001I call to order a regular meeting of the Wang burough School District it is February 20th 2025 please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 can I get a roll call please Mrs Bishop Johnson to read the welcome oh sorry it's okay welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of the buau of Wang please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meeting meetings 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
002burough of Wang at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being live streamed 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 photogra photographing other than for private personal use requires the consent of parents or Guardians whose children may be included in the image can we do a roll call please Mrs Bishop Johnson yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mr Gonzalez here Mrs jet here Mr craft here Mrs Maddox here Mrs Santos here Mrs agaro here Mr fr is absent and Mrs Harvey is absent thank you we'll start with a presentation on the District student safety data system and our submission
003for period one by Dr Glazer thank you so um just so you aren't confused that this is the twice yearly Hib report that Mrs dotto gives this um SDS ssds is our um requirement to the New Jersey Department of Education we do it twice yearly period one is what we're reporting now so that is July 1st to um December 31st um and what this is is a report to the state of any incidents of violence vandalism weapons substance abuse harassment intimidation and bullying it also addressed is the trainings that we do in Hib any programs that we conduct to support those efforts um but it is the um compliance report on all of those things not just HIV so I do want um people to know that it is a slight difference on your agenda
004there is a chart detailing um the uh incidents for Bayberry and Valley View as well as for the District in addition to incidents it talks about incidents leading to removal any kind of restrainer seclusion um hibs alleged Hib trainings and Hib programs so just to break it down a little bit um when you look at the incidences of violence vandalism substance abuse weapons and HIV confirmed there is just one one at Valley View and that is uh HIV confirmed um there were no other incidences of violence vandalism substance abuse or weapons um you'll also see um under the um other incidents leading to removal you're going to see I just want to make sure I read it correctly you're going to see at Valley View um that there are two um those are uh negative
005physical contact both of those and um leading to removal means suspension in case you um think otherwise and for Bayberry there is just one it was also an appropriate physical contact but in that case it is towards staff again um to leading to removal is suspension um we had no incidents that required restraint or seclusion no alleged um Hib anything we had the confirmed Tib and then um code of conduct violations you'll also see a large number of trainings and programs so you'll see at Bayberry School seven trainings and Valley View four um and one at the district level so some of them are repeated but I'm going to go through just so you get an idea of the kinds of things that we did in this first um reporting period you've heard of all
006of them publicly in our reports but I'm going to repeat them because I think it's important for people to understand that the efforts are on an ongoing basis so the training at Bayberry um included um the understanding the needs of our multi lingual Learners that was for our anti-bullying Specialists all the teachers all of the school staff we had um anti-Semitism training by the Israel American council at both Valley View and Bayberry for our faculty that was um providing definition of anti-semitism how to deal with it when it is observed or reported the type of communication you would have with the community or families um of the victim or the offender uh we had understanding uh second understanding the needs of multilingual Learners um that was specific to school level administrators um and our other
007staff we have been doing um and I think we reported this as part of what we added in the budget um the CPI training the nonviolent Crisis Intervention training that was held again for all of our district administrators the anti-bullying coordinator all School level administrators our teachers our staff um that is a six-hour training um different than some of you know the one-hour things that you might see at a faculty meeting as part of our grade level meetings we have spent 3 hours at Bayberry on um training in harassment intimidation bullying and code of conduct we also on our um opening days for our new staff as part of our new staff orientation for our substitutes is part of the bus driver orientation we provide all of that training again um and we have the
008safe schools um harassment intimidation and bullying training for our staff that's a 2-hour training on prevention and instruction I again different from the opening day which is a focus on the policy how we implement the policy how it's reported the different timelines so um some of these like I said are repeated for Valley View but in addition at Valley View during our U Mountaineer Monday lesson the first one on school climate and culture Improvement we do a lot of talking about um harassment intimidation and bullying we also had training for our district level administrators our anti-bullying coordinators our teachers and other staff from the lifelines interventions training that training um is part of a grant and with Empower Somerset on suicide prevention very heavy um HIV emphasis we do again our staff training at faculty
009meetings and that with the policies the pro procedures the prevention we also um have the district um prevention and instruction which is the recognition and response training for everybody at faculty meetings um I did want to say that that lifelines training is 4 hours again not a oneoff kind of training um and again programmatically there are a lot of things that we do to support our efforts um and this is not just Hib right this is all of these kinds of incidents that come up all of the kinds of issues that we deal with with Hib code of conduct we have our week of respect activities districtwide um at Bayberry they're doing the responsive classroom program morning meeting that is a schoolwide program at Bayberry for um setting the social emotional environment for the day
010it is again all of our teachers administrators anti-bullying coordinator par professionals everybody um at Bayberry at the um prek level we do the Al's Pals which is the social emotional um learning that is the programs run by our teachers in prek we have our St Second Step social emotional learning curriculum program we also have our early act community service Club they do any number of school widen Service events throughout the year at Bayberry and I think you'll hear a little bit about that um in the principal's report today one of the things that that we've done this month at Valley View in addition to the um things you heard with week of respect obviously we have our Mountaineer Mondays um but we also have school violence awareness week activities that happen in October and as
011you know we had our PTO sponsored um assembly you don't know me um the Dr Fallon presentation for students and families um we also have coming up um in March because you won't hear this report until August but in March we do have for the faculty the Hindu Education Association is coming in um and doing cultural training with the faculty at Bayberry and Valley View and then um during holy on March 13th and 14th um they have volunteers coming in working with our staff they'll be doing whole presentation on darana and hly um for all the students at Bayberry and at Valley View it'll cycle through our social studies um classes at Valley View then um we will be doing um as promised our parents Hib um programming and we've also it's it's interesting this
012has been reported I think in the last two meetings not just at our um countywide Schoolboard meetings at my Roundtable at the principal's Round Table we've had some wonderful grief presentations grief organization presentations and we've invited them to also do um a parent session coming up so again since you won't get this report again until the end of August and even though we report it every month it's really tied to this work in particular it does get reported again to the state it is on the State website if you want to also see all of this thank you Dr Glazer sure I have a question sure um there's so much sounds like so many positive educational opportunities happening indeed do we ever uh report on changes in the numbers of these incidences over time to
013know whether or not all of this good stuff is working and where we might be missing something that's a great question and I apologize so when you go on the website it gives you the whole history right like you can see just on the front page if you open it I think it goes back to 2019 ours are very consistent and our district is small with just two schools so we are pretty consistent I think what we're seeing um more at least in the time that I've been here and then I'm going to tell you something funny related to that um code of conduct right actual not discipline behaviors right um not necessarily tied to harassment and intimidation and bullying specific characteristics but behaviors that violate that code of conduct policy and what we expect
014of students um and what I will say that see that changing uh I've have seen an increase and that what I was going to say was funny you know we're we're going through strategic planning we have all this construction going on so they keep cleaning out rooms and spaces um and Tuesday I Reed received a binder of newspaper articles there's actually more but I only had time to start with the oldest one from um 1970 articles from The Sentinel and some other newspapers that I'm not sure exist I am going to I don't have time didn't have time if I did I would have scanned them and added them to my PowerPoint the headlines a shocking budget increase of 12% negotiations with the teachers parents needing to ride the school bus that one is behavior
015related regionalization it's like 55 years never happened so when I say funny just that we see it and I do think it's not cyclical right you're we're Middle School we're in elementary school students are students um that doesn't excuse it and I do think that a tremendous amount of work goes into addressing it in the moment the again the PTO we cpeg all participate in programming to to try and nurture that culture um you hear a lot of this programming is about culture right I don't know um Miss kid since you're here I know you probably weren't prepared but um this is what you do this is Mountaineer Mondays this is what we do is there anything you want to add um to are we seeing more incidents are we seeing when we're comparing over
016time right that was really my question yeah right repeat you couldn't hear her it's not well then yes the mic sorry Mrs kid if you could just repeat that I understand it didn't stream and we don't want to miss the all I was going to all I was saying was that there um it changes the students change so the types of incidents change whether it's Hib or code of conduct depending on the groups of students what we do look for is if there's a trend if it's the same type of behavior or incident that's happening over and over again and then we would address that with programming um but it also we have to look at is it an individual student that's having having the same issue over and over again then we address the
017individual student instead so that would be my two cents five and a half years thank you thank you do you have other questions no I I think it would be interesting as a board to see what those patterns are might be you know um that's all anyone else I was just thinking um sometimes I really think you need to have parents come in and have the counselor talk to them because sometimes they don't know what to do with their children and they have a difficult time with this so maybe we could do something like that I know it's hard to get parents out at night it's late they have children they have to make dinner but if if we could get a group of parents out to listen to what the counselor says this is
018what you should do when they do this this would work let's try this I just think that would be something good if we could do that I do think that is um part of what we're hoping with that H you know to explain yeah Hib versus code of conduct and I do know um when we have issues right individually uh counselor speaks to families and try and help but we will see how we can add add that in to a parent series that's good anyone else all right I'm going to move the executive session to after comments from the public because we do have public members here so on agenda items so we have so comments from the public on agenda items and then we'll go into executive session we have the committee report so
019that's good so we can go straight into superintendent remarks actually principle first so um Miss kid you're going to do Bayberry and Valley View tonight thank you so [Applause] much good evening again every everyone at both schools for the month of February we have been celebrating Black History Month in Lunar New Year with engaging lessons activities and spirit days students have completed their mid yet midyear I ready diagnostic Assessments in reading and Math teachers are now analyzing the data to identify strengths and areas for growth parent reports will be available soon through the Genesis Parent Portal earlier this month our ESL teachers participated in a full day of professional development to enhance their strategy for supporting our multilingual Learners on February 18th our entire staff took part in a variety of professional development workshops on
020topics including power standards differentiation executive functioning enrichment co- teing data-driven instruction CPR certification and much more at Bayberry our second graders put on a fantastic performance of Welcome to the Jungle during the week of February 3rd the students shined with their singing dancing and acting thanks to the incredible guidance of Mrs Riley and and the teachers a big thank you to our staff and the parent volunteers who helped make it a success today our preschoolers took Center Stage for their preschool singalong our three and four-year-olds did an amazing job and we appreciate the dedication again of Mrs Riley and of our preschool staff in making it a special event Bayberry celebrated Valentine's Day with a full week of spirit activities ending with classroom parties filled with crafts games and treats the third grade early act
021Club wrapped up its popular penny wars fundra are raising an incredible $4,000 to purchase new recess equipment a huge thank you to our generous School Community for making it possible at Valley View Middle School marking Period 2 report cards were released on February 7th via the Genesis Parent Portal this is a great opportunity to review your child's progress and plan for a strong second half of the school year our Mountaineer Monday lessons this month focused on intent verse impact students participated in small group lessons on February 10th and will come together for a schoolwide session with their colored teams across grade levels on February 24th our community outreach Club hosted its annual senior luncheon in our newly renovated learning comments students served lunch worked on crafts and played games with local senior citizens while our
022band and chorus provided entertainment the pto's first ever talent show at valy viiew was a huge success thanks to our amazing teacher and parent volunteers it was a magical night for our student performers congratulations to our boys basketball team on an undefeated season and winning the championship yes they need Applause absolutely we're also thrilled to share that five Valley View students earned spots in the Central Jersey region to intermediate Band After competing against over 600 students in auditions last month they will perform at Bridgewater Middle School on March 2nd congratulations to Alec Choi Jed Chang haa ctib Allison Park and Katrina Ling and also congratulations to our top finishers in this year's AMC 8 math competition held on January 23rd in first place Alec cheki second place Noah Chen and Nicholas Pereira third place Amanda
023Farley and Michelle Yoba the amc8 sponsored by the mathematical Association of America encourages problemsolving skills in a fun and low stress environment our teams competition was held in the Fishbowl area of the learning Commons teams which means tests of engineering aptitude mathematics and science is an annual science technology engineering and Mathematics competition that challenges middle school and high school student teams to work collaboratively to solve real world engineering challenges participants apply their math and science knowledge in Practical and creative ways we're excited to hear what their final results were and how our teams did and finally we are super excited to announce that Valley View will have a spring musical this year auditions will take place on Tuesday March 4th and Thursday March 6th at 4:30 p.m. we will announce it to the students tomorrow
024so we're looking forward to another great month ahead have a great evening what's the show thank you wanted her to tell you before everybody we were just excited that there's somebody on the agenda to be the musical director right it was wonderful to be able to find some somebody all right Miss Bishop Johnson what do we got in the business office exciting things the uh business office is finished with uh the calendar yearend reporting that we have to do for outside agencies like the IRS Etc and um we are basically now working on the budget for next school year so that is all we are doing all all all all we do every day that's it yep 25 hours a day yep that's it thank you okay thank you do the district update Dr although
025I somehow just closed it but yeah I do Erin Could you um run the PowerPoint I didn't want to interrupt Mrs kid so what you're seeing up first of all we had our first strategic plan meeting District planning meeting to talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the district it was an in-person meeting um with the community groups got together to identify um their perceived strengths and weaknesses um here in Wong burrow it is facilitated by the New Jersey school boards Association if you um look at the district website you'll be able to see the school board's process for the strategic planning um as well as the outcomes from that meeting there is also my presentation I gave the state of the district update um to kick off that meeting um was really very powerful
026I was excited to participate in it our next meeting in person right here in the same room um will be March 3D on March 3rd at our second meeting we're going to talk about our aspirations for the future of the district where we see ourselves um in the next three years 5 years even further into the future um there will be a third strategic planning meeting uh March 26 where we'll start our goal setting after the big themes are identified um and again we'll continue to remind you to please come out bring a neighbor bring a friend um to participate in those meetings and we'll continue to update the website with the outcomes and additional information um as Miss kid shared we did have our senior luncheon um here at Valley View I want to
027read some correspondents that we received um from the who wrote uh Mrs Mary oborn wrote for the wat Chung seniors to know I have glasses somewhere um to miss Franco Miss Miller Miss Morrison and to the choir and music and our teacher playing the piano for the choir we the Watchung seniors want to express our most sincere thanks to you the community outreach Club Band and choir for such a wonderful afternoon it was filled if you look while I'm reading there's great pictures it was filled with lovely interactions between the seniors and students they were very polite and helpful serving Beverages and lunch and explaining and helping us with the crafts running the B Go game and overseeing um ensuring everybody made the right boxes we loved all of the entertainment and for me personally
028the flute solo because my daughter continues to play the flute in the church Orchestra thank you all so much God willing will be invited again next year we would love to return we are so impressed by all of you the watang seniors also PS We love seeing Bianca Martino one of our early girl Scouts and Community students volunteering again so these two ladies I actually introduced the woman sitting Florence she was one of our sixth grade teachers believe she is she told me she is 94 currently and this is the highlight coming back and visiting she came to the offices to see what what had changed where her class room used to be everything it's the business office um but we were excited to have them and it was truly a lovely lovely afternoon um
029so thank you to everybody that made that happen there's our boys basketball it was a very exciting game um if you keep seeing the pictures it was hugely attended I um have not seen at middle school that kind of involvement and excitement look at all those posters kids made to support each other I mean and it was a packed house both teams it was it was fabulous I loved it um few exciting moments happening our teachers and parents nervous um but as you see we won in the end um also there you go they won big celebrations we had um celebrities there you can see our coaches mayor jubin councilman do um again so many of our teachers Miss kid thank you because somebody has to be on the door somebody has to manage the
030crowd we had our school resource officer with us it's exciting to be able to celebrate in this way um you'll see on the agenda tonight that a banner has been donated um to honor um the kids that won that'll be hung in the gym and I believe at the council meeting next week they'll also be recognized our Middle School team that's pretty cool um talent show yep our PTO talent show is fabulous again so much thanks to everybody that put it together and volunteered we had um in addition to these four teachers who were judges and um helped participate um we had our music and choir teacher there to help with the piano again the school resource officer the kids just were amazing every single act I couldn't put in every picture I'm sorry if
031I missed you um but every single act just was terrific and again the number of kids that came out to support their classmates they had signs it was it was really a a lovely evening um next Friday is the Bayberry talent show it will be held right here at the Valley View PR um and again I will just in advance thank all of the volunteers and teachers that U make that happen right because it it doesn't happen without them showing up so big thank yous we at Bayberry you heard um during uh Lunar New Year um we had a wonderful um Chinese acrobatic performance really interactive including the students it was it was a lot of fun you can see they're all having fun um we also sorry the timing is slower than I talk
032I'll talk slower um we had our referendum Town Hall where the designs for the Outdoor Learning Commons and the multi-use field um were presented by architect Frank bulby and our construction manager um Connor O'Brien from Legacy construction management um all of the renderings of the designs are on the district website um you will have another opportunity if you missed coming out that night to provide feedback and ask questions to do that um online we'll be sending that out um imminently just a quick one to get your ideas second grade play again I know we already um acknowledged Miss Riley and our wonderful second graders and their teachers um and Miss vickner it's always a lot of fun miss Riley is retiring in June and she will be missed there she is with her getting her
033flowers um lots of spirit weeks lately this was royalty day um all of us wearing our crowns um and Valentine's Spirit day lots of fun kids love it here is our um Honor Choir or a region choir we've had both of them this is the honor band honors band our regional um again miss kid talked about which of the um five students um qualified that's a lot by the way for such a small District I don't know if you really realized that that's a lot of kids um to be included so again congratulations and thank you to miss Morrison here we are um at the preschool sing along today I think we're up to date it's a lot that's happened since the um last board meeting I do just want to remind you um not
034just of the um strategic plan meeting but next month's board meeting will be Tuesday March 18th that is the day that we'll present not the final budget the tenative budget talk about um you know the goals and um where we're at heading into um the budgeting year there you go thank you Dr Glazer so that brings us to committee reports um Mrs Santos can you give the curriculum committee report please sure curriculum committee meeting met on Thursday February 13th meeting time was from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. meeting was virtual attendance was Dr GL Karen Bishop Johnson Jennifer agalo Dory Harvey myself Jessica madx uh Denise vickner and Karen kid the committee went over the following agenda items new business referendum field and Outdoor Learning comments follow up the town hall took place the administration
035decided to go with what was presented to the community and the images created that are posted on the district website for all to see student staff and the community community gave their input and all the drawings and videos are available for all to see curriculum update resource adoption timeline PR principal ficner gave an update for Bayberry ID in a series for third and fourth grade are being reviewed and teachers are giving input on the curriculum and books for mainly language arts and math IDE has and will continue to provide professional development to staff to help them understand best practices for depict materials in conjunction with curriculum principal kid gave an update for Valley View the new math program is being narrowed down teachers piloted in a program called Big Ideas and the representative from the
036company is coming to meet with the staff to discuss the program and answer any questions the staff is also trying out a computer-based supplemental resource called Delta the resource is used for extra practice at home with videos and the program will adjust to students individual levels the teachers will continue to examine the software professional development is coming up on February 18 2025 on the schedule will be in the board packet for the board to review esy director of special services Mrs TOA discussed the extended school year summer program the district is looking to hold Dy Monday through Thursday June 30th 2025 to July 31st 2025 and is hoping to hold it in Wang she is looking to continue a shared service agreement with save the district about $25,000 last year Mrs theot is still working
037on where the location of the esy program will be this summer Hindu educ ation Dr Glazer provided an update on what the schools will do for Holly is an important Hindu celebration Holly also known as the Festival of Colors is a celebration of springing love and new life it's celebrated on the last full moon which is usually in March the festival is celebrated with bonfires colored powder sweets music and dancing holy is a time to let go of negative energy and embrace the positive the school will have a photo and poster displayed the staff will share the meaning of holy with all students the superintendent will check with the borrow and the PTO to see if a Color Run can be organized outside of school hours Sports principal gave an update on Sports enrollment within
038Valley View at this point there isn't enough enrollment and part participation to field most of the sport teams in the district an after school sports club was created and we have an extremely high enrollment for the club budget development the administration discussed the world language program in both schools they are looking to hire another Spanish World Language teacher in Valley View the committee agreed with the path the administration is taking with developing the world language program and the additional higher Staffing positions for the musical director and esy plan planning coordinator were discussed and put on the agenda Comm the committee agreed with the positions uh musical director hire esy planning coordinator and on new business there was no new business thank you very much Mrs Santos I was do you mind if because we we
039met on February 13th and just a couple absolutely updates so um professional learning you got to hear about from Miss kid what you didn't hear about and we should have done it during the business office cuz it's really you as part of our insurance program there is a um program that allows our staff uh stipend to plan Wellness initiatives and on Tuesday um they had chair massages during the day at both schools what did you do in the you also had in the gym didn't you which is amazing and the feedback I have to say I don't typically get you know a bunch of emails from staff the feedback for the day was wonderful and they're very excited because the next professional learning day they got to vote on stations it's nutrition I know bay
040Berry's vote was doing smoothies they're doing a smoothie something bar um in addition to the academic Prof professional learning did you guys pick here do you know you don't know nutrition all right again nutrition based here and it'll be a different they had to vote also there was all different kinds of choices so I'll be excited to see what what the vote turned out to be for that so that was held on Tuesday um we did follow up to see if we could do anything with holy this year holy is March 14th it was too short notice but um I did start that conversation um with the B the PTO has a membership meeting next week where I guess it won't be a surprise when I add it to the agenda um to talk about
041but that'll be for next year um also since that meeting was February 13th I feel like I need to um talk about um sports baseball softball in particular so as of that um meeting on the 13th it was reported to us um that we had six eighth grade students one seventh grade student and six grade six students who had expressed their interest in Spring baseball um that is not enough participation to fill the team and I want to talk about why that is um I think it's probably fairly clear that you need you know more than the required people on the field right you need need another pitcher catcher you need to be able to throw from first to Third Base right a number of things in Wang burrow um and we just so you
042know we did reach out to other districts we reached out to the um Warren and Watchung Little League over the past few weeks to see what we could do to find out about feeder programs to find out about the wreck programs our coaches and PE teachers have been part of this for more than 20 years so processes in these this is the first time that we are not able to safely F the team um and I just want to talk about um the the numbers involved with that so our sixth grade participation is limited participation um what that means is that um our sixth graders are still in the Little League they play on a smaller field they play with lighter bats that throwing um from The Outfield to the pitcher mound from first to
043Third Base is a a developmental thing that is part of being on the team as a sixth grader um the coaches typically when there's interest so in all the PE classes people sign up for spring Sports whatever they are uh softball baseball track and field they collect all of those names and interest and then typically what would happen is that the packets there's a packet that goes home permission slip schedules um physical form they did not send those home on Friday um the coaches ended up meeting individually and in small groups with the seventh and eighth graders and with our um sixth graders and they let them know they told the seventh and eighth graders that there were not enough um players to safely field a team that uh Mr McConnell I think a lot
044of you probably know Mr McConnell I met him this year he's uh been with the high school and part of our coaching staff for years he is working with Little League to add a seventh eighth and Ninth Grade organized program including Warren wung Greenbrook and Long Hill they're hoping to have information on that in the next few weeks um and I am told that they also told the sixth graders that there were not enough players to safely field the team based on all of the things we just I just mentioned but they were tell me that they were very encouraging for them to enjoy their last year of Little League um cuz Little League does go through sixth grade they shared with me that many also play on travel and Club teams and when we
045reached out to little league and we reached out to the other um districts to find out if they were seeing similar Trends if they had similar concerns and numbers um they did and we were able to find out that part of the it's not a bad problem it's a great problem that in addition to the Little League there's travel programs Club programs kids are on more than one team they compete and they don't commit um necessarily to the school program and our coaches um shared again with me that they told the six graders that they wanted them to enjoy this year they were excited to see them back on the field next year um and in the future years three of the six sixth graders that expressed interest have now gotten packets for track they're
046looking forward to participating in track and just for point of interest about 70 students have signed up for track and field fifth grade through 8th grade that deadline is next week in case anybody is not signed up yet that wants to be I just you know based on the minutes I think you made it really clear this isn't about the budget this isn't that we don't have coaches we we have coaches we had prepared to field a team it is in the budget it's um we are not cutting baseball right or softball we literally do not have enough participation to safely field a team and that is for baseball and softball so you know um grade six seven and eight girls only three total expressed an interest in softball they are also on multiple teams
047in multiple activities um this year for the first time our six grade girls were able to play on the basketball team because there were not enough um numbers um despite everybody signing a contract students and parents um saying that they would be committed that they would be at practices in games unfortunately um the other teams and activities were prioritized um and the team forfeited games because there were not enough people to show up to play so again just not enough current participation um in baseball and softball thank you Dr Glazer um moving on to admin Finance report we have a public comment section coming up hold hold on for a second um for the administration Finance report I'm going to give it because Muhammad fras is not in attendance tonight so the administration and finance
048committee met on Tuesday February 11th in person at 4m. in attendance were myself Muhammad fras Dory Harvey Julie Glazer and Karen Bishop Johnson Manuel Gonzalez attended by phone from 4 to 5:00 pm guests attended virtually and included Ricky Boyd Tim sty who's the watchong Hills Regional High School business administrator and Kelly shean who's the K through2 transportation coordinator the committee discuss the shared services agreement with the high school regarding Transportation as well as the role and responsibil ities of the transportation coordinator Mr Boyd gave the committee a referendum projects update including progress on insulation installation the stem room vent and various wall various wall repairs we also reviewed the field and Outdoor Learning comment drawings and the input received about them from Community stakeholders we discussed the possibility of reinstating a late bus at Valley
049View and this was a wish list item that had been identified during the first strategic planning meeting with the community agenda agenda items were reviewed and included professional development pay application number nine payment of bills transfers and financial reports the sale of obsolete Chromebooks the use of Colonial life insurance as a vendor the special education Medicaid initiative waiver and the seatan Hall University student nursing agreement no issues were identified finally we discussed the upcoming budget and reviewed estimated fund balances revenues and expenditures and the meeting ended at 6 p.m. now move on to the policy committee report Mrs Amad uh the policy committee met on Wednesday February 12th uh virtually from 5:35 p.m. to 7:16 p.m. in attendance uh was Dr Glazer superintendent myself uh philis jwet uh Jenny gerero pinky neelson who's the secretary
050to the superintendent Tim dies um the business administrator for watching Hills and Kelly shean K2 transportation coordinator uh joined the meeting for the first about 45 minutes um we reviewed several safety questions with Mr sty and miss miss shean in an effort to understand what guidelines what might help might help coordinators in the future when routing for our district um our biggest safety issue seems to stem from commuters not stopping for buses on major thorough fares so the committee discussed a guideline that would require samide bus stops on those commu commuter thoroughfares um while kids are arriving to school on time there is still a short wait for some of the buses to arrive at Bayberry at the end of the school day Miss shean offered some solutions that she will continue to explore um
051currently have many empty spots on buses being saved for students that never ride so we discussed an opt-in form for busing um there will be more discussion around on that uh Danielle um will update the current suggested guidelines based on this discussion for the committee to review next month um up for for the first reading regulation 75 7510 use of school facilities and up for second reading policy 7510 use of SCH school facilities were discussed together Dr Glazer confirmed the need for custodial fees on weekends for all renters and agreed that charging for PTO and we events would be rare and at the administration's discretion a few typos were corrected as well this regulation is up for a vote um to move to Second reading um new business policy 2365 acceptable use of generative artificial
052intelligence the administration was asked for feedback on the types of guidelines that might be useful to include in this policy for our district edmin agreed that training in AI is critical and we discussed some of the guidelines that could be put in place our head of Technology will provide a list of sites worth reviewing for approval in uh for Approved use in the classroom um policy 5701 academic Integrity um this would be tied in with the AI policy and would include a statement about AI um policy 7490 dog walking the committee discussed comments raised at a recent Town Hall about dog walking on school property we reviewed and discussed the bureau's responsibility in this matter um and talked about adding more signs potentially on the property Jim damato will get back to us on the
053ordinance and any related consequences um then we reviewed the njsba regulation audit from last year um we worked through the list of policies that needed updating last year um and uh I have scheduled out uh the regulations that need to be reviewed now to um complete those over the course of the of this year um Administration is interested in purchasing a Strauss SMA subscription in order to maintain our policy and regulation list more efficiently manage updates quickly and provide all regulations online to the public currently only policies are available online so that will be reviewed further thank you Mrs Amadeo uh Mr Gonzalez can you give the update for the negotiations committee uh we were supposed to meet on February 6th but it was cancelled due to snow and we're scheduled to meet on February
05425th Tuesday thank you thank you um for board liaison reports uh legislative liaison Mrs Maddox so the there's uh there's one uh signed by Governor Murphy um signed on Monday February 3rd the school board petition which is a517 s- 3994 increases the number of signatures required for candidates to be eligible to be placed on primary General nonpartisan Municipal and school election ballots with respect to Boards of Education the new law requires candidates to collect 25 signatures on their direct nominating petitions an increase from 10 the law is effective and retroactive January 1st 2025 therefore candidates for April Board of Education Election should be should obtain at least 25 signatures on their nominating petitions to avoid the possibility of having their petition invalid for uh insufficient number of signatures or the need to submit new petition
055before the filing deadline the New Jersey School Board Association candidate kit contains additional information and um oh give me one second contains additional information and resources for anyone considering running for their local school board that's it thank you Mrs Maddox and then is there a report for the Somerset County Educational Services Commission there is but I'm going to give you very um Min Min minimal um because I was just advised of the meeting two hours before and uh when I went to the meeting I was sworn in so it was my very official first official meeting so um there was seven individuals that were sworn in from Bernard's Bridgewater um Hillsboro Township Montgomery North planfield Warren Township and then of course uh wat Chung and um as I mentioned can just give a very overview
056highlighted overview 20 they were reviewing the 2020 uh 2526 uh budget summary and was presented by uh Jeff spanola uh business administrator and board secretary um I'm not going to go into that since I didn't really have the information to to go into details and sh chair and then uh Frank Barber acting principal presented the 2425 Governor's educators of the Year awards that evening and um that's it great thank you very much uh Mrs Amadeo do you have a report for the Somerset County School boards Association no update okay and I'm the liaison for the school boards Association I also have no update other than just a reminder to do your mandatory training um I am the representative for the regionalization committee just give me a minute I'll pull up the report the Wong Hills
057shared services regionalization feasibility study Advisory Group met on Thursday January 30th to receive an update from the project research team from the Rowan School regionalization Institute the researchers shared the progress made on data collection and the next steps in scheduling interviews for superintendents business administrators curriculum directors special service services and faculty they also highlighted the ongoing work in evaluating facilities transportation and demographic projections the group plans to communicate with the public through local media outlets and a proposed Public Town Hall in early April the study process remains on schedule to have a preliminary draft report presented to The Advisory Group by May once the draft report has been presented the next steps in the process will be determined and then Dr Glazer do you have a report for Morris Union uh Morris Union joints for
058meetings actually next Wednesday February 26 it'll be when they present their preliminary budget so I'll have a report next month okay great thank you um moving on to community engagement is there anyone here from PTO anyone from W anyone from cpeg okay so now moving on to comments from the public on agenda items we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only is now the second 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
059officer 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 and considering the amount of people here will'll probably let all the comments be made before any response may be given New Jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss personnel or hiring in public session names of students should not 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 all comments that they make to
060the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public sorry for cutting you guys off earlier go ahead oh for you yeah it is a hi I'm mallerie Morales Watchung I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of any of the boys and I appreciate the the update on um the process of what went on to see and evaluate what students were interested in playing baseball or softball or any of the spring Sports um however parents were not made aware of what that process was or what the time frame was and you know didn't have the opportunity to even um talk to their kids about it like my son didn't even know that there was any sort of interest you know raising handing or you know discussion and gym
061class at all um maybe he was absent that day maybe he went to the bathroom I don't know um but he did not know about it I'm sure there was other children that didn't know about it and you know in terms of um you know that could be a part of the problem with lack of you know interest or you know kids also need Transportation um they need to check with their parents to see if you know they have other commitments after school and if they could commit to something so I have a problem with you know the overall process and communication behind this and um and also another thing is these students especially I can speak for my own um has been playing baseball since prek plays on Club teams travel teams he plays
062up in leagues um how can you evaluate whether or not he he's you know capable of playing um in the middle school with other you know you mentioned what like seven older boys that had already showed interest so you know I I think seven older boys with a handful of other younger sixth graders should be sufficient for a team um I understand there's other safety concerns but I'd like to understand also the ratio of what would make um a safe team um with the makeup that we have so if there's maybe like one or two other seventh graders or eighth graders that maybe also were like my son and were not present the day that you know this was discussed with them there could be others that you know are like my son and didn't
063know about it thank you thank you Mrs Morales she a student hi n Patel Wang um I also have a sixth grader who is so excited to play baseball he also plays um a club team and a travel team and I have two older children who are in high school now and they both played softball and baseball um so just speaking from experience with my older two um we're a small town we don't have a lot of kids we don't have a big pool of kids to choose from and over the years I think that the numbers have been dwindling we see it in little League we see it on the Travel team and we definitely see it in in Middle School um I think that in the past I remember when my older son
064was in sixth grade he came home and he said I made the team but I don't really know how much playing time I'm going to get because sixth graders don't usually play a lot um but that year and the the following three years that he played there isn't a large number of kids he played he played in Sixth Grade he he pitched in sixth grade and I do understand the safety concerns it was a big field for them and it was a learning experience but they did it you know and they they pull through the coaches made sure they were not overextending themselves as sixth graders so they came in as relief pitchers they put them in the Outfield but they loved it they had the best experience all three years both in softball and
065in baseball and I feel that we're kind of taking that away from that opportunity for our kids this year um I know that when my son was in baseball it wasn't a huge team maybe 16 or 17 and I think that we have 14 or 15 I think from the numbers that we counted there's like between seventh and eighth eighth graders there were eight kids um maybe mallerie has seven um seven kids in grade seven and grade eight two of the grade eight students were if you absolutely had to have me and then six grade six and I I will I'm taking notes and I'll answer everybody at once maybe like a an email could have been sent out like you know what we're short of players so if there's anyone that's may have not
066gotten the the sign up alert or whatever and and I know last year it was a small team too I think it was like 12 or 13 last year so I think that we're just um we're taking it away from the kids by not giving them this opportunity or at least trying it or even having tryouts to see if the boys are capable of of handling a bigger field thank you thank you Miss Patel my name is ver chatau from watchong and I was I'm in eighth grade currently and I played in sixth grade at on the baseball team and I had a lot of fun I feel like that all the sixth graders will also have a lot of fun and as a six when I was in sixth grade I was able to
067play Pitch I did a lot of I did I played a lot and I had a lot of fun and as I'm in eighth grade right now I feel like this is my last year and I should we have a lot of players that want to play for the team and we should be able to play like I want to play with my brother and like feel that'd be really fun and like like all sixth graders seventh graders and eighth graders want to play are looking forward to this and they should be able to have fun and have this experience thank you thank you thank [Applause] you my name is Tommy shy and I'm a sixth grade student at Valley View and I intr and I introduce myself and I'm a sixth grade student at
068valy view who is unfortunately speaking on behalf of all the boys at Valley View who love baseball and unfortunately learned recently that there is no baseball team even though there was no clear communication about this maybe the most communication about this was the PE coaches asking people in gym class to raise their hand to see if they were interested in baseball many people probably did not get the message I know of at least 15 people including SE many seventh and eighth graders who want to play baseball which is more than enough did you know that Anthony vulpi started playing baseball in sixth grade for Valley View and look where he is now also wanting to play for Valley View baseball shows school spirit I was wanting to play more Spirit than just cheering on for
069Valley View baseball runs and wunk thanks for listening for our opinion anyone else Dan H from watchong just to reiterate um some of the comments are already made it does seem like we have at least 15 kids which I can tell you from experience with Club teams travel teams is more than enough kids to play as far as we know we have eight seventh and eighth graders I think we have seven sixth graders and the other thing I would say is the sixth grade group is really strong like these are kids i' I've seen them for years like it would be an awesome experience for them to get the chance to play with these you know the older kids even if they don't play a lot and I think you know that's really going to
070go a long way towards building a team you know for the future so I think it's something to keep in mind we want to build a bench and they really want to play for their school they they already have the opportunity to play for Town teams to play for Club teams but it's going to really mean something to them if they can actually play for Valley View too so thank you you thank you okay just gonna wait and see if you anybody else wanted to come up question could you come because you're streaming thanks sorry oh I'm sorry hi my name is Petra Shi um Tommy's mom and I wanted to know what is the minimum of people playing for the team I'm gonna answer all at once I'll answer all at once okay and
071um everything else what was said I basically agree with the lck there was kind of lack of communication between the parents we got plenty of emails about the band music and this and this from school but nothing about the sports that's one thing I wanted to point that out and it's nothing like playing for school you know it's community and I think it would be very beneficial for our kids play with the older uh great boys and it would be just I hope we can save it this year and if not I'm hoping that next year there will be better communication with the parents because my son came home today from school and basically said there's no baseball he didn't say nothing about deadline nothing about I felt like the story was changing a little
072bit first there was like only sixth graders and there was not enough people then maybe there's no coach then maybe there's a deadline then we don't have enough people it's just I felt like the story was changing today a lot so I don't know what was gossips what was the fact who was telling the truth but uh basically that's all I hope you can sa it today for this year thank you thank you anyone else okay good right so we took notes first of all thank you um Tom shy that's first name love your vulpi jersey you are right that he Anthony vulpi did start in sixth grade I did not know that until um earlier today actually but thank you for shouting it out it was nice to to see that so a couple
073things um and you guys the students you're going to know this better than your parents when I repeat this because this is coming from your teachers and coaches what I'm about to say okay starting in January in PE classes Mr B coach Lesley when you're lined up on your spot when you're in your uniform before you start your PE class right that's where they ask who's interested who wants to participate they take those lists right that starts in January just so you all know February 3rd I got a message from Miss kid asking me to please come to a meeting because the lists that they had so far did not have nearly enough kids to field baseball or softball and we talked about what to do because you do have to let the league know
074right if you're Fielding a team you have to let the bus companies know we have to let everybody know and the decision was made to spend the next week or so we actually spent 10 days um trying to see if there are other kids they know that your coaches and teachers right your PE teachers are also your coaches they've known you they work with you um to see if there were kids that were on other teams and other way um to boost those numbers not just for baseball but also for softball our after school sports program started hugely attended um another opportunity to try and um encourage kids that program extends our gym curriculum our PE curriculum um outside of the school day um and so you all know because I think it's really important
075to know your coaches love baseball too your coaches want a baseball team too everybody sitting here um believes right being on a team is important not just for teamwork but the same thing that it does when you're in the chorus or in a play you you develop a different level of connection a different level of school spirit right plus you're developing your skills we all agree it's important your coaches reached out to other districts to see like I said um before if they were seeing similar issues they are there's another District that hasn't announced what they're going to do yet I won't share who that is I am able to tell you Bedminster is not Fielding a team you have um districts much bigger than we are that are concerned about the numbers um we
076I had a conversation um with leadership from Warren and wat Chung Little League I know our coaches also did to see right we have Club teams we have travel teams I asked specifically how far Little League extends is that our feeder program or is it you know a competing program they were wonderful explaining to me what's happened over the years and how we ended up having a Warren and wat young um little league your coaches also so you know um when our numbers were still not um enough and to be clear we have one seventh grader we have uh four to six eighth graders right again there two were um iffy if they could participate but they wanted to be on the list and then six sixth graders ERS so if everybody that was on
077the list participated you have 13 right and um one of the things that was made very clear to me not just in the conversations with the other districts because this is also true and Warren um the sixth grade participation is limited it's it's limited not because you don't love baseball or your coaches don't love coaching you I think it's really important for you to hear this and I am I am actually reading something that I received from the coaches before they had to make the decision not to do this okay we want the sixth graders to still have fun playing to enjoy the competition and the teamwork and the excitement of the sport they love I am a coach who loves helping kids enjoy the game it brings me endless Joy however and you've heard
078me already talk about um the difference in the bat the difference in the Baseline the difference in the field from Little League to Middle School what they see and this is over they've been doing this for years years and years here in Wang and other places what they see is struggling with the long throws it's excessive arm strain there overuse injuries and then they hear from your club and travel teams that that we've you know spoiled them from from those teams they had to modify practices to stop doing um so much throwing excuse me for all students right I just mean in general because they were the old older kids had to fill in right play multiple positions we don't even have enough kids in seventh and eighth grade to be able to do that
079this year right this is the lowest number we've had so just to to continue with this I don't know what a drop three bat is I guess I'm hoping that you do um but they're they're very heavy it's difficult to develop proper swing mechanics again it increases the injury risk um sixth graders pitching I think it's awesome that you both of you who stood up and talked about pitching right um but it's few and far between for most kids again not just sixth graders to be able to safely pitch from 60 feet remember I'm reading him because I don't know where it is 60 fet and keeping the pitch count low they're they find that it's almost impossible again pitching fatigue forfeiting games overuse injuries long-term injuries we do not want to be responsible right
080for long-term injuries um again I talked about the practice modifications um they talked about um skills progression the the other piece of this is we have 11 to3 in interested everybody right 11 to 13 total I am told I'm looking at the numbers well I don't know what you're I can only tell you the list that our coaches have so I'm going to talk about this there is there is there is 1 7th grader four to six eighth graders and six six graders and I will talk about that in a second however I'm if you please stop interrupting me I promise I am working my way through this this is not my area of expertise I'm trying really hard nobody wanted to do this we have spent weeks trying to figure out how to make
081this happen um so with 11 to 13 players total players sixth seventh and eighth grade you need multiple pitchers multiple catchers you don't have that the little league shared with us that ideal deal right is 14 or 15 to 20 no more than 25 you couldn't 11 you would not have the opportunity to be able to to build the skills the capabilities is what we are told and again you have 11 to13 they're just not enough to field it a team safely hang on one second I do want to just address one of the other things and then we can have you come back up and ask other questions um I think the students who are here will be able to confirm it's not just one day where you sign up for interest and for
082all of our Sports um when you get that interest they send the packets right if you play other sports you know right as soon as um we can safely feel the team they send the packets home with the permission slips all of the things you address Transportation um all of the schedule the requirements the physical right they made the decision on Friday to speak to the seventh and eighth graders as I already mentioned and let them know that there were not enough students and you're you're an eighth grader you told me did the coach or PE teacher meet with you individually or in a small group and tell you that there weren't enough students that but Mr McConnell was working with the little league to try and put together a seven8 and n organized program
083that that would he would be able to have more information within the next couple weeks okay this is again this is the information I have thank you for sharing that I appreciate you feeling comfortable enough to share that so seventh 8th and nth grade what I am told is that they are working to build this organized program in the next coming weeks sixth graders did they speak to you about little league about loving it about being excited to have a team stronger team next year hopefully more participation I can't a little louder no no no no this is yesterday they said that met with the sixth graders so so how did you hear then from the coach or the teacher that there wouldn't be a team if you weren't part of the well okay but
084okay I'm glad that you were able to do that when you asked and did they speak to you at all okay that's fine I just want to make sure because the communication that that there it's not a deadline we start in January trying to get participation we got no additional participation from their efforts from calling around to the clubs and the other leagues for additional days all the way up to February I'll give I promise you'll be able to come up to the microphone again um to all the way up to February 13th you you have to understand the coaches responsibility to be able to feel the safe team right there wasn't the interest or the numbers there there if there were right you wouldn't have this this conversation because you would have gotten your
085packet and all of that Miss kid please please you live it every day I'm trying to address here is an exception to the rule he was one of two sixth graders that weren't cut right your sixth grade year um so you know superstar in the making right um but I do want to just answer or add on to a little bit of what Dr Glazer says so obviously I've only been here for five and a half years um co uh Mr be's been here for over 20 the process for signing up for all of our Sports whether they're winter sports or spring Sports has always been PE teachers get to see everybody so they announce the signups and they do it in multiple classes they try to make sure they take attendance first so they
086know who's absent um and that that's how they gauge the interest once we get our lists of kids that are interested and also I put it on the announcements just so you know um we get our kid list of kids that are interested and then they hold an interest meeting the interest meeting with the coach they go over the packet the deadlines for getting the uh medical forms in the contract all of those things um and we never got to that point this year and the reason we never got to that point this year is because our lists were so significantly low now I know coach Leslie did Coach baseball with a very small number of students not as small as this year he had more upper classmen than um we do this year also
087um but he had to significantly change practices um he had students that couldn't play their key positions because they were on multiple teams um we had students that would try to throw in from the Outfield and then say coach I can't play anymore I'm out we H are if you overextend anybody at any age that's what's going to happen they actually stopped throwing in practices because the kids couldn't do it not that they couldn't reach the distance they couldn't do it consistently for multiple teams without getting hurt so these are the things that we have to think of if we don't have enough students to play safely we need to build our team for next year we want our sixth graders to participate in seventh and eighth grade we don't want to take the chance
088and and also you're you're looking at whole numbers assuming like you said that they would all make the team whether it's sixth seventh or eighth grade they make an effort and they've made an effort in the past not to cut upper classmen especially eth graders so that way they can participate but I can tell from our enrollment we have some players that are there because they're upper classmen if we had full Cuts we wouldn't even have as many upper classmen as we have signed up and ver you know that right you know who I'm talking about so those are all the things that you know aren't part of the communication I agree we will add the layer for All Sports from now on with an eblast to parents um usually the communication like when you
089talk about band and chorus and stuff like that you're getting it they're signed up for it already when you're getting those Communications so if your kids were signed up and part of the team already you would have gotten those Communications so that's a little bit of the difference but we will add that layer for all our Sports signups for you and I appreciate that feedback um like I said it's been the practice for over 20 years um of relying on middle school kids to sign up I think we did that for clubs I think maybe they're getting it confused with sports well not in the past five years and I'm just saying did Coach Leslie put it up afterwards yeah okay but also like it it won't make a it won't make a difference this
090year that's I I will we could do the signup sheet and the eblast we can add all those different layers but it's that's not what the issue is this year yes that may have helped with one or two kids that were put on the list but we have to like really think about um like we keep saying safely Fielding a team so nobody wanted to to have this happen but we really want to we're really looking forward to the next two years so that's kind of where we are that's all I wanted to add thank you thank you do you want to ask people to come back up if anyone has anything new to add you need to can you come maybe somebody bring her the we could bring her somebody bring her the microphone
091thank you and Karen you can answer cuz I don't there is no deadline um so you said you started in January but but and I asked when was the deadline so do you know when uh Mrs kid I think I answered it and you you just said the same when did you make the decision was it today was it like two weeks ago because still were not I said that by February 13th we still had no additional students on Friday I am told that the PE teachers and coaches talked to the seventh and eighth graders and yes as today yes yesterday is Wednesday Wednesday the sixth graders because Al where's the microphone Ken where's Miss kid grab the microphone back I just uh because the numbers of the players who wanted to play do not
092match what you have with our numbers that's why I was ask I can't answer where your numbers come I can only tell you the what our coaches and teach teachers have and that's you know how how again as Mrs kid said how it's worked for however many years sounds like we need at least I know we've gone over this before but is the issue the overall number of kids or is it the number of seventh and eighth graders and and just also what number of overall kids do we need and what number of seventh and eth graders do we need to 20 I know so the answer to the question is has multiple Parts um just like we were talking about discipline earlier it depends on the specific children so the coaches and the PE
093teachers we already know our kids so yes maybe we haven't they haven't seen Tommy on a full baseball field or anything like that but we do know um especially the upper classmen so we have to look at total number we have to look at the number of upper classmen we have to look at who's playing what positions and what skills they have and also like knowing um what happened with our sixth grade basketball girls it was a shame that we had to Forfeit games because they chose other commitments even after signing a contract to us so there's so many different things in place and that's why we need the cushion so that way if we have kids that have a conflict with another game they get sick they get injured we can still field a
094team we don't have to Forfeit games so it's like there's not one clear answer there's multiple it's not just bodies that's what we're saying we told they I said that when I asked Little League I I did answer that when I asked Little League they said that 14 or 15 to 20 is ideal 25 is the most and and just just like just like we've done in the past um Warren and um the other districts would allow like one to two um sixth graders to be on the team so that's why like we're really looking at the classman but we understand that there would be some sixth graders able to play so there's like I said it's not one yes I guess I guess so yes please remember that we're streaming this live so if
095you can please come up to the microphone and speak so that anyone that's home that wants to be a part of this can also I guess I guess the other question I have is as far as assessing the abilities of the players how can we do that if we haven't even had a tryy out I I can tell you that your coaches are also your PE teachers I don't know the answer to that one of the things um and I and I hate to say it because I asked the question you know if you don't know that the the six sixth graders that are interested right I they didn't have enough kids to even do the try out it it it's not just the bodies I don't please don't feel like you aren't skilled enough
096students don't feel like you know you're playing at little league and travel and Club is Not valued both coaches and I read what the first coach said about the Love of the Game and building you said building the bench I'll use your language because I like it um about building the bench and keeping your Love of the Game all super important and I asked without this and we don't have enough students to safely F the team I don't you know I know that you asked us to reconsider I don't have it but I think what was important to me even all the way back February 3rd when we started calling around to other districts and asking the question what are the opportunities does sixth graders have opportunities to play yes in Little League in club
097inner County um and travel I was given four different ways that students um could play even if we couldn't fill the team at school again not what we want to do but it it's unfortunately looks like the reality just looking at the numbers you said four to six eth graders 1 7eventh grader six sixth graders and from what I'm hearing it's really for eighth graders too that either don't really play or don't really want to do it no they're just not they're not sure of all right so we've got a guaranteed five seventh and eighth graders and if we need and let's say two of the six sixth graders can play because there were two exceptions one year so now we have seven and we're looking for at least 14 or 15 and I've played
098baseball I played baseball my entire childhood I agree 14 and 15 is an ideal number we're still looking at seven or eight additional children that we need pre between the seventh and eighth grade where are these children if they want to play then they need to step up and come forward and say that I've heard someone in the crowd say there's 15 not 13 okay well that's two we still need five like we're there the numbers just aren't there and there are a million ways for these kids to play I I I love baseball as much as the next person I was there for vul's opening day I was sitting right behind home plate like right next to Christine Eid which was a complete coincidence I love Yankee baseball as much as anyone I would
099love to see Valley View have a baseball team but I we're just going around in circles like the we don't have the kids just move on I'm going to allow one more comment and then we do have quite a lengthy remaining agenda and so we'll have to move on but yes go ahead my name isy I'm here in Devin's uh mom so thank you for hearing us out um I think the problem here that we're all going back and forth is is with the numbers and I think that the communication that came from the and open it up again Ask the coaches thank you that that came up from the coaches to miss kid you know was obviously wrong number because the number you have is very different than the numbers we have on B
100where are the numbers that you have coming from so we have seven eighth graders cuz I know you all keep saying four other and another and a seventh grader so that's eight upper classmen VI's year last year they only they had 12 uh players on the team and they did very well um they made it all the way to the uh Championship with that team very close game almost won that so even with the 12 people they made it to the championship it was a wonderful experience for everybody and so we do have I mean if there was some communication of okay do we have the right numbers reaching out to the parents I know Devin you know is very very tired about sports so his ears are open constantly about sports but I know
101sometimes when I communicate it to our group of friends like for example now with track or something there are other kids who seem to have zero idea about oh there's track sign up when is that so have more than 70 kids signed up for track they've missed it I I don't know how but that deadline happens to be next week right so he's very aware he's very aware of that he already informed me of it but I just think if it was a way before the decision was made on February 3rd or whatever it was where parents were informed where parents could talk to their children and say hey what do you think about baseball or hey what do you think about soccer you know playing that so like now if for example there isn't
102a if a baseball team doesn't end up happening I can then talk to my son about do you want to now try track but if parents don't know about any of that then we can't have that discussion with our children now like I said Devon is very attentive with sports so he'll come and tell me Well now maybe I'll do track but that is not the same for everybody I heard Mrs kid acknowledge that she heard you um and and I I think that is helpful but I just need to say it's not just bodies on the field we have to be able to safely field the team and that is um what the issue was I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to come out and speak especially the students that
103takes a lot of Bravery um unfortunately we do need to move on so I would like to move into executive session um the executive session where the open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-11 permits the Board of Education to meet in closed session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved the Board of Education adjourns to close session to discuss a matter rendered confidential by federal or state law student matters a collective bargaining agreement Andor negotiations related to it or and pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation and or matters of attorney client privileged privileged further resolve the minutes of this closed session may be made public when the need for confidential no longer exists an action may be taken have a motion to go into executive session second motion and have a second
104Manny made the motion have second second any discussion no all in favor say I I go on to Executive session e e e right so we've returned out of executive session uh we're moving on to action items uh Mrs Amadeo could you move the action items under administr administ administrative yes I move administrative items one approve minutes of previous meeting two affirm the superintendent Hib report three approve the agreement with Sean Hall University School of Nursing and that is it great could I have a second second second okay any discussion no no all right when you're ready Mrs Bishop Johnson we could do a roll call please yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs Jette yes Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mrs agaro yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Santos yes motion passes thank you um Mr
105Gonzalez could you move items under B Personnel please please okay um I move to approve uh appointment uh number one I move to approve appointments of musical director at Valley View Middle School number two number three approve appointment of 2025 extended year coordinator number four approve revise leaves of absence number five approve extra curricular positions number six approve extra duties number seven approve School supervising supervision uh Duty um that's it thank you is there a second second second thank you any discussion okay roll call please Mrs Bishop Johnson um Mr Gonzalez yes Mr craft yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs Maddox yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs jet yes Mrs agaro yes motion passes thank you um Mr craft could you please move items under C operations Finance sure like to move item C1 approve payment of
106bills two approve transfer of funds 2024 2025 accept Financial reports authorize this number four authorize the sale of surplus obsolete equipment number five approve payment application for Bayberry and value view HVAC upgrades number six approve additional voluntary employee disability vendor number seven authorize waiver of requirement special education Medicaid Initiative Program number eight accept donation of banner celebrating boys basketball team number nine accept donation of books to the B Bayberry Library in support of an author visit and number 10 approve professional development School business and related expenses thank you do we have a second second okay any discussion no okay can I have a roll call please Mrs Bishop Johnson yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs jet yes Mrs Santos yes Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mr gonz ales yes Mrs AG Arrow yes motion passes
107thank you Mrs Santos can you move the items under curriculum um a approve additional field trip location for 2024 2025 school year thanks do we have a second second thank you any discussion no okay a roll call please Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs jet yes Mr Gonzalez mhm yes Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mrs agaro yes Mrs Santos yes motion passes thank you U Mrs jet could you move the items under policy please uh policy first reading yes please first reading it was for um R 75110 second reading for uh oh policy 75110 use of school facilities thank you second thank you any discussion no okay roll call please okay Mr Gonzalez yes Mr craft yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs jet yes Mrs emo yes Mrs agaro yes Mrs Maddox yes motion passes thank you
108does anyone have anything for board business you know I have two things I know you want to go home but I want to tell you this anyway okay okay so my governance three class okay what I took away from that was that they find that the districts where the Board of Ed expects academic rigor and makes no excuses but just keeps working to improve all areas has students that are high Achievers so that's what we need rigor and making no excuses for ourselves just keep going and making ourselves good and I have one more thing the Historical Society in Wong has made all these videos and it goes way back and there's one real good one about Camp Endeavor that you could see so if you go to YouTube and you search Watchung history it's
109been out for a while I didn't know all about it but I've been watching a couple of things and I think it would be good for yourselves and also for the kids they get to know what the history of this town is about so that's it have a good night phis Camp what I'm sorry Endeavor camp Camp Endeavor Camp Endeavor thank you that's really a good one thank you oh you'll learn about you know the falls with TKA Falls and how the whole legend came about you learn things and the kids would too it's great thank you thank you okay anyone else me um I have I want to go back and revisit um our discussion earlier in regards to the softball baseball um situation and you know I I um empathize with what the
110students were saying and the parents and you know I know that you know they middle schoolers we want to put responsibility on them in whether there whatever Sports whether it's academics whatever it may be but there's um you know based on discussion tonight I felt like there was a little bit of a a Miss in communication with the students as well as what we were trying to discuss whether there was deadlines whatever there may be and I know that there may be a past where you know we're there's an assumption that this is what's happened in the past but um I didn't I didn't see that there was a clear indication of a timeline I know that maybe there's two months whatever it may be there's I don't know anything about sports um but I
111do know that um you know participation is important and you know whether it's a you know we're going to be it's a traveling team if there's more students out there that potentially would be involved in this Sports why not go back and unless there's something that's preventing this from moving forward can we go back and find out if there are more students that for some reason miss the boat on this um I don't know I I I just don't feel like um there was the right kind of communic a that was presented to the students and the parents so I think Mrs kid acknowledged that she also heard that um you're right they've been doing it this way for 22 years and they've never not had the numbers so it's never been an issue right
112right because they'd get the packet the kid would play or wouldn't play wouldn't play and that would be the end this year is different so I I do think that I heard her acknowled that I don't know um what the next step is right I'll report back I think the teachers and coaches probably watch but I'll report back um and we'll see because for us remember it's not just we want everybody to participate too we want everybody to play We believe in that you know school spirit in addition to the clubs all of that but our responsibility right is that safety right so so um they would still be doing tryouts they would still be right um the to the father's I'm sorry I don't know his last name but to the father's point right
113they would have to do tryouts and skills assessments so I think that their teachers their coaches they are their teachers and coaches right um as Mrs kid said felt we could do all of that that but it doesn't still mean that there would be a team right well you know the the other aspect of it is that um you know as a parent with children that are in sports you have you have that um there is always that liability Where Your Children potentially going to get injured and you know that going into any sport so I think that if the parent indicates that yes you know this is a sport that I want my child to be in knowing that there are those potential U liabilities that's the responsibility of the parent to take on
114not I mean I I know that as a school there has to be that responsibility but there is also this isn't like breaking a leg right these are long long-term repetitive issues and again I'm not a certified coach or PE teacher but I and we've listened right we're listening we you if you knew the amount of effort that everybody put in to trying not to make this announcement you have no nobody wanted to do this but it's unfortunately where we ended up hopefully this discussion um will increase everyone's awareness right about the needs for their uh children to apply for baseball softball sports um so that in the future this doesn't happen again because we are the home of Anthony vulpi and it is sad that we don't have a baseball in softball team so
115yeah I'll be I'll be curious to see what changes if any come out of this you know can be every year could have set time frames for signing up so every year it's the same and kids know what to expect having firm deadlines to Jessica's Point like it didn't sound like there was a deadline when you give people deadlines it's clear their time frame to to sign up and maybe kids procrastinate so like I said I'm just throwing out a couple ideas it would be very nice to hear what what comes out of this I do believe Karen acknowledged that and I again we we can do all of that I just want to be clear um and on the record that even doing all that still doesn't mean you have 100% enough we just
116want to give the kids the best chance of course to have a team that's all I think everybody agrees with that everybody agrees anyone else all right moving on to comments from the public but seeing no one's here can I have a motion to adjourn SE so moved second second all in favor I meeting adjourned e