Board of Education Meeting 3/20/18

001[Applause] Okay, this [Music] >> doing good over here. Okay. What we got going on there? >> Okay. I'd like to call the meeting to order. And if we could just have a moment of silence and remember today the tragic tragedy that happened in Maryland. And if we could just keep them in our thoughts and prayers. Please rise for the flag. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. 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 of schools, the hero news, the record, the messenger West Milford town hall, the county superintendent office, the board of

002cable vision forward and posted on the district website. copies of the board meeting calendar resolution for providing to all local media town hall township library and all district >> Mr. Bailey Mr. Sidowitz >> here >> Mr. Drew >> here >> Mrs. Dwire Mr. Gino >> here >> Mrs. Fritz >> here >> Mr. Yuber >> here Mrs. O'Brien >> here. >> Miss Van Dyke >> here. >> Superintendent report. >> Uh, good evening everybody. We have our preliminary budget hearing tonight. I did create a PowerPoint. I'm going to throw it up on the screen here. So, if you want to Lindon, Joe, if you want to uh move to the side perhaps for a better viewing angle. Just turn on. All right. Good evening, members of the board and the public here this evening. Uh we're going

003to start off our preliminary budget hearing. Uh there is a timeline in here and there will be plenty of time at the end for board members to ask questions about this budget. U I started off this year. The first slide is the last slide of the public hearing PowerPoint from last April, late April. The board approved the 2017 18 budget in late April. This was the last slide we had up on the screen. And there was a uh a little bullet point here in the bot on the bottom in red which uh I where I expressed some concern. Mrs. Francisco had her concern about the budget move forward beginning in 201819 then into 2019 2020. So here we are now uh 12 months later and we we do have we did have a little bit

004of an issue with this year's budget as you're about to find out. So this budget is a very fiscally conservative budget. Um it does have significant staff reductions. We've discussed our enrollment has declined from last year the year before. Over time, it's added up to a fairly significant reduction of students. This year alone, we're looking at six teachers cut at the elementary level, six positions cut at various schools, two teachers at McAfee, four at the high school, plus district wide, one secretary, a halftime custodian, one administrator. On top of that, we think it's conservative because our budget only increased by under a million dollars. This is our $75 million budget on average. So, it's increasing by just over $900,000, which is just over 1%, 1.2%, I believe. Okay. Our administrative costs are significantly lower per

005pupil than the regional limit. Uh there's a northern regional, central, and south Jersey regional limit uh which is different based on cost of living. So, our administrative costs are significantly lower per pupil. This budget addresses some but not all of the capital needs of our district. So, last spring we approved four district goals for this year. The budget we're talking about now will support the district goals that have yet to be developed that we'll discuss in in about a month from now in April. This budget will support those goals. So, curriculum highlights. Mr. Novak, could you jump in here with a couple of highlights? This is just some of what's in next year's budget. There are some other things that are in there that we just for the sake of s uh the sake of

006space we left out. So, just to highlight a number of things, we've got um we've got curriculum goals in in all departments, and all schools. This is a summary of some of our um more loftier and ambitious goals. Um the first bullet point refers to uh the work we've been doing in our readers and writers workshop training. We have our consultant. They will be beginning year three of our five-year plan next year. Um they'll be branching out into different grade levels and expanding our um expanding the training. uh it's typically about 20 uh 20 dates per year where the consultant comes in and the teachers have the opportunity to uh meet in their PLC's, work with their administrators and work with their colleagues to to work on the the uh specifics of the training. Uh

007the second bullet point refers to our StarMath implementation. This is the first year we've been using the Starmath um assessment program. We've completed our second assessment. Our third assessment is going to take place uh the end of hopefully the end of this month. I think the snow days may have um forced us to push our window back a little bit, but we're looking at the end of March, first week of April for that third administration. Um we've done a good job with um sharing those results with families. the uh teachers were able to share reports with uh parents at the back um parent teacher conferences and we also were able to mail home results with our last uh report card. So uh we've been able to share the results, we've been tracking the results. We're

008excited about having a uh year two next year so we can um track our students from year to year. I think that's the power of that initiative is that we're able to track our students over time. Uh we had similar success with our reading benchmark assessment where we're able to determine a student's reading level and then track them over time. We've been doing that for a number of years. So we have data now on our students from a kindergarten through a um seventh or eighth grade level in their in their growth in reading and and the ambition for Star Math is that we have that that same ability. Uh the third bullet point is our expansion of our robotics program. We currently offer a half-year elective robotics one. Uh you had a great demonstration. I

009think it was the last board meeting. Um robotics one students, those are those are the types of things they work on. They're able to um you know do simple tasks, you know, move forward, backwards, pick things up, and and you know, complete an obstacle course. Robotics 2, which is our proposal for next year, would allow those students to take the things they've learned in robotics one, and apply a little um real world real world uh rationale to to the uh robotics. So, it's a it's an ambitious goal. If you're a student who takes uh robotics one in the first semester, you could um also take robotics 2 in the second semester and get a full year of robotics. We've also expanded that program. Um, this past year it was only open to our upper classmen

010and our um, juniors and seniors. Next year it'll be open for all students 9 through 12. So, we're we're really looking to expand it. We're expanding upon the uh, feeder programs in our Makipin and elementary um, robotics clubs. So, it's a um, it's it's a real fun initiative to to see go. Uh, digital citizenship curriculum. That's uh, something we've been working on the last few years. I'll talk dur during the director of ed report about digital citizenship night. So, I won't uh continue with that now, but I'll come back to that. Um, Dr. Mcuade, if you want to want me to skip and you come back to you. >> It's up to you. >> All right, I'll skip and close it up. >> Sure. >> Um, we are uh looking at increasing honors and AP

011participation with with students who who qualify in those programs. So, we're looking at our um current enrollment. We're looking at things like um AP potential through some of the assessments that we use and we're looking to encourage those kids who may qualify for honors and AP programs but might not necessarily um be taking them for whatever reason. So we're looking to increase uh and and bolster that that participation. Uh we're in the process and we started the training for our sixth and seventh grade uh math teachers for our new program to be implemented next year. Uh along with that is a um an additional it's a new textbook series, but along with that is a new digital component that could potentially be what I refer to as a controlled abandonment of um everyone's favorite um

012EXL. So in uh sixth and seventh grade, we're going to take a look at it's actually coincidentally named Alex, the um program that accompanies uh our our new our new textbook series. it aligns uh much better with our eighth grade curriculum than we have now. So, we're uh we're excited about that. And the other big um other big item is our um our look at our K2 uh phonics program. We currently have a system that's been in place probably about six years. We are in drastic need of a change. We have a committee in place who's been visiting other districts and looking at phonics in in action. Um we are currently looking at our our leading program right now but I'm not committing to it is something called Phonx First. It's a multiensory program. We've

013visited it um this program in action in a number of districts. We have one more uh site visit to to do with that committee and we're hoping to make a final decision on that program uh relatively soon. So a lot of lot of exciting initiatives just just to name a name a few. Dr. McQueen. >> Okay. So with also within this budget as we look under the special education umbrella to return students to district as we are assessing their needs um to a least restrictive environment. We within this budget need to add some additional programming to our schools. So basically we're not adding new and additional programs. We're more adding and expanding the current programs that we have. So you will see that we are expanding the autism ABA classes. um we will need one

014additional class and in order to support that class and those students within this budget there's an increase in the OT, the PT and the speech therapy services as well as the behaviorist. Um the good news is that these students are then returning to district so they're in our home schools and that we are also obviously there is a cost savings to that as well because we will not be paying the out of district tuitions. We will continue to support transition services for our students that are 18 to 21. So, you will notice that there are some budget items that do that as well because as we're expanding our programs, again, preK up to 21, we we need to support those students within those settings. Um, and just also within this budget, it does allow for

015us to continue to have our behavior disabilities programs, our learning language disabilities programs, our multiply disabled programs, and our ABA programs. This way, students can age up and then throughout all of the grade levels with us. So, that's all included in in the budget. >> Thank you very much. Uh so our budget timeline we started in the fall. Uh we developed budget guidelines I'll go over there in a moment. We had meetings for the better part of two months. Uh we had a special board of ed meeting in February. This year it's a compressed timeline because we had a new governor. Our state aid figures were released to our districts on Thursday just a couple days ago. And here we are tonight approving the preliminary budget. So since we got these figures on Thursday, it's

016been uh we've been moving about 90 miles per hour since then. Um we are after this evening, we approved the preliminary budget. We have to submit it to the executive county superintendent for approval. And then in April, we hope to have a bud a public hearing on budget on April 24th. Though if we don't get our budget back in the county, that could be pos potentially be pushed back one week, which would be Tuesday, May 1st. So, if you can keep uh Tuesday, May 1st open on your calendar. If the county doesn't get our budget back in time for April 24th public hearing, it will have to be pushed back to Tuesday, May 1st, the following week. So, our budget guidelines and parameters, this is what we're this is what we attempted to do. This

017is what we did do with this budget. This these were our goals for this year. Uh and we were able to achieve every one of these. So we did include the last operationalized staffing reductions with respect to student enrollment trends. Okay, we do use zerobased budgeting strategies which means we start off every year in every line with zero and then justify a certain number whatever whatever that number may be. Not just based off of what we spent last year. Okay. The 18/19 budget. Uh this is what we believe in as educators, as board members, as a community. Um, it's not so much what you say you're going to do. It's what you fund. What programs you fund? We fund neighborhood schools. We fund small class sizes. We fund technology, professional development. These are the things

018we believe in. It's not enough to say we believe in it and then cut the funding for those areas. So, in this budget, this is what we're supporting. Okay? So, our budget basics, we're splitting our budget into two areas, revenues and expenses. and our revenues are, excuse me, our expenditures are increasing at a faster rate than our revenues. All right. Our local tax levy has been virtually flat for the last three years. I have another slide on that in a couple ahead here. Our state aid, uh, last year we had here that we are underfunded by $1.6 million. They ran the formula this year, which is good news. The bad news is there's going to be a four-year phases of that number. So this year we realized $400,000 extra of state aid compared to last

019year which is basically 1.6 million divided by four. Now the plan is to have that phase in in four years. So ideally we can anticipate an extra 400,000 each year for the next three years as well. However, we won't know that until 12 months from now. Our federal aid is declining. uh new program uh NCLB or ESSA our fund balance which is all also a revenue line has declined significantly this year and is projected to decline again for the 1920 budget. So our state aid this is just a roughly a 10-year look ahead. We used to get more we used to get about 25% of our budget funded by the state. Now we're down to about 20%. So that's 5%. If you look at it, if you could imagine a pie chart, the state used

020to cover a quarter of it. Now they cover a fifth of it. So that extra 5% has to be picked up either by local taxpayers or we have to cut that amount out of our budget. Okay, our state aid has a line graph. Our federal money, this is IDA, FCB. This has declined as well. This used to be about 2 and a half% of our budget. Now it's 1 and a.5%. So that's another 1% of our overall budget that basically disappeared over the last 10 years. So you add those two numbers together, that's a 6% cut out of our total budget in revenues. Our local tax levy, this is uh you heard a 2% tax levy cap. That is on the local tax levy, not our overall budget. So in our in West Milford, our

021budget supported by about 70% of our budget is supported from local taxpayers. So if we increase our tax labor by 2%. We're only increasing our revenues by 1.4%. Remember, we're not getting 2% of 100%, we're getting 2% of 70%. So that's that's some of the issues here. All of our expenses are going up by more than 1.4%. and I can assure you that. So, here is a 7-year look at a local tax levy increase. I don't know of any district that has tax increases this low over this long period of time. I couldn't say for certain, but it's probably the lowest in the state. If it's not the lowest, it might be the second or third lowest out of 550 districts. So, our four-year average is less than 1%. Our seven-year average is just over

0221%. I mentioned fund balance before. This is the amount of money that's left over in our budget on June 30th and it gets added to our budget not the next day but the next year. So there's a 12- month lag. So the fund balance that was identified on June 20 on June 30th, 2017 will be added to the 201819 budget. Okay. This number has diminished by almost a million dollars this year and it's continued to decline for next year. So this is the actual fund balance here. This is projected for next year. So we started to build this budget. We use zerobased budgeting. We start out with zero. Our revenues were over $900,000 less. Our employee health benefits contribution. This has also flattened out. So our staff pays into their health benefits. Now they were

023on tier one this year, two, three, four. We realize increases in revenue each of these four year and now it just flattens out. So if you look backwards, this column is increasing faster in this column. Extraordinary aid. This has to do with special education programs. Dr. McQuade. So the huge application every year this number is declining. We used to budget we used to receive more than we budgeted for three years in a row. Last three years we've received less than we budgeted. So this is a revenue. This is money that's coming into us from the state and it's going down here. So what does this mean big picture? Our local tax levy, the budget that you have in front of you, the local tax levy goes up by 2.75%. However, our general fund is only

024going up 1.28%. Our overall budget is 1.21%. Which is significantly lower than just about every district I've seen. The difference between this and this is mostly explained by the fund balance decrease. So these here give you revenues year-over-year and some changes and our expenses. There should be a PowerPoint on your table for each board member. You're having trouble seeing that. It's probably a little easier. That's where the impact on the average homeowner right now is $130 per year, which divides out to $10 per just over $10 per month. Uh so efficiencies in this budget, these are some things we're looking to do plus many other things. There's a huge number there's a huge savings in reduction in out of district place students capital projects. looked at this as a high priority, high cost issue. Low

025priority, low cost, high priority, low cost, things of that nature. We have a couple of items in our in our budget. School security is one item we're looking at. The corn field bleachers at the football field, Maple Road roof is in this budget, and the part two of the fieldhouse, part one is initiated. All right. Now, looking ahead, one year from now, what does the 1920 budget look like? Almost exactly the same as this budget. Commission fund balance, which means you start the year off in a little bit of a hole. Okay. Expenses rising faster than revenues and more than likely additional staffing cuts for the 1920. Okay. Any board members have any questions? >> What were the decreases in federal funding from last year to this year, not over the last seven years? >>

026The the revenue that we're we're bringing in is the same. So, we're using the same dollar figure, but we could only budget 80 to 85% of what we actually receive because we never know how it's going to trickle down to us. So, while we might get 1.3 million in total, we can't budget 1.3 million. We have to budget 80% of it. >> So, essentially, it's the same as last year. >> Yes. question. >> The budgeted fund balance. >> Okay. >> So that's down 50% in three years. >> Uh >> roughly. >> Yeah. I'll Yeah. Um our our budget of fund balance went down this year. We've been um we we were we were um acrewing uh about 2.5 2.9 million in budget fund balance. That means unexpend unexpended monies in the prior year budget. Um

027due largely uh in part because um every year that the the um employee benefit tiers were implemented um we didn't know how much money we were going to actually receive in contributions because as it became more expensive for employees they began to start waving their benefits. So now we've had tier four. This is the third year of tier 4. So, we have a pretty good handle on what our um employee benefit contributions are going to be. And um the current year 1718, we budgeted uh we anticipated 2.8 million and we're just about right on the nose. >> So, so having a budgeted fund balance below a million dollars, which looks like would be the potential for next year. Well, some of the things that we've done with the budget of fund balance over the last

028few years when we had significant amounts, we were able to address capital projects that hadn't been done right >> and and because you never know what your budget of fund balance is going to be from year to year because you don't know how much money you're going to have saved at the end of the year. Um it was it it was um my recommendation to use it for capital projects simply because once you do the project it's over with and you don't need to worry about having that money again the following year. >> So that's the way we've approached having excess surplus or a budget of fund balance. >> $75 million budget. This cuts it pretty close. >> That's a lot. Yeah. >> It would be like doing a $75,000 home renovation in your house

029and having $1,000 left at the end of it. You wouldn't say >> we were totally over budget. You'd say cut it pretty close. It's not much of a wiggle room. Um you could have an out of district. You have a student move into your school district into your community placed out of district at $100,000 or more depending on the needs. So those costs can go up. utilities, overtime, things of that nature. So, there's always going to be a little bit of wiggle room. We're cutting it close. Um, bottom line is we lost about just under a million dollars in revenue there. So, if taxes go up by a million dollars that you really don't have any extra money, it's all eaten up by that uh one line. So, that's something that's a significant concern moving

030forward. I think it's also important um to to state that um we do we are allowed by the state to keep 2% of our um our our general fund um and which is like 1.4 million. Um they um are not happy when it goes below that because that's basically like your emergency fund. So if you have some kind of cat catastrophe, you need some kind of dollars to go along with it or if some of your revenues don't come come through um you know a number of years ago um out of the blue the governor decided he was going to take like 1.5 million from um state aid. So you just never know when things like that are going to happen. >> I just equate that to cash on hand and it just seems >>

031pretty much. Yeah. Uh, and it kind of helps with their cash flow at the end of the school year because our last two state aid payments, which total about $1.5 million, don't appear until July. So, you have to meet your final payrolls. And, um, we would have to borrow money in order to do that. >> And last year, we had our 2% untouched and we had an additional excess balance of around 900,000. Right. You really have to not think about that 2% as some kind of a surplus because um the state actually gives you an edit if you have less than 2%. So it it becomes problematic and I don't know how that translates into any kind of future requirement either because they're changing all the requirements for QAC and and since the this is

032the first time I've seen a 2% edit on the in the budget program. So, um I don't know where that's going to go because now with the advent of technology and and they have so many ways of cross-checking the things that are are put into um you know the the database. So um but you know every year it changes you know the requirements change. What's our truth? What's our >> I just have a couple items to get to. here. >> Okay, moving right along. Uh, next bullet point, monthly progress towards district goals. We are going to be administering our third uh the SR math assessment for the third time beginning, weather permitting, on Monday the 26th. We have a two-eek window. So, it's the last week in March, first week in April. That'll be for

033students in grades 2 through 8 plus algebra and geometry students at the high school. So, uh, parents should be getting that data home later this spring. All right. Uh, did not make this superintendent report, but I wanted to brief the board and the community as well for that matter. Uh, this year we allocated seven snow days for our calendar. Last week we used our seventh day. We thought we were okay and then we woke up this morning to potentially a foot of snow coming overnight after midnight. So, uh that could potentially uh be a snow day tomorrow. It would be one too many. So, that's uh an item we have to discuss what data we want to add back. Um we really can't do it tonight because we're not sure how many days we're going

034to have to add. This could be a snow day tomorrow. Worst case scenario, it's a two-day storm. 18 inches and it's a Wednesday, Thursday snow day. Worst worst case scenario, it's two days. And then we also have snow coming in Sunday into Monday, possibly another nor easter. So, we're not really sure how many snow days we're going to go over. Um, but we most likely will be at least one over. So, I did speak with Mr. Roselli and and Mrs. Van Djk earlier today. Uh we do have here that we could pass a resolution tonight, >> right, to let you decide the calendar when we know the number of school days, >> right? So if we have some additional snow days within the next few days, we I can make an adjustment on the fly

035and then retroactively approve it at the next board meeting in April. So um we're looking to keep our spring break intact for families. We know some people are traveling that week. Uh we do have the option of next Friday, March 30th, uh which is Good Friday, as a single day session. Um which just means it's an early dismissal for staff and students. So um that's something we could potentially do. Uh I would if you have any plans, I would uh try to break them if you could because that's most likely the first day we'll grab back on the calendar. It's not ideal. I understand. >> A little heads up. >> Just a little heads up for the community. Okay. I have a question. >> So, do we have it set up for students to go

036181 days? >> Correct. >> And like I just I know friends in Ringwood what they're doing is the students are going 180 days >> and the teachers will go that one extra day as required. >> Could that is that something that could happen if we have additional days that might have to be >> that could be something. The state minimum is 180. We have 181 right in our calendar. So that is a possibility too. Uh the only potential issue is our high school graduation is on the second to last day of school and we are required to graduate our students no no earlier than day 180. So that would make it that day 179. So there's some things we there's some mechanics involved there. Um certainly not out of question something we'll look into. Um

037but we just want to get through this next five to seven days first and it's going to be April at some point. All right. Okay. Next up, um, our student representative. Um, I think if you were going to look up in the dictionary poise or leadership >> or or caring or uh any of those words, you might very well see Miss McIntyre's face. Uh we had a uh as you all know last Wednesday was uh student walkout day and uh at both Makipan and in the high school we had walk-in or sitins and uh Miss McIntyre did a wonderful job. She is a natural leader, somebody we're all very fortunate to have on our board of education and uh I don't know where you're going next year, but somebody there's a university is going to

038get a wonderful young lady. So I asked Miss McIntyre to brief the board and the community on the on last week. >> Thank you. So March has been a crazy month for the Highlanders. Despite all the snow days, it's been a productive time for everyone. The Empty Bowls fundraiser was a huge success. And spring sports have begun, even though it doesn't feel like spring. The Little Mermaid was, which was a huge success, and one student recently won a history award at the state level and is going on to present her paper that won at a national level. Up and coming. The choir is having a spaghetti karaoke night on the 21st and junior prom is at the end of the month and the district arts festival will be on March 29th. On the week of

039March 14th, the councils in the high school joined together to create a sitin which honored the lives of the 17 lost in the Parkland shooting. We all worked really hard to make the event non-political and something that everyone could enjoy. 17 students marched the halls at the as the Highlanders sat against the lockers in the walls. These 17 students represented what 17 students look like and how it could have been any one of them that were the victims. Donation box were carried around the school by four students and we raised $288 in 17 minutes that will be donated to the Stoneman Douglas Victims Fund. Speeches were given by the name and the names of the victims were read preceded by a moment of silence. myself, Evan Brown, Kari Molletch, Cynthia Dresps, Cindy Cintron, Rachel Horvath,

040and Hayden Brookke gave phenomenal speeches. It was an amazing and heartwarming day for the Highlanders as we all joined together wearing black and gold to learn about mental illness, bullying, and kindness. >> Thank you, Miss McIntyre. And lastly, I would like to congratulate two Highlanders. Anthony Hoppler. He came in fourth place in a cooking portion of the competition, winning a scholarship that includes $2,400 per semester for four years at the Culinary Institute of New York at Monroe College. And Abigail Porch, she was awarded America's Top High School Pastry Chef 2018, which includes a full academic scholarship to the Culinary Institute of New York at Monroe College. [Applause] Both these students are part of our culinary arts academy at the high school and part of our uh cooking classes. So congratulations to them. >> All right.

041>> Thank you, >> Mr. Novak. >> Okay. Thank you. I just have a um just want to do give a brief uh brief recap of our digital third annual digital citizenship night. Uh we hosted it last night for the first time at the West Milford High School. We had about 340 participants um in attendance which was a a good number to have. It was was nice to see parents and students from grades 5 through 8 to come and talk about such an important topic. Uh I wanted to take an opportunity to publicly thank our um generous donors for the event. Uh if you're familiar with the event, we end the uh you know that we end the night with a raffle. We're able to raffle off 10 uh Chromebooks and an Xbox One for students

042who are in attendance. Um so I'm just going to name those um organizations. Now we had a generous donation by the West Milford Board of Education. So thank all of you for for contributing to that to that prize. Um Mrs. Dwire, our trustee, uh made a single donation uh in memory of her in memory of her husband. Um so we are very appreciative for that. our central office administrators. We donated a Chromebook. Our West Milford Education Association uh donated as well as our West Milford Principal Supervisors Association, our West Milford parents association, which is representative of all of our PTAs, PTO's, and PTSOs. Um the West Milford Educational Technology Committee, who is the um committee that we have in place to organize the event and to uh implement all of our digital citizenship curriculum across

043the district. And um Mr. El Taib was able to um contact some of our common vendors, one of them being a company called Trinity Trinity 3 who we do some of our technology purchasing through and they donated two Chromebooks for the event. So we were grateful for that. He was also um instrumental in bringing in uh Microsoft Corp to not only donate the Xbox One, but to also set up a virtual reality display there for the event so our kids were able to interact safely um with technology during the event to to have just a little little extra for for the kids to enjoy. So I want to say thank you to um everyone who helped donate for the event. I also want to send a special thank you to uh the Insera family shop

044here in West Milford. um the store managers in particular, Tony and Carmine, for um helping organizing our dinner. They donated half of the order, which was a pretty um substantial order to um provide a complimentary dinner for 350 participants, plus our volunteers and our and our um other guests in attendance. So, I just want to say a special thank you to them really, you know, supporting their community and and doing uh doing a great job for us. Uh we're excited about the event. Uh this is the first time that I did not have a major speaking role. So I was very excited about um having my hands free to to enjoy the event as a participant and not someone stressed about um speaking. But we did have um a speaker named Melissa Stra who has

045been here uh numerous times to speak to our students in grades 5 through 12 to talk about online safety and the dangers of the of the digital world. Um so we were able to have a um captive audience for her of you know like I said 350 parent students combined and then she also did a special breakout session for just parents um which was about half of that number. So she got to talk to about 150 um parents in that in that one um moment and we received a lot of feedback today through email and and word of mouth. Parents were were very appreciative of the of the message that she delivers. So uh we were we were grateful for that. Um, I want to say a special thank you to our educational technology committee,

046especially uh, Mrs. Laura Oaks, who um, really helps bring that group together and and organize a lot of the things that we do. So, uh, without without our edtech committee, uh, a lot of these things don't don't happen. Um, in the previous slide with our curriculum update, the um bullet point of digital citizenship curriculum was was listed. Um, that was greatly on display at last night's event. We have um lessons in all of our classrooms for our students to how uh to help students navigate the digital world. Uh we recently participated in a be safe online contest where all fifth through 8th grade students were able to create a poster and submit it or they had to create a bit of a public service announcement in regard to uh in regard to this topic. um

047if you were able to view these posters, you would see a tremendous reflection of the lessons that we are teaching in our classrooms every day. So for me, it was one of those validating moments that the things that we're doing are working because we're seeing the language and we're seeing the the common message that we're teaching in the classroom showing up in the students independent works. And that's that's really when you know something's clicking when you see that that moment of transfer. So it was a uh it was exciting night. I'm going to give a shout out to Mrs. a wash who's in the crowd. The uh digital citizenship night was a um kind of started in a brief conversation many years ago about things that we should be doing and um it was nice

048for that to kind of come to fruition in in this event. So, thank you for that that conversation way back when. Um we have a recent new addition to our edtech committee who is uh Mr. Joe Jordan from our TV science department and he put together a tremendous video clip. I promised Mr. Bailey, it would be only around 23 minutes long. You okay with that length? Okay, >> good. All right. Roll it. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] So that's just a brief little brief little clip of um you know the type of event it was. We got a lot of like I said a lot of tremendous feedback. Um we are you know we never will never rest. So we're already you know

049we start with the edtech committee our first item on our agenda for our uh April meeting is how did it go and what can we do better next year. Um, so you know, we'll start advertising that again for for next March. But so thank you again for all the support and for those who participate. It doesn't happen without people showing up. So appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mrs. Francisco. >> Uh, yeah, we have the minutes from the February 20th special meeting and the February 27th regular meeting for your review and consideration. >> Need a motion. I'd >> like to make a motion to approve the following meeting minutes. February 20th, special meeting executive session. February 27th, regular meeting second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >>

050I abstain. >> Okay. Uh, president's report. Um, let's see. I attended the the digital citizenship last night which I thought was amazing and it I was glad to see so many parents out with their kids. It looked like it was for some parents it was a real eye opener and it was a good it was a good night and I'd like to thank uh Mr. Novak again because it really was it was well attended and it really gave a lot of information to the parents and was totally an enjoyable evening to of learning on both sides. Um I also want to thank the maintenance staff for all that they have done over this past month of March and moving piles and piles and piles of snow. They have gone above and beyond and our buildings

051look great and I just want to thank them. Um I wanted to make a note that uh Makapin is doing Beauty and the Beast this weekend. It's uh Thursday, Friday, Saturday um at the Makabin. It's the Makipin kids. So if anybody's interested, we have another Disney program going on in the district this weekend and I hope everybody will come out and attend that. Other than that, that's all I have under my report. Um, as you see now on our agenda, we've changed things a little bit. We are calling this part of the meeting public comment. Um petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first for with five minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other petitions and other requests limited to five minutes

052per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute time period expires. Petitioners speaking during petitions and requests are asked to address topics listed in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Has anybody signed up? Mrs. Francisco? >> Uh, yes. Mrs. Awazak. >> Can you hear me? >> Okay. This good? >> Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, good evening. My name is Jennifer Washchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchuk. I wzc UK. I live at 21 Delmont Road in Huitt. Um, am I allowed to use my daughter's name? >> Okay. Is that all? >> Um, I'm a parent of a third and sixth grader from UGL school and a voice of our third graders. I'm here tonight to discuss my

053concerns looking forward to my daughter's fourth grade academic year. We are all aware of the possible possibility that the current three sections for many of our schools elementaryaries in the district will be cut in the coming year due to the budget issues. I have addressed the board last year with the same concern for UGL and told and I was told that regardless of the outcome of the 0% increase vote in the budget, our class sizes would not be affected and now it looks differently. I was told by one board member that he didn't understand why I was even concerned, that it was not something the board was trying to do. And here I am again with some very real concerns. Currently, my daughter Autumn is in Miss Accart's third grade classroom with a total of

05416 students. She's having a very successful year because Mrs. Accarti has been able to give her the one-on-one and small group instruction she needs to succeed. My daughter is your average third grader who works very hard to keep up with the curriculum. She does not test low enough to have official remediation, but is excelling because of her amazing teachers and the class sizing class is being manageable since kindergarten. I have donated a lot of my time at UGL over the past seven years. I've been a class mom, a Girl Scout leader, an active PTA member involved at many school functions. Being in the classroom regularly, not only as a mom, but a former teacher myself, I recognize how much differentiated instruction these teachers are implementing within the classrooms to address the different learning styles and

055emotional maturity levels of this group of third graders. My goal as a teacher was always to plan lessons that were tiered to teach every child at every level that so they could grow. Every classroom, no matter how big, has different levels of learners. We all know that. And the bigger the class, the harder it is to reach all of them. Common sense. I feel that differentiated instruction is one of the most important skills of a good teacher. Currently, my daughter continues to keep her head above water with the third grade curriculum, and I'm so thankful for that. I cannot even imagine with these six elementary school teachers that are going to be cut um what would happen next year if Autumn was put into a class of 24. Being the average student that she is,

056I'll be honest. I know how the story goes. I've been a teacher in those rooms of 24. The average kid gets lost sometimes. The bigger the class, the harder it is to reach every child's learning style. In addition to their emotional maturity at the age of just nine and 10, keeping class sizes smaller is a primary goal in any school district. With all the 0% increases we've previous board vote on, it seems that your hands are tied in some situations. And you have to make cuts. Not only where it hurts our children, but also in areas that do not allow us to move forward improve improving our children's education. We are going to go backwards. If we send these 48 children into big classes, they only know how small classes since kindergarten. We may be

057setting them up for failure. It's not fair to the children. Everyone in this room wants the best for our district as a whole. UGL's third grade has 48 students. We actually got a new one today. I just found out 49. But we're the highest third graders um of the three sections in the district. I only know the data of the number of bodies. And I'm hoping that you have access to the classified data, the data that will paint the picture of this particular third grade class as a community of learners that needs more than anyone else. three sections moving into fourth grade. I don't think anyone can truly understand this unless you go into these classrooms. See for yourself what it is to teach these individuals in the community of learners. I ask you all

058to please observe these classrooms of three sections and step foot into the shoes of a third grader at UGL for a day before you have to combine them for next year. As a voice of a third grade parent of UGL, I leave you tonight with homework to look at these classes as a whole community of learners on an individual school basis and not bodies and desks based on enrollment numbers. We hope that this is put into consideration re when reviewing the proposed budget for next year and you can spare our children's learning environment so that we can all continue to move forward and not backwards. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. Have a good night. >> Thank you. Is anyone else signed up? No. Would anyone like to speak >> on

059an agenda item? >> Well, that's my question. Madison talked about the districts. This is actually just a >> That's what I forgot to say. District trusted. I think it's the 28th, right? >> Tracy Huber, West Milford. I just like to take a minute to give a shout out of appreciation and a huge thank you to Mr. Boro for writing a letter of support in support of Ringwood Manor Association of the Arts grants application for a new barn gallery roof. One of the many great programs RMA provides is the annual Young Artist Expo. And for those of you who may not be aware, and I'm quoting Leam Madson, who's the VP of RMA, this is from their actual grant application. The Young Artist Expo is an open show for student artists in grades 4 through 12.

060The expo is designed as a student exhibition, yet the quality of the work entered demonstrated a significant amount of thought and superior execution by the students. The expo is also a tribute to the teachers who instruct our exhibitors. The RMA the RMA focuses on partnerships with area schools and art educators to provide an exhibition opportunity for budding artists, especially those who may be underserved by the public schools. The RMA exhibition provides an opportunity for the for those homeschooled, those on the autism spectrum, children with special needs or suffering from illness. Seeing the joy these artists finds in our exhibition is one of the greatest one of our greatest successes. As a parent of a child who has been entering paintings in this exhibit since sixth grade here in West Milford, I know that West Milford,

061well known for excelling in the arts, has been a supportive partner with students participating in the show for many, many years, winning many awards, but also just getting the pride from seeing their work hanging in the exhibit and being viewed and enjoyed by over a thousand visitors every spring. Thank you again to Mr. Boro for writing such a wonderful letter of support under an extreme time crunch and for doing so enthusiastically and without hesitation or need for jumping through any administrative hoops or roadblocks. Hopefully with support like his and that from other school leaders, the Barn Gallery will get its roof and be able to host programs like this one for many years to come. For anybody who doesn't know, the 38th annual Young Artist Expo will be held from April 25th to May 15th

062in the historic Ringwood Manor Carriage Barn Gallery. I hope that some members of the administration, board, and the public will come out and support RMA and all the amazing West Milford artists and artists from other districts by stopping by the expo. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And thanks again to Mr. Barnell. Thank you. >> Anyone else like to speak? Hi, Jennifer King, 38C Lexington Lane, KI NG. I'm a Paradise Snow parent, and much like the UGL parents, I have a third grader. I actually have two children in the district. I have a seventh grader who was in classes where there were 24 children and I have a third grader who has thankfully been in classes where there are 15 to 16 children. We have two or three less than you guys. So they definitely

063win that one. But we still have you know 46 to 47 third graders who will be going forward to fourth grade. The difference I have seen between what my son has been able to learn and my daughter has been able to learn is night and day. Mrs. Ricker, my son's third grade teacher, has been able to do amazing things. Yesterday when I was at PK, because Marian Blumenthal Lasen was here as she's a Holocaust survivor and the middle school and all of the P elementary school PTAs brought her in. So I had brought her because I was chauffeering her back to PK for lunch. The third grade was able to be in the hallway doing science. These things can't happen if you have two classes of 24 because the teachers are not able to work

064with each of the different levels. With math, Mrs. Ricker has three different groups. She has the high group, so the kids that are at the higher end are not bored. She has the kids that are average who were where they should be, and she's able to work with them and give them what they need. And then the kids that are struggling get more individualized attention. Making these classes bigger is going to take all of these positives away and also affect their future education. So, please, please try and figure out a way to keep that. All of our students need that. All of our children need that. And to make our district a better district educationally, and emotionally, socially, that's needed. It also gives the teachers the ability to see where there are emotional issues because

065they're not so spread out. So they are able to then say go to the principles, go to the social workers and say I'm concerned about this child. This is what I'm seeing. And if they have to worry about 23 other children, that one child who might be quiet because they're getting picked on may get overlooked. So again, please try and figure out a way to keep that so that our district can continue to improve and our children's education can continue to be at the level we have been fortunate enough to see at least for my second child. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Would anyone else like to speak? >> If not, see public comments second. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Okay. Okay. We need a motion. >> All

066right. I just want to make one amendment to the agenda. >> On page six, education resolution number three, we have an extra HIB that were added. It's going to be 2018 Eyen and that is going to be substantiated >> and also just to remind the board the uh budget resolution is been updated and it's in a hand carry. >> Okay. >> Yeah, there's a few hand carries. So I need a motion >> move to adopt the agenda as presented amended with the hand car. >> Okay. I need a vote on that. All all those in in favor >> I opposed. >> Okay. We'll move on to personnel. Uh Mrs. O'Brien to personnel very quick. Um on the 18 should I uh >> you should hold that executive. >> Okay. >> Just hold just don't vote

067on just like the um HIV do. >> Okay. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion to approve items. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Mr. Yuber. >> Comment. Um, I see in number one that uh Mr. Anton is resigning. Uh, I'd like to thank him for his service. Um, he is the most phenomenal math teacher that my uh, actually of all the teachers, he's probably the most effective teacher my any of my children have had while they were moving through this district. And it's I'm sad that we weren't able to retain him. >> He's retiring. >> I realize early. He brought me. >> He's lucky. >> Throw that out there. He's he's a really um amazing math teacher that was able to reach kids no matter how difficult. >> In fact, he was able to

068uh uh uh uh help my uh my uh middle son child uh with algebra via text more effectively than he what he was getting in the classroom. >> So, >> thank you. >> Fabulous. Any other discussion? If not, Mrs. Francisco call. Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Gino, >> yes. >> Mr. Yuber, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> I can make a motion to move items 16 and 17. Second. Any discussion on the items? If not, Mrs. Francesca, >> Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Miss O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Yuber, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mr. Gorino, >> yes.

069>> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> Okay. And we will move on now to education. Um, Miss Mr. Drew, would you like to take education since you were there? >> Sure. >> I think there's a hand carry too under education. >> Uh, let's move item one, two, four. The hand carry is three. Replacing three. >> Uh, I I don't think it is. >> No, it's four. But three is for after executive session. >> I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Okay. So, one, two, and four. Thank you. >> Yes. >> Any discussion? >> Sorry, I wasn't prepared. >> Oh, that's okay. Off the cut. >> Any discussion? If not, Mrs. Francisco. Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dino? >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Yuber, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >>

070Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> And that's for after executive session. We're going to move to budget and finance items number two through seven under budget and finance. Please >> second. >> Discussion. If not, go ahead. Mrs. Francisco, >> I have a question. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't see that. >> Number six. Um, with the bubbling state for busing, it's at a cost of $10 a day. Um, are they paying for the bus driver or we? >> Oh, that's part of the cost. >> Okay. >> So, the $10 is above actual cost. They this is an annual annual agreement that we have with them. Um >> this sounds like they're paying $10 a day for the bus. I'm just wondering >> this the bus driver

071salary is probably prrated because it's probably only a short period of time that they're they're driving. >> We have um summer bus drivers so they're probably already on on the depot and they probably just pick up the extra work. Okay. >> I could find out though. I mean, if you want clarification, I can find out. >> Seems like it is a deal. >> Mhm. >> Do Do you want to Are you looking to table that or >> I mean, if you want there's any rush, is there? I mean, it would No, >> I think we could, right? So, I'll make a motion to table. >> So, that's an amendment, right? >> No, it's just a motion to table. >> Okay. >> If there's a second, then we just vote. >> We need a second to

072table. six and the question is $10. >> Seems like it would cost us more than >> anyone. Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. Sorry. >> On two through seven. >> 2 through7. Any other discussion? >> Okay. Mrs. Francisco. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yuber. Uh, not number six. Yes to the rest. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey. >> Yes. >> Miss O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Miss. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> To move number eight under budget and finance. Please. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Mrs. Francisco. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Garino. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dwire. Oh, I'm sorry. >> She's a fart. >> Yeah, I know. I know. >> No. >> I

073got the text from my brother, too. Yeah. >> Rubbing it in. >> Mr. O'Brien. >> And I say, >> Mr. Yuber. >> Yes. The utilities came to the rest. Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> To move item number nine under budget and finance, please. >> Discussion. >> Mrs. Francisco. >> Mr. Bailey. >> Yes. >> M. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Abstain. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. Mr. Yuber. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> I abstain. >> Budget of finance. Please. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Mrs. Francisco. >> Miss O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bi. >> Yes. >> Mr. Garino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yuber. >> Yes. >>

074Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk. >> Yes. >> Like to move items number 11 and 12 budget and finance, please. >> Any discussion? >> Mrs. Francisco. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Miss O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yuber. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey. Yes, >> Mrs. Van Dyk. >> Yes. >> I'd like to move the revise item number one under finance, please. >> Second. >> Discussion. If not, Mrs. Francisco, >> I would uh >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I didn't Okay. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, I guess what I'll just do is make the amendment and see if we get a second we can discuss it. I would like to amend

075the budget to I would like to amend the budget as proposed to consider uh doing the roof repair at Maple Road as a bond uh rather than including it in the um this year's operation. the uh reason to consider that as opposed to a million dollars coming out of current operating funds. Uh my quick calculations if we did a 10-year bond >> uh we so we should do that and then discuss. Yeah, let's do that. >> All right. >> So I I have actually I have I have a question. Is the motion to remove the project and the dollars associated with it or to remove the project but leave the money into the budget for other items? >> Actually, I want to do the project. I want to fund it with a bond. >> Well,

076that would be a totally separate issue. This is just for the budget. So, >> you want to move it all together. >> Do you want to remove it all together with the dollars associated with it? So, let's say it's a million. Do you want to take the million out of the budget or do you want to leave the million in but take the roof project out so that million dollar is used for something else? I don't know how much it is. >> No, I want to take the million out of this budget but >> it's $950,000. Let's be clear about that. >> Well, I I was just using that number because I don't have it in front of me. >> Let's be clear. Let's not take a million when it's 950. >> Okay. So, >>

077so you want to remove the project goes a long way. It's almost a teacher. >> Okay. I I just wanted to be clear on what that was. So, the amendment is to take it out of the budget >> to remove the roof project and take it out of the budget >> and you're seconding that amendment. >> And just to be clear, what um he was saying was that we could still do the project, but it would have to be as a bond. So, the voters would have to vote on that project, >> which would totally separate issue. Yeah. >> Okay. >> I have a question on that. >> Don't we have to do something with the amendment? We're okay. Okay. Okay. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the state um pay for portions

078of bonding bond issues? >> They they would pay, I believe, 40% of the amount that we're financing and the interest. So in fact one of the amendments that we've got to um that when we got the numbers from the state part of that was increase in their funding but part of it was a deferment of the bond payments the the so yes and part of the reason to do this is that the total expenditure to the district becomes less >> I have a question >> yeah what with the timeline if we had to do that does that mean that the roof would have to wait another year before it's touched. >> Yes. and you're going to incur costs for uh bond counsel um the auditor um the election expense and those are not recoupable expenses

079>> right and and this ideally the state would pay all all of that 40% but we don't know what they would pay until we submit the plans for it and then have the budget estimates come back and cost estimates is another cost that we have to pay for that's not included in architectural fees it's a separate cost >> the submission cost Okay, let let Nicole had her hand up. >> That's okay. I didn't raise it very high. Um, my concern with doing that is my understanding is that at least portions of that roof are in pretty rough shape and I think we run into some safety issues and at what point are we going to, you know, exacerbate that problem before there's a safety issue involved? And I don't know, I think that last year

080it was supposed to be done a couple years, last year or the year before there. So I I I I understand where you're coming from with trying to move the money from one place to another, but I am a little concerned that holding office is maybe not the best idea for that. >> It it's also in stages. Correct. >> Um when we got the proposal, it was in four sections. >> Mhm. >> Um and what I'm recommending the original cost for the roof was um 1,300,000. And what I did in building the budget, I broke it down so that we could do the stage that's in the worst shape and do the remaining sections at alternates. So if we do get a good price, you might be able to do more of the roof for

081the same amount of money. >> Oh, okay. Uh my concern on the roof itself is that it's been put off and we've had a really bad winter and we've got feet of snow sitting on that roof and to if we had to put it back to June I I think that we would really be putting ourselves in a in a you know precarious situation where there is a possibility that that roof could let go and having been here when a roof is let go it's not such a great thing to happen. So I if it had been if we had had other roofs I know that not having been here last time it it wasn't in the it wasn't in the referendum for some reason last time and I don't know why but for for

082not having done that I I would not be in favor of that. Not because I don't want to save the money. I totally agree with you on the referendum end of it. But it sounds like the cost end to do it plus the waiting of another year to get a the roof done would to me be not a wise decision on our part. But that's you know my my own opinion. Uh go ahead Mr. Yuber. >> Yeah I have a question. Do we have any report from a contractor or anybody about a a safety issue? >> Safety issue. >> Yeah. Um Mr. Vand is just talking about the roof letting go. Well, we had that problem. >> There's any credible basis for that? >> Well, we had that problem at Mcaban school before I got

083here. >> That has nothing to do with it. >> No, no, it's a roof and we've got things. >> Yeah. >> Can you can you tell whether it's structurally sound? I I I don't know that that is really the issue. I think it's more that you're you're having water infiltrate the the ceilings and coming into the school. >> My thought is there's a safety issue. We shouldn't have the children under the roof. They should be elsewhere in the first place. >> Well, what what I am saying, Mr. Huber, is that we we have a winter where we are putting a lot of snow and water on that roof and the roof is leaking. So, should we say we should go another whole winter and spring and let the roof continue to leak after the board

084has put it off now for three years? That's my my I I mean does anybody else if not you know I mean >> Mr. Mr. address >> the um those are very very legitimate questions. the um purely on the financial side the roughly million dollars I know it's a little less and there's some pennies here and there and so on and so forth but you know that that's money we spend now if we bond for that with some of those additional costs it comes out to a little over 70,000 a year uh for probably 10 years although we would have to decide that that's a that's a difference and again purely on the financial side of of almost 2% in the proposed tax increase versus something more along the lines of 0.2%. I think it

085would make sense at the same time if we were going to do that that we should include all of the phases, not just the one, include the whole thing. >> And uh this is not part of the question, but I think we have some serious discussions we ought to have about potential safety issues in the school. So there there may be several things that we ought to look at in there, but but in terms of just purely the financial impact, it's it's major. It's there's a lot the question about whether or not is this safe or not. We're obviously in a period right now where it freezes at night, it melts in the day, you know, we've all seen what that does to roads and everything else that every time it freezes, it expands. It

086makes the gap bigger, you know, and and we're exactly we're about to go through another week of that, maybe more. Uh happy vernal equinox, by the way. Um, and we there's a good chance we would have that next winter. I'm kind of thinking personally that I'd like to find out more about how imminent this problem is before we make a decision. I think safety of the kids and whether this is a a huge issue or not, you know, ought to impact on on whether we do something like this. If we could, it makes a huge huge difference on the on the tax levy. I I was over there about two weeks ago with Mr. Kaine and in at a few different spots in the school, multiple classrooms, there's active leaks. So, there's basically a giant

087funnel that we've rigged up to the roof with a a long tube that snakes all the way down to a bucket. When it fills up, we drag it outside, we dump it out, and then we we we bring the bucket back. But it's in a handful of classrooms. We can't really It's hard to patch this time of year. Once the snow melts for good in April, we we'll get up there. We'll patch it. But we're running out of the ability to continue to patch. Um this was, you know, if you look backwards a year ago, 12 months, this was in the budget for this year. So, had that been approved in the current budget, we would be right now in a completely different situation. So, um, it's always easier to push off a capital project

088out one year and save the money out one year and save the money, but at some point it just becomes unbearable. Uh, learning environment. Uh, I don't know if this is a safety issue or not, but it's certainly an inconvenient environment to have tubes snaking through the classroom and emptying water. All this snow is melting and little by little, it's just uh, it's becoming untenable. So hindsight's 2020. We probably should have done it in last year's budget. We didn't. No sense compounding that error now moving forward. >> Ray, did you have >> Oh, I I was going to say if if we're saying it's a safety issue, maybe it needs to be done right now then. >> We're not though. >> Well, but I'm saying based on Steve >> potential for that. >> Um I

089have a question for Joe. Um, what would be the minimum timeline for a bond issue and how how would that work starting today if we chose to do it? >> If we started it today, we could pro there's you can only do a bond five times a year. We could probably get it I would say on December's ballot, but the problem in December is getting people to come. It's legitimately getting people to come out to vote in December. >> That so the next one after that >> is >> January. And then there's and the next one after that is March. >> I don't think we can get it before December on the ballot. >> Takes about six months. >> You could >> anyone uh Mr. >> Well, we might we might be able to get

090it to the November meeting to the November ballot. Um >> that's what I was thinking. You >> still wouldn't start the work. >> We wouldn't Well, we would be able to start the work >> sometime after that. Yeah, in June, I guess, when the kids are out. Mr. Bailey, >> clarification. Mr. President, the next vote we take is going to be on what? >> The amendment >> to remove the project. >> Okay. >> And the $950,000 associated with it >> out of the budget. >> There's eight members present here tonight. >> Yes. >> How do we How does the voting go tonight? Do we need five? >> You need five. So all night long as we go through this part of the agenda, it's five carries it and four four would be >> right. Four

091or four would be a no because it wouldn't pass. You wouldn't need five for every vote tonight. >> Five. >> Yep. >> Okay. Well, now I only need four cuz I'm voting no against this because I've never heard of such a thing. If you're telling me we have bunk over there, I see him on the roof actually shutting the snow. That's another subject, our head custodian. But if you're telling me there's actually a building in West Milford where we're emptying the buckets of water in the midst of the warmest February on record where it was not an issue. But now, for some reason, this March is as bad as anything any of us have seen around here in quite some time. So, you know, it's as if there's a lot of things working against us.

092And the bottom line is this is a bad time to have a bad roof over our students, over ourselves and our homes, over George Bailey's dog house. So, the point is enough of this already. If our professionals, administrators are not coming up with these ideas, I really have a hard time embracing uh these types of u situations that are presented by my colleagues who are lay people. So, I would request that we call the question and begin to move on with the rest of this because no way am I voting not to put on a roof tomorrow for that matter. That's leaking and in disrepair because ostensively we put it off for several budget cycles now. Is that a fair statement? >> You can call the question. >> I have no question. >> That's not

093a fair statement. >> No, no, not >> it's a fair statement. >> Thank you. >> You can't call the question. All right. You can, but I would give at least everybody the opportunity to speak. >> I Another question. This one's well, a couple questions for Barbara. One, how much is the first phase? How much does it cost? >> I'm sorry. What? >> How much does the first phase cost? >> We have 950,000 in the budget for it >> for the first phase. >> Yes. >> And how much does the total cost? >> 1.3 million. >> All right. So, the bulk of it the first phase? >> Yes. >> All right. I'm not sure that then that kind of eliminates my second question. And I was going to see if we could do the first phase

094and then bond to the rest of it, but it was kind of like small. >> The first phase is most of it. >> There's two things. >> But Barb is also saying that there's a possibility that they might be able to work it in at that number. >> You know, we were fortunate with the roof replacement at the Makipin and and the high school because the contractor that was successful in the bid process came in a million dollars less than every other contractor that bid on that roof project. So, we were fortunate. We we we got a lot for the money. Um we'll try it again. Whenever you whenever you have a bid situation, you always put in more as an alternate and see what you can get uh with within your budget. >> Okay.

095>> Any other discussion? >> One more thing. If we were to do a bond, I know I frustrate you. >> No, because I I you know, >> if we were to do a bond, there's something else to consider. I I've been thinking about school security. All right. If we were due to bond, there would be an ability for us to take more swift action to add security measures to the schools that we may not already have. Docking locking mechanisms for doors and >> I think you're on a separate >> No, no, we're talking about a bond. >> If we're going to do a bond, you can add more than one thing into it. >> Mhm. >> Right. Right, John? >> Yeah. Whatever you want. And we could also look at other capital projects that may

096need to be done. get them into the bond at the same time, but it saves the district a ton of money, the taxpayers a ton of money because of the the uh state aid that goes with it and it spreads the spreads the uh payments out so that also doesn't impact the taxpayers as badly. >> So, it's kind of tough because we want to do the roof right now, but on the other hand, these benefits are so big and we can add other things into it that we really need um and that we should do instead of waiting years to do them. We shouldn't wait years to do security. I mean the Maryland >> I think that's a different discussion. I I feel like the security is spread out >> talking about benefits of bond.

097Yeah. >> Mi >> Mrs. O'Brien and then Mrs. Fritz. >> Thank you. >> Um we're under the assumption that the bond would pass and that's a big if um been here 30 years. If I remember correctly it's probably twothirds of the time bonds don't pass. I could I'm wrong. I'm taking this be honest with you. It's off the top of my head. But we're assuming the bonds will pass. We're at the mercy of the >> voters >> the voters. So I like for you guys to keep that in mind. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> um, if I recall, there was something in the plans for next year that was not in detail, but for security as well. There were some things that you were planning to look in there if I'm not mistaken. Yes, we're uh

098in the midst of a ve fairly uh large security audit districtwide. Uh I'm uh it's multi-layered. I am going to each PTA meeting in every school in every school in the district to meet with the uh parents of each in each PTA. We are also meeting administratively uh with some vendors now to take a look at our security uh what we have now what we could do better how much would it cost uh how soon could we get it done so um we don't have the exact items yet in mind but we do have some money budgeted for not as much as we would like and certainly that could certainly change between now the preliminary budget and the public hearing in late April um because we are still looking at potentially some health benefit savings

099between now and then. Uh that's something we could possibly roll if there's any savings in health benefits that could be rolled into a school security measure. Um but that's something that does cost money and it is an ongoing uh discussion that we're having administratively is also with the board in our budget and finance committee meetings. >> I think I don't disagree that that's something that's definitely a priority, but I think it's something that also is going to take some time and analysis and we shouldn't be hasty with that. But at the same time, I don't think I agree with Greg. We shouldn't be playing roulette with a roof. That's that's years overdue of being done. I think it's just it's a necessary evil. I mean, you have to take care of these buildings. I think

100it's just not something we should put off any longer. >> I'm going to call the question now because discussion's been >> So now, >> this is on the amendment. >> On the amendment. Yes. >> To remove 950. >> To remove the roof and the N. >> Yeah. Whatever the amount is. >> Yeah. 950. Um, Mr. Bailey, >> no. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> no. >> Mr. Gorino, >> come back to me. >> Mr. Yuber, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> no. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> no. >> Mr. Gino, >> uh, no. >> Okay. Motion fails. >> All right. So now it's back to the original motion >> for the budget itself. >> Any discussion? Mr. Sitz, >> I felt it wasn't gerine to bring it

101up for but now um did the administration explore the potential lease purchase for roof? >> I don't know that that's a possibility. >> It's you can lease purchase Um, it's hard to equip it. >> You can't lease it. >> They can't lease the roof. >> They can't take it back in the building. >> Are you doing the roof on a five or outright? >> No, outright. >> It's a capital project that you would you pay for. >> You can't at least purchase a capital pro uh project. You can at least purchase capital items like buses, >> um, computers, basically almost anything else, but not an improvement to a building. >> Yeah. the the infrastructure. >> That's that's what lease purchasing is for school districts. It's financing. >> Anyone else? >> Question if I can. And

102you know, I think I agree if we've got an imminent problem with the roof, we got to fix the roof. But what I might like to see between now and and when we do a final on this is is, you know, the snow will be off. We'll be in a better position to go assess that from some kind of >> I have pictures if anyone would like to see them. Oh, >> I know that roof's in terrible shape. I've seen pictures. The question is whether, you know, is there anything we can do in the short term that would extend the life until we could get it bonded and and you know, if we can't, that's kind of that's a done deal. >> I don't think so. >> Based upon the the pictures and the um

103>> the deterioration, I don't believe so. >> Any other discussion? If not, Mrs. Francisco, this is on the budget. >> This is on the item. >> Preliminary budget. >> Mhm. >> Right. The preliminary budget. >> Mhm. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> No. >> Mr. Yuber. >> Come back to me. >> Mr. Drew? >> No. >> Mr. Gino? >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey? >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk? >> Yes. >> Mr. Yuber? >> No. Motion carries. [Music] >> Mr. Karina. [Music] >> Like to make a motion to approve uh one through four policy. >> Second. discussion. >> Yes. Um I'd like to if we could do um separate votes on separating the substance abuse policy from the um the uh attendance policy. Uh the three items.

104>> Um first on the substance abuse, >> There's two items. One and two are three and four substant >> right >> you want it for a separate vote is that would you you want two and three and four separate >> three and four separate >> I'm sorry >> are you okay with that Mr. because the motion was Okay, >> there we go. >> All right. >> Can we amend? We have to amend. >> No, because he made the motion already. So, if Glennon said that before the motion was made, it would be no issue, but he's already agreed that the motion, so it's fine. >> Yeah, it's all right. So, the substance abuse um policy, I I'd like to ask I I think this is probably the case, but I want to confirm this is

105uh pretty much all straight. >> Okay. Now, >> I was going to say I also did a substantial review of the policy. >> Yes. So, and I made a number of changes as well >> because it was a big lot of changes. >> Okay. Um, there are some things in here that I think district are drafting issues maybe that we need to talk about and we need to polish it up a little bit. Uh, I don't have any significant objection to what we're doing here, but I think that it could be clarified in certain instances. Um uh one thing that I would like to clarify because it doesn't say at all is anything paraphernalia. All right. This is on the regulation. Okay. >> Items and paraphernalia. Um I'd like to clarify that they're be confiscated

106and not returned and when necessary preserved and turned over to West Mil Police Department. We would not return confiscated items to receive. >> Well, it doesn't say anything about confiscated in the policy in the regulation at all. >> Regulations regulations or policy typically don't cover every single possible occurrence at a school. But there's no reasonable that administrator that would confiscate drugs from a student and then return the drug system. more than paraphernalia. People are going to say, "Well, it's vaping types. It's not drug. Just give it back to me." >> You and I both know that's not what it's illegal. >> Right. >> So, um >> I do have a question about number seven. A I'm sorry, A7. Um it has to do with um activities extracurricular and industrial inter mural and athletics activities. Um

107and um >> being suspended I believe >> this is in the A7 is the definition of >> the definitions of these >> that's the definition and it it it's not really clear on whether the band is included in that. Now I know the ban gets a grade. So it says it exempts things that are not required by the board of education for graduation. Now I don't think we should penalize anybody's grade. But on the other hand, I think that you know band is very much an extracurricular activity. So it should be included in there. And part of this whole thing with the >> I believe it's I believe extracurricular covers that. band color guard problem is >> things of that nature. >> The problem is band gets a grade, right? >> Uh I'm not sure

108>> the marching part of it. >> No, marching band classes. >> Okay. The marching band >> a class. >> I I had understood that there was extracurricular stuff that the band class counted in the grade. >> Yeah. Band all student band members are not exempt from this regulation. Okay. Great. >> Yeah, that's for sure. one down. >> Okay. Um, what is considered as over-the-counter products in B1A? definition >> B1 >> it's under consequences >> hey >> isn't there products >> or paraphernalia and I didn't see overcounter products in that >> I think there is a definition >> there is one there is one in there >> which I >> yeah it's a there is a definition on page it's a A13 over-the-counter products defined as medicines that are sold directly to a consumer without the

109need or inclusion of a prescription. >> Okay. >> From a healthcare professional. >> Sorry, I missed that. Okay, >> this the first reading. >> This is the first reading. Yes. >> All right. Um, sorry. Find the on B I guess B6 under first offense you have uh it's under first and second offense there's parental re-entry conference required but nowhere does it define what you know say what a parental conference consists of but there is a definition in in C5 that I think would be adequate. So I'm just going to ask that it be conformed to add that as a definition. C5 kind of just includes it and then adds a little bit more language to kind of give a an idea of what's supposed to be for the parental conference. I'm supposed to describe it.

110>> What? It's not clear. It's not I guess it's he's saying it's not clear that it's a conference with a >> parental conference, but if you read C5, it says at the time the student is scheduled to return to school, >> re-entry meeting will be held >> including not limited to students, parents, school counselors. So, who's included in the re-entry? >> That's fine. meeting >> because isn't it could be different, right? It could be a discussion just with the students for certain things, right? >> Well, parental conf parental re re-entry conference is a meeting with the parents and the administrators and if the administration believes that additional staff members should be part of that conference, they will invite the student assistance counselor, guidance counselor, >> right? >> Whoever else they believe. My concern is and

111you know because I I can really see this happening um is that the parent parental re-entry conference turns into a phone call >> which kind of plays down the importance of it. >> No, >> I'm thinking that it needs to be put in here as something as form something formal, something important. >> You think a conf if they had something like that, they would do it over the phone? >> I mean, believe it. the re-entry meetings. I mean, I I could speak to this because we also do re-entry meetings after risk assessments and every re-entry meeting I've ever been involved in at the high school or at the Highlander Academy, it has always been face to face. So, I've never I've never seen where the parent is is done over the phone. I'll just say

112that from a practice standpoint. I >> I've never heard of it either. >> Kind of says that they have to be here. Okay. Um, >> is that it? >> No. on under second offenses. Um well, let me put it this way. Under third offense, there's a 1A. Okay. Uh where um it says at the superintendent's option, a meeting with the superintendent or principal will be held with the students and parents to develop a behavioral drug treatment related contract. I don't think we should be waiting for the third offense for that. All right. If we actually caught them the second time, it means they've been doing a lot more. So, I think we should have that inserted into the under the second offense as well. That would actually be a bit of a change. >> But

113I think but it is it is at the superintendent's discretion. >> So, I I don't I think it's flexible, but I think that it's it would be something that we should have there because if you wait till the third offense, there's an awful lot more going on. If you catch a kid three times in in the school setting, there's a lot more going on than that. >> All right. Um, >> so are we making like amendments to >> No, no, this is just the first reading. >> So m Mr. Huber is telling what he feels should be amended. >> This would be approving the first reading and then we could go back and make these changes before the second reading. >> That's what I >> That's the whole That's the point of a second read.

114That's why you do it twice. >> Mr. Billy, do you have >> I was going to ask that question. So, thank you. This is a first reading. >> And also, as we pick this apart in this board setting, uh, I sort of get it, but my question is each policy when it's revised or rewritten or modified. Isn't it reviewed by policy reviewing professionals, if you will, to make sure that it adheres to all the statues where trampling all over people's rights and you know, in other words, there's a safeguard so that lay people, elected board members like us ourselves are just not picking these things apart willy-nilly. And the point is, what would I know as opposed to a policy review professional? and that might be slash an attorney. So I think we're traveling down

115a slippery slope because these things when they come before and by like the board of ed for approval the first or second reading have been vetted properly before we take final action first or second reading. Is that a true statement? >> Well that's the policy committee met and made the policy >> right? They wrote the changes. They sent it, you know, from stress estimate. Got they got it from stress estimate. It came to me >> from who? >> From stress estimate, our policy consultant. >> Professional policy. >> They write the policy. Yes, sir. >> The committee reviews it and changes it how they would like it to be changed. It was sent to me to review as well. I did the same thing and then it's before the board for a first reading. >> That's

116where we're at. >> Okay. I just want to make sure I I want to have some asurances before I cast a vote that has been properly vetted because uh I don't have >> Yeah, I I think the policy has been properly vetted. I would say that these additional concerns from Mr. Huber are just that additional concerns and and language changes. >> Would it have to go back to you now after this? >> No. This this is this is the whole point of this first and second reading. >> Okay. Next on possession. Um, >> I wish you had cold or something. This honestly so much easier. >> You know, I'd like to address that because last meeting there was a parent that came and really didn't understand the process and she kind of scolded a little

117bit and it's it's understandable if you don't understand what's going on. Most of the public don't understand that we get our amendments and materials the Friday before a meeting. So if you have any life that you know uh demands on you that uh you're working on Friday, you get it Friday night, usually after dinner, then if your family has anything going on on the weekend, the weekend can be shot. I mean, my kids are in scabbing. I have three kids. >> A lot of times the weekends are taken up. So if you work Monday, there's not a whole heck of a lot of time to get through all the material >> and and and daytime day before they're here at 6:00. I mean, somebody's here. At least, even if you wanted to raise it, at

118least if you had the questions to them at 6:00, they could be prepared. We could have the questions answered instead of the going through it like one by one. I I >> Well, I didn't get home until 6:10. >> Okay. Well, we we all do have time constraints and I understand that. >> After tonight, it was like 6:40, wasn't it? uh you know let's this you know but it would be really helpful because we I have asked for all all four administrators to be available to each one of us so that when we do this it doesn't look like we're fumbling through everything because we have no idea what the question's going to be and it it just comes off the top of the head. It would be wonderful if now I'm not saying you

119can't speak about it but if you at least give them a heads up so that they have the answers for what you would like >> noted. Um okay. So under number one under procession uh it basically says that if uh the possession amount uh is a statutory amount like for criminal action then we do something. All right. And if not I don't know that we do anything. So I my question is is what do we do when there's there's a possession that does not meet the legal threshold for criminal action? >> We follow we follow up. I mean this is I I do feel a little bit as though part of the recommendations that you're making are getting into the administrative part of our of our jobs and not necessarily at the central office level

120but at the building level. I know and I'm answering it, but the concern that I have is that what what you what you just questioned as to well what happens if we're not taking action is the fact that the building administration, the child study team, the guidance counselor, maybe it was it was the teacher that was involved, all the professionals that are working with those with that student follows up with that student. Maybe it's through counseling, maybe it's through a session, maybe it's just a matter of what just happened and then and then kind of like following up that with that student as to maybe they're going on some social issues, whatever it may be. So, I think that I I I don't think and Mr. Rosselli, correct me if I'm wrong, but I I

121don't think you can get into like every single aspect of what happens when it's not a violation. >> It's not possible, but Glenn, I I have I have a question. I'm mistaken. >> I have a question, though. >> I'm talking about possession. It says when a student is found to be in possession of any quantity of illegal substances, the school's categorization of possession or intent to distribute or distribution shall be determined by local police. So that that talks about any quantity. So I'm not sure what the issue is. >> Mr. Gerino, when he answers his question, >> it says in accordance with New Jersey legal statute. >> Well, that's when you're Yeah. >> So that that basically quantifies it as a statutory amount. So what I'm saying is we don't have anything in this policy

122that gives the administration discretion to discipline or amount less than that >> is what my point was. And I think that the the policy should actually have something that gives the administration that discretion. >> Yeah. >> Otherwise, you know, you could have people look at this and go, you don't have a right to do these >> if it's not at least the statuto amount. >> Um I I'm unaware of a student who's able to possess any amount of an illegal drug. right? >> Whether it be a spot of it. So, >> Mr. say that basically >> every situation's different and we need to trust the administration's going to deal with those things. >> Well, I'm not saying not to, but I'm in a box if you start to do that. >> Yeah, that that was

123a misunderstanding is my point was trying to be that I don't want to leave a loophole where the administration doesn't have the ability to use their discretion. >> It is against the law to have illegal substances. These are drugs are illegal. So I I don't see how that's a loophole at all. >> I know that there's a legal amount in the school. >> That might change. >> Maybe. It very well might. Maybe after tonight. >> Not for kids. It'll not for children. >> What about question? >> No, you can't because this is a reading, right? We have to >> Well, this the question is it's it's the first reading. But the I'm just looking at the pos I I don't see the issues that are being brought. I mean I understand you know some of

124these things are are questions and just clarifications but that's the whole point of first reading. If you have a whole list of things they should go to the policy committee and to be put in discuss and put into the >> that's what I'm trying to say like if you come if you I understand you want to say it here. I get that. I get the I get the whole picture. I've got it. But the thing what I'm saying to you is that they are available. Give them the information so that they can do what you want them to do. Here here's the thing. >> I if I don't bring it up at this meeting, I'm going to be told that I should have brought it up at this meeting. >> Have I never Have I

125never anything that if you've given us information, have we not taken it to where it needs to go? Mr. Gurino's right next to you. He is the chairperson. >> Order. I made a motion. >> We We can't >> Well, that's not true. There he did make a motion to call the question. If there's a second and a vote on it, then we would call the question. Otherwise, that's up to the board president to dener. >> You're move you want you want to move the the the question. >> Nobody. >> Uh, nobody second it. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> we have to poll on that. >> There has to be a vote. >> Two vote. >> Okay. >> Now, motion. So, you >> No, no, this is just to call the question. >> Why have a question?

126>> Yeah. >> Because >> can he have a question on the question? >> It's still separated. So on the absent >> Okay. So now we now we have a voice voice. It's got to be >> we need a two-thirds vote. So there has to be a roll call. The motion was to call this question on the substitute policy and regulation. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> you have more issues. >> Mr. Bailey, >> did anybody second it? >> Yes. Mrs. Fritz. >> This is a a motion to call the question. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Garino, >> yes. >> Mr. Yuber, >> no. >> Mrs. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> yes. >> Okay, that passed. So, now we have to take

127a vote on substance abuse policies three and four. >> Okay. >> Three and four. >> Yes. One and two are we haven't discussed yet. >> Okay. >> So, go ahead. >> The motion is to vote on >> three and four. So we do >> Yep. First reading. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Francis reading four. >> Mr. Bailey. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yuber. >> No. >> Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyk. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay. First reading three and four. >> Okay. So now we're doing one and two. >> One and two. >> Okay. So now this motion is for items one and two under policy. >> Is there any discussion? >>

128Any discussion? >> If not, Mrs. Francisca got Mr. Huber. >> Okay. Um >> I just like to clarify because there's some misstatements at the last meeting um with regard to what this policy actually does. >> Okay. misstatements according to you >> according to the policy. >> Okay. Um so basically what we had before is that anybody walking into a classroom one second late after the bell is subject to a target. Okay. That's it's a late which is frequently met with detention. Okay. um five of those uh equal an absence. Okay, so there was already discipline to do with being late regardless of whether it was 5 minutes or 20 minutes. The previous motion had in there that if you were 20 minutes late, which is what about uh the periods are what 50 minutes we're

129knocking out with she's over there, >> right? So about 40 minute clock. All right. So, if you're late, if you're missing half the class, it was considered a cut, which is an absence, right? Um because obviously you couldn't have gotten anything out of that class. Um so, what we're doing now is we're changing that so that there's still the same tardy policy uh that deals with um the actual lateness, but we're cutting down the automatic absence to five minutes. And what that's going to do is that's going to affect so if you have four absences, you lose credit for uh one of the shorter courses. Eight absences, you lose credit for a halfyear course and 16 absences, you lose credit for a full year course. Now, I see this as going to be a problem

130for the first period class since we do not have rotating schedules in the high school or any other school. Um, so I think there's we need >> Why do you see that as a problem? >> Because >> aren't they supposed to be there? >> Things happen. Parents get up late, kids get up late. It happens. It doesn't have to do with like getting from class to class in the in the building. >> But but f if you're if you're alive. >> All right. Can I finish speaking, please? >> Okay. Sure. >> All right. Now, I understand that you don't agree with me. Sometimes you like to shut me down, >> but I I think I let you talk a lot. I really do. >> Well, I have a right to cuz I'm an elected official.

131>> Okay, good for you. Let's go. >> All right. So, that having been said, um I think that the whole tardy section of this, and I think it's a good idea to consolidate the the attendance policies into one because it was separated into three and it's unwieldy. Okay. However, this particular section, I think, is is really uniquely designed for the high school. So, I think we should one I'll make a motion that we should designate this section as applicable to the high school, not the middle school, not the elementary school. >> Second reading on this. >> Okay. And um >> Oh, I appreciate my fellow board members for coming back. >> No problem. >> Um could pee if I w it's amazing how three people disappeared. Um, so the what I was what I was

132just making a motion. >> Are you questioning >> whether or not I went to the Let's just get to the point of the policy. >> Okay. >> Wow. I just walked over. >> Okay. You know, um, so all right. So what I was making a motion for is to amend the policy to make the whole tardy section that was tacked on to the old attendance policy from the high school attendance policy applicable to the high school because it's really unique to the high school. So that's that's uh my first motion. >> Sure. >> So do you just want to clarify that in the heading that it's for the high school? >> Uh yes. Hold on a second. Uh I'll give you the number. >> Okay. I mean I don't have it so We had that

133one back. >> Oh, no. That was that was just the >> sub. >> I just We just need to know the heading in the section so that we know what we're talking about. >> So, he's changing it so that it says high school. >> It should be the last page. >> The very last page. >> Yeah, it should be the last page. >> But what about McAPin? Doesn't mince fall under those also? it. But what I'm saying is it shouldn't >> I mean max doesn't really have Mac doesn't have the same kind of problems that this would address >> um seven >> it's attendance >> okay page seven I under tiness would be the one where it would be applicable >> and that runs along to >> are you talking is this the policy or

134the regulation um regulation. Sorry. >> Okay. >> So, what section should So, should where it says tardiness, do you just want to say hard tardiness for the high school, >> right? You want that clarified. Okay. >> Yes. But I I I want to clarify. Do we need the tardy tardy weakness policy part as part of the MACUP in school? Because they they are moving from class to class and part of that part of that has to do with the the time frame in the class. >> Yeah, correct. Our secondary schools, our elementary schools, they're really with their teacher. They get walked to the to the gym to the art room. Makapin and high school they do move classes. Um >> students don't credit. >> I'm not seeing any kind of attendance issues at Makipin at

135all. Kids are in the classrooms. The bell rings. If somebody's two seconds late, it's noticeable. So I'm I'm not sensing that at Makipin. >> All right. >> Policy should just be the high school. The the motion was to change the heading under for tardiness to tardiness either parenthesis high school or dash high school or just something to clarify high school. That was a motion >> and it was seconded. >> Okay. So we have a we're putting a vote on that. Okay. >> Yes. >> That's a roll call vote. Correct. >> Yes. >> We're voting on the motion to change that to just the high school. We're not voting on the second reading just to change it the the amendment to it to change it to the high school >> for tardiness. >> Mrs. Francisco, please.

136>> Mr. Bailey, >> no. >> Mr. Sidawitz, >> no. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> no. >> Mr. Gino, >> no. >> Mr. Yuber, >> yes. >> M O'Brien, >> no. >> Mrs. Van Dyke. >> No. >> Okay. >> So, now we're back to the second reading >> of the original >> of the to to vote on the first and one and two. >> Correct. >> Is there any other discussion? >> Have another motion. Um under 2 A under the tardiness section. Um that school is very difficult as far as layout goes. >> Okay. >> Which page you want? >> I'm on the same page. >> Which school? Same page 2A >> page n of >> which school are you talking about? >> High school. >> Well, it's they didn't pass, so

137it's all schools. >> Well, you said that school. >> That school. >> That's fun. >> Um, sorry. The high school is I thought everybody knew the high school layout was kind of crazy. >> Mhm. >> All right. But, um, that layout of school is very difficult for new students coming in from Macin to get used to. And I think cutting the um grace period from 10 days to 5 days is unnecessary. Um I don't think it there's any discipline problem that served to do that to just make it more draconian and to pounce on the kids a little earlier. I'd like to I'd like to remove that and change it back to um >> back to 10 days. >> You need you need a second for that. Anyone? >> Okay. Here's my next motion. Um

138the five minute cut. Okay. I think again that's draconian. Um I'll meet you in the middle if we can make it 15 minutes. I think that would still be reasonable. >> You're in section two. >> Yeah. So, >> keeping in mind the kids are still getting punished for being late period, right? >> So, >> grace period. >> Same thing. >> Well, they already they just didn't get a second on that one. >> So, that's the same. >> So, you need a second. >> So, you're talking you're section two, right? That sentence section two. Yes. >> Yep. Okay. Do you want to change that from 5 to 15? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> We need a second on that. >> Anyone? Okay. Are is that it? Can we move one and two now or is there

139any other discussion by anyone else? >> Mr. Drew, >> fairly quickly. My concern with the tardiness policy is that it it escalates to an absence which then affects academic credit. Now, I know chrotic absenteeism is just terrible problem all over the state and kids who don't show up to class don't do well, but I think they're not going to do well on their own that we shouldn't necessarily have an automatic your grade is lowered as a result of this. They're just not going to do well. So, it's just a concern I have about the the entire issue that it's possible some kid could still do all their work and do fine and shouldn't necessarily be penalized automatically. You know, they're not going to do well anyhow if they don't show up. But, >> Mr. >>

140People being people, I I believe that people are going to sleep in and get up late and things like that and I think it's going to unduly impact our first period classes. So noted. Anyone else? Mrs. Francisco, one and two. Uh, Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> no. >> Mr. Drew, >> no. >> Mrs. Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Gino, >> yes. >> Mr. Yuber, >> no. >> Miss O'Brien, >> yes. >> Miss Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Okay. Um, do we have to go executive? >> We have committee reports. >> I didn't know if we had to do it by 9:00 or something. >> No, no, not >> committee reports. Uh, Mr. Any Do we have? >> There is no parts from the meeting. They're still in search of

141>> director. >> Um, myself for safety. Uh, I did speak actually with Mr. Citro last night and it looks like we're going to be having a meeting the end of April because >> yeah superintendent round table is Thursday. >> Yes. >> Uh last one went uh went very well. I think the parents were very happy with you know the answers the one thing that they are looking for and they're looking to you Mr. clouds as they're heroes. Get that voting out of >> catch that date. No pressure. So, and when you hear if you hear anything that would >> increase >> the state county school boards the meeting is um >> the 29th >> town New Jersey school board you are legislating. >> Okay. Um the report from last week that had to do with

142the various uh items that went through the assembly, they have now gone through the Senate. Uh those those um bills were uh that affected schools about four bills that had to do with um education on um sexual misconduct and things like that and employee hiring uh and and um uh searching employee history before hiring them. With regard to that, uh it's not the Senate. is up to the governor to sign off on. So, we'll we'll see if he if he signs off on it, it'll be law and that will be um complying with that. Um now, going back to the things that were at the last uh uh um uh voted on items from the last end of last year. Uh there were a number of bills approved that were signed by uh by the

143governor and then there were some that were called pocket veita. Basically they were passed by uh the assembly in the senate and they then the governor did not sign them and so they just died. So they can be brought back up this year. Okay. So um the bills that were approved require a computer science course required to be offered in public schools and ensure that the modern computer science standards are incorporated uh by 2022 and 2023 school year. Um presumably those standards will be supplied by the um uh state board of ed and um they will be incorporated in high school graduation requirements. Okay. Uh the next bill, I'm not going to bother reading the numbers because it's just silly. Um >> but if somebody would like >> if somebody would like them, I'd be

144happy to give them. Yeah. Um this uh the next bill is a revision of a current law um that affects the types of securities that can be purchased um uh by local units and school districts. Um it has to do with investment pools that have to be managed. It'll concern Barbara's work more than anything else, I believe. Um and the next one that was passed um establish standardized change condition clauses for construction contracts. So when we do a construction contract I the way I read this is that there's going to be certain conditions that we're required to have in there. Um so when we put it out to bid we we would probably have to incorporate incorporate these things. Um and those would have to do with um site conditions, suspension of contract work, changes

145in character of contract work, changes in the amount of work to be formed by the contractor. Um and it would be um it would establish a standard process for handling um change conditions on local public construction projects. Um the next bill has to do with busing. This one was passed. Um, uh, provides that a person who knowingly operates a school bus transporting one or more students while the person's driving privileges have been suspended or revoked is pro guilty of a crime of the fourth degree. Um, I think that pretty much sums that up and it creates more increased, you know, increased penalties should there be an accident or bodily injury. that um let's see the next one is um require school buses that provide transportation for students using wheelchairs to be equipped with four-point secure

146um uh system to secure the the chair. Uh for any of those who have ever been in an ambulance that does that kind of transportation, there's little clips that hook on the wheels and and so on and so forth. Um, let me see. We will require lap and shoulder belts and I'm sure that Joe will have to inform the uh the administration about the details of that. U my update here doesn't give any more details than that really. Um the next bill required that school districts um and non-public schools notify each student enrolled and the parents and guardians about summer meal programs and you can do that by electronic notice. So that's not so bad. >> We don't have them. >> Okay. Um let's see. And then there's some pocket vetoed items. I think that's

147long enough for one day. >> Yep. As long as none of them are impacting us. >> Yeah, there's a couple of them that will that will, but >> um Mrs. Fritz technology. >> I don't have any updates today. We haven't had another meeting. So, >> um Mrs. O'Brien Education Foundation, >> the West Walford Education Foundation is having a meet and greet next Monday, March 26, 7 p.m. at the board event conference room. Please come out and support them. Um we're looking for new members and we're looking to uh look forward in granting grants to our wonderful faculty staff and >> thank you Mr. Sitz. >> So the councilman and myself have kept correspondence through email and phone. We haven't had a physical meeting since our last one. However, the main topic has been for me

148through the board the PK as a voting location and uh some direction was given to me by the councilman's and uh I will be contacting the township administrator and possibly the county administrators to find out what election requirements need to be fulfilled. And as a general question that's stemming from this, couldn't we just say PK is no longer a voting location? Sorry. No. Uh if you recall, we wrote a letter to the township administrator about 18 months ago, two years ago, uh because um Mrs. Keepy was very concerned about that and um they came back and they said sorry and we came up with other alternatives like the the church where it used to be and the ambulance squad >> but they they've designated the site and they won't move from that. >> So do

149you have to know if that was through the county function of running elections county board of elections? >> The county does that. So really the county is to the primary correct >> they would have to appeal to the county to have the location changed. >> Um I could give you a copy of the that correspondence if you don't happen to have it. >> That would be great. Thank you. >> So that that is the uh main focus as right now. There are other topics but that takes time to develop into other things. So uh that is my report. Thank you. We appreciate you pursuing that to Mr. >> Okay. Uh first like to congratulate Nate Bedford uh and thank him for volunteering to be a CASA committee member, voting CASA committee member uh under the

150communication uh category. Um this helps us meet uh grant requirements that um if we can get this grant we can do a lot uh for the community uh on that on the topic of uh the substance abuse abuse prevention and education and such. Um I'd like to go through um some dates and events that are planned. >> Okay. Saturday. Um uh this this Saturday, March 24th, is a strengthening families resource fair at Our Lady Queen of Peace. Um I believe that is from 1 to 4. Um and it's uh co-sponsored by the Highland Family Success Center. Um the Friday, April 27th is the date for the uh CASA middle school semiformal. This is being held at MCPins from 7:30 to 9:30. There is no uh pre-registration this year. They have plenty of capacity and they're

151going to be taking the $15 fee at the door. Uh however there is a permission slip that can be obtained on the CASA committee website which there is a link on uh the I believe the families drop down on the district website that families can get the permission slip. They have to bring the permission slip or they will be turned away. Okay. Um Monday uh April 30th is hidden in plain sight. Now, this is a great program. Uh, it's for adults only. This program is designed to it's going to have like a a a bedroom setup, and it's going to be designed to educate parents on where paraphernalia and and other things might be hidden that uh would not be obvious. And it's um uh everybody I've talked to who's gone to it uh has

152said it's an absolutely fabulous uh presentation. I'd recommend >> we're going to do a no homework night that night so uh parents have a little more free time that evening >> to attend. They're not >> Thank you for the >> They're not home with their kids struggling through homework. >> Great. Thank you for that support. That's great. >> Um >> Saturday, May 12th is the Lion's Health Fair um at the rec center. I'm sorry, the hidden plain sight. Let me go back to that. That's being held at 7 PM at the uh uh high school cafeteria, I believe. Right. In the cafeteria. And that's 7:32. Roughly 8:30ish, maybe 9. Um >> Glen, did you say 7 or 7:30? You said >> uh the hidden in plain sight is 7:00 to around 8:39. >> Okay. Um,

153the the Lion's Health Fair uh is on May 12th at the rec center from 11:30 to 2:30 p.m. 2:30 p.m. That's a Saturday. Um, the community awareness dinner that Cassa holds is Saturday, May 19th, um, at the library. Uh, RSVP will be preferred. Um and uh that for those of you who don't know uh each year CASA has a a knowledgeable speaker that comes in and discusses topics uh with regard to substance abuse and and prevention and such like uh for uh anybody who wants to come. It is open to older students that you know parents feel it's appropriate to bring and uh it's really uh I've been to the last uh two or three of them. It's really very uh very educational. Um, and then on June 13th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at

154the West Milford Library, there's Narcan training. And with the Narcan training, uh, they will, I believe, provide uh, uh, Narcan kits for anybody who uh, would want to have them and maybe have a need for them. So, this is great for anybody who is in a role where they might be around anybody who who could be helped with this. All right. And other than that, the cost committee will be submitting a grant um submitting for the grant again. Uh we're crossing our fingers and hopefully we've met more of the requirements now and we'll see what happens. >> Thank um all business. Yeah. Um, we had a request for information that had been posted in the newspapers. Um, and just to give the board an update, we did not receive any responses for anyone interested in

155the building. Uh we did receive responses of people that are interested in renting space in the building, more particularly the space that was originally from New Life Recovery. But um that's that's the only interest that we've received so far. >> Any discussion under all business? >> Mr. S. >> Uh this question is from Mr. Francisco. Uh the LGAA walkthrough, did the snow inhibit any walkth through last week? >> Um I don't believe there was anything scheduled last week. Everything is is going forward starting next week. >> So two buildings have been completed. >> Thank you. >> Any other old business? >> Um I'd like to ask Dr. Anamone about whether they you guys have done anything about warning the students about um the popcorn loan at the CASA meeting. Our two student representatives pretty much

156said the kids just don't know that there's a danger. Okay. And so I'm still concerned that we use our bully pulpit as a district and be able to warn the youth of the community of the dangers of that. >> Well, we did craft a letter uh the board uh asked us to send a letter to draft a letter to the town council which we did. Uh Barbara, we sent it out already to the township council mayor. It was very nicely worded. It was It was really well written. But that's not what I was asking about. >> Okay. What were you asking about? >> All right. We had discussed last meeting and it really wasn't uh a motion didn't go forward because um it was felt that it should be handled by the administration. I think

157that was the general feeling. Um and so I'm asking if the administration in the last month has done anything about mourning the students of this problem about this health issue. since since the it's vaping has really gotten traction in the middle school and it's already established in the high school. >> Well, we we we have a curriculum. We base our curriculum on the content standards that come from the state. So, we have our curriculum for the year. We base that on the state content standards. There's nothing in the state's content standards about this popcorn lung. So, we really don't have enough information to insert into our curriculum. Once we do, we certainly would teach that in our health classes, but it doesn't quite work that way. Our teachers lesson plan months in advance. So, it'

158be very difficult to take this. We don't really have the knowledge base right now, I believe, to teach this to our kids. >> All right. So, I'd like to make a motion, again, hopefully somebody will second at this time. I'd like to make a motion in whatever form the administration thinks is the most effective. It's our job to ask the administration to do things, their job to implement it. Um to ask them to warn the students promptly of the dangers of vaping, certain chemicals that could create permanent damage to their lungs that will make you breathe like an old man. Okay, with COPD, we really need to warn them of that. And it would be nice to tell them also too that vaping often, you know, has all the same chemicals that smoking did as

159well. >> You need a second. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Roll call on that. >> Roll call. >> Mr. Bailey. >> No. Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> no. >> Mr. Gino, >> no. >> Mr. Yuber, >> yes. >> Miss O'Brien, >> no. >> Mrs. Van Dyk, >> no. >> Is there anything else under old business? >> I need a motion to close all business. >> Move to close old business. Second. >> All right. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? New business. >> Mr. D. >> Real quick. >> I just like to say thank you to the people who put on the play. They really did a professional job. It was well done. The orchestra, students, and everybody involved in that. This this district

160does a great job >> with with the musicals. And I, you know, I think it's suited to the talents of the kids and the staff. and I just thoroughly enjoyed it. So, thank you to everybody involved in that. Also gave me an opportunity to experience our new auditorium and I think we did a great job with that. Really looks nice. It's a pleasure to be in and it had good acoustic. So, good job, West Milford. >> I agree. Any other new business? >> Yep. And I'd like to make a a motion that being that it's their purview um to request from the municipality two resource officers, one for Macken School and one for the high school. >> You want to >> we we've done that. We've had the municipality supplied that years ago and it

161was withdrawn >> because there was no money. There's no money. >> We >> no money. >> That's something they have a budget. They're going to be discussing it as well. So, but >> we it can't hurt for us to ask. I mean, in view of all these, you know, shootings, there's a school resource officer that saved kids today. Or was it yesterday? Sorry. >> Today. >> It was today. It was this morning. Okay. This morning. >> Yeah. In Maryland. There's a school resource officer that prevented people from getting killed. >> Okay. And I just think it's appropriate to ask. If they say no, they say no. Then we have to figure something else out. >> Are you thinking to to send them a letter? is that we >> Yes, we I I'd like to, you

162know, make a formal request, preferably before their next council meeting, which if it doesn't get snowed out, is tomorrow night. Um so that they can put it into their their discussions because they're discussing their budget as well. >> Second discussion on that, Mrs. >> Mr. Bailey. >> No, >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Mrs. uh Fritz. >> This is just a request that they consider it. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yuber. >> Yes. >> M. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Miss. Van Dyke. >> Yes. >> Maybe we should assign somebody to go to the meeting tomorrow. And >> I don't know. It's right now you have the state of emergency, so I don't know if they're going to actually have it. >> Yeah. Oh, >> yeah. Of

163course. >> I I was actually make this motion on the 13th, but >> it would be more timely if there was a meeting tomorrow. >> Uh, anything else under old business? >> So, just so we're clear, this is a phone call. >> Yeah, phone call letter or email, whatever you think is best. >> Okay. I do have one more thing. That's more of a notification to the administration and there is a perception um running around middle school parents which is coming from a perception of high school parents um that and I I know that this is probably a vast major minority sorry vast minority of teachers but there's a perception that when the children move from middle school to high school that their children will not get help from the teachers. um if your child

164has a problem and this is just something I want to bring up. It's a perception that I've been hearing about and I'm going to ask the administration to please do what you can to one uh remedy what little bit of truth maybe behind that. Um, I doubt there's very much too many teachers that are like that, but I'm sure there are a few. And to see what you can do to speak with communicate with the parents to um, you know, reassure them of what you're doing and that it is being looked after. >> Anything else? >> I need a motion to close new business. >> Close new business. >> Second. All right. >> All those in favor? Any opposition [Applause] items. Uh petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting with five will

165be uh first with five minutes for each petitioner for period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other petitioners and requests limited to a time frame of five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute time period expires. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Anyone wishing to speak My name is Tamara Jordan of West Milford. Uh, we have car insurance. I have car insurance. I haven't had an accident, but I have car insurance just in case. With the resource officers, money should be coming from somewhere in this town. Okay, I just somebody has to really, really, really think about this and vote accordingly. Whether it's the board of ed, whether

166it's our council, whether we could get grants, but let's hope we never need to have a problem. But if we have a problem, we will be ready. That's that's how everybody feels. And I'm sure that if we had that, I don't think people would mind their taxes being raised slightly for something like that. When we start getting into athletics, things like that, people have problems with that. They're working very hard. They're pinching pennies. They're budgeting. It's very difficult on families today. but on security in light of everything that we've seen and are experiencing on television. And it's horrible. I hope I hope we never ever have to have that. But let's have some coverage. Let's really think this through. That's all. >> Mrs. Jordan, I didn't get your address. I'm sorry. >> She didn't give

167us >> 12 Concord. I'm sorry. >> It's okay. >> Anyone else? >> Move to close public comments. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. We need a motion to go into executive session. I >> move to go into executive session at 10:00. for the purposes of discussing personnel appointments, resignations, current litigation matters, special education matters, negotiations, HIV, and matters of attorney client privilege. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I vote. >> We will take action. Joe, this is your first agenda. You have to go to the beginning, right? >> Yeah. >> I just noticed that now. >> Yeah. Mr. Drew, do you want to do the hips? >> Uh, motion number three under education. Okay. Uh I'd like to move number three. Under education >> we

168have uh four HIS um >> 8 H11 unsubstantiated. H12 these are the recommendations of the administration. H12 substantiated. E15's unsubstantiated. And I believe E16 was substantiated. >> Second. Any discussion? If not, roll call. I'll get there. Um, Mrs. O'Brien, >> yes. >> Mr. Gino, >> yes. >> Mr. Yuber, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fritz, >> yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz, >> yes. >> Mr. Drew, >> yes. >> Mrs. Van Dyke, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien. Uh personnel >> the hand carry 18. >> I'd like to move item 18 under the hand carry. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Mrs. Francis. Um Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Huber. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> M. Van Dyke. >> Yes. Motion to

169adjurnn. >> No, not yet. >> Not yet. >> I have one motion. I will read it. >> Like, I thought we had it over. It >> says, "Whereas due to the potential for an excessive number of snow days to be used this year, the school calendar may need to be adjusted to include additional instructional days and ensure that schools are open for the minimum number of student days. And whereas given the potential for additional snow days in the coming days, it is not possible at this time to determine a definitive school calendar for the remainder of the school year. Be it resolved that the board hereby authorizes the superintendent to modify the school calendar for the 1718 school year as he reasonably sees fit to ensure that additional days which were originally deemed non-school days

170in the calendar previously approved by the board are added back into the school calendar as instructional days as appropriate. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Second that. >> Uh will will >> or either one of them >> that's fine. Mr. Mr. Cidowitz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Drew. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fritz. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yuber. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Mr. Van. Mrs. Van Dyke. >> Billy Boy. I'm thinking about Billy Boy. >> That's terrible. >> Yes. >> I need a motion. >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All those in favor? I. >> Any oppos? Good night. I hope everybody's doing >> if you have to stay home, >> Steve. >> I don't want to forget. It's for the Chromebook.

171>> Oh, okay. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. Thank you.