001I'd like to call the meeting to order and if we could take a moment of silence and in your moment of silence as you can remember the Tao family please. Mitch Tao was the past president of the board and served us for many many years. Please rise from the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In accordance with the provisions of the open public 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 office, the board attorney, cable vision of Warwick, West Milford TV77, and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board
002meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all school, all district schools. Mrs. uh Francisco, roll call. >> Mrs. Romeo >> here, >> Mrs. Stevenson >> here, >> Mr. Conlin >> here. >> Mrs. Dwire >> here. >> Mr. Gino >> here. >> Mrs. O'Brien >> here. >> Mr. Oshinsky >> here. >> Mr. Stillman >> here. >> Mrs. Van Djk >> here. >> Dr. Anamone. >> Yes. Good evening everybody. Welcome to our rescheduled September meeting. I've already made a note if we have any future meetings here at Macin that we'll bring in a larger flag for the flag salute. So don't worry about that. It won't happen again. Um just a brief superintendent update tonight. Our enrollment this year, student enrollment for this year is has increased by about 20
003students. This reverses about a 30-year trend of losing enrollment, declining enrollment in the district year-over-year for about 30 years. About 30 years ago, the early 90s, uh, approximately when our graduating seniors became larger than our incoming kindergarteners. That trend continued throughout the late 90s and into the 2000s, the 2010s. So every year we'd graduate more 12th graders than we would take in kindergarteners and the net loss every year was anywhere from 20 to 80 students year over year over year. So this year it's only one year. It's not a trend but it's something we're we're happy about. We'll certainly keep an eye on moving forward. Our strategic planning update uh we have our first meeting right back here Thursday night the 30th at 7 o'clock here. We're going to partner with New Jersey school boards
004to facilitate the strategic planning meeting as well as with the members of the school community and members of the township community. So, we're looking forward to that. Went back into my notes. This was originally scheduled for our last strategic plan with 2015 to 2020. This was originally going to be a 2020 to 25 strategic plan. It was scheduled for March, April, May of 2020. And I did go back and check my notes. This was that was the first event we canled in March of 2020. So here we are a year and a half later and we're looking to craft a 2021 to 26 5-year strategic plan. We hope to see you back here Thursday night at 7:00. Um before we move on to the social emotional learning update, uh I just want to give you
005a brief end of September co update. Um I'm sure you've seen the articles and newspaper. you get the daily reminders home. So, just to give you a brief update at West Milford High School only, these are that seems to be where the the largest portion of the problem is uh about high school students. In September 13th, when we first identified this this cohort, we had 54 positive cases at the high school. Of those 54, 29 students have already returned to school because they're outside their their window. Now, 25 remain out. In addition to the 25 that are still out, we have 21 students that are have been identified as close contact that are still out of school. So, right now, we have uh 46 students who are out of school, not including the regular daily
006absences here or there. Um, and again, just a reminder, close contacts are only uh identified or asked to quarantine if they're not fully vaccinated. Fully vaccinated students are not asked to quarantine. They remain in school. That's that we do do contact tracing for every case. Dr. McCuade work with our principles and their pandemic response team. They're in constant communication with the health department, the county health department. just yesterday at the state health department as well. So we speak to them every day. Every time we have a case to report, we speak with one of those groups, county health department or state health department or in some case both. We have limited inschool transmission. Hard to say there's never any inschool transmission. It's difficult to say that. So there's always going to be maybe a small
007amount, but we believe it's very limited in school transmission. Um we know that there are some out of school events we have very little control over that have led to stomach spread. So we are we have made adjustments both at the high school cafeteria level. They have separated desks lunch tables a lot more than they used to. So, we believe that will help because the cafeteria is the only place where the students are not wearing masks. And if they're wearing masks in class, um those contacts do not have to quarantine their mask up. In the cafeteria, it's assumed that nobody's wearing a mask. Those are eating and drinking. So, we did redo our high school cafeteria. It should look something like this with student desk chairs. similar to what we had last year. At the
008start of this year, we went back to our regular lunch tables. We felt that just wasn't the proper course of action. So, we did adjust that about a week ago. So, it seems to have slowed down, but we'll certainly keep board in the loop and we'll certainly communicate with all of our stakeholders moving forward. Dr. McQuade, we discussed social emotional learning a lot over the summer. We know that in addition to academic supports, we know our students in some cases staff need some social and emotional learning support. So how we how can we help our students this year in this area? So we did want to just talk about it a little bit today tonight at the meeting. As you know, I know for a fact that this board takes social emotional well-being very seriously.
009You as a board did create a district goal from 2021 and then obviously that has carried temporarily through into this year to build the district support system for students and staff for the purpose of social emotional well-being. So our schools have been aggressively going after this and making sure that it's a priority for them. As you know, as the board members and for the community, social emotional well-being, especially with dealing with the pandemic and coming out of the pandemic back into full inperson learning, has affected students, staff in the area in this area significantly. So I think we all pretty much know that the social emotional learning process that we're talking about is developing those skills for students in the areas of self-awareness, self-control, interpersonal skills. And all of those areas are vital for the
010student success in school. We all know that that then affects these students as far as academic performance, healthy relationships, and overall their mental health and their well-being. So that being said, what are we doing in West Milford? Um some of the things I will first just talk about more on the level of reacting to students that might be in crisis or need. We did create crisis teams. We do have we reviewed our risk assessment procedure. We have teams that are starting in committees this that started with principles this summer. They're coming into this school year with certain goals that they want to achieve. So for instance, I'll give you one example. At the middle school level, we talked about looking more about how we screen children, right? And and are we actually are we only
011getting those students that are referred to us, but what else can we do be doing proactively across an entire grade level, across entire schools. So that group of mental health providers is going to meet this year and really take a look, you know, and dig deeper because a lot of times what we do is when you set too many goals, then you can't achieve them, right? So, we really had the principles this summer come up with what specifically for your building do you feel we need to accomplish? And then Dr. Anamone, Mr. Novak, and myself will then check in with them and actually see if we're meeting those goals that we set in the summer. Another area is, and I think most of the board is aware, we have applied for the grant to apply
012mental health towards increasing a staff member for a social worker or a psychologist. and we anticipate that that person would be running groups and some evidence-based practices that then we can translate to the building so that it sustains over time. So, right now we have um someone that's hopefully going to be able to come through a contracted vendor where that person will then start that several days per week and we make sure that we affect the whole district so that it eventually throughout the school year will touch the whole whole district as a whole. I did recently apply, Dr. Anna and I will hopefully find out this week if we were accepted to the New Jersey Department of Education Dreams program. So that is a program that is free from the Department of Ed, allows
013us to receive training in nurtured heart approach, allows us to have two cert staff become certified, also promotes evidence-based uh strategies, trauma foundation training series, etc., etc. So, we're hoping that we get accepted into that. um and then we can be a part of that program and eventually that will obviously be brought in to the entire district at as well. Right now we targeted in our application that we would start it at the elementary level. Many of you also are aware that in addition to all of this we already do our individual group counseling. We're adding more targeted groups. You approved a social worker intern who's working with us this school year. for I'm hoping on the October agenda to put on a psychologist intern so that we can just expand and be able to
014provide more than what we've been doing in the past. The other things that are happening as far as lessons in the classroom that I think are important, one I just want to announce that next week is the week of respect. So some of those and I'm just going to pull it up so that I make sure that I have it all correct. But on Monday for instance is United We Stand in Bullying. So you uh students are encouraged to wear black and bold. There'll be lessons going on in the classroom. Some of the other topics are team up against bullying on Tuesday where you wear a team shirt. Again, activities going on in the classroom. Wednesday, be comfortable with yourself. Students are encouraged to wear more comfortable clothing. Thursday, let's keep the peace. And Friday,
015mental health awareness day. Again, activities and lessons happening with that. Adding on to that, Red Ribbon Week will be in October. I hope to have an update for the board on that as to what we will be doing in October. And the main thing I want to say throughout our school, and this is where I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Novak, is that I think it's important to know that our district, and we're proud of the fact that we have character education lessons going on, anti-bullying lessons going on, digital citizenship lessons going on, all of those things. We also use adventure product adventure based learning lessons that we've met on and expanded going on in our classrooms as well. So we don't just try to target this mental health and wellness and social
016emotional learning in one area. We try for it to be systemic across the whole district. So Mr. Novak, would you mind just adding a little bit more to that? >> I don't have a lot to add. You did a you did a great job. Um so our project of the venture program has been the backbone of many of our initiatives for you know many years going back to I'm going to say back to 2010 2011 we first brought it in. Um, you can see it representative in this room. Uh, last time I mentioned this, we were in a room that didn't happen to have it at that time. But, you know, we are in Makipin. If you take a look at the, you know, be here, be safe, be honest, be respectful, set goals, let
017go, and move on. It's a common language that you can find in every school uh, and every classroom across the district. And our, um, staff have been trained in that common language. And, um, and it's more than just common language. It's also lessons and activities that help support that. So in project adventure, which is typically a um it begins in the uh physical education classroom and then it gets followed through on in our um in our regular classrooms where the students interact in an activity that um fosters many of the skills that Dr. McUade was just highlighting. Uh interpersonal skills, uh problem solving, team building, those types of things. they uh complete a challenge or an activity together, then they have the opportunity to go back and what they call debrief and they do the
018debrief sometimes when they're still in the project adventure or fizzed period or when they go back into the uh classroom just to kind of talk things through. Um more recently, you know, we when we first began with project adventure, we took it from a point of view of character ed character building. Um but it is a um seal approved program which we've really been um in the last number of years not and it wasn't in reaction to the pandemic and co we started to build in a lot of social social and emotional components of project deventure prior to the pandemic. So we are perfectly positioned to you know capitalize on the structures that we already have here in place. Um as Dr. McUade mentioned with the week of respect and and some of the other
019activities coming up. These are things that have been been embedded in West Milford schools for years and our staff are are well trained in how to how to implement them. Along with project adventure, she mentioned uh digital citizenship. We adopted a digital citizenship curriculum in 2015. We were congressionally recognized for that. This room was the the birthplace of the digital citizens night event which which was uh you know um really brought in a lot of people to you know to talk about these you know character ed and social emotional aspects and how they relate to kids and their and their devices and and their online interaction. So uh we got a lot of things in place that are just um you know things we've been doing and now we've um you know as Dr. McQuade
020mentioned earlier really a recommitted effort to making sure that we're focusing on it especially in the early going and using it to engage those kids who haven't been in a normal uh in a normal environment in school in in a number of years. >> What is red? What is ribbon? So it's it's alcohol awareness week. Um and then there's I'm sure that it but basically the the overarching mode but then there are different activities that usually your social worker providers counselor will then depending on the grade level approach that topic. Thank you. >> All right. Um thank you. Thank you, Mr. Novak. We're excited about this goal this year and um we're looking forward to some more updates here for the board and for the community. Don't believe we have a street update tonight from
021Mrs. Weiss. Um but I would like to thank Mr. Winston for the new micro wireless microphones. They finally came in. I believe they're working well. We'll hear tomorrow from the community if they hear us loud and clear. But um they're certainly cleaner looking and we don't have to share microphones anymore. So, thank you. took a while. Supply chains uh packed up and whatnot, but um they're here to stay, so we're happy. >> And thanks to uh Joey Jordan, too, for doing some of the research to get that. >> Jordan, Mrs. Burns, also did a lot of research for us. I should have mentioned them as well. Um they both dug into their technical background to see which types of microphones work best for a school district without paying for things that we didn't use. So,
022it's economical, but it's very effective. Thank you to everybody and I'm glad we finally got it. >> Mr. Novak, do you have any more on your report? >> I do. >> So, uh, continuing on with some of Dr. equates themes and and things we're doing for students in the beginning of the school year. Knowing that we're coming back to a uh a year where a number of our kids were, you know, either at home in a virtual environment were in a hybrid learning environment, part home, uh part here, following a 2020 spring where they were home entirely and you know, we were in uh the world trying to figure out quickly how to do virtual learning. So we we know that there's missing pieces in in some of the learning experiences that our students had.
023So, one of the things we've been talking about um since last February is about how do we handle and how do we take the early fall of this year to assess where our kids are at um assess them up against the um state standards for uh the New Jersey student learning standards of what their expectations are at this time and for our ability to identify those weaknesses and then have a plan in place to work with them um through grants and board of education support with local funds. We've been able to really boost our um support structures or um you know our our hands- on deck with our uh we call in district we call it our encore positions in other districts might be called the basic skills or academic support programs that sort of
024thing. Um, so we've boosted staff and personnel. And then with that, um, we've also, um, been able to schedule our fall assessments in a systematic way so that we can get one, we can get our kids in into the uh, school year throughout the whole month of September without having to sit down and take an assessment on the first day of school. they were able to come in and get acquainted and focus on some of the social emotional learning things that we we found to be the most important piece of returning was to get everyone back in school and acquainted to you know the school environment and now we're at the stage where we're going to be um looking at some of these assessments. One of the assessments began this week, began yesterday. Um it
025is our link benchmark assessment. Linket benchmark assessment is administered in grades for English language arts uh it's administered in grades 2 through 11. And for math it is administered in grades um 2 through uh 2 through 8. And then at the high school we give it to students for uh algebra 1, geometry and and algebra 2. Uh so throughout that process uh it doesn't take uh at most it would take two class periods. You can you can get it accomplished in one period sometimes so the kids aren't rushed. The teachers will schedule two days and they'll um you know do half the test on the first day, pause it and then the kids will continue on the second day. Um so that assessment is based upon the standards of the grade level that they're they
026should know at this point in time in the school year. So it's not you're a third grader, you're not being assessed on end of third grade standards, you're assessed on all the standards leading up to this point in in third grade. Um so that is a process that we have in place. We will be completed with that this week. We get our results from that in a matter of weeks from um the link um the link vendor, the data warehousing company and um we hope to have them um to our staff at the uh end of October uh to to act on and then to our families at parent teacher conferences in in November. Uh the other assessment is a uh state assessment that is required this year. Um, it's called Start Strong. The start
027strong assessment is something that we we chose to administer last year in West Milford that was optional. Um, I was very proud of the fact that we were able to implement it. Um, a lot of districts set off um last year with the goal to try and implement it and but then as the year went on, it became too challenging for whatever reason. And then West Milford ended up being one of the one of the few districts statewide who actually implemented start strong which is now required of every district in the state of New Jersey. So we've um we have famili familiarity with it. Uh it it is something that we were able to um implement without you know without a whole lot of disruption. Um we've actually been uh a um district that is
028getting reached out to by districts who are implementing it for the first time asking us how we did it. what were the what were the uh you know um bugs in the process and that sort of thing. Um that is a pro um an assessment that is uh also administered um in grades uh 2 through 11 and ELA and math. Uh similar um similar groups in in high school with um algebra 1 um geometry and algebra um algebra 2. There's also a science component to start strong which is different than what we have in Lincoln. Those results come back um relatively quickly as well. So we are anticipating sharing those results also at uh our parent teacher parent teacher conferences. Uh the link results give us a lot more data than the start strong assessment.
029Our strong assessment gives us um you know a a student rating for how they are compared to state standards which is similar to linkit but linkit will give us a breakdown of every standard at the grade level that a student was questioned on and how they how they perform. Um, so with that, I know I'm sorry I'm talking a lot about, you know, the logistics of the assessment. From that data, um, our support team, our staff, everyone who's working with our students are able to better, uh, better direct their instruction, better plan goals and objectives for our students and truly differentiate our needs. Uh and we've had plenty of meetings with our staff about you know there's a expectation you had um in the you know at the start of the 2019 2020 school year
030that might be a little bit different now based on the information that we get. So it's our intention to you know maintain ongrade level instruction. I'm not saying we're going to we're going to step back and and and not teach on grade level but we're going to teach the kids where they're at. We're going to, you know, try to remedy some of those bigger um things that we've had, some of those bigger standards that we may have missed in the process. We'll know more and then we'll be able to uh hopefully uh I'll have be able to share it committee in November the results of uh results of those assessments and uh then it goes out to our families at the parent teacher conference. Those are parent teacher conferences are uh November 22nd and 23rd.
031Uh in addition, sorry, one last uh one last assessment. One of the ones that I find to be one of the most important happens to be uh in our kindergarten through fifth grade, which is our fountain and panel benchmark reading assessment. Uh this is an assessment to determine the uh reading level for uh for our students of each grade. And it's a process we've been doing for many years. It had some challenges last year to try and administer this assessment. A student was not physically with us. Uh so this year's assessment we we we find to be very uh very important that we are um focusing a lot of our resources to making sure you know maintaining the fidelity of that assessment. The board has supported uh substitute teachers, a permanent sub in every um
032every building, every school in West Milford. That sub is going to help support coverage for um giving the benchmark assessment, which takes a lot of time for each individual kid, especially in the kindergarten and first grade classroom where um the rest of the kids might might not be ready for some independent work at this point. So, uh, the board has supported, um, all that the feature support that's required to administer that and, uh, we're in the process of gathering that information and that is >> thank you. Um, I want to thank Barbara too for the mic because I know Barbara put a lot of work to trying to get trying to find the money. And the nice thing is that I can see you now. That big monster is gone. So, it's good to see
033you. Uh, Barbara, the >> Can you hear me now? >> I can hear you right now. >> Uh, the minutes. >> Uh, yes. We have the minutes from the uh, August 24th meeting, the regular workshop and executive session. >> I need a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the uh, minutes of the day. >> Whoa, that's amazing. >> Okay. Can't hear me. August 24th workshop regular meeting and the August 24th executive session. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion about the minutes? If not, all those in favor. >> Any opposed? Okay. President's report. Um, under my president's report, I I was just going to piggyback on to what Dr. Anamone said about the strategic planning meeting. This is very essential for our districts so that we can see where we're heading. Um, if
034you can't make the meeting, which is okay because if we don't have a quorum, then we don't actually have to open it as a meeting. Uh, but if you could all let us know maybe by the end of tonight if you are coming so that we can prepare knowing that the board members will be there. Again, this is really for the community. So, as board members, we're here. We we'll be attending, but we will be there in a listening mode and not really contributing. From what I understand from Kathy, the most important thing is that the public and and all of the stakeholders have a chance to give their input. So, um if you're going to make it and you know you're coming, please let us know. And the one thing that they ask is
035that you don't come after it starts because then we would have to stop and open the meeting if we didn't have a quorum to start. Okay. And that's about it. Public comment. [Music] This portion of the meeting is open to the 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 5 minutes per speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. All members of the public speaking during the public comment period are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to sign the
036register provided and to 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. 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 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 the light of the
037legal 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. Anyone sign up? Mary Moore. Oh, hey Mary. You can push the button. There's a button on the microphone >> and it'll turn red. >> Got it. Ladies and gentlemen of the board, Dr. Anamo and Mr. Novak, thank you for your time. My name is Mary Moore. I am a 23 year plus resident of West Milford. I have two sons in the district, age 13 and 16. I'd like to thank you so much for your time. Uh first off, I'd like to start off by thanking Dr. Anamone for revisiting his optional mask policy in the first week of school. Um that was, you know, something that we were kind of
038questioning about what was going to happen given warmer weather. And that was something that was asked and what we were told, uh those of us who did ask was that it was going to be treated in much the same manner as our snow days. uh that it would be considered on the basis of the individual day and the weather that is observed on that day. Um of course there was much distress when it was announced for the entire week that it was going to be made optional. But upon hindsight and actual observation of whether it was uh revised and therefore it was made safe for all the students of West Milford. So I do thank you for that. And I hope as we move forward we will see that same uh policy take place where
039it is evaluated on the basis of each individual day much like our snow days. Um I think that the big news was you know in the high school we saw this outbreak happen and it has been on many people's minds since this has happened and what's been going on since then. Um, you know, we see a lot of it stemming from outdoor activities and things outside of the school where people were unmasked and we know that that's the main cause. However, we'd be naive to believe that it's not happening within our own schools and we must be vigilant as we move forward, especially we're heading into the winter. We know kids get sicker in the winter. We stay inside a lot more. We're more confined. And also, we know that there are individuals that still
040don't wear their masks properly, and we have to constantly remind them to push them up over their noses or mouths. And there are even individuals who are trying to circumvent the mandate by wearing what's called fake masks. That's actually what they're called. They're mesh masks that are made to look like they are actual protective face coverings, but they do nothing. It just gives the appearance of it. It's because of these reasons and many others that we must stay vigilant and protect our children. You know, we had many, many studies come out in the past few months, but particularly last week. Arizona State University released a study regarding their Maricopa and their Puma County schools. And they found that they did a comparison of those that had mask mandates and those that didn't. And the ones
041that did not were three and a half times more likely to have outbreaks. In fact, some of those school districts did have to close temporarily because of the number of people who got sick from outbreaks from CO. Also, John Hopkins released a study on the 24th of this month that basically stated that they did a study at 520 districts in the US to evaluate whether or not the mask mandate really helped or did nothing. And what they found was Schools that did not follow a universal mask mandate had significantly higher increases of pediatric COVID cases than those that had mask requirements. And in some weeks that those observations were made, they saw that the incidence of pediatric cases more than double those that actually did fall. So I think the science very clearly, accredited true
042science, really shows that the mask mandate does help. I mean, from the time we're little, we're told to cover our noses, cover our mouths when we sneeze and cough. Why? We don't want to spill on people. We don't want mucus flying everywhere. This is another protective layer and that's what it is all about. Protective layers along with sanitizing and cleaning. This has been a circus with regards to the masking. There's a mandate in place. We need to follow it so we can keep our kids safe and keep them in school and in person. And we need to readjust the focus on the academic performance of our kids. Our kids last year did suffer from being home virtually. I know my boys struggled with math and science and some of the other course subjects. They worked
043really, really hard. But I know that they are not as strong as they used to be in math and that's going to hurt them when they do the assessments this year. We need to refocus ourselves and really help these kids that are struggling because they haven't been with their teachers oneon-one. And I'm so pleased to hear that there are things being done within the district to address that and to get our kids up to speed and to see those assessment scores go up so it benefits our district as a whole. You know, it really is. You know, nobody likes wearing a mask all the time. I don't, you know, but I do it because I'm not willing to gamble my life, my family's life, the people around me, their lives because we don't know how
044this virus is going to affect one person versus another. I'm not willing to gamble it. So, let's keep everybody safe and let's keep everybody in person in school. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mary. Anyone else wishing to speak? >> Seeing none, I make a motion to close public comment. >> Second. All those in favor? >> Any opposed? did not. >> All right. I just I want to have one edit to the agenda tonight before we adopt it. It's on page five, personnel student affairs resolution number 11. We're going to pull it and replace it with an carry personnel resolution number 11. So there's a change in dates there from the leave in the leave. Um so we'll pull the one on the regular agenda. Personnel number 11 replace it with hand carry resolution number 11
045>> and that's it. >> There is a hand there is still there more hand carries that uh personnel added. >> Yes. So well >> we're just adding them on. Right. >> These these hand carries are all on the agenda. These have been added but this one is just replacing one. >> We have one that's a replacement. >> Okay. >> For an existing resolution and the other one is a hand carrier. >> Okay. >> And then we have one hand carrier which will be voted on after executive session. >> We have an executive session. All those in favor? >> Any oppose? >> Education. Mrs. Guer. >> I'd like to move I'd like to move items 1 through 8 for approval. Second. Discussion. Anyone have a discussion on the items under education? Francisco. >> Mrs. Dwer, >>
046yes. >> Mr. Gino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> yes. >> Mr. Conklin, >> yes. >> Mr. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Personnel, student affairs, Mrs. Stevenson, A motion to move items 1 through 10 and 12 through4 carry number two and carry number three. >> Second. Any discussion under personnel required? Okay. I noticed that um uh where is it? Okay. Uh number eight, the Okay. The um media specialist is out from September 1st through December 31st and then her replacement number nine is only in until November. So what's happening for the month of December for the media center? >> We'll have to find a new placement for that time. >> Okay. So it didn't start
047until the 22nd which is why there's no coverage from September 1 through September 21st but we'll have something though we are limited at times for keeping a person in a substitute position for longer than a certain school period. So we'll have to fill that from November 20th through the end of the year. >> Thank um item number 24. Why is there an increase in the date for um that individual? >> Well, this is to help with a lot of the paperwork we have to do at the high school. Some of it connected to contact tracing. We've just been an abundance of that this year. We feel though adding an hour to his day helps out the main office staff, helps out the administration. Um it's another set of hands for an extra hour day. Uh,
048plus we also have our usual start of the school year, paperwork, avalanche, um, course changes, just all the little things. Person help out a lot with the auto. >> And he's, is he certified to help out with the course changes? >> Well, not so much work changing the courses, but just helping out getting kids down to the main office. He's helping out with some of the um, a lot of the a lot of the actions. >> And I and I have one more. I don't know if it's a question or a statement. On number 28, you spoke about a committee to build pride in the school. Um, I really believe that the high school should be a stellar example community and I'm concerned that there are so few high school teachers on that committee. Why
049>> were these were the volunteers that we received? U Mr. Trincasta um invited a large number of people and this is who we got um >> so many elementaryaries. I mean I I really think because our high school needs to be highlighted that we should try to get more high school teachers involved. We need to attract kids back into the district who have left us. And I think that's the only way we're going to do it. one of the only ones. >> It's about half It's about half high school. >> Is it really? It doesn't look like a half high school. >> I don't know. It didn't look like that to me, but um I want to see more done for the high school. So, thank you. Any other discussion under for personn number 34
050for those um volunteers are do we insure them? >> They're if something happens do we give them the insurance >> well they're injured? No, if if if they're if you have a coach or a teacher, they're insured by our district. Are these volunteers carrying the same insurance? >> Well, it's approved by the board so that it would be covered under your umbrella. Okay. >> The board approved is our employees really covered by our >> pretty comprehensive. >> Okay. Any other questions, discussions? Notable. >> Miss Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Miss O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Oshinsky. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Conklin. >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stillman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> Operations and finance. Bro. like to move items
051one through five under operation climate >> discussion. Anyone have any questions on the items on under operations in finance? >> Not Mr. Oinsky. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. I didn't. >> Did you want to address a question? >> I do. I um do we have enough Chromebooks? >> Do we have enough Chromebooks now or are we still waiting on them? >> Get this. >> Yeah, they're all here. They're all delivered to caught up. >> Miss O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stillman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Conklin. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. I'm going to get you a budget because I don't you go ahead. >> Okay. I'd like to move item number six under operation. >>
052Any discussion? >> Mr. Oshinski. >> Yep. >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Mr. Gino. >> Abstain. >> Mrs. Mr. Dwire, >> yes. >> Mr. Stillman, >> yes. >> M O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Conklin, >> yes. >> Mrs. Romeo, >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> abstain. >> Like to move items 7 through 12. >> Discussion not local. >> Mr. Oshinsky. Yes, >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes, >> Miss O'Brien. >> Yes, >> Mr. Stillman. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes, >> Mr. Conklin. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyk. >> Yes. >> Like to move item number 13, the hand carry. >> I think we're going to do that after executive session. >> Okay. >> Right. We need executive session for that one. >> Policy. Mrs. Romeo. I'd like
053to number one >> discussion anyone >> local Miss Romeo >> yes >> Mr. O'Brien >> yes >> M Stevenson >> yes >> Mr. Oshinsky >> yes >> Mr. Stillman >> yes >> Mr. Conklin >> yes >> Mr. Garino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwire. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> Okay. We're going into our committee reports. Parks and Recreation. Mr. Stman or Mr. Corino. No report. >> Safety. Do we have a meeting? >> I'll check with Mr. Citro. Um we're um round table. We had um superintendent round table on Thursday the 23rd and we it was discussed about the Chromebooks. It was discussed about the new messenger system which I think people got a message on tonight and we'll get a message tomorrow morning about logging on to be able to get text
054messages. Um they talked about the intervention specialist at the graduation rate requirements and the different the differences between the lunches in the different places. Um I'm not sure when our next meeting is next month. >> You have a question? >> They talked about how if the lunches were different in the different buildings. There was something that came up about that. Right. >> Are they talking more about the menu? Yes. >> Yes. Yes. The food offered in the food served was a little discussion. So it is the same at all six elementary school services. The food offered at a high school is not the same at the elementary more option. For example, at the high school, we used to have, you know, pre- pandemic uh a cold sandwich station where students could order custom sandwich exactly
055how they liked it. So, this year we have pre-wrap sandwiches, turkey, cheese, lettuce, and you can get a mayonnaise packet on your own. If you don't like the lettuce in the sandwich ready, you have to scrape it off. It's not a custom pre wrap sandwich. So, um, it's a nice little hybrid. Better than we had last year, not as good as we had two years ago. So, we're sort of working our way back to a full cafeteria offerings. We're not quite there yet. >> Uh, I'm trying to understand. >> Keeping the line moving for related, right? Well, not not necessarily. There's supply chain issues with food also, >> but they also want to minimize the um waste, >> right? >> So, they they need to start slow um in order to create an option, but
056we have more options in the middle school and the high school because there's more students. you said something about intervention specialist. >> Yes, the Novak can speak on that because we spoke on it at the ring. >> I'm curious, was it? >> So, there was a question on the agenda from the um WMA group about the um are we going to have intervention specialists this year as we have in the past. So, traditionally, I'll just give you a little background. The intervention specialist position was a support position that uh we provided for schools that receive title one assistance. So schools qualify for title one assistance. I would use title one funding to support their encore program uh with the presence of a intervention specialist which was the position. Um this year we have used title
057funds in collaboration with ESSER funds, the CO relief funds to um add additional full-time encore people or halftime encore people to all of our schools. So the so the short answer is no. We will not have intervention specialists this year. The the real answer is that we're not missing a support. We've gone above and beyond what that support was. Well, the title of inter intervention specialist was like a daily daily paid person at a sub rate. We now have people on guide um on the teachers guide you know in a full-time in a full-time role. They participate in the schools. They come to the you know back to school nights and and parent teacher conferences all those types of things. So it's a more substantial role than what we had in the past for intervention.
058Anything county school board? Haven't heard anything. Haven't been been invited to anywhere. I'm sitting home just reading policy. No, nothing. I'm serious. I'm serious. No, we haven't received anything yet. >> Um I don't know what's um >> something planned for October. >> We usually do something in September from my understanding. Right. Beginning of the year they usually have kick off these virtually. Oh, that's >> I don't get anything on it. >> And we all should get it even if we're not on because everyone should get um New Jersey school board the the next thing would be the strategic planning that we're going to be working with Kathy. There's you know the three dates and hopefully it will be well well attended and be able to move forward. legislative. >> I have no reports >> technology.
059>> All right. So, we're using uh one of the pieces that we spoke about, which is nice. Uh the uh security camera project in the high school was uh completed. Uh so that's good. I think uh the high school staff that there's a couple people that need that, right? They've been trained already. Um the other thing is uh with regard to school messenger, we've got just like you mentioned, Linda, we got all that information. Um probably the biggest thing that we spent the most amount of time on was uh the website, right? and what we want to do with the website and really just kind of look at a groundup approach in um making some big changes for uh the public, for us as board members, for uh everybody to be able to have a
060a much easier time using that. Our West Milford Board of Education website is I consider less than friendly. Um so uh the key is so many people are using we talked in specifically right so many people use these devices as their computer now and legitimately they're doing everything on the phone you can't even get like to see our website on the phone is very difficult so the groundup approach is is in its infancy stage it's going to take some time but I do think that uh we'll make progress uh as the year goes on it's a it's a big task But absolutely um important for all of us and and the thing that I just kind of threw out there was like we just need to that kiss technique and we need to keep it
061simple, right? The front page needs to remain simple. It shouldn't be more than a couple clicks to get to something. If I'm a parent, it shouldn't be more than a couple clicks to get to something for uh my student. If I'm a student and I need to find information, I should be able to get to it quickly. And more importantly, right, for people outside of our community, they might be looking to move. Alex talked about a, you know, not it's not a trend, but we're hoping that it becomes a trend where people with younger children move to the community. You know, I'm I'm hoping that uh you know, this also become is a benefit to people as they research moving to the township of West Milford, too, and what our school systems are like. So,
062um, more to come on that. Uh and uh then we talked about the Chromebooks. So I do think there was um you know an issue with Chromebooks. Some of it was uh related to um shipping issues. I think obviously we have chip issues. Uh but I I also think that it took too long even with those shipping issues. Um I just need to get better information from uh the group next time. So, let's just be more accurate. I would rather have you as have Robert, you know, um underpromise and overd deliver next time because some of these students went through almost 3 weeks without Chromebooks. So, that's that's tough, right? When a lot of what we do now is is is in on that Chromebook. So, that's important. But, um everybody's got them now. So,
063everybody should be happy that we've got those Chromebooks. >> Do all the grade levels have them now? So it was it was my understanding as of yesterday that right even the the 10th graders do have those now. >> Well the sixth grade went out probably Thursday Friday of last year. >> Right. >> 10th grade went out yesterday. >> Right. So >> there was something in there about the kindergarten and first grade. Are they all in the classroom? >> Yes. Yes. So we did talk about like K1 they're in the classroom right. So second grade on, they're carrying those Chromebooks home each day. Uh we talk about some of the different things that we we might do in the classroom, whether they're going to remain on carts or stored somehow in the classroom so it's easy
064uh for for the um staff to kind of get those out and get those to students quickly. But I think that the feeling is we just don't want first graders quite yet bringing those back and forth every day. Right. did last year [Music] and >> right so now that we're in full day I think some of the discussion was we're in full day learning uh where before we had that hybrid learning all of last year kind of made more sense for them to bring those home now like we can house them in the classroom it helps us kind of preserve the those Chromebooks for better use >> there's very very limited homework uh for the garden first grade group they would meet vice >> um I just jump in on the as well uh so
065one of the other things you can anticipate um depending on um we're still waiting for feedback from real time whether we can do it Friday or not we are anticipating sharing with the community the um phone book parent agreement uh so I I think it's important to thank Thank you for bringing it up uh to to inform the community of this agreement uh before it goes out. Um it is going to be part of the parent questions on the parent portal. We will send a message a school messenger uh notification that when the when the question is available and the question on the parent portal will be very simple. you know, uh, have you read the, um, parent Chromebook agreement and do you agree with it? Um, there'll be a link there to the document.
066We can provide paper document, you know, paper copy of the agreement if families want it. Um, we will go live with it um, relatively soon. Once it is live, we anticipate giving families a probably about a four-week uh period of time to review and respond whether they agree with you know whether they are consenting to the agreement or not. uh at that time at the end of the four weeks we will send out another notification letting everyone know that a nonresponse uh is a form of agreement and give people at that point in time the opportunity to say well I just missed it I don't agree and that sort of thing. So we're going to give a reasonable amount of time for people to review the agreement and then um let us uh you know
067let us know you know their thoughts on that. Well, that process is coming soon and it's a a um, you know, basic user agreement along with our acceptable use policy that you're, you know, going to treat it with care, you're going to bring it um, charged whenever you can, that we are, you know, have a process in place for um, replacement process, that's that sort of thing. And um, you know, we'll share that with you. >> So, uh, yeah, that was I was going to end with the last two things. That was one thing. No, that's okay. That was one. The other, right? Cuz I wanted to say it now in September of 2021, right? The the what we're looking to do is at the start of next year, right? So, in August of 2022,
068before you can get into that parent portal, you're going to see these things and have to accept these things before you get into the parent portal. I'm putting that out there now today in September. So, you all have a year to kind of prepare for that to happen. So, you know, Dan talked about how it's a great idea that all that stuff comes up right before the school year. So, all right, all those things that you have to do as a parent, right, you can accept and and fill out any forms that you need to, all that stuff will be there before school even starts. So, that's a great idea. >> Just to piggyback on what Ry is saying, you all get uh on or about August 15th, the portal opens. You'll have your your
069teacher. If you're an elementary student, you get your teacher on that date. You get your bus pass. If you're a secondary student, max or high school, you get your schedule. We're going to have it next year to before you can open the portal. You have to fill these forms out first and submit them online. And once you do that, poof, your child's parent portal, student portal, whatever you call it, will open and you'll see your third grade teacher, your bus stop. It's just going to be a streamline. So, we don't have all the paperwork coming in the first week of school. So, it's just a way to use technology a little bit more to our advantage and I think it's going to be helpful for parents as well. So, um almost all these forms can
070be filled that on your phone. >> Okay. quickly. Um, as a parent, my my own initiative did this this past August. It was super easy to build it out and then we got our schedules >> coming down the pipe. A lot of players are doing it seems to be more and more. It's coming down the pipe next August. Um, we'll have some more discussions between now and then. It was a great discussion we had in technology committee and we're looking forward look for the last paper. That's it. Oh, >> do you have anything else? Right. >> Nope. That's it. Thanks. >> I think you're gonna have a question. Go ahead, Kate. >> Um, thank you. >> You talked about our website. I'm excited to see the ideas of our brand new website committee. Will the
071technology oversight committee be working with that committee? >> Yeah. So, uh, we talked about, um, you know, obviously having some key players from the administration, from the board of education, parents, maybe even staff, and who knows, maybe even students. Like, we we want to get that together, right, to its infancy. It's going to take some time, but we'll have a group of people that will, you know, be able to at least provide information that they feel is important so we can kind of create the framework for the website. As time goes on, can you share I don't expect this tonight, but as time goes on, can you share with us like the timeline of when that committee's meeting and what the goals are and when they think it will be? >> Yeah, we again that
072those things will probably start to happen, you know, towards the end of this year, beginning of next year would be my guess. >> I I would hope that the committee would report back to your committee, >> right? >> And and then the board would get feedback. But I think if if there are individual board members who have something that they would like to, you know, contribute, I'm sure you're willing that you know, we're looking for that. I think I believe >> the board actually approved something tonight. It was a personnel resolution number 25. >> So we have these names approved. Basically, we're going to ask our staff members, you know, from the perspective, what do you want in a website? What do you include in the website? And maybe just as importantly, what don't we
073need to do? >> We'll get some feedback from our staff. >> I believe they're all members of the educational technology. >> Yeah. So we did discuss it at SRT with our population Thursday. Half of them were involved in past discussions >> and I and I think some of us we get emails and feedback from parents on you know they can't find something things that they like things they don't like where you know where they have to go. Um so I think that some of that feedback obviously we we can funnel to that group also. >> We did it that was a topic that came up Dr. Anamone shared that at round table also so that the PTAs could know you know that we're looking for any input that they might have because we want to
074make sure that every party that uses it is going to have you know have at least some input. Anything else under technology? If not, the township committee, we don't have a meeting right now, do we? We're kind of working on that thing. Bes municipal September's meeting was cancelled, though. They haven't been meeting I think a week of uh I want to say it's October 13th. I think it's called the Columbus Day. Unless they change it. an email um to highlight um and she nothing I don't think really um she talked about the national night out and how wonderful it was already. Um, she also talked about the not buying it program for sixth grade and school kids with the high school and fifth grade and the program for old business. Anybody have anything old business?
075Need a motion then? Okay. So, I I know some of this was uh we brought some of this up a little bit earlier, but I thought maybe this would be a good time to talk about uh myths and rumors and some of those things that have come up um with COVID and some of the things that have been said either online or in person to um some of the administration or the board members. So right that obviously the biggest question out there is when you get 54 cases in in a specific school how do you keep the school open when the state says that you know if you have three cases that can be traced back to the school that maybe the school should pause for two weeks. So lots of folks in town are
076kind of asking those questions. I think there's a lot of people in town that were appreciative of us staying open too. Right. So you kind of have that 5050. So, but maybe you can explain why we can still stay open with 54 cases in in a school. >> Well, we discussed this before. Want to just share a little bit? >> Sure. Not a problem. So, um sorry, I had to step out for a quick second, but you get your water. >> Yeah, I got the water and I and I have a lifesaver. So we we do meet I mean I just set it up a little bit but we do meet with the county health department state health department uh every you know they they want to see us taking care of which we are.
077So they're appreciative of that fact. They think we're doing everything right. We have made changes in our school cafeteria uh for this school year. They think it's going to have a major effect. Um there's very little we we find anecdotally at least that our our vaccination numbers at the high school are perhaps lower than we had anticipated. You know so um students who were 16 and over were made eligible sometime in the spring and then 12 and over were made a little bit later in the spring. We were anticipating higher numbers and I think we got lower lower numbers in the high school. We are in the process of collecting vaccination data from our staff now. Uh that's due right before October 18th. We're about halfway there. About half of our staff has submitted half
078is not. Of the half that have submitted, I believe 95% are fully vaccinated for our staff. Um but we don't think we're going to have any kind of major outbreak that it's major change from last year because last year there was no vaccine is 100% state but we also know it does offer a lot of protection that being not being vaccinated. So is that about right Liz? >> Yes I mean that definitely gave a really good summary. The other thing I think that's important for the public to know is that when you have cases as high as ours right now with the 54 cases coming from the high school, right, as that information is coming into us, we are then immediately excluding and that's the term that they use, excluding those students from school and
079anyone that those students drove with, sat at the lunch table with those that whole group is then immediately excluded. So as that's happening over the course of this past several days or past week, there are multiple students then that are excluded for the timelines and the purpose that the health department says is you want to then mitigate the risk, right? And stop the spread. So you do that by then isolating and excluding those students. From there, the health department has worked very closely with us because the numbers came in quickly. So, we not only then had our team at the high school, but we expanded that and we we borrowed um a nurse from another building, shifted our staff around. I even had Mr. Novak down um called him over and we make sure that
080we work very quickly on this information. So then the health department got involved right away because of the cases coming so quickly and helped us to confirm our contact tracing which did the majority of students were linked to either the football game which Dr. Anamone mentioned in one of his letters and or an outside event that happened that same weekend. So what we found and what the health department will see in our tracing and then they go back and verify is that the students that were at a game or were sitting at tables together or other went to went in a car and drove together, those were the students that then obviously became positive along the way. The health department then turned it over the county health department to the state department because of the
081numbers coming in. High and I know it's high for the community, high for us as well. And then they analyze what are you doing? They have you reflect, kind of refocus your thinking, what else can we be doing to help mitigate and address the issue. So that's where the community probably noticed that first weekend when that happened when we found the cases coming in, we limited the spectators at the sports only left to immediate family. Our principal, you know, Mr. Strians and Mr. Shy and Mr. Polero relooked immediately with the custodial staff at how could they redesign lunch to seat students 6 feet apart. We then started to realize we needed to refocus some of our contact tracing on the car loads, the cars coming back and forth. You guys know West Milford, it's a
082big town. So, they're hitting that 15-minute mark in 24 hours pretty quickly. So, anyone that was driving together to a practice to anything was also included. So, I think the main thing to just kind of for the public to know is that We have been aggressively going after this and making sure that that it is as controlled as it can be. Are some students going to still feel the residual effects of like a contact of a contact and it keeps going? Yes. But we are starting to slowly see the number come down and we would hope that that would continue. But what the epidemiologist and the health department and I'll say publicly has said to me is that this is going to be a virus that's going to be here. Right? So we have to
083in order to preserve and I think as educators we want to make sure that students are getting the education that they deserve in person as best we can and as safely as we can. If we ever feel we need to close due to for a safety purpose we of course would consider that with the health department. But at this point, they are satisfied with the strategies that we have in place and gave us some suggestions more on this on the on the recommendations as far as some communication and making sure that we streamline the process internally, which we're going to take all of their advice that that they're giving us. So, I just want the public to be sure that we are taking all their advice. We have not turned down anything that they have
084suggested. Um, today they gave, you know, another report and feedback and we'll just continue to do that every day. We've been dialoguing with like having a dialogue with them. So, right. So, again, dispelling one of those rumors out there was that, you know, the health department recommended that we pause for two weeks. You clearly are saying that that's not the case. >> That's important for people to know because >> I I just I just can't stand when there's rumors out there. We just need to make sure that we get the facts out there. >> Yeah. It's it's difficult for us, as you can imagine, to follow up on every online rumor and Facebook post and tweet and whatnot. There's a funny meme out there of a the painting of Abraham Lincoln. He says, uh, you
085can't believe everything you read on the internet, you know, and it's a quote attributed to President Lincoln. So, it's a token there. Um, so we do our best to, you know, deliver the facts to parents in a very straightforward manner with the daily letter that goes out 5:00 at night, 5:30 thereabouts. So if you received a letter or excuse me, if you if you get the letter from the school, from my office, and you have not yet received a call about being a close contact, it means your child was not a close contact. So, you'll get the call first from the high school principal, the middle school principal, and you whoever, a nurse, assistant principal. You'll get the call first, which is why there's sometimes a delay in getting the letter out. You we'd like
086to have it out by the time by 5:00, but there are some nights we're making calls till 5:30, and we don't want to send that letter out until every parent can contact. So, if you're receiving a letter at 5:45 in the evening and you've not yet gotten a call from somebody in the school district, your child was not a close contact. So, you can rest assured at that point that everybody that needed to be contacted has been contacted. Like I said, why there's a little bit of a delay some days uh more so than others. I hope that dispels some or much of that. >> I so I want to make it clear. We were never told that we should cut our food, >> right, >> by the health department and we didn't not do
087because that's what's out there and that's the important thing. We did not go against the health department. >> I I think it was just a generic, >> right? I mean, >> I would think we could, >> right? I mean, >> I just want because that's that that's what you're talking about, right? >> And that's up to our knowledge as board members when I've gotten the message. I said that's not our knowledge. I mean like today we're the only we're the only cases in the state county. >> I will I will also just mention today um the health department did ask me to add an additional column to our data that we're providing that also clarify between a PCR test and a rapid. So I think we have to also understand that when the state is
088analyzing our information that they also have certain formulas and information that they're also looking at as well whereas sometimes the number may be high but in in their mind when they're analyzing the you know number of cases we have or where it's linked to some of them are considered probable and not necessarily confirmed. I think what you're trying to say though is we want to make sure that the public is has the confidence in us that we are doing exactly what the health department is telling us. >> Correct. >> And we're meeting everything that we're supposed to do. >> And and if if so if we have a student that we say has to go out for close contact, right? Um is there a period of time where they could come back to school sooner
089like if they go get a PCR test? >> Yes. So right now because we're in the moderate zone, which I say that because every Thursday it changes, but we are in the moderate. So I will say that right now you're identified as a close contact, we count 10 days from that day. That's without you going for a test. Day one starts the following day. So it starts tomorrow would be one and then you count, you know, from there. Um you can test on day five, six or seven, which is why it gets confusing. And then if you're negative, you can return on day eight, which we are following um as well. But the the timelines also get tricky because we also have other students that may have been exposed, but they're not necessarily close contact.
090So let's say let's take an elementary school and they happen to be sitting at the table. They were seated over 6 ft, but the principal will call as a courtesy and allow, you know, the two other kids, cuz you know, little kids, they might scooch in a little bit. We will let those parents know that their child may have been exposed. they may end up going for a test and be back sooner than maybe day eight. So, but yes, for any close contact, they they test back at day eight or they're out for 10 days. >> I think that um I just wanted to ask what's happening for the students that are quarantined. Are they zooming into their classes? Um what's the difference between each school or grade level on grades uh 6 through 12
0916 through 12? Our students who are quarantined are are streaming into the classroom uh as they did last year in the uh hybrid model in grades uh K through five. Um we we didn't have a live streaming model last year. So, we're basically just, you know, if you remember what we went through last year, we're using last year's model for those quarantine students. So, if you are a student in grades K through five, uh you're going to have access to Google Classroom activities. You're going to get a morning and afternoon check-in with your um with your ch child's teacher. And again, that was another reason why the board supported those subs in the subs in the elementary schools. So that if a teacher does have students on quarantine that when they're meeting with the quarantine
092student on Google Meet that then the sub is in there helping helping with the students who are there in person. So K5, they're getting a morning and afternoon check-in with activities provided through Google Classroom. And in grades six six through 12 they have access to Google Classroom along with a live feed into the room. >> How how quickly does that happen? >> So we give um we give a day. So let's say um Dr. Mcuade calls a home at um you know 8:00 p.m. Tuesday night. It's reasonable for the educator to have uh some notice to prepare these uh you know we don't know these things in advance. Uh at the high school it can turn around rather quickly because they are used to just being able to turn on the camera. In the elementary
093school as many of you know um you know living living the role that a second grade or first grade teacher needs a little time to prepare some of these activities not knowing that they were going to have a student on quarantine. So in K5 um the first day of the quarantine may be a Google um Google classroom activity provided by the end of that day and the check-ins will begin on the second day of that uh that process. Just give the educator the time to prepare and the check-in could start the next day. Some of them do. We don't we're not asking them requiring to do that. We're asking them to um you know be prepared for day two. But I know many of them jump right in, you know, the teachers are very very
094caring and and you know seasoned from last year and how this goes. So even if they don't have the materials prepared just yet, they are jumping on with the check-in and just making sure those kids are okay and maintain to be part of the class. A lot of them go like like we're requiring the check-ins. A lot of them are going above and beyond. >> Anybody else have any other questions? Okay, I just wanted I just wanted to make a comment. Um, after talking about the website, I wanted to say there's been a lot of talk over the last two years about our branding and our communication and our district, you know, our Highlander district. And um, I really think that all of those things and all of those goals come together. we plan the
095website and that um throughout this year that each of those things they really go together they have different components they have different goals and you know to meet and whatever but I'm really hoping that all of that come together at once and not just a website and then we work on branding another time like each of those things should really be focused on this year and I just wanted to make that comment because I think that they could all roll out together really nicely and they'd all relate >> I think that some who you just said may be part of this topic throughout on Thursday night. Wonderful. So there we go. >> Thank you. Any other old business? >> Make a motion to close all business. >> All those in favor? Any oppos? New business.
096Anyone have anything? Make a motion to close second. All those in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Public comments. This portion of the meeting is open to the 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 directly related to the operation of the West Milker Public School District. 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 5 minutes. Your speaker will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpired. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided and give their full name, spell their last name, group affiliation
097if appropriate, and provide their address. Issues raised by the members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a responsive report coming if and when appropriate. board asks that the members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of other individuals and students. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board are disturbed and the board and the administration will respond will not respond to them. Students and employees have specific legal rights accorded to them by the law. 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
098reminded that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Anyone wishing to speak during public comment? >> Being none, I make a motion to close public comment. >> All those in favor? Any >> oppose? Okay, we need a motion. will not be released until we will be taking action. So we will be returning from executive executive session. All those in favor I [Music]