001uh good afternoon and welcome to the monday may 9th 2022 hillsborough township board of education meeting in accordance with the state's online sunshine law of new jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the hillsborough township board of education was provided on may 5th 2022 to the hillsborough beacon and courier news uh we could please take roll mr gillette here miss jackson here mr kidd here miss landing theater here miss nurse here mr oliver here mr roo here ms trujeo here and mr mourinho here we have a quorum uh and just for clarification uh mr roo was sworn in around 5 30 today correct so 5 30. he has officially been sworn in and he is at the dais um so uh for next piece i will now accept the motion to move into executive session
002so move and then second all right all in favor all right we're now an executive thank you whereas the open public meeting act chapter 231 of the laws of 1975 provide that a public body may exclude the public from the portion of that meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required is permitted in section 7b of the act resolved by the board of education of the tower of hillsborough and the county of somerset in the state of new jersey as follows one the matters to be discussed on negotiations with the hillsborough education association uh personnel matters including a recommendation for the director of buildings and grounds professional services to conduct interviews of law firms and a review of vendors for superintendent's search and two the matters discussed in executive
003session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidential confidentiality no longer exists i'll do that again a motion a second knowing now what we're discussing so moved second all in favor aye aye we are now an executive session thank you uh welcome back to the monday may 9 2022 hillsboro township board of education meeting uh we are back from executive session and we will stand for the pledge of allegiance of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right i'd like to acknowledge the correspondences listed and we will move on to committee reports and we have two really quick items uh we'll start with uh mr kid uh we just an email um voted and approved to recommend to
004the board the last of the uh of the four um summer reading choice books okay thank you mr kid uh and uh mr oliver a quick hr update hr committee met to review a personnel matter and we have a agenda item for tonight to appoint and then fill a vacancy all right thank you very much any questions on the board about the committee reports no okay great all right we will now move on to the board president's report and the there's two items on my report for this week uh the first one is we'd like to welcome mr roo who's been uh sworn in as of today [Applause] and and much less important um just kidding uh we are going to i'm going to read a proclamation hillsborough county board of education may 9 2022
005whereas the hillsborough township public schools has been fortunate to have mr gregory gillette as a dedicated board member for 15 years whereas mr gillette has served as president and vice president of the board of education and whereas mr gillette has served as chairperson on committees of the board of education and whereas mr gillette has served as a committee member on committees of the board of education whereas the board wishes to thank mr gillette for his dedicated service to the hillsborough community now therefore be it resolved that the members of the hillsborough board of education and hillsborough township public schools recognize and appreciate mr gillette's 15 years of service on the hillsborough township board of education congratulations mr gillette [Applause] uh totally unexpected although i do probably tell people how long i've been on here probably
006every other meeting if not every meeting so i'm not totally unexpected but thank you very much i really i really appreciate it and um i'm going to say something more um like i think next month um but for tonight i'd just say boy this has really changed in 15 years but i'm i'm glad i've been here to experience the changes as they are but thank you very much paul thank you boyd thank you all right i would like to open up to the board if they wanted to say anything about mr gillette i'll see if anybody has any comments no please so i was going to say something nice about greg but that that silence you're here now i'm teasing um mr president i'd like to take just a 10 minute recess just to let
007everybody celebrate and have a little bit of cake major milestone for mr gillette the residents of this town thank you i know how hard it is it's a very thankless job and i think the school district is a better place because of your hard work so i want to i want to thank you but i'd like everyone to just take it 10 minutes before we do that we'll let everybody make their comments and embarrass him if need be i don't know if anybody else we need his wife here to embarrass himself anybody else anything i appreciate mr jeff for making sure our executive sessions uh fulfill their full time [Laughter] sorry about that and listen this is my second year on the board and i didn't know what to think of this guy when i
008first joined but um always well thought out things through his opinions and everything and and i respect the hell of you so i really appreciate your time on the board thank you mr trujillo so i didn't have anything prepared to speak about mr gillette so i just want to thank him he was board president on my first year on the board in 2017 which i appreciated learning from him he allowed me to go to school board's delegate assembly so i appreciated that and when i had asked to participate on some committees when there was a vacancy he allowed that so he was very generous with um with that so i appreciate that and also just learning from him on operations committee which is one of the committees that i really enjoyed being on and learning
009from him about finance so i appreciate that and on thursday actually somerset county will be having school boards association meeting where we will be recognizing mr gillette for his 15 years on the district so if anybody's able to make it please join me awesome all right and uh we're going to take a quick five minute recess to have some cupcakes because it's very exciting stuff and if you want you just throw them mr gillette um oh we'll come back here is that for you yeah all right so we'll come back in five minutes all in favor aye aye thank you we'll be back foreign uh 15 years i mean you know hello that concludes the board president's report so congratulations again mr gillette all right we'll move on to the acting superintendent's report okay thank
010you mr marini and i extend my congratulations to uh mr gillette we're very honored to have his service here so thank you i have two presentations for tonight the first one uh will be the student safety data system ssds report for september through december there's two times a year that we have to give these reports and i'm going to invite um jessica smedley our director of school counseling up to the podium to walk us through the report good evening everybody [Music] so this is available as an attachment for anyone who's watching from home so we report twice a year the student safety data system report which also includes our harassment intimidation and bullying report so this represents data from uh which we call reporting period one which is a little bit confusing it's the first
011half of the school year it well it's the first 40 of the school year it is the second part of the calendar year so reporting period one is september 1 to december 31st and um you can see our numbers up there this also includes um which if anyone was watching and paying attention the last time i was up here we also talked about the trainings completed that's for head prevention and awareness and the programs completed so trainings completed is for our staff both and our related service providers programs completed our programs for students so that would be assemblies character education programs and other classroom lessons and programs in the school so we have higher numbers in most of our schools there because we have violence awareness week in october and several of our schools do
012the character education assemblies we're still a little behind where we were pre-coveted because in the fall we were not having any assemblies we were still on our no visitors policies so we'll see those increase and then the only other piece of data i wanted to draw your attention to just because there's not a whole lot of explanation there are other incidents leading to removal so in both our middle school and our high school you see that number is a little bit a little bit elevated certainly from where we were when we only had about 50 of our students attending in person last year so year to year that is a little bit of an increase that is a duplicated count which means that those numbers can be um those are the number of days so
013incidents are days and so when one student has an issue more than once that can be that can be included so that is not a an unduplicated count and that is primarily consists of in-school suspension so at the high school um students who do not report to saturday detention for an initial incident are assigned in some cases and in school suspension so it looks as if that's an additional incident it's really just trying to catch up with them for an initial incident so i don't know if anyone has questions but that's really it pretty straightforward okay all right great thank you thank you thank you very much all right so the next presentation is the 2020 2021 school performance reports and this is a presentation that we are required to give by the state [Music]
014this information is public all the school performance report data is public and can be found on njschooldata.org i do want to alert the public that the data in the summary reports are limited for 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of covid19 and i'll explain that a little bit more as we go through the presentation so after this presentation tonight the presentation itself will be posted on the district website on the curriculum and instruction page coven 19 significantly impacted the state's ability to measure school performance and student achievement during the 2020-2021 school year therefore some of the data is tip that is typically reported is not available the njdoe the board of education in the district recognized that our existing data can't be begin to measure the hard work and perseverance of the students families
015educators and community members during these difficult two years the school performance reports typically include data for the categories listed in this slide the asterisks indicate the data that will not be available and will not be reported in this presentation and the exclamation point exclamation mark indicates that data is available but some of the data is not maybe impacted as a result of cobit 19. and as we go through that will become apparent the new jersey student learning assessment njsla was cancelled in the spring of 2020 in the fall of 2012 spring of 2020 in the spring of 2021 as a result statewide assessment data is not available and subsequently student growth percentiles were not calculated for the 1920 and the 2021 school years the requirement to calculate indicator scores summative scores and progress towards long-term
016goals and interim progress was weighed both for 1920 and the 2021 school years and this data will not be available in the 2020-2021 report the 2020 2021 reports include changes that respond to stakeholder feedback updated federal and state requirements and the coven 19 pandemic these changes include new career and college readiness data including advanced placement and dual enrollment participation by student group and work based learning participation expanded staff data including staff counseling information about teachers by subject areas as requested by stakeholders new apprenticeship data that shows how many students register in apprenticeship programs after high school graduation and links to additional data such as start strong assessment results and opportunity to learn data which includes information about learning environments and device data in the 2020-2021 school year this table shows the percentage of students by
017student group for the past three school years enrollment data reflects enrollment reported at the end of the school year and only includes students attending the school students that attend programs outside of the district are not included in enrollment counts and percentages in the 2020-2021 school year data reflects that students disenrolled to be home schooled during the pandemic these graphs are supposed to illustrate trends in student growth over the last three years student growth is measured by median student growth percentile the table is supposed to show us how student growth over the last three years compared to the statewide medium due to the fact that we didn't have 2020 and 2021 data student growth percentiles were not calculated so the only data point we have left is the 1819 data these graphs are supposed to show
018trends in the proficiency rate for federal accountability over the last three years and shows the percentage of students that met or exceeded expectations on assessments the expectation is that a minimum of 95 percent of the students participate but again due to the cancellation of the assessments in both 2020 and 2021 there is no data except for the 1819 data link benchmark assessments were given in 2020 2021 to help measure and support student learning three benchmarks were administered over the year and growth was calculated at the end of the year global benchmark information was used to adjust pacing in ela and math as well as for discussions surrounding learning acceleration this year individual student benchmark information was used to identify students in need of additional support such as response to intervention services and wrap around services
019being offered with the use of ssr funding this year graduation rates are calculated using the adjusted cohort graduation rate calculation which all states are required to use a student is counted as a graduate in a given school year if they earn a state endorsed diploma by august 31st a state endorsed diploma is awarded to students who meet both course requirements and graduation assessment requirements governor phil murphy signed executive order 214 on january 11 2021 which waived the graduation assessment required requirement for any 12th grade student who had not yet met the graduation assessment requirements but had met all the credit curriculum and attendance requirements for graduation these graphs show four and five-year adjusted cohort cohort graduation rates for the most recent three cohorts of students these charts and tables are based on the state graduation
020rate which reflects all students who receive a state endorsed diploma the table shows our student graduation rate is higher than the statewide graduation rate this table shows the federal version of the 2021 four-year and 2020 five-year graduation rates beginning in 2021 that new jersey department of ed was required by the united states department of ed federal refor federal performance review report to make changes to graduation rate calculations used for federal reporting and accountability for 2021 students with disabilities whose iep includes a modification or exemption from meeting either the state course requirements and or attendance requirements for graduation were not included in the graduates count when calculating the federal version of the adjusted cohort rate it's important to note that these changes um are changes only in how graduation rates are calculated for federal reporting and
021accountability and not how diplomas are actually earned this table shows the percentage of cohort 2021 graduates who met the high school graduation assessment requirements through each type of graduation pathway for both english language arts and math the goal is for as many students as possible to meet the graduation requirements using the statewide assessments this table shows that we are indeed above the state percentage for students successfully meeting the graduation requirements using the statewide assessment and below the state percentage for the alternative assessment pathways which is where we want to be oh important to note according to the executive order 24 2014 which weighed the graduation assessment requirements for the 12th grade students who had met all but the graduation assessment requirements on this table there is now a requirements waived under executive order 214 to
022account for these students student absences provide information about a school's culture and climate and research shows that absences impact a student's ability to succeed in school chronic absenteeism is defined as being absent for 10 or more days enrolled during the school year a student who is not present for any reason whether excused unexcused or for disciplinary action is considered absent unless permitted by state statute or regulations due to a federal waiver the department of ed did not report chronic absenteeism in the 1920 reports but this data was added back in the 2021 reports this graph shows the percentage of students by grade level who are chronically absent during the school year it's important to note for 2021 because the number of days that students spent in person in remote learning environments during the school year
023differed the state level comparisons are not included on this graph teacher diversity improves outcome for all students this table and graph both show that there is greater student diversity in classrooms than teacher diversity in schools across the state this table and graph both show that there is great greater student diversity in our classrooms than teacher diversity in our schools we are continuing our efforts to increase the diversity of our teaching force the college and career readiness table shows the percentage of our students compared to the state who followed various college and career readiness indicators we have a greater percentage of students taking the sat act and ap courses than the state and in 2020 we had a lower percentage of students enrolled in dual enrollment than the state but over the last several years we
024have increased the number of courses and students who participate in our dual enrollment courses the sealap by literacy identifies graduating high school students who are able to demonstrate proficiency in english in addition to one or more languages the college and career readiness section includes participation in visual and performing arts coursework for students in grades 6 through 12. in grades 6 through 8 students cycle through related arts and in the high school these courses become electives we do not have a dance or a drama program at the middle or the high school levels this table shows the number of incidents reported by type the last row shows the rate of incidence for every 100 students are enrolled the a single incident may be counted under multiple incident types the total unique incidence row provides an unduplicated
025account of incidents to provide for student safety the building is secured throughout the day visitors when allowed must sign in upon entry and will be stopped at various points throughout the building to check for visitors passes students and staff are trained annually on the standard response protocol for lockouts lockdowns evacuations and shelter-in-place scenarios drills in these areas as well as fire drills are conducted monthly and the entire school population plays an active role in preserving the safety of the school community this table shows the number of students in full day and half day pre-k and kindergarten programs for the past three school years as you know we have half-day programs in hillsboro our full-day programs are found in our title 1 schools as service to our most at-risk students for early intervention covid19 has impacted
026enrollment due to some parents disenrolling their child from public school this table shows ratios of students and staff members in the district compared to the state numbers in green indicate we have a better ratio than the state and numbers in red indicate we have a worse ratio than the state the data indicate that we have fewer administrators nurses and child study team members compared to the state child study team members include school psychologists school social workers and learning disabilities teacher consultants the ratio ratio for the child study team compares students with disabilities instead of all students this table shows the percentage of 2020 high school graduates enrolled in post-secondary institutions by the fall of 2021 in the racial groups with a large enough sample size a greater percentage of hillsborough students enroll in colleges and
027universities than students across the state the national student clearinghouse has reported declines in undergraduate enrollment as a result of the covet 19 pandemic as a result cautions should be used in comparing this year's results to prior or future years and here are some additional resources if you would like further information and then i just have a couple of things to say i need some water i'm sorry all right so now on to some of the celebratory uh things that have happened across the district at the hillsborough middle school i am proud to recognize nine of our middle school students who were nominated for this year's paul robeson youth achievement award the paul robeson institute for ethics leadership and social justice at raritan valley community college honors new jersey's african-american students who have demonstrated outstanding academic
028achievement and distinguished accomplishments in the area of community service athletics the arts or all three in the tradition of new jer new jersey native paul robeson congratulations to elekim akalotz taylor daniels george dupern daniel hall miles jackson amaya muhammad timmy olukoya gianna seeley summersmith and addison whitney also at the middle school our middle school students are rocking it these last couple of months um with the odyssey of the mind dr tebowski shared that the middle school odyssey of the mind team number three recently placed at the state competition in princeton on april 9th and have advanced to represent new jersey at the international odyssey of the mind competition in iowa this month the students will compete by presenting a creative music-based skit about a historical figure and event congratulate congratulations to kavya namala kenti shreya
029nemala kenti samyuthka anath rishika supreme subramanian and annika aurora good luck to the team and their coach ms brittany hamilton [Applause] mr chris ireland super fine arts recently shared that all three of our choir students who auditioned for the new jersey all-state course were selected congratulations to gabriella albanese who placed in the top percentile from her voice part placing her in the mixed ensemble eliana bice and vanya medina will represent the high school choir in the treble ensemble this is an exciting opportunity for the students they will perform in atlantic city in november and february and also in a theater two of our high school theater students have been appointed to the new jersey state thespian board sam soybell has been appointed to serve as an officer one of only 13 students statewide serving such
030a role sam will serve as a liaison to the international thespian society and fundraise for theater scholarships grants and theater initiatives like broadway cares equity fights for aids danny biandi has been appointed to serve as a thespian festival organizer one of only seven students statewide to receive this designation danny will work to plan and develop events and festivals that celebrate theater throughout new jersey [Applause] congratulations to hillsborough high school staff and advisor english teacher michelle barkin who were honored by the garden state scholastic press association for their 2021 yearbook during the virtual fall conference in november 2021. the staff earned a rating of all new jersey diamond for the full color student design 2021 yearbook one of only three books securing a diamond rating from the garden state scholastic press association ramrod's achievement is the
031first time in the program's history that the yearbook has earned top honors in the state ramrod was also honored as a gold medalist at the columbia scholastic press association's spring convention and awards assembly held virtually on march 18 2022 [Applause] congratulations to school social studies teacher bob fenster who was selected as one of only five teachers to be inducted into the national teachers hall of fame this year mr fenster will become a member of the class of 2022 um 30th induction class thank you for all you do for your students and congratulations on this wonderful accomplishment [Applause] i would like to give a shout out to all of our students and staff as i share that hillsborough high school was named in the top 100 high schools in new jersey by u.s news and world
032report our ranking this year is 71 out of 100 up from a ranking of 98 out of 100 last year if you haven't had a chance please plan on visiting the 2022 district art show in the township municipal complex the exhibit will run through may 27th and highlights the amazing artwork of our elementary intermediate middle and high school students and we are seeing an uptick in copen 19 positive cases in hillsborough and across the county the somerset county superintendents were texting about the increase in the number of cases and the local department of health reached out regarding the numbers in some of our classrooms as well as the njdoe released a broadcast today reminding school districts that when the cobit 19 level of community transmission is high or orange the njdoe strongly encourages school districts
033to consider universal masking for all students and staff while we are in the moderate level of community transmission which is yellow if multiple positive coping 19 cases are identified in the same classroom we will be advising parents that they may want to have their children wear masks in school as per my march school messenger regarding the lifting of the mask mandate masks will be required to be worn during periods of elevated community transmission meaning when covet 19 activity level or the calorie index is high which is orange or very high which is red or during an active outbreak when we will consult with our local health department as to whether or not short-term universal masking or masking in the affected classrooms should be required to control the outbreak or the increase in cases i'm asking
034that we all remain vigilant in screening for covet-like symptoms and to stay home if sick to prevent transmission or an outbreak in schools and the need to return to universal masking and that concludes my superintendent's report are you sure all right thank you for that dr valtry all right uh we will open up uh comments from the board slash public public input on the action agenda i'll read the following we very much welcome input from the public during board meetings there will be two 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be open for public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they are attending in person during the first public comment period members of the public may comment about items that are listed on tonight's agenda
035before the board votes during the second public comment period members of the public may comment on any school or school board school district issue that i remember the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district pro bylaws0167 before you state your comment you'll be asked to provide your name and address and the agenda item that you're speaking up for the first session there'll be a three minute limit on public comment please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board this is where the board believes there is a misunderstanding or an accuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment there may be times when a member of the public makes a comment
036or asked a question about personnel or hiring decisions kindly note that the open public meetings act and the privacy rights of public employees encompass therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session does anyone have any public comments on the action agenda hi good evening stephania lockwood's 12 29 millstone river road i'm addressing the report that ms smedley just did 8.1 is that an appropriate time um it's not on the action agenda but sure you can go ahead um so the last time ms medley did one of these set before the superintendent that are different stores for outside service providers such as bus drivers but contractors don't provide sufficient hiv training i know it's been a while but i remember nearby starting here the main result in the fighters well that's
037required building more than one tragedy it happens in so many opportunities that the bus at paris that nobody wants to drive i'm sorry has that been off this whole time we heard you well okay but did the record were you getting it okay let me start over mr mourinho please sure thank you hi stephanie lockwoods millstone river road um on the last time this medley was here it was january 28th or so she specifically noted to the board and dr felter this is part of the report that she did tonight same report that our district scores for outside service providers such as bus drivers were lower than they could be because our contractors don't provide sufficient hiv training i know it's been a while but i remember neil's bus had an issue at the start
038of the year that may have resulted in a driver change there's more than one driver change no one at first student wants to drive this bus no one this is the bus that shows up late this is the bus that has had mr jensen and mrs batista on it multiple times and this is the bus that on friday of last week a substitute driver accused my child who exists i promise you of using a racial slur [Music] on a bus that was already supposed to be recorded at the request of the iris administration would you know that this substitute bus driver got a bus that the camera wasn't working and today ms medley is here again presenting another presentation about our hiv reports and scores etc and i guarantee you that if we were to
039go ahead and look at that same report for the bus drivers and outside contractors we will find that there has been zero change and i fully expected the board will make sure that the contracts are negotiated with all providers including those who may have particularly close relationships and make decisions that don't reflect well on the board such as mr valcek if you recall having that in the first place the football team little parade thing please make sure that all vendors are aware of this and the formal hiv investigation request for my child will be filed tomorrow and i cannot believe that i am sitting here having to tell you this when you have someone who i know personally is really darn good at her job and has been telling you it in writing thank you
040for your comment uh alicia gaber bayless hufflin um uh this is for your uh 12.10 which is bywall zero one four three about the board member election and appointment um i had sent in some emails uh before and i'm imagining that when you did revise the wording for this you also consulted with the lawyer but i just wanted to point out and i believe that the intent is to have all of the talks and discussions regarding the new board members um be more in public and so that things could not be really just done behind doors in uh during executive session so i just wanted to point out that based on the exact wording of it it's in considering candidates who have expressed interest in vacancy the board of education may not shall but may
041interview pub candidates in public or give them an opportunity to speak publicly about the candidacy so technically you may do that but you don't have to do either one so i just hope that in the future if you do adopt this particular wording that you will do one or both of those also tonight i believe i heard that you wanted to hear from the public before you voted on some of these items in this bylaw i do not believe it allows for the public to make comments after the board members um have spoken um and i understand that it might people might go on for a bit but if you cap it at 30 minutes or so it might be nice to give the public a chance to reflect on what they just heard because
042most likely it sounds as though it's it's great that you're going to be listing the names now but um because that never happened in the recent past um but it unless you post their information or a patch article does a quick thing about them the board the people don't know much about these people unless they know them personally already um and so after hearing we had 10 out of the 12 i believe speak at the last open period it might be nice to hear from the public to see what they have to say even though i realize that very few people come to these meetings and the board may or may not be swayed because i know that you get the information ahead of time it's just something to consider and thank you so much
043for your time bye thank you for coming uh any other comment on the action agenda okay seeing none i will move to the consumer attendant okay agenda so the acting superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the education agenda as follows 10.1 through 10.6 motion to approve professional travel related expenses motion to approve fiction and non-fiction books motion to affirm the superintendent's harassment harassment intimidation and bullying hiv determination for the attached cases motion to approve submission of the new jersey schools insurance group safety grant application motion to approve submission and acceptance of the american rescue plan homeless 2 grant and motion to approve affiliation agreement with stockton university can i get a motion in a second so moved second any discussion by the board miss jackson yeah um the uh motion to approve fiction
044and non-fiction books i just want to circle back on the um the knife of never letting go are we still going to discuss the disclaimer i believe the disclaimer is up to um administrative um that that's up to administrative um and and the teachers to do that but i don't think we have the ability to enforce as a policy disclaimer but we've never done disclaimer disclaimers for books that have that have things of that nature previously so um yeah i mean it's it's come to the board for approval so give you an option to vote separately on that item if you don't want to approve it if you want i can pull out uh 10.2 thank you sure um is there information about why there's a disclaimer so we we discussed in the education committee
045that there were some incidents of graphic violence within that book the book had a disclaimer on its review so we we discussed in education while we we feel that the recommendation was still there that a teacher should just use some sensitivity to make sure that the student is able to handle that right so just a little and that was the recommendation that was made by many of the reviews in there so in the education committee we think not unanimous but we had agreed that it was an appropriate book but that disclaimer should you know just just be taken to heart okay all right so we will any other comments on the action agenda sure go ahead um just um the stockton university what is um this is a general agreement yes okay can you just
046uh explain what types of studies we engage in with stockton say again what what types of studies we engage in with stockton um i believe that this agreement jerry you were the one who saw but isn't this an agreement for um student teaching and whatnot yes i think that is what it is yes so it's not research studies or anything like that thank you all right uh so with that we'll take a roll on 10 1 10 3 10 4 10 5 and 10 6 and we'll remove 10.2 the first vote mr gillette yes mr jackson yes mr kidd yes mrs lammy beater yes miss nurse yes mr oliver yes mr liu yes mr heyo yes and mr randy yes motion passes and now for 10.2 mr gillette do we need separate motion uh i
047think we did several motions for 10-10 all right any discussion specifically on 10.2 before we moved to vote i know we had some so i just want to understand miss jackson's um so you did this this book you read some reviews i read the book i read the book yeah but you didn't reviews i read the reviews on it and there was reference to um the violence that mr oliver had mentioned um and i subsequently read the book after the education meeting and so i still have objection to the content did someone did you did someone provide like a warning label for this book that we were saying so so and you didn't in john in education you didn't so you guys you didn't come up with your you didn't write out your own warning
048for it no no so so you know we we obviously researched the books that were before it there was um it is the only only fiction book that's on the summer reading agenda the the reviews on it were that there is graphic violence in the book um but it it's used to tell the story although some of the reviews said the the violence was a little too graphic and it just had you know the recommendation that if it was a sensitive student teachers should use caution in allowing them to pick that book so you know i i kind of followed suit with that and i think it's an appropriate book but i think if teachers just use some caution um and they see a student that may be sensitive to that type um encourage them
049to pick another book so this is an optional optional rating that's the summary so we could put the disclaimer on the website under the summary that this is so it goes with a list yeah it's right it's the summer reading this is the the march madness where the students at the high school pick the books that they want to read so ken so so if we had like just a commitment from administration to put you know contains graphic violence or something whatever or however you want to do it on there i think i have no problem voting for you know yes for it it's 9-12 so that you know that doesn't bother me so much um but you know i don't know if look seriously our only way to to prevent that is just to
050vote no on the book but i i don't think we need to know on the book so uh miss landing i just wanted to clarify um all of the books through the march madness came at the suggestion of both students and teachers correct so media specialists yes but so all the books were recommended not just by students but also by our staff and and the reviews on the book outside of that were all strongly you know that it is a very well written book and provides many opportunities for discussion um so i just wanted to point that out as well thank you ms lenninger any other comments before we move to rome so is there a commitment for a disclaimer then yeah we could put that on the website okay i thought that was what
051we had agreed to during a church that built my understanding as well thank you mr kid yeah okay okay all right so we will move to roll thank you mr gillette yes miss jackson yes mr kidd yes miss lam and beater yes this nurse yes mr oliver yes mr roo miss trujillo yes and mr marine yes motion passes the acting superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the human resources agenda as follows 11.1 through 11.15 motion to approve resolution motion to approve retirements and resignations motion to approve contract change motion to approve revised means of absence motion to approve leaves of absence motion to approve mentor for 2021-2022 motion to approve appointments 2021 2022 motion to approve appointments 2022 2023 motion to approve transfer change in assignment 2022 2023 motion to approve renewal of
052non-tenured certificated staff 2022 2023 motion to approve renewal of non-tenured hpsa staff 2022-2023 motion to approve the renewal of non-tenured unaffiliated administrators 2022-2023 motion to approve summer athletic camp coaches for 2022 motion to approve sixth and senate period coverage and motion to approve extra coverage can i get a motion in a second all right any discussion about the board on the agenda seeing none we'll move through mr gillette yes mr jackson yes mr kidd yes mr lama peter yes miss nurse yes mr oliver yes mr roo yes mr heyo yes and mr mourinho yes motion passes the acting superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the operation agenda as follows 12.1 through 1211 motion to approve monthly financials motion to approve line item transfers motion to approve financial status motion to approve sodexo food
053services management contract renewal for 2022-2023 school year motion to approve 2022 2023 cafeteria lunch prices motion to approve proposal for replacement of upper weight and gym floor due to water damage motion to approve the sale disposal of obsolete athletic equipment motion to approve out of district placement motion to approve resolution to ratify the agreement between the hillsborough township board of education and the hillsborough education association july 1 2022 to june 30th 2025 and motion to accept donations oh what did i miss motion to approve bylaw for second rating apologize for that bottom of the page all right can i get a uh motion in a second some move second all right any discussion by the board mr gillette yes so uh i'd like to talk about the bylaws just for a second uh so the
054the bylaw um when we had the recent um opening we the board and we went to the bylaw to um guide us in uh selecting a person to fill that vacancy we recognized that the bylaw was uh deficient in a few ways we wanted to just tighten up make sure that it followed our practice but also uh follow law and there's some things that you're prohibited from doing by law i don't think we're prohibited from interviewing candidates in pr in closed session in private so we wanted to make sure that that was in there that if we were going to interview them all they would be in public we wanted to make sure that that was in there but there's another interesting aspect of this and miss gabriel bayless mentioned this uh when she was
055at the podium a while ago um public comments on candidates and and it was it it was my belief anyway or made by maybe it's only my present belief that the reason we deliberate about candidates in executive session in private it's the same reason why we are disinclined to permit public comment on candidates in public it's because they're not public put people yet um and i don't i i think it would it it'd make it very uncomfortable for for candidates to be spoken about by a bunch of people in public and um you know and possibly um have their flaws point out or whatever it might be i mean i we we we deliberated about the candidates in executive session for a reason and i think that reason is consistent with not not having public
056comment on the candidates uh you know conversely i mean you may have a candidate have uh tenure friends lined up quickly and give campaign speeches for them for the whole 30 minutes we allotted 30 minutes we might have that also on the other side of it that was my reasoning behind um behind the going doing it this way i don't think we could ask mr fogely but i don't think we're prohibited from allowing public comment on prospective candidates before we vote on them i don't think that's prohibited right mr gillette it's not prohibited the first distinction that you made is accurate which is that the interviews of the candidates should take place in public so that the public has an opportunity to hear their responses to the questions that the board members may be asking
057in the presentations that they're making the deliberations are done in executive session similar to deliberations with regard to any other personnel matters in order to protect their privacy rights beyond that it's within the board's discretion as to whether or not you're going to allow public participation with regard to the selection process all right so i i just so you'll understand i think that was the reasoning of the thing of operations committee when we went through it i think that it just mirrors um what we do we look uh so i'm okay with it like this perhaps we can revisit it if we if we feel differently in the future but i'm good with it like it like it stands now you know i'll just add i i responded to miss gabrieles in the email with
058that same point we did seriously consider this debate changes for a good 15 20 minutes on which way we're going to go with the wording and very specific on that point for the points that mr gillette uh pointed out and 15 years of experience deserving well mr john all right is there any other comments on board i was just going to ask are you planning to share with the public the aga negotiations information or will that be after that as a summary yeah i think it'll be a summary are you are you are you asking about the terms of the aha agreement that's correct i mean i know the board understands what that is but for the public mr president you want me to review that please do so the board and the hillsborough education
059association have reached an agreement a three-year agreement uh uh which as the acting superintendent indicated uh will be effective july first 2022 and will continue uh through june 30th of 2025. there will be an increase in the salaries inclusive of increment and longevity increment is the movement on the salary guide and longevity is the amount of money that individuals are paid based on their length of service in the school district and in each of the three years of the successor agreement uh the total the total percentage will be three percent which will include all of those components uh in addition to the salary guides in the contract there is also uh there are also salary guides for extracurricular and athletics there will be no increase in year one uh there will be an increase in
060uh in year two or three percent and uh there will be no increase in year three that uh that amount will remain uh the same um there was the incorporation of a sidebar agreement with regard to six period assignments and there were another a number of other changes that were not substantive but were really stylistic in terms of changing pronouns correcting titles uh uh to specific uh positions and uh uh correcting uh the designation to the elementary middle uh uh uh and and high schools and the intermediate school uh uh and uh beyond that uh all of the other terms of the contract shall remain the same the salary guides were approved by new jersey school boards a determination was made that the by that analysis that the salary guys maintain a very good structure
061and place both the um the board and the association in a good position when they negotiate their next contract three years from now all right very simple process especially as compared to the last time we went through this so very pleased we were able to do this quickly and painlessly all right we will move uh to roll mr gillette yes miss jackson yes mr kid yes mr leonard yes ms nurse yes mr oliver yes mr roo yes mr hale yes and mr mourinho yes motion passes all right we will now move on to the second public comment period we very much welcome a group of the public during board meetings will be two 30-minute periods of time that the meeting will be able to public comment where members of the public are invited to comment
062which they may do if they are attending in person during the second public comment period members of the public may comment on any school or school district issue that a member of the public feels may be of concern to the residents of the school district escrow biolog0167 before you state your comment you will be asked to provide your name and address there's a three minute limit on public comment please understand that our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions rather offer as opportunities to share your thoughts with ward instances where the board believes there is a misunderstanding or an accuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment there may be times when a member of the public makes comment or has a question about personnel or hiring decisions please note
063through the open public meetings act the privacy rights of public employees accomplished therein do not permit the board to discuss personnel issues in public session please join us good evening my name is joyce eldridge howard 75 weber avenue i'm speaking tonight because i must respond to comments made at the last meeting by a hillsborough resident who i was hoping she'd be here tonight uh first having been an educator at all levels for most of my life i know one thing to be true never politicize teaching and learning there are too many people not aware of curriculum guidelines and state requirements especially when it comes to the teaching of history and social studies commonly known as the dei diversity equity and inclusion new jersey school districts are moving to recognize the integral part of african americans
064that african-americans have played in every tournament in this nation's history the amistad bill a 1301 which became law in 2002 calls on the new jersey schools to incorporate african african-american history into their social studies curriculum however a recently approved state law requires each school district in new jersey to incorporate instruction on diversity and inclusion into an appropriate place in the curriculum for kindergarten to grades 12 for students starting in the 2021-2022 school year the ward approved sanctions approved curriculum outlined by the department of education now this legislation also created the amistad commission a 23-member body charged with ensuring that african-american history contributions and experiences are adequately taught in the state's classrooms no no it's not crt it is the real story of our country's history sadly i didn't begin to learn about our country's uh
065history until i was in college and maybe we don't all see diversity in some neighborhoods and schools however once the students attend middle school high school and college or whatever position or job they choose this is the real world that the children and young adults will live in for example i was always told that columbus discovered america and i quote it would be more accurate perhaps to say that he introduced the americans to western europe during the four wages to the region between 1492 and 1502 it's also safe to say that he paved the way from a massive influx of western europeans that would ultimately form several new nations including the united states canada and mexico how can we discover a place where native americans and asians and other people were already here when his
066men arrived i won't go any further over this conversation at this time um but last week's comment shook me i don't i i don't know if you were looking but i was at the end of my seat and it upset me so tonight i i think to be i'm concerned and i love i'm educated i'm a true educator and when i heard it i i just had to say something not tonight uh hillsboro is not the only town thank you we were way over the time limit i only have a few more questions thank you hillsborough is not the only town districts are engaging in this process throughout the state and it's time for all of us to face reality and get to know each other you may find that we have more in common
067than you think thank you thank you james stats 101 governor charles court i just want to extend my congratulations to mr july 4th 15 years on the board of education um which is equivalent to 105 years in dog years so do what that what you want um uh but i appreciate all the help he gave me while i was on the board especially when i was on operations um his depth of knowledge and uh information and uh you know he really was sincerely invested in being informed about everything that had to do with operations and finances and was pretty patient in explaining things to me um so thank you for your service for our students and our our district thank you thank you for coming okay good evening henry goodhue hillsboro education association um i
068know that the action agenda has passed but i just do want to speak to an item that was on there um there's under the retirements and resignations there's a number of losses to this district um significant ones both programmatically and those that are just to the core of who this district is some of which are for reasons that are happy ones and some of which are for reasons that are not and for those second ones i hope that the board will truly consider some of those reasons or at least seek to understand them better um and determine why some people who would not previously have left left but on a far happier note i want to recognize james cox also known as mr jim who has been with the district since he has been an
069integral part of the hillsborough education association pretty much his entire time here serving as an officer our head custodial rep and pretty much an always on our negotiations team much of the rights that our members enjoy have been protected or obtained through the work of mr cox and as you can see from his service he has absolutely just been a cornerstone of our schools and he will be very difficult to replace he will be sorely missed um i think both within the schools and by our association but i do say i wish him all the very best even though i did try to change the light the year of his retirement to 2045 and he caught me on that um but mr cox has been an absolute amazing uh amazing person within our buildings within
070our schools and even to me as a president of the association i've learned greatly from him so i would just like to publicly recognize his service and thank him for that so thank you thank you my name is tiffany neal and i'm at six cedar hill terrace thank you to the board for your committee work to explore healthy school hours for hillsboro students as you know extensive research shows that starting both middle and high school at 8 30 a.m or later improves mental health physical health and academic achievement among teenagers by starting hillsborough high school too early we are currently preventing teens from getting the 8-10 hours of sleep they need to be healthy happy and successful in case you want a visual on why we need healthy school hours check out the instagram borough.sleeping
071that i came across recently it shows photos of hill girl students asleep in school the account had 148 posts just between november and january as mr mourinho said at a recent board meeting we need to start planning now to be able to start healthy school hours by the fall of 2023. the boe and administration should be working on all angles of this important issue including scheduling transportation and communication with families i know that change is tough and later start times will be hard for some families please remember that current start times are hard for other families there are such a variety of parent work schedules and family responsibilities that we will not be able to satisfy everyone with any schedule including the status quo therefore we should let student wellness and academics be our guide
072and move to healthy school hours for our kids as a reminder every year that we fail to act is hurting hillsboro students thank you for your attention to this issue and i look forward to hearing updates about your progress in the coming weeks thank you for your comment hello everyone my name is anna chung and i live in five title court i am a parent of the second grader who is in the reach program during the april 25th board uh meeting uh i watched on youtube the boys shared that the delivery of reach program will be changed next year due to the budget cut in that meeting uh it was mentioned that there will be a parent meeting for all the rich parents or all the parents which some kids might not be identified will
073be interested in that information as well and as of yet i've not heard the date and time i saw wondering if that has been established and if so if you could kindly address that and post it on the district website or have an email to all the parents thank you very much thank you we haven't actually set the meeting date so as soon as we do we will publicize it thank you yep 101 ever close i stand before you tonight as a student of history and a social observer of the times who as the minister is obligated under the highest authority to tell the truth in thinking about the purpose of this group of men and women as the board of education i believe that despite any other differences that we may have that the
074one thing that we should all be in agreement on is that education itself is defined as acquiring knowledge and information for the purposes of eliminating ignorance and stupidity because they both ideally represent an impediment to living a fruitful life as a contributing younger society so we should be around when ignorance and stupidity attempt to define education as in what our children are being taught and there's much ignorance and stupidity in the opposition to crt critical race theory it's time to move away from those composing and selling the false narrative so here goes i'm guessing that some in this room tonight including including some of you board members may be supporters of the 45th occupant of the white house and to that end you're familiar with mega make america great again so as an african-american i
075would oppose just one question to the board of education when was america ever great for the african-american community of citizens no need for me to wait for the obvious answer that is african-americans there's never been a time in this country that americans were great for us collected not enslavement or the middle passage not reconstruction or the black codes not jim crow or redlining not the war on drugs the prison-industrial complex gentrification or gerrymandering and that covers the 403 history year history of black people in this country so the bottom line question posed by derek bell the author of critical race studies known as crt which is absolutely not being taught in any grade school and very few colleges in this country is to try to answer the following question what is the impact and effect
076of 403 years of not greatness for people how his 403 years of not greatness resulted in the disparities in life expectancy health outcomes education employment and wealth attainment especially when the old racist troops like were lazy unintelligent more violent more sexual have been fairly invalidated by science and research like when the fbi says that three african-americans who represent 14 of the population and who do not commit crimes at any rate greater rate than any other ethnic group and in many cases fuel as in mass murder why are we prosecuted more often in jail that eight to ten times the rate of whites for the same crimes and why are we nearly half of those incarcerated and we're only 14 of the population again crt not being taught but seeks to answer the question if we
077acknowledge the systemic structural racism of the enslavers who founded this country and wrote the constitution and then corrected for the inclusion of blacks and other underrepresented groups including white women how would that impact affect and improve the overall condition of this nation economically environmentally scientifically and culturally how much would the nation benefit from such honesty thank you thank you [Applause] hello again alicia gabriel bayless um thank you for your comments on the biola 0143 i understand your concerns about public's comment um i that was not my first concern uh but i heard it from the public and the public is not always here to express their thoughts so that's why i wanted to add that my concern mostly is that in the worst case the board could decide to not have a public interview to
078not have the opportunity to speak and to not have the existing board members express their opinion in support of their care of the candidate i don't believe that is the intent of this board but i just wanted to point out that is a possibility and that is the lord's decision if they wish to do that um also i echo the reach parent right so thank you for keeping us informed on that that's it thanks thank you for your comment stefania gabriela arockwoods uh 1229 millstone river road um before my other comments i think some of you have already read this but i'd like to read it clearly i owe mr gillette an apology after be careful after careful public discussion with a couple of pretty smart people who know him i've recognized that i've been
079unfairly criticizing him as a partisan without evidence while i may have correctly inferred mr gillette's political positions and he may have stated publicly who he has voted for in the past i incorrectly assume that he has stated his party affiliation on the record in a manner inconsistent with the nonpartisan requirements of his school board i was wrong i have found no evidence of mr gillette acting a directly partisan manner in his business on the board while we disagree on pretty much everything he is absolutely right he knows and plays up by the rules i'm aware of the impact on my credibility from this mistake i accept the consequences including whatever criticism you may have already had forthcoming i pride myself on sticking to the record and i am embarrassed and disappointed in myself that i
080got it wrong this time finally i owe you a personal apology greg following the last meeting that i attended i took out on you my frustration with mr oliver's refusal to speak with me you were blindsided and attacked over a conversation that you didn't even know was happening that was wrong it was unfair and i'm sorry that said i'm not the one who made this political hillsborough patch 2019 john oliver a republican is a lifelong resident of somerset county and a resident of hillsboro since 1983 and paul moraney a democrat is a resident of hillsboro since 2010. no one forced either of you to make your political affiliation integral to your campaign mr mourinho my criticism of you is that you ran as a democrat with mr oliver as in an attempt to establish an
081appearance of bipartisanship on the school board however the njsba views school boards as non-partisan which is something very different however mr oliver my criticisms of view is directly over your choice to be public affiliated with a party that is on the record as attacking this very institution as i told the board this week several weeks ago at this point tucker carlson literally encouraged men to thrash teachers bill spadia has called the njea child abusers and it was only a republican hillsborough's own jack citarelli amplified by the nj gop encouraging republicans to school boards with political aims quote parents it's time to attend a board of education meeting asking your local representatives to tell phil murphy no to agent print inappropriate subject matter and what is that subject matter that i exist that a person born
082with a penis could in fact be a girl that teaching kids about things teaching kids things about themselves that they already experiencing is somehow age inappropriate there's nothing gross or sexual about teaching kids that sometimes the plumbing doesn't match their brains and hearts it just is i was seven when i tried to tell my dad and neither one of us knew what i meant this education fixes that and gracely reduces the chance of transgender kids suffering and dying i tried very hard not to show only only show up with problems i'd be happy to read the statement that i prepared and shared with the board now but it would mean a lot more to the people in our community coming from our school leadership thank you for your comment is there any other public comment
083seeing none i will open it up to the board for any comments i just have an announcement which is kind of awkward coming after okay um so i just wanted to announce to the public that the harlem wizards will be at the hillsborough high school again on saturday may 21st to take on the iris all-stars and it's a really fun evening community event it's the biggest fundraiser of the year for arsha and information on buying tickets is in the hillsborough happenings email and actually if you're in person tonight at the board meeting there is a flyer at the table and you can scan that for tickets thank you any other comments all right seeing none i will move to adjourn the meeting can i get a motion in a second [Music] second all in favor
084aye all right thank you