001if you have anything. Oh, hold on. Before we go to board correspondents, I just want to wish everyone a happy Veterans Day. Uh, thank all those veterans. Thank you to my son who also served and, uh, appreciate everyone's efforts. Thank you. Now, we'll go to Michael Jonah. Uh, board correspondence, please. We have no board corresponds. All right, great. We're going to move right into the committee reports. Lisa, did you say you were going to read the or tell us about the education committee? Yes, I will. Uh even though apologetically I could not attend. I had a duty at my school attention duty. Uh the education committee uh met October 29th at 3:30 and attendance were Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Potter, Miss Prosa, Dr. JW, Mrs. Schneiderman, Mr. Schultz, Dr. Labbera, and Mr. Sabino. New course proposals
002was the first item. Dr. provided an overview of new courses being proposed for the 2627 program of studies which includes uh AP cyber security intermediate creative design and a two-year AP capstone sequence which includes AP seminar and research course descriptions are linked to uh the education committee agenda and additional program studies updates will be discussed at the December ed committee meeting for approval at our December board The next item was the counseling curriculum. Mr. Sabino provided an update on the school counseling curriculum. Last year, 9th and 10th grade counseling curriculum was updated, followed by the 11th and 12th grade curriculum. The 11th and 12th grade curriculum had been redesigned to provide more comprehensive and robust postsecary guidance to students. The two documents uh future forward exploring postsecary options 11th grade and next steps for warriors
003your transition beyond high school 12th grade are available for viewing in the education committee agenda and will be on the board agenda for approval at our November 25th uh board of ed meeting. Uh Mr. Sabino then talked about the NJ Sky coaching and consultation opportunity. Uh it is a grant and Uh, we are working, Mr. Sabino and his people are working to submit the application for the Oh, geez, today's deadline, November 11th's deadline. Hope they did it. School districts that apply will be required to have interviews with administration uh the following weeks. If selected, the district will benefit from three years of professional development directly um from the professionals that have developed the survey and provide tailored individual consulting and data analysis of school climate results. Ideally, they will help us to share the findings
004in greater detail with our learning community, further develop a school climate leadership team, and identify metrics on the school climate survey to connect our next strategic plan goals. Um and then the next the last subject was overnight trips. Dr. Jwitt uh facilitated the discussion about overnight trips. Uh Dr. J shared with the board that we currently allow a limited amount for students teams who qualify for competitions that require an overnight stay. For example, the wrestling state tournament uh model UN. However, we have moved away from other types of overnight trips given liability expense whether it's the students school and other consideration other considerations. Dr. Jw discussed this with the committee. The committee agreed that we should continue to limit overnight trips to the current ones we approve that are required for competitions and the meeting
005adjourned at 4 p.m. That's all. We did submit the grant application for the NJ Sky grant yesterday. Just wanted to make sure you knew that >> operations. Uh we met yesterday morning in attendance was Mr. Burberg, Miss Prosa, myself, Mr. Gall, Dr. JW, Mr. Snowden, and Mr. Schultz. We have construction updates from Mr. Snowden. The rooftop units that are above the administrative offices are operational. The contractor is working to resolve items on the punch list before closing out the project sack offices. The area has been completed November 6th and the staff has officially moved into the new space and loving it design lab. Uh the initial timeline was to have these panels installed last week when the school was out out of session. However, due to delays receiving the materials, the instation Once the contractor
006receives the materials and installation date memorial wall updated quote was received from a cooperative vendor that okay uh approximately $11,000 the expense will be needed will be approved at the next board meeting November 25th and once approved will take approximately six to eight weeks to complete. All committee members were Moving forward with this project, track and asphalt repairs. The repairs to the area around the track have been completed and the project is now closed. Chiller. The change order for the repairs to the heat uh to the motors was approved. Once the contractor receives the approved change order, they'll begin the work. The last construction update is the baseball and softball scores table and those are complete. Transportation costs. Mr. Schultz, uh, we discussed the transportation costs that are on the agenda for discussion tonight. These
007are for the regular 2526 school year special education routes with Somerset County Educational Services Commission. Wanted to point out that the costs have increased approximately $120,000 over last year. There are several factors driving the increase, but mainly it's because uh most of the roots are 100% build to our district and there are additional roots based on student placements. Um this process asked if we were receiving anything back to help defree the cost but the answer is no. There's not this is not included in the extraordinary aid application that is completed. We had followed more discussion that followed 26 27 budget update. Mr. Schultz shared that the information to begin working on the 2026 2027 budget was sent to all the directors and supervisors last week. Some have already reached out to Mr. Snowden regarding requests
008pertaining to facilities. Mr. Schultz added that enrollment is projected to decrease by approximately 20 students again this year and committee discussion followed. Professional services annual renewals. Mr. Schultz discussed that the professional services renewals that take place in January and June of each year. He explained the process that Mr. S used in the past when selecting one vendor each year to selected RFPs. Um, and the time frame for selecting the January renewal is tight, but we could revisit that and select a vendor that is typically renewed in June 2024 2025. Audit update. Mr. Schultz provided an update on the status of the 2425 school year audit. Mr. Vinci reached out this uh morning that morning to discuss the results and inquired about scheduling the exit conference. Mr. Sult said both Mr. Vichi Mr. Gary Vichy and
009Mr. Chris Vinci will discuss the results with the operations committee and then present them to the entire board at next month's meeting. at 93. >> Anything further? >> Okay, thank you Heather Bob services. So the on uh October 30th, the uh Wong Hills region shared services regionalization study advisory uh committee uh met to do a public presentation uh of the release of the final report of the feasibility study. U we had a really good turnout u you know for that particular event. Um And all the materials are now up on the Watchon Hills website. Uh those materials include the the full study, uh the executive summary of the study, the 72 recommendations of the study as a separate document, the slide deck that was used by the research team from Rowan, as well as the
010video. So we have the video up there uh as well. So everything's available for the public to be able to come out and take a look at uh the information that's there. Um there's a lot of great information in the study about things that we can do to um and everything from, you know, looking at how we do better aligning our curriculums to things that we can do on shared services around special uh services. um all the way up to and including regionalization. But I want to be clear and it's something that I've been saying since this process started. Uh the idea wasn't to determine whether or not uh we should regionalize. It was to the study was undertaken to determine what ways might we be able to work together to improve education for our
011students and potentially act more efficiently and therefore being more responsible for our taxpayers dollars and and that's the purpose of the study and we got a lot of information on ways that we can do this. Um, so I think that uh what we have coming up uh will be on December the 9th at our board meeting uh at 6:00 pm. Uh we're going to have a presentation from the research group. Uh and that will be our first opportunity as a board to have a conversation around what are the implications of this report? What things do we like? What things don't we like? Again, this is a report from Rowan. Uh, and this gives us our our opportunity to respond to the findings that they are are bringing forward. Um, and I just I I want
012to share with this board and also for folks that may be watching, I just want to share a little bit of what I shared at the closing. Um, just to kind of summarize, you know, what it was that we learned. Um, and I think and again, I'm going to direct my comments to the families. payers and neighbors who make up our watch on the hills community. This report is for you. It's not for any individual board of education. It's not for any individuals. It is for the public. That's why this report was done. It was created to provide an honest, independent look at how our schools are performing, how they can work better together, how we can ensure that every public dollar delivers the best possible return for our students. For the first time, we
013have a comprehensive, unbiased roadmap, the product of five years of effort, $130,000 in state support, and countless hours of community input that tells us where we are succeeding, where we can improve, and how working together can make both our education system and our finances stronger. The findings are encouraging. The study identifies 72 actionable recommendations. Ways to expand shared services, ways to align curriculum, find efficiencies that could potentially save taxpayers millions of dollars each year while improving the educational consistency and opportunity for every child in our region. This is an opportunity that we cannot afford. The consultants have done their work. The data is in. Now it's up to our local boards of education, our administer administrators and citizens to decide what comes next. I urge every resident to read the report, discuss it, and hold
014your district leaders accountable for taking action. And before approving any new referendum or spending proposal, we should all be asking the same fair questions. What steps have our schools taken to improve education and use taxpayer dollars more wisely as outlined in this report? The study is not a critique of our schools. It's an invitation. An invitation to collaborate, to innovate, and to make hills region a model of educational excellence and fiscal responsibility. The study gives us more than data. It gives us direction. It reminds us that progress happens when we face facts honestly. When we work together respectfully with integrity and keep our focus where it belongs on the students who will inherit the results of our decisions. Our children deserve the very best education we can provide. Our taxpayers deserve accountability and value. And
015our educators deserve a system that supports collaboration, innovation, and excellence. The path forward will not always be easy. Change never is. But if we meet this moment with courage, transparency, and cooperation, we can create something remarkable. A stronger, smarter, more unified system that serves every child in our towns. 70 years ago, community leaders came together with a bold idea to create this regional high school, which would bring together our towns for the benefit of our students. That same spirit of vision and leadership is needed again today. Let's honor that legacy by stepping forward together to build the next generation of educational excellence in the Wong Hills region. Our students, our educators, and the citizens of our community deserve nothing less. It's time to get to work. Thank you. Uh again, thank you, uh Mr. Morrison.
016Certainly appreciate all your efforts in the past, I guess, four years and certainly spearhead five years spearheading this campaign and very happy that we were able to get it done before you vacated the board with a couple months to given that the grant expires on 1231. >> Right. And what I also certainly want to highlight and uh Bob certainly alluded to it. We on number of occasions get directives or mandate mandates from the state of New Jersey, I guess, through the governor's office, Department of Education, wherever they may be. And they're typically unfunded mandates. Government says do this and all of a sudden a we have to and b it cost us a lot of money. Here, uh they mandate the study. They strongly suggested it and they put their money where their mouth was.
017Uh they uh provided a grant of 130,000. So this study was free. We didn't spend taxpayers money on this. We got a free objective evaluation of our school and our school district and the sending districts. So as Morson said, it behooves each and every one of us to review the report that was provided and There are a lot of great nuggets in there. Again, as you mentioned, there's 72 recommendations. I'm not suggesting that we're going to adopt all 72, but I am sure there's certainly a few items in there that we can at least the majority of us agree that would be worth pursuing. And to discount the study and throw out all 72 recommendations uh without a good analysis of the report, I think we're just doing a disjustice to ourselves. I think it's
018only right to take some time take a look at it and again look at the executive summary you'll get a sense of what it is and again object to study what we can do better and what we can do better for our students because at the end of the day that is why we are here with that said and we will move any other comments we'll move into public comments the first public comment period which will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only second Public comment period will be open to any topic. All comments are limited to five minutes. Uh please step forward, state your name, where you're from, and provide us with your comment. Do we have any comments this evening with regard to the first opportunity? Seeing none, we're going to
019close the first opportunity for public comment. We have several future action items. Do we have any discussion with respect to any of those? Okay, >> Mr. President, I'd like to move items A1 through A3. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call. >> Mr. Deaggio. Merki. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gall. >> Yes. >> Miss Lee. >> From A1 and A2 and yesterday. Mr. Mayor check. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morrison. >> Yes. >> Miss Potter. >> Yes. >> Miss Proa. >> Miss Trump. >> Yes. >> Mr. Burberry. >> Yes. Mr. President, I'd like to move items C1 through C3. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Majio, >> Miss Ferki, >> yes. >> Mr. Gall, >> yes. >> Miss Lee, >> Mr. Mayor, >> yes. >> Mr. Morrison, >> yes. Miss Potter, >> yes. >> Miss
020Pro? >> Yes. >> Miss Trump? >> Yes. >> Mr. Burberry? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Uh, Mr. President, I'd like to move items D1 and D2. >> Second. Any discussion? Roll call. >> Miss Deaggio. >> Miss Ferriski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gall. >> Yes. >> Miss Lee. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morrison. >> Yes. >> Miss Potter. >> Miss Proa. >> Yes. >> Miss Trump. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ber. >> Yes. >> Mr. President, I'd like to move item D3. Second. Any discussion? Paul callio spouseki. >> Mr. Gallic. >> Yes. >> Miss Lee. >> Mr. Mayor. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morrison. >> Yes. >> Miss Proa. Mr. Trump. >> Yes. >> Mr. Burber. >> Yes. >> Wow. Only nine action items. I think that's a record minimum. Record low. I'm sorry. I
021was only puzzled on the D3 because it wasn't starred. I wasn't sure why you >> underlined it. >> Oh, okay. >> Got it. No problem. Okay. So, uh second opportunity for public comment. And again, uh this is an opportunity to comment on anything with respect to the schools. Uh again, please come on up, state your name, where you're from, and uh limit your comments to five minutes. Do we have any comments for the second opportunity for comment period? Okay, seeing none, we're going to move right along. Do we have any other business? >> See no other business. I'll entertain you something. >> Yeah, just uh just I wanted to um I I wanted to bring bring up the topic regarding the cell phones and usage. Um there's over the past 60 days there's been a
022series of new studies that have come out about the impact of u lack of cell phones and I know there's a variety of strategies that districts are using whether they're uh it's a bell-to bell ban and you can use it passing time um some schools have it you know it's from you know you just can't use them at all um in schools and the the research that's coming out is really talking about not having access to cell phones at all during the school day. uh and they're seeing in some of the the studies and again they're you know not going to put you know lots of stock in it because they're you know relatively new and they're relatively isolated but in the places that they have occurred they are seeing significant improvements in students as
023far as their academic achievement and also uh decreases in u you know issues related to u bullying student violence, things of that nature, um, as a result. So, um, I think it's worth paying attention to it and staying on top of it and revisiting it. I'm not suggesting that we take any action on it now, but I do think that it's something to pay very close attention because two because now the studies are finally coming out and you know they talk about well why why are scores going down you know over the past you know you know seven eight nine ten years u and if you follow the work of Jonathan height who's you know done some incredible research and books on the topic um If you track the implementation of cell phones and the
024wide adoption of cell phone usage, um there is a strong correlation to the decline in our student uh student results nationally uh as a result of that. So there may be something to be said for not having that technology all the time and just focusing on uh the actions of being present and learning and paying attention. So, um, again, just something to pay attention to. I'm sure there's going to be more stuff that'll be coming out, but I know it's been, you know, an issue for this board. I think it's worth at least, you know, seeing how the new research evolves and what it may mean for the approach that we would want to take as Thank you, >> I just want to thank you for bringing that up. We've read The Anxious Generation as
025our leadership team, Summer Read, and we all actually wanted to put it after the first chapter because it was so scary. It it was very enticing so you wanted to read it but it was also very troubling and concerning um the data that it shared. So it it uh cultivated a lot of really good conversations among us uh administratively and and on this particular topic actually. So um I think that's definitely going to be an ongoing conversation.