##VIDEO ID:6owrtayFJtU## I'd like to call this meeting to order um welcome to the August 19th 2024 Board of Ed meeting for 100 in Central Regional High School I'd like to ask Miss Stokes to do a roll call please miss bfield here Mrs dougen here miss gong here Mrs Kellogg here Mrs odano here Mrs Peterson here Mr ryer here and Mrs santangelo here okay great so what we're doing today is something a little bit different than normal we're going to be convening um to go to an executive SE executive session to interview two candidates that have expressed interest in the Delaware Township vacancy so we'll do that now and then we will come back and start the meeting after that in about an hour or so so I'd like a motion to convene into exe executive session so second second motion and a second all in favor I I anybody opposed all right so let's uh let's move on over thanks e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e pi hello how are you good how are you good yeah I do have a couple things to talk about in you know before you do executive session you g to pull Justice vat up yeah she she said I like that hello Sandra short Tim conflict a little conflicted because I met a lot of really really nice people um I think we're putting together a very nice administrative team informative yeah that' be fine the information for G to learn what you guys want and need but she cranking out a lot of stuff um but you're in good hands I mean really good hands good decision oh yes yes and I told her I'm just as close to speed dial can you can you believe I was I wasn't even done excellent and school systems are already calling me up and I say no no no and not this time know what I might sit here and put my papers right here this way I can spread sure there's there's an my paper here I want my paper right here not at all this is yours that's ridiculous I don't want that what worked for a principal one time and in order for her to get order she had very long fingernails and she would crank up the speaker real high and she would do this oh with with the tap oh yeah that's crazy okay there sorry I spread out a little bit on my side here and you know that you know I I spoke with Alicia today you want to handle the public comments that they want to talk about JTC and the transportation right yeah we don't talk about it right you can just make a statement we're focused on safety and we are moving we're moving forward kids will have buses and we're working at the final details okay all right okay I'd like to make a motion to reconvene into Open Session second okay welcome to a meeting of the 100 Central Regional High School Board of Education please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act njsa 104.6 um 46 and that advanced notice required therein has been provided meeting notice was also published in the boardroom of the upper school campus sent to The Courier News Star Ledger Express Times and the Hun County Democrat and sent to the clerks of Delaware Township East Amwell Township Flemington burough Ron Township and Readington Township the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda M Stokes can we have a roll call please Mrs bfield here M Miss gong here Mrs Kellogg here Mrs odono here Mrs Peterson here Mr Rymer here Mrs Sant Angelo here and Mrs dougen here okay can we rise for the flag salute please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um Mr ryer If You Could Read The District mission statement please sure hun Central is an Innovative educational Community dedicated to the intellectual social and emotional safety and growth of all students while fostering curiosity and promoting Wellness we aspire to create powerful learning experiences establish strong Partnerships and serve as contributors members of society thank you okay um I'd like to start by a motion to approve the minutes from the July 20th meeting so moved second okay got a motion a second um can we have a roll call please Mrs butfield yes Mrs gong M gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odano yes m M Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mrs dougen yes thank you okay thank you okay um I'd like to also uh make a motion to approve the minutes from the July 22nd meeting second okay um Motion in a second is there any discussion sorry I forgot to ask that before okay can we have a roll call please Mrs BFI yes Mrs Gung yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mrs dougen yes okay all all yes motion carries okay um we did not have any correspon correspondence for this month we can move through that I I hate to interrupt but we actually we did and I did forward it it's just not on the agenda I just don't want anyone who corresponded to feel like wasn't I did talk to Heather about that and we were kind of trying to figure out if it was board correspondence or the way it came in if it was appropriate to put it on she said that she would look at it through like if it was board correspondence or not but we can share that with the board after this thank you okay so before we move into the term superintendent report um what I would like to to do is make a motion to take an agenda out of order and move item number uh three under Personnel um to the front of this meeting so I'm going to hand it off to miss blufield to talk about that oh actually we need to do the motion you're going to Second sorry guys we're rolling here trying to figure this out um Motion in a second any discussion on that okay um can we have a roll call please on that Mrs bfield yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odono yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr ryr yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mrs toen yes okay Mrs okay so Al yes motion carries the item that we are moving is the appointment of our next superintendent Miss celosi hay and and um just in casee there's anyone who is not familiar with her anyone who's maybe watching on the video um Miss cangelosi hay has been in the educational field for nearly 20 years has been with our district for five years first as the Director of curriculum in and instruction and most recently as the assistant superintendent um many of you have probably seen her do board presentations she's done many over the years um during her time here she has also made uh many many valuable contributions to the district I could never go through all of them but just to to give you a sense she has significantly increased the dual enrollment partnership agreements she's expanded our magnet programs developed and led the district's emerging leaders program for current staff members and most recently helped Central's ranking become the number 14 High School in the state number two if you just look at the comprehensive non-competitive admissions high schools uh Miss celosi hay is very collaborative works well with the board she's very creative well-respected uh a Visionary leader and um as you know we used a a search consultant hya we spent the last several months doing a very extensive search I'd like to thank everyone for your patience with that process and also for your participation and input it really helped us develop the uh the desired characteristics that we were looking for in our new superintendent and the board is confident that M cangelosi hay meets the criteria of what the community is looking for and is the best fit for our district moving forward we are also confident that under her leadership the school will be driven to many more significant achievements in the future so I would like to move the approval of the appointment of M J Jessica celosi hay as the superintendent for Hunter and Central Regional High School effective Saturday August 24th this Saturday 2024 through June 30th 20 28 second okay we have a motion and a second any discussion I discussed yeah I just wanted to say I hope um you know we we did cast a really wide net um on this search and we really did come out with the best candidate um I have to thank uh Dr Shadow because since April we've really I've really had an opportunity to get to know and work with Mrs celosi Miss celosi hay because never really had the opportunity before um and I can tell you that um I I found her to be extremely knowledgeable and inquisitive transparent responsive and collaborative and I think that those are the traits that are going to really Drive Central into the future and so um you know I hope also I think the timing couldn't have been better that we have the new leadership going into a new school year that hopefully everyone can take a deep sigh of you know relief knowing that uh knowing the decision and knowing what's going to happen and hopefully get into a settled school year this year and really um really have an excellent start so um really think that uh we're headed in a great Direction yeah again I just want to Echo you know how extensive this process has been um and how impressive all the candidates were and how um exciting Central was as an opportunity for so many people and we could not I I can't even begin to tell you the um the vision that that you showed and and the what everything that you brought to the table makes me so excited to work with you going forward so I just I I'm I'm excited for the school year so thank you ditto okay something all right so um then let's move to a roll call please get this official Mrs bfield yes Miss gang yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mrs dougen absolutely yes I'll yes motion carries congratulations Jessica okay so that's a very exciting news for us so um with that then what I'd like to do is have us move to the superintendent report so Dr Shadow if you want to take it thank you there were no HS that's a good thing be a problem there was one suspension of a student from um a credit restoration program found in the laboratory with they were found in the labatory with uh a vape pipe and TC cartridge and that's a violation of the drug rule so that three-day suspension will be carried out starting on the F first day of school and U student was uh seen by a doctor and will be returned after the three days next on the agenda well let me go over a few things new staff orientation begins tomorrow uh August 20th through the 22nd and every day has a theme theme for day one is orientation to 100 Central or values Mission and a safe and inclusive community day two instructional priorities and day three preparing for a successful start and the of District supports for students and teachers it's well planned out by Miss keloy Aid and the team did a nice job putting this together also new story uh student orientation information will sent out to the class of 2028 new students in 10th and through 12th grades parents in students and Guardians also school information is being sent to All returning 10th through 12th grade students parents and Guardians this week by the unit offices school starts September 5th at 7:35 in the morning our custodial team is finishing up their summer preparation work in all areas of our facilities for a smooth opening of school and finally our fall athletic teams are in full practice as well as the marching band as you heard coming in for their opening games of the 20 2425 season and that concludes my part of the introductory um information and now I will introduce our new superintendent who is going to give us a report on the 2024 spring NJ GPA results report y it all there good okay good evening are we on we're good now yes can you hear me okay perfect um you know I'm Jessica kelos he and um miss butfield you mentioned that I do presentations and so this will be the final one probably that I do on assessment results so um as you all know we give a variety of Assessments throughout the school year there are two that we give in the spring that were required to report on within a certain time frame and that's the NJ GPA which is the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment as well as the access test and that's one of our assessments we use for a multilingual learner so Dr arazando and I are here tonight to present to you the results on this so first we'll start with the NJ GPA which again is short for New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment and I wanted to start by giving you an overview of that assessment because it is a newer assessment it was adopted by the Department of Education as a graduation requirement in September of 2021 um this is a graduation requirement that students in grade 11 take and this is different because this was a move away from course specific assessments that students used to take known as the njsla the New Jersey student learning assessment be prior to the NJ GPA students used to take an assessment at the end of every course in grades 9 10 and at 1 Point 11 um and so that was English 9 English 10 English 11 and then typically Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 now we still do have the njsla and those results will be reported to you in probably about 2 months but that's not the primary graduation pathway anymore the NJ GPA is so this is a graduation requirement for students in the classes of 2023 to 2025 so the students who took it this past spring are going into their senior year they're the class of 2025 the NJ GPA is designed to um align to the New Jersey student learning standards it measures um Readiness based on grades 9 and 10 Ela standards and math is based on Algebra 1 and geometry and it's important to keep that math piece in mind because I will talk about it in a little bit um unlike the njsla you'll recall there are five proficiency levels with the njsla with the NJ GPA there's only two performance levels there's graduation ready and not yet graduation ready and I always like to say I disagree with these terms because I think telling students and their families that they're not yet graduation ready is a little jarring esally based on one assessment but that is the terms we are given and that's what we have to report out on so I'll now um go through the results with you so for this spring of 2024 we saw in math um and we tested about 580 students just so you have a sense of how many students were tested we saw graduation Readiness in 73% of the students in math and 91% in our English language arts so I do want to note the disparity there that's something that we've seen last year so you probably recall that from last year um but this is not something um specific just to our district this is something that all districts are seeing this disparity between math and Ela with math usually being lower now one thing that I do want to point out is the comparison to the state so we are actually 9% higher than the state in ela but we're 18% higher than the state in math so that just gives you a little comparison and just to look at not just the 73% that um since it I know it is a further point away from 91% we do also have to look at um demographic comparison so I'll take you through some of those um student groups that we look at so first we're going to look at male and female and you'll see in math there's a 6% difference between females and males and in ela a 9% difference and you will recall Mr MC Isaac our English supervisor speaking about that gender gap that they have been noticing as well so they're continuing continuing to work on closing that Gap um between the males and the females specifically by looking at things like choice to further engage males in literature and and things like that within the English class we'll also look at race and ethnicity another area that we're required to report on so you'll see disparities here especially with our black and African-American students as well as our Hispanic and Latino students one thing I do want to note there was an increase this year for Hispanic and Latino students in math it went from 33% last year to 49% graduation ready this year so that's a pretty big increase um there was also a 9% increase for our black and African-American students one of the things I like to point out in our smaller student groups like our black and African-American students it's really difficult to do a percentage comparison because that represents about 25 students so each student represents a large percentage 4% of the overall group so sometimes it's difficult to really report on if there is an overall growth or decrease or not and then we also look at students by program so this is students um who are traditionally at risk more traditionally at risk so you will see some disparities from those more traditionally at risk students they're economically disadvantaged students are multilingual Learners and then students with IEPs as well as students with 504 plans um I do want to note that our students with IEP showed increases from the pre year as did our multilingual Learners in math um however you do still see compared to the 73% in math of the general population and 91% in ela of the general population they are still further behind so I'll talk to you in just a short while about things we're doing to remediate for that and then lastly I wanted to give you a longitudinal comparison but that's quite difficult with this assessment because it's a newer assessment so I'm bringing us back to 2017 where we had our Park assessments you might recall Park was aligned with common core that was prior to the njsla and that was the graduation requirement so if you look just at the overall scores and achievement we are seeing a growth um but again it's hard because it's not an Apples to Apples comparison so um I also wanted to put this up here because it it shows you kind of the state of assessment and standardized assessment in New Jersey there have been just since 2017 three different graduation assessment requirements which is difficult for students in high school it's difficult for teachers as well because we do like to look at the assessments to see how well our curriculum aligns but if the assessment is continually changing that makes it a little bit difficult in terms of us then realigning our curriculum so um one thing that I I did think was important for you all to know is that the state has been talking about changing the graduation assessment again um and so we have not yet received any dates for the spring of 2025 NJ GPA so we don't know what that means we don't know if that means there will be a GPA or if it will be a different assessment um the state has also not released graduation assessment requirements for the class of 2026 which is this year's Juniors this coming Year's Juniors so those that NJ GPA was only an effect for students in the class of 2023 through 2025 so as we get more information I will continue to share it with you but I do want to point out kind of the overall um testing landscape that we're in in the state of New Jersey and lastly I wanted to just do some takeaways with you some successes as well as interventions that we're doing as a result of these test results so I did note our growth in some of those subgroups um a little growth in proficiency and achievement we do specifically look at subgroups and we also look even further down we look at courses we look at sections we look at all that just we don't publicly present that data um we what we really like to look at which you do not see here is individual standards and skills so we do receive that information from the testing to see what specific skills maybe there's skills that are missing maybe there's skills that are overemphasized in the tests that AR in our curriculum we look at all of that um one of the most important things that we do is we use this NJ GPA data not alone we use it with other assessment data and just with other data in general so looking at it in comparison to PSAT looking at it with our linkit benchmarks our regular course benchmarks our common assessments and that's how we're really identifying students through those multiple data points who needs the extra support who needs interventions um I did want to point out before I talk about those supports and interventions specifically there are additional graduation assessment Pathways and this is really important for families to know especially if they received the letter that says their child is not yet get graduation ready that just means that they haven't met the first pathway the second pathway is through PSAT sat or act or accuplacer scores and just to give you a comparison for last year since our results were similar to last year last year for English language arts we had 18 students meet oh okay we're just going to keep pushing ahead oh okay we had 18 students meet the graduation requirement through the secondary pathway through the SA or the acup Placer in math we had 70 students meet the graduation requirement through the SAT and PSAT and I do want us to think for a second what that means that students were deemed College ready by the college board but they weren't graduation ready as it pertains to to the NJ doe um so that's something we need to Grapple with um but it's something that is a reality so it is good that we have the secondary Pathways there is also a third pathway which is the portfolio and that consists of students doing many projects um on specific skills that we Target and that's used as the third pathway they do that during their senior year typically so last year um for this class of 2024 we had 35 students do that for English and 99 for math that is certainly higher than it used to be when we had Park and njsla but again it still is good that we have that as an option so just again to talk a little bit more in detail about the interventions we do have a multi-tiered system of supports here and um what that means is at tier one these are supports that teachers do in the classroom every day that they're just looking at oh I see you need a little help with this skill oh you know why don't you come and come to the side and we'll work on it those are things they can manage in the classroom but sometimes and through multiple means of assessment not just the NJ GPA students may need additional support so we have what's called response to intervention or RTI that's a tier 2 support so that's a little more intensive of an intervention a little more frequent um and we use different data to see how long they need to stay within that intervention um so in math we're using ISL in ela we use questions from common lit and other targeted practice materials um very rarely then do students have to move to tier three which is even more intensive interventions or possibly a change in their placement but just so you know we are doing this we're doing this regularly there's a whole system um there's a whole measurement um tool that we use and a reporting tool that we use to make sure that we're not letting anyone slip through the cracks we also have tutorials which are block five as you know um in the spring we even go into after hours and evenings as well um and then we have a targeted summer program for students who do not pass the njpa we do a lot of work in our department so looking at common assessments and then looking at what the gaps could be and what that means is we're looking at data from the evidence statement so I did write some examples down so like in English language arts through this NJ GPA we see that analysis of complex characters in literature was one of the proficiencies that scored a little bit lower so what that means is how come we put that into class how can we target that in class since we see that a little bit lower here um but we see that citing information from a text and comparing the point of view from two or more authors had strong proficiency so those are things we know that we're doing well and then in math we see GE geometric theorems and reasoning as lower areas of proficiency but then on the flip side we saw reasoning with equations as well as factoring polom as higher proficiencies um if you recall when I started this presentation I asked you to remember that the math assessment was based on Algebra 1 and geometry that is slightly problematic because we have students taking this assessment who are in geometry and so when you look at the data of the students who are in geometry because they take this in March and they haven't completed their whole geometry course most um I would say the majority of them about 2third are not passing the NJ GPA so that's something we don't want to speed up their geometry in the junior year but it's something we need to be aware of to say what can we do to help them if this stays in place to help them with the NJ GPA so they can meet their graduation requirements um but remember we do have the secondary and third Pathways as well and then lastly one of the things that I wanted to point out um is in the scoring of the NJ GPA we saw in math 70 of the 157 students so almost half of them just missed it by one or two questions and that's that's heartbreaking um so we do retest in the fall and so th those students will have another opportunity to retest in the fall and we do some some tutoring before then to be able to test before the fall um we do share this data I mentioned vertical articulation we do share this data with our K to8 districts they go into depth with it to look at sometimes student by student in our smaller districts so all of this to say we do pay attention to the test even though we don't necessarily agree with it as a primary method for determining graduation Readiness we still pay attention to it we still use it as a data point um and we do have some successes as you saw so that is my part I'll I'll pause now if there's questions and then we can move on to the access testing if there's any questions I could take them now go ahead M Kellog so I know that there are other um schools within hun County that do Algebra 1 geometry and then Algebra 2 um obviously if they're going to read  the test again for 2026 but but is there a reason that we prioritize our we do Algebra 2 and then geometry not everybody does the sequence is a little different depending on so this plays into a good question about um us being a Regional High School District so we have different Pathways depending on what school you come from so some students do geometry first some students who come in more at the honors level end up doing Algebra 2 before the geometry um so it really just depends but it's a good question and it's one we've been talking about too should we move to having the geometry for everybody before algebra too go ahead Mrs odonnell yes so that was interesting it's an I'm glad you picked up on that yes so the students with IEPs did show a bigger increase in their graduation Readiness this year than the students with 504 plans it's hard to say right those are two different you know it's class of 2024 and then class of 2023 you know you're comparing or apples to oranges almost but um yes they did see a greater increase and we don't know why that is I can't tell you why all I can tell you is we do with both of those groups they both get the RTI the interventions that kind of thing yeah well and even with IEPs the support is different right that's also a wide spectrum of needs um and support so there are students with IEPs that aren't in in class support sections you know they don't need that um so that's why that particular group is hard to look at because it is such a wide range and and varying needs within that that subgroup yeah go go ahead go ahead so can you talk a little bit more about the articulation with the k8s I know that we've we've got a lot of data now and um I think we're doing really interesting things working with them yep so um I can give you math does an amazing job with their articulation and I think actually Mrs santangelo and Mrs gong when you did your um orientation I was talking to you a little bit about what the math department does um but they look at that data they also look at placement data to see um did the students stay where they are placed how are they doing in terms of what course level they were placed in did they drop off after time they literally look at every individual student and then they go and look at curriculum to see what how does that play into the curriculum are the students well prepared is there a specific subgroup of students that you know we noticing or struggling or they're missing a specific skill um what we would love to do move moving forward but it's a little difficult in terms of data sharing is being able to so the K to eat districts have all this data they have all this information on students from when they were 5 years old essentially and we don't get that when they come to us it's almost like the kids start over and there's something to be said about a fresh start but there was also something to be said about having some historical data for the students for our teachers to look at for our intervention Specialists within English and math to look at as well so that would be our next step is figuring out how can we get that data from our sending districts good okay well thank you very much and I will pass it over to Dr Arondo now who will talk about our spring access results hello can you hear me I guess I need to move this down a little bit so I'm going to talk to you about the access results in general the access access for L's 2.0 is the complete name of the test um this is given every year in the spring the state's window is very wide we try to do it so it ends about two weeks between before spring break which means we give it at the end of February beginning of March um and it's a test of English language proficiency it's also re it's aligned with the weda standards which is the Professional Standards for the teaching of English as a second language it's also required by the Department of Education and uh it measures content-based academic language uh not social language um so it it measures how well students are prepared to be mainstreamed into regular English language instruction uh scores range from 1 to six um students must achieve a score of 4.5 to be considered for exit then we look at multiple criteria um I should also mention I don't have this on the list that the state acknowledges that students in earlier grades make greater proficiency gains than students in older students in later grades and also another factor that affects their growth in English language proficiency and their scores on the access is their literacy level in their first language or any language as literacy is a transferable skill uh multilingual students are also required to take the njpa I should also mention that multilingual students are what we now call English language Learners they used to be called L's uh the access is still called the access for L's 2.0 but in the state of New Jersey and in many other states they're referred to as MLS um I also want to mention that while the state recognizes the importance of literacy as a factor in English language proficiency growth there is no required uh first language literacy test and this District a couple years ago the board supported um uh we use a literacy a Spanish language literacy test and that really helps us with um seeing collecting G data on students and understanding what the English language proficiency growth means so as you can see here and this is a little bit of a tricky measure because this is our average proficiency growth students are expected students K through 12 are expect expected to increase their proficiency growth by 0.5 out of this one to six measure now in order to see a proficiency growth a student has to have taken the access for at least two years so that's a little bit tricky because we do have an any given year you'll notice that in 2024 we had um about I don't know if you can see it from this chart but there were about 60 students that we were comparing when the total number of multilingual Learners was over a 100 so this average proficiency growth at any time just represents the number of students who have been in the program long enough to take the test two years in a row or more so in uh 2021 our average proficiency growth of this group of students was nearly the 0. five which was great uh we declined uh the two years after that and then this past year I think we've begin to see a little recovery and we had um in 2024 um uh 39% of students made the average proficiency growth rate oh excuse me this is our average proficiency growth not the average proficiency growth rate rate so our average proficiency growth this last year was 39 which is approaching 0.5 much more so than the past prior two years 2023 and 2022 um so moving on this is actually what I was talking about excuse me I was showing you the wrong graphic so this is the English proficiency growth goal of students who have been in the program two years or more and you'll notice we have no data from 20 20 because that was the year of the pandemic and testing requirements were suspended for that spring so in 2024 uh we have 39% of these students meeting the growth score um in 2023 we had this relatively the same number of students meeting the growth score but the overall number of students available in that sample was larger therefore in 2024 we had a greater percentage of students meeting that growth score so as I mentioned before literacy levels are not required by the state but these are very important in understanding proficiency growth and we use these uh levels given to us by the American reading company they use a system which they call the anal and it's based on colors um the students are quite invested in this they're very aware of whether they're at the Rojo which is red or the blanco they get very excited when they move a level and you can see we did have uh most students did make the expected gain of one grade level we do have students who achieve more than one grade level in growth those are generally students who start at a lower literacy level and our takeaways for the access are um first of all well we're happy that our English language proficiency growth goal has increased um and we need to keep in mind that we have a very small sample size here our total um ml population is about a 100 students when I started here um eight years ago it was about 40 students um this has been uh there was a big influx then for a couple of years it was a smaller influx but still that's a really small sample size compared to other districts in the state that have 500 1,000 or more multilingual Learners um in addition to this we have a great diversity of population we have many students most of our students I would say about half of them start their us education here in ninth grade and most of our students uh do experience interrupted schooling at some point in their home regions so these are normally students that are starting at a below grade level literacy rate um and so since we know that that is research has borne out that that's related to English connected to English language proficiency that's something that's really important to us and that's why some years ago we did start our bilingual language arts program um we did do have a documented growth in literacy 79% of students show growth of at least one grade level um which is great uh we do have an areas of focus we do have a lot of chronic absenteeism and withdrawals in our multilingual population this has certainly improved a lot so given that our documented growth in literacy is nearly 80% even considering those factors is very good um I think one of our goals is to focus on on these two areas in in the upcoming years and I think another uh good goal that we have is now that we've had several years of our bilingual language arts program we can using our tools of Genesis our new student information system and linking it with elevation which is our student information system for multilingual Learners and Link it we have enough years of data now to really see if the gains in literacy are connected and correlated with these increased gains in the access scores but definitely we're going to continue to focus on English language proficiency growth um obviously students being present in school is a very important factor in that so we really need to concentrate on that questions yes yes um when you were talking about um wasn't sure if I needed it I will okay um so I just wanted to know um I know sometimes with students uh work will be sent you know brought to a student's home if they're having sort of an extended difficulty that certain accommodations are made and I wonder if it with the multilingual Learners if that's something that that happens or that's helpful sure I mean we have the same rules that we do for m multilingual Learners as for other Learners and if you know there's documented reasons for their absenteeism and if the counselors can determine why and you know they get at home instruction like all students are entitled to um we do have a little bit of a I would say a digital barrier with this population they're difficult to reach by email um many of them do not have access to Wi-Fi in their homes which makes some you know Communications and delivery of instruction more difficult um so those are things that we would like to focus on and see exactly you know what how is this affecting them um and why is it uh creating this and I do think that as we know they do take the njpa um and Jessica didn't mention this but a a big percentage of our portfolio students are multilingual students and while that is disheartening in one sense I personally find it very heartening because more more of our multi multilingual students are graduating it may be through this other pathway but they are graduating and they are committed to remaining in school so I think we just need to focus on it but absolutely the students get all the benefits that all students do when they're absent from school for a period of time okay other questions okay I close this okay that's fine com okay thank you to you both for um the presentations that you gave tonight so now we're going to move on to the first residence forum for items on the agenda if anybody would like to speak you'd have five minutes and come to the podium okay seeing none we will move into our organizational items we have five items under organizational items the first one is to move to approve the following resolution Mr C Fowler whereas your personal commitment to Quality education your valued participation in establishing effective policies and your Readiness to render services and seeking educational Excellence has contributed immeasurably to the progress of our school system be it resolved that on behalf of our on behalf of your colleagues teachers and students we thank you for your dedication your service and we wish you good health and happiness in your years to come Board of Education member from 2021 to 2024 serving as board president 2024 2021 2022 operations and transportation member joint Transportation Committee Member hunon County polych liaison 20122 2023 operations and transportation chairperson joint Transportation Committee Member Student Life program member and 100 Central Regional High School Technology steering committee liaison 2023 2024 serving as board president hcaa negotiations as an ad hoc member and student discipline also as an ad hoc member so thank you Mr fer if you're watching hope you're enjoying Florida the second item is to adopt the curricula move to adopt all courses and curricula for the 2024 2025 school year including the following new courses on file in the office of the superintendent there are two new Social Studies classes listed and one new course for technology engineering and design the third item is adopting textbooks moveed to adopt all textbooks for courses for the 2024 2025 school year on file in the sup Office of the superintendent the fourth is move to approve the following officials for the 2024 25 school year are until sueded by another this is for a compliance officer and the fifth item is move to approve the revision of the following checking account signat signatures to include the board vice president per policy 0171 retroactive to August 1st 2024 the vice president shall assume and discharge the duties of the president in the president's absence disability or disqualification njsa 18a 1611 including signing all warrants and certifying all payrolls so with that I would like to move items one through five second I have a motion and a second is there any discussion okay we could have a roll call please Mrs bfield yes Miss Gung yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odono yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes Mrs dougen yes all yes motion carries thank you okay Mr Rymer do you have the up Ates for student life and program thank you we have three items tonight the first is for tuition and transportation for our special education program the second is for a student registering from Warren Hills Regional High School District for the 2425 project trust program that 10th grader will have an estimated tuition of $39,000 and we'll start on uh the first day of school September 5th and the third is for the mckenny vento education of homeless children and youth program General intent to collaborate I'd like to move those three items okay second okay we have a motion a second any discussion yeah on on item two what can you explain what that program is essential essentially it's a uh one student coming over from Warren Hills Regional High School um I just wasn't sure what the project trust program was and then that might be a yeah Jessica do we do we have any insight on that thank you okay um can we have a roll call please Mrs bfield yes Miss Gung yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odono yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes Mrs dougen yes all yes motion carries thank you okay so I'll take us through the operations and transportation committee so the first three items are our monthly the financial reports ending in June 30th 2024 we have our invoices and our transfers we have a donation of office furniture so we would like to thank Patty Yapple yaple um she has donated some office furniture in the value of $2,200 and from what I understand it's already being beautifully displayed in the executive suites and being enjoyed so thank you we have a donation of a clarinet from Susan nurger the old antique and curiosity shop for our Music Department the value of the clarinet is $900 number six is a shift Wellness Grant move to accept the 2024 2025 school health insurance fund Wellness Grant in an amount of $1 13,850 to provide all staff the staff members the opportunity for health and wellness activities number seven we have 121 students that are enrolling in the hunon county Polytech so we have some tuition that uh we need to pay uh in about $618,000 the eighth item is for 100 in County votch so the these are the um the tech programs um that hun County offers the animal science biomedical computer science and environmental we have 136 students attending these programs at just under about $10,000 a student which is just under about 1 Point uh just over $1.3 million of tuition expense for those programs from The District Number Nine is for some Transportation routes and you'll notice that there's a lot of blanks here um what we are is uh what we are going to do is vote on the one um route that's been bid on from Craft it's it's uh it's Item B there you'll see the other routes are still out to bid um and we're working to get those covered but we're just we're we're voting on that one number 11 East Amwell to uh Township Joiner so this is for the the bus routes for East Amwell Township I'm sorry number 11 is the Delaware Township jointure which has our bus routes listed there there's two routes and number 12 is um move to approve professional service providers one Barry Consulting and training for transportation Consulting and then James shup for purchase consulting services so with that I'd like like to move items 1 through 12 under operations and transportation a second second any questions on that um just one question how has the census that we're sending to Polytech change since last year the census the number of students like has it gone up has it gone down I think yeah I think I heard it's about the same it's pretty close to flat you're on your thank you y okay can we have a roll call please Mrs bfield yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odono yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr ryr yes Mrs santangelo yes Mrs dougen yes all yes motion carries thank you okay so Mrs bfield would you like to go over the Personnel we have another um 28 motions in addition to the one we already did 3.1 we have two retirements science teacher Lewis G and technician Kevin siros both have over 30 years with the district so I'd like to thank them for all their contributions to the district and wish them well in retirement we have um some resignations in 3.2 you'll see a couple within the operations and transportation dep departments and you'll also see the resignation of our interim superintendent Dr Shadow whose last day is this Friday um like to thank you for helping us out over the last few months and I wish you well as you go back into retirement um 3.4 we have contractual salary appointments you'll see some internal movement within the operations and transportation departments you'll also see a world language teacher hire which has completed the last of our open general education teacher position so we are now in really good shape as we start the school year we have number five contractual hourly appointments and then we have our hourly appointments in 3.6 which is mostly the hctv student technicians we also have a work-based learning program development appointment there we have two substitutes and 3.7 3.8 we have the appointment of the able program development positions which is Grant funded 3.9 we have an appointment for the Aspire program development position uh 10 through 18 I'm just going to go through really fast it's just various other appointments we have athletic event workers chaperon Am Pm supervision PM security home instructors sat course instructors substitute bus drivers substitute custodians and substitute teachers then in 19 you'll see where are reinstating the position of director of curriculum and instruction in 20 we have our unpaid co-curricular advisors and volunteers which are for Robotics and color guard 21 we have professional development 22 are professional development Workshop instructors the staff members being approved will uh instruct we will create four session Workshop series centered around topics that align to the district goals and professional development plan these workshops are a little bit different than what we've done in the past they'll be delivered during the school day throughout the year and will also be recorded and posted so that they're available to all the staff in 23 you'll see the professional development attendees for August 29th 24 we are approving a stip in for the wellness Challenge and Grant coordinator with grant money we did the same thing last year 25 we have new staff induction buddy stiens which is also Grant funded this is additional supports that we put in place for new staff beyond what the state mandates for novice teachers and what we do here is the district assigns buddies to all new certificated staff in the hcea regardless of how long they have been teaching or working in the education sector 26 we are resending to appointments 27 we have some leaves of absences 28 we have a settlement agreement and then finally 29 is just two amendments there were some stiens that were accidentally reversed on a previous agenda so with that I will move Personnel items one two and then 4 through 29 second okay any questions any discussion okay can we have a roll call please Mrs butfield yes Mrs gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mrs dougen yes all yes motion carries thank you um next we'll move on to the policy committee Mrs Peterson all right we we have a um much more reasonable first read uh this month we only have six items for first read to adopt under uh L1 uh the first one is policy 24155 this is a January 2022 update for student surveys analysis and evaluations this is a mandated uh policy policy 241 15.06 January 2019 update also mandatory um mandated by our our Strauss says may our policy vendor um and this is unsafe school choice option policy 2461 is an April 2022 uh update for special education receiving schools another mandated policy uh 4219 from April 2019 is a commercial driver's license controlled substance and alcohol use testing update and policy 5561 from the July 2018 updates use of physical restraints and seclusion techniques for students with disabilities um this is up these are all um updating policies that are already on this is a policy that's already on our current books um the name I think kind of catches um some people off card it's a little uh alarming if you first read it um we encourage you to to read the policy um and know that our staff are highly trained in deescalation techniques and physical restraint is used only in an emergency when students are exhibiting behavior that places themselves or others in immediate physical danger so um you know that's been on our books for quite a while this is just an update and then we have regulation 5600 which is an annual um update to our student code of conduct student discipline regulation um and so those are the bylaws that we are um adopting on first read tonight you'll notice some of our um policies that we're updating you'll hear things like 2019 2022 updates hopefully as we go along a little farther in here you will only hear this is our update from our current um round of updates we're getting caught up and so hopefully that should be tapering off as we're catching up on on the older things that we're missed and then we do have four items um that are on a first read to abolish um none of these are policies that we are just ditching they've just and moved around a bit uh policy 2414 is was actually updated in February 2011 this is programs for pupils at risk our policy vend vendor indicated um that the relevant portion of this policy has been moved to policy 24281 and uh we just did a second read on that update last month um as a result of that move by our vendor policy 2414 is only intended for high poverty and high uh need School dist districts as defined in the administrative code and we don't meet that definition so this policy should be abolished from our manual with the relevant portion uh move to that other policy policy 5755 is a February 2024 update equity and educational programs and services our policy vendor has addressed all of the relevant information from this policy in policy 2260 and policy uh 1523 which was just adopted as of last month so as such this policy is redundant and uh we're putting it up for abolishment uh policy 7430 is a January 2021 um recommendation to abolish this uh is school safety so all of the information from this policy is now been moved to uh either let me see five or six other policies which I will U take you through so you know we're not ditching school safety um policy 2431 athletic competition this has been up to date um as of August 2021 uh regulation 24311 emergency procedure for sports and other athletic activity that one we were going to have we are going to have on for first read next month policy 7432 eye production is up to date as of October 2021 7420 hygienic management is up to date as of August uh 2004 uh that sounds like an old policy but generally the science around bloodborne pathogens and chemical hygiene disposal of medical waste things like that and the schools is not an area that has um really changed um over the years so the standards have not changed uh policy 7440 School District security um that's an update from 2020 which we will be putting on for update next month and policy 8420 emergency and crisis situations will be um up to date after approval of second read tonight and then the fourth policy that is up for abolishing to be abolished is policy 9322 this is actually was put up for to be abolished in February of 2005 drug- free school zones um this policy was replaced entirely by policy and regulation 9320 which is cooperation with law enforcement agencies so that particular policy 9320 is up to date as of June 2022 and the regulation um for 9320 will be up to date after approval of second reading tonight you get all that okay we have uh second read we have the 30 that we put up for first read last month as I said this is how we're getting caught up so I'm going to go through them very quickly we have bylaw 0141 board member number and term bylaw 0163 Quorum policy 1140 educational Equity policies affirmative action regulation 1240 evaluation of superintendent policy 15 30 equal employment opportunities policy 1550 Equal Employment anti-discrimination Practices policy 2200 curriculum content policy and regulation 24314 prevention and treatment of sports related concussions and head injuries regulation 24601 Special Education location identification and referral policy and regulation 3160 physical education policy 3211 code of ethics teaching staff members policy regulation 4160 physical examination regulation 5200 attendance policy 5337 service animals policy 5350 pupil Suicide Prevention policy 5570 sportsmanship policy 5611 removal of pupils from the general education program for uh weapons Firearms offenses policy 5841 secret societies policy 5842 equal access of student organizations regul 61151 first adopt um Federal Awards uh funds internal internal controls allowability of costs that's the first time it's going to be on our books um after this second read regulation 7410 maintenance and repair policy 7610 vandalism policy 8420 emergency and crisis situations regulation 84202 emergency procedures regulation 8420 point7 lock down procedures regulation 8420 do10 active shooter policy 8467 firearms and weapons policy 9181 volunteer athletic coach and co-curricular activities adver advisers assistants regulation 9320 cooperation with law enforcement agencies and policy 9323 notification of juvenile offender case disposition so with all that I would like to move numbers one through three second got a motion in a second any discussion that's a lot of policies wow okay seeing no discussion can we have a roll call please Mrs bfield yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mrs dougen yes all yes motion carries thank you okay moving on to additional business do we have any other Committee Member leaz on reports yes we do we have one um from the racism Equity diversity committee um we are still working on student representative to the Board of Education which will include a student representative and an alternate um the think in part that company might be good in in an audience of in a room full of adults and board members um so we're looking for two students uh Mr brtt has been working on this and has some really good um really good methods and connections with students in how to identify the process which will include um student councel officers voting for students to serve um and we should we're we're looking probably for September board meeting to have a student representative thanks thanks Mr Brit um so that will be exciting I'm looking forward to that and Rebecca covered all of our exciting bylaws and policies and and Equity I know there was one question about a policy uh the Strauss Esme Equity policy and how it relates to our Equity policy um and ours is just much more um specific and specific to 100 Central and was born out of community work and student work and faith-based organizations so um there are a lot of ways that it's different and um we feel really good about it that's pretty much all I have for racism Equity diversity thank you thank you I I have a quick question what about the uh student rep so how do you envision that working would they just come to the board meetings with us or well of of course we we have executive session we have Personnel matters we have things that can't you know students really it's not appropriate um but it is it is a law in New Jersey that we have to have this representation and and it's exciting and I think that given how many students we have coming to board meetings and speaking up and and speaking up for themselves this will be a great place for them to do that and to stay connected to the board work no I think that's great I think it'll be interesting to see how we actually um involve the students or if they give us updates or if they're sharing you know on different topics or whatever it might be yeah okay thank you any other updates communication communication so um I'd like to thank Mrs smala Mr Roberto Miss Morano and Miss Smith for all of their hard work on the updated uh website it looks wonderful um if anyone that's that deserve um so much appreciated I've gotten a lot of really good feedback and how how easy it is to navigate so um again thank you very much for that uh we also talked about social media procedures uh for staff and students and Mrs mgala again is working with uh staff and athletic organizations and boosters to come up with um some standard social media procedures as well as as make sure that everyone's aware of policies we have in place in that space okay thank you um I can just do a a just a quick share on JTC as you can imagine with September quickly approaching we are spending at the the business department and the transportation department has been spending uh quite an absorbent amount of time working through the routes to ensure that all the kids can have a bus for September and be transported safely yes okay anything else for committee groups no I think we're good okay um additional board business see so I would just like to Echo what Miss blutfield said to you uh Dr Shadow I wanted to say thank you so much for jumping in with both feet underwater to help us in um in a a very um big time of need we appreciate you coming in to fill in as the interm superintendent for us and it's only been a few months but I've definitely enjoyed working with you and I wish you all the best in your next retirement retirement phase two it's only been the third time okay retirement phase three so thank you very much no it's been it's been enjoyable um and um I thank the board of education for affording me the opportunity to work with so many wonderful publics students uh faculty members board members that you've been very good and um I truly believe moving forward that you are in tremendous leadership capable leadership compassionate leadership intelligent leadership hands with Miss uh Jessica Kelo C8 she is she's phenomenal absolutely so thank you for my my time here it's been short been about five months but um I earned every gray hair it's been fun excellent thank you yeah any other board business okay seeing none we will move on to the residents forum for the general public comment um so if if anybody's interested in speaking if you can come up to the podium and you can write your name down on the uh the clipboard you'll have five minutes to speak I'll set a timer so at four minutes you'll hear a a beep and that tells you that basically you have about a minute to go so guys can come right up and if you could just state your name and your Township sure so my my name is Rachel lad um I live in Holland Township but I'm currently employed as a 100 and Central bus driver um so I already introduce myself my name is Rachel lad I will be starting my eth year as 100 and Central bus driver let me start start off by saying that I am proud to be a 100 and Central bus driver 100 and Central Transportation has an outstanding reputation of safety and preparedness when it comes to transporting students we also have a fantastic reputation when it comes to our training in fact the baker's basin's branch of the MVC was so impressed with our training that they emailed the director of Transportation singing our Praises we love our jobs and our students we take our responsibility responsibility very seriously as we are transporting the most precious cargo of all children it is because of this and I'm standing before you tonight as a mother of two children myself one of whom is a former student of Flemington raron I can say that I never once hesitated to put my children into the capable hands of Central Transportation I had complete confidence in them as I believe that the safety of my children was their utmost priority standing here now I can say that my confidence in transportation is the same but my confidence in the Flemington ritton School District to put Safety First is wavering as all of you are aware Flemington ritton is offering free transportation to all students enrolled in their preschool and prek program to facilitate facilitate this they are pushing to add as many car seats as possible to Vans and buses to have more than three car seats on a bus or van is not only extremely unsafe it is reckless according to the the US Department of Transportation there are 380 reportable bus fires each year school bus fires excuse me this averages out to two school buses catching on fire every school day the National Fire Protection Agency has conducted surveys and studies to determine that cause of these fires nearly 70% of school bus fires are traced back to the engine running gear or tires and 83% of those are from mechanical and electrical failures so this means the majority of fires are not caused by collisions School vans tend to tend to transport students of varying abilities and often include our most vulnerable students these students range from neurotypical to severely disabled as a bus driver the physical and emotional well-being of our students is on our mind constantly we have an emergency evacuation plan in place before the beginning of the school year and that plan changes and evolves as we get to know our students and their capabilities we have students who are flight risks and require someone to hold their hands so they do not run away students who are incapable of unbuckling their seat belts or Andor leaving seats without assistance students who are afraid of loud noises or changes in light students who do not like being buckled or do not understand that they need to remain buckled and required Buckle guards for their safety which then require assistance to unbuckle the list goes on and on we have seat belt Cutters to quickly free students in the event of an emergency we have taught our students where they are located where the emergency exits are and how to use them informed them that the windows can be kicked out and what to do if the driver is incapacitated we run evacuation drills twice a year to further equip our students in AIDS we have planned and prepared and trained for every imaginable scenario we have felt confident in our ability to get our students to Safety in the event of an emergency until now adding an unsafe amount of car seats to our vehicles puts both our students and our drivers in a precarious situation it requires two cuts to free a child from a car seat one to free their upper body and and the other to free their legs so you cut two and the whole thing opens up we can take them out it takes as few as 3 minutes or less for a full full siiz bus to be fully engulfed in flames our vans run on gasoline which is more flamable than Diesel and the fuel tank is located in the middle of the van if lemington raron is successful in pushing through their agenda it will put drivers in a position to not be able to get all the students safely off the bus it is in your power to show that the safety of our children is our utmost your utmost priority our lives are in your hand I have a stack of papers I'm about to hand you and it states as follows I am employed by The Joint Transportation committee comprised of the Boards of Education of 100 and Central Regional High School and Flemington Ron Regional School District I have been directed to select a route to drive the students of this commission for the upcoming 2024 to 25 school year this includes preschool prek students of the Flemington Ron Regional School District we are of the unanimous belief and opinion that this directive so that there is only one driver on each bus who has responsibility for both driving and the responsibility for the well-being of the children is patently unsafe I'm doing as instructed as I do not want to be insubordinate despite the apparent lack of wisdom of this directive and because I am aware that the njaa will be demanding a NE negotiations concerning the impact of all the safety aspects of this directive further I am doing so because I have beeni advised that I am covered and protected under s njsa 18a 16-6 so that the boards of Education are required to indemnify me and hold me harmless in the event any of of any harm or injury caused by this directive this is been signed by all of the 100 Central bus drivers it was a unanimous decision and we didn't come to it lately um that being said I just wanted to be noted that we would die um to be able to get all those students out so it's not for it's you know to be to be standing there and having to make a decision on Whose life to save and who's to let go is is a big decision we really love our jobs we love our students so thank you so much for your time thank you sorry I didn't fill this out I'm sorry I didn't fill this out thank you so much thank you Miss head would anybody else like to speak good evening my name is Joanne Tangi I've been at hun in Central in transportation since 1992 I've been added a few minutes I am also the driver trainer since 1998 I've been driving special needs students along with wheelchairs for that whole time my colleague pretty much covered a lot of it but I just want to bring your attention to the 1988 bus crash 27 Souls were lost they could not get out they were hit by a drunk driver the bus went up in Flames federal and state regulations from that crash required that buses have roof hatches emergency exit windows kickout windows and along with other children losing their lives or being injured child checkmates have come into place seat belts Crossing arms and external sensors now our policies because our safety is top we go a little bit farther with some of the road regulations no right on red no backing up 5 miles an hour under the Post-it speed limit 5 miles an hour on school grounds stay in the right lane no passing no left turn on state highways or roads without a traffic light now I've mentioned I do Wheelchairs and they take a little time just like it does with car seats and I have actually had people get on my bus yelling and screaming at me that I'm taking too long so now from what I understand there's going to be 196 car seats that we will be picking up that increases the road rage um and we do know that there are little wacka Doo people out there and I just wanted to say that more than three cars seats on a school bus is so unsafe like Rachel said there is no way you can get all the students out God forbid the bus is in Flames or you're stalled on a railroad track and the train is coming I think we should set the standard I know there is no state law saying how many car seats should be on a school bus but I think we should set the standard and say no more than three because it's the safety of the children thank you thank you anyone else [Music] yeah good evening my name is Michelle Hurley I am from ran Township and I uh represent the Flemington ran Board of Education uh had I known these comments were going to be made before me I would have prepared something to uh provide a response but uh I wanted to first start off by saying congratulations to both Dr Shadow and to miss candel oy ha on your new appointment um as president of the Flemington ridan Board of Education I was here to address the recent motion made by your board to dissolve our joint Transportation Venture I was disappointed to learn that a multi-million dollar Venture that has existed for nearly 30 years was ended with a walk-on motion with no notice given to the public I urge you to reconsider this motion for several critical reasons that impact both of our districts and the communities that we serve our transportation collaboration has been a model of efficiency and fiscal responsibility benefiting our students families and taxpayers the dissolution of this Venture will come with three distinct consequences number one increase costs to date I have seen no evidence that dissolving this partnership will benefit either District financially by separating our transportation systems both districts will face higher operational costs sharing resources personnel and ancillary costs has allowed us to leverage economies of scale leading to significant savings without this joint effort we'll both incur greater expenses that will ultimately impact our budgets and reduce funds available for educational programs at a time when costs in education are rising rapidly number two operational inefficiencies the integration of our transportation services has streamlined routes optimized bus schedules and allowed for bus drivers to have a more robust work schedule if we're unable to reach a resolution to have our preschool students Transportation needs met as co-owners we can logically assume that we would not be able to have them met if we moved to a shared service model as a result we'll need to seek other Transportation Partnerships to meet our needs disbanding this jointure will have unintended consequences on the hunter Central bus drivers Association as it will significantly reduce the amount of routes and in turn limit the number of hours available to drivers number three the impact on our families our joint venture has provided consistent and reliable transportation for students across both districts for nearly 30 years we were elected to represent the same constituents of ran Township and Flemington burrow the potential disruption of this shared Transportation will directly affect families of these townships our students leave our district and many continue to yours the families we serve are the same ones you will serve shortly the collaboration between our districts has been a testament to our commitment to serving our communities with unity and efficiency please consider the impact that dissolving this Venture could have on the students of our communities now and in the future I respectfully request your board revisit this decision and vote to resend the motion to dissolve Miss blefeld Miss gong Miss Kellogg Miss odonnell and Mr Rymer all have the ability to make this motion together we believe we've found a solution for this year's transportation that provides a Safe Transportation for all of our students this model if implemented can be followed moving forward further we request a JTC meeting be scheduled at the earliest opportunity should your board not elect to resend the motion the process of evaluating and separating assets will be arduous and needs to begin in the imminent future in order to meet the imposed deadline for dissolution of July 1st 2025 thank you for your consideration good evening my name is Ryan burkenstock I'm a resident of ran Township and a member of the flemingon ran School District Board of Education I want to thank M Harley for your statement on behalf of our board and I am here to speak for myself as a board member and also a resident of the community I would like to reiterate Miss hurly's request to urge you to reconsider the decision to dissolve The Joint Transportation agreement you have all been told that the current JT JTC structure is Antiquated however I would argue is one that has been tested and has succeeded for over for 30 years with little to no issue the dissolution of the JTC will have a profound impact on both districts this impact is not something that is immediately seen But one that will become very evident very soon please Nate make no mistake about it this decision will result in additional monies being expended it already has with legal fees and will only continue to build with various other expenses that we will both incur I understand that your district has done a good job of building these Reserves so you may not be concerned but please remember that we all represent our communities and are using taxpayer dollars we have a fiscal responsibility to the people that elected us there we go that elected us to make the sound financial decisions that are based on facts and not emotion at a time when schools across the state are struggling with difficult budget decisions now is not the time to add uncertainty and further complications whether it be cuts to staff programs supplies extracurriculars or any other line item the additional money that will be required to provide the legal legally obligated transportation to our students will have to come from somewhere and as you're all very well aware we are very limited in our ability to raise These funds I've now been on the board for eight months and have the opportunity to as F frs's chair of the JTC to be involved in all Transportation discussions have there been disagreements when it comes to preschool Transportation absolutely but there hasn't been one instance where I felt that it wasn't something that both sides couldn't work through at the end of the day we all recognize that the Stu that the transportation of all of our students is Paramount we've had excellent lines of communication between both boards committee members and I would fully expect that to continue to thrive should you can reconsider your decision I want to thank you all for your time thank you for your continued service to the community this is something I believe is worth fighting for I'm committed to the success of this relationship thank you nope I was just wondering I I know everybody was kind of taking some time getting to the podium so okay any other comments if we're good to close this out okay all right thank you for all those that have come out to speak um now we will move into board comments any board comments I just like to say thank you Dr Shadow for your service again to step in here I know it was a lot of work and we appreciate your uh willingness to to join us for this time and to help us uh make it through what has been a very busy and and crazy time I appreciate it uh these are strange times in public education and you know level-headed people coming together doing good things uh for children uh always works and I believe it and uh even with the joint your thing uh maybe there's hope and I I would like to go that thank you so much for for your time with us and for navigating all of us and this board um I appreciate it and and your time here was was really helpful to us so thank you thank you and I mean this from the bottom of my heart this board has been excellent excellent you you you do work together you know and you all have your own particular way of working together but you it's working and I'm very proud of that thank you good good to hear and and I just wanted to also add I wanted to thank so much for uh hearing from the bus drivers um you know for coming here tonight and and sharing you know what this experience is like for you what it means to you um student safety um what you do to to maintain and and raise student safety to a higher level um very grateful as a parent to hear about that and um just when you spoke about the extra precaution that H and Central bus drivers take you know not turning right on red and going below the speed limit and I was thinking could you guys teach like a driver's head class you know for like my kids and stuff like that would be amazing um really just appreciate you know the work that you do so much um you know having been on vacation with toddlers in in car seats in the middle of the night I I can't imagine seven kids on a bus surviving something so I really appreciate hearing from you thank you yeah I I would just like to Echo thank you all for coming out tonight thank you for your commitment to our kids to your commit your commitment to safety um and we are very lucky to have professionals like you that are as committed for what you know to what you do and will take your time to come out cuz I'm I'm sure you're going to be up bright and early driving those routes and checking everything out in the morning so again thank you very much I'm going to pull Sandra gong ditto thank you guys we really do appreciate all that you do and and how serious you take the you know the safety of our students that you're transporting so thank [Laughter] you all right okay there are no other board comments we will now move into the nomination of candidates for the Delaware Township Board member so I'll pass it over to you I would like to open the floor for a nomination to fill the vacant seat from Delaware Township Board of Education member through December 21st December 31st 2024 I'd like to nominate Jennifer deine I'd like to second that nomination I'd like to nominate Jessica one nomination at time and then we vote oh is that we did two nominations and then voted separately okay oop sorry before we vote I just want to remind the board members that when you're casting your votes our policy requires that we express our opinion and support of our vote so before M Stokes does roll call um is there any debate on the uh first nomation that we have I will go ahead I really appreciated um how you answered the questions and I think I'm I'm taking your your comment Sandra but um you know coming out and saying how important public education was was really significant for me to hear because it is and that's why we're here and we're here for kids so um that's why I'm in support of you and both excellent candidates and and both um you know really really good people un qualified to be on the board so thank you okay okay I really liked your breath of experience which I felt would best round out the board I particularly like your business experience which includes Global Experience your experience with education um your extensive experience with teamwork and collaboration and I also felt that uh Miss Divine would have the um the most time to commit to being a successful board member I'll elaborate on ditto this time um but uh I do agree with the