001good evening adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows notice the revised 2022 Board of Education meeting schedule was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier news on February 2nd 2022 on September 15 2022 notice of the revised September 22nd 2022 board of education meaning was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier News and was also provided to all schools PTO presidents the bhea president and posted at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the municipal clerk roll call please Julie zakiri Mr chanchuli here Dr Forger Mr Hyman president Mrs Penna Mrs Stanley here Mrs Young president Mr Tequila here and no uh the security is here now uh
002adjourn to Executive session whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive session in full compliance open public meeting Act njsa 10 colon 4-6 and whereas the open public meeting act provides that a public body May exclude the public from the portion of the meeting at which it discusses managed related to those identify Below on matter rendered confidential by federal law state law or rule individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interest could be adversely affected investment of public funds if public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety and property pending or anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matter is affecting specific perspective or current employees be resolved at the board Berkeley Heights Board of Education adjourns to Executive
003session discuss matters related to Personnel legal matters HIV bhea negotiation and student matters be it further resolved that the minutes of the discussion of any of these items will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined and confidentiality is no longer applicable can I have a motion to adjourn to Executive session [Music] so move can I have a second discussion uh we'll call Julie or do we just do a voice fight all in favor aye aye any opposed abstain thank you we'll be back at 7 30. pretty much hello yeah yes it's terrific fortunately it's my own car that's fine I mean again if that's works frankly I have no preference [Music] foreign so yeah my flight got canceled so I'm now driving to Michigan this is uh 10 hours I'm not going
004to try to do it all at once fortunately the race is until Saturday oh so I'm going to drive out to like near to Lockhaven uh it's like 600 miles for tonight oh I'm sorry uh 30 uh 30 miles well 31 minutes it's 50 kilometers install Trail um say that it is probable that you're going to get lost also I don't think those things to me it's not yeah I do with those questions those trail shoes have been so unbelievable on these kind of basis if I see myself perfect so the person I think or whatever so you can see so I want to go over next I'm going to do it foreign thank you One Direction jumping on each other foreign all right foreign all right it's all running back joint to the web
005link um you know I'm not working see ya what at the park over there yeah don't worry about it anyway at night anywhere stair game okay foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you it's the Board of Ed right what time is it meet okay so I would just hit this is my first time they'll be out foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign oh thank you very much I'm Melissa barley nice to meet you yeah she's here um thank you foreign [Music] foreign excellence okay yes absolutely yes okay all right thank you [Music] so on yes thank you thanks president s again alrighty can I have a motion to return to public session and may I have a second please second any discussion we'll call Julie please and Mr zakiri present Mr chanchuli present
006Dr forger present Mr Hyman here Mrs Stanley Mrs Young Mr Tequila yes that's actually a yes returning yeah exactly foreign all right we have an action-packed agenda so let's jump right into it uh Julie board correspondence please uh we received a letter from Christine LoPresti who was the PTO president for William Woodruff last year and she summarized the uh the donations that they made it was 9 225 000 worth of gifts for the school year for William Woodruff and we certainly appreciate that I know their hard work we had email from Laura kaposinski regarding the zoom Boe meetings we also had a similar email from Sue Seto Helen garbera wrote about the health curriculum required and requests for her children Tom masajewski wrote about the uh the speed of processing Opa requests the Berkeley Heights
007Community Watch sent several questions about committee meetings as well as uh sent a letter of introduction to the board and about their organization uh Laura kaposinski also wrote about learning loss and the district's quarantine policies we received a nice email from Dave rain who is the head of the bus drivers Union encouraging the board members to approve the bus driver sidebar I do not we did not have time to put it on here but there were also an email encouraging the approval of the sidebar from Mrs Kelly Sheehan as well as Clarissa our our new uh Transportation part-time transportation coordinator who also drives for the disc district and it was signed by all of the drivers keep them we have a lot of nice donations on this evening but I can I'll discuss those during
008my report thank you thank you Julie all right now we're gonna turn back in school for the 2022 to 2023 school year the first few weeks of school are off to a great start we're excited to welcome the new freshman class to GL and all students are taking advantage of their time in the classroom and experimenting with the new Chromebooks this school year will be exciting for the new senior class as many of the GL Traditions are returning to normal seniors have painted their cars exercised their open campus Privileges and participated in one of their final Spirit weeks at TL this past week along with old traditions New Traditions are also being formed this year the senior class gathered on the GL football field for the first ever senior Sunrise where students watched the sunrise
009together to Mark the start of their final year here for new GL students many are getting an early start to joining clubs and extracurriculars the GL Hilltop players have announced and held auditions for the upcoming fall play titled the witness for prosecution by Agatha Christie GL is also organizing its first acapella group and auditions for the group will be held soon the Highlander robotics Club Model United Nations sexuality and gender acceptance club and the understanding Asian cultures Club have held their first meetings for the school year to introduce new members to their Club activities looking at Governor Livingston has plenty of exciting events planned for the next few weeks the GL Club Fair will be held during lunch next week to provide students with the opportunity to learn about and get involved with clubs at
010school finally the Geo Administration has worked with the GL diversity committee to welcome our first guest speaker for the school year next week thanks speaker Chris Singleton is a baseball player who is drafted by the Chicago Cubs after his mother passed away in the Charleston South Carolina church shoe 2015 he used his background and story to become an inspirational speaker and share his experiences and advice with students and Educators across the country the administration and the diversity committee are also excited to announce that there will be an opportunity for parents to hear a preview of this presentation over zoom on September 27th at 7 pm thank you thank you all right thank you Catherine and Jake and welcome aboard Jake Dr Wally I'm sorry I had two quick ones um uh thank you guys thanks
011both and welcome Jake is there a date yet for the school play for the hilltoppers TBD all right yes I was just looking at that it's actually November 17th 18th and 19th this year foreign how are the Chromebooks so far what's the transition been like for for you guys yeah so um you're being filmed yes I've heard mixed reviews from students um there are pros and cons to it I would say the battery life on it is so much longer I like that it tells you how many hours you have left so like before going to school I'm like oh I don't need to plug it in it says I have like eight hours left and I've been using it for four days so like the battery life is much longer than iPads um and
012the keyboard also like is automatically connected you don't need to do the whole Bluetooth thing I know that was a little tiresome last year um however I think we're still getting used to the whole laptop instead of touch screen iPad these touch screens aren't as um Advanced as the ones on the iPads uh and a lot of the apps that we've been using in school are uh designed for iPads and not Chromebooks so we're looking for Alternatives um that we can use on the Chromebook so it'll be an adjustment but we're getting there Jake do you have anything yeah I mean I've heard mixed opinions too but one thing the iPads I think provide that I've heard a lot of people say is that you have all the apps there I mean the Chromebook I
013see tons of kids with like 50 tabs open up a keeping track of all their classes all their websites they're using and I've heard a lot about the iPads you know they have the apps they're more organized but you know some people like the Chromebooks too because you know the bigger screen and a better ability to type and yeah hmm thanks guys any other questions from the board okay thank you thank you both um so good evening before we begin I would like to take a moment to recognize that one of our students our graduates from 2022 passed away this past week her name was Ali Cabe our thoughts and prayers are with her family um we have had an outstanding start to the school year we're starting our third week of school and students
014and teachers are settling in and our administrators are reporting that everyone is happy and excited about being back if you were at Friday night and Saturday night lights you know what I mean it was packed and very exciting um it's our first year coming back normal and after 2.5 years in the middle of the pandemic it's it's so nice to see The Smiling Faces and all the clubs meeting and the sports happening and back to school night being back in person so it has been a great positive start and another piece of fabulous news I'm excited to announce that the bhea contract is on the agenda tonight the memorandum of agreement I want to thank the board of education for coming together to make this happen and I also want to thank Marcy Homesteader and
015the bhea for their quick ratification process we have so much to accomplish this year for our students the last thing the district needed was another other protracted contract disagreement as you're aware there's a national and Statewide shortage of bus drivers we are working hard to make sure that we do everything we can to keep our bus drivers happy and on staff to that end there's a sidebar agreement on tonight's agenda that increases the pay of our bus drivers in a highly competitive market we are doing everything in our power to ensure we attract and keep our drivers our New Jersey student learning assessment scores are in you've probably received them most parents should have gotten them already next month Dr Greer and Miss copaz will be presenting our scores and spoiler alert I can see
016that then in the face of two and a half years of a pandemic I am pleased to announce that we have announced that we've held our own it's a wonderful confirmation that in the face of unprecedented challenges our teachers did an excellent job providing for our students in addition I want to read an email from Rob Nixon um Dr Varley I want to share some of the data points with you that I was particularly proud of in regard to GL student achievement in act last year 109 class of 2022 students tested and earned an average score of 26.8 this is our all-time high at GL vesting the previous Mark of 26.1 in 2018 our SAT last year the class of 2022 earned an average score of 601 in reading and writing and 604 in math
017this combined with an average score of 1205 marks only the third time that I can find the average score was over 1200. all of these have happened after we began offering the PSAT to all students during the school day National Merit Scholars we have 16 commended students this fall this is our highest total since we had 20 in 2016 and our third highest total in over the past 10 years we also have great AP results I'm not going to keep going into all the numbers but we're very proud of our students and our teachers for all that they have done during the 2.5 years of the pandemic and as I'm proud of I am as our teachers and our students have done during this pandemic I know that this is just the tip of the
018iceberg as our full day kindergarten program begins to build a strong academic foundation for all of our students we can look forward to more success if you've kept up on the news you might have seen that both New Providence and Chatham school districts are engaging also engaging in a realignment of schools in attempt to bring in full day kindergarten and that is complete for this portion of my report we're going to turn it over to District goals now it's myself Dr Greer and miss kopets foreign [Music] so every year we present in September our just a Berkeley Heights District school goals all of our goals align to our strategic plan and our strategic plan will go through 2025. so it's myself Dr Greer Miss topaz who have spent a lot of time with our administrative
019staff combing through the Strategic plan to find our four key areas that we would like to focus on this year let's see if I can push sorry but it also increases pro-social Behavior such as kindness sharing and empathy improve student attitudes towards School reduces depression and stress among students effective social and emotional learning programming involves coordinated classrooms school-wide and Community practices that help students develop in five key areas self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision making to achieve this work we have the following action items District certified staff and administrators will receive youth mental and first aid certification students and staff will engage and participate in district-wide SEL precepts and those precepts are themes that district-wide themes that all the schools participate in themes such as community and connection self-love kindness resilience and
020diversity and lessons building the aforementioned skills that that I had spoken above spoken about in the slide previous all staff members will engage in meaningful activities related to precepts throughout the year and provide communication of activities celebrations and opportunities for students and staff as it relates to Social and emotional learning to all stakeholders and teachers and administrators will collaborate with stakeholders to focus on linking diversity Equity inclusion and Dei is also part of our strategic plan and we'll discuss a Dei goal a bit later in the presentation and SEL monthly precepts how do we know we'll achieve have will have achieved these goals no building level SEL action plans will give will be developed and implemented completion of Youth mental health and first aid training by all bhps staff members completion of district-wide Social and
021emotional learning precept activities successful implementation and documenting of our SEL and Dei collaborative events and evidence of student growth in the areas of social and emotional learning Dr Greer thank you Mrs kopas good evening everyone my name is Dr David Greer one of the assistant superintendents here in the district and I'd like to talk a little bit about goal number two that you can see projected here is about the multiple data sets that are coming in from the many assessments so we're looking to identify and analyze multiple formative assessment data to focus on closing identified achievement gaps Implement standards-based instruction and Target staff professional development to improve student achievement as Dr Varley shared many of you should have already received individual score reports uh that for the New Jersey student learning assessment that given last
022spring if not they should be in your mailboxes by tomorrow parents also have the ability to log on to the portal to view that data we have had a strong start to this school year with our start strong assessments right it's hard to get those in in order but those assessments have been happening it's the second time that the state is is providing these assessments for us with real-time data for students in ela Math and Science to see where some more support might be necessary where students are doing well or sort of where to say hey our students have achieved this we can move forward so we're really looking to work with the data that we're receiving from the multiple assessments as Dr barley shared as well we'll be here next month to report on
023multiple data sets from assessment as well so we're going to use our teacher teams as well we'll utilize this data internal external benchmarks as well as other available standardized data points to measure student growth and preparedness as an administrative team will be engaging in this work with our Educators as well as we leverage all of the data that's coming in it's many different points I know it can be difficult to understand all of the various assessments that happen those that are required by the state those that are required locally you will see tomorrow I'm also sending out the district assessment calendar it's already linked on our website so that you can see the different assessments and always any questions that anyone has please don't hesitate to reach out to us about what these assessments are
024we will also work with our teachers and administrators as we look at data discussions really focusing on student needs and curricular gaps as many of you know as well we're implementing new curricula aligned to seven sets of the 2020 New Jersey student learning standards so we're going to look how well the curriculum is happening working together with the data we will review them based on student achievement through curriculum management and the revision cycle how will we know that we've met this we will have our building level assessment schedules and action plans developed and implemented we're going to look at the successful implementation of our curriculum our curricular programs resources and best practices that support student growth and achievement uh we're looking at targeted student learning plans created as a result of the school-based data team
025meetings looking at those individual school reports talking about individual students where they're able to grow as a team continued implementation and documentation of our multi-tiered system of supports mtss and finally looking at the data analysis and evidence of student growth and achievement via multiple benchmarks that we have I ready link it and Statewide assessments so our goal our second goal is really looking at data leveraging the multiple points that are coming in to support student growth thank you very much and I'm going to talk about our Dei goal as our motto is include Inspire and empower the Berkeley Heights Public Schools will focus on a truly inclusive mindset in our administrative approach in our buildings and in our classrooms and then create our metrics through the use of data mining and research evaluative integration and
026Survey creation and implementation for our action items of this one thing that we have talked about multiple times through research we had this great group of stakeholders who are part of our di task force back in 2021 and through the research we found that the principle is the key factor for diversity equity and inclusion so we took that working with our stakeholders and our principal is going to complete a program of Dei activities that consist of small and whole building events if you listen to Catherine's speech when she started talking we already have something happening here at the high school next week we've got Chris Singleton who is coming in on Thursday to talk to the students he's also doing a parent night on Tuesday night so I urge you to zoom in for that
027parent night for those Folks at home um principals will analyze subgroups and determine Equity throughout their buildings do we are we represented throughout all of our courses are our AP courses do they consist of minorities are are we do we have Gatekeepers that prevent access to those courses are we giving students the opportunity the access to get into those classes also we know fifth grade is a huge determiner for your track are we holding kids back through that determination and that is something that we are going to take a deep dive into our data to find out are we holding children back are we keeping kids from accessing all of our top level classes the deact committee one thing that also came out of the stakeholder group was that servant Educators should be servant leaders
028that means I serve the community I serve the students I serve the teachers this the principles do the same so do the teachers making sure they serve their students so what we're going to have our dat committee we're looking at an evaluation system for administrative staff as well as for our teachers is try to find something that we can work in that servant Leadership Model and that will happen through the DAC committee principles will create appropriate HIV education plans for students parents and professional staff the HIV law was just updated again August 30th um so we will be working on that hip training coming soon and then principals will Implement a a grade level appropriate digital citizenship plan and what does that mean it means being appropriate on social media it means using appropriate text
029Mr kobliska is already getting a program going called don't press send at the middle school trying to make sure our students are digitally sound and being kind so our measurement of success are basically building level action plans developed and implemented data regarding Equity throughout our course offerings and that's for myself Miss copas and Dr Greer to really dig into and HIV and digital citizenship plans are implemented and our dat committee will present proposed evaluation models to staff for goal number four and this one is a long one so what we're looking at is our so we always have a special education goal to make sure we are being inclusive in that department as well and Dei also includes our neurodiverse so to effectively include students with more significant support needs example would be students with
030autism and reduce segregation of students into self-contained special classes at the preschool level the special services department with support of njieta which is um the I don't know how to pronounce the it's a systemic change project will engage with the Mary Kay McMillan school-based leadership team to develop a system where IEPs are written with strengths-based approach and focus on the child's daily routines aligned with expectations of a play-based curriculum if you know if you've done any research and you're in early childhood you know that play is very important for preschool students and kindergarten students is the way they learn so our action items they've already had a meeting Miss copaz and I got a notice about the the meeting that happened just recently to engage preschool staff child study team and related services in student
031planning on conversations via multi-disciplinary preschool team meetings review of the preschool day we know that children like routine and that is something that's very key for this program using the creative curriculum to make sure that they evaluate routines and keep this the classroom a safe space for our special needs children provide professional development which focuses on writing functional goals developing naturally embedded intervention and the development use of child profiles and we're going to work on the Mary Kay McMillan Early Childhood mission statement to make sure it is more inclusive and student-centered so you have your measurements of success having monthly preschool meetings where they've already started started they hit the ground running IEPs that reflect functional strength-based goals that can be integrated into classroom activities and the revised mission statement it's a big goal and
032then questions from the board [Music] I know there was you know references to action plans and things being implemented are there will any of those action plans and dates and timing be shared so that we know that everything is on track so I did send the board I think it was mid-august a list of the goals which we've edited a little bit with an action plan we don't have the timelines yet we're working on those timelines and I will update you again probably february-ish to give you an idea of where we are but I will send out updated action plan Tech templates once we figure out exactly how how we can be successful because the whole part of having a goal is you want to be successful so I just had a question so just
033to clarify right so the district goals who's evaluated based on these District goals so you as a board evaluate me on the district goals these are the goals that some boards have board goals but these are district goals so that means we're the ones responsible for doing the work I will evaluate Dr Greer miss kopas the principals um and Dr donozco and Miss Gardner on the performance of their of their compartment of this and Mr Hopkins of the district goals so these are part of your evaluation for the year yes they are yes and then I had a question to I know um when we were talking about goal number two to improve student achievement and we were talking about all these um assessments right so whenever we hear assessments I think most people think
034they're taking a computer program that does some standardized tests but is this also teacher involved teacher evaluations yes it does it includes the formative data as well that teachers are giving as they're looking throughout so we're trying to see as many different data points as we can right those that are required uh the ones that are State assessed take some time to come back like the NJ SLA didn't come back until just recently that's why they're going out now start strong comes out immediately so those are our state assessments but we know our educators are assessing throughout their units as they're looking at all those pieces and using that data as well the power in it is having the teams that are meeting to really look and look across a class and then look at
035particular students as well and if we realize that a student is struggling what supports that we can do to help do that so it is all of those data points as well so assessment is a really large term for all of these different pieces that that add into it and then when we were talking about um in curriculum committee we were talking about was it Touchstone meetings you called them so those are four times a year and that's where we would be making these targeted student learning plans so we have we have two different types of data team meetings we have the quarterly data team meetings where principals teachers support staff child study team members even related arts teachers meeting specialist math Specialists all come together in one room to talk about every single child
036in every single classroom it's a really spectacular practice and not only do they talk about academic needs but they talk about um social emotional needs uh behavioral do students need a friend group do they need support in a related arts class do they have a talent in a related arts class and how are we going to address those needs so not only do we have these data team meetings quarterly but then throughout the year we have what we call Touchstone meetings and those Touchstone meetings are just that they're almost like progress monitoring that takes place throughout the year to say are we on track are we doing what we need to do for these individual students and do we need to tweak anything until we get to our next data team meeting where again we're
037looking more globally at the child um so it's it's really a spectacular practice and it's been ongoing for quite some time so it's it's great work and and the ultimate goal is all about the child and are we giving the child everything that individual child needs to be successful all right and then um I love the digital study but goal number four I just wanted to say I'm so glad that we're focusing on our preschool I know sometimes it kind of gets overlooked that we have preschool but I think um in the future right we're going to have to start doing more Universal preschool and I think this will really help us get prepared for that to make sure that the special education part component of preschool does not get lost absolutely expand it um
038can you hear me so a quick question is um we all discussed during we know that these District goals are the same goals that we evaluate the superintendent on and when we did the superintendency evaluation we agreed that we were going to put some goals which are which are clearly defined which have clearly defined metrics and we can easily evaluate the accomplishments so my question is I know I've been Avast and I've emailed for multiple times to have the strategic planning committee meeting so did we have no to review the district goals we were supposed to have a strategic planning committee meeting did we have one this year no we haven't had a single strategic planning committee meeting to review the district goals okay and where are the quantifiable metrics how do we so I
039do want to point out I did email you about a strategic planning meeting and you did not respond so I do want to point that out but um in the end the metrics are on the action plan that I sent all of you in the middle of August we're still working on it so for the um njsla data we only had 2019 data at the time so we don't want to base our 2023 growth on in an uninterrupted learning that happened for years in 2019 and now we've had 2.5 years of interrupted learning and then base them on those scores so we didn't have the njsla scores to put like okay we're going to increase three percent in student growth we have them now however we're still coming off of a pandemic and I think
040everyone needs to realize our kids were at home or at home in in school or sick or quarantined or remote learning for two and a half years so we are going to show growth I'm sure it's just we have to have realistic expectations so thank you and I know I've been asking for a strategic planning committee meeting from like April and I think I got an email when during summer one meeting one email so after multiple requests so this is September we have not had one meeting and even on the Strategic plan that we have my concerns are it's a 25 page document we were told that there are some metrics in there there are no metrics so you're planning to add them so by when can we see those metrics added so this will
041be for this the Strategic plan for up until 2025 is done for now that is the reason we haven't had a strategic planning meeting is because we planned it we've got it's a five-year strategic plan we will start working at the end of 2023 to focus on our goals from 25 to 2030. so the current one doesn't have any metric so we cannot amend it we we have action we have action plans that we have to do for those yes but it lacks quantifiable metrics so we cannot amend it so do you have questions about the goals yeah so about the goals I want to know how are we going to ensure that we are 80 proficient or due to State Standards or Etc I don't see any quantifiable metrics so can we amend this
042so again 2019 data is what we're working with so we will look to see if there's a goal that we can give you some kind of quantifiable data but again two and a half years we've been in and out of school so we have to focus on something that's will be reliable and achievable for us as a district I understand there are there is learning loss and where I'm coming from is due to these two and a half years of pandemic hybrid remote we do acknowledge there is learning laws but can we put some like metrics and you said you can add them so by when I don't know we have to we have to look at that you're going to get a presentation in October as we talked about where they're going to go
043over the njsla data and then we have to make a decision on what a reasonable goal would be for 2023 for our 2023 scores but this is what is going to be um right now whatever you showed us as goals is finalized and that's what we will be evaluating all the administration and superintendents we cannot amend it no thank you yeah as I was listening to this I realized there's there's actually a confusion here about what what you're doing you have goals and then you have activities and you're going to come in and say yeah I did all these activities so I accomplished my goals but you don't have any measurement actually to tell me whether you've accomplished the goal all you've done is tell me you've done a bunch of things that you think
044do some good um your goal for example and number one is I'm going to approve School climate and then you had a bunch of activities I don't remember all of that SEL was something I don't know if those things do any good I hope they do but we don't know until you tell me what is your measurement of the school climate you're going to have to do some kind of survey and you're going to have to promise me as part of your goal as part of the metric for that goal that that climate number is going to be such and such okay it's up to you to figure out what activities you want to do but you can't claim you met the goal in anything just because you did a bunch of activities that you
045think are useful same thing on your goal for uh closing identified achievement gaps you're going to have to tell me what is the achievement Gap how big is it and then you're gonna have to tell me or I'd like to hear tell the board I don't actually care what you did to close it but I'm gonna have to hear something that says on this measure this Gap was reduced okay and then I can hold you accountable all right Dei I don't know what you're doing there you're having a bunch of meetings that's that can't be a goal just to have a meeting anybody can have a meeting and digital citizenship sounds great be kind whatever but I'm looking for metrics and specific accomplishments that achieve that show me you achieved your goal and the goal
046is not to just do a bunch of activities now we have this district and all districts are on the hook to meet federally mandated proficiency standards I think you know that of 80 percent proficient and advanced proficient in math and English language arts by 2030. last I looked which was in 2019 I don't think we've seen anything since then we were at 47 percent at GL in math TL used to be a Math and Science school now we have less than half according to that Federal standard measurement state standard that were proficient or Advanced proficient I want to see in your goals that you're going to show me how you're going to get to 80 proficient by 2030 because that's the federal standard and we were not going along at a very rapid rate we
047were improving at about one percent when the pandemic hit we're not going to make 80 percent at that rate so I want to see how you're going to achieve it and I want to see some intermediate goals I don't want to see something that says 2030 we're there I want to see something every year before then in other districts have held there a superintendent accountable with intermediate goals that's what I want to see thank you any other questions on the board I I had to um wanna you've touched a little bit earlier on on start strong which I think sort of rolls into gold too a little bit I feel like last year at this time start strong was felt very important because there was this perceived Gap and maybe there was and maybe there
048wasn't um any any thoughts as as gold 2 relates to start strong this year and either how equally important more important or less important the data from that will be as it relates to njsla last spring and all the other Lincoln I already Etc data that we have at our fingertips right so we'll need to see it I think there were a lot of districts that were raised in eyebrow when start strong was happening again the commissioner came out and said that yes this year the state will be requiring it and so we're looking to see that data now as our students are just taking it but we'll see uh what that growth might look like compared to last year the assessment for where students are at this point during the year okay the other
049question I have which I guess maybe roles to go for how much of of that goal relates to the consultative uh model at all is it unrelated it's completely unrelated it's our priest our preschool consultative model 6 through 12 our preschool Pre-K to five they're sticking with more traditional special ed programs I didn't know if one was sort of preparing for that model on the roll up to it but it is a more inclusive model right yes okay developmentally appropriate for preschool but you're speaking to microphone it's a it's developmentally appropriate for preschool but it's about inclusivity so it really is about having a more inclusive model in preschool as opposed to self-contained so how can we find ways for all students to be together and have experiences in in the general education setting thank
050you yeah thank you so as a follow-up to Tom's um request we we can meet right like for strategic strategic planning committee we haven't met it's September can we need to look and discuss if we can add intermediate goals to get to that federally mandated proficiency level how are we going to achieve so you're looking at flawed data because um and the high school the the whole process has changed our eighth graders take algebra one so they are not in the high school scores back in the day our students took algebra one in high school and they had a part of the scores so our students who are taking Algebra 1 in high school is a very minimal I and I know you you haven't been here long enough to know the number but it's
051a very minimal number of students so if you have 20 people taking the test and three don't pass it knocks your rate down and as opposed to 300 students taking the test and 10 not passing so it's flawed data but that's something I think if Mr Tequila wants to call a meeting I'm I did reach out and did not get a response from you online Dr Worley let's be honest here I also have a response to the curriculum committee meeting yes so let's be honest I have asked like seven times I have been told so and so is not available and not one meeting was set up until July when in summer and you knew I was out because I had sent an email for the negotiations committee that I'm not available on those dates
052so there is one email we're going off tasks yeah so all I'm saying is don't keep saying that one email that I didn't respond to I have asked you multiple times and I just emailed before this meeting if you guys met without me I would like to see the minutes so looks like we have not met so we have a committee we created with three of us on it Mr akula me and joy and we are these are the same concerns that I've had since April that we do not have any specific quantifiable metrics so can we meet to add them and can we amend this so that we can who won't amend the district goals no those are district goals no they're not board goals with specific metrics to how are you going to
053measure that you achieve these goals we have an action plan that we will be we sent it out already but we will send it out it doesn't have any metrics unfortunately so again they're District goals if you want board goals you as a board can come up with no I'm saying the district goals that we are going to use to evaluate the superintendent and then the assistant superintendent's performance in the action plan can we say you're going to measure this like I think I saw on the IEPs you're going to add something like a functional uh what are their functional strengths so I want to see how are you going to evaluate it how okay okay all right I got it so no answer we gotta look at it we have to give an opportunity
054to look at it no are we gonna say that we will meet at some day to amend yes I'm gonna say can I make a recommendation that we just pick a date right now and move forward I mean like let's just no but I'm getting this yes yeah I'm gonna let you two pick it because I'm traveling for the next two weeks so we got it okay but can we amend the district goals is I'll look at my calendar and get back to you Joy before we but all I'm saying is I'm hearing from Dr Worley we cannot amend this we cannot add anything into action plan is it set in stone or is it something that we can add some metrics and then we can come back to the board and say we've added
055these are the goals I'm not asking you to change the goals I'm asking you to add specific metrics on which we can hold you accountable to say hey you guys did yeah discuss it I'm not going to connect to adding metrics without the full good the full board discussion but yeah we can meet and we can talk about adding metrics then we bring it to the board so we can do it this year do what do adding specific metrics to lead as a committee and discuss it I'm not going to make any commitments to anything until we meet and discuss what metrics you want to add then we got to bring it to the board thank you In fairness the the the the district goals uh I mean I I just we went through this
056Mountainside recently that they're similar Arc of the Strategic goals strategic long-term plan goals uh five years same thing and they sort of ride on the rails here and the district goals run somewhat parallel I think we have one District goal that directly is you can directly attribute into the Strategic poll so obviously related but the the district rules obviously are short shorter terms and are for this year and I also I mean I don't know this for certain but you know from a uh and some of this I think is is more opinion there's nothing that says that the four goals in this case need to be quantitative goals we have the ability as a board if we're okay with it to have a qualitative as well so I you know I think what I'm
057seeing here is a mix of quantitative and qualitative including some data that it sounds like we're going to need come say start strong which we'll get I don't know November or something like that some of these have to be open-ended so it's got to be a yes that we have to add data into them because we don't have all the data I think yeah we don't we don't we don't we got the data after we'd already come up with the goals so we haven't we just in a home so you probably just got your data as parents right now [Music] email sent to the entire board with all the district goals it was um mid-august early early to mid-august like August 11th-ish and how many requests for changes have you received since then one okay
058thanks oh stop this is very strange and when I was working the management always set the goals and then I was supposed to list what I was going to do to achieve that but the management would tell me whether that was satisfactory or not so here we are we are the management in a sense we are her boss it seems like we should be setting some kind of board goals and then she should derive what her goals from that uh but now it seems that she's setting her own goals and her own measurements how can you fail I mean you can always succeed when you can set your own goals uh I'm not looking to have a failure but I want the board is responsible to the community we should be setting some sort of
059achievements here we want good achievement by our students can't we impose that but just so you know the Strategic plan was voted on and approved by the board so all these goals directly relate to the Strategic plan so it's not like I came out of something out of the thin air and made a goal out of it they're all from the Strategic plan that was voted on and approved okay until 2025. well when I got here uh which is not too long ago uh we voted on a piece of this tragedy and we voted on an amendment to it to add one little thing called Dei we were not allowed to change anything and the rest of it we never voted on the whole plan as this board has as far as I can tell
060has never voted on that whole strategic plan we voted on an amendment to it now you're telling me the Strategic plan is like locked in place you know for the next five years I mean it's like what are we doing here two more years right two more years two more years I thought I heard that we can the discussion would start in 2023. we'll start 2023 to get ready my understanding is if this board wants to change that strategic plan we could because the majority of the board right if this board by a majority vote wanted to change it we could I think that's accurate yes thank you for saying that okay any other questions all right anything else Dr Varley on your report okay uh uh committee and liaison reports anybody okay so um
061we have Town Council there was a meeting on August 16th September 6 and September 20th their next meeting will be on a Monday which is different they usually have theirs on a Tuesday it's on Monday October 3rd um the biggest things coming out of town Council are that the township applied for a matching Grant from Union County for tennis lights at Columbia Park they also approved our class III officers a Denman that we did for a new compensation rate um they applied for a Union County local Arts grant program I'm only bringing this up because we currently have GL Woodworking and art students project displayed at peppertown Park so I'm hoping that maybe this grant will help us do a few more restaurant month is currently this month on October 2nd from 12 to 2
062p.m they're having Hispanic heritage day along with the diversity council at pastria um I was just going to talk briefly about the curriculum meeting because Angela's not here we went over the state assessments that is being acquired by New Jersey to start strong um we stock we talked about this not just being um evaluations um with the standards but actually being done by the teachers on one-on-one as well as on the standards um we've talked about special education updates which is on the agenda for tonight I think Dr career is going to talk about more no so wait to your this is Liaisons and then um so that's a new multi-year program and that was a major collaboration um so I'm really excited about it and we were going to be hiring our new transition
063coordinator hopefully it gets it board approved tonight I know Angela is probably heartbroken that she's not here for this because I know how hard she worked for it and then we talked about our K-5 word study program is going to be the curriculum that we look at this year um so that's going to be we are spelling vocab and phonics so it's going to be the same thing that we did for math in K through 5 where we're already starting she's already getting her team together Mrs kopas and they're going to start evaluating new programs that are out there to decide if we keep the program we currently have or if we switch programs um so I'm really excited about that um we had a PTO admin meeting on September 7th it was mostly just
064talking about back to school activities they have that um PTO collaboration with the counseling department Choose Love not hate um on September 14th I went to the NJ SBA power of proactive approach getting her school board ready for 2023. um one of the things they were talking about is having high expectations for student achievement and how that needs to start with inclusion and I thought that was really poignant especially since we just added this to our strategic plan and that we are seeing it in our goals this year um because if each child has the sports they need they can succeed um and then we're getting ready um all I have for liaison reports for me I just the truth Community healing and inclusion will be meeting next week with some um to to do
065an update and figure out figure out activities for the coming years I just wanted to put a plug-in to thank the League of Women Voters for conducting uh but Buddha fed candidates debate um I think it was amazing it was at the Town Hall and uh I actually want to thank Marlene syncaglia who's present here for going out of her way to schedule it and have that done thank you all right uh Julie I was looking through my notes from last September's meeting which was on the 23rd and we were talking about the water remediation and Cleanup in Mountain Park after a tropical storm Ida struck September 1st and 2nd so dovetailing into that to date we still have not awarded the Mountain Park drainage Capital project we advertise the bid three times twice we've
066received no bids and the third bid we received one bid which was far in excess of the budget for the scope of work we do have a bid we have gone out for bid again a fourth time and it was advertised in yesterday's papers the bid opening will take place on Wednesday October 12th at 11 A.M and we certainly hope to have a successful low bidder to award the product to on October 20th fingers crossed Transportation so now the first two weeks of school are behind us and students and drivers are beginning to settle into their new Transportation routes we did lose one bus driver the first week of school and the transportation supervisor as well as one of our custodians have been driving in order to keep our Roots going we are actively seeking
067to hire at least one new bus driver full-time and potentially part-time drivers as well and always use substitutes um if you're only if you have a CDL and you're out there and you only want to work an hour or two a day please contact my office or Kelly Sheehan also the job there are job postings on our website for bus drivers and as Dr barley mentioned we do have a sidebar on tonight's agenda that I hope will get get approved um I was asked to report out on legal bills would you like me to do that now okay so uh for the 2021-2022 school year the unaudited expenditures expenditures on all legal services was 156 795 dollars and forty cents the breakdown of that amount is a hundred and seventeen thousand one thirty nine and
06860 cents to Cleary giacobi twenty five thousand eight hundred and forty six dollars and eighty cents to porzio Bromberg one thousand two hundred eighty seven dollars to scurrency hollenback and twelve thousand five hundred twenty two dollars to Chaudhary law for the current school year 2022 2023 the expenditures from July 1st through let's say August bills list uh is thirty thousand nine hundred and fourteen dollars and sixteen cents the breakdown of that number is twenty six thousand four hundred seventy eight dollars and sixteen cents to clear a giacobi uh two thousand dollars to call Cohen lifland for a settlement that was on one of the recent agendas it's one thousand seven hundred and sixteen dollars to shoudry law and 720 reimbursement to uh a board member for uh legal fees expended I also wanted to talk
069about donations um so in addition to the uh Woodrow Woodruff uh the Woodruff PTO donation that I mentioned earlier during uh correspondence we had a 600 donation from the Kimberly Ann Wilson Foundation for the Four elementary schools to hold a presentation called the kind Minds we had a generous donation of four thousand dollars from Mrs Pamela Stanley to be used for stem or steam programs at the Four elementary schools to be divided evenly and we had a donation from Berkeley Heights Rec Department of nineteen hundred dollars to go toward the Friday and Saturday night lights events thank you any questions any questions for the business administrator okay so I was just wondering about the legal bills do we have like an approximate idea of like what it was you know two years ago I don't
070have that yeah I don't have it right now I can certainly get it that would be great yes absolutely just for comparison sure no problem yeah that'll be in the ordered it yep it would and would we be getting the legal bills update on every board meeting going forward or is it just a one-time I would defer to if you want to do it every other month every two months whatever you decide Mr President like if you are voting on it every board meeting whenever the board meets we vote on all bills including legal bills so can we give an update is that of Interest I mean I just wanted to track every month yes yes okay we'll do that what what I would like to suggest here is that we get not just to
071break down by firm I'm more interested in um how we're spending the money and I'd like to have like different categories like special ed might be a category I'm not sure we can break it down I'm not gonna yeah of course we can no but can we spend money on it can't be reasonably done not to go back either I mean we'd have to advise them no I'm just start building that's going different um you just basically we used to do this on a regional board because the expenses got so high we wanted to track how are we spending the money here so we had special ed was a category and I especially would like it broken down as to if a case can be settled so some cases can be settled that's up to
072us we should have an idea of how much we're spending as as you know are we going to keep fighting this are we just going to keep or can we settle it that's all just kind of a monthly report on categories [Music] regarding the settlement of cases you would discuss in executive session every time you meet if there's ongoing litigation or could right right because I think it's a good practice to know what are the what are the uh residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only uh the board would be quiet um the board requests that individuals State their names in the town of residence or School of attendance for the record the specific action items item or items they are commenting on and ask that
073all remarks be directed to the board president or designee not to the individual members or staff the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters or discouraged and cannot be responded by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the law of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibilities nor will it be liable for comments made by members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident that matters should be referred to the responsible building principle superintendent of schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond items during the public forum all public comments will be concerted
074please note that if any members of the public become disrupted or the meaning the board president May terminate the participants participant statement continued disruption may result removal from the meeting or German or the meeting each speaker's statement will be limited to three minutes in duration members of the public wish to address the board for agenda items only this is agenda only Marlene syncaglia Berkeley Heights program chair for the League of Women Voters of Berkeley Heights New Providence and Summit I'm here to tell you that there is no need to revise policy 7510 however you as a board need to make it very clear to the administration that candidates forms as have been held for decades are permissible activities and are welcomed here in Berkeley Heights having previously received approval to hold candidates forms from the
075high school assistant principal all of a sudden on August 24th I received an email that stated that the League's request to hold the form was in violation of this policy 7510 because it was quote partisan political activity unquote and that the approval was rescinded subsequently I was informed that the superintendent made this decision on the advice of the board attorney a partisan political activity would be either the Republicans Or democrats requesting to hold a fundraiser event at the GL cafeteria to benefit their local candidates the League of Women Voters for over 100 years and continuing today as a nonpartisan organization the board is by Statute non-partisan and candidates forms are nonpartisan since all candidates are invited on September 14th I received another I've received an email from board president Mike tequila he said he stated
076that the attorney was now saying that the Board of Ed elections since they were moved to November are partisan School Board elections in November first occurred in 2012 10 years ago and there have been numerous forums at GL since then including the 2012 the 2018 election for mayor and Council in which the current board president was a participant furthermore if you look at the ballot for November you will see that the school board candidates are listed at the bottom of the ballot not in the columns designated for political parties proof again Board of Education non-partisan I would hope that these that you the board members see that the attorney's two different interpretations are flawed there is nothing partisan about the Forum and policy 75 Taz currently written says that and no revision is necessary and
077I would suggest that you really read through that whole 75-10 policy because it's very very specific in closing the mission of the board is to the missionary of the league is to empower voters by educating them to the about the candidates and the issues that are important to them and what better place than a school which is a community facility to host this type of thank you foreign good evening Natasha Jolly 60 Orion wrote so um I'd like just to Echo what was just said because in my notes I said you know it seems really silly to revise a policy to state that the league Women Voters is a nonpartisan organization that was known beforehand so there was no need to put that into the policy um on the agenda again I would just say
078again lots of policy updates 100 pages of attachments I would like to understand why is if there's any roadblock to releasing that more than 48 hours prior to the meeting um with respect to the specific item on the agenda there was a 7 500 engagement cost I'm just wondering why it's so much higher than the engagement the speaking engagement by Chris Singleton 7 500 for a speaking engagement and how that fits into the overall Dei plan um there's a lot of confusion about um some of the administrative positions um that were listed um so I'd understand um so what was the rationale behind the additional Administration sorry Samantha Oates and what was the rationale behind the additional Administrative Assistant um and I apologize for mispronouncing the name but youthika Diva or Deva um and there
079is a distinction obviously between appointment and employment so I'd like to under what that distinction is and uh line items that these are hitting again against in the budget um and then the last item you know I just to make comment regarding Mrs Stanley's donation it is beyond generous and um you know very generous but however as a Boe member um you know the money specifically targeted for certain programs which might be you know valid programs however a you know is as a as a Boe member is there any concern for any sort of you know appearance you know maybe I I don't even know it just didn't sit with me because the nation could have been done given to the school and school specifically decide how to better use the money it could have
080been done through the Berkeley Heights Education Foundation and not so Public public Boe meeting so again that's just my opinion it's um and I think that is it thank you thank you so let me just take those in different order um do you want to comment on the donation yeah sure I'm happy to speak about lederic um this professional development session is part of our action plan to support our Dei SEL and special education goals it's part of our strategic plan in all sort of District goals which is which you heard tonight uh Mrs Gardner and I saw Mr horn speak at the njcie summer inclusion leadership conference njcie stands for the New Jersey Coalition for inclusive education and we were extremely impressed by him and really thought that he would be a spectacular kickoff
081to our professional development day on February 17th so he please so as I said it's Mrs Gardner and I saw him speak we thought he was spectacular we were really hopeful that we could be bring him in for our February PD day and if the board approves it this evening we will be able to follow through on that thank you Dr Paul you want to take the policy and the administrative positions um which policy we're talking about uh how come so many policy updates oh so we um for the past 10 years pre-made past 10 years pre-made the board and the superintendent did not update policy so we're very far behind we're also going through New Jersey Cusack which is our monitoring system they're coming in in January and the board will fail the Cusack
082monitoring if they do not have these policies up to date so that is the reasoning behind having a ton of policies we've been having policies probably since September of last year we've been we've had to revamp every single policy so um that is the reasoning behind that and as far as the administrative assistance position I'm sure most people are aware we had a death in the business office and while we can't replace her as a person she was a gorgeous Soul we do have to replace the position so that is on the agenda Linda cantrowitz from my office retired effective August 30 first so there's an appointment of youthaca Deva from the guidance counselor the secretary being moved over as the administrative assistant in for Dr Greer and Ms kopas and then there is another
083assistant from William Fitzpatrick who resigned and he she he is being replaced in the business office so there are no new positions these are all budgeted positions that need to be filled okay and then with regard to Ms Stanley's donation I'm a look to legal counsel on oh [Music] I reached out to school boards um to see the propriety of such a donation and they had no concerns about it whatsoever and they said it is anyone can make a donation including a board member and I know that Mrs Stanley uh wanted to split it up equally and um we did discuss she discussed with Dr Riley and I how it would best be used and we reached out to the schools to see how they wanted to use it and this was an equitable Equitable
084way for elementary to utilize the funds so it wasn't dictated in any way yes I did give the principals I send the principals an email they I asked them what they wanted the money spent on they all came back steam stem so it was appropriated and welcomed by our school principals okay thank you any other questions on the agenda items only Mike could I just remind um the with the policies right so these are first reads so even if we approve the first read we can still hear from the public for a whole another month until our next meeting I think right we've said this before but I just want to reiterate that so I know it's hard we even had some policies change at the very last minute for this meeting so I know
085it's hard sometimes to if we approved the Moa do we have to approve the full contract or it's just how just as a um um we approved Jacoby will have to once you approve the Moa Mr Joey Kobe will make the changes in the contract but do we have to vote on the contract or go once once oh that's that's it we just sign it I don't believe you need to vote on the contract again but it does need to be finalized and then signed by both parties okay so I have some comments and I send them to Dr Worley and you might this afternoon on the minutes uh can you hear me uh Julie or no yeah so all I'm saying is on the exact session minutes um that we have on for up
086today which is for September and the special meeting as well as the August 11th there's a lot of detail and I really appreciate it I'm all for transparency and I love the amount of detail that's in there but um as you recall I voted no on the previous exec session minutes that we voted on for the July August 11 July meeting and the May 25th meeting so I would really request that if we are going to start putting the detail in exact session minutes I don't think we captured the minutes accurately for the previous exec session minutes so we might want to amend them if we are going to start documenting discussions lend themselves to more detail in others um so naturally some discussions will have more detail than others I do not intend to
087amend the executive session manager welcome to a vote no one knows I feel that some of the minutes and it has been noted before like the Financial finance and Facilities committee meeting minutes that were released or some of them that we are voting on today have way too much detail which is completely um you know different from what we have seen we used to get like maybe a page of exact session minutes now we have got a lot of detail which I really appreciate but who makes that who has the discretion that we are not going to on some exact session minutes we're just gonna write inaccurate minutes because that wasn't how the meeting was conducted and I'm raising a concern and I feel they're inaccurate you vote no it's my discretion how much notes
088I take on a particular meeting no I'm asking for them to be amended and I said no that I'm not going to amend them I feel that they accurately reflect what took place it's not a Verbatim transcript so the current meetings for August and September special meetings have mentions of verbatim but then the one from July and may where I have spoken answered and isn't it this getting into Personnel no well it's the maintenance don't have to be reasonably comprehensive and there's a they don't necessarily have to be approved to be minutes of a meeting that's it's a it's an extra process that's taken in the board approving them so as the business administrator said the board members are free to vote up or down but there's no detailed law that requires how comprehensive except
089to state that they should be reasonably comprehensive and that's a very broad a broad standard so I have a basic questions can we allow um the attorney to speak as a parliamentarian in our board meeting because I think you he only answers when you ask him to answer right I wanted to give him his opinion so yes okay so you so he's allowed to participate in a discussion and answer questions yes what I'm saying no other difference in any other board when they have an attorney present to help keep us in check yeah but I think the attorney should only respond when we ask him a specific question my concern here is we are changing practice in how we document minutes we have put in a lot of detail for September and August minutes there
090is no detail and it's not accurately reflecting what we voted on at the past board meeting and I gave those three points to Dr wardley and you and I would really appreciate if you take them into consideration and amend the minutes thank you any other comments the minutes were 100 accurate and they will vary based on discussion that makes sense because our last meeting there was an incredible amount of discussion it will be more detailed it would seem if there's more discussion there are a hundred percent accurate Robert with all due respect I spoke at that exact session minutes there's mention of other board members there's nothing mentioning my name and what happened so maybe in your opinion they were accurate I have re I have documented what happened and have written it to Dr
091Worley and I will ask her and my to take a call they were not 100 accurate thank you okay enough thank you I do want I'm sorry to jump in this argument but there is um I know we're having a lot of audio and video problems at home we are working on it from our end but I do apologize for the people at home okay all right um roll call Mrs akiri um yes on regular minutes which is a and C no and request I'm ending on B and D thank you Mr chanchuli yes sure Dr Forger uh yes to all Mr Hyman yes Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young uh abstain from Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mr jaquilla yes um Administration uh resolutions a through K are for all board members and resolution
092L is for Berkeley Heights only can I have a motion to move said resolutions so moved discussion yeah I'd like to talk about this Quorum policy 163 foreign policy says that more than a quorum is needed to invoke the doctrine of necessity so and it cites in the policy the New Jersey school ethics commission resolution on invoking the doctrine to necessity June 26 2018. um so I consulted that resolution I actually have a copy with me if anybody would like one and it says only a quorum it only says a you only need a quorum of conflicted members to invoke the doctrine of necessity in other it's not saying you need more than a core but says you need a quorum to invoke the doctrine so since our Quorum is five according to the SEC
093resolution from 2018 we would need five conflicted members not six uh so the proposed policy within itself is inconsistent with the SEC resolution which it cites now I also consulted SEC advisory opinion a19-17 so that's from 2017. and it states the same thing you just need a quorum to be conflicted before you can invoke the doctrine so um I think before we adopt this policy as written we should know from our attorney if he agrees with the SEC advisory opinion and the SEC resolution of 2018. or if we don't want to consult him which I don't know why but we could just amend it to change the language to say you only need a quorum of conflicted members now so that's 163 should we talk about that first and then I'll take an and then
094I have another policy I want to talk about [Music] no we had a policy committee meeting recently I don't recall this level of detail being brought up and discussed so I'm not prepared to okay you know discuss this at the board for the first time this is for the policy committee this should have been brought up uh can I can we go back to committee yeah I'd love to have it go back to committee that's fine okay that's great let's schedule something is there a motion on that no just okay well hold on hold on what's what's your other okay so now on 20 uh 75 10 I'm not happy with this policy uh not only because of what's been added here uh but I studied it and I actually don't care for it I've
095studied other ones I think we can do a lot better um so I'd also like to have that one go back to the policy committee and we can talk about them that's all I have to say about the policies okay any other comments on policies so on zero one six three I did go look at um School ethics commissions advisory opinion and I believe that I agree with Robert suggestions and Tom that it should go back to the policy committee and I'll send them my comments um on 7510 um I have written to both Dr wardley and you I felt that the policy as these was very clear and as one of the citizens and Marlene said we used to have meetings here and League of Women Voters is a non-partisan entity board effect candidates
096are non-partisan we do not go on column a b or c so I don't see the need why where the need arose to suddenly request for legal opinion and I don't see the need to revise this so so let me ask this so we shouldn't when we're having a recommendation from our legal counsel to make it very clear to eliminate any potential we should ignore it that's your statement I feel the policy was crystal clear and I don't see where the need arose as I said to even approach legal counsel because GL has held other events so we and you participated in one of the last debates and Dr Worley was the superintendent back then so last time we had a debate was 2018. 2019 was not held okay and I'm just going to make
097this clear because I'm trying I was trying to do the right thing but I guess I just get blamed for everything so what else is new here um the power no decision was made it came to me I didn't agree with it I spoke to legal counsel I asked them why because I said the same thing I participated in debates in this building in the same form he gave the explanation which I did provide to the league of women vote and he said let's make it simple and just clearly state that that we allow public forums here on with candidates he said very simple we'll keep it clear that way we eliminate any issues going forward simple done fix I don't understand why I am getting dragged through the mud trying to help out to
098make sure we can have every debate here going forward I don't appreciate it you know I've done a lot for this town and I'm just getting dragged through the mud and it's getting tiring I'm trying to help out I'm trying to do that to make sure we did not have any issues going forward because I want the forums here I want it at the high school and that's why I did it to make sure we can have it with no issues I don't appreciate this thank you and as I said we we can agree to disagree I feel that the policy as is doesn't need to be amended thank you fine yes Robert two things the first thing I I did want to reinforce what the superintendent said uh in terms of um the timeline
099of things but I did want to add one more thing with the timeline being we've been slow on policies for the last decade or so but more specifically I've been pushing or had been pushing for a policy committee since 2017. the board that uh preceded me had no policy committee so we had a lot of catching up to do finally we got it thanks in large part to Dr Varley joining me in the Quest for finally having a policy committee like we should have after all policy is one of the core responsibilities of a school board and for a school board not to have a policy committee I I think is an issue we got our policy committee through pushing and pushing less than one year ago less than one year ago okay so let's
100put some context into 2012 when the elections were switched we've got to really look at this holistically and I don't think that everyone really has the other thing in terms of the need for clarity I'd be hard-pressed to think of any circumstance where a policy or anything else should not be clarified that is striking anybody who would say we don't want clarification I would I would question their uh motivation fine isn't so what's going to happen with yeah 7510 is it going back to the committee or not I'm going to make two motions right now hold on let me let me do this six three Quorum back to committee uh is there a motion to accept to vote to bring it back to committee is there a second second any discussion no yes I agree
101with it going back to the committee so and I just for me it made me I'm wrong Robert you can tell me but for me this is first read so even if the policy committee wanted to look at this we wouldn't necessarily have to take it off the vote today if you would have to go back to First yeah right if we decided to change it but we could vote on it tonight look at it and if we decided not to change it I wouldn't vote to approve it if there's a reasonable understanding or possibility that it would be going back I didn't go back to First reading yeah you'll lose them okay you'll lose a month then yeah okay uh vote Mrs akiri yes Mr chanchuli yes Dr forger yes Mr Hyman yes Mrs
102Stanley no Mrs Young yeah Mr Tequila yes motion passes all right then there's another motion to move p7510 policy use of school facilities back to committee is there anyone to make that motion yeah I'll move 75-10 goes back to policy correct second I'm second by Robert Robert thank you uh discussion roll call please Mrs akiri yes Mr chair yes Dr forger yes Mr Hyman no Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Young yes Mr Tequila I will be abstaining motion passes any other discussion on Administration [Music] yes I think shirts in the right yes Administration D item three let me know if this is for the attorney or not but the item is ratification of the memorandum of agreement with Berkeley Heights Education Association I reviewed that for the first time this afternoon it's all of two pages
103I but I'm not sure I had seen it or it had been uh sent before that are we able to ask any questions about it yeah you really wouldn't want to go into any details that might Prejudice the uh negotiations that have yet to be ratified by the board vote so I mean if there was a sensitive conversation that you wanted to have or a question that you wanted to engage in it should take place an executive session okay um let me ask put on the second reading of the policies yet right yeah okay now I have a question in regards to Second reading on zero one four nine which is retiring uh board members have we revised it from the last um board meeting no right okay because it says revise next to it
104so I thought it was revised again now the other question is we are abolishing C District policies which says board member compensation and expenses may I understand the rationale behind why we are abolishing this it's in another policy six one four seven they Incorporated it into two policies so they're they're abolishing um that one compensation oh it's becoming part of that yes becoming a part of another policy six four seven one right six four six I may have mixing everything I think it's a six four seven one six four seven yes um School District travel it's in that policy okay may I just suggest Dr warley that if if it is going forward if you're abolishing something and it's it's already covered in another policy can we just put that in here that way you
105know it's clear thank you just a minute wait a minute you said six four seven one yep School District travel uh okay I thought we were largely getting rid of six four seven one and moving all that into the regulation is that right isn't that right I I can't tell you off the top of my head okay that anywhere but it's that's pretty exciting so um and then I'm excited for G our sideboard agreement with our transportation department um I know Julie and Mrs Sheehan and uh Dr Varley have been working really hard with the Union that the transportation Personnel are with to try to find something to uh encourage our bus drivers and tell them that we do appreciate all the hard work they're doing um okay I had looked up ladendra corn um
106if you just Googled this guy he's pretty awesome when it comes to special education um commitment and just saying they need to be included they need to be seen they need to be um a part of every day so I I was just blown away by him so I had looked him up he's great you should look him up and then Dr Farley I just wanted to know if you could tell us about teacher in charge number L like what is that and what does it mean for us so I will I'll tell you when I first arrived here if a principal was out for the day just use like Miss Nardi decided you know had a doctor's appointment because she's human and she does there was no one to administrate the buildings so if
107there was an emergency there was no one there to handle it so we started we it's something I'd done in a previous District having a teacher in charge and it's a teacher with a certificate um an administrative certificate they are trained in the processes and procedures for emergency situations and so if Miss Nardi has a doctor's appointment there's someone there who's in charge for the day it is a volunteer position and on their end they get supervisory administrative experience to enhance their resume I have a question on K so this electric home speaks I did look him up and Mrs kopez is he only talking to the teachers across the district or is he also interacting with students it's a professional development day so students are off that day it's a profession so it's the
108entire District the teachers all the staff and all of the administrators yes okay and who else did we like so when we make a decision like this who else did you evaluate Mrs Gardner and I oh no no I'm saying who else could you have asked to come and like do you look at other Alternatives or you say oh absolutely well we don't always bring in outside speakers we're asking in this case because it's part of our strategic plan and part of our district goals and we have certain activities that we want to do in order to support our staff in the implementation of the work that we're doing so this is part of our professional development plan but we don't always bring in outside speakers okay thank you did you say by the way
109sorry we did we saw him speak yes he was spoke um Mrs Garner and I were at the summer Leadership Conference and he spoke there and that's when we both learned about him and we're very impressed and then the more we read and learned about him he has a he has a book out um which again really ties into the work that we're doing as far as inclusion we're essentially paying it sounds like a day rate in that case he'll be there for that full PD day versus like a species technically he's supposed to be the keynote but then he stays on and talks to the teachers talks so he's giving the keynote which is the first hour but we have the professional development day so he will support us throughout the day effects and
1107 500 isn't really bad at a bad price I mean I know it's crazy to us but they charge a lot of money to come in yeah any more comments before we close comments um okay so um please read the into the record at tonight's board meeting Thursday September 22nd so 2022 since I will not be present this is from Angela Penna that I am in support of resolutions d and g under Administration and would be voting yes in support of these resolutions if I were in attendance item D is ratify the memorandum of agreement with Berkeley Heights Education Association she is in support of the superintendent's recommendation to approve the Moa with the Berkeley Heights Education Association she was very happy that we were able to conclude the negotiations very quickly and start the
111school year with a contract in place this shows our teachers that we appreciate and support them supporting this MOA is also a step in the right direction to show them that we are committed to working together so I'm in support of this item G approved sidebar agreement I am supported this in support of the superintendent's recommendation to approve the sidebar agreement that will provide our district bus drivers with a three dollar per hour increase to their salary and a starting salary of twenty dollars per hour so the new bus drivers we need to show our commitment and support to each bus driver during these challenging times we cannot afford to lose any drivers and this increase will not only help attract additional qualified drivers but show our drivers how much they are appreciated so I
112am in support of this and this is Angela penna's statement okay before we go to vote do we have to reintroduce it since we modified um sure as amended then so do we have to re reapprove it or just well I I technically I'm not sure what the if you can do it so Administration yeah so once again just to uh keep it clean can I have a motion to uh approve resolution a through k for by all blood management as amended by the two votes on the removal of the two policies so moved a second second right uh roll call Julie please Mrs zakiri yes to all Mr Chan truly yes sir Dr forger thank you yes to all Dr forger a motion to approve resolutions a through J by all board members and
113resolution k for Berkeley Heights only so move and do I have a second I'm sorry second second Pam uh discussion like on D is it Stapleton or Singleton I thought it was Singleton like the baseball player there is a Stapleton I think sings country music I don't know I think we need to I think people keep saying it I think it's Singleton can we do it yeah Stapleton probably costs more than Singleton Singleton seems like a good deal okay thank you Mr Hyman any other questions or comments um on if this is an out of District placement yes actually it's no it's coming into the district isn't it yeah Flex school I have no it's going no that's a private non-public school right okay well yes it is out of District placement but we're responsible
114for them right correct okay I've corresponded with you on this I have a lot of reservations about using a a school that's not approved but I think I understand what's going on so I'm going to vote Yes but I maybe it could be a yes with some reluctance okay and I hope that well whatever you can do to fix it and on Jay I don't think I received any guides so that's actually Dr career is going to talk about that what Dr Greer I'm turning it over to Dr Greer great thank you very much so I'd like to uh share some more information Mrs Stanley thank you for presenting during the liaison report uh the minutes from the curriculum meeting uh I'd like to share the Dilemma that the district was faced with when we
115were notified on the 17th of August that Union County vocational technical schools was no longer going to be able to have three placements for our special ed students and their special education culinary program so the solution for this was to create our own curricula and that's what you see on the agenda tonight they are two courses uh the team collaborated Michelle Gardner Kevin Mora with the Educators as well to create these documents uh for two courses they are both semester long one is culinary experience and the other is baking experience culinary experience provides students with the ability to build a solid working foundation of the culinary arts working in a professional kitchen while gaining industry experience and developing their own portfolio a really nice piece of this is that students will work towards Safe Serve
116food handler certification so really understanding different pieces within the the kitchen as well the course reinforces kitchen math recipe reading and conversions and measuring the baking experience students are provided an introduction to the baking trade stressing sanitary procedures safe use of equipment personal and student safety salesmanship merchandising and Entrepreneurship are all an important part of this program uh the program has a morning component in which the students will have their experiences in culinary and baking the afternoon component is an individualized based it's individualized based on the students program and may include work based learning experiences in the community so that's why these two pieces are on the agenda for a vote this evening and with the culinary you said they get the Safe Serve they're actually going to take the test and get the certificate
117that's what they will work towards yes that's correct as part of the program and under the baking experience does that have a requirement to bring samples every board meeting so I will caution everyone please don't read these if you are hungry I made that mistake they are wonderful courses with with great things that our students are working on but I'm hoping we can get samples at every meeting this is to qualify them for that show where they have baking contests right like the Great British Bake Off or one of those my wife watches watches it all the time so I see that sometimes but seriously uh are we so we're going to re eventually receive as a document what you just read to us once wrapping to the state standards they are mapping to the
118state standards absolutely the 2020 New Jersey student learning standards across uh the board minutes the meeting minutes were shared with the board so that you can see what was discussed with each of these pieces should the board decide to vote for this then the documents become public and they will be posted on our website oh so you already have a document there are the documents that we have that we're working for all of that's yeah we're mentioned in a minute the curriculum meeting minutes so you have to document no so I don't have the document but we we talked about it incredulillah does the board get to see this document once they're voted on to become public then just like our other curricula in the past that's when they will become no no we always
119receive the curriculum before it's uh voted on how can we how can I approve a curriculum I haven't even seen you have a curriculum committee who takes a look at the curriculum and they they were presented by Miss Miss Gardner I can't remember what week it was but you trust your curriculum 2017 September 7th they sent out the minutes I know Dr Greer sent out the minute so you trust your curriculum committee to have done their due diligence to and then you have to trust your Administration that we have aligned it to the New Jersey student learning standards it wouldn't go to the board first it's never been our practice to go to the board first it goes to the curriculum committee who are your fellow board members they are not authorized to approve anything
120right that's why it's on the vote here right so but so let me ask a simple question the curriculum committee has seen this document and they're recommending it be approved by the board is that true they have seen a presentation on the document and they they are recommending it to be approved I can from we had a presentation we didn't see the actual guide so can I just we're doing this out of a necessity it's not a matter of if we were going through a normal curriculum change we would have had a lot more discussion Public Presentation questions on we don't have this one I don't have a program for thou children then correct so this is a little bit out of the norm that's what I'm hearing no all I'm asking is we could
121have got it in the attachments the board could have got the curriculum guides so nobody saw it like we saw a presentation at the curriculum committee and I agree I love the programs the presentation that they Mr Gray gave us no but all I'm saying is we as a board cannot vote on something without reviewing the actual guide so I understand not putting it on the district website without the board approval but we could have at least got it as a Google Document to review prior to the board meeting that has never been our process we've never given the curriculum guides out before the we've done a presentation something huge like a PE and health standards we did a presentation on that and I mean we saw the Dr Worley correct me if I'm wrong
122for the PE and health we we saw the guides right Mrs kopez the curriculum committee was able to see the guides I think the normal practice is that I mean think about the amount of curricular documents that you approve just a few months ago you were not given every single curricular document I think we sent out the Comprehensive Health and PE ahead of time yeah we saw the guide yeah that one for sure because I think there was such concern over it that we wanted to make sure that all the board members were able to view it with plenty of time ahead of time so that they could see it before it was voted on and approved but from what I know and again I'm only here two years the practice has not been that
123you've been given every single curriculum document ahead of time before you voted on it you've been given lists of curricular documents that have been written or revised and obviously if there was one that you would want to see you could ask for that but as far as I know you have not been given all of those curricular documents ahead of time so all I'm saying is if you wanted to provide any feedback or review the guides we are just going basing off of a presentation at this moment I think that's been the practice if I'm not mistaken and again I'm only here two years but for August we receive I'm looking at our August attachments we received a presentation of what of what was presented that night for comprehensive uh health and P but I
124don't see the full curriculum or the like the links to materials team can I just can I just can I just please interrupt everybody we're talking about a special need program that we needed to do in a very short period of time I would not this is not our normal how we're doing curriculum it's a it's a special need program why it's this is something just to get for the kids program was canceled so we're moving on I hear what everyone's saying but we're talking about two programs special programs we want to get approved these kids can have a program do we really need to have a debate on on this one specific here now that's all I'm asking any other questions good point good point any other questions on yes education on field trips
125I only see GL and the ABA trips so we are not planning for we're out of the pandemic and I was hoping to see some field trips for the elementary schools so when will they come there's nothing in the attachments for that they come as they put them in they we have a specific system that the principals or the teachers add into they haven't hit the system yet so once they hit the system they will start being put through the agendas so hopefully we'll have that Turtle Back Zoo trip probably by yep probably October you should start to see more and more field trips happening for our elementary schools thank you uh roll call Julie please education a through K did we have a I said you need me to I didn't have another motion
126we didn't do a motion with d revised to be uh Singleton to it does that matter all right but I don't think we had I don't have a motion or a second initially yes we did you did yeah we had joy and Pam no yes baby maybe my pages are not do you you want me to read we want to reintroduce it let's just re-introduce it so we know can I have a motion for educations items a through J for all board members and K only for Berkeley Heights so moved so move by Joy second second by Pam she got it in first roll call please yes Mr chanchuli yes Dr Forger I'm going to vote Yes on a through K but on J I'm going to abstain since I did not receive the guides
127Mr Hyman all right yes on items a through J um Mrs Young yep Mr Tequila yes thank you Personnel uh can I have a motion to move resolutions a through W by all board members and then resolution X through HH for Berkeley Heights only so moved so move by me Pamela sorry I have a second second by Jordan uh discussion I just wanted to say how excited I am about this transition coordinator and especially we needed it so much this year so we are I'm just so glad that we were able to get it and not only were we able to get it on the budget and approved but then we actually found someone who was willing to do it that's bigger so it's we're very excited about that um and then I just wanted
128to say that we're sorry to see um Tara aloe vera um leaving us I know I wish her the best um there are tons of extracurricular activities and I just want to thank our staff for you know volunteering essentially to do all of these things for our students and then um yeah I think that was it and then of course um we're always looking for a paraprofessionals and substitutes and lunch AIDS and um I know I'm just gonna bring it up but we're gonna have to bring back our nepotism policy because it's what's best for the students we have admins who have children that are substitute age right we have principals who have children in substitute age and we need them especially when it comes to the holiday so you can expect it to probably
129be on the next agenda um and we also found out that some people at the rescue squad might have um it's on the Personnel we're approving bus drivers and paraprofessionals and lunch AIDS and so we need the nepotism policy in order to do this in the future um so bus drivers the rescue squad you are halfway there so now I know this I'm going to come hunt you down you could help us out with our Sports busing you're halfway there with your licensing so please help us out and drive some of our kids to their sporting events thanks yeah I do have the CDL but I have to look into those certifications Pamela so I would be willing to do it but I don't know if how the certifications fly and I don't know if
130a board member can apply for a part-time job I'm reaching out to school boards tomorrow I don't want to do that I actually I actually was going to say something along the same lines I actually want to just couch it maybe as congratulations Tara we'll miss you but I am so happy for you I feel terrific that's the assistant principal or vice principal of GL um I saw her recently at um wasn't back to school now it was parent orientation for GL parents because my daughter just started ninth grade here and it was just great she was beaming um also Mr Hadley um Finley thank you I know it Jim Hadley Jim James Finley will be moving into terrorist position and he's outstanding and I can't say enough nice things about both of them and
131I'm sorry to see Tara go but but it's a great thing for her and that's all I'm thinking of and welcome Mr Finley to GL yeah I see one item on the Personnel where it's pending certification so how many months do they get to get the certification Dr Worley um I don't know Sarah my assistant wouldn't know that information but I know she's on top of it so um I can send you that I can have her send me that information tomorrow I can forward that to you thank you and on nepotism I I think that we should as my opinions that's actually not on the agenda no but you just I specifically was talking about something that I was giving people a heads up about this but it was a half thing to do
132with substitutes and we are approving substitutes tonight yeah and I'm just saying that if you can put in a plug that we won this policy I am saying in my opinion we should not be voting on our nepotism policy is good as it is and I think it should be more firmed up like Summit policy and that's my opinion thank you okay uh this is sorry with with uh James's James Finley's appointment does that allow us to let Tara like release her early or I think tomorrow is her last day okay would you just clarify for me which under Personnel I have it goes from a to GG is that what we're voting on oh a through HH that's the revised you have the blue one uh Personnel right on our last item on the
133blue is GG what I have a to g g on the blue the blue one I'm just reading what's on the paper oh gee okay so the boat is the boat is on a to GG correct all right yeah okay sorry foreign so just to keep it clear and clean um I'm going to reintroduce the resolution so for personnel resolutions uh can I have a motion to approve resolution a through W all board members and resolution X through GG for Berkeley Heights only and I have a motion to improve so moved have a second second roll call please this is akiri um I'll it's a yes to all abstain from C Mr Chan truly yes to all Dr forger yes to all Mr Hyman yes on items a through w ow Mrs Stanley yes Mrs
134Young yes Mr dukulo yes um business can I have a motion to approve resolution a through L all board members and resolution M through P Berkeley Heights only and I did double check that's correct to have a motion to approve as just first by drawing do I have a second second second any uh any discussion one quick question uh Mike on on item uh d uh just curious are our uh official fees do we know if they're changed year over year are we is is that up like the rest of the world or um yeah those are recommended by whatever Association forgive me I'm not into Athletics whatever Association recommends those things um I don't know if they have changed from last year okay yeah I couldn't find a year over here I'm gonna assume
135but I don't know that they were um being approved in the past formerly by the board but um my prior auditor recommended that we always do this so I want to make sure they got on there for this year okay I also wanted I know it's sort of tangential to f um obviously thank you for for that donation but uh I think needs to be said that I think Ann Clifton did an amazing job uh in running Friday night Saturday night like Night Lights it's it's uh I saw her out there today does soccer but she's she's always out there but I think for that event I mean it's so early in the year and I think coupled with the fact that the the New Providence game has moved up from end of the year
136so she had that sort of everything started earlier than ever um I think we we don't give her enough credit for the amount of work that goes into that mega event so early in the school year so um just wanted to say that and this year I think it took multiple administrators because even Mr Nixon had all his pep rally stuff right so it was a team effort it doesn't just come together absolutely and Ann Works 24 7 starting in August so I mean I'm sure she if she's listening I'm sure she appreciates the shout out and yes but the pep rallies and getting everything ready and now that football games are starting before in late August like it's it's a lot it's it's a lot no and it was so worth it because I
137the community and the team spirit and the you know I thought it was great I thought it was I mean the kids were just in awe right it was like a great a great weekend okay thank you um I have something to say about my donation if that's okay so um I've been thinking about this donation for a while and I've been struggling recently with how much all this drama and all this effort to prove that we are all horrible people has hurt the students most of us are here giving up our time with our own families because we truly want to help everything help everyone and want to do everything we can for our Berkeley Heights and Mountainside students and so it makes me physically sick when I have to see money and resources
138used to protect the district instead of spent on the students and our incredible staff now there are people out there who have been telling you we are the reason for the lawyers and the money leaving we obviously have some sort of love for lawyers and enjoy their company the reality is that over the last year the district has needed lawyers more than ever before more than at the height of covid because every time an accusation is sent in an email we call the lawyers because that is the job to make sure no one is breaking laws and to save the district from being sued not me not the board president not the superintendent I don't know how is this allowed in agenda so previously we have an attorney here on my donation no the if
139it's a comment about your donation speak about your donations no no not about I want to ask the attorney if this is allowed you're talking about legal bills use of attorneys so if I can start speaking that's not previously Francis would say that's not on the agenda that's not allowed so my question is if you're making a comment about your donation which is very generous and I appreciate you for that stick to the donation and the schools and the programs that you're donating to if you're going to go off the script and talk about lawyers and attorneys can I speak about that too is that allowed Mr Wenzel [Music] can you say it in the mic please because I think there are people on The Zone point is well made that you should stick to
140the topic on the agenda being discussed if there's if it's an open Forum General discussion then it's a more broad-based discussion so correct what applies to one applies to all thank you yes I will continue so not me not the board president not the superintendent the district from being sued which would fall on the taxpayers every time an open request covers confidential information it needs to be manually looked through and sometimes confirmed with the lawyer to make sure we're only Crossing out what we need to thanks so when we get a request yeah no this is about my donation and I would like to continue well if it's allowed then we should be able to comment on that too as long as that's allowed that's great but let me finish and then you can come
141no I'm asking the president to control the meeting because I just asked that you're the one interrupting I think yeah no because I'm in trouble we're respectful yes I am sorry and I'm interrupting because this is not on the agenda if you're speaking about your donation Pam with all due respect no it's not so Mike I'm asking you as the President we asked the attorney attorney said we need to stick to the topic so are you going are you gonna allow about oprahs and legal bills then we also should be able to speak about it thank you yes thank you Sam and please go right to the donation please all right so and in that they believe they found three errors of our staff a key point please I'm I'm trying to get there if
142everyone could just relax it was over a year period of time and after receiving thousands of Oprah documents and costing the taxpayers thousands in lawyer fees hooray you've proved it we are human so now what how did these findings help the student which one improved their experience here at Berkeley Heights Public School I have done the bills three times since taking office in January come on I am trying to tell you why I had to make this and I think you should at least give me the respect that when you wanted to explain something you had the chance please get to the point I'm trying to when you have to look at receipts for caterpillars for elementary school kids and Stop and Shop outings for our ABA students who are learning to deal with sensory
143issues and crowds it warms your heart to really see how much goes into our students everyday experiences and then we see a settlement in August okay and I think how many caterpillars have this is on you just so you know this is documented we have a paid attorney here saying that if we are going off the topic yes to contract yes and then you have a gavel which you kind of advertised about if this is not on the agenda topic and we have bought this to your control to your attention to control the meeting and if you're not going to then yes and I also get to have a say that with a board attorney who's present here without the entire board voting on him being present here you just made an executive decision and
144we respected it but what is the point of having an attorney who's charging us 165 dollars an hour and you're not going to control the meeting thank you so I thought how many caterpillars could we buy how many more students could we have helped how many more opportunities could we have provided so I decided that night that I would continue to be and do the opposite of that by doting directly to our students I am begging that our residents and our town and our communities start being the opposite of that too no matter how much you hate me or my colleagues or our admins please stop this unnecessary unproductive and honestly complete waste of energy on things that do not help our schools start giving advice or comments stop making accusations and emails and looking
145for errors stop emailing trying to get someone to respond so you can then use it against them this does not help open dialogue I am begging this of you you have proven I am horrible and I will let you bash me online for the rest of my time on the board but I'm asking you here on our students let us Focus here on our students on our schools and giving everything we can to and for them please do what's right for Berkeley Heights I beg this of you I wish I could give tons of pennies more but I can't and this is all I can give right now but I am heartbroken that this is the state of things thanks please oh sorry left as well you need four four k through eight and five
146for K-12 please Mrs zakiri Mr chinchuli yes Dr Forger Mr Hyman uh yes on items a through b I'm going to abstain on item C and yes on items D through l Mrs Stanley I just have a question for the lawyer can I vote on G yes being by myself you're making your donations okay then yes then yes to all Mrs Young Mr Tequila yes Finance resolution a through G all board members have a motion to move the finance resolution I'll move can I have a second second any discussion roll call please Mr chinchuli yes Mr Hyman yes Mrs Stanley who did the Bills oh okay yes Mrs Young Mr jaquilla yes comments from the public same rules apply just check the mic John um I gotta tailor my comments a little bit differently when
147I I would come in here earlier could you introduce yourself please Johnson caglia 22 Robbins Avenue Berkeley Heights um I would have been here earlier but as a member of the zoning board I was actually helping make sure we have more buses we approve the extensions of the bus lot on Russo place but in any event um I'm glad to see that you table at least temporarily policy 7510 because I don't think it needs to be changed a concern I have is that the statement Mike that you made which I assume was on the advice of the attorney that said they were partisan political activities because Municipal parties are free to endorse and support board candidates now obviously a mayor a council member or any other elected official has the First Amendment right to say
148or not say who he or she favors in an upcoming election for any position on the ballot your announced solution to modify policy 7510 which now you've tabled did nothing to prevent that from happening a municipal elected official might still do what you and your legal counsel said was the reason for not allowing the Forum it didn't change anything how does this alleviate the concern and the rationality that's been used to justify the decision to not allow the Forum I'm not sure what the motivation was to deny the Forum given the decades-long history of candidate forums for Town and board offices have both GL and Colombia but it sure seems strange to me that suddenly this practice was found to be a policy violation had not the township stepped up to provide the municipal building
149the citizens of this town would have likely been deprived of the ability to hear and evaluate the people who have chosen to want to represent us it's a real shame this has occurred and I think the flimsy and incorrect justifications that have been used really provide no public confidence in at least some of the advice and decision making taking place in this District I have one other comment that's not related to that does the board think that getting a more than 200 Page agenda including attachments within a day or two of the meeting allows you to properly be prepared to vote on items that you must buy lower proof you're busy people you have jobs you have families I don't know how you can digest 200 pages of stuff in 24 or 48 Hours um
150that's you know something that you have to decide on so uh my comments are I hope you go back you don't need to change policy 7510 if you read it okay you'll see that it allows and it has allowed uh I've sat up on the stage myself as a candidate Mike you have and uh it's it's been a practice here for a long long time I don't understand why we even thought about thinking there was a problem thank you no I'm responding the board can do what they want at this point I tried I'm done I'm done I'm just that's it you guys have done a great job to really burn me out so I'm done I don't care I'm sorry John I got bad legal advice right so then I just get bashed and
151dragged through so you know what the policy committee to do what they want I thought it was a great thing we can figure it out and eliminate any potential but you know what it's up to the board to do what they want to do you know what it's I took this job because I knew it was going to be a bad transition year and boy what was it now I regret it I'll be honest with you want to step up to help Papa here and I just got beat up for the last nine months I am so tired of it I'm tired of my family being direct to this and this is now how I get treated for the last four months I didn't run because I didn't I'm tired of all this whatever you
152know what this is just getting to the point now that congratulations everybody you guys did a good job burning me out anybody else wish to comment Natasha Mike can I just make a comment on the on the when we receive I'm sorry um attachments and such sure um so just to clarify we we receive uh our board packet at least a draft of the agenda with some attachments Friday before so as board members I'll just speak for myself in terms of being able to comprehend and digest so we get we have six days uh from from draft receipt the the full attachments with any modifications to the agenda and such will receive typically on a Tuesday but I cannot personally I have read everything that I've received by then I'll read the updates at that
153point the bulk of the 180 Pages for this week is policies um more than half of those 180 pages are policies we've read before so I'm not rereading what I've read before I'm reading the updates to those so it's not really 180 Pages it is you know all the other attachments outside of policies might be 30 pages so the answer my answer would be for me yes can I read that in the window of time to prepare yes your your policy says maybe even have it up to one day before if that's your existing policy sure now you're telling me it's that's not the practice that's a good thing yeah the practice is different from the policy you're right yes okay yeah it's improved it's improved in the last I've been on the board two
154years so it's gotten better I'm sorry to pick up on the topic of um Dei and as it um comes into as part of the Strategic plan and then the goals so as of last year back in March um of 2021 uh the administration said that the task force um will create um the DI strategic plan and that it would also create metrics by which di is measured and so now that we're moving into the new year of goals and the in the next I guess strategic uh another year of the Strategic plan can I just see what was accomplished last year what were the metrics what was done you know what was what were the goals what was the outcome what I don't and I went back in the minutes I didn't see any
155presentations attached in the attachments so I have no idea for the first year of the DI strategic plan what was accomplished and now as we look at you know Dei going into 2022 2023 I you know Echo what you know Dr forger had said like you know a measurement of success developing a plan is not a measurement of success like it's too vague there's you know what's the coordinated effort across the schools where is the presentation that you know determined that the principles were the key folks that needed to you know execute this for their schools so I just like to understand what was accomplished last year and how it Trend and how it moves us forward and how it fed into the goals and action plans for this year so um we met several
156times and had several presentations last year base basically we had the Dei strategic plan that was presented that stakeholders we had that in September then we vetted the Strategic plan and I think we had that presentation in March or April and this year is the first year we are I mean we we had like a strategy we started our process two years ago but with the ins and outs in school we didn't really start developing the metrics we're doing that this year so this year is the year that we are going to start with the surveys that we did one survey but we didn't have a whole lot of um participation so this is the year where we developed the metrics and the principals have all of their their on their action plan they have
157all the things they are going to be responsible for we have the diversity committees in every building we have the diversion diversity action teams and you know it's we have the district diversity committee so there's a lot going on but the metrics are being developed this this year um that's fine but it's also very difficult to find on the school's websites you know what these committees are how often they meet um there is really just no at least information that I've been able to find regarding the plan or you know what the structure is of of these committees and how it's It generally comes out in the Friday folder when they start advertising the Committees um I would say it's probably coming out ASAP if it hasn't come out already so I would look in
158the Friday folder to see if you get any information from there foreign so I and I will and I do look at those folders but it is a strategic plan and I would think they'd be a little bit more structure than an email that comes out on Friday no I just mean for the Committees the Strategic plan is on the website right the Strategic plan is but all of the I guess the execution of that plan as the schools are being tasked to do as the principles are being tasked to do there should be something that you know I can go to and I could see like this is what they're doing this is when these committees are meeting these are the topics that they're going to be addressing and there's that's for us to
159keep in-house the principals do send out information like we're we're having Chris Singleton come in they send out information that is where they're meeting their goals however we keep it in-house on what's Happening they send it out to the parents that's their their role okay sorry is is I think the ask is what's what is the progress in a concise format like was the goal to have each school have one committee that means uh meets on a monthly basis Bob you know or whatever whatever guidance is provided how do we know that that information that that's actually happening and I think that's what it like how do we know what was the plan what can we look at and then I guess as a parent if I look at the plan and I say I
160see that my school's supposed to have X Y and Z happening is it happening like how do I know that I mean maybe I don't know I'm not trying to so the district diversity committee meets with every single school and that the district diversity committees meets parents it's teachers it's students and every school talks about their action Team every we meet every month so that at the district diversity committee kind of oversees what's happening in all the buildings and all of that is on our website somewhere um I do I will say I think our website is probably the most convoluted website I've ever seen in my entire life and it's it's a goal we got a goal there for um to make it more user friendly but it is on there somewhere about the
161the district committees the action teams the building to and when what they where they're going to meet and the whole process is out there on one of the presentations that we did right right so again I'm just saying I don't see the presentation um and you know we hear like oh this one speak or you know Chris Singleton right and that's all that's all that's advertise that's all it's like but it feels very ad hoc yeah it's not it is not so then I I would recommend that we you know as an output of this conversation that we get some clarity as to what's really happening because it's a major goal and as an outsider looking in I have no idea what's going on okay thank you does it make sense Dr Riley the the
162presentation uh the the Dei presentation was from September uh of 20 let's say September 23rd 2021 and it is it's a it's a really nice document even without the presentation behind it does it make sense can we add it to the retroactively to the attachments of this meeting so that it's re-shared or just yeah I can I can figure out a way maybe pin it pin it to the first site so people can see what all we did I mean it was a lot of work it's very detailed and it does have an action plan that runs all the way through frankly till today pretty much with with I assume the thought that there'll be annual updates on this but yeah it's deep though and this is connected to the ptos as well right so
163they should be giving reports at each building's PTO meeting as well with their diversity yeah so this was a back and forth so I have a couple more two two quick things sure okay so um I do want to um just also reiterate um on the use of the hybrid Zoom meetings I know the decisions been made but we did purchase the equipment and I was reading back on the minutes from like last year when the um Zoom meetings were in place and you could see in the minutes how much more parental engagement there was because you because the parents coming in asking questions through Zoom were noted and there were just a lot more parents who were speaking up so that's and then finally I just want to comment on Mrs Stanley on the
164um kind of speech that you just made again very generous donation but it's ironic that you were talking about legal bills since you were the one person who used the board attorney to you know for ethics violation complaint against another member when ethic violations complaints do not require an attorney okay thank you so I just again I'm the one who put my name on it the board actually approved to go through it any other comments from the public without any new business to come before the board no other new board how much do you have the information I'm sorry we didn't just yes there's okay understand there's a request for a completion of uh additional or provision of additional information that was in addition to what was provided at the last meeting regarding ongoing legal
165matters and there's one matter that's being held handled by the porzio Bromberg firm it's an Oprah matter Thomas mazuski versus Berkeley Heights Board of Ed uh GRC 2020-110 and there's another matter that involves a minor uh and it's uh involves an HIV matter and that is in the uh Superior Court under docket number unn-l-3802-21 and that matter is uh ongoing and currently involved in extensive Discovery uh being compiled and uh and demanded of the other side the dimension was handled by oh and that firm is uh I mean that matter is handled by uh assigned Council not not the board Council but by an assigned Council attorney uh Gerald howorth okay thank you so just to be clear that's um the insurance company is science Council in that case well there was leaving the room
166and then leaving the building so which would you like I would just back date from five minutes ago yeah okay is there a motion to adjourn so all in favor aye aye thank you very much for seeing you very in October