001i'm going to thank everybody for coming out tonight we are coming out of a closed session and so it will bear that our meeting was called to order and so we may begin tonight um tonight we start our meeting uh in a way that we don't usually start we're going to have a special public hearing on the superintendent of schools contract i think it is fair to say that the hiring of a superintendent is among the most important responsibilities of a school school board so with that in mind i'd like to begin tonight by providing some history and context so that members of our community can understand why we're holding a public hearing on the superintendent's contract tonight so back in 2011 governor christie and the department of education issued regulations that capped salaries of
002new jersey school superintendents and it was under those rules that the initial five-year contract for dr aderhold was negate negotiated when he was hired as our superintendent in 2013. the law changed in the spring of 2017 when the department of education amended the salary caps for the first time since the caps were put in place so while salary caps still existed the law increased the caps and allowed for annual increases in salaries of superintendents so it was because of that law change plus a provision in dr aderhold's employment contract that the board of education and dr aderhold negotiated and agreed upon the new contract that contract was a five-year agreement that runs until june 30th and is the contract under which dr aderhold is currently working like all other superintendent employment contracts in the state
003dr aderhold's contract contains a clause that allows either party to reopen the employment contract in the event that the salary cap limits set forth by new jersey code are revised further or repealed alt altogether in the summer of 2019 that clause was triggered when governor murphy signed legislation that eliminated all superintendent salary caps both dr aderhold and the board agreed to wait until spring 2020 to take any action in response to the change in the salary cap law so earlier this year back in february and march the board with the help and assistance of our attorney mark toscano negotiated with dr aderhold on the terms of a new employment cat contract in so doing the board reviewed and discussed the actions and trends of boards of education in comparable new jersey school districts to better
004understand the impact of the elimination of salary caps on superintendent contracts an agreement was reached as to the terms for a new employment contract but before any formal action could be taken by this board corona virus impacted everyone's lives and plans given all the uncertainty at the beginning of the pandemic the board and dr aderhold mutually agreed to lay to delay moving forward with a new contract at that time following our public meeting on september 22nd the board and dr aderhold agreed to move forward on the new employment contract for dr aderholt so this contract which will run until june was submitted to the executive county superintendent for approval on october 2nd was conditionally approved on october 16th and was fully approved on october 20th in accordance with state requirements adequate public notice and advertisement
005were provided in compliance with required timelines additionally a press release was publicly posted on the district website and broadcasted on social media announcing that a public hearing would be conducted and that its new superintendent superintendent contract would be voted on by the board tonight now for the most part personnel matters and contract negotiations are strictly confidential and are considered closed session topics so as board members these topics are not discussed publicly but now that we have reached an agreement and are prepared to vote i'm going to turn it over now to our board attorney mark toscano who will summarize the terms of the contract that was negotiated between the board and dr aderholt thank you mrs cash uh the proposed changes can be summarized into three categories uh the first category is compensation uh the
006first proposed change would be to increase uh the current salary uh that dr erhold uh is receiving to a salary of two hundred and forty nine thousand nine hundred dollars that represents a ten thousand dollar increase over the current year compensation number uh that dr aderhold's current employment contract provides uh the current compensation number for the current school year is currently 239 889 this again would increase that amount by 10 000 in addition the proposed changes would also alter the compensation section of dr aderold's contract to remove and eliminate any miracles what that would do is that would prohibit any additional miracles for both the current year and any future subsequent school year the current value uh for miracles for the current school year under dr howard's contract is 30 approximately 31 000 this year
007in addition the proposed contract would provide for an annual increase of 2.5 per year that would be over or in that would be above what is currently provided which is two percent increase the two percent increase was mandated uh by law when as mr cash said the superintendent's salary caps were revised in the spring of 2017. the 2.5 annual increase uh is equal to the annual percentage increase that is that is provided to the three assistant superintendents in the district and is less than that is provided to the other associations uh and what do i mean by the other associations they are the only other groups in the district that have multi-year contracts and those include the administrators association the wwpaa the teachers association the wwpea and the support staff association the wwpsa each one
008of those groups receives annual increases of either 2.9 percent or over 3 percent in the in the applicable time period the next section that is that there's proposed changes is duration as ms cash said the current contract runs until june 30 2022 the proposed new contract would run until june 30 2025 the timing as to why the board of education and dr adult entered into negotiations at this point is really two-fold first is as ms cash noted there was a provision in dr aderhold's contract that was uniform and in every superintendent's employment contract that if the then superintendent salary caps were revised or repealed that either party could request to commence negotiations in light of the fact that those superintendent salary caps no longer exist that provision is being removed from the contract but it
009is one of the reasons why the board of education entered into negotiations at this time second reason why the board entered into negotiations at this time is because it has been the consistent practice of the board over the last five years to enter into negotiations with anyone in the district that has a multi-year employment contract again that would be the three associations that i mentioned before at least one year prior to the expiration of their agreement it has been the board's belief that this promotes both uh stability uh and maintains continuity and also helps for budget planning and physical responsibility so the board has applied that uniformly over the last five years the third area where there are proposed changes is what would you what would typically be referred to as fringe benefits for instance
010uh annual vacation day allotment there will be an additional three vacation days uh provided under the new employment contract there's also a provision that would allow for any vacation days that are not used during a school year where there has been a state of emergency or a public health crisis lasting at least three months in duration to allow those any unused vacation days from those years to roll over or be used in the subsequent school year that is a provision and a benefit that the board has extended uh to other employees in the district but because of dr adel's position any change to his employment contract would have to take take place through this process another area is personal days there are an additional two personal days that are being provided under the employment contract
011finally last area where there is proposed change is memberships and associations there was two additional associations that dr howell professional associations that dr aderhold is a member of and participates in and those have been added to the list of associations in the employment contract remaining revisions to the employment contract were legal because of changes in the law or had to do with requests from the county office to change certain phrasing but those are the those are the material changes uh that were submitted to the executive county superintendent as ms cash said they were approved uh they were found to be in compliance with the department of education's physical accountability regulations and they were found to be comparable to other districts both in terms of geography and in terms of size madam president that's the summary
012of the uh the proposed changes thank you mr toscano so that brings us to our opportunity for public comment on the superintendent of schools contract the board invites thoughts and reactions from members of the community on the superintendent of schools contract who submitted written comments to the board secretary prior to the submission deadline for this meeting and from those who have signed up on the form to comment via video and or audio that was open and available on the district website up until the start of this special opportunity for public comment any written comments that were submitted prior to the deadline for this meeting will be read aloud by the board attorney for three minutes in accordance with boardpolicy0167 members of the public who did not submit written comments and who have signed up will
013be offered the opportunity to make their comments via video and or audio members of the public will not be permitted to submit both written comments and make additional comments via video and or audio each comment should be directed to the presiding officer not individual members of the board and must be made in accordance with the procedures and three-minute time limits set forth in board policy zero one six seven if the comment extends beyond three minutes speakers will be asked to conclude their comments and may be muted by the moderator once an individual has finished their comment or their three minutes have has expired their audio on video will be turned off by the moderator so um we will begin with those members of the community who are making public comment via video and or audio
014madam president the first name on the list uh is maya kamath uh just for anyone who's gonna be speaking you'll be promoted to a panelist you have to accept that you'll be you'll appear on screen and then your three minutes will begin after your name and address is stated starting my video on muting i'm going to open what i wanted to read okay thank you so much for this time i'm here today not as a pta president but as rahul and tara's mom my kids are in fourth and sixth grade in this district i'm here today in support of dr david aderhold as he is up for contract renewal as his position as superintendent as the parent of two children in this district i have watched him over the last six years and realized one
015thing he really cares no other district that i've been in have i seen this amount of dedication that being said no district no person is perfect but his dedication is unmatched throughout this pandemic dr aderhold has worked tirelessly amongst the administration and staff to lead us through this crisis his leadership and constant pressure on the governor has helped us and so many other districts run successful hybrid and virtual programs i strongly believe he is an amazing asset to our system i would like to also encourage all the parents right now that are here at this meeting or watching it later to read the district newsletters and come to these meetings if you cannot you can get the details from the district website the most important thing is for all of us to be engaged informed
016and involved because our voices do count in the end so again thank you for the time thank you the next name on the list is uh ghetto hi everyone thank you so much for the opportunity so um we have lived in west windsor for 15 years and we've seen the school district through its many ups and downs we have seen the amazing achievements of west windsor plainsboro students in academics extracurriculars and sports and we've enjoyed all of the teachers and administrators who put their heart and soul into taking care of our most precious children despite the ups and downs that we have seen through the last many years and especially the last seven months one thing has remained constant and solid that is the exceptional dedicated committed leadership of dr david atterhold dr aderhold is
017a true leader in every sense of the word he listens to all opinions and perspectives openly and respectfully and then works collaboratively collaboratively to make informed decisions that inclusively best serve the needs of the whole community he handles difficult people with maturity diplomacy and patience and always holds true to his values and beliefs for the health and wellness of our children i personally have utmost respect for you dr adejol and the entire westminster plainsboro administration and in order of gratitude week last week i encourage all of us who are listening to this this meeting uh to recognize and appreciate the sincere and heroic efforts of both dr aderhold and all the many individuals who have kept west windsor plainsboro strong and resilient through this very challenging seven months in conclusion i support wholeheartedly david aderhold's
018dr aderhold's contract renewal and just wanted to share that thank you thank you and president the next name is andrea bean andrew you just said your mic is off no i've been in 10 000 meetings you think i would know that i'm speaking tonight on behalf of the wwpaa we're honored to work with dr aderhold to further the mission of the district dr aderhold's unwavering in his full commitment to the children of both west windsor and plainsboro every decision he makes is made through the lens of helping our children and young adults meet their full potential he's a man of integrity character and honesty he works tirelessly on behalf of the children the faculty the staff and the community juggling all of the different needs of our district aderhold inspires us to learn and grow
019as professionals he continually pushes our learning edge so that we can fully realize the district mission he is a truly remarkable man and i'm pleased to offer the unequivocal support of the principal supervisors and directors of wwp on a personal note i've been a district employee since 1987 and i've seen a lot of superintendents of all different kinds of leadership styles i've been here a very long time and i have never had the pleasure of working with someone as remarkable as dave whether he is side by side with us handing out food on mondays or in the conference room pushing us to think harder and do better it's it's just been an incredible journey and i personally am behind and i'm pleased to represent my colleagues who also give their support thank you madam president
020the next name on the list is veronica mena [Music] because they are not 100 and accurate if you go to the user-friendly budget mr ada salary base salary is two hundred and four thousand dollars he absolutely has a salary of thousand dollars so if you even the bonus plus the salary of 204 that still gives you 230 faces from 234 to 249 given the fact that we are in a pandemic people have lost their jobs people their salary is reduced i am not disagreeing but yes i am disagreeing with the fact that they are absolutely tone deaf when mr ryden hold was his salary at 197 000 back in 2019 there was of 357 different superintendents mr radical after of on the list of 357 superintendents was ranked 51. that means that all in all
021even with the salary gap mr idahor was in the 14 higher end of his salary so please explain to me why now that the community is suffering that our taxes already are going higher that people have lost their jobs people are suffering why now why are we giving this benefit or this price of fourteen thousand dollars rearranging the contract and then two point five percent increase in every single year that does not happen in corporate america why does it happen in wwp thank you madam president there were no other names uh on the list to speak in person um so i'm going to thank you now for reading the written statements that were submitted this up and um bear with me because there are some that um [Music] i just got to check first public
022comment period all right uh the first public comment uh on the superintendent employment contract written comment excuse me uh comes from hashad kamat 17 parker road plainsboro comment is currently when people are losing their jobs and budgets are tight with schools it is not the time that the superintendent gets a 25 raise there is a reason a contract was signed so the two superintendent has job security for five years and the salary is locked in there's no reason why this contract be voided and salary be raised do you not see anything extraordinary performance from our superintendent that warrants this exception it is high time now that the board starts working for the community not the superintendent if the board has so much money to spare then that money should be used to hire more teachers
023so that our student-to-teacher ratio can be reduced which is already over the state limit the next comment comes from uh mary vicki algiere five meadow run princeton junction the comment is i write as a parent of a first grader and a fourth grader in the district i believe dr aderold's leadership has been exceptional in ensuring the mission of educating the whole child also my husband and i greatly appreciate his leadership communication and prioritization of the health and well-being of our students and community during the pandemic i'm in the education professionally and i know him as a leader in the field and he has seen as such in wide circles in education our hope is that we do everything to keep him in the district the next comment comes from benjamin bratton uh 119 acadia court
024west windsor comment our family is proud to be a part of the outstanding wwp district and we appreciate the leadership provided by the board of education and dr aderhold along with the other outstanding district and school level administrators the next comment comes from lisa wolf one partridge run print uh princeton junction the comment i know that dr aderhold has been working diligently at 10 state level meetings as well as township planning board meetings and overseeing construction as well as getting grants for construction and had had opened with a hybrid model while other districts remained remote i commend his efforts however this is his job i would expect nothing less from a superintendent of such a high quality district in regards to his new contract i suggest waiting until march or april 2021 as we don't
025know whether the district will close again due to a rising cases it is still too early to say whether the current implementation has been successful in regards to the salary i propose a two percent salary increase to keep up with inflation from a current base salary of 204 526 i believe school board members mentioned that his total compensation would be 240 000 for 2020. i believe the new contract should also include bonuses as well however i am in protest of i'm i am a protest for a guaranteed salary of 249 000 per the new contract request i am not opposing dr aderholt and having a salary increase but the same component of his pay should be tied to performance which should be specifically laid out in his new contract the next comment uh comes from
026who z and i apologize if i mispronounced that uh it's an email address princeton junction the comment i think everyone in this school district shall try best to keep the salary during the pandemic period increasing the salary of burden for all residents let alone some family in single income thanks mark i'm just going to interrupt for one second because i think you skipped over one comment did i i apologize oh i did as i was moving the screen thank you um this comes from uh vasanti uh anad uh scott avenue west windsor doctor comment dr aderold has demonstrated extreme resilience and courage and listening to each and every parent's voice with unwavering dedication i strongly support renewal of his contract and need his leadership and support in helping us resume normalcy in the face of
027adversity we are one of the only few districts who started both hybrid and virtual options even though there was constant criticism or a lack of governor's support at the state level my sincere thanks to dr aderval for doing all that he does for us in the wwp community a huge thank you the last comment comes from uh schwetta marta 44 uh reed drive princeton junction comment i would like to sincerely thank dr aderhold for working tirelessly and extensively to ensure the safety of our kids during this pandemic he had the insight of asking so many questions early on in the summer to our governor he always asks the parent and is data-driven and scientific in his in his approach please do renew his contract madam president that is the last of the submitted written comments
028thank you so that will close our opportunity for public comment at this time i need a motion to approve the superintendent of schools contract rachel and tony are there any questions or comments about the contract thank you chris okay mr chang yes mr flares yes ms ho it's muted yes okay all right i was worried that the uh connection had to unmute myself yep okay next we have is miss krug yes then we have mix geez i'm stuttering again i got off track ms mccune yes mr whitfield yes mizovich yes ms juliana yes and miss cash yes i'm back on track if we were in person right now there would be a round of applause so let's start i'm going to just say congratulations to dr aderhold i will end uh our adjourn our special
029public hearing and we'll start now with the regular business meeting um at this time i'll turn it over to the superintendent for his comments uh thank you miss cash and thank you to the members of the board and members of the public that are attending this evening um it's been a great pleasure to serve this community for the last 11 years i'm in my 12th year now our seniors were first graders when i joined um and i've had the pleasure being superintendent now on my eighth year here in westminster plainsborough um and what i can tell you is that um i'm filled with extreme gratitude to the community and our staff in particular i'd like to just say thank you to my members of the leadership team they're on this on this call with me
030tonight for their constant support and dedication to this community they don't get the recognition that they deserve um we have a tremendous faculty uh leadership team and staff that support our students in our community um and they are going through um a tremendously difficult time but they've accepted it with grace and dedication um firm commitment to our students and to our families i couldn't be more prouder to continue to lead to lead this community and to lead them um through this difficult time and in good times and bad in in wwp and in our state i've also had the great pleasure to serve in several roles on our state leadership within the garden state coalition of schools and others um and i'll continue to advocate for uh students and school districts throughout the state um
031in in that in that role because i believe firmly that west windsor plainsboro and our school community is has a responsibility to stand up for educational rights all students throughout our state um and so we'll continue to lead that charge and we have again a remarkable team that's committed to a vision um you know today's day 36 and we've been saying every day is a gift i can't tell you that i'm not going to get a call in the next hour of a case um and so we just keep plugging forward to provide the opportunities as best we can for the students and families based on the choices that they select we are in constant review of the model and we'll be working through some slight tweaks we're going to try to bring some of
032our special education community in a little bit more frequently especially at the 6-12 level so that's something that we're currently working on we're also working at the 4-5 in resource and and i say differentiate by level because different grade configurations have different structures and different uh challenges with respect to homerooms and programmatic implementations but we've been meeting as a leadership team over the last several days to look at some of our decreasing numbers moving to hybrid provides an opportunity to bring some of our students in more frequently that need more consistent support so we're constantly looking at in evaluating uh those programs and i know working with karen schlegel and her team um uh the last several days that some of our child study team members and some of our esl teachers are going to
033be working with the secondary 612 community to reach out to families to to offer an opportunity to come in a little bit more frequently and we will continue to evaluate opportunities based on staffing explorations which is based on social distancing based on transportation based on availability in seats while we're adhering to health and wellness standards and that really drives all of it right now we should be tremendously proud as a school community in the work that we have collectively done and i say collectively done because uh never has it been more important for everyone to be on the same page with respect to health and safety standards you know when we opened on september 8th we were one of two school districts in mercer county to open up k-12 in some form of hybridity uh
034hopewell valley and wwp and we both had some challenges we had to close community for three days hope all's had to have some closures and since that time there have been a handful of mercer districts that have come back and have also had challenges so kovit is very much present in the community and a little the transmission rates in mercer are a little bit low lower than around the full state um but we have to always remember we're a mercer middlesex district and middlesex has had some challenges as well um and if we go back to september 8th we had 283 cases as a state today we had 1663 more than five times that rate on the opening day of school and 36 days of school so we're week 8 and we've been steadily uh
035more than doubling every four weeks um so as we head towards um you know let's as we head towards thanksgiving as we head towards the return of college students to school communities all across new jersey as they come home from semesters those that were fortunate enough to be able to to go away as we head into the holiday and travel season the vigilance that we adhere as a community is going to be that much more important if we're going to have a chance to stay open and um and i just ask everyone to make sure that you know you think uh very carefully about the um the travel uh that that you're in in that if you do choose to travel which is your right uh that you adhere to the quarantine provisions and now
036as of today 41 states are on new jersey's list um i think new jersey would be on new jersey's list and some of the counties would meet the criteria and remember delaware pennsylvania connecticut and new jersey are in partnership agreements so they don't get put on the list so we're down to four places we could go outside of those four i mentioned um so the the uh the challenges are steep that that we're up against um for long term so as uh we say uh every day is a gift that we can offer our students that want to come in person and and our goal is to to stay open as long as safe uh for our staff and for our students so um it's going to be a collective effort as we go forward
037but we will not hesitate to to close school or just close the classroom or to quarantine individuals if it means the safety of everyone else um the challenges that we're seeing and we had an opportunity to talk to our school physician today with some of our high school nurses and some of our trainers the challenges we're seeing with transmission is often not necessarily inside the school but the contact tracing that comes from things that happen outside of school that are then obviously brought into school in school to school transmission is actually relatively low when we contact trace back it's often the play date um it's often the family gathering uh it's often the trip to an establishment uh whether shopping or restaurant or whatnot um so i just as we're together with our families we
038just need to also make sure we're maintaining that vigilance uh to keep our families and to keep our school community safe as well um so um again my thanks and appreciation to the board and the members of the community for your for your consummate support um we are by no means uh perfect but we are striving every day to be a better version of what we are today um and we'll continue to to put that effort into the betterment of the community on behalf of our students so uh as i said i'm just tremendously grateful and proud to to lead this school community going forward so thank you thank you dr aderhold that brings us to the first opportunity for public comment the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items and items of concern
039from members of our community who submitted written comments to the board secretary prior to the submission deadline for this meeting and from those who have signed up on the form to comment via audio and or video that was open and available on the district website up until the start of this opportunity for public comment any written comments that were submitted prior to the deadline for this meeting will be read aloud by the board attorney for three minutes in accordance with board policy zero one six seven members of the public who did not submit written comments and who have signed up will be offered the opportunity to make their comments via video and or audio members of the public will not be permitted to submit both written comments and make additional comments via video and or
040audio each comment should be directed to the presiding officer not individual members of the board and must be made in accordance with the procedures and three minute time limit set forth in board policy zero one six seven if the comment extends beyond three minutes speakers will be asked to conclude their comments and may be muted by the moderator once an individual has finished their comment or their three minutes has expired their audio and video will be turned off by the moderator this public comment period shall be limited to 60 minutes so we'll once again begin with the comments via video and or audio hey madam president uh there's one name that appears twice on the list i think it was just uh submitted twice in there uh the name is nam uh [Music] uh negwin
04141 sapphire drive so mr toscano it's uh listed in alphabetical order and i um scroll through and i do not see nan um just that i first offered um no so i'm in the attendee tab where there says 44. oh and the attendee tab i apologize i made sure i was looking at the right sheet as well to promote an individual to i have to find the name that matches yes um and unless she is signed in under a different name does anyone see differently than me that i might be missing what's the whole name a nan negwin this individual was on there earlier as an attendee and must have no longer be there i saw that name there earlier i'm going through the names right now and there's not one that's so mr tuscano
042can i recommend that we share screen read the comments and then in case nan uh reenters that we can go back and check to see that would be my suggestion as well madam president you okay with that yes that sounds like a good plan thank you move to the written comments okay um the first written comment comes from uh libby uh barack 36 scott avenue west windsor comment given that 1400 children dropped out of the hybrid learning and only 100 joined the demands on in-person learning have changed other states and townships have prioritized children in need for special education for extended in-person learning is the district considering extending the duration of in-person learning for students with ieps when will the district revise all ieps that are currently designed for in-person instruction what action is the
043district planning to take to ensure children of special needs are not continuing to suffer from the educational and mental health implications due to the lack of public education services that meet their needs the next com comment comes from jennifer rickards 8 warwick road west windsor in the common i am the new president of the septsa the special education parent teacher student association for the district i am asking you to consider allowing as many students on ieps as possible to attend school every day in person not just every other week with the recent email from the district regarding the 1400 students who have shifted to a virtual from hybrid it seems that since there are less than i'm just going to expand the box for you a little bit a thousand students on ieps in the
044district and some of those are all virtual and want to remain all virtual for varying various reasons and many of those are in self-contained programs and thus already in full time then there should be room in most classrooms and on most buses to allow more iep students to attend full-time national research shows that special education students any other sub-population of students are disadvantaged with virtual education i have heard story after story from wwp parents saying that their children are doing well when they go into the building but fall apart at home they desperately need the support and structure that is provided by in-person learning i understand that this may not be possible in all grades or all schools but i think parents of students on ieps would be extremely appreciative if an effort were made
045to accommodate as many special education students in person as possible and most would understand if there was a particular situation in a greater school that would not allow for that to occur i have also heard multiple times from district staff and more students cannot come in person because of possible new students moving into the district that may need to be accommodated i am disappointed that the district will prioritize the needs of a few hypothetical future students over the immediate needs facing current wwp students and protected under federal law the spring learning situation is not easy for anyone but was especially difficult for students with special needs please consider prioritizing their needs now and allowing as many students on ieps to attend class full-time starting next marketing period thank you the next comment from christine hodges
046zach's farm princeton junction the common the wwp learning model email that was sent out yesterday stated that over 1400 students moved from hybrid to all virtual instruction for september 8th or from the initial survey the district asked those parents why they were moving their students what is the current breakdown in numbers and percents of hybrid students in the district by schools i'm most interested in south it'll be nice to know what the current status of all hybrid students in the district what is the district's benchmark to allow the hybrid students to go every week since the hybrid numbers are so low at the last board meeting one of the north student council representatives gave a brief overview of of the hybrid experience and said why he changed to all virtual it was similar to what
047a lot of hybrid students have been saying there isn't any difference between hybrid and virtual so why do the hybrid the students have to get up earlier to go to school to sit in their classes on zoom so what's the point why not relax at home where you can go grab food text your friends or play amongst us or minecraft while in class i spoke with dr nathan over a month ago and asked what the district was going to do to make the hybrid experience better she said that the district was getting feedback from parents and teachers and looking into options what were the suggestions responses from parents and teachers what the district what did the district change in the hybrid experience i asked the same question at the last video we meet what is
048the district doing to improve the hybrid learning experience i haven't seen any district emails addressing improving the hybrid experience or heard improvements what the kids have been and the kids have now been in school for seven weeks now what resources are the district providing to the in-school teachers to help make their hybrid students experience better than the teachers summer training since the teachers summer district training was focused on the virtual experience kovit isn't going away the district has to figure out how to make the hybrid experience better for those students who want to be in school by giving the teachers the support guidance and resources madam president that was the last of the written comments thank you mr toscano so that will close our uh first opportunity for public comment and we'll move this case
049uh i just need to double check to see if nan was back in the meeting thank you and i do not see her under the ends uh all right it's nan naguan nguyen is there anything that you want to say at this time um uh thank you just with respect to the learning model survey i i referenced in my opening comments that we are absolutely looking at special education programs it does have different impacts at different levels to ms rickards comment about parents appreciating any uh anything you can do at any level so we we have um been looking at six uh 12 both with esl and the resource and icr uh classes so um currently we've been working with a special service administration uh in the esl uh supervisor uh at the 612 level
050um there will there's a script created and child study team members will be communicated with actually tomorrow and we'll start making calls to students and their families to offer the opportunity to come all in at the 612 for again icrc and self-contained populations already in at the secondary level so all right all levels uh daily so we're starting with students that need us the most um on on grounds uh with respect to their programmatic needs um and then we will make an assessment once those decisions are made we also recognize that not every family is going to be able to accept that um the ability to comment all in because there may be family dynamics family needs that require um family care needs that the the high school student uh may be responsible for so
051it's not a mandate it's it's an opportunity um and so we're hoping to work that through in place by um through this week to get an assessment of where families stand that are reached out to so that we can work through transportation next week in the short week with the election and with teachers convention and then hopefully we can start sometime the week of the night is our hope um and so that is what we're going to be looking at there today we met with the elementary 4-5 excuse me with with mr dalton as well as ms gould to to look at resource programming specifically at both village and wilson river and we'll be making similar calls to families with students in in receiving uh resource programming um so we will uh be looking there
052we're not able to accommodate class size um in social discipline necessarily by bringing all in with icr uh in the in-class resource programs as it impacts the social distancing um and and the class capacity limits uh k uh pre-k3 is a much more difficult um scenario at this time with respect to uh how it impacts home rooms and something that we have to be mindful of is the the staffing limitations that we have on site um so that is something else we're just being very cognizant of we we do not have enough in-person teachers based on them off of hybrid requests to necessarily bring back um some students on the on a daily basis um instead of in high in a hybrid hybrid week one hybrid week two so there are just constraints after constraints
053but we are trying to find a way to maximize uh students in at most and we have prioritized special ed and esl at this time um and then we'll once once we're able to um bring those programs back then we'll make an assessment about what we can do next um and if we can do anything next depending on the numbers and the health criteria at that time so it's complex it impacts lots of different moving moving components of the district but we still think even if it's for three weeks um or longer it's worth it so we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna go through the process and start communicating with families later this week so um i think that's the high level piece because it hits a couple of the comments thank you dr edelhold
054we're going to move now to our committee reports we'll begin with administration and facilities and i will turn that over to tony flores thank you the committee met on october 13th we began with the discussion on uh restart and reopening of schools i guess by the time you got to october you don't call it restart anymore this is just school but uh dr adehold and mr earl provided updates on the implementation students staff and the community are complying with health and safety protocols when present on district property district officials are engaged in covert tracking and contact tracing when necessary transportation's going well with buses operating at approximately half the recommended student capacity in some areas as a follow-on to the public comment the district is currently discussing the possibility of allowing some groups of special
055education students to attend school each week i guess we just heard a more complete explanation from the superintendent teachers are adapting well to virtual instruction and the district continues to address concerns as they arise we then discussed policy 2464 for gifted and talented students the committee review the policy updates and recommends this policy for its first reading tonight then we had a discussion on virtual residency uh the committee discussed supporting current residents who may have family emergencies and the needs to travel out of state or out of country uh building administrators and the assistant superintendent for planning and pupil services mr earl will work with families on an individual basis if they need to travel for emergencies health and safety guidelines will be applied including mandatory quarantines if appropriate and then the committee reviewed two
056drafts of the 2022-2023 academic calendar draft calendars will be shared with district administrators and stakeholders for input the calendars will be reviewed at the next a f meeting for potential edits we discussed athletics with the discussion on winter sports the committee was informed that winter sports registration would open on october 16th which was a week ago uh to gauge interest from student athletes about participation they schedule they schedule to meet again uh later in the week of our meeting to continue the discussion around the logistics of operating winter athletics including health and safety procedures practice and game competition transportation spectators scheduling njsia rules and protocols registration closes on november 8th and the district will assess the winter sports program at that time uh special education review consultant uh began uh virtual classroom observations during the
057week of october 19th uh observations are scheduled to be completed by the end of december the committee then uh discussed the referendum work going on in the district uh millstone rivers fire fire alarm system passed the final township inspections on october 21st and punchless inspection for the project is underway uh this project's now entering closeout and the system has been functioning well the high school north's hvac upgrades are progressing and preferred began installation of hot water pipes above the main office areas of the school installation of new boiler room controls continues at millstone river and preparation to flip the existing boilers over to the new control system is underway uh preferred is finishing the piping of the new hvac water chemical treatment system this week millennium is back on site to start the remaining door
058work including a wiring of door operators toilet room renovations are complete phase one site work at high school south is complete and the contractor will be removing equipment soon permits are expected to be issued for phase two new construction uh brickwork continues at grover middle school around the facade uh facing the driving lane masonry work is nearing completion and hvac refrigerant piping duct work and electrical work installation are ongoing steel is being erected in block a community and footings and foundation block work continue at the block d edition finally uh mr royal briefed us on the equity uh update uh the diversity equity and inclusion coordinator mr anthony jones uh provided a brief overview of his work in progress uh he's in the process of meeting with all building level administrators to assess what is
059working well and in the uh in the areas of equity and community for growth and opportunities for growth i'm sorry uh mr jones will continue meetings and share findings uh with the assistant superintendent's office our next meeting is scheduled for november 10. any questions seeing as there's no questions i'll turn it over to dana krug who will give us the report from the curriculum committee well good evening um the curriculum committee met on october 13th first we discussed the current instructional model for virtual and hybrid learning dr nathan and dr aderhold shared that the current model is constantly being analyzed as we monitor health safety the rate of transmission in the state and our students learning needs at this time the current model will continue with hybrid and virtual students next we discuss professional development
060and screen time in order to be responsive to family and staff needs dr nathan and dr aderhold shared that a structure is being developed to support professional development time for staff while alleviating screen time for students one afternoon per week as a pilot for the fall and early winter this model would utilize a half day schedule for students so that all classes would happen in the morning portion or before lunch of each day of the day of the uh one day week during those afternoon times staff will be engaged in professional development and collaboration time more information will be communicated as the plan is further developed the commit the curriculum committee also recommends approval of uh of two professional development opportunities one is for five district employees to attend the institute to support high leverage
061writing instruction for students learning english as a new language this is virtual um and this is uh next week at a cost not to exceed six hundred fifty dollars this is partially up funded through the wwpea contractual allowance and the second um develop professional development opportunity is for up to five district employees to attend the culturally responsive literature instruction which is also virtual from november 4th to november 17th at a cost not to exceed 149 the curriculum committee also recommends approval of the community education winter and early spring 2020 2021 virtual programs for youth and adult programs um the committee also recommends approval for the disposal of many obsolete items in accordance with regulation 7300.1 um 806 books from millstone river school media center 962 books from high school north media center and 1356 books
062at community middle school mini center this is because these items are obsolete or are beyond repair our next meeting is november 10th are there any questions about the curriculum report okay i'll turn it over now for the report from the finance committee and for that we'll go to louisa ho hi okay i was just making sure my microphone worked so the finance committee met on october 6th to discuss health benefits the health benefits program for district employees is up for renewal on january 1st of 2021 the district had asked the health insurance broker of record brown and brown insurance to investigate various renewal options and costs brown and brown shared with the committee that if we do nothing else our renewal would be a 9.9 percent increase with aetna this size of west winds or
063plainsboro could benefit from a self-insurance option brown and brown shared information regarding the renewal rfp with respect to the state health plan the school's health insurance fund and remaining with a fully insured product the school's health insurance fund is a pooled self-insurance program and is another option for the district the reason that brown and brown is not recommending this as a self-insurance option is that it would require the district to change to a different dental carrier and a different prescription plan this is both disruptive to staff and could provide worse services to staff as the discussion continued it was apparent that self-insuring should be an option one way in which this benefits the districts and its members premiums is savings on the aca tax that is required for fully insured products for wwp that taxes
064a million the aca tax goes away january of 2021 however the state of new jersey has imposed a new tax in the same amount if the aca tax is reinstated in 2021 the tax liability is estimated to be more than 2 million a self-insurance program provides what's called a risk corridor this means that the district is self-insured for claims up to the maximum amount in that corridor the district would obtain additional insurance to provide stop-loss coverage if claims exceed that maximum or if any individual has claims in excess of 250 000 in a claim year this limits the risks to the district the district pays the claims up to a point and then the reinsurer pays the claim in a self-insurance scenario there is a fixed cost fee from the plan administrator in this case
065aetna and an insurance premium from the stop-loss carrier the administration fees in a self-insured plan are considerably lower than in a fully insured product in addition the premium for the stop-loss insurance is only for the stop loss amount not the entire cost of the plan as it is in a fully insured product when changing insurance carriers that are claims that are incurred before the change date but submitted after you change carriers this is called the runoff brown and brown is developing a proposal for us that includes the cost of insurance to cover the runoff for claims incurred during the last 12 months prior to the change in insurance but not submitted until after the change date the runoff would be for three months into the new plan year once your run-out number and stop-loss corridor
066balance is funded in the first year this balance carries into future years run-out claims are known as claims inbr incurred but not reported given the current fiscal condition of the state this might be very helpful to us in a couple of years brown and brown will develop a self-insurance proposal for the district with aetna which minimizes the disruption to staff because we currently use aetna for health insurance with this option the district plan health carrier and network would remain the same only a new insurance car is needed the proposal will include an estimate of the claims costs administration fees aggregate stop loss fees for claims in excess of the risk order and stop loss coverage for individual claims and ivnr claims in addition the district needs to set aside funds to cover the risk order
067not just the expected costs the funds we set aside for ibnr and the risk corridor can be carried over from year to year if they are not needed in any particular year the committee also met on october 13th for more conventional committee meeting staff shared war shared that work continues on the audit the auditor will be available to review the audit at our november committee meeting the district has received the certificate of excellence for the 11th straight year from the association of school business administrators international the committee reviewed agenda items for tonight's meeting staff reported that the current budget balances to date are similar to prior years expenditures and encumbrances are up slightly over last year but the appropriations are as well there is a motion to accept a coronavirus relief fund grant from the
068state of new jersey for school startup costs the district has also applied to fema for cost reimbursement there is a motion to contract with millennium communications to complete the electronic connections to door actuators for the security vestibules the district has received more rod grant money for the state share of previous capital projects the shared services agreement with east windsor is up for approval east windsor provides bus maintenance service to our district and there are some bus contracts for approval on the agenda as well as some employee virtual professional development there will be a motion on the agenda to improve non-approved non-represented employees overtime pay structure in case they are requested to work overtime work over 40 hours will be paid at time and a half this motion is needed to memorialize the amounts for the
069auditors in addition it is needed since the position of operations foreman became a board employee and the technology department members have been putting additional hours with approval from the superintendent due to the pandemic staff also updated the committee on the 2021 budget work has begun on the budget calendar as for general fund trends the 1920 budget closed out similarly to prior years this was partially because the district purchased substantial amounts of ppe supplies and equipment out of the 2019-20 budget the annual maintenance budget amount worksheet is required by the doe and calculates the minimum amount of money that may be spent on the maintenance of the facilities in the coming year the form also establishes a maximum maintenance reserve amount and calculates what has been budgeted and or spent in the last 10 years the
070comprehensive maintenance plan is also required by the doe and shows what was spent in the prior year shows what is budgeted for the current year and estimates what is to be budgeted in the coming year the committee again discussed healthcare in length and we discussed the pros and cons of self-funding the health insurance program staff shared that the food service program is continuing with breakfast and lunch meals being distributed every monday afternoon for a five-day period changes to the federal program allowing free meals regardless of income will remain in place until june of 2021. the changes have resulted in an increase in meals provided this monday 900 students accepted the meals over the last several months local service organizations have participated in our food distribution days helping them gain access to families that are in
071need of their services the committee discussed transportation options in response to a comment made at the last board meeting regarding efficiency do the pandemic bus routes cannot be significantly changed due to several reasons including cdc recommended capacity and state legislation that would require a vendor to be paid even if you did not run the route the routes are currently being reviewed to see if the hybrid a and b weeks were consolidated into one schedule if there is capacity on the buses that we currently have the staff also provided the committee with an update on construction projects which tony already covered um i would just add at community uh one very large healthy looking tree was cut down over the weekend because it was in the construction zone this tree was one of the ones that
072residents commented about not cutting down an arborist reviewed the trees in questions and said that some of them are not healthy even though they look healthy the tree that was felt this weekend was hollow even though it looked healthy which is an example of what was found in the arborist report staff provided the committee with updates on the energy savings improvement program work is moving along nicely and high school south the science wing boilers were replaced and are ready to be started the cold water and hot water pumps are replaced as were the pumps for the main boilers the transformers for the building are being replaced work on hvac controls continues and the air handler in the playhouse will be replaced next week variable frequency drive installation will begin on hvac equipment next week as
073well in dutchneck only controls work continues new boilers were installed in community middle school with final work being completed for an october 15 startup new rooftop units for the hvac system will arrive shortly for installation in late october or early november high school north computer room cooling work is going out to bid for installation of equipment millstone river emergency lighting system work is going out to bid this week snyder electric handles these bids but follows the new jersey statutes mechanical work for grover middle school is going out to bid as well lighting retrofit work is substantially complete in village and will begin in town center next week bipolar air ionizator installation is complete at village town center hawk and community middle school high school south is complete with respect to where students are located and
074work has begun on north installation of a high efficiency transformer has started at high school south snyder has been working closely with the technology department not staff available that more students have opted for virtual instruction since the last report there are less students in the building we have had staff that have tested positive quarantined and returned to work the number of people in quarantine has remained approximately constant employee travel has been a challenge with respect to personal time use as many areas of destination are on new jersey's quarantine list the committee is next meeting on tuesday november 10th thanks louisa does anybody have any questions about the finance report okay so we will now move to the consent agenda of our meeting the part where we vote we begin can i please get a motion
075on administration items one through nine plus the addendum on student residency robin and martin are there any questions or comments on the administration items thank you chris okay we'll start with mr flares yes then we'll go to ms ho yes ms krug yes miss mccoon yes mr whitfield yes mizovich yes mr chang yes ms juliana yes and miss cash yes can you please get a motion on the curriculum and instruction items one and two graylin and dana are there any questions or comments on the curriculum items thanks chris okay we'll just start with miss ho yes ms krook yes miss mccoon yes mr whitfield yes mizovich yes mr chang yes mr flares yes ms juliana yes ms cash yes for the finance items uh we are going to please i have a correction we're going
076to delete item number 12. and so i need a motion please on finance items 1 to 11 and then 13 to 16 plus the addendum for transportation bid awards and rejection making a motion on all of that isaac and louisa are there any questions on the finance items thanks chris okay we'll start with miss krug yes ms mckeon yes mr whitfield yes mr chang yes i missed mizovich yes mr flares yes ms ho yes ms juliana yes and miss cash yes can i please get a motion on personnel items one and two plus the addendum morton and robin are there any questions or comments on the personnel items thanks chris okay we'll start with we'll start with ms mccune yes mr whitfield yes mizovich yes mr chang yes mr flares yes miss ho yes ms
077krug yes ms juliana yes ms kish yes i'd like to take a moment to acknowledge one retirement that we just voted on karen black is an irla teacher at cms and she's retiring after 23 and a half years with the district i want to wish her well i all the best in her retirement and thank her for her hard work and dedication to our students could i please get a motion to approve the board minutes from our meeting on october 6th uh dana and tony all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed or abstentions do we have any lines on reports do we have any new business that brings us to the second opportunity for public comment the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items and items of concern from members of
078our community who submitted written comments to the board secretary prior to the submission deadline for this meeting and from those who have signed up on the form to comment via video and or audio that was open and available on the district website up until the start of this second opportunity for public comment any written comments that were submitted prior to the deadline for this meeting will be read aloud by the board attorney for three minutes in accordance with board policy zero one six seven members of the public who did not submit comments and who have signed up will be offered the opportunity to make their comments via video and or audio members of the public will not be permitted to submit both written comments and make additional comments via video and or audio each comment
079should be directed to the presiding officer not individual members of the board and must be made in accordance with the procedures and three-minute time limits set forth in board policy zero one six seven if the comment extends beyond three minutes speakers will be asked to conclude their comments and may be muted by the moderator once an individual has finished their comment or their three minutes has expired their audio and video will be turned off by the moderator this public comment period shall be limited to 15 minutes so again we will start with the video and audio comments first madam president we have one name on the list veronica menor miss kaish i have three very specific questions for you one somebody in facebook peeps wrote that going forward now dr radical is not going to
080receive any more bonuses that's why his salary is going to 249. can you please verify if that is true or not two can you please explain to me why whenever a club wants to be created for students there's never a stipend and let me give you two particular examples mock trials at high school south kosa a high school south my husband and i we have to volunteer our time and we have to pay out of our pocket for every single um issue like fingerprinting and that type of things which is over 500 each time and we had to pay on top of our taxes and three i had the parent teacher conference with my uh for my kids and when the teacher was explaining to me in math that now the curricula is they teach
081math and then they teach multiplication they teach substraction and then they teach division however they do not teach what it's called regrouping with math uh with the addition of regrouping with subtraction and when i asked why not because that doesn't make any sense to me i was told that the school district follows common core it did not make any sense for the teacher either and the school district follows common core when questioned mr smith prior assistant superintendent and mr adult they said that the school district does not follow common core can you please clarify the discrepancy for me thank you madam president there were no other names and there was no written comments submitted for the public second public comment period all right well that will close then our second opportunity for public comment uh
082does uh superintendent have anything to say at this time no um you know marcum uh mr toscano can i just ask you to verify just one thing in the superintendent's contract is there anything in the contract oh all i would add madam madam president is as i noted in the uh the summary that was provided um the now approved contract uh does not allow for uh any uh merit uh goals or or any merit bonus uh going forward and any goals that were submitted in the current school year uh are both mutually rescinded all right thank you i know that you said that at the beginning of our meeting and i appreciate you clarifying that again um miss case if if i could and maybe come back with two with respect to clubs and activities
083go through a process we have student-run clubs at both of our high schools when student-run clubs do not have advisors they're student-run by nature and so if we were to run advisors for each one of our student-run clubs you would be adding over 200 stipends between high school north and high school south there's at least 100 student-run clubs at each high school potentially as high as 150 because we have students with interests and we work hard to promote that what we have allowed is student-run groups to potentially work with mentors or volunteers that have sustained contact are asked to get cleared and then they must be board approved so this first step in clearance is fingerprinting fingerprinting misfus correct me if i'm wrong costs 65 70 for the state and a substitute certificate costs 125
084um total so that's a process that individuals that want to volunteer and substitute certificate is is if someone's going to be an advisor um and go to um sustained contact um with students um as few as you want to jump in on that and we reimburse subsidy um we reimburse for volunteers fingerprint costs if they're board approved as a volunteer correct correct right and and with respect to uh clubs we actually built in the budget two years ago mock trial it was posted last year and it went unfit unfilled so that process did go on it was posted on the district website and was posted for north and south mr leppeld made no recommendations for high school south for a club advisor but this board did take action in your budget process and did approve
085it with respect to the curricular questions uh maybe i'll pass it to dr nathan if she doesn't mind absolutely and and um you know i i know you and i have spoken before and i'm always pam it's a little hard to hear you forgive me for interrupting i was just saying that mrs mino and i have spoken before and i'm always happy to answer questions but just to give a general overview since the question was in regard to our math instruction we have transitioned from common core as the state made that decision to move to the new jersey student learning standards for mathematics they are very similar to the common core in that uh it is a goal for math it's the goal to build mathematical understanding with a particular focus on number sense um
086in order to do that we address the algorithm which is what you're referring to with regrouping at a much later stage in instruction because we really want to build students understanding of number sense and and mathematics this is based on tons of research that we've been able to do over the years brain studies that weren't available you know earlier in education um so when they were able to use this research they were able to construct the common core the new jersey student learning standards and and that is why we take this approach to developing our students number sense and mathematical understanding but i'm happy to go into more depth you know at any time if you want to give me a call thank you dr nathan and dr aderhold we're at the end so can
087i please get a motion to adjourn rachel and graylin all those in favor say aye aye thanks for coming out tonight congratulations again dr aderhold and we'll see you all next time thank you they say healthy everybody