##VIDEO ID:CuJtxyvti1E## all right so we do have a couple of special presentations or discussions that we're going to have um uh but before we proceed to that I do want to let the public know that on June 9th we will be discussing uh the New Jersey School Board Association goals recap for 2024 2025 board self- evaluation and goal setting for the next school year um so the first thing that we'll have is the board and administration to give an update uh on the progress of the board and District goals do you want me to go first Andy okay so we have four District goals Dr culls is going to go over one and two I'm going to do three and four I'm going to start with number three the first one was to investigate report on possible solutions to challenges and District transportation so we've uh met a few times with a with with the group with our committee we have a proposal for a study of of a new garage in different locations I shared it with the board on 104 on October 4th um the task force met on September 25th we did put a new flood alert system in at the um at the garage so there's a mechanism to give us an alert if we feel the flood waters are getting high to move buses we when it comes to other challenges like like hiring drivers we do have four new drivers hired and we've interviewed 10 we have um three full-time bus lunch AIDS and um we've upgraded our demographic study which was approved on um the approval to upgrade was on um November 18th goal four was is to implement a district communication plan to strengthen and enhance communication coming from the school district this works off of the communication committee report from 2024 our communication committee um in-house committee has met on June 13th September 16th December 10th and our next meeting is February 4th we have made some new changes to the Friday folder that started that will start this week and uh we continue to investigate website changes both keeping with current platform to improve the current platform and moving to a new platform and then um we're making sure to um preview changes on all types of devices because sometimes when you just look at something on a web on a desktop or a laptop it looks different than it does on a on a um handheld and um we're also ensuring compliance with the Ada um with all the ad Ada restrictions that are required for websites and I'll turn it over to Dr Cullis for goals number one and two so goal one is to increase achievement for all students inclusive of all curricular areas but with a focus on math and science so this year we did continue our process working with the coach she's working with Fifth and eighth grade we have seen that this has been a great use of her time and the way that we have have improved in those particular grade levels that she's working with so we're continuing with our math in addition we have after school tutoring at all three schools with a grant uh funding so we do have that program in math uh as far as our TSS programs that's probably one of the biggest changes because we do have the supervisor of student support services and currently we have the programs running in all three schools Lake View we have 53 TSS cases riverv viiew 42 and Valley View 14 so we're progress monitoring those students on a weekly basis working with their parents their teachers and their intervent intervention teachers as well so those are all ongoing uh in science we are working on practice Assessments in fifth and eth grade that are provided by linkit and there are different forms both with open-ended and with uh just multiple choice to get ready for the format of nsla and we also have found at least reporting back from the teachers the new TS TCI science program they feel has a lot more assessment and is better aligned to the format of njsla so the students are getting a lot more practice with reading charts and graphs being able to interpret information so I feel good about that because our previous program didn't have I think enough of that type of questioning goal number two again this is to this is specifically to expand the tiered systems of support so I did mention the numbers already everything is ongoing uh the only thing that we're continuing to work on is the website we've updated all of the people and programs but we're in the process of creating a new video because it's a few years old now we'd like to create a new video for that site and that is where we stand on the goals if there are any questions great I'd like to open it up to board members um just in case there's any board members that want to follow along there is a document um that you can find in the Google folders or on Steve's email where she he sends uh links to his agenda and his folders so uh but yes I'd like to open it up to the board members for any questions I'll go ahead go ahead and kick it off um with a transportation question uh Dr Forte um the interviewed where you have 10 interviewed drivers is that uh did that result in four new hires or after the four new hires you interviewed 10 additional drivers no the four drivers came from the 10 interviews I see okay great so um is there going to be potentially more and have there been discussions about trying to uh get away from the contracted routes and uh get some of those routes back inhouse we have um doc um Miss Kowski do you have anything to add to that we are going to continue with the Outsource routes at this time uh we have enough drivers inhouse and couple of a few uh Subs however we still have our group of drivers is in a different categories in I don't want to say elderly category so we do have a lot of absm ism so we had to cover ourselves with abs absente isms and uh be able to transport everybody so we're going to continue with the Outsource thank you and the final question with regard to transportation is um do we need to continue that task force um and schedule another meeting if if we're talking about doing something with the with the bus garage then yes if the other part we have made some inroads and I don't feel the need to talk about the the Personnel matters but if we wanted I know it's one of those things right we haven't had a flood in a year so knock on wood it's not as fresh in our mind but if you remember we did have two last year three weeks apart um if it's Something That We're seriously want to do and consider building something somewhere else then yeah I would have the committee but if it's if it's something that can be discussed when we discussing other other issues like um our space in the in we could probably combine the the idea of figuring out what to do with the bus garage with our space concerns and we're that's all going to be tied into Dr grips report that we'll get in the um in the spring thank you so the biggest challenge we had with the transportation or the garage was the flooding and with that new alert system we at this point we haven't had a chance to sort of test it because there hasn't been any issues of potential flooding but do we feel that's enough so that we we can put that discussion off with the new garage well the alert is only to move the buses it just gives us a little bit of a peace of mind like uh we'll we'll know hopefully get a get an advanced warning to make sure we move the buses but it won't protect the facility so if you remember last time we had a couple buses that I had to move like at the last minute because the water came quick you know you think like a flood is slow but it's not it goes quick all of a sudden it's like a little wet to now you're like up to your knees or waist in water so this will give us a little bit more of a head start hopefully but there is really nothing we can do about the the facility I mean it's just in a really bad spot and it's not like if we put sandbags or anything it's not going to do anything because the water the water is way higher than that like it's not like it's just a little bit of water yeah it's and there's nowhere to pump any water or anything because the whole thing is totally flooded I mean my only you know additional comment is it's not just about the water I mean that's certainly the biggest issue but we also have an issue of space we can't put anything else there we talked about electric buses or charging facilities obviously doesn't make sense to put anything like that there so there's lots of other I think kind of KnockOn things things about that that location that are not great so you know besides the flooding so I mean to me to my mind is still is worth you know keeping in in mind Alternatives you know whatever that might be probably I think to me let's see what Dr grip says let's reconvene the space slash Transportation task force and in in the spring after that and make some decisions I was leaning towards that as well uh if we're going to need some major uh work done whether it's a new building or uh upgrading a building we could possibly um bundle those two issues or or items together so yeah real quick on just to put a cap on that I the issue is that there's no good location guys like the locations that have been brought up are not good locations you're putting a bus garage in the middle of a neighborhood this room will be full and you're GNA so I I think we really need to think about that I get it's not a great spot I'm not arguing that but man the Alternatives don't feel good to me and um would require a significant it would require referendum right so we're talking about referendum plus knocking down hundreds of trees plus putting in the middle of a neighborhood just there's a lot of uh not good scenarios so I think if it's part of a larger project that's a different story altogether but um but that's what we've looked at so far unless the one location that I've brought up a few times that we can't seem to get any progress on which would be behind the DPW that would be the location that in my opinion would be the only feasible option that we've looked at so far but that has not been um that has not gotten much progress or traction you know um I I went over that with our ter with our architect and there's a lot of floodland um he he was looking at like where the access road would go and it was in flood it was in like the flood area you know how there's certain areas you can't build on um it there's probably a dry area in the back but to get to that back you have to go through some kind of flood area so he really he he said we can investigate it but he did not think it was a great location for the bus Crush I was going to say if there's the location of the wetlands you have to be a minimum of 50 to 60 feet away on all sides of any perimeter so if there are wetlands and that's going to affect the building the only other option would be if we could look at some commercial like near some commercial property I I just I will tell you right now I will not be supportive unless we absolutely have to do it in putting it in a neighborhood I just cannot wrap my head around putting buses in a neighborhood and the options we've looked at so far have been two options that are basically in neighborhoods so I just unless it's part of a larger project I I'm I'm not super supportive from a from a outset there might be another opportunity with the town too but it's going to take some time yeah we discussed at the uh ORS committee finance committee uh several times that the DPW wasn't really a viable place to put it you bring out the wetlands I know we talk looked back there for a middle school many years ago and a lot of wetlands back there that butt up where the DPW is and then you have the access um that's locked up during the night you know you have late bus runs and things like that and then the DPW is going in and out of there all the time snow plying so it's not a great location but one thing we and we're talking about money is having a study done on on raising the building and um I believe we could get some federal aid for that Steve if I recall we can't get any state aid for it because they only give state aid for school facilities it has to be actually a school so we wouldn't get any state we could we could investigate whether or not there's some kind of federal funds maybe um because it's in a flooded area I'm not sure yeah so um but it's just very limited where to re relocate that garage and then that costs money and Mike's right not only uh the neighbors wouldn't like it um there's been so much cutting down of carbon eaters in our community as well all over the country um you start have to cutting down trees and Forest to uh build a school or put a bus garage up so it's a it's a dilemma great uh any other questions or comments regarding the other goals one quick question I'm on the website Dr Forte and are we going to post the updates that you just presented because I see it looks like last time was like September which makes sense but just now that we've gotten the presentation will you post that yeah I usually uh do it the next day that way totally Mak sense in case yeah thank you great thank you so um with that done let's just now discuss our board goals that we have set for ourselves um that's I believe on the third page or the last page uh goal number one is to rep to represent the needs of the districts through advocacy through advocacy on matters of concern at the local state Andor National level to regularly monitor progress towards District vision mission and goals adjusting as needed review the Denville Public Schools Board of educations bylaws and re revise as necessary and increase the presence of Denville Board of Education members at community and District activities so um I believe for number one uh the needs of the district through advocacy see um um Mike you had mentioned Mr Anderson you had mentioned something uh during executive that I thought was interesting you know where you know maybe health insurance uh if it could be aligned somehow with the school year Al um albe it it might not be but any comments or discussion items like that where we might want to bring to the attention of our um legislators in Trenton uh then we can go ahead and to create a resolution and move forward from there so I do want to follow up on a couple of resolutions that we passed last year uh with our legislators um so I'll take any other ideas and suggestions um as the year goes on James I've got one that we may want to think about um discussing I don't know if it's a Schoolboard conversation or local uh or should I say state level um uh folks but with with the affordable housing and the amount of shouldn't say affordable housing forget about that the amount of housing coming in is there anything that the state can support in trying to um the the build or potential build on schools or the additional student population that will be coming in with the additional demand I it's probably a third rail and most people are probably going to try to avoid it significantly at the state level but I mean I would imagine that most districts that are like ours are facing similar challenges and I'd be interested to understand what school board's position or actually uh Steve remind me what is the name of that other Coalition the Garden State Coalition is it yes those are districts that are similar to us right so that may be a little more specific um they've they've expanded to Urban and larger and Suburban so they they used to be just like Suburban but now they're they've expanded larger now okay but it maybe worthwhile to discuss with them too I just think that you know we're looking at potential you know huge costs that may be coming down the road um and we've talked about it unfortunately there seems like there's some state regulations that are preventing the town from collecting additional funds because we've asked about this additional funds that would be able to support or at least help offset the cost of add additional infrastructure with the building um so if we can look at specifically those regulations and what it would look like to potentially offer some solutions that would be supportive of the districts and the infrastructure cost that may come so yeah Mike I was thinking about that a lot too um I was part of um I think U Dr Forte was there uh Mr Cass was there and um Mr capella was there at the DCA COA presentation that the township had um M missa Dallas were you there yes Ms Dallas was there as well so um the uh one of the thoughts I had during that meeting is what if we took a stance put it in form of resolution and then maybe present it to the delegate assembly and they could tell us what's wrong with it you know or if they have something else so I that's actually something I'd like to and maybe this is something we can do in governance committee is to put put together a resolution where we as a board the Denville board takes a stance with all this new development that's being forced um through regulation legislature that um because of the challenges with our budget and because of the challenges uh with supporting financially the increase of students as well as um the need for teachers that uh we should ask the um the legislature and maybe School boards to uh come up with something to help support districts like us which I believe Mr Anderson is I agree with you is probably all the districts so yeah that's um maybe that's something that we could do and that would be in lines with Goal number one as well for us so so in terms of goal number two regular regularly monitor progress um yeah this is U I think this is something that I'd like to continue with our agendas uh you know just uh revisit our goals um so uh January we're Revisited our goal now um the next meeting is supposed to be June where we sort of finally assess the question I have is do we have another sort of reassessment in March of how we're doing with our goals and and maybe that's something that we don't need a formal presentation on but we can bring that up in good of the cause or something uh and that would help us with uh goal number two in terms of how we want to adjust uh as we monitor our progress whether it's a District board or um what have you um in terms of number three uh bylaws that was the whole reason for the introduction of the governance committee is to review the bylaws and revise as necessary we've already changed a few bylaws that um allowed us to be more in line with State uh Leg State uh statute and uh regulation so I do believe that we are making Headway in goal number three and in terms of goal number four um I personally um I'm not doing well U because I because of business and personal reasons but I do believe that the anxious generation initiative that Dr Forte you have put together is a great way for us as a district uh and as board members to be involved with the community uh to address and just have a conversation about a topic that is I think really important so um I'd like to use that as one of our uh ways of achieving goal number four to build up on it and really look to um see that succeed in our district uh in by increasing the discussion around that so any other questions or comments just one more comment in regards to goal number one and if we want to bring to the state just came into my mind what one of the concerns is obviously don't want to prevent affordable housing so if that whatever we propose is specific to market rate housing and a assessment to be able to support additional School building with the market rate that may get more traction than tying it to affordable housing and it kind of separates it because if there's a huge development that gets approved in town that's all market rate you know that's it's not it's not related directly to affordable housing that's not my point it's just the amount of students that would potentially be coming in with the housing so maybe just an idea to kind of separate it from affordable thank you I really appreciate that that that's a very good point so uh Mr Anderson if you if you want to send me an email with some bullet points of how we might want to write that up um then governance committee can discuss it okay uh any other board member comments or questions I believe that concludes our spe special presentations um so moving on with the agenda superintendent I I have one more sorry oh sure please go ahead okay so it's our um twice annual um update on the HIV and student safety data system progress for July 1 2024 through December 31 2024 we had zero instances of substance abuse zero weapons we had for HIV we had two confirmed HIV cases three HIV investigations and seven predetermination evangelism there were zero instances violence zero and we did have reports of Stu of suspension of students with disabilities for other than violence and vandalism there were two cases two times the police were notified there were three out of three in school suspensions and zero out of school suspensions from July 1 to December 31 we had 27 these are staff student parent trainings we had 27 we had 61 different programs the programs that we do are teaching and learning so it's embedded in some of the curriculum developing student relationships the safety parental support physical emotional environments and the morale in the school Community that's it for my um update thank you for Dr Forte I apologize for missing that um any questions or comments from the board regarding uh Dr Forte's presentation all right great that concludes special presentations uh we'll move on to superintendent comets Dr Forte if you will we need to take a new board of education photo for the yearbook should we do it right now so I don't forget that's why I put it in my notes everybody want to get up here take a picture we'll have um Rebecca do it and then we'll come back for a minute Al Bennett tell your mom need a for okay send that through yeah send that through a little [Music] filter okay um cack our visit was January 15th it went very well thank you to Mr Kim and thank you to our team we um had a short meeting with the whole group from 8:30 to 9: and then the county staff worked with the central office staff and the special services department on uh our goals or all our um indicators and um we felt like it went pretty well I heard good comments back from the county staff so thank you to everybody um very excited about a new recycling program we're working on with the town our Green Team um between myself and the Green Team the mayor and Mr Eggbert we're GNA expand our plastic bag plastic film plastic wrapping if you guys know what I mean it's all that kind of stuff the recycling of that we're gonna we're going to coordinate with the township now um we're going to work on getting a um a receptacle down at the at the Recycling yard to capture that kind of stuff before it goes into the garbage and we are will now be bringing the uh their stuff as well as ours to stop and shop on Route 10 who sends it to txx and then we get these txx um benches back which we just received one very recently so I was pretty excited because I I felt like uh that's probably I think the I think the public will do more and more of that because I I remember just thinking like there's nowhere to bring this stuff so if we make it convenient I think hopefully we'll get a lot of people that do it just for us if you've ever seen what happens when we get deliveries of stuff it's all wrapped in this plastic like if you ever been to like a Home Depot or a Costco the whole pallet is wrapped with that wrapping and all that just went right in the in the landfill but now we we recycle that so I was it's a pretty cool thing I'm I'm really happy that we're going to be doing more of that if you're around on January 30th we have our natural Junior Honor Society induction C ceremony at Valley viw I'll get you the date I'll get you the time in a minute but it's uh January 30th at Valley View um I went to see the band concert the other day and I was so happy to see our vision coming through now um like we've been trying to work hard on getting more and more kids involved and and embedding the um rehearsals right into the school day as an elective and it was able to work we were able to work it out this year and you could really see a difference in the level of performance so I thought it was great to see that um we did do the lead testing I talked about it with you that was that was published there were three Outlets that weren't used very often but they're all three are now capped and shut off so there is no more um requirements on our end and we'll be testing our our um Outlets again in the future as as required by the state I am happy that the anxious generation started and it's moving um we do have already about 27 people signed up to take part in our book study and we're going to be putting more and more information out it's going in the newspaper this week and it will it's on our social media if anybody is on social media and could take my link and repost it that would be great I'd love to see get as as much um as much traction as possible on this um so I'm real happy with the way it's going so far and James and I spoke before we would like to do all executive sessions at 7 pm going forward does anybody have any comments about that yes or no because it's um it's it's I feel we could probably get our most of our work done um at 7 so we're planning on moving forward with that going forward I will um I will talk to James if he feels like we need to do more reminders or anything but we'll um that's what we're going to do planning going forward so thank you that's it for my comments great thank you Dr Forte I believe it's at 700 PM the junior National Honor Society event so um on January 30th uh assistant superintendent comments Dr Cullis yes uh the program be seen and be heard that was scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed to February 7th so that involved Fifth Sixth 7eventh and eighth graders and that has been moved to February 7th report cards our brand new Elementary report cards are going to be ready they are ready and our teachers are getting them filled in the portal opens February 7th at 300 p.m. for report cards for that's for all grades the Middle School's semester grades and the semester the first report card for k25 kindergarten pre-registration opens next week February 3rd so uh you can find the link on our website denville.org also our green teams are collecting towels and blankets because they're making dog toys with uh the oak at the Oaks some of our students are going up to work there and they'll be making these dog toys so towels and blankets can be brought to the front offices and they'll go to Valley View who will be going over to the Oaks and this concludes assistant superintendence report thank you Dr kis business administrator comments Mrs kovski the ethic commission's disclosure statement was sent this week uh please complete that as soon as you can the deadline is April 30th we do have some time but sometimes we don't do it right away we forget so if you don't mind submitting that I have to then review it and have it to the county by the 30th of April so just to allow me some time to review it as well uh my other comment is we finally completed the HVAC CLA View and we also received 100 well 81% of the grant that was promised to us in the amount of $1.3 million so the whole project probably did cost the district about $300,000 was a great savings thank you thank you Mrs grai I I saw that in the the minutes for the finance and operations committee and I was really pleased to see that so thank you for all your hard work on that um in terms of the ethics uh reporting do we still have to fill out like a space or a zero so that our that the glitch that the website has where if we don't if we don't put anything it get it gets returned as rejected or something like that do we still have to worry about that just the first line you can put na if you forget it's okay I have to review it on my end and I can just complete that as well okay great thank you okay uh let's move on to the agenda and open it up for public discussion uh we're opening it up public discussion at 8:08 p.m. all right seeing no one in the chambers from the public and no one online we'll go ahead and close public comments at 8:08 p.m. and move on to Old business action to be taken um Mrs zalis could you take us through old business action to be taken please sure can um the following resolution have been recommended by the superintendent of schools to the board of education for approval um we are looking at January 2025 after the review of the secretary's monthly financial report and upon consultation with the appropriate District officials to the best of our knowledge no major account or fund has been overexpanded in violation of njac 620 d213 and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's financial obligation for the remainder of the fiscal year so I move to approve the following resolutions under old business the a treasur of school monies and the board secretary reports of December 2024 B the education reports report of student enrollment report of Health office approve the 2025 26 holiday calendar for the 12 month staff and Hib VB 2024 2504 and the minutes of the December 16th 2024 meeting regular and executive session I'll second thank you questions or comments roll call please Dore yes Mrs Adelis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay next item on the agenda is Personnel Mr Capello can you walk us through that please yeah I'd be happy to uh if there are no objections under Personnel I would like to move items one through uh 10 uh these include um item number one which is uh new hires resignations retirements and leaves uh I would like to point out a change on 1D um in the description instead of retroactive coverage for employee D1 d00 z1077 1925 to 13025 uh that should be changed to be say uh 1925 D until further notice um continuing number two we have approval for uh leave uh for FMLA for an employee uh that continues uh we have item three we're resending resolution uh 4 A1 from our January 6th uh Board of Education meeting number four uh another uh FMLA approval five is uh we're retroactively approving employee for leave of absence under FMLA six also an FMLA leave seven another FMLA leave uh continuing on to number eight FMLA leave uh number nine also an FMLA leave and number 10 uh we are going to be approving the hiring of a new substitute uh teacher I'll second thank you questions or comments roll call please D deore yes Mrs Adelis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes Dr Moore can you walk us through please sure I'd like to move uh for approval of the following resolutions under instruction and program under number one uh several Mars n students to observe at Riverview School as part of their education 101 class item number two is to approve the attached list of field trips item number three is to approve the purchase of get ready from Vista Higher Learning item number four is to approve the list of schools for uh title three consort sorum purchases uh item number five is to approve the discard which is to donate sell or recycle the following materials and it looks like a series of books I'll second second thank you questions or comments roll call please Dr Moore yes Mrs selis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay at this time there is nothing under governance number letter C so D Finance Mr Anderson if you would walk us through that please sure if there are no objections i' like to move under D Finance items number one through six as a block this includes our uh checklist under item number one item number two is to approve the dispos osal of the list of uh items below listed in the agenda their nurse equipment that is no longer in use by the district item number three is to accept the donation of 15 warm-up shirts for the girls basketball team at Valley View from an anonymous donor number four is for the board to approve the donation of 30 copies of the book The anxious Generation by Jonathan hate at a cost of $487 50 from the Denville Education Foundation number five is for the board to approve the attached non-resident tuition agreement for student uh the student number listed in the agenda for the 2025 2026 school year and item number six is for the board to approve the donation of $250 in donor's Choice credits from code.org for the Riverview computer lab uh Miss Renee Su sudel um technology teacher won a contest with the organization to receive the donation I'll second thank you questions or comments just a quick comment to obviously thank several folks that uh made donations including an anonymous donor Education Foundation continuing to support the uh District um as well as uh congratulations to miss uh sudel for um winning the uh credits for code.org I agree thank you okay if there are no questions or comments or further questions or comments roll call please de yes Mrs Adelis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass no on the milk fund yes and everything else Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes okay uh operations Mr Cass if you will please glad to no items to discuss or move under transportation but under building and grounds item 2.1 I'm asking the board to approve the attach quote from site remediation Group LLC to prepare a phase 2 environmental site assessment for the site located at 46 Nicole Drive denill New Jersey and the amount of $4,910 which will be paid with maintenance Reserve second thank you questions comments roll call please Dore yes Mrs sellis yes Mrs asterino yes Mr Cass yes Mr Anderson yes Mr Capello yes Mr Kim yes all right uh next item on the agenda is the good of the cause committee reports correspondence discussion items and other items that the the board would like to discuss I have uh for the highlights I have donations the goals update and the hi ssds update thank you I had the pleasure of returning to the river viiew PTA meeting and uh it was a great meeting well attended and um they have most of their committee managers in place for all these wonderful fundraising events that they do throughout the year couple of openings but they do uh do a great job so and um just one key item that um it it appears to be a big hit where it goes is the use of therapy dogs every review Mrs T did talk about that a little bit how successful the programs been and people I know who are Educators and other schools too that they make a use of therapy dogs and it it's a great addition to the education system great thank you Miss Adelis you wanted to uh bring something up for the board uh yes so I just wanted to make a comment and I I don't know if I wanted to mention what was done publicly this week by the administration as well here Steve Forte Dr Forte was able to connect with the um staff and the administration regarding any policies of uh immigration officials or immigration and custom enforcement officials to to enter schools um so I just wanted to read a little bit about what the New Jersey Department of Education has put forward and just make sure that you know as a board member and on the sitting here at this dayas I want to make sure that our community is aware as well um so the New Jersey Department of Education in its unwavering is unwavering in its commitment to ensuring that every student regardless of immigration status national origin or religion can attend public school safety safely excuse me um this the past couple of days have been quite um chaotic in some cases for some people and I want to make sure that the community knows that um as administrators or maybe I'll just speak for myself I'll speak for myself um that we stand with our community we stand with individuals who are here to receive their education there is no reason for uh adults to grown adults to take students out of school that are not responsible for them um we are here to provide a safe environment for students uh we are responsible for them and it's completely unethical and irresponsible for um any kind of trauma or any kind of um government agency to come in to do whatever they feel uh it is a Judicial issued warrant that is required uh but again there is no reason for any anyone to enter our school in that way um again that's my personal opinion but I will say that this the superintendent and and the staff have been informed of what is required of them which is to reach out to the superintendent and administration should anything occur um I I I I value all of your opinion in this and and I I thank Steve again for putting out that maybe we need to create a more stringent policy and procedures and what and include the language from the do doe um I I appreciate again that you educated our staff but maybe we want to provide it further clarification especially to the front office staff administrators and teachers and um again I know that we are notifying Steve um but I do also request that the Board of Education president be contacted as well if that is if if ever the case occurs any other board member wish to comment or add or um add on to that uh no I'll just I I'll just agree with everything Mrs de said um you know we're here to educate children at the end of the day and keep them safe I know Dr Forte believes that's you know and we all believe that is our first and primary goal so um you know I think uh I think our actions hopefully will you know we we continue to reinforce that um we have to comply with the law but at the same time we you know we want to make sure that our community is safe and that our kids are educated yeah just to update I did include the Department of Ed um information when I informed our staff there's the department of Ed had a website so I did include that and I already spoke with all the people involved and we have I think a solid process in place if something like that was to happen and um we're there were everyone was told that only Dr cers and myself can make any decisions on this that people are told to wait until we get there and figure it out with our board attorney okay yeah I from my perspective I believe it's uh I Echo the words that are been said here so far I mean we are in the business of uh making sure that our children are safe and educated so uh whatever might have happened up to this point um or that will happen in the future I'm sure we'll figure it out because uh this board in my opinion has always been nonpartisan and uh we'll just make the right decision uh comment sense uh often applies with this board I wish to I believe Common Sense applies with this board so um any other good of the cause items I know we all like to get out of here but uh um there's been periodic Buzz goes around in the uh in the media the newspapers about prek education which I think everybody agrees it's it's good to do but um when you read the articles especially when it comes from the governor at a very high level uh the doubles in the details and um I was here uh you know many years ago when we finally got to full day kindergarten which was a great achievement um Dr Cullis was here too Katherine mosac our interim superintendent that got that going so um you know they don't get into where do you put it are the schools big enough and right now we're you know we're looking to get uh EXP expansion possibilities or even discussing a new school because of the influx of new students from affordable housing so it's uh something to keep an eye and I don't think they'd ever mandate it that you have to do it but uh it costs a lot of money the governor had some funding proposals but uh he's a lame duck Governor he's not going to be here forever and and the state does a stretch financially too so uh you know if you do do it are you going to be able toh keep it and where's the money going to come from as I mentioned earlier um I sat on along with a few other board members um the town the town's meeting with regards to uh DCA COA developments some of the questions I had asked is um will this happen continually because we had just finished round three of COA uh where we see all these new developments um around Denville which will lead to additional students um and what this meeting was about was about was the next round uh that's supposed to happen over 10-year period uh so my next the the next logical question was will there be more rounds will there be round five and the answer was yes the answer was there will be these rounds uh the future term I think is going to be DCA uh DCA rounds every 10 years so in light of that information um the district will have that uneasy feeling of school space and I do think that we have a big task ahead of us so the next Domino to fall for this uh board is the presentation from Dr grip and once that once we have that presentation then I do believe that we'll have to have another round of committee meetings uh specifically this space consideration meetings so um the information provided to us was that there would be potentially a need for another 485 affordable houses so the development would build for Builders remedy they'll build another 80% above that so we're looking at potentially 2,425 units with this next round so but the town did agree in their in their resolution to only vote uh to counter with I believe 230 houses if that's correct I'm not sure go go ahead Dina yeah yeah no that that's exactly right I mean one of the things I think that's important to remember is that there is much less develop developable land than there was during the last go round um they spent a lot of time looking at that um and when you take that all of the the uh land that the state said is available and there are some ridiculous ones when you come down to what is realistically buildable it's a it's a much smaller number actually I think the affordable number might have been less than even 200 I think it was more like one 100 and change um so I think that was the number they were going to counter with now there's no guarantee that that's going to mean anything but they felt that that was a um a defensible position that the numbers kind of bore that out that the calculations you know there was there was an argument for that so so they're currently in the process of um negotiating I guess via lawsuit um that specific number but our job I think is to plan ahead and I think that we will have some uh interesting conversations moving forward um I also was part of qac uh the qac meeting that Dr Forte mentioned in his comments and the the overall meeting was very positive and I've heard very um uh very good comments from the county the County Board of Ed as well so um I believe that uh for my opinion Denville often is the standard like we we we're developing a reputation and a culture that we want to set the standard and I think that's important and so um I think that's uh that's Al that's always very good to hear um and I think that's where the governance committee is sort of where I want to take that I want to sort of push the envelope I want to um if we can develop a board that continually challenges legislators you know the suggestion that Mr Anderson had um if we can create a resolution that challenges the legislators and say Hey listen and that was part of this meeting as well do they uh did they factor in the impact the uh the the impact to traffic the impact to the school systems the impact to the community um all these developments and the answer was no they don't look at that you know it's almost like a just a from a statistical standpoint they only look at the numbers so I want to see if we can challenge the uh Trenton challenge Trenton with some additional resolutions and I'm sure we can get school boards to uh help and support us as well so um yeah it's going to be an interesting year and um the other nugget that I'd like to leave with you board members is uh and I'd like to further discuss that in the governance committee is that I I always feel like the presidency should start in June July or August uh to coincide with the school year and I don't know if there's been discussions about that in the past and I know that our term ends in December but could we do it where a president could be elected in July and then the term end would um would end in June just like a school year so I'm already seeing uh mixed uh mixed responses but go ahead no I mean I think I don't think you can do that from a real point of view right correct that is a statute and that has to be a resolution to be brought up to this to threaten in the doe yeah let's challenge that statute but okay yeah so just up for discussion you know all right uh are there any other comments or questions is there a need for an additional exec oh uh we have the agenda which tells me that we need to open it up for public comments and so I'd like to open it up at 8:29 PM so seeing that there's no one from the public here in person and online we'll go ahead and close public comments at 8:29 there is no need for executive session so could I have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second great um it's a tie so miss Kowski can decide who was second uh and all in favor I any Nays extensions we are adjourned at 8:30 p.m.