Board of Education Meeting 11/17/15

001Good evening everybody. Welcome to the West Milford Board of Education workshop regular meeting. It's November 17th, 2015. If you could please silence or turn off your cell phones and note the locations of the emergency exits. I'd like to call this meeting to order. It's 7:36 p.m. If we could just take a moment of silence for the family and friends of the victims of the horrific events that took place in France and Beirut last week. Our thoughts are with everyone who's been affected by this terrible tragedy worldwide. If we could please stand for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. In accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings

002act, a public notice of this meeting has been sent to board members, all district schools, the Herald news, the trends, the record, AIM, West Milford, the messenger, West Milford town hall, the county superintendent's office, the board attorney, and cable vision of Warwick, and posted in the administration building. Copies of the board meeting calendar resolution were provided to all local media, town hall, township, library, and all district schools. Roll call, please. Mrs. Francisco, Mr. Babbett, here. Mr. Bailey, here. Mr. De here. Mr. Drew, here. Mr. Foody, here. Mrs. Kempy here. Mrs. O'Brien. Mr. Robbins here. Mr. Schwarz here. Resolve that the board go into executive session at 8:30 p.m. for approximately 60 minutes for the purpose of conducting two student hearings, discussing personnel, negotiations, and matters of attorney client privilege. The executive session minutes will not

003be released until such time as the privilege or confidentiality is no longer applicable. We need a motion and a second, please. Anybody? Motion. to adopt the executive session session resolution as presented by Mrs. Schultz. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Any opposed? Thank you. Superintendence report. Mr. Rashika. Okay. So, good evening everyone. I'm going to use this side, I think. Um, as you know, I like to celebrate things. So, I want to start off uh my presentation uh with a presentation. So, I'm going to come up to the uh podium. Just give me a minute. Okay. So, good evening everyone. Thank you for attending. But I have some very good news this evening. Um, we have an Eagle Scout in the audience, of course, from our high school that I'm very proud of. Uh, I

004was unable to make the ceremony. Uh, but I'm happy to be here now to acknowledge you. And I know that uh Mr. Novak was there. So Spencer, if you'd come up here a minute, I want to congratulate you first of all. Okay. Spencer's project was making voting machines for our elementary school. So I think at this point um they were in place before election day, I guess, right? So they were able to use them and uh that's a very good thing. It gives them the experience of being citizens and uh having their rights and doing the right thing. So this is a plaque first of all coming from the high school presented to Spencer Lara Scott troop 159. Congratulations on attaining the Eagle Scout Award. We are proud of your accomplishments from the students and

005staff of West Milford Township High School November 1st 2015. That's one for you. Okay. You also have a frame certificate from your teachers and administrators and your friends over at Makipin Middle School to Spencer Scott. Congratulations achieving highest Boy Scout award for the Eagle Scouts again November 1st, 2015. And last but not least, another certificate. I'm going to I'm going to get you a frame. We'll get a frame. Okay. Okay. Uh this is from the board of education. Spencer L. Scott has attained the recognition for the rank of Eagle Scout and is hereby awarded the certificate of honor from the West Milford Board of Education. So congratulations. We are very proud of you at this point. You are part of very um many esteemed individuals throughout the country who are Eagle Scouts and doing wonderful

006things for many companies as well as in government and so on. So once again, congratulations. Thank you. Can you hear me? Good. I just want to say congratulations. Um, one of the things that moved me being at the uh, Court of Honor, and I'm just going to quote Mrs. Scott. Uh, I've been in this this uh, meeting quite a few times talking about character education. And Mrs. Scott referred to um, character being what you do when no one no one is looking. And that really made a big impression on me because that those are the things that we're we're teaching in the schools now and and really um you know trying to to share. So you know thank you for for you know always exemplifying that and and you know being that role model. Uh

007the second part um as a father of three boys I was just talking to you when we came in about the the moving speeches that both little brother and I forget his first name is Nathan Kobe. Kobe, sorry. Uh Kobe made a great speech in the beginning honoring his big brother and then you know the the they reciprocated that you you awarded him that mentor pin. Uh I think that was a great um great symbol for the community and and just an amazing thing to witness. So I just want to say congratulations on that. Thank you. Last but not least, I think we have some brochure someplace that would you give those to me. Okay. I'm going to pass those out for the board of ed to see the uh workers. Can we keep those?

008It's okay. Thank you. But I'd be remiss if I did not thank and congratulate your parents of Mr. Mr. Scott for your wonderful job as parents for supporting your son and for being part of our community. Great job. Thank you very much. Thank you. Uh the next uh person I would like to mention here this evening is I'm going to actually read a snippet of a letter that went to uh Mrs. Kristen Mccer, fourth grade uh teacher over at history teacher over at Paradise Null. And the red letter reads, "You are the winner of the NJSAA's teaching award for 2015. I can tell you that the committee as well as the other members of the group were extremely impressed with your New Jersey map project." This award will be presented at an annual meeting of

009the New Jersey Historical Commission meeting on November 21st, just around the corner. I will forward the information about the event to you. Again, congratulations on a great project on the New Jersey history uh project. And this is signed from Dr. Raymond Frey, professor of history at the college historian at Setinary College. So, where is Kristen? There she is sitting back there. Come on up here. And uh that's quite an honor. All right. So, we're happy to see this. Very proud of you for your accomplishments and working with our children and and getting this award. But to to back it up with some more pertinent information, I would like to invite Dr. Matt Laws, your supervisor, up here, who has a little bit more information about this than I do. So, again, congratulations and we're proud

010of you. Thank you so much. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, thank you. Um, so on behalf of the department of history and social sciences, we are extremely proud of Kristen McClur, fourth grade PK. Of course, I have to thank uh Jen Miller, the principal at PK as well for her continued support uh of the social studies program of course there as well. Um, in terms of the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance Award, what's really interesting about this award, if you look at her very good friend Jackie Becker, who just two months ago won the New Jersey History Award through Gilder Lurman, we now have another award here being um, signified through um, a social science aspect versus the history one. So, the NJSAA actually was founded by the New Jersey uh, historical commission back in 1992.

011Uh, and really their premise is to take teachers and any really contributors of New Jersey studies, New Jerseys history, really cultural events, and put it all together, sort of archive it. So, believe it or not, Kristen McClur's u New Jersey map project actually will be in the archives of the New Jersey Historical Commission um for for years to come for for teachers to of course utilize um decades from now. Um, so she sort of becomes part of history herself if you want to really look at it that way. So, again, thank you very much, Mr. Rashika for the uh the time here and thank you more importantly to Kristen Mclard for a great honor and of course we're so proud of this. Congratulations two distinguished guests here this evening. Very happy to have you here.

012Uh I'm going to continue uh lots of things going on over the past few weeks and this week. This is of course is uh American Education Week. So I know parents are visiting schools uh talking to teachers, visiting classrooms and so forth. So, if you haven't done so already, please make yourself comfortable and visit your child's school. Uh, we welcome you. Please join us. Also, a couple of other things I want to mention, and I'm happy that Mrs. Miller is here. Um, I went to a Veterans Day ceremony uh last week on Veterans Day that was very moving, probably one of the best ceremonies I've ever seen any level from preschool on up to high school and college as well. Um and it was presented by uh Mrs. Miller along with Mrs. Cullen and the

013music teacher whose name escapes me at this moment. But uh many people were involved with this ceremony, but it was very very moving to have um relatives of our students and our teachers attend as veterans and be honored at that ceremony. Uh when I came back to the office, I was I was really pumped up about it. The only thing I wish that we could have had was uh it should have been televised. That's how good it was. So, thank you, Mrs. Miller, and your entire staff for a wonderful job. Excellent, excellent program. Um, also, also moving on, um, our band has had some outstanding activities go on this month, last few months, I should say. Am I stealing your thunder, mat? I forgot. I just don't want to go. I'm just going to say

014that the tattoo was this past weekend. I was there Saturday evening. It was very very nice to see everyone who was there and the bag pipes and drums groups that performed the Clifton band, our band, percussion ensemble. Just an exciting event. But I also want to point out the accomplishments of the band. First of all, during the course of the year, they took second place at Roxberry competition, first place at the Yamaha Cup at Metlife Stadium, first place in West Orange, first place in Randolph, first place at Mount Olive, and now first place at the New Jersey State Championships. So, we are very proud of Dr. McLaclin and all the other teachers and advisers that work with them, and most of all, our student musicians who do an excellent job. This is an outstanding uh

015group of students and doing an outstanding job. So once again, give give them a big hand. I know they're not here, but I think they deserve and at this time I am going to throw it over to our student uh liaison, Mr. Matt Ventrella. Good evening, Madame President, Mr. Rashika, members of the board. It is my pleasure this evening to deliver a report of student life for the month of November. This month has been an extremely busy one so far. It has been marked by the culmination of the fall sports seasons and by community involvement. It is amazing to say that the first quarter of the school year is already over as marking period 2 began on Wednesday, November 11th. Um I want to take this time to applaud all the West Milford athletes who

016received county and conference honors. In fact, I had originally planned to state their names, but realized that there are so many of them that in the interest of time, I would like to congratulate them collectively. Great job, Highlanders. Um, a big congratulations to the Highlander Marching Band. Um, they had a stellar season and they made history by taking first place overall in their state division along with winning the honor of best visual performance. Um, they then went on to compete at the national level in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Um and also a big thank you to all support of the band by coming out to the 16th annual band tattoo this past Saturday. The event was a huge success. Um I am pleased to report about some of the activities that West Milford students have participated in

017both in our own community and in the greater community of our area. Um on election day, West Milford students were quite active in the political process. The AP government class conducted exit polling at town hall and all students participated in a mock election conducted on the new Chromebooks. Um, the department of history and social sciences were in both of these events which gave students a hands-on experience with some of the responsibilities of citizenship. On a similar note, the junior and senior class councils have had quite a busy month. They spent much time playing a volleyball tournament which will take place on November 19th. The senior class council also had a very successful clothing sale. So much so that they are now running a second round and selling car magnets for $5 each. Please support the

018class of 2016. Um, student council has also had a productive month. Our principal focus this month was planning senior choice awards with to take place in December and this event is being run cooperatively with the senior class council. Um on a separate note, I just wanted to say that I believe the Highlander community has put the chaos of the bomb threats behind us and that the assembly regarding the bomb threats was well received by the stu by the student body. The speeches by Sergeant Nevin, Mr. Rejika, and Mr. Gorski truly got the message across that our school community is better than committing such disruptive acts. I'm happy to report that the high school is planning to reschedule career day with a petting date of March 21st. As we look towards the future, we also have

019many upcoming events during the remainder of November and in December. Uh the high school blood drive is set for this Friday, November 20th, along with a volleyball tournament that evening. And on-site decision day is December 3rd, and a great amount of schools will be attending. Um and last but not least, senior choice awards is set for December 4th. That's a very unique event that our school community has and there's a lot of planning that goes into that event. Um, with that I conclude my report for November and I hope everybody has a nice Thanksgiving. Thank you. Um, before I turn the microphone over to Mr. Novak, I just want to emphasize the fact I'm sure that you've heard my Honeywell message. You've uh saw the uh newspaper articles. Again, uh we are inviting everyone out

020from the community to join us this Thursday evening. There are two meetings. Uh the first one is geared toward uh middle school parents at Makipin and high school parents. Uh will take place at the high school at 6:30 in the allpurpose not the allpurpose room in the lower media center. Uh so that will be the first hour and we will have uh some things that we would like to share with you and hopefully you have some information you want to share with us whether it's good or bad. It's an informal forum for us to get on the same page, build up communication, and that's what it's all about. So, we want to do the best we can. Uh, the second meeting is very important as well. That's at 7:30 in the auditorium. Mrs. Francisco and

021myself will be leading up the meeting for the um bond referendum for the new roofs for both uh backupin school and for uh the high school again. So, that will take place in the auditorium. That's important information. That election will take place on December 8th. So, we will be sharing all that information with you at that time and hopefully have uh additional information available on the website, maybe channel 77, wherever else we can get it to go. So, you are all invited. Please join us at that time. And if I don't get a chance later on, I want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. That's coming up next week. And at this time, I turn it over to Mr. Novak. Thank you. Uh before I working again before I introduce our our main speakers for

022um for the report tonight, I just wanted to make a brief announcement. Uh Dr. McUade and I were able to witness West Milford history in their high school lower conference room as 23 high school seniors were inducted to our uh high school's first chapter of the u national science um n science national honor society. 23 uh seniors and from what I understand they're going to be getting um monogrammed lab coats that they're all very excited about. I guess the the debate is about what type of symbol to put on it. You know, pretty maybe the contest maybe to use the voting booths from from uh Mr. Scott. That would be pretty cool uh thing to do. Um so I just want to announce that. Um and without further ado, I want to introduce uh Mr.

023Paul Gorski, high school principal, and Mrs. is Karen Johnson, high school VP to present our um intended course freshman seminar. Thank you. This one live too. Okay, good. Um we have our our sort of uh PowerPoint here. Um good evening everyone. Uh Paul Gorski High School principal. my esteemed colleague uh Karen Johnson who is uh speaking tonight with you in the capacity of academic assistant principal of West Milford High School. Um you know as Matt Ventrella gives the student report uh each and every month uh and as both superintendent Rashika and uh Mr. Novak the director of ed talk about all of our programs across the district and at the high school level uh academic programs uh co and extracurricular programs character education all the things that we are looking to do uh within the

024course of a uh just over 6 hour school day um it's a challenge to say the least it's a challenge um and so you know as we're looking to do more and more with with our high school program as we're looking to raise the bar uh to make our West Milford Highlanders competitive with uh their peers in surrounding schools and competitive for uh you know college admissions and for successful career placements. Uh we are looking for different ways to do that. And what we'd like to share with you this evening uh is a concept that we have for um a seminar course actually two seminar courses. One that would be uh for the freshman year and one that would be for the junior year. And what it will enable us to do is Mrs. Johnson

025will we'll speak a bit about in a minute um is uh track very closely uh the progress of our students uh really ensure that they're on a very firm college and career path from the earliest times that they that they step foot uh in our high school and really enable us to track that back uh even more consistently than than we're able to do now. uh to really increase the level of service that we have for our students uh and to guide our outcomes much more closely. So, um I'm going to turn this over now to uh to Miss Johnson to speak a little bit about the particulars of uh of the program and of course uh entertain any of the questions that you have after the conclusion of our presentation. So, Miss Johnson, thank

026you. Um as Mr. Gorski said our first goal is to increase our credit requirements and the first step of that would be a required freshman seminar. Um the reason we need to increase our requirements um is because we're at 120 credits at this point in time which is the bare minimum state requirements. If you look at our peer group, there are 31 students in this peer group. We're in the bottom 10 which puts us in the bottom 33 and a3 group of schools in terms of credit requirement. There are schools that like Manisquan that require up to 150. Now, that's not to say that some of our students don't achieve more and don't graduate with more credits, but they don't have to graduate with anything more than 120. Um, if we were to increase our

027credit requirements by five, that would bring us up into that group down below here with Mawa, Raritin, South Brunswick, and Vernon Township. I highlighted Vernon Township because Vernon Township compares very favorably to us in terms of the length of their day, the minutes on instruction, their schedule, their population, and things like that. So, they fit 125 credits into a schedule that is very similar to our own in our school. Um, by getting ourselves into that 12 25 credit range, we're putting ourselves up to the 50% mark instead of being at the 33% mark, right? So the other reason for us to do this is because when we look at the performance report by the state of New Jersey, we're doing well in academic achievement, meeting our targets. We're also meeting our targets when it comes

028to graduation and post-secary goals, but we are falling far behind when it comes to college and career readiness. Um it's as it says on the bottom, lagging performance is defined as going between the 20th and the 39th percentile and we're at 20%. Um this is a drop. Um in the last year or so we did drop. We are hoping that number will come back up but it it's still 50% below what the state is expecting. So we really by adding this seminar we would be able to work on that piece that our students seem to be lacking in. So the first thing we would do our goal would be to have a freshman seminar introduced um next September and all freshmen coming in would have the increased graduation requirements. Um then in the junior year

029we would have prepared and have except by the board a junior seminar that would also be 2.5 credits. Those two courses would add the extra five credits that would be required of the incoming freshmen. Um this would move us like I said into that 50th percentile. Um it would also promote engagement and success and focus for our freshmen right from the very beginning as Mr. Gorsy said earlier and it would hit upon that college and career readiness. went backward. Okay. So, um this is not something that we just came up with off the top of our head. Um scheduling meetings have been going on in the school. We've been we've had a scheduling committee in the school for probably the past four years or so where we've discussed different ways of scheduling our day so

030that students could take uh more academic courses. The way it is if a student takes a lunch, they can only take seven academic courses. We were hoping to bring in a schedule where they could take eight academic courses and still get a lunch. However, um near the end two years ago about we had a larger meeting with representatives were invited from all the different departments and we talked about the scheduling and changing the schedule and several people brought up the fact that we have a good number of students who don't take advantage of the opportunities that we already give them. 33% of our seniors either arrive late or leave early because they have a study built into their day in the morning and or the afternoon. And many of those seniors also have a lunch.

031So they're packing their early years so that they can go home early in their senior year, which means they're not taking advantage of what we want them to to take with them to college. They're not taking those extra classes. They're saying, "Well, I've done my job. I'm leaving." Um, so by increasing the requirements and changing that focus and giving them the freshman and junior seminar, we're hoping to give them more of a focus on their future right from the very beginning. All right. Um if you would just go back one the development of this was from that idea we got together with a subcommittee um various teachers from departments as well as our media center specialist u Mrs. Neber and we talked about the content outlaw and the things that we think that should should

032go in there when and if this course gets approved we would then bring it to the general staff the 9th grade teachers in particular for their input as to what the freshman's needs are. Um, finally the school counselors would take part in this and some of their delivery instead of pulling kids out of class is peacemail. They would be able to work with an entire class more intensely than those quick halfhour sessions that they get once in a while. All right, so it would be a group effort. And why do we need it? This for some of our kids, this is very typical. Um the freshman just they they lack that focus, that organization, that knowledge of h how do I survive running from class to class and taking care of all these things they

033have to take care of. Some are overinvolved and don't know how to make their free time um well used and others are underinvolved and they waste their free time and end up falling behind in their studies. So we we need we need to get our freshmen right away and get them on a a a better track. So this is what we would give them. If you look um we would focus on skills, organization study and engagement skills, time management, stress management, academic how-tos like research basics, research paper basics or um academic integrity, things like that. We would also begin their digital portfolio. More and more universities are looking for something like that as students are applying to universities. So we would try to begin that right away in their freshman year. Help them set it

034up, show them how to use it and develop it. Um and we would also look at digital citizenship. In addition to that would be that focus piece. I keep using that word but that's what our kids need. So we would do those self-exloration things. Um the guidance counselor, school counselors would introduce the students to some of the resources that are on Navian. They would show them college board so that already as freshmen they're starting an awareness of the fact that the four years go by quickly and every single day counts. Um, additionally, we would encourage the students through this course to gain experiences whether they're through activities in the school or outside of the school. And we would help them build their academic careers by planning in advance what fits in all those slots as

035we look forward and how do I get the most out of every day here in the high school. And then finally, all of this would be done with their eyes on their future. So that they wouldn't be looking at, well, I'm graduating three years from now. It really doesn't matter because in all honesty, we have seniors who approach us and say, "Well, I'm trying to get my GPA up because I want to get into this good school, but it's senior year." They they need to be aware of the fact already in freshman and sophomore year that those numbers count from the very beginning. Okay. So, fitting this in the schedule, this is a typical freshman um schedule. It has two electives in it as well as a full year lunch. This would be a half-year

036course. So, the student could either take basic art or photography or marketing or one other halfyear course and then tie the freshman seminar to it or the student could take the lunch and make it a half lunch throughout the year or take half of the year as a lunch and half of the year as a freshman seminar. There's all different ways that they could fit this into their schedule. However, some students are we we have some very aggressive freshmen. And if you look at this student, it is a freshman schedule. There there is concert band, mechanical drawing, and Italian 2 in there. All of three of which are electives. You'll notice that there isn't a lunch in there. And there are four honors courses in there. A student like this knows what he or she

037wants. They're aggressively going after it. So for students like this, we would pro we would come up with an option too where whereby students could complete certain requirements outside of the class, opt out of the class but get the credit for the class by completing whether it was a portfolio or something like that that meets the the target that we want to have all freshmen meet. All right. So there would be an option. Um about 20 22% of our freshmen have schedules like this. But then when we look on the other side, not all of them continue that path. So that's what we have to try and figure out and weigh that out. All right. Um and fitting it into our budget. Right now um in terms of facilities fitting it into the building, we

038do have computer labs. When I count the usage on the labs, there are 12 periods among four classrooms when the the lab is not being utilized. And this would probably be mostly done on the computer. So, um, we had the space, the resources we also have because we would use the handbook, we would use NVON, we would use the student portal, um, school counselors would provide information and and get the students on programs that they're already cognizant of, so they wouldn't need to bring anything in. Um, financial literacy pieces, if we decided to shift them over, it wouldn't be a big deal. They wouldn't be large chunks. It would be smaller pieces, more appropriate to freshmen. full value project adventure wouldn't cost us anything and online resources are always available. So the cost in terms

039of materials is is non-existent. We would however need staffing um for next year's incoming class. We would need approximately seven periods of staffing. It may be less if we go with the option two depending on how many. It's not going to be more than seven however. Okay. So that's it. Any questions? Yeah, for students who like the overachievers, if you want to call it that, who've got honors classes, you know, taking history, the AP history, who have already got a a full upload schedule and they kind of know what they want to do, which there's probably not many many students like that, but are you going to still require them to take Yeah. So I could speak to what uh M. Johnson start talking about which is called the option two process and that's and

040that's uh basically the state calls that option two because it's another option through which a student can demonstrate proficiency in the course. So what we would do is we would set up assessments for the particular course. I think one big piece of it would be to create a portfolio. There'd be other aspects to it as well. So that we would say okay by a certain deadline the student would need to demonstrate to us that they've met that they've met the goals of that particular course. If they do so to our satisfaction then they could be awarded credit for the course without actually being have you know having the seat time in the in the course each and every day. Okay. Um, but that, you know, that is really on a case- by case basis and

041that really would be for just those students that have those very very hard scheduling conflicts. That is not the majority of students. Let me be clear about that. Um, so that we will, you know, this is something that's that's to the benefit of of all the students of the high school, all 300, you know, incoming incoming freshmen. Um, and so we will find a way to to make sure that that that they're getting what they need and that they're demonstrating to us that they're on a firm college and or career path. Okay. From early in their school experience. Okay. And the second part of the what I wanted to ask was you said you needed staffing. Mhm. Would you take it from our existing staff that maybe has a free period and you know first

042period and second and third or would you require staff and and approximately how many? We really can't say right now. What we would say is that that load of seven periods is one and twoths of of a of a teacher, right? Split split like that but um or a point4 teacher in your in your parlons as as you approve. Um, you know, we haven't struck the master schedule yet for next school year, so we don't know, you know, down to brass tax exactly what what that staffing would be. We could project a maximum of that one and two-fifths teacher. It could potentially be less than that depending upon how the schedule breaks out and if there are gaps in teacher schedules along the way. We certainly would look to fill the schedules of all the

043teachers that are currently on staff first before doing additional hiring, but we can't stand here in front of you right now and promise that we won't that that we won't request a teacher for this particular course. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Chair, um can I get a copy of this presentation someplace? Where would it be? Sure. Yeah. Just send it. Okay. Be nice to have it in a public place, but that's fine. Um early on you showed that New Jersey asked for the district and rightfully commented that we're below 50th percentile for our peers and said we hope to do better than that. I think that needs to be a hard goal and we need to do more than hope. Um three on the aggressive schedule I didn't see any AP classes. And one of the

044things that I know will help all of our students is to take more AP classes. And there are classes that freshmen can do. One, we do have one. Yeah, we do have the AP world history course that that freshmen are enrolled in. Now, um that all those H's that you see for the biology honors and such, those are all tracking two AP courses as early as the sophomore year and then through the junior and the senior year. Um of over, you know, of over 20 AP courses that we have and that we currently offer at the high school. Dr. Matt, when is uh AP human geography going to be available? going to propose it obviously. Um but um I would love to see the course. I'm not going to lie to you, but there's there's

045so many other course programs to discuss as well, but it's uh it's turning. It's probably the best way. Okay. Anything else? Yes. I just wanted to comment. You know, I I I've heard where, you know, students make no lunch, half lunch. Are we talking like 30 minutes, half lunch, an hour, full lunch? No, it's it's 46 minute periods and so half lunch is 23 minutes. If a kid starts early in the morning and they're there after, is there any kind of break for these kids that are potentially wanting to achieve but yet, hey, everybody needs a break? uh you know uh do you do you have that type of program where you give someone 5 10 minutes break when they don't have lunch? When they don't have a lunch? No. When they don't have a

046lunch and they do take eight periods, they have what's called lunch on the go, which is that they they're they purchase lunch it sometime during one of the lunch periods and have it in one of in in one of their classes. Wouldn't be in a science class because you don't necessarily want to mix chemicals with French fries. No comment on that. Um, you know, that that that's done on a student by student basis. Um, you know, there are certainly other, you know, other scheduling models out there in terms of, you know, a kind of a downtime activity type period during the day and things of that nature, but um, those types of schedules often times require a little bit more instructional time and a little more school daytime than than than what we currently have.

047And so that's that's a piece of this, too. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. While Mr. Novak's getting ready. I just want to say that I do support this type of program. Uh basically uh looking at the freshman class and most of the students do need some uh assistance with organizational skills, study, studying skills. There is a a transition as we all know from the middle school to the high school. um in my former district actually which was on the left side here above Mawa with the credits of about 130 I had reduced it from 135 uh but it's it's something that worked for us I could speak from experience after putting that program in place where students came in for a freshman transition program first of all that was two 4-hour

048days during the summer where they built relationships with some of our peer leaders and guidance counselors and then moving ahead from there and incorporating this type of program we went from, I think, number 146 in the state to number 85. So, um, you know, if you're doing the right things and giving the right support, you can be successful and that's what we're trying to do here. So, as far as the lunch piece is concerned, many schools do have the lunch on the go option um for some students who can handle it. We certainly don't want a large number of students doing that. So, uh, but I think we're the right direction and we want to look at again college and career readiness. 21st century is basically what we're looking for so we can have these

049students at a young age start to think about where they want to go to school, what they want to become. And of course, by the time they're juniors, it would go into the second part of the program where they would have more input as far as looking at the schools, maybe visiting people who are doing the types of jobs that they see themselves doing, whether it's something in the medical arts profession or something in construction, you know, it can be anything in between. So, I think it's very important and I I thank both of you for addressing that. Thank you, Mr. Novak. Thank you. uh one of the parts of the presentation where they talked about things to be included in the course, they mentioned an idea of digital citizenship. So, I'm going to talk

050briefly. I know we we've been talking for a while now. Um I've been at board meetings quite a few times now and and a major focus of the things that I've been talking about and the things I've been trying to do in the community is to increase our presence with character education and also with our use of technology. The idea of citizen digital citizenship is where those two things come together. Uh we recently uh we've had a few meetings with uh staff administrators trying to find the best approach to create a program um or a curriculum here for our West Milford schools because now we have uh and happy to announce 100% acceptance of our acceptable use policy districtwide. So every student is able to access the Chromebooks that uh we were talking about earlier

051and and really uh take the things that we can do to the next level. Now we have a responsibility to teach them how to use it and how to be responsible in using it. Um so so my purpose here tonight is just to point out uh a few of the things that we've been working on. We recently um myself, Mark Citro from and Mary Reinhold from the Mackman School have become official members of character.org. Um in that process we've been given access to a lot of their uh I guess call premium content. We uh attended a online webinar last week about digital citizenship which we're going to get the archive version of to share out districtwide. Uh in that process we've uh talked about the addition of a parent night to bring the community in

052to talk about digital citizenship and and not to go into the whole thing. I'm not going to steal thunder for our for our meeting. Um, however, the the one of the major u purposes of of what we're teaching is the idea of what's called the digital footprint. And the idea of uh what a student does online stays with them forever in in this day and age. And again, I'm going to quote Mrs. Scott from from the Court of Honor speech. Uh we talk about character is what you do when nobody's looking. Digital citizenship is what you do online when nobody's looking. So we have to we have to make that connection from you know if you wouldn't um you know if you wouldn't do something in the in the physical world you know you shouldn't

053do things online. So uh we are going to be offering a parent series throughout the year. Uh we are intending on having our first uh our first event in December. We don't have the actual date yet. We're still working on that with the committee that's going to be presenting it. But as soon as we have the date established we will uh we'll present it. Um the other piece I want to talk about tonight u in Mr. Rashika's presentation. He talked that it is American Education Week. Uh I made an attempt this week to try and uh organize all of our staff members and administrators and um community members who are utilizing Twitter to organize it under um one hashtag which um as you can see in the top uh WMA West Milford American Education Week

0542015. And we've had great success. So, we just want to highlight um you know, if you can um access Twitter and search for that hashtag, you're going to get a glimpse into what's going on in all of our schools. Uh and really, we just started this yesterday. We've already got, you know, 10 15 posts of all the things that are going on. I just uh witnessed a great workshop hosted by the Westbrook PTA down in in this um multi-purpose room uh that's starting at 6:30 where they brought in a speaker, I am Corey, for um character education, anti-bullying. So, we were able to post that right away. And as you can see as you scroll through, uh teachers are really embracing this and and you know, trying to give um the community a glimpse into

055our schools because we know you can't be there uh to see all these things for yourselves. So, that's the purpose of doing this. And as we see that it's successful, we we'll try to do this more often and and advertise it so you so you can see those things. So, like I said, go to Twitter and and search that hashtag and um you'll be able to take her from there. Maybe I'll ask Mr. Elaib. I shared a um I didn't insinuate anything, but I shared a Twitter for dummies link with my administration um for those people who didn't really embrace or know how to use Twitter. So, I will put that on the uh we'll put that a link on the website. No insinuation. It just happens to be a really um great resource for

056people are unfamiliar with Twitter. Um so, that's that's where it is and and we're just kind of scrolling through it now. So, thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. know back where do we sign up for uh Twitter extra help and also Google Docs extra help for guys with white hair with no hair thanks [Music] You have anything else for your superintendent report? No, I think I am done. That's we are done. Thank you, Mr. Special reports and correspondence. Mrs. Francisco, yes. Um you have the uh minutes from October 10th and October 20th for your review. The October 26th minutes will be available on December 8th um with school board's conference at the end of October get done. Um also um the um director of recreation um will not be able to be here tonight. uh

057you will come to the budget and finance meeting on December 8th and um we can ask questions about the contract request at that time and um here that Mr. J have a question about the minutes as I looked through those. The October 20, 2015 executive. Can you speak in your microphone? So, sorry. Question about the minutes, the executive session minutes. Uh, Mr. Viselli's name is spelled wrong. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Just need a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Like to make a motion to accept the minutes as presented. Second. All in favor? Oh, I'm sorry. Discussion. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Legal report in executive session. Okay. President's report in new business and petitions and requests. Petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first

058with 5 minutes for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other petitions and requests limited to 5 minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. Petitioners speaking during petitions and requests are asked to address topics listed for special action in the agenda. All speakers are asked to give their full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. I see we have somebody signed up to speak. Kelly Donaldson. Hi. Hi. I'm Kelly Donaldson. D O N Aldo N. And I live at 31 Carriage Lane in West Milford. I asked to speak tonight because uh as um Matthew Ventrella had discussed in his uh summation of high school events really had a big issue with

059bomb threats at the high school level. While my children are at Westbrook, they're being impacted by that because of the evacuation protocol. I'm very concerned as a parent um about the current protocol that's in place. They're taking the students from the high school and bringing them dividing them between Westbrook and Makipin School. At the time of evacuation, they have no idea who called in that threat or if that's the first leg of a multi-step threat. So I So potentially they're taking uh a person who could be disturbed and bringing them into another school system and now exposing other students to that person. As I look through the research and uh getting myself more familiar with how evacuations should be are recommended to be handled, the recommendation was not to put students onto buses. It was

060actually to keep them away from from uh from parking lots and other transportation because of the potential for additional bombs to be in those places. So it definitely shouldn't be to take the students and carry them to other school districts or other school systems and now place additional students at risk. And I know that the vast majority of bomb of bomb threats are benign and they're just students being maybe disruptive for the fake, you know, for the sake of being disruptive. But if it if it's 1% of those bomb threats are real, do we really want to expose additional children to that threat in our attempt to say to evacuate the school? So, I'm just asking the board to really re-evaluate our protocol and see what we can do differently to keep all of our

061students safe. Thank you. I can say that we um had meetings with our local police and also uh received some information. Mrs. Francisco was at a meeting with the state police department and they're coming up with some new protocols uh that I don't want to get into yet, but we will look at those types. But what we're doing currently is pretty standard. Uh and you know, there are some other districts that have been hit even harder, unfortunately. Uh but we we have our concerns about that as well. I mean, there are some concerns. The the thing that I can tell you is that we do not leave the building until police are on site because there are multiple other things that can happen when students leave the building. and that wasn't around 20 years ago,

062right? So, it's a it's a different time and we're trying to make the adjustments, but thank you for uh your information. Thank you. Would anybody else like to come up and speak? Yes, sir. [Music] Good evening. My name is Ed Woodcock. last name W O D C O C K and I live on 8 McKinley Place. Um I just would like to share with everyone a prepared document if you would just bear with me. I would like to inform you of an incident that took place a short time ago up at the turf at the high school. Please be advised, this is not a complaint, but a tribute to four individuals who work for the West Milford School District. The first person I would like to recognize is Mr. Andrulie. My son is a junior

063in high school and finished his third year with him running cross country. On October 30th, the team was competing in an inner squad scrimmage. After the race, my sw my son went up to Mr. Andrulie and shared with him that he was breaking out with hives and having an allergic reaction of some kind. Without hesitation, Mr. Andrulie drove my son in his car to the ath to the athletic trainer. Once arriving there, Mr. Andrulie began frantically searching for my son's EpiPen. It was at this point my son began losing consciousness. Like a true professional, Mr. Mr. Andruli did not panic and remained calm. Once the EpiPen was administered, Mr. Andrulie contacted me by cell phone and informed me that my son was going to the hospital. Before this incident, I have shared with Mr. Andruli

064that he has had such a positive impact on my son and has given him such confidence. You see, he was the first person my son met in high school, and it was his influence that has given my son the confidence he has experienced today. Mr. Andrulie, the true professional he is, would deny any credit in this, but I know he is a driving force in my son's maturity. The second person I would like to recognize is the athletic trainer, Miss Megan Cavella. From what I understand, it was her uh it is Megan who is is new to West Milford or new to this position. In a situation where so many things could have gone wrong, I was told she did everything right. So many times we do not know how we will act in times

065of emergency. I can tell you we don't have to question how she will react. It was her that instructed the security guard to get the EpiPen in the nurse's office. It was her that administered the EpiPen and it was her that took control of the situation. Again, she acted like a true professional. The third person I would like to recognize is the security guard, Mr. Van Brunt. Mr. Van Brunt lives in my neighborhood, so we have been friends for many years. When he was first hired in district, I used to kid him quite sarcastically by saying, "I feel very comfortable knowing you are making the high school a safer place." No truer words could have been spoken. When my son began losing consciousness, it was him who got it my son to the floor safely

066so he would not become further injured. It was Mr. van Brun that sprinted to the office to the nurse's office to get the EpiPen and then sprinted back with the EpiPen to give to the athletic trainer. When my wife when my wife arrived at the high school, it was Mr. Van Brunt who volunteered to drive my wife's car back home going above the call of duty. When I thanked him later that night, he responded by telling me he deserves no credit, but gave all the credit to Mr. Andrulie and Mr. Cavlla. I disagree. He deserves just as much credit. The last person I would like to recognize is Mr. Dean Monty, the head custodian at the high school. It was Mr. Monty who met my wife when she arrived at the high school and she

067was not in a right frame of mind. He told my wife to go inside and he would park the car. It was Mr. Monty who was there when my son was regaining consciousness. Mr. Monty also lives in our neighborhood. And if you don't know, he is quite a character. He began cracking jokes as my son was regaining consciousness and making my son feel more comfortable during this experience. Again, when I thanked him later, he would not take any credit. A true professional. I myself work in the education field as a teacher. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am when I see our profession under attack by the media, the governor, or people who have no respect for the profession. In my district, I am evaluated several times a year. The highest score I can

068achieve is a four. How can we measure the impact these four people had on my family this past October 30th? The answer is we can't. These people along with many others here in West Milford are true heroes. As a teacher, I hope to impact children's lives as these four people have. In closing, I would like to thank you, the board members, and the superintendent for your time and attention. I wanted to recognize these people in a public setting and share how truly thankful I am for them. I consider myself very fortunate to live in a community where people truly make a difference. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that information. Most importantly, I'm glad your son is okay and that our staff was there to help. Thanks again. Would anybody else like to come up

069and speak? Yes. Hi, my name is Stuart Schwarner. S c we er and as in Nancy E. I live at 33 Delaware Road and up in Huitt. Um I'd like to uh bring to the board's attention what I feel is a necessity of having two two full-time athletic trainers on staff at the high school. Uh I used to be the athletic trainer up at the high school. Um and I know the load that the athletic trainers face. I was here for seven years. uh the person who replaced me did not make it a full 3 years into their position. Uh so I think that um addressing this issue now we can stop churn of athletic trainers through the high school have more continuity of care for the kids and the families going through. Many CA

070uh families have more than one child who go through the high school and play sports. So you have continuity of care and continuity of communication with those parents. I'm not sure everybody here knows what an athletic trainer does. Uh Mr. Woodcock obviously just touched on a great experience with an athletic trainer. These are seen every day in high schools throughout New Jersey. But to give a brief synopsis of what an athletic trainer does on a daily basis in a high school. They coordinate a best practices approach towards health and well-being of the student athlete. They communicate with all the coaches, the team physicians, the parents, the athletic directors on many different levels on a student athletes health and well-being on a daily basis. There's injury wellness protection, clinical evaluation and diagnosis, immediate and emergency care,

071as we just heard, treatment and re rehabilitation, and then of course the organizational and professional health and well-being. So, there's a lot of recordkeeping that's involved as well to protect the district, the athletes, and everybody that's involved. Currently, we have one full-time athletic trainer on staff that services 29 varsity teams throughout the year. Um, you know, as as far as a load is concerned on a daily basis, this athletic trainer has to take care of over 350 athletes every season. If you look at the fall season alone, you can go through the sports. Football, which has three levels. Field hockey has three levels. Boys soccer, three levels. Girls soccer's three levels. Gymnastics, volleyball, which I heard is coming in the fall. Cross country, cheerleading, and tennis both have two levels. When I was here, well,

072since I have been here, which is only three years ago, there have been, I believe, four full-time sports added to the platter of the athletic trainer. That's a large commitment you're asking one person to put in to the health and well-being of the student athletes of this school. Uh that's putting a lot on their platter on a daily basis. That's why I feel after seeing other schools throughout the state and ones that are comparable much the way uh the uh high school principal and vice principal addressed Vernon has two athletic trainers. Both wanes have two athletic trainers. PCTI has two athletic trainers. Payic, Kennedy, East Side, Bergen County Tech, and Ridgwood all have two athletic trainers. They do not offer more sports or have more participants than we do. Um, so I feel that we

073should be at least in the middle of the curve as opposed to the end of the curve when it comes to taking care of our student athletes. Uh there are a few um formulas out there uh that were studies done by the NATA which is a national athletic trainers association which goes over number of athletes high-risisk sports and gives everybody a grade and then comes up with a recommendation of athletic trainers for whatever this formula comes out in its equation. Uh I don't know the exact uh numbers. I could speak with Mr. Chaniccasta. I did know him when he was a coach here and I was the athletic trainer to get the numbers with the board's permission or I can give the formula to somebody on the board. You guys could figure it out. Um,

074you know, but I think we should adhere to the governing body of athletic training and try and figure out a better number than just one for 29 varsity teams. Um, you know, and looking at the fall level. So what I'm proposing is decreasing the risk and liability to the district, increasing the health care services to the student athlete, and trying to provide a uh piece of mind to the parents who send their kids to the high school and participate in high school sports. You know, during my time here, and I know still today, the high school athletic trainer is responsible to travel with football. When the high school athletic trainer travels with the football, we either have a substitute on site who was available or if not then there is not another athletic trainer on

075the site of this campus which is pretty large with all the fields we have to cover the sports that are still playing that are not football. The reason a high school athletic trainer travels with football is catastrophic injury sport. But we also have other catastrophic injury sports that still go on while that athletic trainer is not here. Um, you know, I want to start the conversation of adding a second full-time athletic trainer. Uh, I know it's been requested in the past. I know, uh, Mr. Chaniccasta has requested it the past three years. I know Mr. Gillan requested it while I was the athletic trainer here as well. Um, I think it's important conversation to have. So, I appreciate your time and uh, let me have my say. Thank you, Mr. Sher. Okay. Just Yeah. Thank

076you for that information. Uh if you can, I would be happy if you do uh get statistics. Uh we as you did indicate, we do have substitutes that come in, but I would like to look at the statistics on what constitutes having another body, another person here. That is important. Thank you for sharing. Would anybody else like to come up to speak? Hello. Come on up, please, sir. Thank you. William Swood, 694 Lakes Drive. This August, I had published in the AIM and Messenger my platform of tour restore of our district's assets. Then in an online comment, it was said that this was already being done by the business administrator and someone voted down the request of transferring $750,000 to the capital reserve account based on a surplus nearly equal to the raising of the

077school tax levy. This isn't necessarily a bad thing with aging infrastructure. However, the trend looks to me as if the board is trying to scramble instead of providing better stewardship through preparation. Now you're trying to get approval for a bond that may get turned down. And if rejected, then what? Your request for $8 million now needs to be provided funds from a budget that didn't prepare for the past 20 years to replace roofs. So let's be optimistic and say that the proposal passes. Is it fair to say that not a single penny will be put toward replacing the roofs of in the future? And in anticipation of the answer, that's not how it works. I'm requesting an answer as to why this isn't the way it works. And the reply of it's complicated is simply

078a dismissal of a responsible idea of how to change how business is currently being done. First things first, you need to update the long range facilities plan. Even if for the sole purposes of coming up with new estimated project dates and an update of what has been accomplished, this document that's mandated by law serves no purpose without updating it. and it hasn't been updated since its creation in 2005. Do you expect the public to read through the minutes within the past 10 years to see if any of these projects have been followed up on? This document said that the high school roof was to be replaced in 2008. My suggestion for the tour to restore is easy. Money gets set aside for a facilities audit. It was published just today that Belleville School District has

079done this using a Wayne architectural firm. It can be done. And with the information that is compi compiled, wouldn't it be fiscally responsible to this and future boards to have a comprehensive list of assets, the current age of the asset, the expected useful life of the asset, the cost to repair or replace the asset, and the amount of money that should be set aside annually to replace the asset. Wouldn't that have benefited the roofs of Makipin, Westbrook, and the high school? A facilities audit will change how this district conducts business. It will provide outlook into the most detailed of energy and infrastructure needs. Do right and please start the process of planning and preparing for the future. You are the stewards. Be fiscally responsible with the township's assets. Don't wait for chance to determine if

080you have the funds for a project or not. Thank you. Normally speakers are asked during the first portion of petitions and requests to speak about items that are on the agenda. However, the second portion is open for any other comments or suggestions. Would anybody else like to speak? Seeing none to close petitions. Give a second, please. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? [Music] Thank you. Mr. De, would you mind moving personnel student affairs items, please? Sure. Thank you. Thank you. Like to make a motion to approve the following agenda items 1 through 32. Excuse me, Mr. De. Um, I wrote over this. We need to make a We need a motion to approve the agenda as presented. I'm sorry. Like to make a motion to approve the to adopt the agenda as presented. Second

081discussion. You need to add the hand carry includes the hand including the hand carry with the hand and we have some Yeah. Uh thanks. I can tell you in my um portion here with the uh personnel um we have some different dates for number 16 15 and 16. Um looking at number looking at number 15 uh the date should be September 1st not November 16th. [Music] Uh also I'm sorry on number six uh start date would be 1118 since we do now have all the required information. Um also number 24 uh we're going to pull that. It was an oversight that was already addressed in the past. Right. Thank you. Where it says uh the places the name that's there should be Raldi. And you have you want to go on to the others as

082well or Yeah. 24 is going to be pulled. That was done already. I would like to pull number 15 under budget and finance. Okay. A little ahead of me there. Okay. All right. So, we're going through uh All right. Sorry. Um personnel student and education. Um number six in education. Uh the trip date for the first one listed is January 28th to the 31st and the second one for the West Milford cheerleaders will take place February 25th to the 28th. The budget of finance for number seven. mic please. You say number seven. [Music] Okay. I I would um I would like to Mr. Okay. Tony had said so that's I'm sorry. Um I would like to pull number 15 under budget and finance for a separate vote. Well, no for for a vote at the

083um December 15th meeting. Hold on. Do you want to table? Well, table until a December 15th meeting. And the reason being, if I may say, is this is for the structural analysis at the MCAP and high school groups um in order for us to do solar project. Okay. If the bond issue isn't approved, I don't want to waste $20,000 on something we might not be doing. So, I'd rather wait till that bond issue, we vote on it, then um than go ahead with something. I don't want to just jump the gun and spend 20,000. Although, I do want to spend it. Yeah. After the bond is approved. Okay. That that's a decision for the superintendent. Yeah. But, um otherwise the once the motion is adopted, you can make a motion to table the the make

084a motion to table it. Well, it's not adopted yet. Okay. So if unless the superintendent wants to pull it now, he can. Otherwise, once the whole resolution, the whole agenda is adopted, then you can make the motion. Okay. You're right. You're right. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. But shouldn't that be in for discussion or there's still a 12 bill? Right. It it would be up for discussion. But right now, the superintendent has the ability to pull any resolution on the agenda. If he wants to do that now, that's fine. If he wants to leave it on, that's also up to him. And then it could be a motion to table it till the next meeting, which would be correct. Um, okay. If you want me to give you my opinion here, I would say at

085this point, I think with the election taking place on the 8th, I don't think we're going to be moving too quickly to get this done by the 15th. So, if we wanted to hold it till the 15th, I really don't have a problem with it. So, do you want to withdraw this administrative? Yeah. Okay. Then that's then it's done. There's no 15. As long as there's no ramification from uh um from the architect, I don't think there would be anything just postponing a date. All right. Any other changes to the agenda? Okay. Okay. So, Mr. Deber, continue with your um make a motion to make the motion. Yes. With the Yes. Let's make a motion to adopt the agenda with the amended items as presented. Second. Thank you. Discussion. Okay. All in favor? Okay. Any

086opposed? Okay. Mr. Deber, would you mind moving the items under Personnel Student Affairs, please? Sure. Thank you. Like to make a motion to approve the following agenda items under Personnel Student Affairs 1 through 23. 25 through 25 32 need a second discussion Mr. foodie. Um, where number six, do we have an an effective date for that person to be hired, which is tomorrow, he actually starts tomorrow. We approving him. We have all his uh documentation came in. So we usually say until we receive it and uh it it happened quickly. So we do have it. Is this person related to a current employee? Not that I'm aware of. Don't know. No. Okay. Any other discussion? Seeing none. Roll call, please. Miss Steppy, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Booty, uh,

087no one says, yes on everything else. Mr. Bab, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Schulz, yes. You want me to continue the hand care? Yes, please. On the hand care, I'd like to make a motion to approve the following agenda items 33 through 36 under personnel student affairs. Need a second. Second. Discussion. Seeing none. Roll call, please. Mr. Babbot, yes. Mr. Bale, yes. Mr. Foody, uh, yes. Mr. Roberts, yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mrs. Keep. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Yes. Thank you, Mr. De. We can move on to education. Mrs. Keepy, would you mind moving those items, please? Yes. Under education, I'd like to move items 1 through eight. Have a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Kappy. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Bett. Yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes.

088Mr. Drew. We have a question about one of these items. I know we already went through the discussion, but is it possible to ask a question now? It's up to Marilyn. She as the president on eight and the problem there I didn't make it to the second page. Um in the training and travel expenses we're sending I believe it's Mr. wrote to a class on how to prevent cyber bullying, which I think is an extremely important issue, and I'm very interested in what we might learn from that. So, I would like I have no problem sending them to that, but I'd like a report from from that and what I talked earlier about uh digital citizenship, that's going to be a big piece of that. Yeah. So I I think I'd like to see something

089back from that. Other than that, yes, Schultz. Yes. Okay. Budget and finance. Mr. Bailey, move items one through six, please. Second discussion. Roll call. Mr. Davis. Yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Drew. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mr. Kempy. Yes. Mr. Roberts. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Schultz. Yes. S. Yes. Like to move item number eight under budget finance. Please. Second. Discussion. Um, there were two things in there I had questions about. One, there was an item. It seemed like it was about $2,000 called missing money claim from WMEA. What is that? Um, every once in a while we check the state of New Jersey to see if there's any accounts that um, we're entitled to money and um, so we got the money back and part of that money was from the WMA. Outstanding. There was

090u um several items related to auto maintenance, so on and so and so forth. One of them, I believe, for a bus was $4,800 for fuel pump repair, school pump repair. I I I could explain that. What is I I can't even hear. It's from Fairfield Maintenance. It's not for school bus. That's for fuel pumps that they discharge fuel from. Yeah. the fuel pump. Ah, great. Because I just can't imagine spending that much on a fuel pump anymore. Okay. Very good. Thank you for answering both of my questions. Any other discussion? Questions. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mr. Dailyaly, yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Foody. Um, you almost got me. No, Mr. Drew. Uh, I abstain from approving my own expenses to the New Jersey SBA and yes to everything else. Mrs.

091Key, yes. Mr. Babett, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. Move item number nine under budget and finance, please. Second discussion. Roll call. Mrs. Kempy. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Foody? No. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mrs. Schulz? Yes. Like to move item number 10 and 11 under budget and finance. Please need a second. Second discussion. Roll call. Mrs. Kebie? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Bab, yes. Mr. Robbins. Yes. Mr. De? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Schulz? Yes. Like to move item 12, 13, and 14 under budget and finance, please? Second discussion roll call. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Robins, yes. Mr. De, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mrs. Steppy, yes. Mr. Babage, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mr. Schultz, yes. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. We'll move on to special committees

092leaison reports parks and recreation. Mr. Roberts um I can just mention uh since this this means a little premature for the the rec meeting it's being held uh this Thursday at 7:30 at Hillrest uh everyone's uh certainly invited to come and listen. Uh I think one of the topics uh that they're ongoing is talking about the uh Fourth of July celebration over next year. Is that the same as our forum on the uh roof referendum? [Music] Okay. Thank you. Safety, Mr. Foody. Um, nothing to report. I believe Mr. Rashik confirmed his meeting is next month, right? I believe it's the third. Thank you, Mrs. Keepy. Superintendent's round table. Uh, we have a meeting this Thursday. the county school boards association. Um, Mrs. O'Brien's not here, but I did email everybody uh poppies that we received

093uh Mr. Drew and I attended the Pay County um was actually the Essex County Pay County joint monthly meeting and there were governmental relations updates which I emailed to everybody and along with that there are upcoming meetings of special interest um which are on November 18th, November 23rd and November 3rd. 30th as well as November 17th. I can also email them to you, but they can also be found on the New Jersey School Boards Association website. Um, and with that, New Jersey School Boards Association, Mr. Foody, um, Mr. Penny is going to be having a um, meeting at the Brownstone and Mr. Rosselli will be our will be the guest speaker there. Um, unfortunately I think it's it's this Thursday and it interferes with that. No, it's Monday. Monday. I don't know why. I'll write

094then report on that next month. Thank you. Legislative Mr. Drew. Um, five items that seem to me to be interested. Uh, an item passed uh by both houses of the legislature and signed by the governor requires training programs for school bus drivers and school bus aids on interacting with students with special needs and requires development and use of student information results. So, we're going to have to do some training, but it's probably, I think, helpful to make sure that our school bus driver is aware when they have special needs students and that they're trained to deal with that. That's in one of the uh items that I emailed to you. Yes. Other board members. Uh second one prohibits withholding of state school uh aid based on student participation rates on state assessments. So no matter

095how we do with the testing, uh we cannot have funds withheld by an act of the legislature assigned by the governor. Um, another bill authorizes the provision of additional state aid to at the Atlantic City School District, which isn't really of all that much interest to us other than that they've somehow convinced the legislature to give them more money, which is less available for everybody else. Um, fourth, there's a bill passed both houses, signed by the governor, requires installation of carbon monoxide detectors in certain structures and um, uh, so we'll probably have to review that, but I think that's a really good idea. I've known people who are uh, either killed or seriously injured. It's odorless. you don't know when there's a problem and next thing somebody is seriously hurt. So I think it's relatively

096cheap and uh and then the fifth one which is just uh I don't believe I'll comment on requires facilities providing services to persons with developmental disabilities and schools to adopt policy permitting the administration of medical marijuana to qualifying patients. Okay. Thank you Mr. Drew. technology oversight. Mrs. Keepy. Um, everybody in their agenda had a the technology committee minutes. There were quite a few things there. Mr. Novak touched on quite a number of things tonight as well. Um, next month we're going to have a technology plan review and have more to report then. Thank you. Um, West Milford Education Foundation. Does anybody have anything? Um we had a meeting last night uh regarding the grants and the grants have been decided upon. They will be released tomorrow. We were there were 23 grants that applied and

097we were able to 18 of them. So um that list will be released tomorrow. Thank you. Also the tomorrow is the um Ed Foundation sponsored pajama day for grades K through eight. Just want to throw it out there. Not the high school. Millions of people day tomorrow. Nice. They've done a pajama day at the high school before. I think we'd like to add that in the future. Township board of ed joint committee. Mr. De, uh, nothing to report this time. Okay. Before I move on, it is 9:02. Should be okay. Thank you. Okay. Um, well, maybe not. If you want to extend it. Does somebody want to make a motion to extend? Motion to extend executive session till 9:15. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Let's try not to go too late because there are

098students. Um, okay. Old business. Does anybody have any old business? Mr. Deber. Uh, I just want to reiterate um what Mr. Drew said that state funding cannot be withheld for the testing participation. That's great news that the state will not withhold funding. So irregardless of the numbers that come in for park testing and common core, we don't have to worry any longer that we're going to be losing money. Um was there any anything that was added in there on federal funding? I was just bringing up the state funding for this point. It's one little piece at a time for federals. They're not going to withhold, are you? They're not. Nobody's going to Any other old business? On item 15 for the uh the cost of the $20,000 for the architect. I just wanted to commend

099Mr. Foody for suggesting to pull that for a later vote, table up for a later vote so we don't waste money. Appreciate that. Any other old business? Indeed. See none move to close all business. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Let's move on to new business. [Music] Mr. Robbins, would you like to move new business? Uh, yes. I'd like to uh move to close uh new business. Uh there's item on the agenda. Oh, is there like that. Well, that was quick. Was that correct? New business. Um, make a motion to approve items one and two. I need a second, please. Second. Any discussion? Mr. Drew. Um, item number two. Yes. Um, I find those goals uniquely unmeasurable. So, I certainly support the goals, but there's absolutely no way to determine whether we are accomplishing those

100goals, whether we have accomplished those goals, whether we're making progress towards those goals. Um, so I simply can't vote for them for all three under number two. Do you see any of them that can be measured? Mhm. Were you at the uh goal attending workshop? Yes, I was. I recall you bringing anything up with regards to these goals then? Making them measurable. Yes, I brought that up several times and the facilitator just charged right under it. I I think on the first one if I could add some information. I think we could measure um you know starting starting at a base we can measure the amount of students and staff that are involved in new programs uh starting with this with this school year. I think that's something that's measurable that not be difficult to

101remember one. Yeah. I'm looking at goal two. Uh create awareness and opportunities and so on for steam. Um that's something that is measurable. All right. Isn't that measurable with uh infuse technology in grades 7 through 12 and then the robotics that was discussed? It's all part of Yeah, it's all part of the steam STEM program, whichever way, but we went with steam. We included the arts in there. Um I think I I think we could that one we could make measurable. Mr. Cody, I think that develop and implement an effective and timely communication plan is something that we can we can measure as well. Um the the middle goal enhance district culture and climate to foster student achievement and recognition through collaboration with all stakeholders. Um although it's not it's it's not entirely not measurable.

102That's right. Um it it there are some aspects to that that I think we could measure. Yeah. And uh one of the things coming soon that we're presenting admin council tomorrow is a school climate survey that's going to be distributed to staff, parents um and students. Uh, I think that that adds a level of measurability to to goal number two. Um, and then the followup for that. Yes. Will will we see those results as a as the board? Yeah, I can distribute them. You'll as community members, you'll get to fill it out yourselves. Okay. Well, you're you're community members, not just parents. You No, just parents, but I can make it available to the board. Okay. Okay. Right. Miss Schulz just pointed out to me that she did note with an asteric pace which is

103the program I spoke about about peaceful and caring environment creating those throughout the schools. Um you know I think we can look at disciplinary infractions the types of things that come up on HI uh and seeing if we're doing better in those areas. So I think the results of those reports can help us in that area. Mr. Cody, how many how many HIPS did we have reportable HIPS did we have last year? uh last school year, not this. Yeah, I said I don't I we just did the report for this this one. I don't know the number off the top of my head. Uh but the amount of uh affirmed affirmed HIPS was like two. Okay. Okay. Last year, well for this year this last semester. Yes. Okay. The reduction of HIV is is one

104of the measurable processes in the school of character application that many of our schools have participated in this year. Um I see Mr. Polo here. Mr. Playo has spearheaded the team who's going to fill out the character application for our high school. It's the first time they're going to be doing that and we've seen schools whether they've won or not just the process of focusing on that goal through that application um has created that reduction. So that's something we're hoping to hoping to see. Mr. Joe, just real quickly let me make it clear. I support the goals. I think you know fostering student achievement absolutely that's the first thing we need to do. My preference would be to put some kind of measurable did we do it or not? Are we making progress on it

105or not? And because my experience is is you can't measure it. Well, the next step would be for the superintendent to develop an action plan and strategies for each of these district goals. Um so that's something that we can review once those are actually um developed. And why don't we amend this to say that the super because that the process would be once the board approves them then the next step is for a plan to be implemented by our superintendent so that they are measurable. Mr. Deber. Yeah. I just wanted to say whether these are tangible measurable items or not, they're all good things to shoot for. That's that's common sense. That's what we'd like to do. So, we don't have a measurable tangible thing on our hand, but all these items aren't there's nothing

106wrong with any of these things. Well, what'll happen next is at a future meeting, um once we approve these goals formally tonight, if they get approved, um the action plans will then be formally accepted at a future board of education meeting and then we'll receive periodic updates and progress towards the achievement of these goals, both the district and the board of ed goals. And um then we'll also complete the evaluation process calendar and then the final step will be evaluating the superintendent on progress towards the achievement of these district goals. Yes, Mr. Queen. Um I think how long Tony do you think be before you could come up with something to put in front of us June 30th tomorrow? I would say, you know, if we're going to move ahead with this, then I would

107hope to have something by the by, you know, January. January the latest at this point, I think is is fair. Okay. By 2025, we'll have something on the table. Um, anybody else? Roll call, please. Mrs. Tappy, yes. Mr. Bailey, yes. Mr. Babett, yes. Mr. Robbins, yes. Mr. De. Yes. Mr. Foody. Yes. Mr. Drew. Subject to our expecties of plan. Yes. Mr. Schulz. Yes. Okay. Any other new business? Mr. Drew. Um, obviously recognized the outstanding performance by the band. Uh, I went to the, uh, football team's playoff game and, uh, you know, they lost. Uh, but they had an absolutely outstanding season. Uh it's pretty clear they just ran into a kid that they hadn't seen a runner like that before, but there were a lot of signs of you know that that team has come

108together. They've made the playoffs two years in a row and I would like to commend them on an outstanding season. Thank you, Mr. Drew. Any other comments, discussion, new business? Mrs. Kebby. Um, yes. An issue I'd like to bring up is with PK and I have spoken to Tony and Barbara about this. Um, voting over there. Um, you know, you get used to it and you don't question it, but one of the problems is is that the school is open, completely open to the public. And when I was there on voter day, the security guard happened to need a break and he walked away right as school was opening. And you know, children the are coming in and it's an open way. You know, normally the schools are completely locked and shut down and nobody

109can get in. Um, but voter days are a problem over there and it's very nerve-wracking for staff and particularly Mrs. Miller. And I think we need to address with the town moving the voter location from that school. A lot of districts were closed on um that day when people were voting. Um PK is the only school in the district that we actually go into and vote. Um but it really should be considered being put someplace else so that the student safety is not an issue. Mr. Foody, I think that that she brings up a good point. If the kids are there during the day during during voting, that should be there's a firehouse right down the road. and we should be able to transfer that over to the firehouse relatively easily. I don't know what

110the um protocol is changing circumst I I I vaguely remember a conversation a number of years ago and the reasons why they use the school as opposed to the firehouse. Is there something with accessibility or I I don't remember what it was, but I know that there's a reason why they use the school. It's a tough driveway and it's it's at the fire very narrow getting in and out at the fire. I was thinking as you said it because I know there's one down there. I just never got back in. It takes weeks. Is there a way that we can look into this? Um, I I could approach the town clerk about it that there might be a a way we can change the location to uh something where they can just walk into the

111door and you know the body was right there and they could leave. So I'd have to check. That sounds good. What do you guys think, Mr. Joe? I think I'd rather provide adequate security. I hate to be contrary, but I remember as a kid that elections were held in the school and it's one of the lessons in citizenship to see people come in and do their civic duty and um uh you know the kinds of people who take the time to go vote and think about the issues I think mostly are are adults who care about their country and their society. And uh I I just think it's a you know I remember that I remember seeing adults come in to vote right there in the main lobby because it's you know maybe this is

112part of the reason why we have such low turnout if we're hiding the voting process. Well, we do have um voters ed within the schools, but um I think safety is a different it's a different day than when you went to school unfortunately with all these things that have been going on lately. You also lose the library. You lose use of your computer rooms in the library for the day as well to the students. So you know you you take from them to have Francisco wants to do it. So Mrs. Francisco will look into it and get back to us with regards to the reasoning and I guess we can discuss it further then if that's agreeable. All right. Thank you Mrs. Ky. Any other new business? Mr. Robins. Yes. I'd like to comment uh

113what Mr. Drew brought up about the uh the bill being passed about the you know the the sensors, you know, the uh CO2. Yeah. The CO2 and the smoke detectors so forth. Since we have, you know, for the safety of the kids, since we did replace se several boilers and and we have several schools that in fact it it would be very important that, you know, we look at these these sensors that we have and make sure that we don't have any carbon dioxide floating into the hallways or, you know, makes sense, Mr. Foody. They are tested though by the fire department I believe when they do their their inspections. So carbon because you remember a couple years ago we had the gas leak at McAPen and the alarms went off because of that. So

114they are I know they're part of the protocol in a fire department. I'll I'll check into it for you and I'll let you know. Is is that yearly or? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Good. Actually I think it's by yearly. I think they come in twice during the year. Any other new business? Okay, seeing none, need a motion to close. Like a motion to close on new business. Second, please. Second. All in favor? I oppose. We'll move on to petitions and requests. Petitioners who have requested to speak prior to the meeting will be first with five minutes pro for each petitioner for a period of 30 minutes and then time permitting other petitions and requests limited to 5 minutes per petitioner will be allowed until the 30 minute period transpires. All speakers are asked to give their

115full name, spell their last name, and provide their address. Speakers may not use the names of students during petitions and requests. Would somebody like to come up and speak, please? Seeing none, move to close. Petitions and requests. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Petitions and requests are closed. I need somebody to motion. 9:15 I 9:20. I make a motion um to go into executive session for the p purpose of discussing personnel negotiations and matters of attorney privilege. Two students. Oh, two students. Yeah. Sorry. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Are we remaining in here? No. Okay. We are going to go in another room for executive session then. There's no action taken. Okay. Um, are we good? We're back. Okay, we're back. It's um 10:4 and we're back from executive session. Need

116a motion to adjurnn. No resolutions. We have the resolutions from the student uh hearings. So I'll read them one at a time. Yes, please. They are essentially identical though. So uh resolve that the board of education finds the disciplinary charges presented and discussed during tonight's executive session regarding student 62712 which were previously presented to the student's parents via letter to be substantiated and be it further resolved that the student's suspension be continued through the end of the December holiday break period. and be it further resolved that the student continue on in home instruction at work expense during the suspension period. And be it finally resolved that upon the student's return, the student be subject to the terms of a behavior contract to be developed by the administration. That's for student 62712. I guess we'll do

117them one at a time. Motion voice. We need a motion and it's a roll call vote. I have a motion. Yes. To make a motion to to accept that. Good resolution. Resolution is second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. De, I understand the implications of what happened, but I just uh I just can't I'm going to abstain from this. I can't vote for that to keep them on suspension. Mr. Drew? Yes. Mr. Foody? Yes. Mrs. Key? Yes. Mr. Robbins? Yes. Mrs. shorts. Yes. Okay. And the second resolution uh resolved that the board of education finds the disciplinary charges presented. Sorry, you want me to stop? No. Presented and discussed during tonight's executive session regarding student ID which were previously provided to the student's parents via letter to be substantiated. And be it

118further resolved that the student suspension be continued through the end of the December holiday break period. And be it further resolved that the student continue on in home instruction at board expense during the suspension period. And be it finally resolved that upon the student's return, the student be subject to the terms of a behavior contract to be developed by the administration. I'd like to make a motion to approve Mr. Second. Question. Um there would be um I can't think of the wording, but um if the if it's going to be developed by the administration, there will be some input by um case managers. Yeah, we don't even need to say that. They're part of the administration. Okay. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Babbot. Yes. Mr. Deber. Again, I'm going to abstain from this as

119well for the same reasons. Mr. Drew, yes. Mr. Foody, yes. Mrs. Key, Mr. Robbins, yes. Mrs. Schultz, yes. [Music] Okay, make a motion to adjourn at 10:44. Second. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay, this meeting is officially adjourned at 10:44. Thank you very much for coming, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.