001My daughter works in New um like twice a month starting this month and now shut down everybody. every day. [Music] I'd like to call the meeting to order. If you can take a moment of silence, please. Please rise for the flag. [Music] I pledge algiance 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 meeting act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to the board members, all district schools, the Herald news, the suburban trends, the record, the messenger, West Milford town hall, the county superintendent's office, the board attorney and cable vision of Warwick and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar
002resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, litown library, and all district schools. Miss Francisco, >> Mrs. Romeo here, Mrs. Peterson >> here, Mr. >> Here, >> Mrs. Ber here, Marino >> here. >> Mr. Stillman >> here, >> Mr. >> Here, >> Dr. Your report. >> Good evening everybody. Welcome to our October meeting. Um, we're going to start off with our 2020 National Merit Scholarship Recognition Winners. We typically invite students to the board meeting to receive these awards, but in light of the pandemic, we didn't think it was a great idea this year. Um, I do want to recognize them at the meeting though. Two of our high school students, Axel Malletch, received a letter of commendation for outstanding performance on the PSAT 2019 and Michael Pagano letter of commendations for outstanding performance on
003the PSAT and also the Rural and Small Town Scholar Award for Excellence in Academic Achievement. So, thank you boys. Congratulations. Uh, next up, we received a plaque just a little while ago, which is our awards made west will for the uh, 2020 to 2024 New Jersey state character. This is something we've been moving forward for probably the past seven, eight, nine years maybe. Um, is this No, can you just give a brief >> Sure. >> overview? >> Yeah. So, um, this is the This this is >> co I I would say a culmination of um many years of work on behalf of our our staff, our students, our administrators, uh board support in the community. Um we began that journey in in 2014 um with with a number of schools uh applying for uh district
004or school of character and uh little by little uh we've been able to um you know achieve and and make gains in the you know the metrics that the organizations which is the uh New Jersey Association for Social Emotional Learning and also Character.org or uh two organizations that monitor and come and assess and and make recommendations and and you know help build a successful character reded program. And you know it's nice to um talk about it now with with it you know reflecting back on one of our preandemic goals and and be able to you know put a little bright spot on what what the district accomplished when we when we put our mind to it. So thanks So, uh, when people ask me what does that mean? It means, well, it's a four-year award.
005It doesn't mean we have zero HIPS ever. It just means it's this is a district that cares about children. There's emphasis on children, which is important. Um, back to school update is going to be a PowerPoint. I'll skip over that for a moment. Um, school security update. Um, we have a school security meeting coming up uh, I believe in November. uh in a few weeks which will go over some new uh information. However, um you know, community should know we are still doing our school security drills. We are still doing our fire drills. We're actually doubling them up this year. We have to do one for each cohort. So, we normally do one fire drill, one school security drill per month. Now, because we split our students into two cold cords, we have to do
006one for each group in each category. So, essentially, it's four security drills each month. Um, for November, we're going to be doing some notification drill where we will be testing our emergency broadcast system, Honeywell, things like that. So, be on the lookout for that. But this is still something we are focusing on. If you look ahead of the agenda to the operations of finance, there is our two large projects being approved tonight. These are person traps for security vests at Blackman and at the high school. So, hopefully that can be approved tonight. We just put one in at Westbrook not so long ago and we're working our way through our schools little by little. Ideally, we could do this all at once with money being a factor means we have to keep on. So, we
007don't always announce every time we have a school security initiative. Some of it is kept confidential. This obviously is going to hardly keep quiet. Um, it's a great new security vest best at our two largest schools. So, um, we're looking forward to that. that stuff handled with care. Dr. McQueen, can you just do a brief overview on our new handle with care program? Not not new, but >> what will be? Yes. So, um, the attorney general, Ray Wall, created a program called Handle of Care. I'm sure you may be familiar with it. It's planned to go into effect in December of 2020. Basically, the goal is to provide schools with notice of children that are experiencing adverse childhood experiences, such as if the police get involved with any violence in the home, abuse in the
008home, possibly the death of an immediate family member due to a potential overdose. Um, and the process will be that the law enforcement will then contact the school, which you'll see on the agenda. I'll be the point of contact, but then obviously we'll have teams of people in each of the buildings that would be responding to that. They only notice us. They don't provide us with the details of the incident. It's just so that we can handle the child with a little bit more care in the school such as maybe providing extra support, reteing lessons. Um, we might send them over to a nurse or the counselor to meet with the student. So, it just basically allows better practices when you're responding to students that have experienced something in the home that normally a district
009would not know about. So, this is kind of a new initiative, but yet we've already been doing a lot of those practices when we are made aware of the situation, but now the law enforcement, the local PD will be they will be required to inform us. So, we're kind of getting ahead of it. It has to be fully implemented in December, there is a training November 17th, which we will be attending, and then from there, starting in January, it is required. So, that's basically what it's about. >> Thank you very much. Um, just a brief update. I know we talked a little bit over summer Um, and we'll be talking for a while at our math programs in district. Uh, just want to focus for a short while on Max. We're making tremendous strides there.
010Um, uh, pulled our numbers, our enrollment in our higher level math classes at at Max School and we this year we have 112 students enrolled in three hours at 7th grade. Uh, three years ago that number was at 53. So it's more than doubled and in that time the seventh grade class size has gone down. So it's more students in a smaller class that are taking pre-algebra in seventh grade. Those students will move into algebra in 8th grade which there have been a lot of studies over the years that have linked completing algebra in eighth grade with higher academic achievements in high school and college and beyond. So, our push to have our students complete algebra. By the time they graduate, math is moving forward. We had our first cohort last year to do this.
011Now, now they're taking geometry and math. So, when they get to high school, they'll be uh starting off as freshman year in algebra 2. So, if you look at high school math, there's five core subjects is algebra, geometry, algebra 2, pre-calculus, and calculus A. Those are five higher level math courses. And if you wait till your freshman year to take algebra, you don't get to that fifth year. Four years of high school is five years of math. So the thought process is if you can complete the first course in that sequence of algebra, if you complete that eighth grade, you then can reach calculus 12th grade or in high school, which we know most of your highly competitive schools are going to look for that on a transcript when you're applying for colleges. So, tremendous
012stride there. We're looking forward to updating the boarding how our students feel like. Second to last, the Highlander Echo is our school newspaper. And congratulations. This is uh from last spring. We just got the notification in the American Scholastic Press Association presents first place award to the Highland Echo newspaper from West High School. This is for the 201920 school year. So, congratulations to them. Mr. Winston, I'm going to put the uh PowerPoint out and we're going to go back up to the third bullet point. back to school update and you guys over there It's like a silver one. Yeah. So, um, welcome. Obviously, we just finishing our first month of in school. We had two months of school. Month one, September, we were all virtual. October, we brought back our students on a hybrid model.
013And this is sort of a look, you know, this is a look backwards and a look ahead as well as to where where we are, where we were, and where we're going. So, how do we analyze this? I hope you can see the colors, but the state releases a talia, a co activity level index. It's made up of specific metrics that we have to follow, and they rank everybody in four categories, low risk to very high risk. It's colorcoded on the state website. I try to replicate that here. The data they look at is the case rate per 100,000 residents and that's by region. So we're in a northwest region. There's northeast, southeast, etc. There's something called co-l like illness. I'm not 100% certain how they're tabulating that, but that's on their website as well.
014Um the positivity rate is simply the percentage of tests on any given day that are positive. We'd like to see that as low as possible. If it's too high, it means there's too many people with the virus or there's not enough testing. Um the health care capacity, this is what our health care system can absorb at any one time. And we're not designed to have everybody get sick at once. That's not the way our health care system works. We need people to get sick over time, not all at once. So, do we have hospital beds? Is there room in the ICU? We have ventilators, we have doctors and nurses, etc. to care for these patients. And right now, we've moved from the low risk to the moderate risk section. In fact, the whole state's in
015the yellow uh for moderate risk. Um this year, it's tough to see the red, I think, but this is the number of cases. I use Wednesday um for the start of the school year, which is July 1st. I picked Wednesdays because Sundays, Mondays, you sometimes have a lower than average number because testing facilities are closed on Sundays and sometimes they're closed on Saturdays. So, I use Wednesdays at the middle of the week and it was roughly flat for two months and now we're seeing a sharp spike and this number tomorrow will probably be up here somewhere on the 28th. Um, so the last two months, this is a sharp spike. You're going to see that same curve in the next two slides. This is the estimated rate of transmission and it's again the same thing.
016It's roughly flat here and then it's straight up for about 2 months. And same thing with the positivity rate. Roughly flat and then straight up here. So we're trending in the wrong direction. Um you you're hearing a lot more cases anecdotally, friends, friends of friends, family members, messages from me, met Nixles from the communities, the counties. We know that COVID cases are back on the rise. Um the America hit an all-time high I think a day or two ago um since the pandemic began. So return to schools. This is what we're doing well right now. Um we were able to open on October 1st. Uh we're open five days a week, five full days a week, not five half days. And our students receive instruction in person for essentially five days every two weeks. Three
017days, one week, two of the night. Um we have are in the process of having successful fall athletic seasons and marching band seasons, which again just outdoor activities. Um but we are offering five days a week inerson instruction for select groups of students uh special needs students um or reading or encourse use in their primary challenges moving forward. Um staffing always an issue uh safely increasing the number of students attending school 5 days a week. So it's our goal to have everybody back every day but we have to do it safely. Um, I think our first priority should be our special needs students. Our K to five special needs students are already in for 5 days a week are not 6 to 12 or not. So, we're going to try to figure out a way
018to start rolling them in little by little to increasing that number. I don't think we can go from 50% capacity to 100% like right away. uh it would be safe, it would be possible to socially distance our classrooms. Um but it's things we have to look forward to. So we're looking at this year in six week increments. Um October 1st through November 15th is the first 6 week period of time where parents selected in-person instruction or virtual instruction. The deadline to change that is November uh October 30 or November 1st, I think. for this Sunday is a deadline. So parents will notify us this week if they want to change from in person to virtual or reverse. So as these numbers change, we'll start realizing we may have extra space in certain classrooms in certain
019programs. So once we get that numbers those numbers on Monday, we'll be able to reevaluate what we can do and what we can do. All right. Another challenge is maintaining social distance on the bus, the classrooms, the cafeteria, etc. All right. Um, we're going to bring back indoor in person socially distanced music instruction at M and Min High School. That will start at the beginning of the second mark period, which is right around November 9th after the teach convention. Um, we are purchasing some additional equipment, essentially socks or sleeves for the end of the instruments to sort of suppress the respiratory droplets. So, we're looking forward to that cuz right now our music is only outdoors. It's only after school. And then we're looking forward to a safe winter sports season, which is all indoors.
020We have indoor music uh marching band in the winter, which is more percussion based, I believe. And we have uh school musicals which are in the spring but they rehearse all winter. So these are some of the challenges we have to do. How do we do that? Cross country wasn't that hard. They're all spaced out. Wrestling might be more challenging. So how do we do that is one of our challenges. Um change just came this past weekend. It's Friday or Saturday. So the first the CDC and then New Jersey Department of Health just changed how they define a close contact. So if students or staff or anybody in the school is 6 feet apart as you notice you all are now if somebody tests positive for COVID nobody else has to quarantine at home if
021you're 6 feet apart. If you're less than that, if you're three feet apart and one student gets COVID, the people who are within that six foot radius or square, they then have to go home and quarantine at home for two weeks. So, the typical close contact and here's the change that just came this past week. We we used to say six less than six feet for more than 10 minutes. Now, it's going to be less than six feet for 15 minutes. However, it's a cumulative amount of time over a 24-h hour period. So, it's 6 feet less than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes over a full day. And I think full day is really a rolling 24-hour period. That's how I interpret that. Yeah. Um, so approximately 29% of our students are on
022the old virtual option. The remaining 70% of students are split roughly equally between AA days and B days. It doesn't mean that every single class is split 50/50. Some classes it's a much higher load on a days and bday just because people at the high school switch classes and you just might have a large class. So, we have had positive cases in our district, some students, some staff, but we've had a limited need to quarantine large numbers of people. Uh, we had one issue on a bus where we had to combine two bus routes and one student who was CO positive and because we had so many kids on a bus, we had then had to quarantine a large number of students around that person. So, we subsequently uh we're working on that. We're communicating
023better with parents. We're letting them know ahead of time as best we can that two bus routes will be changed starting next Tuesday because we're short on staffing. But the idea is that if we bring back everybody, it's going to be very difficult to socially distance more than. So in a regular classroom setting, if you have 22 24 in a classroom, you could have 8 to 14 close contacts per class. And each student's going to have seven. So one student could take out 50 to 100 other students if they're too crowded. So the one goal is to bring back more students, but the other goal is to to maintain safety and not just student safety, staff safety as well. I don't know that anybody would feel too comfortable. Nobody feel as comfortable teaching a classroom
024of nine if they were they had 23. So that matters too. So we're looking to do give all our students the best education possible but in the safest manner possible. So we're going to reevaluate our numbers next Monday to see where our virtual numbers fall for the second window which will be November 16th through December 31st and we should have that by the beginning of next week. >> Anybody on the board questions? >> I do. You gave that 29%. But can we get a um a picture of inperson versus virtual for each level like elementary, middle, and high school? >> There's something on your desk. >> Oh, I didn't see it. We don't have it for high school. >> Yeah. So, high school top left, I think. Thanks, So, we're also going to redo the
025uh aroma report you get every month. We tried to squeeze some more with the virtual numbers on there. It just the font was off. It was just hard to read. So, we're going to probably make it a multi-page document, I think. So, it it was hard to read all one page. The font was just too small. >> I had something else. I'm just wondering, um, you know, you're talking about the High School Musical, and I might sound like an ogre, but Broadway is closed through March. Um, I'm wondering, you know, these kids are going to do all this practicing. They're going to be on top of each other. Who's going to come to this show? Maybe they'll be able to do it like you do on me. Good. >> Other schools anywhere? >> Yeah, I
026think there's a lot of virtual stuff this year for band competition. >> I know the band. >> So, it it might be something like that. The bigger concern could be the rehearsals. >> The expense. I'm thinking >> you might have to spread your rehearsal time where you don't have a full ensemble, >> okay, >> every day. You may have to really break that up into smaller cohorts. I mean, I feel very strongly that for for kids who are in the theater production and and in the arts, this is their Super Bowl. If we're letting if we're letting football play, we're wrestling face to face, we're doing basketball, the governor feels that that's okay, then it should be okay for kids that that's their thing, you know, and they and some of our students that are
027seniors, you know, they're looking forward to college and that that's part of their resume going to college. >> So, I think we have to be equal. Yeah, >> senior senior year special for actors. Sometimes they get the more featured roles when they're upper classman even when they're fresh. So you do have a lot of typical performance. >> So Alex, you talked about mappen in the high school. Maybe it was the previous slide about I don't know where it was seven classes, right? Seven classes. >> Yeah. So I get I understand that you know it could take out 50 or however many kids >> K through five you've got they're they're in the same classroom all day long right so you wouldn't have you might just have to something happened worst case scenario is you might
028have closed that classroom >> right they're contained >> they get their specials by themselves but not going to separate part of music it's just their own >> right And there's special teachers coming into their class, correct? >> It could be both. They could be coming in, but they go after gym. >> So, but they go as a cohort, you know, so it could be a class that shut down, not the school because it's only 20 students where they go after they're constantly switching their cohorts. >> So, is there maybe more of an opportunity to try and if if we continue to do well maybe through the rest of this month, November, is there more of an opportunity to bring those kids in five? >> Yeah. kids together. One thing we I realized is that we
029have a lot of flexibility within our plans. Um you we're not getting a ton of guidance from Trenton, but which is hard in some regards, but it's good in another way that we can have the flexibility to increase K to 2 or or or whatever the grades are that there's space. So I think we have enough flexibility. I just want to see what our numbers are virtually for the next six weeks. I think they're adaptable and I know we've talked numerous times about you know the plexiglass shields around the desk kids wearing mask so you kind of have that double protection table that these teachers have in the back and the plexiglass there which I think maybe will help and again we also know I think this was brought up a couple months ago how
030you know those kids are probably right not that they can't get co but you look at the statistics so far. It looks like that there's got a big spike in massive growth. I think the key thing is teachers kind of being careful and doing what they need to do to keep their class safe. But to see teachers doing listen to some of the things you're saying about some of the double work that teachers have to do. >> Um I have a bunch of different things, but the first thing I just want to say is thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. um to administration and staff like the fact that safety maintaining safety is number one. I have a lot of friends, family that work in other districts all across the state and I
031am so proud to be on with this board of education. Um and I'm just very proud of the way that it's rolled out, the way things are going. Um I the transparency that I'm seeing like I'm just very proud of everything that's happening there. With that, I have some questions. I don't expect that they would all be answered tonight, but um there are things that I'm I definitely would like to know. Um to Ray's point uh about elementary, yeah, most likely you would just need to quarantine that class, but is it still um unless there were two unrelated cases? Is there a chance that a school would close if there were two unrelated cases at an elementary school? >> Well, we work with the health department uh every time we have a case and we
032call them. In fact, they just gave back a very good compliment. I'll share it with everybody. Um, without mentioning other communities, but they essentially said, "We have our act together." >> Yes. >> So, when we tell them John Doe tested positive, they ask us a series of questions. Who was he near? We give the list of people. They were all six feet apart. We'll give them the We have it all. We have it. We have a seating chart in the cafeteria, you know, on the bus. we have mapped out in a lot of places they're not able to pinpoint you know who is John Doe near and so I I don't know what do you mean you don't know I don't remember and then so there could be 100 people you know so then they
033have to shut that school down and we're giving them concrete numbers these three kids were within 6 ft all class they have to quarantine he was not we're telling them names so we're giving them concrete information and then we're following their recommendations And uh so it it could happen but it's not necessarily you know a hard number. >> Not a hard number on >> there's a waitress you use but there is interpretation in that. >> Okay. Um my next question is we did see um you know high school music which is awesome. You're going to start for second marching period. Uh but our younger students that were safe for our music program in the future for right now. So when would fourth and fifth grade would get insurance this year? Right. or adjust it and
034>> I think it's fifth for elementary now. >> Fifth and so that was on there. So then I guess my question is just repeating sixth and >> yes my question is fifth grade. >> So we're working on a plan for fifth for elementary but they are on a trimester. >> So their next trimester doesn't start till December. >> So the question is why couldn't we start fifth grade music at the same time as everyone else being that there are less students in the room. um that you know I just could if we can look into that and let me know your trimester. >> Yes. >> A lot longer. >> An extra month. >> That's the concern. >> An extra 3 weeks maybe. So from November what do we say? >> November 9th. I think the
035date was December 12th week. >> So it's an extra month tenatively. It could be moved out. You know we're still working on a plan for them. I just know fifth graders that have their instruments that are waiting that they're paid for that they're, you know, and a month to them is a very long time where they're still trying to figure out if that's the instrument they want to do or not. And I think that that's a big indicator for our music program. So, I just wanted to mention that I would hate to see them have to wait longer time than everybody else. And the last thing was these numbers for high school I mean we have like 40% at least 42% they give >> of our high school students full virtual why >> why are
036there so many >> this is a parent option so uh >> everybody has their own reasons I would imagine >> I I have heard from parents that have said to me the reason that they're choosing virtual is because they feel their kids are getting more out of the virtual I I don't know that the getting up early the the whole routine they can still accomplish what they're accomplishing going to school, but I think they're much more able at that age to learn virtually than >> I block the questions with it. Just to finish my last point, >> we have 400 different reasons why >> uh the first is and I do not expect an answer to anybody. So like I'm curious, do we have more failures then in the first market period? Then we have
037like failures I'm curious about. So, we're we're going through a great time before the end of March one, which is probably two weeks. >> Okay. That might be for education. Are we looking at and and I'm sure you probably are, but like Magnum then is our tightest building with the like, you know, so are we looking at maybe moving some classes to the high school? Like we, you know, >> uh >> like Max has that make sense like you can move. That's my point. Yeah, just an idea because when I look at these numbers, which I haven't had a minute to look at percentages of this fully I just got this, but you know, and I'm sure that Liz, you're probably looking at every class in the district for the next phase, which would be
038special education students. But it just if I look at numbers, I'm almost like, wow, we could probably take all the special education classes for my period and put it like just so you can't I I don't I don't know how it works for Janet. I just thought you were a specializer. You can't just move cuz um a middle school to the high school without any county approval in that building. >> Okay. >> And I don't know if they would approve that unless you have >> that answer my question fully. Yes. >> It might be easier to come with Dr. just keep looking into can we do a phases kind of plan. We're still analyzing that. But >> come and um that's my last question. Nicole, >> um, I had to rethink about what I was
039going to say. Uh, well, to the point that that you were making about why so many virtual because the kids that are 100% virtual that those teachers are dedicated to those kids, right? So, it's like they're literally looking at them face to face like when we were all about high school. >> Oh, you were asking about high school. >> Right. Okay. Never mind. Um my question is so I guess all right never mind that that because all of the kids even 100% virtual in high school are live streamed into >> okay I thought there were still some that were 100% virtual getting dedicated teachers that's only elementary >> question that answered my question thenney does >> um I just also want to say thank you I think it's a huge balancing act um I think
040that we're dealing with safety I think we're dealing with children who want to and parents who want their children in person and I want to just be very clear with the community and I want you to confirm this. We're talking in 6 weeks or on Monday we're going to re-evaluate when we're going to allow the next phase which would first be special ed children in Maxen in the high school and then K12 all in person. We'll have our numbers by Monday. >> Okay. Um, and then we'll we're looking at all those groups. >> Okay. And that would be the first phase in >> those are probably the >> And how soon are we talking? >> Well, we'd have to get a plan together. We'd have to amend our return to school plan. I mean, I
041would think uh that's going to take a month or so. So, maybe January >> plan to get our special ed back in school. >> Well, December, January, it's going to take a while to get a plan together. That would be math in the high school because right now the elementary special ed are all in five days. We're talking math in the high school >> or primary grades at the elementary school. >> Right. We have we have to speak with our attorney as well about can we bring in one grade but not another. Is that an issue with an equity issue or potential legal issue? >> I'm just asking because I thought I heard you say that and I just want to make sure that we're clear. anything essentially. >> Okay. >> Right. >> So if
042uh there's brothers and sisters, right? So like I two boys in the schools, they were different schools different times. But if one of my sons might have tested positive and both my kids have to be out of school for two weeks obviously one test positive would be any other siblings would have to be out of school also. >> In a household. Yes. Uh to Nicole's point, that's exactly my my point in in showing the numbers at the high school and how they like look alarming to me in full virtual because our full virtual students and our students in the classroom, many of them do not have their regular teachers. So honestly, if the high school was full virtual, [Music] then they could have the direct instruction and then from their regular teachers. You know what
043I'm saying? So, we're paying substitutes and and other teachers to cover our staff who many of them are on leave and we have 40% of our 42% of our students full virtual. So, thank you for like kind of raising those questions because that's exactly what I was thinking. >> I I think one of the things that we have to get get, you know, put out there right now is that we wanted to put a plan together so that people could see that we're looking to the next stage. put locking somebody into a date right now will be hard. I I myself feel very strongly that we have to get our resource kids back in the middle and the high school next. That should be our next step because their their counterparts in the elementary are
044already in 5 days. >> I think it is a step program. We put some, you know, we we may put some kids back and we may have to pull back. It might be, you know, a back and forth kind of thing. and that you're right, the next stage look at the elementary and see where we could go. if the goal hopefully would be set in my mind to get to January. >> I think it's a huge balancing act and I think that schools that are full in person um you know when there is going to be one case it's going to flatline a whole class a whole school whereas in West Milford it's going to maybe be that child and that's going to be a huge difference as we go through the winter months. >>
045Yeah, we want to be as sustainable as you can. And as the winter months come, it's it's much more difficult to be outside today. >> And I think we need to be as transparent to let the public know that we are looking at every and there might be instead of one or you know plan A or B, there might be three or four plans that are going to have to come into play because of the different circumstances. Our student has a question. Um, I know like you mentioned the music which is great, but I know our lunch on the go is happening in the music room. So, what are you what are your plans for if we return to doing music? What are we going to do with the kids who do lunch on the
046go? And how do you plan on like separating them and making sure that still happens? >> I believe they're using the auditorium for the music. >> Okay, >> that's the plan. More space. Yeah, space it out. Um I I can check with Mr. Sh, but my understanding is the music will be in the larger space. >> And then like if we do happen to close school at any point, do you plan on sports ending as well? I don't know if you would even have this answer at this point, but do you would do you plan on having schools or sports end as well, or do you think we could still keep sports in play as long as the players are like okay and haven't been near those who have been contacted? >> Well, if they're
047not close contacts, there might not be any reason to cancel sport. Mhm. >> Even if the school is closed, >> if the school is closed, we would still offer like in September, we were if the building was closed, we were open for virtual, but we had sports, we had practices after school. >> Yeah. >> So, if there's an outbreak in it could be that team is shut down because an outbreak with that team, but not that team. >> So, it really depends and that's part of our discussions with the health department. Um, so if school were to close, you could still offer your co-curricular after activities after school, band, music, sports, you know, so long as that wasn't part of the spread. >> Amanda, are you running for the board of ed? >> I have
048one last question. It's probably really more for Dan, but um are we having PSAT, SAT? I'm concerned like I don't I know as of right now graduation requirements haven't changed. Hopefully the governor's office does change them because I'm worried about students doing portfolio and and all these things. So, can we have PSATs, SATs, all >> Yeah, we have we have class. >> Awesome. Thank you, Robert. Is live stream working because >> I was waiting for a break in the action. If I could get maybe a five minute recess. >> Okay. >> So we can check to say see if there's any issues. >> Yeah, there seems to be. >> Okay, >> enough. My girlfriend. Back to you, Amanda. [Laughter] >> Hello and thank you for for allowing me to speak today. My name is Amanda
049Gerald. I'm president of the West Milford Student Council and the student representative. I would like to start off by addressing some of the positive events that have been able to occur throughout the district. Student council is in the middle of their spirit week. We have been promoting the anti-bullying campaign and Highlander pride and character. Tomorrow's students in cohort A will have the chance to wear Halloween costumes with the saying that diff bring us together. Cohort B will dress Friday. Today we wore our black and gold. Planning events are of course very difficult in this time of uncertainty and social distancing, but we are still planning things in hopes that will they will be approved and that we will have a better winner in spring. Highlander band is performing fantastic as usual through their virtual competitions,
050getting second place on last weekend's competition. They have states on Saturday and nationals next weekend as well. Sports continue to be held and have been able to host their senior nights. The football team beat a very good Pramis team this past Friday, scoring 20 points in six minutes, conquering a favorite team. Country cro cross cross country took first place in their conference, moving their rank for from 20th to eighth in one year. Girls soccer had their first victory against PV with the score of 6-1. Girls tennis has their Halloween tournament tomorrow and their senior night was a total success with the win and a lot of fun. Varsity girls field hockey is having a great successful year as well. Coach Provos got her 100th win with varsity as well as JV hitting 100 wins for
051coach Palooi with a record of 73 and wins against Lakeland and Wayne Hills. Field hockey is on track to have another very successful year. High school also has some up upcoming events planned as well. The yearbook club is reminding staff and students about a few deadlines, notably portrait retakes on November 17th and 18th, as well as senior sibling pictures during that same window. Emails were were sent to students, parents, and staff. For the first time, the yearbook is opening its ad section to the booster clubs and other community members. Given how quickly our 2020 graduate experience shifted, the ANS wants to properly honor our 2021 graduates. Anyone who would like to purchase an ad page can check the website or email Miss Metaf. On Thursday, November 19th, West Milford Township High School Arts Department will
052be holding its 9th annual Empty Bowls community meal virtually. The event traditionally traditionally held in person raises awareness around hunger issues and raises money for local food pantries by selling handcrafted ceramic bowls and serving soup. The West Milford community is invited to a bowl and soup to go pickup at the high school auditorium library from 4:30 to 6:30. Tickets are $15. Signs will direct visitors to wait outside, allowing a limited number of people into the space at at once. All participants will must wear masks and m maintain social distancing at all times. And staff will allow visitors to point at a bowl they would like to take home and indicate which prepackaged soup they would like to take with them. Staff will be using gloves and will be the only handlers of the items that
053will be sent home to the visitors. After the event closes, organizers will host a Google Meet at 7:00 where everyone will be able to share their soup as a community and participation gifts will be given out to those donors that would like to participate. Lastly, the senior class council plans to sell clothing soon and are aiming to have a val Valentine's Day cookie gram sale if food will be allowed. They are also hopeful in their plans to host a field day at the end of the year between the cohorts. Thank you again for allowing me to speak tonight. We are working hard to keep our spirits up and Highlander pride and character strong. Any questions? >> Can you give me the date of that empty bowl again? >> It's early this year. >> Yeah, Thursday,
054November 19th. >> November. >> Miss Gerald, >> I have a question for Miss Gerald. Terry, do you know what kind of soups are going to be there specifically? What kind of soups? >> I don't know. what soups in particular will be there. I can contact Miss Gallagher and let you know though. >> Thank you. If you can get that to me by 0900 on Friday. >> Yes. Yes. I will make sure to get that. >> Greatly appreciate it. >> He's very particular about his suit. >> You're good. >> Yeah. >> Except you don't know if there's going to be a second. >> Just that one, I believe. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, you should know that you're on the air. >> Thank you. Um, I'm going to speak about a few topics tonight. Um, a few
055of them are not on the agenda. I'm going to start off with the uh update to the hybrid model that we spoke uh briefly on in Dr. Anamone's presentation. Um, we are uh moving along and progressing. I think we're um you know we're we're just about uh a month into our implementation of the hybrid model. Um when I presented about our movement to the hybrid model at the September meeting, uh we presented on the you know the the difference between the inerson student and the athome student and the types of um synchronous interaction that they would get. And reminder again synchronous doing things at the same time with with this with the teacher etc. Um, at that time I referred to our process in the hybrid model as being an an evolution of of this
056model and that we would continue to look for and seek additional opportunities for students to um interact in on their at home day in a synchronous setting. So we are in that process. We have a number of um I've spoken a few times about the the grade level collaboration that we uh have across the district and uh I couldn't be prouder of the um teachers across the district from building to building with their with their you know administrator by grade level for the time and dedication they're putting in to um you know really do what's best for kids and investigate all all of these possibilities. And um you know I I I want to on behalf of them I I just want to share with the community how difficult it truly is. Uh I've referred
057to them in a few emails as the the hybrid teaching warrior. Um you know to have those uh students in the classroom and those students at home at the same time presents many challenges that unless you're living it uh you you really can't fathom it. So I just want to um you know give a shout out to those teachers and and you know talk about the great job they're doing. On top of that, they're also investigating how to do more. Um, you know, so that's the part I'm most proud of with them is that they are on their own um in this process having these great discussions by grade level about, you know what, we could start doing math synchronous for our at home students. Um, so there's probably a lot of parents who have
058seen um some of those teachers who have been um attempting to increase the amount of synchronous instruction for the at home learner. um those teachers who are doing that bring that back to their grade level discussion. They share with their colleagues about how it went and then they have a discussion where more teachers try it. And to me that's the essence of professional development. Um we from the beginning did not want to be a district that threw everyone into this model that nobody knew how to do. Uh I think we built from a place of experience and a place of knowledge um that was considerate of both the students as well as staff ability and we have seen that staff ability grow each and every day. So um you know so I I talk about
059the hybrid update. It's really an evolution of the hybrid model and you should see over the next month a increase of uh synchronous instruction little by little as we move throughout the hybrid model. Um we spoke in Dr. Enimone's presentation about safety and and the um numbers across the state and the look of you know things that we need to monitor um over the next uh weeks and and months. Uh so we are planning for and um acknowledging the desire to move to a next phase where we bring in more students but we can't guarantee that at this time because we don't know what the you know the the health and safety situations look like. So as we monitor over the next few weeks we are also um looking to phase in the the things
060that Dr. Random spoke about and those people at home who couldn't see on live stream um you know log in tomorrow when it's when it's posted uh to see that that information. But while while we're investigating those um those scenarios, we are also looking to increase and improve upon our hybrid model. So we've got a lot of different plans going on. Somebody from the board mentioned about have I think it was Mrs. Romeo about having needing to have three or four different plans. That's what we have. We've got we've got a plan for um you know all all of the scenarios and and bottom line we want to do what's best for kids. We want to improve upon the hybrid model and we want to be ready for what the next model is you know
061when when the time is right. Um that's uh moving on from that. Uh also that came out today. I wanted to talk about switching to uh assessment and some preandemic goals and and things that we've um spoken about in the past like um link and the NJSLA state assessment. A Honeywell went out today from Dr. Matlo our testing coordinator in in regard to the uh start strong assessment which is a uh it's a standardized assessment similar to the NJSLA that we are going to be administering in our schools throughout the month of uh throughout the month of November. Um it's not as lengthy or um you know it's not as lengthy or cumbersome as the NJSLA. It's a uh 45minute assessment should be completed within a um a single class period. And in our elementary
062schools, this is going to take place on November 10th and 11th. And at the uh middle school and high school, it's going to be uh on the days of November 16th through through 20th. And I'm just going to read a quick blurb of what the state um described these tool this this assessment as. The assessment uh tool provides educators with an early indication of the level of support students may need for this year. It may also identify some potential gaps in student understanding of the new New Jersey student learning standards. So the state created this assessment with the goal in mind of helping educators, helping us uh determine some of the gaps that developed from what the uh students of New Jersey and beyond experienced in the spring with uh with you know health related
063closures etc. So we're going to get that feedback immediately as soon as we have the test. um referring to one of our prepandemic goals. Luckily, um we have had sort of embraced data analysis as a district over the last two or three years, and our staff is um well equipped to give this assessment and be able to take a look at that data the same way they've been using linkit for the last two years and, you know, make that actionable in in their classrooms to, you know, uh select goals and objectives to help fill those gaps. Um, so we're I won't say excited to have a state assessment, but I think that information is going to be um valuable. >> Does the result of the state? >> Yeah, this doesn't that what that's why we're
064able to get this information quickly because it doesn't go to the state. It doesn't get it's not comparative data to other districts. It is just, you know, individual information about one student and which standards they haven't mastered and which standards they have and helps us prescribe um, you know, an individual education for those students. >> Mrs. Dwer, >> um, could you give us um, a brief description of what your plans are and tell us um, how involved the staff is in this process? >> What What plans are you referring to? the you said you have plans in motion and I would just like to know you know a description like like what are those plans? What is can you describe them a little bit so that >> I believe we're presenting um those ideas at
065our next education committee? >> Okay, good. And is is any of the staff involved in this? >> The staff's involved in everything that we do. >> Okay. I in my previous statement I referred to this the collaborative effort and I'm speaking right now for for kindergarten >> right >> okay thank you >> thank you >> November 10th and 11 the start strong test the 10th is a Tuesday the Wednesday the 11th is a Wednesday so would it be a and then b testing >> at this time that's the proposed schedule um but they are they are in the process of This is a a tenative proposal and they are in the process of looking at the AB um designation and and what that means in November. Um uh one other um one other area that
066I want to spoke uh speak about the um again with prepandemic discussions we have um um changed our real program to a program called LEAD um and that is something that typically in West Milford was uh a program that was used in sixth grade to talk about um uh drug awareness and and student safety etc with the West Milford police department and the uh West Milford Municipal Alliance. Um what we've got a few things in place this year um you know that that kind of builds off of that and also takes into account students who missed this opportunity uh in the past. Um so one um one process that we're going to begin this year is the uh fifth grade lead program. Um that's going to begin uh relatively soon. We're in the process of
067discussing uh with Sergeant Clue from the West Milford Police Department in regard to how that process is going to begin with our fifth graders. Uh there's also a program from the um municipal alliance called we're not buying into it which offers a six lesson program that they have been in communication with um our makaban principal today that's going to be in place for our sixth grade students in their health classes starting um most likely in the second marking period. Luckily the timing of it is fantastic because we haven't had uh we haven't had health classes yet. So, our health classes are going to be engaged in these workshops. And I have um it's a six lesson uh program, 40 minutes each lesson. So, it fits perfectly into our our period structure. Uh the lessons are
068media and advertising, underage drinking and pop culture, marijuana and social media, prescription drug prevention, bullying and social media, and media circles of influence. And and then the closing of the closing of the program. Um so that is for our sixth graders who did not participate in lead last year due to the health related closing. Uh there's also a group who um we are working on a plan for and I will have that plan for you also at at the ed committee Mrs. Dwire um in regard to our seventh graders who began the process of real last year and may have had one or two sessions before the health related closure made that come to an end abruptly. Um that's a group you know our current seventh graders who were last year's sixth graders who didn't
069finish the program. So we are working to uh also address that because they didn't get a complete process. Um, >> I do have a question, Dan, on on this program for the sixth graders who are jumping into it. Who will be teaching those lessons? Will it be the police department or >> No, it's it's it's through an organization, >> Center for Prevention and Counseling. >> Thank you. >> You stole our thunder. You did. That's our report. It's our report from the minute. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to. >> So, I'll stop now and then You can continue. >> Sorry. >> Okay. >> Well, if you have any light from you your meeting um last night, please please feel free. >> I apologize. >> When you ask for the report >> Good. Um and and last
070but not least, um I know I, you know, gave a shout out to our um to our teaching staff. Anytime you say thank you in a public setting, you inevitably leave somebody out. So, I don't intend to leave anybody out. and everybody that I've been working with across the district has been doing a great job. But there is one particular group that I don't think's ever been thanked in a board meeting before and that is our district substitutes. Um we have people across the district who have never been putting these settings before and they're jumping in. They're taking over challenging coursework whether it's a kindergarten is, you know, can be as challenging as an AP physics class um in some regards. So we've got amazing subs. across the district who have been not only helping
071us um in person but also putting themselves on camera and going live in the hybrid model. So, we want to say thank you to them um along with the rest of our staff. And the last thing I want to uh talk about is the um early in November, we're going to be releasing dates for uh parent uh parent training in um in a variety of topics. Uh first and foremost is Google Classroom. Uh November is typically a month for parent interaction where we've had uh parent teacher conferences, parent visitation days, um you know, etc. And um so we're going to capitalize on November as being a parent interaction month. and um offering some opportunities for parents who've now lived you know this September of all virtual a um October of of hybrid and you know
072all the challenges that come with interacting with Google Classroom and all the different our teachers are growing by leaps and bounds with the types of tools that they're using and they might be leaving some of our parents behind. Um, you know, so we want our parent our teachers to continue to to learn and grow and and do what's best for kids, but we also have to acknowledge that some of our parents at home need need some support if they are supporting our our students at home. So, um, early November, we'll be sharing dates. It'll probably be scheduled throughout the time period of November 9th through uh, uh, up until before Thanksgiving. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Mr. May I ask a question? Sure. Okay. Liz, there's been a lot of um discussion.
073I guess I haven't heard too much about the um special ed kids coming back into the high school for the resource room 5 days a week. What is your stand on that? So, I I stand closely with Dr. Anamoon saying that I think we need to I I think that needs to be a priority as well. try to bring those students in as many days a week as they can. Right? For some students right now, it's working. For others, it's not. And we and we knew that. And we knew that all along. But at the same time, I think you have to make sure that we analyze it for safety or overall like should we have a transition plan in by grade legally where where we are for compliance and equity across the board. So,
074we just need a little more time to keep planning for it. But I don't I I would definitely have a probably a more confident answer for you with where I stand at the November committee meeting and then you know hopefully at the at the board meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. >> One last question. Sorry. The only thing I hear parent teacher conferences I love the idea of the parent program but are parent teacher conferences going to be scheduled for November also. >> They'll run as virtual >> virtual Thanksgiving. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, Mrs. Francisco, I'm just following your agenda. [Music] >> Um, you have the board minutes from the September 22nd meeting. I need a motion. >> Okay. I'll move to approve the uh September 22nd workshop regular meeting and executive session minutes.
075>> And I need a second. I'll second all those in favor. >> Any opposed? My presidential board will feel some of my uh I just want to thank all the staff, the teachers, the support staff, and maybe I say it every month, the parents, because we're all in this together. and I think that everybody's doing their best at at getting through this and I want to thank them and let them know that we're behind you and we're trying to do whatever we can to make this work. Um, I also want to say if anything good came out of the COVID uh problem, the grade plan, the grade level planning for our district is a good plus for our teachers and for our students because now everybody seems to be getting to that same page. Something
076that for years was kind of lacking in different in some of the schools. And I I want to say thank you again for working on it and for bringing it together because it's really an important part of our school and it's really an important part of making this hybrid work. So, thank you very much. That would be my report. Moving on to public comment. This portion of the meeting is 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 5 minutes per speaker will be allowed until the
07730 minute time period transpired. 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, 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 the response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asks that the members of the public be courteous and respectful of the rights of others, 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 accorded to them by the law
078of 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 legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments. Members of the public are reminded they are legally responsible and liable for their comment. Anyone wishing to speak? >> Seeing none, I make a motion to close public comment. >> All those in favor? >> All right. Just make a few amendments to the uh agenda before we adopt it. Um the first one on page four, personnel and student affairs number three, that resolution is going to be pulled. The second one is personal is page seven personnel student affairs resolution number 26 is also going to be pulled. And the last one also
079on page seven, personnel student affairs number 28. We're going to pull this resolution and replace it with the hand carry 28. There's enough changes in there. I wanted to just write a cleaner resolution. >> Alex, I'm sorry. What was the first one that you said? >> First one was personnel student affairs number three. >> Okay. Thank you. So, it's three and 26 are pulled. 28 is pulled but replaced with the new 28 in the blue. That's all. >> And then there's there's two hand carry. >> Uh well, there's a hand carry 5758 which is fine. And then there's the other hand carry which is a the new 28. All right. I'll make a motion to adopt. [Music] >> All those in favor? >> Any opposed? Move on to education. Mrs. W. Okay. I move to
080uh approve the following agenda items one through four. >> Second. Any discussion? local. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Personnel Student Affairs. Mrs. >> Okay. Good luck. >> Sorry. >> I would like to move items 1 through 50 8. Can I do the hand carries all together? Okay. Um taking out item number three and item number 26 and uh replacing hand carry number 28. Jason. All right. Any discussion? Okay. Um I actually say there's many um quality, great staff members either retiring or leaving the district. Um thank you. Good luck in the future. Um but out of all of them, there is one that was an amazing teacher to me. Um, and she has done a spectacular job at Highlander. Um, and Mr. Brenda
081Lewig is caring, works hard, always has, and I'm sad to see her go. But I want to say thank you to her. She was a great teacher and really uh done great things for our district. So, thank you for Greg. >> Yeah, I I wanted to echo that uh about Brenda. Congratulations. Thank you for all you've done teaching uh or or helping my boys in particular. Also uh Linda Begley like to app like to say thanks for all you've done in Macken. And then the last guy John Finn at Mackin. Some of you have had John Fink as a teacher. That's how long you've been teaching right there. >> You just dated him. I wasn't going to say that. >> I probably I think I had John Fin as a teacher, too. No. So my
082brother did have him. He was one of uh he was uh my brother's uh varsity basketball coach. So, congratulations to uh Coach Fink um and all the other folks on this. >> I was just going to echo this and and Mr. Barnau also um for all the uh the work that you've done in our district. Um it's always was very impressive. And of course, Bank, I was not gonna throw him under the bus about how long he's been around, but uh being that he was one of my teachers and that my my children have had the chance to have him. Um not only has he just been great and kind of an iconic person in in the schools, he's been really great in the community and and a lot involved in a lot of our
083sports and programs and definitely going to miss him. But congratulations and good luck to all. I I just want to reiterate that this is kind of a bittersweet sweet agenda because there are a lot of people that are on this list that I've known for a very long time and they will surely be missed but I wish them well and totally see where they're going and I hope that their future is is is bright. So um I just want to thank them for that. Anyone else? Nothing else. We can move forward. Mick. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sadly, yes. >> Mr. Stoman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Vandal. >> Yes. Operations and finance. Mr. Bern. >> Yes. >> I'd like to move items 1 through 13 under operation finance. >> Any discussion? Right.
084>> I just want to say uh thank you uh for the donation uh from William in memory of Rita for the culinary department. That was really um a great gift. So we do we appreciate that. Thank you. >> Um any other discussion? I I just want to note on here item number five which is the purchase of the uh HP Pro books for the teachers. >> I want to thank you Barb and Robert for your work in getting these for the district. This is a time when you truly need them and that's something that we've identified under the CARES Act. Correct. And the virtual teachers are already done using them. Great. That's so that's a Good. Good. Plus through the car's act. Ray, did you have something? >> Do we have an idea when the
085rest of the staff will be getting those? >> We're working on it. Uh, right now we have about uh 330 in distributed. So, we want to make sure that uh we have a good solid platform for those so that we don't cause any more problems in order to solve it. that do you think by the end of the month they would have them? >> By the end of this month? No. >> November. November. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> I mean, we should get Are we going to start like with the high school and Macin are doing for this learning? Hopefully, we can get them for those two. >> We We can get them out as they're ready to go out. We don't have to wait till the last one is ready. We can
086kind of get them out >> for the batch to go out. We'll get them out and then we'll keep uh working on the rest. >> Okay. Um are we still uh working with aquatic for our hockey program? Is that still >> Yes. That that was a two-year agreement. >> Okay. Good. >> So, this is year two. >> Um I see that we're working with uh Jefferson for the bowling. Um who's the head coach in that one? Is it a Jefferson? >> Uh, no. The uh >> No. Which number you looking at, Terry? >> I'm looking at number 11. >> 11. Thank you. >> No, that's that's just West Milford. There's some transportation agreements we have with Jefferson Township for number nine and number 10, but they're not connected to bowling. >> All right. West. >>
087It's just our own bowling team. >> Okay. It's our own. So, they're just going to be transported together. >> No, I think that's something separate. >> No, they're they're separate entirely. Um, we we've we've had a co-ed team, boy, girl. Now, we're going to have separate boys and girls teams >> for bowling. It's It's not connected to >> All right. Okay. I don't know why I put Jefferson in there. >> It's the one right above it, but it's it's not connected. >> Thanks. >> Any other discussion? If not, Mr. Ringo, >> yes. >> M Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stman, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mr. Council, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Like to move item 14, operations, finance.
088>> Any discussion? If Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ritz, >> yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mr. Con? >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Yes. >> like to move item 15 under operation of finance. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rick. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stoman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Like to move item 16 under operations finance. >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> Oh, you have discussion? >> Second. >> Okay. Call the screen. Stain >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mr. Stillman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Con? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ritz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. I >> like to
089move items 17 and 18 under operation financing. Anything. Um, roll. Oh, I'm sorry. Roa Ma. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Steven. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rick. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Romeo. >> Yes. >> Mrs. B. >> Yes. >> Policy. Mrs. Romeo. Yes. I'd like to motion to numbers 1 through 17. Okay. Any discussion? >> If not, Mr. Ro. >> Yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Stevenson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crawl. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Green. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Yes. >> Yes. Negotiations. Mr. Okashinski. >> Yeah. I'd like to move item number one. >> Second. Any discussion? Thank you, Mrs. uh Mrs. Francisco, for working on that. >> Robo. >> Yeah. Yes, >> Mr. Romeo.
090>> Yes, >> Mr. Marino. >> Yes, >> Mrs. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Rick. >> Yes, >> Mr. C. >> Yes, >> Mr. Mr. >> Yes. >> Committee reports. Park and Recreation. Any report? >> No. >> Safety Committee. Um, as Dr. Long said before, we're going to have a virtual meeting on November 12th. So, I'll give you that uh superintendent round table Thursday that's going to be in Westbrook in the music room downstairs, >> right? Music room and they'll be able to enter through the side. >> Uh the state county school board and New Jersey school board. Uh we have New Jersey school boards coming tomorrow night for our goal setting. Our meeting starts at 6. I hope everybody will be here and uh I don't know if anybody got a chance to do any of
091the virtual workshop meetings online. Uh they will be online for a little bit, right? >> I believe. >> Yeah. So there are you can access them. >> Uh because they I haven't been able to connect when they have their virtual meeting. So hopefully >> they were hard to get into. >> They're hard to get in. They weren't going to um that's my report there. Legislative >> I have no report. >> Okay. Technology oversight. >> Uh the biggest thing we talked about already which was the computers um for the teachers and using some of those car funds for that. Other than that >> township and the board uh we met uh Monday. When was it? Monday Monday. Um the I think what we took away from there was good conversation. Town Hall is still closed in
092the PAO building because they're working on ventilation systems for both. Um the Feral Field uh complex, I guess they finished the soccer field. They've been upgraded. So that that came up in the discussion. And we have another meeting set for November 9th again. And that also is a virtual meeting that we have. Uh West Milford Municipal Alliance. We had a meeting um last night virtually. Mr. Nick Novak talked a lot about what we talked about. Um they um are going they talked about the lead program. Um they also talked about the we're not buying it program for our sixth graders. um they're funding it. I think this this municipal alliance is such a wonderful organization. I can't talk enough about them. Um they just had Scots Trot. Um and they just are so good at
093doing different events for our community and for our children. Um so Mr. Novak talked a lot about what I was going to say. So good that. Um they also um mentioned that if there's anything that we could think of to um that we would want them to um do, they are more than willing to listen. If there's any education for parents that they could help um they would be more than willing to um to do programs with us. So when you mentioned November as parent u month, I think that they would be more than willing to join forces with you. Um and they're just they're just fantastic group of people. >> J um just to add to that uh absolutely the um West Mer Municipal Alliance Cathy Gart is working so hard to bring prevention
094to our district. >> The funding for these programs is amazing and they lost funding but we found these is important. Um, I also wanted to just give a a shout out to one of our teachers who set up the Scott Strod and did an amazing job to help stop the stigma and um, you know, just bring awareness to mental health and addiction and talk about it and and surround the community and raise money for treatment and for health. And uh, that's Charlene Papus at UGL. She did an amazing job this past weekend and it is so nice to see the staff come together and the community come together for stopping the stigma with mental health awareness. Um, and the last thing uh was probably more a parks and wreck thing, but I don't know if
095anyone saw that the library and parks and racks put a book together, an outdoor book down by Nenzio. Has anyone seen that? >> Oh, the story book, right? Pictures of it. Yeah. Oh my gosh, it's very cool. >> Yeah, that that's a I I did I somebody actually had pictures on >> I waited for somebody to mention it since someone did like we you know my families enjoyed it. It's a younger age story book but um I really thought that would be cool for an outdoor even you know West right here. This is very neat. >> Yeah. They also the municipal alliance also is funding heroes and cool kids. Um, so, you know, they're they're just doing so much to help, like Kate said, with their focus is prevention. Um, they're highlighting mental health awareness
096and um, you know, I just think that they're such they're just doing great things. >> Okay, thank you. All right, old business. Anyone have anything under old business? I um so I I guess this is old business because I should have asked it probably before with the end uh or out the presentation. Um I I understand and I I agree with the need to get special education in. What about our encore students? Like so two questions I guess. One, can you explain what the encore program is quickly? And two, can you tell me what the plan is to get that program back up and running? Our encore program uh is in lack of a better description would be our basic skills program students in need of specific supports. Uh our our encore program is um
097for student support. Um we um have a variety of funding for our uh encore program which what leads to some of the challenges that we have in this in this current um in the current climate. Um with staffing concerns uh we had to um relocate some of our staff members from our encore program. Um is just to describe you know you asked for a little description of it. uh Encore program would have been in grades uh two through five um a variety of in-class and out of class support for students who qualify for the services and to qualify for the services um it's you need to have an academic need in uh mathematics or or language arts through a variety of um through a variety of measures um NJSLA standardized assessments fontisel benchmark assessment teacher
098recommend ation, that sort of thing. That's how a student would qualify for services. Um, we also refer to our K through two um students who work with our reading specialist as as part of our uh part of our Encore program. Uh, so currently we have students who qualify for Encore Reading Room in K through two as five-day students. um at the uh next level grades three through five those students are um you know part of our hybrid model we are looking and I think you know Mrs. Dwire asked about plans. Um, one of the one of the plans for the next phase is that discussion about our encore students and also our students uh with 504s um or students who are in our uh INRS system intervention and referral services. So, we have a number
099of students in grades three through five that we know need our support and that we need to get back to. So, we're having individual conversations now and Dr. McQuade often uh refers to, you know, with a question like this, it's not a broad stroke. It's an individual um basis. Uh so we're having uh individual conversations now about students who could potentially qualify for 5-day um services through Encore 504 or intervention and referral services. Um so that's, you know, like I said, so asked about plan, that's part of one of the plans that we're we're talking about uh at this time. Um, also, um, we and I think what your question was was getting at was that at the moment we don't have, um, that outside service. We don't have the additional staff member in place
100to service those um, to service those those Encore kids. Um, we h we are approving uh, a few tonight. We have postings that have been um, placed. We are just in the process of interviewing and trying to find the people. the people just aren't available at this point in time to return the program um the way that it was. Um but we do have a plan and you know now that now now we're getting specific about the plan that I wasn't going to do tonight. Um we have a few hirings in place that are going to be able to service um our title one schools because of the funding that that requires that. We also have a a plan for some potential hires that are going to be able to service our students in non-title
101non-title schools as well. Um but again, a lot of it is depending on staffing. We have a good start and then we do have an idea for how we can get back to providing that uh service as well as um you know moving forward with that next step of bringing more students in five days a week. So we're we're in that we're in that process now. >> Okay. Thank you so much. But if I correct me so to >> say that again. I'm sorry. >> No, >> K through2 students who qualify for reading room services. >> Right. >> Okay. Thank you. Is there sorry is there a way that we could perhaps offer um a teacher a stipen in to offer tutoring services for children who qualify in the morning in the afternoon after school?
102Are there funds to help these very needy children to do something more for them? Is that something that >> that that's that's something that we've discussed um for for the potential next step. So our first attempt is to get people into positions. We have 3.5 Encore teachers um posted and we have three intervention specialists posted um for encore support >> but our but our own teachers could be offering tutoring before school and after school. >> Right. Sorry that tonight, >> right? But I I'm asking specifically for the children who aren't getting any services. Your 3, four, and five students, your 504 students. >> I don't want to say they're not getting any services. You know, that's that's um >> not as much as the K12 or your >> agreed. Um but they are, you know,
103their their needs are being addressed and their needs are um known and the teachers are applying those strategies. You know, we've been talking about differentiated instruction for a number of years, but again, the um the additional person in the room is is still something we're looking to fulfill. >> Any other business? >> All those in favor? Any oppos? Anyone have anything under new business? Seeing none, I make a motion to close new business. >> Second call. All those in favor? I >> public comment. 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 andor directly related to the operations of the West Milford Public School District. Members of the public who have requested
104to 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 time period transpires. All speakers are asked to sign the register provided 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 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
105and the administration will not respond to them. Students and employees have legal have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board is not responsible and is not liable for any comment 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. Anyone wishing to speak? If not, >> make a motion for public comment. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Um I need a motion for exe executive session. We have do we have an exe executive session tonight? >> Okay. Can we >> We're not taking action from >> So can we
106adjourn? >> We're not We're not going to take action, are we? >> We're going to have executive session, but we're not coming back to take action. Nothing tonight is that. >> Oh, can we adjourn for from executive session or No, we have to adjourn in public. >> We should. >> Okay. Okay. But we will not be taking action. So, I need a motion. >> Okay. Act um 8:49 p.m. >> Oh, 8:39. Um, I move to go into executive session for the purpose of returning client privilege. >> Any I need a second. Oh, sorry. >> Will return when >> but we won't be taking action. We're just attorney returning to adjourn. I need a second. >> All those in favor? I >> I >> Thank you. Executive session. [Music] >> Mr. >> here. >> Mrs. Chris
107>> here, >> Mr. >> Here, >> Mr. Shinsky >> here. >> Mr. Johnson >> here, >> Mrs. >> Here. I need a motion to adjourn. >> Motion. >> Second. >> I >> Any opposed? Good night.