001thank you very much uh for those in the public sorry that uh there's been a little bit of a delay from our usual 7 30 start we had some technical difficulties with the new arrangement to get the live stream connected but we are now there in terms of board correspondence there was a recent letter that was received but a number of board members and administrators did not have a chance to review that yet so we will uh review that at the next meeting and we'll move on to committee reports which starts off with mr morrison and education the education committee met on april 29th the topics we covered included the spring curriculum writing basically usually curriculum writing occurs over the summer time but because the way the schedule is this year that much of the
002curriculum writing is actually going to be done in the afternoons during the spring there may be a course or two that will be need to be done over the summer miss failing also presented on the summer enrichment programs this summer that we're going to be running two summer enrichment programs one is going to be on college essay writing which will be in june as a hybrid class and again in august as an in-person class and then music lessons will be offered in august for in-person instruction only and will be open to all students as a way to try to make up for the fact that many of our music students have not been actually able to perform over the from our sending districts over the past year um we also reviewed the kendall hunt math
003professional development uh work that's been going on uh it's it's actually starting it started this week uh actually started today mr lebron shared with us that kendall hunt was selected and we'll start working with the math department for alignment of our algebra 1 curriculum to our standards this is part of a process that has been going on on a review of our math curriculum for the last couple years as a result of this process and if successful they're talking about extending this particular approach to some of the other content areas we also had a discussion regarding our diversity equity inclusion activities uh for the spring uh the schneiderman discussed the fact that the webinar that was scheduled for april 21st was postponed due to low enrollment uh that webinar has been rescheduled to do june
0049th and uh they'll be looking at communicating out uh information regarding the the topics being covered uh and also some history about um the wachon hills regional work in addressing diversity equity inclusion and how that ties together with our strategic plan and also some prior work that was done by some of our students who were instrumental in creating the upstander program here at wachong hills so that'll be addressed to the community they also discussed the summer reading they had a final four actually had a whole competition for faculty and students to vote on the the top books to be used for summer reading and they announced the final four that was selected by the the faculty that information has been shared with each of you uh mr labrera then shared with us the end-of-year calendar
005um i don't know if you were able to stop and see the outdoor stage but the outdoor stage is incredible um you know the the work that chris fellaini and his team have done on on constructing that outdoor stage they were using it uh this evening for the triumph ceremonies when we came in they were doing the world language inductions it's going to be the area where our concerts are held it's going to be where they do the outdoor musical um it's really really well done so the fact that we have that area and that area is able to expand its capacity as the state expands outdoor capacities is also beneficial we've got plenty of events that are scheduled out there throughout may and june as i mentioned i think it's the next week will
006be the or is it in two weeks the musical 13th and 15th 13th through 15th the music will be will be out there and then mr lebron provided us with an update on um senior prom uh and some of the senior activities that will be going on uh as they wind down their career here at wachong hills um there's a new uh item added to the calendar our hackathon that we've had for the past several years um although i think it took a hiatus last year is back and that will be scheduled for june the fifth we also heard from mr libre who spoke to us about the students coming back and kind of the reopening strategies here at the schools uh the students are enjoying being back in school and seeing their classmates the
007faculty is enjoying seeing the students and seeing the the vibrancy of the school building with having so many students back in we were able to accommodate overages for most of the classrooms uh so that students are actually in um in classes when they're here um and the few overage students that we have actually will come here to the learning commons to participate but there are very few uh remain a few classes where there are a student or two that are over the capacity limits last thing we had a brief discussion uh regarding support service services for our students particularly as we come back into the new year we've asked for a broader discussion on that at the next ed committee meeting uh so that we can ensure that we're staffed up accordingly to ensure to
008to address uh all of the needs of our students as they come back to the school in september so we'll have more to talk about on that one next month um any of my committee colleagues anything else to add any other board members have any questions yes sir with regard to the algebra one do they come here peeking out from one from the sending districts or are we teaching algebra one how does it work with that math level let's talk about the alignment that is um one of the courses that a number of our freshmen take but it's also it's a course that a lot of the eighth graders take at the middle schools as well so we try to make the course um as aligned as possible so that whether you take it at
009a middle school or you take it at the high school um you're getting the you know the same uh foundational curriculum okay thank you welcome any other questions yeah i'll i the board on that one for bringing that one up because that is quite a uh stage out there and the setting and it then the play is into the woods so with the iv the iv in the background background um it it really is an amazing job i i our guys did a really terrific job and i thank the board for for mentioning that i mean complete great audio lighting stage setup uh i mean it's just it's fantastic and the weather tonight didn't hurt yes beautiful night out there um and and just um one one other piece that i know uh some folks
010have been asking about graduation is obviously something we're still working on um you know and there's been obviously a lot of new guidance and information that has come out but it's also a little bit confusing because even though um supposedly the outdoor limits are being um eliminated as of may 19th there is still the six-foot distancing requirements so that's why it you know graduation we can't just assume then okay we can go back to how we've always done it that may be a possibility at that point but we don't know yet so um that's why we have not sent out specific information about graduation because we're we're trying to find out exactly what the parameters are so um just so everyone's aware of that we're working on that that concludes my report thank you very
011much mr morrison uh we'll move on to uh personnel so we had a discussion in person um in executive session about uh personnel issues that are confidential um but what i can share is that we have two positions that we're interviewing for transportation coordinator and athletic director and those are ongoing and hopefully we'll have uh candidates for board approval soon any questions move on to uh operations mr fallon yes the operations committee met at 9 00 am or 9 am last wednesday because tim asked us to get together because the there's the federal government has decided to extend their national student lunch program to districts who who may want to take advantage of it uh whereby for the next school year 2122 they would the federal government would pay for student lunches for everybody not
012just for those who qualify because of lower reduced income for student lunches the one of the issues however with the program is that we don't currently participate in the national student student lunch program if we were to participate in it we would have restrictions on uh what could be offered in our cafeteria and and possibly also some restrictions regarding uh purchases of materials for the cafeteria and because of the restrictions on what what could be offered uh mr steis had a discussion with the people from pomptonian and uh advised that we believe it's likely that our revenues would go down because we've we've really had an excellent service from pomptoni in the last few years and being responsive to what the students wanted to eat but was yet still nutritious and and and healthy for
013them and if we had to only offer what we were permitted to offer under the national student lunch program it it's very likely that our revenues would go down substantially from that program uh other views were expressed that uh you know by by step members of the committee concerned about whether or not we should be asking the the federal government to pay for for lunch for you know all of our students when we're you know what used to be called an ij district relatively you know affluent district uh for a variety of reasons it was the consensus of the entire operations committee that we shouldn't apply to uh become a member of the national student lunch program but that we should stick with our pump tony and lunch program anyone have anything to add to
014that any questions there was definitely a sentiment of being sensitive to people who would qualify for free or reduced priced lunches and yes and and susan is is correct and we we did ask the administration to make sure that that that people that we do get the word out to to any of our students that that the the national student school lunch program is available to pay for lunch if if there is an economic need for it we also discussed the idea of possibly at some point in the future uh considering a fund out of some of the revenues from pomptonian that might be available if people had some some temporary economic setbacks that might not rise to the level of qualifying them for a school for the for the national school lunch program but
015but but would be able to provide some at least temporary assistance uh for for economic setbacks and uh dr jewett and and mr steisen indicated that uh i think that they you know both work on uh the idea of making sure that we get get the word out better to all of our students that the program is available if there's an economic need in the family and also to look at that second question of whether or not we also do something for people experiencing temporary setbacks just like the record to show that the meeting actually convened at 8 30 a.m and not 9am thank you bob i was wishing it was nine peters is there an action item for this or just it's in action uh tim we we didn't need i no because we
016would have had to put a resolution on to apply right so it's nothing to act on because we're maintaining correct well correct got it thank you anything else no thank you mr fallon and we'll move on to mr morrison again on regionalization so the regionalization ad hoc committee met last night with uh representatives from uh all of our participating uh sending districts uh we had 25 board and administrative members including most superintendents and business administrators attending that session the session was to provide uh this group that group with the opportunity to hear from mark magyar who presented to our ad hoc committee earlier this year so that they would have the benefit of the same information that we had regarding the rationale and benefits behind doing the reason they're applying for the regionalization study mark
017magyar did an exceptional job in answering all the questions that came up we actually met for two hours of which probably 90 minutes of that was really done in q a and i thought mark did an excellent job in outline outlining the benefits of the regionalization feasibility study process we then reminded the participants of the deadlines that we were working toward of wanting to have a resolution passed prior to the end of may so that we would be able to lock in the available funding from the state government to pay for the regionalization study uh for your knowledge uh mark estimates that a regionalization feasibility study for our region and sending districts would be between 120 and 150 000 dollars uh that the state would cover the costs of um and included an analysis of
018uh all aspects of uh potential regionalization including uh a lot of work on shared services uh one of the the attending board members talked about it in terms of you know building blocks you know there's everything from you know doing the status quo which is nothing to looking at are there potential areas to collaborate on shared services on all the way up to a partial regionalization and then you know including up to a full regionalization so i thought the discussion was very robust and very open we then shared a link to the meeting to all of the other board members who were not able to attend so that they will have the benefit from that conversation as the boards themselves consider whether or not they will be a participant in the the study itself um
019as a result of that we have a draft resolution that has been provided to all of you as a preview item uh we anticipate that this would be uh up for a full vote at our next meeting uh and in the meantime we want to certainly work with our sending districts to determine whether or not they will be participants in this process um and give them the opportunity to weigh in on that um and you'll you'll notice that the way the resolution is written that it would be a study of all of the districts but not all of the districts need to agree to participate in order for it to be a study of all of the districts so that's why the language is here the way that it is and as we get indication
020from the boards of their desire to participate we will then update the resolution with those uh participating uh districts and then have this moved at the next board meeting what is the pro and then after that the application process that would be something we have to we would do after once once we put in the resolution and we have corresponding participating resolutions from the sending districts uh that would reserve the funds uh so that basically locks the funds up in the current budget for utilize for utilization in this process we would then have to go to a full application uh which we would include getting a uh working with all of the participating districts we would probably set up a brand new committee that would then take over this process and they would then move
021it forward including you know an rfp for a consultant and the consultant would be involved uh in helping with the application process and the structure of the uh of the feasibility study itself okay the grant application process yes and that is there a deadline to the state for the grant application process that we're working on no what we are our key was the the biggest thing we were wanted to make sure was we could reserve funds that exist currently it's in the current budget we can lock those in uh there may be funds next year there may not be funds next year uh but you you you all are familiar with new jersey and budgeting and anything can happen between now and then so the idea was locking the funds there was a lot of
022uh legitimate concern by the sending districts about um how this could potentially interfere with their work to get schools open in the fall making sure that it wasn't something that was a distraction for their uh superintendent and their administrations uh which we certainly understand because we're all going through the same thing and mr magyar made it clear that once we locked in the funds we could then establish the timeline in a way that was uh most beneficial for the district and you use the example of we can lock in the funds now and actually not even start until november if that's what everyone decides to do um in the meantime we could move forward with both the rfp to find you know a consultant and also uh the process of putting in the full application
023once the application is approved half of the money is then released and then once the project is concluded the rest of the money um is released so that's the process the other concern that's out there are where that exists there are 15 other regions that are looking to get in line for studies uh that that are involving i think you said 70 school districts in in those 15 potential studies there aren't that many consultants that do this work i mean this is not like it's a huge industry that's out there so i think it is um probably prudent for us to get out there as quickly as we can to make sure that we get a competent and experienced person to do the work for us so that at the end we get out of
024it what we're hoping to for all of our communities any other anyone that was attending uh want to comment yeah i i would just make the point that this regionalization study feasibility study it's it's as bob mentioned building blocks different things we we can look at a whole lot of things including not just regionalization not just consolidation shared services in specific areas or multiple areas between some or all of the districts so it's almost like a chinese menu of things that can be put together to satisfy whatever districts are participating in this that we're looking at everything we need to look at so that at the end it'll come back to the to the five boards of education to make decisions about whether or not to go forward with regionalization with consolidation or with sharing
025certain services or nothing any other question for comment we'll see this next meeting there's a full a full resolution for a vote at the next meeting i guess if anybody has any uh changes that they want to the draft resolution for them to uh liz and share with bob that brings us to our first opportunity for public comment the first public comment period will be limited to agenda items for this meeting only the second public comment period after our vote will be open to any topic all comments are limited to five minutes give some opportunity for anybody in the public to you or there is no one because we're doing it just here right yeah we had discussions about the capabilities of being able to do uh uh remote queuing in no i i know
026you're not raising your hand um but i i i i forgot to mention that it requires in person uh or in person or email right unless they email it ahead of time yeah i was going to say that would actually be it turns into correspondence okay do you have a question you just wanted to meet yes excellent well asked and answered thank you uh so we'll move on to uh board uh discussion we have a list of future action items for the next meeting anyone that has a question about any of the future action items so i have question regarding item d9 so tim could you explain what are the design documentation looks like you know for the lab construction i see that the fee i think seems to be too much i do not
027know what is in there you know furniture services what is furniture service is eleven thousand two hundred dollars i'm just what is digital bidding fee thousand dollars so yeah sorry sorry so it's so it's basically this is a design fee approximately ten percent of the project are actually a little less than ten percent about nine for the uh science lab replacement and also the um ceramics room it's a combined project on paper actually two separate rooms um it's just the only larger item in here which was kind of an alternate is room 310 alternate bid so on the science room there's 312 and an adjoining room is 310 and 310 is kind of like a classroom right now and it has like an old very old lab table in there uh and it's this the
028colors in the room match they actually both match the idea was to add this alternate in because it looks like we have the budget at least on paper we have the budget until we go out to bid i won't know until the bids come in but that if i can kind of if we can make that room um at least look the same as the science room meaning changing the flooring you know their cosmetic type changing but also removing some of the old lab equipment that isn't working um that that did raise the fee quite a bit and that's something that we could always pull out problem is i can't pull out the the design alternate i can pull out the alternate bid but i can't get to the alternate bid without the without the
029design work so that piece is is the optional piece the board can kind of pull that out but i mean i'm telling you that it's it's within the budget that we had for those two projects so i would tell you to go forward with it while you got the opportunity but the fee itself is it's a standard fee in a rush it's it is about nine percent of the total project for those two rooms but tim when you have a lab for example the teachers should know what is required there the teacher are the best person to decide what are their needs are right so the outside person yeah agreed but the architect has to file the paperwork has to make sure the uh we follow the the rules and regulations the there's a whole
030bunch that goes into that uh the science the teachers are always involved when we designed this space here teachers were involved we got furniture teachers are involved that's one thing spiesel does an exceptional job of is they include administrators they include staff members in some cases they'll include students so i you know they're definitely involved as they should be then if they're involved if they're putting the design together putting them give them a you know writing down a piece of paper drawing the amount involved here seems to be pretty high here you know i mean i don't know eight ten percent of the total cost uh i mean that that formula doesn't seem to me that uh i mean i somehow i'm unable to digest that part you know taxpayers money i mean in the
031lab for example if you are removing the old equipment from the lab if you put on craigslist for example people will come and take it free on their own you know i whenever i want to give something i put on craigslist free stuff people come and take it from me so i'm wondering whether we could find a better way of reducing the cost and making things even better um the i i don't know i feel that designing a lab etc i mean the teacher should be able to do everything there there is no safety issue here there are not many issues that you are doing some toxic stuff that you have to pay attention to a lot of things and sometimes i feel that whether school should have a its own architect a full-time architect
032because i find that that we end up paying lot of money to architects at the end of the year during the whole year that's my view but i you know i'm just expressing how i feel okay i understand thank you any other questions about future agenda items for our next meeting king none a reminder of our board goals is also under board discussion if anybody would like to discuss any of them i just want to raise a question i think one of our board goals had to do with with mentorship and uh i don't know that any of our new newer board members have asked for any mentorship or if we've told them that this is what we want to do uh but you know i just i'm just bringing it up because i think
033meetings are going by and i don't know that anything's happening with respect to that and it may be because there's not particularly a need for it this year but i just wanted to bring it up would you prefer to pick a colleague or would you like one assigned if if i'm i'm happy to have a colleague assigned if a colleague wants to be assigned i've mentioned apparel that anytime you need help i'm available so i could oh okay okay structure right and if michael wants to i know michael's been a board member in another district so he may have fewer questions but but if there's anything he ever wants to discuss i'm always open okay so in terms of structure just like regular meetings is that what you mean maybe like when the agenda is
034coming out going through it you know actually going through and kind of the things that are the i think what's helpful is you know in the d section i'm like okay well what are the things that are recurring that we do every year and what are the things that we really that i need to pay attention to or bring the board members attention to those kinds of things so that you know like an agenda meeting [Laughter] is somebody's microphone turned off we can't hear anything oh no she doesn't have a mic in front of her i wasn't saying anything meaningful except for maybe offering to meet informally you know informally with rita and carol just sort of an informal mentorship but we could also put something more formal in place aren't the first and second
035year board members uh don't we have to take some sort of state course and all that sort of stuff they do i think it's all online which isn't which is great carol caroline i'm on their website all the time i pretty much take advantage of all of the training that the school boards association offers and it's always free or maybe you're getting charged for it but [Music] this year they didn't do it in person it was done over a series they've extended it but you know when we come back you know i would expect that next year they'll be doing the november new member board orientation weekends which they are they are very well done yeah can you join us in a very unique time too when our meetings are like our normal the we
036also have county meetings of the school boards association so it's just our county memberships um and those are those are our valuable meetings as well you'll meet other colleagues from the area um more open discussion and there's staff there from school boards association as well and but those have all been online as well those have all been online but they're they're they're very helpful they're very helpful they're very informal and they will be back in person when we're able to be back in person one of the other things that i would add is if you look at our committee structure we've got four people assigned to most if not all committees but there is a fifth position that's available and i would suggest for uh you if you're interested is attending periodically just let the
037chair know ahead of time uh i've made a commitment not to attend any of those to leave an opportunity for you to be able to attend and see what kind of discussion goes on in committees that you're not involved in and that makes i think this meeting a little bit easier as well any other comments or questions about board goals i think that moves us to our agenda items mr president i'd like to move resolutions a1 through a4 one second is a4 for everyone or does that need to be held back it has the asterisks oh i'm sorry i didn't see the asterisk i'll amend that to move resolutions a1 through a3 second would anybody like to discuss any of them or pull any of the three for a separate vote seeing none roll on
038a1 to a3 miss barone yes mr bernberg yes dr chand yes mr fallon yes mr hunzinger yes mr morrison yes zober miss potter um abstain on a1 and a2 and yes to a3 espresso yeah dr schubelski yes motions carry mr president now i would like to move resolution a4 i have a second second anybody like to discuss this roll call vote please ms barone yes mr burnberg yes dr chand i don't see a fool in the agenda this was a walk-in agenda item on the residency hearing why is he okay yes mr fallon yes mr hunzinger yes mr morrison yes sober ms prasa yes dr schubelski yes motion carrier thank you mr president i'd like to move resolutions c1 through c16 second would anybody like to uh pull any for a separate discussion or separate
039vote um mr dr chan yeah i just would like to make an observation i did send an email to uh you know this afternoon to the concerned people i feel that among all the teachers we have none of them has any bs or ms degree so if we have science teachers so i understand that even if you're a bama you know you may have studied some science subjects but that may not be your main course of study so none of the teachers not even one has any bs ms degree and i'm wondering whether they can do justice for teaching science in the school this is the observation i made but i i don't have you know much idea you know the background of their actual background you know whether they studied science or not study
040science sometimes you have some kind of degree you go to a community college you do some science course you get some certificates and you start teaching i hope that is not the case so that is not so i i do want to make that clear for anyone listening to the meeting or watching the meeting that um there are very rigorous uh guidelines and standards set by the the new jersey department of education um regarding the number of credits that a teacher must take in a subject to teach that subject so um and you know i know that mr morrison i think forward an article that talked a little bit about the the difference between a bachelor of arts in mathematics for example my degree my undergraduate degree is mathematics and economics and because i went
041i attended a liberal arts university and the required courses that i had to take in addition to the credits for my major were things in philosophy and ethics um you know it was more of a liberal arts approach that's why it's a bachelor of arts and not a bachelor of science but i can tell you i took just as many math credits um as somebody in a you know another college getting a bachelor of science in mathematics so that is not um the issue it's more you know the program that the school offers um not you know the the courses in that that person subject area so i can guarantee you that our teachers who have masters of arts degrees and bachelors of arts degrees um are very very qualified in those content areas and
042have you know had very rigorous preparation in that content and have met the number of credits and but i don't know if you know offhand how many credits you have to have in your subject area um do you know what the state requires is 30 at the upper level but the other part is that this just reflects our salary guys it says oh that's true too yeah thank you that's it we didn't hear that thank you so our our this is only what was reflected in our salary guides which only say b-a-m-a that does not mean that some of those degrees aren't actually bs's or ms's it's just that masters so that's a very important point thank you so much i see yeah that that that satisfies me because what you say is right about
043mathematics but that is not true for phoenix and chemistry it depends on university very university it depends on the university anymore ba and and and and bs seem to be more and more interchangeable and don't the teachers also have to take those praxis certification exams and they have to have a certain number of education credits yes yes thank you thank you for pointing that out that's that is important that that's the salary yes greg before we vote i would just like to to ask the administration i know this year we've got the may 15th deadline coming up that we've got to let people know but i i would hope that that next year we get notice a little bit more in advance uh of of when we're going to have the vote because some members
044of the board in some years do want to take a look at evaluations before voting on this so i would just hope that that next year we can try and get notice out to the board members as to who we're going to be voting on for tenure a little bit earlier than we did this year the uh the dates are always on the personnel committee um minutes when that goes out it was on there this year listing um the dates for the when everybody will be up for renewal i i i think i meant more bet letting the rest of the board the people who aren't on the personnel committee know when we're going to have the the the board vote in advance of the may 5th of the may 15th deadline so so that
045that will trigger people if they want to look at evaluations that that's the period of time to do it so noted okay thank you thanks any anything else on the uh sea items that anyone would like to discuss role call vote please ms barron yes mr burnburg yes dr chan yes mr fallon yes mr hunsinger yes morrison yes is zober yeah potter yes ms prasa yes dr schubelski yes mr president i'd like to move resolutions d1 through d3 second would anybody like to pull any for separate discussion or separate vote being none roll call about miss barone yes mr burnberg yes dr chand yes mr fallon yes mr hunzinger yes morrison yes ms zober potter yes rasa yeah and dr schubelski yes gary mr president i'd like to move resolution d4 second second anybody like
046to discuss that being done roll call vote please ms brown yes mr burnberg yes dr chand yes mr fallon yes mr hunzinger yes morrison yes sober yeah rasa yes dr schabilski yes russian carries second opportunity for public commentary respectfully declining thank you uh we'll move on to uh other business then and i know that mr fallon had submitted uh an email that he had a couple of uh things he'd like to share with the board yes as i mentioned at the last meeting the new jersey school board's delegate association the new jersey school boards association delegate assembly is going to be held on saturday may 15th that's where representatives from school boards all over the state vote on whether to adopt any resolutions or make any changes to any of the policies adopted by the
047school boards association there are two resolutions that are going to be voted on this may 15th the first involves some changes to the school board policies against discrimination and intimidation to add protection for students in the lgbtq community there is already a school board's policy prohibiting discrimination and intimidation on the basis of age gender race ethnicity religious belief physical ability and perceived difference this resolution would add to those categories a prohibition on discrimination and intimidation specifically on the basis of gender identity or expression and affectational or sexual orientation the resolution would also add a new provision to the school board's policies that would provide that the new jersey school boards association believes that local school boards and districts should make all necessary and appropriate efforts to raise awareness employ best practices and create an inclusive
048safe and positive school climate for all students include including those that are actually or perceived as being lesbian gay bisexual transgender questioning or other sexual orientation gender identity or expression that's the first resolution the second resolution that will be voted on is a recommendation that the new jersey school boards association adopt a policy in its manual of positions and policies on education which would require training for uh self-styled parent advocates to act as advocates representing parents in special education matters before schools this grew out of a september 2020 decision by a committee of the new jersey supreme court on the unauthorized practice of law where they issued an opinion which indicated that these parent advocates could assist parents and testify as experts in special education matters but that they could not act as representatives and
049or advocates on behalf of the parents shortly thereafter in october 2020 the committee on the unauthorized practice of law decided to stay that opinion and solicit stakeholder input the njsba school boards association did provide input on four of the six questions asked and recommended that before parent advocates be allowed to represent parents and advocate on their behalf acting essentially like attorneys that that the advocates be required to have some training in continuous continuous education training that input was already provided in january to the committee on the unauthorized practice of law but the school boards association uh is asking that we we back up the input that they've given by adopting a formal policy that that makes makes it a policy of school boards association that we want all those advocates to have uh that sort
050of training i'm not sure whether the motivation for the training requirement for parent advocates is to have them act more professionally or with a better understanding of what can and cannot be done in special education matters or if it's just to discourage some of the more out there parent advocates from holding themselves out to parents as parent advocates rita who i believe practices in this area may have an opinion on that yeah well i'm actually on the committee at the new jersey the forest committee on special eds that's and it's the latter what you said like so the idea was to make sure that they have the requisite training and understand the laws so that when they are advocating and helping parents they're not pushing them down the wrong path which can get a little
051bit um frustrating sometimes for teens you know especially yeah thank you rita and the recommendations not just from readers committee but from the various committees in the new jersey school boards that have looked at these two resolutions or that we should adopt them at the delicate assembly on may 15th uh i also reviewed them in in some detail and recommend that we vote to adopt them so now is where i will ask if there's any questions about them and if not if there are no objections i would plan to vote in favor of them on may 15th at the delegate assembly thank you peter does anybody have any questions for peter about the one other thing i wanted to bring up another business is uh you know i saw we had indicated in in the
052weekly highlights that we're not taking public comments unless people are physically present at the meeting and i just wanted to raise the question of just because we're not required to i don't know that that means that we shouldn't and and if people have gotten used to commenting it that way uh is that something that we really want to prevent so i i i sent you an email i didn't see i'm sorry i didn't get to that's okay um i i did send you an email in response and and there was conversation uh both on the technical aspects of being able to achieve that which was one of the issues that you raised that might preclude it uh and we also uh consulted with mr zitimer about uh precedent and and what that would mean and
053uh both the technical issue which i think was a primary issue and uh mr zitimir's advice uh we ended up where we are today which is in-person questioning good and i just you know i think we ought to you know use this meeting to let people know that that in the future if they want to comment either be there or send an email in advance and i think you've done that so thank you thank you any other other business uh i just since this is the first time that we're actually all together kind of um i'd like to welcome uh michael bernberg into the board in person and carol process the board in person uh and i would also like to welcome back our superintendent since this is our first meeting back thank you if
054you don't mind that actually i know that you all have the opportunity to say some very nice things about well-deserved things about ms schneiderman at the last meeting and um i just wanted the opportunity to really thank her uh for the outstanding outstanding job you did um in any year it's obviously tough to go from you know one role into another role in the superintendent's role but in this year i figured i'd throw a real zinger at you and miss everything in there between the snow and the pandemic and you just handled everything with complete grace and professionalism um and you gave me a tremendous gift um by really letting me spend almost five months with my son um and knowing that you know you had everything um completely under control here and you i
055mean you always in your capacity as director of hrm pd have had my complete trust um and you know and the same held true when you moved into the athlete superintendent role and so i i really really appreciate that for my own personal uh my own personal behalf and just on behalf of the district uh and the students because you really did a tremendous service to them and you continue to do so in your current role and i know that you know tim worked really closely with you and you guys were great i mean i i really i checked in they they would you know reach out to me just to get updates on quinn not to talk to me about school stuff they really you know really um gave me that time with him
056and and i tremendously appreciate that but you also you did a wonderful wonderful job with moving the district forward and it was really nice to be back yesterday and actually see a lot more students in the school that were here when i left in december um it you know it just there's so much more life in the building um and it you know it feels like we're getting further on that continuum you know back to normal hopefully um but you did the entire administrative team everyone the staff has just done a tremendous job and that's has the board you guys have had really um shown just tremendous leadership um during all of that we've dealt with uh since last march and you know you you've been very supportive through it all and uh beth and
057tim echoed the same thing while i was gone and so we really appreciate that because we are um you know it's certainly not an ideal situation but i think we are far ahead of where some other districts are in terms of the way we've been able to support the students uh and the staff because of your commitment to it your understanding of it your involvement with it um and and also your trust in the administration uh to make a lot of these tough decisions so i really appreciate that but i just i bet i can't thank you enough you did an outstanding job um and i you know i you really should take like a month's vacation because you've earned it although i really don't want you to do that but you can wait till
058july yeah well again thank you for the opportunity and thank you for your faith and your support um greatly appreciated but most of all thank you for being back we actually we so when i talked about last week i said okay who's superintendent over the weekend i said are you until sunday night or do i so they said tag you're rich well this is what was great uh we had a little power outage here and beth emailed tim and me because chris pick called her and i said guess you're until midnight [Laughter] please just wanted to acknowledge our teachers on teacher appreciation week and to let them know how highly we regard them i think they really i'm a parent and a board member and you know my son has benefited from you know the
059relationship with the teachers and and their their attention and guidance and uh they really do us proud so thank [Music] you anyone else motion to adjourn a second next second thank you everyone have a great week thank you for those of you whoever likes chicago the band