Boe meeting 09 09 2025 pt2

001at this time forward a bit. I led to um invite Mr. Senroino our architect to come to the podium. Um we have uh pictures of the proposed projects many of which Dr. Hagen's already reviewed but should there be any questions from the board uh Mr. Senator will go through uh each one of the projects uh briefly and then we can ask some questions, talk about some of the things that maybe you saw and want us to keep in mind as we plan and design some of these projects anticipating a positive work. >> Good evening and thank you. Um I'll I'll go through the slides and is it easy for you just to give a brief overview should only take about three to four hours and then questions. Next, please. I have this in front of

002me as well. So, this is the this is the the fire alarm system. It says a fire alarm system and not the not the panel itself. So this is the addressable panel. This is also all the devices which is the horns and the horn strobes and the wires as well. So it's the complete system that's replaced in the uh new new gym roof. We were just in that space. It's self-explanatory. This gym roof is a multi multi gym roof which means it has repetitiveness in it. So it's not a single ply EPM roof. It allows uh it's two layers and attaching. So it provides you better better roof than you have there currently. So redundancy please. Similarly uh replace the roof over the classroom wing. Once again uh we're budgeting for a multiply buildup roof

003which have overlapping the cap sheet uh in order to provide 20 to 25 year warranty on the roof. Um so it's a bedroom place 2004 rooftop uh units. Um these units are well in excess excess of 20 years old. Typical useful life is anywhere between 15 to 18 years. Um the new units uh the new rooftop units will operate more efficiently um thus increasing your operational efficiency and having operational savings on an annual basis. classroom airdale units. So, um, what the principal was alluding to with the air dale units, these are self-contained units. There is a compressor inside the unit. So, think of your system at home, it's got an air handler inside your attic, it's got a compressor outside. These units have those two parts in that box, right? So, the new units are

004are fairly uh fairly quiet. They still perform similarly again much more efficiently in the classrooms. Similarly, similar comment again to gym units with new RTUs and AC HBAC. Um they will operate more efficiently than the current units. Um and this is similar to the usual life operation savings. the uh building management system, the BMS uh the new BMS systems today, the previous BMS system, they were all wired systems, which means there was there was everything that that had to do with your HBAC, your air handlers, your uh your exhaust fans, your HVAC, and everything is wired up. Today, the PMS systems are wireless. Everything's wireless. So, so there's a device on every one of your operating systems uh and active control panel um such that the system can be controlled you don't need to be

005in schools controlled over the internet your uh head facilities can control it from anywhere and modulate the temperatures on a per basis uh so that the the school could be more efficient but that's what a BMS management system does again all these items are will make the school more efficient and more energy efficient uh re repave at the school that was fairly self-explanatory. Um there are two types of paving. One is a 2 in uh 2 in elimination of the asphalt and the scarabation repavement. Um there are some areas like the one on the left where you have to you have to do a localized base rebuild. What does that mean? You see really big cracks. I'm not going to be able to just repave it. We're going to do a base rebuild. So we're

006We we're going to demolish the complete base uh the paving two inches and the base and rebuild that so you won't get those cracks back. There's miter cracks on top which you see some of it can be a typical 2in scarification repave. Other times it's a localized base rebuild so we won't get the cracks. Same thing with to to repave the uh playground areas. We can we talk about resurfacing um and we can we can certainly do that. That would be a uh that wouldn't be a scarification repave. Uh this is d is d is d is d is d is d is d is d is d is d is dissimilar to the parking lot. This would be a paved surface over your existing surface. Again localized rebuild um replace exterior doors. The doors

007doors that you have right now are steel doors uh and they're painted nice but they're painted. The doors that we're replacing with our FRP or fiberglass reinforced panel doors. FRP doors. They're dimpled so that every time you you touch them, you're not going to ding out the doors. And they are in aluminum frames or current frames or steel doors and hollow metal frames, steel rust. You leave it out long enough. Um the replacement doors will be new FRP or fiberglass reinforced panel doors in aluminum frames that don't rust uh with new paddic device hardware on the doors. Um and uh and obviously they they will latch and close very nicely. See the sle thing that's in the center of those doors is called a mulling. We're going to recommend removable mullings, but mullings nonetheless mulling

008will allow the door to close tightly. Removable mullings will allow them to raise to get in big stuff uh when you need to. So it'll give you the flexibility of a door that won't rust or prop and the ability to have six opening rather than three. Um replace carter doors. As principal mentioned, these are all wood doors and they're fairly old. Not necessarily the door because the hard hardware has been retrofitted. So, uh, what we're looking to do is replace the wood the door with solid core wood doors um and the standing portion we could pick and we will put new hardware on here, self-closing course um with and the hardware will be classroom hardware such that it performs similarly to what you have now. It's going to it's going to lock on the outside,

009but you always get free out. Always have the ability to get out. Okay. Um again, card doors, that's a same common. Um replace the windows in the old way. So, um the windows are very energy efficient. On average, windows cost about $150 to $165 per square foot. The furnace has long windows. Um you will see substantive energy efficiency on these windows. not a high or fast ROI, return on investment. Um, but after time you have some substantive infiltration. What does that mean? You get wind and wind and rain around the edges and it gets to a point where it's really not repairable. Uh, and it's just more energy efficient to have new windows. All the new windows are are insulating glass. uh they have higher R value and they have uh they have coating called

010low E low E Mississippi and the low E vip coating reduces the heat gain uh during the during the summer. So that's the new glass today is much better than the old glass. If it's, and I just don't recall, if it's a insulated glass, currently most likely the air seal is broken and you'll start to see some condensation on the inside of the glass. That's just in case, which is not doing what it should be doing. And the R value for the window substantively. New window treatments. Um, so these are these are roller shades. What we're recommending are roller shades. U roller shades that that uh that you can pull up and down. ones certainly on the old side. Um, but they you can see through them. They will cut all the glare down, but

011you can see through these windows with it with 3 to 5% off acid, right? So So nice thing is that it cuts the glare off, but it doesn't it's not doesn't block all the light. exposed that was a shady factory using manufactured basis of size shade of that for this project. uh renovate toilets, creative one. Um I think as lovely as they are, you see the urinal on the lefth hand side, the ones that are in the floor, can't use those anymore. They they've been grandfathered and if you got them, can't I can't ever put them in. Um substantively are the cost that we've allocated to this to renovate the entire toilet, which means flooring, partitions, fixtures, ceiling, exhaust fan, lighting. Right. Um, we're going to look for surfaces uh on the floor that are

012potentially epoxy with a uh with a uh a base and a cold base so no seams to it so you can wash it down to a to a drain. Uh they provide you much better product easier to maintain and the partitions and as nice as they are, we're recommending partitions that are graffiti resistant uh and that are HP which is a plastic material. So it's the same material through and through. Unless you want to scratch your name in there, we can fix that. We won't be able to scratch the metal off. So, outdoor outdoor lighting. So, we are certainly still in the process of designing this. It is it isn't it is part of the referendum. The outdoor lighting will be as low as possible. Number one, have those lights house side shields, which means

013we're only lighting the area that we want to light. None of the light will spill off the playground area. None of the light will spill off any of the areas that we don't want to light. Right? So, LED lighting uh as low as possible house side shields. Now, the variance between as low as possible and a little bit taller is more lights. Right? So, um all I would rather have as well more more fixtures, no light spillage, uh but adequate lighting. So we'll certainly think taking a look at that design, but we want to make it as uh as friendly to any of the neighbors as possible. So no light spillage, able to light the area adequately. New emergency backup generator, right? So um so the gener the the generator as you know will go

014out go on automatically. I think it's been 10 or 20 seconds from from power loss. Um and this is this generator is just just old. Uh, and it needs to it doesn't need to be replaced. That's pretty good. It's a gas fired generator as well. The interactive whiteboards and classboards is in classrooms fairly self-explanatory. This is a technology feature of the of the referendum and it's a product replacement and all the power and data is already there products. uh new special needs playgrounds. We've done this for a number of our districts. Um the playgrounds will will be barrier free compliant. The surfaces of the the uh grading will have better drainage. Um and there'll be under drains underneath the playground so that there won't be any flooding or ponding or puddling on the playground. Playground

015surface can be rubberized surface that is impact resistant. So when you're on that playground, you can uh it's safe to be on the playground record again comply which is which makes for the investment to be all inclusive uh to anyone in the district new pave path playground. We talk about talked about that before the path does need to be can't be like a can't be a path that's too steep, right? So uh we have to make certain that the path is compliant with regard to barrier free access. So it may not be a straight path as the one we walked up here tonight. We will make certain that again any exterior paths or interior access ways are very compliant and will include have the ability include any any of the users uh prek classrooms. This

016was one of the very few educational uses and we did separate your applications uh for the department of education so that there would be only a fee applied to the educational property. We want to minimize these. Um as noted the um the cubbies were too small to put um to put any books, bags, things of that nature in. Um so these will be redesigned to the specific needs of uh of the classrooms. And that means what's the size that you need, how many how many cubbies uh they will be laminated. Uh uh so they won't they won't be uh you won't have issues with with water heater fairly self-explanatory. Um these skaters on average 8 to 10 years you know they last and they start becoming fairly efficient like everyone has one in their home.

017This is just a big version of it but uh this is this is part of the new engineering project uh water bottle filler station. Um I think did we just >> I got to tell you sometime I'm sorry we replaced them this summer. >> So every time we replace these we always replace them. Um they're always chillers, so they're always chilled water because you know chill, right? Um and but they they all have the bottle fillers in it and they're used constantly. Um so every time every time we replace this, replace it with bottle fill on top all the time. So it's much more efficient to refill an existing bottle, you know, throw away. Um right upgrade local performance lighting. Um this is specific uh to the to the auditorium. It's not it's not a

018requirement, but it certainly will allow you to have better better performances as well. And these the performance lighting are the ones that the color lighting, spotlights, things that make sure it's not am right. So, it's specific to performance uh and not uh new sound system for cafeteria and uh and gym. fair fairly self-explanatory regard that it's not in the graph at the moment but consideration two two toilets in two classrooms um these are self-contained toilet rooms uh these are barrierfree compliant toilet rooms and obviously they'll permit the rooms to be used for early childhood compliance with the facility sufficiency standards for the state of New Jersey and the department of education to implement um the left hand side this is what talk about using the existing um multi- picture to photo room and breaking that

019out to a single lock and then another toilet in the car. Um replace existing wireless access points for internet fairly self-explanatory. More wireless access points you have throughout the school, better the connectivity, the better the ability to access the internet wirelessly. Just that simple. Here's a here's the scenario is is [Music] new new network switches. Although beyond my level of expertise, my my understanding is that switches aren't acting as efficiently as possible. They can be replaced. So that was lesson. Does the board have any questions for Mr. Freedom? I don't know if anyone in the audience has any questions that they want to make this time rather than make public forum questions. >> Thank you very much. It's just [Laughter] user. Uh school school is back in session. Uh kids are here. Uh they arrived

020last week and we have had a very successful opening of school uh for the 2526 school year. Uh I just want to share some highlights. Uh first uh let's talk a little bit about enrollment. Our total enrollment right now as of this likely the September enrollment report which you will get next month is 1,644 students grades preK through 12 from 12 8 prek through 8. Our projected enrollment when we did the March uh budget preliminary budget to you was 1597. Uh so enrollment is higher than anticipated and even looking at just K3 without preschool enrollment is uh higher grades K3 as well. Uh as Dr. mentioned we talked in the personnel committee uh we've had to add sections of teachers just because involvement has increased particularly here at Bridges school. Um, even being at back

021to school night last night at White House School when parents passed the referendum table and I handed out flyers, some folks were like, "We came from Bridgewwater because you have prek program." So, we're getting some families that are moving here uh because we got prek programs and because they hear great things about the district. So, enrollment is up from previous years and up from our projections making the referendum even more important. Um, enrollment by grade the only that I would point out uh on this slide was we a couple of years ago would be entering kindergarten classes and first grade classes of about 135. You see now kindergarten is about 160. So if you look at let's say third grade even sixth grade, fourth and fifth grade you know those are the classes that started

022in kindergarten at about 135 and now they're 141 162 161. So enrollment in kindergarten is higher which means as uh time goes on you start start to see some enrollment increases. Uh something to definitely keep an eye on. But great news we had a great welcome back event uh for the teachers and staff uh in late August. Everybody joined us in the cafeteria for some welcome back celebrations. Greetings from myself. Uh Mrs. Dinto, you're here somewhere. You're famous. You're down in the bottom corner. Uh Mrs. advance the RTA president, Mrs. Cassidy, Mrs. Fury were there as well. I know that I hear from teachers all the time how much they appreciate seeing board members at events like this. Um, so thank you so much for coming really and uh for your participation in the day

023and uh we introduced new staff and we gave out 100% awards for years of service uh for the staff that day as well. Uh it's a great day. Uh we had some breakfast, we had some giveaways for the teachers and it was a nice celebration. Um, and just some photos of the beginning of the school year preschool. Um, this is we started 16 classes this year in preschool. We initially thought we would need 14, but we expanded to 16 classes. Um, we're looking at projecting by November we should be projecting next year 16 classes, potentially 17. Uh, so we'll see what enrollment in preschool looks like for next year. Um, three bridges. Here are some. Dr. Higgins, you're just in time for your terrific tigers and your pause of peace activities for the beginning of

024the school year in our wonderful welcome back sign from the HSA. Uh students were excited to come back to school. Um and here's some photos around three bridges. Some photos around White House School. Uh starting the school year meeting the have you filled a bucket today um to teach our White House students on how to be bucket fillers. um some pictures of students in classrooms and coming back through the front doors and uh Holl Brook, you've seen the Holl Brook Bobcat, the welcome back sign for the HSA and students entering on the first day. Uh Dr. Moss talked with Ed Tech, but he introduced a new Bobcat block. Uh grade four and grade five have lunch and recess together now and that's their Bobcat block where fifth grade is, let's say, at recess while fourth

025grade is at lunch and then they swap. Um, previously we had a the grade level split and we got some feedback that kids wanted to see friends and other home rooms during recess and lunch. So, we build that into the schedule for this year. Um, and RMS uh looking forward to an amazing year and talking with Mr. Charles, I think I wrote uh to the board the first day of school uh that their their theme for the year is um taking the time to get in front of each child, the power of their stories. Um, so they're creating connections. That's on the first couple of days for RMS. And again, a welcome back sign for the HSA. Um, our transportation department transportation has gone as smooth as not has the first couple days of school.

026It's been a great year for transportation. We are fully staffed with bus drivers. Jason gave me a look. I don't say it because I just ch um we celebrated Justine McAndrew, one of our bus drivers for 20 years of service. transportation departments and we're doing very very well. So we are we are up and running and buses are on the road and we are at least transportation. Um here are welcome back signs from any questions about the first couple of days of school been great. Great time great. Yeah really happy. >> Yeah >> excited to be here. Yeah. Any questions or comments from the board? >> I have one other presentation for you. Thank you. Uh before I turn over um the podium to our school boards rep and I want to talk about some

027of our district goals for this school year. Um, so this year, if you uh attended the welcome back, read my welcome back letters, um, the theme this year that really struck me was the theme of baseball. And I found this quote that says, "Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is. A new game every day." And that's the way baseball is. So, we've got a new game. We got a new school year which means setting up new goals, new goals for the kids and for the success of the district. And some of this I talked about when I welcome back um with the staff. So in thinking about this year and thinking about

028setting up goals, it's a unique year. Uh the process was a little bit different because we wrapped up our strategic plan, our five-year plan, and our action steps last year. um when when it came time to set goals this year, we used a a slightly different process. As much as we want to still be tethered to our mission and to our strategic goals that are now just part of the culture of who we are as a district, um we wanted to dive in and really think about this year a little bit differently. Um, so we kept in mind our mission, uh, which is to empower members of our community to lead purposeful lives with integrity, you know, cultivate spirit of discovery and embrace connections in our diverse global society. And we wanted to make sure

029that we don't leave our fiveyear strategic goals completely behind us. I think if we want to celebrate something, we have to celebrate the fact that inquiry and learning, partnerships, and social awareness are now just part of the fabric of who we are as a district. They're so adept that we're not going to completely abandon these goals. We kept them in mind as we planned for this year's goals. And we had a leadership retreat. The leadership group team, got off campus, enjoyed some time together, um celebrated our successes from this past year and we reviewed our challenges from this past year. We had two focus areas when we met as a team. We looked at academics first focusing on the JSLA data and I ready data teacher observations and just feedback that we received last year

030and then we brought in some non-academic observations and feedback things like transportation facilities the referendum communications the leadership team had a reflection discussion and some themes emerged out of our discussion and here were some of the themes that emerged. We thought we should focus on of course academic achievement, planning for a successful referendum through communications which will lead us to a successful uh vote approval and thinking about the future the next five years. How can we set the district up for a new strategic plan as well? So we thought about how we would do it under academic achievement. When the leadership team talked, we talked really about some things that we accomplished last year and want to continue and how we're going to change things and and create new focus areas. We want to convene

031a working group to develop some sort of protocol or policy when it comes to AI in schools. Um, currently we have some models, we have some things that we we brought to some professional development. We've had our technology coordinator work with us to bring some awareness to the leadership team, to the teachers. We have some experts among us. Um, from the middle schools of our staff who are wellversed and well trained in this area but we have no real policy or protocol that we all should abide by as a school community. So our goal uh with academic achievement and this is certainly related to academics plagiarism academic integrity. We want to bring together a group of stakeholders to talk about how we want to manage AI in schools particularly in middle school. Uh secondly, uh

032we continue to focus on our our English language learners. Uh and we are training the next cohort of teachers in the sheltered English instruction model. This is a model that the teachers are are in the process of being trained in that supports English language learning in every and all classrooms. Uh so teachers learn strategies and skills that any teacher in any classroom can use to help support those students whose English whose primary language is not English. We have um done quite a bit of work on our intervention programs. Uh but we are looking to augment our protocols, create a new handbook, create new newly developed multi- multi-tiered system of support for our learners who are needy learners that require intervention and an intervention referral service process and something related to their either academic learning in

033terms of bolstering their academic learning or behaviors. Uh so we're working really closely with uh Rebecca Burns, our new director of people services to develop some protocols when it comes to interventions and the multi-tered system of support. And this is really geared for students who are in the general education. They're now special education students, but they require something a little different from either intervention teacher or classroom teacher. Uh we have um over the summer changed our language arts curriculum K through eight uh based off of teacher feedback from last year. So last year we received some teacher feedback that said we want as we implemented the new standards for the state uh the teachers gave us feedback on what changes they'd like to see in the language arts curriculum for this current year. So over

034the summer the teachers and Dr. Brown, the language arts supervisor, made changes K through 80 for our language arts curriculum to implement for this year. Some of those changes are revising lessons um adjusting the pacing guide, taking teacher feedback to um you know, move lessons in a different scope or sequence and that implementation is this year. So, we're going to focus on language arts um and our what we would consider to be review and reflect and refine the curriculum in that stage, but we're also adopting new math and science materials. So, math in grade 680, we purchased med gems. Uh and we are focusing on professional development for math department grade 680. And then science, we purchased um amplify amplify science for grades four, five. Um and we're going to set a target uh to

035see I rated growth by mid year of 60%. So in the past we've talked a little bit about I rated growth. If your students are meeting 50% typical growth by mid year that means they're growing typically they're keeping pace with making one year's growth within one year. Our goal is going to be a little higher than that. We want to see students make a little bit more than half a year's growth in that half a year and project that they'll make more than a full year's growth over the course of the full year as measured by so we're going to look at that with academic achieve more on academics in October when we report out all of the JSLA and district uh benchmark scores the referendum um communications and vote approval. Um, so we're going

036to focus on the referendum. This is big work for us this year. Um, so we are uh enhancing our communications with a robust social media presence. Um, if you follow the district page on Facebook, you'll see there's some fresh posts um that are appearing on our social media. The video will be on our social media. Um, so we're enhancing that presence uh because we want to make sure that we get our referendum information out to not only parents in the district but the community at large. Social media is one of those avenues, but it's not the only avenue. We'll be using our newspaper, print materials, in-person meetings, building tours like tonight, um, and the household mailings to inform voters about the referendum. Um, we've developed talking points for the administration board. Uh if any board

037members have used our referendum kit, actually it's out there. There's a folder with talking points in there. I'll email it to you, but if you ever um are, you know, at a table with the referendum if you need some talking points, there are some talking points in that folder. Um the administration will have them as our leadership team this week. Um and I will email them out to you as well. Um and we want to continue the uh communication strategic plan. recall that about a year and a half ago, our communications consultant worked with us on developing some long-term goals when it comes to increasing and improving our communications. I haven't forgotten about that. Uh there are some things embedded in that plan that we're going to use for the referendum, but also make sure

038we maintain even after the referendum is included. And all of this uh should lead us to be successful come November. Uh and then finally, strategic planning. It's an exciting year for us, very futurefacing. Um, we will be looking for a vendor to help us facilitate the strategic plan. We'll bring together a committee of stakeholders uh to set some new five-year strategic goals for the district. Um, we'll create some action steps. We'll identify the vendor facilitator for the process. We'll communicate the process out to our school community. and by the end of the year we should be able to adopt new strategic goals that we can launch starting in September, next September. Um we talk about measurements um in terms of collecting data. We'll make sure that we look at um completed projects, deliverables, handbooks, curricular

039documents, voting results for November for our referendum, strategic planning documents, many of the things that you see over the course of committee. We'll look at newsletters, press releases, social media, feedback forms, meeting minutes, curricular revisions, and of course, we'll keep an eye on our academic data with I Ready and JSLA and staff professional development. So, all of these will inform our progress toward the newest goals. Uh, I don't want to forget that there are some continued areas of focus that we want to want to keep in mind. Um, staff recruitment, school climate, retention. So all of our efforts from the retention recruitment committee from about two years ago should not be forgotten. We should continue to maintain some of these programs. Uh many of which we have uh there was evidence of that even in

040the welcome back you know the gifts for the teachers and the honors for the teachers when we do our welcome back ceremony in September are some of our recruitments for power professionals and bus drivers. uh but also you know going through and looking at uh you know school climate and making sure that we survey and get a pulse on our staff in terms of climate. Uh I have some sample what we call stay interview questions. Why do folks stay in Remington? Why do our employees stay with us as opposed to doing an exit interview and people are leaving? Maybe it would be productive to do an interview of why folks stay focused that way. Um and then general communications enhancements from our uh communications plan like social media presence and in the policy communications committee

041we talked a little bit about how we can highlight our change command a little bit more both of which uh were goals from our communications uh strategic plan. So that's an overview of district level goals. I'll I'll turn it over to the board for any questions. One other thing I'll mention just real quick is we did add to the board documents just a comparison of last year to this year. Uh so you'll see that some of the goals are this very similar but a lot of the action steps are different and the focus areas are different for this year as well. >> And so maybe just the the first thing is a comment. I think it's encouraging to see the stretch built into the uh 60% attainment at the year. So, I just wanted to

042compliment you and the staff on on putting that forward. Um, with regard to the AI policy, >> um, a suggestion to consider, I don't know which committee will work on that, but often when we talk about AI, it comes from the lens of preventing plagiarism and limitations. And that's important. And as children get older, if there's a way to build into the policy how the um the teaching and the framing evolves for children that are older, what I'd like to see is that AI is taught as an enabler. How can it remove repetition and allow them to focus time on tasks that require creativity? Because that will help them be more competitive when they go to school. >> Thank you. I under the academic achievement I had a few um just comments. So we had

043a lot of uh changes last year, schedule changes, curricular standard changes and staffing changes. So I just thought maybe under like with the leadership to do a lot of assessment when it comes to the um academic achievement because we need to know what's working and not working. >> You know if we we uh reduced some of the LA time and added some math time in RMS like is that working? Is it producing the results? So, just maybe take a step back and assess and make sure that we're moving in the right direction. >> Okay. Something we can certainly report out and talk more. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Oh, uh, I wanted to thank you for the very specific measurable goals. Um, I did get feedback from the community that they felt like

044we were a little wishy-washy with the academic goal. So, I think putting in like an IR goal is admirable. Um, I am curious what the consequences of not meeting the goals are. Like my suggestion for something I don't want to be negative about the referendum, but what we can affect is getting more voters out there. We can inform more people. And I like all of the actions. I just I don't know if we have the right to say that our goal is to get it approved, right? Our goal is to get the information out there and communicate it effectively and get as many people out voting who are informed and let them determine how >> Yeah, I I crafted that goal specifically to really focus on the communication part and and have the successful vote

045piece be like a piece like I I >> Yeah. The way So the name of goal two is vote approval versus in the text it says execute a successful vote. Yeah. >> So, by having more people voting or or having >> 90% of voters who participate in the election this fall or something like that respond to the referendum question like that might be I don't know about in the header the goal of proving I don't know how anyone else feels about it. >> I I feel like so I appreciate where you're going. What I'm hearing you say is let's have a goal of something that we can control. Um, I actually think it's okay to set a very ambitious goal on an outcome and if it first of all, if it doesn't pass, then we're

046have to make some harder tradeoffs, but also we are accountable for for the outcome in running the school. So, I see the point. I would like to see a stretch in the approval, but that's just there's not a consequence like you all geted from the board. executive assuming that we're going to be executing successful. >> Yeah. So that's why I thought maybe the title could be successful execution or something. But >> it's just a matter of words and semantics. >> Yeah. I don't I don't have an issue with that. I want us to focus really on like what you're saying. The things that we can control are how we present the referendum. What we can't control necessarily is voter turnout. or anything like that, but I'd like to put it in there. You got to

047put it out to the universe and be ambitious that it's no hats. Um, but at the same time, I hear what you're saying, but I can make a slight revision. >> Yes, thank you for the presentation. Notice last year we had four goals. We had three. >> We dropped the communication one. We executed that well last year. When I look at continued area of focus, you're talking about staff recruit recruitment timing and retention and so on. Have you considered having anything around staff recruitment and retention as fourth goal? So, we had that as a goal when we developed our retention recruitment plan a couple of years ago and then we replaced it and we didn't we did so we've done a couple of things. The timeline would be retention recruitment was a real was a

048goal and a focus area about two years ago and then it was we move more toward focusing on communication as one of our goals and retention recruitment was complete um at a certain point but I guess not forgotten and because we completed that retention recruitment committee we created a plan we've executed you know every one of the objectives of the plan it's To me, I saw it as more of a monitoring type of goal. Um, and that's why I put it under a focus area rather than a specific goal. That's something that I want to monitor uh with the administration, but not something that I would I wanted to make a fourth goal. I I am I do recall too, I want to be cognizant of the fact that referendum and strategic planning all in

049one year is big work. So, I didn't want to be overly ambitious in trying to do more than what was feasible in terms of the goals that we had for the year. Um, in creating a fourth goal and thinking that I don't want to create a fourth goal and have it not quite be achievable. That was my my thinking. My goals come out of our conference when we talk when we do the superintendent's evaluation. Um, and that's, you know, I reflect on the evaluation. I reflect on everything that we talk about, talk with the administrative team. I kind of craft everything keeping in mind evaluation as well as uh feedback from the leadership team. And that's what I like to hear. I mean, we could do a fourth goal. We just have two kind of

050three really ambitious goals. You know, strategic planning and referendum don't happen every year. um they are ambitious. >> Just an additional thought around the referendum. Correct. And correct me if I I'm not on good ground here, but once it passes, that doesn't mean that the work ends. We have to do a ton of financing work. I'm looking at Jason and there's all the implementation. So, it's a fairly enduring process that will extend beyond the year. I don't know if that addresses your concern, but it's not a finite issue. continuation successful vote that brings us through November. As Michelle accurately just pointed out, if we had a successful vote from December through July, we actually have to execute. So, should you put any additional points underneath that act for execution. >> We could because then becomes

051the design and plan phase, right? What what are we going to tackle this summer versus next summer? Where where do we want to prioritize the projects? We have kind of a priority list based off of our tours last year, but we could rep prioritize the projects and, you know, make the timeline for going to do those projects. I sort of add that in point here. comments. >> I feel like I'm trying to read people's lips because of the Hback. So, if you wouldn't all mind yelling it, I don't know if you all can hear, but I'm I'm two feet from David. I'm struggling. So, >> the same thing as you. So I got that talking to the mic and then maybe when we do the community I'm sorry the community reports we could pass the

052microphone. I know over there >> it's not that we can take this one off and we can at least have three. >> Yeah, maybe that one there. >> Thank you. So much easier now. >> Okay. Anything else? So some refined not refined some of the action steps based off comments and feedback included and even Mrs. what I'm thinking with the academics on it be nice to hear in October when the principal come up as well like they may not be able to address those comments not only in committee but we can talk about it >> thank you all next our agenda is our district We have Mary from NJS introduce yourself. And you have one person missing at this point. >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay, I'm going to use this because as much as I

053dislike microphones, I know that I was having a hard time hearing and I don't want you all to have a hard time hearing it. Something completely is my throat right now. So, we're gonna we're gonna go with this. Uh my name is Mary and I'm a senior field service representative for New Jersey school boards. I am not going to be your permanent field service rep. Okay. I'm filling in and helping out. We had a number of people that retired in field services on to different professional opportunities and so we're all filling in as best we can. So I'm taking care of Hunter, Morris, Somerset, and Bourbon right now. So my peak my two peak counties are Mercer and Middle Sex and I live in Mercer County. I live pretty much just stones road from TCMJ.

054So if you know where that is, you know pretty much where I am. So I wanted to I was asked to come in and review self evaluation and do a reflection on that. And there's a couple of things I want to say. First of all, the tour was wonderful. Thank you for inviting me to participate in that and to attend that. And are you going to do that for the other schools as well? >> So, we have two more uh the other elementary school K3 building is later this month and then our middle school or other elementary combined because they're on the same campus. >> That's wonderful because that really lets you know and your principal did a great job of explaining what things were going to be taken care of. So, I think that's

055really wonderful and gives your community a good idea and board members because you know board members are not in buildings all the time because they're not supposed to be. one and so if you don't have children in the buildings or if you've had children in another building you may not be familiar with all the buildings in the district. So I think that that's a wonderful opportunity. I and I congratulate you on that. The video was is also awesome. So having that up on your website and you know really kind of spreading that out I think will be a wonderful thing for you and I hope everything goes well in the election and that you have a ton of people come out and everybody goes um so I love your your logo first of all. I

056thought that was wonderful. The um the board self evaluation really is a very very very good self evaluation. Okay, this is for your community members. This is this is not mandated for the board, but we do consider it to be best practice. And so boards have to do a superintendent evaluation every year. That's the statute. So that's a requirement that board members have to complete the superintendent evaluation, but there's no requirement. It had been in KAC when KAC first came out that boards would have to do self evaluation. And then they took that out in the first revision, which really upset us at the school board because we do feel that it's best practice. And we want you to be able to take that opportunity each year to reflect and really take a look at

057how you feel you did as individuals and as a board on certain standards. And so this is a brand new self evaluation that you've not seen before. And so this year the charts that you have there's there's one that's um and those are on the left hand side. There's one that really particularly pertains to this year and it's very colorful. And then the second chart gives you what your ratings were this year. And next year you'll have this year's and next year's ratings just like you used to in the old valuation. You always had that chart three which gave you your current year's ratings as opposed to the previous year's ratings. So that will happen next year but the self-evaluation is really excellent and I just want to go through a couple of things. So

058your board and this is the first time that we have been able to include board goals in the evaluation. We wanted to do this for years and it took really revamping the entire self evaluation to be able to incorporate that because a lot of times boards set goals. They set board goals for themselves every year and then they don't think about them again. And we wanted you all to be able to and I wish that I had when I was I was a board member for nine years. I wish that we had been able to rate ourselves on how we did towards our board goals. One of the things that I always recommend to boards and have for years is when you ask your superintendent to report out on the district goals that the board

059report out how you're doing towards the board goals because you want your community, your parents, and your staff to know that not only did you take the time to set them, but you're following through. You're going through those action plans. you're making progress there through what's been what's occurred so far in the action plans and what's coming up next. So, I like to think of November, January, March, and June as primary opportunities to have district goal updates and award goal updates. November is good because you've set your district goals and your board goals usually over the summer now. Okay? So, that gives you time to be able to develop action plans and talk about those. January is a great time because if you have any board members who are elected, they get to hear what

060you've been doing, what you've accomplished so far, and what's coming up next. March is a great time to do it. It is really the time to do it because but we don't want you to just do it once a year because that's when you're getting ready to do your superintendence evaluation. So, you really need to know and have a pretty good comprehensive update on district goals. And you can do that with the board goals as well. to mention because you want to wrap up the year. You want to be able to show folks and your community members what you've done and what you're thinking about doing for the upcoming year. So, as Dr. Art presented his his district, what he would like to do for district goals this year, you could do that again in

061the June time frame or you could just report out on what's been accomplished and then to develop over the summer. So, your board goals for last year were academic achieve. I'm not going to read through every slide, but academic achievement, government structure, communications, the referendum, and safety. So, this was the first time you were able to actually evaluate yourselves on how well you feel you felt you did on focusing on those areas. And again, we want your community, your staff, and your parents to know that not only you take the time to set these goals, but then you are at least focused on the upcoming year. So in terms of the board goals, there was no participant that indicated that little or no progress was made had been made on any of your five goal

062areas. Okay. So everybody felt that that participated in the evaluation that they were either achieved or the satisfactory progress was made. That's really significant because that's showing that you did pay attention to your board goals and you did work on them and you wor you did stay focused on them through the upcoming year. When I first got out my door back in 1899, some dinosaurs weren't here, but we had we had our field service rep come in and we developed our district and our boards. We said, "Okay, this is great." So the following year then over the summer we had nothing back in and so we asked our superintendent to report it out on how he felt that the district had done he had done with the district goals and the board you know had

063a conversation about that we were all in agreement our service then looked at us and said so how did you do towards the boards we just kind of looked at each other and she said when's the last time you talked about the board goals and it wasn't me, but some brave soul among us said, "When did we set them last year?" And she looked at us and she said, "If you're not going to do anything with these, why waste our time tonight by developing more goals again?" So, unless you promise me that you're going to actually develop action plans for these, which is not brain surgery, that's not rocket science. You're going to indicate some activities and I'll go over that towards the end. and you're not going to develop our goals tonight, but I'll

064tell you what, you should be thinking about when you do that. And we did that and for the rest of the eight the other eight years that I was on the board, we did that every year. We developed action plans and we reported out on our superintendent and our community was was actually pretty impressed with the board because we followed through and stayed focused on those goals. So, just a little tidbit there. So as I said all of the participants in the um self-evaluation eight people participated said that all of the goals were either achieved or satisfactory and that really was significant. So the averages what did they actually indicate? So we give you averages throughout the the um the evaluation and ratings are based on a scale of one to four. unsatisfactory is a

065one one point one point for that area of growth is two points proficient is three points and exemplar is four point so it lose a scale of 1 to four NJSBA considers any average look that's 3 or above to indicate that a board is working effectively and very well together okay almost all of yours almost all there was one almost all of yours were 3.0 minimum above and they were generally 3.3 3.5 there were some 3.9s in there 3.7s and 3.8 So that's also significant and that's very very positive. Then anything that's below a three point any average that's below a 3.0 we would consider that to be an opportunity for growth and something that the board could consider could consider in development of their board goals if they wanted to. Not everything has to

066be goal for you to address them. Just like not everything has to be a district goal in order for the superintendent to address it. So there are things that Dr. Hart brought up things that he wanted to continue to focus on and but these were the three focal points. So just remember that not everything has to be a goal in order for you to work on it. But the goals that you have and that you develop for the board are the things you want to provide to focus on for the upcoming year. So in terms of the standards and you can see yellow is the lowest number okay in in all of the the standards. These are the overall standards for each of those standard overall averages for each of those standards. We ask you

067to rate yourselves on vision, mission, and goals, policy, accountability for student achievement, governance, team, relationships, and accountability, resource management and oversight, and community leadership. So, the lowest number was a 3.3. That's above a 3.0. That's a positive. Okay, a very positive. The highest number was a 3.7 in resource management and oversight. And then your overall average of all six of those standards was a 3.4. So well above a 3.0, you're doing very well together. There are lots of comments in the evaluation that I think are important for you all to go through and to consider when you're moving forward with board goals and just your, you know, your board governance. But those are things that I want you to take a look at in your own leisure. Um, and I generally do not go through

068comments when I'm going through self evaluation anyway, but this is really very very good. And there's a lot in there. Um, so as an individual board member, these were the areas. Again, everything in here is above 3.0. So 3.5 was the lowest you scored yourselves on as an individual board member. Four is the highest that you can do. Your highest numbers were 3.1. You had multiples of those. And then the overall average of all of those indicators under the individual board member and how you rated yourselves was a 3.7. That's significant. It's very positive and it indicates to me that you're working well and effectively together. Some standouts and some board strengths. So that all six of the vision mission goals policy accountability for student achievement governance team relationships and accountability resource management over community

069leadership. The board indicated through your ratings between 88% and 98% that the board was functioning between proficient and excented. That's pretty. It really is. And you'll see the area for growth was the yellow. So you'll see how few people indicated that. Um and then um unsatisfactory it was really I think one person unsatisfactory. So again, this is really something to be proud of and to celebrate your overall board strengths. These were comments that came from the overall board strengths and I think they're very telling as well. I feel like everyone on the board wants success for the students and we need to continue to make sure we prioritize student achievement, student academic achievement and safety. The board consists of members of the committee to ensure students are receiving strong education. The board's also very efficient

070in its committees and meetings, focuses on ensuring the district is financially sound, and the board understands its governance role and works with administration. The board's greatest strength, someone said, is that we can build can build from the board's greatest strength that we can build from is to keep the students our priority. And I have no doubt that you will do that. Readings more effectively manage the budget. Sorry, I'm typing. It's not the budget, it's the budget. and relative tax increases responsibility and collaboration with the superintendent and business administrator. Schools are competitive amongst our peers and neighboring districts with a strong academic record and an impressive fully come program available at every applies. That's amazing. Absolutely amazing. One of the greatest strengths is the group's ability to engage in dialogue on difficult topics that's respectful and

071comes from a place of wanting to persuade boards that I have worked with where board members are going across the table with each other and that's not a good thing obviously because believe it or not your community your parents in your staff, their impression of the way the district is run is the way the boards are run. So if they see that kind of chaos on the board, they feel that that that the district is in chaos. And that's not necessarily true, but that's the perception. So opportunities for growth, that one sticky 2.9, okay, it's a sticky little widget. it's a tenth of a of a point below was to have a clear communication process with the superintendent and other board members. Now otherwise throughout the process throughout the the comments there were comments about

072praising the communication that you all have. So you know one per when you have eight people responding to something one person can really skew that you've seen that in your student test score results and everything else. And then the overall reflective questions were areas that the board felt like they could should continue to focus on training. Improving external communications to the community which goes along with your um your strategic plan and your referendum. Ensure the community is aware of the referendum so they can make an informed decision. Continue to work on your policies. set clear, measurable goals for student academic success, transparency, and identifying areas of discrete parent attention and aligning the team. So, what you would do with this self evaluation is really go through it and then when you're sitting down to do

073your board goals, think about should any of last year's board goals be continued. And I did mention to the board president and Dr. Hart that what a lot of boards are doing is continuing their board statements because law in business you look for smart goals and there to be everything delineated within the goal statement that's not what we do in education so the the smart part of the goal is identified through the action plan and that's what the superintendent and the administrative team are responsible for because the goals are what you want to see happen and you are the work people just like with your strategic plan the strategic planning goals were what your community and your stakeholders decided they wanted to see happen in the district. And then the superintendent and the administrative team

074take those what we want to see happen and determine how he and the administrative team are going to make that happen. Okay. The how belongs to the superintendent but what belongs to the board. So and then remember you'll be evaluating Dr. part and any superintendent all superintendent are evaluated on how they did with the how in the spring the superintendent valuation. So you want to think about should any last year's goals continue because they're if they're broad enough they may be perfectly continuable and then the action plans will just change and they'll elevate from where you got to last year with those areas and where you want to be now at the end of next year. What's our policy development look like? talked about advising, continuing advising policies, your governing structure, your communication structure. What

075are your strengths? What do you do well? This board self evaluation really delicates what your strengths are. And it's pretty much most of the evaluations, what can we focus on to enhance performance? Is there anything that you feel you could be doing better? What can we do as support to support the district goals? A lot of times there's a board goal that stipulates to to provide the support and the resources necessary for the achievement of our district goals. That can be a board goal. And then what professional development would you see in assisting you to improving your governance skills and also to achieve your work goals? We make sure as school boards most of the time that we're making sure that our staff has PD, our administrators have professional development, but everybody gets that and

076we forget ourselves most of the time. And it really is important because when you sit together as a board and get that professional development, you're learning together, you're understanding teamwork. You're also understanding how you each think and how you each make decisions. And that can be very helpful in understanding when there are people who are disagreeing with one another. You can at least then understand how that person got to where they are, which is the complete opposite of where you are. And that's really important. So just some examples of board goals and you've had some great things last year. Complete the superintendent evaluation within the statuto timeline. That's not if you're doing that all the time that has to be done by July 1st or as soon as nuts as you know. So that has

077to be signed and done by July 1. Reviewing your policies and bylaws to review and reise to ensure they reflect your current practices. There are a lot of times that boards especially through K through eight districts sometimes they go through their policy manual and they see that they have high school policies. you have high school kids, you need to have high school policies in your policy manual. High school that you sent your kids to needs to have those, but you don't need to have those. Um, explore ways for the board to be able to improve communication. Okay. Become more effective advocates for public education through professional development and advocacy. So, those are some examples. Goals are the broad outcomes you intend to achieve. Objectives are those precise measurable statements that explain how the goal would

078be accomplished. And then the activities are those specific details about how the objective would be achieved by listing specifically what will be completed in a specified time frame. So we have an action plan for board goals. We also this is the same for district goals. We just changed instead of the board of education goals. We would say district goals and talks about we type in what the board goal is the objectives and then what are those major activities who's responsible for it the board or the staff what are the resources that we need to keep your money what are the time frames when we want to see that particular activity completed and how will we know that it's been completed what are the indicators of success sometimes it's meeting minutes sometimes it's committee meeting minutes

079um board discussion to um resolutions that you have on your agenda those 19. So once you develop those board goals, then you want to look at those action plans and implement the action plans for the goals. Those can go up on your website for the district board district goals and the board goals. And then your staff, your parents, and your community members can follow along. And one of the things that I always suggest is when you're doing your first update in November to look at those action plans and to say, did we complete everything that was supposed to be done by November? If we didn't, how come and when can we expect it to be completed? Because let's face it, we've all learned through co that nobody wants to hear about that anymore that things

080happen and sometimes you can't get to certain things. So if you can't that doesn't necessarily mean that you didn't try to to do that but it may mean that there was a road. So then when can we expect that to be enough and then decide on how often you want to have those updates. Behind the left side I also have for you the action plans and then I have this sheet board responsibilities. This is a 12point planning calendar and you can take a look at this. This is based on Q. So you can take a look at this and see pretty much when things are going to come up and come before the board. And so that can be really helpful especially for new board members and for members as well. So what questions you

081have? >> Thank you very much for your presentation. I just want to comment the self evaluation a lot of comments. I think you went through it very well. You summarized it very well with clear bullet points. Everyone's pages of comments reflected this. It's not an easy thing to do. Thank you very much for your prespective I'm sorry [Music] we have to vote on that goals one way to facilitate that would be to take our current goals put it on stops get everyone access, make it editable. You could go in there, add your comments, add new goals, cross out everyone else's comments. You would give about two weeks to do that. We would then go through and review it. Um, we would send them to Marian as well, so she can take a look at it,

082see, get feedback on it. And if there's no major changes or easy to reconcile, we present them for a vote at our next board meeting. If there are changes that we need to talk through, we talk through that next board meeting in October 14th. That's like a proposal. We all work individually for the next two weeks, put our input on it and see what any comments on next steps. >> Yeah, just comments. I mean, typically we have discussion in public. So is just the suggestion is to do on a Google doc so it would not be discussed in public prior to a vote. >> Yeah, we can do that. We can do the individual that you suggested. We could use the September 30th for the discussion in public and then maybe vote on it on

083October 14th. >> Yeah, I think it's important to have public transparency to what we're discussing public. Any comments presentation? >> Thank you. Very good. >> I wish you weren't going to be my county. I had new county a long time ago. Probably from 2011 to 2014. I don't think I had Readington. I think when Norton had Readington at that point. So, we split the county north and south, believe it or not. And um I love working with with the districts in Hington County. Truth be told, I love working with it. Doesn't matter where they are. They just happen to be different parts of the state, but um you guys are doing a great job with evidence finding self evaluation. So kudos to you. Please keep up that that great work and um I wish you

084the best with your referendum. do have my business card. So, if you have any questions in the meantime, we are getting in through the process of hiring folks to replace the folks who had um the county, for lack of a better word, but we have been going through every every district that has asked for services we've been able to provide with our existing field service rep. So, please don't hesitate if you have any questions. It was a pleasure meeting you all tonight and I wish you the best and I hope to see you. >> Thank you for all you do for students and staff. Thank you. I just want to point out to me this we have updated our referendum website as well. So when you get a moment go to the home page look

085at the referendum projects that you saw tonight just to be more eyeatching anybody. So I just want to quick section on the comments open the microphone. I have two questions. >> That's okay. I'm loud. >> Can you hear me? >> Yeah. >> The RTA wanted to thank you all for our opening ceremony. It was so nice. Mrs. Depinto was there and she fed off with Dr. Hart's theme, which teachers love a good theme. And our celebration of our years of service. I never remember that before you, Dr. Hart. I think that may have come from the recruitment committee. I myself was lucky enough this year to get a 20-year award and Dr. Hart's letter signed autograph is on my fridge. It It really really means a lot. So, we just wanted to thank you and

086HSA had donations for throughout the day. It's just so nice that all our leadership was there celebrating us, cheering us on, and morale is high and everybody's really excited to have a great year. So, thank you. Congratulations on your 20th anniversary. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments in the audience? We can't see the >> Excellent. All right. Thank you. >> Our next item is correspondence. You received four that are on record with the board secretary. So we have four comments there, four emails. We're going to move on to board actions. First one is the approval administration reports. We have a motion to adopt 101. Can I get a motion and then a second? >> Any comments? >> Ms. Cassidy. >> Yes. >> Miss Fury. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mener. >>

087Yes. Mrs. Rod, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mrs. Vinto, >> yes. >> Next item is the approval of minutes. We have one item 2011. Can we get a motion to second? Any comments, discussion? >> Mrs. Cassie, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fury, >> yes. >> Mr. Lobes, >> yes. >> Mrs. Menzer, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rat, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bindo. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Next is facilities 1 through 30. Before we get to the committee report, >> the finance committee met on August 21st. First topic discussed was the referendum. The committee reviewed the communication plan and dates for boards prior to board meetings. Committee members were asked to identify which sessions they could attend to support engaging with the public about the referendum. The

088committee agreed to support an additional mailer in the middle of October property regarding the property at vote. The district received an appraisal for the value of the property $550,000. The committee recommended retaining ownership of the property and Dr. B agreed to update the township of this decision. Solar the selected vendor has submitted to EU state permission to proceed. Construction must start to 2026 for credits. Green coordinator. The green coordinator position has been vacant for two years and proven difficult to fill. Despite this, the district is achieving its goals and the committee suggested the green committee evaluate whether the funds could be repurposed to align with the strategic plan goals. Direct install program. An update was provided on the direct install program which showed three mergers in White House were previously completed and RMS HBS are

089planned for completion. The committee agreed to secure a free consultation from a vendor to estimate the cost for direct installation which may allow for a 0% interest loan on the utility bill. Preliminary audit results reserves and mandatory payroll verification. The committee reviewed the preliminary R results reserves in the process for inventory payroll verification. No action or decision was taken health rebate. A rebate to the district of $15,000 will be provided to all employee health expenses for current employee health insurance. The list was reviewed and no action was taken next week to plan for October 3rd and December 3rd. comments. >> Mrs. Cassley, >> yes. >> Miss Jory, >> yes. >> Mr. Les, >> yes. >> Mr. Spencer, >> yes. >> Mr. Rat, >> yes. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mrs. Windo, >> yes. >>

090Next item is education technology. We do not have a connection for this time. So I'm going to ask for a motion to approve items. Any discussion? >> I just I had a question for Dr. Hart on 4.01 the shift wellness grant. If you could just briefly because we didn't meet as a committee just let us know what the details of that grant are. Um, so the board will recall that last year we moved health insurance pools meaning we're no longer in the public trust. We are in the school health insurance fund. Through that fund, there is an opportunity there several opportunities for grants to school district for staff wellness because that's our employee health insurance fund for staff wellness that we had a menu of items that we could choose from. Um, and I'm going

091to turn over to Roman in a second. In looking at the application, him and individuals in his office decided to make application uh for nutrition education and counseling for the staff. So, we have some exciting professional development opportunities for staff coming over the course of the school year and using this grant funding to give them education on prepping food, maintaining wellness, exercise, nutrition, those sorts of things. So, I'll turn it over to Mr. a little more than um so each shift shift is our own insurance supplier. Um there's an ability for rights every year and there's also rebates in um as well. So with the grant process, there's eight or nine different things you can apply for. Um this current year we decide to go to nutrition awareness. So, the staff will at an outdoor

092PD day uh be presented with information that will allow them to sign up for one-on-one classes. Um, they can meet with an individual personal chef, actually make dinner at home virtually with personal talk about how to eat healthy um and you know, be more mindful of their wellbeing. So, it's completely optional. Um and our plan is to uh provide giveaways, gift cards, and other things um for people that participate so they learn to better themselves but also get for being more healthy and happy. >> Miss Cy, >> yes. Miss Fury, >> yes. >> Mr. Los, >> yes. >> Mentos, >> yes. >> Mr. Rat, >> yes. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mr. Dinto, >> yes. >> Mr. Ros, >> yes. >> Next on the agenda is the fresh motion. second. >> So, the committee

093met on August 19th. Um, the first thing we discussed was staffing updates and we anticipate being fully staffed with teachers by August 22nd. Currently, PAR professionals and lever replacements are nearly fully staffed. Transportation is fully staffed as well. The committee then discussed enrollment updates and class sizes. Enrollment in kindergarten and grade one at three bridges as well as grade four at Holland Brook steadily increased over the summer. White House and RMS enrollment remained stable during this period. Despite these increases, class sizes remain within the regulated range of 16 to 20 students. We then discussed revisions to the school counselor job descriptions for elementary and middle school. These descriptions have not been updated in some time and Mr. Tumulo requested revisions to better align the job descriptions with the actual roles. We discussed um that we

094should anticipate and accept new hires prior to tonight's meeting. Uh there were no personnel matters to discuss. Agenda items are new hires, resignations, school counselor, job descriptions, lateral movement on the guide on guide. And our next meeting was scheduled for Friday, September 19th at 8:30 a.m. Miss Cassidy. >> Yes. >> Mur. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Spencer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Strap. >> Yes. >> Next item is communication. We have one item to move. 601. Can I get a motion? I got a second. policy committee met on September 5th. The first we discussed was we had discussion of our policies that need more immediate attention. The committee discussed the pace in which we are moving through our policy tracking document. We close out the 2000 series and made our recommendations and

095then we decided to divide the remaining series up between each committee member instead of working through one series at a time. We will utilize the program to determine which policies are priority or most relevant to the district and enrollment. These are the policies that will be the focus when we need as a committee. The goal is to continuously review our policies in order to ensure management is current. The tracking document will allow future policy committees to continue this process and know where we left off. We then went through um the 2000 series. The following recommendations were made for policy 2240 controversial issues. We revisited previous suggestions and the point about including inviting invited speakers will incorporate our notes and bring the draft to us at the next meeting for policy 2310 grouping. No changes are

096needed and the policy march is reviewed. Policy 2312 class size to include prep this policy for policy 2330 home. This policy needs updating Dr. policy to the administrative team for consistency across all buildings and all grade levels. He also wants to consider including the new reading practice but would like to get input from the leadership team for policy 2340. Field trips include a statement that states all policies pertaining to student behavior during the school day are applicable while students participate in field trips and student behavior on field trip results in suspension or other disciplinary action. The principal will ensure that pupils not participating in a field trip will be provided legally rigorous educational experience during the normal school operating hours of the field trip including number of staff also to include number of staff members

097first show us policy 2360 technology needs updating to include items like software acquisitions external communications access to network information resources some of those may be in Our acceptable use policy that needs to also be reflected here policy 2362 acceptable use of computer network computers resources policy was open and didn't require any changes. It was noted by committee member that we should keep the same safety measures in reference to blocking and holding materials and visual depictions that are seen as defined in title 18 policy 2530 regarding resource materials from policy 2363 use of privately owned technology. No change is needed and this policy can be monitor 24 to12 home instruction due to health condition check to see if um out of school suspension instruction for offenses that are not health related needs to be covered here

098or if they are covered in the suspension policy for policy 24les at risk and policy that needs to be brought up to date and we're aligned back to us on this one as well for policy 2415.02 2 title one responsibilities no changes needed policy for 245.06 school choice option closer to this policy to see if we need to add section students whose victimization has affected their safety and abilities for policy 2415.2 no child left behind completes need to be updated to have your student succeeds act otherwise it's okay for policy 245.3 title one educational stability for children in foster care. This policy is governed by state law and any changes suggested such as allowing students exiting foster care to remain in district through the end of the school year similar to how other school districts

099do should be reviewed by our attorney. Policy 2416 programs for pregnant puples changes needed and marked as review. Policy 2418 section 504 of the rehabilitation act 1973 is needed and review for policy 2422 physical education. This policy is included in order 235 stress estimate of this policy and included items for each Pacific history contributions. Dr. refer to the alert for this specific updates for policy 2430 co-curricular activities to be more clear that students do go to our schools that do not students do not go to our schools they do not participate in our activities. For example, students who work in school have also clarified that we have activities in all schools, not just the middle school. For policy 2431 competition, no changes needed to review policy 2440 service. More discussion is needed with supervised reference

100example language back to us. Policy 2452, community education, recommended that this policy be a polished due to not leaving it and no other surrounding it. Policy 2460, special education, no changes needed to review. 2460.8 special education appropriate public education. This policy was added to our 2019. However, no other schools have it and is unclear as to why we added it in 2019. We will double check and see if this polished. Um, please make sure it's a mandate policy for policy 2461, special education and receiving schools. This policy should updated in April of 2022 because it was included in alert 227 and it is unclear why it has updated why it hasn't addressed district for policy 2464 students. No revisions needed public labor with disabilities. No need 2467 surrogate parents and foster parents needed 2468 independent

101educational evaluations with the ads to make sure we are in compiance with laws. 2481 or out of school instruction for a general education student for reasons other than a temporary or chronic health condition. Minor changes to language to change core curriculum standards to NJS for policy 2510 adoption of education materials. No changes needed for policy 2610 educational program evaluation. No changes needed. Policy 2530 resource materials. This policy needs to be reviewed. Members of the committee would like to to language regarding sexually explicit content inclusion of the new reading process and other items. However, stress is working on their draft policy that reflects the guidance that was recently passed down from the state based on the freedom to read act that will become law in December. We decided to be seated again on this policy for

102policy 2531 copy and copyright materials changes needed to review 2551 musical instruments need to clarify our language in regard to how our instruments are distributed will review this supervisor get back to us policy 2560 while animals in school check to see if any updated updates are needed and to make sure policy 2561 therapy No changes needed. 2624 grading system. No changes needed. 2631 New Jersey policy accountability. No changes needed. Acceptance need to be double checked for policy 2700 services to non school pupils. No changes needed. And for policy 427 punishment. This policy should be 400 series not for policy alert 235. um policy 0143400 collection of appointment and policy 1620 administrative employment contracts. These policy revisions are very straightforward and the environment adjustments will make the updates recommended in the alert. They will be on

103the agenda for tonight's meeting. Um policy 1636.01 notification of promotion of new job and transfer opportunities. This will be a new policy for us and it um is recommended to adopt because districts are now required to follow the procedures outlined in NJSA 346-23. We already follow this and policy 2422 statuto requirements for this policy was reviewed by committee during our review of the 2000 series and necessary as per the notes mentioned earlier. policy 1648.15 to keep it for healthare settings this committee previously review this policy decides to abolish it and just needs to be removed from the manual then another item we discussed was chain of command sample and discussion this was taken from our last meeting shared a copy of a nicely worded change of command document agrees that it will be helpful to

104share this with district parents and we'll come up with an actual plan to get this information out and the last item was social media presence in Facebook content is out there on the district page. We are encouraged to follow and follow as well as content will be coming out and our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 22. [Music] I have a question in regards to policy 2530 resource materials. Will that include now what the committee um decided in regards to the classroom books? >> Yeah, with the new reading policy >> we didn't make any changes to that one because we know that there are changes that are coming. But there were two places where I thought that the new reading practice review. One is support because it's practice to learn more and resource. I

105haven't >> Okay. No, I just wasn't sure if that was to be included or not. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? >> Mrs. Cas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Fer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Spencer. >> Yes. Yes, >> next item is business convention. >> Responses have responses from everyone except for one person. >> I think we have Sit five or six >> for some three days. Two days. Okay. Any following from [Laughter] Last item is motion. >> Mrs. Cassie, >> yes. >> Miss Fury, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Spencer. >> Yes. >> Brad. Yes. >> Yes. Yes.