Board of Education Meeting 3/22/16

001Good evening everyone. Um, thank you for coming. This is our regular meeting of the West Milford Board of Education for March 26, 2016. Please silence uh any cell phones and notice the emergency exits back and to the side. Um, I'd like to have a moment of silence for my How do you pronounce her name? M A N O S Manos. Uh, Dawn Manos, her mother-in-law, passed away this past week. Mary Downing, a another employee, her brother passed away this past week. And Matt Stryanne's uncle passed away. So happens in threes and it's really sad that that has to happen but like a moment of silence for those three people please flag algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with

002liberty and justice for all. In accordance with the provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, the Herald News, The Trends, The Record, AIM, West Milford, The Messenger, West Milford Town Hall, the County Superintendent Office, the Board attorney, and Cable Vision of Warwick, and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call. Mrs. Francisco, Mr. Bailey, here. Mr. De, Mr. Drew. Mrs. Guer here. Mr. Foody, present. Mr. Yuber, here. Miss O'Brien here. Mr. Robbins here. Mrs. Schulz here. Um, Mr. Drew has car trouble. He'll be a little um we have an executive session resolution. Would Juan, would you like to read that,

003please? Okay. Okay. Um motion for uh to approve the following resolution. Resolve with the floor to executive session at 9:00 p.m. for approximately 60 minutes for the purpose of discussing the superintendent search personnel negotiations parent appeal for HIB 2 2016/87 and matters of attorney client privilege. The executive session minutes will not be released until such time as the privilege of confidentiality is no longer applicable. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Mr. Rashika, superintendent report. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Foody. Uh, as usual, I'd like to uh have our birthday boy, Matt, uh, give us our report first. Please, Matt, I would have brought a cake if I had known, but I'll catch up to you. Cupcake. [Music] Good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, Mr. Rajika. Tonight, I have the song. Yeah. Tonight, I

004have the pleasure of delivering to you an account of student life for the month of March at West Milford High School. As spring officially began last Saturday, and it turned out that the groundhog was right this year. The warm weather welcomes many of our student activities as they enter into full bloom. First and foremost, I would like to congratulate all the winter sports teams, including a state championship for our boy ski racing team. The Highlanders had many other teams that competed deep into the me into the conference and county tournaments. Um, spring sports are already in full swing and many teams have already had scrimmages. Um, this Thursday the junior prom will be held at Casabianca in Oakidge. There are over 200 students attending and they're all looking forward to a great night as this

005year's theme is the 1920s. The senior class is hard at work preparing for the end of the year and the conclusion of our high school careers. Um, the senior class trip will be held on May 17th and we will be we are excited to announce that we will be taking coach buses to the Bronx Zoo. Uh, senior class graduation yard signs will be available in April for $20 each. Um, please buy a sign and support the class of 2016 today. Furthermore, the planning for the senior prom is being to be finalized and it will be held on June sec June 2nd at Mayfair Farms. Um, Mr. Chairman, it appears that a motion for congratulations is in order for the history and social sciences department. Um, I would like to highlight the accomplishments of three new

006teams and clubs. Our model UN team recently competed at St. Peters University and won four awards. Um, in addition um students competed um with a history club at Satan Hall University as they hosted the National History Day competition. Um, one student, Andrea Hilario, qualified as a state finalist. Um, furthermore, I want to take this moment to highlight a new extracurricular at West Mford High School and that is Model Congress. Um, I was very happy to see this organization um, grow and develop for its first year and we had a very successful conference at Ryder University for the New Jersey State Model Congress. One student Anthony Messia even won an award as a sophomore. Um, and as usual, our band and indoor percussion teams had some stellar performances, including a first place finish at Bridgewater and

007Raritin on March 12th. As we look towards the future, we hope to wish them another successful year in the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City. Um, that's all I have for you this evening, especially because we had a a meeting earlier this month, but I thank you for the time. Thanks. Thank you, Matthew. I have to say it is surprising that we're talking about semiformals and uh the prom at this point, but I guess that time is here. Uh, we spoke about the spring weather. However, we were a little bit frightened this past weekend uh as we had all these forecasts coming in and multiple activities planned for yesterday. one being career day which was very successful. Our Rotary and some other folks joined us for a wonderful morning over at the high

008school. Students did a fine job. Uh the presenters did a very nice job. So it was a great experience for everybody and I'm very happy that we were able to make that happen. Again, you know, uh we were just worried about the weather and then I'll let Mr. uh Novak elaborate more on what took place last night with the uh digital society uh looking at uh how to work things in new age of technology and uh making sure that you're doing it the right way. So I won't steal that thunder, but it was a concern because we you know had a large number of people coming. So we managed to get through that. Uh more bright news though is I do have if anyone would like to see it, Matthew mentioned that the high school

009band was in the parade in this in the city uh last Thursday. I do have it. They were on the actually uh the front page of the local section on Friday. So if anybody like it, I will share it with you. I'll be hanging this up in the board office. And uh in addition to that, I really had a wonderful weekend. Uh I spent I think most of the day here Saturday. I started off my morning with uh family and my grandkids coming over to Westbrook School for the bunny breakfast. That's probably something I haven't done in about 25 years. Uh so that was quite enjoyable and happy to see that uh I believe they said they had about 187 people uh attended the first meeting. I was there at the second seating and it

010couldn't have been much less than that probably equal to uh so that was very successful and the highlight of the evening was Paradise Null Miss Miller's school uh doing a fundraiser the PTA sponsoring the Harlem Wizards against our own team and staff here from West Milford who did a great job. Happy to see everybody uh even Paul Bunan sitting next to me. So, it was very exciting. Even if you were there, you would know what I'm talking about, but uh we had we had a good time and it was great to see our staff out there participating. So, lots of positive things going on and we're really very happy about that. Um I also want to acknowledge the fact that uh one one person who often comes to our board meetings, especially the last few

011weeks, but she's not here this evening, uh would be Mary Reinhold, our principal from Makipin School. and uh just want to read to you where she is tonight. She received the congratulations on behalf of freeholder Terry Duffy. He would like to honor you as his woman history month honore during this month's Pay County Freeholder celebration meeting which obviously is taking place this evening at 5:30. So uh they also will have a proclamation in her name on behalf of her talents and what she's donated to society and to to West Milford and toa county. So, we want to wish Mary, even though she's not here, uh, good luck, congratulations, and we're very proud of her. Um, so that works out well. Um, moving right along. I'm just going to move over to the podium for a

012second or two. Okay. Something else I'd like to point out on behalf of one of our board members have received from school boards association uh a letter stated here that Mr. Bailey, congratulations on serving your local board of education for 20 years. Your commitment to education in your community is honorable and must be celebrated. In addition, you're invited to a Pose County School Boards Association meeting to be held at 6 PM on April 26th at the Brownstone. And you're also encouraged to invite your board of education and your superintendent. So, congratulations, Mr. Bailey. Thank you for your commitment for 20 years. And here's one of those certificates everybody loves. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Happy Easter. All right. So, moving along here. Um, you know, what one of the things we want to focus in

013on is the, as I said, the last few meetings looking at the strategic plan where we are. I gave a copy to each one of the board members and just had them review for now goals one and two. So what I'd like to do is just a brief discussion based on goal number one which is looking at student achievement. Uh so number one of the objectives for that would be produce technology lit literature or literate students and a reasonable digital digital society. Um and that's exactly where we were last night. We had all these students in there with their families involved in the new digital age. uh talking about the things that they would do on anywhere from a Chromebook to a cell phone, any type of device whatsoever. Uh so that's stuff that is

014activities that are taking place that are very positive. Uh we talk about supporting differentiated instruction and that's a big concern of ours because we want to make sure that all of our students have the opportunity to succeed in school and in the classroom and have the uh strategies put in place to make them successful. And I'm happy to report and I mentioned it once before when QAC came in uh they looked at that they saw some of those things taking place but more importantly they saw that our inclusion teachers were working with the classroom teacher and really working as a team. So that's very important as well. Um increase meaningful experiences that create opportunities to explore personal learning goals and visions. uh we spoke about STEM, steam and having all these goals for students to

015look at for the future. So we are also working on that. We're also looking at as I mentioned last week building those relationships with local universities and colleges. And I think we're moving in the right direction. Uh overall health and well-being, self-esteem, dealing with the whole child, building school culture. I think we're finally taking steps to make that successful. So I'm happy to report on that. If the board has anything they'd like to uh elaborate on with that information, I'd be happy to to listen to anything or any questions. And then looking at goal two specifically uh under n number three of the objectives, increase parent and family involvement through additional school functions. I think that's one of the areas that we've actually really focused on this year. uh starting off the school year with

016a superintendent forum for the secondary level events like last night's event uh that took place over at the middle school uh looking at our literacy nights and all the other programs that we offer within the district. I often go on to other school websites just to see how we compare as far as what we're offering to our students in the community. And I'm very happy to see what we have available and uh and what we put out there for our students to take advantage of uh the communications that we're building with parents. I think we're in the right direction and certainly we want to continue in that direction. So I think as far as goals one and two, we're on track. Uh and next week I will report more on the district goals, not so

017much on the strategic plan goals. But again, I encourage you to please if you have any questions to reach out to me in regards to these topics. Um, pretty much I think that's about it. I think that's enough from me. So, uh, Mr. Foody, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rashika. Mr. Novak, your education report, please. Mr. Rashika mentioned that he didn't want to steal my thunder, but you almost stole my entire my entire speech. It was He also forgot to mention that he was sitting on a Easter Bunny's lap, but that's okay. It was in the slideshow, didn't it? As Mr. Rashika mentioned, uh we had a we had a tremendous night last night. I've been talking about the digital citizenship and literacy night uh for many months. So much that people in the audience

018probably getting tired of hearing about it. Um however, you know, that being said, we had a we had a fantastic night. Uh the turnout was was far more than we could have dreamed of with with the type of interaction that we had. Um, all said and done, we had uh registered participants and very few of those registered participants backed out at the last minute or or were no shows for whatever reason. The people who registered committed to the event and came out and um from from the feedback we've received. It was it was a real positive night. um six students were uh winners of the Chromebooks and um those those names will be provided through some of our local media outlets so we can and on our website so everyone can can celebrate the students

019who who won. Um like I said just just a great a great event at the Makabin School. Uh and one of the things I I one of the groups I wanted to really point out is our educational technology committee who um really took this idea from from start to finish and uh you know Mr. Mr. Foody, and I mentioned it last night at the event, how you you you brought up our all-in uh motto, and you know, no no committee that I've worked with to this point uh in my in my new role, uh really emphasized the the idea of allin like like the educational technology committee did, uh for this event. It was it was flawless from start to finish. You know, we've got some we've got some notes that we took for for

020next year's event and how to how to bring it bigger and better. Um, but I want to just publicly thank that group. And you know, we could also call them the strategic planning committee if we really wanted to to get involved in it. And and what I was able to do is take a look at all four of our strategic planning goals and and highlight how our event last night really emulated the goals that we have as a district through the strategic plan through that particular event. Uh, Mr. mentioned one, so like I said, you did steal some of my some of my thunder. Um, goal area one, student achievement. you you uh recognized number one produce technologically literate students and responsible digital citizens. That was pretty much the namesake of the of the event.

021Uh goal area number two community engagement. Uh objective number three, increase parent and family involvement through additional school functions. Uh I think we you know we created an entirely new event and the feedback that I heard was was fantastic from the people who attended it and we're not backing off. That that is going to continue to rise and be the goals that we set. uh goal area number three which was resources. Um looking at number four, identify and cultivate available resources for increased community engagement. Um we also have increased effectiveness of ongoing ongoing technology instruction. I think we really encapsulated um all of those things through this event. And finally, goal area number four, culture and climate, which is my um favorite in terms of the things that I I like to do. Um we

022take a look at number two. Encourage positive use of social media and technology. Now this go this plan was developed in um what is it now? 20 end of 2014 probably 2015 you know. So now now we're we're we're we're moving and and uh the event that we had last night was was just a great start uh to that process and really uh showing how you know some forward thinking and and a great group of people can can put something together. Um, I missed a number of thank yous. Uh, I'll make sure that when I, um, respond to Mrs. Keller and we put it on the website, we'll, uh, we'll have all those thankful thank yous in place. Uh, the board of ed, um, you know, the the West Milford Educator Association and the, um,

023supervisors, administrator association, the Rotary Club, um, central office administrators, all the groups that came in and and rose to the occasion when we wanted um, we wanted the kids to have a to to walk away with a nice raffle experience at the end. Not that that was the point of the event. Uh but it it it kept everyone around and excited to the to the very end. Even though the the workshops were great, uh we were able to see six kids walk out with a Chromebook who were who were very excited and and uh you know really really do a great job. One group that I didn't thank last night that I uh that I missed and I wanted to make sure especially channel channel 77. I want to really thank uh Shopright and Ensera.

024They uh they really rose to the occasion. they they took care of our order. When we um had double the participants that we really thought we would get, they they stepped up and and they said, "No problem. We'll we'll take it and we'll get that order done." They also um tripled the size of the donation that uh we were we were seeking when we were looking at water and paper goods and that sort of thing. So, I just wanted to make sure I publicly uh publicly thank um and Sarah and Shop right here in West Milford. Um uh at yesterday's event I uh talked about how we're going to be uh launching the website uh the link on the website website for digital citizenship and uh Mr. Ela got that done this morning. It's now

025active. It has both presentations uh from the event up uh up on the website. Uh if you go to the community link and drop down from there, you'll see it. It's it's named digital citizenship and literacy and it has both presentations. it has um the handouts that we provided for the for the event, all of the guidelines for parents and that sort of thing. So, it's u it's something we're going to continue to add to and it'll it'll be there for for the rest of the um you know, the rest of the time that we're implementing these things. Um so, that's you know, I could talk about this event, you know, all night and I won't I won't do that to you. I have right and and I'm not I'm not done. Um so so

026at this time um there's a group of uh group of administrators in the back who we who I have invited um to share a little bit about their academic goals for the u for the school year. These academic goals were things that they put in place early in the year. It's just a matter of us having the time to bring them in and talk about it. Um, we had a park presentation u a few months ago or or a few meetings ago where we talked about some of the academic goals that that we can um connect in in some regard and the elementary principles are here tonight to uh present that uh present that plan. So I I just have one question. Um we did talk about the new SAT uh at the last meeting

027briefly. Would it be possible when those scores come in to see an analysis of how our kids did in comparison to the old SAT or just in general? Just in general? Yeah. Based on the 1600? Okay. When they come in. Thank you. Excuse me. I know he wants to stay, but I'd like to [Music] thank you. While they while they're getting ready with the technology for a presentation, I would just like to uh remind everyone, especially since this is televised, to please uh look at the new calendar or the updated calendar for the remainder of the school year. Those are dates that we discussed last week that we are giving back uh 5 days so far for this school year. Uh they are available on the website. So please take a look. It's in the

028center of the page under the what's happening section again. So once again if you need any information on the update updated calendar for the rest of the school year, please go through that section. Thank you. Hello. Good evening everyone. I'm quickly going to introduce the group that will be speaking to you tonight. My name is Jennifer Miller. I'm the principal of Paradise Null School. You will be hearing from all five of my colleagues tonight. U Mr. Bill Kaine, principal of Maple Road School. Miss Deion Summers, principal of Westbrook School. Mr. Mike McCormack, principal of Marshall Hill School. Mr. Steve Deo, principal of UGL School. And to begin our presentation, uh my colleague to my left here, Mrs. Stephanie Primava, who is principal of Apua School. [Applause] Okay. So, we're going to start out talking about

029park um our work with park and the next steps we're taking for that. So, what we've learned, we've learned a lot from park. So, the first components were really talking about the teacher analysis of the data that we've received. So, as part of the review of the previous students results from last year and their current students results, the teacher has they have explored released test items, examined evidence statements, identified standards of strength and weaknesses for instruction, ask questions about the curricula and alignment. For example, do students have the opportunity to work with the standard in multiple ways? Are we pacing instruction? Are we focusing our instruction or trying to do too much? We've also asked questions about assessment. Are we addressing the depths of knowledge in every lesson? How are we checking for understanding? And

030to what level do our assessments guide future instruction? So for the first thing that we did, we received the results and these were our district ELA results and math results. So you'll notice at the top we were looking at the proficiency for what our students have met. As part of looking at the teacher analysis, we did some such things such as a gallery walk. You'll notice that we have different bar graphs on chart paper. And what the teachers were going to do is look at all of the test results and ask questions about them. What did they notice about the data? What were their wonderings? What were their questions? And they would write all of those questions on their post-it notes, stick it to that piece of um chart paper, and we talked about it

031together. For an example, um on the agenda that we were talking about in our PLC meetings or our faculty meetings, they were please plan to review and discuss these with your colleagues and PLC teams. And this type of data can point to curricular gaps and areas to consider for additional focus from your grade level scores from last year. They can also be helpful in noting areas of weakness, strength, and for your current class or your previous grade scores. We also have a wealth of resources um by using the park partnership resource center website which is basically um a a data a database for teachers and administrators that includes released test items from the park test last year, student responses, rubrics, explanations of how the scorers used the rubrics and evidence statements which would specifically tag

032common core standards to each question. So, this is an example of of what a released test question item might look like that the teachers might then review with one another, with their grade level partners, and also might share with their current students. These are also the bar graphs that we received uh that were called that are basically called evidence statements. And you'll see in the key the upper right hand corner there that we can for each question we can take a look at how students did compared to other students who took part other students in the state other students in the district and other students in the school. And then what we can do is take a look at standards that were potentially um an area of need for our particular students in our school.

033So you'll see at the bottom of the graph those several standards that are in the um the red boxes there. And then by comparing what the test items look like, how they're worded, the types of questions that they are asking students, the type of things that they're asking them to do on the test and the evidence statements, we we can find out which specific Common Core standard are an area of need for our specific grade level students. And then what the teachers can do is come together at in grade level teams or in their PLC's and they can strategize different strategies to attack those specific standards that are an area of need for their students. So for example, this is for the um reading literature grade 4.1 standard. These are examples of scaffolded scaffolded ideas

034that teachers can talk with one another about and about how to attack certain material and also how can they focus their instruction by using good questioning to attack certain standards as well that again may be an area of need based on the results of the testing. We also took a look at all of our different assessments that we had to make sure that they were having the depth of knowledge. And as you can see here, this is called the web's depth of knowledge which kind of overlays um goes along with Bloom's taxonomy. DK1 um is goes from the very basic such as the recall and reproduction to level four which is really the extended thinking. So we wanted to take a look at our assessments and make sure that we were analyzing them that we

035were really reaching um all the depths of knowledge um for the various assessments that we give to our students so they are exposed to those types of questions. So we we take all this this analysis and research and we work with our teachers and then what do we do with it? It's important that we take it and that we and that we we take that that information and that we use it to prepare our students to perform well on the park assessments and and in in our classes. So, we chose this graphic wisely because it's a student using a Chromebook, which is an essential tool in the era of park because we use our Chromebooks not only for park preparation, but to do all types of activities to prepare our students for 21st century skills.

036And the student is also working in which is another essential resource as we prepare our students for ELA and math skills in the era of park and common core. So, one area, one other area that we we focus on in preparing our students for common core standards and the era of park assessments is working with more and more complex texts. And we look at appropriate text complexity for students in a variety of ways. We look at it through the text itself, through sentence, word and paragraph length and complexity, through the structure of text, through the meaning of text, reading between the lines, and through the reader's engagement and interests. The more appropriate the level of complexity, the more likely the text will be engaging and interesting to the reader. This is analogous to finding that

037reader zone of proximal development. So, as we have our students working with more and more complex texts, it's also important that we teach them how to call back to the text to answer text dependent questions and cite evidence from that text. In answering these text dependent questions, they need to be able to site evidence and not only use their prior knowledge. They also need to call on those higher level depth of knowledge skills that Miss Prima Vera just tal spoke about earlier such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. and they use those skills to answer a new age of questions. If we look at the two levels of questions that we have up on the board there, we have an old question in Casey at the back, Casey strikes out, describe a time when you failed

038at something. And a new level of questioning is what makes Casey's experiences at that humorous. So a child cannot just take their own prior knowledge and answer that new level of question. They need to be able to go back into the text and cite evidence from the text, use some synthesis to be able to to analyze that text, maybe connect it to another text, another humorous text, and be able to kind of do a bunch of different higher level thinking skills, critical thinking skills to answer that question appropriately. It's these type of thinking skills and the type of thinking that they're they're using when they're answering these questions that makes them deeper and deeper thinkers and better and better readers. And so the next uh portion of the slides, we'll talk a little bit more

039about close reading. So close reading is one of the strategies that we use to support students with complex text. A lot of times the teacher will model or do what we call a think aloud as she works through or he works through a text that may be just above the students uh reading level. They're really looking at teaching the students how to get through the layers of the text and identify specific things that you really want to focus when you're looking at close reading. You could be looking at characters, you could be looking for theme, be looking at setting, author's author's voice. There are a number of different things that teachers will model through close reading. We've all practiced close reading. If you've bought a smart television recently, you may try to put it up

040and skim over the directions and be like, "Oh, that's a TV. I've got this." And then very quickly you realize there's a lot more here than I anticipated. And you'll have to go back into the text to find the information that you need. Close reading is also connected to mathematics as well as the mathematical practices. And students do this. You can actually watch them do. They start circling key words. They underline. They look for the numbers. But you really have to read closely with math uh especially the problem solving math questions students are working with now. They're multi-step. They have a great deal of information. Uh it was interesting when I was looking at this is mathematic questions have more information per sentence than any other text that students work with. So there's a lot

041that they need to do. They have to use evidence. They have to survey question. They have to re question at the end. Does that make sense? By going back into the text again. Critical words are another area that we look at and they're connected to tier 2 vocabulary. There are three types of vocabulary that have been identified through common core. And the first one is really just the basic vocabulary of like ball, bat, cat, dog, the things that students kind of pick up just by being in the classroom every day. The tier 2 vocabulary are the words that are transfer across all disciplines. Those are words like organize and analyze and evaluate. They're the words that ask students to really do something with them. Uh, respect would be a word. If tier one would be

042um, you know, a ball and bat, you could write a story about baseball. Tier two would be sportsmanship and and teamwork. You could really write a story, a lot of different kinds of stories with those words. And tier three would be much more specific. You know, we might be talking about famous baseball players and places they would play in the World Series because they would be related just to the content. So tier 2 vocabulary is tied directly to those critical words and the studies have shown that 55 critical words their nouns and verbs um students understand what to do with those words they are all over the park assessment and all over common core. So when students understand what to do and there's some examples up there then they are more able to perform on

043those assessments. Good evening. Along with my colleague Mr. Deo, we will be giving a brief um overview of the technology component of the park testing. First, we need to discuss uh teacher and student comfort levels with regard to park technology. The elementary principles feel confident that the professional development for teachers and the student uh training provided um provide both with the ability to navigate the uh park technology successfully. Teachers PD uh exposure includes PLC meetings, inservice course offerings and park tutorials that are online. students ongoing technology skills development is a daily occurrence um in TRW classes, encore classes, resource center classes, general ed classes and special area classes. All technology used in classrooms for daily instruction has a carryover or benefit to the technology that will be used for the park testing. Students also are

044exposed to our tutorial from the park presentation on the website as well. Um, on the next slide, the vocabulary, the rich vocabulary listed on this slide are examples of what common language we're used on a daily basis with a bar. And just to give you some examples, a lot of this we take for granted. We assume that the kids, well, they're exposed to technology, so therefore they should get it. Well, the reality is if you look for example this idea of drag and drop uh using technology today, we would assume kids should be prepared to know these skills, but sometimes they aren't. One of the things that we're trying to embrace is that technology literacy in this day and age is something that needs to be practiced day in and day out. It's something that

045we all need to take responsibility for. The kids themselves get this in the classroom. Can you go to the next slide? In asking them to think critically, as my colleagues have shared, we're trying to get them to take the connection between how technology affects their daily lives, as Mr. Novak demonstrated last night with digital citizenship, but also how it can enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. So for starters, a lot of people are saying, okay, if we look at this math problem, for example, some of the skills here are saying that we're giving you some of the information. And yes, granted, this is a pretty basic problem, but we're asking the kids to think critically. If we provide you with some small piece of the information, can you apply and synthesize in order to

046understand what makes the greater hold? So, as we can all figure out in this case, 2 plus in the blank equals 3. But then we'd have to apply that knowledge. This is what we're asking our teachers to be able to do in the classroom. Same thing here. We're asking the the children to demonstrate what is your thought process. It's one thing to be able to get the answer. It's another thing to get a complete picture of their learning by having them demonstrate the thought process. You go to the next slide. And to bring this all to a close, this is what we're trying to observe when we see our teachers in the classroom. We want to see them comfortable, although it doesn't look very clear right now. We want to see them comfortable using the

047technology, getting the necessary training that they can feel comfortable applying this in the classroom, but then we want to bring it to the kids. These are all things that can help you have an overall better learning experience. And if you go to our last slide, it's all thumbs up from here. And again, it's our commitment as a district to try to train the teachers so that they can in turn give the kids an even better learning experience. And that was our goal for presenting for you tonight. Thank you very much. At what grade do these kids I feel so sorry for him. At what grade do these kids start synthesizing what that to me is such a complex skill. Well through uh through readers and writers workshop synthesizing and Mr. Kane if you want to

048jump in it goes down uh it can go down to to a kindergarten level. Yeah. We have children doing high level thinking. Mike, please. Mike, please. So, we Yeah, we have children doing high level thinking skills as as low as as kindergarten. I mean, and it's obviously done in different ways in in different grade levels. So, um, one of the things that we're focusing on in all of our classroom, all of our schools and all of our classrooms is is focusing on different questioning strategies. And so, our questioning strategies can be you can be developed in different ways at at different grade levels. And so, um, you know, it's it's the how, it's it's the why, and and and having our students ask questions and developing those thinking those thinking strategies even at at the

049youngest levels, even in kindergarten. But when our our students are are are using these strategies maybe in a shared approach in a kindergarten or first grade classroom, and then as they get older and they develop their own independent reading skills, they're able to use them on their own in their independent reading. And if I can just share with that, it's a very good question. The key word is apply application. So even from the very basic preschool level, we're able to show the kids how can you apply this to something that you can relate to. It's it's another attempt to try to make learning fun and to try to make a good connection between lessons in the classroom and what you'll be exposed to in everyday life. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Just want to say

050uh thank you once again to our elementary principles for for uh sharing all that information. Um you know, as you can see, and I'm not going to keep going on with the director of Everport. You guys all voted for it, so you got it. Um but no, like I said, I I I really appreciate them coming in. Um, and it's not just, and I know we talked a lot about Park, but you know, hopefully what you took away from this was the connection between the skills that that is necessary for life and success in the classroom and how it's also going to support our work in in Park. So, thank you again for coming. I I would really like to acknowledge each one of you so that not everybody knows you. So, uh, starting with

051our senior member, Mr. McCormack from Marshall Hill. Thank you. going over to let's see Jim Miller from PK who I mentioned before Paradise Null Stephanie Primava over in a similar neighborhood over at Abua and coming midtown we have Mr. Kane at Maple Road and then we move over to UGL and we have uh Mr. Steve Deo, new to the neighborhood this year. And right from this building, Miss Deianne Summers, uh, right here from Westbrook. I think I got everybody right. They're all in there. So, thank you very much. This is great information. We're concentrating on Park. Uh, as I reported a meeting or two ago, we were concerned about the the numbers of students taking the test. So, hopefully we'll be in a better position this year and we could get to uh analyze and

052have better data coming back to us to understand where students are. So, thank you so much for taking the time to do that. Okay. Uh, Mrs. Francisco, special reports and correspondence, please. Um, minutes from the February meetings are available for your review and consideration. [Music] I'll second that. First, we need somebody to make the motion. I move. Okay. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Debbie. All in favor? I need to abstain for vote on February 11th and 16th, please. Otherwise, I So, all in favor? I opposed. myself. [Music] Uh Mr. Rosselli, legal report, please because the legal discussions are confidential. We will discuss that in um president's report is first and foremost um if the board would mark their calendars for June 11th. It's a Saturday. um a softball game versus seeing the

053town council. Um we beat him last year. Let's keep it a winning streak. Is there a conflict with that date? Because that's relay for life. That's the conclusion of Relay for Life. Oh, no. We're That's at the Relay for Life. Okay. Be a long day. Um the digital citizenship uh meeting last night um I I thought was phenomenal in talking with um Mr. No bank with the turnout that we had that we're probably going to have to utilize the high school next year um instead of Mccipin because if we had this on the initial I think it'll we can only grow it make it a lot better um and as technology changes there's always going to be new things to discuss and and to talk about so um it really was a success even I

054learned a few things thank you networker Um the the roof awards we're going to be voting on tonight and I know we're months away from from voting on the bonds. Um but I would I would encourage the the board to think about that. Um we had originally talked about a 20-year term. Um, we can do this on a 10-year term and our debt service, if I'm if I did the math right, Barbara, our debt service would be a little bit less than it is now. Um, because our interest rates are better. The current debt that we're retiring was $6 million. Um, so we I'm I'm hopeful that uh we can do it 10 years versus versus 20. Um, the other thing that I'd like to see, there's been um a lot of discussion in the

055news about water testing and and the results with with lead. and I looked on our board our board website and and our test results are 3 years old. Could they're from 2013. It's listed on the website. If we could if we could update that, please. I think I'm sure there's some parents that are thinking about that. So, yeah. And we we do have a test. I know we do them every year, but it just got overlooked that they that they weren't updated. So, if we could do that, I' um I'm sure a lot of parents would like to to see that. I just want to make a comment, too, that Ashua School is um through the State Valley Water Commission. So, we're having the school tested separately. Yes. [Music] Um and that concludes my my

056president's report. Um we'll go on to petitions and request. Uh petitioners who've requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other petitions and requests limited to 5 minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute time period transpires. 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 or last name and provide their address. your town of that you live in is fine. You don't have to give your street address if if you don't feel like that. And speakers may not use the names of students burn during petitions and requests. Do we have anybody that um Melissa Gianatti? [Music] Hi, Melissa

057Geianetti. G I A N E TI West Milford and I'm the president of Wampa. Recently, there have been some inquiries. So, we'd like to tell you a little bit about Wampa. The West Milford Parents Association, also known as Wampa, is an organization consisting of an association of parent leaders who all volunteer their time in the school community of West Milford Township, which serves the children and parents. There are 10 parent groups represented. six elementary school PTAs and PTO's, the middle school PTA, the West Milford High School PTSO, the gifted and talented education parents association, and the special education parents advisory committee known as CPAC. A designated liaison representative of each group becomes a member of Wampa. The representative is usually the PTA or PTO president, but can instead be an executive PTA or PTO board

058member or an appointed active involved PTA or PTO member who regularly attends PTA or PTO meetings and who has also chaired an event. Together, we collaborate as a group of collectively involved parents to share information about the great things happening in our schools and help support each other's endeavors. Sometimes, however, we discover shortcomings within the district or we find that we need better clarity on an issue and those questions and concerns get put onto an agenda which we submit in advance. Then we sit down once a month at a superintendent's round table to discuss them. When meeting with the superintendent, we are representing our schools, not our own families. The discussions we have benefit the group, not our own children. Communication between the parent groups and the district administration is one of Wampa's primary goals.

059Wampa and the administration have always treated each other with respect. We encourage all parents to attend their schools PTA, PTO or PTSO meetings. This is the best way for parents to be involved and know what is happening in their school system. We are proud to say that Wampa has been very effective as a group over the years and we have accomplished a lot and we look forward to accomplishing even more in the future for the benefit of all district children and parents. Thank you. [Applause] And just a reminder that we will be meeting on Thursday at 9:00 a.m. I have the agenda. I'm ready to go. So did anybody else request to speak? Barbara? No. Would anybody else like to address anything on the agenda? Seeing none, like to close petitions and requests. Thank you.

060All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. I need a motion to ad adopt the agenda as presented. Like to make a motion to adopt the agenda as presented this evening. Second. Thank you, Marilyn. Hand carries. Um yeah, we have a couple of hand carries. Two with that. Two. Two hand carries. Um I will adjust the I will adjust the my motion to adopt the to adopt the agenda as presented in addition with addition to two hand carries that were emailed to us. Correct. Yes. We don't we I didn't see paper copies. Did I get blue and green? Blue and yellow. A blue and a green. I'll still second. I didn't I didn't get copies. Can I change? Well, while we're doing that, I would just like to point out that under personnel um Well, I

061think they're right. You got He's right. Okay. You got Yeah, I got it. So, under under personnel, uh number 13, there's an added name. Um the name is Michelle Gadamsky. G A D O M S K I uh that will be for secretary building 8. So we're adding one name to number 13. And I also want the board to be aware that in number 27 uh we had um initially voted on this as kindergarten orientation. In actuality it is the uh kindergarten experience. So, we'll just have it on there to have the right name of the event and the people listed uh to participate in that. Do I do I have to make an amendment to what I just did? No. No. It's an administrative issue, so you're fine. Thank you. Is there anything else

062that anybody else would like to discuss? Poll table? No. Okay. Um, and all in favor? I opposed. Okay. Since Mr. Drew isn't here, how about you? How about you, Rodney? You want to take over budget and finance? Yeah, absolutely. Budget and finance. Uh, Mike, please. under budget and finance like to approve uh items one through 15. Second [Music] was 19. I'm sorry. No 15 break them individual. Okay. Okay. Any discussion on any of these items? No. None. No. Okay. Oh, sorry, Marilyn. That's okay. Thank you, Tony. Um, this question, remember to throw the bottle would be directed at the at the business administrator, Mrs. Francisco. I noticed that on page nine of the bill list, um 73, no architects, what we wrote them out or a check was written out for $10,000 for the solar

063analysis. Is that because it was um not the full analysis originally the board voted on for $20,000? Uh there was probably an upfront fee and then this was the balance that was due. Thank you. That was that question was really for 16 though, but that's okay. Oh, you're right. Um sorry. That's okay. That's okay. Um, all right. So, that there's no other discussion on any of those items. Can we have a uh vote, please? Mrs. Francisco, roll call. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. Mrs. O'Brien, yes. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. like to make a motion to approve item number 16. Second discussion. Maril um Barbara, I have a a question. on the bill list. Um page 37, we had $360,000 in checks to San Bruno for the

064McAppin and high school groups, right? Um those were architectural engineering, right? Okay. Is that going to be would that be considered um an item that we can be reimbursed 40% by the state? Only if it's part of the bond, right? Um so we had to come up with that money then out of our No, when you have a successful bond referendum, you do an interfund transfer to cover your expenses until you have the sale of the bond. Okay. So that will then the bond will Yes. Your your bond not only includes the cost of the roof replacement, it also includes all your professional fees, including your legal fees, your bonding fees, your audit fees. So there's additional expenses other than the amount for the roof. Yes. Oh, no. Understood. But that will be part of

065that bond. Yes. Okay. So we're going to put it out. It will be Yes. Okay. That's part of the 40% reimbursement. Anything that's covered with the bond referendum funds will be reimbursed by with the 40%. Do we have then an actual I guess at the next meeting? Can we get an actual number of what we spent all all told so far? This is basically it. This is it. Okay. Up to this point. Um there was some initial costs from um the bond attorney and Mr. Feroli. Yes. for some of the preliminary work that was done with the filings that had to go to the local finance board down in Trenton, but that was minimal. Okay. Thank you. And certainly that money could be if if the board wished to include that in the bond money,

066but it was it was an insignificant. It wasn't really that significant amount. 300,000. No, no, no, no. No, no, not that. The initial bond, right? Like the $2,000 for Mr. Ro. Okay. Okay. I was about to say no. Not the 300. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any any other discussion? Thank you, Mr. Drew. We're on We're on bills. I know. I pointed at that time. Okay. I think he's just trying to get his bearings straight. Yeah. Okay. He's getting censored. Did you have any Yeah, I had a dead battery. No, I know. I was wondering, but I think I figured it out on the uh bills pages five and six. There were some bills we paid for July of last year, but I believe that what that was was the application of raises to that group.

067Well, our our school year starts July 1, and so that's the purchase order date for purchase orders that are put in and that they're paid on a regular basis. These were payroll and you only have one payroll purchase order. It's created on July 1 of the school year and then it's just drawn off of it for every payroll. But when we ratified a contract, we had to go back and we had to do retro payments, but it came out of the same payroll. So it was that yeah is payroll account. That was my only question. Okay. Any any other? No. Nope. Okay. Uh roll call vote, please. Mr. Francisco. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mrs. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. Yuber? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes, Mr. Foody. Uh, yes on

068payroll, no on everything else. Make a motion to approve item number 17. Second discussion. So, the transfer of funds resolution. No discussion. Okay. Um well actually Barbara I I do have a question. Um, in looking at the board secretaries report, we transferred money in during the course of the year into uh our line item for audit fees about 29,000. Um, and we've got no more incumbrances in that account, but we got 32,000 left over. What was the purpose of that transfer? The transfer is a rollover from the prior year because the audit is not completed until the current year, but it's for the audit ending June 30th, 2015. So that payroll can't that that purchase order can't get paid prior to June 30th. So it rolls over. And then in this year, we've just encumbered

069the audit fees for June 30th, 2016. So in the next word secretar's report you'll see another encumbrance. Okay. We can't pay for something until we get the goods and services. Yes. All right. Any other questions? Roll call, please. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Miss O'Brien. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Nope. Like to make a motion to approve items 18 and 19? Second. Any discussion? Barbara, I have a couple of questions, but I'll do that after the meeting because it goes in line with our budget book. Okay. All right. Sure. Uh, roll call, please. Mr. Hubert. Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Miss O'Brien? Yes. Mrs. Dwire? Yes. Mrs. Schultz? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Like to make a motion to approve

070hand carry number one. Second 20. Second. Sorry, Robbie. No problem. I'm second happy today. Uh, any discussion? [Music] Barbara, I'd like to [Music] we we established the 130 um so far to date this year when we had 130 for for this year and we're establishing next year's amount of 130. Do we expect um considerable amount of expenditures in this line item through the end of the year or I know that next year's budget does include u a lot of professional development. However, it's a number that we can't exceed. It doesn't mean that it's budgeted. Okay. That amount is not budgeted. No, no, no. But I mean, we spent 32,000 this year. Do we expect to spend another 32,000 or I don't know. You know, it depends on the opportunities that come up. It depends on

071um whatever initiatives, you know, the director of education and the superintendent determine or are or are, you know, important. Um we could host something that has a a significant amount of money and invite other school districts to participate, which we've done in the past. So, for me to say yes or no, I I really can't. I don't know. Okay. That's all up to to to Tony and and Dan. Yeah. Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Miss O'Brien? Yes. Mrs. Dwire? Yes. Mrs. Schultz? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. For budget. Okay. Mrs. O'Brien. It's my turn. Your turn. I'd like to make a motion to approve items 1 through 33. I'll do the hand carry separately under personnel student affairs. Second. Any

072discussion? Mr. Uber 21. mic. Last week I asked if any of the home instructors work for math cuz they're having trouble placing math instructors. Uh yes, we are having a very difficult time getting math instructors. We currently are reaching out to I have reached out to PA services. Uh they haven't gotten back to me and I reached out again today. At this point we are also reaching out to private companies uh such as Kaplan and Huntington and I hope they have something in place by by Friday. hopefully they have somebody uh it's one of the hardest uh positions to try to not only in schools but also for after school instruction and tutoring. So yeah, thank you. And just to also respond to there is there is one um individual on that list, Jennifer Fear,

073that is mass certified just so you're aware. Thank you. Have we asked her? And I know that we have a Yes, we have. Yes. Yes. [Music] Typically, they have a limited amount of hours that they're willing to give us. So, just because they're approved may they may only be willing to give us 1 hour a week or Yeah. So, that's the problem. You want to bring that up? You can bring it up. Yeah. Right. I I have um Yeah, we go from under Debbie, you did 1 to 33. Yes. And carry. Okay. Um my my question is I've got I go from 1 to 31, skip 32, and go to 33. There's no [Music] one to really 32. So the new math program 1 to 32. Okay. So then let me make an amendment. I'd

074like to pass items 1 through 31 and 33 under personnel student. Well, we just made 33 number 32. I mean that's that would be okay then. We make a 32. That works. Okay. Um roll call please. Mrs. Francisco discussion. Oh. Oh, sorry. I didn't see your hands up, Steve. 11. You didn't ask for it yet. Um, item number 11. Most of these are replaces or various other uh that's a new position. Why? Yes, that is correct. That is that is a new position. And I believe we talked about um I'm not sure if it was an executive session or several meetings ago was in one of the packets, but that was due to the enrollment of the behavior disabilities program at Absha School. So due to that enrollment, we started our staffing with a minimal

075amount of special class aids that we needed. And then now that we are at capacity, we then need to increase our staff in order to be able to provide the mainstreaming that's identified in the IPS. Okay. Okay. Sorry about that, Steve. Roll call, please. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mr. Bill, yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Schulz. Yes. Mr. Huber. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. Uh yes. Like to make a motion to move hand carry item number 31. 33. 33 under personnel student affairs. Second. Um any discussion? Okay. Roll call, please. Mrs. Yes. Mr. Dailyy. Yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Miss O'Brien, yes. Mr. Schulz, yes. Mr. Huber, yes. Mr. Robert, yes. Mr. Yes. That concludes personnel student affairs commission. [Music] Mrs. Wire, you're up. I'd like to move items 1 through seven for approval. Second. Any

076discussion? No. Uh, seeing none. Roll call, please. Mrs. Francisco. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Mr. Roberts. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Dwer. Yes. Mr. O'Brien. Yes. Mr. Huber. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. P. Yes. I I I did have one question. And I have Rick attempt looked over it. We um approved the addition of Jim Carelli's Bakery and Wayne to the list of border field trip locations. Um Mr. Could you give us a list of like museums that we go to that are on our approved res? Yeah, we just don't go to bakeries. And that that's usually that usually goes along with a trip like a museum. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, yeah, there there is a board approved list of all of all of these locations. Yes. No, I know I know that, but I just

077want to see what museums are on that list. So, let me let me sign to buying. I know you have to exactly have to say your can and why why we end up having we end up having a new bakery or Italian restaurant every now and then is uh you know the the trips that have gone now traditionally restaurants come and go and close and they find one in the area that's not on the approved list and we have to we have to go ahead but yes we have we have yeah already I I know for for this specific Perfect. On location, we are using it as a special needs trip in order to go in the back of the bakery for some of our students for transition purposes. Just so you just so you

078know, that's why I know that they put it on here. Okay. Thank you. Um, all right. Committee, special committees and liaison reports. Um, Mr. Robbins, Parks and Recreation. Yes. Um, that last meeting uh that they had, they had on St. Patrick's Day on the 17th. I wasn't able to attend. Um, however, I know that they talked a little bit about talking to you, Jim, they talked about the fields and specifically fields possibly that they use that are school fields. Um, the next meeting I talking to Jim, he'll be uh joining me um to the next recreation meeting. They also prior to that they have specific meeting for just fields. So, we'll have a little bit more to talk about next month about their reply. Now, Jim, I think you were going to uh talk to

079Tim. Yeah, I I I I reached out to him and and we'll get another discussion going, but um I I I wanted to bring to the to the board's attention. Um it was said at that meeting that our fields are in horrible shape and they're unsafe. Um I I walked around on Sunday or drove around I should say not walked around but then walked around the fields. Um although they aren't the most highly manicured fields. I I didn't see anything that stuck out to me as being unsafe. Um, I had called uh the uh parks and recck director, Mr. Roman, and he said it was, you know, some fencing issues, ruts, divots, rocks in the fields, um, things of that nature. Um, although I didn't see any of that. I I just saw some schools

080that had some very unkempt fields. um and he was going to talk to the council um to see if we could work together and get these the fields at a couple of schools looking real nice. And I and I hope that we can do that. um he would supply the uh the manpower and I guess if we could maybe some some dirt and some seed and clay for the infields um that we could get them in in tiptop shape. When he talks to the council, he'll reach out to me again and then I'll I'll tell the board of you know what what the town's decision is. I I'd be hopeful that we could work together. Um I was surprised when my son did uh little league, you know, 14 years ago. Some of those fields

081look the same they did as 14 years ago. Um so it would it would really be nice um for the the kids in the district to have some some really kept fields. I think they they'd enjoy that. And it uh it it'd be a good thing to do and especially if we can get some free labor out of this. We got to buy a little bit of material for it. It would could probably work real well. Um with that said, uh Mr. Bailey, safety report. Um Mrs. Schultz, superintendent round table. [Music] Okay. Um, there was a meeting on March 3rd that was rescheduled from February. There were many options being discussed. Um, a lot having to do with cafeteria. Uh, one being food allergies and Mr. Oshika passed out the district adopted uniform policy for

082everyone to view. Some of the parents have brought up alternatives for styrofoam or polystyrene plates and the reasons some of the parents want to see that eliminated. Uh there is an alternative called fiberboard. However, using fiberboard would add 10 cents to each of the lunch prices. Some districts are already using it. Uh if this district were to look into using that, it would need to be separated out of garbage bags. Uh there was discussion about maybe having separate garbage bins being provided for this type of alternative uh if used and um Mr. Oshika was going to follow up with the custodians with regards to that and also the cost factor. Some of the elementary schools were requesting options of heat slides like that being used in the middle school and the high school. Uh and

083the advantages of that being that pizza could be another option offered for the kids for lunch as a third choice. Um so there's a possibility of piloting one of the elementary schools with a heat slide or offering a third option for lunch. Another cafeteria issue was uh point of sale system that being cost prohibited prohibitive in the amount of anywhere between 22,000 to $28,000. Um parents are actually looking to be able to track the type of foods their kids are choosing. This is basically at the elementary level. Um and to be able to know what they're eating and to write a check for it. So there were um options that were brought up like an online payment system. Uh if um Tonyian were to suggest something it could be they pull pay for it. Um

084that is an option for an online system for parents to pay online but um the best value according to Pmptonian at this time is to write a check. Other discussion was brought up with regard to using community pass. This online system is already being used for town recreation and sports. Some of the PTAs have already started using the system too. So that is something that is going to be looked into and updated at the next meeting. There was discussion of at times there seems to be a shortage of substitutes in the district. Mr. Rashika explained that the district tries to be as competitive as the budget will allow with hiring um substitute teachers and um that's another item that needs to be updated at the next meeting. Um there was some discussion with regard to

085other towns and what they're charging, but um that would become a budget issue. uh the high school bathroom issue was brought up as discussion. Um some of the problems that are being taken place, but it's due to the necessity of the students having to sign in and out to use the bathroom due to the past bomb threats. Uh some of which have been in the bathroom. So that's another discussion that's being uh taken up with Mr. Rashika and the high school and they're looking at options to correct the situation and alternatives. Uh there's discussion which I think I brought up about the um late buses and the availability of those and that would be after um class after school programs at Magnipin. Also, um there was discussion about the fact that there's no junior kindergarten

086and or no transitional first grade. Uh parents are concerned about not having those options. Mr. Rashica spoke about um how successful ESY the extended school year has been and the program seems to work out very well for some of the students in the district and there's a possibility of possibly looking into that further to see if it can be offered to incoming students that might need it or who are identified as possibly needing that. Um there'll be a followup at the next meeting which is this Thursday the 24th of March. Other discussion took place regarding scheduling at the high school and new mandatory freshman course and the electives such as bander chorus that they conflict with. So that's also something that is being looked at. There is also concern regarding the sharing of a reading

087specialist and a testing coordinator. There will be followup at the March meeting uh to see if there's an easy solution that can be resolved. Um again, there was more discussion regarding the need for a second nurse at the high school. Um additional security guards. Um getting back to that late bus at Mackin, that's going to be that was something that was overlooked last month, so that's going to be brought up this month. Uh again, they're waiting for um an update on the high school walkway request regarding uh the senior lot and keeping students off the streets become a safety issue. That also brought up discussion um the repainting with the fluorescent paint in the parking lot, which that has been done. uh discussion on updates or any changes to the sixth grade disciplinary system that

088is also being restructured. There's a committee that's working on that now. Um Mr. Rashika had brought up publicly and at Wampa uh the regards of bomb scare handling and how they're um operating under the evacuation approach. And now that there's updates to that approach and the police must come to school first to be sure there's no active shooter outside. That is something that um is a procedure that Mr. Rashika um says currently we're operating still under the presation approach. Uh then there was a discussion on park and an update uh and how it's helpful if students take the park because then there will be you have a baseline to work with with your student. Uh the video we we saw this evening that was discussed on how that was being put together. So, you all

089had an opportunity to see that now or earlier. And the next meeting is Thursday, March 24th, 9:00 a.m. 9 a.m. 9:00 a.m. So, basically, you can see this is not a 15-minute meeting. Um, we spend quite a bit of time together, and it's healthy. I mean, it's very healthy for me to get parents perspectives of different things that are going on in the different schools. Uh, one of the goals I've set for myself is basically trying to get as many of the buildings, and I say this over and over again, you could ask my principles back there, trying to get all of us to be on the same page, following the same procedures as much as possible. And that's and that's some of the things that we really need to focus in on. Um, when

090we spoke about the bomb scare, it's important to uh emphasize the fact that basically we do use the evacuation practice. However, I did explain at the time that if we have something that is um designated for later on in the school day once police presence comes in, we can do a uh shelter in place while the police come in, sheriff's department comes in uh and does their extensive review of the building and perhaps not interfere with um teaching time as much and certainly not invading anybody else's privacy in any of the other locations. that we uh choose to move to on a certain day. So, we you know, we're trying to balance this out as best as possible. Um and also looking just at the the bathroom situation, my intent eventually is to try to

091get um if we could as a board of education look at the possibility of hiring people uh specifically for that as opposed to spending uh money from uh substitutes to cover students signing in and out of the bathroom. So, I think that would be a cost-saving factor. And also again we spoke about the the problem with getting substitutes. So certainly uh I'm sure that would help as well. So just a couple of clarifications. Thank you Michult. Thank you. Uh Marilyn before we move on the state county school boards. Uh I need a motion to uh extend the meeting to let's say 9:20. Like to make a motion to extend our regular meeting to 9:20 p.m. Thank you. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Uh, Mrs. Schultz, P County School Boards. Last night there was a

092meeting at the Brownstone. What you need to know about special education. It was presented by Dr. Gerard Chrysanino and Nathaniel Simon of uh Schwarz, Simon Edstein, and Selso. Um, there was a presentation and that was also emailed to us. I'm not sure if all members got it, so I forwarded to those board members that were not at the meeting last night. I know there was a lot going on with the digital citizenship evening as well as um the county school board meeting. Mrs. Dwire was there, Mr. Huber, Mrs. O'Brien, Mrs. Francisco, and myself. And it was um a very for informative um meeting and uh the next meeting is on Monday, April 25th. The topic is at advocacy at I never say that word advocacy and it's also at the Brandstone and I believe Mr.

093Bailey will be honored at that meeting. So, in my report, when Monday, April 25th, thank you for sending that uh that out. I I appreciate that. Um, New Jersey school boards. I don't have anything to report, Mr. Drew. Anything on legislative or technology? Um, legislative. There's discussion that there may be more money available from the state for the formula. Probably not much. And my guess is that West Milford won't get any of it anyhow. So, u uh it does seem like there's uh quite a faction who wants to from Atlantic City uh on the part of the state. So that and I don't you Barbara you may know more about what's going on um things are quiet right now. Um the biggest thing that my association is involved with along with the Jersey school boards

094is trying to get uh some of the regulations, the accountability regulations clarified, reviewed by the commissioner um require the um and the state board of education. So, uh, they're up to be recodified and and and that's where a lot of the focus is on some of the regulations and how cumbersome they've become. With regard to technology, we're proceeding on the work to install a uh redundant second circuit. Um, so that we should not have lost time on internet connection. Um, and we've started the program. I'm sorry. We have started the programming work uh for the switches to support the uh more uh wireless and connected devices. Mr. Bears doing a great job. [Music] Thank you, sir. Is that it? Mr. Yep. Mrs. O'Brien, West Milford Education Foundation. First of all, I'm extremely thrilled to see

095our elementary school principles here tonight because I have some interesting news for actually everybody, but I'd like to focus in on them as well. On behalf of the West Milford Education Foundation, I would like to announce the following. Teachers, faculty, and staff, please begin thinking about your grants for the 1617 school year. We're be going to begin the grant process this summer, probably in June. So, we're going to give everybody time to apply, think about how what they would like to do. Um, so because in September, everybody's, you know, going stir crazy getting their year settled. So, started. So, we would like for you guys to start thinking about it now. Number two, I'd like to announce our um board. Our president is Carrie Mulan, our vice president is Debbie Laruso, treasurer is Jack Keepy,

096and our secretary is Christian Copela. I would like to thank on behalf of the West Milford Education Foundation, I'd like to thank all the principles and staff at all of our schools for hosting PJ Day on March 18th. This fundraiser helps us give out more grants to our school stu our to our students through the teachers, faculty, and staff. I personally like to thank our elementary schools. They really have come through many, many times. And from the bottom of your bottom of my heart, I'd like to say thank you. Now, I couldn't wait to tell you this. I'm so excited. We are hosting our first annual Color Dash on Sunday, September 18th. This will be taking place in West Milford with the focus on having this as a family run. Okay? It's a 5K run,

097but it's not it it'll be for runners. I could even do it too. So, and I hope to see all of you out there as well. More information will be provided in the near future. You can keep a breast of what's going on with our organization through our Facebook page and our homepage at www.wme.org. And finally, our next meeting is on Monday, April 4th at 7:15 p.m. at the high school conference room. and we are looking for interested, enthusiastic individuals who want to help out our educational community. And that is my report for the evening. Thank you. Uh township board of ed joint committee, nothing to report. Um we'll be meeting with them hopefully next month. Um, old business. Does anybody have any old business to discuss? Mr. Drew, I have a couple of questions

098about the budget. Okay. Um, there were some things in here. It it seems that we um uh spent money on backboards cage service or we're going to I'm sorry. Safety harness, field equipment. We're actually making quite a few uh investments. Uh volleyball install. What is that? Um we now have volleyball, intercolastic volleyball, and uh we've uh phased in the teams. So we need another court for practice. Um so we have to utilize the MANA gym. Um also be used for this fizz program windcreens at Mson Field temporary fence Howard field. So there quite a few things that are invested in in our actual fields. I think not necessarily everything that we might want to do but we're already doing that. There were also um it appears a number of investments that we're planning to make

099in something called construction services. So we're replacing 800 ft of fence around uh Mson Field. Um we're doing uh asphalt paving repair at Maple Ridge. Um, more paving at aua. Uh, parking spaces at Aua. Um, parking lot repair at No, I'm sorry that is not the case. Um, and my concern here is that these were all in the budget. Many times we're asked to approve things like 3,000 bucks for a copy machine, so on and so forth. And these all add up to $357,000. Looks like they're necessary, but I don't remember seeing any of these come through the budget committee. You don't remember seeing any of these are things that are brought to us by the principles and the supervisor of buildings and grounds during the budget presentation. So they get included in the budget

100if we feel that there's some substance to what the needs are. So they're they're vetted through the administration and then presented through the board through the budget process. Um are we doing all the paving with a single vendor? Usually we use a co-op vendor. Yes. So there is a single vendor most likely. Yeah. We get usually get a couple of different prices um depending. We have a a number of different vendors that we can go to and then the one that is the least expensive we usually use that. So we haven't put this out but we will bid it. This is it's not a bid. It's it's a proposal. Okay. Through our co-ops. All right. Um Okay. So the administration decides to include this in the budget. Gives this to us 5 days before we

101have to vote on it. And but Mr. Drew, you have until April 26th to vet it. This was stuff that was included in the preliminary budget that was approved last week. Mhm. However, you have the next five or six weeks to discuss what's in that document and determine and and question and the final analysis is on April 26th. I have a question. When these camps come in um during the summer, like the basketball camp, the baseball camps, do these do they pay for use of our fields and our auditorium and our custodians? I see that they pay our yes they they do pay for the custodial costs and they they're uh I believe there is a rental cost for some of the facilities. However, because of the um roof replacements this year, we are not

102hosting any of those things this year. Okay. But you are doing the baseball camps. [Music] I don't it that might be outside on the fields rather than inside the building. I know that um the the basketball camp is inside and we've had to relocate that. We can't we can't do it at the high school and Macin School this year. So, I think they're going to use a couple of the other buildings like Westbrook and Maple Road. Okay. But they do pay rent and learn center. Good. Thank you. When when when she talks Barbara about, you know, baseball camp, is that the Bob Henry and I believe so. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Um, any other discussion under full business? Seeing none, I'd like to close. Second. All in favor? [Music] Uh, new business. [Music] Anything under new

103business? Mr. Robbins, since uh we all know that, you know, sports and so forth is gearing up. Um and that I do have a big, you know, passion for uh Hillrest. Um I think it's time to and and I wanted to bring this up because, you know, literally, like I said, the traffic continues um over there at that site and that I know that there's going to be a lot of activity when it comes to the field. uh you know it'll start happening now through baseball, football and so forth. So that site desperately needs to be resurfaced. The the parking lot is in really bad shape. It's only dirt in the back u which like I said has also a lot of traffic. Um we touched upon it with the what they talked about the

104uh conditions of the field. Well in this particular case it's the condition of the parking lot. Um, so I'm not sure if we're already in process, but I think we need to be getting a quote of what it would take to, you know, resurface the whole parking lot, including the side where we have a classroom. Um, and then also a quote for in case, um, it's expensive where we need to just do QP in the back, you know, leading up to that field. Um, on on top of what Mr. Robin said, um, I would tend to believe from from past experience that, um, we'd need somewhere to put that water. If we pave that, that's going to have to irrigate. Yeah, we're we're going to have to do some sort of underground storage retention pond.

105That's going to have to be engineered. Yes. So if if that's something, you know, that that could get expensive. Um so um and and taking a guess, Rodney, um I think we'd have to do underground. What what they do is they put in these like six foot tall um pipes underground. They use them as settling ponds. Everything drains into there, settles out, but the overflows go out. Is that for the back parking lot, you know, where they just for the back parking lot, right? Right. So why you just put cuc it it might be better to do something more like along the lines of what's there is grade it out and make it nice, right? Um cuz that could get upwards of a half a million dollars by the time you engineer it, get D

106approvals and it get very Yeah, I know there's a lot of holes and so forth which need to be like you said filled in and graded with QPS but Okay. Um They don't know what is over there. I got a money python. It's stone dust. 3/4 in stone with with stone stone dust in it. What elementary school should I go back to and learn some of this stuff for my own little park exam? Yeah. Um, who will take me? I like that park exam for the parking lot. But open cute. I um I appreciate the uh tonight I real quick under new business. I appreciate the report that that Marilyn gave us regarding the superintendent roundt. Um and I would ask Tony since you get an agenda um if you could send it out to

107all board members. I know I I'm gonna try to attend just so on Thursday so I can meet people and and see what goes on there. I know Steve had expressed an interest in and Terry as well. Um do the superintendents roundts occur during the summer or you No. Uh no, you give them you give them a little time left. They they give me a break. So I give them a break. No, I I think what happen basically we we share that uh if someone's coming I will be happy. I think the uh Wampa group will be happy to share with someone who's coming. I believe Marin Marilyn's our regular uh representative. So if we have somebody else coming in for that particular meeting, but we don't want to I don't think they want it

108to go out to everyone. This is I have to make it clear that it is their meeting. It's Wampa's meeting with me. So I I don't want to take over and uh overstep my bounds. So I guess like going back to what I said originally, I think if someone is coming, we have no problem with sharing sharing that, but not to everybody. Okay. Okay. And then we do get the report. You do get the report. So kind of know what's going on from the back. Well, then let me rephrase that. I'm going to try to come. So if you could send me that, I' could be a I'd be a little bit more prepared. Um and anybody else who wants to to chime in, this seems like a timely uh good time to ask. Uh

109last year uh you had some meetings last year. You had some uh an evening meeting with parents, get parents feedback and it was very productive. Can you get any more of those scheduled? Yeah. Um actually do want to uh that was for the secondary level schools. So I do want to definitely do one for the elementary schools. uh waiting for more information as we work on these things that I spoke about before where we're trying to come together and have things in place so we can share with everyone what we're sh you know what we're working on and also get feedback from the parents. So I'm looking at that uh hopefully uh toward the end of April um and hopefully have some direction to move us into next fall as well. So I think it's

110uh that will be a great time for us to do that. What's worth I think that'll be great to have those regularly throughout the year for all grade levels. Yeah, definitely very productive and will allow the parents to um have more input into the Sure. And I totally agree and that's you know that was the objective for this year to begin that process hopefully moving ahead you can do those more often you know whether it's you know me sitting here for a few more months or somebody new in place I would strongly suggest that you know so there are other things that I'm looking at too for smaller type meetings um perhaps doing a a coffee and tea type of thing during a school day for people who want to drop in for any type

111of concerns with anything that's going on. So, you know, t time is limited, but we certainly have time for more communication. I would encourage it to be evening. Okay. There's a lot of people. Well, sure. I'm so fine. Yeah. Just another day. Okay. Anything else under new business? See, I don't need to make a motion or anything. Right. You can get those. No, I'll I'll look into it. Okay. We'll probably end up with the QB. Yeah, I would think so. on for us and then and then the resurface for the rest of the parking lot that's already as as we'll look into. Yeah. Okay. Anything else on the new business? Seeing none like to close new business. Okay. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Um we need I'd like to extend the the meeting another

11210 minutes. No one just okay if it goes for 30 minutes then then okay um all right we have petitions and requests petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with 5 minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other petitions and requests limited to 5 minutes per petitioner will be allowed until 30 minute period transpires all speakers are asked to give their full name spell or last name and tell Tell us what town you live in. Speakers may not use the names of students for during petitions and requests. Did anybody uh request to speak? No. Um I don't know whether everyone voted on closing old business uh new business. Yeah, we did. I I did it and Marilyn seconded. Yes, I saw that.

113We didn't. Yes, we voted. Yes, we did. Yes, we did. Okay, Mr. Sitters, I see you with your hand up. Sitovvic pronunciations. William Satovich 694 Lakeshore Drive. Is Is this thing on? All right. Yes, that's on. Uh first off, uh what it will be about the microphone usage. Once again, a friendly reminder, the microphone is your friend. He won with the microphone. I gave a commendation last week to Miss Francisco. This week it goes to Mr. Rashika. I can't wait for his radio show. But uh on to serious matters. Um this coming October, I believe the resolution that changed the election cycle does uh expire and I'm most curious of what the individual board members think and maybe that at some point could be discussed and in including administrative thoughts on the issue. Um cuz

114I know at the time uh that certain board members did vote against it. I don't know if it would stay the same way or if they've had a change of thinking along that matter. And when the budget gets discussed in April, if you could put him for some blankets cuz it's pretty chilly out there. Just a thought. Other than that, I have nothing else. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. We have radio my next. Anybody else like to speak? Miss Gratina. Good evening. Deborah Gratina. I for all intents and purposes ask my husband live in West Milford. Um, I'm the mathematics supervisor, but I'm also here tonight as the president of our association for administrations and supervisors, WMEES, because I wasn't planning to do this tonight. Mr. Rashika has acknowledged Mary Reinhold for this

115evening's award from the preholders of P County, and I was not able to be here on the evening that she was recognized for her retirement. But I do want to uh say now that we would love to celebrate Mary Reinhold for her 37 years of service, dedicated service to West Milford. She began in 1978 and some of you out there listening are not even born yet. She's been here forever at Mccapin, has been a teacher for technology, evolved to become the principal after she was the guidance assistant principal a year before I began here in West Milford. And I do know that the first time that I ever came to West Milford, started working, one of my very first phone calls from a parent was, "Well, Mrs. Reinhold said I could do it." So, I

116had to find out who Mary Reinhold was, and I certainly have learned to love to work with her over the last 10 years, and I wish her well on behalf of our association. We wish her the very best in retirement. We hope she gets to Ireland safely and has a wonderful time when she's there with her friends um and family. So that's the first part of my presentation tonight. But I also would like to answer in reference to the um question that Mrs. Dwire raised after the presentation from my colleagues about park and presentation. Miss Prime had talked about the depth of knowledge chart and bloom's tax tonomy which are levels of um learning that the students go through as they evolve from very simple recall to to analysis and um justification and up to

117synthesis. So I just wanted to answer if I could um that in mathematics because I know we talk about literacy a lot but numeracy is is handinhand with our academics of course something as simple as recognizing in kindergarten that seven and three more is the same thing as 3 + 7 more is an analysis and that starts at a very early age. We model up through um uh early grades in elementary recognizing that we can uh depict pictures and model mathematics through simple scenarios of three apples in a basket and one is taken away how many are left. So we can actually take a real life situation synthesize that into an equation that becomes um creation and synthesis even at a very early age. So along with literacy which is very important for the mathematics

118success because the words are communicated obviously through our language we also have very early skills that are developed from kindergarten right up through the elementary and through the high school for all of the levels of learning. And I didn't want to be um left out of the conversation. So I thank my esteemed colleagues for their their wonderful presentation tonight in preparation for park that begins from the very early ages elementary right up through. Um, and I thank you all for your support of what we're doing in the district. It's wonderful to work with a board that does actually support our educational programs and we thank you for that. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak? Seeing none, like to move to close petitions and requests. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Um before

119we read our resolution to go in executive session, I just wanted to thank all our principles for coming here tonight and sharing with us uh their stories about park. And you missed it, Steve. Watch it on TV. Um but I want to thank you for coming tonight. Um go ahead. I'm not going to make 10:00. So I'll make a motion to extend meeting to 11 as necessary. I'll be done before. We'll be I think I think Yeah. Okay. Second. Okay. All in favor? No. I. Any opposed? To go into executive session. No, no, no, no. To extend the meeting. Extending the meeting. Not going into executive session. if we have to extend it. Um, any opposed? Um, one, would you like to read our It's uh 9:26 already gone to executive session. I don't have

120that. Okay. Um, yes. Um motion to go to executive session for the purpose of discussing the superintendent search personnel negotiations merit appeal for bid two uh 2016/h7 and matters of attorney cl second. All in favor? I I I opposed. Okay. Thank you. Going to executive session. Thank you everyone for coming. We uh return from executive session at 11:14 and I need a motion for motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor? I. The meeting is officially over at 11:14. Thank you very much everyone. Aren't you glad you waited for that, Tony?