001good evening everyone the North 100 and Voorhees Regional High School District Board of Education meeting for today Tuesday August 15 2023 is now called to order in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting act njsa 1046 adequate notice of the meeting has been provided by submission of notice of the time date and location to The Star Ledger on January 11 2023 and the Hunterdon County Democrat on January 12 2023. notice and to the set known the agenda of this meeting have been posted at North Hunterdon High School and and Voorhees High School provided to the municipal Clerks of Bethlehem Township California town of Clinton Clinton Township Franklin Township Glenn Gardner Borough Hampton Borough Highbridge Borough Lebanon Borough Lebanon Township Tewksbury Township and Union Township as well as other interested parties and posted on
002the district website fire exits are located in the directions indicated by signs if alerted to fire please move in a calm and orderly fashion to the nearest smoke-free exit at this time please silence all cell phones they have a roll call please present present Mr farbanish yep Miss hence president here Mr meelick here miss soleno here Mr kitchen here here and Mr here if you could please rise for the sleep to the flag [Music] congratulations one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign [Music] with a motion and a second to approve agenda item 4.1 which are the minutes of the June 27 2023 school board meeting I have a motion please motion by Tara second by Shelley any discussion all in favor aye opposed abstentions abstention by Glenn thank you Now
003we move on to the presentation of the 2023 NJ GPA results by Richard Brown director of curriculum articulation and student achievement Eric good evening everybody share my screen with you thank you okay there we go all right good evening everybody thank you for the opportunity tonight to share the results uh from the NJ GPA so this is a test that Juniors took in March of 2023 so it's called the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment there was an Ela section and there was a math section uh the E the I'm sorry the NJ GPA results are reported in two proficiency ranges so if you remember what the NJ SLA it was on uh like a five point scale this is just not graduation ready ready for graduation uh the ELA portion assesses student understanding of the
004ELA 10 standards while the math portion assesses students on Algebra 1 and the geometry standards so after the students took the assessment the New Jersey Department of Education changed the cut score for the assessment in 2022 students needed a 750 to be considered ready for graduation in 2023 that score was changed to 725 so the cut score was lower this year this was only the second year for the administration last year it was a field test this year was the first year that it quote unquote counted uh actually I'm still on this one students who do not demonstrate that they were graduation ready on this assessment have three other opportunities to demonstrate Proficiency in order to be eligible for graduation they can retake the math or Ela NJ GPA there's a summer Administration which we
005already did on an October Administration they can meet the cut score from a menu of substitute competency assessments such as the PSAT or sat or they can complete a portfolio appeal I always remind you that while I'm reporting these results these results do not include students who are in the academy programs because those are being reported by the Hunterdon County Vocational School District so in according to the assessment these are the overall numbers for our district here 80.5 percent of the students across the state that's the state we're ready for graduation and Ela and 55 percent of the students were considered graduation ready for mathematics in our district where they are significantly higher with Ela 91 of our students across the district being considered graduation ready for ELA and for math 72 percent of our
006students being considered ready for graduation and again these numbers do not include the Academy students so in looking at the ELA results by school they're perfectly they're exactly the same uh 91 of the Juniors at each School were considered ready for graduation and nine percent of them not ready for graduation so you know one of the things that we look at is how the various subgroups performed on the assessment so this chart shows the ELA results by subgroups with our Asian and female students we're the subgroups that had the largest percentage of students who are considered ready for graduation while black or African-American students and our students with disabilities had the lowest percentage of students who are considered ready for graduation so this helps us to identify areas to improve so that we can improve
007our instruction and support for certain groups of students so they can be successful as well moving into math the two schools were fairly consistent again 74 percent of North hunting students being ready for graduation and 70 percent of the um I'm sorry 74 North and 70 at Voorhees is being considered ready for graduation and looking at the math results by subgroups with the Asian and female students for the subgroups that had the largest percentage of students who are considered ready for graduation while students with disabilities were significantly below the district average for students who are considered ready for graduation so as I already pointed out both Ela and math NJ GPA NJ GPA results for our district are well above the state average just so that you know at this point all that we have
008are our results and the state results so at some point the school year probably around January we will receive results for schools around the state and at that point we'll you know we'll certainly look at how our scores compare to other scores other high schools that are similar to ours we just don't have that information yet so this slide lists intervention strategies for students who are not considered graduation ready from this assessment all seniors who have not yet demonstrated Proficiency in math and or Ela are placed into Workshop classes these classes provide additional instruction to prepare them for the PSAT in October and also the October Administration for the NJ GPA the workshop classes also help students complete the portfolio appeal if they still haven't demonstrated Proficiency in addition to the workshop classes students obviously
009receive instruction in their comprehensive math and Ela classes students who are struggling in those classes utilize our resource rooms throughout the day you can get extra help from teachers after school and obviously we have our tutoring programs we have two tutoring programs our teacher teach our teacher tutoring program which is available virtually from 3 10 to 9 pm and then also the 24 7 online tutoring program through tutor.com so both of these tutoring programs are available to all students at no charge finally students who are not meeting the standards of their courses participate in our response to intervention program this program allows the team to develop interventions to help the students be successful so that is the presentation do you have any questions and you don't complete one of the other criteria gradually but if
010you complete a portfolio appeal process that's something that's administered locally and scored locally and then we send the results over to the state that's the that's the final Resort by the student with disabilities I guess that's the one that kind of jumped at me right I think is it is there extra help for those students yeah I mean students with disabilities have an IEP an individual education plan and they do get an individualized plan to help them be successful many students may have a math disability which is why the math scores really jump out um but yeah that's definitely an area of concern to give them more support to teach them the full curriculum so they can be successful on this so you mentioned that this is the second year of the NJ GPA yes
011and that was after like a several year Hiatus from having these types of like scored graduation requirements is that well state provided depending on how far you want to go back there used to be the hespa the HSPA um in 2013 I think it was we transitioned to park and that was originally given to freshman sophomores Juniors over the years it became this freshman in sophomores now it's just freshmen but the the state law is that the graduation proficiency test must be given to juniors so they it was challenged they said yes we need to give a test for juniors reinstituted a junior test um last year it was considered a field test and then this year it was fully or last year was fully implemented so as a like an absolute graduation requirement a
012state mandated score testing score like is is relatively new again that's a nice way to pay putting it yes it's new again um knowing that this is the first Pathway to demonstrate proficiency if you don't pass this you can also demonstrate proficiency through the PSAT SCT those kinds of things so I guess um then your answer to that question kind of defeats the purpose of what my original question was which is like these results like how do we feel about them like are they consistent with prior year results like about 10 percent of not ready for graduation on Ela about 25 I mean if you go back to what the hespa was it was about 90 we're passing at that point the standards have changed the assessment has changed um even comparing them to last
013year the cut score has changed so it's this is really our Baseline assuming it doesn't change again this year that's I guess but like and like I'm not an educator right so like this is like a maybe a flippant reaction but it feels like we're constantly in a baselining mode like at the the tests and the programs like change frequently enough that it feels like we don't get good like trending data because we're always starting a new test or a new Administration and it must be frustrating as an educator to like because it's hard to it's hard to call the ball as to how we're doing and that's why this is one of the data points that we look at you know SATs PSATs you know all of our freshman sophomorphins and juniors take PSATs
014and that's been pretty consistent how it's been administered although this year it is changing to a computerized assessment and it is a little bit shorter um but you you take this along with all the other data points to try to evaluate how you're doing you can't rely on just this one but this gives us some good information that we can try to use to evaluate our program one of the other things that I um we had talked about was and it goes to your point of kind of that Baseline right if the cut score was reduced this year what would our percentages look like if we were to apply to 750 so yeah I ran those numbers yeah and and you have I don't have them in front of me Ela is 80 graduation ready
015if the cut score uh it was 7.50 so yeah uh last year it was 41 percent Voorhees Ela if the cut score was 750 this year it would be 77 graduation last year was 50 okay uh North Huntington math if it was 750 this year 51 ready last year was 69 and Voorhees math 48 ready last year was 67. so with that pleasing to believe is not only the cut scores were changed but the conversion from the raw scores to those cut scores because there's no way we would have fluctuated that much uh last year I think it was 50 past math and I Statewide Statewide yes and I believe it was 37 Statewide past Ela so they just realized that those cut scores were not I mean for a state that is one of
016the best in the country with education how can 50 of our students be proficient in math in their junior year there was a very large controversy with the state board about that discussion I believe that the final vote to change the cut score from 750 to 725 was a one vote differential they lowered it yes yes that any other questions okay well thank you so much for your time thank you all right we can now turn to the chief School administrators report sister bed there thank you the uh 23-24 school year officially begins on August 24th we are excited to welcome the class of 2027 for freshman orientation on August 23rd we are also welcoming 21 new certificated staff members this year I want to sincerely thank Terry Flynn for again running the new teacher
017orientation this week she does a fantastic job getting our new teachers acclimated and prepared for their first day in our district also following feedback from the students last year this year we are bringing back the third day of 315 buses 315 activity buses will run again on Monday Wednesday and Thursday and ridership numbers will be monitored throughout the year and Polytech uh did award the construction bid in July we had a kickoff meeting so we should be seeing groundbreaking in the next couple weeks here HIV report nothing to report this month last month there was one incident reporter it was unfounded do you need a motion can I get a motion and a second to affirm the determinations on the HIV incidents reported at the June 27 2023 board meeting oceans please promotion by Kim
018what do you think motion by cam second by Deb any discussion all in favor uh opposed extensions motion carry and the monthly reports are attached for your information okay thank you I will give my brief uh School Board presidents report um just a couple of administrative items the next meeting is September 26th at 7 pm here in The District administration office and October is the highly awaited uh October 23rd to 26th of the NGS NJ SBA Workshop in Atlantic City and I know we've got a few people going from our board so those are my items we can turn to school board committee reports I want to start with Tara we didn't have communities relations because our agenda was in line with the Dei ad hoc so I'm going to give it on to that
019okay all right Beth um so we uh we had a meeting um of the Dei ad hoc committee last Thursday evening um and the purpose of the meeting was to try to align on the recommendations to be provided to the board as well as then be recommended to the administration both high schools um we feel that the the information that we're going to provide to everyone tonight um does a really nice job of outlining some proposed steps for the administration to follow and several people from the school administrations were part of this committee and they felt that the recommendations were feasible the important thing to keep in mind is that these are not meant to be completed necessarily in short form that it does take time to evaluate what needs to be done and then
020Implement those so you'll see that there are there's discussion about check-ins that I'll mention so the first was to look at the student clubs and activities and look at whether we should include additional investment in in those committee clubs and activities as well as further communication about those organizations um the potentially considering for the 23 20 for school year another maybe an additional Club showcase later into the first marking period since the freshmen tend to be a bit overwhelmed on that very first day when they come in and then plan for in the 24-25 and following school years to have the club showcase just a few weeks into the school year and then look at creating a check-in or an Outreach to give students a place to find information and familiarize themselves with a club
021or other program um then we spoke um a lot about Ambassador programs and so we have another a number of recommendations there so to review um the ambassador program that Voorhees has um as kind of a case model and use it as a means to further enhance um some of the the programs that are already existing at North Hunterdon and then even to build on on the ones at 40 Keys as well to give students um a sense of creating unity and support as well as giving them the opportunity to be able to talk to people where they are otherwise especially freshmen coming into the school or don't really know the administration too well you've got people you look at seniors that are bigger and and it makes it difficult for them to find comfort
022so create a space for freshmen to have conversations see how they're doing with the transition into High School look at for example assigning freshmen to Buddy groups or with a buddy who might be a sophomore or older who they can feel comfortable approaching throughout the school year and then have ambassadors speak with 8th graders and this kind of talks quite a bit about what the superintendent is already doing with the lower school districts and really trying to communicate what's happening here at the high school level down and then to have the reverse happening as well so there's communication between both uh also looking at having some of the clubs and organizations as well as some of the music or theater programs um go to the sending schools um to a lot of seventh and 8th
023graders to get greater visibility into what is available at the high school uh before they actually get here and then also give incoming freshmen the opportunity to come into the school during the summer before the orientation day if if they if you have certain kids that may need that extra opportunity rather than just coming in that first day as far as de and I with teachers and staff we recommend providing additional training and refresher training student I'm sorry teachers staff and coaches on Dei on things like implicit bias racial bias anti-Semitism and reinforce the importance of teachers and staff having Brave conversations with students in the administration when needed and finally look at student-run communication Vehicles evaluate the possibility of letting students hear from other students about the different opportunities in the Dei space such
024as a student-run newsletter TV news that's shown in the school or a student from an intranet site um so those are our recommendations and we'll be providing them to um to the administration of both schools with the idea that on a quarterly basis the um the administration for both schools will come will report back to the board to let us know on the progress that's taking place on these various recommendations so we anticipate that taking place during the November meeting it was in November February and may um as a starting point so Betha thank you and I just wanted to take a minute um to thank all the participants in this adopt committee there were board members community members students staff Administration that met multiple times over the course of the last five six months
025right and yeah I think the general the overarching sense in all of those discussions was this idea of building a community of inclusiveness and how do we like like create an environment that makes everyone feel welcome no matter who you are and you know like these recommendations are geared around like how do we like build on the elements that are already there and that are successful and how do we expand on those and leverage them and then you know what are some areas where there are gaps and how do we film how do we look to the administration to fill in those gaps to you know create that community of interest in this so that everyone feels welcome but I just I did want to give a big thank you to the folks that spent
026quite a bit of time talking and and talking and brainstorming and disagreeing and agreeing and and coming to recommendations so thanks for leaving it back and thanks to everyone any questions [Applause] okay thank you so next step is John so John we'll turn to turn right facility Finance thank you Mom our committee met last uh Monday evening um first thing we talked about was a topic that we brought back from the from the past uh The Farmhouse out of Voorhees it's been on our agenda several years ago um nothing happened and it's still a disrepair it's a not only is it an eyesore but it's an attractive nuisance and um our committee Administration will be investigating what what to do with that building because we can't let it just something has to happen so we'll
027keep you posted on on that we had an object update on capital projects Jeff mentioned uh Polytech had their kickoff I guess hope the optimally the move-in date would be in in two years correct so originally it was supposed to we were looking for September of 24 but things have really been installed up until late but now hopefully the momentum will pick up but they are still waiting for some planning approvals I believe with Clinton Township but the new date then is two years from now for that uh Tennis Courts at both schools are complete North Hunterdon High School the parking lot improvements have have been complete with the exception of light poles that are on back order um referendum projects uh the uh the locker room at North Hunterdon is uh mostly done uh
028with the exception of some uh HVAC components that'll come in that looks like they're scheduled for delivery and installment in December um stairwell doors in North Hunterdon stairwell fire doors that is there are set to arrive in late August so that should be completed soon uh Voorhees the exterior stale Replacements are complete one item that popped up this month on Capital work was uh of the lighting on the stadium right here there is an exploding bulb so we are looking at a state contract electrician to investigate and potentially replace the bulbs on The Stadium Field that the work I don't know I think Katie you said probably wouldn't happen until like mid late late October I guess by the time everything was worked out and and we also instructed her that um you know if
029this is a problem for that situation there's other places in the district at both schools that have exterior lighting nighttime lighting and we should uh you know uh just Analyze That to make sure we don't have a similar instance creep up on us uh unexpectedly um Transportation uh as you all can imagine prices are up fuel is up um routes are average cost is up 14 percent um Jeff also mentioned adding the extra late bus so there's a cost there but we will be analyzing usage so that we can make potentially make recommendations for consolidation uh the driver shortage is you know also leads to the extra increasing in pricing so don't be surprised to hear more about uh problems with the after-school you know athletic buses and the such that the problem isn't getting
030any worse or getting any better unfortunately so you see an action item on the agenda for approving the routes also we had a uh agenda review of the items a lot of routine routine things such as annual renewals for the school resource officers and class three officers uh contracts with Polytech an annual contract with Clinton Public for a Spanish teacher to teach one class during their sixth assignments [Music] um a new uh agreement with zebra pay that's for our athletic officials this will help to streamline the process of registering them and getting them paid and hopefully that'll lead to uh making that making it easier to retain uh officials uh minor contracted ending with brown and brown for the health plan it's small language change um we're working with Honeywell um also on the other
031separate Grant which is for the HVAC projects uh so we're working with them and our architect there's two components to this work uh some of it is maintenance and then some of it is uh replacement so um Honeywell is working on the was it the repair uh so there's two contracts we were looking to approve both of them were pulled tonight the first one was going to be for the repair side that'll be in September so we can have that discussion again next yeah so we're not prepared to take action tonight but um you know that that large grant that we received that we need to stay on top of that because uh there's a tight time table to spend those money so um you know you'll be seeing more next month on that um
032I talked about the lights um that that's essentially all that I had any any questions um from the board John the lights on that that you're talking about the exploding were those converted when we did the solar um lights can can that happen would that be an expensive fix if you are cheating yeah from halogen to Ellie so that won't happen Katie Winston drop dead deadline for that Honeywell contract that we have to spend money so we don't get penalized um the drop dead D is really next year but the contract approval is now that we can go out to bid and we can make the repairs prior to that final Grant date of next year okay so that's why we're trying to get it in now if we can go out to bid in
033let's say October typically HVAC obviously the work that's getting delayed because the equipment takes a little longer to come in we can get it in next summer and then get everything wrapped up before the grant ends just about the lights that it's not really that much money compared to some of the things that are on the agenda but it's actually to evaluate the first step is evaluate whether it's like a systematic system systemic problem and not just like one ball right and and these were like a while back or something we can't go after talk to whoever sold us the bulbs and say you know your bulbs are exploding okay but I think 20 years and the price isn't for an evaluation that's to replace the ballast in those light poles with LED valves so
034it definitely is going to be spent it's not just a contingency in case we find the systemic problem it's right it's bigger right I almost can't get bigger right I would say that the the stadium lighting has lived its useful life and now is turning into a liability and so we're going to tackle it so before it turns into more equivalent the holes that are going in in the parking lots already taken into consideration special services do on the agenda tonight is it the bus service right it is that's um in case we do need to contract with them for any kind of runs in the middle of the year if the student moves in and we need to use their services agenda so we'd have Capital Reserves for the Jersey clean energy Grant that's
035that's off the gym tonight that is on the agenda what John was speaking to was the Honeywell contract that I originally had on the agenda when we had our meeting last week but unfortunately between the two legal teams we just didn't get all the language done in time last week so that'll be on in September but it won't stop us from the work that we're doing right now so can I ask what was so the money we're approving tonight to be transferred what was what was done for the New Jersey clean energy grants so far 14.4 is what you're referring to that's the transfer funds from capital reserve um for the clean energy Grant to be ready to spend once we have that Honeywell contract in place it was kind of nested together so it
036made a little bit more sense but now when we approve that contract next month it'll be ready in the fun that it needs to be to make those payments foreign Jess Personnel the Personnel Committee Member on August 9th and just discuss the Personal Agenda all right well done thank you take great pride in that requests Deb T curriculum curriculum instruction and Technology event on Wednesday August 9th virtually we had four topics of discussion the first was the district goal that relates to curriculum for this year the goal is to create administer examine the results of and if necessary modify common assessments from Algebra 1 biology early American history and English one so teachers are currently finalizing the common assessments for these classes over the summer and overall all of the students in these classes amongst
037both schools will take now the same six assessments throughout the school year um the conclusion for this in our discussion is that the assessments will help teachers identify students who need support as we prepare for State Testing and the only action items here is that once this is complete the um teachers will be able to administer and then examine the results for the assessments throughout the year the second topic of discussion was the board agenda items there were seven or R7 on the agenda tonight 11.1 through 11.7 we discussed the items on the curriculum portion of the orders the August board agenda the out of District placements are primarily incoming Freshmen the commission for blind provides supports for teachers and students such as technology and professional development for teachers we discuss whether or not the
038mind of the athlete program that we currently have in place can be open to all students and what ultimately came out of it is that that curriculum and messaging is really towards student athletes but certainly if other students or groups within the district are interested in something like that that is an option that we can explore the calendar revision on tonight's agenda is just moving Voorhees back to school night from Thursday to Wednesday and the emergency virtual instruction plan that's on the agenda it's only going to be put in place if the state declares a state of emergency and if we have been out of school for more than three days so it's only something that we have to have in place in case of those two criteria and the overall after the discussion the
039committee supports agenda items 11.1 through 11.7 the third topic of discussion was the NJ GPA results that Mr grown so lovingly and carefully went over and the only thing I would have added we already discussed was that it did come up in discussion um if the cut score was the same as last year which I just told everybody those um so the seniors at this time are already underway in terms of anyone who did not achieve what they needed to they're already underway which is great and then the last topic of discussion was our for good of the order we had a very brief conversation about offering AP or advanced placement courses versus IB which is the international Baccalaureate class distinction and we obviously we came to the conclusion that AP is the right way
040to go for us get a little bit of detail about each if you need AP versus IB but I almost want to make you do it I'm going to take that challenge okay so the IB is more expensive um it's an international program and it's focused on critical thinking and Global awareness so students who take an IB or a course first and foremost many of those high schools have to actually go out to a third party to also offer an IB diploma so it's total it's something separate I'd be classes a lot of colleges and universities globally look for that diploma versus just like a one or two off class so that can't you can find that some that will accept that and then the difference with that is that the AP programs a lot
041more there's a lot more flexibility not as expensive and allows it to be you know focused on very several range of topics science math all right thank you anybody have any questions for Deb or the curriculum committee all right seeing none next up is Glenn policy policy last Monday um so there's seven policies after a second reading those were reviewed in June they're all stress estimated revisions Google those there are six mandatory regulations because the regulations are mandatory they are first only reading uh four of those correspond to policies on second reading tonight regarding evaluation of teachers and staff uh one relates to maintenance of student health records which have mine which has minor revisions and one relates to health services so again we recommend approving those there are three policies that were first reading
042one of them is a new mandated policy by the state regarding regarding the formation of credit threat assessment team in this deed um I think about a month ago just put out guidelines for that um in general it's related to the formation of teams to help the administration and that by students that may be harmed to other students or themselves so I think the way we currently characterize this team as being a project positive thing um the second release to uh revisions to Citizens advisory committee which is the board May create citizen groups right that can provide recommendations to the board um and the last relate relates to 0164 which we've been talking about for a while which is changing the format of our meeting so you should have a draft of that in the
043northern materials so the predominant change to the running of board meetings would be that all the committee readouts would occur after public session each committee would do which readout we would vote on it so that's the predominant change sense for starters so divide up the consent provided up right so for example Finance would use their readout and then we'd vote on it policy and do is read out we would vote on it so make it a little bit less confusing an average occur we had a discussion as to whether there should be that true curve before or after public comment we fill the trick or after they were for allowing the public to provide comments on the agenda questions on that part the other on the other change that is in the agenda format is
044that we originally in the original way we run our agenda you'll see tonight is there's uh two opportunities for there's one opportunity to own a new business that occurred before executive session and one opportunity for new business after executive session has been Consolidated to old and new after executive session we meet it after in the event that executive session creates questions for potentially new businesses that's the first reading right so we'll prove that if any additional questions on the next so I would just add on that in the discussion in the policy committee meeting like there was a lot of like healthy debate about um whether it's a good thing or a bad thing to restructure the agenda and sort of put the voting for each section like closer to the committee readout so that
045the question and answers then are followed by like the voting and I think the consensus was it sounds like a good idea and let's try it and we could always change it back if it feels like it doesn't work like there seems like there's no harm in trying and if it feels like that's leading to more productive dialogue about each section followed by voting right away rather than like a 80 item vote at 45 minutes after the discussion on those items so it was sort of like yeah I went to go for it oh last thing I'm doing tonight is there are five policy regulations um to be abolished to relate to covet that are no longer relevant one relates to um meal travel lodging reimbursement Administration um the proper education has regulations to Trump
046this so therefore it's more relevant there is one that relates to Citizens advisory committee that's effectively return from the policy that's on first reading tonight so recommend that being abolished and the last relates to policy 6630 which relates to maintenance of the athletic accounts um so there's already a policy 6421 that effectively trumps the policy itself for Boston tonight effectively indicates how a different accounts are administered IE that should be admitted by the business office we've already been doing that for the past year and been running successfully so see the volume of that any questions I do so I'm on a policy committee so I apologize to the policy committee members and they think about this but I want to raise three three questions and maybe you know they're easy so this this uh in
047the first the second readings I'm sorry these ones about evaluations there's four of them that are related I'm I'm confused it says we have to have a district we shall have a district evaluation advisory committee multiple times and then it says actually it's optional do we have a district evaluation advisory committee Jive this like you shall have this and then just you know a page later it says oh this is optional think about a board turn once is it okay to do that to say you shall do this our policy is that shall happen and then later in the policy say oh it's optional unfortunately the devil's in the details so that shell is actually it's a shell because unfortunately what we learned from covid time was that sometimes when the policy says shell it
048means a mandatory shell and sometimes it means we really recommend this but you don't have to do it with no clear distinction between the two so I would want to look at the specific language so this is the measurement language evaluation yeah yeah so I don't know if we want to bog down maybe maybe I'll just um well these are all Strauss s May recommended changes right that's something big blend is correct right we didn't have any of these that were kind of conjured up on our own [Applause] um so maybe it's the weak Chef that's not the strong shell is in in this language well in the policy that's in the agendas is the word may established now we're talking about evaluations like three two two one yeah and regulation three two two one
049section F3 says that this is not required so good it's a alternative for now and we can you're saying we don't have one we haven't had one we've had these policies on the books so we're not changing anything we just kind of we're doing the Strauss Esme you know NJ statute XYZ changed to 0.1 to 0.2 and we need to make that reflective in the policy so yes but right like I mean I don't know you're raising a point that may or may not point out inconsistency in the language particularly between the policy and the regulation right so like I I would rather to feel good about that there's a understanding of the language that it makes sense because like I I'm always thinking back to what Kim has said multiple times which is we
050want policy that reflects what you know what we do right and so if you're not comfortable with it we've we have this policy in place right so this the second reading is modifying that existing policy so I would I'd suggest we table it and I I think the same issue applies to three two two one three two two two three two two three so you're tabling you're gonna we've already had uh yeah first second reading too as well on those and then first and only readings for the reg so we're gonna eventually this is second so this is second reading of those parts right so we're tabling them what do you think evaluation about your sections how do we procedurally do that Mr Boyd attorney do we need like a uh promotion to the table
051table all right all right I'm motion to table three two two one three two two two three two two three and three two two four which all have the same language once we solve it once it'll be solved for all of them right and then the associated regulations too right so regulation three two two one two two two and two two three and two two four so it's all four it's all four of their policies and all four of the regulations is that your motion yes okay a second by Beth any discussion on the motion to table the four second reading policies and the four first and only reading mandatory regulations any discussion all in favor I opposed abstentions all right the motion carries so those items are tabled and my so last question is
052on first and only reading of mandatory regulations this is the student health services 5310 section h says as I have read it uh you know oh yeah section h M get through all those three two two two two um it's really at the bottom of the whole thing that has there's been somebody in the school evaluates students unlike you know eyesight hearing um screening for height weight blood pressure visual Acuity auditory acuity scoliosis conducted by a school physician school nurse or other school personnel Personnel properly trained I asked my kids have they ever been evaluated at the high school and they said no so is that what what they slipped through the cracks or do we actually not do that we have a school nurse evaluate people or visual Acuity auditory Acuity Etc or do
053we maybe it's sub contracted so to speak to the physical the physical yeah yeah that's the contract of the physical through the physical process right okay so that would fall under the uh or other school personal Personnel property trained so I would say that these screenings are for students who are identified as having visual or hearing Acuity issues or who didn't receive okay a physical so so it probably is captured then in this this the the screenings will happen in accordance with njac 6A you know et cetera Etc which I didn't read and that probably says there's a subset of students that need to have this happen to them not all students okay yeah if they're not getting their physical from a primary doctor yeah I just it struck me that I don't remember this
054happening and read it as this will happen the question about is I thought that students are only required to get a physical when they come into the school unless they participate in a sport right right it's over here it's every year they always have to go they remember it I know okay that's it sorry no especially okay any other questions comments all right thank you Glenn um do we have any readouts from our um Liaisons is Hunter and County and jspa as soon as school starts off well just checking we'll get on the band just checking all right thank you for those committee reports so now we are on to our opportunity for public comment during this portion of the meeting the public is invited to address the school board with questions or comments the
055public is requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to State their name Municipality of residence group affiliation if applicable and direct their comments to the school board president while all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate school board members will not respond to the speakers at the time of their appearance public comment period will be a maximum of 30 minutes in length unless there are unusual circumstances those appearing will be allocated three minutes to speak and no one will be permitted to speak twice until those that have not yet had an opportunity to speak have had a turn so public comment is now open please approach the microphone and state your name and municipality and sign the um register Ed uh Phil beefman with Huntington
056Health in Huntington good to see you then I'm here on behalf of hunting health and I would like to comment on agenda item 14.12 which calls for a vote to appoint St Luke's Warren Physician Group as a medical inspector at the North hunting Regional High School during the 2023-2024 high school Academic Year Urgent health was excited to have been selected as the provider at your most recent meeting on June 27 2023 that is because many of the students faculty and staff at North Hunterdon are patients at our practices across our community that many of our 4 000 employees medical staff and volunteers our parents here at North Hunterdon and that we believe we are more than able to service the contract here in North as evidenced by our work as medical inspector at Voorhees High
057School and ultimately we believe that we know the students here and that we were excited to support them alongside you we're disheartened to hear the sports decision to now proceed with an out-of-county provider but nonetheless have every intention of supporting the sports decision we do however intend to meet with the business administrator to better understand how we can meet their needs in the future thank you yeah thank you thank you [Applause] thank you good evening my name is Amy Barrett I'm a resident of high bridge and a former Middle School teacher um I'm here to say something positive I want to thank the board for your time and effort especially and especially thank the majority of board members for your courage in voting against Banning books during the 2021-2022 school year a magnet point of
058thanking you a year later because I believe that this issue and your votes are going to become an issue during the November election campaigns North 100 in Voorhees was among the first districts to experience the scourge of censorship that has since affected the entire country without a road map to guide it this board had the wisdom to understand that students freedom to choose and freedom to read must be protected thank you for following your policies and for serving as a model to show other districts how to do the right thing but there's an Ask here as well book challenges do tend to snowball into Avalanches they start with 5 then 50 and the next thing you know it's 500 books like in Florida a North hundred and Voorhees Community member whose wife is running again
059for a seat on this board has already boasted online that he now has a list of 50 more books 50 more books that should be banned from the north hundred and Voorhees libraries please continue to do the right thing by strengthening your book complaint policy 9130 to not allow reruns of the same book complaints once retained by the board a title should not be able to be submitted for reconsideration for a period of five years in addition please prevent unfounded future challenges by revising the materials reconsideration request form to require more complete and substantial information from the complainant so somebody can't just give you a list of 50 books and then you've got to deal with each one of them thank you again for your support of students freedom to read [Applause] good evening board
060members I'm Martha Hixson librarian at North Hunterdon High School I hope you had a restful summer before we look to the year ahead I'd like to reflect on the events of the June 27th meeting in particular the textbook list two members refused to approve the list following comments that the social studies books were inaccurate as a responsible consumer of information before accepting that claim I sought to investigate its source looking for some indication of expertise from the claimant that would justify superseding the recommendations of experienced professional staff however unlike many districts ours does not post the background and credentials of its board members the absence of that information prevents us from fully understanding the composition of the board and evaluating the worthiness of the statements made here to close that Gap I suggest adding brief
061biographies of each board member to the district's website for an example of what that would look like see the board web pages 400 and Central next I sought information about the 23 Social Studies books on the list they are issued by such reputable education Publishers as Howton Mifflin Harcourt w w Norton and Pearson they are compiled under the editorial oversight of such noted historians and political scientists as Eric foner professor emeritus of history at Columbia University George Edwards distinguished professor of political science at Texas A M and William Howell director of the Center for Effective Government at the University of Chicago it would be surprising indeed for any of the textbooks to have gone through multiple editorial and review hurdles of the publication process with major errors intact when I teach information literacy skills I
062find that asking questions is often a roadblock to research students don't ask enough questions they are often satisfied with the first or easiest answer or they don't fully understand the answers they receive all of those impediments arose at the last board meeting please use your meeting time tonight to unpack fully air and reverse the damaging claims that at the social studies textbooks by asking these questions which we Community observers were eager to pose but unable to voice at the June meeting which particular books contain inaccuracies what are the specific inaccuracies in which passages or on which Pages do those inaccuracies appear what information is needed to replace or correct these inaccurate passages and what are the sources for the corrected information I make this request out of concern for my colleagues in the social studies
063Department within days they will be teaching from the very textbooks that have been smeared here in the current climate forcing them to work under a cloud of Suspicion places them at risk for baseless attacks based on isolated passages plucked out of context and circulated by those with malign political motives to summarize I'm making two simple requests one please publish biographies of board members by September 26th and two please investigate and refute tonight the textbook claims made at the June meeting so the teaching staff can begin the year with one less burden thank you for your attention and good luck to the board staff and students during the coming school year thank you foreign do we have any further public comment going once going twice all right we will close the public comment section thank you
064and move on to there we go next all right we get a motion and a second to approve agenda items 11.1 to 14.26 can I have a motion please motion by Tara so I can buy dead all right any discussion on 11.1 through 14.26 with the notation that we have tabled in the SEC in 12.1 we have tabled four of the second reading policies that um we detailed earlier three two two one three two two two three two two three and three two two four and the we have tabled under 12.3 of the four related mandatory regulations so we'll be building on section 12 with those modifications [Music] so I appreciate leaving the grant student for a budget four to five thousand dollars has been a lot but guessing the climate is a lot so
065can someone who's attended those conferences to help them appreciate what values out of those conferences because it's I'll be honest with you right five thousand dollars a lot of money personally I think the school stuff I just want to understand the value of it before I I would vote I I can jump in a little bit I'm personally not going um just because of work trying to get off of work um the njsba uses that as an opportunity to do live trainings because a lot of our other trainings are virtual room though there are other live options but they're ritual you get a chance to meet other board members from other districts throughout the state of New Jersey so that you know if you see somebody that maybe asks a question you can talk to
066them where you wouldn't have that opportunity um there's presenters that wouldn't be in like a virtual option throughout the year can you be a fully functioning contributing board member without going yes because there's a lot of trainings available online um so that I mean there's that I don't know if anyone else wants to answer you've gone to them you've found a better picture I did I I will say I what I find more beneficial personally they may disagree when the governance training it's like one like to do those in person there's no comparison but that's a weekend it's not as expensive to your point um there you really get a lot more out of those in person than you do online the governance trainings I'm not going this year I won last year I also
067go um because of my my job position I've been I go every year as an architect last year I went as a board member and um like you said the trainings that you can go to not just but not just the governance like things that were um particular towards facilities I I focused on and getting ideas for different things that I could bring back and maybe make suggestions to the to the administration or um and then also understanding how things are done and you know getting hearing from other people there I mean there there's just so much information that you can get there and you can really focus on what you'd like to focus on either on your committee or you know different things like that so I think would be a good idea based
068on what you're saying is whoever does go we have them do a presentation yeah that's my next suggestion right I think since we have a lot of people going I think I think to benefit all of us right because all apologize I think is accessible right I think the poor should try to give a readout of things and I guess I would just I haven't been but like my reaction to four thousand five hundred dollars well like yes that would be a lot out of my checking account like I think this is a pretty inexpensive board to run right like this is not like a like our board we don't we don't spend a lot of money on like our own professional development I don't think like compared to at least like some of the
069other board meetings I've watched on online or whatever like it just seems that we're a pretty we're pretty low maintenance board from a spending perspective and this four thousand five hundred dollars if it's going to make us better um I think it's money and one of the things that I find value added because I tend our hunter County monthly meetings but I also go to I work in Essex County in Newark so at school boards it's nice that I meet up with other board members in the communities where I work to see the issues that they're dealing with and it helps immensely especially on our Dei that I can bring to the table what other board members are seeing throughout the state and how they're dealing with different issues that are presented in their communities
070so it I I find that very valuable any other questions on or questions comments discussion on uh sorry 11.1 through 14.26 with the modifications to section 12. any other questions discussions come in [Applause] if not we will have a Voice vote all in favor opposed abstention Shelly abstaining from 14.20 same with Nicole and Tara and Kim say that the board members that are abstaining as the travel requests really only need to abstain voting for this okay right now it's collagen as they are stating entirely so you can write mine down as 14 20 21 0 3 8 7. I think that we have um it's usually just done yes as to 14.20 except as to my to myself but we could also do it the other way yeah that is okay so how do we
071want to work that Shelly on 21-0385 and Nicole from 21-0386 and Tara from eight seven and Kim from eight eight do I have that correct duly noted thank you any other abstentions the motion still carries all right excellent all right uh where are we all right all the new business does anybody have any old or new business that they would like to raise for discussion well I'm wondering if we could visit the two points that um were brought up during the public comment on from the policy uh if we could add that to the policy agenda for next what's 913 that's the book Banning policy in the book review policy thank you I should have also added insurance policy about that we're still needing to consider how we're going to run uh elections for four
072conference right and so we haven't forgotten about that that's fine yeah so your new business just is to add into policy for policy committee discussion the book reconsideration and the book challenge policy policy okay any other new business that we item I'd also like our policy committee to think about so it's become I became aware that there's other boards that have a mechanism whereby the community in defining how to do this is what you want to discuss in minimum but the community to petition for an emergency board meeting I looked at our policy zero one six one it does not appear to be there a way to do that it looks like the majority of the board itself can you call for emergency session okay and this came up in another board where a boat
073went a certain way the community to dislike the way the vote went let their board know and petition somehow to have a meeting specifically about that boat okay is there something that you can Enlighten us on like down in well typically emergency meetings are meant for merger issues meaning issues that have to be addressed immediately we cannot wait to the next record meeting so I'm a little concerned about the parameters it's not meant to address simply the public is happy with how a vote happens that can be addressed at an export meeting emergency meetings because it allows you to curtail or shorten some of the notice proceedings completely better than the opma are really meant to address this is like the roof has blown off of the gym and we need to you know an
074emergency contract to replace them okay well so that is something that Glenn you have for addition to our obviously committee discussion thank you that's good input though thank you for raising here question because to that point you know I think it's really it would be important for us to Define what emergent means um so if that's something they can be considered unless there is another definition Within the policies that Define emergent well the policies may say one thing but you also have operated underneath right exactly and she does have a definition of what an immersion emergency The Identical that happened the emergency aspect of it was it was going to change the way the school was run and the schools are going to open in you know in two weeks so that's that's why it
075wasn't it it the community felt that needed to be addressed before school started and the current policy didn't provide a mechanism for that to happen I I their policy I didn't and their policy I looked into our policy and there's no no language whatsoever that would allow a community to encourage us to meet like now or you know in in a week or something like that interesting for discussion sure okay well wouldn't that be something that I would think that most public people in the public are board members would reach out to the administration to the superintendent to find out is there is there a reason why and how can we address this then I see it as I understand the Public's perspective being emergent your kids are starting in two weeks but I guess
076I think the norm with people would reach out to the super yeah it's about that it's an interesting topic I don't think one that I've ever given any thought to um it seems like well I mean I don't know it seems like um well we haven't had that situation I know yeah if the board like we've had emergency meetings in the past for a variety of issues that have been brought to the board's attention and required a majority of the board to agree to have a special meeting um so I guess we just need to talk about and make and come up with a recommendation of whether that existing policy and is sufficient or not so okay thanks Brian any other New or Old business for the good of the order going once going twice
077okay we will now move on to um executive session so could I get a motion and a second to adopt resolution zero eight one five two three-2 for executive session to discuss matters falling under category eight as reflected in the attached resolution the board expects to be in executive session for approximately one hour and upon return to public session action will be taken can I have a motion please motion by Shelley second by Jess all in favor aye opposed abstentions all right we already got the obsession thank you can I get a motion and a second to reconvene public session second who did it who did it me Nicole yeah second by Jess all in favor I'll opposed okay we are back in public session all right can I uh is there any new business
078fun question that was presented to me by a Community member today um for a team and their son is really going to be coming up next year but big into chess competes all the time we don't have a chest team so I said I'll find out is to do teams is it the same as clubs I know we have chess club at Corey's but do they like can that ever the chess club ever go into competitive mode they could okay but I don't know what the governing board would be or the agency that governs that there'd be some investigation director of Athletics I would probably start with the whoever is supervising the club thank you yeah there used to be a team they said years ago I don't recall how they did it yeah so
079they asked me that question I have the clubs at the some of the theater schools that I know I'll let them I'll send them on that direction all right thank you Tara anybody else have new business seeing none I have a motion and a second to approve agenda items 19.1 and 19.2 and the Personnel hand carry p08152023-01 still moved motion by Kim second by Jess any discussion [Applause] we need a rule called vote Ms bonomi yes yes [Music] Miss Gallup yes sense yes Miss coptren yes Mr Milan yes Miss Selena yes Mr Stanton yes Miss viato yes Mr kirchberger yes motion carries thank you can I get a motion and a second to adjourn um all in favor thank you everyone that was fun