001Right. I call to order regular meeting of the Wong Burough School District Board of Education. It is August 28th, 2025 at 7:10 p.m. Um, can everyone stand for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Music] >> Welcome to a meeting of the board of education of the bureau of Wan. Please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to publican media consistent with the open public's meeting act chapter 231 laws of 1975 and that the advanced notice required therein has been provided. This is a regular meeting of the board of education of the bureau of watch at which formal action may be taken.
002This meeting is being livereamed on the district website where a recording of the meeting will also be posted. The public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board. Recording or photographing other than for private personal use requires the consent of parents or guardians whose children may be included in the image. Mrs. Bishop Johnson, can we get a roll call, please? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Zamado. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mrs. Harvey >> here. >> Mrs. Duet >> here. >> Mr. Craft >> here. >> Mrs. Maddox >> here. >> Mrs. Santos >> here. >> Okay. And Mrs. Aguero >> here. >> Mr. Frraasier and Mr. Gonzalez are absent. >> Thank you. We're going to open up our public hearing into
003amendments, revisions to the contract of employment between Wong Burough Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Julie Glazer. The Wong Burough School District Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Julie Glazer, previously entered into a contract of employment for the term of August 28th, 2023 to June 30th, 2028. There is no change to the term. The board wishes to maintain Dr. Glazer in the position of superintendent of schools. The BOE became aware of sever several typographical calculation errors and omitted items in the original contract and detailed cost statement and in executive session September 19th, 2024 agreed to correct the detailed statement of contract costs. In executive session on June 26, 2025, the BOE agreed to further amend and revise Dr. Glazer Dr. Glazer's contract to make additional limited amendments and revisions. The
004correction and revisions are as followed. Typographical errors, calculations, and omissions for contractual cell phone, computer, disability insurance, professional dues, and professional learning have been corrected and are reflected in the revised detail cost statement. Family leave, a state requirement that was omitted in the original contract, has now been added to the contract language. Travel expense reimbursement for her vehicle in the performance of Dr. Glazer's duties, $100 per month, has been added to the contract. There will be no additional reimbursement paid except for mileage outside of Somerset County. The amendments are as followed follows. Additional amendments are related to salary. An additional 0.8% will be added retroactively for the 2024 2025 school year. There is no change for 2025 2026. In years 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028, salary increase salary will be increased 3% in
005each year. This is a change from the original contract which was 2% in each year. Pursuant to NJSA18 A7-8J and NJAC6A col23A-3.1A2. Any proposed amendment, renegotiation or alteration to the contract of employment of the superintendent of schools must be reviewed and approved by the executive county superintendent. The proposed amendments and revisions to Dr. Glazer's contract of employment were submitted to the Executive County Superintendent of the New Jersey Department of Education, Somerset County Office for review and approval prior to tonight's hearing. The approved re revised contract is attachment one on tonight's public agenda. In addition to review and approval by the executive county superintendent as required by NJSA 18A1-11 and NJAC 6A col23A-3.1C. [Music] The BOE provided 30 days advanced notice of its intent to take action to amend, renegotiate, and or alter the terms and
006conditions of the contract of employment with the superintendent of schools and notice of this public hearing. Notice of the board's intent to take action and of tonight's public hearing were provided to the public by a publication in the district's official newspapers on July 21st, 2025 and publication on the district's public website every day for the period beginning on July 21st, 2025 to the present. The public hearing is now open. This will be an opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed amendments and revisions to Dr. Glazer's contract of employment. We welcome input from the public. There are three times during this meeting when the public is invited to speak. The first opportunity to comment on the revised contract of employment of the superintendent of schools is now. The second opportunity for public comment will
007be on agenda items only. This will follow the committee reports. The third opportunity for public comment is towards the end of the meeting. Total time allotted for public comment is 30 minutes. Before you make your comment, please state your name and municipality of residence. In the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting may exceed 30 minutes, the presiding officer may limit each statement made by a participant to 3 minutes duration. Our public forums are not structured as a question and answer session, but rather are offered as opportunities to share input with the board. In instances where the board feels a response is needed, the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comment. New Jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss personnel or hiring in public session. Names of students should
008not be used. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for comments that they make to the board. The board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public. Are there any comments from the public? Seeing that there are none, I'm closing the public comment se session and I make a motion to approve amendments revisions to contract of employment between the Wong Burough Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Julie Glazer. [Music] >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Have a roll call, please. Okay. Mrs. Amado, >> yes. Mrs. Harvey, >> yes. >> Mrs. Maddox, >> yes. >> Mrs. Santos, >>
009yes. >> Mr. Craft, >> yes. >> Mrs. Duet, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Agliero, >> yes. >> Uh, Mr. Fra and Mr. Gonzalez are absent. The motion passes. >> Thank you. move on to our presentations portion. Can we get a referendum update from Connor O'Brien from Legacy Construction Management? >> Good evening. Um, I just wanted to give an update for some of the projects that we are finishing up and to close out as well as the outdoor learning commons which is right out here and an update with the sports uh fields for Valley View as well. So, the HVAC project I'm just going to have a presentation just looping through the photos for the exterior so um so people who weren't able to see the progress can get an idea what stages we went through.
010So, but for the HVAC portion of the project that has been ongoing for some time, we are substantially complete into the closeout phase. Um, the contractor, we're working through some punch list items and some contract items. There was a mold issue that arised uh during the summer that was resolved. Um, we are working with the engineers as well as the contractor to make sure that Wong School District is not responsible for that cost. Um it's going to be some time before we work that out and resolve that. That is um that cost to resolve that issue as well as do the testing to make sure that it was cleared and safe for everybody to come back in um is not going to be the responsibility of watch. It just will take some time to work
011through that. Um so with that being said with the HVAC we are not probably being closed out for a while because we have to hold back certain amount of money so we can make sure that it's resolved before everything is paid out. So that's the status of the HVAC. Um, we are working through as problems do arise, if there's issues with a pump or if there's issue with controls that Ricky comes across, we call the contractor out. They're still under the warranty phase, if it gets uh accepted with the substantial completion. So, they still have a responsibility. They can't walk away even though we're working through an issue. So, just so everybody's aware of how that works through. Um, as regards to the outdoor learning commons, again, there was some photos that were going through.
012Um, it is progressing very well. Um, we've lucked out with the weather. We lucked out with a very good contractor. Um, as well as the oversight and on-site presence, not only with legacy, but also making sure the architect answers things efficiently. We knew it was a tough schedule. I think the last time I told you guys here in May was that was very likely going to go into the school year. We wanted as much of the messy, dirty work done. We got very close but it was a push and we knew coming into it was going to be very tough to do. Um but um from the construction side and I believe um a lot of administration have been able to be part of meetings and see everything. The overall sentiment is very happy and
013pleased with the what is coming out as well as the progress. Um so that is still going to be going through the concrete pores um for the next week. Um, there's daily on-site meetings that I know Legacy, the contractor, Mrs. Bishop is involved with, Karen Kidd is involved with, um, as well as Ricky to make sure that things keep efficiently moving and the answers come in quick so we can limit interaction and the disturbance to the school. There was a lot of coordination meetings to make sure that when the kids do go outside to the fields that they properly can get out there. We time the trucks um at certain times so they don't interact and if there is forever reason a reason to interact. There's safety measures put in place where they walk the
014trucks through the area, make sure teachers are not allowing kids to come across and there's also provisions put in place if there's a emergency whether it's a fire alarms go off so that there's no issues. So that's been heavily coordinated with several meetings coming up to this point. the canopy system that will get put in place that will happen over the next several weeks. Obviously, we have to get the concrete taken care of and that will come in later. As I said back in May, this will probably carry into, you know, September, October time. That's still what we're projecting. So, we'll keep pushing. Contractor wants to get out of here. Um, that's how they get paid more as they get done faster. So, that's that's where we are with the outdoor learning commons, the sports
015fields. Um, as we talked about previously, the budget, keep an eye on the finances. We're getting to the point we're very comfortable and we're going to start moving forward with some of those projects. They were always as alternates. So, we are looking, we're at a comfortable place with outdoor learning commons. We don't expect any additional overages or any unforeseen changes because we're out of ground. So, um, working with Mrs. Bishop, we're working with the architect to ensure that the pricing that we did get is still valid through the co-op. Um the initial information we got back is that it is so I believe in very soon scheduling we'll move moving forward and releasing those projects. So um as much as we can fit in with the budget and the remaining referendum um that's still to
016be determined but we're going to start moving forward. So that's where we currently are with those those projects. Any questions? >> Okay. I just care about that outside field when that's going to be done. I want the kids to get out there and play. >> They're they're able to access right now. There's no restrictions um with that. And again, the coordination even with the fields hoping we were able to do them during the summer into the school year. Um there was communications with uh the principal that they would still have access to certain areas. So even when that work happens, it's not going to close down the entire field. So they'll still be able to safely have some areas to use. >> They need a place to go. >> Thank you, Connor. >> Thank you.
017>> Moving on to our presentation on strategic plan goals with Gwen Thornton from the New Jersey School Boards Association and Dr. Julie Glazer. to be here. >> Go ahead. Do you want to I actually I want to do the strategic plan, but I think you were going to talk about some of the board norm stuff. >> Yes. >> I want to I think it ties together and maybe >> it it really does tie together. Thank you for the opportunity. Um as you know, um I was reading through your goals and I really want to commend you for developing such wonderful board goals. I really think it speaks to how your commitment to professional development to continuous improvement. I think it's a wonderful model for your staff, for your community, and I want to congratulate you
018on that. We know that stable boards of education with consistent leadership at the administrative level and at the board level makes a huge difference in the lives of students. So, I wanted to thank you for setting those goals. I'm going to be coming back in to talk about setting board norms and protocols um that I think will further enable you to be even more effective than you currently are in terms of um having a set of shared expectations around how we behave and act and work at committee meetings, before a meeting, during a meeting, after a meeting. And having those shared norms also makes it easier for when you have new board members that come on to the board to better be able to be hit the ground running and be effective because then there's
019a shared understanding of what that looks like. Um so I look forward to doing that with you all in October. Um and I just wanted to add that to the strategic planning piece. Thank you. >> Hey everybody. Hey everybody. I'll talk softer. Um we have had the really wonderful fortune. Some of you are here tonight, so thank you for that, too. Of engaging in a communitywide conversation about not just the expectations that we have for the Wong Burough School District, what our aspirations, what our goals are, and how we're going to manifest that over the next 3 to 5 years. We um started this process back in January actually, right after the um reorganization meeting. We had three public um town hall sessions and we were fortunate to have not just our staff and community
020members and board members, but also students, also our burough leadership, the mayor and council members. We had our community um partners from the library, from um the garden club, from the senior centers, from the textier house. It made for a really full conversation. And over the course of the three meetings, we not only identified the strengths that the school district has, and there are many, many strengths, we also looked at the vision, where we want to grow, where we would hope to be 3 to 5 years into the future. And that conversation was really future um driven. the third public session, we we called it bucketizing. I don't think that's a real word, but that's what we called it. We took all of those different um ideas and put those into groups to come up
021with four priority focus areas and objectives under each of those areas. and those become right what we are going to do over the next 3 to 5 years. Um, and that's what we're going to share. Did you want to talk any more about the process? Did I I don't know if I missed anything. >> No, I think you captured it very well. Um, and I think it was wonderful having done them here in Wong more than once um through the years. We won't talk about how many years um but through the years this was really a very robust conversation that was had among many different stakeholders that was that were not always present. So it was really wonderful to see that kind of turnout um and the diversity of all of those voices being heard
022is so important for moving the district forward. >> I agree. I um was fortunate to be able to address the staff Tuesday morning when they came back um share with them the priority areas and really acknowledge um the effort to be candid. It is not always easy to be within a system to be part of wanting everything to be enhanced and still having to recognize um what we need to do where we need to grow what resources we need to have that input um the input of our administration you have Mrs. Vickner the principal from Bayberry School, Miss Kidd the principal from Valley View School. We also had director of special services Nicole Doto. Aaron who I know is back there in the glass participated and shared with us in our technology pieces a a
023full and robust conversation as part of that. Um, and since I see you here tonight, um, some of our community members who raised really important questions, this is great to set these goals, these ideas for the next five years. Hello. Um, to have these important conversations and to really capture the aspirations of the community, but beyond that, is there a budget? Are there the resources? are there um truly opportunities to put this into place and those conversations I think were equally as valuable. I know you were there for some of those and just to comment since that that's been raised multiple times as we take the goals as we take those objectives as we turn the priority focus areas into specific measurable um attainable timebound right opportunities over the next three to five years. We
024are also looking at that as part of the budget conversation. We were already starting these town halls and public conversations. When we were doing this year's budget, we were able to take some of the things that were identified in this year, staffing, um, resources, opportunities for culture and climate to be able to survey and in put those incorporate those into our current budget. We were able to starting from our first days of school with staff hit the ground running on professional learning to support the curriculum writing that has happened last year and over the summer to support the changes to scope and sequence to be able to look at um our strategies to be able to look at our programs. You're going to hear every single month, not at this level, not in depth, what
025is happening, right? To continue to move forward. I am also, again, this is a board compliment, really um pleased, excited. I I'm not sure what that feeling is, but you're going to start to see those goals included on our board agendas, on our regular board meeting agendas. The board will have those included on their committee agendas. So, always the district goals, the board goals, those focus priority areas are top of mind. the work that we're doing, the goals that we set are going to be defining our work and it is tied together. Again, I know from that school board standpoint, I want to give you that chance to add into that because that is the >> what is so valuable because you will be able to prioritize because some of the >> some of the
026objectives will obviously have higher costs, greater impact, some may have lower cost and you will be able to Prioritize those, put them into your budget and look and make sure that you are optimizing every opportunity to move forward on those goals in a way that makes sense for them. >> Thank you. The other thing um that we've been talking about, we came up with all of this. The first goal um you might remember and we'll get to the presentation in a second. um student achievement goals. With that, it came to the four that even though we talked about the district vision, even though the conversation was we really like our vision, we think that this, you know, captures what um the Watung Burough School District mission goals are as we've presented right those four areas.
027student achievement, culture, climate, um a commitment to continuous learning. It became clear um that student achievement is not mentioned in the vision. If you um if you if you look at the you look at the top of our sorry if you look at the top of our agenda every single meeting the vision statement is printed right there. We put it out there. It's on the it's the first or second slide of every presentation we do regardless of what the topic is. The Wong Burough School District is committed to inspiring learners to explore, inquire, and collaborate on their joyful journey toward discovery, independent thinking, and creative problem solving. Works perfectly. We love that. Our culture of acceptance and inclusion provides the foundation for learning and social and emotional growth. again ties directly into what we've said
028is important to our students, our staff, our community. Through reflection and ethical decisionmaking, we continue to learn and grow, embrace differences, and prepare for an increasingly complex, everchanging world that also captures the capacity building, captures the lifelong learning. At no point do we talk about academic achievement. We um heard that very clearly at our June meeting. We spent some time going back to our meeting notes. Honestly, oops. Going back to our um meeting notes and really saying maybe we should be looking at the vision. Maybe we do need a continued conversation or a revision or um a deeper discussion. We prepared a um survey, one of our thought exchange surveys on vision to really say that we are capturing um much of what we're trying to do. putting that vision out there and asking, "Hey
029community, is this the vision that we want um to put forth at every meeting, on every agenda, in every presentation, we were all set to send it out." And then I was um again reminded that it is summer. We didn't have a July board meeting. We weren't coming together until the end of August. And would it be possible, is it possible to hold that off until after tonight's goal celebration? And yes, so that will come out. I do want to make sure um that we reiterate during all three sessions, including the first um state of the district session back in January. The idea, the phrase, I'll say the phrase, excellence on the hill was embraced again. It's come forward as something not a motto, not just words on the page or part of our logo
030or um that, but truly as a meaningful aspirational goal um a high standard, right? that that again our staff, our families, um our students, our community strives for it is a call to action, I would say. Um and again during all of the conversations it became very clear that despite um our schools being recognized um nationally despite our um progress, our accomplishments, obviously we are always continuing to grow and learn. So as a district we are going to continue to do work around this. We will put out that survey get the full community like we have been doing not just our families but through the um burough nixel to take that input and perhaps add to our vision revise our vision. Look at your face. You are like >> excited >> glowing over. I know
031at home they can't see you. I'll move out of the way. Maybe they can see you. um because I know that um many people right have have brought this forward and we wanted to make sure that we said we would be continuing to do work around this. I I love that it is not just words or a motto that it is aspirational because even all of our goals, right? Even all of our priority focus areas when we get to that, it becomes um meaningful, right? We we all know what our goal is. We we are going to to be on this journey together. So, um I'm just about to go through um taking the goals, introducing the smart goal portion, all of that. Um just to remind you, student learning and achievement, professional learning, development
032and capacity building, communication and community engagement, as well as school culture and climate are our areas of focus. Um and then within that we get that specific measurable how we're going to do that over the next three to five years between now 2025 2030 um every year, right? There'll be a new action plan. It'll our district goals, our board goals will continue to tie to that as we continue to look at our progress and hopefully hopefully hopefully by the time we're ready to start the next strategic planning process, we're we're even building on that building on top of that. So, um without further ado, let me move to this No, I'm not moving to this. There we go. Sorry, too many tabs. That is my constant issue. There we go. So, let's see if we
033can. Erin, do you have this to put up with share? Google um slide share. >> Let me try and share it again. [Music] try now maybe and while we wait for the Ethernet or whatever I am going to just start talking so we're not here all night. So again, goal one, student learning and achievement. Um, for this one, we really needed the measurement piece to be different for Valley View and for Bay. Um, the reason for that is because of the growth measures, the um, proficiency and growth measures. It's very easy and we've talked about that here in this format um to say we're going to grow by 5% 10% 20% whatever it is. Um however when you're setting those growths each percentage point with our number of students per grade level and the tested
034grades equals about one student. So when you're I'll use um value view algebra at 100% or geometry at 100% I can't set a flat by this time we'll move 5 10 15%. when you have four tested grade levels at the middle school, two tested grade levels at Bayberry, differences in the number of students you're trying to move, right? Those proficiency measures um again look differently. So for goal number one, we're saying by June 2029, and I realize that is year four, not year five, purposefully because we'll be starting on the next strategic plan by that point, right? Um, student proficiency in English language arts and math at Valley View Middle School will increase by at least 2 percentage points per year for a total of 10 percentage points over those four years. That is modest
035and that again is based on where our current proficiency levels are. You are moving fewer students, right? you have a high number of meets and exceeds at the middle school. So again, we have to be mindful of what growth is possible. I will go back and talk about some of the additional growth measures beyond um standardized testing at Bayberry. same time frame June 2029 student proficiency ELA and math will increase by 3 to 5 percentage points per year that is very ambitious it is um based on our new curriculum our increased um professional learning in content areas our updated resources the um bringing back of interventions right in English language arts and math as well as our opportunities um to continue to go deeper with experiential learning delivery of instruction and other kinds of ways
036um those growth measures again meeting and exceeding what is expected it's not just those standardized test scores I think you know from the performance reports we always We also have um the SGP, the student growth progress. We use our I Ready data. We use our classroom evidence. We have projects and tasks and rubrics. All of those formative and summitative assessments give us a picture. In addition to our SGP and our NJSL, we also as part of um setting these goals and talking about talking about maybe this >> maybe and talk it's it's one of these I think and talking about um where we would like to enhance instructional practice to build capacity. All of our participation, we've talked about increased um opportunities in steam co-curriculars. We've talked about doing program review program reviews across the
037board, world language, our our soore program and gifted and talented, our um afterchool programs, right? So that access and engagement that participation is another measure. We've talked about how we can with engagement not just um engage our students not just build our staff capacity. How are we engaging our parents? What is it that we can um do in that capacity to um build our growth measures? And of course with the culture and climate, we are looking at doing um culture and climate surveys. I know um we're ready with that at the middle school. One of the things we need to be looking at very seriously again if we go back and analyze the performance reports that we've used all year, attendance there, there is a sense that in a K to8 district attendance doesn't matter,
038right? Doesn't count. It's not for high school. It's not for credit. However, those attendance um numbers do make a difference on our performance report and um in an overall picture of um where the district stands. The other piece of the culture and climate, I'm going to call them belonging indicators. That comes from social emotional learning standards. But those indicators when we're looking at culture and climate, whether it is culture and climate within the school, um within our colleial staff, within our board, whatever that is, do people feel that they can participate and be engaged? And that is an important um growth measure beyond the again standardized test. I know you hear us say this, you'll hear us say it again when we present the performance report. Multiple measures because that it makes every student's progress
039count. Every single student even if they are not meeting that doesn't mean they haven't made progress. And it's important to capture that and it's that equitable piece. the depth. What are we doing about depth of knowledge, depth of content, right? How are we capturing critical thinking, creativity, application of what we say we want to do? Equity again, that growth, but growth from different starting points, right? We are here to teach, to make sure our students learn and know and are able to do. We don't do that starting on page one of a textbook or starting on, you know, page one of um an assignment. We we do try and measure that growth, different starting points, personalized instruction. One of the things that was very clear in all of the conversations in our follow-up surveys, it
040really resonated with me because I I think we I thought we were doing this pretty routinely. Um celebrating how are we communicating, celebrating, highlighting and sharing success. Lots and lots of strategies were brought forth by the community. I know um the press was part of some of those conversations and how we could um have more of that kind of coverage um from the um council standpoint. How can we be scheduling our meetings and events collaboratively but also so our meetings aren't on the same night so that we are able to celebrate and participate together. um a fuller picture I think than what we usually do when we're talking about goals and it's important along with that told you we'll be reporting monthly every event trying to tie everything together but we will also be reporting
041um annually right we want to be able to talk about proficiency the number of students the same way we currently do meeting and exceeding standards. We want to also focus on growth of the students showing right that expected growth exceeding growth. Um some of our um priority focus areas whether it's program review, enhancing programs, um enhancing instructional strategies, capacity, that piece of culture and climate. that piece of um how do we get there from different starting points? That equity and engagement piece and again a big conversation around that word equity. Equity isn't equal. Equity is making sure that everybody has access to what they need, whatever that is. And finally, of course, um we would report out on those climate surveys, our our conversations and thought exchange surveys around the vision, all of that. Um,
042I want to stop there for a quick second just to make sure I see smiles and nods, but if you have a question, I also want to be able just on the measurement piece, smart goal, especially achievement because it's going to look different than the other, right? The other goals comments, questions there. Yes, Phils, I knew I saw I >> How long will it take to get the questionnaire? I call it a questionnaire. you're getting to the parents and such back to us and then you're we're going to I'm not going to say revise say the vision statement to put something with achievement in there. How long will that take? >> Actually, it's pretty that I think that's why we held off because it is quick if you want everybody to be involved and sending
043it out in after our meeting June 18th. I think people were gone. We wanted that input, so we held off. But the survey is ready. It's written. The language is there. Um Danielle was really helpful helping with that. So, we're able to get that thought exchange survey out. Our thought, that's what they're called, thought partners. um recommend having it open for at least a week if not two weeks so that you have that opportunity to send it not just to our families and a reminder but again for the whole community and through NIXL and the burrow that information comes back I don't know for I know we presented but I'll repeat it for everybody um thought exchange provides us right when that survey closes we're able to go through right away the comments to get
044um a summary to be able to see what was positive where you know even like a wordle right what what were the big ideas we can get that as soon as the survey closes then we come together and have those conversations and I imagine um depending on the involvement depending on the will of the community and by community I do mean board staff staff, students, anybody who's um participating that we would do the same process. I don't think it takes >> statement. >> Well, you have a piece. Now, we're asking people for that input. We're going to come back together, take that input. I don't know that it's effective in my opinion to collaboratively write or to wordsmith. So what happens is you get versions from that input and then comment on that until we
045get to a place right where we have a shared and collective vision of how to move forward. I will say for the most part and and you're kind of echoing it even though you I'm not sure you're thinking >> someone's got to write >> most of the vision statement people have been happy with. they they don't want to change. What emerged was actually that >> that addition, right, which I think is probably a fairly straightforward >> um addition without again the collective word smithing because you know how that goes. >> So you'll write it. >> I will not. >> Again, we take that input >> through the input that we're going to get. I am imagining right just based on the other surveys that there will be several versions right that we would be able
046to have share those different versions get impact come to get I keep hitting the microphone I'm sorry come back together to a shared vision and version >> by Christmas >> I I would hope before Christmas but I can't >> I can't >> as fast as we can. >> Yeah, it's it'll come to committee. I mean, did anybody want to share um your ideas of like I will say Adam at our June meeting? No, no, at our June meeting, remember when we were doing the goals, you were able to very quickly take comments, right? use AI and again AI doesn't write we write but but it was a great way to synthesize a couple of different versions to be able to say did this capture oh not quite but if you take this version and these
047words and it did not take would you say I thought it didn't take long at all so that that would be my my impression well before Christmas >> can I Can I ask my quick question >> please? >> Um, regarding the two and 5% ELA increase >> um for for watch uh valley viewer >> just for both of them in general because you talk about other potential measures >> are you for the for specifically judging the two and 5% are you looking only at test scores or are there other measures that you're using and actually looking for change on those measures? So both, right? So when we're talking about ELA and math, the the test score measures >> or you didn't say math yet. So just ELA, right? >> Oh, ELA and math >> and
048math. Oh, okay. >> Um, but we're talking about remember each percentage point equals students. >> So yes, the NJSLA or whatever I whatever it's going to be next because I think that's changing. But also we have our eye ready. we have right and those those measures I know when um Karen Missner and Miss Kid sorry Karen D when they we already we have is the first window open yet? No. >> I ready. >> The fourth. So, we're already doing a pre-assessment. We do a post. They'll present on that. We'll be able to see that progress, but it's not it's an addition. It's an addition. >> Will there be like a formula of how you're going to arrive at 2% across all these things? >> Yes. per it the 2% is the NJ SLA because that
049is our baseline or whatever again whatever it becomes but that is our baseline language arts and math however at Bayberry we also do we start dibbles >> yet >> that's I was going to say so but that's just a new assessment that we use so you have a language arts dibbles you have an addition We have I ready. We have a lot of things to look at to see progress. But this 2% SGP >> and NJSLA just those two. Got it. Okay. Thank you. >> And again, you it seems low, but when you think about the difference in the number of students testing and where where we need to grow middle school versus elementary. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. other questions just on that piece because then I think the rest of it is fairly
050straightforward and no. All right. So, um as I keep going, >> we talked about it in curriculum. Um >> I know I keep saying it. So we um got the um assessment calendar from the department of education making me do this publicly live streaming from the department of education at the end of August for this year. And in that without much um notice information what I you know I no judgment judgment um they are requiring a field test this fall. That field test is an adaptive field test that they expect will become a new version of um our standardized testing. Um and again we we're waiting for more information. a statement, a follow-up clarifying statement from the Department of Ed came out that almost would you agree said that it won't be whatever comes out
051of this will not be comparable to our current tested. >> So repeat it's going to not be it's going to be an adaptive assessment. Yes, it will be an adaptive assessment. If you answer right, positively, it keeps getting progressively more rigorous, harder. Yes, >> you will not be able to compare scores against these other >> and it is supposedly also in line with this personalized individual student growth, individual student progress. No, no, I'm glad it is like such new information. I don't want to blow up everything we're doing with, hey, we're also doing a new test because it is what it is. That part I can't >> it just makes it more difficult to do comparison year over year when they change, >> right? >> And we've had that conversation already a couple times with
052previous assessments. So, it's one more layer. Again, Phyllis, you you asked this, so I I also want to go back to this. You know, it's a three to fiveear plan. So, what we're, you know, I am giving the big view, but when you think about it, so year one, this year 20 2025, 2026, we're establishing that baseline data even if it's going to change th this is where we start, right? This year, this is our data. This is what we're going to do. We're going to implement all of these things, right, that we say, whether it's staffing, professional learning, new resources, curriculum, we're going to implement that. We're going to launch some of these programs, whatever it is. Right? Year two, next year. Right now, we're 26, 27, maybe even 27, 28, maybe the following
053two years, right? That's where you're going to expand. We've now we've done a program review. Maybe we're going to do something different with those programs, world language or whatever. Who knows? Maybe from doing our experiential programming, problem based learning changes to right delivery of instruction changes to who knows in two years with technology, I don't know. Um after our surveys, right? We implement those things in the following it's fine in the following two years right and now we take our interim assessments we take those enrichment opportunities we implement fully some of those program review things and we take the data again and we keep taking so in year four and five now we need to make sure. Okay, that's great progress. Is this progress being sustained? Can we refine what we're doing? Right? Can we
054based on the data, how are we going to scale up our programs so that now prek to 8, right? We're we're aligned horizontally, vertically. Maybe we have to recalibrate our targets. Maybe. Right. And that's why it takes time. >> I just want the vision. I that that will be pretty that won't take three to five years. I promise I promise. >> No word smithing. Um but that structure right of giving us school specific targets in addition to the priority focus areas so that we're using different viewpoints really helps us with that trajectory. Right? we've set benchmarks so for that progress and sustaining that progress if you will. So um I I will just quickly say that um for our following goals right um less specific more ideas more objectives right than this. So um >>
055but measurable >> absolutely. So goal two professional development and capacity building. Okay. So by the end of the second year two two-year goal all of our staff right all of our staff will have completed I have um 20 hours. I don't think it's enough based on what we're planning. I think that I am lowballing the number of hours um of professional learning. So staff confidence in new strategies, our new curriculum, technology, all of the capacity building, right? That depth of knowledge, that depth of content is increased. We are um again we've started the um professional learning for those specific topics but we've also identified through our district goal setting right on underneath this umbrella how are we looking at innovation special education you know culturally responsive practices with that social emotional um learning piece how
056are we doing leadership development staff staff, students, right? Our administrators, how are we providing professional learning to to our whole team, right? to the board to to me to um Karen, Aaron, Ricky even. Um that technology piece came out under this capacity building to make sure that um along those lines of equity and effectiveness that the technology is being used right to enhance instruction. A pencil can be technology. I I can, you know, put notes in my computer. That's not really integrating technology, right? So, looking at that um equity and effectiveness and then of course our um curriculum design teams, they're going to continue. But one of the things that was really clear with the capacity building conversation again not just for staff but for everybody we have a lot of expertise on our staff.
057We only have 30% non-tenured. So 70% of our staff are experienced have to share have could lead professional learning. So one of the things we had talked about was how do we empower staff, give them release time, give them a stipen to develop presentations for their colleagues, to present at faculty meetings or our professional learning days, right? So that we all have that effectiveness and do it in teams. And back to that um horizontal and vertical articulation. Another thing that became clear under this topic, we have only two schools. We have a very small staff. They never have an opportunity to come together. They very rarely have an opportunity to talk about that K to8 scope and sequence. One of the things you'll see on the agenda tonight, it actually is a security issue. It
058had nothing to do with this, but we're taking advantage of it. Is um we're changing professional development day. One of the days will be on election day. The whole staff will be here at Valley View. That gives us a tremendous opportunity that we have not engaged with before. So those kinds of things under professional development and capacity building. The third goal, communication and community engagement. Um and and this is another one where we got the numbers from the group. I I think this is too low. Even though this is what came out of the group, I they want it to be achievable, right? So that's how it happens. I think we should strive for 100% but I will read the goal that came out of the session. Um by the second year again 27 not
059five years 75% of families and community report report being informed and engaged have the information that they need get the messaging that they need feel welcome right feel part of our learning community and the things that were identified to make that happen and And some of this is going to take some strategy work because I don't have any more people to do this part of it. I think that this is an area that a lot of people are interested in though and thank goodness because we're going to need the support. But there was um could we do a monthly like social media blast, right? Not daily, not you know weekly, just like a community update. I thought it was great. I'm not sure who, you know, I I know we're looking at me, but it's
060again one more thing and we have to figure that out. I will tell you, thought exchange told me I was missing a great opportunity taking the minutes from all the committees and taking the minutes from our board meeting and putting it through the um summary. They have a summary tool that it could maybe create it. So, I'm going to try that. I haven't tried it yet. um to in addition to like our board meetings that we stream and again this is a challenge Aaron's one person when we do parent meetings or when we're doing other kinds of things how can we archive those not necessarily stream them not and not every presenter as we know even lets us record them but how can we archive that so it's available on demand I loved that idea
061haven't figured it out but we do have a couple of us who are um able to do that kind of recording and editing and one of us in particular who's been great resource that maybe we can lean on um we have said no names I didn't mention any names um they also identified a minimum of three school and community events per year again I thought that was kind of low right We talked about um doing our parent they called the parent university during the town halls but opportunities to do um conversations, right? have parents have conversations and even grow that to be able to we we started with um Detective Rich and Mikey Fallon doing student during the day and parents in the evening so everybody got the same message and the question was how
062can we grow it to bring the students and parents together again another phenomenal idea um parent university um again I would like to some version of that to get launched sooner. This was targeted for the second year. Um that volunteer mentor network. This is an interesting one. It was so huge in the town hall. It featured so prominently how we get our businesses in our, you know, our community members, our seniors. But when we did the survey, what you know, what do people think about these goals? What are the comments? This was the least. you remember when we reported the the least priority. So, we'll have to see where it fits. And I do know that this is on the the way with communication, community engagement, um students, right? Building in um an advisory and
063that that is described in a lot of different ways. It takes some time, right, to build that. I think it would be building on a current um responsive classroom. Took me a minute to pull that up. Um current mountaineer Monday and building right building that out in a bigger way for our students um and for our staff. The last goal, the fourth goal, school culture and climate. Um this one does take to the third year by June 2028. taking our engagement surveys, obviously planning more than one and planning over time and building and growing, but taking those results. Um, climate and culture surveys are not just about um kindness and belonging and collaboration and hip. They're also very much about um access. They're very much about um information, that kind of thing. So by June
064to make sure that we have improved at least 15% in that participation and hope to grow over the five years um by at least 25%. So if we're saying in goal number three 75% right now in goal four we we intend our intent is to continue to grow that. Um again we talked about surveys. This goes back to the celebration. How can we build that culture of recognition, that culture of celebration of everybody boosting up any anybody's accomplishment, right? um being able to hear from students and staff to be able to add new clubs as their interest grows to be able to also have systems um whatever that is social systems assemblies again to recognize um efforts I think hoping already by September we'll See, one of the ways that we um have projected to
065do that every board meeting starting in September, not just us presenting students, staff, right? Making sure that you are seeing the results of professional learning or the results of student engagement, the results of um programs, right? Literally just our programs. I think one of the things that was interesting to me, the elementary parents didn't seem to know, the um middle school programs, the middle school maybe forgot, I think, all of the the things that are happening. We're going to start showcasing those. We want to make sure people are celebrating what's happening. And there is a lot happening, a lot of wonderful things in our district and community. The final piece of um this goal, this culture and climate, which was again maybe a an aha, different kinds of transitioning between schools. Not we do a
066great job, right? We bring the fourth grade over. They meet the teachers. They visit. They get to be with the peer leaders. They get to ask questions. It's really comfortable. Our eighth graders have an opportunity more than once because we do the concerts at the high school and we bring the theater, but more um targeted transitions, build those um connections so it's comfortable for parents. Believe it or not, we think we're doing this great job with students. Parents are more nervous than the kids. So we'll work on that under um this goal four school culture and climate. Um I would say also that the the overall focus on engagement and climate will require Phyllis to your point. It requires us to keep bringing people in, to keep asking questions, to keep asking for that input
067and monitoring and adjusting, right? We're going to have this when you get to see it, I guess, this first year, right, structure and the three to five year structure and combined with the district goals and the board goals. But every year, right, we have to say, is this relevant? Does it need to be ramped up? Do do we need to take a step back? Right? All of those kinds of things. Um so I know that um for me that relevant consistent right messaging has become clearly important. And again, we we start with that with the very next board agenda with the goals on the agendas on the committees. I know um we're going to have is it the o September October meeting we're going to do then norms? Do you know either of you? Did
068you confirm? I don't know. I'm not I don't >> we haven't confirmed yet. >> September or October. We'll start with that that piece of it that >> responsibility. No, September where we put the roles and responsibilities. >> I have that on the 18th. There you go. So, roles and responsibilities, that's a board goal, but I I meant layering that the norms, how we how we communicate, all of those things. Um, so it's starting right away in answer to your question, not Christmas, not five years, um, all down the road. So, we got all three together at once questions there. And most of you I have to say participated even the audience people participated in all three sessions. So this is what was captured you know on our charts and our outcomes that are on the
069um district website. I don't if I missed something speak now. Any questions, comments? Goals two to four. >> Thank you very much. >> Pleasure. >> And we will get this somehow out of here and up on the website for everybody and publish. Well, I I am going to take my leave. You have a busy evening. I just want to say I'll see you on the 18th, but just as a reminder, um don't forget about workshop. It's coming up very quickly. And I'm hoping to see a lot of you there if you can find your way there. So, um and if you have any questions, please don't ever hesitate to email me or call me. Um I'm always available. So, thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Always. Thanks. >> Such a good
070partner. >> Moving on. >> I think you cuz they're buzzing. [Music] Moving on to the principal's report. >> Um, >> happy birthday. >> I was going to say >> happy birthday. So, um I get the pleasure of talking about again, you get me again the summer um and this morning and some of the um catchups. And if you didn't get the strategic um playing goal PowerPoint, my pictures will have to go too. But luckily, you got Connor's pictures on the outdoor learning comments because that was that was fun. I'm going to work backwards from today. Yes, today was the first day. Um it was so wonderful to have all of that energy and excitement back in the schools. I know um Miss Kid and I walked around um Valley View today. Even our fifth graders
071were excited. They they were asking questions. They were in and out of the classes. I loved it. I've been at um Bayberry the last couple days. Meet the teacher. Just I am thrilled to see everybody here again. Um we on Monday and Tuesday of this week, our bus companies Durham and First Students did run um their routes fully run their routes. We are beyond fortunate to have Durham for our third year to have consistent drivers for the third year, first student for the second year. Um, they were at the meet the teacher yesterday at Bayberry. Um, Miss Lunique and Dwan, I guess, are our rockar bus drivers because these kids, forget lining up to go meet their teacher. They only wanted to hug and high-five the bus drivers. They fourth graders were jumping on the
072bus to hug Miss Lunique. It was a It was truly remember where I started two years ago the other day. It was a joy and it was wonderful. And again, I I will look forward to you seeing the pictures to see them. They know the kids. They're hugging the kids. They're high-fiving. Miss Lunique saved all of the pictures the kids did. Like last year, the kindergarteners drew buses. They're all on the ceiling of her bus. It was It was beautiful. I loved it. This morning, um I am so pleased that despite parents taking pictures at the bus stop, hello. But despite the first day photos, all of that, you know, early buckling and unbuckling, um, despite two streets being closed, too, um, all but one bus made it here to Valley View on time. We
073had the last bus arrive at Bayberry at 8:50. Kelly, our transportation coordinator, was on site. Actually, she was with us at Meet the Teacher. She was doing the routes, but she was at um, Valley View. and then Bayberry this morning with our um supervisors from Durham. I have to say again such a a notable progress even from last year's first day. Um and we do expect very quickly, it is the beginning, right? It takes a little time, but we do expect very quickly to be on schedule, right? being um back to on time and early this afternoon. Somebody did ask me about this. Oh no, we're back to the No, the high school dismissed 15 minutes late today. And since we're tiered, they got there at the same old time. The high school will not
074be dismissing obviously 15 minutes late every day, which puts us back again fully on our schedule. Um we did have bus volunteers riding um this morning. our bus volunteers, all of our bus volunteers um reported a good easy morning. We got some great follow-up emails from families um thanking us again recognizing having the same drivers, having um that consistent route. And I I have to acknowledge the board because your effort and attention to support transportation, I mean, I thought it was bad on me. I know what you guys you stand at the bus stop so I you know I can't even imagine. Thank you again that that attention makes it possible and and I truly mean that makes it possible for us to keep a bus company for three years because they feel supported. makes
075it possible for them to continue the drivers, for our children to be excited to ride the bus and for our staff literally to stop and say, "Oh my god, are we on time?" Yes, we are. So, I again I do want to acknowledge that and thank you all for that. Um, also this week we welcomed our staff back to the district Tuesday morning. The PTO um provided an amaz I think we could probably still be eating but an amazing breakfast. We thanked them. They um welcomed the staff. WE was there. um our CPAG um parent had to work but sent a message and is going to follow up and attend um our faculty meetings. I um am thrilled again our staff is second to none. The energy in the room to to come back to
076a new year to come back to our classrooms. It's been hard two years with that construction. it has been not to be able to get in before the school year opens, not to be able to do this. It's been a lot for them and I um am amazed at their good humor, their flexibility cuz everybody was ready and and it again it makes it so much easier. After the breakfast, we did have professional learning for all of the staff in both schools, including our paraprofessionals. Um, they also had the opportunity um to have our co-eing groups and our individual student um work looked at. We had do we welcome our subs today, too? Do we do the subs? >> The what? I thought we did today, >> but I remember that we were trying to
077again include everybody. We um want to make sure that I don't skip these people because they are the again the best. Nope, not this one. Sorry. We have um a number I call them new staff, but they're really our returning staff. we were able to um bring people back to the district. We have people that earn tenure. So bear with me just a quick second because I do think um acknowledging that's important. We have our Ricky Boyd buildings and grounds supervisor um earned tenure in July. Wonderful. we were able to celebrate him um at the breakfast as well as Morala Joseph, our special education teacher at Bayberry, Ally Lamming, grade three teacher at Bayberry, Anna Netor, our art teacher here at Valley View. Um and our school nurse at Bayberry, Karen Doss, all earning tenure.
078We have um Tara Bird, special education teacher here at Valley View. We um welcomed back Ally Freriededland. She had been a third grade teacher. She is now our um learning support teacher, our part our part-time learning support teacher at Bayberry. We welcome Melissa Louise, our new school psychologist between the two buildings. Katie Keegan is back with us um at Bayberry in second grade. Ashley Brewer is back with us. Um, also at second grade we've added um Lauren Ladino. We have added Nancy Akroyd as our um Soore Steam gifted and talented teacher. We have um Francisco Guerrera, Frank Guerrero, world language here at Valley View. Um last but not least, Julia. You all met Julia, our new music teacher at Bay. And um we do have a long-term sub here at Valley View in um Dominic
079Sanguual Sanguualino. >> We just call him Dominic. There you go. Um we did say goodbye to um our special services director, Nicole. Um her last day tomorrow. Eric Seal has joined a district closer to home. We um say goodbye to Bianca Martino. a loss for us as one of our own, but she's it sounds very excited for her new opportunity. And um our Charlie Frank Ricky's second hand in glove is um being promoted. We're very proud and excited for him and moving to a new district. I think I got everything right. Did I miss anything, ladies? It was really been a wonderful opening and I thank everybody for the summer and for this week. Looking forward to only positives. >> Thank you. Are the principles giving reports or no? >> No, thank one day. >>
080One day. >> Happy first day. Okay. So, moving on then to the business administrator's report. Okay. Okay. Um well this is the uh year end for the business office. So we this is like our December January for corporate um fiscal year. So obviously we've been quite busy. We are 98% finished with the last fiscal year about um we've booked all of our entries as even as of today we were wrapping up getting everything to our treasurer that type of um work. On the agenda, you'll see that we have preliminary June statements. May and June are on there tonight. Um they're preliminary. The audit doesn't happen till the end of September. They're kind of where we are at the moment. after we uh they review all of our books and make sure there's no, you know,
081entries needed and there are always entries needed, but you know, anything else they'll book for arbitrage that we've talked about a couple times where you you you know, we're booking the extra interest that we're going to be um owing the government on the uh referendum in 2027 and then they'll book any additional maintenance reserve. If you remember, we approved up to $500,000 in June. And as of now, I've put $250,000 in reserve. So that starting now, we can actually do some of projects and use that money instead of regular general budget. That's the whole idea. That money goes in and goes out, you know, that's the plan for that. So hopefully that goes well with the audit. We'll pull everything they need. We'll prep ahead of time. you know, we'll do that. As of um
082today in our new year, we've already, I think, processed 245 purchase orders, and it's not even September 1st. We've run six payrolls since the summer. So, um the three of us have been really busy this year. So, it's it's been, you know, it's been good, though. Um one exciting purchase was new some 10 or 11 new Smartboards for Valley View that we got at a great deal. So, we're really happy about that. Um, what else did we do for facilities? Uh, you can see Bull schools are gleamingly clean under the guidance and direction of Ricky. Um, everything's been cleaned. Every many, many classrooms were painted. We did have a vendor come in and paint, but also Ricky and his team painted hallways and did touchups, checked ceiling tiles. They've just been, you know, so that's
083why everything looks so nice and shiny. So that's >> We also got the gym floors done. They did the central office. >> The carpeting is gone in the central office. If you come in, you will now see gray floor. So that 25y old carpeting is no longer there. Um, what else did we do? We took down uh 11 trees, I think, on each property. Deadish trees. Yes, we did that. Um, oh my gosh, concrete was fixed, steps were fixed. So hopefully everything's good. So that's what we've been doing. That's I think that's how >> just a relaxing summer at the beach. >> Yeah. So, and you know, we had to actually move when they did our carpet, so that was really fun. We only moved across the hall, but that was that was definitely experience.
084>> Thank you very much. Okay. So, we can move on to committee reports. Uh have a report these are going to be for July and August um from curriculum. Sure. We met on uh Thursday, July 8th between 9:30 a.m. and 11:29 a.m. It was virtual. Those in attendance were Dr. Glazier Glazer, sorry. uh the board president, myself, Miss Santos was absent. Um Ms. Maddox was there, Miss Dota, principles Fner and Kid. Uh I'm not going to go over the ren the referendum field and outdoor stuff because we just had a presentation and um Dr. Glazer went over a lot of the bus volunteer stuff. So, I'm going to skip that. Um, the autism program. Currently, the school district does not have any outside tuition paying students for the autism program. ESY is functioning with our
085middle school autism program and our middle school pullout resource program using the same room. The benefit is that our students in the autism program are not alone during their five hours at school. The students come in, they all have a warm-up activity that they do at various levels and work on a variety of IEP goals and objectives. The teachers plan together for times during the ESY session where all students are engaged together, but essentially after that warm-up, everyone is breaking up into groups. The pullout resource teacher has fifth, sixth, and seventh graders. Um, they're already breaking into small groups by grade level. and by skills that they're working on. And it's working well on day six of the program. The older students are supporting the younger students in both programs and getting to know the
086middle school, which is one benefit in having ESY for the middle school students located at the middle school. Directors in all the Somerset County schools and the Morris uh Union Juncture Commission know that we have a middle school autism program. they know that the district has a policy that allows us to take in tuition students for that program. So, as um other districts needs change over the summer or even into the start of the school year, they could reach out to consider our program. We did have two students, parents, case managers, and directors from other districts visit our school and look at our program. They all loved our life skills room which is the new room behind the library and they were excited about that. In the end they decided to go with an established
087program. Uh pursuit of excellence and ESY uh the Bayberry Pursuit of Excellence program just started so there wasn't much to report other than some details leading up to the start of the program. A reminder was sent out to parents that the program was happening in hopes that they would have their children attend instead of summer camps. When parents don't RSVP to the summer programs, it can create challenges when organizing the curriculum structure, quality of the student experience and hiring of staff while maintaining fiscal responsibility to the district. The ESY programs enrollment is structured by the IEP team recommending that an extended school year program is necessary for an individual child and that's written in the IEP as the district's recommendation. If a family can only attend the ESY program for only partial time, the district
088needs to honor that when notified by the family. The district uh communicated with families about these programs via email, Google form and phone calls from the child study team secretary plus case managers and some parents uh were very late in responding. So the ESY program was planned without those students and staff was hired based on enrollment which was reported during prior curriculum committee meetings. The district had to inform families they couldn't attend the summer program because the district couldn't fit the extra students into the classes based on the studenttoteer ratios. Parents don't have to RSVP for any of the summer programs, but by a certain point, the district must hire staff for the program and go with the number of students from the families that did respond in time to make the best decisions for
089the program, its participants, and the staff. ESY is in the students IEPs and of course the district wanted to um the district wanted those students to attend if they responded uh to all the district outreach sooner. It takes a lot of planning to create the summer program. And if the district planned for every student, regardless of whether they RSVPd to the program or not, the district would have needed five additional teachers and 10 additional aids without knowing if those students were going to attend or not. Curriculum writing. Uh the summer curriculum writing has begun and will be on the upcoming agenda. Bay has started the process of ELA and math writing. Language arts is a complete rewrite with all new resources for language arts and shifting the focus to the science of reading alignment, focusing
090more on teaching to the standards. A lot was done last year to align math to the new standards and entering in a whole bunch of formative and summitive assessments, making sure all staff is consistently on the same page. Valley View is beginning to take an inventory of the supplies for the new math program, organize everything by grade level, and then the teachers will go to evaluate the supplies since the math curriculum has already been written based on the standards. What they're doing is updating the resources. The administration will go over the curriculum that is up for adoption with the committee during the August committee meeting. uh new business, the prek and kindergarten. The preschool has 25 students which consists of three and four year olds combined with a little extra space that is left for
091any students that might be classified during the school year. Uh there was a waiting list and the district was able to invite every person that was on the three-year-old waiting list to attend the program. The four-year-old waiting list has about two or three people left on the waiting list. Kindergarten has low enrollment this year. So, an email recently went out to remind the community to help prevent um any last minute enrollment. Currently, we have 38 kindergarteners. Keyboarding Bay students have a once a week STEM computer class where keyboarding is introduced. K to1 has iPads. So, this starts in second grade. K to1 also allows students to explore which is age appropriate. For example, find one letter at a time. Uh but second, third and fourth do a program funded by the PTO called typing club.
092They practice keyboarding in the club and within the classroom. The software used is individualized. So it progresses through each letter and as they pass the level, they go on to the next. Students get accuracy scores, word per minute, and they have goals. There is no keyboarding program at the middle school level in Valley View. The principal is concerned about taking time away from other uh curriculum and instruction to create a typing program. Concerns by committee members were brought up regarding students being more proficient in keyboarding for future careers such as coding and the importance of saving time on standardized tests by being able to type faster. The principal will investigate different programs to provide parents if they want to have their kids practice keyboarding at home. The committee was concerned about the effectiveness of just
093providing parents with resources as opposed to a class or club provided to the students. Valley View is currently structured on a cycle basis where every student gets the same related arts courses, world languages, STEM, and performing arts for exposure. The electives in the middle school are band and chorus. An elective structure would add another period of the day of the keyboarding elective was created where the students get to pick a course. The committee is interested in in being above the curve and being trailblazers by offering a keyboarding class on a middle school level where other districts aren't while maintaining a balanced approach for students in writing and using computers. The committee would like for the administration to find out how to create a keyboarding program as a before and after school program during the flex
094period incorporated into block scheduling and/or as an elective offered in the middle school onetoone screens in Valley View. Not being a one-to-one uh school district with Chromebooks saves the district some money, but utilizing them with programs such as Google Classroom help the teachers with online assessments that parents can see. In finding a more balanced approach to technology, students are writing in notebooks and some math work is completed on paper and pencil. As a reminder, state assessments are all online. So, it is important for the district to make sure the kids have the skills to do both. Uh, in special education, some of the students have communication devices that need to be with them all day every day in school and at home because it acts as their voice and communicating. At Bayberry, creating a balanced
095approach is important as well as some approaches to this are by knowing which programs they are going on. Are they packaged as educational? Are they teacher approved? What is the value of the program versus the distraction value or does it take the use of books away from where we want books to be used? The schools don't allow any devices at lunch and cell phones are not being used in the classrooms. The committee was in favor of keeping the school district a one-toone district with technology. Special education before and after care. Miss Dakota announced her retirement and the committee thanked her for her years of service to our district. Um high impact tutoring. The committee was informed that the pursuit of excellence and basic skills programs are modeled in the same way as the high impact
096tutoring just on a smaller scale. The pursuit of excellence occurs during the school year in the mornings and over the summer. The program is funded from title one, a youth service grant, and then the difference is made up from the district budget. Some limitations to the pursuit of excellence program are the schedule, frequency of program funding, interests of the in district teachers to teach it. Um, in district teachers prefer privately tutoring for more money. Depending on teacher availability, there might be different teachers per day providing a late bus for students uh for transportation. The commitment from families to have students attend regularly. Bayberry offers two days of language arts and two days of math. The groups are small with about five to six kids in a group and are placed in groups by grade level.
097The staff looks at current data on the students and gets information uh from their students classroom teacher about what needs to be worked on. If the district wanted to try high impact tutoring, then the staff would need to double to decrease the groups to about four students. The basic skills program at Valley View meets one to two times a week. The students miss their related art classes, which are their quarterly classes. There are two STEM, music, and art quarter classes. they would get pulled out from that to get that extra instruction which uh with typically their math teacher or their language arts teachers. The committee would like for the administration to gather data to present to the committee that informs the community on how the pursuit of excellence in conjunction with other programs and interventions
098have benefited the students overall academic experience and standardized test scores. By providing the committee with this information, the committee feels that it might create more parents to buy into sending their children to the programs regularly. The committee would also like the administration to provide feedback on how they are identifying what has worked in the program and what needs improvement. The committee would like to understand how the administration measures the success of programs they offer in the school district. The PTO reached out to the administration and asked if there was an opportunity for their membership to help fund tutoring program for the students. So, the committee asked for the administration to put something together for the PTO in hopes of them providing additional funding. The committee would like to receive a follow-up information on the results
099of this conversation with the PTO. The administration plans on sharing the information from the IM high impact tutoring with the staff since data uh shows that the formula works. The committee wants the administration to speak with some of the other local districts who participated in that program because some of them outsourced their staff and used vendors if there wasn't enough in district staff interest. Board goals. The committee will work on creating an action plan and board norms. Once a version is created, it will be shared with the rest of the board for everyone's input into the documents. The docu the topic could uh also be placed under board business and discussed with the full board at our public meeting. The template for the action plan will be provided to the committee to begin to work
100on before our next August meeting and the NJSBA will provide the committee with the agreed upon board goals. August August 21st meeting from 5:30 to 7 was a virtual meeting. Committee members um Mrs. uh Maddox also chaired uh since I couldn't attend uh Miss Amado, Miss Santos, Miss Juette, uh President the board president was there and the administration guests were Dr. Glazer and principal kid. Uh, let me see. Hold on. Facil. Well, I'm not going to go through you. You guys went all through the facilities. I'm sure the administration committee is going to talk about some stuff, too. So, I'm going to skip that. Uh, summer programs pursuit of excellence at Bayberry. 31 students attended, focused on reading, writing, math, using researchbased materials, included art and literacy activities, hands-on games, and regular parent communication. pursuit
101of excellence at Valley View. 32 kids participated. Originally 44 registered project-based learning um on ancient civilizations including interdisciplinary work and presentations to parents and staff. Positive feedback from students and parents. Increased engagement noted enrollment and staffing. Kindergarten enrollment is 46 students. So there's three classes. Staffing adjustments. Combine library and learning support position created due to librarian vacancy. Plan for a full-time library and basic skills positions in the future. Job description and roles. Uh clarified collaborative approach for interventions. Math curriculum. Grades six through eight transition from big ideas math to math and you focusing on real world applications and differentiation. Grade five full rewrite from everyday math to math in you emphasizes foundational skills spiraling and updating or updated practices approval pending completion accelerated and special education needs addressed through collaboration and compacted curriculum. The curriculum
102cycle, five-year review and revision plan in place, flexible to accommodate state changes and internal assessments, science and other subjects, ongoing updates and potential pilots, focus on continuous improvement and alignment with standards, operational and program planning, calendar adjustments, discussion on modifying PD days, election days, and Memorial Day schedule to optimize school calendar. Uh keyboarding plan to integrate keyboarding during flex and study hall in grades 5 through 8 starting with mandatory sessions and using a familiar program transportation and logistics. I am not going to go over that cuz it's all about the busing again. Um start of the year logistics meet the teacher events and bus practice sessions were scheduled. special education and ESY. The director search, interim and permanent special education director search, ongoing consultant engaged for transition and process mapping, professional development and uh mentoring,
103staff orientation, successful new orientation held, PD plan aligned with strategic goals, moving to state template for documentation, mentoring, ongoing support for provisional teachers with district funded mentor stipens. s assessment and state testing the state test results awaiting detailed reporting upcoming changes to NJSLA format adaptive it's I ready like as you guys already said and additional field test um in the fall impact new format will affect year-to-year score comparability staff prepared for data analysis uh other business that we're I guess going to work on still are the board goals and the action plan. Um upcoming meetings and events. Uh adjustments to committee meeting schedules to avoid conflicts with community events. And then action items and next steps. Finalize and approve curriculum updates for grades 6 to 8 and selected science units. Continue development and approval process
104for grade five math curriculum. Monitor staffing needs and fill vacancies as planned. Follow up on PTO involvement in tutoring and enrichment programs. Complete special education director hiring process. Implement planned calendar adjustments and communicate changes and prepare for new state uh testing requirements. And that is it. Thank you. Very thorough. >> Okay. So um next is next next committee report is on administration finance since the chair Muhammad Fra isn't here I can give them for him uh the administration finance committee met on Tuesday July 8th at 4:45 and it was a virtual meeting committee members Manny Gonzalez and Dory Harvey were there Adam Craft came as the alternate uh I was in attendance from administration we had Julie Glazer and Karen Bishop Johnson and our guests were Ricky void. Um, we had a discussion on the
105referendum product projects, but we had a update from Connor, so I won't go over it again. Same with the HVAC systems. We discussed school facilities and overall the school operations were running smoothly in Philips Field. 7 to eight trees had come down and the town will assist with removing the dead trees. That was after that big storm, that big windstorm. Um, and the district will address replacing the broken gate. We discussed school on election days. A discussion was held regarding policies and procedures for schools on election day. Dr. Glazer explained that our security standards require the school to be closed on Tuesday, election day. The primary date has changed from the governor's office, but the school should also close on that day and we can have the change for the calendar for the August board
106meeting. uh new business talked about vacation day carryovers, the school resource officer, reimbursement from MUJC, the comprehensive equity plan for 2025 2028 has been filed and there was a discussion on the before after and before and afterare program on using in-house versus an outside company and we discussed joining the Bergen co-op which we actually did in July. August, we met uh August 19th at 5:30 with Muhammad Fras joining at 5:40. It was virtual. Uh I was in attendance as well as Maddie Gonzalez, Muhammad Frra, Daniel Amado came as a guest. Uh Dr. Julie Glazer, Karen Bishop Johnson, Ricky Boyd, Julie Leon as a guest, and Connor O'Brien. We had a presentation um from Julie Lion on um a before and a before and after care program called Right at School. Um their mission is to
107provide a safe, engaging, screenfree program with homework help, steam activities, and physical play. Um if we if we decided to move forward with them at some point in the future, um they would be hiring our current staff at the same pay. Um they would be charging families at the same rate. Um and there's different uh options for revenue sharing with them. Um we talked about facilities and operations. We went over the learning commons work on finance. Uh we talked about the preliminary June financials showing a fund balance of about 1.1 to 1.2 million, but this is largely due to interest that was earned on the referendum funds. And this uh as I think Mrs. Bishop Johnson said is one time um one-time funds. So, they really need to not be put towards recurring expenses. Uh
108and then 250,000 was set aside for the maintenance reserve. Um and the 106,000 is reserved for arbitrage, which is our taxes that are due on the referendum interests that are due in 2027. Uh we talked about Chromebook purchasing versus leasing. Our title and IDEIDA grants were received. Um though title three funding is below 10,000 which requires a consortium participation with other districts. We discussed transportation and the bus orientation program. We discussed the school calendar again with regards to closing on election days in November and June. And that is it. Um you get the reports for the policy committee. policy committee met on Wednesday, July 9th and Wednesday, August 20th at 5:30 p.m. virtually. Uh these minutes reflect both of those meetings. In attendance were myself, Danielle Amado, Phyis Dwet, Adam Craft, uh Jen Eugliaro. Um
109administration uh and guests included Dr. Julie Glazer and Miss Pinky Nelson. Um Adam Craft was absent for the August meeting. Um first reading uh bylaw 0143 board member election and appointment. Um the language of the second and third paragraphs were reviewed and edited during both meetings to reflect the board's um challenges and wishes to sort of clarify um how board member appointments may work in the future. Uh second reading bylaw 0176 collective bargaining approval and ratification. There was no feedback on that. and policy regulation 5111, eligibility of resident and non-resident students. There was no feedback on that. Um, new business, uh, Strauss SME, our new subscription, Pinky provided an update on that. In order to post our regulations online, which is something we would really like to do, she will need to scan each one
110of them in paper individually. Um, we have some scan versions already of regulations that were recently adopted this year. Um, but she'll start dedicating time weekly to getting this project done. It may be a slow process. Um, and then just a quick QAC update that we're still waiting for um, information from the state any day now so that our prep for that can begin. >> Thank you. U, moving on to the report from the personnel committee. Here we go. >> Uh, we met on the first one's July 9th and meeting time was 9:30 to 11:30. Myself, Dory, and Danielle were in attendance from 9:30 to 11. Uh, Jennifer and Dr. Glazier were also in attendance. Board, uh, so followup and new business. Actually, I'm going to skip that. But key topics, CQAC uh state monitoring.
111So, the district is in the first uh cohort of QAC. The state monitoring in uh includes the five areas: finance, operations, governance, instruction, program, and personnel. County teams will review documents and practice in each area. Preparation involves reviewing curriculum interventions and policy meetings are scheduled with principles and curriculum writers. staffing and recruitment challenges. The director of specialists uh is as we know is resigning. A lot of these are going to be repetitive, but I'm going to read them anyways. Uh interim interim and consultant options are being considered due to um the late timeline. Got to lighten it up, right? Contract and uh compensation issues. discussion on merit goal boilerploint language for administrator contracts uh language to be added but no immediate merit goals. So this has changed but this was just happening in July. Uh
112job descriptions and stipens review and update of job descriptions for stipen positions. Dean of students, technology and technology assistant. Stipens are contractual, posted and board approved. Association input is needed for equity and clarity roles and responsibility clarified and anticipated negotiation over scope and compensation. Other information and carryover vacation days staff can carry over limited days with approval and scheduled use. Resignation of Bayberry uh library staff pending effective date. Job descriptions for new updated roles will be finalized and posted after association review and action items. Next step await and review QAP. Look for uh documents prepare for state review. Continue budget review, especially regarding payouts of federal funding and delays. Post and recruit for interim and full-time director for special services. Consult with regional partners for shared and interim solutions. Finalize and negotiate job descriptions for
113stipen positions with this um association input. The next one was for August. Uh we met at 5:30 p.m. This was on the 20th. myself and Danielle. Um Jennifer and Dr. Glazier were in attendance. Key topics were hiring and leaves. Uh ongoing hiring for leave uh replacement teachers. Several positions still being filled and uh Mrs. Ber and I hope I said that right to cover fourth grade grade class this year. loss of librarian and 0.5 basic skills teacher uh due to difficulty competing with higher salaries in neighboring districts. Uh kindergarten teacher resigned due to low enrollment to split. >> That's not >> we moved her to the library. >> Okay. >> She didn't resign. >> All right. A new psychologist with the doctorate has been hired. Uh ESL French teacher. Um, I'll skip this one, too.
114Job descriptions and roles. Supervisor of instruction. Job description being streamlined after expanding during budget talks. Building secretary and special education secretary roles under review. Clarification that the special ed secretary uh is not a new position. collaboration with WBA, a job description for new and updated stipen positions including de of students. Uh special services consultant uh was hired for 12 weeks uh focusing on professional development, process documentation, system improvements, and special education. Let's see. I'm going to skip over a couple of areas since we've already reviewed afterare after afterare program transition. Do we want that? Good. Evaluation of in-house afterare uh was reviewed to recommend outsourcing to write at school due to administrative overload and potential for um expanding program. Existing staff will be offered positions with the new provider at curtain sal at current salaries.
115transition plan for October 1st. Details and costbenefit analysis to be shared with board for um an informed vote. Enrollment trends uh kindergarten enrollment is low uh leading to consolidation of sections and reassignment of teachers. And the next one, events and calendars. Welcome back breakfast as we indicated before. the meet the teacher event with and bus volunteer orientation scheduled discussion about rescheduling the se September 11th board meeting to avoid conflict with town remembrance events. We have uh for board elections, we've got two candidates confirmed for upcoming board elections and strategic planning, special education consultants finding a line with strategic planning feedback, focus on training, process clarity and system improvements. Upcoming regionalization meeting to discuss district collaboration and demographic projects. Next steps, finalize job descriptions and update board on postings. Distribute afterare program analysis and facilitate board
116question and answers answers before we vote. Monitor enrollment housing development for future planning and clarify board meeting schedules and ensure all members are informed. >> Thank you. Uh report for negotiations committee. >> Yes. Um both the board and the union uh committee members met at August on August 6th uh with the mediator and I'm pleased to say that we have reached a tentative agreement. The board hopes to vote on the agreement in September. >> Thank you. >> Good news. Um moving on to board leaison reports. Do we have a a report for the legislation legislative liaison? >> Yes. So we have expanding early childhood education S3910 A-5717 signed July 9th 2025 or also called the New Jersey Universal Preschool and Kindergarten Act makes various updates to preschool funding and sets new kindergarten requirements. The law
117effectively um codifies into statute the state's existing preschool expansion aid program and also will require all elementary school districts to offer free full day kindergarten to all 5-year-old students by 2029 and 2030 school year. More details on the law to be found on the July 1st edition of school board notes. Uh in summary regarding preschool expansion, the law does the following. require the New Jersey Department of Education to provide annual preschool expansion grants. Codifies and revise revises the requirements to preschool education aid. Establishes a three-year preschool cost sharing pilot program. Establishes a universal preschool imple implementation steering committee which will be which will be composed of representatives from various state agencies and the New Jersey legislature. requires the Department of Education and the Department of Children and Family and the Department of Human Services to
118maintain annually updated certain information regarding preschool and child care providers on their respective websites requires the DOE, the DCF, and the DHS to annually submit a report to the legislature on the stat status of preschool education in the state and the efficiency of the mixed delivery method of preschool education. and require state agencies to publish guidance on variety of topics related to expanding access to highquality preschool education in areas of greatest need. This legislative legislation went into effect immediately upon the governor's signature. >> Thank you. Um do you have anything from the Somerset County Educational Services Commission? >> No, I was not there at the meeting. So, okay. >> All right. Uh, Somerset County School Boards Association. >> No, some events coming up, but not not for a little while. >> Okay. Um, from school
119boards association, um, as Gwen mentioned, uh, the workshop is Monday, October 20th to Thursday, October 23rd, and the agenda was released today. Um, so we need to have a conversation as to whether or not we'd like to go. I think I need to have a conversation with the business office about whether or not we can go. So, stay tuned. Um that's all I have for that. Uh for the regionalization committee, uh the committee met on August 26 to review the first draft of the report and we'll meet again towards the end of September. Um MU JC, >> we don't meet till next Thursday. >> Perfect. Moving on to community engagement. Do I have anyone from the PTO, WE or CPEG? Seeing as I don't, uh, now moving on to comments from the public on agenda
120items. >> Good evening. Pete Martino, 15 Sunbright Road. The way I look at it is I figure you owe me an hour speaking time because I sat here in June waiting for the executive session to end. So what I did bring you is a copy of the burough council's agenda and theirs is the second reading or second open comment are before the executive session. So, I would suggest you guys look at that. Speak to your uh corporation council and see if it's a bylaw change because you shouldn't be putting up hurdles for us to come here and give you information. The superintendent made me sit through the goal. You said it stay cuz you're going to like the goals and objectives. I sat here. >> You didn't like it? >> I loved it. >> There
121you go. What I'm going to tell you is Wong is unique. >> Okay. To me, it was a little generic, little boilerplate >> tonight. All right. A little bit. Just a little. No, the the goals presentation. Okay. I'm just going to give you my p my personal opinion. All right. Uh the other thing was is I'm not sure how you guys advertise those, but I didn't know anything about it till I came to that meeting that this was even going on in the burrow. So, my thing is is yes, I don't have kids in the system anymore, but I think I had him here for 12 straight years or whatever it was. Couldn't wait to get him out um for obvious reasons to move on with my life. But the reality is even people who
122don't have kids, people who are seniors, people who are parents uh that may not have children yet, they all need their input here. And I will share with you that the burrow um sent it out by Nixl and on their website. We sent it to every group, the seniors, the I can't even remember all the different groups that it went to in the community. I think sometimes um overload, right? Like we sent a lot of >> RA newsletter. >> It was there. >> I think you I didn't I didn't see it in there and I'm just saying well I'll we'll move past that. It's okay. Uh don't worry about it. I'd find my way into these meetings. >> We want you. >> I did hear nothing about safety throughout that entire process. All right. Unless
123I missed it, I apologize. Okay. Uh and everybody knows safety is an ongoing process. Okay? So, you really can't put a date on it as we saw yesterday. Okay? This is always looming over our heads with our children and their safety. Um, my big question is, and I brought it up at the town council meeting last week. I don't know if good news travels fast. How are two schools being protected by one >> school resource officer? I don't know. Who flips the coin? And this is what I asked the council. Who flips the coin and says Valley View is safe today? Bay is not. Bay is safe today. Valley View is not. I I let it go. Okay. for this time just to see how it works. It's not your responsibility. Public safety is the
124burrow of watch council's responsibility. We have 600 some odd children. That's almost 15% of our community goes to schools. Why are they not under the burrow's opaces for public safety? And I tked them the other night to provide two resource officers >> and then foot the bill. I'm tired of them. I'm tired of hearing about it. They already capped the police department. They're putting limitations on our police. You know what? Step up. You guys shouldn't have to foot that burden. You're paying your teachers. You're paying your administration. Public safety is a burrow responsibility. We spent $16 million on a referendum. My question is, is how come we didn't install any generators? Anybody have a clue? All right. And I was here for Sandy. I was here for all of the hurricanes, all of the storms.
125Natural disasters can happen any time. Power outages can happen anytime. Our students should be able to shelter in place safely. Get to generators. I'm not sure what the heck OEM is doing. I'm not sure what the police is doing, the fire department. Everybody should be here giving you input. And this is public safety stuff. All right? So, if you need a little money, maybe they'll give you a little bit of money to help you out with that. And then we could utilize these buildings for the community just like we had nowhere during Sandy. Okay. So, again, food for thought for your for your goals and objectives. Um, my big thing that I did not hear, I saw I heard the word volunteer, but I think it was people to come in to volunteer their time
126to help our children, mentor our children. Is that >> It's actually much broader. >> Let's just talk about volunteering. All right. Um, that's the biggest community interaction you're going to get. I've been a volunteer for 45 years in this town. I started when I was 16 years old. Police, fire, EMS explorer programs. They're out there and they can be done easily in this town. We got the Watchung Historical Committee. We got the Garden Club traffic and beautifification. We have to get our children not parties and not get togethers and not all of the horn blowing. And I'm I'm not the fuzzy guy. I'm not the warm and fuzzy guy. Tell you straight up. We got to get we got to get our kids involved at a young age so they become 20 30 40 year
127volunteers. Watch was made by volunteers. Okay. So again, what how can you incorporate that into these five-year goals uh to interact? Okay. Um motivation. This is your guys' job. You guys are the motivators. I try to explain this to the council. Same with them. You're the motivators, food drives, cleanups, different things going on around town. You have to gather the people. You have to bring it up and drag them out and get these kids involved, too, because they um they need it. At one time, I just I want to want to mention one thing. At a banquet, some an older person, probably my age, um basically told us that volunteering was the social media of the past. And I never really thought about it till that night. We didn't have cell phones. We didn't have
128the internet. Um we didn't have the great gift of social media. Okay, which is really a whole another problem. I think we got together. We spoke to each other. We looked at each other. We helped each other. When somebody was in crisis, we helped them out. We cleaned areas in the burrow. Whether we remember the fire department, the rescue squad, whatever it was, we got together. We learned from our I don't want to say elders cuz that's really not the proper word I should be saying because now I think I might be an elder now, but mentors and peers weren all right. So my personal opinion is try to incorporate some quasi mandatory volunteer time for our children whether it's 10 hours, 15 hours, 20 hours a semester. All right, the town committees would be
129glad to interact with the children. I can only talk about you because go back a long way. So again, please uh try to put that in your goals and objectives. And I'm going to just end on one fast thing. Not crazy about the excellence on the hill slowly. All right. Take it from a take it from a guy who grew up in the valley, Orange, New Jersey. We always have the mountain overlooking us and it was always a little intimidating. >> All right. So again, I'm I'm more of a person that feels that you should include our children. You should include what we're here for. And you kept saying pursuing excellence. I like that. Pursuing excellence in education one child at a time to me is something that speaks a heck of a lot harder
130than excellence on the hill. Little arrogant, little condescending to our neighboring community. I'm just going to leave you on that. It's just one of those things that's been bothering me and I'm I'm getting old so I got to vent. All right. Thank you for everything you guys do. You guys are true volunteers. And I brought this up in June. You are true volunteers. You're not taking any money. You're not doubling your salaries. You're not taking money from other areas that could be used to keep our children educated and safe. So again, anytime I always you guys can call me anytime. Know you all got my number. >> I don't. And I was actually going to invite you to reach out. But I would love to sit down and share with you. I think maybe it's
131been a while since you've been in the schools because we are um we value the same things that you do. And when you get that thought exchange survey link, please add your comments to the vision. You will get it. >> I'm low tech. I still put a nickel in my phone to you. >> I'm very low tech, but I'll be honest with you. I've been in these schools since 1989 doing fire prevention programs. I even got a nice old picture with you and your class on the >> Not an old picture. It's a It's >> vintage picture. How's that? Is that better? Vintage. Hey, listen. Any I I'm telling you, anytime you guys know, you can call me. My phone never rings for some reason. >> I got your number. >> Have a good night.
132Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Any other public a little bit of extra time? You're welcome. Any other public comments? >> Really like that pursuit of it. >> Okay. So, I'm closing our comments from the public section. Did you have any response? >> If um you want me to respond? So, Mr. Martino, the um security goals are part of our referendum projects. We um have done a actually a tremendous amount on safety and security. I would again I am happy to detail that for you. Also, it is on our district website. There's a whole tab that details it. The upcoming pieces in in a quick nutshell because we're starting to complete the work and thanks to Aaron back there in the booth, a lot of our security upgrades. We have um changed our
133security for public events. You're going to find as you come to our secure entrances, those are almost complete in the projects. We'll be using our raptor system um requiring visitors to present that photo ID. We have an extension of our um share 911 systems to have drills and we do collaborate fully with the police, the fire, the OEM. Um, we have a memorandum of agreement that guides those as well as our shared services. I I would tell you that it is our first priority to keep everyone safe to know who's in the buildings shared between the buildings. What has been implemented in the last two years is all geared towards that. Again, you'll find um a lot of it detailed on our district website. Um and you will hear again, I think you heard tonight,
134for instance, that we are um closing for students on the election days taking our staff out of the polling places. We um spend a tremendous amount of time with our resource officer, with Chief Anderly um on our systems, on our procedures to make sure that um again all of those processes, every person, whether it's staff, student, whomever, um knows what those structures are. And as we drill, we notify um parents so they're also aware. >> All right. >> It's closed. >> You mentioned my name. >> Yes, it is. >> You mentioned my name. >> 10 seconds. >> I'm 10. 10 seconds and we're It's closed. >> Countdown. >> Just Hey, look. Just real quick, please do not ever forget fire safety. >> Never. sprinkler systems. Update your alarm systems because I'm going to tell you
135something right now. Our children are not only uh susceptible to active shooters, but the imagination and it's getting crazy out there. So again, it's not always a gun. It's not always it could be a vehicle. It could be five gallons of gasoline. So again, please anything you need, you give me a call. >> Thank you. >> I appreciate that. >> Thank you. All right. So, >> thank you, Pete. All right. Moving it. I motion I move that we go into executive session whereas the open public meetings act NJSA10 col4-11 permits the board of education to meet in close se session to discuss certain matters. Now, therefore, be it resolved the board of education adjourns to close session to discuss a collective bargaining agreement and or negotiations related to it. Further resolve the minutes of this
136closed session be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Action may be taken. >> Second. Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. Into executive session. >> I can't come closer. All right, coming out of executive session, we can move on to our action items. Uh, Mrs. Duet, can you read administrative? >> Yes, administrative. >> I move uh number one, we approve minutes of the previous meetings. Excuse me. And number two, approve contract with the NJ Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. What do we have? Oh, three. Approval of McKini Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth Program LEA general intent to collaborate. Do you want me to read that whole thing? >> No. I just need some water. >> Okay. Four. Approve special education placement. Approve watching burough
137district goals uh 2025 2026 school year. Approve board of education goals for the 2025 2026 school year. And let's see number seven approve uh revision of two 2025 2026 district calendar. Number eight, approve the submission of statements of assurance for the 2025 2026 district mentoring plan and district professional development plan. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Have a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? All right. When you're ready, Mr. Johnson, roll call. Okay. >> Mr. Gonzalez. >> Yes. Uh, Mrs. Harvey, >> yes. >> Mr. Craft, >> yes. >> Mrs. Maddox, >> yes. >> Mrs. Santos, >> yes. >> Mrs. Duet, >> yes. >> Mrs. Amado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Aglaro, >> yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Uh, Mrs. Santos, could you move the items under personnel? >> Um, number one, approve appointment
138of certificate of staff. Number two, approve changes in assignment. Number three, approve appointment of leave replacement teachers. Number four, accept resignations. Number five, approve leaves of absence. Number six, authorize final payment of accumulated benefits. Number seven, approve mentor. Number eight, approve special services office staff. Number nine, approve appointment of long-term substitute. Number 10, approve appointment of before afterare program manager. Number 11, approve before afterare staff. [Applause] Number 12, reappoint district substitutes for the 2025 2026 school year. 13. Approve stip pen positions. 14. Approve extracurricular positions 2024 2025. 15. Approve extracurricular positions for 2025 2026. 16. Approve appointment of Bay volunteer. >> Thank you. Have a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Great. Roll call, please. Mrs. Amado, >> yes. >> Mr. Oops. Mr. Gonzalez, >> yes. >> I got Mr. Mrs. Duet, >> yes.
139>> Mr. Craft, >> yes. >> Mrs. Santos, >> yes. >> Mrs. Maddox, >> yes. >> Mrs. Harvey, >> yes. >> Mrs. Agliero, >> yes. >> Mr. Frasier is absent. Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> Mrs. Amadeo, can you move items under operation finance? >> Yes. I move one approve payment of bills for May and June 2025 uh as follows. I won't read all these details. [Music] How much do you want me to read of this? >> Number two. >> Approve transfer of funds 2024 to 2025 May and June. Three. Accept financial reports for May and June 2025. Um, four, resolution to increase bid threshold. Five, approve annual petticashe amounts. Six, authorize the application submission and acceptance of allocations for elementary and secondary education act, ESEA, titles 1A, title 2A, and title uh for part A.
140Seven, accept 2025 2026 extraordinary aid. Eight, authorize application submission and accept allocations for individuals with disabilities education act idea uh part B and preschool. Nine, accept donation of Chromebook cases and shoulder straps. Thank you for that. 10, approve updated professional service providers list. 11. Approve professional development school business and related expenses. That's it. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All right. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Mrs. Duet, >> yes. >> Mrs. Maddox, >> yes. >> Mr. Craft, >> yes. >> Mrs. Santos, >> yes. >> Mrs. Harvey, >> yes. >> Mrs. Amado, >> yes. >> Mrs. Aglaro, >> yes. >> Mr. Frraasier is absent. The motion passes. >> Great. Thank you. Mr. Gonzalez, could you move items under curriculum, please? >> Yes. I make a motion to That's a first reading. B second
141reading >> curriculum. >> Oh, curriculum. Sorry. >> I was already finishing up here. Um A, approve curriculum at Valley View School. B donate, discard obsolete textbooks. Um, that's it. >> Second. Any discussion? >> Roll call up when you're ready. >> Mrs. Amado. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Harvey, >> yes. >> Mrs. Duet, >> yes. >> Mr. Craft, >> yes. >> Mrs. Santos, >> yes. >> Mrs. Maddox, >> yes. >> Mr. Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alearo, >> yes. >> Mr. Frraasier is absent. Motion passes. >> Mrs. Harvey, could you move the items under policy, >> please? >> I can I move uh A first reading and B second reading? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Right. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Harvey, >> yes. >> Mr. Craft, >> yes. >> Mrs. Santos, >> yes. >> Mrs. Amado,
142>> yes. >> Mr. Gonzalez, >> yes. >> Mrs. Duet, >> yes. >> Mrs. Maddox, >> yes. >> Mrs. Agliero, >> yes. >> Mr. Frasier is absent. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Anyone have anything under board business? Comments from the public is next, but there is no public left. So, can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Have a second. Everyone in favor say I. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Meeting adjourned. >> Did you want to ask Adam and Phyllis? >> Sure.