001check check check okay calling this meeting to order so in accordance with the opland public meetings njsa 10 4-6 um statute adequate notifications of this meeting have been provided uh by advertising in The Courier News and posting notice in the Board of Education administ ministration building and district schools and filing notice with the burrow clerk I hereby call to order the regular public meeting Tuesday December 19th 2023 in the Lincoln Middle School cafetorium 400 dellan Avenue at 7 p.m. this meeting is broadcast live check www.del inch. org for details that was item one now we move on to item two which is executive session the ellan Board of Education will now adjourn into executive session to discuss items that fall within specific exceptions to the public excuse me open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-12
002B the confidential matters discussed by the board during this executive session include items related to collective bargaining agreements as well as pending or anticipated litigation any discussion that does not need to remain confidential will be made public as soon as it is practical minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists all individuals who may be discussed an executive session have been adequately notified action will take place after the conclusion of the executive session um we have a motion to move to Executive please move to go to Executive second all those in favor I opposed okay we'll see you in about uh 25 30 minutes or so for all right I guess she's late so all right okay we are back uh so at this time we're
003moving to item three on the agenda which is the Pledge of Allegiance so the flag is here please stand and let's recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all will you all please remain standing for a moment of reflection and respect for our troops serving throughout the world our troops who have served and our troops who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of our United States of America thank you Mr Ross could you please call the role yes so Mr Pepe is not here today so I will take uh be serving as the board secretary so uh Mr Anderson present miss condet here Mr Dugen
004Dr gendrano present Mrs Howard Miss schimpf Mrs Shep present Mr trada here Mr Walker Miss fante manella here we have a quorum just made it fantastic so moving on to item five approval of minutes so at this time looking for I'm looking for a motion uh to approve the minutes from the November 28th 2023 Board of meet uh Board of Education meeting move 5A second open for questions and comments last call questions and comments okay Mr Ross could you please call the role Mr Anderson yes Mrs condet yes Dr gendrano yes yes uh Mrs Shep yes Mr trada yes motion passes okay wonderful thank you so much moving on to item number six student recognition I'll turn the floor over to you Mr Ross right thank you so we're very excited for our student recognition
005for December 2023 um congratulations to all the students that are here and the parents that are here um and board members whose families are represented and all sorts of things so um without f further Ado I will uh start with Mr tenant from Faber [Applause] School good evening everyone um welcome to student of the month presentation for favor school first up for November winner pre- student Dax zurowski Dax come on [Applause] up here that big that show everybody up there okay Dax always comes into school with a big smile on his face ready for the day Dax goes out of his way to make sure his classmates feel welcom in centers and recess and just in conversation Dax does a great job following directions and is always does his best give a big round of
006applause for Dax for kindergarten we have janaa Thompson janaa come on janah come on [Applause] upay janah is a hardworking student she loves to learn and cares for all her classmates she's first one to jump and help others during recess during playtime and during school she's always raising her hand give a big round of applause first grade we have Melissa Gonzalez Salgado on up Melissa Melissa is amazing first grade student she is always kind thoughtful caring respectful and is so helpful Melissa is a determined student with a big heart she gives nothing but her best efforts and all she does and she's always willing to help others whoever needs it and is a best friend to all give a big round Round of Applause to Melissa second grade we have two winners one is Gabrielle
007the Silva Gabrielle not here Gabriel is hardworking student that brightens everyone's day with a smile and Stellar attitude he's always puts forth his best effort activity is not afraid to try and learn something new give it up for [Applause] Gabriel second up is cila kulan [Applause] Camila Camila is extremely hardworking and dedicated student she is kind generous and always eager to offer helping hand she's an amazing leader in the classroom and often helps other children who need support great job gamila third grade we have Paulo Tran Paulo come on up it's because he's participates in class he's very smart does his homework and works work with other people he always gets hundreds on his tests and always hands his homework in on time he is a six-time winner of UFC time tables six time wow
008because he's always raising his hand he always helps others in need he does well in writing and always does well in his assignments paollo Tran everybody bud fourth grade Alicia DZ Alicia come on up Lisa is a model student and is a leader within our class she's kind to all our peers and respectful to teachers she doesn't hesitate to translate in Spanish for students who don't understand directions what a great classmate you are give it up for Alicia fifth grade we have Isabella Jimenez rosero Isabelle is an absolute pleasure to have class she's always prepared and ready to tackle on the next challenge she has earned this award through consistent work ethic and shows up on a daily basis well done [Applause] Isabella special areas we have McKenzie James come on up McKenzie the special
009Area Teachers are honored to have McKenzie James their student the month McKenzie is a pleasure to have in class she's always tries her best and wants everyone to succeed McKenzie is always willing to help others both students and teachers great job McKenzie clap it up for favor students of the month there you want me to get a picture or anything I'm gonna get a picture okay parents feel free to come up to the uh the front so you can get the best view possible all right thank you Mr T and congratulations fa students all right so for Lincoln Middle School we have Mr Tobin who is the assistant principal of dellan high school will be standing in for Mr altme so Mr Tobin good e good even evening everybody thank you for uh all coming
010out to the board of ed meeting tonight uh I'm here to recognize the Lincoln Middle School students of the month for the month of December for sixth grade we have janali cardus Morales come on down I pronounce that right janali is cooperative and respectful to both her teachers and her peers she is very conscientious about staying on top of her work janali maintains a high standard for herself both academically and personally she is always willing to help translate in the classroom while still maintaining the quality of her work janali is friendly and personable both in and out of the classroom she is a pleasure to have at LMS congratulations janali stay for seventh grade we have Katherine lorence I believe she's not here tonight but we'll applaud her nonetheless congratulations to Catherine seventh grade teachers
011would like to congratulate Katherine for being recognized as a student of the month for December Katherine is a conscientious and motivated learner who works extremely hard in her classes she conducts herself with maturity and is very considerate when interacting with her teachers when working with her peers Katherine is both respectful and helpful she's also involved in extracurriculars as she is a member of the stage crew for our drama Productions congratulations to Katherine our eighth grade student of the month at Lincoln middle school is Sarah Diaz Cortez congratulations come on congs the eighth grade team of teachers is proud to name Sarah as student of the month she is a hardworking exceptional student who goes out of her way to help her classmates understand the material she is dedicated to her individual learning and takes great
012pride in all her assignments she is consistently attentive during class and asks questions when she has them we can always count on Sarah to brighten our days Sarah recently exited the ESL program due to her continued hard work dedication and progress we all very proud of her and know that she will continue to shine in her academic Endeavors congratulations to Sarah Katherine and janali for being the three middle school students of the month for December parents if you wish to get a photo please go ahead and do so all right all right congratulations congratulations Lincoln Middle School stud want come up yeah and now time for the recognition of the denell and high school students of the month for December for grade nine we have Brandon Condit come on down [Applause] Brandon congratulations stay right
013there yeah Brandon is a student who shines academically and socially his teachers have seen him flourish because of his self-driven and respectful nature one of his biggest strengths is in cooperation he often helps his classmates and easily steps into a leadership role during group activities Brandon is also a member of the art club and has had an excellent start to his high school career congratulations to [Applause] Brandon our 10th grade student of the month is Diana Vidal come on down Diana Diana is new to dellan high school and has an immed made an immediate impact upon our school she has challenged herself academically and is an all honors classes softspoken by Nature Diana works well with others in class has an amazing personality and is wonderful to talk to we are so happy she has
014joined us at dellan high school congratulations Diana our 11th grade student of the month is Sophie Jimenez come on down Sophie congratulations Sophie is a truly talented young woman she is a starter on the girls V varsity basketball team a member of the art club and was recently inducted into the National Honor Society Sophie has an outgoing personality that people love to be around and as a natural born leader with her friends Sophie is in all honors and AP classes and works tirelessly on her studies we look forward to seeing all the great things she contributes to the school for her final two years congratulations Sophie our 12th grade student of the month is Jacob [Applause] Mana congratulations Jake has shown great growth in maturity since entering high school he has developed into a hardworking
015student that loves to read and make the most of the opportunities presented to him he has worked hard on college application and is anticipating hearing back to find out where he will go next year Jake played football for three years before a serious ankle injury almost ended his athletic career luckily he recovered and has been a key member of the baseball team since nth grade he looks forward to a successful senior season of baseball this spring congratulations [Applause] Jacob and congratulations to all the high school students of the month for December parents if you want to come up and get a photo please do so [Applause] guys students congratulations parents congratulations on the incredible achievements of your students um we are going to take a little brief intermission to uh allow you to exit if
016you'd like we have a meeting in front of us oh we got one more one more thing oh uh yeah y you got it real quick I wouldn't embarrass her but she can come on up for a second here miss North please come up I I have I haven't started the speech yet for June but Mrs North's final days come on over here Mrs North's final days are coming up this Friday and I can't tell you from the bottom of my heart how much we're going to miss you at fa and what you've done all these years for the students and the community of the nellan and for myself who knocks in your door when I'm like oh my gosh I need something help me to relax um she's just an amazing person she's here
017for everybody all the time the teachers the staff the kids parents when they have questions she's up late at night she's on the weekends she has worked tirelessly over the years how many years is it 17 in change 17 in change for for this community so if you can please give her a big round of applause she's an amazing person and we're going to miss you so much okay all right we'll take a brief intermission thank you all actually okay thank you very much moving on to item number seven president's remarks I have a few things to say this evening so uh bear with me so first good evening Welcome to our our meeting this evening um this will be our last scheduled meeting for 2023 um the time um the next time that we're
018going to meet will be at our reorganization meeting on Tuesday January uh 2nd uh 2024 right here uh in the cafetorium so please join us as we will be swearing in board members recently elected at that meeting and getting off 2024 to a good start for for those joining us here for the first time uh the board of education is a governing body of the school district we donate our time out of a deep compassion for our students and work to make decisions based on what we believe will best help all of our students be successful uh we meet once a month here at the cafetorium for a public meeting that covers School District updates an update from our student representative student recognitions as you just saw and important presentations and our agendas are posted
019prior to the meeting on the dellan school district website along with past agendas and attachment so I invite you to join us in our monthly discussions which we'll pick up again in in January after after this so lots of awards lots of things you know happening first I'd like to underscore how proud We Are of our students who just recognized and celebrated and congratulations to them again on the Great accomplishments um along the same lines there were a number of Ceremonies of events that have happened since we met last on the 29th of November just to mention a few the dellan National Honors Society inductions the fall play it's wonderful life then National Art Honor Society inductions Faber Elementary School choir concert the DHS and LMS band concert as well as choir concert to name
020a few so I had the privilege to attend most of these events and so very proud of our students and a great big kudos to all of our teachers our staff administrators parents friends uh to everyone who made these events tremendously successful thank you thank you thank you so staying healthy as the weather changes and the temperatures drop it's important to underscore that healthy kids means healthy schools which which means a healthy Community I've said it before and I'll keep saying it again because it it doesn't make it any less true um as of the week ending December 9th 2023 there were seven covid-19 and two respiratory illness outbreaks reported um in 2000 amongst 2,122 K through2 school districts across New Jersey the percent of schools reporting non-f flu respiratory outbreaks from covid-19 and other
021respiratory pathogens increased from uh 14% to 0.42% which is almost a three-fold increase um RSV activity and percent positivity in New Jersey continue to increase so the bottom line I encourage you to take the common sense precautions like washing hands well covering up when sneezing keeping sick kids home keeping current with vaccinations to minimize the spread of infectious diseases like covid-19 RSV the flu and other respiratory illnesses and other illnesses that can really impact our school year monthly celebrations so December a couple things happening in December it's Universal human rights month um on December 2nd it was International Day for the abolition of slavery on December 3rd it was the International Day of persons with disabilities December 18th was International migrants Day and December 20 um uh tomorrow international human solidarity day I mentioned this
022all this I mentioned all this to underscore the importance of diversity equity and inclusion in the fabric of our lives and the impact that we have on our it has on our community open honest and Equitable communication that is respectful positive supportive fair and most of all kind goes a long way in strengthening a community along the lines of strengthening the community uh we will be marking this occasion more formally later in the agenda but I wanted to take a moment to say a few words um about one of our own who has served multiple terms on the bordon who decided not to run for re-election this past November I don't remember exactly when Jordan I first met but I am sure it was during his time serving one of the many Community groups in
023town whether it was a sports as a sports coach a drama dad a denell and education fund member or as a board of education member of course to to name a few of the hats that he's worn over the years and he's certainly been a leader supporting our kids in our in our town on the on the board Gerard has been a key and outspoken member of the operations committee and chair of the negotiations committee you uh you asked so many great questions man and made a great and made great points in all of our discussions and as a testament to your commitment and engagement and and and I'm so glad you did I will greatly miss talking with you about how we make our schools and Community better from my vantage point we are
024better as a board better as a school district and better as a community because because of your many efforts and I'm so grateful that you were part of this thank you sir for your service to the community and thank you my friend for the opportunity to shoot the breeze with [Applause] you um if you want to say something I'll I'll you're welcome to us we'll talk more later than thank you for your kind words all it's been been an honor and a pleasure to serve on the board these past seven years thank the you know the voters for voting and having the confidence for me to serve for uh you know three times and you know it's been a great learning experience and you know I really confident and you know hopeful that you know
025all our efforts you know uh combined as a board have really put the district in a much better place I think we have really competent leadership Now with uh Mr Ross as a superintendent I think we have very competent board members and um you know it's just it's been an absolute pleasure and I'm you know hoping uh you bring some get some fresh blood in now some you know new energy and and uh get a new contributor to the board but thank you all for your support and honor working with this you know the administration and staff and and my my colleagues on the board thank you Mr trout and just you know you're not done yet we're going to get you a little bit later too so this is just the start and uh
026and I know I said this last meeting and I went into much much more detail but I wanted to reiterate to say again you know thank you to miss North for all you've done to our school for our school district our small little school district the Imp the impact that you've made on our town is imaginable and we're in your debt thank you we will miss you I know this is your Friday I said I think I heard was your last day we'll but we'll see you in the spring I hope and um hopefully you won't be the stranger so um with that um uh thank you for listening thank you for your time everyone and I'll uh move on to uh to you Mr Mr Ross great thank you Dr Jano so I will
027start superintendent report by passing the uh the mic over to Sophia hello is this working okay um so right on December 1st the mistletoe dance was held in the gym the committee the mistletoe Committee created a great dance with even better food and everyone had an amazing time the mistletoe king and queen were elected and Alex Christian was elected King and I was elected Queen uh about two weeks ago the drama club's presentation of It's a Wonderful Life the live radio play uh was presented it's a great way to kick off the beginning of the month and set the Christmas spirit on track Maria Stein played a beautiful Mary hatch and Mato Morales was an amazing George Bailey and just as the play closed the musical auditions for Greece began Miss Clemens was just as
028quick with choosing her next starring roles to name a few once again Maria Stein is a starring role as s D Hopper starring as Danny I play Rizzo and Maria Sero is Frenchie it's safe to say that no matter the role the show is going to be fun for everyone including the audience staying within the Arts whoa the band had their concert last night sorry last Thursday they performed a be beautiful pieces um lost my pleas whoa they performed a couple P pieces including the song don't know why which was accompanied by Ava Gomez's beautiful voice the band is taking the concert to the teen Arts Festival and the jazz band is continuing their performance other places last night was the winter choir concert and I'm not going to lie it was a little hectic
029but it was presented beautifully and there was great feedback from families Ashley kinsky and D Humper who are cousins had beautiful solos in the song Home wordbound the magical have three runout concerts s this month they had their second runout concert on Friday and they performed for the senior citizens of dellan including Santa Claus and their last is on Friday for the Rotary Club Miss piano has worked very hard on her choirs this year and never fails to put on a great performance and makes her students look like Stars this week is winter spirit week and so far I've seen a lot of participation from the students yesterday was flannel day today's Pajama Day tomorrow's Santa hat day Thursday's twin day and Friday's ugly sweater and wacky sock day I tried to make this Spirit
030Week fun but really lowkey for those who don't like the larger Spirit weeks and to make the last week before break go faster I really hope everyone participates tomorrow I think it would be really funny seeing everyone walking around with Santa hats all over the place and that's it for that the girls basketball team had their first game last Friday and won 4 4 to 27 Wendy wall LED with 19 points Fabiana Ames with eight points and Sophie Jimenez who was just here with seven points the boys basketball had a really close but tough loss last night against Rosel Park 43 to 40 making that their second loss but it's really early in their season so I'm sure we'll see what they have in store soon again Ava Gomez uh led the National Art Honor
031Society induction ceremony last Tuesday where extremely talented students artworks were displayed and they were admired for them there have been a couple winter fundraisers here and there the past 2 weeks the seniors held a cookie walk during the band concert which always makes a surprisingly good amount of money I think we made about 300 from it and project grad held another uh cookie walk during the choir concert last night there's also a fundraiser for project grad on Thursday and you can order from Rome pizza and 15% of your proceeds will go towards the fund and yesterday and today the history Club held a boss and tea party bake sale after school with a lot of sweet treats and there will also be another B bake sale after school Thursday and Friday of this week for
032the freshman class I think the school really likes big sales it's good season and that's it thank you thank you Sophia I always appreciate the update and also congratulations on the mistletoe Queen your performance and It's a Wonderful Life and also Rizzo we're very excited for Greece so congrats um so my update uh obviously we are coming up on winter break um and I just want to express um my deep gratitude obviously to the board for their support for the beginning of this year and everything that we've done to get us here I want to uh thank the association for their partnership in the beginning of the year I know uh I ask a lot as a superintendent and I appreciate the staff dedication um the conversations the openness of communic unication um and I
033think that we've got really great work under our belt and a lot more to do so thank you um and obviously parents and um family members I wish you all a wonderful relaxing um enjoyable break holiday season if you celebrate um and you know lots more to come um as we enter 2024 so um the enrollment update we are at our uh new highest peak ever in the district we're at 1370 and this is an uptick of nine students from last month so we still have our uh we have 36 students now in prek um that number will increase in January when we welcome our six new students to the preschool program we have 98 students now in kindergarten we have 89 in first grade 97 in 2 grade 90 in third grade 98 in
034fourth grade 118 in fifth grade 123 in 6th grade 107 in 7th grade 111 in in e8th grade 102 in 9th grade 121 in 10th Grade and 94 in 11th and 86th in 12th grade so we are uh just about where we were last year at Faber we have um over 30 students more at Lincoln Lincoln Middle School than we did um at the end of last year which is shockingly High um and we're about 15 over where we were at the high school so this is obviously a trend that we continue to we'll we'll keep talking about this but um this is where we're at at the end of this calendar year so next uh topic is the storm uh so obviously we all know and many of you were personally affected by this
035so rain on Sunday into Monday really caused um quite a lot of flooding in town not being from dellan this was a new experience for me um this was also my first inclement weather related call um as a superintendent um there's room for improvement I will say so um we have a meeting tomorrow to discuss our coordination with the office of emergency management with the police department with DW um and with our own facilities team the uh information um sharing the openness of the communication is all things that need to be improved um I recognize that you know our response was pretty inadequate in terms of the timeliness of the call so I apologize to the families that were affected and staff members you know when I got to work there were staff there there
036were kids there um it was definitely a a scene that is uh not a comfortable one but I really applaud our teachers that were there uh doing the work that they had to do miss Moody at uh Faber was wonderful just coordinating all of that and obviously the staff members who were there as well so um there's a lot of room for improvement we certainly know what areas we need to work on um and I certainly pledge to make sure that we can get better calls moving forward when there's inclement weather um I want to just point out that the last couple weeks of the DEA make a difference Mondays um this is a wonderful thing that the DEA put together at the beginning of this year weekly shout out from the DEA recognizing a
037staff member so week nine of this December 4th was Kate Walsh who is a p professional at Lincoln middle school week 10 was December 11th and that was for Jess Trina who was the Lincoln middle school counselor um she recently resigned to take a position closer to home in Oldbridge um and then week 11 uh which is this week we have an North who is our favor nurse who is retiring and we really wish her the best um as she retires at the end of this year so congratulations M Miss North and congratulations to all the staff members who've been recognized wanted to Pro provide a little update on ESL and World Language so uh as we've talked about uh pretty extensively I would say at the board level um and internally we've moved to
038um what is considered a schoolwide um enrichment model where we're working on ensuring that students especially at fa school but also at middle school and the high school have access to the most inclusive learning environment possible so what that means is that uh ESL students students who need intervention um special education students are um supported as best they can be in the general education classroom um and ESL has been a really significant shift um we added um a new teacher last year we added another staff member this year and we have really transformed both intervention for academic needs and also intervention for English language learning um which is our our Ells or multilingual Learners as they're now termed but we've also introduced midar exits and so when students demonstrate proficiency on a standardized assessment of
039English proficiency they can be removed from the ESL program and then just receive the kinds of supports that are needed for students as they transition into a general education classroom so this year we have been able to Exit 30 students already um which is phenomenal um and that's really due to the incredible work of our staff members we are still incredibly High our English language learner population we have 220 um ESL students in the district which is about 16% of our population um and 16 yeah um but the concentration of those students is at Faber where we have 140 ESL students which is 24% of our total School population uh that's in K5 so we have also made some moves at the M the Middle School um our newcomer ESL program has bloomed now we
040have a class of 26 students so that's being split um into two separate sections so that those students can be um uh that their needs can be met appropriately and so I just want to give a shout out to miss dveo miss Franklin U Miss Jordan Miss Rah miss melanowski and miss Khalifa for their incredible work this is transformative and we're going to keep moving on it but we also recognize that this is really kind of the reality of our district is that many of the new enrollments that we have are um Hispanic families and many of them have very limited English proficiency and so being able to provide services in this area is really essential the sort of backend piece of that is World Language and what we do with students in World language
041classes and Gerard I know that this is something that you've talked quite a bit about at the board so we are in the process now and uh Miss Laguna morau has been very helpful as well in the creation of a Heritage class Heritage speakers class so there are two types of um sort of native speaker classes that school districts can offer one is called The Heritage class and one is called the native speakers class the difference between the two is that a Heritage speakers class is students who um have their home language spoken at home but they have not received formal instruction formal education in that language so what that means is they have auditory proficiency and they've spoken like oral proficiency but they haven't actually received formal education in grammatical structure and those types
042of things um ative speakers class would be students who did receive formal education prior to moving to a new country and so if you you know had gone to school forly let's say in Mexico for you know up through fourth grade and then you moved here um and your instruction was in Spanish when you were in Mexico and you came to this country you would be considered a native speaker as opposed to a Heritage speaker and so um in looking at our population we have a large number of students who have not really received received strong formal instruction formal education in their native language primarily Spanish and so what we're doing is we're looking at now creating a class for Heritage speakers where we would essentially take those students out of the seventh grade Spanish
043class or an eighth grade Spanish class um which is you know basic conversation and basic words right basic vocabulary um and really gear that class for those students much more towards all right you already can speak it and you can understand it but you need more formal instruction within the you know within the language so that is something that's being built it's going to be something that we will create and build as we go uh we received some information from Carteret they a very successful Heritage speakers program they sent sent us their curriculum and we've reached out to their uh director of world world language in ESL and you know she's served as a good resource so it's exciting because it's the first kind of structural change in this area and again so much of
044this is about recognizing who we actually have in our schools and Catering our programming to meet the needs of our students not just creating General programming and hoping that it fits um the kids that we have so I'm very excited about that uh Mr drapkin has been really a great asset in that so I think her for her leadership um and I'll I'll you know keep the board arised about where we go with that um I want to just me briefly mention Arts High so last year we partnered with arts high for the first year which was very exciting we had 12 students who who were accepted um this is again countywide sort of gifted and talented program for students who apply and they have to audition and that sort of thing um and there's
045a wide variety of programming this year we had 10 students who were accepted three at the high school um Ariana simino for vocal music um and that is the daughter of Kathy simino who is our payroll and health benefits coordinator which is fantastic Hunter Mulligan who's in 11th grade for drawing and painting and Sophia portalen Port Aladdin for drawing and painting as well at the middle school we had uh seven students obina agbara for drawing and painting we had Aiden Barrett and Valentina Diaz for vocal music um Ashley budro for creative writing Damen Forbes and Bridget Gomez for anime uh manga which is um again um Visual Arts and Khloe zala for musical theater so congratulations to those students they all received notice from their administrators it's very exciting um RTI the way that it
046works again is Rai provides busing they pick our students up here um at this site they drive them out to middlex County College where they work with other students from the county really fantastic programming great resources great staff um and they get to work with folks outside of the school uh which is excellent so congratulations to those students wanted to Pro provide an update on Urban assembly so Anne and Alysa who are our two coaches met with each of the school climate teams on December 14th um Faber has completed its implementation rubric for the portal that we're using the resilient Scholars portal um and they set goals for the new school year the M Middle School and High School are still working on completing their rubric so they should be done by the end of
047January um the urban assembly team is also working with Miss Hoy um on the creation of climate surveys so that is work that's ongoing that will lead to kind of a reformulation of our school climate surveys as well which will be great um and they will be back Thursday January 18th to meet again with the climate teams and the leadership team brief construction update um preschool is in pretty good shape we have some systems control issues um some miscellaneous items on the punch list and we also have some flooring and handrail issues um that have Arisen so that's being uh looked into the stem Lab at Faber is pretty much done the poster printer large format prsta printer arrived and should be installed this week um Jason erdre who is our consultant was here yesterday
048in the district working with Miss Brown so that's been very very fruitful cafeteria is pretty much done it has some building management system work that needs to be completed the wood shop is in excellent shape the dust collector has arrived if you you go outside it's actually sitting on the pad um it's been installed in the pad but not yet connected to the HVAC and so it has to be connected to the duct work the duct work has to be painted and then um there needs to be a little work on the building management side for uh temperature control and that sort of thing the auditorium we're expecting the spotlights by the end of December um the permanent AV system is going to be installed during winter break so that should help quite a bit
049because obviously that room is a is a a big room it needs a powerful sound system um and other General work the Kil at Faber has been installed so now the Faber art teacher um will have access to a Kil and students can can work on um Pottery uh Pottery projects there's still some finish work that needs to be done um within the room where the Kil is which is a um it's sort of like a double door closet area that's been uh allocated appropriately for the Kiln they've done sorts of temperature controlling for it and then we're also doing work on the board office um we are um creating a secure vestibule within the board office so that when you walk in there's a a waiting room that has that's basically enclosed with two
050doors so that all the spaces are confidential spaces right now if you've been into that space you know that um Annie my secretary she sits at a desk which is not a confidential space so we could have a parent waiting for registration um sitting at a chair and she could be on the phone with someone talking about something and there's no there's no space between them so we're just boxing that location in putting doors appropriately and then you know we'll have uh that work pretty much done by mid January so the only last thing for me is um just to say a couple of words about Mr trada so um you know as a as a new superintendent one of the one of the big things that you do is sort of you evaluate board
051members right um and this is this is true of everybody one of the um the first conversations that we had um you had expressed a pretty strong opinion about something I don't remember what it was and I was like oh okay that's what that's that's what this guy does he he expresses strong opinions um but I think um you know what I've come to learn about you Jord is that you care incredibly deeply about the district and you care incredibly deeply about the town and the way that you express that is by asking hard questions and by demanding a lot of people um and frankly I think that's a that's an admirable way of being a board member um I think that you've challenged my thinking on certain things um and I appreciate that about
052you and I appreciate the way that you've been able to influence um your fellow board members being a board member is not just about saying yes to the superintendent as much as I appreciate when you do say yes to things that I recommend it is understanding and asking for uh expecting a lot from the people who are running the district right this is a taxpayer funded organization and you are all elected to do the work of the people in this community um and I would say that without a question without a doubt um you know you've represented this community well as a board member during my time knowing you um I appreciate that about you I appreciate the time and dedication seven years on the board is a lot of time to spend um doing
053public advocacy and and public work um and I think you've done yourself proud and your family proud and I just want to say congratulations and I wish you the best thank you D and that is uh oh yeah go on no no said everything before now it was it's been an honor and like I said a great learning experience and I did you know always you know as hard as I came across I always tried to you know had best intentions and you know you know trying to represent you know the voters as well as the students as well as you know the teachers and administration all equally trying to you know put everyone in the equation thank you all right Dr Jano thank you Mr Ross okay moving on to uh item number nine
054uh public comments on agenda items only the board invites public comment on agenda items only for members of the community of our community in accordance with board policy 0167 public comment sections are intended to provide provide an opportunity for members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest the board and administration will be taking notes during public comments but will not provide substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by individual speakers if necessary the superintendent May provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed the board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community but is not at Liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting prior to making your public comment please state your name and
055municipality please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer please come to the microphone at this time if you would like to make comments on agenda items only sorry only thank Youk um Lori man a favor school teacher um first before I speak I wanted to thank Gerard um I've known Gerard for a long time I've taught his three children um it's been an honor and I really appreciate all your efforts in the school board Dave it's sinking um I'll hold it it's fine that's not I know it doesn't go that's all right it's not going sinking okay all right so um thank you jard I really appreciate all you've done for the school and support of the teachers and staff in dellan so thank you thank you Lori the influence you
056had on all three of my children it was a pleasure teaching them um so I stand before you today as a veteran staff member of John P Faber school I have worked in this district for 26 years I am here representing myself and dedicated staff members of dellan I've engaged in numerous conversations with staff regarding the school calendar which seems to be on the agenda for a draft um our Collective concerns center around the proposal to commence professional development or initiate the 2024 school year in August departing from the long-standing tradition of a September start in dellan and here are some key points I just wanted to bring to your attention the first is family time starting work in mid or late August would disrupt valuable family time impacting the work life balance essential for
057educators vacations many teachers plan vacations during the summer months and an earlier start date would hinder these plans affecting both teachers and their classroom experiences child care for those with young children an early return to work poses challenges in securing reliable Child Care Arrangements adding stress to an already demanding job summer jobs and pay some teachers rely on summer jobs to supplement their income an earlier start would limit their ability to engage in such opportunities impacting Financial stability professional development Effectiveness an early start May compromise the effectiveness of professional development as teachers would be fatigued and preoccupied with other personal matters Community engagement initiating the school year closer to September Fosters a sense of continuity and engagement crucial for maintaining strong Partnerships with the local community resource preparation teachers often spend personal time and resources
058to enhance their classrooms an earlier start date limits preparation time potentially affecting the quality of the educational environment educational Equity considering socioeconomic diversity an earlier start date might disproportionately affect families with limited resources impacting their ability to adjust to an alra academic calendar teacher morale a teacher a traditional September start has been a longstanding practice in our district deviating from this Norm again may lead to a decline in teacher morale impacting job satisfaction and retention rates as this district has already faced many changes which have caused overwhelmed staff anxiety and growing pains teacher collaboration August serves as a critical time for teachers to collaborate plan and share their best practices pushing the start date earlier could undermine the essential collaboration in urging you to reconsider your proposal if that's what your proposal is I advocate
059for the well-being of Educators and by extension the quality of Education our students receive a thoughtful approach to scheduling ensures that teachers are energized focused and fully prepared to inspire the minds entrusted to them thank you I also have a personal note from me personally um on a personal note the beginning of this school year was very difficult for me my son entered his first year of college I had to use half a personal day to move him in due to the new school year calendar I felt like it was a hit and run I dropped him off moved in his belongings into his dorm and ran back to school for a PD day luckily his college is local otherwise this would not have even been possible as a mom this was really rough I
060will never get that moment back again it is my wish that no one else has to experience anything like this due to the staff having to report in August as teacher teachers we miss out on a lot of things involving our own children volunteering in schools for events watching them at their Halloween parade class parties Etc summer is a time for families to be together travel have fun and take a break from school getting out early in June while our kids are still in school doesn't afford US those opportunities then on the flip side coming back in August for multiple days even cuts the time shorter as I'm sure you're aware New Jersey school districts have different calendars very often our break are not the same as our children hence taking a mini vacation trip
061is often impossible this year in particular it was extremely long time in school without a break our first day off for teachers was a teacher convention which seemed like an eternity since we came back in August I can personally attest that the teachers at Faber School spend a great deal of time preparing their classrooms for students I can't even count the hours that I personally spend getting ready for a new school year with the plan of Staff coming back in August again assuming this will cut our summer even shorter with less time to prepare the many little things that teachers do that go unnoticed please talk to us ask questions the staff is more than willing to communicate their needs and help Foster a community positive environment in Zen Allen thank you thank you Miss
062man any other uh comments okay last call okay uh closing the uh comment section there did you respond okay that's good okay uh thank you for your comments moving on to um item number 10 education for discussion items so we have a number of items here uh item 10A is the education committee report um Mr dougen is not able to join us he's the committee chair and I will uh read through the um committee chair the committee readout committee meeting readout in his stad um so the education committee uh met on December 12th uh present were Mrs Howard Miss Shimp myself uh miss drapkin Mr Ross um and we discussed the number of items including an update on a wide range of curriculum and instruction items presented by Miss drapkin including professional development instructional coaching
063initiatives throughout the district ESL supports and midyear exits of students from the program after school programs that will begin in January 2024 Title 1 and title three parent Outreach events in the district core resource updates to be considered during program evaluation and curriculum planning for the new math and Ela standards for next year preliminary discussions about the structure of the 2024 to 2025 District calendar we discussed um preschool expansion for the current year and planning for the 2024 2025 school year the development of Heritage speakers courses for Spanish speaking students an update on the adult ESL class that will be offered to denell and residents information about the zeni foundation which is a new District partner that provides college scholarships to graduate students and a number of confidential items um and that is the uh
064uh the totality of what was discussed in the committee in the education committee meeting moving on to um 10B policy in regulation review we have three policies on Deck here Mr Ross do you want to help us uh walk through this yeah so the um the policies that are in each of the section are presented were presented in the committee meetings um and they were put on the committee agendas given the nature of the um the committee meetings I felt like it was helpful to just put these up for discussion um before we actually determine whether or not if they're non-mandatory policies whether or not we decide to onboard them and then if we do um whether there are some concerns or any concerns about any of these so religion in the schools um the
065that is a non mandatory policy I believe it's all covered in federal legislation um 5111 is an important policy it is a mandatory policy um and again mandatory policy just means that it is specifically an enumeration of what is in the law um not that the policy is mandatory as written uh and then 5116 education of homeless children um that's also revised as well and that's really just a language change so we don't really have to have too much conversation about them it's just important that we do this process well so I want it to go slowly until the board is comfortable with it so just of the three policies that are there are there any concerns um immediate concerns and obviously we'll go through this for another cycle so we'll talk about it again
066in education operations and Personnel uh at our January meeting then we'll discuss about whether or not we want to bring them on for first reading I just wanted to make them as available to folks as possible so what I would say is as we move towards January please read these uh policies and regulations carefully if you have questions please bring them to the committee reports and then uh committee meetings rather and then we can discuss them there all right okay okay all right moving on to uh item 10 C uh the district calendar so I guess I get back to you all right so I have two drafts of the calendar uh to present for conversation right now and these are drafts um and I will hand them out to the public as well that's
067one set for Gerard one set for you set for me for all right so there's two versions here I realized that I didn't differentiate them largely in the uh the way they're presented so I actually handw wrote a little one next to one of them on the bottom corner so you can see I'll refer to the one that has a little one and then the other one is kind of I don't know the other one um but yeah I should have written ones and twos but I figured differentiating was enough so uh Miss man first of all thank you for your your commentary appreciate that appreciate your willingness to speak in front of the board and and in front of me so thank you um I uh as a superintendent I do believe that um
068an August start date is appropriate um I came from Mars County for the last five years where folks were starting in the middle of August and you know those of you that know about educational practices throughout the country you know that many school districts in many states are on essentially a yearr round calendar um which provides sort of a week off here and there um but you know beginning of August is a very typical start time for um school districts and then you've got some different breaks that are that are sort of put in there so I have been thinking a lot about kind of the structure of this calendar and there are a couple of very interesting things that are happening in this calendar I want to point them out first and um just
069so that you're aware when you look at the two vers versions here and again these are both drafts so I don't want to give the impression that this is these are final versions they do give you a sense of different ways to think about the calendar the only thing that's different about these two calendars is the circled months October November and June and I made that notation on the calendar I figured out how to do that in in acrobat so that you don't have to spend time worrying you know sort of figuring out dayto day in the other calendar the other months whether are the same or different so a couple of things about this calendar the first is that November 5th is a uh federal election for uh it's a presidential election so this
070year we had school on uh the Tuesday of teachers convention uh that week that first full week of of November I think generally my feeling is that we should have school on that day I think that it's something that you know Lincoln Middle School managed very well this year and in general we should be able to manage um that schedule however presidential elections are just a different animal I think they bring out way more people I think people's um stress levels are much higher their anxieties the way that they behave is very different as well so one of the things that you'll notice there is there's no school for students on November 5th in either of the calendars that's a change from this current year where we did have school Monday Tuesday Wednesday another another
071big interest uh another sort of significant issue with this calendar uh is that in 2025 Easter is um April 20th which I think is the latest that it can generally be or that it generally ever is um and what that means is that the the way that this district has traditionally done spring break which is to start with Good Friday and then have the full week after that um means that spring break ends up ending on on April 25th um and then there's one week of school until the beginning of May and AP exams and all of the State Testing so uh I'm not really comfortable with how late that is in the school year um especially given the the conversation about the length of time uh of breaks that that exist in the calendar
072so I've gone through probably 30 different drafts of this calendar in different ways um and I think these are two that I'm comfortable with so there's a lot of feedback from the administrative team about the number of inservice days at the beginning of the school year that should be provided um the administrative team felt that three days was um really preferred over two from this year in order to do that we wanted to preserve the long weekend for um Memorial Day I'm sorry Labor Day uh so those days are listed as Tuesday Wednesday Thursday in the calendar so that Friday and Monday are still off that means pushing new staff orientation back to the week of the 19th which is actually the way that it was in the 2223 school year when I started um
073and I believe probably before that as well in recognizing the length of time between uh one you know the start date and then sort of November because this district has not had or because we haven't had the Jewish holidays off uh listed in the calendar uh you can note on the the non-marked calendar that a that October 14th is listed as a day off in one calendar versus a professional day in the other calendar now the the way that I was thinking about this essentially is that one alternative for that week of teachers convention is that by providing a PD day on the 14th and you know any PD day in October is going to be partially just allocated for teachers to complete sgos um but by doing that that we could actually create a
074week break in November which I find a very appealing thing I'm not sure that there are a lot of districts that do that but I'm not a huge fan of the Monday Wednesday schedule for students um I think it leads to a lot of absenteeism and it's not a particularly good schedule it is a very traditional way that school districts approach it um and I'm comfortable with it I I assume um at this point but I do like the feature of potentially having that weekl long break in November uh as a as a feature of the calendar the rest of the months are very much the same that they H same as they have been I will point out uh March 17th because there's uh there's that that span of President's Day to uh Spring
075Break um I have that listed as a professional development day which you know takes a bit of the pressure off in terms of not having students in in school um and then April 25 uh April 25 the spring break is listed on the as the 14th um the May 23rd would be a professional day and then we would get out at various times during that that third full week of June either the 17th or the 19th based on these two calendars now one thing that I'll say is that these calendars are there are features of both calendars that are kind of interchangeable or that could be modified so what we just have to recognize is that if we change something that it either just adds a day at the end or subtracts a day at
076the end or you know it adds a day here or there so for example if we wanted to create another day off somewhere in March right that would just push the calendar back a day and one of the things that I've said to this board and I've said publicly is that the more days that we can have before spring testing the better off our students will be when they're assessed in the in the only high stakes testing that they actually take so time for that preparation is essential um and so that's a consideration that that will always be sort of top of mind for me um especially you know given the the the concerns about Equity that is a you know significant Equity issue um the length of the summer is a is probably the
077number one driver of the inequity that we have um you know uh based on you know socio econom backgrounds um in families so these are the drafts happy to take uh comments from board members I know that we discussed some of these parameters in committee meetings um but you know I certainly would be uh you know I'm I look forward to hearing your feedback about these I like the option of um having the full week off in November uh you know I agree that I think the Monday Wednesday feature is is not going to be super successful and um you know when considering uh even things like Miss man said in terms of parents and and figuring out Child Care work schedules things like that as inconvenient as an entire week off can be I
078think it's sometimes easier to manage than the Monday Wednesday figuring out the Tuesday Thursday Friday aspect so I I do appreciate that change there okay thank you I've um spoken to you about my opinion about bringing the staff back before uh September I think I've made that clear and I've heard your points as well um I Al also think it's beneficial for teachers to have a break um they need that mental break in between the first day and before November so if there's something to give the staff a break there as well and I've also given my concern about not having the Monday after Easter off if they're not going to give the the week after then that Easter Monday should be considered as I think it's going to uh add to absenteeism as um
079many families will probably be doing something for the Easter holiday and may not come back to school the next day thank you Jason can you share your opinion with the rest of the board about the coming back before Labor Day just curious to hear your opinion um yes well I think it uh affects teacher morale um as a teacher myself um that's the time that we do rejuvenate we spend time with families um this is my personal opinion uh that I said that I would rather go to June 30th me personally than to come back before September and I'll I'll just say that you know that October the way to one way to solve that October issue would be to take the the way that the other calendar is listed which is a half PD
080day one of those days something like the third and uh provide a day off for Columbus Day indigenous people's day and that would just push the calendar back a day to Friday June 20th if we did something like that so that would certainly be feasible but did you be doing graduation on a Friday on a Friday yeah that's I think historically been something we've tried to go not have graduation on a Friday I don't I don't believe years can you just pull the mic a little closer to you yeah no historically I thought we've always kind of ended had graduation ceremonies on like you know Tuesday Wednesday Thursday I don't think we've ever pushed to a Friday but okay yeah I'm certainly open to to those comments um I will say you know the I
081think there's a there's a significant issue I would say with uh creating a cal creating calendars around religious holidays um which is why I'm not I'm not concerned necessarily with April 21st being a day off um there are major Jewish holidays that affect you know a number of teachers we have Eid that is not off we have other holidays that don't exist in this calendar that do exist in the plane Field calendar for example um I you know my feeling about spring break is that it should be some fixed week between President's Day and you know uh Labor Day that has nothing to do with Good Friday um but I also recognize that there's uh a need to create calendars that are somewhat familiar to people um so that's my take I think there there
082are a lot of people that that have to make sacrifices about the things that they do um around you know their religion and uh obviously we provide accommodation for all sorts of things I think the you know as a public school district we make decisions that should be in the best interest of students um even though it might be uh you know somewhat inconvenient for folks at various times I would just add um I said this also in in committee meetings and previous discussions but to just reiterate that I think you know the the point that you made um about giving as much time as you can to prepare for the spring exams for the or or even preparation for college applications like that initial up time time up front um I think is valuable
083I mean perhaps it it it translates into a day or perhaps two or or or some something that could be considered small but it I think it makes a difference I think it makes an impact uh to be able to prepare prepare students we we want them to succeed so we want to put them in the best position that we can that if that gives if two extra a day or an extra day extra two days gives them more time to prepare and do well on the standardized exams that they're going to be judged for why wouldn't we at the expense of of of going on later into the summer I think that's I think it's it's a fair trade but I I I still have trouble reconciling that why why wouldn't why wouldn't we
084do that why wouldn't we have that extra time up front yeah thank you I assume that was a rhetorical question yes yes it was okay yes it was thank you anyone else Mr tra Miss condet that's okay no pressure just I just want to give you the floor and Y so while you're Gathering I was just going to say like I mean I totally hear all the different points and they are all valid points um and there has to but there has to be a I think a give and take and to be able to come come to a way to to to move forward where we can try to get maybe not everything but at least the the best points to to move that because I think it's you know I mean we're not
085talking about going into like fourth week of June or anything like that I really hope not but we've done that before and we you know that was because of construction um but you know I think we have to I think we can find a balance I think we just may have to make some make some very good I guess decisions for the lack of better word yeah yeah thank you Mr tra any any thoughts you want to share no you know I me I will say I agree with Miss Shep as far as having the full week in November I think you know just keeping the continuity of that whole week not breaking it up at the Monday Wednesday makes a lot of sense um as far as the the you know late AUST return
086for staff how common is that throughout the state it's becoming more common it's I I don't have numbers um that's actually something that probably the association might be able to find information on I could survey uh districts in Mars county is very common um Madison we started I think it was the week the mon students started the Monday before the question was how common is it's to start before for school districts to start before Labor Day yeah yeah so this is again you know uh having spent five years in Mars County um West mors starts is the Wednesday before the week before Labor Day um and we in Madison we had three or four or five days of students before a Labor Day actually started so again it is just a you know it is
087a question of kind of getting out out of this mindset that we just have to start in September which to me is just sort of an artificial creation of of um of time right it's something that we've just we just think exists um New Jersey is again it's very very unique in this it's a put students as a massive disadvantage for things that they're judged on nationally right including AP exams College college applications all sorts of things that other students in other states have a full month to prepare for um more than our students so there's you know there this is not an easy thing to necessarily overcome um it is something that you know uh folks have had a lot more conversation about recently so if I may just ask a question as not
088being an educator myself but I'm not sure who who to direct this question to but we see a swath of of different start times across the United States right just looking at from a very you know um just from a broad perspective the Northeast tends to start latest of all is there an advantage for other states starting that early like is there a reason is it is it social is it something that's just happened over the years to to understand was it something where it was because of the way that the seasons went and or when it was time to harvest crops or something like that like something that was you know that kind of drove that is that is that why so I mean this this is not something that I've studied um but
089I know that school schedules definitely depend on local agricultural or economic conditions so um I'm I'm I work with a superintendent who's in Colorado Colorado has you know a couple of cities that that we're all aware of but most of the dist districts are Rural and they the state of Colorado has a a day requirement um and no other requirements and the number of days is very small it's like 150 or 145 or something and they have districts that start that that never stop that sort of just go around um you know they have District right and you know when we think about uh there's been good re very good research about student about you know what we call learning loss which is sort of um it's not a great term it's really um you
090know a lack of advantages that that certain families have the when students who are economically disadvantaged are compared against their non-economically disadvantaged peers and you look at the growth that they make over the school year they tend to make as much if not more growth on academic um metrics than uh than their e than their economically advantaged peers H when you look at the difference between spring testing or summer testing whatever it might be and fall testing the loss of learning or that Gap is exacerbated tremendously because folks that have you know educated parents that do all sorts of um educational activities over the summer and do all sorts of reading or research or whatever it might be those students actually gain knowledge and so there's a there's a net benefit for them in the
091summer and for students that don't have that kind of background or those types of experiences they actually decrease in their knowledge and you know typically when you come back for fall testing you see this very clearly so it is the gap between the end of the school year and the beginning of the school year that creates this now I'm not saying that we can solve this because whether we start in August and we end in in June or we start in September and we end in June we're still going to have you know a 10we summer break in New Jersey but when we think about what's really causing you know this issue the issue of equity is I mean it is largely a calendaring issue um as much is as it is you know a
092Confluence of other factors when we think about formal instruction that precedes State Testing if the school district is measured against districts that are within the same state that are that where kids have had two weeks more instruction prior to a certain test or across a across the country where folks have had a month more instruction or six weeks more instruction that is a significant issue disadvantage yeah significant disadvantage so so I think that that it helps me see that a little bit clearer yeah and I mean again I recognize that there are all sorts of things that are challenging about calendars you know I'm a parent and my my kids schedules are never the same as my schedules and I always started earlier um and I love August it's the best month um but I'm
093also willing to you know recognize that as the superintendent it's my job to try to put out a calendar that serves students the best um we can never create a calendar that will meet the needs of everybody we can also never create a calendar that's going to meet the schedules of everybody because we have folks that live in 75 dist different districts across the state all of whom have different calendars so um when we think about trying to figure out a North star for the calendar development I think a good North Star is just try to get in as many instructional days as possible meaningful instructional days before the spring recognizing that there are also needs that staff members have in terms of professional development and wellness and days off um for mental health and
094those sorts of things um that we can accommodate so I think that these two calendars represent the start to that conversation um certainly willing to uh look forward to having some more conversation with the association about this and obviously board members as you continue to look at your um at the calendars a little bit more closely I look forward to your feedback as well um I'm in agreement with what was said earlier about that week in November um I've taught where the week was broken up with having the Monday and then the Wednesday uh that's a really no teaching going on um some teachers try but there is a lot of absences and then a lot of teachers show film um not much learning is going on when you only have two days that's broken
095up with a day in the middle so I'm in agreement with that full week off in November yeah I think so too okay thank you both okay and I think I see that we're seventh New Jersey overall in AP exam out of the 50 states seventh ranked out of the other states and AP exams yes we're also the what second wealthiest third wealthiest state in the in the country by median income yeah yes good all right great discussion great discussion on the calendar so uh I guess more more to discuss more information together more to do but a great first initial discussion so at this time uh so that uh we don't uh get stay here till breakfast um moving on to um item number um 11 uh our education action items uh looking for
096motion to approve 11 a through e as an Edward uh to a block as as a block motion to approve a through e as a block second second okay open for questions and comments okay last call okay uh Mr Ross could you please call the role yep Mr Anderson yes Miss condet yes Dr gendrano yes uh Mrs Shep yes Mr trada yes motion passes okay moving along item number 12 uh Personnel um I will will uh ask Mrs Shep to walk us through uh 12a the Personnel committee report please sure is your mic on oh there we go uh the Personnel committee met on December 12th present were Dr Jano Mr Anderson Mr Ross and myself um and we discussed a number of items including discussions about the structure of the 2024 2025 District calendar
097potential changes to the organizational structure of the district due to the preschool expansion requirements the federal government's covid-19 testing kit distribution program for school districts and a number of confidential items okay thank you Mr chap uh moving on to 12b policy and regulations review uh um guess back to you Mr Ross yeah thank you Dr Jano so nothing different here um I know that uh I think Mr Anderson you had some some comments about the right of privacy policy uh yes um I don't have it open in front of me uh but some of the warning um it said uh that's okay basically it it said uh dealing with uh filming um what what can we constitutionally say about what people can and cannot film in public property MH as far as First Amendment rights
098yep okay all right and that's a that's a concern I can certainly reach out to to Joe roselli about that and it was in all of them it but it was um I can't remember yeah 3324 and 4324 but it wasn't in the actual policy itself it said uh there was another word in between recommended or optional optional okay okay yeah we can certainly look into that so again just take a look at those policies and reg regulations and we'll talk more about them in January okay um any other comments guys okay so moving on to uh um looking for a motion to approve 13A through o um just to I think there was a update I think right for o yeah that's right and let me just make sure I got that yeah n
099N15 and O were updated yes since the original agenda was put out that's right just so you guys know that it was an update uh N15 was added and O was added okay ask for a motion again so uh just to ask again we have a motion to approve 13 a through o as a block move a through o as a block second okay open for questions and comments with this um position for the supervisor of early childhood education um I think you put a uh like a a map of who this person is going to answer to in uh the notes um that's item H yeah the updated or chart yes um just to clarify when this person is hired then there will be no need for the other two directors to be involved
100directly like this this new person will answer to them so no they said no that's not the that's not what the mapping said it said yes that's right so I so I'll explain it first let me just make a note that on N15 the dates listed are incorrect uh board members I sent you a message about the updated agenda um but those dates should be February 11th to the 19th not the 12th to the 26th so just make a note of that we'll make a note of that for the um for the the vote so the uh supervisor of early childhood education is a position that we've been having some conversation about this is related primarily to our preschool expansion Aid the Pea requires that there be a program director um when the aid is
101is gathered by a district currently in our program we have three class rooms um and they're all in Faber and so we made the decision that we did not need a director immediately um and so the board approved a stipend for Miss dra drapkin and a stipend for Dr santanello and that was included in the budget proposal that we put out to the state with the onboarding of two outside providers we have made the determination that we will need another administrative position to be created so that someone can out of the class out of the buildings um for some amount of time and also do work inside the buildings and so that position has been created as a supervisor position um in the org chart which is listed as item H that position reports directly
102to the director of curriculum and instruction um as it's essentially an arm of that position uh I have spoken with Mr tenant about this uh the the sort of the reporting lines and obviously that person will have sort of a do Ed line to Mr tenant because the preschool teachers that are in the building report to Mr tenant um for evaluation purposes but this position um in trying to sort of conceive of the best way to approve it originally it could have been an assistant principal or it could have been a director it could have been a supervisor determined that a supervisor position reporting to the director of curriculum was the best way to move forward and the funding for this position is built into the Pea so it's it's a it's no additional uh
103cost to the district to create this position um but what we've determined we could do is hire the position during the current school year so that we have you know assuming we have a you know a hiring process that uh we advertise let's say tomorrow it takes us sometime through mid January latest January we would have someone who could start in the district either then if it's someone who's internal um or shortly after if they you know have a teaching position that needs to be filled build or um by March um and that would give us three full months to have an additional administrator on staff to be able to do a lot of the transition planning we can pay for that through the ARP Grant the federal ARP Grant so again that wouldn't affect
104our uh General operating budget um so it's just a way to spend the ARP funds in a way that's really providing a lot of value for the district and when that person comes on board whether that's you know sort of immediate or if it's in March at that time Mr trapkin and Dr santinello would not be needed uh any longer as the sort of directors of the preschool um and so their stipend would end at that time so they would receive a pro-rated portion of what was approved and this is good because then in September the new person can just hit the ground running because they're already familiar with yes yeah and and really in July but yeah that's exactly right yeah so this provides us I think with a lot of benefit um we
105also I mean there's new uh English language arts and math standards that have to be uh implemented into new curriculum K12 we've got a lot of other program imple implementation things happening and the supervisor of early childhood education would spend probably something like 75 80% of their time doing preschool and some other portion of their time um working as part of the transition which is part of preschool expansion into kindergarten in first grade and so there's a you know really building that continuity so getting kids early in the district as many kids as possible giving them a really meaningful educational experience in preschool to the extent that we can and then setting them off on the right foot once they hit uh kindergarten and and first grade right okay so other questions comments I'll just
106say um you know just recognizing the resignation of Kelly Cedar um misser has been um an asset to Faber Elementary uh certainly she'll be missed um on the the up the up side of this is um I believe that she received she got a full-time position with the burrow working in Recreation so we congratulate her on that obviously we'll miss her in the district but we wish her the best of luck and I know that she'll be still working very closely with the district RCT on a lot of things so and uh I'll just add my my usual plug that I I love the fact that there there's a staff travel for for professional development I I do indeed appreciate that I think that's great um okay so any other L any other less common
107questions okay so Mr Ross could you please please call the rooll I just um can I just have the information about the motion I miss I missed that okay and who is the second and Le second sorry okay no that's my fault thank you um Mr Anderson yes Miss Condit yes Dr gendrano yes Mrs Shep yes Mr trada yes motion passes okay wonderful thank you uh moving on to uh item 14 operation discussion uh operations and the discussion items they in and the operations committee report I'll turn it over to uh Mrs Condit the operations committee met on December 14 present where Mr Walker Mr Ross Mr Pepe and myself we discussed a number of items including updates on many construction projects ongoing throughout the uh District discussions about the structure of the 2024 2025
108District calendar an update on the status of the district's audit for the 2022 2023 school year Grant applications that the district is pursuing related to improve improving cyber security contracts and other items that appear on tonight's board agenda and a variety of confidential matters okay thank you Mrs conted so uh moving on to item 15 operations action items um looking for a motion uh to approve um 15a through just go can we just go the board me board meeting calendar just real quick oh sorry that's okay I did not see that and and I realized it's not attached um but there's no changes from what was put forth in the committee agendas and what we discussed last time in public so um I'll just go through them since it since there's no attachment just for
109the public record um obviously we have our reorganization meeting on the 2nd our first public meeting after that would be January 30th and then it's pretty much a 3-we cycle February 20th March 12th which would be the tenative budget presentation April 16th May 7th which is the public budget hearing and also meeting on uh non-tenured staff members May 28th June 11th July 23rd August 27th September 24th October 15th which is moved back a week because the school board's convention is the week of the 22nd and then November 19th because Thanksgiving is very late this year it's the 28th and then the last meeting of the year would be December 17th and actually realized that we will need to set the reorg meeting also for 2025 on this calendar yes so I'll make that change and
110we'll have that ready to present for approval on the January 2nd meeting okay I was going to say since this since 2024 is early I think that probably will be push back a day or two I don't know yeah it's a leap year oh right so yeah I'll bets are off okay right now moving on to item 15 um so looking for a motion to approve 15 a through U as block so moved he said so move not Zeus we need a second we need a second anyone second okay open for questions and comments uh I'm sorry Mr Ross did you say there was two meetings in January yes January 2nd reorg and then January 30th would be the second me meeting and there won't be any committee meetings that month or there will be
111committee there would be meetings before the January 30th meeting okay yeah but not before reorg okay all right questions comments guys and just to u to note item U was one that was added at the last at the last minute in the updated agenda that was an agreement an additional agreement for out of District placement okay uh last call questions comments All right so let's go ahead and vote um Mr Ross could you please call the role yep Mr Anderson yes Miss condet yes Dr gendrano yes uh Mrs Shep yes Mr tra yes motion passes okay wonderful now moving on to uh section 16 okay so topics of the board as a whole action items yeah you want to yeah sure okay so um at this time we're going to move on to 15a and
112I'm going to read this uh resolution uh which we will then uh vote on um just get this up here okay in my big boy voice resolved uh upon the recommendation of the superintendent uh the Dillan Board of Education recognizes and thanks Gerard tra for his service to the dellan board of education and the dellan school Community whereas Gerard trada has always been mindful of the interests of the dellan Board of Education and has worked tirelessly to advance the quality of our schools and whereas Gerard tra has faithfully and with honor integrity and great distinction served the denan Board of Education as a board member for the last seven years resolved that the denan Board of Education formally acknowledges and extends its profound appreciation to Gerard troter for his service and dedication to the dellan
113board of education and Mr Ross if you will yeah so in recognition Mr trada of your dedication and service to the Board of Education I'd like to present you with this uh this plaque or whatever this is it's not a plaque it's a momento uh for and recognition of the time uh your dedication to the students staff uh and board and um [Applause] congratulations pass resolution a motion in a second yes so as as this is um um a resolution to be passed um I would look we need um a motion as well as a second motion to approve second questions or comments discussion discussion anyone jard I'll just Echo everybody in saying thank you so much and we we hope you start to enjoy your Tuesday evenings in a different way thank you so
114uh before going to the vote I I just wanted to to mention as well um Gerard that um unfortunately you know rich and Dave and Lisa couldn't be here but rich and Dave did send uh some notes for me to read that's okay so from uh from Rich prep he's on he's he's watching us so if you want to wave hey Rich sorry you got sick so I he said um excuse me I regret not being able to attend tonight's board meeting having come down with a cold rest assure that I'll be watching from home and taking notes so the minutes will be ready for the next meeting smiley face as the calendar year comes to a close I want to thank you all for all all you do for the D students and Greater
115Community I especially want to thank Mr trada for his service as this will be his last board meeting it was a pleasure working with you and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors and and uh Rich also wishes everyone a happy and healthy holiday and looks forward to seeing you all in January and then from Mr walker uh Gerard I'm sorry I can't be here tonight for your last meeting please know that I've enjoyed working with you these last two years I appreciate your Insight and willingness to put the hours in especially when we had the privilege of working on hiring a new superintendent and during the last round of negotiations if you understand the time and dedication that this position entails but you are one of those few enjoy your new
116found free time and I hope to see you in the audience soon very unlikely thank you both appreciate your words and say the um yeah please everything you want to say before we vote no again just like I said it's been you know an honor and privilege serving on the board these last seven years I mean obviously a lot of effort you know that we all put in volunteering our time but it's it's worth and it's very good cause and you know hopefully we continue to get you know Vol volunteers to step up and serve the community so appreciate you know pleas your relationships have built with you all and it's been an experience this is really about the time it cuts into your softball playing isn't it some hockey I did miss quite a
117few softball Tuesday night sof over the last years must have so it'll be nice to get a full season in this year yeah all right and uh no so sir all right so um I guess the only other thing now is to call the role yep uh Mr Anderson yes Mrs Condit yes Dr gendrano um yes absolutely Mrs Shep yes Mr CH this is uh this vote does not confer any material benefit on you so I believe that it is not a conflict of interest for you to vote I'll abstain you can't you can't abstain we don't we won't have a we won't have a quorum we won't have Quorum we won't have a yes vote we'd have to take the motion passes You' have to take the plaque back man we wouldn't that's right
118you'd have to stay on for another some number of years another seven okay so um and um since we are one one last item in topics of the board as a whole that I just want to mention um uh something where um um just to update the group one so some of you have made new business oh that's new business oh then we'll move on to new business we'll take that new business then so let's close out um 16 topics for the board as a whole and move on to 17 uh old business any old business you want to bring up okay I'm taking that as a no and 18 uh new business so now I have now now it's something I just mentioned too um so um I think some of you may have
119know known that both uh uh M mimp and I have been representing the the board of education on the mayor's uh cannabis task force over the last two years and I wanted to update you on that um last night we uh I guess the culmination of two years of research um um interviews surveys data Gathering lots and lots of discussions lot of Articles um and uh we provided as a task force our recommendation to the council regarding um uh the Cannabis uh regarding having academist business in dellan and um I had the privilege of delivering the presentation um leaving up I can which slides of which I can share at a at a later time in our committee meetings if you're interested or publicly you'll probably see them in the noan B website pretty soon
120um but the um to cut straight to the chase the the overarching um or the the recommendation again this is not a binding recommendation this is one that we provide to the council and the council will decide to act on it but the recommendation that we brought forth to the council was was essentially based on the information that we had gathered um the risks in starting or having um academist business in in dellan at this time appeared to outweigh the benefits that um a reeven a business of that type would would would provide for the town and the task force recommended to continue to opt out of having a cannabis business in town we also agreed to um continue to monitor if data will change over the course of the next few years perhaps the
121equation will will will change and provide uh additional um I don't know uh maybe change that change the uh uh the recommendation but at this time uh we recommended to the council to uh continue to op continue to opt out um having a cannabis business in town so um with that um questions let's open it up to questions or comments anything you got anything you guys want to talk about or hear about from those discussions you said the presentation's online or it will be I think it will be okay if not I can get it if you could share it with the board I think that' be helpful yeah yes um and the presentation actually takes into account also the all the survey data that was done prior to that as well great nice big
122deck yeah excellent so and uh thank the the Cannabis task force commission for or the task force for for going through that and um you know if other updates uh come up I did uh um put in a request to continue to monitor um quarterly by anually whatever the whatever it is um so that we can continue to assess this but that is a recommendation and uh wanted to make sure you were aware of that and at this time we move to item 19 uh president's remark marks and I think I just had a few last words you know to say here and um yeah as we as we reflect on 2023 I I think it's fair to say that it has been a heck of a year and we've accomplished a great many things
123uh we've had a good bit of change and I'm I am excited by all the possibilities that those changes bring especially the ones that move our district further forward and I I cannot wait to see what what next year brings I'm really excited um board members a rare opportunity here any last remarks to uh to make before we we wind down uh 2023 all right and with that um I'll be wishing everyone I wish everyone a happy healthy and peaceful holiday and we'll see you at roron 2024 so moving on to item 20 uh public comments on any issue any topic uh the board invites public comment on any issue topic for members of our community in accordance with board policy 0167 public comment sections are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the
124public to express themselves on school matters of community interest the board and administration will be taking notes during public comment but will not provide substantive responses to questions or concerns raised by the individual speakers if necessary the superintendent May provide a brief response after the entire public comment period is completed the board appreciates and welcomes feedback from the community but is not at Liberty to engage in a back and forth dialogue with members of the public during this portion of the meeting prior to making your public comment please state your name and municipality please note that all statements must be directed to the presiding officer please come to the microphone at this time if you would like to make comments on any issue or any topic hello an North dellan first of all I'd like
125to thank you for your kind words again and wish you the best jard again it's been a long time and a lot of work I appreciate everything you've done apprciate and it's been a pleasure working with you and the kids um just on the topic of your preschool program that's coming up I may be leaving but my heart's still here and Mr Ross and I had a conversation about this I know it's not in the rags which I have an issue with and I would love to get Governor Murphy and whoever else put the program together there's no nurse mentioned Miss mcmanis and I are almost at our capacity of what's suggested by the education and nursing as far as well kids well they never make an inclusion number for how many unwell kids or
126medically needy kids and we have a good mix of both Friday's My Last Day wish I could change it but it'll really mess things up for me we don't have a replacement yet and as I've mentioned you need more than one you're going to need one for the prek program or at least a half of one plus my replacement and I'm just here to say consider that now because nurses are not easy to get especially in schools because of the salaries so it's a really big issue so just something to consider for the future and I wish you all a happy holiday thank you thank you thank you Mr North any other questions comments sorry comments one of those okay all right so we will move along to item 22 yes item 20 sorry item
12721 Executive session we do not need one at this point so we will move on to item 22 which is adjournment move to adjourn isn't let anybody beat me second all those in favor all those in favor I I hi opposed all right see you guys in what it's 94 what are we doing right yeah oh God and uh while I have the microphone on just to mention guys I have cupcakes if you guys want cupcakes my wife made them