BOE Meeting 01 20 2026

001That's all right. [laughter] I love it. Good evening everybody. Welcome to our board of education meeting. I think we're good. Welcome everybody. This meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meeting act and is open to the media and public. Notices were duly posted in the meeting was advertised in the courier news and tapped into effective March 1st, 2026. All legal notices and board meeting dates shall only be posted on the district website in conformity with state code. Formal action may be taken. Can we get a roll call up? >> Mrs. Miss Cassley >> here. >> Miss Fury >> here. >> Mr. Lopes >> here. >> Mrs. Ner >> here. >> Mr. Fieros >> here. >> Mrs. Rad >> here. >> Mrs. Ryan >> here. >> Miss Deto >> here. >> Mr. Riza

002>> here. Please stand for the >> flag of the flag of America to the stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all would like to welcome Mr. Ira, Ian, and Jimmy for our student representatives board report. >> Good evening everyone. Uh we're really grateful to be able to uh to come speak for a second time. Um I I make a couple quick comments on my end just uh before I introduce our our board of ed reps again. Um but uh Dr. Dr. Hart and I were talking spoke with the student reps as well, but January obviously is a board recognition month and we wanted to make sure that from our standpoint selfishly as a civics teacher too. I'm very thankful for uh the involvement that all of you have played in in the role for

003our class and uh some of you in capacity through interview uh attending project citizen forums. Some of you are even coming next week in our in our class. So, uh, I'm thankful for, uh, being able to have you guys in as much as possible and make and thankful that you are as accessible as you are for our class. Um, you will pull up the presentation. >> I'll get it to you right now. >> Um, if you're as we're doing that, our first time that we're here in November, we sort of piloted the idea of getting student reps on the board. uh and Ira Dei and Nishan were looking at it from the standpoint of what can we do to to make sure that you guys are knowledgeable was going on going on in our school.

004Uh we were able to make the first report mostly on fall sports uh and then also a window into what was going on in the civics class. Uh this time through we tried to expand it to the middle school as a whole. So uh the involvement that went into this uh planning was making sure that we got in contact with various teachers around the school. The team leaders across the entire uh school were awesome at RMS and compiling all all this information for us and we have a short presentation as a window into what's going on in at RMS and if you have questions please let us know. So first up will be Sometimes it takes a shot. >> So for Sixth grade, the nature garden club is like working on transforming the courtyard. So,

005and for English and language arts, they're like working on an argument essays for current controversial issues for social studies around there like Egypt, ancient Egypt and for science or their famous Google. So in seventh grade, preparations are underway for the end ofear trip to Top Golf with math courses are working on simplifying and manipulating algebraic expressions. Science classes are learning about trades and reproduction. And then in science or social studies, students are writing a DBQ essay on Alexander Curry. ELA students are finishing their feature articles and reading narrative non-fiction. um in civics and English language arts classes submitted their letters to letters to the edit editor their chron for the chronicle for the new Viking voices section in algebra 1 classes are graphing linear equations and working nonlinear functions as well in algebra 2 students

006are solving problems with rational exponents complex radicals and radical functions science students have taken the role of evolution utionary biologist and Spanish classes. Students are learning about clothing and stores in various uh like Spanish culture and as well as numbers into the trilliums. The tri honor society did a performance at Miota senior residence. A quarters classes attended a festival at Hund Central with sending districts and band and orchestra will be mostly Holland students. The media center continues to host Maker Mondays and students are gearing up to defend the 10ount title this year in this year's battle of the Bucks. So again, the work that we put in for this definitely wasn't possible without uh coordinating with a lot of the team leaders in the eighth grade, seventh grade, sixth grade, the encore classes as well.

007We also had a bunch of select teachers that reached out to me and emailed. Um so I'm very grateful for their participation in that. Um going forward, if you remember back to November, we were trying to piece together, you know, do we want to try to expand this outside of the middle school so you guys can get a window into some of the other schools as well. uh and we're definitely open to to working in that if we have Jimmy uh Ira and Nishan working as like representatives for each of the other schools that are not at RMS. So, thank you for your time and uh thank you for letting us participate in this. Thank you. [applause] >> Any comments board? >> I had a question for Mr. Daly for the Viking voices for the

008tap into um was that something that we approached them? I'm just curious about that as a fantastic opportunity for the students and is is it language arts pieces that they're sharing or how does that work? >> Yeah, so it was a uh a project uh language arts in conjunction with civics classes. Um we uh Mrs. Zimmerman, Mr. Okconor, uh Mrs. Lovering and I had discussions too and trying to plan out like what exactly was this going to look like? Uh and we were able to make it fit into one of the language arts classes in civics. Um the students were able to pick topics similar to like a smaller version of what the project citizen forum looks like. Uh and they were able to to do research, contact relevant stakeholders, and then we submitted them

009to uh the chronicle and they ended up picking like the top 10 articles that they were most impressed with. So they're uh the link was in there. They're being published now. We have about I think five or six of the kids who have been posted already and you know you guys can check them out because uh we're really proud of the work that they were able to do in both language arts and civics classes. Can you share that? >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Any other comments? >> Ira, Ishan, Jimmy, Mr. Dy, thank you very much for coming today and your presentation. Our next item is the superintendent Uh, welcome everyone. Uh, Ira, Jimmy, thank you very much again for being here tonight. Um, and to everyone, uh, we really appreciate you being here on what I

010think hits the record is the coldest evening of the year. Uh so leave it to us to schedule a board meeting on the coldest night of the year. You should talk to the superintendent about that come tomorrow morning. Um [laughter] we are uh we are in the throws of budget planning for uh the 26, believe it or not 26 27 school year. Um, and with that, what I'd like to do during our January board meeting is, uh, take a moment and take stock of where we are when it comes to enrollment, what the landscape looks like with our housing developments, uh, coming in, uh, here to Readington, and then give a little preview uh, of some of the results from the annual audit report, which I've placed in this presentation, and we can take questions

011as we go. Uh so the first thing I'll mention is you can see that that this presentation in some version or another dates back to 2021. There are other presentations uh that go back even further. I find when you're engaging in a process of redistricting certain homes in the area, more communication is better and the longer the better. So, I think that you might even find a presentation back to 2019 um related to our housing developments and some of the redistricting efforts that we've undertaken over the past five plus years. Uh so, does it work if you can't do it from over here? I need longer arms. uh current enrollment trends and keep uh this is our um see now we woke up right after [laughter] >> um so here's our enrollment history grades K

012through 8. So you'll see that blue line represents our K through8 enrollment back from 201516 all the way up to the current 2526 enrollment. So you'll notice that in the 181 191 1920 school year is when we started to see our final um drop below 1500 students. Uh 2021 uh was uh where we hit 1,400 and we've been holding pretty steady around 1,400 students um since 2021 with some peaks and valleys here or there. Uh what we're watching very closely is what happened from last year to this year, which is an increase in enrollment largely due to us graduating an eighth grade class that was a little smaller and bringing in a kindergarten class that was larger than expected. So it seems as if enrollment is flipping a little bit. We we're we're bringing in

013slightly larger classes than we're graduating, but by and large this is stable. Our enrollment is pretty steady grades K through eight. And hopefully we continue this trend. We might even see a little bit more of an increase uh next year. I attribute this to a couple of things. Uh first and foremost, our fantastic reputation for education in Hunter County region. Uh second, we are the only Hunter County district that offers the universal prek program for virtually all students who are age three and four. I think this uh and some county districts don't offer even full day kindergarten. I think that this is a huge draw for families, young families moving into Readington. Um, and I think we're also just seeing just a natural movement of homes now just due to market circumstances as well. So,

014I think we're g we're going to see some enrollment increase. Here's Three Bridges and White House grades came through three. These are our October snapshot reports. So, you'll see what happened at White House and Three Bridges. We started to see this back in 1920. Enrollment on the Three Bridges side of town went down. Enrollment at the White House side of town went up. we hadn't even um built yet any of the housing developments that I'll talk about in this presentation. So this disparity we knew we needed to correct especially knowing that we had some housing developments coming in. So you'll see in the year 2021 was the first year of our redistricting model and since then we started to close that gap and keep consistent enrollment between White House and Free Bridges. So here's our

015school configuration with December 2025 enrollment reports. um Three Bridges and White House, both pre-K through three with about 313 students at Three Bridges and 335 at White House. Uh includes preschool as well. Uh 4 through 8, Holland Brook School at 320 and Readington Middle School at 462. Readington Middle School is now seeing some enrollment decreases over the past couple of years because the those larger classes that were moving through our grades are now graduating from RMS and they're bringing in grades that are a little bit smaller. So, you know, when I got here eight years ago, RMS was closer to 600. Uh so, we've seen about 100 students decrease in RMS, but this is stable. Uh we're seeing anywhere between, you know, this 462 to almost 500 on an annual basis. our current preschool providers.

016Uh this is where our preschoolers [snorts] currently are. Three in district classrooms and then four classrooms at White House Prep, four at Barry Patch, two at Stan Learning Center, and three local. Uh so the housing developments, uh I just want to walk you through um housing developments that have been completed uh and then two that we anticipate just an update here. So this is the Willows at White House Station uh Nelson Street development. Uh so a key some key features of this development are it's 72 total units. Um but notice that there's um 42 bed units and 18 three bed units. And this is 100% affordable. Our student population coming from this particular development this year. PreK through 3 is a total of 33 students. Just make note of the numbers. 33 students pre-K through

0178, 29 K through 8, and then 16 on White House only because remember we have two K through three preK through three schools. Now this is the Ridge at Readington for a total of 254 units, right? You might suspect and our formulas told us to expect more students coming from the Ridge just based on its size. But if you notice, they have this development has fewer three-bedroom units than the Willows at White House Station. Additionally, it's 25% affordable at 75% market rate. So, you'll see we have about the same amount of students in district that are from this development. 37 students, slightly more than Willows, 30 K through 21 K through three at White House School. I attribute this to two things. one that this is uh 75% market rate and two that we see

018a few fewer three-bedroom units. It's really the two and threebedroom units that you have to pay close attention to when looking at housing developments and potential school enrollment. Um this is the Diaz property off of Route 202 and three bridges. This is a he construction is definitely underway. Building is happening. Um units are up. Um certainly no finishes or siding or or anything like that, but you can see that this is an active construction zone that is estimated to be completed probably sometime late 26, so maybe November, December of next year to early 27. Um this is 80 total units, 100% affordable. It looks almost mirror image to the Willows at White House Station. Because of that, uh, we have a decent estimate of how many students will receive from this housing development. And notice

019the 23bedroom, uh, units. So, next year, we could expect anywhere from 20 to 30 students districtwide, and half of them will be at three bridges, maybe between 10 and 15. We may not see enrollment until January or February next year, but we know to anticipate that with this property. Um, so this is next uh to be built. And [snorts] here's Camelot, the um off of Mullen Road. Again, looks a lot like the Ridge. It's a kind of a mirror image, but it's 192 units, only 10 freebies, but still the same formula of 25% affordable and then 75% market rate. So, this development will look much more like the Ridge on 22. So, we knew right six years ago that we needed to plan for this. Uh so we we started to plan for our enrollment

020impact. Um so the first thing we did was we used the the baseline the RERS formula to estimate how many students we may get from these housing developments. It wasn't exactly reliable. Um probably for a couple of reasons. It's a study from back in 2018. Number one. Number two, it was based off of K12 districts and we're a K8 district. So, it's difficult to give us the exact numbers of how many students we may um see enrollment based off of the housing developments, but it's not needed anymore. We have two housing developments that are complete. Students are enrolled. We can use those as our baseline, which is what we're planning for. So, this is what it looks like. Here's our actual enrollment at the Willows and the Ridge and then what we project for Camelot

021and the Diaz property. Now notice Camelot that we're not expecting enrollment next year maybe not the following school year but uh Diaz property we should be looking at planning for you know this 29 students in the next year to 18 months uh plus notice that those about 14 students will be the three bridges grades K through three. Um, so our planning included identifying and knowing that three of the four housing developments are on White House side of town. Uh, only one is at the three bridges side of town. And we knew that some kind of redistricting was going to happen. We needed to look at student population to create some parody between the two buildings. We needed to make sure that we maintained enrollment. We want to have similar services, similar programs, similar student bodies

022um, in both of our K3 buildings. So, our plan was this. I'll be pretty quick through this. You we've all seen this before. This has been five years in the making. Um, we looked at several options to redistricting everything from, you know, redrawing lines, moving students immediately to reconfiguring the entire district for K through five to three elementary schools. Um and eventually we selected um the slow movement of students who enrolled in a certain area of town from White House to three bridges. So it was the gradual movement um as students enrolled if they were new to our town uh and incoming kindergarteners in a certain region of Readington Township. Those students attended Three Bridges School instead of White House School. So we had a five-year phase in approach. It took forever. Um transportation I'll

023tell you that um transporting a a neighborhood of students to two different elementary schools uh was a challenge but we have uh come out in the 2526 school year have successfully implemented this phase in approach. Um and the best thing is we did not disrupt students in their current educational setting. You were a white house student and you started first grade or kindergarten at White House school and you stay there until you graduate in third grade. if you had a sibling there, you were able to attend school with your siblings. We really didn't disrupt students, which was our goal. And we're in our final year. So, this was the last cohort of incoming kindergarten students from that redistricting area of of town that um now that entire neighborhood, grades K through three, are all in

024one school. So, that whole redistriced neighborhoods K through three are at three school. So, our phase of approach worked. Here were the street names that were impacted. Keep going down. This was our my drawings on a map. Um, but this was thanks to our tech department a really nice digital way uh to see uh how our map now looks. The blue side of town is three bridges and the red side of town is the white house side of town. This is an interactive map that families and parents can use. They can click on that little um magnifying glass icon, look up their street, and it'll highlight that property either in the blue or the red. And that's on our website, and it's on our registration page as well. So, um redistricting the outcome. So, how

025did it work? Keep going. So, we're in our final phase, right? This is our last year. Um but again, keep going. Um overall in the in the past we estimated 60 students five years ago that would be redistricted from the White House side of town to the Three Bridges side of town. It's 57 um which is a pretty good estimate that that we came up with. The Three Bridges current enrollment was 303 and then 315. This was K. This is K through three. We did not include preschool um because preschool has changed the enrollment a little bit just based off of our expansion of the preschool program. But to have the two elementary schools to be within 13 students of one another knowing that if you look at that graph from you know 8 10

026slides ago that we started to see a little bit of a divide between the student population. Just imagine if you subtracted 57 students from three bridges and added them to white house unbalanced our district might look. Um but planning for next year in Three Bridges, uh so 2627 um we say may see more students moving into the Three Bridges side of town because of the new development. So when the personnel committee meets, we're going to be looking at some enrollment numbers and some staffing projections. Um you know, I would recommend we need we need a little room to grow at three bridges potentially because we'll see some moveins perhaps mid year next year. Um we may need to add additional personnel. uh we may need to reallocate staff, but that's becoming increasingly difficult uh because

027some of some of our our budget constraints. So, historically, White House and Three Bridges, there's some room to grow if enrollment does increase from these housing developments. We've seen larger numbers. Uh, I'll just caution the board and the public and let you know that back in 2012 and 2013, we did not have full day kindergarten, full day preschool, and self-contained special education classes. So, while there's room to grow, we are slowly um starting to um meet capacity at White House of Free Bridges as well. Uh we have preschool, we have full day kindergarten, we have special ed uh programs as well. Um we have plenty of room uh grades four through eight Um, again, Holland Brook School does have some self-contained special education classes. There's no preschool here. Um, but there is room at Holland

028Brook uh and RMS as well. So, as enrollment increases, I guess what I'm suggesting here with these slides, no massive changes need to be made to our facilities. We may need to do some smaller projects to make more room, offices, things like that. But, um, we have some capacity for some groups. Um but some budget snapshots. So enrollment is increasing uh and with enrollment increases that means we need to look at staffing but we have some budget constraints. Um and you'll see that one of the budget constraints uh that we're going to be wrestling with over this budget season is employee benefit um contributions, not contributions, employee benefit premiums uh going up. So employee benefits have steadily increased and you can see from this pie chart from our audit the green and I want to

029say purple make up employee salaries and benefits. We are a people business 80 some percent of our budget uh if you look at it goes toward individual salaries and benefits. So while we look at uh the demands and the needs of our town and populations and housing developments, we also have to look at staffing and responding to those needs. What's making it increasingly difficult is the unpredictability of health benefit increases uh and some of the the very large number um of health benefit increase premiums that we're looking at for next school year. So it's going to be a challenge. presenting the challenge, but we started working on it today and we're we're almost there, right, Jason? Just say yes. [laughter] Um, in addition, we've done some major capital projects over the past 8 to 10

030years. New roofs, new boilers, uh, new main office with roof and HVAC boilers over at middle school. Um, upgrading our facilities. We've spent a lot um of capital funding that did not impact the [snorts] taxpayer at all uh to really do some massive improvements to our buildings. Uh with that, we've drawn down our capital reserves a little bit. It's been a little bit more difficult to put reserves back into those accounts just because of the constraints that we have on our budget. Um, so they've been diminished over the years, but the good news is, uh, we just passed a $38 million referendum. So, we really don't need to to tap into capital reserves. Our goal, when Jason talk, our goal is to use the next couple of budget cycles to build this back up. So,

031when we're through our referendum projects, we've got plenty left in capital maintenance reserve to do any ancillary projects that come up after the referendum is complete. So, we planned for this purposefully. Um, and we've done a lot of projects and the referendum is going to help tremendously to do the next wave of capital projects over the next I would say three summers. Um, so concluding thoughts. Um, we can make much better predictions of enrollment uh based off of the housing developments that we currently have in the district. Um, redistricting has balanced enrolling grades K through three. Um, preschool has assisted us in projecting future kindergarten. We know exactly how many four-year-olds are on our preschool program right now that are aging up into kindergarten. We can predict that today. Um, and that should hopefully help

032us making projections for kindergarten for next year and in the future. Um, there is some room for enrollment increases. No massive changes to our ability, some minor changes, but uh, we can absorb it. Budget constraints are going to be our primary uh driver of decision- making when it comes to looking at our enrollment as well as looking at um the budget for this economic school. >> Questions from members of the board. Uh so you mentioned that first uh line graph on a movement is a little misleading because it's counting whole bodies in K to8 only and I'm just curious if we could uh look at it a little differently by including you know the prek enrollment you know maybe like a stacked bar graph over looking at the prek enrollment either inside or outside in

033external buildings versus TVs and lighthouse. Um, and hate to even say it, but you know, counting those early kindergarteners as half half a student. I'm just wondering if it might help us kind of baseline and normalize so that we can view our capacity compared to the past years a little bit more accurately. >> Yes, we can. It's our prek enrollment is in your enrollment report if you want to see what that looks like right now. Today when Jason and I do the budget presentation for March, we'll make sure that we have both types of enrollments showing for the board with what our growth has look looked like K through eight and then what preK has done to our enrollment because if we went back to that graph um [clears throat] and if we counted prek

034in there, our enrollment is back. It looks like a smiley face. Our enrollment is back up to almost the 1700 line mark, 1600, I would say. Thank you. as soon as I get back. If I write it on this, I won't. Any other questions about enrollment budget planning? Um, the audit I took some snapshots from the audit. Um, the audit results are in your agenda. Um, so we can talk about that in more detail. Jason can give you um more of an overview about the audit results as well. Um, but they are also the some of those snapshots are in the presentation. Take a seat. Uh, were there any questions from the board about the audit or Mr. was there anything that we should audit results that you could pick up from findings? Absolutely right.

035>> We have some comments in the minutes that address the audit results specifically that there were no findings which is important. >> Yeah. Um I guess I would recommend the some of those snapshots from the audit I incorporated into the presentation but maybe during finance Michelle when the report goes out if there's any additional questions we can discuss at >> um the last agenda item is board recognition month. You should all have a nice little certificate. So we don't give them to just the kids. will be given to new members, too. Um, thank you, Mr. Dailyaly, for uh making mention of board recognition uh month. Um, there's also a resolution on the agenda. Um, unfortunately, there's no checks or bonuses in your your little folders. Um, we can't do that, but we can say thank

036you and we can put a resolution on the agenda and um appreciate the work that all of you do. uh this is a one of the harder working volunteer jobs that you probably have in time consuming. So thank you for your time and happy board recognition. [applause] And if there's no questions, that concludes my superintendent report. >> Thanks, Dr. Next item is in public forum limited to items that are on the agenda. Have a lot of people here today, so we could just kind of judge if people are going to be speaking, if we have to limit time to three minutes or not. Is there by show of hands is people that plan to speak at this session? We have one just Okay. All right. So, it's not going to take up all 30 minutes.

037So, we won't, you know, be a hard stop in three minutes, but when we get close, we'll let you know if we go over. That being said, whoever wants to speak, please come up, state your name in town, and um it's all yours. agenda >> on the agenda. >> Yeah. So, no for the second meeting. Okay. All right. Anyone else? Okay. We'll close that session now. Okay. We've received two correspondences. They are with the board secretary on file. Now we're going to move to board action items [laughter] and starting with the approval of administrative reports. We have one item um item 101. Can I get a motion and then a second on that? >> I'll move Alan. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Ms. Cassidy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ford. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >>

038Yes. >> Mrs. Menser. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Pierre, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rad, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mrs. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Next item is approval or amendments. Um, item 2011. Can I add a motion and a second? >> I'll move. >> Second, Michelle. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> Mrs. Gassley? >> Yes. >> Miss Fury? >> Yes. >> Mr. Votes? >> Yes. >> M. Mener? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pierre? Yes, Mrs. Rat. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Ryan. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Vento. >> Yes, >> Mr. Rissa. >> Yes, classes. >> All right, next is finance and facilities. We have six items and we will have a committee report as well as Michelle just mentioned a few minutes ago. Can I get a motion to items 301

039and 306 in a second? >> Motion second. >> Second. Michelle. >> Sure. So the finance committee met on Wednesdays, December 17th. The first topic were the audit results. The committee reviewed the audit results for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025, which were presented by Jonathan Weiss and Julia Sinkfield. Reserve balances are as follows. Capital 1,54,31, maintenance 57,293, and emergency 198. Budgeted surplus is $785,000. Revenue increased by 3.1 million versus the prior year. The largest increase in revenue was special revenue, primarily attributed to preschool expansion aid. Operating expenses increased by 7 million versus the prior year, primarily driven by the preschool expansion grant and capital outlay related to RMS main office renovations as well as ongoing roof and HVAC projects. There were no audit findings. The referendum. The committee discussed the prioritized projects for summer

0402026 as well as the referendum website in order to communicate transparently with the community about the status of projects. The website includes a public tracking document and photos of planned and ongoing work. The architectural total fee and terms and conditions were also reviewed. The committee agreed the administration should assess which projects warrant an architect and which can be undertaken directly by facilities such as whiteboard installation in order to be both effective and efficient with taxpayer funds. Next steps related to the referendum include a bond resolution in March, a sale in June, and proceeds in July. Solar update. The business administrator gave a brief update on the status of solar which may be undertaken by EZ Energy, a construction vendor and select energy, a finance company. Timelines include state approval in February, ordering product in March,

041breaking ground in June with work beginning by July 4th. The district awaits confirmation from Easy Energy that submission to the state has occurred. Bank interest update. The business administrator provided the committee an update on a prior request to renegotiate an improved interest rate with Citizens Bank. The business administrator successfully increased the agreed rate to 3% with market rate adjustments. The committee was reminded that an NJ ARM account was board approved to utilize for the referendum and excess surplus which is high 3% currently with market rate adjustments. Bus route efficiency topic was tabled to a future meeting. Strategic planning presentation. Judith Wilson a former superintendent and consultant joined the committee to present her approach to support district strategic planning. The committee engaged in Q&A with Miss Wilson. Next steps are for the administration to prepare a

042side-by-side comparison of vendors, which has been completed already, to support board selection of a future partner for district strategic planning. The bill list was available for the committee to review, and the next planned meeting is Wednesday, January 28th. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. >> Mrs. Cassidy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fior, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopes, >> yes. >> Mrs. Menser, >> yes. >> Mr. Fieros, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rat, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mr. Pinto, >> yes. >> Mr. Rizzo, >> yes. Classes. >> Our next item is for Department Education Technology Committee. We have 10 items to move. 401 through 410. Can I have someone do a motion and then a second on that >> comment? >> Okay, we do have the report. I don't know is Paulo or Michelle

043going to read the report from December 18th. Okay, meeting minutes for December 18th. Congratulations to Dr. Got his doctorate. Um, one specialized program projections for 2627 in preparation for 2627 budget. Dr. Moro reported that he and Miss Burns are currently evaluating the specialized programs. Thank you. And may take recommendations based on on their findings. Established ESY program for summer 2026 at Holland. The summer 26 ESY program will be in one location at Holland Brook School from July 6 to August 6th. Data K through five students. Dr. Tamillo gave a report report on newly collected data around the castle core competencies compenticities which comprise the curriculum. Through teacher assessments, the district was able to identify and offer services to students who need additional support in the foundations. This information will be shared with parents during conferences

044and ideally these foundations will align with report card categories based on results of the K through5 students overall have strong self-awareness very few foundational needs and consistent upward growth. Teachers will assess this annually. Number three HDRS PSAT data. Miss Pouch and Dr. heart shared PSAT data from Hunter and Central on Readington students who are currently in the ninth grade and were eighth graders last year. Math 65% of Reington students are meeting exceeding expectations. 29% are approaching expectations, 6% are not yet approaching. Language arts, 67% of students are meeting exceeding expectations. 24% are approaching expectations, 9% are not approaching yet. This was great data point to see as we look closer to the NJSLA results for eighth graders in previous meetings and had concerns about the performance in the spring for Temple University study. Dr. Hart

045introduced the Temple University study that Reington was asked to participate in. The study is on spatial reasoning. It is voluntary. It is for middle school students and if their parents want their child to participate, it will be administered during non instructional time. Five. Jud Judith Wilson strategic planning. Judah's philosophy is to hear from as many as possible in preK through eight families. Different strands of online surveys. Grades preK through five. Grades sixth through 8, faculty, staff, parents, and community. Topics are similar. Surveys, balance of play and academics, use of technology, feeling of belonging. Other data collected are one-on-one interviews with board members and administrators, key players. About six or more forums if needed, morning and evening options. Group of about 30 key thinkers will be asked to volunteer for two days to carve out goals.

046Coach co-chairs would then be formed for each goal. Facility and faculty and administrators period agenda items for the temple study. Special education programs likely a future meeting established ESY for summer 2026. Next meeting was happened already January 16th 838. >> Thank you. Any comments or discussion? >> I just had a comment for 4.10 um to hire Judith Wilson as our strategic planning consultant. I just am very excited about that. So, I was happy to see that um we're going to be moving in that direction and I'm excited for the district and and what that's going to look like for us. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? >> Let me just just one comment. I wanted to thank the committee for the followup on the test scores of the eighth graders and that forward look.

047I think that was important and it certainly gave me confidence. So, I appreciate that. >> Anyone else? Okay. >> Mrs. Cassidy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fury, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopes, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mener, >> yes. >> Mr. Pieros, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rat, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mr. Pinto, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Our next item is personnel. We have five items 501 through 509. We do not have do not have a committee report this month to read out. Can I have a motion? And then a second for 501 to 509. >> Any discussion items? >> Ms. Cassidy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fury. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mener. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pierre. >> Yes. >> Mrs. R. >> Yes.

048>> M. Ryan. Yes, >> Mr. Pinto. >> Yes, >> next is our communication and policy committee. Um, we have four items 601 and we have two committee reports to read out. So, that will be a little longer. That being said, can I get a motion and a second for the four items? >> Just a second. Um, our first minutes are from December 22nd, 2025. Um, for policy updates to the 2000 series, Dr. Harp brought the following policy subcommittee to review any changes that were made based on the committee's previous recommendations and after consultation with staff and staff's estimate. The committee also discussed the best way to indicate on the policy in the manual when a policy has not been fully revised but has had minor edits without changing any substantive parts of the policy. the

049edited date listed at the top of the policy will reflect minor edits, for example, updating the name of testing mentioned in in the policy. The revised date at the bottom of the policy will change when substantive changes are warranted. This will be included in the tracking document for future boards and may be added to bylaw 0131. Policy 2412, home instruction due to health condition. Um, as per stress straight, this policy is the most updated version. A minor correction to update core curriculum standards uh reference to NJSLS will be made and then this policy will be marked as reviewed. Policy 2415.06 unsafe school choice option. This is the most updated policy according to stress estimate. It includes federal requirements of title 8 of ESSA. No changes recommended. This policy will be marked as review. The policy

0502415.2 No Child Left Behind. This is the most updated version of this policy. However, the title must be updated from No Child Left Behind to Every Student Succeeds Act. This [clears throat] will be marked as reviewed. Policy 2415.3, Educational Stability for Children in Foster Care. This is the most updated policy. The committee discussed current language in the policy regarding children remaining in the district once they exit foster care. The current language states, a foster care child who has been placed in this district and exits foster care during the school year will not be permitted to continue in this school district for the remainder of the school year. The parents legal guardians of the child may petition the board to allow the child to complete the school year in accordance with terms and conditions outlined in

051policy uh 5118 and 5111. Reference to policy 5118 should be replaced with 5116 since policy 5118 no longer exists. Policy 2461 special education receiving schools. This policy is only mandated for approved private schools for students with disabilities, ESC's and jointers. Since we are not a send district and do not need this policy, this we will abolish it. Policy 2460.8 free and appropriate public education. This is a regulation only and was in the policy section in error. It has been reindexed appropriately as a regulation. Policy 2468 independent educational evaluations. This policy has been reviewed by administration who recommends no changes be made to it as it is a solid policy. Policy 2481 home care instruction for general education student for reasons other than a health condition. This is also the most updated policy from stress estate

052and does not require any revisions. However, minor corrections to update core curriculum standards to NJSLS in the policy and then it will be marked as review. Bylaw 0143 board member election and appointment legal update. Dr. provided the board with a recommendation from legal counsel regarding this bylaw. We updated our bylaw to include language that indicates that the board will not will not nominate or vote on candidates until the public has been given a full and fair opportunity to speak after returning from executive session. Dr. Hart will review with the attorney. If they approve it, we'll move forward and if it isn't approved, it will return to the committee. Board meeting followup policy 2330 for homework. This policy did not pass at our last board meeting. The committee considered the full board's positions on whether or

053not the reading log should be a part of the policy or included in the regulation. Instead, the committee decided to leave the policy as is and mention the reading log in regulation. Freedom to read options, freedom to read considerations. Dr. Hart met with our librarians to get their input regarding adding a statement to the freedom to read policy that would guide the librarians regarding sexually explicit content at the curation point. The librarians expressed concerns about whether having language preventing obscene material will contradict the very intent of the Freedom to Read Act and could also cause confusion when selecting material without having terms such as sexually explicit defined in a clear way. They expressed concerns that this language could create an issue for current books in the library and may cause a need for many books

054to go through the challenge process. The librarians shared that their current creation process includes referring to the school library journal webinars, professional development and conferences, good readads, doing their own preview, and student input recommendations. The committee discussed the following options for the policy. Option one, leave the policy as is and adopt it. Uh implications, no changes to the policy. Option two, add the language from the criminal law New Jersey 5 statute 2C34-3 preventing library material that meets this definition implications. Will the implications will require the policy regulation be changed to have this statute and expectations clear to staff? Option three, add language that prevents sexually explicit obscene material to be placed in the library. The implications will require the policy regulation to be changed to have this language and expectations clear to staff. Option four,

055create a flowchart of expectations or a decision tree of how books are selected for the library. Implications may require the policy regulation be changed to reflect this flowchart but does not require a change. Option five, create in policy that the board of education approves all books in the library. Implications may require the policy regulation be changed to reflect this approval. Could slow the process of ordering and other options to be discussed. There can be gradations of any of the options above. A board member shared a quote from Governor Murphy where he explains that boards can restrict access to developmentally inappropriate material for certain age groups. She also shared that the bill clearly defines censorship and that restricting access to books that are developmentally inappropriate for certain students is not censorship. A suggestion for possible language

056to include in the policy was made. Uh, the Readington Board of Education will provide proper library review tools to ensure books are developmentally appropriate for our K38 students. Materials with significant education value that might also touch upon sensitive topics must prioritize the educational, artistic, or scientific merit over any sexual content. All materials selected must be consistent with the curriculum and be developmentally appropriate for the specific grade levels they are intended to serve. Other board members shared that they have concerns with adding language to the policy because different parents have different views on what is appropriate or what they might prioritize for their child. A board member inquired as to what other surrounding districts have done with this policy and it was mentioned that one has passed this policy on first read after making a minor

057change uh to the section about individuals with the vested interest. The committee decided to craft language and have it reviewed by the attorney and library staff and then we will decide if it should be placed in policy or in regulation. Dr. Hart took a suggestion for language and will use that as a starting point. The library software Macvilla has an integration with common sense media to provide age-based reading and content details such as violence and language. This could also be included in the proposed policy language. The committee will meet again to further discuss this policy and intends to move forward at that time. Four item that we discussed was the New Jersey Department of Education broadcast regarding HMO. No real updates yet. is tabled due to time constraints and then the policy tracking document for

058review. The committee continued with its independent review of the signed manual sections and will be reviewed at our next meeting. We have another policy communications committee met on January 12th. Um the first thing we discussed was the freedom to read policy and regulation. For policy 2535, library materials, Dr. quote our proposed language from the previous meeting to the attorney for review and provided information based on their discussion. The proposed language is as follows. Paragraph one states, "To that end, the board of education will provide the library, the school library staff member with the tools and professional development to ensure materials are developmentally appropriate for the prek through 8 students served. Materials with significant educational value that may also touch upon sensitive topics must prioritize the educational, literary, artistic, and scientific merit over any adverse content.

059All materials selected shall be consistent with student interests. The district curriculum and be developmentally appropriate for the grade level served. This language is intended to guide future selections. Removal of any material is guided by regulation 2535. Paragraph two. The tools and resources provided to libraries um sorry to the school's library staff members are but not limited to professional research and literature such as the school library journal, webinars, professional conferences, common sense media, and Mac and Vision software. Paragraph 3 states, when a library staff member identifies the purchase of a material that may contain sensitive content, that material may be sent to the administration for review. The material may also be presented to the edtech committee for board review. The attorney recommended we identify the items that describe the how versus what and consider placing the

060how in the regulation because regulations provide the how in terms of implementation. The board should consider that although the statute gives the board authority to collaborate with the library staff for material selection. Some may interpret adding this language as managing the district or facilitating de facto censorship. The attorney also suggested a paragraph for us to consider instead of paragraph 3. If a library staff member identifies the purchase of material that may contain sensitive content prior to presenting the material to the superintendent or designate as per section C3 of policy 2535. The staff member shall present the material to a review panel consisting of the building principal supervisor of humanities and another librarian known as the panel. The panel's review process may include presentation of the material to the edtech committee of the board of education

061for further review. The committee spent some time discussing which portion of the language should live in policy and which should live in regulation. One board member was concerned about the length of the statement and asked if we could streamline it. One member expressed concern that having a review panel and presentations to the edtech committee could be seen as censorship. A board member shared that according to the policy and also statements from Governor Murphy's press release, limiting or restricting access to any library material deemed developmentally inappropriate for certain students is not considered censorship. The committee also discussed a way to standardize the process for books that may be flagged as containing sensitive material or possibly Asian appropriate. The committee agreed that the best way to move forward was to keep the process as is mentioned in

062paragraph 3 of the attorney's suggestion. The committee agreed that paragraph 1 will be included in policy. Paragraph 2 will be removed and the revised paragraph 3 will be included in the regulation. Regulation 2535, library materials. The committee reviewed the regulation and recommends the addition of the attorney's proposed language to be included. The scope of the regulation will need to be expanded to include a section C for the selection process for library materials that may contain sensitive content. Policy 2530, resource materials. The committee agreed that no further changes are needed to this policy and is ready for first read. Regulation 2530, resource materials revised. The committee agreed that no further changes are needed to this policy and is ready for first read. Policy 9130, public complaints. The committee agreed that no further changes are needed to

063this policy and it is ready for first read. Regulation 9130, public complaints. The committee member asked if it is in statute that the superintendent has to select the board member who will serve on the review committee for textbook complaints or if the board would be able to make that selection as they are now in policy 2535 for the library book complaints. Dr. Hart will look into this and get back to us. The committee agreed to move forward with the current revisions and we'll consider revising again if changes to the review committee selections are allowed. U we then discussed alert 236. The committee reviewed these policies and agreed to move them forward to first read. Bylaw 0142.1 nepotism policy 1220 employment of chief school administrator. The policy tracking document for review. Dr. Hart received the manual

064audit from stress estate and will share it with committees so they can review it and cross reference it with our tracking document. We will be reviewing it shortly and advise that stra can update policies for us or if we will discuss this at our next committee meeting and our next committee meeting is Monday, February 9th at 3:30. Thank you. I will open it up for any discussion to raise anything. I saw your hand first. Uh yeah, so you know, we got our fresh copy of our code of ethics for board members at the last meeting, but I feel like this uh topic on um policy regulation 2535 um is particularly um relevant to some of these. Uh we have statement C, I will confine my board action to policym, planning and appraisal and will help

065to frame policies and plans only after the board is consulted those who will be affected by them. And I know that we had gotten some input from the librarians and the media specialists in the district for the initial uh framing of the language. Um, and I had asked you if we could follow up with them and you said that [laughter] that uh they weren't thrilled or there they don't have I would personally really appreciate um having li a at least one of the librarians come and talk to the committee about the implications of the um policy and the regulation is written. Um, I feel like I I wanted to streamline the language a little bit so that we could have less uh direct language around what was included or not and maybe uh even remove

066the section in the regulation about the board uh having involvement. I feel like we have not got to a point where a librarian has had to escalate um a book and I don't know that we should put into policy before we've come across that situation or that problem. I did bring a little show and tell today to share with everyone. Um, I lost the book jacket. Sorry, Mr. New Daily still here. Good. Um, this was a book I read when I was 15. Everybody knows it from the movies. Jurassic Park. Um, you know, it's got a little it's got violence. It doesn't include sex. Um, but it talks about, you know, various scientific uh technologies that some people may not believe in or disagree with, but it changed the course of my life. I decided

067to study molecular biology because of this book. Like it's fiction, it's fun. You know, my company just uh set a Guinness Book of World Record for fastest sequencing of a human genome very recently. So, it's and it's actually mentioned in this book, the um my company. So, it's thrilling for me to go back and reread it again. But I want to make sure that we have our students have access to even fictional material that can change their life. the way that this book changed my mind. So, I am just concerned that we may be making policy that is overreaching and uh here's the other one. Um I'll carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they are wellrun and I want to make sure

068that you know I have not seen the qualifications of the edtech committee and their resumes and their qualification to be able to make judgment. um where I do support and protect school personnel and the proper performance of their duties and we hire the librarians for their experience of their education. Um and I appreciate the statement that we provide them tools and professional development to help make these these decisions and the selection of materials. Uh so as such I I don't feel like we're ready to move forward on 2535 the policy language that's my story. No, that's you guys. >> Yeah, I um so I emailed the chair and the president just just so you um had advanced notice. I'm happy to see the 2535 policy for library materials moving forward. I know that um this

069has been in discussions in committee for a while. So, um I'm happy to see it moving forward and mostly with all of the language that our attorneys have proposed to us. So, I think that's a fantastic thing. Um I take issue with the regulation the policy itself is fine but for the regulation in that paragraph three um the idea that we well we say in our policy that we want to empower and give our librarians the tools to select age appropriate books but then in the regulation we say but if you if we don't think you can make the appropriate decision or um if they for whatever reason can't make a decision they're supposed to come to board members And I find find that inappropriate. I feel that um board members shouldn't stay in their

070role as policy makers. Um and I agree with Pam that I don't know what qualifications are. I mean we heard in our last board meeting the qualifications of our librarian at least at the middle school. Um these staff members are went to you know college and have advanced degrees in library sciences. And I don't feel that our board of education should be the last decision maker on whether a a book should be purchased for the library. So I do agree uh or I will vote yes for the policy, but I'm going to be voting no uh for the regulation. >> Thank you. Any other comments? >> I have a couple of comments I'll make. I'll just let anyone else go before me. thoughts. Okay. So, one of the things I want to bring up is

071the language of the policy and the regulations. It's kind of important because that's kind of what we're changing what it actually says. So, I'm going to I know Ellen read it. I'm going to just reread portions of it and emphasize it. The one thing on the policy is thank it's more the the statement is more of a mission statement and it talks about developmentally appropriate which is another part of policy. So it really doesn't add much more from a change is why I think Beth is willing to vote for it because it doesn't really change too much but just brings up the point to where it says provide tools and professional development to show materials or development developmentally appropriate for the prek to eight student serves and then it goes in a little bit more

072into the details. more not directional, it's more high level mission statement that does fit in with the rest of the policy and the comments. I think the regulation is interesting in that and I'm going to read the section that um is in question. The following procedure shall be implemented according to the section of library materials that may contain sensitive content. If a library member identifies a person's material that may contain sensitive content prior to presenting material to the superintendent to the tenant or designate for section C3, the staff member shall present the material to review panel consisting of the building principal, supervisor of humanities and another librarian. panel the panel's review committee process may include presentation to materials to edtech or the board of education for further review the reason I bring it up is

073because the process it says if a library staff member identifies the purchase it's really like the edtech committee the board is not involved in there it starts with the librarian says if the member finds it and if she does find sensitive material or he finds sensitive material what happens they present it to a panel the panel panel is not this the board, the panel is the building sup uh principal, supervisor of humanities and another librarian. So if the librarian first flags something that's sensitive, not sure it may or may not be, they're going to bring it to her colleagues and her supervisor or his supervisor, they will then review it. If the panel then thinks, you know, maybe this needs to go further, it's then going to go to the superintendent. The superintendent's going to

074review it. Maybe he'll say, you know, there is sensitive material, maybe not. Then it goes to the edtech committee. So by the time it hits the board of education, the librarian has identified as potentially sensitive. A panel of her peers has identified as possibly sensitive. It's gone to the superintendent to say it's possibly sensitive material and then it goes to the edtech committee. So there is steps along the way before the board gets involved. So I just want to let you know that there is control and then at this point the ED committee may or may not take action but everything starts with the administration starts with the staff members not with the board of education. I just want to clarify how the process will work. So it's not the board looking at every book.

075It's the librarian noticing something that might be sensitive. And another thing to look at this, the way this regulation ties with the policy is that policy says, you know, something's sensitive, the librarian should look at it. So what this does is it actually gives a procedure to the librarian to possibly say, you know what, maybe this is sensitive. Maybe I don't have to make the decision on my own. I'll bring it to my panel of my peers and then it escalates. So I just did want to bring it out. It's not the board in the first step. The board's the very last step after it's gotten through a bunch of review. That being said, I don't know if anyone has comments on what I said. >> I have a clarifying question. What, if any, are

076the repercussions if material is subsequently identified as sensitive after the book is in the library? >> Does a librarian get in trouble? >> There's no get get in trouble if a book's already in a library. Policy 25 regulation 2535 comes in. But in the instance where this regulation is applied, someone looks at material, decides it's not sensitive, and then after the fact another individual flag finds it as sensitive. Is there a repercussion to the initial individual? >> It's not in the regulation or regulation. It's not in the regulation. Dr. Dr. Har could address this as well. It would then be in the library and then policy regulation 2535 would come in the removal. So at that point it's already in that in the denautussions. Comment on that. >> Uh if I understand your question Michelle

077it it is uh so let's establish that policy and regulation can outlive all of us that are sitting at this table and our librarians may be here after we're all gone who developed the policy and regulation. Um, I would say that it's one of the concerns of the librarians that under a current administration, they feel very confident that their decision-m is sound and that they would put material in library free from any kind of disciplinary action. I'm speculating. I hope I speculate okay, but not every superintendent in principle has the same philosophy as current administration. So if it happens in the future, um I I don't think I would hold if the librarian followed this process, I would not hold that and it was a complaint later on that librarian accountable or say what was

078your professional decision-m but I can't speak for a superintendent that's going to be here 10 years from now. Um I think that's a a concern that's been voiced. >> Yeah, thank you for explaining that. Um, [snorts] I don't want anyone that is a staff member here to be concerned about doing their job because of a policy. And I do appreciate how you explained what the I'll call it the chain of command is. Um, my concern persists so that people might be uncomfortable or afraid to make that call because we're not defining sensitive. It's it's very subjective which I think is a good thing. It also creates the opportunity to be abused and that concerns me. >> So since it's not in the regulation, there is no penalties per site. So how would a future administration

079view that because it's not stated that be in regulation? I'll give you um my my patent statement which is with my superintendent certificate. They didn't give me a crystal ball. So, I don't have a crystal ball to see in the future. I wish I did. Um, as everyone here knows, public opinion and concern about material that's in our library can create a lot of administrative, parental, and community concern. Um, you know, I think that various administrations have different ways of handling things. Um, and if I could predict the future, I would like to say that the regulation would protect the librarians because it has a process and I think that that's the goal. Um, I would hate for them to feel uncomfortable if they do, but um, I can't predict the future and the specific

080circumstances. I know that there are books in the library currently that are librarians that sit right now and their positions didn't pick, but they've created some concern. Um, you know, I I I think that there's a level of discomfort. Um, but I think that there's an understanding that the board has the established authority to develop policy and that's being respected by our faculty and staff. >> Do we add any statements and regulation to address Michelle's point? We could I if you if you want to put something in regulation that says no librarian will be disciplined for selections that he or she makes or or something along that line. >> Um but then that restricts administration should there be a legit legitimate concern. You know like I don't know where to >> I mean I think

081I would defer to your recommendation on I just wanted to share the concern about how it could be interpreted so that we would just have this dialogue that we're having now. I think you're in the best position to make the call on whether you can't outsource all of this decision- making. At some point, common sense and education needs to prevail. So, I I would defer to you, Dr. >> And I would just ask the board, can we have that prevail with the administration and the current faculty and staff? You know, I I I don't know what the future holds, but we will do our best to implement the policy and regulation as written. It's untested to to Pam's point. It hasn't yet been tested. So, I think that we're gonna we're going to have to

082move forward. We're going to have to implement and I see a couple of different outcomes. Um the edtech committee may see nothing, right? Because nothing is flagged to the administration or the edtech committee. The ed tech tech committee may see everything because the librarian may not wish to, you know, make that decision without, you know, running it through administration or the edtech committee. Um, I don't know how it would be interpreted. I know we'll do our best to I will do my best to ensure that the librarians have a comfort level with the decision- making they have because they're the professionals. They read the books. They're in they're in tune with their professional organizations and I'll give them whatever support they need to make the best possible decisions to make sure our kids have access

083to the things that Pam mentioned. Um, that that's my promise to all of you and I did want to mention we do have a policy on discipline as well >> related to this regulation >> not related to this one but just in general that already covers things like inappropriate interactions content shared with students you can thank >> we already have a policy on discipline >> so you can see Thank you. >> I think I think the librarian in his policy has a a a comfortable level of protection where they see something and maybe they're not sure and just say they don't want to go out on a limb make that decision. They have a nice step to go to a panel and and it can go even further. So, um, it it's almost they're almost

084I don't want to say indemnified, but that's a nice level of protection for them. So, they're they're not a sole source and they can say I did this and and to be worried about it. If they have any concern, they have the next level to bring it to, which I think should give them a a good level of comfort. But if I could just build on that, my concern is when they think they have the right call, they're not concerned. They're not concerned now. They're professionals. They've studied, they're certified, they speak, they have professional judgment, they apply it, and then someone else says that that was sensitive. That's the concern that I have. I think we're I'm just going to say I think we're trying to couch this like we're protecting them, but what we're

085actually doing is removing professional judgment from the position. And I have serious concern about that. We're cloaking it with a lot of nice words. We're we're overstepping as a board in my opinion. [applause] I have a few things to say. Um we all live within rules and regulations in our life. We have rules at work. We have policies at work. We drive on the road. We have to follow laws. And they're just around us, right? So when you know the law, you shouldn't break the law, right? So I think it's pretty simple. You have a policy, stick to the policy. And I feel like if you do it in good faith, you'll be okay. Like you get pulled over by a police officer, you're like, I apologize, officer. I went over the speed limit. They're

086like, "All right, no problem. Have a good day." You know, that can happen in this situation. It's not We're all making it sound like very scary. It's not that it's not that complicated. It's not that scary. And I don't think we're overstepping. EdTE approves curriculum. In the curriculum are books. When we approve curriculum, we're also approving the books that go along with curriculum. I don't see how edtech would be over our memories. >> I have a question on ed. Do do you need the books? Do do you suggest other books? I I know that when we talk about in personnel that we are not we we are we are approving those personnel input. >> I have recommend >> comments about summer reading books. >> Yeah. I mean the the purpose of the panel I think

087is to come into play if there's a question about whether or not the sensitive sexually explicit content would be prioritized over the educational merit of of the book. So it's not every book, it's not every book that might have a sensitive, you know, word or whatever. It's when the question of does this overtake the educational value of this particular book or story or and does this fully support our curriculum. That was my understanding in in this whole thing was that particular part. So it's not to be every single, you know, questionable curse word or whatever might be in a book. It's does this does this content outweigh the educational and scientific literary merit of the book. So, I don't know if we can include that in the regulation. So it's clear that particular statement that

088matches our policy but it's not for again like you said common sense comes into play. There should be already standards that are the school is held to that yeah we don't this book it has this you know explicit content in it. However the educational value of the whole book is why we need this in our library. That's where I'm coming from. I think this has been taken way out of necessary conversation but that's where that was my understanding of of this whole [clears throat] policy and I have confidence in the in the statement that we made in the policy that um you know it it's the emphasis on providing the tools and professional development and and we have a role as a board according to the policy at the curation process So that's why this

089is all being talked about. Our our policy 2530 prior to this had guidelines. It had, you know, six different um criteria for for the selection process. So this isn't anything new that the board is doing. Um and to hear the words like overstepping and and stuff like that I think is unnecessary and it's just creating unnecessary drama around it. I don't think you need to accuse a fellow board member of being dramatic. I would appreciate if you wouldn't do that if you could keep the comments not personal and objective. That would be preferable. Thank you. >> You just said that the statement that I made was dramatic and I don't appreciate that. It's not necessary. >> All of the statements I didn't mean you. I'm sorry that's not I was not targeting you at all.

090So I apologize if that happened. Yeah. >> Okay. So, we are a policymaking body and I think if we're just going to copy and paste policies and not cater it to our community and our students, then we are doing a huge disservice. I've mentioned this many times and I still stand by that. >> I'll go back to what I said the last meeting. There are there are books in our library right now with sexually explicit content and that I I I wouldn't read in mix company especially with women present and that's just me as a personal um feeling. I ran on traditional values. I'll still stand for that. Um I don't think we're looking to hang anybody. There's there's books in there right now that personally I don't think should be there. Um how they

091got there is of no consequence to me right now. It's just the idea of putting a policy in place that possibly will eliminate that happening in the future if it does happen. There's a policy that can take the book out. So um it's pretty cut and dry. So whether uh we're making a a bigger deal out of it than it is, people are talking about censorship, talking about litigation, I think we're just hit common sense issue here. Let's just keep it simple. >> And for those that may not have read regulation 2535, the majority of it is about removal books that exist and format policy. So if there is a book that is in there, anyone that has a vested interest in the district which is defined in the policy or regulation for everyone has

092what a vested interest is can actually put it complaining for any book that exists. So really what we are talking about is future curation and how to how to handle future creation because it's explicitly stated in the regulation policy how to handle books that are in there. Um so you can read that it's very similar to actually what we had in the past right it's pretty close the uh process so it really is about curation and what to do and the formation really the difference is the formation of the panel that would recommend something superintendent which would then go to edtech if it gets that far that's really the significant change that's being proposed in the regulation any other additional comments before we move to a vote Okay. So, before we move to a vote,

093apparently it looks like there's going to be some people that vote yes or no on certain items. So, when you make your vote, just make sure you're clear to Mr. Bone how you vote if you choose to not pass certain items so you can report to vote accordingly. >> I just have one question before we do that. Dr. Hart with the regulation. Should we add to item C about that the point at which that panel may come into play? So it's clear that this isn't about every because that nobody wants every single book to come through that text. That's not what this is for. Um, but something where it says it's those rare hopefully rare occasions where there is a book that comes into question where you're just like I really, you know, I feel

094like there's good value for this book. However, there is this explicit section or there is a ton of violence and rape. So, things like that, items like that. Do we put something like that in regulation or no? is ready with the first sentence if the library defin identifies. That was kind of >> but it seems unclear to people that it seems unclear to people that that's the point at which that would come into play and it's not every sing it's the rare books that would have there would be a question of the educational value of the book over that content. I I believe I understand the goal. >> Um and the goal to give some guidance, maybe more guidance or more clarity. Um and while I think it's an an ambitious and certainly understandable goal,

095um I think in the spirit of it, and I maybe not spirit, maybe both spirit and practice of it, I don't know if that's going to provide any more clarity to those that are making the selection. um because we might have to live it first before we know how it's being implemented. Concern exists and I think the only way the concern will be alleviated is if we try it and see how it goes. Um and I I understand the the desire to make it clear, but it still puts some level of professional judgment on the librarian. um which I think is warranted because she's specially trained for this kind of stuff, but I think to almost uh project what could be a potential issue for a parent or community member might be even more difficult.

096We've seen a variety of materials that have been questioned by by parents. Um I'm not sure what will be that issue. So I I understand it. I I appreciate the goal. Um, I don't know if it'll [clears throat] make it any more clear. Um, so I would say let's leave it at it as is and see how it goes and then come back with any recommendations uh that we have moving forward. >> Thank you. >> Any last comments before we move to vote? >> This is Cassidy. going to vote no on policy 2535 and regulation 2535 and yes on remainder [snorts] >> M fury >> no on regulation 2535 yes to everything else >> Mr. Lopes >> yes >> Mrs. Spencer. >> No on regulation 2535. Yes. On everything else. >> Mr. Pierre. >> Yes.

097>> Mrs. Rat. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pinto. >> Yes. Motion passes. Okay. Our next item is unfinished business. We don't have anything listed. Anything you want to bring up on unfinished business? Okay. Our next item is new business from the board. Um there's two things I did want to bring up. One is the governance training that everyone has to take. I just recently registered. Um Jason mentioned that three of the nine of us have registered. So if you haven't done so already, just reach out to Jason and register for your respective classes so that you get that over with. You can go to the NJSBA website and it lists the dates um that they're all available. Mine is a twohour live webinar. So >> just want to double check, Jason.

098You have my records from last October. I took >> at the conference. >> I can confirm I can confirm on the uh school board's website. >> And the other thing that I noticed that when Michelle was talking about the finance, she mentioned the referendum. Um I know we have that in quick links in the section on the website. Jason, is that going to be moved to the main page? When you get to the main page, it brings up the virtual referendum or is it only through the quick links? >> Um, well, anything changed depending on uh references of the feedback. >> Okay. Because right now it may be hard to find because we were doing the vote. It was on the main page and now you actually have to actively search and click links which

099people might not want to do. So, it may make sense to just put it out there because like Michelle mentioned, there's a lot of great information and it'll keep the community up to date. >> Um, David, I can I can make that change eventually. Those three spotlight tiles we rotate occasionally. Right now, it's registration time so that we have that on there. Um, so we try to cycle them through. It just means I'd have to remove one of the tiles, which could be like board event meetings, but maybe that comes down and referendum becomes a permanent fixture or once registration is over, we can put referendum up there. Just know that those three spotlight tiles on the main page are prime real estate. So something's going to have to come down to put something up.

100So if we want referendum to live there, it just means something else is not going to be posted. >> Be put somewhere else instead of spotlight just like a static spot. Click here from >> I'll look at the I'll I'll check out the website. >> Yeah, because right now it's kind of hard to find. I know sir because you showed us some quick links otherwise I don't think most people would know by going to the website that's actually there. So there's two items that I thought of during the meeting and I don't know if anyone else has any items they want to bring up. Okay, our next session is our public session for any items on or off the agenda. Just curious from show's hands, how many people plan on speaking? Just Okay. So, I'm

101not going to let you have to worry about running out of time. So, please come up, state your name and town you're from. >> Hey everybody, my name is Means. I am from Fington, New Jersey. So, town, right? Okay. Um, good evening. Like I said, my name is Meill Vance. I am the president of the Readington Township of Education Association as well as a fifth grade teacher. This is my fourth year serving as president and my 23rd year teaching in district. First, I would like to thank the board for all that you do. I know firsthand how big of a commitment it is and that is often a thankless job. My father was actually a board president for several years, so I have a great deal of knowledge of and respect and apprec appreciation for

102the work that you do. However, as RTA president, I do listen to or attend board meetings regularly and as of late, I have become increasingly concerned about comments from some board members with regard to questioning of credentials and expertise of staff members. Therefore, I feel compelled to speak on behalf of the educators and staff that we represent. Our members are highly trained professionals who are deeply committed to the success, safety, and well-being of our students. They come to this work with expertise, experience, and a strong sense of responsibility, and they deserve to be trusted to do their jobs. Respect for employees professional judgment is not optional. It is essential to a healthy and effective school system. The code of ethics for school board members under the school ethics act states board member board members will

103support and protect school personnel in proper performance of their duties. When educators are supported, trusted, and allowed to work within their areas of expertise, students benefit. When that trust is undermined by micromanagement or overreach, it erodess morale, damages relationships, and distracts from our shared mission. We also want to respectfully remind the board of the importance of staying within its governance role. The board sets policy and direction. Administration manages operations. Educators and staff deliver instruction and support students. Again, per the code of ethics for schoolboard members under the school ethics act, board members will confine board action to policymaking, planning, appraisal, and will help frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them. Board members will carry out their responsibilities not to administer the schools, but together with

104fellow board members to see that they are well known. As such, when each group stays in its lane and honors the roles of others, the system functions as intended. Our association is committed to collaboration and open communication. But collaboration requires mutual respect. We ask this board to demonstrate that respect by trusting employees professional abilities, honoring established roles, and focusing on the governance responsibilities entrusted to you by the community. Thank you. ANYONE [applause] ELSE? >> OKAY, with that I will close out the public session. We're now going to move to executive session. I'm going to make a motion to adopt the following resolution resolved to adjurnn to executive session in accordance with the sunshine law to discuss a legal matter and superintendent's evaluation midyear update for approximately 30 minutes at which time the board expects to

105return to public session or action shall not be taken. The matters discussed will be made public if and when circumstances requiring confidentiality no longer exist. However, it is not personally known when such circumstances will exist. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Cassie, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gord, >> yes. >> Mr. Lo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mens, >> yes. >> Mr. Pierre, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rad, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pinto, >> yes. >> Thank you everyone for coming tonight. time.