##VIDEO ID:knZmYJ5bSfc## I like to call this meeting of the Board of Education to order. Everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. To the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mrs. Sugars, will you please call the roll? Dr. Braddock? Present. Mrs. Trafane. Dr. Dreisen? Mrs. Gallagher? Here. Mr. Greenbaum? Here. Mr. Mayor? Here. Ms. Palmer. Ms. Stern here. Mrs. Winters. Here. Thank you. We are going to start with board recognition tonight. And this is a little bit awkward because we're recognizing school board member appreciation month. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Morton. Thank you very much, Ms. Winters. It is my honor and privilege to share that January is school board school board member recognition month or school board member appreciation month This is a fantastic opportunity for us to recognize our non-board members Who so willingly volunteer their time and give of themselves in such a gracious way. I just want to just share a few words before Ms. Bharati distributes certificates. So we know that the roles and responsibilities of our board requires that our board serve as a governing body for the district and setting policy and make important decisions that affect our curriculum, financing, and staffing. But this board here in particular has really been a board of action. And has really produced such great change and so much positive momentum for the district, it's truly been outstanding. I'm privy to the many conversations that take place And the days and the hours And the minutes, you know, as we prepare meeting meeting to meeting. And the board truly, truly is a board that's focused on achievement for all students In the district where student support is of critical importance. And that is reflected, I think, in many of the curricular enhancements that we've seen. Over the past year in the district from our elementary ELA curriculum Eureka mathematics, our mathematics pathways at the high school level You know, we typically talk about across the district, you know, supports for individual children But I guess, you know, I don't know if it's the greatest thing for me to say, but I truly appreciate the accountability and the sense of checks and balances. So for myself and for the team. The administrative team ourselves. I think the level of checks and balances that's provided provides an impetus for us to push and make sure that we're doing all that we can for our students and to be of great support. But as I Look across the district and I see buying construction coming to fruition. We see the great interest in the success of our preschool program. We see the media attention that we've that we've seen receive quite recently around a cell phone policy. There's so much good that has come out of the you know the past year and that the work that the board has done. And I'm truly appreciative I think the one piece that I don't know if everyone is as aware of as I'm as aware of is the level of engagement and involvement that the board members have had. There has not been a thing that I have asked for support on in terms of being present, giving up time. Taking part in meetings. Taking part in meetings, whether they're two hours away or two minutes away Whether they're two hour long meetings or multi-day meetings. Our board members have showed up. In the intimate conversations, again, I understand that there is a tremendous love for the community that every one of our board members has. And for that, I say thank you. I'm greatly appreciative. I speak on behalf of entire staff and administration from the district, thank you for your volunteerism. Thank you for giving up your time. I'm always one who says that our time is our most valuable resource. It's the only resource we have that we can never get back. Once you give up your time, you know, you're truly giving up your life. And when you give up your life to another person into a noble cause i think it's um is one of the most outstanding things that we can do. So at this time i'd like to Call up Miss Barati. Ms. Barati has certificates She will distribute. Thank you, Ms. Barati. Thank you, Dr. Morton. Okay, I guess if you want to come up here, that'd be the easiest thing, right? First, Mrs. Gina Winters. Mr. Adam Greenbaum. Dr. Kurt Braddock. You guys are doing a great job. Mrs. Renee Chirfayne. Dr. Dean Dreisen. Mrs. Kimberly Gallagher. Mr. Joel Mayer. Ms. Bridget Palmer. And Miss Miriam Stern. Thank you so much. And thank you to my fellow board members. I have said before, and I will continue to say this is the greatest volunteer opportunity on earth. It really is such a privilege to serve the community. So I'm going to move on to we have two presentations this evening. Our first one is our special education updates on our transition goal. I'm Patty Pacersia. I am the interim director of special education and for Caitlin Mallory. It's a pleasure for me to be here this evening. I'll be presenting with Trina Ragsdale, Dr. Shilpa Davay. Rebecca Metzger, and Mark Wisely. Thank you. So we will be giving you an update on our Special Education Transition Goal. Maybe so. Our goal is to ensure a smooth transition for our students moving from place to place and grade to grade. It's to promote academic success as well as emotional well-being for our students. We need to support them each step of the way. And there's several transitions that a student can go through while they're in Cherry Hill schools. They can go from pre-K to elementary. Elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to post-secondary, and then of course students move in throughout their grades In our district. So how do we do that? Well, we do that through collaboration and partnerships, and we want to always strive to improve that. Our focus is collaboration and consistency. We have groups that we work with. We work with central office administrators. Building principals and staff. Our parents and students, of course, need to be consistently communicated with and collaborated with. For success of their children and our special education groups, our Board of Education. And our community members we want to be consistent, collaborative, and transparent and with meaning. So Trina is going to talk about what that transition looks like for preschoolers. Thank you. Thank you for having us all tonight. My name is Trina Ragsdale. Again, I'm one of the three supervisors. I oversee or supervise the preschool Rose Middle School and six of the elementary schools. So lots of fun and lots of exciting things happening. And I'm very excited to be a part of the preschool program. There's been a lot of changes. As you know, this year with expansion. So really bringing the community together and informing them about what's happening and the transitions and supporting the transitions of not just students, but parents as well is very, very important. So one of the things that the child study team has done in addition to the levels of supports within the school are offering workshops for parents. Each fall, they offer a evening workshop, which is in person and also a virtual option for parents to learn not just about the eligibility process of becoming preschool eligible, but also just learning about Cherry Hill School District. And the process of becoming what it is to be a special education student, the level of services and supports that we provide here in district. It's the first entry into the district, right? So we want to make sure it's warm and welcoming and we're bringing in and helping students to begin their love of learning at the preschool level. So that's where our child study team really works closely hand in hand with parents so that they're informed, they understand the process. And they're able to feel comfortable communicating with the child study team. Part of the process of establishing eligibility is the evaluation process. The evaluation process involves learning evaluation, psychological, social evaluation. Also, we get a lot of information, obviously, from families that are entering the district as well. There's collaborative IEP meetings that are a part that parents are a part of to contribute and offer information as it relates to developing goals and developing plans of supporting students here in district. And then as we go on, there's obviously the knowledge sharing between case managers, parents, families, other stakeholders that are involved to support students as they transition through our programs. As you'll hear from my colleagues, vertically integrated or vertical articulation meetings are important to communicate from one grade level to the next. So preschool case managers will meet with our elementary school case managers so that they can share information for those rising case students. And this also happens for our gen ed students. Sometimes we have those students that are in between that may no longer qualify for preschool age eligibility or school age special education. So we want to make sure that those students are captured and that information Shared for the upcoming program to be able to support them. Again, thank you so much for having us. And if there are any questions, we will be here. She'll put the bank. Good evening. My name is Shilpa Devay. I'm also one of the special education supervisors. I've got two kids in the district as well. I'm sure as parents, we all remember that moment that our students are transitioning. From pre-K to kindergarten. From sixth grade or fifth grade into sixth grade or sixth grade into seventh, depending on when you were here, when I was here as a student. It was six to seven. But we all remember the angst that came with that moment. And that angst is even higher for our students that have different needs. And so we make it a point to have active conversations between our preschool child study team members and our elementary child study team members so that they can properly prepare for the students that are coming in the door. That becomes especially important depending on the program because the needs vary. With each of our children. And so Ms. Gleason was actually supposed to be here and joining us, but she is homesick like so many. So many others right now. But she was going to share a few things that are special to pain. Because pain houses our MD program. When you think about the students that are in our MD program, they have some pretty significant needs. And so it becomes even more critical to think about what does that orientation look like? So just as every elementary school will host an orientation night at Payne specifically. They'll provide the opportunity for the teachers or for the parents to come in to meet with those teachers. For them to come in and see what those classrooms look like, for them to talk about the related services that need to be in place or the assistive tech that needs to be in place. There are so many components that come into play when thinking about what that transition looks like. The benefit of a district Like Cherry Hill is that you've got organizations like CPAC, our special ed parent advisory group. You've got Chusepta. Those organizations build relationships with each and every school. And by doing so, they can turn around and provide opportunities to just build a level of inclusivity. At Payne specifically, it's actually coming up in March, TISEPT has been working with the school leadership team to plan a family-friendly night. It's an opportunity for families to come out to play games with their kids, to learn about different age-appropriate games. It's an opportunity for families to come out and get to know one another. So often, especially with some of our families that have students with some worse severe needs, it's not always easy to make connections. It's not easy to say, let me find the time to get out and be part of those events. This is an opportunity for them to come out and just be part of the school community. And for everyone to have some fun together, which is a beautiful thing. And last, as they transition out of elementary school. And into middle school that same That same philosophy of let us prepare you applies. Same way the assistant principals will typically come down and touch base with guidance counselors Our child study team members from elementary to middle will sit down together. They will talk about the kids. They will talk about the needs. So that we can find the best way to support that transition and help make it a smooth one. Colleague is going to jump in and talk about middle school. Thank you, Dr. Devay. So the jump from fifth to sixth is always, I think, that's the first major, major transition. And so it's always one of those very kind of fraught and anxiety inducing um like days for parents and families. I will say that we work really intentionally at the middle level to bring those fifth graders into sixth grade. And that is across the board, not for every student. So I'll speak specifically to Beck a little bit, but also practices I know that the other middle schools also emulate. So we do have the vertical articulation opportunities, the child study teams. From the middle levels will be interfacing with the elementary child study teams. They will be attending those fifth grade meetings if it's virtually or in person to really assess the level of need that's being projected for the middle level. And to talk about how the middle level programs actually work or run or what that looks like for a student that might have different needs if it's a program placement and social emotional behavioral need, a speech need, all of those things and how it functions at the middle level. So the sixth grade case manager will be attending those fifth grade meetings. Then when you look on the other side of it, our eighth grade case managers will also be participating in those ninth grade annual review meetings to make sure that the transition to the high school level is selecting the appropriate level of programming and support that is available in the high schools. The other thing that we do from fifth to sixth grade and that we support also from eighth to ninth grade is we try to ensure that students that might be transitioning from one special class program to another are able to access our open houses, if it's different activities, and also different, there are different fifth grade sort of traditions. So some schools have a fifth grade, they might get t-shirts from the middle school that their child is attending. So last year, for instance, at Beck, I knew that we had students coming into our special class programs that were not from our boundary elementary schools. So we made sure that we sent those students a special note, included a back t-shirt so that they were able to have a t-shirt presented to them the same way the other fifth graders did on that day where that school was doing that. We also hosted a, I would say a sensory friendly or just a small transition event for open house. So instead of coming to the sixth grade open house with about, could have been 200 to 250 kids. Students were provided with an opportunity prior to that to come in, tour, see the school, participate in all of the same activities, but it was a small group of six to eight students, either with IEPs or some students with 504s who just needed a smaller quieter environment to get to know Beck. Those are also opportunities that Rosa and Carusi look to offer as well. When we transitioned to high school, we ensure that all of the students have information about all of the high school options. So that would be obviously our district schools, but also Camden County Technical Schools. Making sure that students know that there's a full range of opportunities and availabilities to them. If a student needs specific information about case management or special education services at Camden County Technical School, we make sure that they get that. We offer the eighth grade, we have the counselor from Camden County Technical Schools comes to Beck, comes to Rosa as well. I believe Chrissy. And there's a presentation for all the students. We also ensure that students that we think might really benefit and really are interested go on the field trip to Camden County Technical Schools to be able to look at those opportunities and also the supports that are available there. If they do need additional assistance walking through that application process, ensuring that those IEP services are available to them at CCTS We do that as well. We encourage all of our students to attend both of the orientations and open houses at High School East and West. And then we also interface again the eighth grade case manager will be interfacing with those ninth grade case managers to ensure that any of the needs that are in the IEP are going to be reflected in that high school program. I'll hand it over to Mark Wisely. So the next transition is going to be our transition to high school to post-secondary options. And I would argue it's one of the more complex transitions because we are actually moving from the world encased in Cherry Hill Public Schools to the world beyond it. And really that process Pretty early on. It can start as soon as age 14. If not earlier. To start making connections to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Rehabilitation services. And that starts with a referral that's either generated to the child study team or through a parent. Both options are there. And through that process. Students can apply for services through DVRS where they can be eligible for services, what we call pre-employment transition services, where vendors that are connected with DVRS partner with the school district to come in, provide implement-based services to students and work through that process starting at a very early age. Some of the other opportunities that we have within district to support students accessing the community as they transition on beyond us. We are very fortunate to have a travel trainer in district. She is primarily housed at High School West, but she does service all of our students at the secondary level. Through that partnership, she is working with students and training them how to access public transportation. How to navigate their community safely, and also to become eligible if appropriate for access link services as well. So she serves as a liaison between the school district and families as they work to navigate that system. She does a lot of work individually with the kids as well to make sure they have a clear understanding of how to navigate the application pay for fares and get the places on time. Another opportunity that we have at secondary level, primarily for our functional vocational and our autism program is community-based instruction. The real world is out there and we have to prepare our kids for it. So providing opportunities for students to engage authentically in their community with regular experiences at familiar places. And opportunities to practice social skills, employment skills, and just general recreational skills out in the community As part of the work that we do on a regular basis. For those students that are transitioning and participate in our 18 to 21 year old program. We incorporate work-based learning. Our students are coming to school for a half day. They're in a school-based setting working on skills in a classroom setting. And then at that half day point, they're going out into the community to work at various job sites with supportive job coaches a work-based learning coordinator. And a variety of supports. Over the years, we have engaged I would say 20 to 30 plus businesses in the local community that partner with us to be able to provide those opportunities for our kids One of the things that is new for this upcoming school year that we are excited about because it will kind of increase opportunities to catch a broader spectrum of kids. Is the new career exploration electives that will be available at the comprehensive high schools. Students will have an opportunity to explore different career interests beginning in ninth grade. And Roy kind of teased that out and identify what is their passion, what is their purpose, and how they want to move forward. One of the things we have focused on this year has been structured transition planning using student voice. We've really worked to want to be able to capture information. Oftentimes we found that when we're sitting in an annual review meeting and we ask a targeted question of a student of. What do you want to do with your future? We get that kind of blank stare. So what we've done this year is to make sure we're structuring in those conversations ongoing throughout the school year to engage families, to engage students about what those plans are So that they can advocate and they can develop their self-advocacy skills in the meeting and becoming a more active participant within that process. On the back end of that, for our students who would be eligible or need this level of service. We provide information regarding gaining guardianship for those students who require that level of service. And help with parents in applying for DDD funding if they're eligible for that as well. One of the things that's unique in terms of the secondary level is our Kohl's program, which is located at High School East this year. Our Kohl's program is our alternative program designed to meet the needs of unique individuals. Students come to the Kohl's program at various times. Sometimes it's that eighth to ninth grade year transition. Sometimes it's between 9th and 10th grade, or sometimes it's in the middle of the year. But the important part is that we offer individual tours for every student that is being recommended for that program. They have an opportunity to meet with our principle with our guidance counselor and with our clinicians that are working as therapists within the building as well. This kind of provides them an opportunity to see the program, get a feel for the people that are there. Get an opportunity to engage with the folks that are there for support. Within our program, we have structured therapeutic counseling supports. We have two full-time clinicians within the program that are there. As a level of support and help to support the transition as students are coming in. They become that connection piece for that individual to really feel comfortable within the environment and have a place to go to if they need it. Because it is a small staff. There's opportunities for collaboration on a daily basis. So one of the things they really focus on is making sure that they're talking about the new students that are coming in. What are you noticing? What are the struggles? What are the successes? And really collaborating together to find ways in which they can support the kids. And then finally, one of the greatest things about making the move to East This past year has been the increased opportunities for participation in academic courses within the building, but also in the extracurricular activities as well. I think we have seen an uptick in that just being located in the physical plant and that has helped with the transition for many kids. As it's less of a… shock to the system to be shocked to out of a large school environment, you still have access to those things being located at East. I'll turn it back to Shopa. So you had an opportunity to hear what we are doing at each of the levels. And then there's the bigger picture of what are some of the things that we are doing collectively. As a district. Functional communication training. Understanding behavior. Is a form of communication. We're providing professional development with a level of intentionality that covers administrators, that covers teachers. That covers related services, that covers educational assistance. The goal is to be able to finally develop more of a common language and a common understanding. It's only when we have that in place that we can start to have those bigger conversations of figuring out how to genuinely support all of our students. Along with that comes a world of documentation, right? How do we make sure that we're making the right decisions? Our child study team is tasked with sometimes making some difficult decisions and saying. The student needs something that we don't offer in this building. It's not an easy decision to make. It's definitely not an easy decision to make if you're making it mid-year. So what do we do? How do we turn around and provide a level of support to those parents So that they feel comfortable and confident knowing that the right choice has been made for their child. So just starting just recently, we put something into place so that Every parent, if a child is recommended for a different program, they get to go visit. They get to see what that classroom looks like. They get to understand what room their child is going to be in and what that building looks like. That's a pretty important piece. I would say, right? And so our goal is to help those parents and the children feel comfortable when that shift, because it's not an easy one, ends up coming into play. Along with that, and I'm sure i i can Throw this example out and everyone will understand. It's like you want to call American Airlines and you look for that magic phone number. What's the magic phone number to call? Or you try to call any company and you go, just tell me how to get to the right place. It seems like such a simple thing It's a pretty important one. So we've asked each school to create a simple infographic, a simple single page snapshot. That says, this is who we are. This is the phone number for the school. This is the guidance counselor. Here's your nurse. Here's your child study team. Here's the phone number. Here's the email address. Here's the base level information of what programs exist in that building. How many kids are there in that school? What are your school colors? So that for my own child, I can turn around and say, okay, if I know the school colors for Cherry Hill East are red and white. Make sure you've got a couple of extra red and white pieces of clothing so that you walk in feeling like you're already part of that school. So like I said, while it's a simple detail, it's a pretty important one for any parent to feel comfortable saying. I know where my child is going and I already know something about that school. Meetings with our special ed parent advisory group Over the last couple of years, we have met with them regularly. We've included building principles in those meetings. And in doing so, we have found that there are gaps in what we are doing. We realized a few years back that every school was not doing an orientation night. That was special to supporting our self-contained programs. It's a pretty important detail. And so by sitting down and working with our CPAG and working with the building principals, we were able to look at it and say. Okay, I don't need to make it exactly the same for every school because you don't want to lose the individuality and the personality you want it to be program specific. But we do need to make sure that every building is doing something. And so we're working together to just continue to build upon What exists already and how we can continue to make it better. The last piece becomes increased communication. What does that look like, right? I know getting getting lots of emails and text messages, it can often be overwhelming, right? You almost get too much information at times. And so what's the right balance? As a team, we collectively decided that Blackboard was a way for us to put information out In the fall, we sent something out that related to transition supports, right? Tips for parents. Simple. Informative. And so we will continue to provide moments and Blackboard messages that we'll send out to just share information when it's relevant and timely. Because I do think that that's an important part, right? As we look at annual review season or as we look at summer transitions. Those become moments for us to put information out. So we're looking at How can we support transitions from every level on top of how can we look at supporting transitions as a district? Last piece. We're looking for communication. As we reflect on the decisions that we make on a daily basis and the ways that we support students, we know that there's always better ways. There's always different ways. And there's nothing better than the opportunity to work together and to learn from one another. So we encourage communication. Reach out, reach out to your building administrators, reach out to any one of us, reach out to your case managers. All of us are here in addition to CPAG and tricepta we're all here. To help support our children be successful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Board members, are there any questions? Mr. Mayor. Really, not a question. First, thank you. I guess it was two years ago I was one of the board members at the time who sat in on a number of the meetings with a number of special ed families. And it was really an opportunity mostly, as I understood it, to listen what what What's going well, what can go better, what should go better One of the consistent themes that I heard through those meetings I didn't attend all of them, but I don't know, at least seven or eight. Different families was different families struggles and worries about transition from level to level. That was the one theme that just seemed to come out all the time. And it never felt to me as though we were really attacking that the way we we should or could have earlier. So I am really pleased to have heard this presentation. I'm sure there's still, and you'd probably agree, always work to do and improvements to be made but This sounds like the type of thing that had had these supports been in place? Then maybe we wouldn't have heard that theme as often. So thank you for all of that work, especially with regard to communication and consistency. I love that idea. And even more specifically, functional communication training. And I'm wondering whether that dynamic is something that maybe we can spread across the district to other, you know, other areas the more we as a district speak a collective language. You know the the better we will be, the better our students will perform, the better our staff will understand one another. So, yes, thank you. You've heard before, I think from other board members and certainly for me whatever you believe we can do to help support those efforts. Communication works both ways. We need to hear what what can we do to support and find ways to creative and otherwise to make that happen. Thank you. Other board member questions. Mr. So thanks so much. I have several actually, so you'll indulge me. Madam Chair. So it's great to hear about the um orientation meetings. It sounds like, you know, for the smaller group visitation. Are those occurring closer to the start of the new school year when students are making the transitions. So, you know, for instance, are they happening in middle to late August, is that a time when students are getting a chance to in smaller groups and maybe with parents tour the schools and get to know them a little bit? At the middle level, we do it in conjunction with our open house night. So we actually just structure it so that an hour or 45 minutes before the open house actually occurs when we have our students coming in at sixth grade, there is that opportunity for the small group orientation. They go through this a similar or same agenda as anybody else would. However, the case manager attends that as well. The school counselor is there as well. And then in recent years, we've had teachers in our special class programs also come to introduce themselves as well and go through a tour, a presentation, see their classrooms. Then we at Beck do a resource fair where we have Cherry Hill Police, Cherry Hill Library, different community organizations, the sports and activities, clubs and activities as well. To ensure that they have a quiet opportunity to see if there's something that they would like to engage with. And then it also gives us information to get prepared for the fall in the event that students are going to attend a club and need support for that so that we're able to plan with the case manager or with the support staff to have that available. That's great. I'm sorry, did you say what time of year that actually, I know you said it's our regular open house. So it's sixth grade back to sixth grade. Well. It's no longer a sixth grade. It's a open house for new students, right? So we have students that transition in at seventh and eighth grades as well. All of those students are welcome to our open house event, which is usually we structure them at the middle level to be about a week apart. I'm looking at Dr. Birdie only because we went through the state establishment last year. We try not to overlap. We try to be about maybe a week apart, probably about two weeks before the school before school opens. That's great. I think that's great A really critical and um you know I'm a little bit out of the kind of parent of a special education student in our district. So I'm glad to hear that because I think that was something that makes a big difference for those kids. Thank you and families. A few more questions just about a few more questions just about the consistency, which I think is lovely to hear because I think that's a great challenge in a district this big. And it's a great challenge. When special education can mean a thousand different things because truly there are so many different types of special education programs that we have, so many different needs. And I think it's natural and common to obviously make sure we're really meeting the needs of the children who are kind of higher needs. Dr. Devay, you know, you referenced that. We have a lot of other kids who are in other categories as well. So I think that consistency is really critical. You referenced sharing information. I think we were looking at the secondary level, specifically high school, some things like DVRS and those kinds of resources. I'm happy to hear that those are being shared across the board with families. I think that's an important improvement. I'm wondering. You know, our family is getting opportunities for like a newsletter. Are they getting you know an information night As an example, last night I attended the, which you would think I would don't wouldn't need to attend this anymore, but I did it anyway, just in case a dual credit night, right? We have these dual credit nights at the high school. It's a great information night for all families to learn about how their students can take dual credit classes. It's a great, it's, you know, it's a 45 minute, one hour virtual meeting Very informative. I wonder if we're doing those types of occasional meetings with special ed families when they're introduced to the new level. These are some of the things that you will now be accessing or exposed to. And for instance, DVRS is a great example right because that's really transition planning for post-secondary. So just curious if we're you know. The depths of information we're providing for and the breadth i guess really for those kinds of resources. And I specifically keep talking about more so the high school level because I think that's really where In general, it's harder to reach families. I think things get lost a little easier at the high school level than younger levels. For all, you know, across the board. But I think when you're talking about special ed kids and families, you know, sometimes it's harder to reach those families. So just wondering how we kind of how we manage that. That's a great question. And really the focus has been moving forward to ensure that we are making those connections at an early age. Oftentimes the connection with DVRS and historically speaking, didn't occur until later in the process. Kids are transitioning to like 11th grade and we start talking about DVRS. And really that is a conversation that's being started as soon as eighth grade, where we're asking CS to incorporate that into their annual review meetings as a structure part of the conversation. These are the resources that are available. These are the supports that are available. Would you like us to make a referral so that you can begin to explore those options? So that is a big piece. One of the things we're in discussions about, we've had some transition with our DVRS representatives in the district recently. So one of the things that we have been working with them on is potentially bringing in essentially a night For parents to come together to learn more about DVRS and the transition resources that are out there. Working to kind of fine tune what that could look like. And the best way to communicate that information so that all families can receive it. Because oftentimes We find that families hear the name. Division of Vocational Rehabilitation services like Not my child. And it is. Dvrs provides a wide range of services. Where potentially there are services. It's okay. Where potentially there are services that would be available and useful to students. So not just looking at our students with the most needs, but the students with any needs. And making sure they get connected early on through that process. That's great to hear. Really, it sounds like a huge um resource that's now really more readily available. And I guess along the similar lines. I hate to interrupt you, but I see that there are other questions around the table. So if I rotate around it, then we come back. We'll come back. Excellent. I know. I'm excited too. Dr. Braddock Mine's quick. I'll keep it very quick. First of all, like everybody else, thank you so much for the hard work you put into this. I've only been here for a month but hearing from Mr. Mayor talking about kind of the change. It's fantastic. Something I'd like to see, if it's possible, if there's a mechanism for it. Would be kind of the success stories of the students who have transitioned and they're thriving after the transition. Just because I think those kind of stories would be great, not just for us to see that, but also for students who might be nervous about the next transition in their academic career or going into post graduate or post-secondary career. Just an idea, just because I love seeing these success stories and I'm sure there are many of them. That's all. Thank you. Other members. Ms. Gallagher. Just a quick question. Those like one-pagers you were talking about, Dr. Debay, are they located on the school websites or how can parents access them? So you'll be able to access. Dr. Devay, can you please come up to the microphone? Otherwise, people who are online can't hear you. Sorry about that. Thank you. You'll actually be able to access them after this. Presentation, we wanted to make sure that we talked about it first so they'll be available after this. Great, thank you. Other board members with questions. I just wanted to say that similar to Mr. Mayor, I wanted to explain a little bit of the genesis of why there's a special education transition goal. A few years ago when we were doing town hall meetings around middle school redistricting and what middle level looked like, there was a town hall focused solely on special education families. And I was not on the board yet, but I attended as a special education parent. And the resounding theme of that town hall from all the people who called in and attended was transitions were really hard for our kids. And that was something that stuck in my mind as a parent. And then as I became a board member, it was something that I was still thinking about. So I think that's at least for me where this goal came from. The other piece of it is that also when I was a parent prior to being a board member, I served on the kindergarten curriculum committee. When we were talking about what full day kindergarten would look like. And I came in as the parent of a kindergartner and i looked around the room and I didn't see any representation there from Barclay, which was then our preschool program, now Malburg. And it was something that I raised. And it was just surprising to me that there really was no link back then between our preschool program Which all of my kids attended and was phenomenal and what kindergarten looked like. So I think for me as a board member. Those are sort of formative experiences. So when the board looked at goals this past year and we what a special education goal could be. That was why we decided to focus on transitions first but clearly There's also a lot of other things we need to work on. As we continue to improve for our students and parents. So I think my ask as a board member is as we're going through this to have that continuous feedback and communication as to what other goals can we set? What would be useful for the board to do in terms of Thinking about what kind of improvements we need for our special education kids and families and so that we can be more supportive of you and what you need going forward. Because clearly you guys are doing a wonderful job. I was really thrilled to hear about everything tonight. So thank you. The board members? You get two minutes. I'm starting the clock. It's actually just a comment, Mrs. Winters. And it's just to say that It's great to see the focus. I want to thank all of you. It's great to see the focus on this. And I'm excited for our special education special committee, because I think it will allow us to continue working together with, you know, I think all of the experiences that the special education administration and staff bring to then help us Get to where we need to get to. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming tonight. We appreciate it. Thank you. We actually have one more presentation. We have an update on the impact of the restorative practices model, and that is Dr. Birdie and Mr. Guy. Mrs. Winters, and we are excited to come before you and the rest of the Board of Education to talk a little bit and give you a brief update on the work that's been happening in the district with several of our schools. But we can't do this work alone. So we have brought friends with us from the building level today From the elementary level, we have at Elise Kizzy, the principal of Clara Barton Elementary School. We have… LaVonda Daniels from Joyce Kilmer Elementary School and our attentive administrative intern, Melissa Mortimer Who splits her time between both schools as here representing the elementary level. And we'll talk to you about restorative practices. Representing the middle level, we are excited to have Nigeria Sims from one of our assistant principals from Beck Middle School. And due to some unforeseen circumstances, Mr. C.j. Davis and Ms. K. Pereira are unable to be with us this evening. As you can see, we're losing people all over the place to a number of different things. But no matter Dan Finkel is here to pinch hit, as always, the principal of High School East. And he was in on our November 12th and November 13th restorative practices training. So he's well adept and well aware to present in their stead. So we're excited to have Them with us today and they'll be presenting in a few moments. I just wanted to first start to talk about the board goal around wellness and frameworks of learning supports. And developing the the need for social and emotional wellness. And I'll get to that when I talk about what is at the root of restorative practices. And there are some of our major activities about being pre venitive about how we create positive school Cultures and that is critical for the work that we're doing. And the items that are actionable that we'll keep working on is an equitable, restorative, and inclusive climate and culture for all of our students at all 18 of our schools. What are some things about restorative practices? Well, I know that Dr. Morton is online with us, but I want to begin by echoing his phrase. That restorative practices is really about relationships. It really is about the opportunity for relationships to continue to flourish student to student, staff to student. Et cetera. When we talk about the research around restorative practices, IIRP stands for the International Institute a restorative practices. That is where all of our presenters and all of our schools that they're training in November, we want to talk about these social connections within communities. We are social beings from Malberg all the way up to high school east, west, and our Kohl's program. We are social beings and our kids are social beings. So the opportunity to improve relationships proactively as we look at misbehavior becomes less common And the findings around this is that it takes time. So they got their training in November of 2024 and tonight they'll talk with you about some of the things that they have begin the preliminary implement And then some of the things that they're working toward. But I want to clue in on or key in on multi-year as it relates to restorative practices. So last year, we actually had folks from Woodcrest. Carusi, High School West, and Kohl's program. Now, those folks have been They had gotten some restorative practices training. They were well established. So they were able to kind of talk to you about the quantitative things that they were able to do With their restorative practices work. But this group is in year one with their training. So they're going to be at different spaces. What is not on the slide is what restorative practices is not. Restorative practices is not an easy way out. It doesn't eliminate the code of conduct. It doesn't eliminate consequences. When children make decisions that we don't want them to make. But what it does is it allows us to repair the harm that those Those choices may have been with a consequence in place and when it's appropriate, it allows us to repair relationships student to student, student to staff. So that's what restorative practices Is, and that's what restorative practices is not. So this is the work that we've done. We've had training for Barton Kilmer, Carusi, Beck, Rosa, and East. For those newer board members. We started this training back in the 2018-2019 with our comprehensive high school, High School West, and we have 10 turnkey trainers there. So that's why we have not done that training at the Kohl's program or Wes. Those are two turnkey spaces. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I had, may have been last week. I'm losing track of time. But in January, I did have follow-up meetings with all of the schools that went through the training and we talked about the things that they were doing and the things that they're going to continue to work on within year one. It was asked early on. Why weren't we doing all of the other elementary schools? Well, from a fiduciary standpoint, it's quite expensive to do all 12 elementary schools at the same time. We chose Barton and Kilmer. But we wanted our elementary principals to be able to share some of the work. So we gave a primer to the elementary principals this month to be able to take back to their schools and continue that work. And the schools that you're going to see represented at each level are integrating information into the existing work. In year two, we're going to use those 10 turnkey trainers to be able to go to the elementary schools that haven't received that training And to follow up with Barton Kilmer, Karusi, Beck, Rosa, and East. They're going to be integrating this work with our multi-tiered systems of support, which is a district goal under the subset of New Jersey tiered systems of support, because one of the things that we find in multi-tiered systems of support at tier two and tier three Our behavior plans and what best way to get behavior expectations met by our students than to bring in restorative means and supports within those behavior plans for tier two and tier three. And then we're going to use data comparisons with harassment, intimidation, and bullying investigations and founded cases. And our Genesis discipline data, which is our K-12 space. And we're going to see if the impact of this work has made some sort of difference in those spaces. And I guarantee it will. As we get ready to move forward, Ms. Kizzy is going to present first and then Ms. Daniels, Ms. Mortimer, Ms. Sims, and then finally, Mr. Finkel. When I did the introductions. Inadvertently omitted my partner in crime, Dr. Neil Birdie, who has continued to work with us and support us. Especially at the six to 12 level in this work. So as we take questions after the presentation. It will be myself or Dr. Birdie that are happy to answer those questions. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Kizzy. And then Ms. Kizzy, you can tell me when to advance the slides for everyone else. Italise Kizzy. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Guy. Good evening, everyone. I'm so excited to be here as the proud principal of Clara Barton Elementary School. I feel as though when you walk through the building doors, if you've ever been to Clara Barton, our culture is felt when you enter the building. So in thinking about restorative practices and meeting with our labor management collaborative. Last school year, as we looked at our goals for the upcoming year, we really wanted to focus in on the culture and environment at Clara Barton. We talk about restorative practices and a lot of times we focus in on what happens post. An incident. But we wanted to talk about what are the preventative things we can put in place that create a culture and an environment where those types of things don't occur at Clara Barton because we don't treat each other that way We're here at Clara Barton, we have these core values. And we wanted those values to be echoed in our daily practices. So what we did is some of the things I'm going to share with you tonight, they aren't new. They're part of our Clara Barton culture. If you have kids that have been through Clara Barton. They can tell you about family day from probably 10 years ago. But we looked at what the goals were with the Labor Management Collaborative, which is such an amazing group with representation across grade level, subject area. And we said, what do we want our students to kind of focus in on? Family Day happens once a month. It is a paired system that we have. There could be a fifth grade class with a third grade class, a fourth grade class with a kindergarten class. And through some of our committee work, we have designed kind of like a set of curriculum based on our core values and different areas we want to focus in on. And each month, one character value, which we call our we our words. Are focused on. And if you're similar, if you're familiar with morning meeting or the kind of the routine of that, the students engage in different activities. They work together and the kids really look forward to this day once a month. We all wear our Barton colors. It's part of our culture and it's a very exciting day. We kind of have a part of our day where everything stops for about 45 minutes. We have a separate schedule. And the entire school is engaging in family day at that time once a month. So as I said, that was one of our LMC initiatives that was based off of that survey data that indicated peer interpersonal relationships was an area we wanted to focus on. So in addition to revamping and redesigning that family day curriculum. We focused what are the other areas that we can kind of support? We implemented something called our Feathers program and it has been such a value having the support of Ms. Mortimer while she shared between myself and Kilmer. And we often are really excited when we have her in our building. We've been able to kind of focus in on some of these things and make them run more smoothly by having another person in the building. They can prioritize these areas with consistency. You know, we have over 500 students at Clara Barton, so we're always really busy. So it's great to have a partner to be able to kind of take some of these things and be consistent and implement them with fidelity. So the students love the Feather program. They can earn feathers for a variety of positive things. The class works collectively to earn a whole class incentive. Just yesterday, we had a celebration with our third grade class. They earned some feathers and we had a dance party and soft pretzels. It is a monthly reward. We celebrate one class K to two and one class three to five. And the classes collect actual feathers because our mascot is an eagle and We run different incentives with that program. It's working very well. We also have our Eagle Honor program where the teachers recognize one student from each classroom based on a particular character value that month. So if it's respect or if it's Creativity, whatever the character value might be, the teacher will nominate a student a beautiful message is written up about each student and it's shared with the families and the students In the slide here, you see a first grade student who is proud to have his certificate and his button. We come around and celebrate students and encourage others to get that recognition. It's a very special treasured Program that we have that has existed, but we kind of went back to some of those things that we're doing that we kind of got in the pattern of doing because they're traditions and looked at how can we improve them so that we're having a greater impact school-wide? The next point on the slide that I wanted to highlight is that Mr. Guy mentioned as well. The multi-tiered system of supports and how does this work and the lens of restorative practices fit within this whole system. So again, in thinking of the positive things that we're implementing We wanted to look at what are the positive behavior supports and social emotional supports that we have in place for students. So we have a whole MTSS system on the academic side That we're very proud of the work we've done in that area. But we've also focused on how we can support the behavior component side as well. So the same way we have interventions for tier three students on the academic side, we want to have a clear system of supports and behavior plan with lots of positive things for students who need that support. We've been very creative with the utilization of our Title I funding, bringing in some unique resources. Dr. Gervais talked about functional behavior training and working with behavior consultants. We've been able to utilize that. On this end as well to support students in the general education population. You know, just through general consultation on best practice in terms of supporting students social emotional regulation. We've collaborated with Coach Hines, who is a mentor that visits Claire Barton once a week through Title I funding, and he supports students in a variety of ways, including one-to-one mentoring, small groups. He's done leadership workshops. And we've just been trying to be very creative with the way in which we kind of utilize those funds and support students. Restorative circles has been a focus in our upper grades. We started the first training with this last year when our students were fourth graders. And now we've kind of extended that now that they are in fifth grade to both the teachers and the students. And they provide a great way to focus in on student voice, allow them to be part of the conversation. Some of the positive things that have come out of the restorative circles is that the students told us that they wanted more opportunities to build social connections outside of just academics. So they wanted clubs at recess. They wanted a variety of different clubs and different ways to interact. And we've been able to actually take that idea that came from those restorative circles and actually bring that to light this year. So we have some amazing clubs that are happening in our fifth grade that just allow the students to kind of practice some of those social emotional skills and positive peer interactions in settings that are interest driven You know, through their ideas. Our future goals are to continue to expand these areas as well as to even have the students lead the circles. There's different roles that we take on within the circle and we have students who are interested in being the ones that pose the questions during that discussion and get to kind of lead that path and be very interactive. I'm very proud of the work. We have an amazing supportive parent-teacher association and school community. And at Clara Barton, the teachers really prioritize student relationships. So this was a very natural extension of the work that we're already doing. So our theme is up there. We are proud. That's our theme this school year. And we are just really grateful to kind of be implementing these initiatives and getting them up off the ground. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I'm one of those people struggling to stay well. So bear with me today. I am the proud principal of Joyce Kilmer Elementary School, and I appreciate this opportunity to share some things with you all that we have implemented to make Joyce Kilmer the best school that we can be. Our LMC and I met over the summer to discuss ways to utilize PBIS or positive behavioral interventions and supports We wanted to foster an environment of positivity built around our school culture and our school values. Our core values are respect, responsibility. I say it every morning. Kilmer Wildcats are always striving to be respectful, responsible, brave, caring, and always displaying good citizenship. We wanted to ingrain that into our students, into our core activities as well. So this year, we started the school year by reteaching expectations, which is such an important part of PBIS. What does walking in the hallways look like? What does appropriate behavior look like in the bathrooms? In the APR when we're out at recess. And we did that the first few weeks of school so that students knew exactly what the expectations were. We also reintroduced our Wildcat Wiles. An example is on the screen. And we wanted to empower our staff so that not just our classroom teachers, but our lunch cafeteria workers, our custodian, when they see students doing the right thing, they can reward the student with a wildcat wow. And students are always excited to share that they've gotten a wow. They put it in the bin. And then on Fridays, one student from each grade level is called over the loudspeaker to come to the office And pick a prize from the prize bin. So it's something that our students look forward to and it empowers our staff To catch our students doing the right thing. One of the things that I'm proud to share with you that we started this year that's being led by our awesome administrative intern, Ms. Mortimer. It's the paw prints program. We wanted to address behavior in the APR during lunch, students out of their seats, students walking around, students not using appropriate volume. So over the summer, Ms. Mortimer and I met, we created a bulletin board. And now students receive tallies from the cafeteria aides. When they're demonstrating those appropriate behaviors. And every two to three weeks, the tallies are counted and the student, the class that gets the most tallies get surprised. We're talking inexpensive things, people like sitting on the stage in the APR or being the first out to recess. It's a big reward for the students. It's low cost for us, but it's definitely a high impact and it's definitely changed our behavior for lunch in our APR. One of the things that we had at Joyce Kilmer when I came last year were the Wildcat rallies. We wear our Wildcat t-shirts, we wear our blue and white. We put up our banner. It's a big, exciting opportunity for our students to gather together. And the rallies were held every other month. Over the summer, I met with the LMC We wanted it to be more consistent. So we added more values other than the five that I mentioned. We added empathy. We added sportsmanship so that we could have a Wildcat rally Every month. One of the things that we are delighted to share that is one of my favorite parts of this this year is that we invite our families in. We secretly send a letter from me to the parents, asking them to come in and celebrate their student being recognized for caring or bravery or good sportsmanship. And the student doesn't know that their families have arrived until they enter the APR. So this is a big deal. It's been a great opportunity for our families to come into our school in a positive environment. It's not threatening. It's something celebratory. It's something positive. And we're sharing good news with our families about the great things that their students are doing. One of our future goals is to utilize our Wildcat ambassadors, the NJ Sky survey was done last year. By our students, staff, and families. And one of the areas that scored the lowest for us was student voice. So last year we created an application. We put it out to our fourth and fifth grade students. The students applied and we selected about 35 to 40 students and they meet every other month, our students help with our assemblies. Our students help the custodian. Our students help set up and break down chairs. Our students came in over the summer and assisted with our summer tours. So it's been an opportunity to get our fourth and fifth grade students engaged in our school. Bless you, and able to give them a voice. One of the things that we want to do with our Wildcat Ambassadors is to promote mentorship and to help those students to train them on how to mediate So that their peers have more positive interactions. At this time, I'll turn it over to Ms. Moore. Hello, I'm Melissa Mortimer. I'm the admin intern at both Clara Barton and Joyce Kilmer. These are different initiatives that we are doing at both schools. So one of the things that we added was a reflection sheet. So this is something that if a student is not making a good choice. They have a sheet that they're going to fill out. What happened? Why did it happen? How are you feeling? What could you do to make this better? And in the future, what could you do? They are based upon grade level, so kindergarten, you'll see it looks a lot just like pictures and they're circling. And then fourth and fifth graders, they have lines and they're actually writing exactly what happened. After they fill it out, I have a conversation with them. We really walk through the problem solving skills of what happened? Why is this happening? And what can we do in the future? So then when they come up upon a problem again, they can maybe stop, pause and reflect on what had happened. Zones of regulation are taught in each classroom. So one of the pictures has that. A blue means they're feeling sad. Feel tired, green, you're ready to learn Yellow, you're a little off. Maybe you're feeling a little sick, a little angry, red, you're frustrated, you're really angry. And below each one has strategies that kind of help the students get out of those zones. To regulate their emotions. So this is helping them realize what emotional state that they're at and how they can help themselves get out of it. Sel lessons are done in each classroom and that is helping the students have conflict resolution. They might be doing different scenarios. They might be doing different activities based on conflict, based on peer revolution. Self-awareness and helping the students guide through that. Calming corners were something that were added. Each classroom does have one. That is an area in the classroom that is stated the first week of school. They know what's there. Classrooms have different pillow to sit on, a soft cushion. They could have a fidget, they could have a glitter jar. They could even have different pictures to kind of go through to help them self-regulate. So that they can go back to their seat when they are ready, but they haven't left the class environment. Social lunch groups are a small group. Where they are doing different social skills. It's during the lunchtime, it could be with different grade levels. It can be kids in different classrooms. But it's helping them in a less formal state kind of get to know each other, be able to solve problems together, almost like a peer mediation. In the future, we hope to continue to train all of our staff on Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions. Good evening. I am Nyasheriasm. One of the assistant principals at Beck Middle School. It's my pleasure to be here with you all tonight. One thing that resonated with me just from hearing the elementary schools and the high school when we met with Mr. Guy last week was the consistency. Things that we were already doing in our buildings that were consistent across. So when students have the elementary school experience. When they come to the middle school experience, it won't be totally new to them. They would have some of the same programs and initiatives in place, which is important. So at Beck, we have partnered with PBSIS to combine PBIS and restorative practices. Positive school culture to be able to promote positive school learning experiences with our students. Pbsis is different than PBIS. Pbsis is Positive Behavior Support in Schools. It's a partnership that we applied for last spring through Rutgers University and the New Jersey Department of Education. We were fortunate to get the partnership. There were only a handful of schools selected throughout the state of New Jersey. What that means is we have a dedicated coach coming to our school building. It's a multi-year partnership with them. Coming to our school building, we've solidified a team of teachers and support staff and guidance counselors to be a part of the committee. We also have meetings once a month, once with one time with the school administrators and the team leaders The other one is with the actual team itself. And Beth, our coach, really works with us. And it's not her telling us what to do. We're coming up with the solutions. We're coming up with the plans. She's there to facilitate the conversation. We're working on tier one behaviors or universal systems of support within our school this year in particular. So what does that look like? How do students know what the expectations are within the different areas of the school building? We had signs that were created last school year that are displayed throughout the school year. One thing that resonated with us throughout this process, especially the restorative process. Is the stakeholder feedback. So how do students engage in that process? How are parents engaged in that process? How are staff members engaged in that process? And that's what we're really working on solidifying this school year. Next slide, please. All right. So some of our current practices, again, we have the partnership with the PBSIS through Rutgers and the Department of Education. We pride ourselves in building a community of relationships. As Mr. Guy stated, it's really built on solid relationships. Otherwise, restorative practices won't work. So what does that look like? We have a daily advisory period. So our students participate in advisory every day. Our schedule this year permits students to have total SEL advisory sessions every day of the school week, which is important to be able to build that capacity within students. We utilize a program called Second Step, and when teachers are able to get lessons from the program to be able to distribute and turnkey to their students. We also have conflict resolution, which is meetings or peer mediations within students that are usually guided by the school counselor. Sometimes the administrator is there present as well. But really an opportunity to elevate student voice so that they understand what's happening and how they've harmed one another. It's important that we establish and teach expectations, which is where PBSIS comes in. How are we establishing and teaching these expectations to students? So again, we have the core value advisor lessons that happen. We also have a check-in and check out system that happens for students who need a more tiered system of support based on the behaviors that they're exhibiting. We believe in promoting a positive school culture. So we have expectations that are reinforced through PBIS. We're really happy that we have a store in which students are able to earn So they earn PBIS points based on their exhibiting the core values at Beck Middle School. The school store, when we first opened it last year, it was opening Maybe once every two weeks, which we found was like, we couldn't sustain that. The first time we opened it with Messica can attest to it, the line from the store was all the way down the hall. And I said, we can't, we have to figure out another way because students were really excited about the program. We created a school culture and discipline committee that really meets to decide when the school is opening, what's happening with the systems and structures here at our school. So we've solidified the process of school story open every other month. We gauge stakeholder feedback for the school store items for students. When I asked them, I went to the peer leaders, I went to the SGA members, I asked teachers to solicit feedback. What do you want? What types of things do you want to see in your store? We want Chick-fil-A on Fridays. Okay, so let me rephrase that. What are some of the things that we can get that are within reason that we can have for the school store? So we did get student buy-in for that. A response for student behavior, we have systems of accountability and reflection, again, through the mediations. We have opportunities to repair harm for parties involved. We partner with the NJ4S, which is a New Jersey statewide student support services through the Department of Children and Family Services. That meet with students. They either meet with them individually or as a group to provide that mental health support for students and social emotional to support their social and emotional well-being. Part of the future practices, we've recently acquired the Compass curriculum through Navigate 360. Navigate 360 is the parent organization that bought PBIS. And so they approached us to be able to purchase the Compass curriculum. What I like about the Compass curriculum is that you can select lessons based on the behavior of the student and target those behaviors. It could be tier one, which is taught during advisory, or it can be tier two or tier three, which is discussed during the after school detentions. And it, again, is tiered based on the behavior of the student. Another thing I like about the program is it has a level of accountability. So it talks about what the behavior is. It also talks about ownership of what the student's action was. And the final part is how can you make it right? How can you repair What has been done because a lot of the times we focus on the code of conduct the disciplinary part of it, but we don't always focus on how can you really repair the relationship with the person that you harmed throughout this process. And that's some of our future steps that we're working towards. And again, the restorative circles to be able to elevate student voice to have their voices heard and for them to really feel a buy-in and a part of our school community. Thank you. Hey everyone, I'm Dan Finkel. I'm the principal at East. Nice to see everybody. So restorative practice at East is in its infancy stage, to be quite honest with you. We have a vision and the vision is a school where every challenge is an opportunity to build stronger connections, develop empathy, and to empower students and staff to resolve conflict collaboratively. Why are we doing this? Because we want a thriving community. We want a community where every students they have members feels valued, connected, and obviously supported. How do we do that? Well, we want to create opportunities for growth. Restorative practices turns conflict to a chance to build understanding and repair relationships. At the end of the day, kids do things wrong. We expect them to. They're kids. The question is, at the end of the day, how do we help them? How do we help them, number one, to not do the same thing? And number two, if someone is harmed, sometimes they've been harmed and that's their reaction. And as we all know. We get the second half and not necessarily the first half. So, you know, if a student does something in a classroom, walking into that classroom the next day is difficult. So how do we work with that student and that teacher to get them so that they're on common ground when they walk back in and they feel comfortable. And that's really, really important. And that's really what the whole concept of restorative practice is about. It's not about not getting consequences. It's about how do we move forward? You know, for, you know, from both a teacher student perspective and student to student perspective. And then how does it align to our core values? It's all about respect. Day one, I talked about the fact to respect yourself, respect others, respect the environment. That to me is what is what behavior is about inside of a school. So how do we prioritize that? How do we have accountability and how do we foster relationships that enhance learning As well as personal growth. So where are we in November 24th, we had a small group. It was myself. Cj and Kate Pereira, as well as Greg DeWolf, who took part in the training of assertive practices. And now what we're doing is we're building that foundation. For long-term success. So we're recruiting a dedicated team of a smaller group of teachers within the building so that we can start to do this work and then ultimately work with the entire school community to build these relationships. So how are we doing this? Number one, we're partnering with our LMC. I think that's really important from the teacher side. But we're going to, you know, we're providing professional development so that we can change misconceptions about what restorative practices is. That's really important because restorative practice isn't Everyone gets away with everything. It's about restoring the relationship. And I think that that's what's out there and we need to change that. We need to change that by working with the staff And to be sure that we get the buy-in that we need. And obviously building a positive school culture through East, which is our acronym. Which is empathy, accountability Self-efficacy and trustworthiness. So that's extremely important for us in terms You know, trying to continue to those character ed initiatives and the character ed philosophy. We also have to focus on the connection before correction. As I talked about, it's about relationships. And I know, you know. Dr. Morton talks about relationships and that's what our business is, folks. It's all about relationships. It's relationships with kids and teachers, kids and kids. Teachers and teachers, et cetera. So, you know, our goal right now is to pilot these restorative teams to help start these circles in these conversations to foster belonging. Last time I was in front of you, we talked about belonging connection to school. And that's really what this is, right? It's about a connection to school. Any student who is connected to the school in some positive way is ultimately going to be more successful than those who are not. That's really what we're trying to foster here. Mtss is extremely important as well. I know that that is a goal. Overall of the district and certainly at East. Kate Pereira, who was our intern, who was unable to be here tonight, she's been instrumental. She has built an entire database to show at-risk students that she presented the other day to level. And I know she was supposed to uh To visit some of the middle schools and show them how she did it and how it works. But it really is pinpointing specific kids that we can work with and provide those tier one, tier two, and ultimately tier three intervention so that we can help them and support them. So, you know, it's really important that there's the connection between a restorative practices group as well as our MTSS group. Feedback. Feedback loop is so important. We need to listen to kids. We need to listen to staff. We need to listen to families. We need to listen to what they need. That's why they always talk about the fact that, you know, the good Lord gave us one mouth and two ears and we got to listen sometimes more than we talk. I'm not a good example of that. However, I truly believe that at some point I will learn that. But it's important. We have to listen. We have to listen to what kids want. We have to listen to what teachers want. You know, and we need to listen to what families want. And, you know, every time I speak to a family, I'm listening to what their experience is. Okay, because my job is to make sure they experience a positive experience. And if their child is experiencing something negative, that's what I have to listen to. I have to block everything out. And that's what I need to focus on is what can we do to help this family? What can we do to help this child? And that's what we'll continue to do. You know, and obviously we're going to continue to adapt. We're going to get feedback and we're going to change what we do in order to make it work. How are we going to measure success? We're going to look at disciplinary referrals. I think that's really important. I think we're going to do surveys. We did the NJ Sky survey, I believe last year. And we're going to do that again at the end of this year to see how we're doing overall. In terms of staff feelings, family's feelings, student feelings. So I think it's important for us to measure measure our growth and then look at it critically. To me, I want to look at our school critically every single year and figure out what we did right, what we did wrong, and where we have to focus our attention. And obviously real stories. As Dr. Braddick had talked about in terms of the special ed, in terms of success stories, that's what we need. We need success stories because we need everyone to understand that this will be successful. I've never seen restorative practices and the concept of restorative practice ever fail. It's about a matter of working with people and repairing those relationships because that's what our business is. So when people feel heard, understood, valued, they rise to the occasion. This is our opportunity to invest in our students, our staff, and our future as a community, both at East and as Cherry Hill Public Schools, you know, in general. I'm so excited hearing what all of What everyone's doing at the elementary schools and the middle schools, because I know ultimately when they get to the high school, you know, that's going to be ingrained in the concept of restorative practices, understanding both sides of things and being able to talk about it. You know, as mature young men and women is going to be great for us so Here we go. Thank you. I want to thank Mr. Finkel and I want to thank Ms. Kizzy and Poor Miss Daniels is hanging in there. Miss Mortimer and Ms. Sims for the work that they did. Before we turn it back over to you, Mrs. Winters, we just want to remind the board that on May the 28th, we'll come with another update. We'll take a summary of the work that's already been done and kind of give you a preview of what is Coming in 25. 26. So I'll turn it back over to you, Mrs. Winters, for questions. I always like the previews of what's coming. Before I open it up to questions, I just wanted to let everybody hear from all the schools know that Board members strive to be around as much as we can and to listen. And the things that we're hearing about the positive school cultures going on in all of your schools are phenomenal. So keep at it. It's working. We hear it from families, we hear it from staff, we hear it from students. And I know that this work is It's a lot on top of everything you do every day, but persevere because the good news is happening and it's definitely reaching our ears. So thank you very much for all the effort you're putting in and everything you're doing. We do appreciate it. And so do the families and the students. Board members who has questions. Dr. Braddock. Thank you, Ms. Winters. A couple of things, a comment or a question and a couple of comments. Number one, seeing this kind of detail has been fantastic. I don't think I've seen this kind of detail about restorative practices in the Cherry Hill schools yet this is Fantastic work and uh it's going to show the weird line of work that I'm in outside the school board. But the restorative practices work outside School districts and work outside education as well. So I'm confident they'll work here just as much. I'm used to seeing it in the realm of criminology and And those sorts of places. But it's very cool to see it working here as well. My question, pretty simple one, in that May update, will we have data on how it's working on some of the outcomes you talked about? Will we start to see some of the fruits of the very good labor. Probably not, Dr. Braddock. Probably not. In terms of a multi-year initiative. They were trained in November 24, 2024. They are building on pre-existing initiatives that they're already doing. But we'll be bringing you different schools. So you won't see the same schools. And you may see some information. A number of the middle schools, particularly in this Ms. Sims alluded to this, have already started their work around MTSS and tier two So you may see, you won't see, we may give you examples of restorative practice behavior plans in tier two. But we are still kind of trying to train our entire staff around the implementation of that. So whether or not that behavior, and usually our tier two cycles are 60 days. So I don't anticipate that we're going to be able to see the impact Until we come back to you in 2025. 2026, but we'll share what you have what we have And you can see we have a pretty good amount with just the amount with just the work that folks have built on at the elementary, middle, and high school level. I mean… If I can just interject for a second. Dr. Braddock, you will be privy to district disciplinary data You know, in your role as a board member. So you'll have an opportunity to ascertain how things are progressing Throughout the course of the year. And then we can also run some year to year comparisons as well. We've definitely seen Positives in the data already. Mr. Guy said the presentation itself on May 28th will be a different purpose for that presentation. One follow-up, Ms. Winters, that's okay That's okay. Even just, again, I'm talking a lot about stories today, but even seeing some of the success stories you have are kind of precursor to what I expect to see in kind of the quantitative data as well so Keep them coming. Good work. We will keep them coming. Mr. Greenbaum. Thank you. And thank you very much for the great presentation. I really enjoyed seeing what's being done. Especially at this level of detail at the different levels. Something that really stood out to me when we got a presentation last year was the anecdotal data, seeing just a steady decline in the number of disciplinary referrals, the decline in the number of incidents across the board in every category. I'm excited to see where we go with this and I'm hoping a year from now we're able to see similar trends Quite a few other schools. I'm really happy to see it getting deployed across implemented across the district and You know, I hope we're able to continue the success. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Stern. Mrs. Winters, I'm going to contradict you a little bit and say that at the board level, when we get emails and sometimes oftentimes even in public comment, we hear the opposite we you know we hear people saying sometimes Advising of negative behavioral incidences or people who claim that we're focused too much on social emotional learning and on restorative practices. And it's actually restorative practices sometimes we have people who conflate that with other things which have nothing to do with what restorative practices really are. And at the board level, we review HIVs, right? So that's and incidents where children are having challenges with their interactions so In the sense of, you know, I think we hear, we do hear some positives And we get to experience them when we visit the schools A presentation like this tonight is so um Lovely. It's the best word I can come up with. It is such a deep dive into so many things that are being done. And these are all things that are helping our students develop self-awareness skills self-management skills. Emotional intelligence, which is critically important in this world. You know, I work in the mental health field and we have zones of regulation in my work too. That we utilize. Something as small as that. It's just lovely to see that. Because students cannot learn successfully when they're not in a good place or when they're having significant interpersonal and social challenges. And that's the fundamental reason why this is so important. I mean, I truly appreciate the level of effort And understanding and expertise that you all have and the people in your buildings have. You know, Mr. Finkel, I appreciate your transparency that this is This is newer. This is early. This is year one for you. There's a humility about understanding that this is there's some shifting that is going on that has to go on. I remember we had families a few years ago who were quite up in arms about some of the behaviors that were happening that were leading to or related to, you know. Claims of HIV or HIV reports. And we did a town hall And Mr. Cohen did um had a talked about using restorative practices. He gave the example that, you know. Meeting with a student and asking them to sit with you and talk about What they did. You know, to harm somebody else is so much more challenging and also meaningful and such a game changer for a student than simply punishing them. And I thought about my own kids where I have one of my kids say to me, I would much rather get in trouble and you ground me right now than have to sit here and talk to you about this. And I said, well, that's not on the table. We're going to talk about this. And that actually that was not grounded. He didn't study yet to talk about it. He'd rather take the punishment because it was easier and he said that And I see with my own kids that when when we do practices as moments of good parenting, which is certainly not all the time. But when we do practices, we do practice those things and I see the fruits of that labor. I see in my own family That when you do the hard work. Of having kids and as adults ourselves be introspective And take a look and seeing what we need to do differently. To behave differently and better in the world. I see now my children as they become young adults i see them carrying that forward and through. You know, not to speak too much about personal stuff, but I think We've come a long way in education. And, um. You know there's no question in my mind that anyone who claims um and who claims that this is not effective educationally you know. Either doesn't understand it, which is why we have these kinds of presentations or perhaps has a different agenda. So, you know, I think that i think a lot of gratitude for what all you're doing because it's a lot It's a lot. And, you know, I'm excited to see The next presentation and where it goes. Thank you. Other board member questions? I just wanted to say that as I was sitting up here taking notes. I heard a couple things that just struck me. First of all, LMC appeared at all different, all the levels. So I just want to give a shout out to LMC, which is something that Mr. Mayer and I are proud to be part of as the board representatives. As something that seems to be working in the district for creating these spaces to make positive change. So I just wanted to give that shout out to LMC as a conduit for positive change in the district as it has been on many different projects, but on this. I also wanted to note the use of second staff. Which is something that was originally piloted in kindergarten, which seems to be talking a lot about tonight. But when we created the full day kindergarten program, Second Step was chosen as the SEL program for that. That was back in 2019. Second step was then implemented K five and now all the way up to eight. Which is wonderful because I think having that consistency all the way through is key. I think it may also be at the pre-K level now. I am not entirely sure. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. But I think having that consistency and that articulation all the way through is important for our kids because Again, we're all speaking the same language then. I think it's hard sometimes as they move through these spaces, if we're not all using I love zones of regulation. I use it with my own kids in my house. We're not all using zones of regulation. All of a sudden they have no idea what we're talking about. There's that mismatch. So I love seeing that consistency across the district and moving through the district so that kids know that we're all talking about the same things. The expectations are set. These are the foundational skills. They may look different in kindergarten, in third, in seventh, in 11th. But this is key to what we expect of them. As they're going forward and then they'll take those skills and move out into the world with them. So thank you for everything you guys are doing. I can't wait to see the next steps in May. I feel like we just got to the intermission part and then we'll see the second half of the show. So thank you very much. We appreciate you coming tonight. All right, we're rolling on to administrative reports and there are none So we're going to move on to board member correspondence. And we're going to try something new tonight. Because we had an especially active board the past few weeks and a lot of us attended events together. So we are going to try to work as a team to move through correspondence pretty quickly and not be as repetitive as I think we've been in the past and see if we can flow through it a little bit better. So is it okay if we go around the table? Is everybody okay with that? Yes, I'm seeing agreement. We're going to go this way. Dr. Dreisen, you're up. You can start with correspondence. Sure. Thank you, Ms. Winters. So first, I'm a month into this, so I just want to express gratitude to the community because it's been wonderful to be so welcome to all of these events and I'm really grateful. And also. You know, I know Dr. Morton started off the recognition tonight, noting that one of our roles is to hold the district accountable, which it is. But as a parent, you know, you often just go to the events that concern your child or your children. And in this role, you're getting to go to events that may not directly relate to your children. And so you're seeing more and you're seeing the same folks at all of these events. And so just gratitude to the district staff and the school staff for all the efforts. I think it's a unique perspective we get by going to more and more of these events. So with that, I'm going to try to be brief. There were a number of events as I'm trying to jump in, some of which I just want to inform the community and others can can share their thoughts. And I'm just going to go in chronological order since the last board meeting. So on January 15th I'm grateful. I'm serving as a liaison for the Garden State Coalition of Schools. Just for context, because I didn't know what that was. It's a statewide nonprofit, nonpartisan education advocacy organization, which consists of both Board of Education members in New Jersey. And superintendents representing approximately 100 school districts. And they meet monthly, mostly virtually one time that each year will be in person. And so in January, the meeting consisted of a panel of two journalists. Who asked questions of the superintendents on the call The questions focused on anticipated challenges in 2025, AI and cell phone policies trends in student misbehavior since COVID. If how districts are planning for potential changes to immigration policy under what at the time was the incoming administration, because this was January 15th and threat assessment teams. I tried to summarize for the group, but in particular, the discussion emphasized funding challenges. That was one of the big themes. Particularly around the formula used, the timeline of learning state aid and finalizing budgets. And one notable example I thought was one district superintendent noted that even with In that district, the 2% cap equated to $3.7 million. And just the district's healthcare expenses will be increasing by $3.15 million. Leaving only about $500,000 for everything else. And that district superintendent concluded that, and this is a quote, the math no longer works. So I think we've heard that before, but it's just. The trend that was on that conversation. The next meeting is on February 19th, so I'll report back to the board. After that discussion. Also that night, I had the pleasure of joining Ms. Winters and Ms. Stern at a course of study night at ROSA. I think those events were discussed in our last board meeting. So just out of efficiency, I appreciated going and learning a lot and appreciate all the efforts that went into that. On the 22nd of January, I joined a number of us who attended Bergen County Academies and I think Ms. Winters is going to describe that. Then on the weekend of the 24th through the 26th. Ms. Palmer and I participated in our newbie training. So the New Jersey. School Board Association has training. Just important to note, it was interesting for me, not funded by the district. So the district didn't pay for that, but you come together with all other new board members. And it's a nice opportunity Just to know that we're all in this together, so to speak. And get to learn from each other. And so I'm sorry, Ms. Palmer isn't here to describe her experiences, and I don't mean to speak for her, although I think We had a number of similar reflections on the event. And so really in this form, I just wanted to say that I think Cherry Hill, particularly our Board of Education, has a lot to be proud of. It's interesting, and we won't go into the details, but you're sitting there, you're meeting others. Lots of boards have lots of challenges. And you get a feel for that when you're there. And it was interesting to see in some cases how we're exhibiting best practices. And so, Mr. Mayor, shout out to the P&L committee because that was one thing We saw, you know, we consistently revisit existing policies Just to make sure that they're staying up to date. And we heard a number of examples of boards where they haven't looked at their policies in several years. And the challenges that can cause Also, as it relates to the P&L committee, but also just how were innovative and leading the way. We actually had a breakout session focused on policy And the example that was used was a cell phone policy for board members. So just coincidental that we're already in the process of implementing a policy like that. And so learned a lot. I'm particularly excited. I know you mentioned the special ed subcommittee, or I don't know the terminology for these committees, but a new committee Also really excited about the governance committee. I think as that's developed, there's some lessons that we learned. That we can dive into. But first, excited to just learn the direction that we're going with that. So that was training. Following training, and this is new for me, got an opportunity to attend the last production of West's Clue. Performance. My cousin actually graduated from West. And so when I was a kid. I had gone to some theater performances, but this was the first time in like 20 years And I went with my family. And so just shout out to the whole team, my four and a half year old daughter made sure to hug Mrs. White after the performance. I was particularly impressed with Wadsworth. The monologue at the end. I don't think I'm giving anything away because the performance is over but the monologue was really impressive. And my son, who's seven, went home. He was so enthralled, he then watched the whole movie. Afterwards. So I think we'll be going back. So just really, I'm new to theater. Community here and appreciated that. And then last but not least, last night, Ms. Gallagher and I attended a Portrait of a graduate at Rosa. And I know the board has spoken about those events. Previously, but just great to see the engagement from the community and the opportunity to participate. Thank you. You had a lot. You hit the ground running. I appreciate the opportunity. We appreciate it. Mr. Mayor. Sadly, because I had been hitting the ground running for the last few years, I didn't have as much energy to run as quickly or to as many events as Dr. Dreisen did. So mine will be very brief. I did have a chance to attend along with Mrs. Mrs. Winters, Cherry Hill West. Open house, another great opportunity for potential incoming Cherry Hill West students all of the students, whether they're thinking about east or west To get a flavor for what Gerald West is. What journalists provides, what the culture is. It's always a really great night. Put on by Dr. Burns and his staff. We had very brief opportunities also, the parents did to To have some short performances. One of the scenes from Clue was performed for Mata. Did a great piece. And there was also an opportunity for families to learn about the various internship opportunities. The Cherry Hill West students can participate in, internships which thankfully should be increasing over the next, you know, whether this year or next year continue to increase. And also a presentation from the Air Force ROTC students. After that presentation in the presentation auditorium students and families had an opportunity to meet with all of the clubs and sports teams, both intramural and and interschool sports teams And learn more about the various opportunities and interests see what matches up for some of the students. So as always, it was a great, great opportunity, great presentation of I think this is the fourth or fifth year I've attended. They've always been wonderful. Look forward to hearing hopefully what their families thought about it. But certainly, it was another great night, good opportunities for students and families to learn about the culture of Cherry Hill West. That was it. Thank you. Ms. Gallagher. Dr. Dreisen spoke about us going to the portrait of a graduate last night, so I'm off the hook. Thanks. See, and that's how we do it. So I'm going to talk about things that I went to that nobody else did. So a couple of things that I got to do. I got to represent the board at the Department of Education's hearing on the SFRA, which is the current school funding formula. I was there with a group of South Jersey Mostly superintendents, board members, a couple of parents. But really heavy on just board members and superintendents talking about the impact of the current funding formula, what it means for their district. And the goal of the hearing was to present recommendations to the department about what changes we think needs to be made with the funding formula going forward. So it was a really great night. Dr. Morton also spoke on behalf of the district, as did Mr. Redfern, who's the CHEA. President as well as Zone PTA spoke. So, and we had some community members speak as well. So it was just a really great night to talk about sort of the The things that I love to talk about, which are the wonky policy issues that are involved with school finance. But I really do think that the department is listening and we'll see what comes out of that. They held hearings in North Jersey, Central Jersey, and ours was the South Jersey hearing. The other thing that I got to do on behalf of the board, which was really neat, and I had never been before. Was I attended the Chinese School of South Jersey's Lunar New Year celebration. It was amazing. It started with a dragon dance coming in, which I had never seen before. And it was just really cool. One of the nicest parts was that the next day, my son came home from school and said to me that a bunch of his friends had seen me there. So it was really nice to hear that feedback that I got to see our students and students from all over South Jersey celebrating their culture and their holiday, but also that they felt that they were supported by the board representing The school district there. I also saw the event was held at Carusi. So the principal of Carusi, Ms. Franco, was also there to support, which was a really nice touch I felt as well as in addition to the mayor and members of town council. So yeah, it was really neat. All right, Mr. Greenbaum, you're up. Thank you. So I'm going to talk about the district's visit to Bergen County Academies. Bergen County Academies is a magnet school in Hackensack, New Jersey that serves students throughout Bergen County. And is recognized as one of the top schools in the nation. I joined a small group of district representatives, including Dr. Morton, some members of the administration staff, and a few fellow board members. To tour their school and learn more about their unique approach to public education. Excuse me. Their academies model with different areas of study was really interesting. It was very impressive. And there might be some opportunities to incorporate some of these ideas into our pathways that we have in our high school curriculum. And they're focused on internship programs at the high school level may provide inspiration for expanding similar opportunities in Cherry Hill schools at both of our high schools. It's a mandatory part of their program. It's something that we do on some level at both of our high schools. And there might be some opportunities to expand these these internship programs for more students. So definitely look forward to uh To hearing what the pitch is. And, you know, where some of these opportunities to incorporate them here in cherry hill And I'll just wrap up with a thank you to their principal, Mr. Davis, and his staff for hosting us and sharing their success stories. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Stone, you're up. Dr. Dreisen referenced our visit to Rosa course of study night which was There's nothing to add there. Had originally planned to go see Clue, but I ended up being out of town on Saturday, so I I didn't make it. Unfortunately, as one of our people online I was watching the birds on Sundays. Go Birds. So that's all I got. Excellent. Dr. Braddock. No correspondence to report beyond what's already said, but I would advise the students in the Cherry Hill District to look for a crazed board member at sports games coming up pretty soon because that's I signed up for quite a few of those and I Fully ingrain myself in that culture. So be ready. I think that's amazing. I'm going to read a Mr. Fain. I need to know if there's like foam number one cherry hill fingers so that I can get like so That'd be pretty funny. I'm going to read Mr. Fain's correspondence. She was unable to be at the meeting tonight due to illness. She says, on Tuesday, I attended the Cherry Hill West Strategic Planning meeting for the community. I believe all Westside schools were in attendance, including principals and PTA presidents. We discuss the common themes found in the survey and how everyone interpreted those themes. Everyone was engaged and I hope that more people continue to come out and be a part of the process. That was Mr. Payne and then Ms. Palmer, when she is back and report out on fair funding, which she attended. On behalf of the board. I feel like that was lightning round. Good job, people. Pretty good, right? All right. I think it was effective. Wonderful. So we are now going to move to one of my favorite parts of the meeting, which is our student rep reports. And Ms. Journey will have to help me. Is it east first this time or west first this time? West, it says on the sugars, do you keep track of this for us? I do not either. So I am going to… So this is an example right here of the kindness and empathy in our students that I like to see. I was about to go to West first and they self-identified that we should go to East 1st. Sort of practices are working. This is working. So we are going to start with our student representatives from High School East this evening, and I'm going to write it down so that I remember for next time. Okay, so a lot went on at East this month. The second marking period and first semester of the school year is quickly coming to a close this Friday. And then report cards are going to be available to view on February 10th. On Friday, January 3rd, several recent East alumni returned to East to talk to the Class of 2025 in a college forum and they talked about their experience in college and answered any questions. Senior Kian Ling was named one of the top 300 young scientists of the 84th Regeneron Science Talent Search, winning $2,000 individually And $2,000 for EAST to be used to further excellence in science, math, and slash or engineering. On February 10th, 11th, 20th, and 27th, East will be holding Shadow Days for the 8th graders. For incoming eighth graders who might want to come to East, allow them to get a glimpse into high school at East. And then on February 19, there'll be a college night for juniors to learn more about the college process. Okay, now on to activities, which we have a lot to report on. On Friday, January 17th. East African American Culture Club held Unity Day after school to commemorate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Students from West African American Culture Club and Latinos at West were able to attend this event as well. There were guest speakers, discussion, and dinner. Thank you, Ms. Joseph. For organizing the event. On Thursday, January 23rd, the class of 2028 held their freshman dance. The theme for the dance was masquerade and students were able to decorate and bring their own masks to the dance. Today, after school, East Chinese National Honor Society Chinese Student Association Korean Culture Club, Filipino Culture Society, and Vietnamese Culture Club held a Lunar New Year festival after school with delicious food, drinks, and games. On Thursday, January 30th from 7 p.m. To 9 p.m, East is holding our annual Discover East event. For eighth graders and other new students interested in attending Cherry Hill East. Interested students and parents will be able to meet core academic teachers Learn about electives and athletic programs, see all the student clubs East has to offer, and meet the guidance counselors. On Friday, this Friday, January 31 at 7 p.m, East faculty will be participating in a lip sync battle And all proceeds from ticket sales and donations will go directly to the theater department. And then East African American Culture Club's annual Black History Month show is this Saturday. February 1 in the East Auditorium. Starting at 4 p.m. Come to see live performances of singing, dancing, and poetry. Have dinner and shop from Black-owned business vendors. All are welcome. And tickets will be sold at the door. It's $10 for the entry. That's a very great event. In regards to athletics, East's winter sports teams have been doing great this month. Boys basketball team went on a 120 winning streak, but their record is now 14.2. The boys swim team are also holding a great record of 7-1 and girls swim team six to two losses. On Thursday, January 16th, Actors Studio 2 held Studio Night Live in which students performed student written, directed, and acted SNL inspired sketches for one night only. The East Theatre Department has also been preparing for their upcoming Mary Poppins show, which opens on February 28th. In addition, East Acapella Group Stay Tuned has an upcoming competition, ICHSA, which will be hosted at East on February 8th. Beck and Rosa joined East last Friday for middle school choir day with the guest conductor Rollo Dilworth. From Temple University. This day was very meaningful as we were able to workshop our music and learn a new song together through high school and middle school ages. Thank you. All right, now High School West. Awesome. So West has officially reached the halfway mark of the 2024-25 school year with the semester being completed this Friday, and we've had a lot going on. So in academics, students have selected their new homerooms with freshmen joining the transition this semester as they will be out of their assigned high school acclimation homerooms. Prior to the second semester, sophomore health classes have completed their written tests and are now eligible for their driving permits. Very exciting. The Regional Science Olympiad competition took place With West students presenting incredible information as a part of the event contributing to their success in the competition. Additionally, a college forum took place hosting West alumni in the first week of January And a FAFSA completion night will offer important support for students planning for higher education. For athletics, we had winter track First up, Brooklyn Ezekiel One of my teammates. Earned first place at an elite meet. It's called SJTCA, where they only take 18 athletes into the meet and she ended up placing first And the boys and girls wrestling team will face off at East on Wednesday, January 29th, registration for spring sports is now open Students are advised to get their physicals in as soon as possible. And both girls basketball, well, I'm sorry, girls basketball is 12 and two right now and boys basketball stands eight to eight. They played Washington Township yesterday and I believe they won and They have a home game tomorrow against Morristown. Also, we have unified bowling going on. Which provides special education students the opportunity to participate in different Sports, one of them being bowling. And the swim team had senior night in a meet against Morristown today. Results coming soon. On the arts front, the incredible production of Clue had several successful performances this past weekend, providing everyone with experiences of humor and mystery in each show. Eighth graders from Karusi were even invited to come watch coming for an in-school matinee. This Friday. Additionally, a concert for Karusi was hosted in our auditorium last week and important to note, Lab Theater will present an original play written by a West alumni on February 27, no, 7th and 8th with preparations already underway. Furthermore, there is an upcoming movie night themed pops concert on February 26th and 27th For both band and vocal groups at West. The ICHSA competition will take place on February 7th for acapella groups. Good luck to both Vermata and Men of No. For extracurriculars. Deca had a strong showing at the regional competition with 20 students moving on to states. Nhs had an induction that occurred earlier this month with 82 new inductees Congrats to all of those who were granted this honor. Finally, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory completed auditions and held their first read-through last week. And congrats to all of those involved. So other notes. We had… We have our third shadow day coming up Thursday, January 30th, following two successful sessions. There are five overalls, so stay tuned for the upcoming dates. The eighth grade visitation occurred Thursday. And a recent principals advisory meeting happen. Additionally, we have a freshman dance occurring right now as we speak. It's moonlight carnival themed So they're probably having a lot of fun right now. Kind of wish I was there. And we have sophomore Cotillion on the horizon Black History Month, the African American Culture Club, will visit Kilmer and Kingston to read books to children. I will be in attendance. It is a very fun event in the elementary students love it. And then for the MLK Day of Service. We participated in Unity Day hosted by ease in our African American Culture Club will also be having a living museum event highlighting all different influential people within the what is it? It's it's a… we pick a theme and then we have a different people dressed up as different influential people within the African-American community and they talk about who their person is and they just give you a quick information spiel. And we also had the, for the first time the muslim student It is, I believe, towards the end of February. I don't have the exact date on that. But the Muslim Student Association It's the 28th, we think. The Muslim Student Association also presented a presented presentation to the faculty about Muslim Heritage Month, which occurred This month, and we just gave some information about what is Muslim Heritage Month. Just different things about Islam and just ways that we can help students during Ramadan and all different types of things. And we collaborated with East and they also made a presentation and presented to their faculty as well. And that is it. And we're just having an exciting year. I love it. Thank you so much. And before we move on, because Erilyn, I don't think I've seen you since this happened. I want to congratulate you on your selection as a delegate to the United States Youth Senate Program. As a poli sci… always sign a major myself in college. My heart beats a little bit faster hearing about these things. I hope you have a phenomenal experience and a wonderful time. So congratulations. Thank you so much. I can't wait to tell you about it after I come back. I can't wait. I would love to hear all about it. It sounds really exciting. So, all right. Thank you guys so much, Dr. Jisen. I don't know if you did this on purpose, but you matched alumni together. Is it official? Yes. Can we have another round of applause? I have a confession. I was going to ask you if the sweatshirt meant anything, but then I had to ask. But then I rethought. I said, I was thinking, what if it's too intrusive? But congratulations. That's wonderful. And as, you know, as senior year goes on, we hope to hear more exciting news. I'm sitting next to a Harvard, a future Harvard alumnus as well. We are so proud of all you guys and all of the seniors. We can't wait to hear about everybody's exciting plans for the future. It's such a phenomenal time of year. I can't believe you guys are halfway through. Enjoy every minute of it. It goes so fast. All right. So we've made it to first public comment. How am I doing on time, Ms. Gallagher? It's going to happen. I take it as a challenge. First public comment. There will be two opportunities for public comment this evening. The first public comment section is for board action items only, 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're online, you'll want to put an S after your name. If you would like to speak, 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 and public forums. Statements with 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, board president, and all board members via email or other alternative means. And we will start as is are custom in the room. If there's anybody who would like to comment on board action items only, or as a student, please approach the microphone now. Action items. Seeing no students. Or community members who would like to speak on action items, I'm going to go to the line. Is there anyone online who would like to speak? Seeing none, I'm going to close first public comment. Now we're going to move on to superintendent comments. Thank you, Ms. Winters. I just want to take an opportunity to thank all of the team members who shared great presentations. This evening, it always pleases my heart when staff members have an opportunity to share the great things that I get to see on a day-to-day basis that are happening within our schools. And as both presentations had gone forward. For me, it also is very joyous There are goals that we have and actions that we have that are written on paper, but there's authenticity and you can't fake it when staff members come And they speak to the actual goals that were written on paper and they bring those goals to life. You know, our goals are documented as a living document. It's not something that we… In a futile manner where we just throw it to the side after it's completed. But there's actually actions that are taking place And the goals are definitely coming to life. So that's beautiful to see. I want to say thank you to all of the community members who participated in the strategic planning community survey, our survey results were very good. We had probably about approximately 3,500 Participants in that survey in and of itself. The next part of the strategic planning process will be our community focus group meetings that will take place. There'll be a focus group for students. Staff members and then community members as well. And the next piece from there will be the true roll up your sleeve session where the stakeholders group will engage in two days of workshops to really begin to put some substance. To the strategic plan itself based upon the comprehensive data and information that we've been able to collect. As Dr. Dreisen mentioned, the portrait of a graduate Meetings have been going very well. So Ms. Roscoff, Carol Roskopf, and myself. Have been conducting those meetings. And kudos to Ms. Raskov. Carol has been doing the bulk of that work. I'm happy to tag along, Ms. Rosco. But nonetheless, it's wonderful to have an opportunity to allow the community to share their voices as to the specific aspirations, characteristics. That we want as a community for our students as they progress throughout the Cherry Hill Public School system. So the last two Mondays have been outstanding days for me personally. I think for our community as well. On January 20th. We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We know that Dr. King lived a life of service. And as we heard from the High School East representatives. There were wonderful activities that took place, service-related activities that took place at High School East. And there were service activities that took place across the district as well. It's a great reminder of the importance of us always giving back. And understanding that it's more than just an egocentric type of viewpoint, but it's about the greater good. This Monday on January 27th. We were definitely pleased to recognize Holocaust remembrance day And this day is an important day for us. It's an opportunity to honor the six million Jewish lives And the others who were lost during the last the Holocaust and to acknowledge the survivors who continue to share powerful stories about what was endured during that heinous time. But more than anything, I think Holocaust Remembrance day serves as a reminder of the consequences of hate and bias and anti-Semitism and prejudice And for us, it's just a reminder. We need to be a compassionate community That's civil that work together. And ensure that atrocities like that never, ever happen again. High school, so the high school marking period closes on Friday. Just as a reminder for students, please make sure you get all of your assignments done if you have any lingering assignments that need to get done. Teachers will input report card grades next week and report cards will be out very soon. That will mark the semester break. We'll be moving on to semester two. Also, as a reminder. Students are off tomorrow. We have an in-service day scheduled for Wednesday, January. 29th. And with that, I'll say thank you, Ms. Winters. Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to our action agenda. And I will go first to move CNI, the superintendent recommends, and I move the following. 13.1, approval of attendance at conference and workshops for the 24-25 school year. 13.2, approval of professional service agreements for the 24-25 school year and 13.3 approval to amend ESEA and IDEA FY2425 budget to reflect carryover. Do I have a second? Ms. Stern, are there any questions? Seeing no questions on the CNI agenda, Ms. Sugars, please open the vote. Board members, you may cast your votes. And we have a unanimous yes vote. Thank you. Mr. Greenbaum, can you move the BNF agenda? Thank you. The superintendent recommends and I move the following. 14.1, approval of minutes. Dated december 3rd, 2024, 14.2, approval of minutes dated December 17th, 2024. 14.3 financial reports. 14.4, resolution authorizing the use of contracts through cooperative purchasing systems. 14.5. Resolution approving the submission and acceptance of a grant application. 14.6, resolution for the award of Transportation. 14.7, acceptance of donations, and I like to read through these. We have a donation from Sharp PTA to be used for several class trips at Sharp. A donation from Ms. Kindle Nicholas. To be used for science clubs at High School West and a donation from Andrea Harris Birnbauer Art Fund to be used for participation in community art projects for the Coles program. And… That's all of them. Do I have a second? Ms. Stern, are there any questions? Shall I recuse from 14.1 and 14.2 since I wasn't on the board in December? Yes. Yes. The sugar is 14.1, 14.2. I recuse. Likewise, for me too, Ms. Sugars. Please. Are there any other questions? Seeing none, Ms. Sugars, please open the voting. Mr. Sugars, I'm voting yes to everything, but on bill list number on 14.3, I need to abstain to avoid a conflict of interest for the SS. And Ms. Sugars, I apologize. I thought… I didn't realize it was that bill list, but bill list five, I have to abstain as well. Because a conflict in spay out of home health care. Mrs. Sugars, um. To need to abstain on Bill List 5. To avoid a conflict of interest with Jewish Federation. And I also need to abstain or abstained from 14.2 because I was not There. I'm sorry. Actually. The minutes are okay. Actually, I… Take that back. I'm not abstaining on 14.2 minutes. I'm just standing on bill list five. Okay, so we have two recusals on 14. And 14.2 from Dr. Braddock and Dr. Dreisen. And then we have three abstentions on bill list number five. Dr. Dreisen. Mr. Mayor and Ms. Stern. Other than that, we have a unanimous yes vote. Thank you. All right. I'll move the HR agenda. 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 Lisa Dodson certificated 15.7 assignment and salary change, not certificated, and 15.8 other compensation certificated. Do I have a second? Mr. Mayor, are there any questions on the HR agenda? Tongue twister that it is. Seeing no questions on the HR agenda, Ms. Sugars, please open the voting. Board members, you may cast your votes. And we have a unanimous yes vote. Wonderful. Mr. Mayor, can you please move the P&L agenda? Again, the superintendent recommends that I move the following agenda item 16.1 approval of harassment, intimidation, and bullying investigation. Decisions, also 16.2 approval of harassment and intimidation, bullying investigation decisions. Item 16.3, first reading of policy. This actually is a repeat from last week. Attendance areas. We're going to bring that back just to ensure that we have made all the appropriate changes and comments based upon the last meeting and then we'll bring it back for a second reading. Item 16.4, second reading of policies, and thank you to Dr. Mahan for last minute. Moving this up to second reading on both the following policies, policies 0155 board committees. And policy zero one six 64.1 board member use of wireless communication devices. Also, item 16.5, waiver of regulation 2340. This is the waiver. Allowing for students to participate in field trips and not have those additional days off affect their The requirement that they attend a certain number of school days. That is it. Do I have a second? Mrs. Winters, are there any questions? Dr. Braddock. No question. Just got her accused from 16.1 due to my not being on the board for those HIVs. Dr. Braddock and Dr. Dreisen, usually the committee chair calls the vote prior to you recusing. Okay. Just. I know you're learning. Seeing no other questions. Mrs. Sugars, would you kindly open the voting? Board members, you may cast your votes. Mr. Sugars, I need to abstain from 16.2. I was not present. And Mrs. Sugars, similarly, I was not present for 16.2, so I have to abstain from that. And so I should just reiterate, I have to accuse from 16.1. It's not a board member at the time. This is sugars. I need to abstain from 16.1 because I was not present and I'm going to read cues from 16.5 to avoid a conflict of interest. Okay, so we have two recusals. Dr. Braddock and Dr. Dreisen on 16.1. We have one abstention on 16.1 from Ms. Stern. We have two abstentions on 16.2, Mr. Greenbaum and Mr. Mayor. And we have one recusal on 16.5 from Ms. Stern. Other than that, we have a unanimous yes vote. Excellent. She's getting ready. Because we're to 17.1 new business to any board members. Point of clarification then? Yes. So with the second reading now approved, is the cell phone policy in effect or does that happen at the next meeting? Mr. Mayor, can you take that? Telephone policy is now in effect. I was going to say, I guess it's going in my pocket. I believe the governance chair just disciplined a board member There is. We created it. Madam Chair of Governance. Thank you for doing your job. My phone just went in my back. New business? It's just more of a recognition that I just wanted to recognize it's Lunar New Year, which is actually one of the reasons that the students are off tomorrow and just to acknowledge wishing our families who celebrate Lunar New Year are very joyous and Typically in cultures say prosperous new years Thank you. Any other board members have new business? Ms. Gallagher. And I will keep this relatively brief. And I didn't know how deep you wanted me to get, Mrs. Winter. So I kind of just put some over kind of like 30,000 foot level. So with the new change to the committee policy, I don't what's the number of the policy is a zero 155 okay We are adding a governance committee. Which will be a standing committee that I will be chairing. And we will have our first meeting in February, which the date is to be determined. I will reach out to connect to figure out a good time for everybody. Just for people listening who might not know exactly what the governance committee is or what they do, it's a committee that essentially like monitors and manages like the board. So training, roles, responsibilities. Making sure evaluations are done on time, compliance, and among other things. But those are kind of like the the bigger items. And I know that there's a lot of excitement around this committee. And I don't feel like I'm speaking out of turn when I say this. And I talked to Mrs. Winters about it and you know obviously i want to address everybody's ideas, but I felt like biggest thing that we should tackle first is essentially our job descriptions, because if we don't know what we do, we can't really go forward, right? And everybody will have input. I've reached out to NJSBA to get information on if they have job description information, I've been presented with a lot of really good information that I need to go through. And that I'll present to the committee. But essentially what I would like to do is create like job descriptions for board members, committee chairs. Vice president and president. So we all have a good idea as to like what our roles are, what the roles of committee chairs are, vice president, president, so that And community, you know, I get a lot of Not a lot, but on occasion Friends or will come to me and say like, oh, I'm having this issue. Can't you do something? No, I can't. So it might be nice to have something that we can point people to like this is the job of the board. So the community has an idea as to like what our role is because I think you know, rightly or wrongly like rightly I don't think I necessarily understood the complete role of a board member until I was in it. But I think people are like, well, why can't you just like get me a teacher, right? And it's like, well, you know, like so I think having this information out there for the public to see is really important for greater transparency and just understanding like what our roles are. So that'll be the first Oh my gosh. That'll be like the first order of business. There we go. And we'll go from there and I'll work on a calendar. And I think like certain members will come in and out as topics arise and expertise and interests come in so that there's flexibility within the group and we can kind of all work together on the governance committee. So if anybody has any questions. Comments? Oh, yes, Dr. Braddock. Thank you for taking this on. You're welcome. I think it'll be fun. That's a word. That's a word for it. I'm glad that you're doing this and I'm glad that you're enthusiastic about it because what you describe, I think, is going to be really useful. So thank you. Mr. I just… basically second what Dr. Braddock said, you know, I really appreciate it. It's a lot. It's a lot. Organizing and organizing and organizing and tracking and ensuring compliance for nine volunteers. You know, who all have very different competing needs is a lot. And it will be incredibly beneficial to the board and to the success of the board and if the board is successful that supports I can only support to better the success of the district and ultimately the students who we're here for so Thank you. Absolutely. Anyone else? All right, perfect. Thank you. Thank you. I can't wait to see where it goes. I'm really excited. Old business. Does anybody have any old business to discuss this evening? Seeing now. It's another recognition thing. Ms. Stearns. And I'm going to add, I didn't raise it during new business because it occurred to me that Actually, we have a student rep who was just shared with me in the hall before I came in She got a fabulous internship, which as we're celebrating our students Hopefully when she comes back, we can come back to that because she's stepped out. But I want to make sure we recognize Jenna, who's got a very impressive internship opportunity. So anyway, we could come back to that later. I know we're jumping around a little bit. Maybe you could be the one as the chair could You know, you have that. Ms. Stern, the role of the chair in this meeting is to keep us on target And follow the agenda. Moving on 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'll 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 to communicate directly to the district superintendent, board president, and all other board members via email or other alternative means. By custom we begin in the room. Is there anyone who would like to participate in second public comment, please approach the podium. The microphone. I'm Sarah Jocelyn. I'm from Cherry Hill. First, I'd like to say I'm so happy that we have a ceasefire And the last I checked, it was still holding. And that's a really important thing. Ms. Jocelyn, please make sure that your comments are relevant to the public school district. I'm working on it. Okay. Come back to us. We are celebrating. A muslim american Month. We've just celebrated the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. We know that in this community there has in the past been issues and we're hoping that going forward with the work that we're doing with all the students at all ages. That we're going to create communities that are in conversation with each other and are working for the betterment of society as a whole. So that's my first part. My second part is I'm sorry I missed the very beginning. So I have to ask the question. Was there discussion that was made about let's say the proposed freezing of assets. Did that happen in the beginning part when I was not here? Because earlier today, I was aware that there was a hold on federal funding, including grants. And so I cannot clarify that issue, but that certainly is an issue that I would think would be important. Especially since tonight we've had a discussion about our students with special needs. Okay, so I will say that openly there. I did attend the… the funding thing. And in my opinion. I heard 50 people talk. There was a lot of people there. All the districts are having issues. And I would just say that We have several items that are outliers that can create problems. Or create opportunities depending on how you look at it. And as a taxpayer, I got my taxes. So I'm going to be calling the district and say, well, I need to see that. So I'm going to find out whether we have An explanation for anybody who opened their tax bill And said, oh my goodness, what happened Because anybody that goes to the district website should be able to get that question answered there instead of me, everyone calling. No, and I missed a barati. Okay. So I just want to say that. Also, the other thing that I wanted to say is that I have in the past attended a African-American month program program where they had pictures on the walls. And I would say that three quarters of the pictures were black men And the women were highly underrepresented. And I do think that's an important thing to consider. As a district. And I would say that Rosa Park's birthday is coming up on the 4th of February and it's public transit day. Thank you, Ms. Jocelyn. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, I'm going to go to the line and the first person with their hand up online is Jessica Fingerman. I thank you for taking my call. I apologize for my voice. I'm also a bit unwell. I wanted to say first. I really like the new website. I think that um whoever has structured it has done a great job. I also wanted to thank Ms. Winters and for other members of the board for talking about the school funding formula And I think that's incredibly important. Thank you for your advocacy to ensure that our tax dollars come back to Our kids here in Cherry Hill Public Schools. You might remember that I had called in earlier in the school year regarding a lack of a consistent teacher for my daughter's class and I noticed that Ms. Mortimer was here this evening and I just wanted to say thank you so much to her. She was Wonderful during that difficult period in stepping in for a few weeks and teaching the class. In addition, I wanted to hear what our human resources department is doing more proactively to do outreach perhaps with our local schools of education I think that the situation with my daughter's class is not an aberration. It's going to continue to happen On different places. For example, my son's geometry class, his teacher is now coming back. And so they have another teacher who's taking on another class, another section. And the cycle perpetuates. And now this person has extra responsibilities and You know, we just get burnt out and so I need the board and the administration to think critically about how we can improve The quality of work for our staff so that they're healthy Feeling positive, that they're fairly compensated. And I think in doing those things that will attract the best to our district yes the teacher shortage is known and it's an endemic thing. But what can Cherry Hill and the Human Resources Department in Cherry Hill do to Insulate that problem. When I was looking over the website, I did some math. And when you subtract the total number of employees from certificated employees, teachers, counselors, and administrators and VAs, you're left with 275 staff. And I just wasn't sure who the 275 people are. I was thinking maybe buildings and grounds, but… you know, that can't be everybody. So I thought that maybe busing and cafeteria staff, but they're probably vendors. So who are the 275 and how do they help our students? One other suggestion would be to provide more support for administrators in schools. I noticed you had Clara Barton. She only has one administrator. Could there be another administrator to support the elementaries that are a bit larger. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Fingerman. Thank you for calling in. Going back to the room, is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment? That's fine. It's your turn. You can please approach the microphone. Thank you. My name is Guy Holtzman. I'm from Cherry Hill. I come on a matter that i already raised to the board and I sent you guys an email also yesterday Last year, I bought my house that's boarding cherry east When baseball season started, baseball started landing on my property Eventually destroying windshields And hitting my wife and kid. I told you guys, I came back here and told you guys, you're all accountable. And that is not safe. I don't know some some of the members here were not members Last year, I wrote to Dr. Morton in the school. I wrote you guys what The school said about me buying the house that the field was there before I bought the house and will be after I will sell the house. Which is wonderful for me as a lawyer, but seriously. I then was referred to Ms. Roscoff. Who is wonderful in cooperating with me and trying to find a solution We try to find a solution putting up Annette would have cost $65,000. Ms. Ms. Roscoff told me Please don't. I said, okay. So we came to a solution to putting trees To protect my house. Which was okay. But then the powers that be told Ms. Roskov that the trees that will be planted, privacy trees. Will be herding the canopy of the trees Where the baseball field is that the baseball limits my property. The thing is, there are no trees there. There is no canopy. As you can ask Dr. Morton and Carol, that we're there, meaning they lied to you. And when they do that, the judge is like to me. As a Cherry resident, they lie to you. Now, I will not allow anything to endanger my family. By any means necessary. You guys, last time I was here, I started cooperating Miss Raskov because we were one step before a lawsuit. The board got a letter and quite frankly, that's the next step for each and every one of you guys, because again, you're accountable. It's under your responsibility. There is no way I will allow baseball to land on my field. Not healing property and certainly not healing my family. So I come to you again. Telling you that we came to a solution Which I'm okay with, even though it's not perfect. Ms. Roscoff is okay with it. But the powers be gardening what guarding in buildings that's the name of the department decided that they're lazy and lying. To you, to me, you're the bosses. That's what I wanted to tell you. I look forward to talking with you in person before we go to the next step. Baseball season, if I remember, starts in a couple of months. And just, you know, keep that under consideration. I haven't been restituted till now, that's the least important thing but still important And everybody knows the powers that be the athletic director the principals that it is the baseballs that caused the damage. There's actual footage of it. So I'm asking kindly, work with me here. So we won't go to that next step. Thanks. Thank you. Going back to the line, there's a phone number ending in 788. It's your turn. Please state your name and municipality. Please unmute. We still can't hear you. Can you please unmute? Hello? Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can the host unmute them? There you go. There you are. Hi, Dr. Hodowitz. We can. Okay, my name is Jeff Podowitz. I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. First, I want you to know there's a bill. It just started. It's Senate Bill number 3910, state of New Jersey. It's in this legislative year. It was sponsored by Senator. Teresa Ruiz, and she's a very powerful senator. The synopsis is codifies preschool expansion date. In other words, pre-scale expansion aid will stop after about three or four years when you've expanded to your fullest. That means it's going to change. I know a lot of other changes in the bill, which will mean a greater expense. So I think everyone needs to look at it. That's Senate number 3910 and realized There'll be big changes, huge expenses if… If they… If they… Put it just on our SFRA. Okay, our state income tax dollars that we send to Trenton go into a property tax relief fund. In Cherry Hill, we do not receive a fair amount of those funds Back to us for use. It's school funding. We haven't had that for over 30 years. If you go to NJ Spotlight News and then search for Lynn Strickland, she was involved with the Garden State Coalition of Schools and read two articles, one from 2017 and the other from 215. Buy her one about her. That is go to njspotlight News, Google in Strickland, read what she says about it. Funding when it has to do with special aid. She really talks about a lot. That's the way to solve the problem. No wealth equalization of special ed aid. None. That would help. It's not going to happen. I first spoke about policy 2010 at a school board meeting, May 2022, 22. I asked them a small phrase in parentheses, be removed from that policy. I spoke about anti-Semitism, bigotry. I asked what was the school district definition of white was because the haters that marched from Charlottesville and the Nazis didn't think Jews were white. But you do. In May 2023, I asked again about that tiny modification of 2010. You all didn't do it. I spoke about the new article in the AARP magazine, The Oldest Hatred. It was new at that time. And it was about anti-Semitism. That phrase says the board commits the student The school district to promote the success of Black African-American. And Hispanic Latinx students, etc, etc. And also indigenous people, Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asian students, i.e. Students who have a racial identity other than right. Let me repeat that. You support all these groups of students, but not the students who have a racial identity of white. That's exactly what it says. Just eliminate that, but you haven't and you won't because I guess you really believe in it. Just like Dr. Sun Ann, she believes in it. Why don't you read her article that you've invited her in? Thank you, Dr. Podowitz. Is there anyone else in the room who has public comment for this evening? Seeing no one in the room and I see no hands raised online. I'm going to close second public comment. And we will move to superintendent's comments. Thank you, Ms. Winters. I'll be brief, but I did want to mention that a district we know we have a received many questions surrounding the executive orders recently signed by the president. And things are changing rapidly. At this time, we do not have complete information as a district. We are monitoring. Developments and developments We're following guidance that is provided by the New Jersey Department of Education. And as information comes available, we'll continue to keep their community informed. But at this at this present time, as I mentioned, we do not have complete information about the impacts or even the details related to how those orders impact. Our district. As a district, we obviously support all of our children That is the language. That we use that is our behavior, our actions. We love our children. We support all of our children. We believe in our children. We nurture. We love our children, all of them. And just in closing, I'd just like to echo Ms. Stern's comments and just wish all who are celebrating a joyful and prosperous Happy Lunar New Year. Have a great night. Thank you. And with that, I will make a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? Dr. Braddock. All is in favor of adjourning? Meetings adjour