001District Board of Education meeting for Tuesday April 25th 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 end 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 the town of Clinton Clinton Township Franklin Township Glen 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 website fire exits are located in the direction indicated if allergic to if I'm allergic
002if alerted to fire allergic to fund and please move in a calm and orderly fashion to the nearest smoke-free at this time please silence all cell phones may I have a roll call present Mr President here please rise the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God an indivisible with Liberty Street Justice squirrel thank you okay can I have a motion and a second to approve agenda item 4.1 which is the minutes of the March 14th 2023 meeting so let's move any discussion all in favor aye opposed a thing on 4.1 please okay I'm also standing all right thank you we now it's time for the student Representatives report so we'll start with Lauren hi hi everybody um I have a little bit of a length of
003your report today because apparently I was feeling tight happy last night [Music] um so I wanted to begin with our drama club recently at an incredibly successful production of nine to five for those of you that aren't familiar with the musical uh the show tells the story of three unlikely friends who Inspire to take control of their company and learn that there's nothing they can't do all set to original music and lyrics by Dolly Parton as usual it was a standout performance from the members of our drama club and a great way to finish out their spring season additionally from this April 14th to the 16th Our Youth and government Club attended the annual YMCA Youth and government state conference where delegates got the opportunity to debate unique mock legislation of their creation with 300
004of their peers at that conference Vorhees was named the premier delegation which is an award that is given to only one participating delegation for outstanding performance at conference as well as Superior recognition from other delegates and staff members this was our first time receiving the award and as a member of public very exciting moment additionally our students for change Club recently hosted a throwing catch tournament raising about 180 for future Club activities it was a great opportunity just for some camaraderie and family competition additionally our AP Statistics students hosted in voorhees's first ever Wireless Wednesday where students currently enrolled in math classes were given the opportunity to voluntarily hand in their phones for the duration of the school day and afterwards we're asked to fill out a student survey which the staff students will then
005be using to develop a research-based report regarding the impact of a homeless day on student attention productivity and a handful of other doctors our national English Honor Society has been celebrating National poetry month for the month of April via the sale of poetry grams during lunches and are also currently hosting a poetry competition which has been a great opportunity for students to Showcase their creative writing skills um along with the honor societies World Language Honor Society and Spanish club have begun planning for the implementation of a large mural to celebrate Hispanic and Latino culture we will be recreating Salvador deli's la persistencia de Memoria which is a very famous painting and that will begin shortly after our AP Spanish students finish up their exams I'm almost done I'm sorry everybody um we also had an
006opportunity on April 20th to participate in challenge where we learned about the story and the untimely passing of Rachel Joy Scott as well as her life motto that people will never know how far A little kindness can go and then select students were given the opportunity to attend a workshop kind of focused on how they can further Implement Rachel's message both in the classroom and Beyond now to sports recently seniors will Kaiser and Maddie Ackerman were named Skyline conference scholar athletes for 2023 which was a great honor and our boys Spring Track Team broke a few records over the weekend our Sprint medley team broke the school record from 2012 and our 4x200 team broke the record from 1998 and after all of that the rest of us are working very tirelessly to prepare for
007AP exams and get excited for a prom and a myriad of other end of your activities thank you good stuff thanks for that report and uh now we'll have Sienna tell us about what's going on at North sickness is going around [Music] um um starting off with school-wide events the Relay for Life event will take release on Friday May 12th raising money for cancer also this Friday despite her cure is going to take place um the English Honor Society will be having a book drive during L1 and L2 this Wednesday it ends this Wednesday they are selling paperbacks for only a dollar so it'll help fund their club and other future things happening during the school year um the Northern Lights literary magazine is taking submission him this map between the school-wide it's working for
008everybody this past Friday said students learned about Rachel's Challenge and had the opportunities to attend a training session for the newly added credit Rachel Club where we brainstormed a lot of ideas for school-wide stuff to further continue the message the GSA also known as prism is having their Day of Silence this Friday on the 28th and break the silence on one third at 1 30 in the courtyard it's also open for everybody to sign up and to attend that event that they're having the diversity Club is hosting their cultural celebration today on May 25th we had a huge turnout last year and it was a really good event so um I hope that we have the same turnout this year as well the theater organization is having their spring cabaret show taking place on May
0095th through 7th the nhhs Jazz Ensemble confirms at the Burke's Jazz Festival on May 29th in Readington Pennsylvania um also AP exams will be taking place next week I know a lot of stress is going into studying so um that should be good for everybody taking them once this now Sports senior Sarah Bisson and Patrick egg were selected as a Skyland conference scholar athletes of 2023. um also breaking more records saw full has gone 13-0 2014. the highest record they went was four now and we recently just lost so now record is 13-1 but we have made history so that's very good thing um thank PTSA for planning um also senior prom is happening May 18th and lastly I'm sorry parents if you have a senior that's doing water wars we apologize Water Works taking
010place whatever you have to do because the prize wise about four grand so it's a serious serious critics what we second that apology yeah your kids lock their car doors yes we second that to the community well if you have a lucky child that does what the four program um yes we are donating a portion of charity yeah yeah but that concludes my reporters thank you both very uh very busy very busy month that sounds like it both schools so thank you for those reports anybody have any questions for these guys they're pretty good all right cool thank you we will now move to the next item on the agenda which is the public hearing and Adoption of the 2023-2024 school year budget we will open with a public hearing hearing presentation on the budget
011from Miss blue thank you my name is Kate blue I'm the business administrator here in North Dakota tricks so in preparation of this budget for next year 23 24 our budget goals were to provide a thorough and efficient education to our entire student population which also includes 100 County vocational Academy students projection to be around quarter students next year maintain current levels of all of our student academic courses co-curricular offerings and athletic programs always maintaining safe and functional clean facilities meeting all of our obligations attracting and retaining high quality staff members meeting all mandates and then most importantly preparing a better fiscally responsible to all of our taxpayers the tax ID for next year will be 2.2 percent that is a net number of a few moving items it is an increase to our general
012fund of 3.3 percent this includes using Bank cap that was generated in 2020 2021 you can see on that chart that it has zero percent for that year since we did not utilize our two percent that year we were able to use it in the preceding three years after so we've been using that the past two prior years and in 2023 2024 we are utilizing a health benefits waiver due to the rising cost of health benefits and there is no increase to our Debt Service as we're using excess funds from our 2016 referendum that referendum went so successfully that we were able to utilize the excess funds from those projects to cover now existing debt service operations a little bit more about what that bank cap means from 2020 2021 what we're able to do
013is take that zero percent and allocated over the following three budget years and this is the third year and final year that it will be expiring so a little bit about stingy that we're receiving this year you can see the last six years our STD has been decreasing the aggregate decline for the past six years is over 1.9 million dollars and the current year decreased over 300 000 just in one year there is a one-year supplemental stabilization Aid that we may be getting in May and that is still to be applied for and it looks to be approximately 200 . so I'm looking at our Revenue year over year you can see the changes in the total tax levy the increase and then some declines in stating obviously that we've discussed Medicaid reimbursement and lessening
014our Reliance on budget Ed the total operating budget for revenue is 66.7 million dollars which is again an increase of 1.2 million dollars over the current year again those changes are based on the increase in our tax levy a transfer from our capital reserve account to cover the referendum that was just passed in November for capital projects the decrease in state aid a decrease in an anticipated tuition and also the lessening in our Reliance of excess Surplus from carry over year to year now focusing on the expenditures in the budget these are the major allocations of the budget the primary categories you can see the biggest piece of the highest salaries and that's contractual the next biggest piece of The Price benefits there was over a 15 increase in the state health benefit plan this
015year to good planning on the boards part we entered into an agreement to join the ship which is a school's Health Insurance Fund a joint chair and our increases to the two and a five to six percent this year so again mitigating costs in every area that we can this chart shows the tax share per municipality we have 12 sending districts in each of those districts have a calculation to determine how much share of the tax levy is allocated to them it's a function of the valuation of property in each municipality and the enrollment in that municipality so this shows that change year over year from last year to this year for each of those municipalities this worksheet then takes that tax rate and allocates it to each hundred thousand dollars of property so as
016you have the time you can look to see where your municipality Falls and if you're going to be seeing an increase or decrease in your property tax values in your tax population so after all these items what are the next steps for our budget we're going to have a public hearing tonight of the opportunity for public comment and then the adoption of the budget we will then certify the taxes of Municipal clerks and implement the budget we will have all of the materials that we're discussing tonight the presentation the user-friendly budget and all of the calculations out on the website for your viewing and I appreciate it and thank you for your time thank you okay so now we have a public comment um segment uh during this portion of the meeting the public is
017invited to address the board with questions or comments on the 2023-2024 school year budget the public is requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and the state their name Municipality of residence group affiliation if applicable and direct their comments to the school board president again this public comment is related to the 2023-2024 budget only there'll be another public comment section later would anybody like to make a comment regarding the budget seeing none we will move on and I have a motion and a second to approve action item 7.1 through 7.3 which is the resolution 0 4 2 5 2 3-3 establishing maximum travel expenditures and maximum Professional Services expenditures and Adoption of the 2324 school year budget 7.2 is resolution zero four two five two three dash four authorizing the use of the
018bank cap and 7.3 is resolution 042523-5 authorizing the transfer of funds from fund 30 to fund 40. I have a motion please no moves motion by Kim second by Tara any discussion yes John I uh um first of all I'd like to thank Katie and the rest of the administration for uh helping to prepare that budget for us so you know as a chair of the of the committee um they make you know our job really easy and I'm proud of the budget that has been prepared I just wanted to bring up to the board's attention one thing that I uh investigated combing through some of the calculations as it pertains to the municipal share so I'm you know very content with the overall budget the final number which is going to be raised through
019taxes within the municipalities it's a little over 53 million dollars however what I'm not happy about is the way in which um each municipality's share is calculated and it is done in a manner which is not transparent it's based as Katie mentioned in her presentation it's based upon the um you know the rateables in the municipality as well as the enrollment in the school but then each town is given their share and as a representative of Tewksbury Township on the fall but the fact that we are paying based on those calculations over forty nine thousand dollars per student that attends the high school as that compares to other schools most of them are in the 20s but there are some as low as uh 13 900 reputable so there's not a lot this board can
020do I just want to bring this to the tension of the board and challenge the board to investigate this because it doesn't sit well as a representative that's that's uh I feel I'm on unfairly uh Bears a large burden of our attacks liability that funds our schools so I'm happy with the budget I'm just not happy in the way and is calculated and distributed amongst municipality so I'm voting for the budget but um you know I want to challenge this board to investigate this further to see if this can these inequities can be uh rationalized or dealt with because it puts our you know our municipality a tough tough position um potentially you know making decisions that nobody wants to you know discuss um so um but anyway I'm happy with the budget but that's
021all thank you so John just to clap so just to make sure that it's clear and everybody understands right those formulas those allocation formulas are okay either set by the that driven by the state the the math is driven by the state the value like so the valuation of the property in each municipality and the number of students so like is I guess I understand your concern right like you're representing a sending District that it seems overly burdened by this right um but like so I guess I'm wondering what like what there is to do about that right like could we like is there a is there a um appeals court or is there like like what is like I'm wondering you know it's a state formula and um unfortunately I don't think there is
022a lot that we can do because um you know they're given the rateables per municipality they're given the enrollment and then while uh this is what your calculation is so yeah streetsbury has a lot of higher priced rateables properties so that drives that number up but it's still you know can we check that I guess so to your point though like Ken is there like a way to check the map right like not not the map but check like the the numbers that were handed To Us by the state and like make sure they're accurately because they're the verification process for that sorry on that though then are the property values current for this year though that is right so because the only other thing I was thinking of was you can actually have you
023could Challenge and municipality on the evaluation of the properties that would to me seem to be the one thing that could happen um but then you'd have to go through each municipality separately and and try to challenge those and you can feel it but like you said I mean some of these sounds like you have a higher property value than others so it's it complicates things but it is kind of surprising to see the amount given them the number of students and then the equalized valuation just seems Askew right but it could be uh taxpayers reaching out to the governor's office and yeah sending letters because it's really the calculation to Rob's point that needs to be changed and updated okay okay anybody else have any other comments discussion motion seeing none we'll see if
024we need a roll call vote yes oh yes just remembered yes Miss Selena yes Mr Stanley yes Miss viato yes Mr Hershberger yes all right thank you all right can I have a motion and a second to approve the employment contract between the board and Jeffrey Bender superintendent of schools as approved by the executive county superintendent for the period of July 1st 2023 through June 30th 2028. I have a motion please so moved second of course by Brian yes I can find that okay so I I just wanted to open um discussion on this with I know um we talked at length um multiple times during executive session as we were talking about this this contract and I thought it was important in this sort of month to month and quarter to quarter world that
025we live in to like actually stop and take a look back at the last six years or six and a half years that Mr Bender has been um the superintendent of our district and just to recap what we heard in in a lot more detail during executive session um what I think is a pretty impressive track record of accomplishments um that have been accomplished during that like sort of body of work so you know starting with one of the things that's most important I think is student safety and you know we we were reminded of all the work that's been done over the last six years with regard to law enforcement you know adding uh SRO to Voorhees all the class III officers and the relationships that have been built with County and local law
026enforcement and that North 100 and Voorhees was the first district in the need to adapt the hundred and safe schools Anonymous reporting and has worked collaboratively with the prosecutor's office to spearhead this effort for the entire County there's been extensive facility hardening and improvements to our security posture with within both buildings and Investments made to make sure that our buildings are um as as hard as they can be for the purpose of student safety the other thing that you know we hearkened back on was the all the challenges from running the district in the covid crisis and it was good to remember that you know we opened as soon as we were allowed to have students in the building starting in August 2020 and remained open for the entire for the duration and our students
027in this District had more in-person instruction than other schools in the county and our students attended in person every day where other schools were only multiple days per week and not five days a week mental health has been a big Focus student and staff mental health has been a big focus of Mr bender and his administration adding ESS Chrysler crisis counselors to both buildings a very strong investment in the response to intervention programs multiple staff trainings on supporting student mental health and you know with a theme that is repeats itself over and over again is the collaboration with other schools in the county to improve outcomes front on the instruction um from an instruction standpoint um it seems like a long time ago but Mr bender and his administration implemented the rolling drop block schedule
028which increased instructional time for you know almost 90 percent of the students and um the longer class periods increase the amount of instructional time that the students that the teachers have to cover material with their students we have added four full-time Career and Technical programs in the district which we heard about in terms of our enrollments approximately 200 students this year and the revenue that comes with them and a big accomplishment that we've had the official groundbreaking for although I don't think any dirt's been moved the Polytech building and while that building seems like a it's a big strategic success it's not just the building it's the full-time Polytech program that will result in students having marketable skills right out of high school and that investment in technical education is something that I think is
029a is a real strategic success for the district Mr Bender's been very focused on articulation with our sending districts we've invested in subject area coaches and math and language arts working with the sending district schools to improve the sort of leveling of the playing field as students are coming out of the middle schools and into to our high schools to improve outcomes and improve the learning um in that freshman year we have subject area articulation meetings with the K-8 sending districts twice a year district-wide programs that include the key to AIDS and that investment in articulation has then sort of bled downward and so that the K-8 districts are holding kindergarten articulations first grade articulations like that the idea of you know working across the community at all grade levels I think has been spearheaded
030by Mr bender and I think that's one of the great successes so far from a special education standpoint the district has made great strides and investments in the lion pride Academy which serves students who would have been able not able to be served in District and had to have their education out of the district so now we're able to support those students within the district and um and so that's a big success period um and then there have been a lot of investment in extracurricular activities I think there's been four new sports clubs new sports that have started girls golf boys volleyball girls wrestling and hockey and a multitude of new clubs and um you know I think one of the things that was a big investment in the sort of changing athletic culture is
031selection rubrics for any sport that has cuts to eliminate any you know sense of things being arbitrary from a cut standpoint and then last but not least is from a finance and Facilities standpoint the investment in the solar panels and all the HB AC work that has been done over the years not only did we secure a 4.9 million dollar grant for HVAC work but we're driving actual real hard dollar reductions in our utility bills this this year alone we had an 83 000. um in your clean energy utility rebates so um and then finally from a Personnel cost perspective um if you look back to when did you start 2016 20 to 2016 to today the um total salary increase of across the district was just over 11 but if salaries had increases increased
032compounded annually with a three percent increases that are contracted through for most of almost all of our staff that would have been over 19.4 percent so that Savings of the difference in um really effectively managing the district personnel and optimizing the staffing has saved the district over 2.8 million dollars so there's a there's a lot to be proud of in the last six years and I personally will be voting yes and looking forward to five more years of continuing that was that Journey so that's my comment um anybody else have anything if not then we can move to table all right so I think we need any other comments all right seeing none the roll call the yes Mr Chapman his personal logo yes Mr farvanish yeah Miss Gallo yes because hint I have to
033this coach Rand yes Mr Miller yes Miss Selena yes Mr Spanton yes Miss viato yes Mr griffberg yes thank you congratulations all right so uh we've now turned to our chief School administrators report I just want to first thank you for for the voting confidence and it I feel privileged to work in the district so thank you uh we're going to start with uh recognition of student achievements we will have Mr Peterson go first and you'll be recognizing to somebody that you're familiar with thank you all right Lauren good afternoon foreign Valley good um I don't know if I should be giving this award to her I feel like any two other certificates for her parents um before I get into the specifics of why we're honoring her I could just give it to her
034for just being the embodiment of what it is to be a great person a great student and if every student was like her that you'd have no need for me um so I'm glad there's a lot of you but I'm glad there's some of the others um but she's really just a fantastic overall individual and I could just give this to her for just being awesome but last year for the Relay for Life the Relay for Life raised over forty thousand dollars um she was responsible for a quarter of that so almost ten thousand dollars was raised by her and her alone and then recently she gave you the report on the youth and government Summit Lauren actually who served as a member of the youth government's cabinet this year was also nominated to attend
035the selective conference on National Affairs in North Carolina this summer so this is for her and I look forward to all the great things that she has in her future after her graduation I know she's going to have a very very strong impact on the world and I can't wait to see what that is [Applause] okay next we'll have Dr patro tomorrow good evening everybody it's my pleasure to introduce Cameron Lutz Cameron is a senior at North Herndon High School he's also a member of Boy Scout Troop 200. uh Cameron is just in the final process of completing an Eagle Scout project at North Hunterdon and he when in chatting about this he said he wanted to really do a project that made a difference and not to put down any other Eagle Scout projects
036because I don't just want to make a bench I want to do something that makes a difference so what the project was that he chose and again it might not be the most fun project but it is a project that makes an impact and each one of our classrooms we have an emergency evacuation plan tells kids where to go in case of an emergency evacuation as well as some of the other important things to note during an evacuation Cameron updated all of these for our classrooms they're almost done almost up we're waiting for a few final um folders to put them in our classrooms but he spent over 50 hours doing that it is making a big difference at North to keep kids safe and I wanted to commend Cameron for taking on this project
037and making North London better so and I forgot to mention Cameron will be attending Johnson and Wales in the fall majoring in bio engineering [Applause] foreign [Laughter] [Applause] thank you very much just a couple more items uh as noted the AP exams will be administered during the first two weeks of may also the New Jersey student learning assessment to be administrative freshman for English and math into Juniors for science we can May 15th we will again run two bus runs to accommodate testing May 15th through the 18th and then just wanted to also reiterate uh Rachel's Challenge program we showed all students in both high schools on Thursday and Friday last week the program stems from the journal entries of Rachel Scott the first student killed at Columbine High School she wanted to create a
038chain reaction of kindness which is the focus of the program a smaller group of students were trained to continue this message of kindness and respect throughout the school year this is a powerful program that we have shown to students in the past and we were glad to have them returned as the message really resonates with us the HIV report for this month was that there was one incident reported and it was determined to be found to approved last month all right can I get a motion and a second to affirm the determinations on the HIV incidents reported at the March 14 2023 board meeting so moved second Jess and Deb T any discussion seeing none all in favor opposed Stadium obviously I'm sorry it's the procedural questions I'm not sure so if we weren't at
039the meeting we've seen is that what happens to or now we have enough information okay and then the monthly reports are attached for your information we did make a change in how those uh numbers are graphed to make the graphics thank you thank you can I ask a question about the graphs and the charts because those are the ones with the attendance and all that right I I had a question about the um the chart showing the different disciplinary actions and I I noticed as compared with prior months that there was a large number of cylinder thefts in at Voorhees um so I don't know if there's okay thanks okay thank you all right so now it's um my report time so we'll make that brief uh May 23rd 2023 is our next meeting and
040that's the annual goal setting and regular meeting so that starts an hour earlier at 6 pm here at the District administration office and then just one other thing I'd like to mention so um and I um have begun the preliminary work to kick off the meetings with the board officers from the sending districts so uh we're gonna reach out and they in the past we've done that on a quarterly basis it's it's varied some years three times some years four you know we're gonna try to get that started there's plenty like as I mentioned during my recap of the last six years the the articulation and the interaction between the high school district and the sending district is important and so if we want to start off that those conversations between the president and the
041president and vice presidents of those boards so we try to come together on a quarterly basis so we'll get started with that shortly and that is my report and now we'll do committee reports so um Beth you want to start with the ad hoc committee sure okay so uh following the February um meet board meeting and the feedback that we receive from the public we convened at the at the board president's Direction a ad hoc committee relating to diversity equity and inclusion um we had a group of so we formed that committee and have had two meetings the the first meeting it encompassed uh several members of the board uh this Administration from both schools as well as some members of the public and student Representatives as well which appreciate the time um and uh
042we started talking through kind of what the purpose of the committee would be the types of things that we're looking to to to provide and ultimately the the discussion focused around recommendations that we would provide to the schools not direction to the schools um the secondary meeting which we had to kind of better focus the the discussion was held last week and um we feel like we've got a nice framework of of ways in which we're going to provide recommendations at different levels of the the school district show recommendations to on curriculum recommendations relating to um staff and administration as well as recommendations on things that the students themselves can can specifically focus on uh so the goal I think is to ultimately come up with these recommendations before the summer break so that we
043can implement or make those recommendations in advance of the school you're starting again in August um I don't know if there was anything you want to add from that no okay we thought it important to make sure the public was aware that we we took action um really right away and we'll be having another meeting shortly early May yeah I guess I would honestly I would say that you know the just I guess to recap the objective is to um assess the feedback that was provided and look at the effectiveness of the current Pro Plan programming that we have in place there's there's been a lot of work over the past few years to implement anti-bias programs and inclusiveness programs and I think the idea is you know let's let's take a good hard look
044at you know how effective is is what we've already is what has already been put in place how effective is it and are there other are there other things we can be doing to be more effective are in the community minutes going to be posted not for this last meeting the first one the first meeting is is there we just had the meeting last Thursday um and I just got back from vacation but they will be there yep this is policy recommendations in school for just programming I think policy recommendations are potentially in scope I think we're still a little bit um early on on whether or not what those recommendations look like because I think we had talked about the fact that our diversity policy in both School handbooks is is somewhat vague and
045not really specific about the the district's position on diversity Equity inclusion so that is something that I think would be in scope in which case we would recommend that to the committee on what type of policy do we want to try to implement so um Beth and Rob I know I brought this up a few times but from a long-term kind of like incorporating it into the board processes and procedures so to speak um my request would be if the committee could discuss on each of our committees embedding it into our committee monthly conversations um even if it's just a line item that we don't attach to it just knowing that we always have that lens um just a thought I think it's a good idea especially like the community piece of the two and
046um especially since it is the type of topic that does directly impact the community yeah I mean every to your point every like curriculum exactly right yeah thank you yep sure you know we're looking at these in some respect is it worth it doesn't someone who does it professionally to effectively sort of drawn into the committee right because obviously all of us are not professional experience States right is there is a value because it feels like it feels a little bit like a point I don't know what the right word is I'm trying to I'm sure trying to get my hand around what the committee is doing yeah and it feels like it's assessing the effectiveness of what the school's doing and so I guess I'm asking is is not being a professional group that
047does this is there a value and having someone else on the community that can buy the committee can certainly seek outside resources to work so you know we can look for uh advocating before again but I'm thinking out loud right yeah no I think they Gail out as good and I would say that like the word so using the word audit is right well I think it's a little too precise it's a little more precise than I think you know I I don't think there is um I don't know if we've gotten I don't know if I'd say there is or isn't but I don't know if we've gotten to objective data right it's it it's at least so far it's been a more of a subjective discussion on Effectiveness rather than so I mean
048I'm I don't think that's a bad idea I don't I just don't know what those resources are and right and how you get them so that's something to look into yeah general question um I know that we have the policy within the handbooks and stuff like that like that and the optical the committee was to look at it see if anything needs to be changed and you know tweak it here and there I didn't hear any mention of additional policies yes disgusting right so we haven't talked about policy so to Brian's question about his policy in scope or out of scope and Beth I thought or anybody I'm not speaking for I'm speaking my opinion and my opinion is I don't think I don't think anything is necessarily in scope or autoscope the the ad
049hoc committee is not going to make policy changes right the board does That We're Not Gonna the ad hoc Community is not going to implement programming the administration does that but we're go but we're looking at of all of those topics and so while we haven't talked explicitly about policy I don't I wouldn't say that it's out of scope necessarily we have talked about the handbooks which aren't the handbooks aren't quote-unquote policies they're not District policy they're guidelines that are they're um regulations their expectations that are have been put forth from each school you know we have talked about that the the language that's in those isn't maybe as crisp or precise as it needs to be but I don't I the response to Brian's question is I don't think policy recommendations are out of
050scope necessarily right yeah I mean you know I think the first meeting so you you know Nicole has only had two meetings right but the first one was really kind of getting our heads around what is the purpose of the committee ultimately is it to provide specific ideas that we want the schools to implement or is it really about assessing what's being done like Rob said um and then determining if it's enough or if we need to add you know make a recommendation to add a little bit more so they really are recommendations because of what the purpose of the committee is and I think that um you know one of the things that we had talked about is covid and the period of time that covet took place kind of pulled out um some
051of the things that were being done and then they weren't reintroduced because there were other focuses necessarily so the idea is to look at what the things were that were in place and say well if they were we had them in place then maybe we could try to do that again maybe we get that kind of thing um is what we would we would suggest but yeah I don't think anything is is specifically out of um this kind of out versus in I think we're going to look at different things and just try to provide some recommendations to make it a make it easier for the schools to implement some changes sorry do we have goals I mean were there goals what do we after reading I didn't I forget forgive me if I Beth
052I just didn't see is there and overreaching what are the goals here with this ad hoc assess the but when you read the mix it seems more than that I'm just asking I'm lost with the minutes that I read what was transpiring and I thought it was goal the goal was to assess so that was the purpose of um the second meeting we narrowed it down and we just had the board of the administration for the purpose of better defining the objective and so you haven't you haven't seen those minutes yet well because I mean that's why I asked where first meeting was very um a lively discussion and a lot of views were shared but in it and but in a what I would say for a lot of the meeting and not as
053structured way as would have been beneficial and it got more structured as towards the end but we thought it was a good idea to have a like a separate meeting to just zero in on what are the outcomes that we're looking to achieve and what are the objectives and what are the outcomes okay and I apologize I will I will make sure that doesn't happen again it's just been no I understand it's just it's hard to go from that and I don't and then you have no questions and we're not on the Committees no I know I understand so I will make sure thank you that's better for next time I apologize okay thank you anybody else questions comments okay Finance facilities and transportation I'll be very quick most of it was the budget we
054just adopted I just wanted to highlight the fact that the Polytech uh did receive bids for the new building on our campus here at North Hunterdon however they came in higher than expected so they're back to the drawing board a little bit to either make Cuts or re-engineer redesign and that's not the rebid so hopefully they can meet that aggressive timeline but uh sure that's realistic at this point of uh I guess it was September of 20 24 was the original uh opening date but anyway we'll let you know do they have ideas unless you know Jack I haven't heard thank you all right um curriculum instruction and Technology uh thank you the committee met on Wednesday April 19th and there were four buckets of conversations the first was the board agenda items 14.1 through
05514.3 the first is the out of District placements in 14.1 that was discussed and the revised I'm sorry home instruction out of District placements and the revised calendar for this 2022 2023 school year the out of District placements are actually tuitions that we will be receiving for out-of-district students attending our district so a positive John the revised calendar is bringing back days that we did not use as snow days there was an email of Correspondence that went out to all parents from Marin both schools will now be closed on May 26th and June 2nd Voorhees already had an additional snow day due to a power outage but North did not so North will also be closed on May 22nd according to this new calendar these dates that were selected were very intentional in terms of
056making sure that they took place after the AP and State Testing so that no instructional days were lost so the committee is suggesting uh in favor of those three items the second conversation was the Seal of by literacy the New Jersey Department of Education allows high schools to participate in the Seal of by literacy program this program recognizes seniors who are proficient in English and one other additional language North Huntington Voorhees district has been participating in this program since 2018. the students previously paid for the test on their own but this year the district was able to pay for them with the title four funds we have been encouraging native speakers of other languages to participate in this program even if they aren't taking those actual classes in the district now this year students earned
057a total of 41 seals this next year action items a letter will be going out to all seniors and their parents about the program to try to even further increase participation in the program the third topic discussed was the monthly monthly data analysis we discussed the honor roll students who have a 90 or above for all their classes in The Honorable students who have a 94 or above in all their classes earned high honor roll but the second marking period in the district around 50 percent of the students in the district were on either the honor roll or high honor roll we also reviewed third marking period grades there were around 17 000 total grades in the district around 60 percent of them were A's 25 percent were B's 10 C's three percent D's and
058two percent s the marking period grades overall are similar to the past few years in terms of action items going forward we will obviously continue this as a data point each year to analyze and start comparing in the charts that we look at marking period year to year and to see any changes and then the last topics discussed Mr Bender was present he gave us an update that he had met with the north hunterton students on April 19th received a really open and honest feedback and it really enjoyed the conversation with the students on various topics including school safety mental health supports after school activities and the transition into High School Mr Bender will be meeting with the Voorhees students next week and that's it that's it anybody have any questions nope okay personnel the
059Personnel committee met on April 19th and we discussed the Personal Agenda all right thank you all right uh policy and school security attendance there are five policies of foreign orientation training there was a change to that that a shortened amount of time that whoever's new board members have to get it wasn't clear that there was enough time training was provided fast enough from this we're looking to make sure that there's actually Coors and provide information to meet that before we figured out the first reading other than that I would describe your attention to policy 6112 which still would reversing federal funds and you get 80 President out of reading so he had the benefit of her input just said if we're complying with that there was also a new mandated policy dealing with duplication of
060funds when you're having fun multiple places for the same cause and again we have processes in place to ensure recline with that uh there's also 6311 dealing with vendors who are servicing federal federal grants again we're compliant with that and the last one deals with security changes uh and again we've been complying with those changes for the past five years so as you reduce keep that in mind there's one policy about four thousand percent um from public relations so 9100 came into effect in 2001 in 2009 9120 which is also already which is mandated 9100 is not mandated 9120 is restorative policies you know 9120 covers not even 100 so Strauss has made effectively recommended following 9100 because we already have policies in place to cover that uh at our next meeting we are going
061to begin to talk about the internment for vice president and the nomination committee and then subsequent to that I know there's some questions about information about how communities will review that process thanks Glenn so it's good to hear that in a nutshell when the mandated policies get updated around Financial compliance and things like that it's good to hear that we have already have procedures in place that have us compliant in advance of those mandatory policy changes so good job Katie anybody have any questions for Glenn Tara did you guys make this month we didn't know and the delegate is May 13th but they haven't um published the agenda again okay thank you and Kim anything from Hunterdon County uh no we did today uh Symposium there were three of us and that right correct and
062we can share we all attend a different simple portions so we can I think you gals did too we can forward that to the board it was it was excellent very enriching a lot of material well um so I think you'd all be interested so is there is there presentation materials that you guys can form they're going to forward to us okay yeah it's on demand too we can I think we could share that link with the boards until June 30th okay thank you did I miss anybody no all right thank you for those reports now we will move on to the opportunity for public comment during this portion of the meeting the public is invited to address the school board with questions or comments the public is requested to sign the register provided for
063this purpose and to State their name Municipality of residence group affiliation if applicable and direct their comments to the school board president when all 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 the public comment period will be a maximum of 30 minutes in length unless there are unusual circumstances and 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 anyone who would like to address the board please come to the podium and sign the register and state your name and municipality thank you I apologize I'm a little nervous
064so I might fall over my words here good evening my name is Sharon Knox I am a homeowner in Clinton Township I have come before the board tonight to discuss an issue I am having up at Voorhees High School I would like to talk about my son Jeremiah who was a junior this year with an ongoing IEP and we you know needless to say we did have some issues this year that were kind of out of Jeremiah's control and I feel that the administration did not handle some of it very well what I'm really would like to talk about is the um ignoring of Correspondence by the administration up there um I had sent an email back on the 3rd of April to Mr Peterson Mr Mrs Kent gallerom Mrs Kiefer in regards to Jeremiah
065attending prom um when Jeremiah had signed himself out of school on the 10th of February we were made a ton of promises in an IEP meeting which is official meeting documentation all of that that he would get to attend if we followed proper protocols for that which we did we filled out the permission form sent it in and his girlfriend who was still in attendance at Vorhees high school was told that they were denying his request and it was confidential so of course I as his mother wrote to everybody in the school and requested a meeting in person and I would like to know in writing what their criteria was why they blacklisted my son from attending prom with his girlfriend after following proper protocols I'm at the end of my rope as of today
066I still have not heard from anybody in that school it shouldn't be this way I feel whether he's a former student or a current student I should be allowed to understand what their reasoning was why he can't go to prompts of that I could explain it to him I can explain it to his girlfriend if there is even a logical reason I feel like they have blacklisted my son for an event that happened on the 14th of December my son was pulled over on County Road 513. various motor vehicle infractions um a couple other things going on there that I do not wish to disclose at this time to the board however the school found out when we were called in the next day for a meeting that they were going to discipline Jeremiah for
067something that should have never been their business and all of this happened after the school day was already over um I'm hoping that all of you can maybe see where I am coming from maybe you can help me the main purpose of appearing here tonight is because I would like an answer as to whether yes Jeremiah can attend junior prom with his girlfriend or not and if not I really would like to know the reasoning for that so thank you for your time um if you have questions please feel free to ask anything you'd like thank you thank you John Phelan California do you have children in the crowd or online their adult Concepts come so in the interest of human decency I've sanitized my remarks as much as possible as his Fallas twirled in
068my mouth thoughts of the popcorn he promised me ran through my mind I stared down at the words and began to think back on the tolerable act of violence I suffered at the hands of a family member I felt a sense of relief that someone else had been molested someone else had a story to tell also jingle balls jingle balls jingle all the way that's right balls not Bells literally speaking I watched the most popular guys at my school that I once thought were gentlemen standing in front of these freshman girls yelling obscenities at them the rounding the random chanting of touch my gonads you Harlot or look at my effing gonads you stupid witch sprayed the air with the sour stench of beer after being hazed into the most popular sorority at our school
069these innocent girls didn't stay innocent for long good evening border on March 27th our juvenile daughter who is a student at Voorhees High School brought home the book the freedom writer's diary which was assigned in her English to advanced class contrary to its seemingly innocuous title the book contained significant pornographic material which was provided to minor children despite the objectionable material we as parents never received the parental sign off form for the book above are two passages found in a curse researcher material there are far more contained in the book we find no literary value that could be derived from graphic descriptions of sexual abuse and sexual degradation of women as a first responder I've responded to emergency calls involving sexual assaults and child molestation there is nothing literary about these events only abject horror
070and sorrow these incidents will live with me forever and continue to Stow compassion of me to protect potential victims from these unspeakable Acts had a student written this material for a school project the teacher would be required to report such a sexual abuse concerns to school administration the police and the state's Child and Family Services with this assigned reading the teachers providing this horrific material to students similarly if a student were to repeat the profound and vulgarity in this book at a school-sponsored event they would face discipline for the following policy violations profanity and vulgarity of the incidental type level one conference detention and potential loss of privileges profane gestures or words directed towards another person level three one-day suspension or Saturday detention or two or three extended detentions loss of privileges including parking legal
071action may result Behavior with malicious or discriminary intent hate speech definition a hate speech abusive or threatening speech or writing that expressed prejudice against a particular group is okay can I just finish here I just want to close this because I'll get to the bottom of it okay the administration could attempt to explain that our children were going to read the pornographic passages in the book however providing this book to students is akin to a signing Playboy for the students to only read the articles inquisitive students will naturally read other passages in the book and discover the pornographic materials board members April is dedicated to sexual abuse victims tomorrow in this school district and throughout the world people will wear denim to demonstrate support for sexual abuse victims and survivors think about the irony that
072we dedicate a month to the acknowledgment and prevention of sexual abuse in our society while we dedicate while we distribute pornographic material to our minor students that degrades females obviously this assigned book and other books that are you taking away My First Amendment right because hold on we sat here like gentlemen and gentle ladies for an hour and five minutes I'm going to continue on I'm not done I'll be obviously there's a signed book in other books that are accessible to minors in the school library have no place in any High School environment and you as the Board of Education have a duty to protect the students parents would be understandably horrified if these passages were read aloud at the school event so they have no business being read in a five classroom thank you
073so just for everybody's um awareness right the three minutes time limit is announced at the beginning it is intended so that everybody has a chance to speak and if you have if there's time at the end of the public comment section you can come back up to finish so please try to adhere to the three minutes thank you all right um I'm Martha Hixson I'm a librarian at work Hunterdon High School and I just needed last minute switch to what I intended to say to you today um a maximum from 12-step recovery program states that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result by that definition I declare these proceedings insane we have been through this nonsense before apparently learning nothing my frustration is not with a
074Community member who objected to the book there is a time and a place to deal with him now my frustration is with this board you have policies and regulations for dealing with public complaints you have bylaws for managing meetings yet you refuse to use I have here for your convenience policy and regulation 25 30. which covers the selection of Library materials we may need 25-10 Digital dash elements and play with plate which deals with classroom materials and policy regulation 9130 which covers public complaints and Grievances and the requester reconsideration form which is the appropriate needs for lodging a complaint initiating such a complaint at a board meeting is clearly out of process and bypasses multiple steps which could avoid such demonstrations of manufactured Outreach altogether those steps and the escalation process they represent exist and
075hard to encourage conversation promote compromise and curtail the initiation of a formal challenge process which derails district resources from at a time it's ironic that some reason four candidates ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility while simultaneously Fanning the Flames of book Banning in the wake of the book challenges during the 21-22 school year I undertook research that revealed the cost of resolving each challenge to be roughly sixteen hundred dollars per book in materials time of productivity for the five books challenged during that time that's a total of eight thousand dollars that figure does not include the incalculable number of hours I spent responding to inquiries about the books and challenges nor does it include the cost of damage health and the health at the bad time and those funds would be better spent serving
076our students rather than the political motives of organizations like moms for Liberty and team pyc which are fomenting this Discord I urge this board to use the policies at its disposal to appropriately manage these meetings and to direct public comments through the proper channels that is your job thank you Wayne Robinson Lebanon Township yeah resin here for 20 years and I want to thank the diversity group for starting their work one question I would like to be answered at some point is how can someone like I be on that committee look around the room I'm stating the obvious just by my outward appearance I think I could add to that committee I'm a retired pharmaceutical executive I'm a farmer it's an interesting combination so I would like to be able to help on the committee
077so please let me know how me or someone aside from the board can be on it in regards to uh book Banning people asking for that a famous person once said the two most dangerous things on the planet are conscientious stupidity and sincere ignorance Banning books does that that person was Martin Luther King so I think if there's a best practice for challenging books that's what we should utilize not just um people being loud but actually had a process because if we had a process we can ensure it is followed and I will also ask for a process as well for people joining the diversity committee thank you [Applause] hi again I've been here a few times my name is Alexa offenhauer I am an Alum of North Hunterdon 19 class of 1999. um I
078will say I wasn't going to add this but I will I want to Second everything that Martha Hixson just said and speaking as somebody who has a PHD in English education from Columbia University I just want to say that literature is not the same thing as pornography so I'll leave it at that when I really came up here to say is I wanted to ask some questions of the Dei committee and I those questions are how many people of color are on the committee how many people in the lgbtq community are on the committee how many people with disabilities are on the committee how many members of religious minorities and why did you choose as one of your committee members a board member who has said she believes that the diversity equity and inclusion curriculum
079is very anti-white and who has a history of transphobic and homophobic statements finally just to put an exclamation point on the end of the importance of Dei work I would like to say that I've heard that there was an incident at north in which a swastika and the word Hitler were written on a classroom wall on Holocaust Remembrance Day if true I would like the administration to immediately and publicly denounce such anti-Semitism and ensure that a comprehensive understanding of the horror and scope of the Holocaust is part of the curriculum for all students thank you [Applause] foreign my name is Suzanne Wilder I'm from Bethlehem Township and I just wanted to support the previous one through three speakers not the last one uh the statement about if you have an issue with books that are
080not appropriate there's a process for it not just somebody who rants because they have a Personal Agenda and I'd also um definitely like to support the previous speaker about who is on the ad hoc committee diversity equity and inclusion not a homogeneous population and the report that the ad hoc committee uh reported on tonight didn't really say anything we're saying we're looking at policy recommendations but what is the ad hoc committee's definition of diversity Equity inclusion and what is the board's definition and I'm assuming I could go online and find what the policy States today but I'd also like to see what the recommendations are is it to make it less diverse is it a particular social groups population of definition of diverse that's um really all of what I'd like to say totally support
081the previous speakers thank you [Applause] just signing first feet of mine so thank you okay thank you and good evening my name is Nicholas LaBelle I'm from Union Township I just want to start and say thank you to the board for the time you've spent I know you have a long hours and we appreciate the work that you all do uh three main things I wanted to discuss I am a former proud alumnus of this School class of 2017. um I wanted to congratulate Laura and I was also in the AG program as an officer and a delegate to Kona and uh the gentleman saw earlier Zach I was also in the same Boy Scout Troop proud Eagle Scout so you guys are doing great things here I appreciate you guys recognizing the work that
082your students do touching on Lauren's accomplishments in yag we learned about the vital importances of our Constitution and I could not agree more strongly with the previous speakers and the fact that first amendment protects the right to expression and to learning so just please bear that in mind in all future considerations of using the same skill set from the sphere institution I went on to become the student body president at Rutgers University where I'm part I managed a budget of five million dollars oversolved 45 undergraduate students and in two capacities looked at academic reviews and more so leadership allocating the nation's first Recovery Fund helping 500 families some of which resided in our standing District so just your graduates are capable of many great things incurring you see 200 students here trust them with their
083ability to think critically and move forward in that respect and then just I really wanted to touch upon the fact that we brought up the funding formulas tonight and I have a strong interest in this I ran for State Assembly two years prior at a young age I was asked to run and that was something that I worked with with the current Administration and bipartisanly retiring Senator state senator aroho and Senator Powell so I put my email on this sheet if anyone has any questions about the funding formula or would like to talk about the current reviews going on at the state there are two bills being heard in the session that relate to this topic explicitly I would be more than happy to discuss that or help if I could so again Free Speech
084encourages free learning thank you for your time [Applause] foreign ER there and uh I recently had the pleasure of going to Kansas City Missouri in her beautiful Midwest for the last three days on business and was interested in seeing what their main library had in this giant Banner outside that basically said what would our community bookshelf look like if we removed every band or challenged book I'm supporting all of the previous speakers in requesting more of a appropriate review or request for challenge that someone can't just give you a list of 30 books say forget it we don't we don't want them pulled the shelves or they get cute and one person does it for five months and the next person does it for five months the other person does it for five months there
085has to be something where a bill could be challenged but there should be time limits there should be less repetition that it can't continuously always be challenged the same book um in this Banner when they were worried about Community books being removed just some of the listings for children's stories alone which we know all the Dr Seuss stuff but Winnie the Pooh little house of the Prairie wonderful Wizard of Oz these are books that were challenged there that they overcame um The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Charlotte's Web obviously To Kill a Mockingbird things like the Lord of the Rings and then the collected poems of Langston Hughes my youngest son loves poetry and has been challenged at Rutgers another son not this son to study poetry and the creative writing and things and Langston Hughes
086played a lot into that and luckily because Langston Hughes was also in the north curriculum he was well prepared for college and he and he really knew how to analyze and critique things um about a month ago I guess the last board meeting there was a couple comments flowing around where the and they were reigned in by different members on the board because some other board members I think believe they had different privileges than what they thought they could do as a board member my understanding according to getting this from the New Jersey boards Association School boards Association the school board has a dual role number one is to represent the concern of citizens taxpayers and parents to the school administration and number two is to represent the needs of the students and School District
087back to the citizens taxpayers and parents um you know the role of the board members really see that the district's being well run you're not the ones necessarily making up the curriculum and telling the teachers how to teach or even what to teach you know a school board member must be able to back up their decisions and actions with facts and data it should not just be opinions it should just not be the whims of what you feel or your neighbor feels or something else if your entire town has a problem with the book that's a different story but I'm really concerned about the book Banning I'm really concerned about making sure the Committees know their roles and that they are more diverse and more inclusive and I'd like to see our policies reflect that
088when it comes to challenging or attempting to ban a book thank you for your time [Applause] thank you and I meant to say I'm very proud of that song me too the future president hello my name is Gina Senpai I am from Lebanon Township and I was a participant in the first Dei ad hoc committee meeting subcommittee meeting um and it seemed to me that I was chosen based solely on the fact that I am a mother of students of color at Voorhees which does give me some insight but no expertise in solving any problems with trying to bring diversity equity and inclusion to the schools the other parents that were invited also seem to be invited for that reason I don't know them personally so I can't say but it seemed like perhaps just
089because they were parents of students of color as far as I could tell there was no representation of anyone that was representing lgbtq students or pers people by themselves but maybe there were but I did wonder why that topic was not touched upon at all so I wanted to thank you for bringing up what are our qualifications of the subcommittee because I feel like there are experts in in this field and there's no reason for a group of non-experts to try to redefine the wheel here so I hope that a question for future ad hoc subcommittee meetings would be a goal for defining what metrics are used to measure success in this um and when we're questioning how do we stop incidents of bias one of the school admins said in that first meeting that
090they had had some programs that brought about success but then also what we see recently is an increase in bias incidents so I want to know how do we measure what success looks like so that's all I think I have to say but I do hope that the district finds effective ways to implement tap down systemic systematic change here thank you [Applause] and if you'll indulge me I'm going to come back to say what I wanted to say originally tonight because it's a special occasion good evening board members I am once again and still Martha Hixson librarian at North Hunterdon High School and this is every week and today today happens to be National Library workers day so here I am your very own Library worker to promote the theme of this year's celebration there's
091more to the story actually to call National Library week a celebration isn't quite accurate because for the last two years Librarians including this one have not been in a celebratory mood that's because of the unprecedented wave of book Banning that has swept the nation since the fall of 2021. our own District was an early Target and if not for the discipline and rigor of this board all students in the district would have lost access to five award-winning books Association released some sobering statistics in its state of American libraries report in 2022 the Ala recorded nearly 1300 attempts to remove books from United States libraries those attempts targeted nearly 2 600 individual titles that's up one thousand percent from the 223 titles targeted in 2020. 90 percent of last year's challenges involved demands to censor multiple
092titles in fact 40 percent sought to remove a hundred or more books all at once just yesterday the Ala released the list of the top 13 books challenged in 2022 on that list are books that will be familiar to you genderqueer all boys aren't blue Lawn Boy and this book is gay why are we seeing the same titles attacked at school after school because these attempted bands are driven by a well-organized well-funded conservative political movement whose goal is to restrict students access to only the topics authors and content that match their narrow world view I bring this up to remind you of three important points one you have policies and processes in place to handle public complaints about Library materials and none of those policies is the complaint process launched through a display of manufactured
093outrage at a board meeting please actively manage your meetings to ensure that your policies are followed two on January 3rd of this year all but one of you voted to approve the New Jersey school boards Association code of ethics which compel you to support and protect School personnel and proper performance of their duties sadly in today's climate we School Personnel require protection from defamation at your microphone please suspend comments that make such a tax and three 15 months ago the nhb intellectual Freedom Fighters sent the board detailed recommendations for improving the reconsideration process the board has never responded those recommendations however have taken on a life of their own and libraries across New Jersey and the United States are now using ideas and materials that originated here most notably the revised reconsideration form and the
094template for reconsideration reports I urge you to give the intellectual Freedom Fighters the courtesy of a response and to implement those recommendations so that the district can continue to be a beacon for intellectual Freedom thank you [Applause] okay seeing no further public comment and I'm at 30 minutes we will move on to agenda item 13 which is I need a motion and a second to approve agenda items 14.1 to 17.8 second motion dead second yes any discussion on agenda items 14.1 to 17.8 are we including monthly bills list in that the monthly bills list are in that 17.4 thank you no I was just saying I'm just curious that you guys were going to outline certain things remember it was like that group approval right so 17.4 includes the monthly bills list any other comments
095discussion okay so we need a Voice vote so on the motion to approve agenda items 14.1 to 17.8 all in favor all right opposed abstentions motion character thank you next up on the agenda is an opportunity for old or new business is anyone on the board have old or new business to discuss ion the Staffing problem right also a cost problem these are some thoughts about how to how to address and I know I've got accused of course your website how to think about that topic next year I guess I guess it's drawing on the sports at the topic right yes every day we are working on it yeah I mean my necessarily thinking I have any exclusion rather than hearing stepping in you a lot of parents I don't have the opportunity I can't
096necessarily you know one thing I will say I don't know this opportunity Central seems to have a large pool are we able to share resources Central has their own Fleet can't hire their own buses so they're also paying more for their drivers I haven't spoken with uh anybody essential about it I was just thinking about that right yeah I mean my understanding is everybody's dealing with yeah okay yeah yeah I can't just say it I was just going to ask about the the liability to the school district if we're not providing busing and students and their parents are involved in actually students alone or involved in an accident to what extent are we somehow negligent partner trainings in this case accessibility of the board okay okay Brian you have coming it was along the same
097lines but this is something you're discussing not not the you know do we have enough bus drivers but the issue raise which is an acute one it's being discussed yes okay thank you any other news so any other new business for our own business no not this month actually could I just just to add to the sports because I know it's I know a lot of families in districts that have nothing to do with hunterton County crazy outside the box spot would schools ever consider it would take a lot more scheduling but kind of consolidating games so like if if we know that the lacrosse and the tennis and whatever team are playing like can we kind of get them all there as opposed to three separate days so that may I'm just throw it's
098I know we still need the same number of seats but I don't know would we ever consider changing our scheduling and this would require the entire County to do that I'm just but if the whole state is going through this which it's actually a it's a country thing right so if it is I'm just maybe this guy like somebody needs to reach out to them and say hey can we can we re-look at this I don't think anything's off the table right it's like a there's no bad idea superintendent in Indiana and they had a big problem not smaller buses they train the the coaches because coaches are going to the game they worked out the logistics and liability of that for football is a different with the band and all that different situation but
099most of the sports teams can go on you know one or two bands and they have the coaches do the driving so that was a way for them to remedy it and it's it's clever but I don't know what the actual thank you I did mention it to the association president as a topic for conversation in the next negotiations oh okay thank you yes so Rob Knox will put you on the spot necessarily I'll give you an act be the final answer but um I think what uh one of this public comment speakers mentioned was recommendations around the book recommendations that were sent to the police which I assume landed eventually in the policy committee while you were ahead of the policy committee right has let me just ask have those been considered those recommendations
100yes and we revised the we were advised the reconsideration policy as a result of all of the feedback that was received and so um I don't and I'm not I'm not challenging whether or not that there was a there was a response to the intellectual Freedom group I'm not challenging that but I am and and not every recommendation was implemented but there were changes to the reconsideration policy that were um made as a result of the all the activities all the input and the activity from uh the past couple years I have one more business and it's really old um when Tom Rome was here we were going to do a committee to look at um our Sports recommendations through the years for the you know Hall of bankers and we never got that off
101the ground and um I just didn't know who could maybe rehash that up because there hasn't been anything done at both north or 40s for a long time yeah I think I I do remember that there was some initial interest in a like ad hoc Hall of Fame committee and in fact I think there was some a couple of meetings and it and I'm not sure if I'm remembering this completely like accurately but I think it sort of died it died out due to a lack of interest and in in members of the board like actually picking that up and and running right so so we can we can 100 bring it back up and you know I think it was generally considered like it was a good idea and we talked about whether it
102was a district-wide or individual schools and there was lots of there was for for a period of time there was some pretty like um energized discussion but then I think when it came down to some somebody actually taking the ball and running with it and executing I think there was just there wasn't somebody that stepped up who wanted to because they had had it at both schools and then it was kind of disappeared so so I think you know we're so uh I think we can bring that topic back up and um talk about the progress that we made a few years ago and then maybe like what caused it to die out and see if we can overcome that all right any other New or Old business and they're recognizing on Thursday at Mountain
103View Chevrolet actually John is his 10th year so congratulations thanks for bringing that up challenge well don't jump all right any other new business or old business any older business than Tom roll 10 years all right seeing none can I get a motion and a second to adopt resolution zero four two five two three-2 for executive session to discuss matters falling under categories four and eight as reflected in the attached resolution the board expects to be an executive session for approximately one hour and upon return to public session action will be taken Kim Shelly thank you in motion and a second to reconvene public session motion by Tara second by Jess Nicole Oh Nicole you got it all in favor because I can't see extensions all right we're back in public session any new business
104that's not fair no new business it should be old business call can I get a motion and a second to approve agenda items 22.1 and 22.2 which is the Personnel agenda and uh sidebar agreement between North 140 East Education Association second motion by Tara SEC Shelley Jessica and we need vocal yes yes Mr yes yes thank you in a motion a second to adjourn so moved second Jess all in favor aye thank you