001[Music] good evening i'm going to start the meeting up i should say that we had closed session earlier tonight so our meeting has been called to order we're the about to start first i welcome dr pamela and nathan to the table as our new assistant superintendent for crypto running introduction happy to have you here tonight and going forward um tonight we're going to start our meeting with a little business there was a decision issued by the school ethics commission and the commissioner of education that requires that a resolution be read at our meeting tonight to do that i'm going to turn it over to our board attorney mark [Music] thank you madam president just by way background as as the president just indicated uh there was an ethics complaint that was submitted by another board
002member in connection with a communication that involved a district student um just wanted to point out uh so that there was no confusion with this that the school ethics commission is the only body uh that can enforce the school ethics act so if there is an allegation that there's an ethics violation there has to be a complaint filed with the ethics act words of education are not permitted uh to enforce the ethic laws uh nor are they able to take action against any of their own members that lies exclusively with the school ethics commission in that respect the district did receive notice from the school ethics commission and the commissioner of education that they had made a finding against one of the members and that the board was directed by the commissioner and the school
003ethics commission to have the following resolution read at its next regularly scheduled public meeting which uh happens to be tonight the ethics commission took action at its meeting on june 25th uh tonight is the first regular regularly scheduled board meeting since that time so uh in accordance with that directive which the board itself is obligated to follow under the school ethics act uh we have in the presentation every year remember that i've tried to summarize you guys the ethics requirements one is obey all rules this would fall into that so uh there is no action uh that is to be taken by the board uh the resolution must be publicly read uh and then we'll have to be publicly posted for the next 30 days so with that whereas you taylor zong is a school
004official as defined in the school ethics act serving as a board member of the west windsor plainsboro board of education located in mercer county at all relevant times to the allegations and the above caption matter whereas the above caption matter arises from a complaint that was filed on march 1 2018 by anthony m flares also a member of the board alleging that mr jones violated njsa 18a 12-24.1 g of the code of ethics for school board members and whereas at its meeting on april 24 the commission ordered the party's filings and voted excuse me considered the party's filings and voted to transmit the matter to the office of administrative law for a plenary hearing on the allegations set forth in the complaint whereas at the office at the administrative law a hearing was conducted on
005december 3rd 2018-2018 at which time both parties appeared and offered testimony and whereas on february 28 2019 administrative law judge susan l alegady issued her initial decision and concluded that while sufficient evidence was produced to establish that mr zhong violated the confidentiality provision of njsa 18a 12-24.1 g insufficient evidence was produced to establish that mr zhang violated the inaccurate information provision of njsa 18a colon 12-24.1 g and whereas based on the findings of fact and legal conclusions in her initial decision alj olagates recommend recommended that mr zone be reprimanded and whereas at a special meeting on may 2nd 2019 the commission voted to adopt administrative law judge alagati's findings of fact to adopt the legal conclusion that mr zhang violated the confidentiality provision of njsa18a colon 12-24.1 g when he forwarded a message to his
006immediate family members about an incident involving a student that resulted in discipline and was subsequently shared by a member of his immediate family with countless others and to adopt the legal conclusion that the that mr players did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that mr zhang violated the inaccurate information provision of njsa 18a colon 12-24.1 g and whereas at a special meeting on may 9 2019 and in order to impress upon mr zhang the fundamental importance of safeguarding confidential information the commission voted to reject the recommended penalty of reprimand in favor of a century and whereas by a decision dated june 18 2019 the commissioner of education concur with the penalty recommended by the commission and whereas nj ac 6a calling 28-10.2 d provides that for a penalty of censure suspension or removal a resolution
007shall be adopted at the commission's next meeting following the commissioner's decision and the resolution shall be read at the board's next public meeting following adoption by the commission and shall be posted in such places as the board posts its public notices for 30 days and now therefore be resolved that the commission adopts this resolution stating that mr zhang is hereby censured as a school official as a penalty for having violated the confidentiality provision of njsa 18a colon 12-24.1 g and be further resolved that the board is ordered to read this resolution at its next regularly scheduled public meeting following the commission's adoption on june 25th 2019 and to post it in such places as the board posts its public notices for a period of 30 days that brings us to our first opportunity for public
008comment the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items and items of concern for members of our community who are present each participant is asked to give his or her name and address prior to making the statement which shall be limited to three minutes all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer and this public comment period shall be limited to 69. and seeing as there's no public comment we'll close that and we'll now move on to our committee reports we'll begin with administration and facilities thank you the administration facilities committee met on july 16th the first thing we discussed was an eagle scout project to build a burglar at white hop school uh the candidate this evil candidate presented his uh project proposal to the committee and uh pointed out that playing school township
009can approve the project and the student will be seeking from the scout master the school district buildings and ground staff will also review the proposal and share compliance with the district's building protocols then the committee reviewed a number of policies there were two recommended policies and three mandated policies mandated recommendations from strauss esme there were two recommended policies involving sending and receiving board members of school districts from board members from seven new receiving communities which we don't have any so with table votes the committee recommends that the following policy that lisa policies beyond the agenda for the first reading it's a physical and health education practice and pre-season acclimation for school sponsored athletics and extracurriculars educational program evaluations commercial driver's license controlled substance and alcohol use testing and eligibility of resident non-resident students they're on
010the agenda for first reading the committee also reviewed a number of mandated policy regulations that simply involved an acronym change the electronic violence and vandalism reporting system was changed the name to the student safety data systems so we have a number of policies that just have that one change to it we also uh discussed the uh non-affiliate policy f for a certain class of non-affiliate employees uh we discussed some of the we discussed it and we're going to continue going on before we come back the technology i'm trying the technology team continues to test the new security technology in each school they're working closely with matrix and millennium to address some minor issues during each test and the testing will continue and each school and training will continue will be provided to the staff in
011september we review the some referendum projects uh renovation projects the town center and reesehawk continue to make progress town center renovation remains on schedule for completion while marie's talk renovation is behind schedule people planning on uh it won't be open for september and i think that's been uh acknowledgement the superintendent will be discussing progress and adjust the timelines with the construction managers and the architect later later in the month the community uh community and program middle school's referendum planning is in its final stages of completion community's timeline for completion will be adjusted with the proposed addition of new parking area to the front and changes to drop off and pick up areas and athletic deals updating uh andor adding generators and air conditioning is on schedule then we discuss the equity update and the district
012hosted the first 2019 summer equity professional development on july 16th and the topic uh was equity conversation reflections in action the next topic will be wwp america to me parts one and two on august 1st we also reviewed a job description for a uh teacher resource specialist and the committee recommends that any questions next up is the curriculum committee the curriculum committee also met on tuesday july 16th and we welcome nathan our new assistant superintendent for the film instruction we look forward to working with her going forward first we reviewed the upcoming professional development schedule for the summer and at the start of the new school year including the district professional development administrative retreat on august um 13 14 2016. and we teach orientation from the 26th to 29th to august and opening day um
013it may next review the superintendent's recommendation to allow a research project by um following about it's called teacher interpretation and application we learned about the project which is a dissertation study this aligns with the work of the staff member and has higher irb approval for markers and all um institutional the committee recommends approval of the charlotte danielson framework for teaching 2013 as the evaluation instrument for all certificated staff except administrators and of the new jersey principles principal evaluation for professional learning and the evaluated evaluation experience for administrators the community grant also recommends approval of two professional development consultants during the summer this summer on per day plus uh expenses and for roseanne's avery to provide a one-day workshop on high leverage techniques for spanish foreign language and elementary schools to exceed a thousand dollars travel
014the community um several other professional development opportunities the reading writing part project network training university [Music] this um the 2019-20 contract consultant days and travel expenses which will be paid through the 2019 every student's disease act um to grant funds and the writing the reading and writing project network to provide 2019-2020 professional development services for administrators according to statement and professional growth plans their costs are about 97 150 then also covered through the um yes every student succeeds active to grant funds the teacher college reading and writing project to supply 90 tickets for the attendance for teachers and administrators to professionals development workshops at teacher college at columbia um this year and it cost six to three hundred dollars thank you visiting grant funding travel for staff from mr ken teacher's college meeting and writing
015project professional development workshops at future college in new york during a school year at a cost of about 50 percent again funds foundation for education administration fba to provide mentoring management services for new administrators in the district at a cost of 315 each the district also greets reimbursed new administrators for the cost of their mentor and 1500 first year and a thousand for the second year four teachers and one administrator first session to participate in the ryder university science education and literacy centers and um ngss assessment for learning workshop and writer in the four sessions during the school year cost of 300 plus lounge we also recommend the approval of the one night field trip for grover middle school um choir to the university of delaware in williamsburg virginia in may and that trip is
016any questions on curriculum okay the finance committee did not meet [Music] but staff shared some updates on finance department items which i'll go over included were reviewing agenda items the monthly reports the euros tracking similarly as to recent years the bill list is large because it includes the june 30th supplemental bills for the close out of the fiscal year there were additional broadcast applications that were completed in the amount of 143 000 there was also a motion for the use of the state contract above the international furniture for the hawk expansion and renovation project on the july 30th agenda there are change orders for the high school south natorium project as well as several for the hawk expansion and renovation project there are motions for disposal of equipment and transportation awards and projections and there
017are several lotions for staff as some are involved um the district sold 91 s-racks on july 10th east twice a year these are renewable energy credits the district for the 12th straight year received the asbo international certificate of excellence and financial reporting so congratulations to the staff on 12 years in a row so you can't let that go ever chris right no question okay um various other updates the auditors started the audit on july 22nd capital projects continue with reconstruction as well as renovation to existing areas in both schools the renovation portion of the projects have started in earnest and the renovations must be complete for the beginning of school in september summer projects are progressing as well for the energy savings improvement program which you put out the rfp for that to addenda has
018been set out and the rfp2 date has been extended from july 23rd to july 26 and interviews with respondents are scheduled for august 2nd uh the referendum the second bond sale should be scheduled this fall sometime and the amount needs to be discussed i'm sure that we will be doing that at an upcoming meeting the communication emergency notification system is being tested during the summer for implementation at the beginning of the school year from here at goals the assistant superintendent for finance has submitted a miracle application to the executive county superintendent for the successful attainment of the meritorious budget award and certificate of excellence in um which is also one of his miracles or to be so he submitted this in order to get an additional three percentage hour um and that's it are there
019any questions on science yes i apologize madam president i just also neglected to just know uh prior to entering an executive session um there was two items that were added to the executive session resolution that were not on the agenda that was uh available at the back of the room so just just now that everyone is here just to make that announcement additionally items noted uh the board also discussed under item number four matters concerning negotiations specifically uh wwp a sidebar and wweaa negotiations so i apologize for that oversight thank you that brings us um to the voting portion of our meeting we're going to take things a little bit out of order we have a personnel matter that we're going to bring forward first and i'm going to turn it over to dr adaval
020for an introduction good evening everyone tonight it's my pleasure to recommend steve bergman as the new director of communication ms bergen joins us from hillsborough township a public school district where she has served as the director of communications for the past eight years she brings to wwp a 20-year background in public relations serving at the university level corporate in the public sector she's a background in website redesign social media school district communications we are very pleased to learn to wwp i should also say that she has served in a leadership position within the new jersey school public relations association we're hoping for a mid-august start i'm going to need a motion on the recommendation to hire kia bookman as our new director of communication louisa and isaac any questions okay we'll start with mr chairman
021yes mr flairs yes ms hurts yes yes mrs crude yes mr whitfield yes mr jones sorry missed it and miss cage yes congratulations are there any questions or comments on the administration items um on the transgender policy i looked at the princeton transgender policy and compared it to the one that we have for wwp and i think it's um better in that it's well frankly it's a pain shorter but also when instead of referring to the principal or designee they refer to princeton public schools staff members or counselors or psychologists or school administrators and i think that for a student to come forward and say that they're transgender is a very brave thing to do and we should respect them and let them talk to a psychologist or school counselor or a school nurse and
022not necessarily a principal an authority figure in the princeton public school of policy that's what they say public schools staff members they don't say the principal or then they say psychologists and values i just think that's a more appropriate policy to have for the students are there any other questions or comments [Music] it's on page five also and on the top of page four the other question i have is that um on the very top of page three it says there is no affirmative duty for any school district staff member to notify a student's parent of the student's gender identity or expression then in the very next paragraph it says the principal or designee will make a reasonable attempt to engage parents when a student informs the school of their name or gender change but
023the principle of destiny will not risk violating the student's confidentiality i don't understand how that could possibly work i mean on the one hand you're saying the staff member does not have to notify a parent student's parent about the student's gender identity and then the next paragraph it says that they will contact the parents so this seems to be a contradiction it does it says we'll make an effort to work with families right the reasonable experience so in plain language we by by my policy by recommendation from the department of education and i sat on that task force one of two superintendents in the state of new jersey that's that on the transfer task force one of the first school districts in the state that had trained after the task force and the hosts of
024the transformer were trans viewed this night it talks about our responsibility to honor students gender identity right or expression but there was also a recognition that um there should be some attempt to work with families but in no way would you risk having a student to their families so all this policy is talking about is you're going to have a conversation and work with a student to guide them towards a conversation with a family to be a support for them but if there's not comfort there is no way that you force a student into that conversation well i think what you just said is a much better thing to say than what this says and that's how it works now there is no part where it says that the school should talk to the parents
025against the student's wishes right it says you shouldn't do that right then it says they'll make a reasonable attempt to engage parents right first sentence right right but if you're contacting the parents it didn't say you're contacting the parents it says you're making a reasonable attempt to understand when the student informs the school of the nation but not it's the read on but not risk violating the students coming to jail and if i don't even mind president just just also just add a point to this uh this was as a result of a state law that was passed uh prior to governor christie leaving office he had memorialized all of what was general guidance that came out of the office of civil rights and he required new jersey department of education and department of health
026to come up with guidelines that all school districts were to follow one of these provisions does deal with the issue of contacting parents and where it came from at least in the guidelines and materials that came out was uh there was a real fear that uh under prior versions of the statewide policy that was adopted by school districts in response to the office of civil rights guidance during the obama administration's presidency we had children who identified as transgender were being placed in situations of harm because at that time the guidance was for schools to reach out and to contact and there was a real concern that it could depending upon how parents would react to that there was a real concern for the students safety so that's why the policy may seem like it's it's
027talking on both sides of its mouth a little bit where it says your respective privacy but you're going to try to work with the parents it's it's rooted in that concept that was incorporated in the department of health and department of education's mutual guidelines that's where that came from well the princeton policy says that the board recognizes some transgender students have not disclosed their status to their parents whenever possible it could be princeton staff members should speak with the student to confirm the manner in which the student will be referred to in conversation with a parent or guardian can i can i just ask one question isn't that at the very bottom of that is that from 2015 it should be on the very last page at the bottom that sounds like the private policy
028i apologize it says 2015. so what i would just say is that predated the law change that happened at the end of the christie administration so that was what everybody had adopted and i actually uh spoke on that policy here in the district when it was a second reading the direction of the grover middle school that policy is that language is superseded now by the guidelines for the department of health department of education i wouldn't be surprised if princeton updated that policy to read for likewise maybe someone will be able it just seems like it's contradicting itself i mean i think it would be better if it's said that you know with the students permission you can make it a reasonable attempt to engage parents it doesn't say that it says that it's not going
029to violate the student's wishes right okay do you think that's the same thing i mean this is saying that the principal on destiny will make an attempt it's like you have to make an attempt to engage the parents when a student affords a school of the name of gender change i just want to point out the first sentence in that paragraph says that the school district believes that families are stronger when parents and guardians partner with schools and support their children right so in the context of that the principle or designate will make a reasonable attempt to make that happen i think that's violating the true and one of the reasons you want to partner with families if you look at the suicidal rates of trans unions in about 40 percent so there's a real
030reason to try to build partnerships them to support the mental health support and making sure their council sports are there so the readout rule is important here just think that it's saying in the first line there's no affirmative duty for any school district staff member to notify a student's parent of the student's gender identity and then the next paragraph to say the principal or designee will make a reasonable attempt to engage parents i think those two sounds contradict each other now when you're working to build partnerships and families yeah i mean i think the first one says that school district staff are not required to notify that's what i believe that there's no affirmative duty means they're not required to and then the next part basically says but they will try to engage them in
031a discussion because we try to do these things with families but it's laying out that we are not required to do that so that it seems contradictory but it's saying sort of these are the it's setting the range in a sort of weird awkward middle place yeah i just think it could be a word a little less awkwardly okay we'll start with mr players yes this hurts what which is [Music] yes mr whitfield yes um uh miss cage yes can i please get a motion on the curriculum items 1 through 11. dana and carol are there any questions or comments on the curriculum i have a comment on number seven paying columbia university teachers college 135 000 plus 9750 plus 6 300. i think that we should be looking at university of pittsburgh learning center
032or you can their program they both offer all the same services columbia does and i think that we've been using columbia for 20 years so it's probably time to learn what we can from somewhere else and get some maybe different perspective on things i think we must have learned everything we could from columbia at this point so we did talk about that in committee so you know that's not actually true what you just said but um what are you saying that's not true well we've learned from them for 20 you of years to learn from somewhere else at this point okay we'll start with this hurts i'm voting now on number seven yes um except for the finance items um i just want to note that items 1 through 21 and we have a blue
033addendum which amends finance item five e uh it just adds in the new agenda the projects are listed and the events of the daddy and a few more projects so can i get a motion please on finance items 1 to 21 plus the blue addendum louisa and tony are there any questions or comments on the finance side i have a question on number 5b 15 ipads 38 apple tvs 38 apple pencils three 10 25 inch icats eight 10.5 inch ipads where are these ipads going to be used it's extending the apple initiative uh with the classrooms with the tv with the that would be extending into third grade i believe correct third grade classroom implementation yes i also have a question on the budget it says the capital reserve is now 32 million 720 700
034is is that where the money is going to come from to pay for the town center in the world stock yes this is as of may 31st yes i'm up standing on one a and voting yes on one b for everything else and this hurts i'm voting now on 5b and yes and everything else yes next step is the personnel items in charity mention that she has a correction yes i have a verbal correction for uh on the regular agenda the white h2 you'll see the appointment of a school psychologist victoria necosia she is replacing susan candler simply not desiree silva that's a thank typo for the correction um so i need a motion on personal items one to four plus the pink and green again and lisa are there any questions if you have
035a question about the comprehensive equity plan could you explain what it is and what the process was sure so the the board has already submitted approve the submission of the main meeting of the comprehensive equity plan to the county superintendent and you'll see on the edge of it tonight the approval of acceptance from the county superintendent as well as the statement of assurance the comprehensive equity plan is submitted every three years it's a way for us to make sure that we're in compliance with the state and federal laws there's a whole number of them you know that we have to make sure that we are providing equitable programs and that could be based on our policies it could be based on the way we train our teachers there's a staff development section there's a hiring
036practices section and um and also curriculum and school practices so uh this uh comprehensive plan you have to do a needs assessment and i'm the district affirmative action officer so i make sure when um it's time for us to do our new plan that we do the needs assessment according to the criteria established in the plan and we look through and we see all the different opportunities that show different forms of evidence that show that we are in compliance and i'm proud to say that the plan that you reviewed that was submitted is full of activities and examples of ways that we do ensure equity across curriculum hiring practices and if there is anything that we find that we need to improve those things could be because we have upcoming changes that are on the
037horizon for that we know that are going to take place within the next three years we will indicate them on the plan which we did and we will have a plan for addressing them going forward so the county superintendent did accept the plan he said it was great doctor and that's what you'll see on the agenda tonight we have on the plan that you review does show the committee that is made up of the affirmative action officers and of me and also the people who would have the best understanding of what those criteria the evidence is much of the items that you saw in the plan is ongoing we've been doing many of these things for years so we just checked so mr earl helped me check go through look at the policies and he
038said oh i mean if you can see some of that you were looking at tonight and we're making sure that we're in compliance with any changes and we've met with our teachers our supervisors some of them not even listed on the team because we wanted to reach out and ensure but the people listed are sort of my head's name they've checked with everybody and so have we just completed the first year or we just started the first year we're just starting the first year of the 2019-2022 obviously so thank you okay we'll start with ms yes mr whitfield yes mr chen yes yes can i please get a motion to approve the board minutes for the public meeting only on june 25th tell me dana hold us in favor stay live are there any liaison
039reports new business that brings us to our second opportunity for public comment 15 minutes will be provided at the end of our meeting for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name and address prior to making the statement which will be limited to three minutes okay so that's very good i am here on behalf of community middle school ptsa there was a reference in the curriculum administration report excuse me about parking and traffic discussion at cms and i submitted on behalf of the cms btsa a list of rock notes to the administration back in night so there's a part of a group of concerned parents who have gotten together and i'm curious if you can show additional light on what that is as we're heading into fall and there's already an
040issue of traffic and parking et cetera and under the referendum changes are coming so i'm just curious since it was mentioned if it's possible to elaborate thank you hi i'm andrew bean and i represent the west windsor plainsboro administrative association and tonight i'd just like to officially on behalf of all the administrators welcome pamela um this is her first four meeting so it's our first chance to really welcome her publicly and say that we're very excited to have her on board we know she's going to be a great part of the team we've already gotten you know started enrolling and the administration is 100 behind her and i'm really happy to have her on board so welcome aboard um also the same for kia since she left i welcomed her outside but i'd like to
041say publicly that we are on board with kia too we're very excited to have her experience to come with us and to help us with our communication um and we're looking forward to really gelling as a team so thanks thank you good evening my name is samshall and i'm president of the teachers association and please make sure that camera doesn't get much shorts because i'm much more professional i'd like to add a little uh perhaps teacher perspective to the transgender policy and one of the things that i didn't like in the policy was where you brought people out there is no more affirmative duty as a teacher i consider i have an affirmative duty to report anything there however in such a sensitive manner i was glad to see that i don't have an affirmative
042duty because whether i'm a language arts teacher or social studies teacher or a grade level teacher and a student makes a comment to me that they want to be identified in a different gender i don't want to have the obligation of reaching out to the parents but maybe reaching out to the counselor and to the principal because i don't know the full background of the student and i would i would prefer to go through the proper channels to have that discussion so the way i i read affirmative duty that i as a classroom teacher or a staff member should not feel obligated to hook out the student or to have that discussion without bringing it to the larger educational community i just wanted to share my perspective on the use of that phrase affirmative thank
043you is there anyone else all right we'll close the public comment period i believe the superintendent would like to address them i just wanted to provide some some updates to mslasky's comment so we have been working with our district engineer van cleef engineering who works with our district architect regarding the contract of the traffic study and traffic studies being finalized now we did submit feedback that was received from the cms pt and ptsa to them but very early on in the traffic study there was definitely recognition that the north millstone cms campus does present some challenges where the driveway comes inside so they are making some recommendations that will be brought forward to the administration facilities committee ultimately finance committee i expect them to be at the september committee agenda meeting and will be publicly
044reported out of the september board meeting i have asked the board excuse me the district architect and the district engineer to be present for a future public meeting i'm waiting for a date because i do think it warrants more public presentation on that particular topic i asked them to do an analysis in the fields behind cms to see if there's a way to maximize fields one of the things that you always have to be careful about is the potential of taking a field to add parking if we look at the utilization of the field front left cms there may be an opportunity to pick up a significant amount of parking space by maximizing field space behind and redoing some of the field configurations in the back so we still have the same amount there's not
045more playing field space allocated but also pick up parking because quite frankly we're already at a point where we are out of parking today and it's quite as well noted that without doing something in addition additional to parking and driveway and drop off the concerns with parking are going to persist um not only parking the drive off um and the the nature of north and cms uh the way their their roads are aligned and the drop-off is aligned um is done in such a way that is problematic um i think it's already been noted in conversation with the engineer the traffic study engineer that he sees some immediate fixes needed that money was not budgeted in the referendum so that's why it requires coming forward to committee finance and a enough to talk about um
046i believe we have some opportunity with some broadband returned dollars to do something there but we are waiting for some further planning so we've had preliminary plans discussed with us we've given feedback we've had some study done in the fields behind some of the drainage some of the ada compliance site lighting parking structures and now it's just a matter of finalizing from the recommendation forward [Music] i just want to roll back a little bit to some personnel issues i failed to acknowledge two people that i wanted to uh do so i'll do that now um we have two retirements um the district communications support specialist nancy catalina is retiring after 20 years with the district and dutch neck leading recovery teacher tara novomiso is retiring after 24 years with the district i want to thank
047them for their hard work and commitment to wwp and i wish them well in their retirement and with that can i get a motion [Music] thanks for coming out our next meeting is about a month away so we'll see then enjoy