001figure out how to I'm serious. Welcome everybody to our POV meeting today. I'm going to call and call the meeting tomorrow. The meeting is being held in compliance with the open public's meeting act and is open to the media and public. Notices were duly posted and the meeting was advertised in the Hunter County Democrat and Courier News. Formal action may be taken. Can we get a roll call? >> Mrs. Cassidy >> here. >> Mrs. Fiory >> here. >> Mr. Lopes here. Mener. >> Mr. Pieros >> here. M R >> here. >> Mrs. Ryan >> here. >> Mrs. Pento >> here. >> Mr. here. >> To the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with all the we're going to now have the student represent
002the board. as part of the uh next not for superintendent report. We'll just do this. >> Yeah, we get you super. >> It's okay. >> So, very exciting agenda item. For the first time, we're going to have student representative to the board. We have Mr. Daly here with three students from his class. So, I would like to thank Isan, Ari, and Jimmy who will be presenting for us this evening. So, Mr. Daly, if you could come up with the three students. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. I'll make a couple quick comments before I let my reps take over. But um I just wanted to uh talk to the board, to the public, to Dr. Hart, to Mr. Bone. Um you guys have been incredibly supportive of every aspect of the civics initiatives that I've uh
003tried to to do in our school. And in an era where a lot of hyperartisan politics have taken over, it's been really awesome to see the support that many of you have given to our our class. you've been in for countless interviews, forums that we've had, presentations. Uh it's been amazing to be embraced and have so much support from all of you throughout this process. And I think we've been able to take a lot of uh really cool risks and give the students a great experience as a result of your support. So, I really appreciate that uh from everybody. Um I talked to Dr. Hart and Mr. Charleston over the summer briefly about some visions for what the civics program could potentially expand into. Um, and one of the things that we were thinking of
004doing is mirroring what we're seeing uh at JP Case at Hun Central where uh students are taking an active role in aspects of the board of education and trying to turnkey some of the information that they're learning back to the the classes and I thought that that would be the next logical step in our civics class to give the kids a really authentic learning experience. So what we were thinking was if we could briefly share our proposed agenda for what this could look like if the board is uh receptive to it. Um we also got some feedback that members of the board were looking for like an RMS uh fall sports update on what the athletics programs were looking like. Uh so we did some interviews with coaches and were able to to get some
005information that we wanted to present to you. Um, we wanted to share some updates on what the civic selection unit looked like uh across RMS and also into Holland Brook when we were working with the kids uh there and then maybe open it up if possible or just have us take notes with Dr. Hart's superintendent report and if any members of the board had feedback um that would be awesome as well. So, I'll turn it over to our our three reps uh just to give all of you some background. We opened this up to a student application process in like mid to late September. Um, we got a bunch of applications and uh, Ean, Ira, and Jimmy were by far the strongest candidates. Uh, we were really impressed with them. So, Dr. Hart, Mr. Charleston,
006and I decided to move forward with the three of them. Uh, so I'll have them introduce themselves and we'll go over aspects of that agenda. So, take it away. Go ahead. >> Hello all. I'm in eighth grade. I wanted to be part of the BOE because I wanted to improve my leadership qualities. Um, hi. I'm Ira. I'm in eighth grade and I want to join the BOE to ask student voice. >> Hi, I'm Jimmy and I wanted to join so that way I can help promote a better bridge between the students and the board. >> Um, so the girls soccer team after being winless last year, they finished the the season with a two-7 record. The boys cross cross country team finished undefeated in the conference on the in the conference play and won the
007future Red Devils invitational and eighth grader Luca Sams finished first at the meet of champions. Uh the girls cross cross country team railed their second half with of this season with a five conference win. Sixth grader Mevana Morgan Allen medalled at the meet of champions and sixth and seventh grade girls showed big improvement throughout the season. For girls field hockey, six new players from the program that had never played, they were added. The team partnered together with Central so our girls were able to attend a practice with the high school team. And for the girls volleyball, the A team finished seven five on the season with a loss in the league final unfortunately, but the B team finished 6-2 on the season. And with the boys soccer, they had the best um season ever in
008the program and they finished 8 to three, but unfortunately they lost in the league finals. >> Okay. Um we wanted to also give an update on uh what election season looked like uh in the civics program at RMS. Um, I I worked with a lot of the partnerships that I've uh been able to amass over the four years of teaching civics to try to get as many people in as guest speakers as possible. Uh, two of them are in this room right now. Mr. Pierce and Mr. Brian were nice enough to attend town hall meetings with my students. Uh, during a civic week initiative, we had 17 total guest speakers who rotated through uh, one week of uh, presentations across all six of my classes. Uh, Dr. art being a part of them as well
009talking about the uh the initiatives and some of the um voting referendum information. Uh we also uh culminated this uh entire experience at Holland Brook where I I brought all 123 of my civic students into uh Holland Brook to deliver lessons to the fourth and fifth graders. Uh and our students uh the representatives will share a little bit about their um experiences there. But I think the big thing that I've been able to get through this process uh and it started way back with the um district strategic plan. I was lucky enough to be asked to be part of the partnerships piece and that really kind of inspired me to push that in the civics uh curriculum as much as possible because it's been awesome to get my kids as much experience as possible from
010people who are more qualified in the field who are actually running for office uh and they can hear what that not only looks like and what the process looks like as well. Uh we also want to share a little bit about who we met over the course of the week. So take it away. >> We met over a lot of uh candidates including Reington, New Democratic Libertarians and uh I personally believe that it was a good time to uh speak about their opinions and what they have to do. >> Okay. So, um, assembly candidates Michelle, uh, Scott Cypus and Katherine Payne came in, as well as the Hunton County Sheriff Frederick Brown. Um, assembly members Michelle Drewis and Katherine Payne came into class and the state senator Andrew Zurk and his chief of staff. Uh
011um Dale Huang and John Dale also came in running for local roles and um M Roth is running for the 2026 uh Congress. Um also um Green Party candidate Billy Benitz and um Libertarian candidate Vic Kaplan also came into our class. So uh when they went to Holl Brook many of the students and worked in groups to present. So for example I uh my group and I we were four we worked on electoral I mean political parties and we shared to a entire class of students. um my group we presented all of the branches of governments and had them do an activity to see how well they understood our presentation >> and in my group we showed them how the election works and so they could actually do a mock election with their class. >>
012So throughout this entire process we were able to get information obviously from multiple different political parties. Uh I'm really proud of our kids for stepping up the three of them in particular to uh to be able to present this to all of you and to the community. Um our proposed vision moving forward if the board is is open to it and if uh Dr. Hart is open to it, we would like to try to continue um giving you guys additional updates across uh multiple content areas in the eighth grade as well as the seventh and sixth grade as well. Um we would do that through a series of interviews with students and with uh with staff members. Uh I would love to be able to integrate the other schools as well where each of the
013three reps behind me would be kind of specialists in the schools and they could be conducting the interviews with either principles with staff members and be able to report back on Holland Brook, Three Bridges and White House. Uh and then ultimately I think one of our biggest uh jobs if we're we're asked to to take this on would be to highlight the achievements of all the kids in the district and I want our kids to be able to to go out and kind of hunt for those and be able to present them back to you. So we appreciate your time. Thank you for being receptive to it and uh thanks for letting us attend the meeting today. We appreciate it. >> Thank you very much for coming. Open it up to board. Any questions for
014our reps? >> I don't have the question question, but I did want to mention that the low school soccer boys beat JP case twice. >> Any other comments? >> I have a question. um a question and a statement. Question is, would this be like a monthly update that um David comes to the meeting? >> So, we're open to it. We were thinking either do we do this quarterly um where it's, you know, we're going to meet an additional three more times throughout the year. Um are you guys open to having a like we're kind of open to what you would like this to look like? But I think in our discussions, Dr. Dr. Hart and I kind of talked about are we potentially going to do this maybe four times a year if you guys
015are open to it with this being the inaugural meeting and then we try some additional ones throughout the year. >> Okay. Thank you. It's a great idea. I also wanted to thank you Mr. Dailyy for inviting all the candidates to come in and speak to the students. Um they had such wonderful engaging questions. Um kept us on our toes a little bit but it was great. So thank you so much and thank you for all you're doing with the class. I really appreciate you saying that and the like regardless of the positions that people are running for whether it's board, state assembly, we even had um like Jimmy presented on like two of the gubernatorial candidates from third party. Um people have been like shockingly generous with their time which is really awesome and it
016also helps to have an army of kids like behind you, you know, emailing as well and trying to make sure like, you know, get these people in so we can hear from different perspectives. and um we've been pretty consistent with it's never dominated by Democrat, Republican like we got all across the board where the kids can get different perspectives which has been awesome. So yeah, thank you for saying that. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> I just like to make a comment congratulate the three of you because public speaking is in some cases people are it goes uh above the fear of death. So, I congratulate you and I would say to continue that because it'll lead to great successes for you to get up in front of an audience and do what you
017just did and at your young age, you're off to a good start. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> I just want to thank Mr. Daly for putting together this program and just seeing the civics program grow over the years has been really exciting. I think it's fantastic opportunity for the students and congratulations to the three of you also. It really is enormous. It's it's a great opportunity and I'm so glad that you want to attend our board meetings. It's so much fun. Um so yes, thank you. Thanks, Mr. Bailey. >> Thank you. >> Uh I just wanted to mention briefly I really appreciated the slide deck. I think you did a great job putting it together. It was very visual. And another impressive feat is not having bullets that you're reading off of that you're really
018speaking to the content. So, I'm I'm really impressed with your level of understanding of what you were bringing forward today. And I particularly wanted to thank you for the update on the the sports teams. I know that that's a huge time commitment for our athletes um and quite a bit of effort. Super impressed to hear stats like we had six new uh field hockey players this year. That is so bold for kids to go out and try a new sport. Um, so I appreciate even finding uh interesting ways to to highlight the achievements that may may go um a little bit under the radar. So, and thank you so much for dedicating your extra time and your evenings to join us today. >> Okay. Well, Isan, Ara, and Jimmy, thank you again for coming here
019and present to us. You did an excellent job. As I once said, a tough audience and they were all very impressed. So, uh, it's a great thing. So, next thing is going to be the superintendent report, but I'm just going to piggyback a little bit off of the election just to talk about the election results that happened last week before we head into the superintendence report. The first thing I want to do is I want to recognize Veterans Day. I want to offer my thanks to all veterans for their service. Also to mention that one of our BOE members, Paul Lopes, is a veteran of the US Army. The next thing I want to mention is last Tuesday, the town of Readington showed their support of the district by participating in two key votes. First,
020we had six candidates run for three open BOE positions. Nicole, Aaron, Kathleen, Michelle, Justina, and Rich all took the time and effort to run for election to support the children of the district. All six deserve recognition for the commitment to the district, community, and students. I offer my congratulations to Michelle, Justina, and Rich on winning re-election for another three-year term. The other key vote was on the bond referendum, which was approved. I would like to thank all voters for taking the time to learn about the referendum and vote. We had over 8,000 votes on this key initiative. Over the past year, the district and the board has been transparent about the referendum to ensure the community can make an informed decision. Now that the vote has completed and the referendum has passed, the BOE will
021continue to be transparent as we move forward next steps. Thank you for your trust in the BOE and the district. We take this responsibility seriously and we will continue to communicate you clearly and often. In our 2526 board goals, we've stated for the referendum and strategic plan. The board will collaborate with the administration to launch enhanced communications to inform community members of the referendum. The board will empower the finance committee with the administration to create a capital project plan regardless of the referendum outcome. The board will facilitate the implementation of strategic planning process in coordination with the administration. More to come on the referendum and Dr. Arc will also discuss in the superintendent report. Thank you. Superintendent report. Yeah, sounds great. Um, first, uh, Mr. Naomi, Ean, Ira, Jimmy, thank you very much for coming
022tonight. Really appreciate you being here. Um, they're taking notes and listening to everything we say. Just so you know, they're going to report back uh to RMS uh sometime later this week. Um, but it's great to see you here. I hope the board got a little flavor of um what we see as a potential student role on the board of ed. Um and then if anybody has any feedback or suggestions certainly let me know. I can talk with Mr. Bailey um or we can talk even after the board meeting if we want to talk about timeline time frames and um certainly how many board meetings a year we want to have our students uh attend and participate. Um so thank you. Thank you for being here again. Um, I want to highlight the recognition of
023a special student who's here tonight. Um, late in the summer, I received an email from a very proud dad. He wrote to both Dr. Ross and myself, beaming with excitement with regard to all that his daughter Satie had accomplished on the athletic field. Sadi was featured on the MLB Network as being selected as the MLB Playball 20 July 2025 player of the month. This is a rare award. So rare that only six youth softball players are selected each year. On the field, Satie is a leader with a 521 batting average, a 662 on base percentage, two inside footpart home runs, and a team leader in RBI. While her athletic gifts were certainly note not noteworthy, she's also recognized for the dedication and strong character she exhibits both on and off the field. Her natural ability
024and competitive prowess combined with enduring character traits position her for success in all of her future academic and athletic endeavors. Satie's father felt that it was so important to share this special recognition with the school district because our schools have played such an important role in her growth and development. Coincidentally, part of my charge to students and staff this year was to adhere to Babe Ruth's adage to quote, "Never let the fear of striking out get in your way." So Satie, I want to thank you for living this motto and swinging for the fences literally and figuratively. We at Holland Brook School and here in the district are so proud of everything that you have accomplished. Please come on. more than it's up to you. Um, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. >>
025Thank you so much for writing to me as well. I know Dr. Moss also did something special back in September for as well. So, thank you for being here tonight. Please keep in touch and let us know how things go in the future. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you. Uh as as Mr. Riza said, um I also wanted to talk a little bit about the referendum um because this really is a time of celebration for the district and I'm absolutely thrilled and deeply honored to announce that the bond referendum question passed with a resounding yes from our community. And it's an incredible victory. And I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our amazing board of education, our dedicated staff, the countless parents and community members who made this moment possible. It wasn't just a campaign.
026It was a powerful moment driven by our entire community coming together as one. When I think about this time last year, we were just beginning to plan and engage with stakeholders. And I'm overwhelmed really to think about what we've accomplished together in really just a short year. It's the careful planning, every conversation we had, every connection we made that really has led us to this moment. Uh the thoughtful community engagement we invested in wasn't just about spreading the word. It was about really igniting a vision and a vision for the future of Readington. I'm very grateful to to the individuals who stepped up, who took leadership roles, who passionately shared information and marketing materials about the referendum. These folks include the HSA, the key communicators group, members of the township committee, the parent volunteers who
027help make signs, local businesses like Sorellas, the Good Days Cafe, and others, the green committee members, the staff and the RTDA, preschool providers, and so many others. Uh, I checked just today the most recent election results summary show truly impressive numbers with 5,270 yes votes and 2,787 no votes. A 2:1 ratio is something we should really be proud of when it comes to a referendum vote. The grand total is most surprising too to me. 8,57 votes. That says to me that we really engaged our community in this endeavor. They showed up and they voted regardless of how their vote was. I feel like our community really had information about the referendum and we really did accomplish this yes together. And now the real fun begins. As Mr. Resza said, our next steps include meetings with
028our bond council to issue the bonds, planning sessions with the architect, finance committee meetings to select projects for this summer and beyond. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but it's the kind of work that will truly transform our schools for our community, and I couldn't be more excited about it. Um, and lastly, I wanted to mention that I think uh I want to I want to mention the board tonight and and maybe we could talk about this. Um, I'd like to invite some of these members from the community for a thank you event. um maybe at the next board meeting, something where members of our community, the HSA, green committee members can come and we can share the pride together to truly celebrate what um what we've all accomplished, some kind of
029like refreshments, a little reception, you know, something along those lines and an invitation I can send out to folks um to say, you know, thank you. And it doesn't have to be that, doesn't have to be the December board meeting. could be something else. But I think that we really should be on a letter to the community, maybe do some invitations and talk with key communicators groups about where we want to go from now, from this point forward. Maybe get balloons, you know, something something fun, something to celebrate. Um, so let's think about that. No decisions have to be made tonight, but let's think about how we want to celebrate this before we have to um put pen to paper and get to doing some real real work that's coming. So, thank you all. Thank
030you everybody for your engagement with the community. Uh this has been really great and that concludes my superintendent's report, but I'll certainly take questions from the board. >> Okay, I'll go first. So, thank you for your report, Dr. Hart. As I kind of mentioned, one of the things we're going to do is we're going to make sure we inform the community. Um that could be right now, if you guys went on our website, we have a referendum website. So, we're going to probably most likely transition that from this is about the referendum to be a status as we go along. that we stay completely transparent with everyone in the community of what's going on, when it's going on, projects are prior, prioritize, where we're at, as transparent as possible. The other thing is we have
031two key committees. One is the communication committee, which helps generate our communication. The other one is the finance. So, they'll be discussing our friend and most likely at least definitely the finance in almost every meeting that they have going forward. So, we'll make sure that when we do our committee reports that we get enough details to you know what's going on in the uh referendum. We're not going to try and hide anything. We're going to try and be as transparent as possible when things occur and so on. And also um from the board, I know we did a lot of work supporting it. Um thank a couple everyone on the board did an excellent job in supporting administration and community outreach and so on. A lot of great ideas came up. I know Justina came
032up with the idea of using a letter as opposed to a mailer which helped get communication out. We did FAQs which everyone was involved on the different questions. I know Ellen, I think the FAQ was your idea to add that up to the back of the uh letter. So, and everyone contributed what the FAQ should be. So from a board perspective, everyone was very vested over the last year and we're going to continue to be vested to make sure the referendum over the next two three years is successfully implemented. So that's my little statement. I don't know if anyone else has anything they want to add. Uh I just want to mention briefly I um don't know if you know but my father sat on the school board at Bridgewater Breton when I was in
033high school and was part of the initiative to um split the high schools up and then merge them together and build a new high school. And that high school is still thriving. And I'm having a moment right now where I'm feeling like we played a significant part in funding this district for the next 20 years. And I'm I'm really excited to be a part of that and like take this moment to really appreciate what this district has done and and what you know Dr. Hart and and your administration has been able to spearhead. I appreciate it. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. Anything else on superintendent report? No, >> that's everything. Excellent. All right, the next item agenda is open comments from the public. It is limited to items that are on
034the agenda. So, if anyone has any comments they would like related to items on the agenda, please step forward, write your name and town you're from on piece of paper and announce it and let us know your comments. >> I'm Melissa Biola, a resident and a teacher. So proud of you. The RTA just wanted to congratulate Dr. Hart and the board for all of their hard work in successfully sec securing the referendum. The benefit to students, teachers, and staff will be tremendous. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, good evening. Jessica Gallagher, Readington, New Jersey. Um, I don't have an agenda and my phone is not connecting, so I'm going to try and go off the cuff. Um, but for the referendum, um, congratulations to you guys. It's a very big feat and organization and everything.
035I actually voted against, but I'll let you know why. Um, I'm a school teacher as well. I just moved into the neighborhood uh a year ago on Palaski. I just bought my first house in Palaski. Um and I think that investment in our kids and education is the utmost number one investment that can be possible in life for anything. Um to build our future, all of it. It's where we invest and how money is spent. So although I appreciate, you know, and I voted against I just may pure enough um and working in a district in Elizabeth, um I see where money and malfence continues to have its disadvantages as well. Um so I'm hoping that you guys are transparent um in the entire process. Um, I did get a letter home to come out
036to the last meeting and the letter at that got sent home was for 6 o'clock and then on the board website it said 7 o'clock. So, when I got here, you guys, I guess, had already left. Um, and then I tried to log in online and chat through there. But either here nor there, we don't have to. It's it's over with. Um, I do watch the meetings online. I also attend the regular meetings in Readington. um the planning board meeting. I just had some questions about about the presentation that was given to them with aspects of where the HVAC systems are going to go and how everything's going to be actually moving forward and logistics of everything. So, I'm a little bit concerned there, but again, it's in your guys' hands and people will hold
037you accountable. Um and I just wanted to commend um the students again. You guys absolutely amazing. I'm going to go to school tomorrow and let my kids know how amazing you guys did. Um, as far as as the teacher as well, I think you're the teacher. >> Um, yeah, great job. The experts will maybe um but um as far as getting partnerships involved, I am a little weary about that. Um, sometimes adults can even act civil with civility during hard controversial topics, which I saw was on the agenda as well. um as long as we say I think like something that's within the bounds of what can they do or building a community of like voting and candidates themselves instead of bringing in actual political candidates um where things can be biased or kids can
038come home and take something the wrong way and then the next thing you know we have issues going on. Um, and some of the websites and partnerships that the program through the Department of Ed does push out. I would beg to differ are a little political. Um, so if I can remember what else I Oh, my last thing on the agenda. I apologize. Um, was the Branchburg um because that's where I came from. the branch for $10,000 stipen for I don't know if this is a back and forth but somebody just what's the $10,000 stipen you guys can answer that question about thank you >> any other comments >> nothing controversial here in terms of I want to say in terms of what is on the agenda but just wanted to say thank you to
039the entire for especially you Dr. Hart. Uh we've chatted here and there um you know throughout the years. I think I first reached out to you with some questions I had during co and you've always been very responsive. Uh you've always been supportive. Uh my daughters both have been through our three uh schools here in the district. Uh well I'm sorry we have more than three schools but White House school Brook and now went right to middle school. We've been very happy um with all the teachers and again I just I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this for Satie. It's very special to her um and for all of us. So going to get the little guy home but thank you very very much >> Mr. Perez. I just
040need your name for the >> just come up and say it. >> Most important Marcelo Perez of White House station. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> Any other comments? Okay, that closes out public session. Um for our policy, we either can address some comments at the meeting and are we going to get back to you? I think there one comment really one question that we may want to address now that's going to come up on the agenda. Marcy's I don't know if you guys want to address that now Jason. >> Sure. Yeah. >> I just can't hear. Sorry. >> No, I just turned turned my mic on. Um uh the the $10,000 stipen is a result. So we have a shared services agreement between Branchburg and Brendington for transportation services. And the shared services agreement includes
041um there are garage bay transportation routes as well as transportation employees as well. Um and there's a situation where a branch work employee will be going out on leave. So one of our employees that we share will be doing some additional hours to cover for uh the person who's going out on leave. So the stipen is to our employee paid by branchburg to us to pay our but they're our employee on our payroll. So branchburg um will be contributing to the stipen through the shared services. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Next item on the agenda is correspondence. We received one and it is on record with the board secretary. And now we're going to move to board action. We have the first item is the approval of administrative reports. We have two
042items. Um item 101 and 102. Can I get a motion and a second on those two items? >> I'll move Ellen. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Okay. >> Ms. Cassidy. >> Yes. >> M. Fury. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pieros. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rad. Yes, >> Mrs. Ryan. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Pinto. >> Yes, >> Mr. Riza. >> Yes. >> Passes. >> Okay. Next item is approval of minutes for the October 14th meeting. It's item 2011. Can I get a motion in a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Okay. >> Mrs. Cassidy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fury, >> yes. >> Mr. Les, >> yes. >> Mr. Pierros. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rad. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Vinto. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rizzo.
043>> Yes. >> Passes. >> Okay. Now, we're going to begin with the committee. The first one is finance and facilities. We do not have a committee report. We have not met since the last meeting. We have four items on the agenda. 301 through304. Can we have a motion and a second? Motion. >> Second. >> Okay. Any Okay. Okay. So, any discussion? Um, the one item I want to note is on 301. I think we some of us are going to just recuse ourselves and specific check numbers. So, we vote just to keep track of that. Um, any other discussion items on items 301 through 304? You got Miss Gasket? >> Yes. >> Miss Fury. >> Uh, yes. But abstain from uh 3.01 check number 06600. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pieros. Yes. >>
044Mrs. Rab. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ryan. >> Um, so for 3.01, 01. I'm going to recuse myself from bill number 06616 and no to 3.03 and yes to everything else. >> Mr. Pinto, >> um I am going to say yes except for 3.01. Um I abstain from check number and no to check number 065998. Yes to all the others. Mr. >> Okay, I will say yes except I am going to also abstain on item 301 for check number 066 015. >> Motion passes. >> All right, thank you. >> All right, next item is education technology. Uh, no committee report this time, but we do have seven items to move 401 through 407. Okay, I get a motion and then a second motion for >> second. >> Okay, any discussion on the sub items? >> Uh,
045I have questions on 401. um the nurse nurse plan. >> Um I'm just questioning the amount of students that are in category four. I'm wondering how come that that number is so high? Um that was one of the questions. Um and what is that cate? I mean how do you get into that c how do these students qualify for that category? And um are the parents aware that their students are in that category? Because there's a lot of kids in that category. I'm going to do do my best. So level four, right? The health concern level. Examples include from the nurses dental disease, headaches, sorry. migraines, sensory impairments, diabetes self-managed by the student, dietary restrictions, eating disorders, orthopedic conditions requiring accommodations, and endorses. Uh when we have just in general when we have any student
046that has a medical condition that requires administration of medication at school, requires the nurse to do some monitoring um or requires uh accommodations, which is a uh section 504 accommodation medical accommodation form. the nurse is required to get a physician's note from the parent in order to implement any kind of medical intervention for those students. So, I don't know the students all each of them specifically, but what category 4 speaks to is to students who have health concerns that may be documented through a physician's note or a section 504 plan that requires the nurse to do something like administer medication. So that many students need to come in to see the nurse that often because like it's like half the students >> I mean you know migraine headaches, headaches, diabetes, um dietary restrictions. >> I
047was wondering if that was allergies too. >> It could also include all Yeah, >> be vegetarian. I don't know. >> Yeah, could include allergies. Um, but I'm going to look under medically fragile to make sure allergies aren't there. >> I I didn't see it listed in any of the categories. I was curious because it is something we do have to provide information for to >> um you know this is according to the medical records that we receive that the nurses review. So every all medical records are maintained and there are certain state required health forms that we have in the health office and through the maintenance the nurses update this on an annual b basis. >> Can it go up or down? Does it stay the same? The students stay on it the whole year.
048>> It could change um you know depending on the student. I can look at last year's look at last year's real quick and see I maybe I can compare some numbers last year same categories yeah there's it looks like under health concerns there were fewer RMS last here. About the same at Holland Grove. Um about the same a few fewer last year at three bridges and then few more at White House School for this year as well. So relatively similar. The only school that seems to have changed to have a lot more under level four is RMS compared to last year. Uh what I can do though if you have more specific questions about it, I can talk to the director of people services and get more information and I can email the full board
049as well. >> Any other comments? Okay. >> Mrs. Cassidy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fury, >> yes. >> Mr. Lois, >> yes. >> Mr. Pierro, >> yes. Mrs. Rat, >> yes. I'm going to stand in Florida. >> Mrs. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mr. Pinto, >> Yes. Passes. >> Okay. Next committee is personnel and we will have a committee report but before we get that we'll have nine items to move. Can I get a motion to move 501 to 509 and then a second? >> I'll move. >> I'll second. >> So the personnel committee um met on November 5th. We discussed staffing updates. There have been no changes at RMS, HBS, or TBS. At um White House, we had one resignation. A temporary replacement is currently covering the position until it is filled. Regarding short-term and FMLA
050coverage, we have staff in place to fill those needs and are maintaining good stability overall. In transportation, we currently have one open position and are training three new bus drivers. We discussed um the preschool plan and staff for 2025 2026. Um the preschool plan anticipated classes and personnel for the upcoming school year was discussed. In regards to strategic planning proposals, we reviewed three proposals from firms to assist in developing our strategic plan. We decided to invite representatives from the school boards association and Judith Wilson to present to the full board before making a final decision. We had a substitute fair that went very well. We received eight applications and had five walk-in participants um making it a successful event. Regards to enrollment, the committee discussed current enrollment trends. Dr. Hart noted that incoming class sizes
051are balanced with outgoing class sizes. Enrollment has increased slightly in kindergarten and with new housing developments emerging on both sides of town, we anticipate further growth. However, class sizes do remain small, which is positive. Um, if additional classrooms or teachers become necessary, we may face some budget constraints and Dr. Hart will provide staffing recommendations and any proposed reallocations in January or um, February. We discussed um, Dr. Hart referenced an article in the schoolboard magazine regarding trends in contract negotiations. The article notes that salary increases are averaging 3.5% and teacher contracts are increasingly being negotiated for five years instead of the previous three years. Um the article was provided as an FYI only. The committee discussed three personnel matters and our agenda items are hiring staff, substitutes, transportation, supervisor stipent, and other leave approval. We set
052our next meeting for December 8th at 8:30 a.m. >> Thank you. Any comments or discussion? >> Mrs. Cassie, >> yes. >> Mur. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pierre, >> yes. >> Mrs. R. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pinto. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Passes. >> Okay. Next committee is policy communication. We do have also read that. We also have one item um item 61. So, I don't know. Uh, we can do a motion and a second. >> I'll move a second. >> The policy and communications committee met on October 27th. Um, the first item we discussed were policy updates for the 2000 series. Dr. Hart made the suggested revisions to the following policies that were previously reviewed by the committee. The committee agreed that these policies
053were ready to move to the agenda. table policy 2240 controversial issues, policy 2312 class size and policy 2360 use of technology. One additional edit was suggested to add that technology plan is presented to the edtech committee committee quarterly. Um the next topic we discussed was policy reporting accidents. This policy came out of standard operating procedures and needed clarity regarding the nurse's role in reporting accidents. A minor revision was made to provide clarity in the policy. The report shall include the date, time, and place of the incident, the names of the persons involved, the nature of the injury to the extent that it is known, and a description of all relevant circumstances. The pre the previous version mentioned that the injured employee or visitor or the staff member responsible for an injured pupil shall complete a
054form which conflicted with what was also written in the policy regarding the nurse role. This makes the language consistent. The next item was the athletics policy, policy 5450. Two members of the committee brought this policy up for review to discuss ways the board can better recognize and celebrate our student athletes. The committee and Dr. Hart shared this sentiment and Dr. Hart will speak with Mr. Charleston and the athletic coordinator to come up with suggestions of how to achieve this. The next item we discussed was the policy audit from Strauss. Dr. Hart learned at the NJSBA convention that Strauss SMA will conduct policy manual audit for free where they will indicate the last date Strauss SMA updated policy or regulation, the date the district last adopted the policy or regulation and columns uh indicating if the
055policy or regulation needs to be updated or is current and not in need of revision. The turnaround time will be the end of November. The committee agreed to receive the manual audit and we have been added to their queue. We will use this audit as a tool to help prioritize those critical policies, but feel it will not reflect or be able to capture the policies that are relative to our community's immediate needs. The um next item we discussed was the NJSBA policy manual. NJSBA sent us an email letting us know that they are now offering every district a free living policy manual. This resource combines their policy library and legal references into an easy to customize manual. The core online manual will automatically update when a new update is released and NJSBA will email quarterly
056updates. This will ensure the manual always remains current and legally compliant. The committee agreed to fill out the form to request this manual and we will use it as a reference tool to complement our currency pol our current policy review process and see how it goes. We then discussed preschool policy 5112.1. This policy was brought to the committee to discuss the the preschool plan needed to be submitted um to the state in November. And the last item we discussed was our policy tracking document. The committee continues with their independent reviews of their assigned series. We are looking forward to incorporating the new tools from Strauss SMA and NJSBA. The agenda items are policy 2240, 2312, 2360, and 8442. And our next meeting is November 24th at uh 3:30 p.m. Comments discussion >> M. Cassidy. >>
057Yes. >> M. Fury. >> Yes. >> Moses. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pros. >> Yes. Mrs. R. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Dindo. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Passes. >> Next item on the agenda is unfinished business. Anyone have any items they want to raise? Okay, now we're going to need to move to new business from board. First item is the NJSBA workshop that was about two weeks ago. Um, I know quite a few of us attended and if anyone wants to add any comments, thoughts about the workshop. >> I actually brought stuff back with me. Sure. Um, you know, one of the, um, workshops that I went to was on, um, behavioral threat assessments and management solutions. Um, and I found it really, um, well done. The one of the
058leaders of that workshop was involved in the Parkland shooting down Florida. And, um, she had some really good insight and offered some tools and I just I brought them to share just in case you weren't able to go to that workshop. Um, just some tools to share. Thank you. >> So, I thought the sess sessions were um they're always valuable to us. I um I thought it was also nice to connect with other board members. Um I met some few board members and I also was able to connect with board members from Central High School which is nice since it's our second district. >> Thank you. Uh I attended a session from El New Jersey on equity and education and they spoke a lot about AI um and one of the uh and about funding
059it appropriately, making sure that we're transparent, we have a policy in place for it. I know we've got a new committee that's wanting to look at that. Uh I thought one little thing that I heard mentioned was that they have a stoplight policy for AI. Red to say it's very clear that we do not use AI in these circumstances. yellow that there might be guard rails and green for go for it and use it. So like I thought that was an interesting way of you know helping students understand when it's appropriate. That was just one little one little tidbit from my notes but I'll spare you the rest of my notes. >> I did I'll say that I attended most of most of the workshops I went to were AI related just because we have
060the working committee on AI. Um, and there was a superintendent that I was able to connect with in another district and they came up some with some good practices when it comes to AI and I picked his brain a little bit and uh, you know, we've connected. So, >> some of them >> is that the one you went to? >> No. Uh, Planefield, he came out. He talked about using AI uh to address equity in the classroom, even using it to make sure that they had appropriately assigned the right and know diversity of students in each class so that no one felt isolated or alone. Um and helping teachers use AI to plan their their um plan their work rather than taking time away from classroom instruction. So trying to better use our time Okay.
061Any other next item is strategic planning. As was mentioned, I think in Justina's report, we're going to have two vendors come in to present the proposals. I don't know if Dr. >> Yeah, I've tried to connect with both vendors. Um I think I have a meeting Thursday with school boards. Um, I'm going to look to bring them either at our for the superintendent report for December uh or for January with hopefully kickoff strategic planning by February or so to wrap up by the end of the school year. That would be that would be the goal. Um, so I'll I'll keep the board updated on on which two are coming and when. They may both come in December or one in December, one in January, just depending on availability. Any questions on strategic planning comments? >>
062Next item on the agenda is our second open public forum. It's for any >> just one more um um new business. The uh Hunter County School Board's meeting is December 1st. So if anyone's interested in attending, it can be either virtual or uh in person at JPKS. And it's on December 1st at 6 PM. And the topic is budgeting. So anyone that's interested in attending >> No, I already I roped you in for the last meeting. So I did not feel like we should ro Mr. Bal in for the next one. So give other districts a chance. >> So where's that meeting? >> I'm sorry. >> JB Case JP >> and that had a training just before. >> Yeah. For new um for new board members. That was the three Rs training. >> Same one
063members. Excuse me. Could people speak up a little bit? With this arrogant going on here, it's hard to hear people and apparently there's no way that your audio person can turn. >> So, I'll just uh summarize what Beth said. There's a Hun County SBA meeting that's on December 1st being held at JP Case um for board members if they want to attend. It's also going to be anyone that was I guess elected a new board member. They usually have orientation there as well. um doesn't impact our board because we don't have any new members, but other boards have people there as well. >> Just >> I just um I mentioned this to Dr. Hart and Mr. Rome at the NJSBA um convention that if we do pass the referendum, maybe we should do a presentation
064at next year's conference. >> Put you on the spot. I I actually it's funny you mentioned that because I already so we're actually one of the we are I think the first district in New Jersey to use that little three minute video through that vendor which was very inexpensive way to get word out. But one of the things I thought the the next conference and I sometimes present at it is the superintendent conference in May and I thought about the the request for proposals is December. So I thought about writing a proposal for May and then doing another one for school boards for next year. So, I've already started thinking about it and I thought that maybe the proposal could include the use of that video. I mean, I don't have any I don't have
065any feedback directly about the video, but I mean, a three minute video that explains your entire 38 million dollar referendum I thought was a pretty powerful thing. But, um, I think it's I I think it's a good idea. You want to present together? >> I'll help. >> I think it's it's everything. accumulation of video was good, the communications were good, the updates were good, the all the meetings we had. >> Yeah, >> people watched they didn't come live, they watched them after the fact. If you look on YouTube counts, people actually watch the meetings and the presentations. So, the whole communication plan and transparency like I was saying earlier, actually was done really well. And by the time next school board meeting comes, we're going to actually be in the middle of executing. So maybe
066the presentation can be this is our plan and how we led up to the vote and this is everything we've done since the vote and how we're executing. This is what we've done now. This is our plan. This is what we're going to do over the next few years. Kind of like a role in you know leading to the vote the vote and everything post. So great idea Justine. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. Okay. Any other comments before we move to public session? Okay. So, open to the public. If you have any comments, please come up. State your name and time you're from be any item on or off the agenda. >> Okay. >> Jessica Gallico, Readington, uh, New Jersey. So, I was able to pull up um the agenda. Do you guys usually provide like
067a a printed version? >> Usually right behind you we have one. >> Okay. Yep. >> It's okay. I was able to get on. Um so I was hoping that there was more discussion with amongst yourselves about the vote for some of the policies. I'm assuming that Strauss sme is really your only source of um I know that they put it out um and then you guys bring it back to policy. But was that walked on? Were all those walk-on for first tonight or was that an adoption of the policy? Basically, I wanted to speak about the controversial issues. Um, the policy for controversial issues. It's very vague. Um, I don't know if it's coming up again because I believe it said for first. Okay. So, it would need to be so maybe there will be
068some dialogue after that. um leaving. I'm not saying that controversial issues can't be discussed, but the way the policy is is really left to the employee or the teacher. I mean, there's really no guidelines or I just don't see it as concrete. I know that these policies are put out by Strauss Esme. Um, I don't know, maybe you guys could discuss it more, provide more insight into how as a teacher, that's a lot to put on a teacher when it comes to where discussion goes to. I'm speaking from an educator's point of view. Um, if a topic comes up, you could be thinking we're engaging in, you know, simple dialogue and everything's innocent and whatnot, and then next thing you know, you have emails from parents directly to a principal or superintendent or people showing
069up at a board meeting that you don't even realize escalated to something. And now you have, you know, it was left up to the teacher's discretion. Um, unless it was provided in a lesson plan. I believe the um I believe the policy state unless it was previously um previously issued like within the curriculum setting that they could be discussing. It's basically saying that like if a topic happens to arise in an instant or momentarily the teacher can use discretion and it it's really like a gray area. I'm just again speaking from the educator's point of view. um not to be controversial. Um and also I believe the other part I don't remember which policy it was in it could have been controversial issues as well. Um was having presenters come in. Um, so I was
070wondering if like they said that they had a bunch of elected officials, if those presenters filled out a form prior to entering the classrooms and speaking with children in the classrooms or giving presentations um for the board approval or principal approval. That's basically what I have to say. Um, again, congratulations on your referendum. Um, I'm coming to the side because I believe in education. Um, I also believe in my tax dollars. So, um, as an educator too, I would start planning the budget now because the health benefits, I'm sure you guys are very well aware, and we don't want to come in May where now we need to make major cuts because those are not going away. Um, and teachers really aren't getting a 3.5% raise actually because by the time you pay, you're being
071charged more for the percent of your healthare. So, we're actually taking home less than what we would be making, but again, that's for a higher pay rate, I believe. Uh, just making sure you stay on top of it. Um, and with the AI, it's I continue to work on following the AI, too. And I would follow teachers as well because we had an incident where teachers are using there's now teacher AI for teachers to combat the AI. So we had kids turning in papers that were written with AI and we used to be able to put it through a program that spit it out like you used AI to write this, you know, and send it back. Now teachers are actually having it run through teacher AI where they don't even have to read the
072papers and it's grading it based on the paragraph. Like I love the way he wrote this sentence in paragraph three and scoring on the rubric. So we now have kids submitting AI written work and teachers not reading it and their AI is have AI speaking to AI. So keeping up on it is definitely something that needs to happen. Um not just for kids but for educators or people involved. If you want somebody to do your strategic planning through an AI app, I wouldn't recommend it. Um but yeah, to be continued. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? Okay. So, in close public comments, um, as I mentioned others, as I mentioned before in public comments, we could choose to answer or get back to you after the meeting depending on the question. >> I know
073there are some detailed questions specifically about for policy. I don't know. It's not hard to briefly mention again or go back to them later. >> I can mention it if I don't answer something. Ellen, feel free to add anything. >> Our policies are um revised using uh a specific process. Uh first, um a committee, our policy communications committee reviews the policy. Uh they go to first read on the board of agenda and then the second read. Um the board has and policies come from Strauss Esme and we they recommend changes to us and we discuss those changes in our policy committee. um customize whatever policies we think to match the board, the values of our community, you know, those sorts of things. Um and then move it forward through the board. >> Um this board
074has started um in I think it's been several months now in in reviewing every policy. So we started with bylaws and we're reviewing every policy. uh controversial issues came out of just a our process of reviewing our policies and making sure that they speak to um the board and and are um aligned with current practices in the classroom. >> So controversial issues came up that way because we're at the 2000 series right now. >> I understand. >> Um so uh it's actually it's interesting because we actually made the policy more explicit through our review. um not only through the committee but also having it be reviewed through our uh board of attorney. And we wanted to maintain both uh teacher autonomy and give them a way to ensure that they can teach a balanced way
075of controversial issues and also maintain a way in which teachers could invite outside speakers into the classroom. Uh like the ones that you saw, you know, political candidates and things like that, but with a specific process. Um so through committee uh recommendations were made the is controversial issues policy was reviewed and the changes that you see for first read tonight are those that came as a result of our conversation through committee. >> Did I miss anything? >> Um no I thought we when we reviewed the policy we wanted more structure to the policy. Um and you know the for the teacher they just aren't allowed by the policy to discuss controversial issues. Well they do need approval in advance by their principal. There is a process for for those that may come up that are
076unplanned. Um, so we were trying to allow both sides of a of a controversial issue to be presented in Daly's program, you know, having, like he said, he has Republican and Democratic candidates come in. So, we want to make sure that that always continues where both sides of of a controversial issue are expressed. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thanks, sir. So, our next item is executive session. I'm going to have a motion to adopt the following resolution. Resolve to adjourn to executive session in accordance with the sunshine law to discuss HIV and contractual legal matters for approximately 45 minutes at which time the board expects to return public section session where no action shall be taken. The matters discussed will be made public if and when the circumstances requiring confidentiality no longer exist.
077However, it is not presently known when such circumstances will exist. I'll move the motion. Can I get a second? >> Just a second. Can we get a roll call vote? >> M. Cassidy. >> Yes. >> M. Fury. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pier. >> Yes. >> Mr. R. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pinto. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> I'm just going to sign.