001I'd like to call this meeting to order. I'd like to apologize for a late start, but we were waiting for our concert to end. So, Mr. Delg Greco, would you lead us in a flag salute? Sunshine Law statement. All requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act have been met for this meeting of the board of education of the Bureau of Ordell. Notice that this meeting was filed with the record and town news and all persons requesting such notice. Mrs. Norian, would you read the mission statement? Certainly. The Oridel Public School District is dedicated to the ongoing pursuit of educational excellence through comprehensive innovative curriculum and instruction. The district is committed to providing opportunities for social, emotional, and academic discovery to foster curiosity, courage, and character. Our goal is to prepare our students to become lifelong
002learners who are self-directed, resilient, productive, responsible citizens. Thank you. Roll call. On the role, Mr. Delg Greco here. Mr. Darion here. Mrs. Downey here. Mrs. Moran here. Mr. Nutell will not be joining us. Mrs. Walker here. Mr. Walsh will not be joining us. Mrs. Norman here. Mrs. Nichols here. At this time, we will open to the public for agenda items only. Not seeing any, we'll move forward. We're going to move right to the superintendent's report. Good evening. I'd like to begin my report by commending our music department on another wonderful concert that just minute finished minutes ago. This year there was an incredible um creativity to the concert. There was a song about duct tape. There were basketballs used as percussion instruments and I was honored to be asked to play the vacuum in a
003song about duck dust bunnies. This is the first of many musical events happening this spring from an additional concert highlighting the fourth grade coral and fourth grade band and our handbell groups. Our spring musical will be in May. Our wind ensemble will also participate in the Bergen County Band Festival. Our music program is one of the traditions that this district should continue to be so proud of. In the area of traditions, two big ones are happening for our sixth graders this week and next. The hoops finals is this Friday and the spring fling will occur next Friday. Also, next week will be the Oridel PTA, Oridel Emerson Rotary sponsored basketball game where our OPS staff will take on the Wizards. I've always said that one goal at Oriel Public School is to find the balance
004between holding on to tradition while also embracing the new. One exciting new fact that I learned last week has to do with our physical education department. As you know, as part of the Kids Heart Challenge, OPS raised over $41,000 for the American Heart Association. As a thank you for our efforts, our PE teachers were invited to an event at Metife Stadium where they not only received CPR training, but they also received 10 CPR mannequins for the district so they can instruct staff andor students in handsonly CPR. I know Mrs. Holly has already begun having conversations with our sixth grade team about finding a way to include that in the spring curriculum. The last two weeks also saw us focusing on district goals, spec specifically district goal one, which focuses on improving academic achievement as Mr.
005Warner and Miss Cummings have been facilitating an afterchool professional development class on developing staff's conceptual understanding of fractions. As the OEA contract states, staff members who attend professional development outside the school day are compensated. This compensation and the materials purchased were funded with title 2 monies. Staff members who were not able to attend the afterchool sessions will receive equivalent professional development during the school day. Another way we've been focusing on academic achievement is to provide our parent community with an understanding of the work their children are doing in the classroom. This has been happening in first grade right now as parents have the opportunity to come in and work through math centers as part of March Mathness. We are also making strides in district goal three as we will be utilizing mid-marking period progress reports
006in fifth grade for the final marking period. You'll remember that this is a new protocol we began in sixth grade earlier this year. Finally, all board members should have received a link to allow you to view the new website and app. I ask that if you have any suggestions, you email them to me. The goal continues to be to launch the new site over the spring break. There will be less digital traffic that week and it's a good opportunity for a soft smart start. And that concludes my report. Thank you, Mr. Ayelli. I just wanted to give a quick update on the PSEG direct install program. We've had the contractors that are responsible for submitting our paperwork and our documentation and specs to PSENG. They came out, they've documented all of our rooftop units. So
007hopefully we will hear something back sooner than later, but he said plan around end of May. Um that's concludes my report. Thank you. This time we'll move to minutes. We have a review of March 12th. Any questions or comments, please email Mr. Aelli. Uh we have approval of the minutes for February 26. Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion. Mrs. Walker, was that you? Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Miss Moran. Any questions. Call the question on the roll. Mr. Delg Greco. Yes. Mr. Dariion. Yes. Mrs. Downey. Yes. Mrs. Moran. Yes. Mrs. Walker. Yes. Mrs. Norian? Yes. Mrs. Nichols? Yes. Moving to committee reports, buildings and grounds. Mr. Delg Greco. Um would like to introduce uh B1 use of facilities. Looks like the Girl Scouts are using one would like
008to use the facility. Do I have a second? Second by Mrs. Walker. Any questions? Call a question. On the role. Mr. Delgreco. Yes. Mr. Dariion. Yes. Mrs. Downey. Yes. Mrs. Moran. Yes. Mrs. Walker. Yes. Mrs. Mrs. Norian. Yes. Mrs. Nichols. Yes. Curriculum. Mrs. Norian. Uh, curriculum. We had a meeting on March 19th. We um some of the things that we discussed were um the math curriculum, where we are with it and how it relates to our link information and what we're doing with Amplify Desmos um and where we are with the PD, the professional development for our staff and using those those things. Um then we also talked a little bit about um interventions and how people were um moved from one oops I a little louder. Okay. Moved from one tier to another tier.
009So we had a little discussion on that and we should have some further information on that in the future. um talked about civics and how it's aligned with our curriculum and we also touched on AI and um some things about how staff determines or or what how people determine what to use as far as for uh books that are in addition to the curriculum books that are listed within our curriculum. Um and then also we we touched on um um our discussion was about opting out and and when we opt out we there are some things that need to be addressed. The kids still need to be to have those things taught to them somehow by their families or however we're going to do that. But we need to know exactly if those children have
010been um taught or have been introduced to those items. Um so we were talking about a spreadsheet of those students who might be included in an opt out. And that was it. And with that, um I'd like to move that we approve a field trip to Camp Mason. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Mr. Delg Greco. Any questions? I I have a comment or a question actually. Um this is regarding um material choice for libraries and other classrooms. Uh you mentioned um you have a document from 2018 that outlines the criteria and that document is aligned to policy 66 6163.1. Um, so I I looked up 6163.1 I and you know, unfortunately I compared it to AI, right? So, but it's it's pretty good. It was revised in 2019. Originally is from
0112009. Um, but I'd like to know what's in that 2018 document that we would refer to. And then uh also I I I looked up policy 6161.1 and I think it's kind of antiquated even though it's been updated. I mean, they talk about animals dissection and not being a or being able to opt out for stuff like that. It just seems like there's a lot of stuff that is not aligned. So, which number is that? 6161.1. Okay, we'll look at that in policy. Yeah. Yeah. This this is something that we would direct then to policy, not necessary. We mentioned that that we looked at those those types of things and they seemed in alignment. Sometimes with the policies that come through, they're for everyone for districts that have a K to2 and and while they
012everything in a policy doesn't apply to an elementary school, it's still part of a policy and we at least in the past uh we have kept that in the policy. Okay. What was your question? Did you have a question? No, just a comment about the two policies and if we could maybe possibly 6161, what's the other one? 6163. Okay, we'll take a look. And they just outline also in addition to the things I mentioned, they also outlined the board's responsibility to, you know, review and provide governance and all that kind of stuff. I just want to make sure. Okay, we'll add it to policy. Um, can you maybe address the AI issue because I know Mr. Del Gerko had a question on the AI and we're waiting basically because it's so new. You think school
013board's going to come out with a policy, right? Yes, stress estimate has already come out with a policy. I think I shared the number with you so you can see that one. The Bergen County Association of School Administrators has just put together a committee to talk about what each district is doing. And as I said, um Creskill, so right next door to us, is really leading the way on this. At this point, I my recommendation is that we give school boards a few more months and if not, then we get to work at creating our own. But right now, as um you know, at your request, we have surveyed the staff, seen what they're doing, um and also sent them an email saying, "Okay, you need to understand about data privacy and what are you
014putting into those prompts because I that is our one of our number one concerns and with something new, not everyone is always thinking that way." Thank you. Any other questions? Mrs. Walker. Um and and to your p point um Miss Bosios I went to a school board's meeting back last I guess it was springtime. It was October I think. I think it was October. Was it October? I thought it was the spring. Doesn't matter. But anyway, in Crestkill was leading the way then and if they're still leading the way because I had thought, my goodness, I'm sure other districts are going to jump on that bandwagon. But they were very knowledgeable. And the one key thing that he did say was, "It's here to stay. It's not going away. So, you better get on the
015bandwagon and adhere to some of the things that we're saying, what they're saying. Um, and with that, I just have a quick question about the um curriculum committee that I was unfortunately unable to attend, the civics across the curriculum. Is has that up for discussion and revamping because there isn't enough or why was that brought up? I think someone added asked to it to be added to the curriculum. I think I asked to be added to the curriculum and we saw you gave us a print out so Mrs. Walker can get that or we can give it to the entire board. I really appreciate that because I don't think we're I don't know, but I think that we need to put a little more emphasis on civic government. Take a look at what's in the
016in the curriculum now and then we'll go from there. Any other questions? Call a question on the role. Mr. Delgreo, yes. Mr. Dariion, yes. Mrs. Downey. Yes. Mrs. Moran. Yes. Mrs. Walker. Yes. Mrs. Norian. Yes. Mrs. Nichols. Yes. Finance. Mr. Darien. Uh, yes. Uh, we did not have a meeting since our last meeting, so I don't have no update from that perspective. Um, we just have these items D1 through D8 that I would like to introduce tonight for approval. Um, do I have a second? I'll second it. Second by Mrs. Norian. Any questions? I just have a question. Um D, is it seven? Yeah, seven. The Chromebooks, um you know, it's 250 Chromebooks for 87,000 for the public. Um is that planned? Do we plan to do that or is it just something we added?
017It's we normally do at the end of every year. So, it was budgeted. Okay. Okay. I wasn't sure cuz you know we go back and forth sometimes on these decisions to hold off and I don't remember that's all. Any other questions? What is your question exactly? Was it budgeted for this year or Yeah. Is this budgeted or did we just kind of decide to do it without budgeting it? Sometimes if Okay, Mr. Iell or Miss Bosius, you want to answer? Mr. Pell, we've talked about it. it was budgeted and if it was possible to fit in this year's budget at this time of the year, we decided based on where we are in the budget, we can purchase these, right? Uh to meet the needs next to meet the needs this year and going forward
018because of this group is how many this ages? Um which grade is this for this? Current kindergarten and current third grade. So, we're taking a step ahead and not waiting to give our first and fourth graders next year laptops. We're going to give them the laptops we would normally give them next year earlier and give them this year. It has a lot to do with some rumors we've heard about costs. If we could do it now, it made more sense to budget them every year. No, we budget them. Yeah, I remember. It's just sometimes, you know, c certain years budgets are tighter and we kind of we don't plan them and then we just do it if we can. Fedell also had mentioned to us that if we don't get these orders in now, uhhuh,
019they're not sure based on 100% tariff or something landscape going forward when or if um and and also those price that includes the licenses, the uh insurance, the protection. It's a it's a whole bundle. Yeah. So it's not just the device itself. That's one component. Yeah. Have a question. Uh, speaking of which, that includes the EDR and all the licenses, right, that come with managing those, right, through Google Workspace. That's the complete package. Thank you. Any other questions? Call the question on the role. Mr. Delg Greco, yes. Mr. Dariion, yes. Mrs. Downey, yes. Mrs. Moran, yes. Mrs. Walker, yes. Mrs. Norian, yes. Mrs. Nichols, yes. We will go to personnel as Mr. Walsh is not here. Mrs. Walker. Uh, yes. Thank you. Um, I'd like to present uh F1. And do I have a second?
020Second. Second by Mrs. Norin. Go ahead, Mrs. Walker. Um, and I'm probably being very ignorant about this. First of all, we have not had a meeting this past um month, so I really don't have any update on uh personnel, but I do have a question within the what is Camp Mason? I see these number of teachers going um if you think about when maybe your grandchildren went to Camp Bernie, it's a very similar field trip as Camp Bernie. Our sixth grade team several years ago felt that the Camp Bernie experience wasn't what it once was. And so for the past few years, we've been experimenting with different sixth grade field trips. They have asked to try Camp Bernie uh Camp Mason this year. That payment is because the field trip will extend the school day.
021So the OEA contract um pays staff $45 an hour for any field trip outside the school day. So they will be leaving I think it's at 7:30 in the morning. They will be coming back later. So it will be up to three hours of additional compensation. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? Call the question on the roll. Mr. Delgreco. Yes. Mr. Dariion. Yes. Mrs. Downey, yes. Mrs. Moran, yes. Mrs. Walker, yes. Mrs. Norian, yes. Mrs. Nichols, yes. Mr. Nutland is not here. We did have a meeting right before um this meeting this evening. Miss Moran, you want to just give us an update? Sure. Um we met and discussed visitor policy, um grants, gifts, and bequests, and usage of school facilities, and we're going to follow up on that. Thank you. Any questions?
022I got a question, Mr. Darion. Uh, you mentioned um something about parent coffees and um that's going to be in PR. We're not there yet. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, we're in policy. Okay. Any questions on policy? Okay. Policy, Miss Downey. Okay. So, we had a meeting on the 19th. Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Um, we went over the website. Looks good. Coming soon. We talked about the superintendent wants to do parent coffees, so that'll be coming. Um, gifts for the retired teachers and the spring newsletter went out, right? I got mine. Yeah. Website looks real good. It's going to be everyone should check it out. If you guys have the link, you send the right. Looks really good. So, what was your question for PR? Yes. parent coffee. So, so is that just between
023the superintendent and the and the parents or is that like the entire board and the parents or what the board? The first one's going to be the superintendent, myself, and the principal. It's going to depend on the topic. It's not the board. So, you're going to have an agenda like a topic. It's not going to be just an open meeting. There will be an agenda. I I think we saw this as an opportunity to help differentiate what the principal does, what the superintendent does and what the board via the board president does. So the first one that will be part of the focus of it and from there we'll decide based on the topic who should be there and leading the way. Okay, any other questions? Delco, more of a comment. I was looking at
024the new website on the train today and I must say it's very easily navigable on the phone. The links are nice. Um yeah, it's great job. You didn't like as a parent. I didn't put it out here now. She doesn't want to hear but let's hear it now. It looks good, right? It looks great. Um but it's not good. It's It's good. Yeah. I mean it's very uniform. I like the uniformity of it. I like even the absentee like you click on it and you can fill out the form which is huge versus having to call in. There's a lot of I think pluses that'll help from a parent perspective. Is there is there a link to the app yet or no? Yes, as I shared in the email, it is live. That too is
025still a draft. I didn't see that yet either. Okay. Um at this time, we will open to the public. We're going to limit comments to three minutes. Sure. Just excuse me. Korth um just uh for the delegate even though the delegate is is not here um just to mention I believe uh that Mr. Illi sent out information that the next delegate assembly will be May the beginning of May right that is correct you can check with Mr. Walsh is it by Zoom or is it in person it's in person so you can check with him if he's going to go and otherwise Mrs. Norian will go. Okay. I just wanted to make sure that that got open to the public. If you could just state your name for the record, then if you could fill
026out the form there. No. Can you guys hear me now? Yes. Okay, great. Jun Chang, nice to meet everybody. Just fill this out. Thank you. I have three minutes, so I'm not going to try to take up the whole three minutes, and I know you guys had a lot of There's not a lot of people here, so if you want to take longer, we're pretty mellow with it. Great. Um, appreciate the luxury of that. Um, first I wanted to say, uh, thank you, uh, because I know this is not an easy job. um how you guys sit here and meet twice a month and then number of different meetings that I'm sure everyone in the community is probably clamoring to get into your ears and kind of find out and hear about what's going on,
027right? Um I have a couple comments. One, uh is I really appreciate the fact the move with the website. Um, I think that's incredibly um, refreshing as well as a tool that we're going to be able to utilize to find like the central piece of truth where we can go for the most valid information. A lot of us probably aren't on Facebook, aren't on other social media platforms, but is able to kind of find some place to be able to go find actual information that's coming directly from the governance body as well as the administrative body, which is going to be great. Um the other thing is I commend you on taking on the task of the superintendent coffees. Um I look forward to them and uh I think that's a great opportunity to apart
028from the governance and policy setting body to really hear about the leadership goals and the vision of what you're going to set for the district as a whole and to really kind of understand what the experience of our children will be moving forward which is very exciting for me. um the next however many years to be able to understand what those goals are, what those uh things and mechanisms that you're going to put into place are going to be very good for me to hear and as well as from the board perspective um to understand like what the priorities are. uh particularly with an everchanging world um where education itself is evolving in the way people learn and um the needs of the kids are growing uh exponentially. Uh you touched a little bit about
029AI. I love the fact that you guys are talking about that. Would love to hear more about what the future goals and the vision may be. Um regardless of whatever the policy might be set as, what can we do um to enhance a tool? probably the greatest uh human invention uh of human history. How do we incorporate that or how do we safeguard ourselves for that and kind of giving us information on those things? So those are very key important things that I think are great steps towards to communicating to the public. Um the next thing that I'm going to say please again I I started off by saying I appreciate everyone in the time and please don't take it as a as a negative criticism. Um but I do think um there are ways
030that myself crave a little bit more information um particularly around uh your committees uh how you've spoken in those committees what you've talked about how you come to your decisions um would be beneficial for me uh to understand and to really kind of get behind you know what we are doing as a district um the more information the better uh and I know there are certain things that are completely uh confidential and definitely with student information and all those things. Respecting all those things, but really would like to hear kind of the robust dialogue, the debates that you guys might be having. Um, gives me a sense of understanding of people have really have the reigns, right? Um, as well as giving the opportunity for the administration which you've hired to be able to do
031their job most effectively and most impactfully. Um, so would love to be able to hear that. Um, and please forgive me, I'm from New York, so I talk a little bit quicker than than I'd like. Um the the other thing that I would state is I would I would love to get um a sense of in the board meetings um I know when I go on the website now I currently see like presentations that were given um some of the things that are on the agenda. I would love to hear kind of in the schedule some breakout of what you guys are kind of talking about. What's the key topic? Things come up all the time right you got the budget cycle you got the HIVs you got other policy presentations. what are those key
032things that come up each and every one of those board meetings kind of like on a regular basis having like a theme so people who may not have the time to attend the board meetings can say okay this is something that I'm really interested about I want to be able to hear about this it's on the list this is what's going to be covered will be able to engage more um and you know again I appreciate this form to be able to have this dialogue and to be able to to speak with the board um but I also know this is not the place where I get questions and answers back and forth so having multiple forums as such will definitely be beneficial moving forward. Um lastly, I will say that um what you do
033is incredibly difficult. What the administration deals with more so is that much more difficult and that trickles down again to the teachers. um would love to be able to hear from the educators and the program the programmatic people of the district really highlighting some of the things that we do on a daily basis for our students the types of experience that when my daughter walks through the school and when she comes through what is she going to experience as a newer parent coming in I would love to be able to hear that and I also think it would invigorate them because I think these teachers are very prideful we get into teaching people get into teaching because they love what they do and I want to be able to hear that that's more infectious and
034I think I want to be able to hear that more so than the arguments of what what is this what is that what should we be doing shouldn't we be doing I think that the boots on the ground really give us a sense of what the experience of our students are and I think that's the most paramount and important aspect of of schools as as an experience so um with that I would uh I would challenge the board uh to kind of think of new ways to engage and also uh new ways to be able to present the information so that it becomes a little more digestible for us as community members um to to be involved. I have one last comment is that um since I've moved into town, one of the things that
035uh I've noticed is that every election season I see um the the yard the yard signs. I know you are all more than those yard signs. I would love it if there was an opportunity during every election cycle, whether you were opposed or not, to be able to hear what your goals are. why did you come on to the board and to have those dialogues to get a sense again to feel connected to the people that we you know trust to be able to make decisions moving forward um as a school. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you for coming. Anyone else? Just to your last point, by the way, I do believe that if there is an election, yeah, if there's a is an election that's contested, the PTA does hold
036a candidate night so you can meet the candidates if it's contested. I was just asking so just to get a better sense of thank you moving to older new business Mr. Delgreco just want to take the opportunity to thank Miss Bosius and Miss Holly for allowing the board or myself specifically to do Read Across America read in the classroom. the dog. I mean, the book ate my dog was a pretty funny book. Um, had me shaking the book up and down and the kids laughing. So, I appreciate to be able to do that. So, thank you. Any other older new business? I have Mr. Marian. Uh one is um you know getting back to AI um you know AI is a very common term but what it really means is a lot of different things.
037So you know initially I remember everyone using AI to do their homework right help with the writing assignments kind of like uh some of the other Grammarly right and now AI is is is so much more. So you know I I view it in like two or three different buckets. one is you know help me improve my writing but two is um you know provide instruction I mean you can ask very specific questions and like in the past uh anything legalish it would just default to well we don't do any legal advice blah blah blah and we won't give you any answers well now it's not that case anymore so as an example I put in the um the policy documents for New Jersey and it it gave me a whole three four page recommend
038ation on you know what the what it should include. I mean it was like it wasn't just spouting what the policy was. So I was amazed and and so you know we can use AI to help instruction you know by asking those questions. And then third is is you know prompting right and you can ask AI to give you an answer and AI will give you a you know what you want or you can prompt it in a way to challenge you and to try to prove you wrong so that your your interaction is a debate and it it it you know it tries to undermine plays d devil's advocates see your assumptions and and and that is very beneficial because a lot of times s, you know, you don't know what you don't know,
039right? Until someone tells you. And and that's the kind of thing that if you if you're good with your prompting, you you get that instead of just a regurgitation of what you just gave it. So, um, if we approach our either PD or whatever from those three perspectives, I don't know how that would apply to, you know, whether we apply it towards the teachers or how we apply it to the kids and their learning, but, you know, there's just a lot more to it than just, you know, putting in information and asking them to rewrite it. And then the other thing I'd like to bring up tonight is um regarding the comment about our calendar. Um I thought it was a good idea that we we kind of prepopulate uh you know what are the
040key milestones throughout the year. So you know obviously we have our big reorg meeting. That's a joke right? Nobody cares about that. But we do have our board goals. We have our teacher recognitions. We have budget presentations. You know these are standing you know common things that we do every year. And if we were to pre-populate the website with those dates so that people would know. And if we plan on doing, you know, board goal updates periodically, maybe prepopulate those days. So this way, you know, somebody can plan, you know, whether or not they go to, you know, spring break fling or uh our spring break uh Easter vacation or they attend a board meeting. They can look it up way in advance. Any other older new business? Personnel, we need to go downstairs quick.
041Anyone need a close session? Okay, so I move to second by Mrs. Walker. All in favor? Thank you for coming.