001Good evening everybody and welcome. Uh we've met in exec session and we've done the flag salute. So I'm just going to read the statement of public notice. This is a regular meeting of the board of education of Burners Township. Notice of the time and place of this meeting was provided and copies of that resolution were forwarded to the official newspapers as designated by the board of education and to the township clerk and a copy of notice was posted on the bulletin board of the board of education offices. Uh for those members of the public who cannot attend our meeting in person, a live stream link to the meeting is posted on the district website. We very much welcome input from the public. There are two times during regular meetings that the public is invited to
002speak. One time is early in the meeting before the board votes when you may speak about any item that's listed on tonight's agenda. Towards the end of the meeting, there's another public forum to address any matter of public concern related to the schools. When you approach the microphone, please state your name and address and each statement made by participant shall be limited to three minutes duration. No participant may speak more than once during a given public comment session. The first public comment session will be limited to 30 minutes and the second will be unlimited. In order to run efficient meetings and to allow maximum opportunity for members of the public to speak, the board reserves the right to set a different time limit for individual comments and the overall time limit for the public comment
003portions of the agenda. All statements shall be directed to presiding officer. No participant may address or question board members individually. Please understand that the public comments portion of our agendas are not structured at question answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. The board and administration will respond to public comments to the extent possible. Any board responses to public comments will generally be addressed during board forum or committee reports. However, all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when speaking. Comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, and relevant. Please understand that students and employees have specific legal p privacy protections. The board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students and employees.
004And please understand that the board will not be responsible for the content of comments made by the members of the public. Members of the public are cautioned that they are speaking at their own risk and any personally directed statements they make may subject them to legal liability to the affected individual. If it's necessary for the board to go into the exact session at the end of the meeting will provide an estimated length of time for the session and whether any action is anticipated to be taken upon returning to the public session. And with that, we are up to one of my most favorite times of the year is when Ridge Ac Capella comes and performs for us. So, we're all going to come down and sit down. Um, and then we'll come back up after.
005Hello, my name is Mrs. Beetle and I am the choir director here at Ridge High School. This is Ridge A Capella Choir, which is our top ensemble here at Ridge. Um, we've been caroling all over the community over the past few weeks. We had our concert this past Wednesday on December 17th. Um, and this piece was a fan favorite, so we decided to bring it back. It's a Bollywood piece. Um, and it had a dole drum player at the concert and there's some choreography that was created by two of our students that are in this ensemble. There's a soloist Kiru that you'll hear in the middle of this. We had four rows of risers. So, we've adjusted our choreography a little bit. Um, but I think you'll still get the idea. So, we hope you
006enjoy. Nagata sang >> [singing] >> nickn. >> [music and singing] >> nicknivore. [singing] Got something. [singing] [singing] Mama daddy daddy ma daddy. >> [singing] [singing] >> They get [singing] up and [singing] >> [singing] [singing] >> Fore! [singing] >> [singing] [singing] >> in the heart. [singing] Holy [singing] [music] [singing] Magne. [singing] Fore [singing and music] [music] [singing] no >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you so much. And our second and final piece is going to be the pentatonics arrangement of Oh, come all you faithful with Sean Pnicelli as our soloist. Happy holidays and thank you so much for having us. Oh [singing] ye faithful, joyful and triumpant. [singing] Oh come ye, oh come ye. [singing] Oh come let him born the [singing] king of angels. Oh come let us adore. [singing] Oh come let us adore [singing]
007him. Oh come let us adore [singing] him. Christ the Lord. [singing] Oh, >> to Bethlehem [singing] faithful to Bethlehem [singing] of come in exhe [singing] Come and behold [singing] him for the king of angels. Oh come [singing] let us adore him. Let us adore [singing] him. Oh come let us adore him. Oh come my [singing] faithful. Come my faithful. Come my [singing] faithful to Bethlehem. Oh come my faithful. Oh come my faithful. [singing] Come my faithful to Bethlehem. Oh come. Oh come my faithful. Oh come. Oh come my [singing] faithful. Oh come. Oh come my faithful. [singing] Oh come my faithful come my faithful [singing] come my faithful [singing] come my faithful come my faithful to Bethlehem My joy my [singing] king of angels come let us adore [singing] him. Oh come let us adore
008[singing] him in Christ [music] the [singing] faithful to Bethlehem. [applause] That's all we have for you. Thank you so much. Thank you for all that you do for this district. Thank you for your support of the arts and the music and choir. It is so appreciated by me. It is so appreciated by these students here. They started a little very great course and are all the way up here now doing amazing things and I'm so very grateful. So wish you happy holidays and we'll see you Wednesday. [applause] Well, that definitely was the the high point of our meeting. Um, we do have business to do, but nothing will top that. So, thank you for for those beautiful songs. As a as a past ac capella parent, um I know how much time these kids put
009into practicing and um they don't they don't ever let us down with how beautiful they sound. Uh we are now up to our student representative MJ. Do you have a report? >> Yes, I do. And I also just want to add that the chorus was absolutely beautiful and we're just so proud to support the arts in this district and to have a really really successful arts program. So today I hope to just update the public as well as the board of education on recent news about the student body. First, we held our first schoolwide board of education meeting with our student representatives. And this is just to inform the public of what student representatives do in really representing how student life is at rich. We broached suggestions and questions about various topics from implementing district-wide
010holidays as well as cafeteria food. And we have some matters regarding like academic programs. the students would like the districts to subscribe to which we will talk to the board at a later date. Um the board also asked us a lot of questions about student life and it was a really mutually informative session on both establishing the life of students at Ridge as well as getting to hear the board's responses to some of the questions we had. Second, the in terms of the schoolwide student government, we recently took action based on comments from our MP1 marking period one bridge reports as well as comments from other student representatives. For instance, we met with Mr. Robert who is the director of our new Mishio's food services. We broached student suggestions regarding additions like protein shakes, healthy
011energy boosters, a greater variety of vegetarian options, and more ethnic variety in our meal options across all six schools in our district. He was incredibly receptive to all of our suggestions and we are looking forward to checking up on through have arranging additional meetings. Additionally, there are other directors that we plan to reach out to. Although immediately reaching out would be great, we determined that post winter break is most effective in implementing these changes. There have been some input from students regarding facilities safety and security in addition to suggestions to the tech department. Lastly, but certainly not least, here are some more details about school events and updates of student life. Our arts department concluded a successful concert season. As we saw, we had corral, but we also had orchestra as well as band concerts.
012Additionally, our ridge dance is hosting a winter coat drive to help those in need amidst the cold winter season. Our unified basketball team is now selling apparel to fundra for this sport, as well as having an overall successful record in the season. In addition, our sports teams have had an incredibly successful season. In track and field, we placed top sixth in the New Jersey meet of champions. We also had four school records in the 4x200 relay and a girls track player recently ranked 10th in the United States for the 400 meter. Our rich drama club also successfully executed its first play of the season, Peter Pan and Wendy and are working on Mary Poppins for the spring season. Additionally, tomorrow is our annual schoolwide volleyball tournament. This event is hosted by the schoolwide student government
013and consists of teams of juniors and seniors involved in volleyball playoffs. It gives us a great opportunity at uniting as a school before winter break. As we approach the end of the year, I am incredibly excited to see what amazing things the student body will accomplish. Thank you for listening to the update. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any um questions for MJ? Okay. Um you're welcome to stay. I can't imagine you have too much work though for tomorrow, but have a wonderful holiday. Uh and we are now up to uh a superintendent report and there are four items. Do you want to say anything about them? >> Sure. Thank you. Uh we have a couple of overnight trips. Uh whenever we have students traveling overnight, we need board approval. Um the annual trip for
014the Ridge High competition uh cheerleading and the overnight trip for the model UN. These are typical annual trips. Uh we have several new extracurricular clubs. We always u approve those at their inception so that we have a record of when they began. Uh and finally the hit report for this month. Does anybody have questions? Can I get a motion? Brent and Janice and a roll call. >> Miss White, >> yes. >> Dr. McHune, >> yes. >> Mr. Molinari, >> yes. >> Mr. Amin, >> yes. >> Miss Mohawk, >> yes. >> Miss Curado, >> yes. >> Mr. Shaw, >> yes. >> Mr. Tabet, >> yes. >> And Mr. >> Yes. >> Okay, we're up to public comment on agenda items. If anybody has anything, please come down, sign the clipboard, and state your name and address.
015Okay, with that, we will close public comment. And we are up to uh the approval of minutes. I get Dave and Keith. Roll call. >> Miss White. Yes, >> Dr. McHune. >> Yes, >> Mr. Molinari. >> Yes, >> Mr. Am. >> Yes, >> Miss Mohawk. >> Yes, >> Miss Curado. >> Yes, >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes, >> Mr. Talin. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Malak? >> Yes. >> Okay. We are up to finance and there is a report. Do you want to read the report out? >> Sure. I'll go through the report. The report's from November 19th. The first item on there is the committee continues to review monthly medical claims. The trend remains slightly high, but factoring rebates is still within a reasonable range of the budget. Based on a request from the committee
016members, Jim conducted an analysis of the historical claims to reuse seasonality because the budget is spread evenly but the claims come up and down. So while some months appear higher or lower, there's no consistent trend there. The committee also discussed potential state plan changes. Although although the district is not part of the state plan, changes often trickle into our plan, pro proposed changes include adding in network deductibles and increasing out of network deductibles and out-ofpocket maximums. Uh next, the committee discussed BMI student accident which primarily supports student athletes but applies to any school approved events. It serves as a secondary insurance after personal coverage. Although not legally required, the district currently carries it. Given the 73,000 annual cost, the committee will reach out to the broker to review alternate options. Next, the Liberty Corner PTO
017is requesting approval to fund raise for improvements to the library Quest Classroom Furniture with a goal of raising approximately $30,000. The committee recommends approval of this request. Next item, um, parent, um, paid preschool rates for the general education students in the preschool will be $400 for 2627. The only, this only impacts a handful of families, the committee agrees with this increase. Next, the committee reviewed Matio's um, September sales compared to Aramark. Uh, while it's very early, sales appear pretty comparable, and we're going to continue to this. Um, the last item is this still confidential, Jim? >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. So, that's it for >> Does anyone have any questions for Dave? >> Okay. Can I get a a motion? >> J. And a roll call. >> Miss White. >> Yes. >> Dr. McHune. >>
018Yes. >> Mr. Molinari. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss Mohawk. >> Yes. >> M. Yes. >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes. >> Mr. Talbot. >> Yes. And Mr. Malik. >> Yes. >> Okay. Webster personnel. >> Do you anything you can share from? >> Sure. I can share out about one item. Um so um Dr. Lazik came to the um meeting to give an update on the status of clubs at Ridge. Um so just for anyone who's interested, there's a list of all clubs on the Ridge website. Students can come forward for new clubs but must demonstrate that the club will fulfill a need and that will be different from existing clubs. The students must also find a teacher who is willing to be the adviser. Clubs must be active for four years before the
019adviser can receive a stipend. So one of the reasons that he was coming to the meeting was at one point the list had like 215 clubs on it. Some of which were not still active. So we had asked to know like exactly how many are. As you can see tonight we appointed some new clubs to start. So it seems like there's always students with wonderful ideas to start new clubs and we said how many are there actually? So right now the administration has weeded out the clubs that were inactive um over the last bunch of years and the list is around 140 clubs. And then he had explained that each club adviser submits a quarterly report with data about the meetings, attendance and activities and that he meets twice a year with every club that
020has a budget or stipend for a staff member. Um, clubs can meet at opportunity periods at lunch, but they can also meet after school or before school. >> Thank you. Any any questions? >> What's the What's the threshold to establish a club? How much students interest have to be? >> At least 10 kids. >> Um, there are 21 items. Can I get a motion? Smurfy and Dave and a roll call. Miss White, >> yes. >> Dr. Mchune, >> yes. >> Mr. Molinari, >> yes. >> Mr. Am >> Yes. >> Miss Mohawk, >> yes. >> Miss Curado, >> yes. >> Mr. Shaw, >> yes. >> Mr. Tabith, >> yes. >> And Mr. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, we're up to policy there. We don't have a report, but we do have one item. Uh yeah, we
021just uh made a few revisions uh to the substance abuse policy uh updated language that a student needs to be sent out for drug testing. The drug results be sent to the nurse as well as the principal, the superintendent. Uh the district, we do have a testing center set up through city MD that the district will pay for, but it must be made within four hours. And we just changed the wording from school physician to designate. And uh for the guidelines for the use of the sound system, we talked about it uh and the lighting. Uh you know, it's important note that we're trying to be very good neighbors to the people nearby. Uh very but a very important distinction is in no way are there going to be guidelines intended to restrict the appropriate
022use of light and sound system for PTSD sponsored activities. These are general guidelines and cannot account for every possible scenario of official PTSD sponsored activities. So, we realize that, you know, we can't have an exact wording. There's things that are going to come up depending on the situations and uh we'll be meeting again in January. >> Yeah. And and just to follow up on that too, the policy that we reviewed on the substance abuse, um we're working with Matt's firm on some of those language questions because there's a lot of administrative um statute and code as it relates to things like district position and can you you know adjust the language to to reflect the fact that you're not necessarily always going to a district physician for the drug screen. You might be going to,
023you know, the local Metemerge or or wherever we're contracted with um at the time. So there's is there and that's why we don't have any um first or any first reading on those yet. So, we'll get through that policy review um with Matt's firm and and then we'll bring those back for first reading in the future. >> Thanks. >> All right. Can I get Do you have a question? >> Yeah. I was looking for today. I was looking through the the proposed policy and I thought I saw this in the past but maybe you took the language out. There was language regarding student use of the PA system that was only used I might have misread that, but my only thought was I've seen plenty of sporting events where under staff supervision students have used
024the PA system to help, you know, announce events and call games. I always thought it's a really um good and fun way to involve students who weren't necessarily on the field in the activity um under proper supervision. So, I didn't see it when I went about to look at it, but I could have sworn I saw it the first time. So, maybe it was removed, but I don't know if that was something that you were discussing. >> Yeah. So, that's that's great that you brought that up. That's exactly why we're not in a rush to get this through to give people lots of time to reflect on it because those kinds of things happen, right? Where you know, you've got kids involved or you might have um a parent booster club person that likes to,
025you know, read the announcements, they're trained, they work with the coach for per particular use. So, you know, it's it's in general, we certainly don't want to have unsupervised use going on, right? So, the idea of having kids running um the sound system all by themselves with no adults on campus means somebody like gave them the keys to the kingdom and then we're having problems with the neighbors because it's really loud and it's unsupervised. So, um you know, we're we're trying to come up with the right language that provides for all these different uses, but at the same time doesn't let situations get out of control where someone is getting access and turning things on and they they shouldn't be even using it at all the time. So, we're we're going back and forth and
026we'll take a look at that again. Thanks. We're we're really working on the wording and you know we have to be very careful because I think that's a great opportunity in some cases if students are in an athletic event allowed to speak and things like that but we we're really working on how we're going to word this to make sure that you know kids you know it's appropriate done. >> Yeah. And that I'm glad we're working on balancing being good neighbors with you know giving students the appropriate opportunity to be involved. >> Right. >> Anybody else? >> I hit nothing. [laughter] >> We have a voting item tonight. Right. Policy uh >> this the >> right >> 2535 is that right? >> Where am I? >> Okay. Um just for my own clarity on that
027that was um presuming to our library policy and basically the change is kind of in accordance with the new Jersey state law and correct me if I'm wrong. Um it's taking the ultimate arbitration. you you were the you were the last stop before, Nick, and now it's if it came that far, a book to be adjudicated would come before the board after working its way up through the appropriate channels. I mean, that that's kind of how I read it. It's just kind of solidifying what we already had in a slightly different way in response to the new state law. Is that is that is that a pretty accurate high level summary? I I think the main thing is to separate the resource materials from the library materials and specify exactly how we're going to vet
028challenges to resource materials versus challenges to something that's actually in the library. So, um because of the the law that was passed in the state, they said, you know what, the best way to handle this is to separate these out, create a new policy that's specific for library materials. Um and that kind of who can challenge library materials and how they should be challenged versus materials that are used in the classroom um an article used in a classroom to try to make a clean distinction between things that are actually in your library media centers versus in your classroom. >> Right. This policy is not applicable to things in the classroom using used using instruction. >> Exactly. >> And just for the public, anything in a library, it's all on the desk system. It's all out
029there. It can all It's all applicable to to district parents, not to necessarily public at large. It's actually public to anybody. If you go to the uh school website, there is a searchable database for each building through the media center site. >> I thought you need a a login and >> not for that site. Students have a login which would take you to their account and the parents really don't have an actual direct login using to their students account unless they have their students login right now. Although it's possible in the future we might be able to add a parent login. Right now it's just a searchable database of whatever's in that library. Thank you. >> Okay. Anyone else? Okay. Can I get a motion? Robin Ke. >> Miss White. >> Yes. >> Dr. Mun.
030>> Yes. >> Mr. Molinari. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Miss Mohawk. >> Yes. >> Miss Curado. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shaw. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tabith. >> Yes. And Mr. >> Yes. And we're up to curriculum. Um we have a report from December 5th. >> All right. Um curriculum met on December 5th and talked about the uh universal universal literacy screeners. Uh the presentation for the screeners was conducted on December 3rd for the kindergarten through third grade parents and it's posted on the district website. Literacy literacy screeners uh screenings are not new to the district. The state has expanded the screening requirements to grades two and three. Uh screenings, they're a snapshot in time. They're not a diagnosis uh necessarily a problem, but rather they are one tool to help identify students who
031might need additional support. Uh there was discussion amongst committee uh regarding the different screenings used for kindergarten and first grade versus those in grades two and three. Uh there are two rounds of screenings per year. The fall screenings are due by 10:31 and the spring screenings by 214. Halloween and Valentine's Day respectively. Uh talked about mark and period one grade review. That's one of our discussion items. Uh the focus of discussion was mainly on struggling students. Uh in a given fullyear course, students need to pass two marking periods uh during at least one during the year and at least one of those marking periods has to occur during the second semester in order to earn credit. Uh the idea is to keep the student motivated throughout the year mean they pass both those mark periods
032in their first half of the year. During the second they might lose interest and focus. Um students with uh D's and E for courses they were up a little bit which could have been due to some COVID area era supports sunsetting. However, the numbers are still low and they are comparable with the pre-COVID numbers. There is continual tracking of struggling students and monitoring of additional support they may be utilizing such as going to extra help or utilizing tutor.com. uh scheduling update scheduling change analysis. Uh Miss Fox discussed preparations for the 26 to 27 uh year scheduling looking at data from 2526. U Fox explain the process for scheduling changes by students. There is an October 10th deadline to drop a course without a withdrawal on a student's transcript. Leveling down in the course does not
033uh incur a withdrawal. Both enrollment and staffing affect flexibility for scheduling changes. Feedback administr administration is that there were fewer requests for changes from students in response to district messaging on uh less scheduling flexibility. There is especially tight class availability in science and the arts and there was discussion around the timing availability and appropriateness of scheduling changes especially uh dropping courses. Currently enrollment for ridge and whams is holding relatively steady. There's an update on school litics. Schooly is a customizable platform that utilizes data analysis for different purposes and audiences. MTSS which is a multi-tered system of supports is one of the functions school litics can help with. The district is building a system to put all I and RS intervention and referral service plans into school litics uh eventually to be exported to Genesis and
034available to parents. What's good about school? It's 100% customizable platform which also makes the buildout Time consuming schoolyics can be used to analyze various levels of data. Uh Mr. Culmer uh demoed some data analysis of NJSLA results and these analysis can be can be on district on the district or an individual student level incorporating grades, attendances etc. Now utilization of the SER data has shown tangible improvements. An example of which is improvement in Liberty Corner test scores over the past two years by taking action actions informed by data analysis. Now in essence the platform marries data analysis and MTSS planning. All data and commentary can live on this platform and individual teachers can only see data for their own students. Uh in light of previous data breaches there was discussion around the systems security. Uh
035Mr. Beavers uh will well he did conduct a uh discuss cyber security with the full board today. Um social studies updates my collection grades Excuse me. Grades 7, 11, and 12, seniors being optional, participated in a New Jersey mock election. Grades 7, 11 or grades when the civics courses are uh taught. The mock election experience was in class for grades 7-Eleven. Grades 12 conducted it in the library at W at Rich. It was held on election day with gubanatorial and assembly candidates on the ballots as well as a ballot question on gerrymandering. Uh feedback is that it was a fun and informative project and preparations are underway for the 250th anniversary celebration. Mr. Terry and Miss Fox are working with the township committee to develop different offerings, resources and projects marking the 250th anniversary of
036the United States. An example is uh Farmstead Arts is making historical panels to display a ridge u incorporating local and national history themes. There is a possible 11th grade field trip uh to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. And there will be more on this to come as the planning proceeds. And that's it. Anybody have any questions or comments? Okay. Um we're up to wellness. There is a report from November 20th. >> Yes. The committee met on November 20th. There were three main items of discussion. The first was the Panorama student survey results. Assistant Superintendent Kristen Fox shared the preliminary results of the Panorama student surveys that were administered this fall. Data was presented for each of the six district schools over the course of three administrations of the survey. in fall 2024, spring 2025,
037and fall 2025. The administrative team is currently working on sorting the data by cohort. The committee will discuss the survey results in greater detail over the next several wellness committee meetings. The second item for discussion was district support for immigrant families. Kathy Startler, supervisor of world languages, presented an overview of the programs and services that are available to help immigrant families in our schools. There are currently 109 multilanguage learners registered in Bernard's Township Schools. 171 students have successfully exited the program. Families who register in the district are asked to complete a four question home language survey which helps determine whichformational, educational, and social programs and services the district provides that might benefit families as they transition to becoming members of our school community. School counselors are aware of the challenging situations faced by many immigrant
038families and the impact this can have on students. Ridge and William Anon offer dedicated support groups for these students and teachers throughout the district communicate between schools to ensure that all family members are provided the resources and services that they need. Miss Staler also reviewed for committee members the academic support programs available for students. These include sheltered English instruction classes a dedicated aid or interpreter assigned to each family for the duration of their time in the school district and federally funded tutoring in all subjects. The district uses a variety of methods to communicate with families in their preferred language. Teachers receive specific training and the use of these methods at the beginning of each school year. Among these programs are talking points, which provides text messages and weekly SOS Express emails in 180 different languages
039for as many as 500 families. and Thrillshare, a text and email messaging service which communicates important district information in the language indicated in each family's Genesis portal. The district also provides students new to the district with pocket talks translators which are two-sided iPads with native language and English language capabilities so that students can immediately converse with teachers and peers on their first day in school. New families are invited to a welcome night event during the first weeks in September where they have the opportunity to meet one another and exchange contact information. Miss Stler and her department staff explain the resources available in the district, including the help provided through each school's PTO. Three times throughout the year, Miss Startler convened a multil- language learning parent advisory committee to share information, updates, and to hear suggestions
040from parents. An end of school year celebration is held in the William Anon School cafeteria where students read their autobiographies to the group and families enjoy a barbecue meal with all the trimmings. These inperson and online communication efforts seem to be encouraging more families to attend school conferences and events. The district offers interpreters in all languages to support families at other student centered meetings. Future presentations for these parents will focus on an overall introduction to the Burner Township School District system and a customized presentation on the college application process. The last item that the committee discussed was a meeting with Liberty Corner School student representatives. Uh the students shared what they like best about school, including their teachers and friends, the colorful Liberty Corner School environment and friendly culture, and the opportunities for students to
041engage in assemblies, orchestra, and band, student council, and fundraisers for the community. Students shared their wish list of projects for the upcoming year. They would like to brainstorm a way to alleviate long lunches in the cafeteria, to create an outdoor garden, to have more opportunities for buddy meetings for first, second, third, and fourth graders, and to look into a buddy binch for students to use during recess. Students student council goals for the year include creating a way for students to communicate their suggestions for school improvement and developing a Google presentation for incoming student council representatives which outlined their roles and responsibilities. Students spoke a lot about their preparation for middle school. Questions were asked about the difference in grading between fifth grade and middle school. Students feel that they are becoming more independent as learners
042in preparation for sixth grade. And they had questions about the location and use of student lockers and agreed that purchasing an inexpensive lock to practice combinations over the summer would be helpful. They feel that platooning in the fifth grade is good preparation for changing classes at William Anon, but worry about navigating a much larger building. Several students shared that they've heard positive feedback about Camp Jumpstart and they're looking forward to registering. William Adden School Principal, Miss Udok, offered to work with Liberty Count Liberty Corner School Principal Dr. Oliver to schedule a return visit to answer questions from fifth grade students. Uh the next wellness committee meeting was held on Thursday, December 18th, and that will be updated in January. Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Janice? Okay, we're up to you. Your last one.
043>> It is my last one. Uh, the team met on November 20th. We reviewed the work orders. No issues were noted by the committee. I'm going to step off script just for a second as my last one. Um, I do want to thank Mr. Row and Mr. Mikley for all the work that they've done with the work order and the maintenance. I think it's been a tremendous improvement and the the ownership and kind of treating the property as our own property is is really being noted and I think a a great thanks goes out to um Mr. Row, Mr. Mikley, Mr. Mararyian of course, but just want to say thank you for that. Over the last three years um we met with Mr. Mancino, noted improvements to the town fields used by the school teams
044um including a releing of the baseball and softball fields at War Memorial, the improved uh field at Pleasant Valley. Uh no issues were noted by Mr. Mancinov. We reviewed the bus uh company performance. No issues noted. And again here, Mr. Marary and Mr. Row, a tremendous improvement um over the prior couple years with our prior bus company. So, thank you for the work on that. Um reviewed the cafeteria services, Mr. Matio, as the Mr. Shaw pointed out before also some issues noted, but they are very open to change. They've implemented 13 menu item changes already. They've done student surveys and meetings. Um, we heard from the student council before. There are follow-up meetings, so looking forward to continued improvement there. Talked about stop the Soot grant, monitoring the state developments for that right now, but
045nothing to pursue currently. We talked about the varsity field complex um scheduled uh next steps. The goal is for school sports not to be disrupted in the spring. The games will be scheduled accordingly. The only thing to note was parking for juniors has been affected. Um this is the kind of the unofficial parking off school grounds I think or some on school grounds. Um, and then the last thing was the Oak Street uh lot is going to be a summer 2026 project and the next meeting will be in January. Anyone have any questions for Nish? >> Okay, with that we are up to Oh, no. Sorry. Le's on committee reports. I don't want to skip over that. Um, is there anything from Municipal Alliance SC was got some nice Christmas baskets for >> um CPAC,
046>> the Twilight 5K is coming up, but that's still a ways away. >> Okay, CPAC is meeting in January. Um, anything else? Any other Okay, now we are up to public comment on non-aggenda items. Okay, with that we will move to board forum. Um so each year um the board does a self evaluation and >> I think there's one person who wants to speak. >> Oh there is okay I'm sorry. Hi, my name is Enya Wong. Um, I live at 44 Handsome Road. Um, and I am a senior here at Ridge by my lanyard. Um, and I'm also uh one of the co-editor and chiefs of the Ridge Devil's Advocate, our student newspaper. And today I just wanted to come here in person to bring a suggestion to the board um about something that I
047actually already um emailed Mr. Marcarian and Mr. Bever about but I just wanted to come here in person to give this in a more direct manner and this is actually something that um Miss Curado mentioned um about that the district has begun sending official messages from the district to students in their home language. So, for example, I noticed that recently when there was a snow related delayed opening, I received that message from the district in Chinese. Like I received it in Mandarin Chinese. Um, and I've heard from students that I've interviewed at the newspaper um that lang uh students have received it in languages such as Hindi, Erdo, Turkish, Korean um and many other languages. And I just wanted to suggest to the board to review this change and perhaps reconsider it to be very
048honest. Um because while I'm touched by the district's um recognizable care in providing for immigrant families um who perhaps are better accustomed to this language than other languages. Um I want to say that there might be a slight misunderstanding here because many of the students um that I interviewed including myself had trouble understanding those um languages and those messages. So for example to touch on my own experience um Though I do consider Mandarin Chinese to be my home language as my parents are from China and um immigrated here to the US more than 20 years ago. We speak it at home. Um I would not consider it my native language. I was born in the US and raised here. So therefore I've never received um structured instruction on Mandarin Chinese and I am honestly not
049very good at reading it. And honestly I could not understand from the message that the district sent um that there was a delayed opening and many of my classmates also um expressed this discomfort in their home language that many of them could not simply understand the district's message at all that there was snow related delay opening could not understand that message at all due to this um because quite a few of us in like the immigrant community I guess um we do consider ourselves immigrants but the thing is um a lot of us were either born here or um were raised here for a long period of time so therefor for our like um ability or capability in our home language is honestly dubious at best. So, um, we just wanted to reflect to the
050district this suggestion that perhaps reverting, um, maybe not necessarily reverting completely back to English as we do recognize that some families may benefit from messages in their home language, but we want the board to perhaps reconsider this change a bit and allow for more student input on what language they'd like to receive this message in. as we do think it's a problem that if the students receive messages um especially about like emergencies such as delayed openings in a language they don't really understand. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Okay, I will close public comment again. Thanks. Uh so great great uh question there. So, um, yes, Mr. Beavers and I did, um, correspond with the student, um, regarding this issue. And I think what it comes down to is the transition from one instant messaging
051system to another one and the way that it's connected to Genesis, the student information system. So, the contact phone numbers um, and language preference is taken out of the student information system. includes a field called home language and when families register um and the parents report the home language that gets recorded in the that gets recorded in the student information system that's what the um thrillshare apt to communication app is connected to. So, what we've been trying to communicate to anyone who wants to change that setting is that they need to communicate with Chrissy Borhees, um, who is the designate for emergency messaging, and she will go in and change that setting. Um, what we're also trying to figure out is if we can separate student phone numbers from u parent phone numbers so that
052parents and students could theoretically have different language choices to receive the messages in. Um, So, I'm hearing Kristen say that we can um but it's not set up yet. We haven't communicated how to do that yet. We haven't been doing it yet. Um so, I know we've been trying to coordinate between Genesis and Thrillshare and get those issues worked out since we switched to this new uh communication system. So, as that becomes available and we can communicate how to do that, um we'll certainly do that so that all the students and parents uh can make those uh language selections and receive the messages in the language that they prefer. Can I ask a question? Um, does it does the system have the capability like I I realize a voicemail get a little wordy, but a
053lot of this is text messages. Could it send a message out in two languages if there's different family members with different comfort levels with the >> So, I I think the intent is to let um each person that's receiving a message get it in the language that they prefer, not that one phone number gets the message in two languages. We can ask that question. Um, I actually asked that question originally like maybe just send everything out in English plus whatever the home language is. Um, but it it's not set up that way. It's kind of a onetoone. Uh, as far as the length of the messages go, um, you might have seen in some cases that the uh, text message itself is limited to I think 150 characters or something like that and then it
054goes to a link. So the beginning of the if it's a longer text message, the beginning of the text message kind of gives you the flavor, then you have to click the link to see the remaining text. So um yeah, we're having some growing pains, but we'll get there. >> And if a voicemail is too long, it goes to delete. >> So um what you just said kind of answered my question. It was I know that from a computer science perspective that this is kind of a nightmare of an idea to implement what I'm going to suggest, but I know that I yeah I it's it's a very I really apologize if this is like a really like presumptuous suggestion, but I know that some websites have options where you can like translate on the
055spot from English to Korean or Chinese. And I was like about to suggest that, but as Mr. Mararyi you just mentioned right we're already working with the software department on this and there are like barriers to like what level of like software nightmare we can allow through like a platform like Gmail. So um I think that would be like an ideal solution but again there are limitations to it. Okay, now we will hit board forum. Um so each year the board does a self-evaluation and about a year ago um we had a discussion and we talked about the timing of the board self-evaluation and we decided it made more sense rather than doing it during the summer to do the board evaluation in the late fall so that at the start of the u new
056year after reorg we would set goals that we would have for the full year. So we just recently completed and compiled our self- evaluation and um I will read the goals that we had set um for you so you know when we're talking about them. So we had set three goals. The first was to work with the administration to facilitate an updated strategic plan. The second was to engage in professional development on the subject of board governance, the chain of command, communications, the role of the board and board policies and procedures. And the third was to collaborate with the administration to approve multi-year financial plans addressing enrollment trends, facilities, and staffing needs. So we we keep all of those goals in mind as we go through the self-evaluation and we are asked to um both
057rank and make comments on seven seven areas and they are vision and mission policy, accountability for student achievement, resource management and oversight, governments and team relations and accountabilities um and community leadership. And then the last section is on um individual members contributions. Um and I'm going to open it up to discussion. So I I mean I was very pleased to see um the feedback that we um all kind of were on the same page about about how we did this year. And um one thing we can keep in mind is goals are not necessarily um goals for just one year. And when we we decide upon um our goals going forward, we may want to look at some of the ones that we had and maybe tweak some of the wording just a little bit
058because a lot of these goals apply to um the direction that we're going to be going in the new in the new year. But I want to open it up to to all of you for your feedback and your comments. But I know it's it's the last meeting of the year and you're probably want to get out of here, but I really would appreciate if we could get some feedback. >> Brett, just really simply I after reading the whole evaluation, I was kind of pleased that yes, you're right. We're all on the same page. I also found some comfort in knowing that where we think need some areas of improvement, like we're all on the same page of that as well. So, I think it's going to be a nice cohesive way moving forward because
059we're in a lot of agreement on a lot of the basic items. And even though it's not bad, it's still it's nice that we're moving together as a whole and not very fragmented. >> And there's always room for improvement, which, you know, not that I I think you can never give yourself the highest score, but I think that there's always room for some improvement, so you always do want to leave a little bit for the next year. Anyone else? >> Could I just give a quick thank you to the board especially for the new um turf plan? Um so I have friends who are student athletes and if you have kids in high school, they may like complain a little bit of a having to park different um while construction is going on, but at
060the end of the day, those are a lot of temporary complaints in the long term. like student athletes have told me how grateful they are for the turf plan. Um, and I know that we have had meetings where like we had to readjust some of them. Um, I'm not into like the whole details of everything that happened um in terms of board discussions, but a lot of student athletes are grateful because you know if it wasn't renovated, it causes sports injuries. It's dangerous when teams come over to play in our school field. So, I just wanted to give a huge thank you for approving as well as adjusting that turf plan to community as well as student athlete needs. Thanks, MJ. And that goes right to one of our goals, which was, you know, to
061address facilities and that was a long time. We've been talking for years and years and years. So, that was a long time coming. I mean, I agree that I I was happy to see in the evaluation that a lot of people kind of coalesed on some of the things that we need to work on and some of the things that are going well. And I agree with what you said, Jen, about maybe tweaking the goals um because they're all important ones. Um the strategic plan, we did engage in the developing the strategic plan, but now we need to make sure that we're staying updated on how it's going and all the action items and stuff like that. So, maybe we could tweak that one, you know, to continue and the other two also. I wanted
062to um agree with with Robin and and Eugen that I think our our goals were very broad this year and they are they do tend to lend themselves to multi-year um work and I would like us to continue to to focus on those three goals. Anyone else have any other feedback? Um so you know we don't have to to vote on these um until the second is it the second meeting. So uh maybe it would be a good idea if you have some thoughts on how we could tweak these email them to to Nick and then um at our January reorg meeting we can circle back. Does that sound good? >> So we're thinking of keeping the second two and maybe just tweaking the first implementation of the strategic plan as opposed to developing a
063strategic plan. >> Correct. Correct. Okay. Um we have one last item. Um and that is for Nimish. We want to thank you. It is a volunteer position. There is no car or phone or paycheck. It is a volunteer position. Um and so thank you for your willingness to serve our community for the past three years. Um, this is for you. Pass it down. Does anyone else have anything they'd like to say? Yeah, it's it's been an absolute pleasure to serve with you the last three years. I think uh your consistent looking at data and asking asking tough questions has really been to the benefit of the district. We can see, you know, your contributions to facility and ops. I've learned a lot from working with you. Um, I think you're you're a critical mindset and
064I mean that in the best possible way, a critical thinker, look at things in a critical fashion. I think that's vital to a board of education. Um, we can't just be a board of yes people. We have to be a board of people who ask, who push, who dig, and that makes the administration better, too. So, thank you. And I think you did a great job up here. It's been a pleasure working with you. >> Yeah, I want to thank you also. Um, just to repeat what Jen said. This is a volunteer position. Nobody understands how much time and effort goes into this. So, thank you for that. And just to give a quick story about NIH, um it was a few um executive sessions ago where um I gave my opinion on a certain
065item and we voted on it and everyone disagreed with me. Afterwards, Nimish came up to me, walked up to me and said, "Dave, can you explain to me why you feel this way? I just want to understand why that is." And that goes to what who Nimish is. So, I just want to thank you for that. I just want to say Nimish, good luck. We'll miss you on the board. I've only known you for a year working, but it's been great and uh we've got to know each other on the facilities uh you know, meetings and you've done a really nice job. So, I wish you good luck and I know you're going to do well. Thank you, >> Ren. Yeah, of course. There's not much more to say to that except thank you. I
066don't think you realize until you're sitting up here and you run for the board and you serve on it just what a commitment it is. like to Dave's point, it's a lot of time that is for free and whenever someone does that, you have to respect that and thank you. You always brought a a unique perspective to everything you did and opened, I think, some people's eyes to some certain ways of looking at things, but again, it goes back to the commitment that that you've made. So, thank you for that. Thank you to everybody for your um kind words. I was debating whether or not to say a few final parting shots um but I will. So, just to say thank you. Um, three years ago, um, Basking Ridge voters gave me this privilege of
067being on this board and it has been just an immense learning opportunity opportunity for me. I am so grateful for that chance and it really has been a huge huge eye openening experience for me that I will not forget. I want to thank Mr. Mararyian and his team. They've always been very open for all the questions I ask. Always have a good answer and are always willing to listen and I have had a lot of questions over the last three years and they have entertained each one of them. So, thank you. Um, I want to thank all the teachers, advisers, and coaches. They are the ones who make this district as good as it is. And my intent is only only has been and only continue to will be to make this district better. I
068still have kids in this district for a few more years, but even after that, I do want to see this school district continue to excel. I want to thank my family. This was a team effort at home. They have put up with a lot and I needed their buyin initially three years ago when I started this. and I do want to thank them for living up to their part of the bargain for the last three years. Um, lastly, I want to encourage more people from our town to sit on the board. I think the board can be very accommodating. Even if you have a full-time job, again, Mr. Marker and and the other board members are very accommodating. I will tell you, you will learn a lot and it will be very rewarding. Um, it
069may be one of the best experiences I've had in the last few decades. So, um, nothing but regrets, uh, nothing but anything but regrets on on serving on the board. And again, just thank you to everybody. Thank you. And with that, I'd like to wish everybody a wonderful winter break and we will see you back in the new year. Happy holidays. And can I get a motion to go out? Smearly and Dave.