001the north hundred and Voorhees Regional High School District Board of Education meeting for Tuesday May 23rd 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 a submission of notice of the time date and location to The Star Ledger on January January 11 2023 and the Hunterdon County Democrat on January 12 2023. notice and to the extent known the agenda of this meeting has been posted at North Hunterdon High School and Voorhees High School provided to the municipal Clerks of Bethlehem Township Califon Borough 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 the district
002website fire exits are located in the Direction indicated if alerted to fire please move in a comment orderly fashion to the nearest smoke-free exit at this time please silence all cell phones I have a roll call please Mr Chapman here Miss Crystal logo president Miss Gallup here miss him here here Mr Mueller here Selena here miss viato here okay and now we have Dan Dan say here here tonight salute I pledge of the United States one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right can I get a motion and a second to approve agenda item 4.1 which are the minutes from the April 25th 2023 school board meeting motion please so Tara any discussion any abstentions all in favor I opposed okay the next item on the agenda was
003to be a goal-setting discussion we have postponed that uh for this month so we are going to do that next month probably gonna do that next month we're pending weddings availability but the agenda for next month will be updated once we get confirmation from when in advance of doing that next month we are going to ask that everyone completes the board self-evaluation and there'll be instructions sent out to everyone that's on the same website and the same place where the chief School administrator evaluation process was housed it's the same login it's just the board self-evaluation is another link to a different evaluation which becomes input for the goal setting move it to six again if we get that confirmed then I was going to mention in the my president's report I want to read out
004the time and date of the next meeting that that time if we do get that confirmed for next month would be moved to 6 pm foreign all right so that being skipped then we can head right to you the board student Representatives report where this month we get the opportunity to thank our student representatives for their service this year I think this is the last month that you guys [Applause] so that the principals are going to get up and say a few words uh in recognition of each of you and then we'll take some pictures and we'll thank you again for all of your excellent excellent contributions this year and I think that you know this is the third year that we've done this and I think it keeps like I think it keeps getting
005better and better like that the contributions and the voices that you guys lended to our discussions were important and valuable and so we thank you for that and hopefully you know we'll just continue this trend of you know making the students feel like an actual part of what we're doing so thank you from the board and are you guys going to get up there oh I didn't know if they had reports I'm sorry I'm sorry sorry [Laughter] my bed so let's get those reports so Sienna are you gonna kick us off who's going first um so for previous school what events um on Friday May 12th we had Relay for Life which raised fifty thousand dollars in fundraising for cancer research the Ceramics Club held a Mother's Day sale during l1102 the Northern Lights hosted
006an open mic night on May 18th as soon as before poetry music martial arts and more all of which is part of the magazine that is available on Earth website for upcoming school-wide events we have the May blood drive which is tomorrow um from 7 30 to 7 30 a.m to 3 30 p.m and we highly encourage everyone in attendance to come up tomorrow um tonight studying foreign languages will attend the awards ceremony for language at 6 30 Awards will be given for excellence in the study of language extra effort in the study of language and seniors who have earned the prestigious seal of by literacy the music department will be having their spring awards banquet tomorrow at 6 30 in the cafe the second annual cultural celebrations day will take place on Thursday of
007this week from 11 30 a.m to 2 30 on the main gym again we highly encourage everyone to clear it to come out and check it out the final exams for North will be held on Wednesday June the 6th to June 9th and on Monday the 12th makeup finals will be on Tuesday the 13th and as this is our final meeting I would just like to say thank you to the board and Dr Kosovo opportunities here it didn't give Sienna and I a platform just report on the entities and going on to North but to actually represent the voice of the student body and changes that we all move to advocate for especially during our meetings of Dr Cottrell and the diversity and inclusion committee while no one school or area can be perfect that
008they're having had the opportunity to hear what goes on in these meetings and also the diversity after the inclusion meetings it is clear that North Carolina is determined to work toward constant Improvement rather than settling for just okay in my four years at North I'm happy to say that there have been many changes in positive direction and when issues have come up that concern members of our community we have all been provided a place to voice our concerns and fight for equity and inclusion in every classroom so thank you for an opportunity to be a part of that positive change and we hope to continue to see it as we move forward with everything we've learned in this school and I will not pass it off thank you alrighty Bitter Sweet woman here last report
009oh so for athletics for girls golf we have Esther Choi who finished second in the 101 Sussex tournament Kelly Fire singer finished Fist and Isha manderhand finished seventh all for girls golf tournaments for Spring Track and Field Danielle dicio and kensei Edwards were named the MVPs at the 110 Awards Sussex tracking um Holden shiper shot an even par of 72 to win the Huntington County golf tournament uh the Lady Lion softball team after their first ever 101 Celtics Championship with a three win over top seeded their three-time defending Champion Hunter and Central wow yes Katie Reed hit up everyone home we're at the top of the sixth inning and was the game MVP to figure Sky cook also dominated the game only giving up four hits three walks and had five straight talk so some
010senior events um on June 1st at 6 30 the senior Awards uh for senior senior Awards and Senior athletic awards would take place in the theater the senior class luncheon hosted by the PTSA will take place on June 9th see Juniors have their graduation practice days on June 9th and the 12th and graduation is on the 14th at 10 A.M senior prom queen places weekend on May 19th uh Project Graduation will also take place on June 15th from 9 00 pm to the 15th sorry 14 to 9 P.M to the 15th at 6 A.M um and then on behalf of the senior class we want to thank the administration PTSA teachers and parents for everything that they have done to allow us to have the events where we can celebrate each other's accomplishments we are
011grateful for all of your sacrifices and time and that concludes my last and final report laughs hello and all of your board members for this experience an opportunity I truly believe that this position should continue in the future and will help you further understand the posts on through the city's perspective um I encourage you to take the input that we give you uh to also improve North Hunterdon um and to just have us be proactive as a community with that being said I'm grateful to have been student board representative and I'm honored to have provided you with feedback suggestions input and insights as a student I hope and pray that as the year goes on things improve and continue to get better there's always work to be done always remember that and thank you for
012this opportunity I look forward to coming back and visiting you all soon thank you hi everybody that was really well last night um so as far as school events go before I get you today we had another one of our very successful blood drives at the school we had the opportunity to work a lot within the New York blood center um through those drives providing just a lot of saving blood obviously we're in the middle of the blood shortage so that's always a wonderful event to see at the school additionally we have Relay for Life coming up I know that North Relay for Life just concluded and as someone who's been able to spearhead that process at the school it's really wonderful to see another group raising just as much money for the American Cancer
013Society um this year Voorhees is going to be supporting the Relay for Life of Hunterdon County which will be June 2nd at other than Central um as for what we're doing on our end we recently started up a popcorn virtual sale and we've been able to raise just over 300 in the past two days so babies that's what we're getting there um something very exciting we have a problem coming up this Thursday at steelstacks I know the Junior and senior classes are very excited for that fun time as far as other senior activities we are looking up next week on our class trips our dinner cruise around Manhattan is on the fifth oh I'm gonna get these days wrong so I'm not going to say them which is funny um and then our last trip
014to Dorney Park we are also in the process of planning a senior picnic similar to the senior lunch network and on a senior Sunrise as just kind of one final goodbye our rewards night will also be June 6th we'll be recognizing members of the senior class um for all of their hard work and accomplishments over the year and as far as I think that's interesting activities for our Athletics we had our returning mind of the athlete presentation which we see every season it was obviously a very helpful um kind of time just for athletes remember to remain mindful of their well-being while playing their Sports and additionally I wanted to shout out our girls at golf team we're not only 101 Sussex champs this year but also state champs I believe that'll be back but
015they had a very successful season everybody um additionally I wanted to just highlight a recent event that we had was our Wellness fair that was hosted by our counseling department it was a really wonderful event that encouraged mindfulness and mental health with various Wellness practices we got to hang out with therapy dogs and go around to a bunch of awesome companies that are really doing their best to make a mark on the world of mental health and advocacy so it was a wonderful opportunity We additionally had a career fair that featured dozens of presentations regarding Future Past and was attended by 43 members of the junior of the sophomore and junior class um it's never too soon to start thinking about what's next so that was a really wonderful opportunity and I think the last
016thing of my part is as we head to graduation which will be June 14th also at 10 A.M um everyone's kind of getting ready for that final stretch and I have a speech I need to write for that and I think that that concludes my report I apologize for the speech I had a long day um I did just want to say a very sincere I don't think we'll go a very sincere thank you to both Mr Peterson and to the board as well as to the members of our school who voted us to be up here um it's been an honor to serve as class president for four years but I had never felt I had been given the opportunity to share my voice in this kind of way before and as someone who
017is very passionate about Civic engagement it was really awesome to get to take that next step and to represent my class I'm very proud of them their accomplishments very proud of the school and to kind of just get to be up here and get a piece of the action and see how you guys do what you do was a really wonderful experience and a great opportunity so thank you very much for that so I have no report but um I would just like to thank any everyone and everyone that's involved in all this that we do here I think all four of us are just really really grateful get the opportunity to be here and share kind of the day-to-day week-to-week month to month I guess of what goes on in our schools and give
018you guys the ability to take that and progress with it so I think we're all very grateful and the students is one less thank you from I think all four of us we really appreciate being involved in all this and having all of us here together of course yes do we get to keep our eyes Mission executive decision that yes you guys can take those thank you I was like I don't know when to ask this we're gonna need a reference [Laughter] so obviously we have some very okay you guys representing our final well it's been a pleasure to work with you throughout the year I really enjoyed our monthly meetings it was a great excuse for us to get together and I appreciate your honesty even when there are conversations that were maybe critical
019of myself or the school in general you would have to bring those to my attention so I thank you for that you guys awesome and I just wanted to give a little bit more information about both Danica and Sienna as we honor them tonight so uh Danica is very active within the school which is actually our vice president of the senior class as well as the Secretary General for the model un and was nominated to attend the conference of national Affairs for model un Danica is also the Chief Justice of yag which is youth in government and she's a National Honor Society president Danica also swam she also swam for North Arlington for three years she missed a year because of covet we didn't swim that year and so in the fall she will be
020attending Stevens Institute of Technology and she will be working towards a master's degree in software engineering so that's Danica pretty impressive uh also impressive we have Sienna she is the officer officer of our diversity Club as well as a member of the US Alliance she has been a Varsity Softball uh team member and that's you can see her a little extra enthusiasm about her awesome Varsity softball season this year as well as she's been on our Varsity track team for the past two years outside of school Sienna is a member of the Tri-State Warriors which is a women's professional football team and yes that is a team that tackles we clarified that today as well as also a flag football league and she's trying out for the USA team for that as well she'll be
021attending Howard University in the fall and plans to receive an accelerated master's degree in sociology and criminal criminology in a as well as a minor in strategic legal and management Communications and she will graduate with a law degree I think I got that wrote [Applause] I'm like Lauren I didn't type anything up I just I'm a little note person but I wanted to start by just saying to Danica and Sienna I wish you all the best in your future endeavors um it was great hearing your reports each and every week so congratulations on your upcoming graduation all right so we were just here last month and I was already talking about Lauren alley good so let me just tell you uh refresh your memory on that a little bit more again she's in the model
022un she is the class 2023 president she's involved with youth and government and she is going to see if I get this right you're you have like a dual enrollment joint joint enrollment she will be attending the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland for two years and then William and Mary for two years and she's majoring in political science so international relations um all right Catherine Chris a member of our field hockey team played Varsity she also was involved with our swim team for four years um something that I found out today that I did not know you never shared with me all the times I pulled you out of your classes so we could talk you never told me that you raised sheep that's okay sorry I know people I know people and so
023you know I was very impressed with that with that with raising sheep so that was uh impressive um only yes I know that that was exactly how many were down in there um uh Catherine will be uh attending Quinnipiac University uh in the Honors College and I believe you're studying occupational therapy am I correct which is great because she's a member of our unified program so maybe we could use you in the future all right congratulations thank you [Applause] thank you Rob if I could borrow you yeah uh let's do all four together yeah it doesn't matter all right here we go onesies [Applause] did we get a motion in a second today thank you bye enjoy your words thank you all again okay that was fun yeah where are we all right so now
024on to even more fun I think we can top that back to bird next a New Jersey Department of Education determining grades under the anti-bullying billed Rights Act district and school grade report for 2021 and 2022. you're up is there something about who you follow in the field business yes so I can't I can't call that just a refresh everybody's memory uh we are recording to you the official anti-bullying Bill of Rights School self-assessment scores that the state has sent back to us to give you a quick overview of the process in the fall the school safety teams at each School met and determined whether or not they met all the criteria that the state requires us to meet according to the anti-bullying Bill of Rights they gave themselves scores I brought that and presented
025it to the board we then submitted it to the state the state then approved it sent us back the official score and I am required to present that again to the board so that is what I'm up here to do tonight and out of the maximum score of 78 both schools scored and even 77 so we had a district score of 77 altogether the one area that they took one point off at each school was for other staff instruction and training programs and that really comes down to some volunteer things we want to do a better job of making sure that all of our volunteers that are in a school are trained in the anti-bullying Bill of Rights any questions thank you okay now we are continuing on to the chief School administrators report North
026Arlington High School recently earned re-aggradation through the year 2030 from the middle State Association commissions on Elementary and secondary schools congratulations to the administration and staff members for the hard work to reach this achievement as a reminder the high schools will be closed on Friday May 26th and Friday June 2nd because of unused emergency closing days and the school year is vastly coming to an end final exams will be given on June 7th 8th 9th and 12th with makeup exams under 13 and graduation will be on June 14th and will be again live stream for anyone not able to attend the the HIV report for this month we had one investigation which was unfounded a reminder for April there's three investigations and I need a motion for that so can I get a motion and
027a second to affirm the determinations on the HIV incidents reported at the May the April 25th 2023 board meeting motion please download second second test any discussion all in favor um opposed extensions thank you Mr Bender so now it's my turn for a brief report um the as we heard during the student representative report the graduation ceremonies are upcoming uh June 14th at 10 A.M are both the North Hunterdon and Voorhees graduations and our next meeting is June 27th currently scheduled at 7 pm but if you have a lookout as that may change to 6 PM if we get confirmation of doing the board goals work and that's my report so we will turn can I just have a question about graduation um is it um just because Nicole and I are knew is it
028common for to have to make sure that there are board members at both graduations yeah they're I mean so they're usually in my six years I guess there's always been board members at each okay I don't know if there should be like a split like because it usually just works out okay good um I don't think that we'd ever like actually divided up but it usually just seems to work out okay great thanks no problem thank you no problem all right where were we uh uh committee reports let's start with Tara I have two things to report out um last two Saturdays ago was the delegate assembly um in Mercer County Community College so we elected new leadership for school boards um and there had been a vote off of two for finance and a
029Gentleman out of Piscataway had that position and that's two years so there'll be our president vice president for the next two years uh there had been ten uh resolutions that had been submitted uh three of them had been removed two were combined and another one then was withdrawn that day so there were four I sent you guys the link so that you could reveal them uh four of them passed the fifth one needed a two-thirds and it was 64 that was to allow votech Schools board members and charter school board members they pay into dues but they don't have any uh voting rights so but it didn't pass it was 60 40 so it needed a two-thirds so um and then all of the 900 series were reviewed without any addition so everything was approved
030and as they have been on their website there's been no changes in any of the verdictions for community relations we met on May 18th virtually and everybody was in attendance including Mr bender and spur Jacks and Rob we heard feedback from Mr Bender regarding as the student focus groups that he had met with and he received a lot of positive information some other information that he wasn't aware of and one of the things were students were wanting more College Planning information earlier in the years they might launch a lunch and learns on many topics throughout lunch periods throughout the year so that students can get exposure to the information that they seem to not be able to always find on the website which was another topic the website was overhauled seven years ago in America
031reported out that it's updated when it's needed and expanding we had looked at a couple other sites but the cost to do an overhaul of our website which is would be expensive so as a board there's no action here but in the future if that's something that the community seems to need or want we'll have to look at that and then allocating funds for it if that comes to that point uh Rachel's Challenge was discussed and it so well received and then the other topic was freshman orientation and trying to find that way through the schools to be able to allow the freshmen to get an idea of what kind of clubs and activities are available to them not only at that Rush of everything new going into school but but look at ways to
032be able to um expose them throughout the year and some of that lunch lunch topics could come up so and that's about it um communication with the community and we'll look at the website when that comes and then another area is that translation of communication sent home to families and on our website they did a survey and there's 21 languages spoken at home as the home language so there's the diversity on that but she's starting to transcribe and send out Communications in the language that is preferred at home that's it anybody have any questions possible to let students update the website practical applications like what they may learn in school I'm not really enough about what it really means but I'm just yeah when small projects okay I'm looking at over at g to see
033yeah but that's an idea okay [Music] they haven't been doing it over the last few years and they're looking to bring that back that way they have the students there and any information that needs to be you know given to them it's Richard at that moment so and it's a lot of fun when they did the morning broadcast I know my children know got to experience that so they didn't forget anything when they saw at their friends presenting it on the morning news so yeah okay good point thanks Tara you're welcome any other questions for Tara if not then we will turn to curriculum instruction and technology and Brian are you giving the report for that in depth I am thanks and uh I think it's tough shoes to fill she does a really good
034job at this so um I have a few pages I want to go over okay the floor is here very thorough all right so the curriculum committee met on May 17th virtually for an hour all members were present we went over five items that are on the agenda under Section 13 agenda the first one was the district development plan is where the district history publishes basically learning goals for the staff the four goals that they've set for the year around accelerating learning through engaging materials the alignment on the Common Assessment protocols that are simply place from addressing racism Prejudice and bias and strategies for promoting social emotional learning so in that conversation we talked a little bit more about the um accelerating learning pieces and the administration remind us that there's things like summer work
035assignments for the students that help them retain some some thought processes around what they've learned what they're going to get into this applies to the 8th graders upcoming that becomes to the school for the first time and there's still access to tutoring over the summer through the tutor.com application site so that's also open to 8th graders who are upcoming to the school next year so um you know the steps are put in place to try to help students re-engage quickly in the next the next year when they come back the second item was an action plan to address gaps in a a a mandated uh program that's called the special education Medicaid initiative or semi basically the school has two gaps that they need to uh declare how they're going to try to fill the
036bridge those gaps one is the main one we talked about was a requirement to inform students that the school can be reimbursed for student certain expenses for special education students through Medicaid and the threat there's a threshold to get 90 percent of of the eligible students you know the parents or or caregivers to send in consent forms so that the school can give the information to Medicaid we got 86 percent but that's not 90 so we need to have a plan which the school of the district has developed to fill that Gap um there's also a an equation that the Divinity applies to try to predict how much reimbursement the district should be and their view should be getting we fell short of that equation but it's just an estimate and we just need to
037um to again put in a plan for it which is for how we might make sure that the line as best we can we with the Medicaid expectations third item is uh the the latest version of the home instruction list which carries us into summer as a monthly type of an item the fourth item is also this monthly type of item with the out of District placements to meet special education needs and the fifth is professional consultants for student services there's a new consultant for psychiatric evaluations and some updated rates for other Consultants that we use and the committee recommends that all those items be approved not on the agenda or tonight's agenda but the other things we discussed were summer curriculum hours for the staff there's a total of 160 hours that we're school
038is going to or the district is going to to have teachers perform over the summer to revise some courses to develop some new courses update the biology curriculum and integrate a new textbook into the English course the state finalized cut scores for graduation proficiency this is a test that was taken and we discussed it as a board recently and the the state decided this is for classes 2024 2025 and this is to to demonstrate proficiency graduation proficiency they lowered the score so more people more students went over the bar but they did eliminate one Pathway to demonstrate proficiency which is in some well remember if you had students here recently it's called the ASVAB it's a military aptitude test and that used to be one way that the students could demonstrate proficiency but that's no
039longer the case the last item is our monthly data analysis we looked at District enrollment District next year is expected to go up in enrollment very Slightly North down 20 students or he's up 50 students so a net of 30 and um last meeting we talked about the number of students on the honor roll and high honor roll for marketing period three it was on the agenda last uh Board of meeting Education meeting this meeting where we heard about um that was more comparing two period two now we're hearing about marketing period three and again about half of the district students are on honor roll or high honorable all right any questions material thank you for that report anybody have any questions I just have a problem I'm really happy to hear that the tutoring
040program is carrying over um through the summer um have we communicated to the sending districts that we have that available to the eighth grade graduates um that are coming in yeah this summer I'm going to be sending that out um but they we just activated their email accounts and it's going to be approved tonight on your agenda um parents to let their students know great thank you all right thank you next up John I am the facility of Transportation thank you very much um our committee met last Monday evening everybody's present uh fortunate except for Shelly um it was a brief meeting but uh main topic was some of the capital work uh that's that'll be ongoing um and also related to that um the Polytech building uh the the bids were in uh were
041aware of and they were all over the budget so now they're looking at ways in which they can either come up with more money or worst case scenario would would be to rescope the building to live within um you know the budget so we'll just say sit and wait um unfortunately though because of this delay it does not it will there's no way they'll be able to complete it by the beginning of the 24th uh school year so it'll just put that out a little further um at both schools tennis courts will be uh well at 40s it's it's a uh it'll be the initial resurfacing That was supposed to take place last summer but there's a defective material that was in the pipeline so we've put it off for a year this resurfacing then
042requires a every five years a maintenance performance on that so it was five years ago that we did it on the tennis courts behind us or next to this building so North will be receiving the five-year maintenance work this summer they're waiting for temperatures to get over here degrees to do that work Honeywell is working on preparing scope of work for the HVAC Grant projects that we were successfully worried and our referendum projects that passed back in November three of them are in they're all under budget two of them one being the locker room at North Hunterdon will be completed this summer I believe this summer will be the North Huntington stairwell fire doors and the third item that will be done this summer over Voorhees the exterior stair Replacements next to the bridge those
043projects will get started as soon as uh congratulations finishes and they'll be ready for use in September in the next school year the other big item on the referendum projects was the HVAC upgrades those bids are being solicited they went out this week so hopefully just like the other projects they'll come in under budget they'll have a longer timeline so um they probably won't be done until the spring summer of 24. [Music] um gee as far as the agenda items go it's pretty routine we recommend passage of everything on their uh tutor.com which was spoken about um that's being renewed with the available s resp funds uh also able to see renewal of the health prescription and dental um programs uh they were all well within the budgeted increases so uh nothing to be alarmed
044there so other than that um any any questions I do what state you practice my overage for the Polytech project and if that old bridge where is that money if we don't see anymore State assistance funding where are we going to get that money so right now they're hoping the construction comes in around 22 and a half million so that they are well within their 25 million dollar budget with all their professional pieces they have to pay an architectural and Engineering the bids were coming in in the 27 to 28 million dollar range so that's why they're looking to raise more funds either at the state level or at the county level if that doesn't work then they're going to have to refine the scope of the project and they go out so they are
045so hopeful they have a lot of support at the county so they are hopeful to get the funds in order to have a complete project how with the timeline I think I'm raising those funds yeah I think the state is still working on their budget so they think that the state level they can get those funds and if not the camera 2025. I think it will be okay it's the parking lot so on your death sentence day of course yeah that's wonderful the summer we do talk about that in the committee that you know that despite the bids being higher and the complications related to that that there was still like a a good degree of certainty that this project is going to happen it's just whether it's going to happen with the exact scope
046and building footprint that was you know initially scoped at or whether it's going to have to be with something else it will depend on the ability to get funds to meet the you know the funds on the boats lined up but I think we discussed the fact that there's there's very little chance that this project doesn't happen at all so you know we're going to do that it's really valuable foreign [Music] any other questions for John or the finance committee on some of the items just one of the items on in section 16 that will regard group tonight but the items in her 16.14 all the books that get damaged or damaged and strike except is that normal for us so many books that are that are being eliminated it's like 26 Pages yeah a
047lot I think the yeah I think the weeding of books is part of the like annual Library like that's part of being a librarian is and do we donate them do we actually donate them or do they just destroy it like throw them away I don't know for sure you know for sure I don't know for sure I know in um as an elementary being close to an elementary school yeah I know that it's a it's a mix okay as some some of those weeded titles find other homes and others aren't in condition or current enough to be um re-homed okay yeah because Hunterdon County library system does the big book sale so I don't know if we ever give them to that because that raises money for our County library system so I mean
048it'd be a perfect place to donate when you can donate what is the process of it doesn't come to the board is there a committee administrative committee who is there what process and if they're pulling books and they're in terrible condition or we're donating do we replace with some same titles or we're just looking at pushing those out and putting all new so they look at the circulation uh which books have been taking taken out I think uh the criteria is seven years if they haven't been taken out in seven years they're weeded and then the ones that are in poor condition that are being utilized okay I understand that there's a lot of populations all over the country that could just use books yeah I know obsolete for for our purposes you look at
049Appalachian other places where they just have they just need books so I'm so just curious given the volume thanks any other questions for finance committee Personnel family Matt all were in attendance on May 17th and we discussed items pertaining to the Personnel agenda thank you I know you all appreciate it has school security so Paul Smith last Monday all were attendance of them unfortunately there are five policy per second reading tonight there's been no new discussion about their review last meeting and recommend those improved there are two regulations that are mandatory for first and only reading tonight one dealing with instructional support staff and one on procedures regarding um requesting and utilizing federal funds again no discussions around those there were six policies for first reading uh of this quotient of policy 0144 that's when
050we pulled off a last meeting that deals with um board member orientation that had changed the number of days uh to 90 days working board members to get training and we questioned whether that was sufficient I checked into it and that is there are sufficient classes offered more than 90 days great new board member to meet the obligation in 90 days so we recommend proceeding with that there are two policies um with corporal punishment and women instructors to incidental loud there is um and then several policies related to um to health records and procedures for the school of implementing health safety we made a minor a minor minor edit to policy 5305 changing it up to the dot because it was grammatically confusing um then the last item that we had on our agenda was
051to review bylaw 0152 which dealt with um tournaments and the nominating committee um because Kim had raised discussions about that she wasn't present we decided to table that to next meeting we don't need to make a decision on that really until later in the fall we still have more insufficient time so we'll retail that for the next week thank you any questions for the policy committee hearing none thank you Beth would you like to give a committee report for any ad hoc committee foreign really great participation in this meeting I think we got a lot of things discussed and a lot of progress um first off uh I wanted to thank the principals about high schools for providing us on very short notice of the current list of the different programs that are in place
052at the each of the high schools as well as for the students as well as for the staff so that we could look at them determine some Effectiveness see where we might be able to reinforce those programs versus change them in any way and I and I would say that it was it was pretty overwhelming that the programs are are well received by students and that it really would behoove us to really emphasize and focus on trying to get the word out and communicate more about the clubs and what they what they can do for for the students um the um and I think having our student Representatives on those call calls were invaluable for those discussions and the students really want to unify is what they've told us and that they want to honor
053what makes them different but also identify what they have in common which is which is really important one of the programs that we discussed quite a bit was the um the ambassador program at Voorhees because the way it's set up really seems to encourage a sense of belonging amongst the students and while there is one at North Hunter and there are some things that maybe could be added to the program um and then that training is done on a very regular basis with the staff and coaches were also required to take training on things like an implicit bias every year starting in 2021 uh and so one of the points that was discussed was the potential need to continue Improvement in ways to help Staff address difficult topics that may be discussed or raised by
054students in classrooms but it's it's been made very clear that teachers have to stay neutral on topics and that responds East upon what's in the curriculum uh so I think you know from a takeaway like the most important thing was that we've got really good programs in place it's really a matter of um seeing how we can enhance them um and and I take a lot of the points that we're already making about communication and getting the information especially the incoming freshmen leaving on the first day of school but even further in would really benefit um the student body quite a bit and to help them uh and then we we also talked about communication we talked about the um the morning program now it's being done at Voorhees and that students really tend to
055Value messaging when it's being communicated by their peers uh that and they take take that to heart and so while it's very important for staff to communicate with students um the the students tend to get more involved in when they're providing the input to others and give being given the opportunity what's happening in the schools so I think that is a really important insights for us as as a committee it gives us a lot of information to work with as we talk about types of recommendations that we would potentially make to the um to the high school administrations but I do just want to emphasize it really was so helpful having the students there and we're still here they're they're honesty and openness and willingness to tell us what's happening is so important and we
056do need to listen to them too General is thinking that you mentioned that you have those open sessions right with students right I think you know rather than being preached to the new listening to right and you doing it is a great example right meeting the students seeing it's coming from you it kind of open it makes them realize right that the environment's over here to speak up so I mean I just I think it's a great thing you're doing and you whatever a little bit it helps right thank you and I just think I know you mentioned it but I think it's worth like just reinforcing that um the the value that the students and the community sees in all of the clubs and and groups that are there and then and the names
057escaping me and I was just flipping through my notes trying to find it of the alliance um the one that like sort of bridges all the clubs together yes yes and like that so that was that was a really good conversation and to me it's it's about increasing like one of the things that comes out of this discussion to me is this increase how do we increase awareness and we we talked about how that like um Club fair at on the during orientation is like right in the middle of when um freshmen are just like overwhelmed with stop coming at them and there's an opportunity to reach into the sending districts before they get to their high schools and sort of make them make those incoming students aware of the opportunities that are available to
058them when they after they walk in the door and then to come back at them after they've had a month to settle in you know rather than like just hit them in that first day or first week and that um like so that that just seemed like an important like Revelation I guess that um yeah and the student wraps even said the same thing that maybe don't throw it at them the day they want you know the first day they come in as their one day orientation right and that doing it once they're kind of settling in um it would be helpful and I think the other thing too is the idea of having uh the Ambassador or somebody that a student can feel comfortable going to as a freshman or a new student coming
059into the district um really would be beneficial and that was something else that they talked about too yeah one of the things that I think it was Danica that touched or maybe it was Sienna that touched on it one of them that um it was it was the it was how they were like taking all the clubs and supporting each other they were kind of supporting each other which I thought was really great because it was bringing them all together um and the Lions Club is another great example of that but it was um all of their messaging was the same that like and individually without even being in the ad hoc committee or sitting with you um they were amongst themselves already working together they said okay how can we increase awareness how can
060we do this what can we do together like they were kind of pulling things together on their own which was awesome just to witness I mean in a couple meetings that we had was really cool absolutely I agree okay anybody have any other comments or questions or discussion uh related to our ad hoc committee efforts if not thank you for your committee reports um well that we had the county yes yes sorry thanks thank you um yes on April 27th we had our Hunterdon County School boards association meeting it was at the chalets in first and great to seeing we met a lot of people from phloem to Meriden 100 and Central um delvo um they had their teacher of the year and it was Brian Smith um he's an English and journalism major um
061he was stupendous I I can see how the kids loved him and funny he is teaching in this District he went to school in and the teacher who his mentor um someone he looked up to in high school she is still teaching and she served him his certificate and he had just it was gushing I mean I can't the way he spoke about her and what she did for him so it was really great to see that um there was a big discussion about ad hoc news reassessment for New Jersey school boards districts are not happy about that Katie must know the dues are going up um it hasn't happened in years and there's been some pushback so we'll see if our our next meeting um and then we just had a legislative update which
062I will forward to because it's long and Gwen Thornton is now the acting senior manager of field services um and we also had some Milestones someone didn't come we have a 10-year Milestone uh Carol McGee from East Amwell John mulick from North Hunterdon um Laurie's Regional and we had a new new board member certifications there was Elizabeth fourie from Reddington uh Jody betterman from Reddington and then we have here our certified board member certification um Shelly Crystal logo uh and Tara uh hints and also a master board member certification Tara has from North Awards so congratulations [Applause] you can you can uh sign up to those meetings and go any one of you can attend um very knowledge and you gain a lot of and you meet a lot of people make connections and you
063can tend to other once I worked on Essex County so I my community my patients are important so I go to the Essex County one so I can know what's going on in their school district because each County meeting brings different we're all part of school boards but they bring different issues and you know it's so it's kind of fun so you can just go to any of them online just find out sign up and do virtually I'll tell you the agenda the agendas are usually different but that uh Symposium uh that so I don't know if you guys might want that was the first time I had attended um the delegate assembly and uh very informative so I would suggest that everyone do that next year it happens twice a year thank you for
064that report Tim anybody have any questions for Kim and John don't miss next month's meeting because when when when Gwen is here she may have a Black Version maybe your picture so don't miss the Xbox okay I think that's everybody so now we'll move on thank you for everyone for your reports now is the opportunity for public comment during this portion of the meeting the public is invited to address the school board of questions or comments the public 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 comment to the school board president while all comments will be considered and a response would be forthcoming if in one appropriate school board members will not respond to the speakers at the
065time of their appearance the 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 able to permit no one will be permitted to speak twice until those that have not yet had an opportunity to speak of how to turn and I just want to reinforce that three-minute limit right we um try to stick as close to that as possible I'll let somebody finish their sentence if the three minutes goes up but I ask anybody who's I'm speaking public comment to respect the gram rules that we have which is three minutes and then if there's time at the end and you want to come back you can come back but three minutes at a time
066thank you with that the floor is open for public comment whoa [Music] I knew there we go my name is Enrique Hernandez um my wife and I moved to Lebanon town to do something and we decided to this board meeting because we were concerned uh by the video that we saw of last month's meeting in the request that books be banned and obviously this race is a a bit of concern for us that there's an attempt to bypass the professionals and that would be my point we have professional Librarians we have professional Educators and we need to follow that process I myself am a retired professional in a different field so I I understand that there are [Music] places of expertise where certain individuals have certain expertise and we need to rely on that to
067provide us guidance as to which books are appropriate for what for what ages rather than let's say on amateurs or a particularly emotional point of view so again thank you for your consideration and let me step out of the way while I fill this out [Applause] I may need my glasses well and I'll let you fill out the fill out the name and municipalities all right my name is Don Sherman I'm from uh I live in Tewksbury Egyptian and I've been concerned about the book Banning thing for a while also I've seen videos I've been to a few board meetings and it just seems that well I'm a little confused because there's a group called moms for Liberty that is not enhancing our Liberty I don't see how taking books off the shelf increases anyone's
068Liberty students are not more able to express themselves not able more able to have a wide variety of perspectives it seems that the project is really about decency right maybe it should be called Bob's for decency but if that were the case would you consider your political opponents the people that disagree with you are automatically criminals automatically pedophiles I disagree with taking books off the shelf am I a pedophile automatically that seems indecent undemocratic and not America that's my perspective it's not the word it's not the truth it's what I believe that we should enhance the ability of our students to experience take in alternative viewpoints we should not restrict history I'm proud of American history I know American history and I know that it is great it is ugly it is the best and
069the worst and it's nobody's fault that you're born into a world that is imperfect it's not my fault it's not your fault it's not about making people uncomfortable it's about knowing the truth I have not yet once heard a business executive say give me the sanitized version anyone making a decision wants the complete story the whole truth you can't make a decision based on a sanitized version of history and as in a democracy we are all decision makers we all vote or should we all are engaged in Civic engagement or should be we can't do that we don't know where we are where we came from where we're going is that three minutes I just want to say one thing to finish my sentence we need more education not less [Applause] [Music] [Applause] than the
070township it's very very quick I totally agree with the past two speakers as I did the last meeting follow a process policy 9130 if there is a book in question don't get involved in politics when it comes to education and like the previous speaker more is better whether it be good bad or ugly censorship for political reasons is definitely gonna hurt this country thank you foreign [Music] and move on to our next agenda item which is a motion and a second to approve agenda items 13.1 to 16.20 you have a motion please any discussion on 13.1 to 16.20 I just have a question um the clubs what um do we have these clubs for North or we're just doing worries this month and but there's no new clubs for North this was uh some clubs
071at Voorhees didn't run okay and this is just expanding clubs that we already have in place so it was just kind of a reallocation of the uh and the Spectrum and the Niels hook meals and hooks what are they spectrum is I believe our lgbtq okay needles and oats is knitting I didn't want to assume I had a question um well more the 13.1 professional development plan um just looking at the four goals that were there one of the suggestions that came to my mind to top some of the things that are discussing there is more of like a additional help for the teachers and faculty to kind of start working together maybe team build and figure out how we're going to help one another to close the gap between the last three years of
072covid and the academic and emotional um losses that they had that was just a comment that I thought we can certainly uh consider that outside of this and yeah move that forward thank you thank you anyone else have comments or questions regarding 13.1 through 1620 seeing none and you need a Voice vote seeing none we will take both all in favor thank you for jumping um any abstentions which one did you want to say from 16 15. Shelley and I'm a yay for all but I know for 13. any other abstentions or other goals all right now it sounds like promotions motion cavities all right this is our first opportunity for old and new business so I have a new business item but I wanted to raise um I've started noticing um a number of
073car accidents occurring at the intersection of 31 and Regional Road um and unfortunately they tend to be student accidents um and I wanted to know if there's a way in which we might be able to go to the township to ask them to do an adjustment on the lights so that there's a delayed green possibly because I know also like especially this time of the year there's a lot of cellular also that creates an issue so like for example the intersection at Route 22 and hopesbury has a delayed green there's always going to be an accident but if it's not that often and I just wonder if something like that might improve the situation there I don't know traffic rules or anything like that but I just thought it might be something that we should
074consider okay okay so do you want me to bring up them or do you want to yeah I was just going to bring that up and then in the new business when um when we're approving the agenda like by items I kind of feel like it's a big chunk um and maybe we can section it either by committee or like you know the finance committee or curriculum committee um something like that so okay so so it's easier for us to kind of make comments on and make notes on and maybe also for the community to be able to say like okay what do they approving what's going on here so they can hear the dialogue and currency yep so so that one has come up before and um never like gotten traction but I don't
075see any reason not to and I think we should probably just talk about it in one of the Committees and then make a recommendation so I don't know which one would be most appropriate [Music] like with your experience on motherboards do it or what you'd recommend yes thank you good evening everyone so this practice varies District to distance and it really varies based on the will of the board and the practice of the board uh and some districts I was in Bergen County last night for example they have conversation at this one District on all agenda items before they vote of all genetics uh and then they block vote just like you do here other places will move uh District upper marketing a little bit more they move committee by committee committee chairs will move
076section by section and then have conversation but it really so long as we're following the typical open public meetings act rules and any bylaws that speak to it it is really uh this is self-governance and what the board wishes I would certainly encourage you to continue to be efficient in your your efficient and I think the the community is clear on what the conversation is but this this really goes to what the preference is of the board so thank you for the thank you for the comments thank you for the suggestion I say we take that to policy committee and we talk about the pros and cons of restructuring the agenda so that uh voting for each block of items is like lined up with the committee reports is as an alternative and you can
077cash it out and bring a recommendation back to the group the other old or new business foreign motion then a second to adopt resolution 0 5 2 3 2 3-2 for executive session to discuss matters falling under category eight as reflected in the attached resolution the board expects to be an executive session for approximately one hour and upon return a public session action will be taken can I have a motion please [Music] um Personnel all right so in executive session we will be discussing matters that hollanderb Chanel and contracts matters thank you all right motion by Beth second bye Jessica Jessica all in favor aye opposed abstain all right thank you for an executive session question in a second to reconvene public session motion by Tara second bye Shelly all right we are back at
0785A vote all in favor aye aye opposed extensions all right we're back in public discussion new business can I have a motion and a second to approve agenda item 21.1 and 21.2 any discussion on 20.1 or 20.2 seeing none we need a roll call but has been always accidentally Mr Chapman yes yes Motrin yes Mr Miller yes Miss Selena yes Mr Stanton yes Miss piano yes Mr Burger yes motion carries can I have a motion a second to adjourn plus Emotion by then second five [Music] um