001e e e you're right here next right there right here she distur from yeah good evening I'd like to call the meeting of the board of Scotch Plains family board of bed meeting to order roll call please miss barve here Miss Bower here M Boro here M Brody here Dr Kowski here miss serani Miss Winkler Miss Williams present Mr Murray thank you we did say the Pledge of Allegiance in earlier at our award ceremony so we will move forward with oh thank you executive session report talked about in exact um few minutes ago legal status Hib was also discussed and Personnel thank you now additions to the agenda there are none and we're moving along to the superintendent report Dr Mass so just very briefly we have um since our last meeting passed a referendum
002that we're very excited about and very very thankful to the community for for their support thank you Dr Mass we're moving along to Mr Jones yep thank you you're welcome um so yes so just quick update on the referendum um that you know we just so it's very new still of course and we're starting our planning process um we'll be putting out a timeline um next agenda our goal will be to you know have resolutions in order to uh start raising the funds um and then um we're also working on a uh communication strategy for the public and we'll uh most likely maintain uh the website we have for the referendum and then be able to provide updates on there for the community um so they can track progress uh over time um um but
003yeah so we're excited to get going a lot of work but uh very excited uh and we're of course deep in in budget season and we'll do our uh budget presentation uh the next board meeting are you going to share the your yes oh yeah we have the results on the agenda tonight as well and these are these are Now official they just went official this week so thank you Mr moving along to our business administrative report that was it okay thank you the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted okay okay thank you the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted on
004in accordance with the provisions of this act the Scotch Plain family board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time in place thereof posted at the Board of Education offices looted located at 313 South Avenue food New Jersey such notice was also provided in written notice forwarded the Union County Hawk The Star Ledger the Township Clerk of Scotch Plains and the burough Clerk of Fanwood in the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings as adopted April 25th 2024 and Revis August 27 2024 next is the student representative report yeah so right now we are um well into the third marking period or a few weeks into the third marking period um and students are getting ready and adjusting for you know the second half of the Year getting
005to towards the home stretch but in the beginning of February at the high school we had the lanyard requirement started so students are required to wear lanyards with their IDs um around school at all time and I think it's going pretty well from a student perspective um another fun thing happening at the high school right now is the exchange trip so students are currently on the plane back from Spain and they spend 10 days exploring Barcelona alongside their exchange families and it was really exciting experience for them since they also got to see a lot of um of Madrid as well and immersing themselves in Spanish culture and today the Italian um students um left at 12:00 pm on their plane to Italy so they're going to have a lot of fun exploring a similar
006experience in a different country as well and for sports girls basketball be watching Hills on their senior night and the SF hockey team won its first ever Kelly cup beating Montclair Kimberly Academy 4 to1 nice nice last night at the high school was um our choir Department's Cabaret night and that's kind of like a Broadway night where we perform Broadway medy and their solos and we raised money for the Emanuel Cancer Foundation and we raised over $1,000 just last night from donations from audience members so it's always a great event supporting a charity and also in the music department we have Freaky Friday the musical opening in three weeks from today and you can get your ticket it's now and earlier tonight the cast members of Freaky Friday went and saw into the woods dress
007rehearsal at netting ham and that opens tomorrow night and runs this weekend and it was a great show I was so impressed with the quality and the performances um and it's really great to see shows at other schools in the district so I really recommend everyone get out and see that this weekend and Freaky Friday as well thank you thank you in in accordance with Scotch Plains family with Public Schools bylaws 0164 and 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comments maximum three minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions and other board business will be heard first if time remains speaker speakers May address other matters speakers please State your full name in the town in which you reside and please note boards use the public comment period as
008an opportunity to to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or cross cross-examination between the public and individual members be aware that not all issues brought before a board will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issues to the superintendent or his or her designate thank you if you like to speak please come to the podium State your full name and the town in which you reside Gary Morris Fanwood um I've been to these uh obviously you know I've been to a lot of Board of Ed meetings and I started thinking how could I possibly give back to my community so I I I took some uh some of my
009Tik Tock money and I invested in uh in a gift for one of the Board of Ed members so is [Laughter] for drop off yes every see here now in order for you to keep that when you make the announcement at the end of every meeting you have to wear that okay this is going to be this is going to be recorded this is going to be a a good viral moment for you I support that there you go um real quick uh one thing I I wanted to talk about the in the in the last meeting I I think um everybody can do Monday morning quarterbacking and everything like that but just for future reference anyway if we're going to have if you know something is going to be divisive I think it would
010be good to um possibly have more than one microphone set up so that you could kind of keep sides not intermingling and everything like that I think that caused a little unnecessary tension if they had two mics at one one at the end of each aisle and allowed each side going back and forth kind of I think might might have been better um and the the 30 minute thing was really um and I understand you're kind of trying to go on the Fly and um allowing allowing it to go over 30 minutes was unjust to people who know the rules like myself who were there I would have preferred to talk about the Board of Ed uh uh topics that night but I was like I I I didn't think there was any way with
011all these people that I would be able to do it and then the rules were changed that well if you were in line you were allowed to talk that wasn't fair to people who knew what the rules were because there was no point in lining up after the 10th person doing you're a math teacher right word math after 10 people you're like 10 time three that's all you're going to get why would anybody be the 20th person in line um not realizing that they would have an opportunity to speak so I in the future if that's I if it's at all possible um rather than change the rules on the Fly is make the rules known to everybody right at the beginning that hey if it's going to go over 30 minutes um we will
012extend it if you're still in line um because again there was there was one lady who got there late had no idea that things had changed she wanted to talk and we we spent five minutes telling somebody they can't talk when she was only going to talk for three minutes um again I think it I think it makes it fair for everybody if the the rules are consistent throughout um and uh and I know I've been I've been to Westfield and they they allow as long as it takes they'll let every single person speak um and I I know that could be uh very difficult when there's a lot of people but obviously on a night like this it's it's not so difficult so uh just something to keep in mind keep the rules consistent
013throughout so that it's fair to everybody thank you Mr Morris sure anyone else would like to make a comment seeing none move on to additional reports um letters to the board there were 16 emails were received by the public by by the board and were sent to the appropriate administrator next committee reports do we have any reports I have a curriculum report um we had our curriculum meeting on February 11th um we had four agenda items we talked about the New Jersey child assault child assault prevention program um Christen iusi discussed a grant funded program that fulfills erands law requirement requiring sexual abuse prevention education in schools um this is also fulfilled in parts of the health curriculum um this grant that we received is being um piloted in the element schools right now um
014and it comes with a training for for parents so that they know that it's happening and then it's rolled out to the students um this program was observed in other districts and piloted first and now SPF is participating um this grant involves training train facilitators visiting classes grades prek through six and they do role plays teaching kids to talk to trusted adults they first start by educating parents and sou and with separate workshops um we also talked with um Jennifer sooth about the creative summer workshop course offering which is I mean so many of the courses seem really exciting um they're for k through eight um the the the um registration process should start early March after we approve it's on our agenda tonight um then we talked about U Dr mgar talked to us
015about the high impact tutoring uh grant that we had received last year um we have some money left over from it and we have we've been allowed to use it to run a smaller scale program because we've seen a lot of improvement in our students um but this time we are focusing on mathematics only um and then the fourth agenda item was that NJ cusac was coming through which they have come through since we spoke they were coming the day after we spoke um and you know every all the administrative team everyone was was in charge of planning for that preparing for that and um they were very very feeling very positive about the visit our next meeting is March 4th 2025 thank you m Harve any other committee reports two the first is finance
016we reviewed the tentative budget the governor's addresses Tuesday and we will find out our final funding numbers by Thursday or Friday the budget was prepared with the Assumption of being flat but there is a real threat that we could lose up to 3% salary high high you know bulleted marks are salary increases 2.9% based on the salary guides health benefits the quote came in at 21% increase and Mr Jones will be working on negotiation negotiating that lower and they going out to bid Transportation came in a little under budget this year next year changes in Roots have saved um have saved us money which is a u reduction of 88.2% the pur pension contribution is State mandated we have no control over the increase of 10% utilities are estimated at 4.1% increase maintenance and grounds
017includes Roofing HVAC repairs and Paving taken from which would be taken from maintenance Reserve at 11.4% technology is estimated at 3.4% increase special services such as OT and PT um there are price increases from the vendors resulting in a 6.4% increase and these are some of the categories with the larger increases or decreases the budget figures are contingent on the final healthare figures and the amount of State funding and I want to thank Mr Jones and his staff for all the hard work in getting all these figures together it takes a lot of work we see like just like two pages in numbers but there's like millions of numbers behind those so thank you very much for that um Community Relations Committee um we we uh went over the good news from the superintendent's leison
018meeting we were addressing the emails from the last Bo meting regarding Israel and Palestine and discuss the method and emails Dr M has responded to and um the decision was made not to respond to the mass emails um we want to thank the community for the for your support for the GL school um and the schools is slated to be opened by 2026 we also did a 2526 school calendar comparison between Clark scpls Fanwood Westfield and Cranford as to Wi off bar and we're actually really the outlier really is Clark we're pretty much on the same uh path as SC as Westfield andan and that is it you questions thank you thank you any other committee reports okay moving along to enrollment report y um so you see attached um enrollment report we are up
019again another seven this month so continuing study coin thank you moving right along to our superintendent report thank you that's you so out of District placement we do not have any I for item two the hibs move that the board approves the six hibs discussed in exec on January 23rd of those six one was found to be hip three um move that we approve the field trips that are listed I'm going to go into personnel as well and I ask that the board approved the the Personnel report that was presented in a exac second y Dr Kowski yes Miss Murray I mean Murray M Murray sorry Mrs Boral yes uh Miss Brody yes uh Miss Bower yes Miss Williams yes Miss Barb yes motion passes motion passes thank you Mr Jones moving along to um
020board business yes okay so number one staff training uh number two related Services number three is execution of the option agreement to purchase 330 South a um it's just a no money changes hand just saying formally recognizing we're moving forward with the purchase number four is our standard agreement for uh Somerset County transportation we use for as needed um sort of a backup uh for our main we use Union County transportation but we use summer if Union County cannot accommodate for special education students uh five library book disposal um six theater vendor um and then seven through 10 are uh normal monthly approvals Fire and Security drills Financial reports dispersement listings and payment of the bills can I get a motion to approve so move second who the second Nancy Nancy thank you thank you
021Mr Jones moving along to board policies the report if if you have the report read it um I just we move that the board approves the second and final read of the following policies um P 5512 the harassment intimidation and bullying policy P 5533 student smoking um P 7441 electronic surveillance and school buildings and on school grounds P 9320 cooperation with law enforcement agencies P 5111 eligibility of Resident and non-resident students p546 High School graduat ation P 5516 use of electronic devices p571 0 student grievance and P 9163 spectator code of conduct for inter Scholastic events thank you can I get a motion for the following policiy so move second any discussion we think we talked about them when when we did the first read okay thank you okay and can we get can I
022get a approval of the all say I I'll say I whatever I'll say I I all opposed any opposed thank you motion passes yeah moving along to our board minutes can I get a motion to approve the January 23rd 2025 regular public meeting minutes so second and Nancy Nancy second oh thank you thank you Nancy um all those in favor all those in favor I any opposed motion thank you motion passes nice yeah I remember that F I'll let him know thank you um new board business seeing none any lay on reports I have one um CAG held their last meeting um on February 10th um and it was fabulous um I want Lisa rimus um thank you for coordinating and having um leadership from all of our schools pretty much there um I know
023that the parents were able to ask just an enormous amount of questions on um the differences between the schools and how things are looking for the future and um it was a great opportunity to speak with um our principals and our case studies so um the next meeting is March 24th and that is going to be a parent and caregiver only meeting and so as a reminder that just means that no admin will be there um so parents can and um Talk amongst themselves and um our team can gather feedback to bring back to the district so that's that thank you thank you resolutions I have I have le on oh I'm sorry um I just wanted to report on the Garden State Coalition of schools uh meeting which was uh yesterday um the guest
024speaker was assembly woman beoli who represents distri 27 um and the format of the meeting really was um a Q&A with her for the first part of the meeting um the first question was what was she hearing from legisl legislators about the current changes and uncertainties um and she talked about the fact that legislators are concerned um across the board not only about education and certainly within education special ed um but um that um there may be New Jersey gets 27 billion dollar for the um Department of well the department a lot of the positions in the department of Ed are funded from that 27 billion and there's um a belief that a lot of the funding that will come to the Department of Ed will come with strings attached um and um the next
025question related to food insecurity and food supply chain issues um and how those might affect uh the cost of meals in the district and free and reduced lunch and and so forth and she went on to say that um all the cuts will affect everything in the budget because you know if medicare's cut if technology prices rise if um you know the cost of food increases um you really look at transportation and the availability of drivers or the cost of U materials to repair or buy new vehicles so that really it's not special ed of course everyone's worried about but it really could affect every area of the school budget um and um then she the next question was related to um um the more about the budget the fact that budgets are tied in
026the state um and um but one of the things she said is that the governor the current governor and of course there's an election for governor next year but the current governor has said that New Jersey will litigate in order uh when necessary when necessary in order to keep um the current New Jersey way of life uh is what she said there was discussion of the funding formula which precedes precedes the current funding formula was in place before the 2% cap so there was discussion about if all of these costs go up and we're struggling as it is to live within the 2% cap um what how how do you do that um and and um so there was discussions about the formula and the cap um and um she promised to come back because
027actually she was going on ended up her schedule change she was on her way to a meeting with the governor um and then the meeting went on and um some of the uh things that are um oh she did also mention that one of the recent uh I guess executive orders was ending the teacher pipeline program uh that was in place to encourage more people to go into teaching in which we know we have a shortage of teachers so just a lot happening very quickly um she went on to say that there's a lot happening also uh in the legislature um and it's um all kinds of bills and potential bills and so forth um so I would encourage everyone to and there have been a lot of great articles Garden State has had in
028uh the buzz that they send out uh and so I would suggest people read that um like the he he Hecker report I never say it correctly uh recently was talking about uh the US uh not uh contributing funds to be a part of the international testing anymore like nape and so forth so there's just a lot coming down and and I would encourage everyone to read the articles um you're all on the Garden State mailing list I think are do you receive them I email them I have not I'm not I'm not on it yet okay so I will definitely you're looking at me and I'm I'm like how do you know that so I I will double check that for you but everybody El I think receives the uh emails from Garden State
029so that's the report as of yesterday thank you Mrs um I have a um Amy Winkler report to read she G read that one NOP good ahead okay um it's for the Union County School boards association meeting that she attended um one thing is the Union County we have upcoming executive committee elections for for the school board for the county um there the njsba has launched a new newsletter capital which will follow legislation that could affect education in schools um so you guys should be receiving that into in your your inboxes um you're as a Boe member and part of the njsba you can attend County meetings from all over the state so especially in the winter when they're virtual that might be something you know if there's a topic that you want more information
030about um the new requirement for Boe nomination nominating petitions is now 25 signatures instead of 10 um and then they had David Nash the director of legal education and National Outreach come and he spoke about the rise in student behavior issues Hib bias Ai and Beyond um talking about bullying versus conflict um what the boe's role is which is to promote safe environments establish policies conduct hearings when requested and then vote on Hib actions um the parental rights are a right to of not to notification of Investigation right to a hearing if requested right to see information gathered with names if unless they're redacted uh right to come forward and share additional information um right to appeal the decision to the commissioner but they they do not have the right to be present for interviews
031to prohibit interviews or to receive advanced notice of interviews um the NJ dooe oh said that already um and they also talked about HIV and mental health and the mental health of both the targets and the aggressors um you know a School Employees um must report um especially if they believe an act a bias related Act is about to be committed in the schools um a a false report of HIV by the alleged aggressor of a previous HIV as a retaliation of that previous HIV is actually itself HIV which I thought was interesting um and you don't need to find a distinguishing characteristic for it to be HIV then if it's like a you know um and then he I think also addressed some of the things coming out of Washington that we might be
032we as as as a board of ed might be cons uh concerned about um he talked about you know under the Equal protections Clause it ensures the right to public education regardless of citizenship status um in the njlad it includes specific protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation so if things are are are rescinded it's we as a state still have those protections um and then similarly um equity and and you know how we are we still have that in place because of our state laws and that's kind of it we have an end uh an unsung heroes meeting coming up in March and then the vote and recognition of years of service meeting in May you thank you a lot yes you did a good job any other committee reports liaison reports don't
033no just okay thank you resolution for you resolution youth art month I move make resolution make make a motion make a motion that the board of Board of Education adopts the following youth art month so Mo thank you there second second inor in favor all in favor I I any oppos motion passes it's my favorite part next public comment in accordance with Scotch Plains Family Public Schools bylaws 0164 and 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comments maximum three minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent super intendent items business functions and other board business will be heard first if time remains speakers May address other matters speakers please State your full name and the town in which you reside um please step up to the mic Gary Morris Fanwood I'm only gonna
034speak if you gavel me after I'm done I think that would be pretty cool if you just give me that would be cool um real quick on on the Staffing at the new school I I I've I've sent an email about the possibility of of of maybe transferring a nurse from the high school over there so that that would be one less um uh position that would a new position that would be need to be filled and I've I've done a lot of more thinking about the possibility of it being considered an Annex of mcin again so they could share the principle and just to put this in perspective the property here uh from one end to the other for the the high school is actually shorter than the distance between LR and M in
035fact it's approximately the distance between those two schools is approximately the length of our track 400 meters it's really not that far um so to have to have an administrator that can manage both of those I don't think is uh that an out outrageous a thing and maybe when I said it originally I was like I I was kind of thinking out loud and the more I thought about it I'm like it kind of kind of makes sense a little bit and especially with us needing to tighten our belts and and be budget friendly and everything like that and and again we want we want as much of the money going into uh helping the kids uh you know uh be educated um secondly um when we do when we do the enrollment reports would
036it be possible to make the enrollment report rather than say plus seven is say it's it's a net increase of seven versus this is our official number in October and so that and this is our total now and again this is just so that it's on top of mine that people understand if if we're you know starting to go up a lot somebody just watching this meeting and hearing plus seven that they don't know they don't know the impact of that where we were you know a year ago what where we were in October we want to see like so that you could see if it's if it's leveling off if it's if it's going down we want to see that because if saying seven new students doesn't necessarily mean you could have had seven
037students also leave so it's not necessarily a net increase that's the way I look at it um another quick thing co uh there's a covid vaccine uh question on the athletic form is is that still necessary I'm not really sure if is is that implying that you can't be on a team if you're not vaccinated why do they need to know if a child is has the covid vaccine at this point when it's pretty much not needed and and I I think it's I think it's kind of just a carryover from the pandemic not needed probably should lose that because there's going to be some parent thinking like oh maybe my kid won't make the team if he doesn't get vaccinated and he may not need that vaccination thank you Mr Morris okay one one
038last thing I always want to do a plug for um Community College we talk about the um uh you know becoming teachers one of the most significant barriers to becoming a teacher is the cost and we really need to talk to the kids about Community College it is an incredible opportunity again very few people realize if you finish in the top 15% of your class in your junior or senior year in high school Community College in New Jersey is free it doesn't get any better than that and it's a great way to encourage kids to do well in class because they can go to Community College for free and it's and it's I can't say enough the the Union College is awesome I can't say enough good things about it please do what you can
039to encourage kids it makes it so much easier for families to afford things thank you for your comment Mr Mars there you go yes thank you our next upcoming scheduled meetings Thursday March 13th is our regular public meeting at 8 o'clock in the scotch L bwood high school media center and we have exec at 7:30 and Thursday April 24th our regular public meeting will be at 8:00 in the spfhs media center exec will start at 7:30 and do we have anything for the good of the order I Mr Dr but um I had the honor of being participant at the career exploration program that Miss Sarah Durand uh put together at netting ham Middle School on February 7th it was very well organized there were over 30 speakers of varying uh occupations that these students
040rotated three classes with two to three speakers for each class the students were very organized the teachers were very helpful moving the students from room to room and it was just a fabulous afternoon and I I so look forward to participating every year that I have ever since they've been running it and it was excellent this year excellent so thank you thank you for sharing Dr Kowski and I have something I just wanted to follow up on uh Grace mentioning the hockey team and uh the Kelly cup um it's I think especially auspicious because this is the 20th year uh since the team was founded and um I I wanted to uh just share the um some of the uh commentary um about about the uh Kelly cup that was in the news it says
041in one of the greatest turnarounds in local sports history SPF won the Kelly Cup last last night just one season after going 0 to 11 in the Kelly division last led by Anthony Lauren Zetti's eighth career hat trick uh the Raiders now 174 and three put together a dramatic come from behind flurry that SC saw them score four goals in the final six minutes um so it was a very exciting game um and Dr Mass and I were uh were had uh the good luck of being there actually we saw several games in a row but it was a very it was a very exciting game and I just wanted to recognize them and that the accomplishment happens at an auspicious time and since Mrs Bower isn't mentioning this I would just like to say
042in that founding team 20 years ago her her son was on the hockey team and and so so there there there is a personal connection and very good energy that she brought to that match yeah sure that was it and in addition to that this is one of the sports that we uh invested in and added a coach so I think uh you're seeing some of that come through yes well I will also say that they led the way for all these other sports like lacrosse and all that followed too that's right thank you I have one there there was um a program that was here at the high school uh Dr Hines and Dr dumes organized it and they had a team of teachers who worked with them and it was around um John
043Jonathan hay his book on the anxious generation and the parents actually came with their kids and before the evening was over they they started off by learning about the the research of how um screen time can really happen have um a negative impact if it isn't managed well and at the end of the evening the parents and the kids came together to um pick one thing that they could do without screen time just just to make a change in their life and it was like one of those classrooms that you you live for when like the Bell Rings no one's leaving like that happened with the parents and the kids working on ways to just better manage their social media time so um really hats off to Dr dumes and Dr Hines for putting together
044an extraordinary program thank you okay while she's putting that on I will also add that um our she's impersonating cross I am our elementary schools also also um had a number of Multicultural nights where um parents brought their their their um diverse cultures and there was um just celebrations and opportunities to learn did did you go to CO's I I ours is happening later in April I believe okay ail I just put it on the I just put onal remember thank you anyone else have anything for the good of the order may I get ation to so [Music] moved those favor oh all those in favor hi a got to Cal this down did really nice your color too so much agenda we already have like a Col