001Wow. Are these Is this new? I got a special one. Wow. All right. Perfect. Everybody good to go? Down. Okay. Good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us tonight. In accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231 PL1975 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 of 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 Chattams 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, sent to the clerks of Chattam and Chattam Township,
002the library, the Cadams, the Chattam Courier, the Daily Record, the Star Ledger, and Tap News Online. Peter, sure. Ms. Ross Miss Allen here. Mr. Deland, Miss Peek, Mr. Ryan. Mr. Smith, M. Weber, Dr. Zang. Yes. seven president I guess to my left to the flag of America it stands for okay I don't have any opening comments comments. We'll move on to the administrative reports. Dr. Sortino. All right. So, today our schools were closed for students and staff had a full day professional development day. I'd like to thank Mary Donahue for organizing a comprehensive PD experience for staff throughout the district. They received instruction on artificial intelligence and how it can be used appropriately in their classrooms and instruction. gifted and talented education. NJSLA scores were analyzed and shared with staff. Uh staff in our 18
003to 21 program and self-contained programs throughout the district received training from a transition coordinator and staff also received instruction on the dyslexia screener. So thank you Mary for your comprehensive work. Uh just a reminder about 1020 school October 20th schools are closed in observance of Dwali. There's a board of education art gallery. I'd like to thank all of the art department at Chattam High School as well as the students who all had amazing works of art at the district art show. There were several pieces chosen and professionally framed by the art department at the high school and now hung in our conference room. And in the upcoming weeks, we'll have a board office gallery unveiling and the board of education will be invited as well as the students and families. It looks wonderful and I'm
004very grateful for the art department and for all the students and their hard work. Um, tonight we're proposing a calendar change for Chattam High School. It will would involve having two 90minute delayed openings on November 12th and November 13th. that is to accommodate the Department of Education's required field testing for the new NJSLA that they rolled out um very shortly into the start of the school year and we were forced to pivot very quickly and learn a new system and also implement field testing which was a big surprise for all of us. Um, finally, I'd like to just acknowledge that Chadam High School recently had a significant loss with a student in the community. I'd really like to extend my formal condolences and support to the family. And I'd like to thank the staff throughout
005the district and the district's mental health providers for the tremendous work that they did in the days and weeks after the loss in supporting our staff and students. I'd also like to thank the community members that reached out to offer their support, counselors, therapists, etc. Um, we are looking very closely at what occurred to make sure that in the future we continue to analyze and reflect on all of the supports and services offered to students throughout the district. I would like to also introduce Mrs. Russo, who is going to talk a little bit about the week of respect that was just held at Lafayette school. So, if the board would like to step down and Cheryl, if you'd like to stand up. Thank you. Tonight I am proud to to highlight a few things that
006truly represent Lafayette school. Some are new and some are becoming a tradition that we are proud of. So, tonight I'm going to talk about the Lafayette Week of Respect, our new whole school positive reinforcement system. Um, and then I'll do a quick update on our two months into the reconfiguration at Lafayette School. For the past three years, during New Jersey's Week of Respect, Lafayette has focused on celebrating the many cultures that make up our community. Uh each September, we invite families to sign up for a time during the week of New Jerseys week of respect to come in and share their heritage, uh where they are from, and what makes their culture special, what makes their culture special. We provide a sample presentation to um help the families prepare. We ask that they include their
007country's flag, traditional clothing, customs, holidays, foods, stories about when and why their families came to America or to Cadam. Families often bring props or artifacts that help bring their stories to life. This year, we were thrilled to host 31 family presentations throughout the week. Each one a unique window into the diverse backgrounds uh that make up at school. But our celebration doesn't stop there. After the week of respect ends, we invite students and staff to continue sharing throughout the year using the same template. They talk about anything that represents who they are, their cultural heritage, a special family tradition, a favorite holiday, or even something unique about how they celebrate birthdays or their summers. Last year, we featured more than 35 student videos on Lafayette Live and several others were shared privately during classroom lessons
008during the social emotional learning period, uh, giving every student a comfortable space to express themselves. Throughout October, our counselors and I also visit the classrooms to teach lessons centered on kindness, inclusion, and diversity. These lessons connect directly to our cultural celebrations, reinforcing the idea that every student has something valuable to share and that our differences make us stronger. At Lafayette, we believe respect begins with understanding and understanding starts with stories. Hold on. Um, I can go there. Over the summer, we looked ahead to this new school year. um especially with the reconfigurations and our counselors and I reflected on ways to support our younger students as they transitioned to Lafayette. We realized that one of the great strengths of Arcadus 2 schools was their all school approach to positive reinforcement and we wanted to bring
009that same spirit here. From that we launched our lunch and recess incentive program. We now have the golden broom tickets that the kids can award in the cafeteria and silver sneaker tickets for outside. Each day, the power professionals and I uh recognize students who show responsibility, teamwork, and kindness, whether it's helping a friend, uh cleaning up without being asked, showing respect to adults or peers. Because navigating a new building can also be tricky for everyone, students, and our new staff alike, we also introduced shout outs. Whenever we see students showing patience, cooperation, or leadership as they move through busy hallways, we celebrate them over the loudspeaker. It's been a fun and meaningful way to build community and not acknowledge small moments of success. Every Friday, we announce the week's Golden Broom and Silver Sneaker winners
010who receive a certificate to bring home, and they get to choose a small prize from our prize box. We're thankful to our PTO for helping make this program a success with the prizes. Uh the kids are very excited. Uh it's brought a lot of joy to the end of the week and positivity to our days. As for the reconfiguration, I'm happy to share that things are going remarkably well. Of course, there was some growing pains, few furniture mixups, some logistical challenges, and lots of um hallway mixups and map reading to everybody to figure out where they're going. But our staff handled it with flexibility and good humor. We've kept many of the traditions of that make Lafayette special, like our mini marathon, movie night, book fair, and in the spring, our one school, one book
011program. And we've also added new ones. This year, for instance, we'll be celebrating Veterans Day, just as the younger schools have done. Our teachers have truly risen to the occasion, and I want to give a special shout out to our fourth grade teachers who have gone above and beyond to help their third grade teammates feel comfortable and supported in the building. Overall, I'm incredibly proud of the tone we've set this fall, one of inclusion, encouragement, and community. These early months have laid a strong foundation for the rest of the year. And I'd be remiss before I end it by celebrating our two most popular staff members. Casey, our therapy dog, who is beloved by everyone that um Cindy Rosenberg. Casey's been with us probably about three or four years. And of course, Officer Charlie um
012there, our special Lafayette staff. Thank you for your time and support. Have a good evening. Does anyone have any questions for Mrs. Russo? We might as well ask you something. Cheryl, you mentioned the furniture as one of the growing pains. What do you uh Well, there was just some mixups. Some went were in rooms they weren't supposed to because it was so much. Um and then there was like some missing chairs, but we we figured that all out and everybody has a place to sit. Oh, cool. I was curious. I was wondering what you meant by that. Are the fourth graders psyched to be the big kids on campus? I don't I don't think they figured that out yet because they're everybody's so new. Uh, one of the things we were most concerned about was
013dismissal, but um, the three teachers from last year, Miss Gangaware, Miss Isa, and Miss Nunan, really worked with me on ideas and we, uh, just dismissed very slowly for like the first four days and then they had it and now it's like they've been doing it, you know, forever. Oh, cool. The third grade teachers are all settled in to the new I think. So, it it definitely, like I said, a learning curve. um mix up turning around in circles um which was comical but they have been amazing. I think they're liking um focusing on one subject area. Um they're recognizing with the two classes even though they're only focusing on one subject area that they're they're you know the makeups are very different but they're liking it. It also means less meetings for them because
014they don't have to go to every single core subject area meeting. So they're they're enjoying that time back too. Oh very cool. Thank you for all your hard work over the summer. It was a herculean task. No, it was a group effort. Many hands make light work. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mrs. Russo. That's it for you. Nobody stays, Cheryl, after the presentation. I do want to share. Okay. Mrs. Russo's almost her entire building is brand new and she has worked incredibly hard to try to smoothly acclimate the students and staff to the building. So, Cheryl, thank you for your tremendous professionalism and the the furniture was not your fault. Just was it. And WBM Mason was great. They got the chairs to us very quickly, so we're good. Thank you,
015Cheryl. Good. Yep. Figured since you were here. Anyway, uh I love the Golden Sneaker and and the I'm sorry, the Golden Broom and the Golden Sneaker Awards. Those are awesome for the kids. Um just to remind you and you probably know this but uh the prizes that are giving out given out can you tell us what those are and try to avoid giving food right lots of allergies and things like that going around um little squeezy things. There's like little race cars. It's all just like a big prize box. Yes, there is no food. Um, it's just stickers and little spinny things, but they love it and it takes them forever to make a decision. I have to count down. The dentist, I'm like 10. I have to count down because there's 24 kids all
016come at once. But I I think it's been pretty positive. That's where most of our our um conflicts occur and I think it knock on wood has made a difference. Great. Thank you. Awesome. Okay, good stuff. Thank you again. Um, okay, moving on to business administrators report. Mr. Dquilla, sure. Some good news. All of the work on the CMS playground has been completed. Once the ground dries up a little bit, the con contractors will be able to remove the construction fencing. We have a little earthwork to do, but it should be open for the students uh at some point this week. Uh, regarding CMS, we did get a little bit of um some more bad news. Um there have been the upper level of bricks on the original building in two sections uh two different
017sections. Bricks fell off the building. Um and both sections have been repaired. There's a section in the back and a section uh in the front by the auditorium. It has been discovered that when the building was constructed, the contractor did not put the brick ties between the cinder block wall and the bricks. So due to settling in the age of probably about 60 plus years uh some the bricks have started to separate. The unfortunate news is to correct the entire the remaining section of the building will be at about a cost of $1.3 million. The district will look at that during the budget with the finance committee and capital spending. That's about all I have. That's fun. Okay. Well, all right. 1.3 1.3 million. No. 1.3. Oh boy. Okie dokie. Got to have bricks, right?
018What else can we do? All right. Well, thanks for that. Um, all right. I'm going to move on to the fun stuff. Summer. Okay. Yeah, I just have a pretty brief report for today. So, um, in sports, a lot of our, um, regular seasons for our conference or for our fall teams are coming to an end. So, we're going to the conference games are going to start winding down and, um, many teams like soccer, field hockey, volleyball, those types of teams have already started some county games, which is exciting. Um, in academics, we so for just provided for our juniors and seniors, college rep visit, rep representative visits have begun. So, this is where select colleges have started visiting the high school. So this is about 115 starting in early September and then going into
019about mid November. Um and it's a great opportunity for our juniors and seniors to see what they're kind of interested in post high school and where they may want to apply. Um in activities we had our homecoming on a Saturday, October 4th, which was a really big hit. Um it always is, I mean, but um it was at the high school gym and it was a really awesome night with a lot of fun different activities for all students. Um and then lastly, the Out of the Darkness walk was held at um Cougar Field on October 11th. It's in support of suicide awareness, and it was great to see a lot of um high school students come to show awareness for an really important cause. That's all I have for today. Okay, perfect. Uh moving on
020to committee reports for personnel. Miss Weber, you mind punting for me? I don't mind punting for you at I'll punt you receive since I missed. I got it. Uh-huh. Sure thing. Um, so yeah, so personnel met on the 8th, last Wednesday. Is that correct? 8th. Um, basically we just talked about um some updates to some personnel and um also some additional counseling for both staff and students. Um, we also talked about um policy a policy um having our policy changes go to back to Strauss and Esme versus um the school New Jersey school boards which was a change that we had made a few years ago. Strauss and Esme was the firm that we had used in the past. Um we talked about uh first student bus driver. Um we're still talking about the different
021logistics of having our own drivers andor using um first student and we are meeting again on the 10th of December. Is that right? 12th of November. Oh yeah. Okay. Thanks. 12th of Oh, I skipped a month. 12th of November. Anything I missed? No, that's it. Right. Okay. Good. Perfect. You're welcome. Um for curriculum, Miss Ross. curriculum committee also met Wednesday the 8th. Uh we discussed the new NJSLA adapted field test. This is required of all school districts in the state and they need to be administered to students in grades 4 through 12. Uh the testing window is from October 27th to the 14th. So we discussed the testing schedule and so at Lafayette it would be November 3rd, 5th and 10th. At CMS on November 3rd and 5th and then as Dr. Sortino mentioned at
022the um at the high school the testing will be three days the 12th, 13th and 14th. But due to the scope of the testing at the high school, there will be two 90-minute delays uh for November 12th and 13th. And we will approve the updated school calendar later on the agenda to reflect that. In advance of the testing, a letter uh will go out from Dr. Donahghue uh to the parents to share more information. And then the majority of our meeting was spent reviewing the results of the NJSLA from spring 2025. Parents should have received letters last week uh into this week on the results. And at our next meeting, board meeting November 3rd, Dr. Donna Hugh will present on the results from um that uh assessment. And then our next curriculum meeting will be
023on November 12th. That's it. How does the I don't know if you know the answer to this or if she does. Yeah, the field test. How does the breakdown work at the high school in terms of grades? Do you know? Um I do. Hold on. I had it written down. Let's see. I had no I I know which dates uh are te I think everybody is tested including grade 12 on math and then the reading assessment is only 9 10 11. Got it. Correct. So seniors only math. Is that correct? They have to take the math last year. Okay. So that's how 12th grade is involved in this. Got it. Yeah. And 11th grade is only taking for the NJ gapa. They're only taking the ELA and they'll take the math separately per the field
024test. Got it. Okay. Perfect. Okay. I have a question. Yeah. for the 12th and 13th, the delayed openings. Will Cougar Cougar Academy open on the regular schedule or they delayed open? I met with um the building principles. We were just talking about that today. Um I'm a little concerned about the tight turnaround, but that's still a work in progress um in terms of making a final decision. There's a couple of logistics with that. Um We were leaning towards um waiting until the spring to finalize it, but it was literally a conversation this afternoon once the dates were formalized. Um we would reach out to every parent directly. At this point, we were inclined to wait because the turnaround for this particular administration was so tight, but it is a conversation for the spring when there
025are multiple days in which the students who may not be participating in testing would be affected. Um, but I was speaking with the high school administration about it today. So, we will finalize that decision, but that was a work in progress. But we were leaning in the direction of adhering to the delayed opening in the fall because it was two days but on a longer stretch of testing. U revisit that as a plan for the spring because multiple days of disruption is a consideration for the students. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Perfect. Anybody else? Okay. Finance. Does anybody want you? Did I There you go. Okay. Good. Excellent. So, we did we covered um discussions about extending the security guards particularly at the middle school and high school at least for one hour after dismissal. But
026again, that's up for we could add add change it around or add hours to cover sports practices, any kind of night uh night classes that are here. anytime there's people in the building that you we would need extra security, not just students but also residents. Um we touched on the residency policy a little bit. We also talked about um how to better position oursel in our our technical department, our our tech staff. Uh we also talked about the bus driver. Um you know, do we utilize the one we have more or or higher out? So that's still up for debate. Um you just have to talk people into getting their CDL. I don't know how you're gonna Maybe maybe they can go into Cheryl's prize box. I'm sure that'll entice them. Um, you get a
027yo-yo if you license. A spinner. Come on. Who doesn't like a spinner to get their CDL? Um, we're also looking uh to repurpose some underutilized space at the middle school to better use it for classroom space. Um, the locker rooms came up, but again, they're always looking to see how to better utilize that space. And then the capital work just took a backseat to Peter's announcement that we'd have to pay $1.3 million for brick work. Um, our next meeting is October Wednesday, October 29th. Perfect. Um, policy and planning. Okay. met on Wednesday, September 24th at 6:30. Am I too close or too far away? Okay. Um, we discussed the ongoing discussion about a positive workplace culture policy, which we don't have today, but many districts do, and looked at samples from across other districts on
028that. Um, information gathering on that and then discussed the current state of our free and reduced items that are offered districtwide. Um that not only includes lunch but things like sports fees, tech fees, um edges, things like that. And we need to do further research on what we cover now versus what we ought to cover. So, we're reevaluating and then we meet next on October 29th, Wednesday. Perfect. Cool. Thank you. Thank you so much. Any liaison reports? Yeah. Um in the agenda you'll see that we accepted a $6,750 donation which was used to fund the AI and education workshops um that were utilized today during the professional development days for teachers in grades 3 through 12. So we are grateful for that. And then trivia night is coming um let me just check the registration
029opens October 15th and trivia night will be November 15th. So that's always a fun night and a big fundraiser as well. So please sign up. I believe it is at the gym. Okay. Awesome. Anybody else? Leaz reports. Just a quick one for not just the burrow, but just um keep an eye out. The hometown hero banners should be up soon. They went out for for proofing. So just keep an eye out. And again, that's to recognize service members that have a connection to Chadam, whether they lived here or their family lives here. So, keep an eye out. Those banners should be going up soon. Um, and they look great. I saw a couple of them. They look fantastic. Where are they going? Main Street. Main Street. Oh, that's so nice. Yeah, those banners. Yeah. Yeah,
030they're very cool. I'll show you. That's awesome. Okay, good. How nice. Perfect. Um, okay, moving on to the minutes from the September 15th meeting. I'd like to motion for those to be moved. [Music] The September 15th minutes. Miss Ross, yes. Miss Allen, yes. Miss Peek, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Miss Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, and Miss Jigarelli, yes. Minutes pass 70. Perfect. Thank you. Um, okay. This is going to be 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 asked to limit their comments in to a
031reasonable length of time. And if you don't mind just signing in, stating your name, that would be great. Oh, right at the podium. I'm sorry. Um, so my name is Hillary Slair. Um, I have two daughters. One is in first grade and one will be in kindergarten next year. Um, and this was touched on at the beginning of the meeting. Um I think uh you know I'm sure everybody in this room was very saddened by what uh occurred in the high school, the young man um who who committed suicide. And my concern is, and this may be just my ignorance for not having children yet in the middle school and the high school, is what is sort of taking place in terms of providing mental health care awareness, I guess, in the curriculum, in sort
032of events and maybe speakers, um, as well as just access to caregivers. Um, you know, I'd like to understand just as a parent in the community, and I assume there are many others like me, um, what actually is the overarching strategy or plan or what is in place. Um because I've sort of done a you know this is not my professional line of work but just in looking at other communities I'm seeing that they seem to have leveraged you know nonprofits either nationally or locally or whatever who specialize in this area and specialize in you know the type of curriculum that would be helpful or the type of care that would be helpful. Um, and so I'd like to know, you know, I guess from from this body, what, you know, what's in place right
033now and perhaps where the gaps are and to the extent there are gaps. Um, you know, I'd like to make myself available for a working group or whatever. I'm not sure how how that works. um to examine what maybe can be done to leverage some of those resources and make um you know create a a more an environment where where kids that age can have people to talk to and and things to talk about and have it be part of you know the culture in our in our community. I mean, I come from a generation where that's not really that wasn't really how we, you know, things we discussed necessarily at in school. Um, so I'm interested in, you know, whatever you can provide just to to give me some sense of where we stand.
034Okay. Sure. We'll see if anybody else wants to speak and then I'll I'll pass that over to Dr. Sortino um at the end of this public comment section so that she can answer any anybody who comes up to the during this section. So um we'll table that just to see if anybody else wants to speak during this section and if not then I'll pass it right over to Dr. STO. Yeah. Correct. You can sit down. Yeah. She'll she'll respond to you but um yeah I just want to make sure. You're good. Okay. All right, Dr. Sortino, I'm going to send that right over to you because we um Okay, so throughout the district, we have comprehensive supports and services as well as a specific suicide prevention curriculum that we utilize. So, I think I'll start
035globally and then I'll work backwards. Uh we have I don't know 30 some odd mental health providers throughout the district. Every single school has at least one if not two specific mental health providers within it. For example, our elementary schools all have a school psychologist andor a school counselor. Um, our middle school has a um tier three provider known as the an aspire provider. We have um three clinicians, two at the high school, one at the middle school. In addition to the counseling staff, school psychologists, and social workers that are also scattered throughout the district. Um the tier three program is for our most intensive students that require support. Um that's where we have clinicians that are typically uh licensed. Um so they might be a licensed social worker or a licensed school psychologist. They
036have very small case loads, typically like 15 or less. They do individual work, family work, group work, etc. That's all within our schools. Um we also have a partnership with project community pride which is a mental health partnership through the Madison Y. Um where we also receive push-in counseling support for students and then also counseling outside of the school hours for students. Uh we have a teleaalth program so after school hours children of all ages meet with our mental health providers and receive free counseling through the district. Um the district supports that financially. So, those are all just like counseling supports and services that are available. We do the wellness survey every few years as a temperature check in grades 6 through 12. Um, we utilize that data to drive supports and services throughout the
037district. That's on the website, the results. Um, we also have units on wellness, personal growth and development, emotional health and resilience. Um we use second step in the elementary schools as our mental health curriculum. In the high school and in the middle school is where we use lifelines which is a suicide prevention and intervention program. Um we have minding your mind which is a mental health organization push in to do lessons in the high school at Lafayette. We have two school counselors. We also have Cougar Mindset Mindful Mondays. We have you know growth lessons. We have um friendship, mental health, etc. all at Lafayette. And then at the high school, we do a wellness fair, monthly wellness events. We do start with hello lessons, which is a Sandy Hook initiative. We have a variety of
038curriculum and and lessons throughout the district, as well as ample mental health providers. With all that being said, clearly a tragedy occurred. Um and we are all looking very closely at what happened and what we can do moving forward to further enhance what we offer. Um what I have learned, you know, with the professionals that we've spoken with is that we could be doing everything perfectly and still unfortunately have something horrific like this occur. Um, you know, I think that part has been very hard for all of us. Um, obviously the family has, you know, much more to deal with than we do, but we are very much looking closely at everything we're doing to see what we can do differently and how we can reach every single student, which is, you know, what keeps
039most of us awake most nights. Yes, very much so. I also, thank you, Dr. Donghue. We also utilize um an internet filtration system known as Securely that monitors when children are using their devices for key terms such as self harm, bridge, um pills, any of the terms that would potentially be an issue. and we monitor that around the clock and we'll contact families after school hours or if it's during the school day. We have pretty um intensive procedures set up. We have contracts with outside organizations for school-based clearance appointments when we've identified students at risk of self harm or suicidal ideiation. Um we have a significant amount of procedures within the district. However, we always look to do more. Everything is is ours. It's a significant financial cost and it's in my opinion worth every
040penny. No question. Yeah, for sure. The wellness survey and going Dr. Don, you just delivered the wellness survey at board meeting in September. Yes. At the board meeting in September, right? So, it's current based off of last spring wellness survey and all the data is there. So, you can see how our students responded to questions across everything from gambling to thinking about um to anxiety and depression and all sorts of things. So, I encourage any parent that wants to know more about what our students are telling us for feedback to look at that wellness report. Um, it is anonymous and we want it to be anonymous to increase participation. Um, but maybe there should be an option for that particular person's survey to not be anonymous if they want to. If they need help, maybe
041they can tell us who they are so they're more easily identified. Just anything else? Not only that, I think it's important to note that the staff are also trained. They're the they're the kind of the first line of defense. You know, they're the ones that see, you know, changes in a student and, you know, you do a good job of professional development training them and you things that they're interested in. Yes, there's the required training and then we also utilize a a normed assessment for when we do identify students that are at risk of self harm and staff are all specifically the mental health providers are specifically trained on that tool as well. And just to note too that we you know when it comes to a situation like this where they have to react
042quickly that you know the following day there were 30 staff members. There were approximately 20 mental health um providers at Chattam High School, the morning after Sunday. Um they spent their day to provide supports and services to students and then a lot of the administrators, district administrators showed up as well just to provide any support. Yeah. So, you acted reacted and acted in my opinion appropriately and and I think the staff really stepped up to uh to be there for any student and any other staff member that might have needed um the support. So, yeah, pretty amazing. Um okay, anybody else? Okay. Um all right, we'll move on to our regular agenda. So, um, for personnel, Miss Weber, uh, yes, thank you. I would like to move, um, items A1 through A28. I'll second that.
043Can I ask a question? There were such a long list which was nice to see of faculty that had advanced certifications two pages of them. Is that I don't recall that as being typical. Is that more than usual? So if you may remember when we um completed our last contract negotiation um teachers are only able to move every other year on the guide and so some decide to save their credits. So, I agree, Sally. We had 23 24 staff members who um were eligible for guide movement. Sarah Latzky and I had the opportunity to meet with each of them to review their transcripts, discuss their program, and going back to school is hard. Um let alone being a teacher going back to school. So, we applaud them for their effort and um very gratifying that
044there were so many that were eligible this time around. Yeah, it's awesome. It's amazing. Okay. A1 to A28. Miss Ross. Yes. Ms. Allen. Yes. Ms. Peek. Yes. Mr. Ryan. Yes. Miss. Weber. Yes. Dr. Zang. Yes. And Miss Chicarelli? Yes. Agenda items pass 70. Perfect. Um, for finance and facilities. Okay. I would like to move action items B1 through B15 on the regular agenda. There's no agenda. Couple of donations. Yeah, I have I need a second. Oh, you did. Somebody second. You need a second? Oh, no. You don't need a second. I do not need a second in time. I just needed somebody to second it. But, uh, just wanted to call out the donation from the Washington Avenue PTO for 30 $5,310 for the purchase of supplies and bulletin boards. And also on the agenda
045is what Miss Ross mentioned earlier, the $6,750 for the AI training for staff. Agenda items B1 through B15. Miss Ross, Miss Allen, yes. Miss Peek, yes. Mr. Ryan, Miss Weber, yes, Dr. Zang and Miss Chigarelli. Yes. Agenda items passed seven 70 agenda items C1 through C4. Miss Ross, Miss Allen, yes. Miss Peek, yes. Mr. Ryan, yes. Miss Weber, yes. Dr. Zang, yes. And Miss Chigarelli, yes. Agenda items passed 70. Okay, perfect. And policy, we have nothing. And uh any other board business? No. Yes. The calendar. Yes. Are you okay with the two delayed openings? Yes. Do you want us to vote? Yes, please. I'd like to make a motion to move the approve the calendar with the two delayed openings. I'll second it. All those in favor? I opposed. Calendar approval passes 70. You have
046no choice. Do we have any? No. Do you need one? We don't know. You tell us. Fine. Okay. All right. So, this is our second opportunity for public commentary. If anybody has anything they'd like to say, same rules apply. Oh, here he comes. Okay, got it. Uh, good evening, Bill Heap. Um, I go to mass on Sunday to think about some of the questions to which there are no good answers and certainly the death of this young man is one of them. um until I get a chance to speak to God directly, which may not be too far away. And when I do, I'm going to start demanding some answers. Uh among those questions is why uh it seems as a society we are probably off better off by any measure than we have ever
047been before. Uh there are still quite a few people who don't see it that way. the pessimism, the fatalism, the alarmism, the chicken little routine, the sky is falling, our democracy is in danger, uh this the planet is burning up. You throw you you toss all that in with a cesspool that is the internet and no wonder people are depressed. Um, so I guess the best thing we can do until I get uh some good answers is to make sure that our kids understand that the glass is half full. It's not half empty. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Okay. Well, I will make a motion to close that. We do not have an executive session. That being said, we are adjourned. Thank you everybody for coming. Appreciate you get home safely.