001I thought she said she she looks like she's 15. Avery, how long were you with us? What do you mean? You're going to be here for all till like halfway till next year, right? Yeah. Yeah. Excellent. I thought maybe you'd be about to leave here and say, "You know what? I've had enough." No, you can't get rid of me that soon. I'm with you for the foreseeable future. All right, excellent. Ying Liu, I thought you were a student when you walked in. You look so young. You guys good to go over there? Is that yes to you or yes to No, that's yes to Kate. Are you ready? Okay. Perfect. All right, y'all ready? Peter, you're ready? Okay. Okay. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for coming. Um in accordance with the requirements of the Open
002Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231, P.L. 1975 announcement, I wish to announce that the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the School District of the Chathams Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place thereof posted in the Board Administrative Offices, posted on the district's website, sent to the clerks of Chatham Borough and Chatham Township, the library of the Chathams, the Chatham Courier, the Daily Record, and TAP into my news. Mr. DeQuilla. Sure. Ms. Ross. Here. Ms. Allen. Here. Mr. Delsandro. Here. Ms. Peck. Mr. Mr.
003Ryan. Mr. Smith. Ms. Weber. Here. Dr. Zhang. Here. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Here. Seven present and accounted for. Perfect. Uh please join us for the Pledge of Allegiance if you are able. Flag is to my left. What's that? 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. All right. So, I'd like to um on the reorg portion of the agenda, move the agenda items A1 to A16. I'll second it. Agenda item reorg, annual appointments A1 through A16. Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Mr. Wright. Uh Ms. Weber. Ms. Weber. Yes. Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Passes 7-0. Okay, perfect. Um and then I'd like to move the annual motions and
004designations agenda items B1 to B39. Second that. Wait, can I ask a question? Hold on. Yes. You said so A17 through A the rest of the A's are not part of the reorg? No, that's separate. The Okay, separate. That's on the regular agenda. it. Okay. Okay. It's a lot. Uh the annual appointments of B1 through B39. Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Yes. Dr. Dr. Zhang. Yes. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Agenda items pass 7-0. Perfect. Um and then I would like to move the um agenda item C1 for the appoint of the standing committees on the reorg portion. Second. Thank you. Agenda item C1 for the standing committees. Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Dr. Zhang. Yes. And Ms.
005Ciccarelli. Yes. Agenda items pass 7-0. Perfect. Um okay, so now moving on to our regularly scheduled programming. Um I don't really have any additional comments except that I'd like to congratulate Ms. Weber on her 15 years of being on the board. Quite an accomplishment. [applause] Thank you for your countless hours and your undivided support. Don't go anywhere. Um okay, moving on to administrative reports. Emily. Dr. Fortunato, sorry. So, tonight is the will be potentially the approval of the final budget with the 5.99% tax increase. It was approved by the county office and it will be up for review tonight. Uh TEDx will occur on June 11th and the theme for this year is pathways, how children might take different pathways where they eventually land and it I can tell you that it's phenomenal so far
006and we're all looking forward to it. Mr. Heap, you'd want to know TEDx is on June 11th. You just missed it. Mhm. Um thank you to the PTO for the refresh of the front hallway bathrooms. They look incredible and we're very grateful for their support. Congratulations to the cast and crew of Chicago the musical at CHS and Adams Family at CMS. Both of them were phenomenal performances. I cannot believe how talented all of the children are and I cannot thank the teachers, the cast, the crew, everyone who was involved in it. Thank you, so much. It was great. Uh comfort bags were created for local hospitals by teachers at Lafayette. The CHS concert performance was phenomenal. Meg Lemley did a wonderful job preparing all of the students and integrating a variety of students with different
007needs into a really special night. So, thank you. Take your child to work day was a huge success throughout the district. Uh kids were at every single age level um you know, classroom experience. Meg Simone at CHS did a whole host of activities for kids to experience. And quite frankly, it was a really nice community event and was phenomenal to see how our Chatham students took care of the students that came to experience the take your child to work day. So, thank you to everyone for making that such a great day. The Blackwell art show is currently in Morristown and 12 CHS students received accolades for their pieces. The NAMM Foundation awarded the district with the one of the best communities for music education award. Congratulations to CMS students on the Battle of the Books
008um which is a club that's open through sixth through eighth graders. Sixth grade took home third place, seventh grade took home first place, and eighth grade came in fourth. So, congratulations to all the students that participated. And again, thank you to Mrs. Weber for your 15 years of service to the district, to the students, staff, and families. We are endlessly grateful for your support and leadership. Thank you. Wow, some crazy accomplishments. I just want to add um I was unable to see the middle school production, but I saw some clips of it. Looked amazing, but the Chicago was outrageous. And um for those that well, most of you are unaware, but um I was able to secure a good luck video from Whitney Levitt who plays Roxy Hart in Chicago on Broadway right now for
009the cast and the crew, and they were so grateful, and it was so cute, and they were just thrilled. Yeah. So, she wished them well, and they knocked it out of the park. I actually sent her a little video from the um from the production, and she said she was wildly impressed. So, yeah. So, yeah, that was exciting. Um okay, moving on to the business administrator's report. I don't have anything as joyful as all of those things. [laughter] Just want to note that for the uh spring of bus evacuation drills, uh April 21st was the drill for uh Southern Boulevard and Washington Avenue School. April 22nd was both uh CMS and Lafayette, and on April 23rd, it was the high school. Uh and all of the projects that are all of the capital projects that
010are being approved in the budget tonight are being finalized. Uh so, all of construction can be planned and completed over the summer. That's all I have. Perfect. Um okay, for our student liaison, Avery Rock. Hi guys. Um so, I just want to start off by saying that our baseball team is off to a really great start. Um they're continuing to build momentum as they head further into their season. Um we also have AP testing coming up. Um so, best of luck to all the students that are preparing. We also had J Prom last Thursday, which I had a blast. So, yeah, I know, it was awesome. The venue was beautiful. We had a ton of fun. Dancing was definitely a popular activity. Um and then again, our spring musical, it was like every time I
011drove past that high school, the parking lot was filled to the brim. So, looked very professional. Congrats to all the students that participated. Um and then take your child to work day, one of my favorite days of the school year, I have to have to be honest. They are so cute to see all the little ones running around. Um and then lastly, we had our French exchange students that visited. They were so much fun to be around. Um one of my close friends actually hosted a girl, and she was just like a copy and paste of exactly what we love to be around. So, yeah, that was amazing. So, that's all I have, but yeah. Thank you. Susan had one of those exchange students herself. I did, and I just want to um also acknowledge
012that the French teacher here at the high school that um is one of the sponsors of the exchange program, uh Madame Caulfield, is going to be presented an award this summer in France for promoting her relations between the two countries because of the ongoing I think she's been doing this for something like 15 years, and yeah, it was a really amazing experience to have them. And um their English is better than my French. So, [laughter] That's awesome. Perfect. Um okay, moving on to committee reports for personnel, Ms. Weber. Uh great. Thank you, Anne. Uh most of it was administrative items. Um just optimizing resources as we had to unfortunately for economic reasons not have some staff return. So, we're trying to not we, Sarah and the and the administrative team. Um so, it has some
013of our transfers, some of it is just um movement around. There's also some extra duty stipends for teachers that are filling in, you know, taking on [clears throat] a sixth period. So, it was mostly administrative moving around. Perfect. And you meet again on the 8th of May, correct? Yes, that's correct. Thank you. May 8th. May 8th, is that right? May 6th? May 6th. 6th. May 6th. Wednesday, May 6th. Okay. Perfect. Um curriculum, Ms. Ross. Um we did not meet in April, but just to reiterate, we will be meeting in about a few two weeks um on May 6th as well. Okay. Uh finance and facilities. Uh I can do it. Okay. Great. Thank you. Um so, finance met and the big topic was of course the budget, uh the tuition rate, but now now that
014we're putting that sad story behind us, um as we've been talking about a referendum, so we're going to have to get a little bit more um serious and give the administration some actual direction on what we want to put at the top of the list. Um certainly the two turf fields we've been talking about forever. Those have become to the point where they're dangerous, so it's not even a want, it's a it's a need. Um that's why we had to limit um access to Haas because it's they're just getting so beat up. Not not not damaged, it's just use. Um nobody's doing anything nefarious there. So, it's the two Haas fields, it's the um middle school addition of six classrooms. There are restroom renovations. I think Dr. Sortino sent out some horrific pictures in our
015packet of those restrooms. I don't know that I would let my dog go in one of them. Um and also the intercom systems at Lafayette and middle middle school um Milton Avenue School. So, I think what the finance committee is asking the rest of the board here is are we okay to move forward, get prices, and then then we have to pick a time when we want to do this. Um Peter, you reminded the finance committee you know, how much lead time you need for a particular month, um say November, for example. Yes. Uh for November, you need to be finalized uh basically last week. Last week. And everything sent to the uh uh the county and the and the state already. So, we will not make November 25. I mean, sorry, November 26. Okay.
016So, the next is April? Um we can April is definitely doable. That's the the DOE to receive everything by the September 22nd. That's the next available time, right? Well, that's I mean, they they the referendums can be voted on six times a year. So, it's usually uh uh so, it's six months. The DOE has to have everything called six months in advance. Okay, but if we do it in April, we incur the cost of that election, correct? Yes. Which is like $20,000-ish? Correct. Okay. Um but if we do it in November of 27, As long as there's a regular election, none. No cost. Okay. So, so the Cougar fields uh Cougar and Haas, they're basically a million each. The six classrooms is about 8 million. The the restroom renovations, we need to have the architect
017or some professional come in and and and assess on how bad they are and what it would take to fix those up. Um but I did I just want to make sure that the board agrees that we need to start at least putting some package together with some prices, and then we have to decide a date. You know, do we do it in April, or do we wait until the following November? And we also had to decide how we structure it. And Peter, 15 years later, I should remember this. I know you can make some contingent on, you know, if number one passes, then you can go on to number two. If number two fails, the rest fail can everything stand stand alone? Any any item can stand alone. Okay, so we have six items,
018they could all stand alone. turf fields is one question, the middle school addition, the second question, restroom renovations, a question. I would lump the two intercom systems together, personally. That would be my suggestion. So, any project can stand alone, or you can say, I really need uh the turf fields and the middle school addition, then everything else is a second, third, or fourth question, however we want to structure it. So, how does that go? Are there just basically yeses against nos, or nos against yeses as to which which ones get picked and and chosen? You mean from a vote standpoint? Yeah, just It's just like if you if you Majority 2,000 people voted, you you had, you know, 999 nos and 1,001 yeses, then it goes. Yes, that's correct. There you go. Yeah, most wins
019most votes wins. There you go. Um so, we have to think of after we get the prices and think about how do we want to structure it. I mean, I actually like what Peter just said that the turf fields and the middle school editions as one question and then add the rest you know on on after that well the intercoms together and then the next the restrooms and then the intercoms so you know if anybody has any additional thoughts on it to clarify November is the only time that which we're too late for for this year that we do not incur the cost of the vote there's no other primary or any other time where the I don't have the full election schedule but there is I don't know what the primary is in June
020that's not one of the referendum target dates unfortunately and then can I ask a question in terms of timing if if we wait until November of 2027 then in terms of the turf fields or any of the work when would that work take place so when are we thinking it would actually be completed this summer of because the turf fields need to be done in the summer they fly them from various places throughout the country and everything in a school needs to be done when students are not there correct especially because sports are being played on those fields so in order to have it done the summer of 2027 we would have to pay the election fee in April in April tax day that's correct so can we build that into the budget because I
021feel like we can't argue that the turf fields are in such disrepair I mean they are a locked right now correct in terms of I mean I I've seen some rumblings in the community but they are being ill used by dog mass and people just trampling over that so climbing fences and so we put the election cost in the budget as well I suppose I see what you're saying I mean April you know to Kate's point April would be better because otherwise we're looking at 2028 and the fields are dangerous now I mean we're we're at a point where there somebody's going to tear an ACL if they haven't already I mean it is they are in rough rough shape they're way beyond their their their life span although then if we did it if
022we voted next April this would it people would be coming to the polls just to vote on this that's correct which would probably have very low turnout I would assume probably there would have to be a large campaign for given a presidential election only gets 30% of the vote out I can imagine it'll be lower than that right I mean it's ridiculous that the people everybody doesn't vote drives me nuts you know don't let a hundred people make the decision right hypothetically if we vote in April does that give us enough time to actually start the work and secure the contracts that we need for the summer of 2027 most likely if we're going to vote I would presume the community will support the referendum for the turf fields so the contractor could be notified
023that hey this is this is our plan and once the spring season ends for lacrosse and track they can start working on the fields it'll just not be available until the summer does it go out to bid unless we can find a state contracted or a co-op vendor yes and I believe there are co-op vendors for turf fields okay so we've already gone out with RFPs on the turf fields would vendors lock in prices before a vote for my assumption is right we don't know what will happen given oil prices and whatnot to the price of turf so how at risk are we of this project becoming 10 15% more than it is right now when the architect cost out the project he always leaves a contingent contingency and so far the all of the
024projects we've done have come under budget or under the estimate what we budget for or what we plan on so for example when we would draw from capital reserve you know a billion dollars to do a roof if the roof comes in at 925 75,000 goes back to capital reserve the referendum based on the bond council can get worded that any um any funds left over from the let's say five approved projects go automatically to pay the debt or they don't float the full value of the bond or it can say that that can be put into capital reserve it can depend on how you want to word it or what you want to do with the funds but I can tell you the price will increase and most likely the vendors will not lock
025in the pricing and I say that because we're ordering all of the Chromebooks for the upcoming school year now we're doing that because in between like March 29th and April 1st the prices went up approximately 20% vendors are starting to cancel purchase orders because they'll lose money on fulfilling devices so to your point Sally the price will go up okay and one last question sorry for all the questions I know that finance committee will work this out but is there do we need to bundle Haas and Cougar Field together as a title nine issue because one's a women's you need to do you need to bundle them together for two reasons they both were installed at the same time so they're both ready for a refresh you have boys primarily playing at Cougar and girls
026primarily playing at Haas because Cougar's not lined appropriately for girls sports which was a mistake when the fields were installed so for title nine you need to do both fields at the same time but you also need to do both fields at the same time for efficiency in cost because they're flying the crew in they're bringing all the machinery in and the equipment it's cheaper it would be like I don't know I know they gave us a number but it would be significantly more expensive to do the two fields at two separate times because they'd be flying in the equipment and the crew two times rather than in one shot right great I know there's also been a lot of talk about putting a turf field on the front area of Cougar Field has that
027been priced out and do we know how much that would cost yes significantly more than one million dollars I think it was six million dollars last time we talked about it we have a quote for it but it's really the drainage that becomes the issue and then there are environmental concerns that are associated with Cougar both for the drainage piece and my understanding is there were some type of turtles that were discovered and that is partly why Cougar is not the parking lot is not paved because of the water runoff and the environmental impact the turtles in the back [laughter] I read that in high school but that's the back field what about the front practice field that we still got a quote for it but it's significantly expensive and the state the architects had
028just notified us as well that there's also new regulations regulations associated with like drainage requirements associated with permanent structures and they have made those requirements more stringent and more expensive meaning that it'll be more expensive and more difficult to get approved a new turf field will cost about six million dollars I don't have the quote in front of me so I don't want to say six but originally they were going to be like three cuz they were talking about back here as well it was going to be like three million here and three million there and then all of a sudden it went to 12 million this is right after the pandemic if I remember it was like four years ago three years ago it went from six million for both fields to 12 million
029for both fields like quickly yeah and to Emily's point because of the lot coverage of permanent structures it's likely would not be approved regardless of whether we were sitting on the money no way so it's just it takes up too much of the ground coverage at the Cougar Field complex as a permanent structure as shocking as it is turf grass is a and the current parking lot are called impervious surfaces where the water just drains through them even though the water drains through a turf field it is not considered an impervious surface for whatever reason really cuz it's brought somewhere and there is plenty of drainage but on the way it all feeds in taken elsewhere and I'm going to feel better just stating the obvious our fields get a tremendous amount of use not
030from the high school but from the community as it should the community pays for it but for example Delbarton uses their football field for Delbarton's five home games and then practice and then it's never gets used again until the next fall their baseball fields get used by that it's not the high school you know getting as much use of it it's the community so that's why we go through these fields it should only last eight to 10 we're on we're beyond that but I just want to remind everybody it's not just for the high school not just for the middle school the entire community pre-K you know and beyond uses all of our fields so again it's not just a school thing it's a community thing okay really amateur question here would we ever reconsider
031going back to sod I like grass very expensive to maintain and would be a significant project to dig out all of there's underneath the turf Is infill it's called a tremendous amount of it that was permanently installed there for the turf fields. In addition you would limit the amount of play time that would be on grass because it would it would limit it even further. To cut to add to the play time anytime it rained and the field was wet there'd be no sports and I could guarantee you no matter how hard we work at it the certain areas of the field will just be dirt patches no matter what or they'll start football season as grass and they'll be ripped up after week two and you'll be playing in mud. That's more dangerous. Right.
032So we're on agreement we're going to forge ahead and then start to come up with a structure. Yes. Yes. Emily do you need anything else from us at this point? Not at this time. Thank you. Okay. Okay. I think that was it. All right. There we go. So that was finance and facilities. Moving on to policy and planning. Anybody here on policy? Policy did not meet. It has not met. Okay. All right perfect. Anybody have any liaison reports? Uh just one. Uh I was at 38 on April 6th the joint rec committee met. Biggest topics were there's a non-profit called play it forward marrying with the helping hands trying to start a scholarship fund for K-8 sports through the rec department but they want to do it they want to start uh a charitable organization
033to collect monies for those who simply can't afford to play rec sports and so you're going to have to look for events coming uh coming in the future for raising funds. They I think they wanted us to try to marry that into the school district if that's even possibly possible but it I think there was like there was two high school kids there so and I forget the kids names. It was a young man who played football and a young lady who played lacrosse and this is what they were looking to do. So I said sure I think I I don't see why that would not be possibility. It's a great cause. The other things were they were talking about lump field again lighting lump field and a group of folks showed up call on
034a group there was two of them. The chat They were they were they they were not happy. They were the Chatham Borough Neighborhood Association. They were not happy about the lights and they were worried about the you know just like last time you know the lights they have there now they want to permanently light it. And so that was their their gripe is we don't want that but borough the borough is moving forward with that so um That's borough property. It's the the rec department is doing that so Yes. Plus they were talking about uh looking oh there was one of the question there Peter recently they put um sod they resodded ST S field correct? I'm sorry. Southern Boulevard Southern Boulevard field was resodded by Chatham United not put sod they uh soccer association
035made a day no a donation to hire the landscaper that's been or the field management company that's been working on the baseball fields and the softball fields to work on the field and plant and plant grass and it is taking nicely and they've been very happy with the upper field. I was working at a house right behind it the other day like last couple months ago it looks beautiful. The question was do they have plans on does the school district have plans on maintaining it? We are doing our best with cutting and in the fall we seed and in the spring we seed. Okay that's it. They just wanted to know how is it that's perfect. Just like we do with the current grass fields. All right. I think that's about it. That was it
036for that. Can I ask a different question? Yes you may you can ask any question you want. Um Dr. Certino and it might be a Dr. Donahue question. I'm talking about evacuation drills. I know I'm completely jumping. I know how there's no bridge don't try and connect it to anything. It's completely unrelated to anything we've talked about. I'm just curious we have to do two a month and do they have to I know I noticed the middle school did a reverse evacuation where they were out and they had to come in. And and that's to test for what? So that's in the event that you have an emergency and when you get outside there's a threat of some kind outside and so you want to teach the kids that in the event that there's an
037issue where everyone has evacuated the building let's say if there was in the worst case scenario a bomb threat of some kind when in reality everyone they wanted everyone to just leave the building so that they had a massive group of students and staff in one place you would do a reverse evacuation to quickly get back into the building to safety. So that is a type of drill that you would do and you have to do two types of drills every single month. Every in every building? Mhm across the district. So Washington had their evacuation drill to a secondary location this morning. Okay. Interesting. Mhm. And then you do like a postmortem to see what Correct. What went well what didn't go well did we think about the kids in the wheelchair that might need
038a different exit? Do we have a um phone in the area where we have an area of respite for you know the fire department to get the kids things like that. Substitutes did they understand what to do? Got you. Okay. Interesting. Okay great. Thank you I I appreciate it. Um when do the kids just cooperate? They're they're so used to it they've done two a month since they were in kindergarten and they Yes we don't talk to them to say like oh there's a bomb threat. What you say is for example if there's a shelter in place we used to say in an elementary school like if there was ever an animal that ran inside we'd want to close our doors to give everyone privacy and most most usually you're going into shelter in place
039because someone in the building is having a medical emergency of some kind and so you can explain that to kids in developmentally appropriate language that doesn't scare them. Um but yes we talk to kids frequently about the drills and how important they are. Got it okay. Last question I promise. Sure. Are there multiple like a plan A and a plan B? Let's say you have to evacuate the building because there's a gas leak on the corner of the middle school closest to Chatham United Methodist but Chatham United Methodist is the meeting spot so then do you just have a like a plan B in every instance? Yes and then there's also a completely separate reunification location that's not publicized. Right okay. Okay great. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Um anything else liaison wise?
040No not for me. No. Sorry. Okay. Cool. Um okay moving on to um I'd like to move the minutes from the March 23rd public session. I can anyone? Second. Thank you. Only Dr. Zang needs to abstain. The minutes from uh the regular meeting on March 23rd. Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Del Sandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Yes. Dr. Zang. Abstain. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Agenda the minutes passed 6-0-1. Perfect. Um okay we have our first opportunity for public comment. Hearing of the citizens during the public commentary section of the agenda is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are or are not topics scheduled for the current meeting. To help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers will be
041asked to limit their comments to a reasonable length of time and if you could please just sign in and state your name that would be great. Good evening. Um thank you to the Board of Education and the administration for all of your hard work during these trying budgetary times in recent months. My name is Candy Hall. I am one of three visual art teachers at Chatham High School. I currently serve as the grant writer for Chatham Education Association via NJEA. The Chatham Education Association is pleased to report that we have returned approximately $34,000 to the community through this year's grants. Every year a portion of our membership dues gets returned through PEP and FAST grants. Some of the events included a fall vaccine fair an Optical Academy Vision Clinic the fall senior citizen dinner after
042the play two district wide local food pantry drives for families in need Lunar New Year performances decorations and a full dinner uh the spring senior citizen dinner after the musical performance which was filled to capacity in a record two days a new game and puzzle library at CHS in response to the bell to bell cell phone mandate. Sorry I'm not so good at this. Custom pallet cookies and water for the district art show refreshments a Key Club Kiwanis food packaging event which provided over 15,000 meals. These grants provide the best opportunity for positive community interaction and to remind our community members that our schools are some of the best in the state in New Jersey because of our caring staff teachers custodians maintainers and secretaries. Speaking of the district art show I would like to
043personally invite the board and the community to attend the district art show on May 18th and 19th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the upper gym at Chatham Middle School. There will be senior citizen hours on May 19th from 10:00 a.m. to noon which will be far less hectic than attending in the evening where we expect more than 5,000 people each evening. We will again have our superintendent choose artworks to adorn the Board of Education conference room for the year 2026-27. Any student work that is chosen will be framed and showcased for the entire year and returned to the artist when the next year's work is chosen. Thank you so much. Am I the only one? Uh good evening. Oh, Bill Heap. Chatham Borough. Uh a few things. First, I did attend the performance of
044Chicago and it was terrific. Uh to my great regret, I don't have a shred of musical or acting talent, but I'm a good audience and I know a great performance when I see one and it's the best entertainment bargain in town. Uh thank you for reminding me about the TED Talk. I will be attending that too. That is also great entertainment and as a matter of fact, I attended the art show last year and there is a tremendous amount of talent uh being showcased at that uh program. And uh I would urge everybody to go to these things. They're just They're just great. Uh and I think I'm here for uh what will turn out to be the highlight of this meeting. Uh I have the uh race t-shirt for this year's Fishawack race. And
045ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're ready for the unveiling because everybody is going to want one of these. Look at that. Come on. This is this year's version out in TV land. I hope you can see that. Uh the race is going to be on June 6th, uh Saturday and you can get one of these by signing up. You will notice the uh 250th theme down at the bottom as well. Um I can remember that I was in Hoboken back in uh 1976, 50 years ago, watching the tall ships go up the Hudson. It seems astounding to me that it's 50 years later, but it is. Uh we only go out and celebrate once every 50 years, so you should come out and run and um have a good time and of course, uh all
046of the proceeds uh go back into town. We just uh finished uh choosing the winner for the scholarships that will be announced shortly and we are also going to have our dinner in June where we will give out the proceeds from our Christmas tree sale and the race. So, stay tuned for that if you will. Um and don't forget to get your t-shirt. Thanks. About actually running. Do we actually have to run to get a t-shirt? Uh no, you can get a t-shirt Okay, perfect. Maybe we'll place a bulk order over here. Yeah. They look great. Thank you. Hi. Um my name is Hillary Secor. Um I have a child in first grade at SBS and an incoming kindergartner. Um and my question is related to uh Chromebooks in the schools, particularly in the elementary
047schools. Um I'm sure all of you are familiar with all the recent scholarship on this issue on this issue on screen time and the effects um you know, on children's development. Um so, I'm I'm trying to understand um number one, what what the district spends uh at least on the elementary level on Chromebooks each year. Um and secondly, what what is the perceived uh benefit of their usage in that age in that age group? Uh any questions at the end of the public comment section, so we'll hold on to that and then when everybody's done speaking, then I'll pass it along to somebody that can answer that for you. Oh, okay, great. Yeah. Which might be right now, quite frankly, but could be immediate. Um Yeah. You can. Sorry. I just wanted to uh plug
048Candace. Thank you for the grants, um but I have to plug the art show. I've been going for decades. I'm showing my age again, but what is so cool about that is when you go in the door closest to the office, it starts out with the younger kids' artwork and as you go toward the far end of the gym, it ex- you know, it it just follows the kids through the years and by the time you get to the the seniors and the AP, you might as well be in the Met in in Manhattan. The I mean, the the artwork is adorable and cute closer to the office, but oh my god, when you see the progression of some of these students, you're going to be blown away. So, please go to the art show.
049This is um really you know, even if you don't have any kids in the school, it is amazing to see the talent. Um again, the progression is cute, but unbelievable the talent. So, thank you to you and your staff. It's just you know, it's it's just such a nice um it's it's such a great art program cuz not everybody's going to be a D1 football player. So, these are skills that you can use in in any industry, in any business. It's great to be able to draw on a whiteboard quickly to illustrate something. Um so, these are just lifelong skills. So, thank you uh Candy to you and your staff and please go to the art show. I'll second that. And then I'm going to pass the Chromebook question over to Dr. Sortino and probably
050Dr. Donahue as well. First of all, I want to thank the CEA and Candy Hall in particular for all of the community events that you have facilitated and hosted. I personally saw you pushing an entire cart of chicken parmesan and getting it in the warming trays and organizing everything for a packed house for Chicago. So, thank you. It's a lot of work and energy and effort and it means a lot to the community. So, thank you. Um and again, the district art show is phenomenal and so are the visual and performing arts teachers throughout the district that work tirelessly to help support our students, teach our students, nurture our students. The board office looks phenomenal because the visual arts and performing arts teachers personally framed all the pieces, helped with the selection process, hung the
051artwork in the office. They want kids to be recognized for the tremendous work they're doing. So, thank you the entire department for always going above and beyond. And thank you to Lauren Spooner for her work for that initiative those initiatives as well. Uh regarding Chromebooks in the elementary schools, we are not replacing or reordering Chromebooks for kindergarten and first grade moving forward. Um I can tell you that they are supposed to be used in a very limited purpose in the elementary school. For example, you asked about perceived benefit. The dyslexia screener, which is a state-approved dyslexia screener, is administered on the Chromebooks. So, that would be one perceived benefit of something that is instructionally meaningful and beneficial to students. Um there are times where teachers are also utilizing it to enhance their instruction, but should
052little students be on Chromebooks all day? Absolutely not. For the upcoming school year, one of the administrative goals K to 12 will be norms around screen time that will be publicly published to families as well, so that everyone understands the expectations for various grade levels. Um and that will be for staff, students, families, etc. Um and just like for an example, what we're doing at the middle school right now is that um older Chromebook carts that are no longer functional are being moved back into the classroom, so that as students walk in, they're just putting their Chromebook cart their Chromebooks away in the carts, so that they don't feel tempted to open them. Because what we have seen, especially in the middle school ages, that when kids have their devices near them, they continuously want
053to touch them. And so, the staff at the middle school have been extremely diligent and willing to try new things and the Chromebook carts, the refurbished ones, have been extremely successful. And so, the goal for next year would be to have those located in every classroom in the entire building, so that the norm is that they walk in, put their device away, get to work. Um but there is a instructional benefit to Chromebooks as well. Um for example, kids will take standardized assessments from the state online. They also might take their SATs, ACTs, etc. online. So, it is important that kids understand how to navigate a device and how to appropriately use it. Uh and we are also looking at right now, we use Securely for our filtration system, which is it highlights when kids
054are looking up something concerning and it emails school staff both during the school and outside of school hours. Next year, um we're looking at various providers, but we may have secured a provider that also has an account for families where a family can go in and limit the amount of time that their child actively uses the computer. They can limit specific websites and then the company was also willing to give an additional license to every family in the district if they wanted to utilize that on their child's iPhone or personal device. Um so, we are actively looking at it, but I think we want to do it in a really meaningful and intentional way and not just say like, you know, the pendulum swings a lot in education where it's like, we're all in on
055the Chromebooks or we're all out on the Chromebooks. I think we want to do it in a really thoughtful and intentional manner. And so, that's one of our goals this summer as an administrative team. That would be published in the welcome back family letter. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Anybody else have any other questions on any of the comments. Let me answer. Yeah, okay. So, it's all different because Chromebooks are replaced on a 4-year cycle. So, for example, when a fifth grader gets to the middle school, they're given a new device that remains with them for eight for through eighth grade. Then, they receive another new device in ninth grade that remains with them for 4 years until they graduate. Um so, it it's all different and I think the pricing question becomes more challenging because
056typically within the pricing for Chromebooks is also desktop computers. That's how we function um with the smart boards. Things like that are bundled in there. So, I would have to go in to tease out, especially with the inflation um concern that I mentioned earlier where all the prices have gone up from the data firms. Um I would need to be able to look back like the last 3 years to see what the actual technology price was. But, I would probably conservatively estimate it to be I want to say $400,000 most likely. Um and that would encompass the actual Chromebooks. Um because it's not replaced every year. So, it's on a rotating cycle of replacements. And then, you're also at the end of a Chromebook cycle, um you you can sell them on um E-reg and
057you get some money back. So, I I'd want to give you a more informed answer as to like exactly the amount. And then, are we being refunded any amount or have prices gone up significantly since COVID, things like that. Perfect. Um okay. So, I'm going to close this section of the public comment. There will be another one later in the agenda. Um and moving on to our uh regular agenda uh for personnel, Ms. Weber. Yes, thank you, Anne. I'd like to move action items A1 through A40. The HR team has been extremely busy. Second. A40. Congratulations to our retirees. Yes. Um Okay. I'm going to second that. So, what else do you do with your time, Sarah, instead of all this? Oh my god, it's like 40 Thank you for all I know this is
058the end of the year and the beginning summer and beginning year is just, you know, like drinking from fire hose. So, thank you. Agenda item [clears throat] Agenda items A1 through A40, Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Yes. Dr. Zhang. Yes. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Agenda items pass 7-0. Okay, perfect. Moving on to finance and facilities. Do you want me to do it? Sure. Okay, great. I'm going to uh move action items B1 through B18 on the regular agenda. And there's no agenda. So, where is B1 through B18? Page 32. 32 33. Got it. Okay. Deep deep in the document. Deep in the document. Here. Finance facilities. Any donations we need to say? Deep deep deep. Deep. Page 32 the last page. Deep lot of numbers. Lot
059of numbers, but I'm not seeing any thing we need to uh highlight. Excuse me. Okay. Okay, so we do have a few donations. Sorry, that's what I was trying to get to. Um oh, thank you to me for [laughter] I didn't realize that was the first one. Um uh acceptance of the Bank of America volunteer grant of $500. So, for all the use folks that work for Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, JP Morgan, all those financial firms, please submit your volunteer hours cuz I know you do them and you get to give money to any organization of your choice as long as it starts with school districts of the Chathams. Um thank you for the uh book tick donation uh campaign for the costume closet and also uh Willow Lake day camp donation. And that's
060it for the donations. I'll second. [laughter] All right. I'm going to make a correction since one of the agenda items was didn't have a number. It is truly B1 through B19. Uh the donation from Willow Lake was was not assigned a number. Oh, right. Oh, yes. So, I'm going to circumvent and say agenda items B1 through B19. Okay. Uh Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Yes. Dr. Zhang. Yes. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Agenda items pass 7-0. Okay, perfect. Um for curriculum, Ms. Ross. Yes, I'd like to move action items C1 to C3 on the regular agenda. Second that. Calendar. Agenda items C1 through C3, Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Yes. Dr. Zhang. Yes. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Agenda
061items pass 7-0. Okay, great. And then, for policy Who's on policy? Um Uh it's just one item. I'd like to move action D1 on on policy. I'll second it. Agenda item D1, Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Yes. Dr. Zhang. Yes. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Agenda items pass 7-0. Great. Um okay. Board business. Updated calendar. Do you want to take it? This new calendar reflects a reduction in delayed openings for CHS, which is a positive change. They were able to figure out a streamlined way to test and I have copies of the revised calendar, which I hyperlinked within the board memo. So, if you have questions, sorry about that. I should have passed it out earlier. Um but again, this reduces the amount of times and also
062allows for on May 13th an early dismissal at Mass, Southern Washington, and CMS so that Lafayette students can do an orientation at CMS with the building to be a little quieter. I'm sorry, what was the first benefit you mentioned? The first benefit was less delayed openings for Chatham High School and that is because they were able to find a streamlined way to do the state testing, thereby reducing the amount of of days needed for delayed openings for testing. Yes, okay. Remains the same. delayed openings. That's good news. Yes. It is good news. I don't know if anybody thinks it's good Other than that, everything else remains remains the same. Does the early dismissal affect the jazz band concert at um the middle school then on May 13th or no? I would imagine not, but I
063will confirm with CMS because we confirmed that date. That's the date that they selected. Yes, the concert's at 7:00. Oh, it's yes. Oh, great. Great. Which is that? Who's Who's concert? Jazz band. Sixth grade. We need to vote on that, correct? Yes. Peter, we're ready whenever you are. I'd like to make a motion to approve the calendar that we just reviewed. And seconded it. Yeah, I sure did. Motion to approve the revised calendar. Ms. Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Mr. Delsandro. Yes. Ms. Peck. Yes. Ms. Weber. Yes. Dr. Zhang. Yes. And Ms. Ciccarelli. Yes. Revised calendar passes 7-0. Great. Anybody else have anything else for board business that they want to discuss before we move to the second public commentary? Okay. Um so, this is our second opportunity for public commentary. Again, if you would
064just sign in and state your name, that would be great. And we'll close that. Um we do have an executive session. Yes. Action will not be taken. Just confirming. Okay, great. Well, thank you, everyone, for coming. We appreciate everyone coming out. Get home safely. Drive carefully. Correct.