001Good evening everyone. Adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury Park Press, the Middletown patch, and the Middletown Township public school district website and the posting of such notice at the August T-miner administrative offices and each elementary middle and secondary school in the district. Roll call. >> Mrs. Camiti >> here. >> Mr. Fitzgerald >> here. >> Mrs. Minuise here. >> Mrs. Scalasi >> here. >> Mr. Sapparaski >> here. >> Mr. Tull >> here. >> Mrs. Wright. >> Mrs. Tobacco here. >> Mr. Capone >> here. >> Please stand for the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, good evening everyone. We're going
002to start with the curriculum and instruction. I'm going to send this over to >> I'll take you. >> Fine. So, a couple of updates. Um, we are at the elementary level. The curriculum department is going to be facilitating a pilot um with an alternative digital tool called LL. We do use it at our high school level right now. Um, this was based on feedback from students, parents about our current tool, I Ready. Um we definitely want to explore some additional options for a couple of reasons. Um number one is the financial aspect of it. Um I ready is a more expensive tool and uh we are certainly looking to cut down on the cost of that and we also are looking for a program that doesn't require as much time on technology. Um however we
003do need to maintain something for our benchmarking system um at the K to8 level particularly. So we're going to be running a mini pilot on that um just to get a comparison from some of our staff members and some of our older elementary students to see if the tool is actually more engaging and beneficial. Um that will be happening in the next couple of months. And so hopefully we'll be able to bring that to the curriculum or to the board and make a decision regarding um you know the direction to move um whether to renew our contract with EXL or to choose to um utilize a potentially different tool for that benchmarking. >> I have a question. >> Yes. So >> what's the price difference on >> about $150,000? >> And then um what are
004some of the differences with between I Ready and Il? >> Really not too much. Um, from what we and I've used in in a previous district and our high schoolers do use it for intervention in limited capacities and some of our special ed programs. Um, number one, it it does tend to be a little more engaging for the students because it's more gamified. Um, so there's like intrinsic reward, there's reward built into the system. Um, additionally, it allows the teachers to assign specific tasks to students based on deficits versus in I Ready, it automatically puts a student on the pathway based on a performance where the teacher in IXL can go in and override that and just assign if a student were having difficulty say in subtraction of three-digit numbers, they could just assign problems
005related to that. So, um, we want to trial it out because of the cost difference. Um, Il is probably the more prominently used of the two digital tools. Um, but certainly, you know, I Ready has a more robust set of complimentary resources. >> And do they have any sort of um handwritten aspect to it also? >> No. And primarily we'd be looking to use this as our benchmarking system. We do need an electronic benchmarking tool. >> I have a question. When you say um less time with I Ready, it's currently 40 minutes. What would be the amount of time required? Um >> I I don't know. I I we do not know that yet. Okay. >> Um but it'll be significantly less. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Um Gary, I know you had submitted
006a question or a topic in regards to auditing our digital tools. So we do have quite a few digital tools that we use in the district and just you know so everybody is understanding part of our process every year in the curriculum department is to do an audit of those digital tools for the cost um the benefit how it fits into our curriculum, the developmental level we're putting the tool at and also um the the usage because sometimes you're paying an extraordinary amount of money for a tool that not many users or a limit limited number of users are using. An example, we used to have a tool um a few years back when I was in the curriculum department that we paid about $90,000 for and we found that a very limited number of
007teachers were actually utilizing that tool. So when you vetted out the cost per teacher, it was extraordinary. Um so we were paying a lot of money for very little very little usage. So that is uh something we do do each year and we have called down a number of our digital tools over time um because of that. But that audit happens as part of the curriculum process every year. >> Yeah. Thank you. And that's why I wanted to bring it up. I mean it's it's something I know Mr. Cullen knows. I I I I say it every every curriculum meeting in the last couple years, but now with this workshop format, I'd certainly happy to kind of bring the rest of the board up to speed about what was a passion project of mine that
008I hope kind of carries forward is just, you know, and in line with what you we were just discussing about finding a different benchmarking tool that's not as much digital time. What my my overall view, the reason what motivated me to kind of add this to the agenda was certainly the budgetary financial piece. I appreciate that that you look every year to see if we're getting the bang for our buck and who's using what, but also just maybe a fresh look at the overall instructional value of so much um Chromebook based activities, digital platforms. I mean I I just know from my own experience in any given day there's I already Khan Academy Savas Big Ideas Delta Math Pair Deck STEM um STEM Scopes Blit Cahoot Quizlet Gim Kit um Edpuzzle Gizmos Nala Common like
009all these things Epic Raz kids elementary and middle school at least I know there's other ones in high school but um it's just it's just so much time and so much um screen time if for lack of a better word. And I and I realize I I know I didn't go to school this now. We none of us did. We all went at a different time, but um just the I I imagine when whenever it was maybe maybe I'm way off, maybe 1015 years ago when it became kind of the state-of-the-art to get Chromebooks in the hands of every student. And I get that especially back then. I just think things have swung, you know, the pendulum in terms of do all kids need school to be their primary place to learn computer-based behavior and
010work and all that. I don't know that that's the case anymore. And I just think it lends itself to I think it does a disservice to the kids when, you know, for example, a middle schooler will have a a study guide that's on a Google Classroom slide and that's fine. That's that's how teachers present and share their material. It's more accessible. I get that. But if they want to go home and study that study guide, but the content and the lesson or the substance of that chapter or that unit is on a different set of slides, they have a 7in Chromebook and there's there's no looking at both at the same time. There's no reference material and it just I feel like it's it's hard for them to study to develop good study habits. So,
011I don't know. I just think that in isolation these different platforms, they all bring different benefits and attributes and and I get that. But in the aggregate and cumulative it just takes up so much time for them and so much you know and I I think there is I've read it I know others are more familiar with it than me certainly there's science behind the the benefits of that process of having a page pen to paper all that that there's different science for what the effects of scrolling on a screen do and I just think maybe a fresh look at all that not only from a budgetary perspective but also the instructional value is is totally I don't I would just I I realize I'm not going to be here after a couple weeks, but
012if there's a fresh look at that instructionally as we're as we evaluate these things, I I think it could only be a benefit. I know I'm I'm the guy the last couple years who voted against renewing the IR contract. So, it's this is not news from me, but I would just encourage um the district and the board to to keep that in mind going forward when evaluating these things. So, I appreciate you adding it um Dr. Alone and and having it for discussion tonight. So, thank you. >> Of course. >> I have one question. Sorry that I was a few minutes late. Um, is this going to impact the two new math platforms that we are piloting? >> No. >> For Okay. >> No, it has no these are separate benchmarking tools um >> that
013we util that we this would be to you to replace I Ready which tracks growth over the course of time. >> Okay. >> Versus our math programs that we're piloting. And we just had a conversation um with the math specialists I guess it was last week where we discussed they are actually looking for a less tech heavy program. So that has been one of their focuses in discussing some of the feedback we've gotten from the two pilots. though it it they're they're disconnected systems um in the sense of one does not impact the other and we're looking for a lower tech program in order to get our kids to have access to, you know, robust math instruction. I think to Gary's point too, even in our superintendent uh meeting with the students and the parents,
014we've heard that the parents definitely want a lot less screen time and more physical work, brain thinking, you know, pencil and paper and being able to do things that, you know, we haven't been doing in a while because of the technology >> and doing that too. I mean, pencil to paper teaches them patience. Things take time. It's not everything is going to happen in a rush. >> Hand to handwriting, right? >> I mean, handwriting is an issue, too. We all need handwriting. >> I think whatever it looks like in the end, it's a balance. Um, you know, and I think developmentally, the younger our students are, the less tech heavy our content and our curriculum should be. Um, and certainly as they get older and progress through the system, there is going to be a
015need for them to have access and instruction that is technology- based because that is what will happen as they progress further up through the system and if they decide to go into post-secary education or even in their career field. There are very few careers that don't rely on technology in some way, shape or form. So, um, but you know, this is something that myself, Mr. Cullen um and the rest of the curriculum department have really um taken to heart in trying to figure out how do we create a better balance for what exists. Um a couple of other updates, high school course selection is about to begin just kind of as anformational item. Um we expanded the window last year that paid benefits. Um, we seem to have less kids dropping courses because they had
016more time to really think about their selections. We've done a lot of education in trying to get kids to be well-versed in what our offerings are, particularly with revamping our uh freshman front freshman seminar class. Um, to include more information and guidance on what the high school four-year experience offers them so that way they can make good decisions to start out. Um so that scheduling will begin to take place um between 1219 which is next week um and when we return in January on the 19th um we have our scheduling meeting as a district on December 18th where we meet with everyone um guidance counselors, case managers, um principles at the high school and middle school so that way students have um accurate and strong information and that course selection guide has been updated. Um,
017typical voting item on our agenda will be our under 150 PD and our over 150 PD. Um, you'll see we're continuing to expand some Orton Gillingham training for our new teachers. So, if you see any of those, that is because the teacher is new to our system and certainly we want to make sure that they get the appropriate training for that program. Um, final thing in curriculum, the district recently received information from the Department of Education through our performance reports that um, those schools that were defined as having um, chronic absenteeism rates of 10% or more do have to have a formal corrective action plan in place. Um, Mr. Kurpatre and Dr. Young are working on that with those buildings out of the student services department. Part of that corrective action plan is a um
018survey that will go home to parents related to um just absence trends. Um so that will be coming home. We don't have a target date yet. We're still fine-tuning um those surveys and our schools that will have corrective action plans at the elementary level. It will be Bay View, Harmony, and Ocean Avenue. Our middle school is Beayshore and Thorne and both High School North and High School South. um will need corrective action plans. So, it's any um school that's over 10% or more in their chronic absenteeism rates and that is the school quality indicator for our um ESSA our federal accountability. >> Were we given a report about this or was it just a notice? Um, no. This came in the performance reports for the school with a little sidebar comment in it that says
019schools that are above 10% or above will need to be will need to implement a corrective action plan. And then they had a link to literature for us to review. >> Did did they give actual numbers on how much percentage we were? >> Oh yeah, it's in the performance reports. The school performance reports are what was published if anybody saw the newspaper or the press and recently um they have published those statistics based on school performance and those indicators um for our elementary schools. There is a um performance indicator which is our NJSLA scores. We have a growth factor which is our um SGPS our student growth percentiles. We have our chronic absenteeism rates. Those are the the pieces that make up that accountability for elementary school. Our middle schools have the same accountability measures.
020And then our high school is where it changes because they go from utilizing a um student growth percentage because kids don't necessarily take a standardized test in successive years. It's course specific. Um they use graduation rate instead. So all that information is accessible um on the DOE's website and we just received these. They were embargoed for quite a quite a long time for us to review data and um certainly uh you know everyone has access to them and we'll be sending home a letter to parents to let them know that they exist. >> Um what is the time frame for this data? Like when do they start? Was it like the beginning of the year? >> It's last year's data that gets published this year. So, it's always a lagging statistic. So, the performance reports
021that were just published are from last year's data. >> I just don't understand, and I know this is not you, but like you're they're addressing it this year when it happened last year. They're looking at the school as a whole, and they're not looking at they're not telling you to look at each individual child and what we do. >> I know we do, but like this makes >> Yeah. Yeah. >> To do a corrective action plan for a school as an entirety instead of a corrective action plan for what's going on in that kid's life, why they're not coming to school seems to me counterintuitive and it's a year late. >> Well, yeah, I agree with the year late thing because it's just we get information so far after the fact that it becomes really
022unactionable at times which which is a shame. >> A percentage of those kids have already graduated too. >> Yeah. And you know we always um in guiding improvements and creating these action plans are and this is with any data whether it be absenteeism data um performance data we always try to drill down to who are the students that we need to support. Um and then from there kind of determine all right well what does what do those structures of support look like? And that's what this survey is trying to get at. um you know, how can we help parents to support getting their students to school on a regular basis? >> I'm just criticizing. >> I know. I I criticize often. >> Have there ever been any talk about starting high school later just did?
023>> Um you know, it's great in theory, but in practice, it's hard. You have tiered busing. It affects sports. like there's a whole world of like it would it would probably require in a district our size many other districts of our size doing the same um because we share buses and and that becomes a challenge and we also you know >> the statistics of that if it would help. >> Oh yeah >> problem you know if they started later they were home with the elementary students get them off to school. >> Yeah and our little kids t I mean I don't know my experience has been younger kids up and also it's getting dark at like 3:30 the sun was starting to set today so that really impacts boards and you would need a lot
024of lighting, a lot of stuff going on. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely research to show that it would be helpful, but I think in the system we exist in it would be challenging. >> Um, the literature that you said that they gave you to review, is that something we could look at or just give us an idea as to what it discusses? >> Yeah, we can share the link. >> Okay. >> Yeah, I mean it's it's all public accessible. >> Okay. Jess, have you gotten any information on um the rumor, the bill that they're going to not make the high school kids do the proficiency for graduation? >> No, we haven't gotten anything yet. >> It's It was yesterday. >> They're getting rid of it. Yeah. No more proficiency exam. >> We haven't
025gotten anything formal yet. >> Thank you. >> And that's it for curriculum. All >> righty. Moving on to student services. >> I only have one thing. And there's no two things really. Um, our new special ed supervisor will begin on January 5th. We have a solid date, Nick Dory. So, we're excited for him to arrive. And we are still without any special education litigation cases, which is great. >> Great. >> Where are we with um the email we got about speech services? Have we addressed that? >> We are investigating it and then certainly going to put in a remedial plan to accommodate um loss of services. Have we found that bringing in in-house because we have both right inhouse speech and out outside. Have we found that our in-house people can do service less students
026than our outside because they're not contracted by unions? >> No, I don't think there's been because there's there's gives and takes to both. um we can contracted service providers can can really define their own times whereas we when we have our own employees are are able to utilize what's in the contract right so we can schedule them to a certain extent um you know I think there's benefits to having your own people um there's also benefits having contracted people when you need somebody in a pinch who can cover things potentially outside of the contractual hours. So, you know, we haven't seen um that as being a reason why we're we're not providing a service. In this case, the one that you're referring to, it was a very specific situation that occurred. Um >> I'm not
027saying that I see a difference. I'm just asking. >> No, we have not noticed. No, we have not. >> All right. Moving on to finance. Miss Darden. >> So, we won't have any voting agenda items this month except for our monthly financial reports. So, just so the board's aware of that when the agenda comes out next week. A couple of things I just wanted to mention. Uh, the state has extended the deadline for the audit, the actual report. We still had to file our numbers by December 5th. uh so they can incorporate that into the budget program, but there's a federal compliance supplement that's not available at this time and uh the state has extended it without giving us what the deadline's going to be because this supplement still has not come out. So it's
028we're sitting with it done waiting for this to happen. So that's why uh we're not going to be able to have the audit presentation until you know and that comes out. Uh couple other things we did uh we we did mention we had a little discussion uh last month about the uh contract with the township on the uh class 3 officers the SLEOs. That contract does actually expire this June. Uh the original contract was for a two-year period. It allowed for a two-year renewal. This is the second year of the renewal. So we will have to address that uh in the coming months. Uh, also I wanted to mention that we will be uh going out for a competitive contract. I originally thought we had to do substitute staffing, but we actually have another year
029on that. But we do have to do the mental health services uh RFP uh competitive contract process this year. That's ESS. So, we will be putting that together and issuing that and then having to evaluate that uh also after the new year. And that's all I have for finance. >> Do we have anything on on budget yet? because we should be working on that by now, right? >> Oh, we are working on it. >> So, do we have any updates on what we're looking at? >> I'm not in not prepared to share that now. I think we'll be sharing that more in January. Uh but definitely we've been working on it since October. So, uh we are putting things together. We're getting um updated information on our larger items, looking at staffing, looking at, you
030know, different things. So, um, you know, >> I'm asking usually in committee meetings that's being discussed and we're not doing that right now. >> We usually I I believe we normally start going over it with the board in January. I mean, we have January, February, March, you know, into April. So, you know, we will be prepared to speak about that, you know, in January, >> but we're definitely working on it. >> And are we going to on the SLO contract? Are we going to be putting it out to bid? >> Should we do that sooner than later? >> That's a shar Well, that's a shared service. What we have right now is a shared service with the township. It's not something that we would put out to bid. >> Um, you know, unless the board
031was going I know I think you had asked about the >> there are private companies that >> there are private companies and there's different avenues >> get a baseline on what they would cost. >> We I there is actually one and I had taken a look at it. Um there's actually one that's available under ESCJ. It's a cooperative contract. So that would be something that you could go through their their bid and not put you can do your own bid, but I was just, you know, looking at that to see, you know, what how that was structured and what the benchmark would be. So there are ways to get com comparative pricing without actually doing a bid. >> Can we do that? >> Um, we actually we actually have done that. you know, I did
032take a look at that and just uh looking at it in based upon the structure that we have now. Now, this is again just the ESCJ bid because and that's, you know, something that districts may or may not want to take advantage of. we could do our own bid and write our own specs. But looking at the projection of what the cost would be under that bid that they've awarded, you know, we were looking it it came out to about $98,000 for the year. >> And do you have happen to have the number of what we're paying now? >> 1.3. >> It's Yeah, we it's about 1.3. Who are the or do if you if you know the officers that would be supplied by a company like that are they police officers or is it
033a it's a private security >> they're not class three officers it's a private security firm so it's it's a different class of >> why it's cheaper it's not apples to apples it's not apples to apples it's a private armed security firm versus having actual class 3 officers >> and that $ 1.3 million figure that we're paying now that was not inclusive of any type of equipment or um uniform. >> No, we do we do pay we do pay those those cost. >> Is that on top of the 1.3 million? >> No, no, that's included. That's included. Yeah, that's that's our total spend. >> That's included. Car rentals and things like that as well. >> Any anything that you know to supply for the officers, you know, is included in that number. That's an all that's
034all we pay. Benefits, salary, and any equipment that they ask for. Right. Moving on to facilities. >> Uh facilities. >> Is that the company is ESJ? >> No, that's the cooperative. Uh that's the agency that that puts all they do bids for a lot of different things. So, actually I did not write down the name of the company that had won their bid, but it's the Ed Services uh Commission of New Jersey. They do bids for all sorts of things, not just this. So, >> when do we have to start? >> I'm sorry. Again, I just used it to do a benchmark, you know, because I figured I would be asked, you know, that question. And again, that's what their bid is, but that doesn't mean if we if the board decided to go that
035route, you could do your own bid. But again, making it clear, it's not it's not for class three officers. When do we need to start talking to the township about renewing this? >> Well, the only I mean the immediate impact would be how much we're including in our budget, >> which that's that's really more immediate even than June 30th. So, I would recommend that >> we should do it. >> You know, we ASAP >> we start looking at it because we need to know >> that's why I'm asking the question, >> right? We need to know how much to include in our budget for next year. >> Yep. So, should we do we call a shared services meeting? Can we do that? Can we have make a motion to have a shared services meeting as
036a committee? >> Well, it can't take any action. >> No, I know that, but at the next meeting because that's something we could do. I >> think we can pick this up in January with the township speaking about it. Consider that June. So, >> good. Good. >> Hey, Amy. >> Facilities. >> Okay. Again, no no no voting agenda items for facilities, but I do have someformational items to report out on. Uh the 2026 local recreation improvement grant was released. That's what we have applied for in the past to get money to fund some playground improvements around the district. Uh the grant application is due February 13th. Uh unfortunately the 2026 funding pool is $10 million compared to last year's pool of $20 million. The year before that it was 25. So they're definitely pulling back
037on these funds. I believe the maximum project uh amount you can apply for this year is 75,000 versus 100,000 in previous years. Although we've applied for 100,000 and we've we've been awarded normally, you know, 66 or 68,000. We haven't gotten the full 100,000, but uh we are going to be putting in a application. You know, we we are going to try to get the uh project approved for new Mammoth that we didn't get for last year. Uh and so I actually had a meeting today with Millennium Strategies. I'm going to have them help us put the uh application together. I mean, we did an application last year. I'm just going to have them take another look and see if there's something additional they might add to make, you know, make it even more competitive. Uh
038so I met with them today. I've also reached out to uh the new Mammoth uh PTO to get information from them. We'll sort of be partnering with them on this application so that they can even light write us some letters of recommendation and uh things or support. So we're going to give it our best shot again. Um >> um I have a question. >> Okay. >> You good? Okay. Uh the Loftraftoft annex, we report on that uh every meeting. We are still on target to have JCPNL out here this Thursday to do the electrical upgrades. So that's good news. Uh that's really the last major piece that has to get done. Um we just have some finishing work that needs to be done after that. But if we can get that done and get the
039HVAC the second HVAC unit hooked up, uh we will be very good to go. So we're looking forward to that. uh we finally finally got NJDOE approval uh for the disposition of our vacant land parcels. If you remember a year ago, August, we put in an application to have eight parcels approved by the DOE that we give the the board the ability to sell the properties if they wanted to. Um doesn't mean that we and the board approved a resolution to apply for that. Uh you can't dispose of property as a school district without getting NJDE approval. So, we finally got the letters approving our uh ability to dispose of these parcels in the future if we want to. So, we we have that and it doesn't expire or anything like that. So, um I
040was happy to get that wrapped up. Uh we also um Mr. Sapraki did ask to talk about the township of Middletown bamboo ordinance uh that was recently passed and we took a look at it. We actually took a look at our property. There is some we do have some u bamboo on our property on Sleepy Hollow and Kings Highway. Uh Adam actually put a our director of facilities actually put a drone up to see you know exactly where it was but it's contained to one specific area and it's not contiguous to anyone else's property. Uh so you know we feel that we're in compliance with it being you know not in a buffer zone or anything like that but it's something that you know we'll keep our eye on and make sure that it's doesn't
041spread or you know cause any issues but >> don't want any trouble. >> We don't want any trouble. No. No. So >> we do have a small amount. >> Uh let me see. We have a some several projects going on over winter break. Uh we're going to be working replacing the cafeteria floor at High School North. We've been planning on doing that for a while. Uh that's coming out of our cafeteria account. So that wasn't something we built into the budget, but we have funds to do it out of our food service account. Uh so we are doing that. Uh we are also going to be doing some flooring in the high school north 2300 hallway that needs to be replaced. Uh we're also doing flooring at Middletown Village that we talked about. That was
042actually in the budget. There's a a hallway there that's got some discolorations in the tiles or need to be replaced. Uh we also are putting a new Airdale unit in River Plaza. I did not write down the room number, but there is a classroom needs new Airdale. We're putting that in over winter break. Uh we will be doing gym floor refinishing in all of the secondary schools as we normally do each year. Uh we're going to be working on gutters over at Middletown Village and Navasync. uh you know repairing those. Uh and we also already started the oh we should have already started the Ocean Avenue front entrance work. It was supposed to be going on this week. I don't know actually if it started yesterday or today but it's supposed to be this week.
043We're doing some work over there. Uh we're also walking around with uh TMCO doing some roofing evaluations to get a overview of you know where there's problem spots and get and get a summary. You know, as you some of you have been here for a while like Joan and Leonora know that we did a massive amount of roofing about you know 10 12 years ago in that time frame and you know we're about halfway through the expected life cycle of a lot of these roofs. So we want to take a look and see you know where our problem areas are and you know if we need to make any plans to address them. And I have something I did not include originally, but I just found out today that uh they freed up a crew
044uh to do the high school south turf repair that was scheduled for January. Uh they had availability to start it this week. So they are coming out tomorrow to start the work on that. >> That's good news. >> Yeah, that is good news. >> You're happy to hear that. >> I just have a question. The facilities department, they're working throughout winter break. No, that is that I mean unless it's unless they're coming in to do an event or or something. >> So then how will they be able to >> There'll be some some people will come in on overtime to let contractors in to do the work. Yeah. I mean we can't avoid that. I mean they have a holiday that week, but we do have to have you know some projects go on over
045winter break. >> And what about the high school south bleachers? >> Has that been completed yet? Have they been fixed? >> We've been doing uh repair work on both bleachers, south and north. That's still ongoing. A lot of it's waiting for some of the parts and things, but they're they're chipping away at it. Great. >> But it's both it's both stadiums and that's all I have. >> Amy, I have a question about the uh roofing >> when when we find that there's issues there. How does that how is that going to affect the solar panels on the roofs? >> Because we had that concern when we were putting them on. >> Yeah. I mean, we've been dealing with that now for several years. You know, if there's a a repair that has to be done
046that's underneath where the panels are, we lift them up, we do the repair, and we put them >> pay for that or the solar company? >> No, we pay for that for for if it's our roof, right? But we it's it's hasn't really been a lot, you know. I mean, we do it once in a while, but it's it's not anything that's a a real concern at this point. But not compared to the money that we've been saving on electricity, that's for sure. Yeah. So, >> well, I know that's I mean that's something we talked about when we did redid the roofs and put the solar on. So, >> just curious, >> but especially with the electric rates going up the way they have and we're locked in with an agreement, we've really been making
047out on that. So, >> and whatever ended up happening with the solar panels on Port Mama, >> uh the the solar company had to take them, you know, they're going to have to take them off and, you know, eat that cost. I'm not sure if they took them off yet, honestly. They were working with the county on that. >> We haven't seen anybody over there anything. >> Just curious because we were wondering about did we have to pay for that or were they going to take the cost? >> We we did have to pay a an early termination fee on that. It wasn't a significant amount, but that came out of the proceeds of our closing. So, that's already been handled. They were actually I think I did report out and they might have been
048in committee and not here but the solar company was actually pretty upset when they read the terms of our agreement because it really wasn't much that we had to pay and it's very costly for them to come in and take them off and they said we don't write the agreements like that anymore. I'm like but that's this is what our agreement says. So >> I think that's we were pretty strong when we were putting them on because that was a big concern and schools were closing >> what our responsibility was. >> Yes. That's all I have. >> All right. Going to policy. >> Yeah, just an update. Um, we have a committee of teachers and administrators that have been from across the district that have been meeting to review our current homework policy. Um, refine
049our district philosophy regarding homework and establish guidelines with the goals of creating consistency and defining expectations at each of the three levels. Um, I provided the board with a summary of their work so far, not a policy, just a summary of what they've discussed. Uh, the next steps will be for them to frame this into a corresponding policy and regulation, um, for the board to review and to adopt sometime later in the spring for implementation next year. So, that's in the works. And then, um, we have no policy voting items on this agenda, but we will have updates in January. We just received a set of um updates from New Jersey school boards which is our new um policy provider um minor things and we'll also include on that the school closure policy and the
050recommendations that um some community members had submitted so that way the full board can review it at the same time um that they review all these other um policy updates as well. >> And there's been you haven't made any decisions on those policies that >> No, [clears throat] we've done nothing. We've just let them be for now >> and that's it for policy. >> All righty. Moving on to old business. Does anybody have any old business? Does anybody have any new business? Seeing no old business, no new business, I wish to open the public microphone up to comments. If you have a topic, just please step forward, say your name and address for the record. Scott McFersonson, Middletown resident. Dr. Alone, when you were talking about the uh the excel um program and that they
051were going to pilot it, could you tell us where and who's going to pilot it? >> The curriculum office is determining that right now. >> Okay. Yeah, we just we just entertained in um a small agreement with the company um for a very modest pilot, but they're determining um we want a captive audience. We want um you know, we don't want to put a burden on someone that's uh you know, doesn't want to participate. So, they're they're vetting that out. We should have that information to I can have that information to you probably in January. We won't start the pilot until then. >> Understood. Uh and with respect to the uh to the class three officers, uh I think it wise probably to have a shared services committee meeting with with the town to discuss,
052you know, them sharing in the costs of that, you know, as opposed to going out to a private security firm. You know, I as a parent probably would have a concern with a private company as opposed to, you know, class three officers who, you know, are, you know, former retired um you know, law enforcement individuals. Um And then just my last uh question, Dr. Al update [snorts] on that Ross Haba report. >> Uh we had a conversation with him this week. Um they are finalizing putting the finishing touches on the report. Um you know, the one thing he did say to us is the complexity of this district is is something unique. That's for certain. Um because of all the odd boundary lines that exist and geocoding students. Um, so they have all of that
053work done. Um, they do have enrollment projections ready now. They're just working on finalizing the proposed attendance zones. Okay. >> So that's where we stand. >> Do they give you an estimate as to when they think they're going to be done? >> Uh, hopefully right in the new year. They'll have a report in hand to us. So, and we'll share that out with the community as soon as we have it. >> Great. Thank you everyone. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. >> Would anyone else wish to make a public comment? First, please first. >> Thank you. >> Hi, Sarah Win. Um, I just have a quick question at the lower ages why we need digital benchmarking. Um, I just feel like the teachers are with them all day long. I'm confused why they can't benchmark
054the students just seeing the test scores and what they do day-to-day in the classroom versus having to put them on a screen where they might not be familiar with doing educational material. >> Right. and that we are discussing that um and we we do want to move in that direction to have more paper and pencil benchmarks for our youngest learners. However, we just have to make sure that we have the capacity to do that and also the tools with which to do it. We do have some things more heavy on the literacy side. Um we're in better shape than um on the math side, but that is something that we are discussing because we feel the same way. we just have limited availability of those benchmarking tools to create consistency in the data across the
055district. >> Okay. And then last question about the attendance. Um so we have the attendance numbers right ahead of time. So obviously we can identify the students that might have issues well before the state brings it to our attention. So I'm assuming this is just something that we have to do to comply. >> Correct. We do have um attendance action plans for individual students um when they are considered to be chronically absent or truent. There's lots of different variations of why that exists. Um, as I said, Dr. Young and Mr. Kurpatre are very heavily involved in this. Um, and certainly often when we see students that have attendance situations, there are other situations that are impacting that where we need global support with a variety of resources. So, that's already all in motion. So, >>
056these are just extra steps that we have to do for literally no reason. um we have to formalize it with the state >> and and demonstrate you know it's always about the accountability right and demonstrate what we are doing to be proactive and not reactive to the but when we saw this we're like oh like we do all this already like we are in really good shape in that regard um it's just now a matter of putting something formal >> okay thank you very muchelcome >> thank you would anyone else wish to make a public comment Hi, Bernie Dossync. Um, just two random things, a little bit of a hodge podge for me tonight. Um, the planning board passed their uh, draft master plan and they disclosed that there'll be a thousand new residential units
057that are going to be coming out in the next two years. That's written in ink in their draft master plan. Um, additionally, they um, only reported phase one of the Belelfford Port. Um, that property was approved for 403 residential units. included in that thousand is only 200 of those Belelfford units. So there's 1,200 you know that are out there and um you know just because I'm interested in it. Um the Route 36 redevelopment corridor which is pretty much a done deal. Um that's 87 parcels that are under redevelopment. Um so they have zoning overlay potential, pilot potential. To give you some context on what that potential is, it's 50 acres when you add up the the size of those individual 87 properties. So that 50 acres is equivalent to what just happened at Middletown Walk
058along Carton and Kane's Lane and um Kings Highway. Additionally, that thousand, which I'm adding up to 1,200 because they didn't add phase two of Belelfford, um did not include Campbell's Junction, which is another redevelopment zone that you know is out there and is underway. And just looking at as a real estate guy, easily potential couple hundred new residential units. PSDG property has a few, that old bank has a few. So, you know, there's a lot of multifamily development opportunities out there in Middletown that I think the board has to keep a very close eye on and that Ross Haber has to take into consideration. Um, shifting gears, Amy, I'm sorry to do this to you, but this is a really random observation. 2019, the ACFR, right, in the unodudited section J. All right, which is
059operating statistics. For whatever reason in 2019, they went back and revised enrollment data for five years previous. So, you know how they kind of look backwards the previous decade decade and there's enrollment data looking backwards. For whatever reason in 2019, they went back and revised downward enrollment data. So if you compare the 2019 ACFR to 2018 ACFR, the enrollment data conflicts and then for 2019 2020, 2021 forward use 2019 revised data. So I don't know how interested you are in why that is, but um it piques my interest because that that affects the spending per student. um that you know is sometimes a critical um thing. So um just caught my eye when I was doing some comparative analysis on the uh ACFRS. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Would anyone else wish to make a
060public comment? Seeing no one stepping forward, I wish to adjourn the meeting and take a motion to close. So >> all in favor obsessions. Have a great night everyone.