##VIDEO ID:2EvDt3iTyHY## for e e e e e for e e e e e e e e spe e e e very e e always soon as you open the door I so I I knew I had to just to make I knew right knew leave the parade you might as well jump out that's right you know me this is okay no problem these are cute it is really [Music] cute I did I got but I don't want to one okay all right oh coolg or she okay long day it just take some space e e e e all right we're going to get started good evening everybody my name is SAA Peterson and I'm here as a Spanish interpreter to interpret any Spanish public comments from Spanish to English Mr mccort will you please read our mission statement working together as a community our mission is to Welcome All and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative empathetic resilient and who choose to make an impact Mr sabahul this meeting which is here hereby call to order at 6:34 is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law public notice was posted in the office of the Board of Education and communicated to the municipal clerk and the daily record on January 15 2025 please rise for the flag salute Ali United States of America and to the Republic for it stands na God indivisible liy and justice for all misso oh I'm sorry here miss STS present Mr Mar present Miss Phillips here miss penales here Dr CER present Miss Sher here miss SES Mr Miller here Mr haime we have some presentations yes we do M GI come right up good evening to everyone it's really quite remarkable that tonight we ga together after the observance of Martin Luther King Jr day did you know that Martin Luther King Jr day is a day that is designated as a National Day of Service a day that encourages people to volunteer and give to their give back to their communities did you know that January is Board of Education recognition month and that is why you see them wearing those lovely orange scarves I know you're jealous um but as a small token of our appreciation we have the scarves for you this evening we have new do uh Public Schools pens for you so thank you I'd like to thank each of our current board members for their dedication of volunteering their time and their service to the Dober Public Schools your commitment to the education and well-being of our students and staff is commendable thank you for all that you have done and continued to do in reflecting on yesterday's National Day of Service I wanted to share some words from Dr King he once said that life's most persistent and Urgent question is what are you doing for others well tonight we are honoring the extraordinary Educators who can proudly say I teach I work with children did you know that teaching is one of the most profound ways to serve others by shaping Minds fostering dreams and inspiring change tonight we proudly recognize and celebrate our exceptional Educators in doing so I wanted to share some examples about what what that means did you know that education is an enduring Endeavor one that is an extraordinary experience of exploring Endless Possibilities expanding P perspectives and elevating potential of our students did you know that to teach means to embrace the whole child to embrace his essential effort ensuring that every student involves into their best selves did you know that education is not about exams it's not about essays it's about igniting and enduring eagerness for exploration and expression and growth to our esteemed Educators who are here tonight you exemplify excellence in every lesson every Exchange in every effort you make your enthusiasm energizes your empathy enriches and your expertise equip students for a future future filled with endless opportunities thus it is my distinct pleasure to begin tonight's celebration of our exceptional Educators and Educational Service professionals and as you applaud um I want you to consider these words from Dr King about education he said the function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically intelligent plus character that is the goal of true education and so tonight I'm going to have our building leaders come up and they I'm going to ask that you remain standing so I'm going to introduce and welcome up all of the administrators together so if I could have Dr Sable for for the D do Early Learning Center two Mr Edwards for Academy Street Mr chewy for East over Elementary Miss Carlton for North do Mr McCaul for do middle school and Dr Nunes for do high school come on up and in that order um Dr Sable I'll let you all read the names of your folks good evening everyone so this evening I am very happy to invite up Tracy hold on I told her I was going to mess it up dreik to come on up as our Educational Services professional from Del too good evening of Academy stre Street School congratulations to all the recipients uh but our teacher of the year first I'd like to welcome Miss Ashley [Applause] Beckle and our es professional of the Year miss meline [Applause] Santiago good evening everybody I'm Joshua chewy principal at East over Elementary the first person I would like to call up but who isn't here is Mary Anderson she was planning on coming but she is sick and to show you what type of professional she is she was still sending out emails today setting up for character counts for tomorrow when she's supposed to be sick at home so I would like to congratulate her for being teacher of the year the our es professional of the year is Mrs duk I don't know what I would do without her good evening I'm Heather Carlton principal of northover elementary school I'd like to congratulate all of the recipients this evening I would like to call up Valerie hemway our teacher of the year and Miss Kimberly Campbell our educational specialist of the Year congratulations [Applause] uh good evening everyone I'm Mike McCauley principal of do Middle School uh congratulations to all of our recipients at this time I'd like to call up DM's Teacher of the Year Julie fahe and our Educational Services professional of the Year charell [Applause] Rivera good evening everyone I'm Dr Nunes principal do high school I want to uh send my congratulations to all of the recipients this evening but last but certainly not least do high school I'd like to bring up Mrs Rachel srai do High School's teacher of the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] year and our Educational Services professional of the Year Mrs Julie badis guidance [Applause] counselor Mr Miller and and Miss Phillips if you would join the group for a group photo our board president and our board vice president and we take a group photo squeeze in just a little maybe stand you know got it okay thank you big round of applause for all of our honores [Applause] okay if it's okay with the board we'd like to take a 10-minute recess so that we could celebrate with the re our education recipients and celebrate with a little cake okay all right we'll recess for 10 minutes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e um in uh recognition of board education members month uh we put them together for the district for you guys so uh enjoy oh [Music] on behalf of do elementary school we would like to thank you for all of your hard work to ensure the success of the students of do Public Schools [Music] thank you for supporting music hello Board of Education members Ed would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the members of the board of education for their unwavering dedication and service to our school Community your commitment to fostering a positive learning environment supporting both students and staff and making thoughtful decisions to ensure the success of our schools is truly appreciated we are grateful for your leadership your vision and tireless efforts to help shape the future of our students thank you for all that you do from Ed thank [Applause] you in recognition of school board appreciation month I would like to thank our board members for the support to our staff our students and our community thank you thank you I appreciate yall Mr AR here from Academy Street School I would like to personally thank the board of education on behalf of our building amazing staff students and parents thank you for everything you do for our students our teachers and our community it does not go unnoticed wish you the best in 2025 thank you go Tigers thank you Board of Education we really appreciate you [Music] greetings from DMS uh just want to thank the Board of Ed of course for uh all of your long hours and hard work that you put in uh making sure the students uh and staff of do uh have everything they need uh to get a great education so thank you very much to all of you uh want to give a a big thank you to our members who just left uh M Mendes and M nutting and certainly give a a big Welcome to our new members uh Mr mccort and of course Mrs Cher uh welcome back to the Board of Ed but uh thank you so much to all of you uh for everything that you do for us uh it is greatly appreciated thank you thank you hello good evening I wanted to take this moment to thank our board of education for all the hard work commitment and dedication that they put in um every single day for the betterment of the students in this District especially here at dolber high school I know that sometimes this might seem like a thankless job but believe me we appreciate you we um are so thankful for the work that you do and ensuring that our students are successful safe healthy and well again from the bottom of my heart thank you board of education for all the work work that you do for the betterment of our students peace out thank you Board of Education good evening Board of Education members I am Stephanie Vargas Milligan preschool supervisor and I want to express my sincere gratitude for all of your hard work and dedication serving on the board of education it is a privilege to be part of the Dober community and I look forward to seeing all the great things that you will accomplish as a team once again thank you and best of luck thank you board of education for all that you do for us thank you Board of Education we continue to appreciate all of your support hello I'm Lanny Lucas from Academy Street School we just want to thank you on behalf of our students and our families for everything that you do to support our school Community thank you for your leadership your vision and empowering our students to be the best that they can be hello and happy School Board recognition month just want to take an opportunity to thank you for all that you do to help support staff students Administration we really appreciate it here at Ed and throughout the district so thank you very much thank you Bo of [Music] Education [Music] e e e e so we are doing monitoring progress through data and that data review like I just mentioned that happened in the summer as a team uh for those of you who had an opportunity you'll see some pictures we had in our PD room over at Belmont uh gallery of just data all across the room and we as a team sat down analyzed the data and looked at where areas where we still need to grow and areas that we are doing very well in as you can see here here's some of the data that we were able to collect and pull from our I ready math and our I ready reading all right tools to support multilingual diverse Learners we've providing like I mentioned before SEI training training shelter instruction uh We've added an additional 50 staff members trained here in District enhancing our dual language program meeting and involving our students needs we have a dual language committee who is presently working uh together as a team to visit one of the districts who has had dual language several years in in regards to programming scheduling and supports for our teachers and our students and reviewing and refining gift and talent to program our g&t committee developing new High School courses inform by students sent on a survey that was 7th through 8th 7th through 11th grade here is our training for Shelson instruct English instruction supporting equ equability and access to all of our students utilizing benchmarks supporting inclusion conducting regular data review meetings and these are all happening not only at a district level at Belmont but also particularly at each building with the support of our supervisor ERS building Administration and our chief educational officer our goal number two strengthen our districtwide climate and culture staff for students and staff and this is something that we're always working towards climate and culture morale are very important as it always resonates throughout the entire District it promotes success it promotes a motivation and this is something we are been very very particular in making sure that we are continuing with the climate within the district so how do we Foster that climate how do we Foster that morale we try to gather data we utilize surveys from our committees right with our culture and climate connection committee which was our Panorama survey committee last year and now what we've done differently this year is we're building our own in-house survey to be able to analyze it uh and share out in a timely manner with our all of our stakeholders expanding our PBIS initiatives last year we started at the high school and middle school and now we're doing all of our elementary so that now this articulation came all the way up to 12 and increasing parent Community engagement we've had several parent forums we're having another one on January 29th at 700 p.m. at DMS uh we had our Latino workshops which has over 60 members come to participate we have a connecting do concerts athletic events and once again these are an opportunity for our community to see all the hard work that our students and our staff are putting together and here are a few images and pictures of our concerts our character counts uh character air program one 123 andrees assembly and our DMS family yoga night uh Pro promoting scho engagement once again instant decision day keys for Success over at East over Elementary we have our art Club that's at academy uh character counts Mentor program that's at the middle school and they support all of our elementaries and Hands-On workshops and ESL Awards night and then our goal number three our goal number three is enhance stakeholders engagement and communication across the district that and communication is key so that all members are moving in the right direction so that we're all going in one way to meet our goals and it is very important that that communication not only comes from the top but also is spread throughout the entire team and that we use every resource and technology and tool that is existent to make sure that we all move as a unit so strengthening communication and Partnerships we've started our Friday Focus videos these are videos that I created in house uh to speak a little bit about updates that week as well as any upcoming events and we also talk about some motivational quotes that we've been using for the beginning of the year and I want to thank the staff because the staff has really uh participated heavily uh now providing me with their own quotes and what those quotes mean to them and I want to say that within the first uh 24 hours of me sending out that survey on motivational quotes I had 45 staff members participate so thank you again to our staff for really jumping in we our WhatsApp another way of using all of our resources all our communication to make sure that all the events any updates are provided to our community in in an instance uh we are working now with Latino Institute parent workshops we started this is our second or third second year doing it we're looking forward to another third year of our Workshop we have the new playground installed at North do and our Home Depot student workshops and Home Depot has been a huge partner of ours for many years contributing to our Courtyard over at DMS and Ed and now providing these Hands-On workshops for our students we have our FAA nights at the high school providing information very Val valuable information to our families about FAA um we have our door recap messages which I something we started doing this year new and it's monthly videos for myself just recapping the month and also events or important information that our families should be aware of uh we had the do uh trunk Retreat uh where I have St convince me to to go out there and dressed up as a safari guide and uh they were dressed up as Tigers we it was great opportunity for us to engage our community and really kind of get ourselves out there and like I mentioned before our pan Forum on the 29th I really hope to have a good outcome just to continue have that conversation of our goals dual language g&t and other District initiatives okay and then the community work we have a PBIS gifted and talented we have our culture and climate committee we have a staggering School times dual language and block scheduling and these are the Committees that we've put together as teams to make sure that we're continuous to move forward and reaching our goals as a team all right and that is our goals review for the year uh thank you again and we'll continue to update everyone as we get closer to finalizing our goals thank you everyone uh any members of the board have any questions for Mr haime Dr serer Mr haime how often are we using WhatsApp I believe I signed up for it a while ago but I don't know that I've gotten any notifications I am getting texts um are are they duplicated uh how often are we using Whatsapp uh almost on a daily or weekly basis depending on the updates are sing out um what I can do is I can double check to see where which one you signed up for uh but are you're not getting any at all I haven't gotten any WhatsApp so so I just went on the website so if I'm clearly I didn't sign up um if if I wanted to or people who are watching at home parents you know Guardians who are watching at home how would they go about um getting on the WhatsApp well we could do two things uh there is a we could send out another link to everyone just in case they have another they missed it the first time and they need to sign up I can send that out as a link uh the other piece and I'll double check that it's on the website there should be a QR code for them to be able to sign up right off their phones so I'll double check that they're both available and then I'll send out a message to the community okay I didn't see it on the website but I obviously did a very cursory search but I think we we've been asking for a long time so let's I love that you're sending out almost daily and uh hope people in the community are taking advantage do you have any idea how many people are on that I can check the numbers I'm just curious um I wouldn't know right off the top of my head but I can definitely check thank you any other board members questions I I want to thank you for the detailed report I mean it clearly shows we're making a lot of progress towards our goal I espe especially love all the teaming and the Committees that you pull together because that brings about you know the best ideas that we can move forward um and all the the communication the Outreach to families the Partnerships it all makes a really big difference so thank you thank you okay at this time I'd like to off open the meeting to the public the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to Express themselves on school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of three minutes public comments limited to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments how however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advise that you are commenting at your own risk public any public comments that are directed at a particular ular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation is there anyone from the public that wishes to be heard just please step up to the microphone and just give us your name and address anyone okay I close this portion of the meeting to the public there'll be a second public session do we have a motion to approve the minutes I'll make a motion second all those in favor I I question you should always ask a posst any questions any questions sorry it's GNA take me a little time to get used to this I'm so used to just cruising along with Daniela any questions on any of the minutes or any corrections roll call please mrso um so yes to um January 2nd um abstain from December 10th December 10th yeah I was not here December 10th M STS yes Mr Mar uh yes to January 2nd and obviously abstain from December 10th Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr CER yes M abstaining on Executive session and regular minutes to December 10th and yes to January 2nd executive and regular thank you Mr Miller yes okay Communications I'm not aware aware of any whole board Communications did we have any Mr no I don't anything okay and our student representative is currently wrestling so he will not be with us today um so the president's report um it's been a couple of uh busy weeks uh since our reorganization meeting uh had several meetings with Miss Phillips to align board members with committees and to look at ways to provide helpful information to our board members at the last meeting Dr saer reported that the New Jersey Department of Education was conducting hearings to gather input for the purpose of reforming the New Jersey school funding Reform Act board members were invited to attend the hearing in person or provide testimony electronic ly on January 7th I attended the New Jersey Department of Education uh Hearing in person at the Somerset County Government Office along with Mrs shower prior to the start of the hearing I had the opportunity to speak to David Corso he is the assistant Commissioner of finance and business services uh he is the one that's really responsible for helping to determine some of that funding so he was familiar with Dober as he used to be a ba in Mars County we talked about Equitable funding for school districts like do that face so many obstacles that other districts simply do not face I talked about options for changing the funding formula by putting more weight on social economic impacts special education and elll factors there were over a 100 individuals representing many school districts from all over the state uh testimony centered on budget stability uh some districts received substantial state aid Cuts last year and each year school districts must contend with unpredictable state aid figures which are typically late this causes districts to scramble to come up with a budget to meet the state deadline it creates a very difficult situation in leaving districts few options to make up any potential Cuts in state aid many districts create several variations of a budget so that they can react quickly this unpredictability creates a lot of extra work for all of our school districts testimony included discussion on eliminating the two eliminating the 2% cap as districts must contend with Rising costs that easily surpass the 2% cap resulting in a budget shortfall that can't be recovered there was discussion on having a flexible Surplus that can be placed where it is needed presently the Surplus can only be placed in maintenance or capital reserve accounts some districts believe the funding formula should be based on a per student cost based on the students require required services and educational requirements there was a discussion for the state to include vocation school students in the sendings districts funding calculations and I believe currently uh it's not included and the district pays for the tuition and transportation costs uh but no uh support from the state in the calculation our board and administration provided input into these talking points that I had a three minute testimony and I'm just going to read to you uh what what I provided uh in to the hearing as part of the testimony the do school district has long grappled with the consequences of systematic underfunding that leaves our school spending below the state defined adequacy levels this persistent shortfall hinders our ability to provide the robust educational programs and services our students need to succeed compounding the issue the correlation between under adequacy spending and lower District test scores reveals the pressing need for an immediate and Equitable reform in New Jersey school funding framework the Dober School District in the heart of Mars county has the lowest per pupil spending in comparison to its Mars County neighbors the Dober Public School District spends approximately $15,000 per student annually which is below the state's K through 12 average of 19,000 per student increased Equalization Aid to our district has enabled the reduction of the student teacher ratio increase the amount of special special education case managers and increase the number of special education teachers and enhanced our E ESL uh programming this is not enough When comparing the level of programming and services many other districts in our state are able to provide according to State calculations the DOA school district is still under adequacy for per pupil spending which limits access to some critical resources such as updated technology expanded curriculum offerings and student Support Services property poor districts like Dover face higher tax burdens while still failing to generate sufficient Revenue to meet adequacy levels exasperating economic disparities any reformed School State education funding model should apply more weight in funding calculations for students that are both at risk by low-income concentration and for English language Learners we agree with the new Jersey school board's Association uh that advocates for full funding of the state's School Finance formula to meet the needs of all students in a matter that is consistent Equitable reliable and sustainable the Dober School District advocates for a fully funded uh Reform Act formula that it makes adjustments being made to to Target additional resources for districts that consistently fall below adequacy and for establishing a minimal local fair share to ensure all districts contribute proportionately based on their capacity allev alleviating excessive burds of on property poor communities and to align funding increases with proven strategies such as smaller class sizes enrich curriculum and enhanced teacher development programs to directly improve student outcomes and for implementing accountability measures to track the impact of increased funding on student achievement and operational efficiency Equitable school funding is not just a financial issue it's a moral imperative by reforming New Jersey school funding system we can create a fair attack system for all residents and unlock the full potential of every student regardless of their zip code and so that was the presentation that was made and then there were a number of school districts that were there that um had large cuts that were looking to have them restored uh Mrs Sher I don't know if you wanted add anything from what you observed um thank you uh Mr Miller did a fabulous job with the limited amount of time that we were given to speak just three minutes he had as he just explained he did a really good job squeezing it all in um I believe we sat through 11 testimonies from 11 different districts with probably three or four left to testify but there was also a a which I was sort of caught unaware there was a large uh public presence there from some local school districts that were concerned over development and um the impact on the school district and we asking us uh what our town planned on doing that and that we were not prepared for that question as we were walking out the door but um the the issues as Mr Miller stated ran the gamut the whole Spectrum from um school districts that lost 60% of the funding which sounds tremendous especially if you put it in terms of Dover losing 60% of state aid but lost just $2 million but $2 million is a large impact to a school district for um extra events that and curriculum and activities that they plan on doing some school districts very close to us are selling properties uh had large uh reduction in force of 6 30 to 60 staff members over the last two years so thankfully Dover has not faced that but that does not mean that that is not coming down the pike in the future and that seemed to be what the tone of the room was it was it was very tense and and somewhat panicky from some of the districts and you can understand that with that loss of money um but it was it was a very interesting evening to hear some of the information uh for example the votch students that we pay tuition for also not being able to add those students to the funding formula that's something that we would not normally know board members would not normally know that unless it was brought up and that impacts our taxpayers with having to pay that Transportation cost as well um so that was basically it okay thank you uh Mr haimy superintendence report W good evening uh a few things I'm going to report on so I'm going to start off with door Middle School uh representative from character.org will be conducting interviews with our staff students and administration as part of their evaluation process for recognition as a national school of character as many of you recall our Middle School was honored as a state school of character last year given their exceptional high scores during the evaluation uh they will be they were encouraged to apply for National School of character designation and this is a significant milestone in our ongoing commitment to fostering positive and principal at school environments uh North do elementary we have enhanced security at North do elementary by installing locking mechanisms at the Vesta adding an additional layer of protection for our students and staff and thank you for those involved for identifying and implementing a cost effective solution to improve school safety uh your collaborative efforts are greatly appreciated dual length language we are forming a new team to visit District that have was successfully implemented dual language program for over eight years the purpose of this visit is to gain insight into their programming needs scheduling strategies parent communication methods and staff support system the exploration will help us better understand the components of the successful du language program and how we might adapt similar practices in our district uh we had our we have our midyear parent Forum uh please join me uh for our panel Forum on January 29th at 7 p.m. for an engaging evening where we'll discuss current school goals address concerns related to dual language programming explore other critical School related topics your insights and ideas are invaluable as we work together to enhance our school Community instant decision day D High School counseling department would like to thank all the students and staff who helped make an instant decision day a success we had nine colleges interview students over 8 85 acceptance and 146,000 awarded in Merit Scholarships congratulations to the class of 202 Dober high school has host will also be hosting three College fairs earlier this year and another schedule for sophomores and juniors in March our culture and climate committee uh sent out a survey and I want to thank all of our staff members that have participated in our survey uh we are currently at about 300 uh plus uh staff members who have completed the survey will be be closing out the survey this upcoming Friday right before we get to sit down as a committee and really look at some of the data that we were able to collect uh Esports highlights I want to take a moment to celebrate an incredible achievement uh for Mr Kane and our Esports team currently our team is tied for first place in group three with o oakrest high school with both teams at nine points each this reflects a tremendous dedication and collaboration and effort put in by everyone involved thanks to our support for Mr K's outstanding leadership we've exceeded our initial goal of completing it by the end of school year not only are we ahead of schedule we are completing a championship league and testament to the power of the teamwork and shared Vision uh it just so happens that I also saw Mr Kane before coming into the board meeting and he didn't mention that we are uh most likely going into the championship for Street Fighter 6 which I myself have played as well I don't know that I'm at a championship caliber but I definitely would love to test myself against some of the kids maybe tomorrow um but that is great news to kind to see that continue to explore and continue to grow and I want to take an opportunity to thank all of our staff M participating in our weekly Friday Focus motivational quotes throughout the school year we have been sharing inspirational quotes and a practice that began during our convocation and recently we initiated a collection of motivational quotes directly from our staff and we are thrilled to have achieved over 40 entries and once again thank you for your participation and for contributing to our positive School environment and thank you uh to everyone across district for the dedicated efforts in enhancing our PBIS initiatives your collabor collaboration exploration exploring sorry initiate initiatives options for students engagement motivation and social and emotional learning growth is invaluable together we are making incen strides and supporting our school's holistic development and the last one I want to report on is our AI tool update we have magic school for students as part of ongoing efforts to integrate Innovative tools into the classroom Magic School the district to pool an AI platform that will be available to our students starting in February this tool has already Prov valuable for teachers supporting lesson plans differentiated instruction and resource development for students magic school will be introduced under strict guidelines to ensure its use aligns with educational goals examples of approved student uses include generating ideas or outlines for assignments with teachers approval practicing problem solving and reviewing key Concepts leveraging accessibility features such as speech to text and translation prohibited uses using AI tools to complete assignments quizzes tests without teacher authorization submitting AI generated content without proper citation generating inappropriate harmful or plagiarized content creating images voice recording or other media in someone else's likeness without explicit consent to support this role teachers will be receiving guidance on managing AI use effectively in the classroom and the student handbooks at DMS and DHS are being updated to include AI guidelines thank you thank you any questions from the board no okay Mr sabulu good evening everyone uh on the agenda in finance section item8 and nine uh include 2023 24 audit report along with the corrective action plan uh there are five findings uh most of them already been addressed so the goal for next year is no findings for sure uh as you can see in item 17 the budget calendar is up for approval so budget season has started we are working on many different aspects of the budget and budget meetings are on the schedule item 20 is the most exciting item of the night if aov will will be entering a contract to purchase the building at 242 Route 46 in do the main purpose of buying this building is to convert it to a pre facility here are the highlights of the purchase one the building will help us bring private provider students in house which will increase the quality of instruction so having our pre students in house will help us save up to $1.5 million a year for transportation three the building can accommodate six classroom as it is if it's we can bring up to the code but it has a big parking lot that could potentially allow for three more classrooms in the future the building's loc number four the building's location is very close to East over element SC and our balmont edmin building making it more manageable five we are short on space in do and having enough space has always been a problem the building will provide us with more space at a very reasonable cost number six converting it from commercial use to education use might cost up to $3 million and we are also paying 1 .5 to purchase so we're going to have uh this building less than uh $5 million in total which is overall cost will it's very low uh to the cost of the average uh price for school building that concludes my report thank you and just so you know that the building uh you might not recognize the address but it was the old Dover Sport building uh next to the do Grill and across from East over uh any board members have any questions for Mr Sabah Hulu okay we'll move on to Board of Ed reports uh the Mars County Education Services Commission did meet I was not able to go as I was uh at the testimony for the Department of Education U but I did look at the minutes and there there was nothing to report uh to this board uh uh Dr serer legislative report thank you um grief instruction s333 05015 um was uh passed requiring the State Board of Education to adopt and districts to implement New Jersey student learning stand standards pertaining to grief in the Comprehensive Health and physical education content area at its next required update of the standards um another law signed into action is vet teach pilot program establishes a pilot program in the New Jersey Department of Education designed to help address the educator shortage by helping facilitate teacher certification for the state's veterans under the pilot program up to four 4-year public institutions of higher education selected by the commissioner would enroll in a 36-month teacher prep program catering to Veterans who served in the armed forces on or after September 11th 2001 um under legislation signed in 2022 the workingclass family anti-hunger act school districts are required to provide in paper or electronic format parents with School meals application um this um change amends that requirement to specify that the application must be provided as a hard copy the new law also adds that districts must include a notice that an application to apply for School Meal programs may be submitted at any time during the school year and is required to be submitted annually in addition to modifying the school meal information that must be provided to parents the law establishes a new requirement that school districts ensure parents either apply for the program or submit a signed card provided by the district district indicating that they have receive the application and are not interested in participating if a district does not receive an application or assigned card the district will be required to make at least one attempt to contact the student's parent and request the application or card be submitted um nsba supports this leg supported the legislation which will go into effect is already in effect this year um school security drills and students with disabilities require certain documentation of the needs of students with disabilities during school security drills and emergency situation as well as in school security plans the bill also requires staff training on the needs of students with disabilities in emergency planning um a similar law establishes a School Safety and Security task force to study and develop recommendations to improve School Safety and Security and to ensure a safe learning environment for students and employees the task force will consist of 17 members including representatives of various government agencies education advocacy groups including njsba and members of the public with expertise in school security transferring college credits to meet EP requirements prohibits educator preparation programs from restricting the numbers of accredited County College professional education credits that may be used to meet the teacher certification requirements and then finally um the qpa award of certain contracts permits certain School District contracts to be awarded by a qualified purchasing agent specifically the bill amends Public School contracts a law to stipulate that a contract having an anticipated value in excess of $17,500 but below the applicable bidding threshold is not required to be awarded by a board of education and may be awarded by a purchasing agent that holds a qpa certificate um and I wanted to thank Miss Phillips for creating a new Google folder um if you want more information um about things that have been passed that I did not want to take time to tell you about there is actually a link at the bottom of my report leading you to more information with that I conclude my report thank you uh Miss DS do you have anything for the mors county school boards just a couple things um good evening the mors county school boards Association is looking for leaders who are eager to enhance their leadership skills and contribute to the growth of the mcba executive committee uh the following positions on the mcba executive committee will be open for a two-year term from May 2025 to May 2027 um they include Morris County SBA president Morris County SBA first vice president Morris County SBA second vice president for legislation and Morris County SBA directors eight positions each for from a different Board of Ed Additionally the following positions on the mcba executive committee will be open for a 3year term from May 2025 to May 2028 New Jersey school boards Association board of directors Morris County representative and New Jersey school boards Association board of directors Morris County alternate these positions are open to all members of the Morris County Board of Education team reflecting our strong commitment to inclusivity and diversity in leadership uh don't miss this opportunity to contribute to the mcba the submission deadline is approaching fast on 11:59 Saturday March 1st 2025 if you have any questions uh contact Robert aera at U njsba dog the um mcba meeting will be held virtually on February uh 5th 2025 from 6:45 to 8:5 um it is part two creating an effective board culture governance collaboration and mentorship you can sign up at the call center at njsp.org this concludes my report thank you thank you thank you very much uh could I please have a motion on the administrative items for approval oh this shower sorry and do I have a second second second any discussion Dr s I have a couple questions um we've um changed the pay structure for some of our clubs um have we considered designating a total amount of money per school with a specific stien for extracurricular activities that would be more flexible so for example um if there are were a certain number of schools at do high school a certain number of clubs at do high school and one of the clubs fell out of favor with the students um that club would not be funded but a new club that is exciting like Esports for example we could then fund it without having to um do a sidebar agreement so this is a complex question um there are several types of clubs many of the clubs you'll see on the agenda are paid through hourly rates and and are covered by totle One funds uh the clouds being removed from the DEA contract are being removed because of stip in amount and did not fully cover the amount of the time and commitment that was needed this sidebar allows us to cbor allows the clubs to be legitimate in with alignment with other clubs and not in the DEA so the contract being paid through already rate but the District administration was in agreement and we're looking to create that opportunity in the future okay thank you um a second question is um regarding the professional musicians are we no longer hiring professional musicians or just deleting the maximum of four in the contract we are still hiring uh professional musicians and you'll see the resolution for tonight's agenda proving the professional musicians we're just removing the the musical professional musician from the DEA contract got it okay and then um I wanted to give um a commendation I love you are acknowledging um our staff's preparation for the Ed camps and compensating their preparation I think that's well deserved thank you thank you any other comments questions can we have a roll call mrto yes M DS yes Mr maror yes M Phillips yes Miss pelis yes Dr cner yes Miss Sher yes Mr Miller yes uh Miss Phillips can you move the Personnel items sure so I will make a motion that the board approves items uh let's see K1 throughness K1 through K k16 second any questions Dr s just a comment it's always nice to see DHS alumni coming back to work for the district any other questions roll call please mrto yes M STS yes Mr makor yes Miss Phillips yes Miss penales yes Dr sener yes shower yes Mr Miller yes okay uh for negotiations I believe we have a meeting with the da on February 4th yes there there's a PL a meeting planned in February with you I think that's that's it since we're just organizing the Committees now okay and I know there's nothing for governance um uh Dr serer uh can you uh take us through student achievement and curriculum yes I move that we approve approve items 1 through five under student achievement and curriculum do you have a second second any comments Dr s I have two questions a large number of our staff is enrolled in Centenary universities GED 665 Doo Linguistics and second language can you explain if they are part of a um collaborative program who is paying for this and how will this benefit our students uh yes they they are are part of the Dober ESL Certification program this program supports our Educators in obtaining their ESL endorsement enabling them to better serve our District's English language Learners The District covers the tuition as part of his professional development commitment by equipping our our staff with Advanced skills and language acquisition and culturally responsive instruction thank you that sounds wonderful for both our staff and our students um second question is on Spanish her the Spanish Heritage 2 curriculum this is offered for students in grades 10th through 12 how does this fit into a student's schedule um I'm assuming I could be wrong that they would have first completed Spanish Heritage 1 and then this course what would they take after that if they were to take that as a sophomore so students assessed um in eth grade some are placed in Spanish aage 2 and an accelerated program based on the assessment results and the the way the acceleration was from Spanish two Heritage they'll do into Spanish three honors and students must have an 80 or higher in the previous course or they can go into AP Spanish language and culture and they must have an 80 or higher to continue in that path okay thank you very much and then um as always I love to see the tremendous amount of professional development for our staff and especially excited to see that there is a group of teachers from across the district presenting at the tsel conference I think that's a feather in our cap so thank you very much to those staff members okay any other questions VOC call misso yes Miss DS yes Mr MC yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr senner yes Miss shaer yes Mr Miller yes I know community relations hasn't met yet since we're just getting the community the committee assignments is there anything anyone wants to say that they've been uh involved from a school perspective in the community I know someone goes to some B basetball and wrestling matches all good um boys basketball is phenomenal they're doing exceptionally well this season girls basketball is just there and I can say that because my daughter's on a team um wrestling which admittedly is a sport I know nothing about is the most entertaining thing to watch um Mr Le is really good wrestler um I've seen him pin at least two two matches that I've been to um so yeah overall Sports is sports you know I love it great thank you I know the policy committee hasn't met yet as well um Miss ASO can you move financing facilities sure I'd like to make a motion uh for the board to approve items one through 20 under Q finance and Facilities do I have a second second I'll second any questions Dr serer thank you we have a number of checks outstanding some back to 2021 from the agency account can you please explain what the agency account is why there are so many outstanding checks and how we are working to resolve this uh actually we work uh we work on General and parel accounts and we fixed all the outstanding checks the agency account is next this the account we take the deductions from the staff and pay from that account so that there will be next to be fixed thank you Mr Sabah Hulu um I wanted to also give a shout out to Mr Douglas for providing significant scholarship money to our students for the I don't know how many year in a row that he has done that is very much appreciated it makes a really big difference to many of our students um and I wanted to thank Dr Kina and Mr kazinski for applying for the in invention project Road Rally Grant um that's a lot of extra work and is the hard work on behalf of our students is also appreciated thank you anyone else any questions I I think it's very exciting that um that we hopefully will be able to acquire that building I know it still has to be approved by the Mars County uh Board of Education um superintendent rather and um think other state approvals yeah the commissioner of Education as well okay Mr Miller yeah Mr shower um I I should have mentioned this earlier but um I did just want to mention that above and beyond the cost savings for transportation in purchasing the building uh for the preschool transportation we also consolidate then Transportation so that we're not sending students all over the county we are then now only transporting here in over which is an impact on the environment and busing and students will not have to be on a bus for 20 minutes out in major traffic correct yeah and for the most part parents would be dropping them off at this at that point depending on you know if there's special needs then of course there would be buses I see that as a tremendous advantage to to purchasing a local building thank you anyone else a roll call mrto yes M STS yes yes Mr M uh yes except I must abstain on the bills list PO number 24251 1844 Miss Phillips yes with an extension to payments to vendor 1950 Miss paneles yes Dr CER yes Miss shower yes Mr Miller yes okay informational items we had uh some facility requests the do little Le uh using some of our fields for practice uh the East over PTA Cornerstone Family program at Dober middle school and the Dober High School Hall of Fame uh they have induction ceremony 9ine uh September 28th of this year and we don't have I don't think there's anything else um old business do we have um any old business I know that you did we did put together the list of uh the schedule for the board meeting and everybody was good with that so is there any other old business okay um do yeah we need to have no questions on the uh the schedule uh can we have a roll call please can I get a motion get a motion oh yeah sorry I'll make a motion sorry second okay I think there everyone's Miss ESO yes Miss DS yes Mr M yes Miss Phillips yes Miss paneles yes Dr CER yes Miss Sher yes Mr Miller yes okay new business um we had the committee appointments and school assignments um is there um any questions from anyone on the board with the assignments is everybody good um I know that one of the things I I wanted to talk about was um because we haven't considered when we would schedule the meetings uh for the Committees um and um I thought that um uh we should vote on this first and then talk about the meeting yeah all right we'll just go through it so typically we've had the meetings on Tuesday um so I'm just going to propose what I think we could do and then we can have discussion to see if it works for everybody uh the first Tuesday of the month community relations from 6:00 to 7 uh the second Tuesday the policy committee from 5:30 to 6:30 and then the student achievement in curriculum from 6:30 to 7:30 and then the fourth Tuesday finance and facility 5:30 to 6:30 and governance from 630 to 7:30 so I say you know this is the schedule now but we know that further into our board meeting schedule we'll have to make adjustments because the meetings not going to stay the same um how does that sound for everybody Dr sner um did you say curriculum would be at 6:30 right after the policy my concern with that that is that Mr Carl typically attends that meeting that would make a really late night okay um there I don't believe a sorry Mr haime uh other than Mr haime I don't believe a staff member attends um the policy meeting in general but we often have supervisors as well at the student achievement and curriculum meetings so I would propose that th that meeting come first sure M late late night for me it's okay yeah so then policy would be from 6:30 to 7:30 on the 2 Tuesday on the second Tuesday yes would you send us a recap of that like sure community relations will be on the first Tuesday from 6:00 to 7 uh student achievement in curriculum would be on the second Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30 and the policy committee committee will meet after that from 6:30 to 7:30 and then the fourth Tuesday of the month would be finance and facility from 5:30 to 6:30 and the government governance from 6:30 to 7:30 I was trying to to to group people who may have both on the same night so that way you know you only have one night that you have to be out and then everyone else has the assignments for all the schools and all the other so everything is good there and so that will be the meeting schedule that we'll put forward and put onto the calendar ERS okay um can we have a roll call for can I get a motion and oh yes can I have a motion so moved and a second second second okay roll call misso yes Miss DS yes Mr M yes Miss Phillips yes Miss peles yes Dr CER yes M Sher yes Mr Miller yes okay all right Mr President I had an item of new business yeah yes I'm I'm I'm looking for here it is okay new business I flipped the page too quick thank you um so I have some questions regarding um the 2025 2026 school calendar um firstly who is involved in the preparation of the district calendar so in preparation of the district calendar it consists of Administrators teachers um and staff members uh they all have an input on the calendar and what we try to do is get uh diverse committee put together so we can have different backgrounds uh apply to the calendar um when can the board expect to vote on adopting next year's calendar I believe we will have something ready for the February uh board meeting okay um I'm I'm not sure what past practice has been but um I know that in some districts the school calendar or the proposed calendar or proposed calendars um are put on the website for the public to see in advance of the agenda um being posted um what how far in advance uh is is is is ours typically posted if there is a past practice I'm not sure uh what we do is usually we post the calendar once it's approved right the day after on the website so we don't put it out in as far as before the it would be included within the agenda that it's voted on but not before then not before then no okay um the citizens advisory committee had discussed uh a couple times the idea of doing the calendar two years at a time um which is though it's foreign to us it is I know it is something that that some districts do do do um so other words doing the 2025 26 and 26 27 calendars at the same time um and I know that it had been indicated to us that this was something that was possible but it didn't really go much farther than that has any thought been given to this idea and would it be possible at this point to implement it for this upcoming cycle that's what we've done in the past we've created a two-year calendar and I know that because I was part of the committee uh developing it and it's something that we'll continue doing as well so we'll have uh the next two years done uh it helps us also to align ourselves with uh Mine Hill which is ascending District so our always plan is always to have the two-year calendar so just to clarify have it done um or have it approved because I know last year we only did this year's so our plan to have it done and getting approved is our plan have it already y okay awesome um and something that came up uh I think it's come up multiple times um election day this past November proved to be a parking nightmare at the high school for much of the day because it was a professional development day um has any thought been given to shifting that in service to another day to make it a total closure um or is that just simply not possible with the number of PD days that we have to do and the calendar as it exists so it does create a challenge right uh students have to be in school for 180 days staff have to be in school for 184 days if I'm not mistaken it does create a challenge and that's why we we we we've considered it because it does become a challenge with election day okay thank you anybody else with new business Mr Miller yes I'd just like to invite the community the Dober high school bamb booster spaghetti dinner is Saturday uh February 8th from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. it's always a great night um and supports our musical students um you can buy tickets in advance if you know a student in the band but there will also be tickets sold at the door so that's a great night thank you great thank you okay at this time I'd like to open the the meeting to the public uh the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves and school matters to ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment each statement shall be held to a time period of 3 minutes public comments not restricted to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer for those who wish to make public comment remotely a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m. remote comments will be read by a member of the Board of Education the Board of Education will alternate between in-person and online comments please understand that the public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board the board may or may not respond to public comments however all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments comments may not be abusive obscene threatening or irrelevant please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections the board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees please be advised that that you are commenting on your own risk any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to Legal liability for defamation at this time I'd like to open uh the public please state your name and address good evening is it on oh I have to put it close cold and flu season Robin Klein I'm a DOA resident uh my comments are made at risk my own risk um I'm here tonight restart the clock excuse me one second restart the clock thank you um you may I'm here tonight to follow up on uh an item concerning the transportation in the school district uh I've spoken to past board members I've spoken to some current members and it was suggested that I come here tonight to address the entire Board of Education um I live in the neighborhood that is known as germant toown we are very close and adjacent to both the do middle school and the East do elementary school over the last three I would say almost four years bus transportation has become more and more problematic in our neighborhood uh particularly it is the school buses that are using our narrow residential streets to literally uh avoid Route 46 and they cut through our residential neighborhood to go from the middle the middle school East over school they travel up up to Mount Hope Avenue which is where I believe they probably end up going to North Dover and Beyond uh we've been tracking this uh I myself have spoken on behalf of our neighbors to the school district to Administration uh to a number of directors of Transportation over the years um and we've gotten nowhere um recently uh knowing that there is a new dis District transportation director I've personally had two conversations one in the beginning of the school year to bring this to her attention and recently about two weeks ago um I felt that my comments uh kind of fell on deaf ears and I wanted to push that further I've since had some communication with superintendent Haim I appreciate that um and also a recent uh issue that occurred in the neighborhood with some school buses uh directed me to speak with uh uh Lou Renshaw of your security and safety department uh we met tonight we had a great conversation so I think uh there is uh some lemonade to be met made out of the lemons which is a good step forward essentially the Germantown neighborhood is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the town of do over many of the streets are not more than 250 ft by 250 ft so to travel from the middle school or the East over school up to Route up to Mount Hope Avenue those buses literally have to travel a block up a block over a block up a block over and a block up and these are tight 90 degree angle turns these buses are coming in every direction north and south east and west Crossing each other on very narrow streets excuse me ma'am your time is up so please uh try please try to finish up so I'm bringing this to your attention because the Transportation uh aspect of our school district needs to be addressed there should be a policy behind it there was a policy behind it a number of years ago uh designated bus routes uh I'd like to see that implemented once again particularly East McFarland was made a one-way Street behind the school in Hamilton field to accommodate this concern of the neighborhood um that seemed to have gone on the Wayside now it needs to be addressed and uh for Public Safety if not you know just a quality of life issue that's occurring thank you thank you for your comments any comments online no is there anyone else in the public that wishes to we heard no at this time I close the public portion all right do I have a motion to adjourn so moved second second all those in favor I okay I got that vote right oppos opposed oh oppos almost almost have a good night everyone