Board of Education Meeting 1/24/23

001I'd like to call the meeting to order. Um, please silence or turn off your cell phones and notice the locations of the emergency exits. Um, can we have a moment of silence? Please stand for the pledge. I aliance 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's meeting act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to 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 administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all

002local media, town hall, township library, and all district schools. Roll call. Mrs. Francisco. >> Mr. Sidowitz >> here. >> Mr. Lippy >> here. >> Mrs. Rico >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire >> present. >> Mrs. Lockwood >> here. >> Mrs. Van Dyk >> here. >> Mrs. O'Brien >> here. >> Mr. Rino. >> Mrs. Romeo >> here. Um, Dr. Anamone, superintendent report. >> Oh, yes. Good. Good evening everybody. Welcome to our workshop meeting for January. Uh first item on my report. Um I just wanted to notify everybody in the community watching at home that January is board of education appreciation month or board of education recognition month. Um so we do have certificates for each board member, a copy of which will go up in the board office headquarters tomorrow morning. Um there's a resolution on the

003agenda you can read. I won't read it now, but I do want to just uh thank the board members here for all their support over the over the past year and really forever. Um it's a wonderful school district and what we do. We couldn't do it without support of the board of education. We're about to have a robotics presentation in a few moments and this is obviously part of what we do and part of what you do to support. And just so the members of the community understand, the amount of time commitment that the board members give is remarkable. what you see at the board meeting is probably the tip of the iceberg. There are committee meetings, uh just lots of reading, emails, phone calls to go through. So even though it's only a couple

004hours a meeting, couple hours a couple times a month, the workload for these volunteers is remarkable. So thank you, West Milford Board of Education. Next up, we have our West Milford High School robotics teacher, Mrs. Flare, here with a few of her students. We did a robotics presentation. We were just talking maybe like 5 years ago I think or thereabouts and you know obviously this is something the board has always supported. I know Mr. Novak is a huge proponent of it. Um we're always looking for new competitions to join, new pieces to build, new equip new things to buy for our kids and for for our staff. So um they're in the middle of their season right now. They just had a pretty big competition in Sparta maybe two weeks ago. There's a there's an

005ongoing they have a pretty busy schedule. So, I'm going to in pass off to Mrs. Flyer now if you want to introduce your students and kind of talk us through what you guys are doing this year. >> Okay. Hi, I'm Mrs. Flareity. Um, I know a lot of you. Thank you for having us here. Um, yes, we have since you saw us last, we have three competitions that we now get involved with. And I in my class because I have a robotics one class, robotics 2 class, and a competition robotics class um that we do at West Milford High School. I even though there's a curriculum for the first robotics one and two, I allow any student in those classes to jump into robotics competition, which is the fullear course. And these two ladies, um,

006Meadow Bab Meadow Babcock and Daphne King are first year robotics in my class, but they're all competition because they've both competed before. >> So, um, the one that we the first one that, um, Meadow is going to speak to is what is known as sea perch. Sea perch is the second one on that handout. >> Yeah, I think so. Can she? Okay. Yep. Got it. Okay. >> So, I just want to say thank you for having us here first. And I want to shout out to Joe Connors for getting us into sea perch and giving us our first kit. And basically, our first competition for Sea Perch had us retrieving sea clean. It was called sea cleanup and it had us retrieving trash from the seafloor, which is very applicable to real life. And it

007was sponsored by the Navy and it is sponsored by the Navy this year again. And this year's competition is marine retrieval, which includes not only retrieving marine samples from the sea, but also water samples. And there is a technical design report included with this, which is a big piece of it, too. >> So that also means that that submersible robot um needs to be modified. um it needs to that was last year's there's they have to design put something else in there to be able to pick up um what it has to pick up and that's what they're immersed in right now we have two teams this year um Meadow is leading a team Daphne is leading a team and the technical p we don't we only had one team last year and that when

008Meadow speaks to the technical piece that's a big piece um which comes we we we're going to win that this year. We already know that. We said that last year. We >> um so there's a lot of work that goes with that. And also there also I also have a club. Um there are about eight students in the classes that we have the robotics one two and the competition classes. And right now we have 8 to 10 students who come for club now who are going to be involved in one that you see in there specifically. Um, so that is that competition and Daphne is gonna speak to Vex. Oh, I'm sorry. I was supposed to put I'm sorry, Meadow. I was supposed to This is I'm sorry. We took photos last year of what

009we did >> and this is them last year >> at Sea Perch. Yeah, I'll bring it around. We were at the Neptune Aquatic Center. It costs us nothing except for um what we purchase as far as parts go. And last year I was able knowing that um certain things that we needed, I was able to purchase them at the end of last year um so I could get them in time for this year. So it was a an incredible experience. Incredible. >> Wow. >> It was okay. >> Mrs. Larry, yes. Would you take donations for the equipment that you need for this? Are you >> I sure would. >> Okay. Anybody Anybody want to make a donation? Here it is. >> Okay. Do it. >> We need a poll. Okay. We're working on that, right?

010We're working on that. >> Can definitely help you with that. I have no problem with that. >> Well, Mrs. Here we go. >> Sure. Open in the rebuttal. >> We open in March. >> Oh, there you go. >> Oh, we need That's good. Mine doesn't open till next. >> Die is going to speak. This is the one we just did. >> This is Vex. >> She's going to show you too what we had to do. She's going to tell you what we had to do. Go ahead. Um, VEX is a competition where we have we get um a task to perform at around the like end of May, the year before the comp like year before competition happens. And you have to build a robot that can do a 15minute 15-second autonomous period, which is

011where you have a program run the robot to be able to do a task in those 15 seconds. And then there's a 90-second driver period where you maneuver the robot to complete those tasks. And it is timed and scored. Um, this year we had to shoot discs into a goal. Um, spin a roller and move discs into goals. >> Go ahead. We couldn't do this one because we couldn't get the parts we needed in time to try to build a system where we could shoot the goals and they are the goals into this. We built this. We also mos. >> Yes, we build a mosquito. >> Does it have a name? >> Yes. Highlander. >> Highlander. >> So when it And we got points for this one because it has to be on the the

012color of your theme and we were able to do that. And there's more than one set up in the next field. Wow. Also important to say that you work you work with another school. There's four robots in the field at the same time. >> Oh wow. Wow. >> Yeah. So you have to you kind of strategize with the other schools. Hey, what can your robot do? What can your robot do? So that you can optimize and get the most points. Everybody wants to try it. You can try it right. >> Try it. Sure. >> I like to play. >> Okay. Here we go. like my brain right now. >> You're that person trying to >> push down. I think I think I don't want to break it. You're not going to break it down. Put

013them in there. >> I love that stuff. I think it's so much fun. Very cool. >> Which do you think was more challenging, the underwater or the on land one? >> What do you think? >> Well, I personally think that this one was more challenging because there was a lot more components to it >> and yeah, there's just a lot of work that has to go into building it as well. >> I agree with that one actually. Do you do you make a blueprint of the design before you actually >> um >> we draw it? >> Yeah, we draw it. We look at what other people are doing and then we come up with our own ideas and we sketch it out and then we usually start just by having a base and then building

014from there. >> And you have to measure everything and cut everything. And who does the cutting for you of that metal? We sent it downstairs with somebody who's got a um an okay to go down there and use the whatever equipment we have down there in the shop or in anywhere down there. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Or we do it ourselves. We have we do have tools um that we cut them ourselves. >> Fantastic. >> We can hire these to to bring papers around the administration office. Sure. Good. I'm going to speak briefly about the third one. This is this is a big competition and this is about as close to robotics first or first robotics as you're going to get. This is very difficult and this one we got involved with prior to co

015and then we were going to go that next year but COVID came so we got cut off. So we have a little jump start on this. This isn't this at all. This is a whole another system. It's called Tetricx. We have a base. Um, but this is brand new. This is now in the works. That's on the third page there. And that's in that pamphlet that I sent you. It's incredibly technical. And with this one, you have to have nine drivers. Um, and that you have to have nine drivers. You get three shots at getting your best score and it has to be a different driver. And the purpose of that is to get a lot of kids involved in robotics. for this year. What this tetrics that we have to build has three tasks.

016The first task is they have to play a game of dominoes. And I need to tell you that a lot of my students don't know how to play dominoes. I had to teach them how to play dominoes. So what they have to do and everything is to scale. So everything this is actually 6 in high. Your robot has to be able to and you get six minutes to go around I'll say on something like this. flip over as many dominoes as you can. These are the dominoes to some effect that to scale what they're going to use. We made them. Um the they have to go and they have to turn them over, get a double and start playing a game of dominoes and use as many dominoes as they can for points. The second

017thing they have to do, which we're working on this, and I need to give a nice shout out to you, Mr. know because this is where this is so important. This robot also and the robot has to do all three tasks in one contained unit. It it's it's going to be 24 in up and the reason I'm speaking to this is because I just went to the meeting whoever gave me that day to go down there. Thank you. Um, I had to go down there to the the kickoff meeting to find out what it was going to be about down at PCC and because that's where it's held. And it's it's a North Jersey competition. It's a big competition. The robot also has to be able to come up, unscrew this. >> Three of them.

018>> One, two, three. Unscrew it. Take it off. Not take it off of here. Take it off. It's going to be on a piece of PVC. Take it off. put it to the side, pick up another one, put it on and put the >> and then re and then put the tire back on. >> Wow. Wow. >> So, yesterday we brainstormed >> on Oh my god. That's what we did. And thank goodness I we now have a 3D printer. Thank you so much because I have we can fabricate any piece that we can use. We can fabricate it and it's legal. Um so we are going to they're working on it now. I have students who are all over that who have it out of the box, got it going, asking me for this wire,

019asking me for this um and they're going to fabricate the piece to be able to fit it right on it to take it off. >> So, and the third piece of that is an obstacle course. And along that that's for speed. And along the obstacle course, there might be a domino you might have to turn over. We never know what the obstacle course is until the day it happens. You may have to change a tire along the way, but it's for speed. The year we first year we did it, we won that. We have a trophy in our room. We won that. So, we got a trophy for the obstacle course. We also got a trophy for sportsmanship. There's also an if you see on that, there's a timeline there that is so strict with

020the college as far as progress reports go. They have to be submitted. And the team yesterday, because we're a team, they hands up. I'll take care of the progress reports. Um Oh, yeah. So, they're all on board. So, we're very excited um about getting this one um underway and um you know, doing the very best we can. So, thank you for your support. Uh I >> Mrs. Thank you for being here. Sorry. >> What do you win? >> Trophies. >> Trophy. I would say you should push for a trip to Boston Dynamics and this way you can play with Atlas a little bit. This one also doesn't cost us anything. All I have to do is bring a teacher with me. I have to serve as a line judge. >> This is on a Saturday.

021>> No, this one is during school. This one is two days during school. There's a a day, then a skip, then a day. This is Saturday. This is Saturday. >> Okay. >> That purge. This one's school. >> Thank you again. Um, is there anything besides a printer? Thank you, Mr. Novak. Is there anything else we could do to support the robotics at the high school? >> Mine is >> I heard money and this is to know back as as working on this and I think has worked on it is that the biggest struggle we have is that when it comes to competition, you don't know about it until a few months before it happens. So, it's really hard to get parts in a in the in a in a fast turnover um with the system

022that we have. It is the system. I can do it for the next year, but not when it comes to competition. I can't get them quick enough because of the system that we have. >> Where do you get the parts? >> Well, they either come from this comes from um I'm trying to think of that vendor name that we use. Um Home Depot, which I know we have an account there. Home Depot. There's a Tetric supplier that we have. There's a VEX supplier that we have. We have them. I just can't get them fast enough. Um, when we find out we have a competition and we're like, >> we could really use that. Mrs. Flarity, you know, I'm like, I can't get it quick enough. Let's >> So, >> is it because the supply chain

023right now? >> No, it's because of our purchase order system. And I don't mean it in a bad way, but the the process that we do, it's hard to get money right away. I mean, I would buy it and I have, believe me, there's a lot of parts I buy just because I because Yeah. Um, but it is because that's what you do. Um, but some I can't. You know, if I need $230 or whatever, believe me, it's not so crazy, but I can't keep doing that because I can't. >> So, would So, which leads us to the the commentary from Mrs. Dwire. Yes. If if a donation is made to you, would I mean I don't know like do we would we could we give who would we give the money to to make

024it >> Barbara that I'm sorry I turned my back. >> So what uh what Mrs. Flity was referring to is Barbara and uh Mr. Schultz uh we had this discussions we have a plan in place um for this to be remedied. there's a way to exor but >> and we also talked about a robotics um booster club >> sales and those types of things you know so we've had some great discussions about how to uh how to fund the you know donations are always welcome but not always sustainable >> donations go to would it go to you guys would it go to her would it go to I mean what's the process yeah once we once Once we know a problem exists, we try to work it out so that it doesn't exist anymore. >>

025So, um it would go to the student activity account so that they would have ready access to >> that's what I'm >> so it would just be made out to West Milford High School with um um robotics and then it would be designated for that that program. >> Okay. >> Mrs. If if there were people in town, community members that owned multiple 3D printers of their own, would they would you be able to >> would they be helpful in helping print things for you or >> Well, I think what it is right now is I'm I'm not really familiar with the products I need to use the 3D printer. Um I will be speaking to Mr. um uh Van Wingeren this week. Like I don't know what you order to be able to fabricate the

026pieces. I know what they look like. Um but I don't know. There's material that you need. So until I'm familiar with that, will I know exactly what we need? I don't know. And I I can tell you that I do I do use money from the science budget, whatever that is. I just ask, you know, and I just put it in like my year of the things that I know and I get it and I get whatever I need. Like this year we already have an order in um well, we're putting an order together for what I may need for this next year because there's certain components you use all the time. There's certain channels that you need. I can get them. It's the it's the last minute stuff I can't get. So if other

027people have it and they have materials that I could choose, we will take anything. And if I knew who they were, I would reach out to them myself. >> Well, maybe you could reach out to our administrators and then they could reach out to the community in various ways. If it's something not well if there you know you know if it's not like plutonium or something then there is something we can you know [Laughter] >> uh I just I I think now if Barbara is got if Barbara now knows about it and and Billy maybe that will help you be able to expedite it so that this way you know >> it will and I can't thank you enough and I can't thank you enough you know because I've I've gone to um Dan and

028and crying just about like help me and he has and everybody has stepped up to the plate and Dr. around the room as well asking me what I need, you know, what can I do? So, >> I think it's great. Me, too. >> Thank you so much. >> Thanks for coming out tonight. I know. >> Thank you. >> My kids always >> Thank you again. And keep with the technology theme, we're going to have Mr. Winston come aboard. You guys can probably stay on the seat on the side. We'll move. He's going to give us a brief overview of the website, just some functionality issues that I think we're uh maybe having. So, uh I'll hit the lights and uh you can jump right in there, Mr. Winston. how we feel. >> Sorry, >> we're

029in focus. >> HTML. I apologize if my back's going to be uh to you for a couple of the slides in here, but >> thank you very much for the opportunity to share a little bit about my one of my latest projects and that's the revitalization and redoing. >> Do you have a mic over here? I >> You know what? Let me say >> I can I'll get the one from >> You can take this one. >> Yeah, I'll share it with you. >> Don't forget your red button. I'll share it with you. >> Okay. test. Very good. Um, I just wanted to thank everybody for their patience in awaiting the release of the new website. It was a rather large undertaking, probably a little bit larger than we had anticipated, certainly larger than I

030had anticipated, but I think the results uh turned out quite well. Um, right now I'm just going to start at the homepage, district homepage. And I realize that I'm showing it to you on a laptop at the moment. Towards the end of the demonstration, I'll show you how we can use a te uh we can use a smartphone as well. One of the things that was most recently added was Joe Jordan's um drone video. >> Yeah. that be in the middle of this video or >> so Joe took video of all the schools throughout the district. [Music] >> Yeah, there's some really pretty shot uh pretty shots. >> You don't realize how beautiful West Milford is until you see something like this >> from the sky. [Music] Oh, you're right. That's >> good. >> Look

031at those mountains. Aren't they gorgeous? [Music] >> So, we're trying to do different seasonal photos. We're still waiting on the snow to get a good winter. >> 12 hours. Oh, do a screenshot. >> Okay. While the video is running in the background, I want to talk to you a little bit about >> that's that is pardon me. One of the elements. Yes. I want to share with you some of the uh design elements and and give you an understanding about how the site was developed and why it was developed the way it was. On the homepage here, uh there are several areas that are designed to carry information that's important at different levels. The very top of the page, you'll see there's a a notice or an announcement uh indicating that there's kindergarten registration that

032is going to pop up on the main page for every person that visits. they can clear it, but it was one of those pieces of information that uh was important for people to see and so we put it up top uh in front of everybody. They can clear that out and then get a little bit more screen space. Um, another thing that you'll see pop up up there are weather events. So, if we have a school closing or a delayed opening or an early dismissal, that will also pop up right over the uh the main page. So, uh you can't miss it. And then you can also clear that. Um, also on this on the main page are obviously the video. And then what we have here are upcoming events. What the this upcoming events

033does is it looks into the near future on the calendar and publishes here in easyto read format all of the events that are upcoming. Now, one of the things that uh uh we were looking at and Rey was kind enough to share with us was that the the original version of this upcoming events and the original version of the district calendar was extremely busy >> and most of that was driven by the content from the high school. So, I took Ray's advice and what I did was I may modified the calendar at the district level so that it displays the district information first and the school information second. And when you go to the calendar here, there's two ways to get to the calendar. One is on the yellow menu bar and the other is

034by clicking on view calendar in the lower right hand leftand corner. Now, when the calendar pops up by default, because I'm looking at the district calendar, it only shows the district events. All of the school events are available by checking them off. So, let's say you want to see what's going on on Maple Road, just click off Maple Road and it'll add them to the list. A Mac's list, you can add just by that. And they're all colorcoded. But originally, these count, this calendar opened up with all the schools activated, which made this extremely busy. So now it just opens up with the district events with the ability to add. So this is nice for a parent who might have a match student and an actual student. >> They can see them both at the

035same time. >> Okay. >> Rob, before you move off to calendar, is there a place where there's a link for that paper of the whole school year of the district? >> Um, you mean the the district's calendar? >> Yeah. >> Yes. It's It's not on It's not on the calendar page. It's actually on the district page. >> Okay. >> So, let me let me take a ride and we'll go there. So, on the >> I just lost my battery here. >> What school is that of you? >> That's the school that I want to go to. Rob, did you say that this um this new website is available for mobile phones also? >> Yes, it's available on >> because today I tried to get on to the extranet on my mobile phone. I could not

036do so. >> The extranet and the word document library >> have been moved from the the website into Google Docs. So, you actually don't anymore. You don't even need to go through the website to get to those documents anymore. You can just if you're a staff member, you can go to your shared with me folder in Google and they'll be there. >> But on on the website >> on the website, >> we don't have that, do we? >> Yeah, I I went on it today in Google. You go on that little thing that looks like a waffle and then we can um pull up any past documents. I was reading things from 2016. maybe send out a primer on how to, you know, step one, step two, step three. >> Once you signed in, you

037have access. You don't have to sign in again. You just >> when you sign into your email, then you go to that little dot thing at the top right. I call it the waffle. >> That's right. >> Everything's under there. >> Now, for example, the extranet, in order to access the extranet, those documents are intended to be for staff only, not for the public use. So when you go to for staff extranet document library what it's going to do is it's going to automatically launch drive and show you those documents. Now the thing is if you if you were a member of the public when it tried to launch drive it would say I don't think you have access to this and it would prompt you to log in with your WMTPS login. If you

038don't have one it won't give you access to this >> but again >> you can do it on your phone. Yes, you can. >> I can try. I went to my mail and I don't have >> not your email. You got to go on the website. >> You have to log in with Google. >> So here, this is what it would look like on the phone. Mhm. >> So you would just click on menu for staff extra document library and it would launch. And if you're if you haven't if you have a phone and using the Google Drive app on your phone, this is even easier. Right now it's just launching the um browser based version of Google Drive. But the idea here was in the past all staff member had all staff members had

039to have not not only a Google ID but they would have to have an ID on the website and without without both of them they couldn't get to the documents. >> So I'm trying to cut out the middleman here. So there's no reason for us to maintain a separate set of login for the website. All we need to do is tell them tell the website as long as they've got a Google account they're good to go. So we just streamline things. So there's very few things that anybody would have to log into the website for. >> Google. >> Okay, let me go back to the larger view. >> Now on the main menu here, the the yellow menu bar is where we store all of our basically primary areas in each site. So, we're on

040the district site. So, there will be a section for our district which contains information about our schools, our staff, district news. So, if we click on about our schools and school calendar, this is where you're going to find the information you were reading for before. And it's got next year's calendar and the year after and this year. This is this year's. Next year's is going to be here. And the year after is going to be on this link right here. a little bit different as far as where the information is placed, but the objective here was to try to make it as intuitive as possible, limit the number of clicks it takes to get there, and try to minimize clutter on the website. >> I do have a question. I tried to get to the

041backpack the other day. >> Uh-huh. Which >> it took me 10 minutes. >> Which backpack? find it any backpack in any school because in order to navigate towards it, I was looking for McPin. >> Okay. >> Um, but it it didn't seem to be where you would find it. I maybe I'm but it took me over 10 minutes to find it. >> All right. Well, let me show you where it is and you can let me know whether we need to improve its placement. Okay. >> A common issue. >> Did anybody else have that issue? >> Yeah. And I had a friend actually like follow the breadcrumbs back after they got >> um the actual page and they couldn't follow the breadcrumbs back to find it either. >> I I you know what after I

042found it I could it it took me another 10 minutes to find it again. Like I couldn't remember. Maybe it's my mind. >> Well on any school just click on four families. >> Yeah. >> Virtual backpack. >> That's it. And it's the same on every school. >> Yeah. Right. >> The only thing that is a little bit different, we used to have something called a districtwide backpack, which kind of didn't really make sense because it's you're not sending backpack items to to the general public. Uh we converted that into let me go to district home. that was moved that under community resources and instead of calling it a backpack called it a bulletin board. So here's where we post all the notices that are are out there with regards to what was in the public

043backpack. >> The other thing, Rob, that that I found the other night because I was looking at the um the course of study. >> Yes. the the listing of the people are um there there's people on here that don't work for us anymore and they weren't with us at the beginning of the year. Is there do we have somebody that's looking at that because like I mean Colleen Weiss Magic is on there. Um Nina Purcell is on there. It's kind of like is somebody I I know we put it together so I'm trying to figure out why we It's not >> well >> why we have things that need to be taken off. >> Was that on the program of studies itself? >> It's it was the program of studies the PDF because I was

044looking at it because I went to the um I went the other night for the presentation by Karen Johnson. So, she was talking about it and I brought it up and it it has a listing of the of the staff, but it's not the correct staff. >> You want to pull that up, bro? >> Sure. >> You know, >> under is this under the uh >> it's under the program of studies for 223 school year. >> You know, it says business angel, you know, it's like it's like the index. >> You go through guidance, right? >> Oh, guidance. It seems like it takes a very long time to get like just go right the guidance there quickly. >> Program studies right there. >> Go left here >> on the on the page. >> Oh, I'm

045not seeing it >> on the left. right there on the left on your guidance newsletters. >> Right down there. >> Oh, okay. >> Right. So, we're in the um so one of the reasons for that, like you said, that's why I asked it was on the program of studies itself because that is last year's program of studies. >> I don't know. I I don't know how I got to it again. I was doing it on my phone. That's the the 22 23 program of studies was created last winter. >> Okay. Yeah. This is the school. This is 2020, isn't it? >> And is this what's showing up now on our website 2122? >> I mean like there's some things that >> I put up whatever we had whatever I had available to me that was

046the latest and greatest. It was either it was either put this up or if I put nothing up. Could someone have written a profile for it this year or >> I'll check to see it? So, >> all right. So, let's go. >> So, this one the 20 that's for the this school year. This was created last winter. >> So, what the students are um getting access to now because we're just in the beginning stages of next year scheduling, >> right? So the next year's program of studies is being shared with students now and is probably not active on our link uh on our link yet because guidance isn't ready to do that because they're just in the process of sharing finalizing the program of studies getting our new courses in there and then and then

047putting it up there. So once we're ready for students to begin the scheduling process I mean they're just meeting with coun starting to talk about meeting with counselors now that's when the new one will be up there. So >> one of the things >> it's important to have this one. It's important to have our program of studies there because that's for the courses that we're running at the moment. It's a PDF. It's not um typically something that you would pull down edit in the year. Like I said, it was created last year when with this existing staff at that time. >> Okay. But why I asked is because the people that are on here were not on were not here for the start of the 22 23 school year. I mean >> but they were

048but we didn't know that when this was created in the winter of 2122. That's what I was just explaining. >> And I will say the one that was sent out to the current 8th grade families is updated with all the correct staff on there for the 23 24 >> that just went out to the eighth grade families. So, at this time next year, >> the document that will be on our website will be the one that's going out that you have access to that went out to families first. >> Yes. I just went to go check it and it is all up to >> it is to the families of eighth graders because uh course requests opened up today, >> right? >> Current 8 n 10 11s have it. >> Well, no, it it you're

049saying that it went after the eighth. Did it get emailed out or? >> Yes. Karen Johnson. I mean, I only know cuz I have an eighth grader. It could have possibly have gone to the 9 10 11 >> for the high school. >> But when will we when will you upload what they send out? >> When the guidance controls this link directly. >> Okay. Because if they sent that out or parent, they're not going to see it. >> Yeah. The guidance department doesn't go through Mr. Winston for this. They upload it when they um when they're ready to put it up. Now, one of the things that's really important to understand is that in building this website, we knew that there was going to be some content that's out ofd. Um, but I didn't want

050that to slow us down from getting getting this site built. Um, with the understanding that immediately thereafter, we were going to be combing the information that's on the website, looking for things that are out of date, and soliciting the people that provided the old piece for the new piece. And that's what we're doing right now. We're actually >> So, who's in charge of doing that? >> At the moment, it's myself with the assistance of a web master that we've hired through um NJ uh the the New Jersey >> Northern Region. >> Yes, Northern Region. Thank you. NRSC. >> So, if somebody finds something that's out of date, they email you. >> Yes, absolutely. As a matter of fact, I get uh get emails regularly with um corrections, um edits, and that kind of thing, and

051I jump on those as quickly as I can. Okay. [Music] Okay. >> Do you have data on what the most popular things people look for on the website? >> We will we will have we will have that information. >> I mean you would I would assume you would have it the analytics from the old website, right? >> The old the old website didn't really have analytics. That was one of its >> but like just as a parent I would say it's the menu, the overall calendar because everybody's asks when's spring break? Do we have this day off? We have that day off >> and the backpack. Is there any way to get >> main things like that on up front? Sure. >> And not five clicks down the road. >> Correct. Yes, absolutely. That's again

052that's part of the this the second phase of going once we've got the site built and we have something that people can actually see and touch. Now that gives them something tangible to to give me some feedback on. >> Guess that was very good. I like that. But it would be better if it was closer to the top. One thing you have to balance is everybody wants their things at the top. So we would have a website with uh you know a very busy homepage. So what I'm looking to do is try to come up with an organizational structure on the website that's both intuitive and not very deep, meaning you don't have to click on a lot of different places to get to things. And I don't I don't want to diminish the amount

053of work you've done on this because this is a huge undertaking and I've done it before with different companies I've worked with. I just wish that maybe this had come out as a beta version to like a few people so that they could figure out and give you this feedback and not the whole district at >> it was this site was available the site was available for several months. >> But were you listening feedback from people? >> Absolutely. who who was giving feedback because I'm getting calls from that that backpack thing was a big deal because I the only reason I looked is because I had somebody that wanted to find it and couldn't find it. So I I think that I I I I agree. I understand this was a big undertaking, but I

054think we have to find a way to to um see if we can draw out some people and figure out faster what we need to do because the amount of clicks is a lot of clicks. I mean, >> well, anything that's going to require more than four clicks to get to, >> I need to know to Okay. Yeah, that >> And most people are not using this on their computers. They're using it on their phones. And it does look much different on the phone to this, >> right? >> What we just saw, >> right? And this and it you're getting to things different ways on your phone to what you just showed us on um the web page. >> How how uh interactive is is the search? >> The search feature on the website right

055now is is actually in the process of being built. >> Uh we are using um a Google enhanced search functionality. So it's already been submitted to Google and it's been crawled. The site's been crawled several times. So, it over time it'll get better and better and better. And the the search feature on the Let me just go to the big site cuz it's a lot easier to show. There's a what? This magnifying glass up on top. >> If you type in backpack, does it give you the list of schools? >> No, it gives you Amazon backpack ads. >> Jess really? >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Parent resources and school resources for >> I typed in backpack. I couldn't find it. Nothing came up. >> I got they wanted to tell me if you're a backly. >>

056Oh, okay. >> They know you're a shopper. >> Yeah. >> Well, but you did it on Did you do it on your phone? >> Yeah. >> That's why I because the phone is different. >> Yeah. So, if you put backpack in on the phone, you have tactical gear. >> Tactical. Well, if you're s if if you're if you're using the the phone search, you're not searching our site. You're superite. She's on the site. >> I'm on the site. >> Yep. I went to the keyword search on the phone and put in backpack and tactical gear came up. >> Can you click on digital backpack? >> Sure. There is some West Muffford stuff though too. Secondary, but it's Do I >> No, you can just click on in the bottom left. >> Districtwide backpack. >> Yeah.

057>> So, there is a district wide backpack. >> Yes, there's only one item in it. >> Scroll down to cuz they there are ads. >> There are ads >> for backpacks. But if you scroll down, you see parent resources, school resources. >> Shouldn't be secondary. >> It shouldn't be secondary though. >> So for the 200 something parents that have to find a permission slip tonight or tomorrow for Macin, >> how do they get to their digital backpack? So >> Macin >> see families virtual backpack >> under field trips. There it is. It's finding the backpack. >> The trick here was to, >> if you remember the old website, each school didn't really have its own site. >> They had pages and if you clicked on something, you would all all of a sudden you're back

058somewhere in the mix and you learn how you got there. >> So for every school, >> if if you need to get to the virtual backpack, it's going to be the same steps for every single school. There's no difference. How you search for things, how you find food, you know, the menus, food services, menus, transportation issues, anything like that. >> One of the things I'd like to take the next step as far as improving the user interface for this is getting a better understanding what parents use dayto day >> and making and making that like oneclick thing. You click on here parent, you know, parent important links and boom, it's all there on one page. Well, I mean, it's definitely the parent portal where they're looking up grades and homework. >> Calendar, is that something

059that can be linked to your own personal Gmail calendar? >> Um, if you want to, you can you can um if you're on any of these calendars, you can copy the events down to your own calendar. >> And each school has its own calendar. Yeah. So that makes this nice. >> So if we were to look at the calendar here for Macin, >> you'll notice that it's got Macin calendar as the primary, but you can also turn on the district backpack. I mean the district calendar as well. >> The other thing that I I and maybe it's just me. I when you go on to the homepage and all those big dates are there, like it seems like it's taking up too much space >> for like the month. You know what I'm talking about?

060>> The um upcoming events. >> Yeah. Yeah, doesn't it? Because maybe you'd have more room for like the the the yearly calendar that we're looking for to have it there because I I think most parents will know to go to the school now since you're talking about it, but to have those big see like I feel like that's a lot of space on the website and when you bring it up on your phone, it's like you got to really scroll >> to to see all those thing. Unfortunately, certain elements we don't have any we don't have any control over how how it's sized or how it's laid out. These are what are considered apps inside of the website design. Now, there's not to say that we can't eliminate this and put something else in its

061place, but it might not have the same functionality of automatically looking into the future and displaying any of the events. >> I mean, there there I when I look at that because it's it just seems like it's one or it's one line. There's no way to have it off to the side and be able to say, you know, January and then this is the district and then, you know, January 24th and then a line, but not so that it takes up the whole center of your website. Like, it seems like it's such a big taking up so much room. I >> I hear you. I >> I feel your pain. >> I just I just know I just know exactly what Tara said. People go to look for that one particular calendar that you brought

062up before and that I feel like should be on the main page. I I think that's one thing that they're because they're looking about whether or not they have can get, you know, vacations and different things. What days are off, that's what they're looking for. >> I think there's a couple there's a couple documents that fall into that category >> as must haves. >> Um, and I think it's it will be easy enough for me to create a an easy to find place on the website where you just click on just one click and there they all are. >> And we have to tell you this because if we don't tell you, you're not going to know. >> Well, this is excellent feedback. That's the only way that this this improves and grows is by

063understanding what people like about it, what they don't like about it, and making changes. So, >> I think when you first started this process, when I was, you know, sitting in the audience, you had like a task force of people in the district that were helping you with this. How have you been utilizing them through the process? >> Well, that that task force has since been disbanded since >> Wouldn't they be great people to help you with this? Well, I mean they did help me come up with the design and the layout. Um, building populating the content >> was the most top uh time consuming component. >> So, they didn't have anything to do with the >> Oh, no. They actually they no they did actually the extranet uh the extranet all those documents that

064were pulled off the old website and put into this extra document library on Google. They did that. They they did all of that reconstituting the group though. I mean that's certainly nothing. >> That wasn't the parent group if that's what you're >> Yeah. I'm talking about the parent group. That was the education. >> Those are the stakeholders, right? >> The parent group was more intended to give me guidance as to content look and feel. >> Mhm. Well, I wanted to know from them from from a parent standpoint, what are the things that you need to see on the website and how should it be organized to best suit the way that you use the website? >> We've got the same kind of information from a staff perspective and then also from sort of like an

065anonymous just member of the population, you know, me community member, >> right? >> Parent get to the parent portal. I would say that's the number one thing that parents look at which is grades, homework, uh if their child has an IEP, a 504, that's the bar. >> You go to families, >> you go back to menu. >> Yeah. >> Do that again. Show the quick link bar. >> Quick link bar >> like that. I mean, is that expandable? >> Um this on this particular website template, they allow up to six quick links like this. But that's not to say that I can't build the same kind of capability on a menu. I could have I could put a menu pick up here called quick links >> and just build, you know, build as many as

066we want and organize them in a way. >> But again, I think it needs to be user friendly for the phone, too. I think that's what we can put all this stuff on the website, but people aren't going onto their computers when they want the information. They're usually on the road. They're at work. they're they're looking on their phones, >> right? And and when we did the design on this and choosing the way certain pages looked, we did keep in mind that it was going to be used mostly on a mobile platform. >> Mhm. Uh we also designed it for like a tablet platform but quite honestly not many people use you know people I mean my wife uses an iPad like it's you know like it's the only device in the world >> but

067most people are either going to be using their desktop computer or their phone >> with 90% of the people being on their phone >> and the parent portal is on the phone right is right there. Yeah. >> May I recommend that all these things be put down in an email form and submitted to the technology committee cuz we'll beat this to death all night. Otherwise, >> yeah, >> you can call me grumpy afterwards. >> I didn't know I was going to get applause, but I'll do it again. >> I call you grumpy now. I think you should get your committee that you had before with the parents and those people from the outside and have them sit again and go through what we put together and see what you get back from them. Now, >>

068that's a great idea because now with with something tangible in front of them, it's a straw man. The recommendations will be more pointed and more re more relevant because before we had something built, we were just thinking in nebulous terms what it's going to look like. Now we've got something we can touch and feel like you were saying that section looks too big >> or whatever. >> And and once you have the analytics, you'll know where people are going. You'll be able to view that. >> I'm just rather surprised there's no uh PTA, PTO, PTSO information on the site. I don't know if that was if there are not. It's not on the individual school site. Thank you, Mr. Winston. >> You're welcome. Thank you very much, sir. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Thank

069you. And lastly, um I know we mentioned very briefly at the reorganization meeting about the stabilization grant. It came in the day before winter break, um middle of the afternoon, that Friday, right before the holidays. We touched on it briefly at the reorganization meeting, but I want to ask as we get deeper into our budget conversations, Miss Francisco, if you can kind of clarify for the board and for the community exactly what we received and to what end. >> Sure. Um, when the grant was opened um in September, we had a few weeks in order to pull it together. Um basically we looked at uh some of the shortcomings that we had in the 22 23 budget considering all the um changes that were made with transportation and the price of gas things that we

070didn't foresee a year ago when we were building the budget. So, um, we determined we we we we as with any grant, you have to create a program that you want to address and put dollar figures to that. They reviewed everything in Trenton along with our financial um reports. Um we didn't have our audit as yet but they um could tell from our um secretar's reports board secretar's reports what our financials were. So we had requested um $2.7 million um in total. uh resolution that was approved was for 2.7 2,769,099 and that was based upon um we we took a look at the money that we lost in the 5 years and um what we anticipate losing for this year 23 24 and um when we did get awarded the money and we were very

071fortunate to get anything because a lot of the as I mentioned a few months ago about $183 million worth of requests for a $30 million budget that the governor had put together. So um with the award letter that Dr. Animal received basically um took what we had put together for that $2.7 million and outlined what they were considering for the $1.3 million that we did receive. So, um basically that's that's where we're at. Um the letter that we got from the state of New Jersey said that um they were funding the math program that we are anticipating putting in the um move for Highlander Academy um to here some of the um supplies that we would need in order to create a a program here. and for the um contracted services for transportation that we

072um anticipated um running into a shortfall because of the costs of transportation. They denied our requests for any kind of salaries for increases um any kind of um adjustments for health benefits which were significant over what we had originally budgeted. So, we were basically left with the $1.3 million and um when you look at all the re the aid um the awards that were made throughout the um the state um we did pretty well. We we got one of the the highest awarded amounts out of um all the districts that did get something. So, um it will help us this year. If there is anything that we don't spend in those three areas, um it will fall into fund balance for next year that we could appropriate it to assist in our 2324 budget. But,

073uh that's basically it. And if there's any questions, um the board members, I'd be happy to answer them. Okay. And >> I I just want to say thank you to Barbara and to Billy and the all of the staff because they worked very hard on getting this grant up for us and it it couldn't come at a better time. And I think we, you know, need to say thank you to you for the hard work that you put into it. And I also um would like to take thank uh Senator Buco who I think was really in West Milford's corner helping us with this grant. So, um I just want to say thank you to to all of you. >> Yes, thank you. >> Senator Bua was uh really nice. He reached out to Dr.

074Anamone uh to let him know that we were successful in our request. So, that was um that was a really good way to start the holiday. Any other comments or questions? >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Anamon. Um Mrs. Francisco special reports and correspondence. >> Right. Uh for the next meeting, we will have the minutes from the December 20th meeting for review and consideration. >> Um for my president's report, I don't have much other than um it's already been a fun and interesting ride and I couldn't be more proud um of just representing anything in West Milford. Um the texts and all of the emails that I've gotten and everything. I'm I'm just really passionate about um always what's best for our community. So, thank you. Um at this time, uh this portion of the meeting

075is open to members of the public for the purpose of addressing resolutions on this agenda only. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other public comment limited to five minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. All members of the public speaking during this public comment period are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided and to give their full name, spell their last name, their group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will

076be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and the board in the administration will not respond to them. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Is there anyone in the public that would like to speak? >> Seeing none,

077I'd like to close public comments. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Okay. Are there any changes to this agenda? No. >> Okay. I need a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. >> Move to adopt the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Mrs. Lockwood for education. I make a motion to approve agenda item number one. >> Second. Any discussion? >> I do. I have I have um Yes, I have something. Okay. Yeah. Um I'm concerned about this. Um I went to look at the documentation and I know it's title two funds and it's $12,000 for um two people to go to Disney World to learn sk leadership skills. And at first when I heard about it, because it was it was brought to us in

078committee as a surprise. because we didn't know it was coming in. Um I'm just concerned about um the rest of the administrators in the district. I I would like to see that $12,000 in grant money used to provide professional development for the entire district. I'm not sure um you know I'm not sure how that can be done but I know that you can get a speaker and you can do workshops for for this and provide this opportunity right within the district. So that's all I have to say. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Seeing as none Mrs. Francisco roll call. Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Gino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwire, >> no. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> no. >> Mr. Lippy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Djk, >>

079no. >> Mrs. Rico, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Uh, Mrs. Van Djk, personnel and student affairs. I'd like to move items one through 13. >> I only have 13. >> Any questions or comments under personnel and student affairs 1 through 13? Seeing as Are you guys ready? >> Seeing as none. Roll call. Mrs. Francisco. >> Mrs. Van Djk. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwyer. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rico. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lockwood. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lippy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cidtoitz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. Uh, Mr. operations and finance. >> For special actions under operation finance, I'd like to move items one through three. Second, >> any discussion, comments, questions? Debbie, >> um, could there be a clarification

080as to why we have number three under operations and finance, which we just voted in under number one under education. Um, it's for different personnel. So, the education um operate uh travel request was underneath the education section of the budget of of the um agenda and the This is for um transportation which comes under finance and under my purview. >> Okay. So it's okay. So we I just want to clarify forgive me for for sounding a little slow in the uptake here. So education was education but this is transportation which is under operations and finance. >> Right. >> Okay. >> Any other Oh Mr. Green? So maybe for the future it might be better to not have something as vague >> on the um agenda. So again, it's for again it's for two different things,

081but it might be good for the public to see what those things are. >> Well, you know what? >> So we don't know, right? I know it's under the board stuff, but it be good to see what the difference is cuz it sound I get why what Debbiey's saying. It sounds like the same thing. >> Yeah. And and actually if if if reading was an uh the proper thing to do under education says instructional support in school support staff and then under O and F >> says it >> it says it >> but it doesn't really say what it's for. >> Right. So we know what the first one was for under education because Terry brought that up. What maybe for the public? Do they do we know what this is for? >> I I

082just have I just have a comment on that. Everything was lumped together in that number one and unfortunately everything got voted no or everything got voted yes. >> So it isn't it it probably wasn't >> it could be pulled out, >> right? I think it should have been separate because then maybe there would have been a discussion on people's why people felt the way they did, >> right? So, you know, that really goes to the administration how they want to break it down, but people are looking at dollars for a reason. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> Okay. This is the way it's always been presented. Um, but certainly can be discussed for the future. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I I I do think again the reason that it's being brought up

083is because all of us are watching dollars now. We're very concerned about dollars and that might have >> that has something to do with the effect. Sometimes it's not what's being presented, but the amount of the dollar amount and how they could it could be best used. And maybe we're not in agreement or whatever, but that's not meaning that we don't want to support anybody. But again, we voted no on I I I'm speaking for myself. I voted no on things. I would have voted yes, but because they're clumped together, I cannot break them apart. >> Is this discussion about operations and finance like this item? Okay. >> So, I think it's just >> it's an overall discussion. >> Okay. About operations. >> It is. So, if it's broken out, right? I I think that

084again with Linda saying and I probably was maybe even a little bit the opposite. There might be four things under this oper operations thing. We know that there probably isn't but if there's four things I might vote yes to three of those and one to one I might vote no. >> I think that's where Right. >> Right. Exactly. because it's it's it's a it's a it's a an an overrule >> situation and and if you're >> you know again you you either have to vote yes or no but there'll be things there you want to vote yes for and things you want to vote no for and you have to decide which way what side of the coin you know >> to to keep I think it's like how we break out the field trips

085like they are all broken out separately because we might want to have a discussion about a specific field trip and why it benefited that kind of thing. >> Any other comments, questions? Will >> in jumping into the discussion? I think that kind of falls into the purview of possibly entangling ourselves as if we're running the district if we are voting on one thing and not another because we may accidentally end up causing a domino effect of things that are approved and aren't approved but have the influence on something that wasn't approved versus being approved. So I think it being lumped together and as we have done things may not be the most desirable way. It is kind of in the purview of a public officials role to vote that way >> as a whole as

086we do with the budget. I think it's important to recognize that when someone wants to um go for professional development, which is what these items are for, it's certainly uh goes to their their supervisor and it gets approved before it comes to the board. So, it's our responsibility as administrators to determine whether or not there's money in the current budget to support that and the value of what is being requested. Um, so I think, you know, I I think when it makes the agenda, it's because we feel it's worthwhile. In this particular situation, um just for clarification in case anyone someone doesn't know, um our chief mechanic is going to the transportation supervisor's um workshop and um our supervisor of buildings and grounds is going to uh conference down in Atlantic City so that he

087can meet with vendors and do professional development because it's required in under his certificate that he takes continuing education courses which are available at that time. So it's really important that they attend things like this for the continuing education that they're required for their certifications. >> I I just want to qualif uh clarify something. We're questioning dollar amounts which fiscally we're supposed to be doing. So the reason that that was questioned, it didn't have to do with what was being done. It was the dollar amount because we're in the middle of looking at we closed, we're shutting a school, we're restructuring. So I think everybody around the table now is starting to look at dollars and say, you know what, maybe maybe I didn't look at this before, but I need to now. I understand

088where you're going. I'm not saying I'm not picking and choosing who goes where or what they go. I was looking at the dollar amount purely the dollar amount and you know I I understand exactly what Barbara says. We are committed to making sure that everybody sees get gets their um development so that they meet what they have to meet as far as their certifications and different things like that. And I think we're off on a tangent because this was not this particular item. It was the one on number one and I probably should have said it then. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um, any last comments on operations and finance? >> Mrs. Francisco, the roll call. >> Mr. Gino, >> yes. >> Mr. Libby, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rico, >> yes. >> Miss O'Brien, >>

089yes. >> Mrs. Laughwood, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dwyer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. The rest of the meeting is workshop. Uh so this is for discussion under education. Mrs. Lockwood. So the following items are being pres presented for anticipated action at the budget ethics regular meeting of January 31st, 2023 numbers 1 through six. Any questions or comments? Any discussion? >> Seeing as none, >> I I I just have a question. You know, I was looking at the Do we still have a DECA program at the high school? Do we have a class or is it a club now? >> I believe it's a club. I don't think they have a class. Was it It used to be a class. >> Yes, there

090was a class. >> Great class. >> It was a great class. >> I'm glad to see. I believe it's a club because I remember on a >> recent agenda I remember on a recent agenda the teacher approved for it is a maipin special education teacher and I remember looking at the hours and quite honestly thinking that it was sad because of the difference in what used to be there and and what is you know >> yeah it was actually a room it was a deca room which is now um the transitional Yes. >> Cold. Is that what it was? >> Yeah. Yeah. It was great. Okay. Just curious. >> It was also actually >> Yes. >> Talk way all the way down. >> That's where Janette was here. >> Might be a STEM room now.

091>> STEM room. >> Back door to go outside. >> Probably >> financial literacy room now. Cool. >> Any last uh anything else for discussion under education? >> Seeing as none, uh Mrs. Hike, personnel and student affairs. >> Uh yes, there's items 1 through 29 that are on the agenda for uh next meeting. >> Any discussion? >> I have a question. Go ahead. on item number uh motion number 20. I think it's [Music] for uh the flag girls flag football. What when does that run? When does that program run? >> It's going to be on Sundays in the spring. Late winter spring. >> It's in the spring. >> Late winter uh into the spring. So, >> will they do practices or anything? >> Everything is going to be on a Sunday. So practices will be once

092a week on Sunday and then games will be on a Sunday. This is funded 100% through the New York Jets uh for the first year which is this year now. Uniforms stipent all that stuff. Obviously we'll have to see how it goes. Evaluate next year participation's high. It isn't and whether continue or not. But and the they are doing something with the Jets facilities. I know they're having the girls play games down there at some point um in Floren Park. not not my life stadium, but uh looking forward to it. Like I said, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago or a few meetings ago, this is a student le initiative because one of our transfer students moved in from a town where she played at that her old high school and she whipped

093up some support in the high school and then we able to tren applied for the grant, earned it and now we have a team together for the first year. So year one, we're looking to have fun. We're not necessarily going to count wins and losses, I don't believe, but um should be a fun event. And because it's on a Sunday and because it's non-cont, the girls who participate can also play an NJSIA sport like softball, lacrosse, track and field. >> This will just be the extra >> which is why they're limiting it to Sundays. >> So, it should be fun. >> Just to piggy back off of that, right, the so everybody knows, the Pro Bowl will be a flag football game this year. That's kind of interesting. But do you know how many girls

094we have signed up? >> I do not. >> I I thought I might have heard like 60 or so. >> Is that right? >> 60 is going to be tough. >> That's a good kickoff. >> Seven. I think you only play seven at a time per >> So they're going to have multiple teams then. I should say >> it'll be a busy Sunday. I do have the the reason I I the reason I asked that question is because I also see on on motion number 28 that the the person who's the adviser for that is also the advis is one of the coaches for softball. >> Correct. >> Which I when I looked at it I couldn't understand how they could do both because we don't usually give two coaching positions in the same season

095to somebody. And I also had a kind of a question about that because that person is a new person to our district and he's making the same amount as people who have been here for years coaching and I was curious why he's is that I didn't know if that was a top if that's an error because >> you talking about the track and field. No, I'm looking at the assistant software because he's making the same as the person above him there >> and I I thought that we had a guide for our coaches and that they come in at a certain level and that seems like >> his first year >> for somebody who's not even in here a year. >> Don't I think he coached I thought he coached last year as well, but

096>> he's only been with us since December. >> No, coaching longer. >> He's been coaching longer than that >> in our district. >> I don't know about our district, but he's definitely been coaching longer. I I'll circle back, but I thought he's been I thought he was here last year as well, but I know he's got a longer coaching experience, but I'll flag that. >> I I understand he has experience, but it it seems to me that he's coming in and coaching at the same stipen as people who've been here for years. >> All right, I'll discuss, >> you know, we've talked about this because it's just like a teacher coming in on a different step of the guide. I didn't know we did that with coaches, but I guess we do. >> Yeah. I

097the So, the guide is Wait, do they don't they start at A and then work their way up to C and then see three steps at C. >> Yeah. Cuz cuz I will say I'll remember even going back a few years even with our head football coach. We didn't even we he didn't even start to see it. He was a >> he was >> he coached football for a lot of years and I I think I just want to be consistent when we think about what we're >> I just I don't want it to be a problem down the road with other coaches. >> Well, I have my notes in my office. I'll go through them tomorrow unless it's a snow day. Anything else under personnel and student affairs? >> Um number 11 um where

098we're transferring the Westbrook teachers to their new assignments. How is that presented to them? >> I'm just curious. >> Number 13. Yes. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. I just I'm just you know >> Yes. So I I met with the teachers individually. >> Yeah. Okay. And I told him, uh, this is where, you know, our plan is to move you for for next school year. So, it was it was a face to face, you know, one-on-one meetings. So, >> I'm just glad they didn't just get a letter in their mailbox and the school thing. >> You said you were going to meet with that. >> Yes. So I I met with all all the uh people who are really being moved around and everybody's most everybody's happy. I I would say you it's hard to go

099through this much change in one school year. We typically don't see these number this number of transfers on any agenda. This is a very anomalous year. Um but they're very excited to have Dr. Schwarz there. So a wonderful person in the community and uh we look forward to having her. [Music] Any other questions under personnel and student affairs? >> Seeing as none, u Mr. Gino, operations and finance. So the following items are presented for anticipated action at the budget ethics regular meeting uh January 31st. Any discussion on one through nine under operations and finance? Seeing as none, uh, Mr. Sidowitz's policy. >> Okay. Resolutions 1 through 21 under policy are being presented for anticipated action at the budget ethics regular meeting of January 31st, 2023. Any comments, questions, or jokes? >> Seeing as none, I

100Oh, I'm sorry, Peter. Uh number two, recommendation of superintendent to approve the second reading of the revised policy with holidays. Did that have to do with the homework? >> no, no. >> Okay. >> Now, it had to do with uh the committee met I guess it was December. Trying to get more. So, it was in December the committee met >> to discuss there was some some concern in the fall. Uh we had some the schools were closed for religious holiday but there were athletic teams that had events practices. Uh in one case they had a team dinner or maybe a team breakfast and uh you know the board the committee felt it wasn't right to schedule those events on days when schools were closed for religious observances. So you know when schools are closed for

101example athletics don't necessarily stop like for winter break there's no practice. there would be no practice on Christmas perhaps but on the 26th there would be a practice or a game. So um they just wanted to amend that that on the day that on the day of the holiday they didn't want to have the athletic events and students who participate who >> have religious observances shouldn't be punished in in the event that they are >> just how do we what do we call a holiday what is it day off district why day out or is >> well I think it was just religious holidays so it wasn't necessarily like NJA convention which is November but it's not religious so I don't think we included that in the policy religious holiday religious holidays. >> There's like

102there's like 60 to 60 days or so in the school year when there aren't New Jersey recognized religious holidays. >> So maybe not even >> it doesn't give you that many days to do things. So we might want to be careful. I would I would put that in. >> Right. I think the committee understands that different students celebrate different holidays and you know conflict for you may not be a conflict for somebody else but then on a different day that other person may have a conflict. So, you're right. There's a we get a list every year from the department of um recognized religious holidays and it is a comprehensive list, >> but obviously not every student is going to be celebrating every or observing every holiday. >> Yes. >> I I I have a question

103because I I don't remember abolishing policies before. Are they too do they have to have two readings? >> So, the abolishing will be one read, but it'll be next week anyway. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure. So on Tuesday, we're going to have two second reads >> to abolish it and then the rest will be first reads. >> Any other questions or comments under policy? Seeing as none, um I'll move to old business. Is there any old business tonight, Mr. Sidewitz? >> I'm really a pain, aren't I? So, uh branding. I sent everybody an email regarding just ideas about logos so we can kind of get moving on the branding of the district, especially during this critical time of restructuring. So, I've heard back from Mr. Lippy. I'd love to hear back from

104anybody else on thoughts and maybe we could put it on the next education committee agenda, but let's get rocking. Let's get rolling, please. >> When When did you send that email? I believe maybe yesterday or the day before that. So, not too far away. So, if the email wasn't checked yet, then >> yeah, I don't know. >> Okay, I can resend it. >> Okay. So, in the in the fall when we were um when it was brought up that the schools would all move to black and gold but keep their um mascots at SRT, it was discussed um with all the PTA and PTO presidents that um some of them had invested quite a lot of money in the current artwork for their logos. And I feel like that was part of the deal when

105they like agreed to do the black and gold versus keeping their colors that they would get to keep their thing. >> I guess we can continue discussing. >> Sorry. >> No, that's okay. Um, >> so I'd like to ask uh to put it on the agenda for the next SRT meeting and then the education meeting following that meeting. >> Great. And >> I'm just wondering I I I understand I did get your email. I didn't respond to you because I >> I think it's a discussion that we should have here. >> Um >> I think that what Tara said is correct. One of the things in the discussion as we were going up to restructuring, we we wanted them to move to the black and gold, but that, you know, Maple Road could still be

106the Mustangs, you know, PK could still be the Panthers, but just that the black and gold would become their colors. And I see what you did with the logos in the black and gold. >> And maybe that's something that we could put out to them. I don't know that we, you know, you I I think you should probably discuss it in education before you bring it to the PTA people. >> Oh, that's fair. you know, so that maybe the board members all and the administration has a chance to give that input that they want before we of course they're going to bring it up now. But I'm just I'm just thinking that we you know >> Yeah, it could be on both agendas for ideas on the SRT um agenda probably at least the entire

107year leading into restructuring. Um yeah and it truly follows the strategic planning which was it was comprehensive and everybody on the board at the time worked really hard on it with community members and it was decided on how the general idea of how uh to move forward with branding and I think it's important that we move forward. So if we keep doing that that's great. >> Well you you mentioned >> Claire had something sorry it's okay. No, I was just actually going to bring up about the black and gold and SRT. Um I the PTO's and the PTAs did say that some of them had a lot of existing um yeah merchandise still and I think what was decided was that they weren't going to order anything new going forward in their school colors, but

108they were going to be allowed to use up what they had already purchased. Um, and I think some schools had more than others if I'm correct in that remembrance >> and perhaps archiving things like that cuz that's important. You know, we made a transition. We are no longer red and white. We are black and gold and this is the transition that led to it because it is historical for this district. Linda, I I wanted to comment because you actually in your email mentioned Montville and Montville is one of the we we have gone to their I I've gone to their branding and others around the table have and one of the things that they did do in Montville is they even let them keep >> their their they let them keep their mascots. They just

109changed their colors all to the green. So I I think that we were kind of compromising because of the dollar amount that was put out by the PTAs and PTO's on on the wear that they could, you know, and then as we move probably into next year, maybe they'll be able to see that. So >> thank you. >> I think it's a districtwide thing. I mean, I made an off-handed mark here when we're taking our pictures. >> None of us had anything that was going to go from behind us either. And that could, you know, maybe next year we all get dressed alike. And I know you guys are doing the gray green gray and black thing tonight, but we can do the gold colors for real. >> Our TV science has a green screen

110we can do all kinds of stuff with. >> I didn't even think that yellow and black. >> Any other old business? Well, >> just a quick uh if we could add administrative presentations to the next education committee agenda. >> That's it. >> And we did have a nice one tonight. >> Yeah, we did. It was awesome. We've already >> committee >> uh we'll we'll add that to ED committee. Um but we've already begun that process. We have the 31st scheduled. Uh we have a presentation coming with Mary Reinhold and we are displaying um in the back of the room and in the side we're going to have all of our uh recent uh school of character promising practices on display. We should have teachers and staff members here standing with the presentation from their um

111from the promising practices and it's really a collection of the um last three or four years because the um you know with the co restrictions that we were on that's something we would have been doing you know we had done that in the past but with co restrictions we got away from having those types of groups you know alto together so it's kind of a a nice way to bring uh bring all those things back so on the 31st um we will have a school of character presentation and um Mrs. Reinhold will will do a little um little conversation with the board and come and and talk on behalf of schools of character. Uh so we have a process in place for looking at what we're going to do each month. >> Excellent. I'm probably

112I'm going to be presenting uh at the February meeting about update on our district math goal um with some math staff members to come in and uh show some of the uh conquer math and and hands-on things that we've been working on as along with some other things. So, you know, be ready. You might be asked to play with some uh hands-on uh geometry manipulatives and and that sort of thing. >> Hopefully, I don't have to solve a geometry problem. >> Thank you, Mr. Novak. Anything else under old business? >> Seeing none, like to close old business. >> Second. Thank you. U moving on to new business. >> Oh, sorry. Uh all in favor of closing old business. >> I >> Any opposed. All right. Now we can move on to new business. >> Oh,

113I think we have to read this. >> Dr. I was doing next week. >> Let's do it at the big meeting. Yeah, cuz I think that's the uh we're going to vote out. I was planning to do it next week. >> The big the big meeting, the big big >> any other new business. >> Uh I know that I might have a hard time with the budget meeting and the date. If the board would consider possibly a change of date to the following week, it'd be greatly considered, but I'm just throwing that out there for my own persons. >> Okay. Which date? >> And the 20. >> No, the March meeting. >> The April meeting. >> Oh, April. Okay. >> When we approve the budget, right? >> 20. >> Is there a date deadline? We

114can have it done. Barb, is there a drop dead date on that? >> I'm sorry. >> Is that the date when we have to have it? Yes. >> What? So, >> so it has to be before that. Can't be after that. >> Right. But it probably if the governor doesn't give us our state aid on a timely basis the way they did it last year, then we're going to be I'm going to be crunching. >> I think he's talking about the public hearing in April. >> Yeah. But she's got to go to the end. >> So, we're in January. I would like to ask Barbara if she could put this on the committee agenda for operations and finance and if you guys can discuss it first there and then bring it to the rest of

115us to see if it's possible to move and if so when and what time I think let's we have at least we have some time to discuss this is that okay >> right okay >> thank you any other new business will >> can we please add Hillrest to the operations and finance Consider it done. Any other new business? >> Seeing none, I'd like to close new business. Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> All right. This portion of the meeting is open to members of the public having a legitimate interest in the actions of the board for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and or directly related to the operation of the West Lover Public School District. Members of the public who have requested to speak prior to the meeting

116will be recognized by the chair first. Each speaker will be given five minutes for a period of 30 minutes and then and then time permitting other public comment limited to five minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30-inut time period transpires. All speakers are asked to sign the register, provide and give their full name, spell their last name, group affiliation if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and the board and the administration will

117not respond to them. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Is there anyone in the public that would like to speak? My name is Joseph Connors. I live at 37 High View Drive. Uh I just wanted to get up and take a couple minutes to uh express how happy I am that you guys did have the robotics team come in and demonstrate to you guys. Uh robotics is something that I personally

118am very uh I I think it's very important uh for these students to experience and I want to congratulate them for how well they did perform last year in SE Birch. uh they kind of got a late late start on things and they did a phenomenal job outperforming a lot of uh teams that had a lot more time to prepare and a lot more resources. Uh so they really did do a good job and they overcame a lot of challenges. Uh on top of that, I think it's also important to recognize some of the other people that did help out. Uh I know parts of the administration were very important in uh kind of making that happen. One of which is no longer part of us. Uh but I think it's appropriate to thank Colleen

119Weiss Magic for all the work that she did in helping get that ball rolling. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other um public comments? Seeing none, I'd like to close public comments. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any oppose? Um >> Claire, can you um read the executive session, please? >> Sure. I just read it. >> That's right. So, so at 8:40 8:40 >> 8:40 p.m. I make a motion to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing personnel appointments, resignations, current litigation matters, special education matters, negotiations, and matters of attorney client privilege. The executives the executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. Second. >> Thank you. No action will be taken during executive session. Therefore, the West Board of

120Education will dismiss from that meeting. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? >> Thank you.