County government and local governments and we rely upon the Public Safety officials that are telling us what is important and how to address all these issues so I think it's a it's a you know as as I've said in many of my responses to the emails we're going to put it as quickly as we can to pivot and we will be as flexible as we can

079and we're gonna have to be like that for all the coming decisions that we're going to make so I just ask that everybody be patient with us give us all your your suggestions and and and know that we're going to take them to heart so I think with that we can go into our business administrators comments I have no comments madam president okay so then we have one committee report as operations if there is no business administrator comments do we have operations committee yes I can you want me to go over the minutes of the meeting sure that would be fine Thank You Pierre okay on May 13th we had a Zoom Operations Committee meeting during that meeting mr. styes provided a snapshot of where the district stands with regard to our current 2019 2020

080budget in light of the current situation he discussed the loss of revenue to the district due to the crisis that loss of revenue is approximately fifty thousand dollars having to do with rentals of the school facilities that we aren't able to rent out during the crisis our business administrator mr. Stein's also discussed the possibility of losing some or all of the June state aid payment which would be approximately three hundred and forty five thousand dollars when you take into account that we have other revenue categories where we we've received more funds than originally budgeted the projected worst-case scenario right now is approximately a two hundred thousand dollar shortfall which would be from lowered revenues not getting the state aid and a possibility of the anticipated extraordinary aid possibly not being paid to us we won't

081have any information on what our actual state aid payments will be for the upcoming school year until there's a budget decide upon which will probably be right around September 1st that's the state budget not our budget we've spent less than budgeted less than due to the shutdown in areas of transportation substitute teachers over time energy and athletic needs and again that what we've got from all of that is that there's a projected amount available considering the shortfall and revenue of approximately two million dollars so if the revenue were to were much worse we would still certainly be able to get through this school year we also mr. Sky's then moved on and discuss some of the preventive measures that would be recommended to be purchased in order to be ready for the return hopefully be

082ready for the return of students in the fall to minimize infections in any future spread of the infectious disease we focus primarily on things like things for the the bathroom soap and toilet soap and paper towel dispensers you know getting automated ones and additional sanitizing equipment as well as a discussion of the PPE that we might need we don't yet have full guidance on what PPE might be needed but it seemed clear that we definitely do want to go to things like automated soap dispensers and and sanitizers that'll be attached to the walls and so the committee suggested to mr. size that he what to go ahead and and look into purchasing some of that stuff as he can in the current school year he pointed out that FEMA has indicated that they would probably

083be reimbursing 75% of those costs so that's that was part of the reason that the committee recommended moving forward on that at this point there's also a discussion about the contractors when one of the hurried laws that the state passed provides for that school districts are supposed to pay contractors for services even if the services aren't being provided during this this period that impacts particularly transportation and the bus companies are asking to be paid despite the fact that they're not providing bus services to us during this the the law that was passed is is not totally clear on what the obligations are it provides that you know we're supposed to be talking with the contractors about what a fixed cost versus variable cost and and and also about what other sources of income these contractors

084have to make up the money so we're in a situation now where many of the contractors are demanding eighty or a hundred percent of what's remaining due on the contract after discussions about the law not being totally clear the committee is recommending to to the with mr. size that we go back to those contractors and tell them we're going to pay 50 percent of the amounts that are due under the current contract and if they then can come back and show us documentation that they've paid their employees and and have used whatever sources they could to to replace the income from from either grants or loans available from either the state or the federal government that if that leaves them with a shortfall we have to pay more we would be open to doing that

085if it's required by law finally we we discussed what do we do about the transportation contracts for the upcoming year and because this law is in effect that requires payment even if services aren't rendered the committee's recommended that we hold off as long as possible before signing a contract for transportation costs for next year until we know exactly not just when we're going to open but how we're going to be able to use bus services in light of any remaining social distancing that might be in effect and then the final thing was mr. Graham I'm sorry mr. Steeves told us that the district is eligible for a Care Act grant in the amount of $31,000 so that's that's hopefully going through and that we expect expect to still be receiving the grant to implement security

086upgrades that's the security upgrades we're considering for the upcoming year that that's the end of the meeting minutes and that was a lot to any board members have any questions for mr. Phelan so with the two million dollars the anticipated amount of surplus funds which is not it's it's more than than what it would normally be but it's it's still you know there's usually you're within the 1 million dollar range somewhere in that you're talking about a 50 million dollar budgets out so with those funds we we were going to purchased of some of those preventative things that Peter was talking about partially and then the other piece would go to surplus to cover the anticipated loss in state aid which were in the early reports so far is that the state's talking about a

087loss of 10 billion dollars in their budget so managing they're gonna redo the budget and we will lose some state aid I can't imagine but just so you understand part of those funds is going to go to help us next and next year's budget right does it thanks thanks mister sighs so does anybody have any questions for Peter okay all right so we now move into our first opportunity for public comment the first public comment period is limited to agenda items for this meeting only the second public comment period is open to any topic which is at the end of the meeting all comments are limited to five minutes if you have a comment please use your raise the hand function and dr. Jewett will unmute you so you can indicate your comment as we

088do in public in person session please state your name and where you are from so that we have that information for our records thank you but you're muted if anyone is having trouble raising their hand for some reason I don't see any hands raised there is a second public comment period so you can email me and I will get that between now and then just in case anyone's having any difficulty but I do not see any hands raised yeah Nancy will sense key I don't see any hands raised why it's going up oh wow you're talking about in on our screen yeah like in let me see it on the screen yeah we can see it on the screen try a muting her and see if she I will do so at least it was

089there for a second yeah it kind of goes up and down I have to see miking huh here we go miss Wilson ski did you have a public comment I have a question so you can state your question but we're not gonna answer it's not a question-and-answer session it's really for you to give your comments and if there's questions within the comments we will absorb that and see if we can answer it maybe at the end of the public comment period or at some later time okay well the comment is I just wanted to state that there is a giant billboard up on Route 22 at this moment set up from Project Graduation that'll be up through June 7th so if people wanted to see from Project Graduation but word up and if students wanted

090to go take pictures that they can okay and then I did have a question but I'll wait okay miss Wilson somebody sent me a picture the billboard it looks fantastic thank you so much great it really did it was lovely thank you anybody else have their hands raised where is it on 22 Oh between Warrenville Road and Washington Avenue if you're coming down Warrenville and you're headed eastbound you'll see it on the left-hand side and if you do the turnaround at Washington and pull back like you're going to Warrenville it's where the construction site is so you can actually pull into the gravel there and my daughter went into pictures today so you can get pro cute thank you I do not see any other hands raised and I'm checking my email as well just

091in case so but we do have a second public comment period so photos cross-ice they're not coming up online this is so odd it's not appearing on my participants either but on the screen okay look like clapping hands oh that's not the hand raised that's why that's a gesture so for those of you that are the public and mr. Crouse all unmute you there's a it's it's at the bottom of your screen actually somebody who's a participant because I'm the host can you explain where the raise your hand function is Freddie yes so if everyone looks at the bottom of their screen you'll see a couple of different features stop video you to the right of that is participants if you click on that on the right side of your screen will pop up a

092list of names and at the very bottom of that list you'll see a feature called to raise hand by doing so your hand will pop up like it's very good yes Thank You Freddie that's why they're using the they're using reaction no that's ok I'm glad cuz I because I can't see all the participants on my screen so no problem I have I have an iPad and on mine it's under more it's at the top and a thunder more and then raised hand is one of the options okay thank you everyone okay so though yes miss Kraus go right ahead so my first Mike and Kraus hold on one moment I just because I think Tim needs this for the minutes can you just state your Tim would you ask them to stay to the

093address just there in adventuress your name in your town in your tip where's Rosa Kraus of our New Jersey so first doctor do it it's interesting that on the on the survey foot strategic planning social and emotional well-being is really at the top of what we should be focusing for next year with that it said with that said back in February at a PTO meeting when we discussed the cap and gowns you were very clear that the mental the social and mental well-being of your students were your priority with that said how come that is now now not being taken into consideration the kids are they're good kids they understand what is going on in the world today and I am pretty sure they know the rules about social distancing so we have a football

094field that has 77,000 square feet where we can easily accommodate just the students you know how the parents do it virtually but why can't we accommodate the students this is for them you care your words were the social and mental well-being of the students were very important why is it important now how come principal a Barrett has once done a video to the kids this should be his his time to shine for the next class not once has he addressed the kids once these kids are distraught they have missed a third of their senior year no prom no yearbook signing nothing nothing why can't why have none of the suggestions we have given even been considered I mean Bridgewater the next town doing the next town over is doing something amazing for their kids they're

095taking two weeks visiting every child individual as a parent oh my gosh that is awesome the kids would love that how come we're not doing that why are all our ideas just completely being shut down when we know what's going on we understand social distancing but none of our ideas our ideas are being listened to or even taken into consideration another thing how come tonight was the first night we are hearing about an in-person graduation we've gotten tons of emails and not once has an in-person graduation even been addressed on those emails why only tonight so um that that that is what I am severely frustrated it's the lack of empathy towards our seniors they don't want a virtual graduation the kids don't want to sit there for four hours okay thank you for your

096comments and again I think and once public comments closed yeah bro and I can provide if that's what I was thinking good anybody else have their hands raised not see any okay dr. coochie I think guys are Henry's oh is it at UH okay I do see one that just popped up and I don't see doctor oh here we go I'm sorry I'm going back to the top yes dr. coochie I do see three hands dr. coochie go ahead state your name and your town is she muted on mine it looks like she's muted sorry dr. coochie you are high pressure coochie Warren New Jersey I just want to say for the record I'd like to just say that with the governor easing restrictions on a daily basis opening beaches outdoor activities can resume rather

097than give you many specific ideas I'm asking the board to work with Project Graduation parents acting is representative for all the parents to come up with a safe way to hold an in-person graduation in some form I believe that's possible for June 19th be it in small groups or some other creative way if not later in the summer my concern is focus on is on the virtual ceremony rather than working on in-person options which are permitted now with the governor's new directives thank you for your comment miss Hagel I need some up and hurt she's unmuted hi I just wanted to say that I'm very happy with everything that you said tonight because my issue was that it was girion gonna fire yourself I'm sorry say it Warren thank you I just want to say

098that I'm very happy with everything that you said tonight because to me it feels like you're with and that were united and that you're trying to have something happen and I think for a lot of the parents they were upset with cancel and postponed makes everyone happy because everything is changing every day and I just think that everyone thought that it was too soon to cancel everything so the email that went out last week made everybody very upset and the kids very upset the way it was done because it was kind of cold and this week with what you're saying now I think that that gives everybody hope and right now that's what we need thank you for your that's right I just want to say that I I'm appreciative that you are trying I

099know that it's not your decision that it's the governor's decision and really you can't do anything until you've got you know permission from them so I'm appreciative that it's being considered and hopefully we can make something happen and of course all the parents are behind you and we'll do everything we can to make it go as smoothly as possible that's it thank you thank you miss Marcelo please identify yourself in your town she's muted oh thank you I keep forgetting I have to do that let me find her hold on I undid here we go okay sorry mr. Marcel you're unmuted down okay someone hurt me so far no okay all right I'm Nancy Marcelo from Warren I'm Peters neighbor I've been in touch with a number of you and as I mentioned in my

100various emails I started a Facebook group for parents of seniors because I felt like we were a special subset of Watchung Hills parents and I I miss I came into this meeting late so I don't know if I missed any for a discussion about change of plans or future plans for the graduation ceremony but I just wanted to echo my fellow senior parents who have previously just spoken and if the administration is open to doing more than a virtual ceremony that would be amazing and I just share the frustration that we just felt like we have not been being heard all this time and we can we can certainly have a virtual graduation any time so I would rather see it as a last resort down the road versus the first option for June 19

101then you know maybe we could do something else let's leave it as the last option if nothing else can work which I don't believe is case you know leave that for the last possible solution and as I said to Peter there are and some of the other parents have mentioned there are tons of creative things being done with by other schools and many that are not far from here so we just want to feel like we're you know these ideas are being or not being blown off without discussion and consideration so on behalf of the Facebook group of parents um please just you know keep your ears open and your options and minds open to being creative about this and making this happen for our kids and this just applies to the graduation ceremony if

102there's a way to somehow hold all the other events that they're missing out on even you know prom or all that the yearbook signing parties and the project sorry project graduation event down the road that would be really awesome don't know if it can happen and of course we need to keep you know whatever the governor says in mine but at least if we can just know that we're being heard and and all options are on the table up until the last possible minute that would be really appreciated and thank you for letting me speak thank you for your comments Alicia Alicia LeBron Oh greenbrook I just wanted to say that I do appreciate being on here tonight and hearing messages of hope at this point and I know you've received a ton of emails

103some nicer than others probably but we just wanted we just want to know that things are coming along and that everyone is is working on trying to make it the best for our kids and I think one theme that's kind of been forward forwarded for most people is let's just go to postpone and not keep not keep June 19th as a hard date and if the restrictions allow I think most of us would prefer July whether it's 95 out or at 75 out just to be able to see our kids graduate and have the joy of being able to do that we all need some joy in this crazy crazy time that we've had so as parents we've waited a long time for this whether it's your first child your third child your fifth child

104it's just as meaningful whatever stage of raising your children that is and I truly appreciate the fact that everyone seems on board to try and do something more than just the virtual graduation for the kids so thank you thank you for your comments do not see any other hands okay so do you want to close public yet I'm gonna close public comment at this point and we'll go into board discussion and I am follow up on the some of the comments Rita just here if you want to do that now that's fine oh it's up to you if you like that we hope that probably makes sense to do it fresh so I am sorry if it has ever come across that mr. Oliver and I are you know have anything less than a health

105and safety and social emotional well-being of our students as our first I really want to and so we don't somebody's not it says iPhone okay so because I can I can promise you that that is not the case and that you know we we talk multiple times per day mr. lebrand I and more than one of those conversations is about what we can do to to honor the seniors you know everything from having the the Twitter feed that is recognizing our senior athletes that are not getting a spring season to figuring out how we can do some other virtual ceremonies for their their scholarship night and their the other awards you know the senior awards events to figuring out how we can can get the items to them our plan is actually very similar to

106Bridgewater's they are doing a virtual graduation they've set the date for that and the only difference is they are they have access to many more buses than we do and so they are delivering the items to the students whereas for us we realized that that would present at a number of logistical problems I mentioned earlier as well as you know some parents who have notified us that they that they're not home right now because of the the pandemic and so you know we thought that it would work out better if we actually had them come to us and we can decorate the school and and you know make it an event in a safe socially distanced way the reason that we have not even brought up an in-person graduation until this week is because and

107the directive that schools still have is we are not permitted to have one we are not allowed to have a gathering of larger than 10 people and the directive that we received last week was that we are only permitted to have a virtual ceremony and so that's why we sent out notification we wanted everyone to know that we were planning something for the seniors and that those were the guidelines that were given to us so we were trying to be as transparent as possible with the directives that were given to us and those still have not changed however as I said earlier the governor said to have hope so we're having hope and we'll see what happens but as of right now we are not allowed to do any kind of in-person ceremony so I

108just want to reiterate that that that is why you know we have not planned that and we are not planning that but I can tell you is that that ceremony is much easier for us to do than the logistics we're trying to plan right now you know we still have all of the equipment we need for that all of the chairs the stage we've made sure that that is all still in place so that if we're told at the beginning of June that we can have an in-person ceremony we will be able to pivot to that right away the difficulty becomes in the summer because some students have already expressed concern with summer jobs but they're hoping will continue leaving for college those types of things but that's why we're going to send out a

109survey just to see what the majority of people would like I think those were all of the things that I just wanted to reiterate miss Marcello if you go on by tomorrow or than stay the video of the meeting should be posted and you'll hear my comments at the beginning which explains some of the options as well as the PTO offering to help our class of 2020 once there alum - perhaps some kind of celebration to take the place of project graduation and the prom that we're missing but I do just want to reiterate that mr. Lara and I as well as the entire faculty and staff our number one concern is the well-being of our students and so you know it it hurts me personally not just professionally when you you know you accuse

110me of otherwise because all of our intentions with everything have been that and if we could have a if we were permitted to have an in-person graduation ceremony that is a hundred percent what we will be doing and you know that is what we are waiting for for more guidance on and everything else you know we're trying to plan some other special events for the seniors in terms of receiving their their graduation items and taking pictures we just need some time because we are we also are told that we need to wait for guidance before we can plan that so you know this is where we're trying to keep up with what's changing on a daily basis and we will continue to keep you updated but just you know have some patience and understanding and

111know that we are trying to work within the guidelines to celebrate the seniors in the way that they've earned and deserved but also with health and safety as the number one concern there will be an opportunity for a second public comment I do see another Henry's but we've closed the first public comment so at the end of the meeting that will be available again all right so now we're going to move into board discussion of the addendum items I guess discussion of addendum items before we move into action items so we just whew addendum items I don't know if people have any questions on them no okay why don't we move into action items yes baby Madam President I'd like to move resolutions a1 and a2 we need a second second thanks Susan any questions

112or comments on a1 or a2 hearing none mr. size roll call dr. chan yep everybody needs to unmute so you can say yes can't find everybody high screen okay dr. Chen I'm mr. Fallon yes mr. haic yes mr. huntzinger yes miss Potter yes this is over yes dr. Shu Bielski yeah Mr Bond yes and his bro yes emotions carry Madame president I would like to move resolutions C 1 through C 10 with the following change to resolution C 5 from the agenda that was published an increase in the rate from 25 to $26 per hour and an increase of the hours per week from 25 to 28 hours any questions or comment per second yeah any questions or comments all right hearing none roll call please dr. chan yes mr. Fallon yes mr. haic yes

113mr. Hunsinger yes this is over yes miss Potter yes dr. chu Bilski yeah sure bond yes name is Peron yes motions carry Madam President I'd like to move resolutions B 1 through D not second thank you any questions or comments all right please I catch and yes mr. Fallon yes mr. haic yes mr. hunt singer yes miss Potter yes this is over yes dr. Chappelle ski yeah Mr Bond yes and miss Perrone yes motions carry we're now moving into the portion of the agenda for a second opportunity for public comment so again if you have a comment you like to make use your raise your hand button so recognize you I'm mr. Krause the my name is Thomas Carson I'm from Warren I'm a student now watching Hills huh so superintendent you it you continuously

114say that you care about the mental the well-being of your students but you've proved it over and over again that you do not you said that you care about the 10% for cap and gowns but where's the other 90% of us look when we needed the most the principal the Liberia I think is his name has done nothing for us I guarantee you if we had mr. McConnell here he would have made sure that he was at each kids doorstep handing us our diploma taking pictures with us making sure we were okay we have not seen any of that from any of you we have other schools having the drive of graduations and we're still stuck on the virtual graduation we had a survey about this uh with like 250 students 220 of those kids

115said no they would not attend so I'm so good luck with doing that all right thank you for your comment oh okay so in terms of our comments here it's the same way it would be in public we need to make sure that our comments are professional that they are not attacking and again we will take all the suggestions but we need people to make sure that they're using language that is appropriate and that was inappropriate language any other hands up yes miss jellinsky has her hand raised I will unmute you rolls just win hold on there we go okay miss will sense key you should be unmuted I am Nancy will sense Kiev are in New Jersey um I have two questions my first one is if we do postpone graduation to the summertime

116whether it be July or the beginning of August as far as the teachers union and requirements and regulations how does that work with teachers being involved with graduation and my other question also is well not really a question but as one of the executive board members for Project Graduation I just wanted to say that there are many things still to come from graduate graduation we've tried to really think out of the box it's knowing that we weren't having an ice cream social knowing we weren't having other items and I just you know we had sent a letter to all students and all parents and more things are still to come for them so we don't want them to think that you know just because a virtual graduation might take place that their children are not

117getting other items on that list so they have things to look forward to in the midst of this lovely craziness so I guess my only question is really in regards to the teacher contract and if they were required to attend or how that would work in in in a future date so dr. jorde if those I don't know if you want to address them now or good questions now or I can um so mr. centipede thank you so much the Project Graduation group is doing a tremendous job in trying to be creative in how you are you know are facilitating celebrations for the seniors I know you're meeting with mr. libera are quite frequently so I really really appreciate that with regard to a summer ceremony it presents a number of logistical problems as you

118know specifically with regard to supervision so you know our teachers are not certainly our 10-month employees and they you know as many people have right now I'm sure they filed care concerns and things like that so we probably ask you know for for solicit volunteers to help us if it ended up being a summer ceremony these are all of the things you know the logistical issues that we're trying to plan for should that happen so you know we will we will make it work if it becomes an option I can I can promise that great thank you so much for answering them you're welcome and thank really thank you for all of your service of Project Graduation that's not an easy job in a normal year and it's actually not so in a year like

119this it's been rather challenging and it's it's been interesting but where we're working hard and we'll continue to do so okay yes I have something that says Martin's iPad so I will unmute you let me see if I can I guess you don't get my picture that's okay Martin Allen from Long Hill how you doing today I just wanted to mention that I've been listening to the governor probably daily listen to him today and one of the things he did mention was that we should all be patient that there are plans coming down the road I know that trying time for everybody we're all experiencing cabin beaver I know you're doing the best you can maybe to close the meeting if you would all or miss your doctorate if you would maybe go over the

120various options again that you're considering so everybody can hear them one more time so we I think I heard them beginning I know there's various things that other school districts are doing obviously problem is we don't have our own buses or that other problem is that parents have moved out of the district during covin 19 for berries ins so maybe you can reflect on it talk about some of the things that you're considering keeping in mind that the governor and the state is going to be coming down with some directions in need or future thank you very much get rid of your comments falkowski family iPhone just reading what it says I'm sure okay can you hear me yeah I can just state your name and where you're from sure Kristen Schaal Kowski from watch

121ah I just want to do that we're putting it there that we should have hope I think that's something that everybody needs to cling to right now and I appreciate what you said that you guys have the stage the chairs and everything and you're prepared to pivot if restrictions are lifted I think that's something that really needs the parents because nothing is more important to us than having our children have that opportunity to get together as a class walk across the stage flip their tassel and be together as a group even if parents have to watch that virtually from home because I can understand that there's a lot of crowd control issues with social distancing I as a parent would be thrilled if just the kids got to be on the football field if we

122could at least very least have that and know that the school is a hundred percent planning to accommodate that should the option become available I think that would alleviate a lot of frustration for parents knowing that there's something more than a virtual graduation and it's not just a throw away at this point thank you thank you for your comments miss Kelly can you hear me yes okay thank you so I wasn't going to say anything this evening but I felt compelled to thank you all for the work you're doing - thank you dr. to it for the work you're doing these are not easy times we are under extraordinary pressures to do it right and we only have one shot at it so graduation is important but it is one piece of the larger puzzle

123that we have to look at and I think the safety and well-being of our students while they're presented with their diploma should be of the utmost importance I just wanted to say I appreciate that you are open to options and you're listening and you are taking cues from the higher-ups to make sure that you're doing the best for our students and your students and I just like I said I just felt compelled to say thank you because I think it's important in these times to do so so thank you very much everyone thank you for your comments if Tina could identify herself - oh I'm sorry thank where she was hiding because I had a hard time with my microphone Nina Kelly from Watchung thank you I do not see any other hands I believe

124that's it McCrone okay I'm gonna close the second comment period one thing I wanted to remark about though today something very good happened for us all and we learned today that our superintendent was named superintendent of the year for Somerset County so I think she's and should enjoy this moment even though it comes within the pandemic we're gonna get her a t-shirt that says I was County wild quarantine but so I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew that we were all very proud of you thank you your tremendous board to work for and I have a tremendous team and you know I echo miss Kelly's comments that our school and our community has really pulled together and I can't thank the Board and the faculty and staff enough because you know they they

125make my job easy in terms of working through all these things because it truly is a team and you know if any of the staff are in the audience tonight I want them to know how much I truly appreciate their commitment to the students through all of this okay I think I don't know if anybody else has any other business the only other thing I want to mention is we still have to you know don't forget we have the superintendent evaluation that we have to deal with as well and all of this Freddie I can see your finger up my hand was Josette necessary I have a resolution that I would like to have the board vote on in regards to getting more directive from governor Murphy surrounding the in-person graduation dr. June and the

126district is not who should be getting criticized for this response the comments from the state government has been conflicting like dr. Jewett said yesterday governor Murphy said to be hopeful for an in-person graduation and then released a plan that prohibited mass gatherings so if there is a step to move forward onto how to properly plan for in-person graduation which I support I think the students deserve it is to get a clear message and this is what this resolution that I would like to board a vote on would get at if I can read it so it states whereas on May 18th governor Murphy unveiled a multi-stage approach to execute a responsible and tragic restart of New Jersey's economy through the road back restoring economic health through public health whereas the road back restoring economic health

127through public health prevents mass gatherings in all three stages whereas on May 18th governor Murphy told the public to hold out hope regarding in-person graduation now therefore be it resolved that the watching Hills Regional High School Board of Education urges the governor to provide school districts with clear and concise directives on planning and executing in-person graduation for the class of 2020 as soon as possible so that districts will be able to formulate their own plans consistent with the health and safety needs of their individual communities and resolved that the board secretary send a copy of this resolution to the New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy I feel this is the first step that we can take to try and get some direction and hold on to that hope that we're all really aiming for Madam President

128I'd like to second that resolution Tim there's no problem with doing this like this right the process is appropriate I just want to make sure that we're because it's not on the agenda can we just add a resolution no but I think he brought it up from the floor I think Freddie did you move the resolution is that what you're suggesting Peter yeah all right good that's all I want to make sure that we're following those rules any other comments or questions about the resolution yes good job thanks for doing that one I think I think very eloquently written may wonder whether in addition to a squeezy toy the resolution a copy going to the Senate President and in the house you know there's been some debate as to how long the governor can have

129executive privilege over making such decisions and when the legislature should actually be involved so at least letting them know I think is a reasonable addition to your resolution and I also wonder given that we have to make decisions about when school is open in September hopefully that it will be and we're making financial decisions and operations as to contracting within the next month although I don't want to dilute the message and the intent for graduation is it an opportunity to also ask for guidance about school reopening as well as opposed to having several resolutions throwing forth even though graduation is most timely we're still making decisions within a month about September yeah I think those are all great points doctor no ski and uh wouldn't dilute the message uh you know I know there's been

130a lot of times criticism but dr. Jewett and the district is doing all they can to provide the proper ceremony for the senior class and like I said with the conflicting messages it makes it difficult for the district to do this and there's over 66 participants in this Board of Education meeting to the dr. azouz point about Sonny missed the senate president and the assembly I also urge parents and students to call on their representatives and tell them to urge Phil Murphy to be more clear about this I understand this is very difficult pandemic nor might under selling the the troubles of this I'm an EMT I volunteer locally and I've seen the effects of his firsthand I'm not saying that we shouldn't be afraid that there's nothing to be worried about but we're put

131in a difficult position without clear guides from the state so for the 65 people that are in this meeting to talk to your legislators your representatives and tell them to voice their concerns and to urge Phil Murphy that's how we wouldn't get movement on this a Tim four procedures are you clear on what Greg's additions were to the resolution because I retreat that is a motion by Greg to amend which Freddie accepted and I would second but do you have the substance of it or do you need more the thing yeah well first of all I'm a little hoot exactly do you what do you want to senator Kaine our set our representatives in this area is that president or the senate president I meant the leadership of the assembly in the Senate okay and

132then the other commodities like you want guidance on when school will open guy-guy not not when necessary my plan on what needs how we can open well Gregg you say it so I mean what well you know based on our operations committee meeting we're obviously needing to make decisions about transportation and many other things and we really have done little if any information about what we could potentially plan and one of our frustrations in that meeting was we've got contractors who are expecting a response this month if not next month and we have no idea what to do so this may be an opportunity to also ask for guidance about how to plan reopening in September or clearer guidance on the issues related to reopening thank you Peter thank you I got it thank you

133okay so first we have to vote on this amendment right yeah right okay and that is not I don't think we need a roll call on that or mr. size as the amendment I would say okay in terms of the amendment to unmute yourself Susan Freddie's okay I've got my dog squeaky toy though resolution all those in favor okay and then we need a roll call on the resolution okay dr. chan yes mister Fallon yes mister haic yes mr. hunt singer you it's Potter yes this is over yes dr. Przewalski's yeah Mr Bond yes and his burrow yes okay motion carries okay any other business see Peter's cat actually my daughter's cat that there was a with her all right if there's no other business motion to adjourn second second alright thank you everybody tonight