##VIDEO ID:t7oAEUBcOxs## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I thought I got to do that I like the one opportunity year to get to do that um good evening everyone uh I'd like to call this meeting to order um this is our reor so that's why the change of me calling it uh to order uh open public statement in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act chapter 231 PL 1975 I will announce that the open the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public body at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the school district of the cadams board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the board administrative offices sent to the clerks of chadam burrow chadam Township the library of the cadams the chadam curer D Daily Record Star Ledger and the tap news online uh M Ross M Allen here Mr delandro here M Mr Ryan here Mr Smith m m Weber Dr Zang here and M Chelli 1 two three four five six seven president accounted for um for those of you can stand please join me in the pledge allegiance the flag is behind Dr [Music] Lusa I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and jce on the the first order of business I'd like to take the pleasure to swear in one of the newly elected uh board members Miss kathyn pek no all right they're all smiling for the camera you ready I state your name I have do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the con stion of the United States that I will support theit of the United States and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same I will bear true faith and to the governments established in the United States and this state government estblished United States St under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I state your name cther do solemnly swear do Solly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law that I Theif for the office of a member of a board of education the office am not disqualified as a voter am not disqualified as a voter presuming to rs19 col 41 194 D1 4-11 thank you and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and unud perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God congratulations and I don't think she could have done it without you guys [Applause] now for the Monday and Sally and an it's your time your turn and we could do both of you together I presume neither you have any fanfair if you both uh raise your right hand repeat after me uh I I Sally Allan andari do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I support the Constitution of the United States that I support the Constitution of the United States I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and to the governments established in the United States and this state and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God I II do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law I possessif prescrib by law for the office of a member of a board of Education I off member of the Board of Education I am not disqualified as a voter pursuant I am not disqualified as a voter pursu pursu to rs19 colon 4-1 rs9 41 that I will Faithfully that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly andly perform all the duties of the office perform all the duties of the office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help H thank you [Applause] congratulations now it is my pleasure to take nominations for the uh seat for the president of the Board of Education I nominate and Chelli second any anybody else and as president of the Board of Education M Ross Yes M Allen yes Mr delandro yes M peek yes Mr Ryan Yes Dr Zang yes and M trelli yes pass S70 congratulations no thanks I can gladly give you this oh thanks was wondering where that there you go uhuh so I would like to nominate Susan Ross as vice president I'll second it all right Miss Susan Ross for vice president uh Miss Allen yes Mr delandro yes Miss Peck yes Mr Ryan Yes Dr Zang yes M chiarelli yes and M Ross Yes congratulations thank you let me turn thank you for doing the flip very go official organization one two I'm sorry right organization item oh yeah organization items V1 to V2 I'd like to move organizational items V1 V2 Ms Ross yes Miss Allen yes Mr delandra yes M PE yes Mr Ryan Yes uh Dr Zang yes and M chy yes passes 70 perfect thank you now we'll back to normal back to the regularly scheduled programming um okay good evening everyone thank you for joining us um I just have a few words to say I just need the proper glasses to be able to see what I'm saying and those aren't going to come so here we go um with Dr lusa's recent announcement of his resignation we want to take a moment to express our deepest gratitude for his nearly 24 years of service and unwavering dedication to our schools and provide some insight on the path forward under his leadership the school district of the cadams has flourished achieving Milestones that will leave a lasting Legacy as we look ahead the board of education is committed to ensuring a smooth transition thanks to a strong Foundation built by Dr Lusa and our administrative team we are well prepared and strategically positioned to navigate this change while maintaining momentum on key initiatives such as the grade level reconfiguration and the shift of full day kindergarten the board has already launched a comprehensive plan to identify and select the next leader for our district we are confident in this process and will keep the community informed of our progress once a candidate is chosen we will collaborate closely with Dr Dr Lusa and the incoming superintendent to ensure a seamless transition we wish Dr Lusa nothing but the best we're not going to get too involved in that because luckily he's going to be here for a little while longer but um we know that Princeton is lucky to have you and we'll let them have you probably kicking and screaming all along the way um so rest assured that the things that we have coming down the pike will still be coming down the pike any questions any additions anybody at this point okay so that's that moving on to any other board business outside of what we see on the agenda I'll pass it along to Dr Lusa well under board business is the annual training from the board Council on critical issues that every board member should know um as we start a new term so Francis febrace is uh of course the board counsel you all know her very well except you Kate and I'm going to ask her to come up on the stage and then ask you guys to go down into the audience so that she can do her brief presentation and then when she's finished you can come back on the stage and ask her any questions that you might have come on Friends good to see you how you congratul I'll just hold it everyone all right hello everyone this is very loud I'm going to present an a bridged version of school ethics training and training around what Hib is according to the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act I have a clicker starting with the school ethics act so every year with new members you have to acknowledge a code of ethics eics this comes from the school ethics law um and it's governed and overseen by the school ethics commission essentially what it is it's a code it's professional body of laws to help guide board members conduct it's interpreted by the school ethics commission and essentially they put out advisory opinions and there's decisions members can file not board members but board members members of the public individuals can file decisions to they find that a board member is acting outside the confines of the law the school ethics Act is not the only act it's not the only body of law that Schoolboard members have to adhere to in the service of their duties there's state and federal law um there's also your own bylaws and policies these are your internal guiding measures as well okay and so the essential purpose of the school ethics Act is essentially one to have that body of governance uh but to also kind of keep in mind that school board members are elected members they serve in a position of trust right you are dealing with uh taxpayer funds you're making important decisions regarding the running of the schools making sure the facilities are well-maintained making sure you have qualified staff making sure that the staff and students are safe you do that through delegation you have Administration you have teachers you have Educational Services professionals you have support staff there's a whole whole system in place to help you accomplish those goals and in doing that there are conflicts that we have to be aware of we want to make sure that when you are performing your service you're doing so in a way that you're giving the public the utmost confidence in your ability to perform your duties in a way that is neutral right you're acting in the furtherance of the school district not yourself not your neighbor not your family member but what is really best for the school community so I put together some guiding principles because while the school ethics Act is comprised of a prohibited acts list essentially and code of conduct you're likely not going to be running around with those two bodies of law or those two schemes rather every time you make a decision or you meet before the board so some principles are going to help kind of guide you and remember what are those key issues and what are the main principles behind the school ethics act so you want to think of everyone has a role you serve on the board but you are still a parent you're a Community member you may have been um an Alum from the school so you play various roles and you come to the board with different experiences and perspectives and you want to accomplish a lot and that's not to say that if you're a parent of a student in the school and you also serve as a board member then all of a sudden your parent hat gets tossed out the window but when you're on the day when you are serving you have to keep in mind that you are always really serving with your board member hat and when you're serving as a board member you want to kind of a member the organization scheme of the district so you have the board members you have your members of administration you have your teaching staff members your Educational Services professionals your support staff and everyone has a particular role in fact the Department of Education actually issues particular certificates and endorsements to ensure that everyone who's serving in their particular role with the exception of board members you have your own qualifications that you have to fulfill but who serving in the district presenting some sort of role providing services to students in the community that they've been vetted essentially by the Department of Education so there's particular certificates and endorsements and these certificates and endorsements ensure that these individuals are specifically qualified to perform their specific roles and the reason why that is important because you will see that in the school ethics act there are proh prohibitions essentially from administering um or being part of the data Day activities of a school and why is that it goes back to the roles of who is who in a school system school system system so an administrator for instance has have a very particular endorsement and that qualifies them to oversee the district at large principles have to have a very specific endorsement and that qualifies them to run a school building teachers similarly have to have specific endorsements to deliver instruction so the reason behind that is that as a board member you are going to govern your role is broad-based you effectuate change behind the schools through establishing District goals board member goals goals policies participating in committees engaging with the public relaying information but you are not for instance in the classroom delivery construction you are not for instance evalu evaluating the effectiveness of teaching staff members you have delegated that to your administrators to your teachers to the other members of the school Community you also want to remember that there's other laws in place that guide your conduct so I mentioned before it's not to school ethics act when you look at the open public meetings act or the open public records act those laws help remind you of some of the dos and don'ts right what can I say to members of the public what can't I student information for instance is highly protected in New Jersey Personnel information protected information that might regard safety features of the school accessibility um security protocols that's confidential so if there's certain members of the public that come to you and ask questions about a particular student or the performance of a teaching staff member keep in mind you are unable to talk to them about that federal law is the family educational rights Privacy Act that is just um uh Federal legislation that again protects student information okay so prohibited acts generally this is part of the school ethics act and essentially the prohibited acts is to ensure that there's no conflict of interest again you're not serving in any for any purpose other than to benefit the district at large to help the students of the school to better the staff right you're not trying to you know um get a contract for your company you're not trying to get a job for your relative you're not trying to get any kind of favor for a neighbor as a board member you will participate in some committees one of them being negotiations and that's a committee where you will um kind of advocate and you will work with the local uh Education Association or administrators Association to work with the um to kind of negotiate terms and conditions of employment but let's say you have a relative a spouse daughter um a a cousin who might actually be serving in the district you would be conflicted from actually participating in the negotiations because the perception of the public could be are you participating in negotiations because you really are interested in you know furthering the terms and conditions of the STA of the staff who are working under that unit or are you trying to gain some sort of Advantage now part of the prohibitive acts understands that again as a community you might have ties to people or other individuals within the organization and that you really are working to do the best you can for the community at large you don't have any self-serving um goals or ideas but we're always thinking about what does the public perceive what could they perceive by your participation in a particular action or even vote on an agenda item so you want to make sure when you're looking at the agenda when you're preparing for the meeting when you're in your committee meetings you're always thinking about wait a minute do I have a connection with whatever business is being brought before the board could I be perceived as taking a vote and advancing something that could directly or indirectly benefit myself or others and others is a broad concept other can be a friend it could be a cousin like I mentioned could be your neighbor it could be anyone who you have some sort of relationship with um who the public can deem would be benefiting from your action or participation so the prohibited acts generally talk about you know business transactions professional activities securing unwanted privileges this could be something as simple as mailing labels right having access to uh contact information facilities use when somebody wants to rent the auditorium or the gym for instance they have to get it approved by the board so if you are part of a company or a nonprofit organization and they're seeking to use the gym and you vote on that that could be a violation of the school ethics act because it could be perceived by the public as you wanting to benefit yourself or a friend or a political Association that you're affiliated with um undertaking any employment or service whether compensated or not that could be expected to Prejudice his independent of judgment that was seen by the school ethics commission as in an emerging situation they couldn't find as substitute school nurse they hired the board member who is qualified that was a violation that is not acceptable so again looking at anything that could potentially bring any kind of financial compensation to you maybe a reputation to your business using your board email address to promote a business or um an organization you want to stay clear of that activity and of course if you're ever in short just contact our office contact School business administrator they'll give you some some guidance as well all right moving on with the prohibited acts I'm looking at soliciting gifts or accepting anything of value so that could be a substantial endorsement if you're running for the Board of Education some of the cases that we've seen is that let's say the union endorses but significantly endorses we're talking about something that's so substantial that again we go back to the public perception would the public perception be that you're on the negotiations committee you got the substantial endorsement and now you're really not going to advocate so much for the board but for the Union in that case what would happen is You' probably be exempt for about a year of participating in negotiations um moving to the next one no school official shall use or allowed to be used his public office or employment or any information not generally available to the members of the public or for the purpose of securing financial gain we've seen this where a board member voted to rename a statue or building um and it was to a person who they had a close relationship with so being mindful of that G no school official or business organization shall represent any person or party other than the school board um this one we see for instance the PTA or any kind of Education Foundation that's not to say that you can't participate you absolutely can you can be the president of the organization but you got to keep in mind when you're on the deis when you're actually on the board then you are a board member not a PTA member so if the PTA does request to use protect perhaps a facility uh For an upcoming fundraiser or what not you have to recuse yourself from that discussion because again public perception could be that really it's your hat of PTA president that's trying to get a benefit from the PTA so public perception always go back to that all right no school official shall be deemed in Conflict if by reason of the participation in any matter to be voted upon no material or monetary gain accurs to him as a member of any business profession occupation or group um we're looking at something like a vote to prospectively perspective is important prospectively increase let's say the credits for certain honors classes um that would benefit all students or affect all students even if your child let's say would also happen to be somebody who would be impacted now retroactive vote for instance would be a violation because now you're you could be giving a a benefit to your child in bolstering that child's GPA no elected member shall be prohibited from making an inquiry for information on behalf of constituent you're going to get that very often as board members members of the community are going to come to you um they learn of something that's happening within the district there's a matter of concern right that's part of your role the difficulty and the complexity really comes from how you respond to that keep in mind when we back in the beginning we talked about you know laws or information that can't be discussed in public student information Personnel evaluations things like that also the chain of command or the organizational scheme right everyone has a role so if a member comes to you with a concern that's great relate to Administration relate to the proper person be careful how you respond and how entangled you get with that inquiry because you could be now getting outside of your board member role and inadvertently stepping into the role of an administrator and that would be an ethical violation J nothing shall prohibit any school official or members of his immediate family from representing himself or themselves in negotiations or proceedings concerning his or their own interests think about a IB hearings right as a board member you absolutely have the right under the Ida you have a child in the district if you are in a disagreement with the program you have absolutely the right to file for due process it gets a little sticky however let's say if you are in protracted litigation against the the board so protracted or you're seeking monetary compensation at which point a conflict will arise and then the last one uh employees of the New Jersey school boards Association and you know that's kind of a rarity shall not be precluded so that doesn't really apply here School ethics commission has also put together a chart I mentioned before that some of those conflicts can interfere with your ability for participating in negotiations and even voting on matters that pertain to the superintendent so if you do have a relative in District right now if you are a board member you cannot vote prospectively to get a a member of your family employed but let's say you run for the board and there had already been a family member in the district you would have to recuse yourself you couldn't be involved in a discussion of the um negotiations if depending on who that family member is I'm try not to trip myself um you may or may not even be able to vote on it as far as a superintendent if you have a member a family member in the district you not only are you precluded from voting on matters impacting the superintendent but any supervisor so if it's a principal it would be the Principal it could be the assistant principal and then the superintendent and um they continued to add clarification because everyone was like well who is a relative so there was a nice long list of who is who's not a relative all right code of ethics so the first part is the appearance of conflicts refraining from conflicts making sure there's no financial advantage or uh benefit that's adhering to you indirectly directly or to others right code of conduct really goes back into the roles now this is more about your day-to-day what you're doing as a board member so upholding and enforcing all laws we went through that right the school ethics Act is not the only law that applies to board members you'll have curricular mandates in New Jersey probably in many states school districts are heavily regulated by the Department of Education and there's so much law that mandates what board members or school districts rather school boards must do so there is a lot of laws and it's your responsibility to hold them comply with them now there are some laws that do give you discretion and that's where you can through policy for instance kind of create what your own requirements are within the district but for the most part you have to um adhere to all laws rules and regulations of the State Board the violation or the failure to do so not only would be a school ethics violation it could also impact your state funding uh you'll make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children that just means as we mentioned before your votes your actions must be to the benefit of all students right non-discriminatory you'll confine your board action to policymaking be uh planning and Appraisal it will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them again going back to how the district or the board does its business public transparancy you have public meetings you have committee meetings you're bringing everything back to the board at large um you are getting recommendations from your Administration right you're looking at that you're Consulting but you're not acting independently you're not in the schools you're not evaluating the teachers you're deferring to those that you've delegated to do that for you I will carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members see that they're well-run going back to the organization chart remember who does what in a school district um I will recognize that Authority rests with the Board of Education and will make no personal promises nor take private action that may compromise the board again going back to keeping in mind the structure and purpose of a board of education and policymaking right the committee um plans and they kind of more are a deliberative body they take their recommendations to the full board the full board votes right no individual board member has the power to do anything you have the power as a collective if there's a statement that goes out to the public the board a majority of the members have to approve of that statement you have to be very careful as board members when when you make a statement on a social media page um or to an oped you want to make sure that if you're making it in your in your individual capacity you're disclaiming that you're making sure the public knows that this statement is your opinion right and not representative of the Viewpoint or positions of the Board of Education unless you have the board's approval if you act singularly right without the board's approval and let's say you you um you put out inaccurate information and that inaccurate information is believed by the public because you're a member of the board you're presumed to have knowledge that members of the public do not have so if you put something on social media if you put something in an oped and it's wrong but it leads to a lawsuit or it leads to some sort of harm now you've just compromised the board that's an ethical violation so also be very careful of what you're posting online you may think information is accurate because you've heard it from a member of the community who was you know seemed so sure this was this was what was happening happening and we're going to go into another code of ethics that talks about what happens in that situation so refusing to surrender your independent judgment so think about uh the associations you might be affiliated with there was one instance where the there was one organization just did not like the particular food vendor food vendor didn't do anything wrong was providing Services effectively they just preferred a different vendor they wanted to benefit this particular constituent so they voted no and all the the all the uh votes to secure the vendor and that was deemed an ethical violation because they weren't acting in the best interest of the district right they were acting to benefit an organization holding confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which have disclosed with need needlessly injured individuals or the schools in all matters I will provide accurate information and in concert with my fellow board members interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community for its school going back to right if you're going to make a statement to the public making sure you have the board's the full board's approval or you're using the proper disclaimers of remembering what can and cannot say that's confident that's confidential I violated a students privacy rights you're subjecting the district to a lawsuit I will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer that's not to say that you have to rubber stamp everything that comes before the board by the superintendent but you want to make sure that you are voting for the best qualified Personnel so if the superintendent is saying you know we interviewed five candidates and here you know this is the top one you're not obligated to vote Yes but if you're voting no because you prefer your neighbor gets the job that's a violation I will support and protect School Personnel in proper performance of their duties no dispar no disparagement of staff so if you have a concern over a staff member bring it to the superintendent do not make any public comments online if you see social media post by somebody who is criticizing one of the staff members don't just like it right especially if you don't have the full information of what it's about go back to the administration get some information and make sure that whatever you're posting online is accurate I will refer all complaints to the chief administrat chief administrator officer and will act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution going back to the organizational scheme which is the superintendent or oversees all the districts I mean all the schools in the district and all staff so if there is complaint about anything that is the person you want to take it to that is the person who can then either investigate him or herself or delegate maybe they're going to have the affirmative action officer um look into it or the principal of the particular School conduct an investigation but it's not for the board members to self investigate all right things to remember so just remember the specific roles of school officials and board members keep confidential information confidential if you're not sure if something can be disclosed always check with the superintendent the school business administrator or our office ensure accurate information is communicated so kind of keep in mind where did you get this information from who did you hear it from how did they verify it just verify yourself with Administration or somebody that you know would have that accurate information do not use District issued email or devices for purposes other than board business now this is one to ensure that you're not inadvertently trying to promote business or another company or organization but also it helps protect that confidential information you will be receiving confidential information as board members constraining it or or maintaining it on specific devices ensures that no other members of your of your family inadvertently get access to it or doesn't get intertwined with let's say your work email use disclaimers and public comments refer complaints to Administration do not investigate yourself there's been instances where board members have tried to do so other districts I'm referring to complaints of the decisions of the school ethics commission and that has led to violations and be conscientious of your statements and how they can be perceived so again the the public is going to presume you have more information that you know something to be true or false so depending on what you say or how you say it or who you say to when you say it right that's going to change the context all right moving into the antibullying Bill of Rights this is going to be a much quicker portion of the presentation I promise so the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act is the law that gives us HIV harassment intimidation and bullying and this is a law that was designed to help track bullying instances around the state they kind of want to know is there a pattern you know if there's a pattern is it a because certain students or groups of students are being targeted what's the what's the conduct is it getting better is it getting worse it really is a mechanism for the state to track conduct and I emphasize that because Hib does not displace your code of conduct conduct if conduct does not me HIV it doesn't mean that it was swept under the rug or was not addressed it just means it did not meet a very particular def definition and we're going to go through that very quickly so pretty much you have conduct anything written verbal digital physical anything it could happen once it could happen a series of times but it has to be reasonably perceived as being motivated by an actual or perceived characteristic reasonably perceived that means the person who actually engaged in the conduct didn't have to intend it it was just reasonably perceived by the person the recipient of that conduct motivation so reasonbly perceive as being motivated and we see a lot of the common characteristics um under what we would see law against discrimination race national origin color gender religion ancestry sexual orientation gender identity and expression however also mental physical or centory disability but it could be anything it could be a diet it could be the color of your hair it could be you know preference of certain type of music so it really could be anything at all but the actions have to be motivated reason we perceive to be motivated on that basis location I think that's a throwaway because it could happen anywhere it could happen at school it could happen on the bus but it could also happen at home with kids using their personal devices outside of school time you know not even affiliated with the district whatsoever so I always consider that more of a throwaway substantial disruption there has to be some sort of impact to the person who's the recipient of the conduct and yes this is a little subjective because you're going to have students respond differently some students will shrug it off and say they didn't bother me at all but all students are different and they're all going to react differently essentially to to determine whether or not you had a substantial disruption you're looking at did the student complain themselves were they visibly upset did they stop coming to school uh did they um act differently in class maybe they were very a vocal participant and now of a sudden they're withdrawn and they're not participating at all their grades decline so those are some examples of substantial disruption a teacher or um a recess Aid let's say noticing conduct and Reporting it themselves may not be sufficient for a substantial disruption they're reporting conduct that might be sufficient for the code of conduct violation but not HIV and finally so as you see there's several factors that have to be I'm going to call them elements there's several elements that have to be right so if you're missing the uh distinguishing characteristic but you have everything else it's not going to be hi similarly if you have everything as before the conduct the location the substantial disruption and this distinguishing characteristic but you don't have an impact it's not going to be Hib has to be everything so finally the impact it has to be the type that a reasonable person would know and this reasonable person is not the person who's investigating it right the reasonable person is going to be the student that a reasonable person would know under the circumstances would have the effect of physically or Ally harming the student or their property or placing the student in reasonable fear of harm to themselves their emotional state or property or so only one of the three has to be met or it has the effect of being insulting or demeaning or it creates a hosle educational environment for the student now there's variation in that impact so you can have something as slight as being insulting and Dem meeting something so significant as changing the educational environment for the student Hib I'm going to go back to the code of conduct is not dis SP your code of conduct when something is found to be Hib doesn't mean that is more serious because it met this definition it just met the state definition you can have HIV because someone's feelings were hurt because of an insensitive comment you could have HIV because of a physical assault so you see the variation code of conduct similarly there's a Code of Conduct because someone was called an insensitive name you could have a code of conduct because somebody was physically assaulted the consequences are really going to be well I would say the punishment is really the consequences right whether it's a counseling whether it's a detention whether it's a suspension that those consequences may not change and likely will not change whether this is HIV or not I know that there's a huge emphasis of it's not Hib nothing's being done that is not true Hib is really didn't meet a definition because code of conduct really is going to be the underlying vehicle that Administration uses to address the conduct okay so that's the definition quickly I'll go through the process you have an HIV investigation so let's say there's a report someone heard or saw something they received reliable information you have 10 days school days to conduct an investigation you can get more time if the superintendent ultimately finds that maybe there's not enough information or the principal can looking at this at first glance can say this really isn't Hib it's probably probably more code of conduct let's proceed that way if the superintendent disagrees he can he or she can send it back and um start the um HIV investigation once the HIV investigation is completed and that's conducted by the anti-bullying specialist that goes to the principal the principal is really going to be the one that looks at all the information and makes the assessment does it meet this definition or not once that happens that's going to get then go to the superintendent the superintendent is going to review superintendent can kick it back and they think there's not sufficient information most times there is information sufficient information and it goes to the Board of Education when it goes to the board of education for the first time it's just being reported to the board nothing is happening no action is being taken the board has just notified these are the Hib investigations that occurred during the month some of them were found to be Hib some of them were not found to be Hib after the board gets notified of it the parents of the two students or the students who are involved the one who was the victim or the one the alleged Target and the alleged offenders Witnesses do not get notified because they're not really the subject of the complaint right there's nothing actionable happening to the witnesses but the parents of the students who are will receive a letter an information letter that's going to give them essentially the rationale for the determination right what was investigated why uh what was the the general basis of the evidence and what was the findings they will also be invited to attend an Hib hearing before the Board of Education if they elect that option they don't have to but if they do they have 60 days to request that hearing appear before the Board of Education and they can appear to say you guys got it absolutely right good job I hope you uphold it they can go before the Board of Education and say your team got it absolutely wrong and or you know what there's additional information that I don't think you kind of considered and I think if you had it would change the results so you have Hib hearing and the board will make a decision this generally occurs at the second or perhaps third meeting after it was first reported to the board now there's no real formal rules for the hearing the commissioner doesn't have any requirements except that right you have that timeline if the parent requests um an Hib hearing or staff member it must be conducted within 10 days unless there's some sort of agreement that perhaps um the parent or the staff members is not available or perhaps a quorum can't be convened so it has to be pushed back also um parents and staff members have the ability to present Witnesses and they have to have a reasonable amount of time that could be 15 minutes 20 minutes right um and it's okay for the board to impose that time understanding that they're going to need time to deliberate as well all right so now you had your Hib hearing the board takes action whether it was to reverse to modify or to affirm the decision parents get another letter in the mail or the staff member and that letter pretty much tells them what the board's determination was and some information like the rationale behind it in addition the board will take a public vote using confidential identifiers because we got to keep in mind student inform student information is highly protected it's confidential parents once they get the determination they can choose to appeal with the commissioner of Education or or the division on civil rights or not appeal at all and accept the determination and at this point I will allow the board members to come back up if anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer it from the board I should turn this sor all right so any questions know that you can always contacting me too if you need some time to think about anything no pressure but happy to anything either as well okay well thank you for hearing me out and your patience on that and thank you Francis okay yeah moving on to your report correct yes I think so thank you Mr Bry just one thing to point out under board business there are a couple of uh housekeeping items including changes to uh board meetings in the next couple of months and that has to do with the state calendar that was uh published back in December uh after obviously we had scheduled all the board meetings uh almost a year ago now or whenever it was so please keep note of that and we'll post the announcements that the the uh meetings are being changed and basically being moved up um one is being moved up a week I think and the other one's being moved back a week March and April um then under my report uh I'll mention of course I'll address the elephant in the room uh which is I've had a lot of people ask me over the last month or so whether we're going to change the start time at the middle school and the elementary schools and um I've stated and spoken with the curriculum committee prior to my announcement last week uh that we would come up with a decision before the end of January so that everyone could plan and the good news is that first student has indicated preliminarily that they can accommodate a swap in the start times of the middle school and the elementary schools whereby the elementary schools would begin about 7:45 in the morning and the middle school would begin about 8:30 uh in the morning uh however after we've discussed it um my recommendation is to put that on hold by a year and Target 2026 the fall of 2026 uh because we have a lot of other moving Parts uh in terms of uh changing the grade levels around and we want to get the bus routes up and running and kind of pinned down and and moving along the way they should so if we can do that by uh this coming fall then we can aim for The Following fall uh 2026 to implement the flip in the in the times of the other schools uh aside from that one of the moving Parts obviously is yours truly and uh I don't want to Bel labor the point and make a bigger deal of this than it is everyone read my statement uh I'll just say thank you to everyone I think when I started in chadam I was 27 years old and now I'm on the other side of 50 and um this has been the just the greatest place I I hit the lottery uh when I took a job here and there are people in this room uh some faces out there some faces on this stage who I love like actually love them uh so it's been an emotional couple of weeks and uh I'm not going to repeat what I put in the letter uh but I feel so grateful to have had the experiences that I've had here and I enjoy working with so many of the people that I get to work with and I've been affected and influenced and improved as a person by so many of the people I've worked with over the years and uh while I'm very excited for what I think is a unique opportunity that will be somewhat re-energizing and uh and fulfilling and stimulating to me uh it's also painful of course to have to say goodbye to so many people I care about so just want to thank everyone and thank all the people who've wished me well uh in the last week or so much appreciated and then the third item under my report actually it's only the first one that's actually written but it's the it's the uh the draw here uh and that is the approval the program s of study we always do this in January usually because we begin the course selection process starting with uh Rising seniors at chadam High School uh any changes that we want to make to the course offerings or anything else in the way we are running our uh uh courses and our sequences of courses uh we need to have approved before students can make their selection so we have a team of people here Dr danu being the captain of the team uh but Tony Orsini is with us so as Doug Walker our Middle School and High School principles and then we are recommending a uh an alteration to our math sequence so Aaron Yama Yamamoto our math supervisor is joining us as well so they're going to they're going to take the the microphone and the clicker and I'm going to ask the board members to again return to the seats that'll be the last time tonight and then we'll move on from there right buddy okay uh good evening uh we are pleased pleas to share tonight the new courses that we're proposing to add to the existing program of studies at both chatam middle school and chattam high school with us tonight we have Mr orini the principal of chatam Middle School who will share the new course proposals for there he will be followed by our math supervisor Mr Yamamoto who will share our proposal and rationale to change our math sequence between CMS and CHS and finally we'll conclude with Dr Walker who will share um proposals for program of study at um chadam high school for next year um we do have quite a bit of content to get through um if you could please let each of the presenters get through their presentations and then we will certainly take questions um at the end all of these proposals um and courses have been gone through the um curriculum instruction committee at our last meeting thanks Mary um and thank you to Dr Lusa for bringing me on board last year been putting together uh such a great uh Team of of teachers and and administrators to to really make this right restructuring next year to the 58 middle school work um we're looking at putting in some changes there haven't been a lot of changes in the Middle School uh program and studies for a while so we're going to be uh making some changes to our elective courses um our related arts courses for next year um some of the things that would doing we're uh readjusting classes like our digital Footprints class and our Maps class um and they're we're putting in some new electives to kind of take their place and to make sure that we can still uh hit the content from those classes that are necessary um one of those things to help support our our fifth and sixth graders when they come into Middle School is a middle school 101 class to really help build their confidence resilience and a mindset as they come into the middle school and make them feel a part of the the the new configuration um we have four new um four of five new Humanities focused uh related arts courses um we're trying to to fit some of the needs of our kids in the storytelling that they see every day like they see in video games um that have some intricate stories in them um bringing back the need for public speaking with the speak up mastering the art of public speaking and and looking at bringing that back it was a middle school course many years ago but uh it's a it's an art that is extremely well uh needed by our middle school students um another another fun course to really uh bridge the gap between literature and our modern society with superheroes unmasked how Comics change the world um kind of relating those things to not just history but to uh the the Marvel Cinematic Universe going on right now and uh we're really proud of our social study related course stories of Triumph um that is looking at some of the more inspirational uh events in history uh to really teach our students some leadership skills um I'm not going to go into the specifics of these per se but um you're really looking at uh looking at the popular video games and creating their own story-driven projects at the end of this course um the speaking up it was previously public speaking but we're really looking to modernize it where the students are uh gaining those skills to to speak in the smaller groups not that they're going to be full of an auditorium with people speaking but just that skill set that they've uh maybe lost a little bit since uh Co um and of course I was talking about our Comics course and just a quick note on our another course that wasn't on the original slide it's a leadership course basically a peer leadership course where they're going to be doing role playing and group discuss discussion and collaborative projects um on some problem solving uh abilities and some leadership skills and that's for eighth graders and then that story of the trium Triumph that I was talking about and they're looking at the Apollo space program um and you know the advocacy for girls education that Malala did so those are some of the focus of that particular class so those are our um heavier uh classes that we're trying to bring in we're also looking to uh Implement some things in the Performing Arts area to give our students chances to be in more than one um Performing Arts situation so we have three Labs a piano lab an instrument lab and a chorus lab that's going to be contingent on um what we have available for the students um but these will be shorter courses that are one day in a rotation um so it's just a nice opportunity to kids get some extra um music instruction the music tech is a seconde course we have a music tech one and this is for the students who've experienced that so they can kind of go to the next level and uh composing some music and using that technology they're going to be changing to SoundHound I believe for uh for this particular second um part of it is the the composition lab a soundtrack Studio which is the level two music tech uh piano lab with the keyboards and instrument lab um with some of the other instruments that we might have available and finally the chorus lab which is an opportunity for students who are in band and Orchestra um to be able to get some vocal performance um in music courses so they can take more than one uh music in the middle school if they so choose and finally we have three related arts courses um Mr Yamoto behind me he's helped develop those first two cooking budgeting Beyond getting some real life uh experience with math and action U math quest which is actually kind of gamifying the math concepts for students and and utilizing those as a focus for them to be able to have it in a elective course and adding to our stem program is a dream room design lab um the critical thinking and strengthening of reasonings in this uh course is going to be exciting for the students um it's for the six to students U we're also adding another course that might be available depending on um how much uh how many students put in for it at which level where they're going to be able to uh use those different uh skills in real world uh situations um and then the dream Design Lab is constructing enhanced model of what the their room or home would look like um it's an opportunity for them to use the practical skills and using those uh design and Technology uh innovation in order to build these uh new their own uh their own personal room in their home all right Dr yot is up the moment everyone's been waiting for uh hi everyone my name is Aaron yot I'm the math supervisor for the district and I am here to propose a change to our sequence and provide a little bit of an update uh with how our program has been operating since the change so to start just to provide a little bit of History uh four years ago we made the adjustment to a geometry first uh primary math sequence uh for high school equivalent math courses so majority of our students starting that in chadam middle school and progressing through chadam High School uh some of the rationale there was to allow greater continuity in our algebra courses going from 1 to two and maintaining greater retention for our students uh the cognitive Readiness for our students in hoping that uh a greater amount of time would allow them to uh Master those abstract concepts of algebra and experience in Geometry uh at a higher rate and then Precision with our teacher recommendations so that was the rationale as we went into the change for school years ago and this is just an update in terms of our timeline with where we are we're four cohorts in so it's giving us a pretty uh robust uh set of students to to reflect on our first cohort as I mentioned started in the 2021-22 school year and at this point that cohort is primarily in pre-calculus we have a second cohort in Algebra 2 a third in Algebra 1 and then uh this year we have students in Geometry so that gives us some time to reflect um and uh look ahead to uh some opportunities so the first thing we discussed was with the teachers and collecting some feedback from them the greatest um conver ation came with the geometry teachers at both the middle and the high school and the concerns that they were expressing over uh that time in that uh by pushing it earlier and removing the algebra 1 content that it required a little bit of a reduction in the course riger for our geometry courses and the simple fact that the majority of resources align with a traditional sequence so our staff is required to Emit and modify and create on their own a lot more resources to try and meet the needs of those students uh for our other end of the sequence our Algebra 2 and our pre-calculus teachers have a little bit more of a mixed review the honors Algebra 2 staff reported less need for uh remed for reinforcement of those Concepts so they were the big Winners um on that end of things but with our 2A and our 2B teachers as well as our pre-calculus teachers had more varied results um and varied observations of where our student retention was now another element of this in addition to the data and the teacher feedback were two uh challenges that we did not anticipate when this sequence first went into play and the first being a staffing consideration um a little bit of background for our middle school math staff there's two certifications that they tend to hold for Middle School mathematics one is a K12 teacher of mathematics which covers um obviously the ability to teach in either the middle or the high school and then Elementary School teacher with a 58 math specialization so with the some of the natural turnover that happens in our buildings um the geometry first has created a little less flexibility in our staffing and is going to potentially present some challenges with um hiring in the future in that a lot of the teachers that hold that teacher of math um K12 certification are looking for high school opportunities and those that are holding only this the uh the 58 with the specialization don't always feel comfortable teaching geometry since it's traditionally not the first course in the sequence and tends to be a high school course um in other districts the other uh challenge that we've encountered is for our Adda District our new entrance that have uh grown a bit over the years and the inconsistencies between our sequence and those entering students that have created have um resulted in some prerequisite knowledge gaps particularly for our those students when they join us for geometry having not taken an algebra one course or not taking our math 7 curriculum which has uh follows an accelerated pathway um for some of those uh prerequisite pieces on the flip side the new entrance from at a district that had Algebra 1 are seeing high levels of success which kind of um points Us in the direction of The Proposal which I'm making tonight which is to return to the traditional Algebra 1 geometry Algebra 2 mathematics sequence effective next school year the 2025 2026 uh school year this is the um mathematics progression so if approve this we uh be available on our curriculum and instruction website and this will take effect for students who have who will be taking their first High School equivalent course in the coming school year and everyone subsequent after that there's no major overhauls to the progression other than just the um the flip of geometry and algebra one in all those sequence Pathways and then my last piece is just what we're outlining for a transition plan over the next few years as it always comes with some uh pre-planning this year we would focus on ensuring uh communication with all staff members uh administrators counselors so that they're well aware of the change and the um uh and the information that is backing it and within the staff members begin some course revisions for math 7 algebra one and start that geometry course um revision for reintroducing more algebra into it in the future next year will be um the most impacted Year and that we'll have what I call an algebra one bubble because if you kind of follow all of our Pathways of students we're going to have students taking Algebra 1 um in large quantities both at the middle school and at the high school um because of their location either in our current sequence or in this proposed sequence and so uh one of the other shifts that would come out of that is that we wouldn't offer geometry next year and before anybody gets too worried No student in our district should need to take geometry next year so this would the only impact this would take would be on a student coming from out of district and the proposal will be for those students to take algebra too so that we can provide them all of our course offerings Hors A and B level and make sure that they're appropriate appropriately placed um rather than trying to uh bring a much more widespread group of students into a generalized geometry class and then in the following year all levels of geometry would return to chadam high school honors algebra one would leave and it would kind of return to the form uh that existed prior to the sequence change um and obviously we'll we'll maintain a continued review of our performance and address any needs that may arise in the years to to come and then a final note at the bottom as should be the casee any student that's currently in a high school equivalent course will complete the geometry first sequence as stated that's it for me hello everyone I'm Doug Walker the principal of the high school and it's my pleasure tonight to introduce the courses that we're proposing for the high school for the 25 26 school year just to preface my presentation every year we Source um ideas for new courses at the high school and the ideas are typically generated from our teaching staff in collaboration with the supervisors and myself and so the courses that I'm presenting tonight have been brought to me from teachers um the teachers usually develop these courses based on where they see Trends are in courses based on student interests when they work with their students and sometimes with some guidance from the administration so our first electives that we're highlighting come in our English Department I've listed electives that we have now and the two new ones are in yellow uh the first elective that we're looking to offer next year is in podcasting I think the name sort of speaks for itself um definitely an incredibly relevant topic and really will work on a combination of writing storytelling and public speaking it would be a two and a half credit course and be available for grades 10 through 12 and this course would also meet the 21st century life and careers graduation requirement the second course in English is the in the the um theater and film as literature and so this course would really look at the relationship between written texts and their adaptions for stage and screen and again this would be an elective course in the English Department for grades 11 and 12 at two and a half credits in social studies we're proposing adding AP African-American history this is a college board approved AP course that really looks at the history and challenges um of African-Americans globally and in the United States it would be for grades 11 and 12 um only prerequisite would be completing US 1 and two which would be every 11th and 12th grader and teacher recommendation and it would be an elective course a full year in World Language we're continuing to see our American sign language program grow we're at a point now where we have a cohort of Juniors who are in American Sign Language level four so we're proposing adding level five as an honors level in our world language um sequence in the other languages level five is typically an advanced placement level but College Board doesn't have an advanced placement American sign language course so we're proposing it as an honors level class be five credit full-year course in our theater Department we're we had started a stage craft class um about a year ago and this is you know a kind of behind the scenes lighting design building sound those functions within theater and because of the popularity of that class we are looking to add a second elective stage Craft 2 again this would be open to all grade levels the only prerequisite is you had to completed stage craft one and it would be two and a half credits I'm excited about our two electives that were offering in music this was one that I had worked with um the music teachers and Lauren Spooner director of arts and languages um wanting to bring in a couple more electives in the area of music and Performing Arts uh specifically courses that are accessible and don't require the skills of playing an instrument or singing um to give more options and accessibility for students who have an appreciation or Joy Of Music so our first course is a music technology and Sound Engineering elective uh and that would work on all aspects of creating music creating sound using technology um we're I already in this situation have the teacher who's proposing this and the teacher who's proposing the podcasting class of talking about maybe doing some interdisciplinary work there uh between the students so we'll see where that goes but this would be a two and a half credit course open to all grade levels and the second titled critical music analysis um the best way I can describe this it's really sort of a music appreciation class where the students would be exposed to various genres of music and learn how to look listen to it critically how to evaluate it um and learning different styles and presentations of music and um for really students who have an enjoyment for music want to learn more about it and understand the components of it um requires no prior musical knowledge or instrument playing and this would be for all grades and open uh two and a half credit elective course in art we have a new course that's was proposed it was proposed by one from one of our art teachers and the Genesis of This was um we had a student a couple years ago who actually created a visual journal for the their AP um portfolio and received a a very high score in that portfolio which sparked the interest of the teacher teacher has been doing graduate work and has done a a thesis on this topic and the course is visual journaling so this would be a two and a half credit course course open to grades 9 to 12 no prerequisites sort of an entry level art class but the students in this course would be creating a visual Journal is essentially what it is and it's really a process-based class where students would be given different prompts different options where they can do different forms of expression within an ongoing journal and it could be anything from um self-reflection to um things that they observe in the world or or emotions and feelings and using different types of mediums of Art and interesting when I started to look at this and look at samples of the work and um it has a lot of flexibility and I think it's um you know we explain it to the students when we have our class meetings but um I think it's a very interesting addition to our art program in the area of 21st century life and careers uh we had started last year a a course that is within our special education department on Career exploration and preparation one we had that course has become very popular the students are really having finding it to be valuable enjoying themselves in the class and so we're looking to offer a part two of this again it would be open for grades 9 to 12 it does require a um recommendation from the child study team so it's for special education students and it would be a two and a half credit course a second addition that we're looking to bring back um this is a program that was at chadam High School this is this is my 13th year here at chadam high school so it it was in our program of studies when I started but it wasn't running at the time so it had run prior to me um this is a general education course and it's work-based learning and the model of this is that be open for seniors and these will be students who in their senior year of high school would want to would go onto a halfday program meaning they would take courses here in the morning so up to four courses here in the morning and then through our program could be placed in work settings in the afternoon um we have a teacher designated who's interested in running this program we looked at a number of models of schools that run this successfully and essentially if you're familiar um with our senior internship program which happens for about 19 days towards the end of the school year this is that type of model but be a full year program for students and they would get a chance to get um work experience or internship experience it can be paid or it cannot be paid depending upon the opportunity that's in front of them and earn high school credits related to the 21st century life and careers category the individual who would oversee the program is U being trained through modules at Ruckers University and there's a lot of metrics that they have to follow and they have to do a number of site visits with the students and then the students who are part of this program would meet collectively as a group um during intervals of time we we were're planning to do it during a lunch period for um some instruction related to work life and career as well as what what I found in talking to other districts it also becomes sort of a a counseling session or group discussion where students talk about the pros and the cons or challenges they're facing in the workplace and help each other work through them so we we've started to identify some students who have shown an interest in this in their senior year uh they will still be able to graduate on time and it doesn't um preclude them from attending college either um it's just a different pathway for some what we think some of our students who would really benefit from this and our last course Edition is in the area of math and this is a course that we have had previously under different names um we're titling it math lab it would be for grades nine and 10 and it is a targeted reinforcement class so think of it as a supplemental class for students in Algebra 1 or geometry um it you know students could be um who have been here in our district or students who have come to our district over time from different locations and there may be some gaps in some prior mathematical knowledge as you know math is sequential and at any point in time in a students career there may be some gaps in some aspect of math that they didn't uh really get Mastery of and so this course would be in addition to their math class it would run first semester and the idea would be to um run some sort of diagnostic on the students where we'd be able identify where those gaps are and then individual learning plans for those students to be able to help fill those gaps and prerequisite knowledge so that they can find success and get themselves caught up um and continue through our math sequence so we're proposing this course for the next school year and my last um uh addition here which is a proposed change in our program of studies and the change falls under what the New Jersey Department of Education calls option two and just to quickly Define option two as it states in the state code is that it'll allow school districts um to support various Pathways for kids to meet standards and allows us um to approve or establish alternative courses so think of it as um alternatives to courses that students need to take here or would take here that these Alternatives would be permitted if they meet or exceed the requirements of the course that they are replacing so examples of option two at chadam high school is allowing students to take virtual courses or courses external from here like through our edges seere provider we allow students to take these courses online the Eder provider um has courses that are aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards they are taught by um certified teachers they're accredited it's an accredited school program which is Founders education is actually the provider and we um you know we do permit students to take courses there through the option to the second was that we utilize option to at the high school is for students who are participating on our athletic teams there are chadam high school teams and um for those teams that meet the requirements when they are in season students can be exempt from attending the physical education portion of school of the of of fizzed sorry but not um health or driver's education and what's replacing it is our athletic team and for those of you familiar you know we have 36 athletic teams our programs are typically six days a week they are um run by our coaches who we hire who we evaluate and we're able to maintain the accountability of the students in these programs attendance participation growth and development by our close interaction with these teams and these coaches and the third pathway the third option that we have for option two here is what we've called it's been in place it's been in place for a a few years now called individualized structured learning or ISL and this was put in place to uh to allow for students who particip ipate in um activities that are not chadam high school activities out of school activities that meet um specific requirements like an hourly um amount of participation per week we've allowed historically these students to also be exempt from attending the physical education ponent of fizzed but not um driver's education or health and the requirements for this would be it would need to be a year-long program because it's replacing fully replacing physical education which in New Jersey is required of every student every year they're in high school and does have a specific minutes requirement per week so based on this option two there we we did some evaluation it's been going on ongoing of really looking at what are the requirements of option to having courses that meet or exceed the expectation of the courses they're replacing we sort of reconciled what are the requirements that this program and what are the programs that we are offering and we are um recommending uh a couple changes here in our virtual courses what we're recommending moving forward is limiting enrollment in Virtual or external courses courses that are not offered at chadam high school are not um taught at chadam high school but at external providers that we approve to elective courses and that includes financial literacy continuing to allow financial literacy but no longer allowing enrollment in core required courses courses that are required in a sequence in the core subject areas like English Math Science Social Studies in World Language um there are some cases where we're recommending maintaining some exceptions some what we sometimes do use the virtual courses for students that are on home instruction as a home instruction if we can't find a teacher that's able to meet the student in their home or where or if they're hospitalized um and we allow them to then work through the courses virtually and what happens there is our teachers select the topics within the course that align to what's being taught in class and the students work through those uh we have students who we do approve for partial day programs because they are involved in extraordinary activities that um limit their ability to attend school full-time and we sometimes then have them on half day schedules and allow them to supplement with a couple online courses usually in the elective areas where possible though uh so that they can still stay with their cohort and graduate on time and then we also use it for um credit recovery for students who uh did not pass a class or who had lost credit for attendance purposes so we do want to continue that um but we want to limit it primarily in other situations just for um elective areas and not in the core sequence of you know for example US History 1 US History 2 world history that's a required sequence the second recommendation that we have is we want to continue to keep our PE uh exemption for our athletes that are on our athletic teams um like I had mentioned before these are programs that we control these are programs where we hire the coaches evaluate the coaches evaluate student participation in these programs we have a level of oversight and a level of accountability where we want to make a change is we want to discontinue the ISL program and the rationale behind that is these are external programs to chadam high school we don't have accountability over these coaches or really a very simplified way to ensure participation um student engagement and that students are meeting the standards that would allow it to replace the phys physical education course that they should be in which is what the option two requirement has essentially in this scenario if you kind of put it simply we're almost engaging the coaches of these external programs as adjuncts for us but we have no account ility over them and we and so from an from accountability standpoint and to being compliance um the concern has been Arisen is you know is this something that should be maintained so our recommendation is um to no longer move forward with that program and and only allow it with our own internal programs and that's my last comment I before I go I just want to say um this is my first meeting getting to see summer here who is our student representative who was uh we had interviewed to be our student rep on the board and I wanted to say to Summer that when I interviewed her I told her she'd probably be home by about 845 9 o'clock most nights and it's not looking that good right now so I apologize I didn't lie to you but welcome summer we're happy to have you here on on the board thank you I promise you this isn't normal okay thank you everyone for your presentations they were thorough and um amazing thank you yes go ahead um can you hear me I have a quick question for um Mr Yamamoto on the um sequence change um my question has to do uh with concerns about um perhap overcrowding or maybe not at the middle school um given the teacher shortage and the expected uh algebra one bubble do we have flexibility with the current geometry teachers at the middle school to to move in and teach algebra for those students next year so that there's not you know 30 kids in a class yeah we're sorry uh we we should be more than well equipped to handle the the bubble for next year the the main reason I call it a bubble is because a student right now in math 7 who is not going to be recommended for math 8 will be an algebra 1 a student who's in math 8 right now is going to get recommended for Algebra 1 a student at the high school in Geometry is going to get recommended for Algebra 1 anybody from out a district so we're just going to have this between the two buildings a a big uptick in the sections for Algebra 1 but because we won't have geometry offered we're going to be able to utilize that same staff and I think it's going to expand our opportunities within the current staff at the middle school um in that a lot of them have taught it when it was an algebra 1 first sequence in the past um so I actually think we're going to be better suited to handle any fluctuations in population um in years to come thank you yep sorry about this So currently kids that are in math 8 that will also roll into Algebra 1 next year when do they take geometry and how many kids are in math8 now uh so we have uh just around 60 students in math 8 between the the various levels that we have for that course they'll take Algebra 1 next year they'll take geometry the following year by by the 26 27 school year we'll have all of our geometry sections available again at the high school so it's just a one-year on the radar in terms of not having geometry offered but all of those math8 students our current math8 students will all be in an algebra 1 course next year and then geometry will return in full force to the high school the following year so they'll be right in sequence with what we want so they take Algebra 2 junior year pre-cal senior year correct correct sophomores right now are taking Algebra 2 what are they taking next year sophomore is currently in Algebra 2 they would be they would be on track to take e are pre-calculus courses or an algebra 3 trigonometry course so anybody that's in the current sequence would so they'll never take algebra I'm sorry then they would take geometry they anybody in Algebra 2 would have already taken geometry in e8th grade in eth yes okay yep and that's counts for their graduation requirements and you know we we move for forward with that so any student that's currently in the sequence we you know will'll proceed forward as uh as it has been running for the last four years okay any other questions okay thank you so much appreciate it Mike you're good okay perfect um moving on to the business administrator's report Mr Taquila sure unfortunately the uh Auditors couldn't attend tonight uh but they were able to attend the finance committing uh committee meeting last week um both the audit partner and the uh audit manager met with the finance committee uh and myself last week they express expressed thanks to the uh business office in particular uh the assistant VA Patricia seak and the entire staff for all their assistance um they they tested transactions with the regard of per payroll purchasing and accounts payables for Grants this year's test uh uh or FICA reimbursements Ida and the Essa Co Grant which required a lot of uh digging and support from the business office and many other departments in the district the audit was a thorough long process that took effort uh a great deal of time and effort of of the district and the audit staff the audit was completed and finalized on December 12th uh before the state uh deadline uh the the pension information was relieved uh received on time so there was no extension necessary and the district has actually completed two fiscal audits within uh eight months so that's a uh pretty big uh undertaking the results were again an unqualified opinion which is the most part of any audit uh some of the financial highlights presented were that the district is in a good overall uh financial position our capital reserve at the end of the 2425 school year should be just shy of $6.8 million uh which will be utilized in the 2526 budget and the fund balance uh is maintained at the uh 2% uh of our of our general fund spending for the uh construction update during the uh winter break oara uh construction did complete the in the installation of all the interior doors uh cm3 was able to wire all of the uh the card strikes um the key the district Keys uh in all the locks should be installed hopefully by the end of the week and then all the doors uh will be operational and the one item left which should happen either during uh Martin Luther King Day or over the February break the transaction window at the high school will be installed that's the last piece left on the uh security project that's all I have okay perfect thank you so much um moving on to our new fabulous student liaison I want to welcome um summer tadesco and we're happy to have you and yes I promise it's not always this late as a matter of fact I've been known to run a very quick meeting so next time I promise it'll be much shorter but um we're going to allow summer to um give her student leis on update hi everyone um super excited to be here I just want to keep this pretty brief but my name is Summer Tesco I'm a junior at chadam High School uh during the school year I play field hockey in the fall so this coming fall will be my fourth and final season which is pretty exciting um I'm also a member of the linkx program here at CHS so I um help with like nth graders and help them adjust to the high school and just kind of be like a friendly face for them so um I'm also a member of St Pat St Pat's youth ministry so we also help nth and 10th graders um like kind of guide them through confirmation and then over the summer I lifeguard at canberk right by short Hill's Summit area so if you ever see me there day you say hi but um basically my role as like board board of education student representative is just to kind of again be like a liaison between the Board of Education any um CH high school students there can definitely be a lot of you know miscommunications and you know rumors of like crazy administrative stuff going on so I'm just there to kind of like clear it up um but with that being said I'm also going to give a report of some activities that are happening at um and just like fun events happening at chadam high school so the end of our semester is coming up this Friday on January 17th um the new classes will start on the following Tuesday the 21st because we have off for Monday um and then our last day of like the regular semester one classes are on the Friday ask any high school student and they'll definitely tell you you know it's great to see a fresh start in Genesis with the with um the grading so it's great um we have on Wednesday January 15th right here in the auditorium we have our 8th grade parent curriculum night so we're going to have all of the courses from the high school and um all the new courses that were just mentioned if those are like the proposed ideas um just um explained and shown in the slideshow for any um parents that have any students eth grade stuff like that so and here at CHS our winter sports are in the midst of the regular season which they are adult all of them are doing really great but one of the highlights was definitely boys swimming won their 50th consecutive meet which is super impressive so Props to them and we're also in the midst of our performing arts and concert season so tomorrow night right here in the auditorium we have our orchestra concert so if you're interested stop by I hear them all the time in the hallway I'm walking right through here and they're phenomenal so I definitely recommend going and then for our clubs and activities we have our Chinese Club hosting um Chinese New Year dinner at the CHS cafeteria this Friday the 17th at 5:00 p.m. so if you want to stop by learn a little more about Chinese culture and like why Chinese New Year is celebrated there's a lot of like fun new foods and activities so if you want to stop by be fun and then lastly we had our alumni return day um right before winter break so basically a panel of um 2024 graduates came to talk to our seniors about their transition to college and like what happened and how it went and uh from talking to a couple of seniors I've noticed a major theme was definitely that a lot of them didn't really get their top choices or maybe their first or second and it still really worked out for them which is definitely promising for a lot of our seniors and even me for next year like I'm just thinking about it definitely promising so yeah that's all awesome thank you summer appreciate it um moving on to our committee reports I will um take Personnel because Miss Weber is not here personnel has not met since our last meeting and we are currently slated to meet on January 29th that may or may not change not sure yet um curriculum Miss Ross Yes uh we met on December 11th um pretty much we had a preview of what was presented this evening um with the core studies uh by uh Mr orini for the Middle School Dr Walker for the high school and then of course the overview of the um math sequence switch by Mr Yamamoto which was gone through in detail um we do not have a meeting um in January but I believe the next one will be in um mid-February and um just as summer mentioned tomorrow night there will be um for eighth grade families uh a presentation here at the high schooles it's Wednesday sorry I've lost track um at 7.m so I will be there thank you perfect I know it feels like you've been here for two days but it's still Monday um okay moving on to finance and Facilities Mr and if you could the sheet that is in front of Brad there's a sheet in front of on Brad right in front of seat Brad's desk pretty much hi there the finance committee met on January 8th at 7:30 p.m. M um most of the meeting was spent with our Auditors providing an update on our 2324 audit which we passed we also discussed the long range facility plan uh and some um information regarding budgeting for the next 25 26 um season as well as a construction update and um full day kindergart garden and uh possible tuition program to attend stoc schools from other school districts um because we've had more interest from other school districts and then lastly we had an eagle scout come to us to ask if they could install two gaga pits to help out at the middle school which would be great for fifth graders so uh we were wholeheartedly in favor of that and awaiting board approval um this eal scale project perfect thank you um and for policy and planning Mr Ryan policy and planning met on the 8th but I'm also going to defer to Miss Allen I was not in attendance due to travel the policy meeting uh was on January 8th as well we had two residency requests so we discussed um requests for families that were either moving mid year or moving to a different location mid year and our policy around um having tuition paying students after the move and um confirmation of the district's policies regarding residents re press we also reviewed all the program of study changes um that impacted policy which you heard tonight regarding the change to the exempt the sports exemptions and the online course and uh both of these obviously were incorporated into the um to Mr Dr Walker's presentation tonight and uh Emily Dr sortino also went through the suicide prevention policy updates with us we had some minor alterations to that for students that are at risk and those are on the agenda to be voted on tonight as well perfect thank you so much um okay moving on I'd like to move the uh minutes from the December 9th public and executive session and the January 6 special meeting executive session only or Mr Ryan if you'd abstained from the January 6th please so we can do a Nick you got we can uh on the December 9th uh everyone who was in attendance on January 6th only Mr Ryan wasn't here so he just needs to abstain on that one and I just need a quick second since I didn't hear that all right all right um the [Music] January I'm going to ask for two votes first on the December 9th and then the second on the January 6th M Ross Yes uh M Allen yes Mr delandro yes M peek abstain Mr Ryan yes all right um Dr Zang yes and Miss Chelli yes all right 129 passes 70 um I'm sorry 601 and six passes uh 502 okay perfect thank you so much um okay this is going to be our first opportunity for public commentary hearing of the citizens during the public commentary section of the agenda is an opportunity for any member of the public to be heard about issues which are or are not topics scheduled for the current meeting to help facilitate an orderly meeting and to permit all to be heard speakers will be asked to limit their comments to a reasonable length of time and if you would please just sign in and state your name um when you go up to speak that would be great thank you good evening um I'm Kristen Crawford I am the principal of Milton Avenue School um I am here on behalf of the chadam administration Association to talk about um Dr lusa's announcement the members of the chatam administrator Association wish to thank Dr Lusa for his steadfast leadership over the last 13 years during his time as superintendent his thoughtful perceptive and courageous Vision has guided the district through num numerous challenges Dr lusa's leadership style marked by trustworthiness honesty and transparency has empowered and supported both staff and students alike his resilience and his Discerning nature have consistently steered The District in Innovative directions Dr lusa's unconventional yet Visionary approach often made it feel like he was leading a startup rather than a school district he introduced practices like mindfulness and meditation Retreats for leadership team and he even played heavy metal songs to inspire us to make school a place where kids want to be Mike took bold steps such as starting a school year with a holocaust survivor's impactful presentation as an inspiration to Foster deep human connections with within education he prioritized work life balance which he once referred to as the sdoc flux capacitor at an administrative retreat Mike emphasizes mental health and true productivity not merely for test scores but to enrich the lives of Educators and students his proactive foresight in addressing challenges like masking and remote schooling at least two months before a global pandemic highlights his Forward Thinking nature I will close by using Dr lusa's own words from his tedex speech to express how many of us will feel his absence from the sdoc incrementally we will move forward and do the work that he knows we are capable of as an administrative team we will make progress over time we will have our share of growing pains as we get used to working with a new leader but we will all have gratitude for having the chance to work with him we wish him all the best in his newest challenge thank you Mike [Applause] good evening my name is Dana goodstein and I teach General music and choir at Lafayette school and I am the director of the Lafayette musical we are thrilled to invite everyone to Lafayette school's annual fifth grade production of susal Jr on January 31st and February 1st at 6:30 p.m. susal Jr not only brings the Whimsical worlds of Dr Seuss to life but also highlights the values of acceptance friendship and Community themes that are Central to our school's Mission and are embodied by our talented students the Arts play a crucial role in the development of young minds and our susal Junior production is a perfect example of how creativity Fosters teamwork self-confidence and empathy our students have worked tirelessly to bring this show to life gaining valuable skills both on stage and behind the scenes this production would not be possible without the dedication and expertise of my incredible team of adults who care so much and support our students every step of the way Miss Gaul Miss Paulson Miss jackite Mrs Smith Miss Kendra Mr Von Hegel Mrs Cella Mr lechance and our supervisor Lawrence Boer it would also be remiss if I did not mention the unwavering support of our amazing principal Cheryl Russo who has been a huge advocate for this program over the past few years our team's commitment to nurturing the talents of students and creating a welcoming collaborative environment makes this program truly something special as we look towards the future and the ongoing reconfiguration of our school we're so excited about the potential for this program and our entire arts program to continue to grow and evolve we hope to expand to reach and impact even more Performing Arts offerings ensuring that the show remains a central part of our fifth grade students educational experience we would be honored if the board would join us for the show this year so that you can see firsthand the powerful impact of the Arts on our spectacular students I will say though that we sold $8,000 worth of tickets in the first three hours so get them soon plus if nothing else you may even see a special guest Lafayette staff member dressed as the Grinch and I will add as my last point that if those of you who do not know uh I think the real reason why Dr Lusa is leaving us is because I asked him to be a part of the show a few years ago and he said I you but uh I guess we're not going to get that that's okay thank you good evening I'm Jim Cronin I am a math science teacher at Lafia school and this evening it's my pleasure to share a few highlights of the music program for the orchestra after a very successful concert in December the fifth grade Orchestra will be starting chamber orchestra this week and the fourth grade well they're all excited for their concert their first concert and it's this Thursday and Mr Keller has been named a Yamaha 40 under 40 music educator Award winner quite an accomplishment on the band side the Lafayette band program is thriving Miz Gaul brought 25 fifth grade band members to the tree lighting in reasner park in December to spread holiday cheer and enjoy an evening with each other I was there it was a heck of an experience the fourth grade grade band will have its very first concert in the auditorium on Thursday the fifth grade jazz band is gearing up as well Ms Gaul will be presenting about the Lafayette fifth grade jazz band at the New Jersey music educators conference in Atlantic City in February thank you for supporting the Lafayette band and Orchestra programs and we're excited to continue this growth in the future thank you good evening everyone my name is Chris Niger I am a fourth grade language arts teacher from uh lafette uh I'm going to keep this very brief uh we had an 8 a faculty meeting this morning I'm not even sure what day of the week it is at this point so I just want to take a moment to um thank Dr lus on behalf of everyone at lafette um we extend our our heartfelt congratulations to you um Princeton's game is certainly our immeasurable loss um we know that you will always be a cougar at heart and know that um you always have a home at lafette and in chatam and and we just wanted to express our immense gratitude to you and uh hi I'm Adrien Colette also from lafette school and uh just to follow up what Chris was saying um Lafayette school has been through a variety of very difficult challenges these last few years and um your support for us Mike has been always expedient and invaluable H as we navigated these as a school team and also as a district we want you to know that we will as a team uh be part of your team in the coming year and the coming months as we transition into our new building plans so thank you again for your leadership and for always having teachers and students in mind good evening my name is Stu good evening my name is Stuart Carr from three Crestwood Drive in chadam Township uh three items tonight uh all non-academic so stay away from that stuff uh number one Dr Lusa superb work uh for the last 25 plus years again welld deserved terrific promotion and again um from an non-academic perspective I've had an interaction with you over the last probably 15 years or so uh it's been absolutely enjoyable we're uh mostly on the same side of the fence but every once in a while as I'll mention in a moment uh diametrically opposed but nothing wrong with that but in any case the board uh uh of education has been again very very blessed to have you as a administrator for the last 25 years teacher and then sub administrator then administrator and now superintendent so terrific and best uh best of luck to you going forward uh two items for tonight number one um um and then again this goes back to institutional continuity we have Miss chiarelli unfortunately Miss Weber is not here which is part of the target of my comments unfortunately but so be it um in any case a little bit institutional continuity and I hope that Mr Dilla M Weber and to some extent Mr Chelli and Dr lus over the next couple of months go back uh 10 years or so to the uh taking away the right to vote on the operating budget from the public which I think is one of the few distinct I think black marks on this board of education on in the 31 years or 32 years whatever that I've been here um again everything totally legal Totally Above board public input the whole thing but again I still have a little bit of Bugaboo about taking the way of taking away the right of the public to vote on the operating budget as a practical matter hasn't made a difference things are great we happen to have a terrific board cohort Etc but as we know in other towns and other jurisdictions you may not have that uh so as a principal PL I think the idea of taking away the right to vote uh Years Ago by the board with direct formal public input was problematic the even bigger issue that I had with that even though I happen to like the idea of keeping the vote or keeping the vote number one but also keeping the elections in April um the bigger issue was we didn't have the right of the public to have formal input as to whether they wanted to De delegate the uh budget process to the Board of Education Dr Dr Lusa made the argument which is again a very strong one that some things you delegate aboard again gets things delegated representative democracy and all that stuff again by accident however it was we did have the right to vote on the budget again back then the house on days of 5060 million budget back in the again prehistoric days but in any case we had the right to vote on the budget and what I had argued and unfortunately the board fell down on this was we should have at least a nonbinding referendum put it out to the public and say do you want to give up the right to vote and make the Lusa argument or agree with the Lusa argument that representative democracy in this context makes sense if the public said again even non-binding that we think it makes the most sense as a practical matter to delegate that budgetary process to the Board of Education as opposed to Via a popular vote then I salute it but you didn't do that and we went through with M Weber as Mr Dr lusu remembers again you gave me a lot of latitude about 30 minutes back and forth with Mr nonamaker where we started off with legally our hands are tied we can't do it etc etc and we kind of undressed that argument over the next 30 minutes or so where we came to the conclusion that yes this board did in fact have the opportunity and the right and the ability to put that out to either a formal or at least a non-binding vote to the public to get the Public's input and that's where I think the fall down was so what I'd like to have or what I request is from M we Dr lus and M Mr teilla at some point over the next couple of months Miss trelli as well to provide again a little bit more art um articulate context of what happened 10 years ago and to some extent 15 years ago and thankfully got beaten back so that the new board members know what was going on with that that's item number one item number two is the again going forward for best practice and again Mr Smith is not here unfortunately L but uh back to uh Mr dilla's comment about the um capital budget we have a central office building a few years ago that was basically by U survey indicated the public said we don't want you to spend three or4 million whatever the number was $3 million on a central office building fast forward a couple of years there's money on the balance sheet after a couple of referenda the board decides we need to have a central office building they spent $3 million on a central office building just give me one second please I'll be done um $3 million in a central office building and the problem with that was again not so much the use of funds may have been a good idea was a source of funds if you didn't have a bunch of money stashed on the balance sheet you would have had to go out for a referendum and borrow the money and ask the public formally for that the fact that you had the money on the balance sheet you could basically bypass the public and do what you wanted without getting public input so what I suggested a few years ago and hopefully we will consider going forward is to have some kind of a self-imposed um best practice of if something is north of a million dollars or something like that that you will treat it as if it was a referendum issue and ask the public formally whether this makes sense for discret Capital items so if you could consider that going forward that would be terrific again Dr Dr lus is superb work and thanks so much for your time again there's not a whole lot of people behind me this is something I think is important for the board so I appreciate your uh your patience on it in this reasonable time thanks very much okay I'm going to close this first portion of the um public commentary thank you to all the staff that came out tonight everyone get home safely I'll let them depart and then we will move on to our regular agenda okay so moving on to our action items um I am going to uh move agenda items A1 to a15 on the we have no addendum correct okay um A1 to a15 on the um Regular agenda Please Mr delandra seconded agenda items A1 through a15 M Ross Yes M Allen yes Mr delandro yes M peek yes Mr Ryan Yes Dr Zang yes and M chiarelli agenda items pass 601 and cheers to Frank Carlo for retirement right cheers to Frank Carlo cheers to Dr Lusa he's retiring though um okay moving on to finance and Facilities you want to move it okay um I want to move um action item B1 to B12 I'll second that got it I just want before we vote I just want to thank the opportunity or take the opportunity to thank the CF for Their donation um for the 3D scanning that'll be used at the uh high school and the uh the estate from the alumni of uh Mr and Mrs winterberg for Their donation uh to the high school which will be used at the principal's don't uh discretion uh agenda items B1 through B12 Miss Ross Yes M Allen yes Mr delandro yes M peek yes Mr Ryan yes Dr Zang yes and M Chelli yes agenda item is pass 601 perfect and for curriculum Miss Ross a second thank you agenda item C1 to C3 M Ross Yes m m Allen yes Mr delandro yes M Peck yes Mr Ryan Yes Dr Zang yes and M jelli yes agenda item is p 601 perfect um and for policy Mr Ryan Yes like to move action item D1 on the regular agenda agenda item D1 M Ross Yes M Allen yes Mr delandro yes M peek yes Dr Zang yes M Chelli yes again do you1 passes 601 great um okay moving on to board business does anybody have anything else that they want to discuss tonight that we have not already discussed anything okay perfect um it's now our second opportunity for public commentary same rules of F Mr Heap nothing okay okay um we will be having an executive session action will not be taken um okay perfect so I would like to adjourn the regular meeting and we will go from here to Executive session thank you everyone for coming everyone at home safe thank you summer we don't always cry at board meetings either but you know it's going to be a rough one with Dr Lusa thanks e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 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