I'd like to call this meeting on the Board of Education to order. Meeting pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act has been given by the board secretary. On February 18th, 2025 in the following manner. Posted notice on the school bulletin board of the administration building transmitted to the courier post Philadelphia Inquirer and the Clerk of Cherry Hill Township. Please rise and join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag. Of the United States of America.
And to the republic for which it stands. Nation, under God. With liberty and justice for all. Mrs. Sugars, can you please call the roll? Dr. Braddock? Here. This is Shreveine. Here. Dr. Dreisen. Here. Mrs. Gallagher? Here. Mr. Greenbaum? Here.
Mr. Mayor? Here. Ms. Palmer? Here, Ms. Stern. Mrs. Winters. Here. Thank you. So tonight we're going to start with our NJSBA board training. We are thrilled to have Dr. Lori Bandler from NJSBA. Here to provide roles and responsibilities training for the board. Thank you for joining us. So first I want to thank the Board of Education for allowing me to come out this evening on behalf of the New Jersey School Board Association We want to thank each and every one of you for your dedication and commitment to the community.
Of Cherry Hill and also to all the students. You all have full-time jobs, you have lives. People don't really realize the the tremendous amount of work that you do, not only at the board table, but behind the scenes. So thank you for all of that. Just want to share a little bit about myself. I'm new to New Jersey school boards. Started July 1st. I did see, you know, see Dean at the new board member orientation, great to see you there. Are there any other new board members on? Terrific, terrific. So welcome. I'm here to serve each and every one of you within the folder that I gave you is my business card.
You can reach out to me anytime via email or cell phone. I am here for you. Everything that we speak about is confidential, but I'm here to support the Cherry Hill Board of Education in every way, shape, or form. A little bit about me. I am a former educator. 38 years in New York and New Jersey. I've been in every socioeconomic district you can think of. Superintendent in New York and New Jersey, but thrilled to come back home to Jersey. And work for New Jersey School Board Association. I think there is no better education system and no better education service that will serve boards. And I wish my board in New York had this.
So tonight, we're going to be talking a little bit, I'm going to be sharing some information. I promise you I won't do death by PowerPoint. You'll see a lot of words, but I will go over things. Thoroughly, but not word for word. But I want you just to know that our PowerPoints and our presentations are strictly, they're not legal. Only your board solicitor can provide the board with legal advice, your board appointed attorney, New Jersey School Boards is there to help guide you with the laws. Best practices, best research. So with that said. We're going to get started. Lynn, I'm going to thank you, Mrs. Strickers, for helping me with the PowerPoint this evening.
So first we're going to be talking about roles and responsibilities and the PowerPoint is right up there for you to take a look at. So board members have very specific roles and responsibilities that they need to keep in mind So that everybody stays in their lane and we move the district forward in a very positive direction for all students in Cherry Hill. So the main focus of everything that you do is for your students. That's what you're here for. That is your main responsibility. And making sure that you're working together and relationships are important, collaborating is important as you all know, and also making sure that you're building trust amongst your yourselves between, especially between the board and the superintendent. We're going to talk about those roles right now.
So I'm sorry, it's so small. Is there any way to make it a little bigger? There's just a few graphics that are important but the you know The most important thing that effective boards do. And I don't know if any of you have seen the Lighthouse study. If you do go to the convention, good. The Iowa Lighthouse study came out recently and had a great amount of research that shows what do really great effective boards do To move student achievement. So take a look at that, sign up for a workshop. But one of the things that we want to talk about is They have a shared mission and vision. And I know that you are going to be working on or you already have a strategic plan. I looked at some of the goals that you have. So it's very clear to me that Cherry Hill has
Very clear mission, vision, and values, and that you work to maintain a climate of trust And your leadership team members understand and respect one another. And that the communication is constant, equal, and timely. And that there's diversity of thought and all opinions matter. So I'm just going to wait for a minute and see if I can We'll go up to the balcony viewpoint, Lynn, while you're working on making it bigger. I'm just going to talk about, I'm not sure if any of you read the book by Habits on leadership on the line. In Hebet's book, thank you, that's great. So we'll go to the balcony.
Spot in the spot in That book, Leadership on the Line, Hevitz talks about the balcony and all board members would you are up, Lynn, would you mind going to that balcony picture? And I need to stay by the microphone right throughout the whole thing? Okay. All right. We talk about being on the balcony. The board is always on the balcony. You are always overlooking the district and really looking at it from a very, very higher plane. Dr. Morton will come up to the balcony periodically. He is a member of the board. He's not a voting member of the board, but he will move from the balcony
To the dance floor. So he goes down to the dance floor to make sure that, because the board is the what and the superintendent is the how. So he's going to make sure that the policies and things that we put into practice are moving. So on the dance floor, he's going to make sure miss sugars is doing everything she needs to do as far as the business office is concerned. Your food service director, your You know, head of maintenance. He is going to make sure that on that dance floor, people are moving the way that the board and all of us want to in this district.
Next slide, please. So the four functions of a board, as you know, is setting policy The policy is very important. You follow the laws in the state of New Jersey and throughout the country, but you also make it unique to Cherry Hill, to your district, what your district's needs are. Also planning. You work together to plan, whether it's through a strategic plan, whether you're setting district or board goals. Planning is critical and also appraising. One of the most important jobs you do is appraising your superintendent of schools.
That is your key person. Who is the only person that you hire in the district? The superintendent. Everybody underneath Dr. Morton reports to him. He appraises them. Another key thing that you want to make sure that you do is your board self-evaluation every year. I can come back, give you the feedback on this board of self evaluation. Anytime we have a new self-evaluation, there's a webinar tomorrow that's coming out and I'll give you feedback on some of the great things that are going on and some areas you might want to work on and maybe set goals for the future. So just keep that in mind.
So now we're going to go to uh what does public school governance look like. So the New Jersey Constitution, more important now than ever, gives power to the legislature. Who then gives power to the State Board of Education. Who then the State Board of Education and the staff set out in New Jersey Department of Education carries out mandates. And different types of laws. So right now we're continuing to follow the rules and the laws at the New Jersey Department of Education. And I saw the beautiful letter that the two of you had sent out to the community.
Very good. The boards must demonstrate that every policy and action is based on what is best for all students in the district. And board members, you are officials. You are state officials. That are appointed by the state law to govern local public schools and when you come together as a full board, that is when you have your full power. All right, so the board superintendent roles are really, really important You know, the board, as we said before, you are going to be set up on that balcony Looking at the vision, what do you want Cherry Hill to look like in the next five years?
What are the missions? What are the goals? What are the policies we need to put in place? And Dr. Morton, your superintendent, is going to be looking at those objectives, procedures, and the action plans and regulations. He will be putting that into action. And then the end results are, you know, the what is the what, why, and how much. And he's going to figure out like how, when, where, and whom is going to carry out those action plans that you put together for either your strategic plan or your board goals, your district goals.
And all those things are very, very important. I'm going to move to the next. Okay, so board members are as we said policy makers, you decide the direction that you want the district to go in. Your regulations are the bylaws are explain how the board will actually govern itself you vision your visionaries, you set the goals for the district and the standards for the district, and you are the key communicators. So you communicate throughout the community and you're very you are VIPs people are always watching you.
You set the bar high for your community. You are models for the community, and hopefully you are moving the district forward in a positive direction. So Dr. Morton's role is is is huge. He is the chief advisor to the board, so he will be coming to the board with recommendations. With different alternatives of ways to look at things. Information that he not only received from his staff. And all the professionals within the district. But some of the information from research and best practices throughout the state and throughout the country and sometimes throughout the world through some of his studies and research. So he is the educational leader.
And he is the executive officer. So he'll make sure that the schools are run well. He takes care of the day-to-day workings of the school. Make sure that everything is implemented, policies are implemented. That is his job. So another way to look at it is the board for the superintendent and the superintendent is the other title you can say is the chief implement mentor for the district. So the board needs to trust the superintendent And in turn, the superintendent needs to give the board loyalty And also give the board the best advice that he has at the time.
He'll be attending numerous meetings, roundtables, and state and you know federal meetings where he'll get information that he will be sure to share with you. And the board needs to respect the professional training and experience of your superintendent. That is key. And in turn, he needs to make sure that he provides competent management of your schools and that you're happy with that. And you need to have confidence in your chief school administrator's ability to administer to the district and see that the board's policies are implemented is what the superintendent needs to do.
So we'll go to the next slide. So our little cloud things are not going to work here but there's a there's a few things that you know some of the things that the board does, if you'll take a look at the board, approves strategic planning. The board evaluates the superintendent. The superintendent oversees instructional programs. The superintendent administers contracts, the board establishes policy. And the superintendent recommends and implements policy. And the board approves curricular materials and the superintendent oversees district leadership.
So to be most effective. You need to work together. Long story short, you need to work together in order to move all the students in your district and to raise student achievement. Caitlin, we're going to go to the slide that says no surprises. Okay, so this is really important. So no surprises works both ways. So if Dr. Morton knows, hey, there's going to be about, we're going to have a huge crowd coming out to the board meeting tonight. He has to make sure that he lets you know, listen, there's a crowd coming out tonight and it's about this particular issue.
And then the same on the other side. When you get your agenda. I don't know if you get it on a Thursday before the board meeting. Please be sure to read the agenda. If you have questions, follow your district protocol. And most districts, and Jean, I'm not sure if this is the way it goes here, but they will let the board president know if they have any questions about anything on the agenda ahead of time. This gives Dr. Morton's cabinet time to research your question and be prepared to belly up to the table to answer those questions in an intelligent way so that the conversation at the board table is really productive. So the no surprises works both ways and makes for a really, really good board meeting that is productive and doesn't bog you guys down because when you get bogged down and you're not working together.
You are not getting things done for the students in your district. I'm sure you know that already. Okay, we'll move to the next one. Staying in your lane is critically important. We like to say at school boards that your BA, Lynn, will come to the board meetings with her suitcase. And in her suitcase is your superhero capes. When you sit down, she gives you your capes, you put your superhero capes on. When you are together as a full board at quorum, that is when you legally have the power To make things happen. At the end of the meeting, Lynn says, okay, great meeting, everybody. Give me your cape. I'm going to fold it up, put it back in the suitcase.
We'll save it for the next meeting. Then you go about your business. You have no legal authority And correct me if I'm wrong, Paul, when you leave the board table. And you go out, thank goodness you can go out and live your life. It doesn't mean people are not going to approach you, but your power is when you're together. No other time. So the role of the board member, individuals, as I said. Unless it's written in policy that someone other than the board president or the superintendent are able to be the spokesperson for the district. Your board president is a spokesperson for the board.
When things happen, you're going to be like, I'm glad I'm not the board president because she's going to have to be the one that is answering to the news media. And we'll talk a little bit about that in a bit. Dr. Morton is a spokesperson for the district. You want those one singular voices because if there are more voices talking to the media. You are going to create a huge mess for yourself, for the district, and for the students and the teachers in the district and the faculty and staff. So always remember that. So also moving on, keep in mind that the most essential skill is knowing what a quorum is. It's the majority of the board.
So you have to make sure you can Count to a quorum, which is So acting with a majority is extremely important and You come to the table, you're a board team. You might not always get your way. You might vote no on something and that's okay. You vote your conscience you come Prepared, you do your research, you know what you're going to be voting on, but you might say, you know. I'm going to say no on that. And that's okay.
And you might not be in the majority at this point. And that role will change at times. But remember that you have to come to consensus. You don't want to silence those other voices. You want all voices to be heard. That's the job of your board president at the meeting. You want to make sure everybody's heard and everybody can at least live with the decision. And we know that from whether you pay team sports or you did individual sports or clubs You work together to create wonderful things for your kids.
The other piece is the ethics, the code of ethics, which you signed off on. I hope that you read it very carefully. Just a couple of things I want to kind of highlight. It's really tiny up there, but One of the code of ethics is make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children And meet the individual needs of all children. Every single baby that walks through the doors in Cherry Hill Public Schools is your baby. We are here to support every child And to help them on their path, whatever path that might be. So they need you now more than ever.
And your job is so important. And thank you again for doing this. Also, another really important one is G, upholding the confidentiality. Providing accurate information and interpretation and community aspirations. You're just an executive session. We like to say at New Jersey school boards, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It happens in executive session. Today's an executive session because you are literally holding the lives of your staff faculty, and students in your hands. That's why you see numbers on the agenda, not students names.
Or faculty names or staff names because You have been entrusted by the community to protect people. And to make sure that you make decisions in the best interest of them and for the district. So that's critical. So communicating, moving to the next slide, communicating with your community is really, really important. And you are the ambassadors. For the community, sometimes people will come right to you with a problem because they see you and they might be innocent about it. Sometimes they say, I'm just going to go to Dean and talk to him right away.
Or I'm going to go to Adam and just go right to Adam with the problem. And we'll talk a little bit about that. But just remember that you're always people are always going to approach you. People always want to see you at events. I'm sure you split up and go to different events. It's so important for them to know that you know what's going on in the district when you're voting on things. Important. Many districts also have key communicator committees where they have other folks that are heads of different groups in the Rotary Club, the Kiwanis Club.
You have those people that get together maybe two or three times a year to give them updates of what's happening. But also to get them to be invested in the community. And I saw that that was one of your district goals that was on your website had to do with working with the community. So the role of the board member is to be an actor. Listener. You will learn so much. I learned so much over my 38 years and I'm still learning so much working at school boards and working with great boards like yourself. You will learn so much by having that active listening and that active listening wheel, which you can't really read.
But, you know, it's really really critical to listen to citizens when they come up for public comments. I know it's hard. Sometimes you might want to roll your eyes. You might want to, you know, but try just to be very thoughtful Listen, because there might be something that is said that you might not have known before and might kind of change the way that you're thinking about things. Or with the cabinet as well if they're sharing information and each other. So I just want you, I'm not going to put anybody on the spot.
So I just want you to think about what do you think about the following questions? And then we're going to go through them. I have children in school. How can I talk with their teachers now that I'm on the school board? Is it okay to visit the schools? How do you respond to parents calling, emailing about district staff or other concerns? So let's go down to the chain of command. The chain of command, the next slide. Thank you, Lynn. The chain of command in your district is critically important. When the chain of command breaks down.
The morale in the district will go down. The functions of the board will go down and you will not be able to move the district forward for your students. So I always said to my boards and always reminded myself that I don't have the answer. If a parent is coming to me and saying, you know, Dr. Banlow. I'm really upset about this one teacher did X, Y, and Z. She's not implementing the new math program correctly. Thank you for letting me know. Did you speak to the teacher? So go to the lowest level of the chain. And if they spoke to the teacher.
Speak to the assistant principal because they're going to answer the question way better than I would as a former superintendent or you might as a board member. You do not want to get involved in the chain because things hopefully in most cases, it doesn't percolate to the top and get to you in executive session. But if you have gotten involved, you are going to not be able to participate in executive session if things percolate and get to your level. So you are at the top of the chain. So honor the chain of command, it's so critical.
I see a lot of nodding, so I know you guys great So providing access to the public, your job is to not run the schools, but to see that the schools are well run. We really kind of talked about that already. So, you know, one of the things is, you know, if a parent does approach you, you do the same thing. If they want to complain about a program. I hear you. Thank you. And then one of the other things I forgot to mention, I'm sorry, Gina and Kwam, is to make sure that if somebody does approach you, you let your board president know, you let your superintendent know, so they will make sure that it is follow through. So you can rest assured. And in some cases they might report back to you with what the situation is.
So the same thing here on this one. Do not solicit. Sometimes you probably want to just dying to know what does the teachers think about this new language arts program. Safety and security drills. I really want to know what those, you know, all the floor plans are. Certain things you just can't know because you want to protect your kids. So be sure that you're not soliciting. And as I said, be sure you notify the superintendent and the board president. So some board member communication tips we've already talked about that the superintendent is a spokesperson for the district and the board president is a spokesperson for the board. And it's great to see your student board members here. Welcome, welcome.
You get to miss the boring part. So we're getting towards the end now. All right. So here's some board member communication tips. So we all have social media. I try to avoid social media. I'm so glad my daughter said, get off social media, Mark. Years ago when it was really simple and maybe there was one thing, you could put a disclaimer on, which we'll talk about in a minute. And if Paul wants to add anything, Paul, feel free at any point. You know, it's really, really critical to make sure that social media Lynn, can we go to the next slide? I just want to make sure.
When you are communicating with people, first and foremost, always use your board email. Do not use your personal email. Don't send things from your board email to your personal email because everything can be Oprahred. Your text messages can be Oprahred. All right. If you've sent text messages to each other, I've had that happen in former districts where they put a little machine on your phone and they take all your texts. So be very, very protective of yourself.
Of the students in the district and of the district itself. So be careful. Also, when you are communicating, never reply all because you have to be careful that you're not having a board meeting within your email. And that can just happen innocently. Uh-oh, wait a minute, we should not be getting into the weeds with this. It should just be maybe something that comes out from Gina or something that comes out from Dr. Morton with your update. But don't get into the weeds because that you cannot do that. Paul, right on target? Okay. All right. Good. Well, at one of the meetings, I did an ethics presentation and one of the guys who was the head of the ethics committee was there and it was my first one. I was like.
Thank goodness. He let me know I did an okay job. So hopefully so far so good. All right, so social media, we're going to go to the next slide. All our favorite. Okay. So years and years and years ago. When there was limited amount of social media, you could use this disclaimer, which many of you have probably seen already. From the not the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the School Ethics Commission. And on the disclaimer, it says the following statements are made in my capacity as a private citizen and not in my capacity as a board member.
These statements are also not representative of the board or its individual members and solely represent my own personal opinions. Years ago, that was a get out of jail free card. It is no longer that. Because what's happening, it's really dependent upon the substance of the writing the content and the perception of people as they read it. I'll very quickly, do I have some time, Lynn, am I going over? I want to just share a really quick story that was out in the news. It was not anything that I can't share. It had to do with the First Amendment. We had a board member on our board when I was in New York State.
It was right after the George Floyd situation. She put something on Facebook that had to do with it. She legally, according to our attorneys, did nothing wrong. She stated her own opinion, personal opinion about the situation. Well, you can only imagine the uproar of the students at the high school The uproar of the New York media who descended upon Brewster, New York. The uproar of the faculty and staff and this wonderful board member who made a Bad mistake, bad judgment, but was legally okay.
Worked in another district as a teacher had children and it was just awful, awful. So just be careful. And it just had to do, she didn't do anything wrong legally. It had to do with the substance and the interpretation of all the folks out there, the silent majority just came out. So just wanted to share that because It's no longer that disclaimer is no longer a free get out of jail free card. So the role of the board member, every policy a board of ed approves, every action a board takes.
It needs to be based on what is best what is what is best for the education of all. The students in the school district. And just to close out, I just want to thank you for everything that you do once again. And just the one last little slide, we just want to say uh Congratulations to our new board members. We hope you settle in. You've got a lot of great board members here, a lot of great support, a great district. The words on the street, how great this district is. So you know that there's no one giant step that does it.
It's a lot of little steps. So thank you for having me come out tonight. I can answer any questions you have or You can get a nice little break. Thank you, Gina. Thank you so much, Dr. Van Lo. I'm going to open the floor to board member questions about roles and responsibilities. This is your moment, board members. If you have a question, ask it now, Mr. Fain. I have a few. Okay. Would you recommend that if we attend like PTA meetings as a parent to give that disclaimer when we get there?
That were there as a private citizen. In our ethics presentation, you can attend PT. You can still be the mom that you are. Do we have to like formally say I'm here as myself and not a board member? No, you don't have to do that. You do not have to do it. And then. Can you speak, elaborate or speak a little bit to the the dynamic that we have as board members, as you said, obviously the students are our first priority, but also as stewards of our financial situation and speakers for the public voice and all of that and how to balance all of that.
If you could just elaborate at some point. Yeah, you have a lot on your plate as board members. And there's a lot to learn and a lot to know. And the best thing that you can do is if someone comes up to you as a steward of financial things, for example. If there's a question that you don't know, just say, I don't know the answer to that. I'll speak to our board president and they'll have her reach out to the business She'll reach out to the superintendent and they'll take it from there. So don't put yourself in a situation where you feel like you can't answer something.
One of the things that I can do is I can come back for some another training, which is the board's role in finance. Lynn and I could work together and tailor it specifically for Cherry Hill so that we can talk more about it because Don't be afraid to add. There's so many things on those financial sheets that you You just won't be able to understand. Sure. And I guess I was thinking more of when we are faced with decisions that At face value do not seem to maybe benefit the students because it's also a financial decision and being able to ethically weigh the ethically weigh you know the intricacy between being good financial stewards and also looking out for the best interest of the students.
So, Dr. Morton, I don't want to put any words in your mouth, so stop me if I'm saying too much. But one of the most important things is to have a strategic plan. Because when you have a strategic plan, you know exactly where you want to put your money. This is how we're going to be spending our money. This is the kinds of programs we're going to be implemented because you don't want to have too many plates spinning at the same time. So if you are staying within those confines of the information that Dr. Morton is sharing with you in the weekly updates, you should be staying on top of all that.
And understand your strategic plan, your district goals. And it all fits into that puzzle you know oh you can check with each other, check with your superintendent just for a reality check to make sure that you are, you know. Before you come to the table to vote to make sure that you're well informed. I have a few more, but there's only one that I'll ask because I don't want to keep going on and we give other people time. But there is one that So I'm newer-ish. This is only my second year on the board. So this is still something that I just internally battle with.
Pretty much every meeting. The idea of no surprises. And I think that it's personally difficult for me because my intention is not to surprise when we're at the table, but there might be something that arises in discussion that makes me think, oh my gosh, I don't know enough about that or I need to know more. Do you have any advice or any guidance on how to navigate the waters of that fine line between maybe potentially asking a question that somebody's unprepared for just purely because you don't know and you didn't foresee that coming up before the meeting.
Just from my experience as a superintendent and Dr. Morton Kicken, if there's anything you want to add I think it's so critical for board members to really read everything and read the agenda and fully understand and not be afraid to ask questions if you don't Know, what is this item really about? I don't really know enough about it. So you let your board president know and she would So Dr. Morton's prepared for that. I might be asking some questions about this particular item And you might not be able to give them all the questions, but at least he'll be prepared. Or if it's a business item, Lynn will be prepared.
Or your curriculum person isn't prepared. So at least they have a general idea, sometimes as best you can. And there will be things that come up And Dr. Morton might say, you know, let me look into that and get back to you. And that's okay too. Is that all right, Dr. Morton, you want to add? Yes, absolutely. That's great. And I think the intention is to provide as thorough of a response as possible. And to answer the question actually you know, the more lead time, the better. But, you know, things come up, they come up. I appreciate it. We do our best to address them. That's helpful because I find just it's, I'm just speaking specifically for myself a lot of times just reading something isn't giving me as much insight as when I hear it being discussed and then
So I appreciate that. That's all very helpful. That makes sense. You done? You have another one? All right. Okay. Other board member questions. Well, good questions. Member questions. Ms. Stern. First of all, thank you. And I think, you know, referencing what you're talking about, Mrs. Shrapane, it's No, it's really hard to… have to i mean there's so much to know I don't know what the district sizes were, where you came from in New York, but in New Jersey, we're one of the largest districts. So it's always a lot. There's always like fires, you know, that you're dealing with or the heat map, as Mr. Mayor used to call it.
And I think like, you know, if you're when you want to do this job well, the amount of time that it really takes to not just read everything, but synthesize and Like, you know, as we the longer we have here, you know, the more we get to Go to see other schools and get to know more of the schools. It just takes a long time. It does. And it takes a lot of dedicated time. And the rest of us you know I think it's hard to dedicate the level of time sometimes and we do it I know.
I know that's a challenge that I sometimes, you know, feel, you know, find myself in Miriam, if I could say, just give yourself all of you, give yourself a break because you're always going to be learning. Dr. Morton's always learning. We're all always learning something new. I mean, whoever thought we'd have to deal with that awful Covid, you know, like whoever thought we were going to have to deal with that. You never saw it coming. You do as best you can. I think one of the things that I feel and i feel And now the longest serving board member. I haven't been here that long, but I am. So I think one of the things that year after year, I do see
Is kind of like a question. And I feel like sometimes having been here a little longer, I feel like I want to be able to respond to, but I don't always know how to do it. Kind of the best way um that makes sense but um This question of, sometimes we get really, we get like a lot of questioning about like let's say our committee meetings, right? Why, why, you know. If we have to sometimes have closed door committee meetings or you know kind of doing the work in public.
That people will use the word like, oh, you need to be transparent. You need to do work in public. One of the things that I see is anything you see anything you in a full venue. Should always have a lot of preparation leading up to it. That's how I look at it. I look at that in every avenue. And I always say like, even my kids, like they do a group project the first time they're working on something is not when they're presenting their group project, they do all the work ahead of time.
I think of the board as a group project in that regard. Or if I compare it to you know. Professional life, you know, everything can be done sometimes in smaller groups not everything is kind of prime time yet. Right. Right. I guess, but I think that's challenging when that is portrayed as not being transparent. And I guess, how do you square that? How do you explain that or square that? In a way that helps everybody certainly all of us and then as much as possible, anybody out there who's concerned about that like kind of understand that difference of like sometimes There's work that's done ahead of time to prep
To get to a point. Does that make any sense? Yeah, it makes a lot of sense during the pandemic and we've got the covid funding There was a lot of parents that were saying What are you spending that money on? We already spent that money. So when normally at board meetings, you can share information. You'll have presentations. So there's transparency there. There's transparency with, you know. Letters that just went out. There was a letter that just went out from your board president and your superintendent about what's going on in the country.
So that's where some transparency can come in. When you have individual people, I have found, and Dr. Morton, let me know if you don't agree. That are really saying, you know, you're not being transparent. I invite them in. I invite them in and I had them sit down with my BA and showed them, let me just show you everything. Here's what we did. So there are sometimes people in the community that might feel like you're not being transparent. You engage them. And there was also situations where we had board meetings where the board, the public didn't understand that it's public comment, not public That's always hard. Every district deals with that, you guys. You are not alone with any of these things.
So we decided at the time, and it has to be appropriate, and we had that big situation after the George Floyd We had tons of people coming to the board meetings they wanted to talk we had a forum. We had a forum in the bleachers on the football field so that we could have people share how they're feeling and we could talk with them and talk about the curriculum. So we were being transparent. In that venue. So sometimes when people ask you about transparency, it could be something that they need to talk to their teacher more about.
Or it could be something they need to talk to their building principal about. So, you know, it's case by case and you do the best you can. Dr. Morton, is there anything you want to add, is that good? Okay. Just kind of a follow up. So that's really helpful in terms of like individuals or so. But like, I think just also a question us as a board in general I guess differentiating like, you know, what is like what Talked about in our public meetings how in depth are we going into in terms of many different topics?
When are things still kind of in discussion versus when are they like appropriate to be appropriate to be included in a public meeting. Because I mean, I do think that's like, sometimes it's hard to tell, you know, sometimes people You know what I mean? And I think that's like, you know, taking, because I I asked in terms of like, I always think about what's the impact on kids, right? We all do, right? Like ultimately, how does this play out against kids in terms of how it impacts our kids?
So I think understanding that like timeline, I guess, is maybe part of it. I don't know. And, you know, you're not people are always good. There's certain things that happen in executive sessions you just can't share. And you have been appointed to these positions because people in your community entrusted you to do a great job. So you have to remember that you're here for a reason. They trust your judgment. And your board meeting is when you discuss the items, the action items, and things are questioned and people can read and people can come up and make public comments.
And they can make you think about, okay, let's look into this a little bit further. Maybe there's something else we could do. And I'm sure you guys have done that before. So that really shows your community that you are Definitely being receptive and as transparent as you possibly can, given whatever situation it is. I hope that answers your question. Other board member questions. Dreisen. Great. Thank you. And thank you again for being here. One quick comment and then two questions. The comment, building on what you said, I just wanted to share with the board, one of the biggest takeaways for me, which I shared with Ms. Palmer when we were at our training.
Was that this idea that effective boards have a positive impact on student achievement. I'm like, just to pause and think about that It's really our responsibility to work effectively together because whatever we think, we're all in this for students and so I appreciate you taking the time to be here and for us taking the time Because we have to work well together because in the end, it's for the students. So the two questions, I'll share both and you can chime in. One of the nuances that I'm trying to learn as I'm new into the role is this idea that we're the what and Dr. Morton is the how. And I'm really trying to stay in the swim lane
As to where the what. But it can get murky. And in conversations with board members, board members see different issues differently. Does NJSBA have any recommendations on helping us figure out where is the what and where's the how? We can do further training with you. And as you go through your new board member training. You'll get a lot of that too. The second question, just so you know, was heard a lot about strategic planning and district goals. I was wondering if you could share a little bit about the NJSBA's perspective on board goals And establishing board goals. So you guys do board board goes up ashore, right? You have your board goals. We don't currently. We're actually going to do the goals training with you coming up in April on preparation for a change. So if it's okay, I'll share it. I'll save it until I come back. Great.
We're going to be doing that together. Thanks for the reminder, Gina. Okay. Any other board members have questions for Dr. Vanlo? This evening. I'm looking and going once, going twice. All right. Thank you so much for coming today. Thank you so much, everybody, and good luck to everybody. We look forward to seeing you back here in April. Thank you. All right, board members. I hope you got a lot out of the training. Every time I hear the roles and responsibilities training, I actually get something new out of it, which is pretty neat.
So we're going to move on to one of my favorite parts of the meeting, which is board recognition. And tonight in the room, we have the Chaka poster essay and video contest awards. I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Morton. Thank you very much, Ms. Winters. I'm very excited this evening to have an opportunity to recognize some fine looking and outstanding young people for their participation and their excellence in the Shaka essay and poster contest. I'm going to call up. Ms. Jenkins, if she is with us.
Ms. Metzger went to go get Ms. Jenkins. Who's going to help us to help us distribute the first, second, third place winners as well. I'm also going to ask See, Mr. Finkel. Dr. Burns, Dr. Benavidez. Dr. Marble, Ms. Metzger, principals, come up to the front. With me as well and join me as we recognize The students?
As Ms. Jenkins makes her way inside. All right, she's on her way. Just give us one minute.
I'm going to turn it this way. All right. Can everyone hear me? So if all of the winners, if you can just stand over there where Mr. Guy is, just get up and stand over there so you won't have to like figure your way out of the way out All right. Our topic for this year the African Americans that participated in the Olympics and the Paralympics.
And we had some great videos, posters, and essays. So for our K1, we have Miriam kosomova She's first place winner. You can come over, Marianne. You're welcome. So, all right, let's go on this side. Okay. Second place for K1 is Cameron Anderson.
You're going to go and shake Dr. Morton's hand. Third place is Noah Macongo. And to keep it in the family, second and third grade. First place is Avery Makongo. And tying and tying for first place is mahit Parmar.
Thank you. Now going to shake Dr. Wharton's hand. Over here. All right, second place is second place is Amari Wade, and I'm going to apologize, I misspelled your name. Where did Amari go? Oh, they had to leave. Anyway, we know his grandma, so we'll just give it to her. First place in fourth and fifth is Chase Williams.
Yes, because he's my wildest dream. You see his t-shirt? And we have three second place winners, Faith Webster Thank you. Neil Perrette. Congratulations, Ruby. Amira Austin.
Yeah, yeah. For sixth and seventh, we have Aiden Kim, first place. Congratulations. Second place is Arnak. I keep saying it wrong. Congratulations. How do you say your last name? Capri. Okay.
Third place is Max Koning. Congratulations. Okay. All right. First place, eighth and ninth is to Takmina Kosomova. Congratulations. Second place is Tanishka Parmar.
Congratulations. Second time for second place is Nimdi Toront. She's not here. First place, 10th and 11th is Gina Park. Thank you. Time for first pace. She's not here is Grace Thomas. Second place is Autumn Territoryan. Autumn? No.
Right. Oh, okay. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Third place is Lana Gross. Congratulations. And our senior first place is Sekou Turan.
All right. Yeah, stay right here for a second. The Cherry Hill Education Association gives the first place winner a prize, a gift, a college basket. So… Thank you. And just as a commercial, we'd like to invite everyone out for March 4th. That's our monthly meeting for the Cherry Hill African American Civic Associations.
To my left, Tina Truitt O'Neill. She's our president. Emma Waring is our parliamentarian. And Danny Elmore is our vice president. And I'm Kathy Jenkins. And that's Annette Simpson.
Oh, my God. Thank you so much for coming, everybody. All of us board members were saying up here, this is one of our favorite things that happens all year. So congratulations to all the winners. Thank you so much. All right. The next thing on our agenda is presentations. There are no presentations this evening. After that, we have administrative reports. Dr. Morton, are there any administrative reports tonight? No administrative reports this evening. And so we move on to board member correspondence.
Tonight, I'm going to start on Which side of the room am I on? I know. Now I have two things to remember, east or west first and which other movies are in for correspondence. So I'm going to start with Dr. Dreisen for correspondence. Can I put you on the spot? Sure. Wonderful. I'll keep it brief tonight. On February 19th. I attended the monthly meeting of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.
And so the meeting this month was a virtual meeting. It consisted of a Q&A with Assemblywoman Rosie Begolia. Dr. Magolia is the Assemblywoman for New Jersey Legislative District 27. And sits on the Education Committee, in addition to serving as principal superintendent and chief school administrator of the East Newark School District. In general, the conversation this month with Dr. Bogoli just reiterated that we're in a bit of a waiting game Soon to end, though, with respect to the budget. And so I'll leave it there. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm taking over first place in being brief. No correspondence this week. We'll see if anybody can beat that, Ms. Gallagher.
None. Kim wins. I have two things. The first one is I keep saying everything's my favorite, but I really do love it. The district-wide jazz night at Rosa Middle School, where all the jazz bands perform in the round. I went to see that and was yet again blown away by our amazing middle school and high school jazz musicians. The best part of it is watching the high schoolers come back and see the middle schoolers coming up. So it's just a really neat interaction. I love that it's collaborative and not competitive.
That it really is a night just to celebrate all of our programs together and watch the kids cheer each other on. It's just beautiful. And the second thing is that I was and privileged to speak at the New Jersey Alliance of Black Superintendents meeting, which was held here in Cherry Hill, just to give some opening remarks. It was great to see everybody come together to discuss Trends in education and collaborate. So that's all I have for this month, Mr. Greenbaum. Thank you. Last week, I attended a roundtable discussion with Camden County Fair Funding committee, along with Ms. Palmer.
It was an opportunity to meet with board members, business administrators, and even a few superintendents from districts across Camden County. And a big thank you to Hedden Township for hosting us. What we found was other districts shared our concerns that were also expressed by Ms. Winters when she testified on the SFRA formula. In front of the NJDOE. Very similar priorities, looking to stabilize our aid to make it more predictable.
Update transportation aid to reflect actual and increasing costs. And fund special education based on actual enrollment rather than average numbers. There are a number of other issues discussed as well, but it was a really great opportunity to meet with them as well as with Assemblyman Miller from District 4, as well as staff from Assemblyman Greenwald's office from District 6. And stay tuned for later this week. We'll find out. What the next steps are.
Thank you. Thanks so much, Ms. Sheffane. Ms. Stern. Hi, last week I had a chance to go to the um Back to school night on site. At the Discovery Corner. Preschool. So these are the students who needed who started preschool temporarily in this building because Discovery Corner's new classrooms were not available.
So Dr. Mahan. We got a chance to, she gave me a lovely tour of the building. The classrooms are amazing. They're bright. The new classrooms that were added this year, right? And just very inviting and large, very spacious So lots of room for the kids to move around. And the previous and existing classrooms are also just Beautifully decorated, just such a great school environment. But of course, the most important part was all the families that showed up and some of them with their kids.
Who you know who you know not a single word of anything negative to say, I mean, just loving their experience there so much interaction as they walk through the door with the staff, Dr. Mahan you know all all the folks obviously know these kids, know them well. The kids know them. Everyone's really comfortable there. And as I was leaving towards the end of the evening. One of the parents was saying that I guess her younger child was going to be aging out after this year and going to kindergarten.
And she's just like, I don't know what we're going to do. It's just been so amazing here, this experience. It was really nice, I think, that this was set up even though it's somewhat non-traditional to have a back to school night kind of in the middle of like the school calendar year. But because those students had transitioned from here to, they just wanted to make sure the parents had The opportunity to have that so That's all I did. And I definitely lost. But we got to hear all about Discovery Corner, so that made me happy.
I love it. Dr. Braddock. I attended the NJSBA training this past weekend, found incredibly useful, especially the small groups that for anybody else on training. I found very useful and it might be getting ahead of myself, but since you mentioned Discovery Corner. Tomorrow I'll be there at two o'clock doing African-American read-in for the keys so A bit early, but I'm looking forward to it. Very neat. Ms. Palmer. I just want to remind everyone that the next meeting of the Cherry Hill Fair Funding Committee is this Thursday night, well-timed with the governor's budget address.
And the release of our state aid figures we expect. The meeting begins at seven o'clock. It is on Zoom. You can visit either the Fair Funding Facebook page for the Zoom link. Or you can email fairfundingchps at gmail.com to be added to their email list and receive their information. Thanks. I'm feeling it. I'm feeling all the budget excitement coming up. Everybody's talking about it. It's that time of year. All right, we're moving on to our student representative reports. I'm going to start with high school east this time.
Am I wrong? And east is pointing to west and west is pointing to east, which means that our students just love each other and it's great. Sure. I'm sorry. So in academics. We have the NJ GPA math prep is taking place on Monday, March 3rd and Wednesday, March 5th from 2.45 to 4 o'clock in E41.
Drop-in scholarship sessions took place February 11th, February 18th. And February 25th during LB1 and LB2. The fifth math week of the year. Competition took place February 11th during lb2 Air Force Junior ROTC had a unit exam on February 5th and all phases of the program were all phases of the program were examined. And I'm happy to report that West did well. The military ball is taking place on March 1st. At Merchantville Country Club.
Fafsa completion night took place on February 6th where students and parents could come in and start as well as finish. The FAFSA form with the help of our guidance team, as well as a financial aid professional. Act testing took place on February 5th as well. Girls basketball girls basketball and boys basketball will have a home double header next Wednesday. The girls basketball team is the number one seed, so they will have a lot of home games.
Which is a great advantage. And the software and they're competing in the South Jersey Group 3 open against Winslow, which will be their first game, as well as the boys on Wednesday will be going against Stepford. Girls and boys basketball both had their senior nights. February 10th, the swimming team competed against mainland at the South Jersey Group B semifinals. And I also would like to mention that we are now transitioning on to spring sports, which will start On March 10th.
In the arts, we have preparations for Charlie are well underway, so we hope to see everybody. At those shows. We also have a mid-year concert, which is called Pops. And it used to be decades. So it kind of changes every year. So this year it's going to be themed night at the Movies. And it's taking place tomorrow and on the 27th at 7 p.m. West Music small groups competed at the ich essays and one of our students, Rosalina Nguyen, won an award.
In extracurriculars, our sophomore class dancing night away at the sophomore canilion, which took place on February 13th. For other notes, we have SGO's blood drives took place on February 19th where students and staff I had the chance to help save lives by donating blood We also had our living museum, which was hosted by the African American Culture Club Which we had a lot of very positive feedback, some saying that it was the best they've ever seen it.
Taken place before. So we love to hear that. Our junior college night took place on February 25th, 2025. Which is tonight. And then the Latinos at West sold flowers to students for Valentine's day So they took a car around the school, sold flowers to different students. It's a fun thing that a lot of students look forward to every year. We also want to recognize that Women's History Month is next month and some clubs will be doing read-ins.
Ramadan also starts next month where you can wish your Muslim students or fellow. Colleagues, Aramadan Kareem. Or just a happy Ramadan. We also want to recognize two of our West students, Nimdi and Sekhutarant. Who were recognized by the African American Civic Association. We are so proud of them. Thank you. It was lovely. Thank you so much. I love hearing about all the things that are going on. And now to High School East. Thank you.
In regards to academics, the third marking period began with the beginning of this month and report cards became available to view on Genesis on february 10 On February 19, guidance counselors hosted a college night for juniors to help them learn more about the process. 98 seniors recently received the Seal of Biliteracy in their respective languages. East Seniors Kayan Ling, Erin Lee, Kyle McCann, and Yul Nam were named National Merit Scholarship Finalists. In regards to activities, East African American Culture Club held their annual Black History Month show On Saturday, February 1, students celebrated Black culture through dances, singing, poetry.
And food. It was a really great event and happy Black History Month. On February 20, the sophomore class enjoyed the sophomore contilion. The theme was night under the lights. Throughout this month, there are several shadow days for middle school students to allow them to get to know what attending high school at East is like. A mandatory senior class trip meeting was held for the students who are attending and their parents on February 12th. The senior class trip to Disney World and Universal is rapidly approaching and will be from March 13 to 17th.
These students and teachers went head to head in the Fox 29 trivia game, the Class H room. The teachers ended up winning the $500 prize and the episode aired on Fox 29 on February 18th. It is now available to view on YouTube as well. In regards to athletics, the East Girls and boys swim teams both won the South Jersey Group A title The East Girls swimming team went on to win the Group A Public State Championship And the team actually won the title by three-tenths of a second. The boys basketball team has maintained an impressive record of 22 wins and three losses and will play their first playoff game against Millville.
This Thursday at 4 p.m. At East. The team won the Olympic Conference American Division and are the number one seed going into the playoffs. Girls basketball also has their first playoff game this Thursday at 5 at Pensauken. Seniors grow uh seniors The senior player Darby Chabira, recently reached her career milestone of a thousand points. Congrats to her. In regards to arts, East Thespian Society Troop 213 We'll open the musical Mary Poppins this Friday, February 28th at 7.30 p.m. The show will also be performed on March 1, 2, 7, 8, and 9.
Congrats to the cast and crew. And East Acapella group Stay Tuned participated in the international championship of high school acapella mid-Atlantic quarterfinal competition which was hosted at East on February 18th. Stay tuned placed first at the quarterfinal and will advance to the 2025 ICHSAA semifinals. These student Reagan Datis won best solo performance of the night. That's all. Thank you.
Excellent news. Thank you so much for sharing with us. We appreciate it. All right, we were moving on to first public comment. There will be two opportunities for public comment this evening. This first public comment session is for board action items only. Which are items 13 through 16. There will be another public comment section for any topic at the end of the meeting. If you are a student in the district, you may comment on any agenda item during this first public comment period Please identify yourself as a student. If you would like to speak now, please identify the agenda item and clearly state your name and municipality.
We will alternate between speakers here in the room and those that are online. Each speaker will be given a maximum of three minutes to speak. The timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of Cherry Hill Public School District or within the authority of the Cherry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech in public forums. Statements which demean individual community members or groups, or which are irrelevant to the operations of the school district or repetitious, will not be permitted.
Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome. Communicate directly to the district superintendent, board president, and all board members via email or other alternative means. All right. And as we do by custom, we will start in the room. I think we have a student first. Please state your name and municipality. Hi, I'm Sophia Gaudio. Hello, my name is Sophia and I'm currently a ninth grader at Cherry Hill High School West. Recently, I've been piecing together my schedule for not only next year, but envisioning the rest of my high school years as well.
To make sure I could complete all the electives and classes I would like to take to go with, my future career and college major plans, I moved my PE and health class to online for next year. I'm only mentioning this to show how jam-packed my schedule is with classes I know are going to prepare me for my future in college. But being required to take African American studies in extremely selective culture class I would have to remove one of my half-year electives, such as public speaking, a college dual credit class, or intro to computer science, a class that educates in the field I'm planning to work in when I'm older.
This would stop me from receiving instruction that I feel would truly prepare me for my career. And instead of me receiving this personalized education, I would have to take a class on the history of one specific ethnic group. Let this be said, I respect the importance of African American culture and history. But requiring it as a class for everyone to take prevents flexibility in scheduling that students like myself need to focus on individual interests and career path. African American studies should be an optional class for those who are interested in learning about the subject.
Our normal history class covers education on a variety of cultures and ethnicities throughout the year. This assures that everyone's culture is represented at some point and therefore makes me question the reasoning behind the requirement to take an ultra-focused class. Many students, including myself, have crafted our classes in specific ways to have full impact on our education so that it will lead us to the careers we want to pursue. Whether that is medicine, engineering, business or arts, students are given the privilege to choose classes for a reason.
We choose ones that prepare us for college and the workforce. But again, being forced to drop a half year or sometimes even having to forfeit a full year class due to African-American studies does nothing but frustrate students when they have to withdraw from electives that matter to their future. In conclusion, students should be trusted to make the right decisions about their education. We're preparing for our own futures and we should harness the power to rightfully shape them. This is not meant to be an attack on the class of African American studies, but simply the requirement that comes alongside it.
Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going to the line, the next commenter has a phone number ending in 788. Hi, my name is Jeff Potowitz and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Let's go 15.3 appointments certified. Just some questions. Typically, IEPs are usually completed for not during the summer, they should be, but for the previous year. So when I'm reading…
And this is under 15.3. I'm reading child study team managers ESY evaluations. Be resolved that all current CST case managers be approved to provide learning, psychological, and social evaluation outside of the contract work effective, and it's for a whole year. Seven… Starting in July and ending the following June. What students will be students Well, they are going to be evaluated. Will they be preschool students?
Will they be new kindergarten students? Who, because like I said, I remember back when that all the evaluations had to be done and the IEPs for the following year had to be done by the summer. This is something new. So who exactly who exactly will these We'll… the child study team members and also the providers, the speech therapists, the physical therapists, and the occupational therapists, who will they be evaluating? Will they be all new students?
Exactly who will they be evaluating? I'm not complaining about the price. 250 is… reasonable, but just who exactly are you What were the students? Were they be all preschools? What… New kindergartners, what's going on? The other is 13.4, resolution authorized acceptance of building capacity for career pathways, $168,000 near the end, then everything will be
Placed on our community with our tax dollars here too. I mean, how many pathways do we have exactly? 1, 2, 10. How many pathways are going to be added this coming year? And that's the main question. How many new pathways are going to be added for that $168,000? And what are the estimated costs for each pathway? Yeah, this is important given that RAID will be cut and we may have new expenses and will preschool aid be cut? Will the preschool expansion aid be cut as a result? There's a lot of things we don't know that's happening. Anyway, thank you very much. And those are my questions.
Thank you, Dr. Podowitz. Going back to the room, there's no one else at the microphone. There's no one else online, so I'll close first public comment. And move on to superintendent comments. Thank you, Ms. Winters. I'll actually be very brief today. Just want to say congratulations to all of the Shaka Charter Hill African American Civic Association, SAE, posts or video contest winners today. Also want to send a special recognition to Shaka for their sustained Support of our students. And implementing this this um this contest year after year after year. I'm not exactly sure what year it is this year.
10th year? 10th year. I'm sure what year it is this year. It's the 10th year. Thank you, Mr. Guy. That they've continued to recognize our students. So truly a beautiful thing. I did a phenomenal things that are happening in all of our schools. Great reports today by our student board reps to just summarize many of those truly outstanding and dynamic things that are occurring. Just as Jenna mentioned, also want to give a plug out for Women's History Month.
Coming up next month, important for us. To recognize the rights empowerment and equality for women internationally. And also, I want to put a plug read across America Week next week. We have our board members signing up to go out to our elementary schools and They'll be reading with our students. Our administrative team will be doing the same and definitely looking forward to getting out into the schools and celebrating. Literature and literature and literacy and reading altogether so.
Thank you. Thank you so much. We are moving on to our action agenda. I will go first with the curriculum and instruction agenda. Superintendent recommends and I move the following 13.1 approval of attendance at conference and workshops for the 2024 25 school year 13.2, approval of out-of-district student placement for the 24-25 school year. 13.3, approval of service contract with NJ Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired for the 24-25 school year. 13.4 resolution authorizing acceptance of the building capacity for career pathways in comprehensive schools cohort 2, Cycle 4.
13.5, first reading of policies, that's policy 5701 on academic integrity. Do I have a second? Ms. Palmer, are there any questions on the CNI agenda this evening? Seeing no questions, Ms. Sugars, please open. Sorry, Dr. Dreisen. Thank you, Ms. Winters. Just following up, I'm sorry if I missed it before that this was on the agenda for tonight. But I had a question for P&L committee around the focus of policy 5701 related to academic integrity, whether it's specific to students or would it extend to the overall community I hadn't heard any update on that just yet.
So once the policy comes through the vote tonight, it will go forward and it will be reviewed by P&L. And at that point you can ask that question. It's only on first reading. I know it takes a long time to figure out this. It took me a while to figure out this cycle of how things go through. I think we may have already done first reading for this. And that's where I sent it back. So that's why I was surprised to see it now on the agenda. Yeah, it goes back to piano. Right. Okay. Okay.
I'm seeing a nod from Mr. Mayor that I am corrected. It's going to go back to P&L and we will get an answer to your question. Thank you. Any other questions on the CNI agenda this evening? Hey, Ms. Sugars, please open the vote. Board members, you may cast your votes. I'm taking a walk of shame. I forgot to log in. I'm a yes to everything.
We have a unanimous yes vote. All right, moving on to the BNF agenda. Mr. Greenbaum, can you please move the agenda? Thank you. The superintendent recommends and I move the following. 14.1, approval of minutes, org meeting minutes, dated January 2nd, 2025. 14.2, approval of minutes, board work session, special action meeting minutes, and executive session minutes dated January 14th.
2025, approval of minutes, I'm sorry, 14.3, approval of minutes, regular meeting minutes, and executive session minutes dated January 28th, 2025. 14.4 financial reports. 14.5 resolutions. 14.6 resolutions for the award of RFPs. 14.7, rescission of award RFP 2425-28. 14.8 resolution for the order of transportation, 14.9, resolution for the award of change orders.
14.10. First reading of policies, and this has to do with food service policies, which will be sent over to P&L next. 14.11. This is donations and I always prefer to read through these This is acceptance of donations. We have a donation from Karusi PTA to be used for the book for the book fair Karusi. Who received PTA to be used for eighth grade t-shirts donation from Kingston PTA to be used for printed signs and banners.
A donation from Cherry Hill Education Foundation to be used for multiple musical instruments at district middle schools. I want to take a moment to recognize the significance of this particular donation. It's a very generous donation of almost $27,000. To support the music programs at our middle schools. At a time when budgets are tight and arts and humanities might not always be the top priority, this is a blessing for the district's music program. And I want to extend a sincere thank you on behalf of myself. And I'm going to assume on behalf of the board.
We also have another donation from Cherry Hill Education Foundation be used for enhancing fifth grade technology integration at Kilmer. Regeneron Science Talent Search to be used for STEM activities at High School East. Jd Dreyer for providing computer monitors for High School East. The Dan Melby Foundation to be used to assist with building needs at Mann. And the East Choir Trip's student account to be used for transportation to music in the park at High School East. A big list of donations this week. And again, thank you very much for your generosity.
It's all for the students. And with that being said. Do I have a second? Mr. Mayor, are there any questions? And I'm going to raise a hand and ask one question. We have an addendum, 14.7, rescission of award of RFP. I was wondering if I could ask for some additional information on that. It looks like it's related to high impact tutoring.
Yeah, so that rescension there is to allow for us to move away from using brain fuse as the primary and exclusive provider of online tutorial services. And instead allow that to then go back to our staff. Our staff have graciously risen their hands and volunteered to take the onus for providing tutoring for our students.
Definitely want to recognize the staff for doing that. I think we were in a different place coming out of COVID. We're seeing, you know, as we talked about, we discussed staff wellness and staff morale. We're seeing a return back to you know, things that used to exist within the district It's a positive thing, yeah. Thank you very much. That sounds fantastic. And I apologize for putting you on the spot, but I appreciate the the explanation. Are there other questions?
Seeing none, Mrs. Sugars, please open the voting. Board members, you may cast your votes. Mr. Sugars, I have to abstain on bill list number three. The payment to Bancroft. And I believe I also need to abstain on the minutes from January 28 I did not attend that meeting. Ms. Sugars, I also need to abstain from bill list number three for a conflict of interest, anything related to Bayada. Thank you. It's a sugars similarly with regard to bill list number four I have to accuse myself for a conflict.
Ess. Mrs. Sugars, I'm going to recuse myself from world-class vacations on the second bill list. For the senior Disney trip, which my students, my kids will be participating in. Seniorship and also going to recuse myself from the Jewish Federation on the third bill list. To both situations, avoid a conflict of interest.
Okay, so we have a couple of abstentions. Dr. Dreisen on bill list number three for biota. Mr. Mayor, on billus number four for ESS. Ms. Palmer on bill list number three, four. I'm sorry, tell me again. Bankrupt and also from the January 28th minutes. And then Ms. Stern is recusing herself from the world-class vacation spill list and the Jewish Federation on the bill list. Other than that, we have unanimous yes vote.
Thank you. Okay, moving on to the HR agenda. Mrs. Surefin, will you please move it for us? Sure. The superintendent recommends and I move the following 15.1 termination of employment certificated 15.2, termination of employment non-certificated. 15.3 appointment certificated, 15.4 appointments non-certificated. 15.5 leaves of absence certificated, 15.6 leaves of absence. Non-certificated, 15.7. Other compensation certificated. Do I have a second?
Mr. Green Mom, any questions or comments? I have one. I just wanted to say congratulations to Ms. Roby. Thomas Payne Elementary School on her retirement, she was our first grade teacher when the pandemic when the pandemic hit first. So I witnessed her flexibility with her transforming her classroom onto a virtual setting and i would say if that experience was any indication of how she performed in her classroom. It's a pretty big loss to the district, but congratulations to her.
Any other questions or comments? Yeah, I was not going to do this, but I will second that. Mrs. Roby also taught one of the Palmer twins in first grade. So she's fantastic. It is definitely a loss, but I wish her the best. Absolutely. Anybody else? All right. Sugars, can you open the voting? Board members, you may cast your votes. Mrs. Sugars, I'm going to recuse myself from 15.2. To avoid a conflict of interest, but I have voted yes to the rest.
One recusal, Ms. Stern on item 15.2 and the rest of it is a unanimous yes vote. Excellent. Thank you. Moving on to Mr. Mayor for the P&L agenda. Surely the superintendent recommends that I move the following item 16.1 approval of harassment, intimidation bullying investigation. Decisions. And item 16.2, approval of the waiver of policy 2340. Specifically, that is to for three consecutive days.
Student excusals were both the high school students east and high school west to participate. Next week at the State Deca Championships. And congratulations to all those students. Who earned their spots to compete in continue to make Cherry Hill proud. 16.3 first reading of policies. Specifically a policy 5512 harassment, intimidation and bullying 55, 33 student smoking 7441, electronic surveillance in school buildings and grounds.
9163 spectator code of conduct for interscholastic. Events and 93, 20 cooperation with law enforcement agencies with specific reference also to 9163, the spectator code of conduct Based upon the meeting that I had today with Dr. Mahan. It's my understanding that a one pager has been or is being prepared what we talked about at committee was the importance of communicating this new policy to the community, to the parents involved, so that they would know what is expected of them with regard to their
Continued ability to attend sports. And other extracurricular activities. And that's just one step of what we will be doing as a district to to continue to communicate that out. So thank you too. Dr. Mahan for doing that. We will be prepared to handle all of those for second reading at our at our next committee meeting. Do I have a second? Ms. Palmer. Are there any questions?
Dr. Treysand. Thank you. Just one comment on policy 9163. Related to spectator code of conduct. Ms. Stern actually brought it up at our last meeting. And so I just want to comment. I'm in support. The one thing I wanted to bring this up here related to policy 5701 from February 11. If we are going to have a policy related to the behavior of everyone as they're watching sporting events, I think it would also be consistent for us to have a policy related to everyone's behavior related to academic integrity. So I do think that they're related in that sense. Policy 9163 refers to people. So it's whoever they are in the community. Right now, policy 5701 is specific to students.
Understood. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Seeing none, Mrs. Sugars, would you open to voting? Members, you may cast your votes. Mrs. Sugars, sorry, yet again. This is a very busy time of year for some of the students and I'm going to recuse myself on 16.2.
To avoid a conflict of interest, and Mr. Green might say that's overkill but I do have a student who is attending that, so just want to ensure There's no question. There's no conflict of interest in the way I vote. Okay, we have Ms. Stern's recusal on item 16.2. Otherwise, we have unanimous yes vote. Thank you. There are no items on the agenda for the governance committee this evening. Moving on to new business. Are there any board members with new business?
Seeing none, are there any board members with old business? Dr. Braddock. When I originally ran for Board of Education. Promised constituents or i ran telling constituents that I would adhere to data and find evidence for them where I could. And in that spirit a discussion had related to this mayhem and what we were doing in the schools in terms of discipline, what they're working and how they're working.
I took the liberty of looking up some of that data and seeing what we can expect moving forward, and I like what I see. So far, not just from our schools, but what we can expect based on studies that I've seen in the past From what I've seen in about eight or nine meta-analyses, for those who don't know what meta-analyses are, they're essentially studies That look at dozens of other studies. It shows that some of the things being incorporated into the Cherry Hill School District by Ms. Mahan and others We can expect positive relationships between peers, including individuals who don't like each other, quote, like each other
A reduction in reoffending, increased social interpersonal skills and increased intergroup attitudes. And I think most importantly for our goals. Better academic achievement in terms of grades, motivation, and engagement. So I just want to express enthusiasm for what we talked about last time with Ms. Mahan and what we'll be doing moving forward. Thanks. Thank you so much, Dr. Ratter, for bringing that forward to the meeting. Are there any other board members that have old business? All right, seeing none, we're moving forward to second public comment.
This is the second public comment section during which you may comment on any topic. If you would like to speak now, please clearly state your name and municipality. We will alternate between speakers here in the room and those that are online. Each speaker will be given a maximum of three minutes to speak. The timer on the screen will indicate the amount of time you have remaining. Public comments is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of the Cherry Hill Public School District or within the authority of the Cherry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech in public forums.
Statements which demean individual community members or groups or which are irrelevant to the operations of the school district or repetitious will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent or president. And all board members via email or other alternative means. As is our custom, we will start in the room. Anyone who would like to provide second public comment, please approach the microphone now. State your name and municipality. Rick Short, Cherry Hill. I start again.
Our entire board is a blur. Is a blur to that. We are the most radical school district in the state of New Jersey. Tamar starts the national campaign. To expose this. You guys have enabled. This district, these district leaders to run wild, to cause tension and division using DEI, It's a really sad situation what's happened in this town.
Let me give you some examples. Miss… Or Madam President, you stated that there were too many white kids in Russell Knight, and that is a problem. You still do not retake that back. I accidentally said. One time I said, staff. Of color wrong. I apologized. I sent emails. Everyone on the board, but I still got hit with 6,000 emails sent out to parents that there were racist statements made in a school board meeting.
What an irony this is, ladies and gentlemen. So let's go through some of the questions that you don't want to take out of the curriculum that does violate civil rights. Madam President, how's your white privilege today? Madam President, this comes exactly from the uh From our consultants. So blacks can't be racist. Is that true?
May you ask Dr. Morton Dr. Morton, can blacks not be racist? Dr. Care, not Dr. Morton? Now, I asked you to ask Dr. Morton. Okay? Oh, so according to your… culture proficiency When you walk into a room. You're supposed to look at everybody differently. Oh, boy. And then eventually you guys want to convince me that I need to have the talk.
Oh, the talk, the talk that you want to convince me that I have white guilt. That's what you want. Us to learn that we have white guilt. Mr. Short, how is this related to the Cherry Hill Public School District? Because I was just talking that i was just talking This is what your culture proficiency people, which I just showed you today, I sent you in an email what the culture proficiency people are teaching.
Okay, I'll be back. Thank you. Moving to the line, the first person online, it just says iPhone 25. You are the first speaker. Please unmute yourself, state your name and municipality. Hi, yes, Benjamin Shore, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. You are. Go ahead. Am I recognized? Awesome. Thank you. So, you know, the reason I come here today is I'm just kind of curious about the district's position on the open public records act I think the district should really err on the side of transparency.
I think that it costs a lot of money. To fight people who are simply asking for copies of records. You know. I didn't really prepare much today. But I did see that there was a meeting So I'm just curious. Is it really the best use of taxpayer dollars? To fight OPA requests Rather than just providing them.
For example, there was a member of this community that requested an OPA request for a single email. That email could have been produced in minutes. Instead, the district went on I guess the defense. Spent thousands of dollars fighting against an OPA request that could have been fulfilled in 10 minutes. There's another member of the audience that actually spoke earlier today. And the district decided to completely ignore him. And again, the district will be spending maybe a thousand, maybe $1,500.
Fighting these requests today or sorry, last night, a lawsuit was filed against the district An open public records common law access. There'll be oral arguments. There'll be briefs. You know, in order to show cause, districts going to spend thousands of dollars fighting that. My question is my question is How much does it cost to put this money in other places and just simply spend a couple minutes providing records. Is it really in the best interest of the community to spend tens of thousands of dollars, which is kind of the direction this is headed.
To just fight records You know, Cherry Hill Township used to fight tooth and nail to prevent people from getting records. But quickly, they discovered that it's actually a lot cheaper and it's better for the community To simply provide the records Aim on the side of transparency. And do the right thing. It helps establish transparency and trust in government, especially when many people right now are, you know. Questioning what their government's doing. And it's cheaper to the taxpayers.
I mean, there are some cases before the GRC that are likely going to go to the appellate division. There'll be oral arguments. There'll be more briefings. It's going to get more and more expensive. So I would just like the district to please consider You know, do you really need to fight these? Or can people just simply have a copy of the record? I yield. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no one else in the room, we continue online. The next speaker says Laura Ann's iPad. Please unmute. You have three minutes.
It's Anne Einhorn, Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Thank you, Mr. Greenbaum. For acknowledging the Cherry Hill Educational Foundation. I think it's time at some point that this board recognize all the members of that foundation they are under newer leadership with John Cohen I am exceedingly grateful that they are part of our community. I do have a question. We established a grant writing department last August. And I would like to know if there are any grants pending Or have, if any, have been written since last August. I believe it's under the Department of Special Projects.
Thank you very much. Thank you for calling in. The next person online is a wider bridge. It's your turn. You can unmute. You have three minutes. We can. Thank you. Alana Yaris, you can hear me? Okay. Alana Yaris, Cherry Hill, representing the Fair Funding Committee, division of zone PTA. I just want to thank the board for mentioning that there is a fair funding meeting this coming Thursday evening. I like the efficiency of this meeting and I plan to run the fair funding committee meeting just as efficient 7 p.m. On Thursday, virtual. Hopefully by that time there will be a public statement out
From the New Jersey Budget Department on our state funding numbers for the year. And the Fair Funding Committee will discuss our strategy for budget season. Hopefully we don't need to have a strategy and our number is equitable to what it's been in the past or more so that we get our fair share for our Cherry Hill students and feel free to join our meeting. It's posted online on our Facebook page, on Instagram. You can email fairfundingchps at gmail.com.
I'm happy to send you the link and the flyer and put you on our distribution list. So thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Yaris. The next commenter is a phone number ending in 788. It is your turn. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. My name is Jeff Potowitz and I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. There was an article in Eastside dated January 29th, 2024, about the amount of This was for last year about the amount of students that were tied to be valedictorian.
At that point, from what I'm reading the article says, and it's by a number of students, you could find it online. January 29th, 2024, there were 25 students tied for tied for the title valedictorian, and it seems to be more or maybe as much more this The unprecedented number of valedictorians stems from great inflation as exasperated by a flawed GPA system and a lack of core standardization. These factors prompt the question, does the honor of and valedictorian of being valedictorian
Decrease as the quantity of students who hold this title increase. They talked about great inflation. And there's a website called Wake Up Call New Jersey. And according to the other website, it's wake up call New Jersey. I don't know much about it. I've seen the advertisements, though. It said that 50% of fifth graders in Cherry Hill can't do math at grade level. At grade level. Yet Cherry Hill schools receive an A rating. Okay, that's a fact that they say about our district. Anyway, go to the website. You may find it interesting. I've seen another fact about our district there, and that's about great inflation. It's just something to… Just to be interested about it, it's Wake Up Call New Jersey. You may note about it. I don't know about it, but…
Anyway, some of you may know about it. Anyway, about this great inflation, what I don't understand is why you're going, why… It's not a number grade, but yeah, it's not the number grade, but it's a letter grade. And the article goes on to explain Something about it. I think just, I don't know when you when you went from a letter grade, so this way you have to get all A's to be valedictorian, to a number grade, which would decrease the amount of people that are
Now, Victorian, and yet we'll spread it out a little bit. We'll show actual class standing. And I can understand why people feel stressed if there are 25, 26 people all in the running for valedictorian, then you immediately start out at 27. Maybe someone who would Be 27, maybe number 18 or 19 or 20. It would probably cut down in calculation. I don't know why it went to that as opposed to the letter grade, which kind of I don't know. There's so many reasons why. Just read that article. I'm sorry, I don't remember the name, but it's a good name.
It's a good article and also go to Wake Up Call New Jersey. But that's a real good article. And the system is… Thank you, Dr. Podowitz. Thank you for calling in. Looking back to the room, I don't see anyone else coming to the mic looking online. I don't see anyone else with a hand raised, so I'm going to close second public comment and move on to superintendent's comments. Again, I don't have much. Just to clarify about grading scale that's utilized at the high school level. Students do obtain letter grades. Letter grades don't then correspond back to an unweighted or a weighted GPA scale. We go all the way up to a seven point weighted GPA scale for recognition of honors and advanced placement courses.
4.0 scale for classes that are not. So everything translates back into a four-point scale or seven-point scale ultimately. With that being said, thank you to everyone for their comments this evening. I believe it was mentioned this evening, but we're expecting release of uh budget allocations in the next several days. Our next board meeting will feature a budget presentation so Stay tuned. I'm sure there will be lots to discuss.
Have a good night. Thank you so much. As we are closing out Black History Month, I want to wish everybody a happy Black History Month. And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Yeah, we need second executive session. Thank you all for correcting me. We are going into second executive session following the meeting. Mr. Green, is there a particular motion I need to make? Yes, Madam President. The motion is to go back into an executive session for purposes of discussing student matters and attorney-client privilege.
These matters will, to the extent possible, be disclosed to the public at an appropriate time. Thank you so much for catching my mistake and clarifying the motion. Is there a second to that motion? Dr. Braddock, and we will move into second executive session. Thank you so much, everybody. Just clarify, we're not going to be taking any action when we come out. We will not be taking any action when we come out. I did it? You did it. All right, here we go. Thanks