001I'd like to call the meeting into order. >> We could have a moment of silence. >> Black salute. 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. In accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to the board members, all district schools, the Herald news, the suburban trends, the record, the messenger, West Milford town hall, the county superintendent's office, the board attorney, cable vision of Warwick and West Milford TV77, and posted in the administrative building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mr. Schultz. >> Uh, Mr. Stovich, >>
002Mrs. Dwire, >> Mrs. Jurgensson, >> here. >> Mr. Lippy, >> here. >> Mrs. Markard, >> here. >> Mrs. Romeo >> here. >> Mrs. Van Djk >> here. >> Mrs. Rico >> here. >> Mrs. Lockwood >> here. If we have no objections, I'm going to change the agenda a little bit and we'll have the junior Highlanders 2024 Olympic team and our student representative Megan Sidnner go before we go into executive session. Could I have a motion? >> I'll make a motion to have our students go first. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Dr. Kitchen. >> Okay. So, we got a bunch of students here who need a good night's sleep tonight to have a great day at school tomorrow. So, we're going to let you go ahead. Uh, but
003first, I would like to welcome our student representative on the board, Megan Sidner. Congratulations. It's always great to have student voices as part of these conversations. So, thank you so much for being here with us. Uh, and next I'm going to turn it over to Brian Lesley to uh do a special presentation. something back here. >> Check. >> Oh. Oh, I'm going up there. Dear Lord. >> All right. So, a few things. One, congratulations. Taught Megan. Unbelievable student. Um, so congratulations. Great job with that. >> Of course. Of course. Absolutely. Um I want to say something on behalf of our program if I could as a whole. Um because I'm not like a big one with like just let's let's just celebrate one group because this is a very very large group. Um but I
004just wanted to explain what our program actually is. So our program works with uh youth athletes that are interested in learning about sports of track and field and cross country. Uh, we were established in 2016 um in the Makipin Middle School hallway during a youth wrestling practice. And I'll be honest with you, we were not good at all. We're terrible. Uh, this is year 8 for track and field. This is year six for cross country. Our organization is a USA track and field and AAU affiliated program. It competes in track and field in the spring. Some of the kids compete in the winter. Um, and in the fall we run cross country. That's what we're doing now. From the very beginning, uh, we had one focus and that was an athlete first approach. The board
005was formed with common views and still operates with a basic idea of how can we do the most for our athletes. Our mission is to encourage, assist, and support youth athletes up to seniors in high school to develop physical, mental, and social skills through our competitive program. We provide specific and individualized attention to the whole athlete while stimulating interest in and encouraging the pursuit of collegiate studies. The very beginning when we started this program, I think I had about 32 kids on this program. Uh that year we qualified seven kids to the Junior Olympics. We were lucky enough to walk away with one medal. To walk away with one medal just simply means um they're an all-American athlete. They're the top eight in the country. This year we had 41 athletes qualify for the Junior
006Olympics. We walked away with four medals. To date, we have earned approximately 30 all-American titles. Um, which again is top eight in the country. And we've even had one national champion. And that would be Jonathan. Where you at? We are very proud of our club athletes accomplishments, but to be honest, the true focus for all of our athletes is to go out there each time with a smile on their face and try and earn their personal best in their event. It was that focus that has led our children's successes along with the amazing coaching staff, parents as you could tell, um our board members, uh the township and the district support. So cute shout out. It's not just us. It's it's the entire community. So I know you're like, "Wow, we got gifts." Just know
007that because you support us, we're supporting you. And if you turn your back, no, I'm just joking. But all seriousness, thank you from the bottom of our heart. Um a very simple vision started with myself and Sandra Baliieri uh who is the vice president who couldn't be here tonight. Um it where we were and where we are today is night and day and it wouldn't have been without everybody in this room and so many people outside of this room. So thank you. All right, here we go. This is a a little something from from the board for the for those that actually competed um at the Junior Olympics. Um Jonathan Andrade uh if you could come up. So Jonathan went to the Junior Olympics. Uh he was the region 1 champion in Pvall and the
008110 hurdles. Uh as you can see on the bling that he has on his sweatshirt. Um he walked away with two all-ameans this this year. Camila Artigga. Camila competed in the 1500 and Turbo Javelin for the 9-year-old girls. It's weird calling you John, but uh Jonathan uh 8-year-old Chappa obviously. Look at that. Masimo Ballastiieri. Uh he did the 2000 steeple chase and pval. If you ever want to watch something that's fun, check out uh Steeplechase Family Affair. Uh, Matteo Ballastiieri did the 3000. >> John Banks, 1516, boys discus. Chloe Barkley, high jump. Leah Barkley, Turbo Jack. Kayla Kle, 1500 meter run. Uh, Elizabeth here. Elizabeth's not here, but she competed in three different events. Pentathlon, long jump, and triple jump. Packs coming, high jump, long jump. Ryan Escalano, high jump, triple jump. Jackson Field Turbo
009Jab Discus, the Alexander Fulton shot hook, Emma Lawrence, the 30,000 m, Bryce Leslie, uh, Pvault Javelin, 100 hurdles, triple triple jump and he placed in Poval. >> Cameron Leslie,500 and High Jump. >> The mysterious Payton Loenstein. Payton Loenstein Javelin. I I'll add one thing to Payton. Um I and I have to say Payton is the first female athlete on our program to ever earn a medal at the Junior Olympics. So it was huge for us. That's one. too. She also went to New Balance uh national championship where she placed which I believe if I'm not wrong and I've been doing this for a pretty long time on the high school level uh 19 going into 20 years. Um Payton is the first one ever from West Milford to ever place in the New Balance National
010from West Milford. Emma Mccieran 1,5003,000 Riley Mccieran 1,500 in shotput. Juliana Mudo Turbo Jab. Family affairs. Sylvio Amudo 1500 meter run. Nico Patino steeplechase. Carter Patton, Turbo Jab. Henry Polo, Turbo Jab. Bobby Pine, shot. Skyler Pine, high jump. Claire Riley discus harder shank turbo javelin. And I know there's a whole bunch of Tiloskis on here cuz they're they're everywhere. Uh Dan I know they're not here too. So Daniel Towski 3,500. Joe Tiloski shot put and Michael Tiloski turbo jab and shot put. Abigail Vanderhyde high jump. >> All right. And I'm gonna ask that every other person because there's a lot of kids here that just didn't go to the Junior Olympics, but they are part of this team. And I'm going to ask every one of you guys if you guys stand up and come
011up here, too. Come around the line. Big thank you to Brian. Hallelujah. >> Mrs. Lockwood, can I just make a quick comment? And if they don't hear me, that's okay. Um, I just want to say that when we have presentations here, normally not this many people show up and um, you know, it really shows to the dedication of not just this team, but the parents, the board, the coaches. Um, I was once a part of this team as a parent and it is truly amazing and it shows in nights like this when everyone shows up together and um, seriously, I think there were four students that couldn't make it. that is like maybe unheard of in all my time on the board. Normally it's a lot. So, um it's a great program. Keep it up.
012The one thing I learned as a track parent is that start off position helps you in every single sport moving forward. So, remember that as an athlete, you're learning how to be an athlete in every single sport you ever want to do. So, have a good time. Thank you. I'll let them come out. >> Okay. Okay. Yeah. So, usually No, that's okay. >> Okay, moving on. Our student representative, Miss Sidna. Welcome. >> Hello. Thank you for having me. want me repeat. >> Good evening. My name is Megan Sidner. I'm a senior at West Milford High School and I'm extremely honored to be the student representative for the 2024 2025 school year. Here is the debrief on all things West Milford High School thus far. West Milford High School class of 2028 attended the freshman orientation
013on Wednesday, August 28th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. There they were able to meet various administrators and teachers such as Mr. Stryance, Mr. Polo, Mr. Pot, Mrs. Nebucher, Mr. Tranekcasta, Miss Changau, and Mrs. Johnson, as well as become acquainted with the Highlander Leadership Program's members. The freshman received thorough tours of the building and were then prepared for the new school year by being given Chromebooks and chargers. Today marks the ninth day of the school year and so far it is safe to say that it has been a smooth opening. Students and staff are excited to be back to learn and educate respectively. During the first week, lace did not count and members of the Highlander Leadership Program helped guide students around school so all felt comfortable in moving from class to class. Back to
014School Night is open to all parents and guardians of West Milford High School students this Thursday, September 19th, starting at 6:30 p.m. The Highlander Leadership Program will have members stationed around school to assist any attendees get to their classes on time. Now, a brief look into October for West Milford High School. On Saturday, October 5th, West Milford High School will be hosting the SAT at 7:45 a.m. On Monday, October 14th, West Milford High School will be hosting the PSAT. This will be an excused college visitation day for seniors. Thank you very much for your time and consideration. Please enjoy the rest of your meeting. I will see you next month to report more news about our beloved West Milford High School. Thank you. >> Thank you, Megan. That was great. >> Thank you. All right,
015back to our agenda. Uh there's a need to for us to go into executive session. Uh Mrs. Rano, can you read the motion, please? Um at 7:23 I move um that the board will go into executive se session for approximately 30 minutes for the purpose of conducting a hip appeal. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. Could I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Okay. We will be returning after executive session. >> I'd like to call the meeting back to order. Roll call, please. Mr. Schultz, >> Mrs. Jurgensson, >> here. >> Mr. Lippy, >> here. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> here. >> Mrs. Roano, >> here. >> Mrs. Van Djk >> here. >> Mrs.
016Markwart >> here. >> Mrs. Lockwood >> here. Thank you all for your patience while we were um out of the room. Uh superintendent report, Dr. Kiten. >> Yes, just a couple of things on here. Um so our our Junior Highlander Olympic team, we were able to recognize them. That was great. Uh I also want to just draw your attention to the fact that our annual goals are on this agenda to be voted on. I know they've been shared with the board previously in the Friday update. um uh we don't need to go into them at this time, but they are on the agenda for this evening. Um I also want to discuss a donation from the United Methodist Church. I'm actually going to pass it over to um Dr. Resta to discuss that. Thank you,
017Dr. Kishen, and good evening everyone. I'd like to uh recognize the United Methodist Church at New Foundland for a generous donation of school supplies that they have uh provided to the district. Um, I reached I was reached out to uh by uh Miss King who was the uh secretary at the church and shared that the church would have wanted to make a donation on school supplies. Um, and so through various contacts back and forth, we've arranged for that donation to be dropped off to the board office uh after the board accepts that donation at tonight's meeting. I'd like to personally recognize the names of the church members who were involved in this. Um, I'm going to read them out to uh because I was uh I was very very grateful and we as a district
018are very grateful. Um, the approximate amount of this donation is about $660. And what's wonderful is that we will be working with the um our principles and uh our our staff to distribute these school supplies to across the district to the schools so that our students that have needs in terms of school supplies and things to start the year will be able to be provided some of these supplies. So again, it's a it's a wonderful donation and I want to thank the following for their time and and devotion to this cause. Uh Pastor Yukon Kim, Yavon Albro, Barbara Miller, Joanne Bush, Eleanor Keading, Susan Hinton, Carol Bradford, Shirley Masalooki, Joan Mur V. Schwarz, Beverly Olio, Ruth Townsend, and the United Women and Faith members at the United Methodist Church in Newfalandon and the congregation. Thank
019you very much. Thank you, Dr. Kitchen. Thank you, Dr. Resa, and thank you to our our church members who contributed to our district. Uh the next thing on my uh report is a an HIV training and program information. Um really what I can just report out to you this evening is that we've met all of our requirements for that. Next month, you will be receiving a more detailed breakdown of our HIP self assessment. So more detail can be gone into there. Uh but I did want to make sure it it is something that's required to be shared out. So we have met our training requirements. If there are specific questions about that, I I'd be happy to answer them, but like I said, next month you're going to get some more details. So anybody want
020to discuss that any further at this time or can we move past that? Okay. And then the last thing I have was our recognition of our student representative. I thought she did a great job. Um really lovely speaker. So thank you to her for coming this evening. and I will turn it over to um Mr. Novak. >> Hello everyone. We're gonna um just jump right in. I know we we've uh a little bit behind time. So uh we are going to do some presentations from uh staff members involved in our summer committees and then we're going to follow it up with a um presentation from our district literacy committee uh for the new language arts program in kindergarten through fifth grade called Wonders. So we're going to jump right in with Mr. Treniccasta want to
021come up and present the uh video. >> If you want to uh board if you want to reorganize so you can see the screen. >> Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I'd like just first start by my name is Joe Trancasta. I'm the director of athletics and I'd like to thank the board of education and central administration for um allowing me to come up and and and I and show this video with you tonight. Um, as you all know, Friday's home football game was a a grand success, and that was due to all of the people that helped make it happen. It starts with the board and the central office for allowing us to do the grant for the 5G T-Mobile, which we are at a sweep stakes for, and there'll be more information that will
022be shared out as we get through our football season. Um, but that's something that could afford us an opportunity to win some money for our facilities. So, thank you for supporting us in doing that grant and thank you for supporting us in having the paratroopers come in um and to fully staff um that event because obviously this it takes a village. I know that's corny, but it but it really is true and and you'll see on the video. Um I I I have a a lot of people to thank, but I'm not going to keep everybody today. I'll I'll send something out later, but but really from the maintenance uh the the buildings and grounds guys and all the work that you've seen, you'll see it on the video. Just incredible incredible stuff. even where
023we have our wounded warriors, our students in um Miss Petra Sila's class. Uh I think we had 40 letters that went out to the veterans who showed up at our game um from the students, written by the students, handd delivered to them. I just really there was just so many different um facets of that evening that all came together because of this community. So, I just wanted to thank everybody for at least allowing us to have that opportunity. And Joe Jordan did a great job with this video footage from Nate Bedford. Thank you, Nate, as well. Heat. Heat. Please join me in welcoming Mr. Kevin Walker. Thank you. And I'll just close by again saying thanks. And uh our Highlanders are 3 and 0. So keep following those boys. >> Thank you, Mr. Trenagosa. Uh,
024Mr. Winston, if you can pull up the artificial intelligence, the English presentation >> and uh, I'm going to introduce uh, Mrs. West, the uh, supervisor of language arts, art, and music. >> Before you do that, uh, in the next meeting, will we still have time for the 5G lights to explain that and everything in October or will it be over? >> Sorry. Sure. >> So, um, for those who who aren't aware, we, uh, we asked the board, uh, back either in the late spring or early summer if if you could, you know, um, allow us to go ahead and put forth this grant, which I got a lot of help from a lot of staff, uh, and administration. And, um, we're in the pool. So, what that means is that every week there's a random
025drawing for $5,000. I think there's only 12 or 15 schools at this time or as of last week that were in that running. We're one of them. Um, and we're also in the running for, and this is based on participation and how many uh posts we can get. And we're actually doing class wars with our students where we have the sophomores, you know, they're going to do their posts on Tuesday and so on and so forth for each class. So, the objective is to get as many posts um obviously promoting T-Mobile, but then what that allows us to do is possibly be in the running for a raffle to win the big sweep stakes, which is an overhaul multi-million dollar facility. So that's the real, you know, um, gist behind why we got started with
026this. Um, gentleman by the name of George Molina was with us Friday night. They donated $300 worth of food from ShopRate for the veterans and just incredible. Some So the byproduct of all of this is is really just how this community is coming together. So I do appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> And I know that you're going to the next thing, but I just want to say I've been on that sideline as a staff member, as a coach. Um, Friday night was the most incredible event I've ever been in in West Milford. And it's to every one of you. I saw the superintendent there with his entire family. I saw every administrator there, more like security than we've ever had. I felt very safe, included. I saw tons of board members. Um, Joe, thank
027you. It was a great great event and I look forward to a good season. al also available on YouTube. But I I agree, great a great West Milford night. Football, the band, the cheerleaders, the community. Um great great place and a great u great area to see a game. Mrs. West. >> Okay, good evening. I'm very pleased to be able to share some of the summer committee work um from the English department both at Makpin and the high school. Um our first committee was the eye readiness team and Makpin Middle School. It was comprised of um two mechan teachers. Um we began by doing a teacher survey of successful strategies for engaging students in Ire both with the diagnostic and with my path implementation in ELA. Um the committee we compiled, discussed and organized those
028strategies that teachers felt were very useful uh and engaging for students. Uh and the committee created a 10 slide visual teacher resource called I Ready for a Great Year. and uh teachers turnkeyed that on September 4th uh during the PD day. Our successes and challenges with uh implementing some of these ideas will be shared in the October 14th PD day coming up. So we have a an ongoing process of u feedback and review. A little more in detail about I Ready for a great year itself. Uh we began as I said with current strategies and use um the teachers provided directions with visuals for assigning and checking lessons. Um they described something called anchor activities where my path can be used as an ongoing self-directed assignment when students are coming in or ending the day
029in between assignments or if a teacher is working with a small group. Uh students could work on it individually. Um it helps them to build some skills, apply new knowledge, have some ownership of their learning, make some choices um and learn some self-management of time which is the why of my path as an anchor. Um it we shared ideas for motivating students and um in that process also gave teachers some very clear visuals with directions for access accessing the diagnostic reports. Again we will share successes and challenges and various lessons and material ideas that emerge from this on our October 14th PD day. The second committee that we had was the artificial intelligence and acceptable use committee. Um I think artificial intelligence over the past year and a half almost two years has certainly impacted
030all of us both personally or professionally. Um we were having some challenges with it bubbling up with students using things like chat GPT to complete some writing prompts things like that. Um and it's not something that students can avoid. It's a part of our everyday lives. So we really needed to try and take the tack of educating students about acceptable uses of it and really um getting ahead of of that process. So we had two English teachers, one general education special education English teacher. Um we curated information and resources gathered from various professional development sessions across last school year. Rucker's writing drew university. Uh we sent a few teachers to an AI symposium for uh AI and writing in English. our individual personal learning networks and our northern New Jersey supervisor roundt for me. Um,
031our committee objective was to create a district, sorry, a departmentwide lesson that all students in all English classes would experience to enhance student understanding of acceptable uses and unacceptable uses in a uh of AI in the English classroom. So as a department on September 4th um we had teachers that were developing present sample lesson materials uh which included the items that we see here. There were nine resources. Uh the teachers themselves in the department were immersed in the lesson in the role of students. This enabled them to both explore the podcasts and the short videos and the articles and grapple with some of that content themselves. Could be a little bit timeconuming for them to do on their own time. um the activities essentially in the where to read, watch or listen to the text
032and then be able to discuss with a partner some of the drawbacks and some of the um and then to reflect in writing. Uh teachers do have the option to differentiate this. They can substitute some of the materials. Um but the key part of this is that all of the all the teachers all the students are using a common language in a rubric which comes in the form of this AI assessment scale for ethical uh gen AI assessment. Here's just a snippet of it. So, for example, if a student um we throw out some scenarios of ways that they could or could not use AI. Let's say that um we have a scenario where a student is generating ideas using AI um but then they would have to submit their work uh and that part
033of it would not be a part of AI. So, we're trying to help them to self assess their uses of AI which is going to be what's going to be acceptable, what's not. Um the scale runs from one to five. One being any use of AI is prohibited for like an assessment or a research paper etc. all the way down to five where they could use it to generate ideas. Perhaps um they could type in a thesis and um they can assess whether or not the thesis was properly written or they can critique it themselves. There were definitely some very good educational uses for it and we really want to make sure the students have a handle on exactly what those good uses are. So students will have input about acceptable use and guidelines. um
034successes, challenges, and various lessons and material ideas that were developed by teachers will again be shared on the 14th. Um and our assessment and follow-up discussion will include a reduction hopefully uh or not of uh unacceptable uses of of AI. So, we'll see where that goes when we all get to meet on the 14th. But I do want to emphasize that our ultimate goal for students here is education and proactivity rather than punitive measures. um AI isn't going anywhere and we need to help students to learn to navigate it effectively. So that was really the overall overall um objective of our committee. So stay tuned. We'll we'll let you know how that all went. >> Thank you, Mrs. West. Uh I know when they were um talking about what they accomplished this summer, I had
035a conversation with um with Mrs. West and and the teachers involved about uh West Milford schools being a little bit ahead uh of this conversation compared to many um the uh state policy had just uh been released recently and it's up for review and in many districts soon uh we were ahead of this with the with the summer work. So I want to just say thank you to those uh to those staff members. Uh just coming back to the uh we had some fun talking about the um the I Ready uh I readiness committee. So that uh we ready. So that was the that was really the fun we kept talking about and it became it became we ready. Um but that was just you between us. So a little fun. Uh also like to
036next introduce uh Mrs. Karen Johnson from our guidance department to talk about their uh their summer work. >> Thank you. So, one of the jobs that my school counselors took on this summer was the revision of the school counselor handbook. Um, I could got to fire this. Okay. Um, the school counselor handbook is really um an invaluable tool for us. It's it's the road map for everything that happens through guidance. So it provides the parameters, the guidelines, detailed information providing um for the counselors for everything whether it's the roles, responsibilities, resources, services, tools, our events, everything is included in that booklet. Um for our new school counselors, this is really invaluable because if somebody is hired into the department, this becomes their primer for everything they do. It's a resource book to look things up.
037If they don't know how to to either run an event or handle something with a student and and someone's not around to help them, they can refer to the handbook. Um, the last edition of this handbook was started in 2015. It was completed in 2016. So, it's heading toward 9 years old and it was very much appropriate to revise this booklet because a lot has changed in that time. So, got to get this go forward. Um, so for example, graduation requirements have changed, alternate route diploma pathways and resources have changed quite a bit. Um, NCAA and athletic guidelines have changed. Our programming has been modified a great deal over the past couple of years. There are new risk and threat threat assessment procedures as well as crisis intervention. Grade calculations have changed over the past
038couple of years. Nvian has new and additional features. Um, FAA continues to change year after year. It's still changing. And then there's testing and how that connects to graduation and and their scores and the pathways to graduation. That seems to continually change as well. Additionally, we've added a lot. We have a lot more um venues for communication that we keep going month after month and week after week. Um, we've added the steps program which is all focused on getting our kids toward successful post-graduation or post-secary um, paths and and things like that. So, that needs to be documented. Handle with care has been added. Going Mary has been added and information about all our EDOCs. We use so many different ed. And we're revising how we use those because we're also finding they're great data
039collection venues for us. So seeing what happens year after year informs us and informs our programming. So the way that we handled this revision was that the first part especially for the high school um group was a collaborative process where they sat down together for about four to five hours and reviewed every page of this lengthy document and marked up what needed to be removed or modified. Um adding sub subheaders for things that we had to put into the booklet. um they had the opportunity to reflect upon their practice which if anyone's worked in a guidance office you know things are coming at you constantly as school counselors when a need happens they have to answer right away and they're not thinking always about all of the things that are getting done in a day
040and so for them to review their practice and reflect upon it was really um a valuable time spent together. Um they also were able to identify gaps in the things we do or lost processes or things that just need to be modified. Um the update of the high school booklet is a 50page endeavor. It's it's that long. Um the middle school booklet was a 20page endeavor. Um they've completed most of the work, but we still do need to go back through as a collaborative review because they worked on it individually for the rest of the summer. So, we're going to come together um during some of our PD time just to review it one more time and change the formatting and then we'll have a finalized booklet that should last us a good number of
041years. Our second um our second thing that we did this summer, our initiative was adding the college app boot camp. The boot camp goal was to invite as many seniors as possible so that we could help them destress the process of applying to college by providing them with information, assistance, advice, encouragement, and most importantly, time together, time to work collaboratively on all of those things that are about applying to college. And the most important part of it for me was that we did it before September 1. We did it before school opened. A lot of times our seniors come to school and they say, "Well, that's when I'm going to work on my applications and suddenly they're finding they're overwhelmed because they're working their jobs, they're in sports, they're in clubs, they're working whatever it
042is they're doing that's taking up their time. The application process tends to get pushed on the back burner. So, this was a great thing to do in the summer." So, the counselors made sure that they plan for um taking care of the common app. Many of the students that day completed the common app. They wanted to cover letters of recommendation and how that was facilitated through NViance. Some of the kids on that day actually sent out their letters of recommendation. They wanted to clarify the process for completing their transcript requests as well as the personal brag sheets. They covered the college fit and talked about how students should add colleges to their list, not based on the names that they've heard, but based on the things that were important to them as individuals. They also
043looked at special admissions such as athletics and NCAA requirements as well as the arts where students often have to put together portfolios and follow strict submission deadlines and things like that. And finally, they covered the tips and strategies for the dreaded college essay prompts. So whether or not this was a success, well, let's see. Three high school counselors prepared for and worked with 35 students. We had 50 sign up. By that day, 35 showed up. Um, they covered all of the topics that I just went over with you. Um, we provided a postevent survey to all the participants. And what we discovered was that the students arrived at various stages in the processes. Some of them said, I started to comment out, others had written down, well, I thought about my essay. Several put, I
044had not done a thing. In the end, there wasn't one student who had completed any of the processes completely. So, everyone was able to come there and get something out of it. Um, when we asked them what was the one most important thing that they did or learned that day, the student responses were all over the place. It was interesting to see that almost every single thing we presented, someone responded, I learned something from this or this was really important or I'm so happy I did my comment out. So, we we found that every piece that we we had in the program was valuable to the attendees. Um the students also had the opportunity to share with us things that they would have liked to have seen done and so they added to topics that
045they would appreciate having included in future um for future groups taking this. And finally the most important piece was that 100% of the participants responded that they left feeling much more confident about the college application process. And for me that piece alone says that this was a huge success. So I wanted to thank the board for supporting us and doing that. This was the first year that we did it and we are really looking forward to um building the program a little bit more and next year spending some more time with our kids and um running it again and helping our seniors out because it was really valuable well spent time. Thank you. >> Thank you Karen. Uh if you have any questions for our um presenters as we go just feel free to uh
046let me know and ask. Um, just I want to say thank you. Uh, having um been a parent recently, go through the college application process. That's a fantastic resource. I'm about to go through it again, so hopefully um I can get some pointers from it. Fantastic resource. Um, our next um our next speaker is Mr. Kaine. Um, Mr. Winston, you might want to look for the one titled Maple Road Madness or Mustang Mayhem or what's it actually called now? Oh, first first Friday. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Novak. All right, so uh many of you know uh uh we've had a uh a tradition here at Maple Road, uh to host our annual First Friday event, first Friday of every school year. Um, this is our opportunity to kick off our character education theme for the
047school year and to it's a great way to um set the stage for our monthly uh character activities um for the school year. Um this school uh going into the summer, we in speaking with our first Friday committee and our character ed team, we really wanted to have a a service learning focus for our upcoming uh character mission. So, uh, these four ladies, Trisha Grainy, fifth grade teacher, Patrina Bise, kindergarten teacher, Christy Cla, MD teacher, and Jessetta, our fizzed teacher, got together over the summer to take a a new look at our, uh, first Friday activities and see how we could weave in a service learning mission, um, in that process. So, um, our theme for the year is to be a change maker. Um and uh these ladies um did a wonderful job of
048planning our first Friday event this past uh Friday um where we kicked off our theme and talked about um the elements of our character mission for the school year which includes uh our monthly um crossgrade level change crews that will be working on service learning projects to support organizations like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Highlands Family Success Center, Loai Rose, and other organizations each month working together uh on those projects to support those organizations and learning how to be a change maker. Uh and a nice added piece trying let's go here. Got to want it. All right, I'll let Rob uh Okay, so another element that we There you go. Uh we're also partnering with the uh organization called World of Change to not only do service learning projects for um each of those
049organizations, but also partner with World of Change to collect loose change each month to financially support those organizations. And working with World of Change, 100% uh of those collections will go to those organizations that we'll be supporting throughout the school year. So, uh, those four teachers worked throughout the summer to plan, uh, our event this past Friday. Some of you were there. Dr. Kitchen was able to be there. Mr. Schultz was there. Um, we had a wonderful, wonderful, um, activity with a family picnic and and kicked off and and Matt came down. Matt from World of Change came down from Boston to talk about his organization, how they're going to be partnering with us um to uh, to raise money for various organizations throughout the school year. And then also we're going to have um
050uh crossgrade level change crews do service learning projects. Um Christine Roberts is going to model the uh change maker t-shirt right now. Okay, look at that. Very nice. Very nice. Excellent job. Trisha Grainy's in the house tonight and all her hard work. Trisha, you want to add anything? You good? All good. Be a change maker. All right. So, uh, we're really looking forward to a great year and I want to thank, um, the team for putting that all together. >> Thank you, Mr. Kane. >> All right. Uh, Mr. Woodson, you can bring up the uh, wonders presentation. We have a paper copy to pass around in case the um, gold on black doesn't show up so well in this uh, in this setting. I also want to introduce before we get started Dr. uh Dr.
051Schwarz, principal of Apua School who helped uh tremendously with uh with this process along with all of our um elementary administrators. Uh we have Mrs. uh Sean Rinmith from the Marshall Hill School, second grade. Trish Grainy, as you just met, from Mustang Madness and also fifth grade teacher. Jess Cohen, first grade from Paradise Null. And uh Kelly Frasa from first grade Paradise Null as well. They are four members from our um district literacy committee, which is a group that u evolved from a a group that Mrs. West uh started called the balanced literacy support team. So we've had a literacy committee for our elementary um schools for over 10 years, you know, going I don't even I won't even try and do the math now. Um it's been a long time. Um we've rebranded for
052district literacy because um what we're about to present tonight is a uh a slight shift away from what you would call uh the balance literacy um process. Uh, Wonders is the name of our uh is the name of our new program. It's a McGro Hill product. So, what we're going to walk through um tonight is just a little background of the uh process that led to the selection of what you see before here uh before you tonight. Uh we have samples from every grade level. We have the uh teacher resources, student resources, um teacher manuals, the um instructional tools that the the teachers use during specific lessons along with some of the presentation materials that we um that we use to uh go through this process. Uh just to go through the four uh highlights
053of what we're going to talk about tonight is, you know, the investigation, what what we reviewed, how we reviewed it, what we chose, and what our next steps are. So that's kind of in a nutshell what we're about to what's about to walk through. Do you have any comments before we get going? >> Okay. >> All right. >> Cut me off. I'll just keep going. >> I liked it better when we had to pass Michael back. >> All right. So, so the investigation um when we began it really it really began at that moment where there was some district restructuring in terms of um roles of administration and Mrs. West became solely the um 6 through 12 uh language arts supervisor. I took on the role of um working with the language arts um kindergarten
054through 5ifth grade. Uh we set a meeting for that first summer with the balanced literacy support team just to kind of set up our goals. And we we had a room at the um library at the West Milford Township Library where we um set post one of the activities we did. We we took poster paper. We walked around the room and I asked what what do we all want as um as what is the best language arts program that we can provide for West Milford students? Uh at that time I didn't have any, you know, real vision of of funding for um the ability to actually replace it. We were just talking about, you know, what what do we envision as being what's best for West Milford students? And um I no longer have those
055posters. I wish I wish I took pictures of them because it was a great brainstorming process. I think they're still rolled up in my office somewhere, so I will find them someday. Um but a great brainstorming, sticky notes, um all the all the things that they wanted to see in a program and one of the the you know strong commitment to phonics um med be the ability to meet students at their at their own level. Uh and what what we found to be uh one of the most important facets of it was the uh user friendliness for staff. the ability for our staff members to be supported in uh their access to materials, everything that they need to um be able to come in, plan their lessons and and and uh you know present a
056a you know complete curriculum. Uh also thinking about a new staff member. That's one of the things that kind of brought this up with um you know during the uh those pandemic years where we had a lot of change in staff and people changing grade levels. it was it was challenging for us to um you know hand something to new staff and have them really embrace uh embrace the program. So that was one of our uh one of our goals >> and I think from that from those three phases um and I think the committee would would agree one of the most valuable parts in reflection was that it was a lengthy investigation process to even get through those phases. So everything was so well vetted, so thought out in in a careful, methodical way
057that represented all the cross-sections of different teaching groups within our district from literacy specialists to general education classrooms to special education classrooms contributing to that investigative process. >> Sorry. So in the beginning, we we kind of set the tone for what we wanted to uh what we wanted to complete and um what uh Dr. just described is we've got a um we had a graph here of all of the programs we reviewed. Uh that's small for me so I have to put on glasses. Uh I know we we uh we looked at we we ended up piloting um hands-on materials for programs called magnetic and wonders but we had presentations uh lengthy presentations from uh a variety of vendors uh into math uh amplify CK CKLA uh great minds wit and wisdom uh curriculum associates
058magnetic success for all I forgot about that one that second, right? I forgot about that one. Um and and then also uh wonders. Uh so in that um in that process, our um district literacy committee, we we met, we saw all the all the reviews, we got our hands on all of the materials, we took a look at their digital content. Uh we did a very, you know, deep dive into the components of the programs. Uh then throughout that process we um you know debated and discussed and we got a vote and then that vote led to uh two finalists and um the the best and I skipped that slide. The um two finalists were runaway winners between u magnetic and and wonders. Uh the the um the distant third was quite distant. Um, so
059when we came back, we reviewed the votes. Um, as a, as a committee, we continued to, you know, just to make sure we were doing what's right. We, you know, we vetted the the, you know, the one that was in third place to, you know, to really make sure that we were we were going to move into a um a detailed approach with with the two that we piloted. And this is what we landed on. Um so we set uh two two specific teams uh teachers who were piloting the um magnetic program and teachers who were piloting the wonders uh wonders program and our district literacy support team uh who's you know represented partially here they were able to get their hands on on both programs. So um you know I think that's the next
060slide taking a look at >> not you backwards. >> Okay. So the two teams were the from our original committee, but then they decided as a group that we needed to include beyond the district literacy committee and involve more teachers from from each building and from all the different areas that we work with in ELA to have a rounded out discussion at the building level. So each team had uh the district literacy committee on both teams in in total and then there were teachers from each building that either piloted magnetic or wonders separately. So then there were discussions at the building levels uh of those building teams and then everybody came together including those piloting teams to have those conversations. The magnetic team worked first. Uh they started before spring break or right after spring.
061>> March 18th. I can't see. >> I think the glare too. Um they started March 18th. They had their materials. That was one of the obstacles that we met in the anniversal pilot was the spring break timing working with the different training and being able to complete units as well as getting the materials into the hands of the teachers at that onset because we tried to move very quickly to to get everything in everybody's hands. So that ran through until the pilot of the Wonders program. But what was a very interesting success component in the first magnetic team is the teachers who were only piloting magnetic and not moving on to wonders. So many of them felt that it was such an advantage over what we were already doing that they chose to continue it
062through the end of the school year. Then we piloted wonders with a separate group of piloting team along with the district literacy committee that began May 3rd with training and we wound up with the obstacles of Ire diagnostic as we wrapped that up as well as the NJSLA testing in the middle. Um so it caused the the pilot group to work a little bit longer and a little more of disjointed because of the testing and another obstacle um for us in that one I can't see. Sorry. Thank you. And another success I'm sorry at the end of that was that they again chose to finish the school year with the pilot they were working on. So there was a great response from both teams and they experienced a lot of success in terms of what
063they were hearing back from their students from what they were discussing with families who that they were talking to about what the kids were experiencing and again the user friendliness for themselves with both units. So piloting discussion after after we completed all the activities, we brought our groups together. Um series of questions that none of us could read um uh were just a few examples. This was asked of everybody in a in a survey. Uh based on your experience, do you believe the Wonders program is an improvement over schoolwide? Why or why not? Uh how did the magnetic wonders program in terms of time which program writing processed by the student standards and the SLA? Um so there was a series of questions to to really you know kind of um allow our staff to
064respond to all aspects of the of the reading and writing process. Um so we were able to make a for informed decision when we eventually got to a vote. Um the uh grade level teams got all all a chance to get together. We had a culminating meeting and then here's our um you know that was our that was our end result. So we had um you know 90 Yeah. Yeah. It was a it was a you know overwhelming um you know majority for wonders. Um I think that uh magnetic had some some tremendous features that um many of our staff loved. I think just the um comprehensive nature of it is what led um most staff members to uh to review wonders. And just for fun I left um continue with schoolwide which was our
065current program and that received zero votes. The is the committee on the next slide some names. >> Those were the next steps we discussed foration. >> So the next slide is the next steps to prepare for implementation. So as soon as the vote was over, we began to move forward with implementation steps, proposals to the the committee and feedback from them what we needed to be doing next. So these were the questions we kind of worked through. You can read them um on the handout. the questions we worked through to develop how we were going to approach making this change over and how we how quickly we could do it. We gave it a timeline and um planned for professional development. So here's the here are the uh initial steps and the board was tremendous
066with helping us um approve a um staff training day in June. That was one of the things we we worked with the uh feedback from our math committee and our teachers from the year before when we implemented the new math program that the uh initial training taking place in September wasn't um you know wasn't the um wasn't the process that our staff would have preferred. So, um, you know, to to our staff's credit, you know, we came in the day after high school graduation, the day after school's closed, the when everyone else in the world is celebrating, every once in a while, Milford is celebrating the first day of summer. Our staff was came together and were trained on this program um on June 20th. And I think that and you know when you guys
067get a chance um you know the feedback from being able to do that was tremendous in terms of allowing our staff to get their hands on the materials to get access to the digital tools to kind of get their mind around it and be able to um you know kind of think over the summer about their about their implementation. So in the absence of that um of that training you know there would have been a lot of that mystery coming into the days in September. um and having to do that in a very short turnaround. So, uh I I thought that was a tremendous structure and I thank thank the board for supporting it. Uh we also had um a significant amount of work completed by our um district literacy committee over the summer as
068well as some additional teachers from each grade from grade levels and schools across the district to um work on um some of the training materials and some of the curriculum work that uh we need to implement the implement the program. So on a couple slides forward, we're going to show some of the um uh some of the ideas and some of the things that our teachers did. You know, we didn't have our wonders representative came in in June to do the initial training. The next step of that training was done by the people over there and their colleagues from across the district. So that was um that was a great first day. I believe was September 4th, our first PD day um where our elementary staff um you know took over some of the English
069classrooms. I appreciate your help. Um and and the media centers and you know staffled programs turnkey to our teachers who had to implement this program for our students in the first week first week of September. Uh so it was a a great process. Sure. And I think this is a good time for Okay. >> for our teachers want to share too. So the PD day uh was broken into three sessions led by by our teachers who are going to share um some of their work. So the first um opportunity they had was to see a shared drive that teachers put together um through their summer curriculum work. The second session was um teacher-led implementation strategies which our teachers are going to share with you. That was phenomenal for all of our staff to come together
070and hear this really cohesive plan on how to incorporate wonders with our phonics endeavors that we've had uh previously. And then we had grade level breakout rooms in in those English rooms as we mentioned where grade level leaders then u opened up all the units all the work they did over the summer the pacing and really explored that at the grade level again led by staff members. So one one of the things in in the process that I didn't mention earlier um in terms of our current program everybody loved uh our phonics first program. That was one of the pieces when we were meeting with each vendor to review uh to review the next step. Um one of the questions we continued to ask was about their phonics program. Does it work with um our
071existing program? Because some of them were like considered like alle cart where you took different pieces and you could apply it. So we were initially interested in maintaining our um uh existing phonics program which was called phonics first. So what um Jess and and Kelly worked on in you know with with with uh um our our staff was the ability to um connect phonics first with our new program. Uh so I I I won't botch it anymore. they can explain um they can explain better about what we what we did. >> We were obviously way ahead of the game in the fact that we chose phonics first quite a few years ago now. I can't remember what year but we knew that the practices in phonics first which are Orton Gillingham based are practices that
072we want to continue doing no matter what program you're doing. So what we did is as a team we looked at okay Wonders has all these great practices in it but how are our teachers going to understand the philosophy behind it how to implement it and how to implement it in a way that's Orton Gillingham friendly. Um, so what we did is we went through and we looked at all the different components of phonics first and what obviously can we continue to do that would make sense for our staff and for our students to continue giving them that extra boost because Orton Gillingham allows our students who have the most difficulty in reading and writing to be able to have multiensory approaches that allow them to succeed in a greater way. Um, so that's what
073we that's what we worked on. >> And so as Mr. Novak had shared at the beginning of the presentation, you know, when we were designing this, we were really keeping a teacher that was changing grade levels or a teacher that has not been trained. We were looking at it through their lens. And you know, fortunately, Jess and I, we've had a passion for phonics, so we've been researching and going to seminars and going to all different types of things. I'm in Orton program right now, and it's a passion, but we want to instill that passion in our especially our K2 teachers. So we felt that we needed to give them the confidence and the tools to say you can do this and we felt that we were able to give them a toolkit. Uh we
074did a few years ago we had given a PD to some staff members and we built on that. We used the wonders materials. We used our phonics first and we felt that we wanted to start the year off with a bang and give them what they needed. And I think going forward, like Mr. Novak said, is that I think our team in general is not only going to be looking at how is this program helping our students learn and grow, but also how can we continue to support the staff so they understand what really are the best practices to be using along with the curriculum because the curriculum is always going to change. There's always going to be new things that come along. But these practices are are are based on science and they are
075are tried and trueue practices. So there it's really important that our staff like Kelly said that's new coming in changing grade levels that they understand that to teach reading you really have to understand how to teach reading like you have to understand these effective practices to be able to do that and that's going to be something that we continue to do. So obviously Wonders does have the phonics component. So what we um recommended that we all do especi you know in K2 is that we use the phonics first routines and strategies. So, we we in phonics first, we have three-part drill. So, we reviewed with the teachers what that is, the strategies, there's some videos that we put into the presentation, and we asked that at least for the first few months of implementing Wonders,
076we're using that three-part drill to start off to kick off our phonics um and our reading lessons. And it's great. We've been doing it now for the last, you know, nine days. And it's very effective because we start with three-part drill and then we jump right into the phonics routines of wonders. So, we're not using phonics first curriculum. We're using the strategies and the word cards and the letter sounds and basically introducing them to the lesson each day. And I know where our plan is to touch back throughout the year. We're going to be talking with the teachers. I think fortunately we're very familiar with phonics first. So, I think it's nice to have a familiar component that teachers in all of the mix of trying to figure out all the new curriculum to know
077that you are doing great work by implementing these strategies into your lessons. Um, and I think that it it seems like there's a strong encouragement to do that along the staff. Um, is there anything else you want to talk about? >> I'm just I'm just uh >> I mean, we could go on for hours, but I don't think you want to. I should probably jump in because they don't have to teach reading tomorrow. >> I mean, we can we can have our own, >> but I just I just want to say, you know, thank you um thank you to our our staff and um everyone who jumped in and and that is a sample of what September 4th was like. That was just one part of our presentation. Um all of our um Sorry, I
078went to the crowd. >> No, and I have to say the the presentation they made on September 4th to to the staff was so wellreceived. It was so well done. Um, it it was really something we needed to bring everybody together. It almost gave a little bit of a refresher. It provided new staff with just a little insight before we got started and and get them the help they need in their buildings as new staff members. So, I I was so grateful. Um, it was it was really so very well done and super informative to pull back like the layers of wonders and insert what we're already doing that we know is successful. And you know, one of the points in there, teacher led, that was that was really um that was really important and
079well received. >> Uh go back. Uh could you go back to that? Um yeah, the feedback click on uh grade four. There we go. So, our our staff in preparation for tonight collected some um uh some feedback from students in their in their words. So, I'm not going to read it all to you, but you can get a good little um little glimpse of >> my favorite the 10 out of 10 out of 10. One of the students gave it a 10 out of 10 out of 10. >> It was really read that one. It was really cool. I love the Wonders book a lot. I'll give it a 10. 10 out of 10, right? 10. I'll give it a 10. 10 by 10. >> I was impressed by the spelling. So it was it
080was awesome. >> Learned a lot about earthquakes. Um you flip back you go to fifth grade just give you a little glimpse. Um some of the kids read them all to you. You like how we can read about stories and make connections to essential questions like in unit one. How can experience nature change the way you look, change the way you think about it? Think of our own life or Teddy Roosevelt's experience, the story can't present. Just students making connections to literature and their and their access. Again, that was uh you can you can go back to the slides now. So, uh, in October, our PD day, we'll be receiving more training from Wonders, as well as something that we're kind of exploring as as we go, which is a companion to it called Wonder
081Works, which will also tap in for our special special needs students and our students who are receiving basic skills instruction. That's something that we'll get more training and we'll be exploring a little further on the 14th. The teachers have the materials in their hands. It works as a as a complement to the wonders units and gives more of a differentiated approach to what they're covering in the general education classrooms. So we have that in our resource rooms. Then the next step will will be to um revise report cards mid year after we look at the alignment from what the report card work was this summer in comparison to Wonders and then regroup as a committee at toward the end of the year to kind of set some goals for Wonders for the 2526 school year.
082>> I just wanted to show um you know board the board has this in their packet so you can see who our people are. So the that's the list of our uh staff members in our district literacy committee and then on the right those are all of the staff members who um participated in piloting. So as you can see it's a um a nice wide sampling across the district for people who had a stake in this process and um and are now you know invested in our moving forward with it. uh and to you know announce for the first time the uh when we when we put uh the Eureka math program in place we did a um uh a family night too. >> All right. So, uh, October 29th, uh, we are planning for,
083um, you know, our our Wonders family night to, uh, have our, uh, have our families come out and experience the program. Just some um, pictures of our students in action. Anybody from uh committee have any final final comments? Any questions from the any questions from the board? Anybody want to get their hands on on some of this stuff? It'll be out. was really awesome. I really love the materials. Oh, sorry. I love the materials. Thank you. >> I There's I'm glad to see the family wonder um the the night. That's great because the math night was a very big success and I'm looking forward to that. Uh I do have a question about um is there going to be grade level planning across the district? You know how we've during COVID we had each grade
084level that kind of met on Zoom and whatever with with different administrator. I'm wondering are we continuing that with this new program because this program I'd say it seems appropriate. >> We're anticipating that on October 14th. So that um a component of what we're doing on October 14th is the training for the staff members who will be using Wonder Works which is um not our entire staff. That'll be for our um our reading specialists, our encore teachers, and our um resource room teachers. Our our gened teachers will be um doing a um a you know, cross district collaboration to, you know, see how things are going and and and move forward. >> They got a little taste of that on the PD day in those breakout rooms. So th that group will kind of be
085able to continue to lead the rest of their their grade level through the planning. >> Okay. I guess I guess one of what I'm I'm what I'm asking is are we going to be doing it as we move into the year because this is our first year with this program and it seems to me that everybody has to which was our goal is to have all the schools and grade levels on the same page. So is that you know the articulation between the grades is that going to be happening? >> Yeah. So our first uh that PD day that I mentioned is also um con connected to our PLC meeting of that month. Um so as we go forward um and I know we have each of our each of our principles works with a
086particular grade level to you know organize that PLC meeting monthly to focus on to focus on wonders and and um it's going to be focused on wonders but we also still because we've >> um implemented a new math program last year and and a new reading program this year uh we still have some you know articulation to do with both um in terms of of that time together >> and and those breakout meetings set the pace and set the calendar. The Wonders actually sets its own calendar so it kind of keeps everybody almost on the same page on its own because we set it as a district start date. But we set the pace and the outlining of those units. So teachers are able to start without hitting the ground with that initial articulation meeting
087that'll happen >> because that that that's where some of our programs in the past have gotten kind of lost in the shuffle because not everybody is in the same spot. I know we don't this kind of prevents that age every but this definitely has a plan where you have to kind of follow it in order to be where you need to be, >> right? And the units are very defined. So we actually already have them in Rubicon where they're in there with dates and actually we're able to even work around things like the I Ready diagnostics fit into the planning of this. So they are outlined in there a continuum for the whole school year. >> Okay. Thank you. just add and stuff maybe we got away from some of that grade level but like
088today the entire second grade we had PLC's the entire second grade we created a zoom and I mean it went well over the hour just because we had a lot of question like people had questions or concerns or where did you find this or where did you find that and we've also created I know by grade level our own um our own places on the computer for us to just drop in all everything that we're finding just so everybody has the same area. So like that is something that we can utilize more during those PLC's and you know it's already getting done today and we were able to use utilize that time on a zoom with our colleagues. So >> that definitely is what what I'm trying to to talk about because it I I
089realized that one of our successes during co was the fact that we did that because the it kept all of you able to interact with each other and when it's a new program like this and depending on how many new staff we have it's really important that you have that resource of your colleague to be able to help you in in in you know kind of troubleshooting something. >> What's great about it, you were here have different grade levels. So, if we did do the Zooms by grade level during PLC's, you would have somebody who was on the committee and maybe it was part of this whole 2-year process. So, we were able to utilize. And then today, I've even brought in another teacher who was new to the district, but she used Wonders in
090her previous district. So, I have been she's on like my hotline in my phones in my classroom. So, she's been a great help, too. So, for the collaborations, but that is definitely something that we can continue to do going forward. >> That's great. That's exactly what we need. >> And teachers will be sharing this uh principles will be commenting on this in their back to school night presentations and teachers will be talking about it in their classrooms. So after the initial launch, then we're going to have our um our parent night to bring the community in to get their hands on it and see um you know and hear from our staff and then hear from um one of our um one of the presenters who worked with our staff um to to complete the
091training. So good things ahead. So, the parent night, is there a location set for that parent night or >> uh high school uh auditorium? >> Okay. And then um this is more for Dr. Resza. Um I think maybe um Wonders uh works is the special education piece. Maybe having something um on that at the CPAC meeting might be a >> That's a great That's a great idea. That'd be something we can explore, too. >> Thank you, Dr. Resza. Um, I just want to thank everybody who presented tonight. A lot of times, you know, we'll approve something on an agenda and then we never see like the fruits of your labors. And so, um, thank you for taking the time to come tonight. Um, and I especially want to thank all of the teachers who volunteered
092for the this committee. the laundry list of teachers um not only who were on the initial committee but who volunteered to pilot these programs was long and it was completely volunteer. So um appreciate you guys um doing that especially at the end of a school year to figure that out. >> Is it a different curriculum for special ed? Then I didn't know anything about the what did you call the wonders? >> No. So that's why the training that's why the training for Wonder Works is is coming in October is that all of our special education teachers encore reading specialists had to be trained on Wonders because Wonders is the core program and the Wonder Works is just a more um intervention type program. So it's it's the same program, it's the same lessons, it's just
093um modified uh in in different ways. >> It differentiates the activities that go with the lessons that stem from wonders themselves. So it supplements for differentiation for lower level learners. >> Right. All right. Uh thank you. Thank you all for presenting. I've got a lot of Door Dash coffee to send tomorrow. I can't I can't drive around everywhere, so don't call lockdown drills for the people coming up to to uh deliver coffee to the doors. So, thank you. Thank you all for being here. I appreciate it. >> I I just want to say one thing. I I I appreciated everything that everybody said that was here tonight and I agree with Tara. What I would like to see is if we could get workshop meetings again so that we have two meetings a month and
094use our workshop meeting to have this because the these are really important uh topics that we need to see as a board and sometimes we kind of have to cram it into the one meeting when we have a full agenda and we're we're voting but a workshop meeting we're not voting. So our discussion is happening and if giving the the floor to our education is exactly what we should be doing with that meeting. So hopefully moving forward we can do that. >> Thank you. I also want to thank I want to thank Mr. Novak for all the work that went into this comm all these committees this evening. Um you know he organizes a lot of this and makes sure all these things are happening. So uh huge thank you to our committees but also
095big thank you to Mr. Novak for all of his work as well. Right. Thank you, Mr. Novak. That concludes my report. >> Thank you, Mr. Novak. >> Special reports and correspondence. Mr. Schultz, >> I'll keep it brief. It's the August 20th, 2024 workshop regular meeting and the August 20th, 2024 executive session minutes for those both of those meetings. I'll make a motion to move the the minutes for the August 20th workshop and for the executive session. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> So, at this time, we're going to go on to the regular agenda and public comments. So, um, anyone that would like to leave, um, you may or you may stay for the rest of the meeting. Um, >> you want to teach with those materials, then
096come over. I didn't realize that they had to take it off. I Beautiful. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Thank you so much. >> Wonderful. >> Okay. So, president's report, I'll keep it very quick. Um, actually most of it's already been spoken about. I just wanted to thank Mr. Glenn and Mr. Trentacosta and all the crew and maintenance that actually did two things. One, the veterans night at the football um game was amazing. Um, you saw the video already, so I don't need to go into detail, but they did an amazing job getting that area ready and prepared. It was safe. Um, it was a great night. So, I just wanted to personally thank them and their staff. Also, Mr. Glenn for the um and his staff for getting the uh district ready for the
097opening of schools. Um we actually got to do a little tour um this week of some of the grounds and some of the buildings. We got to see some of the amazing things that uh Mr. Glenn and his staff have been working on and what they plan on working on. And I have to say that our little committee was very impressed with what we saw and what we heard. I also wanted to just um say thank you to the administration and to our teachers. It's uh the first the opening first day for the teachers was an amazing morning. Um our administrators did a great job. Um and it seemed like the first day for the students went just as well from what I saw on social media. I'm obviously not a part of that, but
098um all the feedback was great. So, I just wanted to wish everyone a great 23, no 2425 school year. And that's the end of my report. Now, on to public comments. So, all speakers will have 5 minutes to speak until a period of 30 minutes transpires. Before speaking, please state your name, group affiliation, and address for the record. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. After speaking, all speakers are asked to sign their register provided and give their full name, group affiliation, and their address. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question board members individually. All speakers are expected to have read the statement within the agenda regarding the regulations concerning public comments. Members of
099the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Mr. Schultz, is anyone signed up to speak? >> No, there's not. >> Is there anyone wishing to speak? Okay, Mrs. Babcock's a different mic. tired. >> Hi, uh, Caitlyn Babcock, 13 post place. Um, very excited about the new program. Loved that we mentioned my favorite term, which is Orton Gillingham. Um, I just had one question about the special ed piece. Um, we mentioned, uh, the resource room. Um, but I was wondering if it also included the uh self-contained programs as well. >> All those teachers were trained on the initial wonders presentation. So they've been trained in program and then they will also be trained >> Mike. Dan. >> Yes. >> Oh, Dan. Dan. Mike. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else?
100>> Anyone else wishing to speak? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Are there any changes to the agenda? Dr. Kitchen? >> Yes. There are three. >> Okay. on page 10, item six. Uh, that salary is prrated. It should say that in there and it does not. On page 15, item 34, that rate is listed at 4403. It should actually be $4029 >> 40. And then last but not least, page 19, item six, the donations there were approximately $640. That actually has gone up because there was more donations added. The dollar amount is actually $660 donated. And those are all the changes. >> Thank you, Dr. Kitchen. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda as presented with the >> adopt the agenda? >> All those in favor? >>
101Any opposed? Um, education. Uh, Mrs. Yeah, we're gonna >> I move to postpone item number one until after executive session. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any any opposed? Okay. Um I move to um number two. You can move it. >> Um I would like to move number two under education. >> Second. >> Okay. Before I open this for dis up for discussion, I'm going to actually uh read it so it goes onto the record um for the people that are at home too. But I just wanted to first uh thank the academic uh success committee and Mrs. Stryance for all the work and time that they have given to us up until this point in regards to the scheduling at the high school. So now I'm going to read the resolution that's
102being put forth. So it's a recommendation of the superintendent to approve the resolution. Whereas the West Milford Board of Education is committed to maximizing academic and instructional outcome for our students. Whereas it is recognized that there exist a variety of scheduling options in different school districts that may enhance student learning and instructional efficacy. Whereas the current scheduling system in place may or not be the optimal choice for the students academic needs moving forward. Whereas the implementation of a new schedule has broadreach and impacts on all aspects of a school's functioning including but not limited to instructional time, resource allocation, credit acquisition, staff assignments, extracurriculars, food service, and student engagement. Now therefore, be it resolved that the West Milford Board of Educa Education directs the administration to form a committee tasked with investigating and evaluating various
103scheduling options available in other districts. Be it further resolved that the committee shall assess the potential benefits and challenges associated with each scheduling option and make recommendations that align with our goal of enhancing academic and instructional outcomes for all students. Be it further resolved that the committee will include a diverse representation from stakeholders including educators, administrators, parents, and community members to ensure a comprehensive examination of scheduling options. Be it further resolved that the committee shall report its findings and recommendations to the board of education following the completion of their research and development of recommendations enabling informed decision making for the future of our students educational experience. Is there any discussion from any of the board members or comments? Okay, Mrs. Van Djk. Um, I'm very happy to see this resolution because in the past when
104we have changed things such as Makipin and Westbrook, this is how we did it and we brought all our stakeholders in. I believe that this is a very transparent way of changing things and getting the input from from our our people, not only our staff, but our parents and and the community members so that everyone is on the same page. Not everyone is going to feel the same way about it, but I think giving that transparency helps to to be able to be successful in whatever we do going forward. >> Thank you, Mrs. Van Djk. Anyone else? Okay, seeing none. Uh, roll call, please. >> Uh, Mrs. Jurgensson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rakano, >> yes. >> Mr. Satovich, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. >> Mr. Lippy, >>
105yes. >> Mrs. Markard, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. under um education. I move items number three through 13. >> 13 is on the hair hand carry >> second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes, Mrs. Fand >> very talkative tonight. Um I I want I want to um thank Dr. Reza for the resolution, the hand carry for the the placement because this should this is the beginning of what Highlander and different areas of our um uh Highlander Academy was supposed to be about. This is what was a dream of Howard Helers years ago. And as a board member who has sat here for many years, this gives me great pride in knowing that we have set we have stayed on the course and that we are servicing our a population that is so in need.
106And I am very proud to be on this board and I want to thank Dr. Resza for his efforts in in bringing this into our district. So, thank you very much. Thank you, Mrs. Van Djk. Anyone else, Mrs. Romeo? >> Um, I agree and 100% with everything Linda said. Um, and I know that this is not our fault. However, I need to ask so that it could be explained. Number 13 is us receiving a student um under $20,000 for the school year. Um, however, if you look at number 10 and 11, it's us sending students out 10 specifically for 5 months for $10,000 more than we can receive for an entire year for one of our student for an out of district student coming in. Um, so I was wondering if you can explain that.
107Um and you know I and maybe explain to the public how much we're allowed to charge and why and then that these others I guess is it because they're private institutions and stuff. >> Yeah. This um this student this tuition it's actually a gen ed student that'll be attending West Milford High School. This is in a higher academy placement. >> So the certified uh tuition rates that govern we have the most recent data is the 22 23 school year. So we use that as our baseline to figure it out because after at the conclusion of the audit every year is when they come out with the certified rates and that's where you adjust the tuition either you build the districts or they send you a check for the difference. So we use the most recent
108data we had we added a few percentage points to it and we came up with uh this is a prrated amount as a student didn't start till September 16th. Um so this is a little less than the certified tuition rate but it's prrated uh uh getting rid of the first couple weeks of the school. I know Dr. The rest is working on bringing some other students into the district and those um for the ERI program, autism program, those are higher tuition rates based on the cost of the programs. And I'll just thank the board for their support uh because this is a very exciting venture and uh it's just great that we'll be able to serve our community here in West Milford as well as surrounding communities with these fantastic programs and staff that uh
109serve these programs. So, I did want to clarify my question a little bit. So, being that this is a gen ed student, you're saying that that was our tuition, our latest number, right? Um, and if it was a special education student, the numbers would be a little bit different. But then when we send out because we have so many comprehensive programs, special ed and gened, we only send out to not only but mostly private schools. So, when you look at these other numbers, they're much higher because they can charge more because they're not a public institution. Is that right, Billy? >> Yeah. Private schools would for students with disabilities have much uh different uh I would say um services that they provide that go beyond you know in terms of the needs of the students,
110the resources that are expended there. Um and uh the other costs that they have that that that are unique to private institutions. Um and then in terms of the district, we do like Mr. Schulz said have specific guidelines that we follow in terms of the rates that we do charge. um whether it's a gened student, special education student um or specific special programs. Um but we we do have to adhere to those as as outlined by the state of New Jersey where the private schools have their own guidelines that they have to follow in terms of the the the tuition that they charge. And to piggyback, I should also mention that um beyond the base rate of tuition, there are there's often charges for various services that are being added. So uh it does depend
111on program itself. Thank you. Five more questions. Thanks. Um, number four, Mr. Novak, uh, at McIn School, the mathematics, it says pre-advanced placement algebra. Is this the current class that's being taught first period at the high school or is this an addition? >> The the class being taught at the high school has geometry. >> Use your mic, please. >> No. >> Thank you. Okay. >> Good. Mrs. Romeo, >> no one uh two more questions. Okay. Sorry. >> Um my next question is about the NJ4S. Do we have a list of what they're actually um like implementing in West Milford? Do we have a list of what they are doing? Are they doing parent programs? Are they doing group student programs? Are they Do we have that list yet? And when we do, will it be
112shared with the board? >> I brought with me tonight uh some materials that do share the types of services and programs that they provided as they did as they offered in last year when we brought them in. Um >> every pamphlet from NJ4s that's possibly available. I'm just curious what we're using them for. Like are we doing parent programs? So we're going to be looking right now at uh different assemblies as well as uh possible support groups that we did last year and when we have more information and as we in you work with them we'll have more information uh to share with uh with the community as well as support. >> Cool. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And I hope this is my last question under education. Um, number nine, uh, well, so
113number nine, it clearly states what we'd be hiring the psychiatrist for as an evaluation, um, CBS therapy in Rhode Island. What would we actually be hiring them for? And is there a dollar amount that we have, um, as a max or minimum? As a maximum really. So you're asking about uh number nine, the the uh the uh psychiatrist is an agency that we're using for evaluations, risk assessments and and the like. Uh it's one of the many approved evaluators that we use for that purpose. And then the um the CBS therapy underneath it is one of a variety of agencies that we look to approve that will provide support in the sense of therapy um if we have needs in the district that go beyond whether uh students that we have district that needs there
114needs to be served or outside students that maybe are with maybe uh private placements and things of that nature. So, we're just approving the agency to be able to provide services. >> And so, they do also um they do speech therapy, >> speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy. Yeah. Those types of therapies. Yes. >> Okay. So, they're not doing psychiatric evaluation? >> No. >> Okay. >> Not that I'm aware of. >> Anything else, Mr. Romeo? That's it. Thank you. Anyone else seeing non roll call, please? >> Mrs. Jurgensson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Aano. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Markwart. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Personnel. Student affairs. Mrs. Van Djk. >> Yes. I'd
115like to move items one. Item one under personnel. Is that yet? >> Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. >> Mr. Stovich, >> yes. >> Mrs. Jensen, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rico, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Markwart. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Laughlin. >> Yes. >> I'd like to move item two. The railroad 23. Any discussion and none? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. >> Mr. Satovich, >> yes. >> Mr. Jurgensson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Roano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Markwart, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. operations and finance. Mr. Libby. >> Okay. Be before I move uh the motions to vote on, I'd like to reiterate
116what you said about the uh Mr. Glenn and our little tour during our committee meeting. It was amazing to see not only what they got accomplished, but how they got it accomplished, how quickly they got it accomplished, and how well it was done. It was really refreshing to see. I think I think between our our new administration people and some some of his new team members and such, it was it was good to see. >> Great. >> A little bit. Um I'd like to move number one. >> Any discussion? >> I'd like to just speak on it briefly. So, this is the uh motion that we received from I believe it was Hardston, but we've actually received it from several districts. There's a very similar and just today we got the same motion again from
117Stillwater. Um, so this is a a joint effort on behalf of many of these S2 districts to sort of take a stand and say that our the quality of education that we're able to provide based on the funding formula that the state has put out um has been diminished. And it's really important for us to recognize that uh with without that funding becomes much more burdensome on our taxpayers and much more challenging to uh maintain the standards that you all expect as board members uh that our teachers expect of themselves and that our community expects of our schools. So um this is sort of us joining the fight. Uh you can see some of these percentage uh percentage changes in Northern New Jersey for some of these S2 districts. Um, so if this motion carries,
118um, you'll also notice that it is something that, uh, Mr. Schultz will be communicating with the state on to let them know what our stance is, um, again, in conjunction with many other districts that also feel the same way because they're being impacted in the same way. >> Any other discussion? >> Dr. Thank you very much for bringing this to our attention and and laying it out in this manner from the other school districts that you we've gotten it from. I'd like to find some way if we could publish this just to let the general public have a real picture as to what districts of our type are facing. You we've talked many many times about tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, and then we raise taxes. And there's a lot of people in the
119public who who they hear us talking about it and when we raise our taxes many times they think, oh well, they made up for that difference. But seeing these types of numbers, it is shocking that there's 60 70% cuts to some districts with, you know, cuts in student populations of 10 20 30%. But just to find some way we could publish this so people can see it to get a better understanding of it. >> Would would you like this motion specifically be placed uh on our website directly so that it's visible um and then perhaps pushing it out as well? Uh but certainly it's something what we're trying to accomplish here. >> Yeah, I think I think it can live on the website and I think it's something we can we can push out. So,
120um assuming the motion carries, we will we will make sure that this is something that is shared out publicly um and then can obviously be be reshared from there. >> Thank you, Mr. Lipe. Anyone else wishing to speak? >> Seeing none, uh roll call, please. >> Uh Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rico, >> yes. >> Mr. Jurgensson, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Markwart, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. >> Okay, Peter, >> I'd like to move for uh roll call vote numbers 2 through eight. >> Any discussion? See our roll call, please. >> Uh, Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Roano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Jurgensson, >> yes. >> Mr. Satovich, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes.
121>> Mrs. Markard, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mjk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. >> Okay. >> Like to move number nine. >> Second. >> Any discussion? See on roll call, please. >> Mr. Philippi. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Roano. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Jurgensson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stovich. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Rick. >> Mrs. Markard. >> Mrs. Van Djk. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> I'd like to move number 10 through 14, please. >> Second. Any discussion? >> Seeing none. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rakano, >> yes. >> Mrs. Jurgensson, >> yes. >> Mr. Satovich, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Markwart, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood, >> yes. >> Okay. Committee reports, liaison, parks and
122wreck. Mrs. Dwire. She's not here tonight. So, I don't think anyone else has anything on that. So, we'll move to safety. Mrs. Rano, Mrs. Dwire. >> Um, we have our first safety committee meeting coming up this fall. I'm not sure that there is a date set for it yet, but it's usually in October. >> Thank you, Mrs. Rico. Superintendent round table. Mrs. RCOo and Mrs. Van Djk. We have our first meeting of the school year on Thursday. Excellent. Say county school boards association. That's me. Uh the first meeting is next week um on the 25th at Mario's Restaurant and Pizzeria in Clifton. Starts at 6:45 is the official start. Um New Jersey School Boards Association, Mr. Stovich. >> So just reminders of excuse me just flip quickly. workshop is on October 21st to 24th and
123it's highly recommended and the delegate assembly is on December 7th. That's my report. >> Perfect. Legislative. Anything Mr. >> Legislative >> and technology oversight, Mr. Lee and Mrs. McCard? >> Well, we have not had a meeting. I I would like to say that during our tour, we got to see the brand spanking new computer lab in high school and under technology. That was impressive. It was fun to see, >> especially considering that was the room I learned on an Apple 2e >> many years ago. >> Um, Township Board of Education Joint Committee. Uh, we have a meeting coming up next month. Uh, West Milford Municipal Alliance, Mrs. Van Djk and Mrs. Jurgensson. >> Um, we did have a meeting on Monday, last Monday that day was um, basically they're still looking for input on the
124survey. So if you if anyone's interested in that's spending the money and looking where they want to direct the money from the um the the settlement that they got through the opioid settlement. So they're looking to find uh or pulling the community to see what type of um funding they want to you know where they would like to see that funding go. Um there will be something on uh internet safety on October 2nd at the library in rooms 6 and 7 at 5:15 if anyone's interested. That's going to be conducted by NJ4S. Um the there is going to be a town hall substance abuse at town hall during red ribbon week. It's going to be October 24th and there's going to be multiple uh people there. Um hope one is going to be there. Uh
125the police uh different um the municipal alliance in different areas for that night. Uh there's a special conference on on February 1st and the uh wellness family festival will happen on April 5th and that will be here in our school in the high school and that's about it. >> Thank you Mrs. Van Djk. Uh special education parent advisory committee Mrs. Mquad you got your wish. So, um, we will be having our parent planning meeting for, uh, CPAC, which is virtual, October 8th at 7:00 p.m. And then we will be having our CPAC meeting October 16th from 7 to 9 at UGL. >> Thank you. Any old business, >> Mr. Lipe? Just real quick, we've talked about in the past a couple times the free and reduced lunch responses. Has that how how how much better
126is it now? >> Good question. >> They they do continue to come in. They uh slow down after the you know the first two weeks. Um we're working on um something that's going to bring it back to the forefront um of our conversations over the next few weeks prior to uh um our back to school nights. Um, so it's it's better than it's been and I think we're going to continue to see them come in as we continue to to share our process and and you know talk about how the easy easy the access is. >> Um, Mrs. Romeo, did I see your hand up? >> Yes. I have a couple things in old business. Um, the first is have we heard anything about the turf at Daigo Field? >> Uh, yeah. We're meeting with
127the township. They uh they put money in their budget this year for the engineering study. Mr. Glenn's working on getting some uh quotes and pricing on that. And they also included some money for the lighting in in their budget for this year. So, he's working on updating those quotes as well. We the previous uh quotes were a little while back when Mr. Kelly was here. So, he's getting some updated information. So for this year in the township they're talking about the engineering study for the feasibility for the turf and then the township was looking into possibly funding for the turf for future year's budget for next year for 25. >> Do you think this is a project that'll be done for the 2526 baseball season is that >> I don't know what the timeline it
128would be the 25 the the township budget is on a calendar year basis for the 2025 budget for them. Um, as for the that would have to get approved on the township. They'd have to incorporate in I guess that all depends on the feasibility study that'll be done. Okay. >> That the engineers and the uh architects complete >> once once we get that moving. >> I did want to say something about the Digos field with the township. Um, everyone got their um new tax bills. Don't like to bring that up here, but everyone that got their new tax bills, there was a leaflet actually in there from the township where they mentioned Daigos Field and Turf in it in there. um in their flyer. So yeah, I just wanted to point that out. >> Just
129want to mention too that Mr. Glenn does have some sketches from uh I believe from the architect an architect that he met with about uh what some possibility possible layouts for that will be as well. So um you know obviously nothing official a lot more work needs to be done but it is progressing. >> Yeah. And one of the other steps that was involved though the board just approved the updating of the uh long-range facilities plan because that'll have to be incorporated into that as well. Also, that'll be part of the update that's being going to be completed. >> Great. >> Anything else, Mr. >> The next thing I wanted to piggyback off uh what Mr. Lippy said, um so the committee of operations and finance on Monday night did a tour of the district.
130We saw many of the projects that have been done um by the custodial and maintenance staff. Um, impressed is I mean I was so impressed. The there was all different things. Um, highlights for me were definitely the UDL playground. Um, the Marshall Hill playground. Uh, just so many really great projects. the high school water situation and all these things that are just taking care of big things that behind the scenes that it's really nice to know about and see. Um, I also want to mention it because I don't know that Mr. Glenn's staff knows how he speaks about them and I feel like that's so important to hear him say my team and these how hard they work and all incredible things. I don't know that that group has ever had any of a better
131advocate in the past, you know. Um, and I feel like they need to know that. So, I am going to send an email to Mr. Glenn thanking him and I will CC like their union rep so that they can know that they were, you know, that they're appreciated, that we've seen the work they've done. And also, if uh Dr. Kiten, if you could please ask Mr. Glenn, can you share his slide presentation with the board members that did not see it? It's really impressive um to see some before and after things. >> Absolutely. We can do that. And I should also mentioned um so Mr. Glenn just the other day did send an email to his entire staff thanking them for all the effort that they put in, made sure administration was included on that.
132So several of us had the opportunity to uh to echo that thank you and that appreciation. So they they uh you can't say it enough because the amount of work that's gone into it, it was tremendous, but they they have been uh they have been recognized in several different ways and by several different people. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Yeah, I'll be sure to uh I'll send a presentation out tomorrow morning. I meant to include in my minutes. I'm sorry about that. Forgot to include it in there. So I'll make sure to send that out tomorrow morning. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> I I just want to piggyback on that because I've got the privilege of seeing them every day. I I've been walking the track and I've been meeting with not like having it's
133informal meeting but they've been up there and watching how hardworking they are. And Friday night both uh Dr. Kitchenen um Mr. Novak and Mr. Schultz were with me when we were talking to the maintenance people and telling them how impressed we were with what they did in such a short amount of time. And I have to tell you, it was conveyed by them that they are they they truly feel appreciated and they want that they they take great joy in doing what they're doing and the upkeep of our grounds. And I am glad to hear and I know that Dr. Kiten did direct Mr. Glenn to let them know that the board is so appreciative of how they have maintained the grounds and what they have done to get the opening of school going here.
134So, it really truly um is being conveyed and I totally agree with you. We need to appreciate them and all of our staff >> even beyond the work that they do. They they've been willing to to lend a hand in in any way necessary. An example of that was the other day we had um an injury that resulted in an injury on the field that resulted in an ambulance being called. Um and uh our so Mr. Glenn raced over to make sure he could open up the gate so the ambulance could get directly to the student and his staff stopped cutting the lawn to go down and direct the ambulance to make sure they sped the process up and met them at the corner to tell them exactly where to go to direct them how
135to get right to the student so we didn't have to transport the student from the from that location. So um you know simple little thing but but it just shows what what team players they all are. So, you know, thank you is not enough, but um but we do appreciate >> Well, they've been topnotch forever, but it's really nice to be appreciated and to feel it and to hear it said and so I think that's the difference, you know, like we've always known how incredible they are, but to have, you know, administration that appreciates them and to hear it. So, thank you to everybody. That's really cool. My last thing that I had in under old business is um kind of a statement. Last month I made a comment about an agenda item um that
136I do stand firmly behind which is I believe that women and men should be paid the same and I know that that is a contract issue and I know that that is a union for you know that uh for sporting events you know I was upset that a head coach was still getting paid less than a assistant coach and that's not really our place but I'm allowed you know that's the union's job to fight for that, you know. Um, and with that, my next comment really has nothing to do specifically just about that. Um, but I've been thinking about it since the last meeting. And, um, I once had a superintendent who was, he originally was a literature teacher, theater, literature, arts guy. um and he you know had his doctorate and he once said
137when he hired me in orientation he also hired our new football coach and when he introduced us he said when football wins the whole town wins. Well coming in as the crisis counselor I was kind of annoyed. I'm like, "Yeah, football, you know, like what's most important? Learning, counseling, social, emotional." And um I've realized over the time that he's not wrong. And I just wanted to make the statement that I truly do believe that football is important and that my last statement was not about football. Um that I'm a huge supporter of football in this town and of our high school. Um I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. It wasn't about that. It was just that I do firmly stand in for equality and I know that that has nothing to do with maybe
138this and more negotiations. So, I wanted to clear that up. Um, but I do agree with my former superintendent that, you know, right now we have a winning football team and Friday night I told you guys was it was amazing, you know. Um, and I'd love to continue seeing that. So, um, just so you know, I support all West Milford things from football to everything. So, thank you. >> Go. >> Any other old business? >> Close all business. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? New business. Any new business? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. Public comment number two. So all speakers will have five minutes to speak until a period of 30 minutes transpires. Before speaking, please state your name, group affiliation, and address for the
139record. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by their chair first. After speaking, all speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, group affiliation, and their address. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No participant may address or question board members individually. All speakers are expected to have read the statement within the agenda regarding the regulations concerning public comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Anyone signed up, Mr. Schultz? >> No, there's not. >> Anyone wishing to speak? >> I have one last comment. If no one else wants to speak, do I have to go over there? >> Um, what are you commenting about? Something like as a board
140member or as a parent? I could be the parent. I am the parent. Um and I'm just not going to walk over there. Is that okay? I'll I'll sign the registry. But um it's come to my attention really as a parent that um our school handbooks and the board policy and regulations are really not um as what's the word like distinct as they really should be. So, our school handbooks, um, I specifically read Mccapins from last school year and the high schools from this school year. They do not, um, represent the work that I've seen done on this board of education in the last six years. So, it's kind of hard when you are a parent, right? Because I'm seeing this as a parent, but I've been a board member for six years, so I
141know all the work that the policy committee has put in. And somehow someway, those two things have to be married. Um, and so I wanted to mention it that that needs to be a project moving forward, maybe a summer committee for next year because um, we can't have rules and regulations in the school that don't represent what the board's decided for regulations and policy. So, I wanted to comment on that as a parent. >> Thank you, Mrs. Romeo. >> Anyone else wishing to speak? >> Miss, what was your name for the record, please? Yes. Kate Romeo one still drive. >> Come on over. >> Public comments. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Um, executive session. Mrs. Rico at 10:14 p.m. I make a motion to go into executive session for the
142purpose of discussing personnel and um, HIPS. Um the executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. Um the board will be in executive session for approximately 60 minutes. Action will be taken when we return. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? >> Oh, sorry. Sorry. Thank you. >> Any opposed? Okay. So, we will be returning after executive session in approximately 60 minutes. >> I'd like to call a meeting back to order. Um, roll call, please. Mr. Schultz, >> Mrs. Van Dyke, Mrs. Romeo, Mr. Jurgensson. >> Here. I'm sorry. >> Here. >> No, it's attendance. Yeah, you're fine. You're good. >> Mr. Lippy, >> I'm here. >> Mr. Stovich >> here. >> Mrs. Rico >> here. >> Mr. Markquard. Mrs. Lockwood >> here. Um, Mrs.
143Rano, can you make a motion to move um number one under education? >> I move to approve the following agenda item. the the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the following resolution. Whereas the board heard a Hib appeal 2024 E9 in executive session at the August 20th 20th, 2024 meeting and whereas the board had determined that the event rose to a level of harassment, intimidation, and bullying as divine by NJSA18A 3714. end. Whereas the board considered the testimony of the appellant to the discussion levied by the board of education from August 20th, 2024. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education wishes to B overturn the board decision from August 20th, 2024 to substantiate the allegations of HIP resulting in an an unsubstantiated allegation. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> Yes,
144Mr. Stovich. I do want to clarify that despite the fact that I was not there for the in-person testimony that when you are a board member, you are given uh detailed documents uh during the executive sessions and I did go through those documents to make this decision. >> Thank you, Mr. Sichovich. Uh Mr. Lipe, >> I'd also like to just point out for the general public who may be looking at an agenda that was printed that we are very specifically looking at only one part of this and it's the B section of this particular number. We're not not going to vote on either A or C. >> That's correct. We're only voting on B. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Schultz. >> Mr. Jurgensson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rico, >> yes. >>
145Mr. Satovich, >> yes. >> Mr. Liippy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, we will be doing this. So we will be returning back to executive session um to discuss um appointments, resignations, current litigation matters. I mean no >> board matters. So I can just >> So it's got to be one of those things that you're discussing. >> Um >> it could be appointments, couldn't it? Yeah, that's what it's appointments. Okay. So, we will be returning back to executive session um for the purpose of discussing appointments. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidential confidentiality is no longer applicable. The board will be in executive session for approximately 30 minutes. Uh we will not be taking action. So, we'll be adjourning from executive session.
146>> Second. >> All those in favor? Any opposed? Thank you.