001the show. So, uh, I have to say as far as our students and what they did and our staff members and what they did to make this possible again this year was outstanding and I was very happy to see the amount of people that came in. So, with that being said, I'm going to throw it over to Matthew Ventrella who will uh give us some more information from the high school. Matt, good evening, Mr. President, members of the board, Mr. Rajika. Thank you. Happy Super Tuesday, everybody. For those of you that follow politics, um I can't believe that it's already March and that in only three months, my time here as student representative will come to an end. But tonight, it is my great pleasure that I present the report of student life at the
002high school for the month of February. As many of you, including Mr. Know, tonight the four world language honor societies collaborated with the high school musical to deliver a grand evening for our senior citizens. The evening featured both a dinner and a show as the international dinner was made entirely by the students and was followed by a special showing of Young Frankenstein. Tonight was truly a showcase of community involvement that occurs at West Milford High School. I hope all of you come out to see the musical which is being performed from this Thursday to Saturday. Speaking of community involvement, the Interact Club was proud to host its annual Cinderella Project last Saturday. The organization received over a hundred donations of gently used dresses and the proceeds of that project will benefit students who cannot perform
003prom bids this June. Uh going off of prom, the senior class council is currently hard at work finalizing the planning for the prom. They're also planning a volleyball tournament for the spring. Currently, they're selling class of 2016 lawn lawn signs for only $20 each. I encourage you to buy them today and support our graduating class. Um, at this time I would like to congratulate the Highlander band for their characteristically stellar success at the New Jersey Honor Band auditions. 22 students qualified for the North Jersey Area Band, the most ever in our band's history. Um, eight students made all region band, which is the next level up, and one student, Alexis Silverman, was even awarded a place at the 2016 New Jersey Allstate band. Great job, Highlanders. Um, similar to this unprecedented success, I would like
004to congratulate all the winter sports that are winding up their seasons, especially girls basketball as they go on to the second round of the state tournament for the first time in over 11 years. Uh, the history department is pleased to announce the history students of the month for January. Congratulations to Andrea Hilario and Matt Benolstein. Furthermore, a huge round of applause for the history bowl team which qualified for nationals after placing 14th at the state competition. This was the first time ever that our school competed in this event and I was privileged to be a part of this team. I can honestly say that the competition was very exciting and engaging. Um, regarding the sad news in the Loba family earlier this month, I would like to express my sincerest condolences on behalf of the
005student body. Currently, various organizations such as student council and NHS are working together to plan a movie night fundraiser in order to raise money for the Ronald McDonald Foundation in the name of Maline Lava. Um, as we look towards the month of March, there are many upcoming activities at the high school, including junior prom, which takes place on Thursday, March 24th at Cassavian, and the Empty Bowls charity event on March 14th. Um, that concludes my report for the month of February. I hope all of you have a great month and a great St. Patrick's Day. [Applause] Very nice. Very informative. Um it's important for us to uh reflect on as as you know I think it was last week the week meeting before I shared the strategic plan with the board of education looking at
006uh some of the things that came about from that meeting a year and a half ago. uh we also look at our own district plans and district goals and it's very important that we keep in mind that the the objective no matter how you look at it which goal you look at is increasing student performance and creating a better environment. Uh with that being said, one of the things I I want to do tonight and I have to do it, but I want to do it is that uh I want to share the corrective action plan as required under ISA, that's the uh elementary secondary education act from 2015. Um many times at this table especially during the uh last school year we had discussed uh times where we spoke about target participation rates uh
007with students taking the assessments. The assessments being the new assessments part. Um each school district was supposed to work toward having 95% of their students participate in taking that test. uh you know there was much talk about sit and stare and all these other things that we got through by and large and our students did take the test however we did not make the 95% cut off uh and by that there's a actual plan from the state and we had to look at that I had to look at it and it breaks it down for districts and schools um so if I look at that the subgroups they look at are all students white students, black students, Hispanic, Asian, so on and so forth. They go on to uh economically disadvantaged. So each one of
008the groups is considered a subgroup and each one of those groups should have 95% participation. Now this is very important and uh you know we could come up with many reasons why park assessments are useless. Uh it was a crazy idea and we went through all of that last year. However, we have to keep in mind that it's back again this year. And I honestly have to say I do not see this going anywhere. Maybe some nuances will change a bit, but the important thing to remember for all of us is the fact that this test is being used as a baseline to measure student performance. Therefore, it's important for our students to take the test. And the final piece of it is that in the school year 2019 2020, you have to pass this
009test in order to graduate from high school. Now, I've been around long enough to know that I can go back to GEIS. I could go back to high school proficiency test, high school proficiency assessments, HSPT, HSPA, and now the FARC assessments. These things stay. They change, but they don't go away. So we have to take this a bit more seriously and that's why you know tonight when I talk about where we are in the process and what we need to do as part of our corrective action plan it's important that we try to understand the implications of what happens if we don't um if we take a look I shared with the board members if you look I gave two packets one actually has numbers it's a preliminary 2015 ISA accountability profile And what I
010did was I selected a couple of neighboring school districts. So you can see uh the participation rates by those districts. So the first one I have listed here is public school district. Each one of the groups participation met yes. So 95% of the student body of which includes a high school just like we do was at yes. Uh I go on to the next one. Hen public school district. Again, you see all categories are yes, 95% in each subgroup. I go on to look at Patterson Public School District, all yes, with the exception of two areas that did not meet the 95%. Compton Lakes, again, our neighbors not too far from here, also include a high school, 95% participation rate across the board. for safe city county school. All yeses with the exception of two
011subgroups. And then I go over to North Halen and I'm going to jump to Wayne again. All yes. If you turn to the very last page, we have West Milford Public School District. This is the only district of Pay County that has all nos. I'm very disturbed by this. We have to find what the reason for this is. It's outstanding. When I attend county superintendent meetings and I have to sit there and we're comparing numbers and now that this report came out and is public, it's very disturbing that we did not make it in that one area. I am proud to say that we had one school that made it 95% across the board. That's Absu School. Congratulations to Absu School. But to the rest of the district, you know, across the board, this is
012serious. We talk about being a better school district. We talk about having our students prepared for careers and and the 21st century workforce and everything else and going to college. We can't do this if we don't participate in the testing. This is not something for us to take lightly. Now, when we look at this, we have to say to ourselves, and we had a small committee that worked together, and what we're trying to do is find out why. Why is it specifically in this one area of Pay County, do we have all those? What went out there? Well, certainly I can tell you by reading some of the notices that came across my desk for people opting out. If we follow the instructions that they had on those letters, you might as well keep your
013kids home from school. I'm not trying to be facitious. What I'm telling you is that it says if my child is going to be tested on anything that has to do with Common Core, you can't do it. They shouldn't be in the classroom. Everything we do is Common Core, including this test. Now, you might have heard our esteemed governor talk about not being in favor of common core anymore, but the bottom line, and I said this once before, is that yes, they're going to change it in New York. It's going to uh New Jersey, sorry. It's going to be New Jersey standards, but guess what? It's common core with a new label, and maybe they'll change a few words. So, I reach out to all of you. I reach out to the board of education.
014I reach out to the parents, the entire community. We need to work together on this. We are looking for people to work with us. The administrative team is looking for assistance to make this better. Now, you're going to see a presentation in a few moments by Dr. Pritchette, Mr. Novak on the scores. I have to tell you honestly, look at the scores, but don't ask too many questions. With the amount of students we had participate, it's hard to tell what the variables were. What students didn't take the test? the students that are way up here, the students who are at the bottom, the students in the middle, we can we can analyze the data for the next year and a half. This is a very very difficult battle for us to to work on and
015we're not going to be able to get it done unless we work together. The thought of moving ahead and I've already gotten some phone calls and emails on how we're going to get out of this. We have to get that how we're going to get out of this into how we're going to participate and do what everybody else is doing. I really don't know as of yet where we fell in the state, but I will find out that information and share that as well. So I can tell you but for Pay County lowest participation rate and it just is very very disturbing. So, with that being said, what I'd like to share with you first, um, basically would be the what the board has to approve. Yep. Thank you. Is the actual cap. And what
016I'm going to read to you is the one that we came up with for the district only. At this point, we do have one for each school. I don't need to get it to each one of the schools, but for the district. It's a good overview of direction. So, the strategy to be implemented, identify the root causes of low park participation rates in West Milford. That means that we're going to have to come up with some way to share information with you to dispel any of the rumors or the false information that's out there and we have to hear what your concerns are as well. Increase communication with the school and district stakeholders to create better understanding of the test expectations and the benefits of the testing. So, as I stated before, the benefits of
017the testing is it helps us build the baseline for those students who are going to be graduating in the class of 2020. That's just around the corner. You know how quickly that happens. Encourage participation for all students during 2016 2017 administration of park and certainly for this year as well. Our action steps for the district create anformational video on park testing that will appeal and reach the broader base. We want something that's out there for people to look at whether it's online whether we have it on channel 77 that shares all the information and we break it down and we discuss some of the issues meet with the what I call Wampa the West Milford's parents association to assist to help us find the root cause of what the possible solutions could be here what's
018the root cause for this happening and what are the solutions that we can work on together we're going to schedule information sessions to meet with CPAC and parents of special ed students, 504 students and title one, etc. Every subgroup coordinate New Jersey Department of Education presentation. I will reach out to the state to see if I can get somebody from the state to come and speak to us here. I will be with Barry Ericson this Friday morning. She is the assistant uh commissioner of education. Um, and I'm going to speak to her, see if she's available, if one of her colleagues will be available to come to West Milford to share the information. Hold administrative meetings to provide staff and essential knowledge for supporting students, families while supporting staff with the skills and strategies to
019do so. So again, all I'm looking for at this point is help, the assistance from everybody here to help us be the best that we can possibly be by resisting this test. We're doing nothing more than hurting our children and hurting the district. I thank you and uh I want to present to you at this time if there are any questions and I do want the board to look this over. Uh I would like to have a vote on this for tonight because it is due to the county office on Friday the 4th. We want to get it in. It was ready for last week. Unfortunately, we weren't here, but we want to work on this and hopefully hopefully we can get ourselves into a better uh position. But again, you're going to see now
020a presentation by Dr. Pritchard, our test coordinator, along with Mr. Novak, which will show you the numbers. And again, it's just difficult to decipher how effective those scores are, what they actually mean based on the number of students that we had take the test with the exception of the one school. Thank you. I have a prepared statement on I had a prepared statement for tonight and I'm going to read that statement. But you know the question that's being asked with park and park testing right now is why and I'm going to tell you why. Freedom of choice. People still have the right to choose what they want to choose. So now I'm going to go to my statement. A4485 was just signed into law by our governor. Basically, this bill prohibits the commissioner of education
021from withholding state school aid from school district based on participation rates of its students on the state assessments. Recent media articles indicate that the commissioner has suggested the possibility of withholding state aid if a significant share of students in the district do not take the assessment. This bill would prevent districts from being penalized for matters beyond their control. Something that's been threatened the whole time is, you know, the biggest threat was we're going to have funding withheld. Well, the governor just signed into law that we cannot have funding withheld. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. We're about to present our um our scores for our last year's park assessment. Uh as I'm not going to um go into any further about what Mr. Rashika was talking about. I think he said it very well uh in
022regard to how the refusals impacted um our presence with the park test in our district. The first um slide or two that comes up is going to uh refer directly to the level of refusals and how it impacted our scores across the district. Um but before we do that, I just want to um before I introduce Dr. Bridget, I just going to show you that our test scores are currently online. We're going to present from the website. I'm going to navigate once I move over. I'm going to navigate from that link so you can see exactly how to get it and that our channel 77 people can also see it as well. Uh we are open to um questions. We are just going to ask if you could just take note and then uh ask
023those questions at the end so that we can just get through the presentation. And um at this point, I'd like to introduce Dr. Pritchette with our test results for Park. Thank you for having me back here tonight. The last time I was here was in January and I brought the assessment data that was available at the time. Uh since that time much more data has been released. The paperbased scores have come back. uh rescoring has taken place and other state and district scores have been released in addition to the refusal rates. We as a state have submitted our scores to the US DOE and we as a district have written and submitted our action plan to the board. On slide one, the first slide, you'll see the refusal percentages for New Jersey and West Milford.
024On the left are the refusal percentages for New Jersey. On the right are the the refusal percentages for West Milford. We are the gold. New Jersey is the darker color. On the left is English language arts and on the right is mathematics. New Jersey was second only to New York for refusals. West Milford doubled, tripled, and in some cases quadrupled the refusal percentages of New Jersey. There was no significant difference between the rates of refusals in English language arts versus mathematics. However, the rate the rate of refusals increased as the students ages and grade levels increased except for grade five which decreased from grade four. At best, 14.5% of students at West Moford did not take the park assessment. At worst, 68.7% of students refused to take the assessment. I'm going to ask you to
025please keep this in mind as we review the scores. Our first scores are third grade English language arts. The average score is the average score for the students who took the park. So 749 for West Milford is the average score that our students got. That is on the left hand side. On the right you'll see the student percentage for meeting or exceeding expectations or that's the percent of students who got a four or a five. We had 51.8% of students who uh met or exceeded expectations for the mathematics score and a 748. The next slide is our uh percentages for the third grade that meet and exceed expectations compared to all of the public schools in Pay County. On the left is a comparison of the third grade English language arts and on the right
026is the comparison for third grade mathematics. I want to point out that the line at the bottom is the rate of refusals in the county and that even though 14.5% was our lowest raise refusal rate, it more than doubled the highest refusal rate percentage in the county. In fact, 10 out of the 16 school districts in the county, which is 63% of the county, had absolutely no refusals of students or parents to take the park assessment. With that said, we came in eighth out of 16 in English language arts and we came out fourth in the county in third grade mathematics. The next slide is grade four English language arts. On the left side is the average score our students earned which was 748. Higher than park but two points shy of New Jersey. On
027the right is the percentage of students who met and exceeded expectations. Again, higher than Park, but just shy of New Jerseys percentage of students who met and exceeded expectations. The same can be said for fourth grade mathematics, two points shy of New Jersey in our average scores, but higher than park in both the average scores and the percentage of students who met and exceeded expectations. Next slide shows how our fourth grade scores compare to the fourth grade scores in Payic County. Next one. On the left is our fourth grade English language arts score and on the right is our fourth grade mathematics score. Once again, we were the highest in refusals by roughly 10% over Ringwood, who was the next highest. Eight districts had zero refusals. We were 11th out of 16 in English language
028arts and 10th out of 16 in mathematics in fourth grade. A little more than a fifth of our students refused to take this assessment. So over a fifth of our scores are missing. Our fifth grade average scores in English language arts were greater than park and only three points shy of New Jerseys average scores. And it was the same for the percentage of students meeting and exceeding expectations. Again, in fifth grade mathematics, our average score was better than park, a little less than the state. Our percentage of students meeting and exceeding expectations was a little less than park and less than the state by a little over 11%. In Pay County, our fifth grade English language arts scores were ninth out of 16. Our mathematics scores were 12th out of 16. Over 20% of our
029students refused to take the assessment. The most fifth grade refusals by far in the county. So even though for us it was less refusals than fourth grade, we are still missing over a fifth of our scores. In grade six English language arts, we made a bit of a turnaround. Our average score was 750, which not only meets expectations, but was higher than both Park and New Jersey. 58.2% of the students who took the park assessment met and exceeded expectations, which was more than both New Jersey and all of the park states. In grade six mathematics, our average score tied New Jersey at 742 and was more than the park average score. We also tied New Jersey in the percentage of students who met and exceeded expectations and beat the Park State's percentage. Grade six was
030the first time that over a quarter of the students refused to take the assessment. 10 districts in P County had no refusals at all. We had the highest amount of refusals at 27.3%. Trippling the percentage of Wayne who was the next closest at 8.6%. 6%. We came in eight out of 16 in English language arts scores and sixth out of 16 in sixth grade mathematics. Our average score in grade seven English language arts was 738 and the percentage of students meeting and exceeding expectations was 38.2%. These scores were less than both New Jersey and Park. The same can be said for grade seven mathematics. Our average student score was 732 and 24.2% of students met and exceeded expectations. In seventh grade, our percentage of refusals exceeded our score of students who met and exceeded expectations.
031That was in seventh grade mathematics. 24.2% 2% met and exceeded expectations and 33.1% refused to take the assessment. We are missing over 30% of our scores in seventh grade. We came in 13th out of 16 in P County in English language arts and 12th out of 16 districts in mathematics. In grade 8 English language arts, our average score was 745, which is only five points away from meeting expectations and is higher than the average Park score, but four points lower than the average New Jersey student score. We also beat Park in eighth grade English language arts students meeting and exceeding expectations and was only 2.4% shy of beating the New Jersey percentage. Our average score in eighth grade math was 719, lower than park in the state. The percentage of students meeting and exceeding expectations
032was 9.8%. Also lower than park in the state. We were ninth out of 16 districts in Pay County in 8th grade English language arts and 15th out of 16 districts in Pay County in 8th grade mathematics beating only Payic City. Over 30% of our eighth grade English language arts scores and over 40% of our eighth grade math scores are missing due to refusing the assessment. Nine districts in P County had no eighth grade percent or parent or student refusals. Our average score in grade 9 English language arts was 731 and 34.4% of the students met and exceeded expectations. Both scores are a bit lower than Park and New Jersey. The same can be said for algebra 1, average score of 728. 25.1% of students met and exceeded expectations. Again, both scores are lower than Park
033and New Jersey. Almost half, 47.8% of the nth grade students refuse to take the nth grade English language arts assessment. So we are missing almost half of our scores. 44.1% of our students refuse to take the algebra 1 assessment. So we are missing over 40% of those scores. With that said, we came in sixth out of 10 in English language arts in the county. We came in 12th out of 19 Pay County school districts who took the park algebra 1 assessment. In grade 10 English language arts, the average student score was 713 and 23.9% of students met and exceeded expectations. Both scores were lower than Park and New Jersey. The geometry average student score was higher than the grade 10 English language arts average student score at 720, but less students, 15.3% met and exceeded
034expectations. Those scores were lower than Park and New Jersey. In 10th grade English language arts, we are missing nearly 60% of our scores and we are missing over 50% of our geometry scores. We came in seventh out of 11 in the county in 10th grade English language arts and we came in fifth out of 11 districts in geometry. In grade 11 English language arts, our average student score was 744, higher than both Park and New Jersey. The percentage of students who met and exceed the expectations was also much higher than Park and the state percentage. Our algebra 2 scores were also higher than both Park and the state of New Jersey. Our average student score was 727 and 24.2% of students met and exceeded expectations. In grade 11, we are missing over 65% of our
035scores in English language arts. In algebra 2, we are missing almost 70% of our scores. We were first in the county in English language arts in 11th grade and third in the county in algebra 2. Overall, we our average student score met and exceeded expectations, which is a score of 750 only in sixth grade English language arts. Our percentage of students meeting and exceeding expectations was higher than the state of New Jersey in grades three, six, and 11 English language arts. In grade three and algebra 2 in mathematics, we tied the state of New Jersey in grade six mathematics. On average, our district is missing more than a third of our scores. Our overall average refus refusal rate was 37% in English language arts and 34% in mathematics. So our overall average school refusal rate
036was 35.5%. When a child doesn't take the test, is their score counted as a zero or they're just not in the data at all? The question is when the child doesn't take the test, is there a child is their score counted as a zero? And and that's no, they're just not counted at all. I just have a question. Is there a way that or that you can get a subset of students that are possibly students that take one or more AP classes that refuse to take the class? Can I get their their Do you have like a subset of AP students that refuse to take the part, right? Um, would you know like I could tell who I have a list of students who refused to take the the park. I could um then take
037that list and see how many of them were AP. So, but you don't have them broken down into like levels of classes. No, I didn't do that. And part of that is because I think it got to the point where um the list that we were keeping um isn't quite complete because I think there was just so much to manage. I had a quick question for before you retire. You said that the park does not count students that refuse to take the test as zeros. So as they count as a zero or they count they don't count at all. They don't count at all. So then that would be a very accurate picture of the students who took the test for the students who took the test. Yes. Right. But we don't know like Mr.
038Rashika said we're not sure if the students who didn't take the test would have raised the scores. And we're thinking that probably they would have. If I'm going to believe that um our scores uh could be better than they are, and I do believe that they could be better than they are, then I'm going to believe that the students who refuse to take the score would have raised them. Well, it is a fact to say then that the this is an accurate picture of the population that decided to take the test, this is factual. It would be speculation to say that if we added more people that were smarter, our scores will come up. That's what you're saying. I' I'd like to I'd just like to beg to differ with with that assessment and I
039think it's a fair specimen saying that yes the students who took the assessment this is the score that they received. However, there's three important words in our society that we lacked in this assessment and that was the words we teach all of our kids that is do your best and we did not have that process for all of our students who took that students who took the test didn't do their best. We have soft data from staff members who observed children sitting next to children who were taking the test who typed two or three words, clicked submit, and walked away. In my opinion, that's not doing your best. Right. They they would have been better off opting out. Our scores would have been higher then. I disagree. Well, you're saying if they just typed A,
040B, and C on the test, not doing their best. If they would have opted out, would it be factual? Opting opting out is an option or refused to take refusing is refused to take let me use the correct terminology refused the students that just hit a aaa bbb for our scores who took the test scores that would have been better for that individual student right that was for their school report received at home I I would say no that's not for them it's not good I think that it's just unfair that the district's being measured on 64 65% of the students participating that's the situ it's that and I'm being kind uh again now you look at that and as Mr. Noc pointed out even with that population we still have kids who do not
041take the test seriously and you know some of it came from conversations that they heard whether it was at in school at home in street whatever but it did have an impact on what their performance was being that I've traveled the world we should be like China and only send our best students to take tests then that's a different story and I will be happy to discuss that with you but that's not the case here understood and that's one of my concerns about testing and nate testing is because we're not looking at the same population. So, I agree with that piece. It seems to me that um part of the problem with the testing last year was that the publicity was bad. It was bad publicity. It was It was bad publicity. People had misgivings
042about it. There was a lot of fear. There was a lot of um anxiety. How Dr. Richard, do you intend to solve that problem this year? I see that there are meetings planned and but somebody here has to be a cheerleader. How do you intend to do that for our children? I am a cheerleader. I am and I have gone around to a lot of of places and one of the great things is that um a lot of this can be solved just by getting the right information out. For example, a lot of people thought that, you know, we were going to have our our uh data sold and that was something that went around and and and people heard and they thought that that was true and that just simply wasn't true. Well, even
043the data that we collect is nobody's name, nobody's address or anything like that for the for the first thing. And the second part is that, you know, we have laws against that. So being able to um let people know, you know, what's really happening and the fact that we've gone through it once and you know, everybody's still okay, everybody's still alive, you know, and and I I think that um I think that this time around, I think we're a little wiser. I think, you know, we're a little calmer and um I I really don't believe that the refusals will be as great. Will you have um an open office policy where parents can come in and say hey okay oh yeah I love talking to parents you know you know me I will talk to
044anybody anything you want to talk about I'm here come in I'm happy that's one of the parts of and Mr. Mr. Shea read through the corrective action plan earlier. There's a series offormational sessions that are going to be offered both formally and informally. And I'm going to throw the principles out there as well. You know, any anyone who has those questions, this is more for the audience and for the people watching at home and for the board that if you have a question, you have a concern, engage the school with your concern and your question to see if that can be answered. Uh we saw a lot of last year um of the you know parking lot conversations that turned into as a principal last year I received refusal letters on a shop right parking
045receipt and that well it you know funny to laugh about it but but that ended up being you know a process so um I think it's important that we have those conversations to make contact with the school and just open the lines of communication because I think in the end you know we want to see these as as being valid and uh the only way we can do that is if we get all of our kids or as many as our kids involved as we can and get them to take it seriously. That that's the whole you'll jump in there. That's the whole thing is the the communication with parents and students has to be very thorough in the in the fact of what the expectations are and why we're taking the test. I think
046that's the big disconnect is why we taking this test. There was lots of negative publicity last year truly. Um but again we we have to be able to get out there and that's why before when I was calling out to parents and board members I think we really need to work together. I mean, if we're going to have meetings and we have to make sure that when we have a meeting, we have an audience that understands what we can make it understandable for the audience and that the the audience is a reasonable size. So, we're not talking to four or five people at a time, but we're talking to, you know, both of the parents and also having something available uh on TV as a video or having on our website as a video to
047get the information out there as much as possible. Uh I spoke before about you know one of the pieces were common core and I you know I wasn't joking when I said if you follow that truly you you wouldn't be able to teach students based on what those letters said to us. Uh one of the other areas is that they don't want the any information being shared. Well the truth of the matter is probably for the last 8 to 10 years teacher information and student information is shared with NJ sports. It's a system. That's how they everything's in the bank. Every student has a number. Every teacher has a number. Every administrator has a number. So much so that if I were going to hire a teacher probably by next year, if we're starting to
048look at hiring new teachers, that through NJ smart, you can actually get a better picture of what that teacher has performed in the past than what you're going to get from a recommendation letter. Now, we have no way of changing that. So, if I said that it's not going to end up in some kind of data collection or someplace, I'd be lying. Scores go places. Student information goes places. That's how the state runs. And, you know, we just have to be uh positive about it and make everybody understand that no one's doing this to to hurt anyone. And I think that we really want to work on, as I said before, is doing the best possible for our students and for our district. We want to be a competitive school district. I hear over and
049over again, if the school district were better, more houses would sell. But we got to work on being a better school district then. And the only way we can do that is so that we collectively can have a positive outcome from these tests that put us on the map. And I think that the only way to do that is to reach out to everybody with uh I truly respect Mr. De and I I truly do. I love working with him. But it's not it's not about the money or funds coming from the state. I'm simply looking at student performance. That's the only thing I'm looking at. Student and district performance, whether we get the money or not. We'll let Miss Francisco worry about that. But but the bottom line is that again, it goes back
050to our scores. And it going back to the very first statement I made, the data to have the baseline so we know where we are, to have a true baseline to know where our students are. So, you know, hopefully we'll be reaching out. We'll put some stuff on the website. Please don't hesitate to contact either one of us or all three of us and uh we look forward to building a a team together to work together. I wanted to add something else to this discussion real quick. Um you know, don't take comfort that the information is not sold. That is a true statement. It's not sold, but as Mr. Rashika said, it is shared. It's probably shared with everybody out there. Um you know, the the comment you made, Dan, about shop right parking lot
051receipts. Um, do we currently have a policy on the school website stating what people should do if they decide to refuse? No, we don't. So, you're going to get shop receipts because there's no guidance, no policy, nothing to guide the people who decide to refuse. And I've asked for that before, some type of guidance for the people who just want to say no. But you guys are completely ignoring that question. However, we we did have those procedures in place last year, but they're not there. In my research of 16 other surrounding districts, no school district has anything up about refusal. So, anybody that wants to refuse, you're in you're in La La Land. We don't we don't care about you, right? That's not true. No, that's I don't think we need I don't think we
052need to advertise it. The point is that we're having this meeting tonight so that we can get people to accept and take responsibility for having students take the test. still not going to put a policy or any kind of guiding that guide you in the wrong direction direction and puts out to the public that they have the opportunity to to just have their student refuse taking a test. So then you are not really care I care about I care about the district the district's refusing to put any type of guidance or policy online to share for the people who want to refuse taking the test. That's where we're at. I' I'd like to uh you want to say something, Matthew? Sure. I'll let you and then it's my turn. Oh, sure. So, um just like
053I had a question about um like the total valid scores and how that affects the participation rate. Well, it's not so much that the scores affect the participation rate is the participation rate affects the scores. So, if we had more um students take the test, then we would have more scores to average. And so, if you have more scores to average, chances are if you use logic, the scores would go up. Okay. Um because like I was looking at like the Wayne uh data and like if you took their totaled valid scores like as a percentage their enrollment, it's only like 2% higher than like our valid scores in enrollment. And I was just wondering if that's the same thing as like a participation rate or not, but it isn't. If their enrollment is 2%
054more than ours, is that what you're saying? Oh, no, no. I'm saying if you divide the total valid scores by their enrollment, that percentage is only 2% higher than our total valid scores divided by our enrollment. And I was wondering like the number of valid scores if that is the same as um the participation rate. It depends because when you do the not tested um you have to divide by how many kids actually didn't test because they refused, how many kids were uh medically not able to participate. So when they go to figure out the participation rates, there's a lot more that goes into it. Okay. Do you think if like a student was absent that that's considered a um like refusal or is that like just like not counted at all? It's not supposed
055to be counted as a refusal. So like do you think that maybe kids in Wayne like stayed home that day and that didn't affect the refusal rate? No, because you have 90 close to 95% of students participated. So right, that's that's what's indicated on the document you're looking over 95% participated. Okay. I was wonder. Yeah. I guess like at the um bottom of the question was just like why are like the total valid scores seemingly low compared to their enrollment? Sometimes there are voids, you know, if if a student, you know, is disruptive, they void the test or they cheat. Yeah. Okay. Um I mean it's almost 2,000 2,000 like not valid scores in Wayne. Yeah. I mean that could be a lot of things. That could be um like I said that they cheated
056that you know students that had a cell phone out. So So what happens if there's a cell phone out that student would be removed from test immediately and then their scores avoided. All right. Thank you. But I don't know exactly what I'm hearing. It's interesting though. Is interesting. Okay. Thanks. Yeah, it is. Okay. Okay. So, I'm glad that we were able to have some discussion even though I'm in La La Land according to Mr. De. But wait a second. I didn't say Mr. Rashik was in La La Land. I said this the parents who refuse La La Land due to the district not having guidance. Thank you, Mr. relatively brief comment um without the some doesn't matter whether it's park or whatever it is but you know we educate kids and we want to try
057to figure out whether we're effective or not if we don't measure it we have no idea all assessments that we do educational quality are invalid we have no idea whether we're doing well or we're doing poor we don't know which schools schools are doing well or poorly. We don't know which teachers are doing well or poorly. We don't know which administrators are doing well or poorly. We don't know if we're meeting the standards. We don't know if the kids are getting educated. The end of the day, it makes our community look bad. Um, it makes our school system look bad. Home buyers notice this sort of thing and they go elsewhere, which means that our property values are lower than they should be. Houses in West Milford take longer to sell. Um, and you know,
058the net effect of the whole thing is we look stupid, the whole community. Um, I'm proud of living in West Milford, but there's nothing here to be proud of. Um, we get rated if if if people don't know, New Jersey Monthly magazine uh uh rated us among the worst communities in the entire state of New Jersey. This is why. Um, and then the final thing is it's the law. We have to do it. There's no choice about it. and within a very short period of time, you won't be able to graduate or get a diploma if you don't do it. So, it would be good if our students learn how to do it. The more you take these kinds of tests, the better you get at them. So, I'd like to be proud of the
059community that I live in. And uh this isn't helping. I um I'd like to put my three cents in. Um I was one of the parents who opted my my daughter out. And the reason I opted her out, she took the math portion of the test. She got home and she told me, "There's stuff on here that they haven't even taught me that they're testing me on." And with that, I said, "If you're gonna waste my daughter's time in the class, I'm I'm I'm opting her out because you why test her on something that she hasn't been taught?" So, I opted her out now. Opted out, refused, opted out, whatever. We Yeah, we Everybody knows, but this year that's not going to be the case. Um, we were doing superintendent interviews and one of the
060superintendent candidates had said the she looked at the results and saw the high opt out and said that we should you know your kids you got to have pride in your community. Make them take it. It's you know a little Highlander pride and and we should be taking this test. Now, this year she's my my daughter's taking it hands down. There's there's no weasling out of this one. Okay. But at at the at the same time, I understand Mr. Dever's right to to talk against it. Um and and I I have no problem with that. That's his god-given right. This is a democracy that we live in. However, we pay taxes. We don't like to, but we pay taxes. So, in in that context, we have a test. Kids might not like it. We might
061not like it, but we should let the kids take it. We should let them see, you know, we should see their results, see how we fare. you know, my daughter, and I see Mrs. Reinhold in the audience, she's one of the the the AP students, you know, and and honors classes. So, I know that she would probably push that up a little bit knowing my daughter, she aced New Jersey asked in the mathematics and she was high up in the science and in the English language arts. So, I think as a community we should make our kids take this test. Although I understand reasons people might not want to. But as for a board, it'll give us some direction on to see where we're lacking and then we can put the heat on Mr. Novak.
062Exactly. to make sure that those those areas of weakness are addressed. Um so when when we when we look at it in that context, I think it's a good thing that we we take that we have our kids take that test. He's going to get some heat and that flows downhill, of course. So teachers are going to get a little heat, but we need to we need to take this and I carry this now at all board meetings chip that Mr. Novak gave us and it says allin. All in and I think that as a community we should be all in and and we should make our kids take this test. It's not going to hurt them. It's not going to be the end of the world, but it'll give us a good indication of
063where we're lacking. and how to address it. So, I I I hope that uh people will think twice before they refuse or opt out this year. And and and we as a board, we need to do a much better job communicating that. Um as board members, as administrators, we need to go on the offensive. So, that that's it. Thank you. All in. Okay. Okay. Go ahead. All right. Yes. Uh I agree that as a district as measurement tool right now with the number of refusals we have, this data is virtually useless in the districtwide level. Um if we have more participation, it may become useful uh as as Jim said. But as a parent, I've been learning about this more and more and I found something that was very uh persuasive to me. And that
064is that this particular test pinpoints areas of of um individual student difficulty or success much more accurately than previous tests. And from a an individual student standpoint, the teacher can look at that student's results, assuming that the student actually tried on the test um and be able to pinpoint the problems. For instance, in language arts, it might be word comprehension versus something else. Um they might be able to be able better pinpoint the issue with that student and help them uh and individualize their learning a little bit and help them with that the area that they need help in. And as a parent, I thought that was a very, you know, even if the district data is not happening because there's too many refusals from an indiv individual student standpoint, I I think I, you
065know, would like my my my kids to have that uh benefit. So that's all I want to say. Thank you, Dr. British. Thank you. Thank you very much. Just so you know to Dr. Bridget has scheduled some of the meetings. Um we will have those posted online probably by tomorrow. Uh if you haven't participated in any of the meetings and of course we will have more more meetings coming up as I discussed earlier with the group. And just to to Mr. Food's point uh I think there was a good point made there with the with his own daughter uh reaching material that she wasn't taught yet. Well, that's basically how you get to a baseline because some of those kids you find out exactly where they are, how much knowledge they have at a given
066time in the school year based on the information they have or don't have. So again, it goes toward building that baseline. And I think uh although although sometimes we're very very serious with this and we should be very serious with it, but I'm very happy that we were able once again to have a discussion about it with everyone here. So, I really appreciate that and I'm hoping that as I said before that we can continue to work together uh and do a better job for this school year and working with park assessment. So, thank you everyone. I appreciate your your time and certainly listening to our presentations. Thanks. Okay. Uh is that it? That's it. Okay. Barbara, special reports and correspondence. Uh yes, thank you. I believe you have the minutes from the January meetings
067available for your review and consideration. Any discussion? No. Can we have a voice vote, please? No, you need a second. I move. You move. You move. Second. Second. Okay. Any any discussion? I'm sorry. All right. Vote for voice vote, please. I Any opposed? Any extensions? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rosell. Legal report, please. Okay. President's report. Um, I've got a a few things that I um that I would like to talk about. Um, and I want to get this out of the way first. Um, Mr. Novak um this is to the board members had um made a request uh to me and I thought I'd share that now. Um they're having a digital citizenship evening event um and they would like to know if the board members would like to chip in. Um the cost is
068approximately $200 to uh donate a Chromebook to students. Um be about $25 a person somewhere around there. I would just like to ask the board if anybody would two members are out ask if they would uh like to donate. Could you email us that information, please? Yep. Sheldon. I'm in. Okay. Thank you, Terry. Um I'll send that email and any questions you can direct to Mr. Novak. Um I' I'd like to say uh the Pride Rumage sale is April 22nd and 23rd. I've donated quite a few things to the Pride Rumage sale. If anybody isn't aware, um that helps the special needs kids at Hillrest. Um any donations would be greatly appreciated by those kids. Um I was going to speak about park. Um but that's over and done with. Um I would also like
069to report um to the board and the community the solar study was um finished as far as the structural analysis of our buildings. Uh the four buildings were McPinen, Westbrook, Marshall Hill and the high school. only the high school is capable of handling the uh solar panels on the roof. Um but we can still Barbara was estimated at about $100,000 savings to the district and in electrical costs. Um, I I also I received an email from Luke Slot, a former student who is with uh Sustainable West Milford, and he does a lot of work also with the Friends of Wall. And he had asked if there was any way our engineer could get involved in looking at maybe we could do solar panels at the Wallish property. Um, not on the buildings. I know they're
070not going to be able to handle it, but um in the back fields that might be an alternative for the board to consider and at the same time be a a a good um township and board of ed venture where we could have additional electrical savings and the township as well. Um, I would like to, if the the board is okay with that, bring that idea to the town council tomorrow evening. I can't see any reason why we wouldn't investigate. Okay. Any anybody opposed to that? No. Okay. So, I I I will do that tomorrow evening. Bring that up to the council. That's something that we can discuss at a um joint township board of ed committee meeting. Um let's see. I'd like to say that uh so far I know of Terry has gone,
071myself, Mr. Drew I think is scheduled for Friday. We were invited to the Apua school, Read Across America, and I went this morning, read to the first graders. Man, that was like therapy. Let me tell you, the Cat in the Hat, you know, it uh watching their their faces light up when you're you're reading that story. So, I would encourage other board members if they can to do it. It was a lot of fun. Um, and I think that's something that the board should be more involved in. Um, it it it really was a good time and I I'm already penciled in for next year. Um, I guess uh Tony, you should have at this point um he should have filled out um superintendent evaluation forms on for New Jersey school boards um and put
072in our goals and our progress towards them. At this point, you've done that. Um, we'll probably the board be receiving those email from New Jersey school boards to do our part of that superintendent evaluation. Um, so look for that in the in the coming month from New Jersey school boards and please get that filled out as soon as possible. Um, and I have one last thing to say. Well, two things. Yeah, I'll get to uh I've been getting a lot of emails, phone calls um regarding bullying in the district. Um it's it's not fun to be reading this and reading the stories that some of these kids are going through. I I would en encourage all of our staff to make really that their number one priority. um the welfare of every student in this
073district is is paramount to us succeeding and and I would hope that all staff members would would really take that to heart. Um some of these stories I heard and I'm not going to repeat it at this point, but they're heartbreaking and and I don't want to see any kid go through what some of these kids have gone through. So, I hope that it can be addressed and and and with a vengeance by staff. Um, and one last thing, um, there was a post on the West Phil West Milford Mom's Facebook page and it said, and I quote, that the board the board all they do is pass budgets and fix rooms. And that's the farthest thing from the truth that that I've that I've ever heard. We put in countless hours, superintendent interviews, you
074know, going over paperwork and programs and we can't address everything. And if a parent's got a concern and they bring it to the board's attention, we'll do our best to to deal with it. Um, but to to make that and that's from a I guess former PTA president. I'm not going to mention any names, but uh those comments are irresponsible. We all work hard at what we do. It's volunteer. You know, I had a full head of hair a month ago. You know, it's um it it's tough. I I would I would hope that uh parents would would make comments that uh really reflect accurately what this board does. Um it's not fun sometimes, but at other times like reading to the Cat in the Hat, it's very rewarding. Um or donating a computer or
075donating time, whatever it is that we do. Um, we we volunteer because we love this community, not we're not here just to pass budgets and and fix roofs. Those are secondary. Our number one concern is the kids and and it it will always be the kids because ultimately that's why we're all here. It's for the kids of this township. So, um, with that, that's the end of my president's report. Thank you very much for for putting up with me. [Applause] Petitions in request. Petitioners who have 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 five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until a 30-minute period transpires. Petitioners speaking during petitions and requests
076are asked to address topics listed for special listed for action in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, provide their addresses. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Do we have anybody who requested to speak? Is would there Yeah, Mr. Gurnhard last time, but I I said if it wasn't a part of the agenda, then he would have to wait until the second. Okay. And he didn't let me know that he was going to be here tonight. Okay. Um is there is bullying officially on the agenda since it? Uh well, it is because it's HIV. So, go ahead. Tracy Huber, West Milford. As most of you know who regularly attend these meetings, I've been coming to meetings and communicating with you in
077person and via email for more than a year now. My purpose is to bring awareness to the most troubling issues in our schools. One of which is bullying and the inadequate response of this district administration to address it. When the when the 2014-15 boards voted unanimously to unsubstantiate harassment, intimidation, and bullying, HIPS, which included threats of bodily harm, clear racial slurs, and when HIV investigations were not done at all, concerning words or actions that would to any reasonable person having knowledge of the New Jersey statute require an HIV investigation, and when HIPP investigations are mishandled and improperly reported to the board of education. It is apparent that our district has one, serious flaws in our HIP process. Two, serious inadequacies in the training in or possible bias on the part of administrators responsible for this
078process. Three, serious lack of understanding on the part of trustees regarding their legal the legal requirements with which you are responsible for complying. And four, serious lack of leadership and accountability within the administrative structure of this district. The two physical assaults that took place recently at the high school on the same student are common knowledge now. These attacks were preceded by incidents of bullying by these aggressor students, including one in which no HIV investigation was done. The fact that a planned attack about which the school was warned was met with no intervention by a principal is unconscionable. If this was one of your children and the district did nothing to stop an assault with advanced knowledge of it, how would you react? There were numerous students in the hallways when these attacks took place. All
079of them were put at risk. One brief phone call to the bullying students parent the day of the advanced warning and a required meeting first thing that morning with the aggressor could have prevented this attack. Are administrators, teachers, and other staff properly trained and fully aware of their obligations under the law regarding threats of violence? Are you aware that neither the police nor the parents were immediately notified by a staff member after the attacks actually took place? After ensuring the immediate safety of the victim, shouldn't communicating with parents be a priority after their child is assaulted? A similar situation occurred last year at Marshall Hill when a child was badly bitten. A simil um after which neither the parents nor the police were contacted. I understand the particular incident resulted in a restraining order against
080the aggressor student. While not all trustees may be familiar with the memorandum of understanding between a school district and law enforcement, administrators and staff in the district should be. This is the document that outlines the obligations of school districts and school personnel in the handling of these types of matters in collaboration with local police. When students bully and our district fails to hold them accountable in accordance with its legal requirements, you put children at risk. Every time our chief school administrator fails to hold staff accountable for following law, district policies, or acting with common decency or respect, you send a loud message to students and their parents that their safety and emotional well-being are not priorities. In its 2016 summary, the New Jersey Anti-bullying Task Force states, "The concept of power imbalance is prevalent in
081the literature but not articulated in the anti-bullying bill of rights definition of HIV." The task force stated that the imbalance of power is a common denominator which is present in all bullying incidents and takes into account the relative power whether actual or perceived of the aggressor and the target in relation to specific characteristics that are just as real as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or others in the specified statute. The ABTF is pleased that the New Jersey Department of Education supports the recommendation to include the term power imbalance imbalance in code revisions. Under this clarified way of looking at HIPS, the actions of students and administrators must be properly considered for HIV investigations. Staff must also be better trained in how to understand, assess, and properly properly investigate potential HIVs. You have a legal, moral, and
082ethical obligation to protect students in your care regardless of your personal opinions about their parents and or how they advocate for the rights and safety of their children. With regards to that responsibility, our board of ed gets a failing grade. Here in our district, that would be a 59 or under. If you continue to enable administrative intimidation, and harassment of students, negligence, and incompetence at the highest level of our schools, then you are responsible for putting more students at risk. Parents should not have to contact their board of education, remove their children from the schools or file civil rights or other legal claims against the district because our chief school administrator ignores emails, minimizes concerns or fails to require administrators to appropriately address concerns and to follow laws and district policy. How much how much
083longer? Um, a minute. Can I finish, please? Everybody okay? Okay. The focus appears to be protect on protecting administrators and staff even when they fail to act responsibly regarding the welfare of students. What message are you sending when students at the high school step an inch out of line and are subject to immediate punishment while administrators cowboy their way through the school day violating student rights, failing to follow law, and arbitrarily applying policies putting kids at risk. Many of you are aware how my family's journey began. I would like any of our trustees to explain to me as a parent how a diligent student being less than 45 seconds late to an honors class is treated as a capital crime warranting detention and quote refocusing. And yet a school principal failing to stop an assault
084on a student with advanced notice, risking the safety of not just one student but many. Administrators failing to do hibs, purposely intimidating and harassing students, not reporting assaults or threats to the police are actions that are met with minimal scrutiny, concern, or even attention. When I say that these are met with barely any attention and action, I would be remiss in pointing that one particular example in which action actually was taken. With regard to the non-tenured high school BP who came to our district after being non-tenured in another district, one who is well known has a reputation for intimidating students, parents, and teachers alike. One who has mishandled serious HIVs, and one about whom there have been both written and verbal complaints by parents. Well, the action taken by our superintendent was to promote this
085individual to a department supervisory role in addition to her disciplinary duties. Your response and message to the over three years of teacher, parent, and especially student victims of this VP was heard loud and clear. The institutionalized lack of accountability here has eroded all trust. You can expect more parents to be reaching out to you directly as there is little faith that they will be heard or their matters will be dealt with in a respectful, timely, and appropriate manner by district administrators. Ignorance of what is actually taking place in our schools or of the law is not a valid excuse or a legal defense. As leaders of this district, you you share the culpability for the outcome. You must first acknowledge what is broken here and hold our chief administrator accountable for the growing mess taking
086place in our schools. What type of tragedy is it going to take before you actually take action? When will this board step up and do something definitive to ensure the safety and proper education of our children? I will continue to encourage parents to reach out to me who reach out to me to speak up and contact the appropriate administrators. our chief school administrator and the board. And for those who are too afraid to speak here for fear of retaliation against their children, as we explained to the board in our letter almost a year ago, with their permission, I will start sharing their stories at these public meetings. It is clear from the increase in parents reaching out to me to share experiences that my work here is just beginning. Thank you. Is there anybody else
087you'd like to speak? Joel CF Milford. It's bullying. Say, can you say your full address, please? 58 Cedar Lane. Thank you. Good evening. I'm an I am an eighth grader on home instruction from Mackaban. I would like to address you on a topic that has greatly impacted my life. Bullying. This is more than just teasing and name calling. Bullying has impacted my life in every way. The past two years, my life has been was threatened on the bus, called names in the hallway, and re recently harassed online. I've been called a and a and had a survey polling about me being the most hated eighth grade. Uh, being the most hated makabin, kicked in my knee because they didn't believe that it was hurt, things stolen from my locker, and worst of all, told to
088kill myself. The only assistance ever offered by the classmates was to help help me commit suicide. After being told these things, I feel worthless. I cry every day. I feel insignificant. I was told if I die, no one would care. When I attended school, I tried to hold my head up high and put a smile on my face. I thought this would show the bullies they did not win. But I am tired. I am tired of playing the part of being a happy teenager. When all these horrible words have killed pieces of me, I'm no longer strong enough. I was a M Club member. It was something I was very proud of. I thought we can make a difference. I was super excited to be invited to attend a conference in Walt Disney World. My
089parents helped fund raise and scrap together money for the trip. Once I voiced my problems to the school, I found this opportunity taken away from me. School administration said they did not want any conflict. I was punished for speaking up on being bullied. My worst fears came true. I was punished and feel the school did not believe me. Worst yet, I am blamed for being the victim. I'm so thankful for my parents and family who have supported me during this time. If it wasn't for them, for their love and help, I did not think I would have survived this. I feel the school has turned a blind eye to this topic. I feel I was the one who was punished for my cries be and my cries being ignored. It is my hope by being
090by me speaking up today, we as a school community can provide to prevent other victims of the future. Thank you. Thank you. I I want to thank you for sharing that information with uh us here. I believe I had a conversation with mom a couple of weeks ago. Uh at that time we were talking about um comments that were made being made on a uh some kind of a website that you actually have to sign into. Um I was not aware of any information um of things perhaps happening on school grounds or on a school bus. Um these are things that we will look into seriously and uh we want you to be comfortable and happy as a student uh in the future and we wish you all the best and we will be there
091to help you. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. I'd like to thank this young lady for her bravery in coming here today. I always have to say the same thing. Thank you very much. It's a very hard thing for you to do what you just did. You should be proud of yourself. Um and behavior like that is just to me is unacceptable. She's advocating for so many other kids in our school. What are we going to do about it? It's horrific. Thank you. Anybody else like to speak? I just want to say that it's not just the girls. Say your name. My name is Pam. I live in Westford. Um, address, please. Nine Dudley Street. What's your list? Burge. Burge. It's not just the girls that are being bullied in the schools. My son has been
092bullied since the seventh grade. I found a letter that he had written that he was going to commit suicide, which I did bring to the attention of the superintendent and the school at the time. Yes. And um now he's in high school and he is continued to be bullied. Not only that, he is also advocating for other students that are being bullied and now is being criticized for helping the kids that can't fight for themselves. I think it's ridiculous how it's nothing is taken care of that I did go to the principal and the vice principal about this and they did say they were going to file a hip which you all refused to say was was bullying. Someone told him he was going to kill him and you all said it was not bullying.
093So I just want to say that this is something that is getting out of control. The cutting in the schools is getting out of control. The students are under tremendous amounts of stress not only because of the the learning and the things that they have to do in school but by their peers which is not fair and it needs to be addressed soon because it's if God forbid anything happened to my son you would never hear the end of it from me. Mrs. Huber, you didn't give your address earlier. Nope. I read your future policies. Oh, does it say? Yeah. He knows where I live. Okay. Is there anybody else who'd like to speak? Um I actually I was about the park. Um but I just want to let you know that I actually have
094seen the poll that went around the school system and it was disgusting to the point of Oh, firstly, my name is Deborah Laruso. I live in Lindy Lake, uh 71 Hudson Drive. I'm the PTO president of Maple Road School. Um, I basically wanted to speak about Park, but I just want to let you know that I've actually seen this list and it's appalling. It's disgusting. It is the most hated girl in the school and um there's no children here, right? Uh, the most bangable teacher is on the list. And for this to be going around in seventh and eighth grade is kind of disgusting. And I have a child going into seventh grade in the fall and it scares me to death because I don't want him to get wrapped up in a situation where
095he is afraid to go to school or he is afraid to confide in somebody or go to somebody if he is having a problem. So, I just want to let you know that this list that's going around, this anonymous, I I've seen it with my own two eyes and I've also seen the fight in the high school because everybody reports on their cell phones and it gets sent around and it's just, you know, I I fear for some of our children's safety. On a lighter note, as far as the park is concerned, um I have to say I agree with Mrs. Dwire 150,000%. Um it is last year we went through as a parent um and again as PTO president um I would have to say there was a lot of bad PR um and
096I think that the root cause of the lack of participation was fear and panic and panic equals fear and when people don't understand what's going on when people don't truly know what their children are going to be doing or what they are involved in. Um they tend to back away. One of my children took the park, one did not. U my younger son has special needs. He did not take the park last year, but thanks to Dr. Bridgetette who cordially and graciously came to one of our PTO meetings and spoke to all of our parents. My son is now taking the park this year because she answered so many questions that parents had that we had no idea and I'm I'm being honest with you. Um I know two people who I will not mention
097their names um that their children suffer from color blindness and that is why they opted their children or refused the park. Dr. Bridget informed us that there is a park test available in black and white. If we had known this, their children would have taken the park. So, a lot of last year was bad PR, lack of information, fear, panic. Um, anything new is always, you know, oh my goodness, what do we do? How do we handle this? And I think there just needs to be more of an open bridge of communication between um the district and the schools individually. Having Dr. Bridget at our PTO meeting was the one of the best things that we've done this year. Uh she was extremely informative and answered a gazillion questions and we badgered her to death.
098But she really did make a huge difference on a lot of parents' opinions. So, I as the president appreciate that and so do our parents at our school. Um, my only concern and and it was said earlier is how do we reach the kids? How do we get the kids to stop typing AB AB AB and I know they do. I know the kids in the high school, some of the essays I've heard that were written, it just it blows my mind how they could even write that on a piece of paper and hand it in and call it an essay. Um, how do we get the kids to take it seriously? Now, if the parents are more informed, yes, as a parent, I have the ability to make my children take the test, but
099how do I make my children and not just at home, but from a educational standpoint, make them understand that this is truly serious, that this is something that will impact them in the future, that it's not a joke. Um, parents may be consenting, but the are not taking it seriously. So that's a whole another aspect of the issue that needs to be addressed is not so much the parent community but also the student body. So thank you for you. U the one of the things we discussed before though was um you know getting the information out to and I know Mr. Novak alluded to discussion with principles but it is working with staff and trying to create an environment where you know we talked about a cheerleader too. So, Miss Pritchette and Dr. Pritchette will
100be a cheerleader, but we'll get out there and share the information and and again share what it's about. They have to know what it's about and why. Several people's minds that night. Y and I was actually going to reach out to Mr. Novak and invite him to one of our PTO meetings and you as well, Mr. I have a park. I do have one other question. You you were referencing a poll that you saw. Oh, yes. Where where does one have access to the poll? It's anonymous to be perfectly honest with you. No, I mean it really is. It's like a Snapchat. It's like it's an anonymous poll and it looks as if it's on a yellow loose leaf piece of paper and there's questions and it has the person's name to the question. I
101guess it's online. You can get it anywhere. It's an app. Like we I went to Mac for the cyber bullying seminar which was excellent. But that's where all of this is coming from is apps. Some of it was already taken down. I contacted the state police. Right. That's the one I spoke. Okay. Some of it was taken down. It's it's through. If you uh go online at your home, you're not going to come up there. Yeah, if you don't mind, please just so it's on the Okay. Carry NeoC50. Um, ask FM is obviously um an app that you can get on your phone or your iPad. And uh they recently purchased this company from China called Straw Pole. and Straw Pole creates these. The kids are able to make these poles. Um, where's the best
102place to shop? Um, there's actually I have snapshots on my phone. The biggest Um, most screwable teacher. Um, most hated eighth grader. Um, who has wears the most see-through leggings? Um, it's just a random kind of thing that they put out. You have to download an app to get there, right? I'm just trying to figure out how I can The problem is Straw is uh from China and they don't link up with IP addresses. So there's you can't hold anybody responsible for that. ASKFM does hold IP addresses. So state if the um if you create your ASKFM at home or in someone else's home, they can pull the IP address where it was created or where you're posting from. But if you're on a school bus using a hot spot, it cannot be used. Um,
103so the straw poles that were put up, I the police officer did in fact take some of them down, but he couldn't say who created them. So that's what it's one of the things uh we learned when we have Alyssa Stra digital uh the online piece about all these different apps and cyber bullying. Um, you know, it's they're very difficult for us to keep up with. Uh, certainly for anybody, but it is something that we're going to have to look into. It it is it it's actually very scary because I do actually have my own ASFM that I created. I'm actually a boy and I did this so that I can go on and see what people are saying about kids are saying about my daughter. And it is as easy as I went on,
104I knew a few of the kids' names and all I did was click follow, follow, follow, follow. I'm now following over 200 kids in the district and they have no idea who I am. I don't ask any questions because I just do it to be informed of what's going on and I take snapshots of certain things just so I have for my record. Um, but anybody can do it and you can follow any of the district's children that have SFM. It's that scary. You could be in England and follow children here. I did the same thing. I went on kick. I did it for 30 minutes, posed a 16y old girl, made up a name, grabbed a profile picture off of some random website and can connected to multiple high school students and then within
10530 minutes deleted it. But it's that easy. So this is what we're dealing with, too. I mean, it's just a matter of you dealing with anybody. It could be anybody speaking to your children at any time and it could be anyone. It's it's not just the administration. It's parents negligence as well. Parents One of the things that came out of MR's presentation was that there is a law that may come down that holds parents responsible for some of it. And I'm not saying that's secure, but certainly again, as I said before, we need to work together on a lot of things. So, but you know, we we can't have control. I can't have administrators spending time looking at apps during the course of the day when we're worried about student scores and everything else. But
106certainly, if you have something, you can bring it to us. We could only do what we can. But it doesn't sound like we could do much with the information from there. But if a student is if a parent is being held accountable for what their children are saying, it will stop the not my child. And that's and I think that's that's the key because people will unless it's proven, they will deny it. Absolutely. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Anybody else like to speak? My name is Michelle Panakuchi, 261 Germantown Road. Uh my daughter, my daughter was severely bullied last spring by a number of girls which are a group of girls named by a number which I know many people are aware of. Um and it's been going on for it's still going on.
107I sent pictures of chats in to the principal. I I did we tried to file a HI report. Well, it was too too late in the year and then it would have to carry on. I did many things. I I copied things. My daughter my daughter didn't want to go to school. Uh she has now has mono and is being told she doesn't want to go to school because she's um she's faking it. There are so many social media things that I have on tape on paper that I gave to our administration. Um, and nothing was done. I was told it was going to be. It was not. And so many other girls suffered from the same particular girls that were bullying everyone horrifically. Um, I would also like to make a note that I
108don't know if parents are aware that kids are sending um naked pictures. They're sending nudes out left and right like candy and they have their own apps that they delete at home. I think it's a disgrace that parents don't know what's going on and they say, "Not my kid." Um, my daughter's a fighter. She continued through the whole year. She's an A student. She's an honor student. And she held her head high through all of this when she want when she wanted to cry. And there are so many things. Ask FM. Well, she was voted the ugliest girl in a group. Um I I could go on and on. There was another a couple things about her. It's appalling and nothing was ever done for me for my daughter and I didn't think I would
109speak because I didn't. But I think someone else should speak up about this because this particular girl this particular girls have ruined so many of our girls' lives. Thank you. [Applause] Yeah. Um, we need to extend um our executive session. So, I'm going to make the motion that we extend it till Yeah. 30 minutes. Yeah. No, I Oh, okay. Well, first of all, is there anybody else who'd like to speak? No. Seeing none oppose. Second. Thank you. Um I'd like to um all in favor. Any opposed? Um we need to extend the executive session until we'll say 10 o'clock for a time being. Um hopefully we can get through everything way before that. Um, I need a motion to extend that. I'll move to extend that and also to extend the meeting since we are
110now 10:00 extended to 11. Okay. All right. Second. I'll second it. Thank you, Jerry. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. I just like to make a comment. I mean, we heard a lot of negative things and I really um concerned about all of these issues. Uh but we have to understand too that the district is moving ahead and we've had more professional development. I'm proud of the the staff and administrators and doing lots of work here. Uh but again, it's continued process. It's it's growth and dealing with this app situation is something that's extremely difficult. But I can't say that we're, you know, people are ignoring what they're supposed to be doing, maybe misinformed, whatever the case may be. But we are working in a better direction to to assist those students who are
111having troubles in all of our schools at any grade level. So, I just want you to know that. Um and again, if you have any any concerns or questions, please reach out to myself or uh you know, anyone else, your principles, whoever the case may be, and we'll we'll work together. Thank you. Okay. Now, Mr. Drew, you wanted to make a quick comment? Yeah, if I I could. Um there may be a misconception about the HIPS. Um they do not represent uh the totality of bullying that's going on. There's a very specific uh legal requirement that was developed by the state of New Jersey uh to qualify for a HIV as as Miss Huber pointed out. And so there are cases of severe bullying that simply don't meet the legal definition of a hit. So
112if one is is looking at reporting to reflect uh the amount of bullying that's going on in the school system, they don't. Um I think the the legislature is looking at extending the definition of bullying, but it hasn't been done so far, which is not to say that bullying wouldn't be handled under code of conduct like it would have been before the H law ever came into effect. This bullying is still bullying. It's just whether or not it's considered it fits that particular law or whether it goes under code of conduct. Either way, action needs to be taken. And and just so that the the public knows, um I know this board has been speaking about the culture and climate um in our middle and high school and we've been preoccupied with doing our superintendent
113search and we'll shortly be devoting a lot more time um to this subject. It's it's unconscionable that some of the acts of some of these kids um I've I've heard it all. I'm not happy. I mean I you can't unfortunately pin it down to any certain individual but you know we really need to address it and and start addressing it aggressively. When child gets up and others get up and and tell me that kids are suicide that's enough already. We got we got to act. I mean, I I don't want this child taking their life on my watch. I don't think anybody does. Um, and we really need to take this seriously. This isn't, you know, when we were kids, yay. But it it's it's not I mean, it really affects these children and and
114we need to do everything we can to stop that. Um, I need a motion. um to adopt the agenda as presented. Are there any withdrawals? Oh, yeah. I guess um finance 14. Yeah. 13 and 14 under budget and finance. We're going to pull the um it's on page page 10. They weren't up on the website. We'll pull that for next week. 13. Yeah. Um table withdrawn. I'd also like to mention that um under education number nine, there's an additional uh report that will be presented. It's uh H7 Wait a minute. Number seven. H7 number. It's number nine under education. We're adding H7. Is the letter number. If you go go under education on page six, we're looking at number nine. Oh, okay. And we added one H7. Yes. I'd like to go to um section
11516 number 17 under personnel 16 and 17. Number 17. Okay. All right. Charles transportation. I would move to table that um you wouldn't move the table yet because it's not part of the agenda. But we haven't approved the agenda. So withdraw from the agenda. Well, only the superintendent or board president can draw an item from the agenda. But what you could do is if it is approved at the agenda, I'm saying then you can make a motion to table it. But that's the process that go once either of you can correct. If you don't want to pull it, then it stays on the agenda unless board member makes a motion to table to the next meeting. That's all. Um, you want to discuss this one? Yes. is the person or the position or both or
116I don't think we should talk about that. Okay. I mean we're going to get that's the end result. All right. So well with Mr. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Anything else? No. Okay. Now, let's I need a motion to adopt the agenda as presented and revised. And we got a hand carry, too. Were they with the job descriptions? That's being held until after executive decision. Okay. So moved. Marilyn. Need a second. I'll second it. Thank you, Terry. I need all in favor. I. Any opposed? Okay, Terry, I'm going to let you take over. I'd like to move items 1 through nine for approval. 1 through eight. Nine. Nine we're going to vote on after executive session. Okay. Oh, that's right. Okay. All right. I'd like to move items 1 through eight. Second. Thank you for the
117second, Marilyn. Any discussion? No. local vote. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Drew, hi. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mr. De, Mr. Foody, uh, yes. Okay, Mr. through budget finance, please. I believe I would like to move items 1 through 12. Second. All right. I have a a question. Um, refresh my memory. The SUI savings account, checking account, right? Um, number eight, right? Um, we have SUI is a unemployment account. Okay. It's a trust fund. Um, we have, um, we had a money market account because, um, we were putting aside a number of dollars that we weren't going to be using to try to gain a higher interest rate. It wasn't um We were able to get more money at Wells Fargo, so we moved money out to Wells Fargo from Lakeland. That's
118item. Any other discussion? I have a question. Number 12. We're only doing one through 10. 12. You can't do 12 because you got separate votes on bills and transfers. Okay. Then 1 to 10. Marilyn, you okay? One to 10. How are the discussion on 10? I have a When are we expecting to see a preliminary budget this week? And that is due by the end of March to the county. The 15th of of March is going to be the um preliminary budget. So, at your next meeting, you'll have the preliminary budget that has to be approved to go down to the county, but then it before the meeting. Yeah, you'll see it this week. And then we'll discuss it in committee next week, but then you'll have from the 15th of March until the April
119to to review it. Okay. Is that it on one through 10? Roll call poll, please. Mr. Deain. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mr. Huber. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Uh I guess then item number 11 transfer funds. Is that right? My bill. I'm working off the agenda that was online. So I didn't get a package. Did you want a clean one? There's one up there. I can get you one. I'm just kind of recommending send that out there. It was sent on Friday. No, on Friday we sent out a new agenda. Okay. So I'd like to move item 11 bill second. Thank you. Discussion roll please. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mrs. O'Brien. No, Mrs. O'Brien's not here. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr.
120Deain. Mr. Foody. I'm going to I would like to move item number any discussion. My question is what's I'm sorry. What? Transfers. Yeah. Yeah. Um, when we have a canceled meeting and we reschedule it, the information that should have been part of last week's meeting just carries over. Yeah, I understand. It's just I missed that. That's all. Any questions, Mr. Drew? Um, I'm wondering how $8. Thank you very much. No, that's just the deficit on the account. Oh, commercial jet.com. We didn't have to pay shipping. Any other questions? Okay, question. Mr. Uh, Mr. Huber. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr. Huber. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Mr. Foody. I'm going to vote yes on this one. Thank you. Motion carries. Okay. Um 13 and 14. Yes. Number 15. I'd like
121to move item number 15. Second. Any discussion? Internet based mobile lesson application pilot. I wonder how much datarucation We hadn't um discussed this in our committee meeting. Um somebody give me explanation. Yeah, this this is a uh this is a pilot program. It's through our uh title one funding. It's it's targeted for our uh seventh grade students who are in our encore program as well as our seventh grade teachers language arts. We've recently been moving toward um working more in students independent reading level at the seventh grade. We've had some professional development during school year where um our seventh grade staff have been trained in giving what's called a benchmark assessment. We do it at our elementary school levels where it determines a student's actual reading level. This is a online resource that supports that
122work. So they'll have access to leveled materials uh without the massive purchase of textbooks that we'll we'll have in all the classrooms. This it's an online tool. They can access um thousands of titles of actual literature um through this program. It's been piloted by um the Macan staff. They took a look at it. Actually, we got it in the hands of seventh and eighth grade staff. Um seventh grade staff is going to be that pilot group from now to the end of the year. So we can review and see if it's something feasible to introduce to the school for the entirety of next year. Is that introduced just a main or it's just just a min for for next year for this would be this would be started now see how it goes. See if
123we like it. Actually this is a very good price from from Pearson because it just carries us from around mid-March to the end of the school year. Then we'll get the feedback from the staff and see if it's if it's doing exactly what we we want to do. And again, it's it's fun funded through title one. And this is this is just um titles of different books that are No, it's it's online. It's not just titles. It's also management resources for for the teachers to assign texts to. We have RA kids. It's like a it's a another level of RAD kids to kind of put it in hands. It gives assessments. It gives them ability to see how the students involved in the work done with it, comprehension skills, um higher higher order thinking skills,
124activities that that type of thing. Okay. And if we institute it for the full year next year, what are we looking at? I don't have a I don't have a price on that. Okay. Mr. My initial reaction was I just hate to spend more money on Pearson. And this looks like the first drop in the whole bucket. U before I will approve this. Did we look at any alter are there other alternatives? Is this the best program? We we did have a number of we did get three quotes. Um Renaissance learning and Ed Ed Mundo I believe was the other one we got them from similar product that didn't do exactly um what what we were looking for. Uh Pearson did come out and um show this to our uh title principles and we looked
125at a few of their products and this was the one we thought the needs were piloting piloting for us. Dan, what was the problem with Edmundo? Why didn't you um uh we were looking more for the targeted um Edundo was more of a assessment program and uh that wasn't really what we were looking for. We were looking for the materials to get into the teachers hands so they could address students at their instructional level. Okay. Has anyone read the terms and conditions that the district and parents are agreeing to by uh utilizing their data app? Has anyone read terms and conditions? I I didn't read terms and conditions. I'm looking at this where we're going to effectively spend $7,500 for four months. So, we're probably looking at 20 to $25,000 for full school year implementation.
126Um, and my question is we put that in our wish list for next year's budget. I mean it is it is never intended to be local funds. This is this is this is solely from title one. Okay. And and even I'm talking to pilot for for next year. The next year goal is not to go beyond our our our title one funding. Okay. Okay. And so that's where it's going to remain if if we even decide to go. We're going to get great feedback from the staff and find out if it's something that we we want to use. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? I guess this is the best way we can utilize these title one funding that we have sitting around. One more question. Not not entirely. We have quite a few things
127going on with our our title funds. Uh we offer uh before and after school clubs for all of our title students in all of our title schools. Uh we're also working on hopefully to be approved at our next meeting um a uh intervention specialist position that could support our uh students that we saw in the testing presentation that our fourth and fifth grade math scores were not where we wanted to be. Even though that we have a hunch that they may or may not be valid, we still find a need to to add some support there. So, one of our goals with some of the remaining title funds is not only this, this is just simp this is a small component of it. It's a resource for the teachers. Uh the adding of of that
128type of position would be a real meaningful impact for our for our students, especially those in need through through our title funds. I like the idea of adding, you know, personnel and having to pay with title one funding. I don't like the idea of giving to Pearson Education. Dan, is there a specific academic problem or or goal that you're aiming at with this? Yes. Uh we currently have core novels in our seventh and eighth grade language arts program where um the teachers they differentiate within uh the use of a core novel, but a core novel is the same book for if we all were reading from the same novel. You and I are at a different reading level. This allows the individual student to get a book at their level so they can practice their
129skills. Research on reading says when you read at your instructional level, that's when you use all the all the aspects of comprehension, all of those um all the specific strategies and skills that go along with it. That's how you that's how you grow as a reader. Uh what we're finding is that our students in seventh and eighth grade are um not benefiting from the process that we're doing at the elementary schools where we are assessing for a specific reading level for all of our students. So we have students who are entering seventh grade who are potentially at an eighth grade or beyond reading level. We also have students who are coming in at a fifth grade level. And this is a first step in uh addressing that and getting materials in their hands that we
130can instruct them at their level. We should be able to increase academic performance. So that's any other discussion roll. Mr. Drew, yes. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mrs. Schulz, yes. Mr. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mr. De Mr. Foody. Yes. Um, we're going to move on to personnel student affairs. Maryland's not here. Would you mind going in? Certainly. Yes. Items one through eight under personnel. I'll second that. Any discussion? I would like to say something. Um, Mrs. Reinhold, at one time I was transferred from the high school and I went to Mackipin School as an inschool teacher, inschool suspension. And Mary Reinhold took me by a hand by the hand and made me feel so comfortable. um she and Missy Cabanino who I think is also retiring this year. They're they're just wonderful people and they're
131going to be truly missed. So congratulations. What did I say? Missy didn't put a letter in [Music] and and they were wonderful with my children. So I I thank them and I wish I wish Mary very well and maybe where did I kiss for it? It was Facebook. You're right. That's what it was. C certainly want to congratulate Mary once again. you know, uh I've only worked with her for a short period of time, but it's really been a family-like environment. Uh and I think she portrays that within her building. Um students for the most part are all getting along nicely. The staff works very very hard together. Um one of the most um moving moments for me as an educator was the last day of school last year. um looking out my window and
132seeing school buses leave on the last day and the entire staff with Mary at the helm waving goodbye to the students on their buses. So uh you don't see that too often. Uh and you know just all the other programs from give a goat night to all the other things that she she supports uh and the dedication of time that she has put in atapin and within the district. Uh Mary, all the best of luck to you and your husband and your daughter, you know, and you had some good time together. And you know, if anyone else retires, maybe they can join you. But right now, right now, I I want to thank you for your dedication and support for our students and the families and all you've done for West Milford. So, congratulations. Any
133other discussion on items 1 through eight? Mr. Drew, I have a question. Can we vote not to technically can vote? Okay. No. No. No. No other no other discussion. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mrs. Schultz. Yes. Items 9 through 17 with the exclusion of D on 17. Yes. Any discussion? Seeing none. Roll call, please. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De. Yes, Mr. Drew. Yes, Mrs. Dwire. Yes, Mr. Foody. Uh, yes, Mr. Huber. Yes, Mrs. Schulz. Yes, on that. Question on the second. I have you down on the first. Oh, maybe I fight over. Go ahead. Thank you. And 18 through 31. Second. Any any discussion? See none. Roll call, please. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Dwire. Yes. Mr.
134Foody. Yes. Mr. Yuber. Yes. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Okay, we're going to move on to special committees and liaison reports. Um, parks, Mr. Robins is not here. Um, prevail safety. Okay. uh state county school boards. Okay. Oh, we have a dinner, don't we? March 21st meeting there. There is a um there is a state county school board's uh workshop on the 21st. I don't know if anybody signed up. Um okay. It's on special education. I'm not quite sure if you get your own emails or not. We don't get them. New Jersey from county. I don't remember that one. I don't remember that one. All right. Well, I'll send it out to everyone and then if you want to go, let me know. Thank you. Okay. I have um nothing to report from New Jersey school boards.
135Mr. Legislative and technology. Nothing to report. Okay. Mrs. O'Brien isn't here for education foundation and we don't have anything to report. Nothing. Okay. All right. Gonna go on to uh old business. I just I have a reminder that Thursday night is the kickoff uh for real for life between 6:30 and 8:30 at the grasshopper. Um Mrs. Francisco received written notification from our township with regards to PK as a voting place. Yes. And um I would just like to know who determines handicap accessible buildings. The count the county comes in to look at them. So, why is it the school board's problem that there are no other handicap accessible buildings within the location of PK? And besides that, um there are other public in that voting area. There are several rules and regulations that um Terry
136has worked up a schedule um that we have to do with the uh supervisors um for our school year calendar. and she's worked it up to where we can get our same school, you know, the amount of school days, professional development, and we can close all schools on election day and alleviate the problem of any safety concerns of our children being in PK and people going in and out. And so I I take my hat off to to Mrs. Wire for for doing that, but and she passed it off to me and I saw it and you know I think it's a no-brainer. I'd also like to comment that we have vote and we're trying to teach our students about citizenship and I think u having our students become familiar with the voting process and
137all the work that our PTAs PTO's PTSO do with regard to working with our kids let alone our history department um history and social services. I just think that um it's a great bandaid for this right now. Maybe upcoming November, but I think in the future I think that we should find a it should be discussed further. It should be I don't think it should become school board's problem because it's it's a it's a town problem. They they utilize public buildings and the county has said that K shall be used as a voting place. We can alleviate the problem in in one one motion by making the school calendar year um that the school is closed on election day. There's I I think I spoke to Mrs. Dwire already. You also have to worry about
138primary. I put that in there, too. Yep. I included that for Joe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe we don't get a choice. I believe the county just says where they're going voting, and we can work around it or not. So, we don't really have any real choice here except for to decide whether the votings take place during school or not during school. That's pretty much all we're reduced to. we can we can alleviate the problem by and I and again take my hat off to Terry for taking the time to to work up a schedule like that. Um but we can alleviate the the problem in one fell swoop and for years to come. The kids don't have to parents don't have to worry about their kids being in um a elementary
139school while there's voting going on. I personally I I didn't think of it and I'm glad that Mrs. Dwire did. She's proving to be a very great asset to this board. I just I just want to add one thing here. We have a calendar committee that's already worked on a calendar. Um so we would have to compare some notes on that. Uh, also in addition, um, law enforcement has reached out to me in regards to this topic and we've been playing home tag, so I don't know if they're going to offer any type of services or anything else. It's a bigger picture. I I they do have somebody that comes in that day, but there was some concerns expressed by some of the parents that there was still access to the school. I I mean
140I would be concerned. Presidential election is a big election. So that's going to be very busy. So I do you know I do have concerns that I'll take I'll make the the comment now that I won't if we have school open on election day. I'm not going to support that school calendar. We've got a viable alternative alternative to for the kids. I mean why wouldn't we do it? just it's the the calendar committee put a um sorry take off calendar committee put a few samples together prior to Mrs. reaching out sharing the calendars that she worked on. So on our next ed committee agenda we're going to take a look and work on and we actually have there was one sample that was very similar with some just some tweaking that we could do and
141then we'll we'll come up with something and agree and present that option. Now I I you know the the mistake me if I'm wrong Terry um when that calendar committee gets together they have to work with the board developing that calendar if you guys have met already how come nobody was I really don't know it's a I'm new it's past practice that the education committee I'm sorry the calendar committee has met and they presented it to the education committee which I took as working with the board. Yes. All right. All right. All right. So that that's basically been past practice here and probably most districts is that it is drawn up by a committee within the district and then shared with the board of education at a committee meeting. Um and then voted upon uh
142but we can certainly look at that part. My only my only concern I have to be honest is closing school on on primary election when I mean that that's a concern. We're losing a whole day of school when we're probably going to have a handful of people come out to vote. That's that's a concern. Presidential election, as I said before, that's that's a bigger concern. But it has to alleviate parent fears. You really do, Mr. Drew. Um I think it's a legitimate concern on the part of parents. the kind of thing that there's a, you know, a vulnerability there that you would not want to put children's safety at risk and then come back later and have an issue and say, "Oh, we could have done something." You know, we got to do whatever we
143can to be proactive about that. I I would disagree that it's a town problem or a schoolboard problem. It's the county who dictates that, you know, this is where we're going to do it. This is when we're going to do it. We have no choice about it at all. Now, there may be an opportunity uh for a civics lesson in how to put pressure on the county to make some other uh site acceptable. Actually, the location comes from the clerk of the municipality and then it gets approved by the county. Really? Yes. So in theory, my suggest my question is why is the camp why isn't our clerk in our municipal township looking at other locations that are um suggested that are suitable for pulling places? That's a really good question. I was told the
144clerk I looked it up and I sent the information to I would have to second guess the clerk at this point. I'd like to maybe inquire and just There might not be anything else that fits the criteria and that may be the reason. Who knows? But we should we should check it out. On the other hand, if it would take additional security, which might be a way to solve the problem at some cost, then I think the county should pay for that as part of the election. So there may be ways. What I would like to know, Mrs. Schultz, what other locations have been suggested? I don't know. I'll go there. The first In the past, it's been there's no place to park right there. The firehouse and the church. So again, if it's ADA
145compliance issue, who's accountable for that? But the church isn't a public building. That's the problem. The firehouse. The church. And what about the firehouse? Aaons. And then there's a squad, right? I'm just saying these are the options that are out there. I'll get to certify to the county board and they have to come out and they have to they have to approve it and if um if it can be shown that the same can be done without detrimental interruption of school or there is consider considering um detrimental interruption of school in a school during school hours would that not be a reason safety would say detrimental but I would say that it might require closing off portion I don't know there are other options that are not being looked at just to go back time
146a little bit with regard to the primary not being very busy I I think this election is unlike any other and that might not be true for this election. So we should really consider that carefully but that would be half I think he's referring to November of not being busy but this even his primary we can't do anything. Yeah. This one we can't we could we could either that or right and I think that's where I want to talk to the Well, couldn't we take one of our extra snow days? Okay. All right. Any anything else under new old business? Excuse me. Seeing none like to close. Do I have a motion to close and second? I just want to give no business. Let's close all business first. Motion to close all business. Okay. Terry,
147you second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. New business. New business. I just want to announce that the uh preschool inclusion program uh registration is open at this point and also it's available right on the school website. So if anybody you want to spread that with your neighbors that the registration for the preschool inclusion program is now up and uh registration is taking place and ongoing as well since for last month or so uh kindergarten registration is still rolling too as well. So uh hopefully by the next meeting I'll be able to share some numbers with you as far as community is concerned. Thank you. Any anything else under business? I just want to announce the uh the semiformal the cast semiformal is coming up on March 24th and uh that they wanted everybody to
148know that the uh you can call the recreation department uh to inquire about registration. I'll save the rest of the cast report for another. Yeah, I'd love to see like we had last year some guidance on the district website for uh parks. I really don't want to ignore this not having any type of guidance. Okay. I I would also um forgot to uh put it on on the president's report, but the graduation committee or project graduation, they want to interview people for the the cable bond and they want to ask some questions of the board members. I will forward that email. I received it yesterday. I'll forward it to all the board members. Got it. Did you get that? Is that Carol Forbes? Yes. Yep. Okay. All right. So, all that you're aware that if
149if you can make it, great. Um if not, let her know. I believe it was May 1st. So, okay. Anything else under new business? Seeing none, need a motion to close and second. Like to make a motion to close new business. Any second? Second. Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Petitions and requests. Petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting. Other petitions and requests limited to five minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, provide their address. Speakers may not use the name of of students during petitions and request. Um, would anybody like to speak? Mrs.
150Reinhold, you're rescending your Okay. All right. She's applying for superintendent. Mrs. Dwire's gonna get me through this. She promised. Um, but I want to start out by just bringing you a concern that was in the audience when you were having your discussion on the calendar. Um, we do have to put a deposit down on our fair view trip a year in advance and we go the first the three days before teachers convention and election day is that Tuesday. So, just another concern to bring to you. Sorry about that. But now and I I apologize for writing this down, but you know how I am. So, um, we're that's how it had to be. Okay. So, I just want to tell you that it's been an honor and a pleasure to work for West Milford Public
151Schools for 38 years. Um, I have been both a teacher and an administrator and all that whole time at McPin School and in both capacities I have worked with amazing groups of people and Mr. Rashika mentioned before that we had a support team here and that's the way it is every day. Um, we try to support each other and, uh, you can see that my staff, the McPin family, is the most amazing group of people that I could ever work with. Um, and my assistant principles, Matt, is here and Mark just is with his family tonight on another errand. And, uh, but they're just the greatest guys. And every decision they make, they all they do is they think about what's best for Makipin. And it's just been an amazing year working with them. crazy
152that I retired this year um after having such a wonderful year. Um I actually enjoy coming to work every morning. I'm also part of a fabulous administration administrative group uh wonderful principles, assistant principles and supervisors. Um they too are dedicated to the students and the staff of West Milford and I'm honored to have worked with each of them. Um, at the last meeting I had the pleasure of talking to some of the board meeting board members and they had some nice kind words to say about Makipin School and they asked me what else they could do to support all of the schools in West Milford. So I thought about it and these are the things that I came up with and Mr. Foody I think you read this before I got to read because you
153said some of these things tonight. Um, so first and foremost always remember why you're here. Um, and that's for the students of West Milford. Work together as a team and keep the best interests of those students first and foremost in making your decisions. Next, always recognize that you have a wonderful educators working in this district. Um, Mike and I have lived here for 35 years and we're proud to say that our two children are products of the West Milford School District. Um, our daughter Karen, who's here with me tonight in support, is a graduate of KZtown University with a degree in special education and early childhood ed education. She also holds a master's degree in reading and her Orton Gillingham certification. And I'm very proud to say that she's a teacher at Marshall Hill School
154and she loves the district as I and she cries just like me. So, and our son Kevin is a graduate of Drexel University uh with a degree in digital media. He's now living his dream of working in New York City for an advertising company. And those successes started at Maple Road School, Mr. Kane, and through McApin and then through West Milford High School. And there are many more success stories just like these. And some of you have those same success stories out there. Um, I am proud to also say that we did some uh research and we have 16 staff members that are products of the West Milford schools too and I'm very proud of that. Um, we owe that to a dynamic group of teachers in each of the schools. And lastly, the support
155of the leaders of the district. You're charged with the difficult task of choosing a new superintendent. And it's not going to be me. and it's not an easy task, but you know the district and you know what the needs are in the district um and the community and we need somebody that will move us forward. We currently have an interim superintendent and has and he has been very supportive to all of us and Mr. Rashika I thank you for that and the support that you've given me and my staff. Um that goes for Mrs. Francisco also. uh she listens and supports us but her first comment when I ask for something is always how will the kids benefit from this? So from the kids at Macapin and myself we thank you for your support. Okay.
156Something that warms my heart is when I see former students come back to give back to a district where they got their foundation. Mrs. Rashardi McUade and Mr. Novak were students of mine. They live here. They're raising their children here. They understand the community. They are amazing leaders and they both have years ahead of them in these leadership roles. And I just hope that they see that out in West Milford. And thank you both for your support. I would also like to thank the boards of education, past and present, for the support that you have given me and Macin School. I know you have put a tremendous amount of volunteer time into this job and you mentioned that before too and I thank you for that. Consider your efforts um and investment in our future.
157Thanks for all the memories. [Applause] You weren't kidding, are you? I'm looking at your daughter and she's It's a family thing Irish. Um, anybody else? Congratulations. Thank you. Really? My name is Mike Ghard. G E R N H A R D T26 W. Uh dear board members, thank you for this opportunity to speak up to to speak to all of you this evening. My name is Mike Gurnhard and I'm speaking as a as a resident of West Milford and as a father of two children. I would like to some additional light on some issues my family and children have been having in this district recently. Last year, my elementary age child was a victim. The principal at the school admitted in writing to supporting the gym teacher's decision to refuse proper access to my daughter's
158life-saving rescue inhaler during an asthma attack. This was a full violation of my daughter's 504 policy and because of the lack of proper response and accountability resulted in involving the federal offices of Royals. During an early resolution meeting that my wife and I were asked to attend by the West Milford School District in the OCR, the school district's attorney spoke to us with such unnecessary disrespect and anger. I remind you that the fact that my daughter was a victim was never in question or disputed. Yet the district's attorney was beyond disgraceful in her treatment towards my wife and myself. At the meeting, we agreed with the district's written agreement and tried to put aside the ill treatment we were given. However, in September 2015, the district violated us the civil right agreement with us on
159several counts as well as violated their own district policy, state policy, and federal law protecting students with disabilities. As a result of the district's failure to enforce our our agreement or the basic district policies and how the district's attorney handled the situation, I was left with little choice but to file once again with the federal office of civil rights, as well as filing for due process for the state of New Jersey, waving all rights to a mediation since they have not proven effective with the district's attorney or the district in the past. At what point will people in the district be held accountable for their actions or lack thereof? At what point can our district have a permanent superintendent who will take his job or her job seriously and enforce OCR agreements and district policies?
160This is costing our children their legal rights as well as wasting taxpayers dollars. At what point will this district stop wasting our money on an attorney who blatantly disrespects policies and parents and in return ends up costing the district even more money in legal fees and potential lawsuits. Our school district can use that money elsewhere. Our district needs to enforce policies properly, hold people accountable for their actions, and hire a respectful and helpful attorney, not one who pushes parents into following lawsuits. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Anybody else like to speak? Seeing none, motion to close. Additions and requests. Motion to close. Second. Thank you, Jamie. All in favor? Any opposed? Um, it is 10:01. Can somebody make the motion to executive session, please? like to make a motion 10 p.m. go into executive
161session conducting a student hearing discussing superintendent search personnel HIV negotiations and matters of client um there is no student hearing but that's conducting a student. All in favor? Second. I think Nobody. All in favor? [Music] We're now in executive session. Uh, thank you all for coming. We will be taking action on the HIV. Hi. I'm sorry. Thanks so much. I'll work on that. Okay, that'll be [Music] said we could start. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Uh executive session. Um, we have some HIVs to vote on. I think that falls under under you, Terry, under education. You all need to read them or you I'll page six. Thank you. Item nine. Thank you. Okay. move to um approve item nine under education. Okay. And just one correction, the motion for 2016/H7 should read unsubstantiated substantiated until
162and unless additional information is provided requiring the reopening of the investigation. Second. Get that. Uh, any discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Roll call. Vote, please. Mr. Drew, yes. Mrs. Yes. Mr. Yes. As to all except for abstain on H7. Mrs. Schulz. Yes. Mr. FY. Yes. We're going to um also make a motion to approve our corrective action plan for the ESA accountability action plan for our get a better participation rate with our part scores. Um this is for all of our schools. Um does anybody have any questions regarding that? Yeah, I'd like to see add to the list open public meetings that seem to be very spe specific to certain organizations or or categories of parents. Um I would like to see some open public meetings and also student assemblies to get students on board
163perhaps less of a pride kind of approach or something u to explain why it's important to them as well. not just important for them students to address the student issue as uh as the PTO president was talking about. I think she's got a really good point. Yeah. And and you know the followup to that you know you got the Marshall Hill Eagles you got you know every school has their own thing if you can get competition going. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the elementary schools maybe not we ought to we I'm going to add that to each one of the schools. Yeah. I think that's a worthwhile. Any other discussion? Okay, second. Yep. Second. Thank you. I made I made a motion. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Dwire, yes. Mr. Yuber, yes. Mrs. Schulz,
164yes. Okay, it uh is now 11:45. Motion to 11:45. That's right. 43. All in favor? I Okay. Any opposed? Okay. Meeting is officially adjourned at 11:43. I did. That's right. You did. Yes, I did. You did. Tony, did you have signs? It's not too bad. Seven.