##VIDEO ID:V2017dUUjVQ## okay welcome to the meeting of hund Central Regional High Schools 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 and JSA 10 4-6 and that advanced notice required therein has been provided meeting notice was also posted in the boardroom of the upper school campus sent to the career news Star Ledger Express Times and the hunon county Democrat and sent to the clerks of Delaware Township East Amwell Township Flemington burough riton Township and Readington Township the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda Mrs Spitzer can we have a roll call please Mrs blood felds here Mrs dougen here miss gong here Mrs Kellogg here Mrs odonnell here Mrs Peterson here Mr Rymer and Miss Mrs Sant Angelo here okay can we all rise for flag salute I pled aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all okay Mrs bedfield if you could read the mission statement sure hter 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 contributing members of soci Society thank you okay so we are going to move section D um in front of section c so we will do the oath of um office now so Mrs Spitzer will administer the oath of office to our newly elected board member Mrs Jessica rthl as recommended by the interm executive County Superintendent Mrs Roth um stand please raise your right hand and repeat after me hi Jessica HP rool do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States I Jessica H roel do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear truth faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God under the authority of the people so help me God I Jessica HB rool do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications of membership prescribed by law I Jessica H doly swear that I possess the qualifications of membership prescribed by law including specifically that I am not disqualified under a voter pursuant to rs1 194-199 4-1 as well as I am not disqualified due to a conviction of crime or offense listed in njs 18 12-1 I Jessica HB roal do solemnly swear that I possess the qualif qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I will Faithfully I Jessica hell do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of Board of Education and that I will faithfully and partially and justly perform all duties of that office according to the best of my ability partially and justly perform all du of that office according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God thank you [Applause] congratulations oh yeah okay okay so I'd like to say congratulations Jessica and welcome okay so we are now also going to move up the election for board president ahead of the minutes yes so uh Mrs Spitzer I will open the floor uh I will have you open the floor for nominations please thank I'd like to open the floor for nominations of president for the Board of Education I'd like to nominate Susan Dugen to finish out the year any others thank you in your um folders there is a ballot for you to please fill out and I'll read them into record ridiculous all I feel funny Mrs Peterson Mrs dougen Mrs dougen Mrs Dugen Mrs rool Mrs Dugen Mr Rhymer Mrs Dougan Mrs Kellogg abstain Mrs odonnell no Mrs gong obstain Mrs santangelo Mrs Dugen Mrs blutfield abstain I apologize with a 54 vote Mrs dougen will seat as the president of the Board of Education thank you congratulations okay thank you okay so now I'd like to open the floor for nominations for vice president yes I'd like to nominate D Kellog okay thank you but I'd like to deine that nomin okay I would like to to nominate Jerry Rymer Rymer any other nominations if you would all please write your selection I'll come and collect those as well ear flips thank you thank you my mouse old school old school M oh that's perfect thank you oh you're so smart that's okay that's okay thank you you're welcome go back correspondence received minutes got it thank you good Mrs blufeld abstain Mrs santangelo Mr Rymer Mrs Kellogg abstain Mrs dougen Mr Rhymer Mr Rymer Mr Rhymer Mrs roel Mr Rhymer Mrs Peterson Mr Rhymer Mrs odonnell no with a majority of the board um selecting Mr ryr congratulations Mr Rymer as vice president of the Board of Education okay okay thanks congratulations Jerry okay sorry so I apologize Mrs gong Mr Rhymer one got away okay I apologize got it we got them all in got it okay so moving on to the approval minutes for October 28th 2024 do we have a motion to to move the minutes second Motion in a second any conversation any discussion no okay can we have a roll call please Mrs blutfield yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rhymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mrs Ral Thal yes and Mrs du can she vote on that she wasn't here she should probably abstain from the minutes sorry I'm sorry I should have helped you I figured I should have and Heather I'm going to abstain too because I wasn't here last and Mrs dougen you were the last one you were not okay sorry here we're going to go over okay you want me to do again you want to re over um Mrs blutfield Miss gong Miss Kellogg Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson Mr Rymer is an exstension MRS santangelo is a yes Mrs dougen is an exstension and Miss rol is an exstension thank you okay got it okay moving on to correspondence there was one letter received for the board that's on record and now moving on to the superintendent report okay thank you um so this month we honored all those who have served in the armed forces including those um who were some of our Hunter and Central staff members so I wanted to thank those staff members again and I also wanted to thank Ashley GN our social studies teacher as well as the soldier support club for recognizing them um the solders support Club put together a ceremony after school to celebrate those staff members and they also had made them a commemorative gift which was actually through the help of the IMC maker space so thank you to those staff members who are veterans I'm going to clap for them um last week was American Education week and Wednesday was recognized as educational education support Professionals Day I wanted to take a moment to thank our education support professionals this includes our athletic trainers behaviorist school counselors learning disabilities teacher Consultants library media Specialists nurses power professionals psychologists social workers speech therapists and Student Assistance counselors um I'm sure by th this list you can tell the magnitude of the difference that the staff M members make here and in every district for that matter but I feel we're lucky to have the best of the education support Professionals in our district so thank you again to these amazing staff members we can clap for them too um thank you November is also the month where we usually solidify next year's program of studies offerings I want to thank our staff who have helped with this process as it takes many months of planning and hard work as you know one of our district goals centers around academic opportunities for students I'm proud to say that we'll be expanding our magnet program offerings next year to include two new programs engineering as well as media and Communications our magnet programs offer opportunities for students to specialize in an area that they're passionate about this includes three or four cohesive courses dual enrollment Andor certification opportunities a Capstone experience and extracurricular opportunities such as clubs or competitions um we will also formalize our work-based learning pilot program from this year so that will be two semester-based classes called senior internship Capstone 1 and two and we're thrilled to be able to offer our students a formal work-based learning program for students who are interested in internships I also want to let you all know we're working on our school calendar we have received a lot of feedback from our staff students and the community we recognize that this year's school calendar does not allow for maximum efficiency at the end of the school year and we're keeping this in mind as we look toward 2025 2026 for this year's 2024 2025 calendar I wanted to provide everyone with a heads up that if we do not use all of our emergency closing Days by the end of February we will revise the calendar to hopefully end prior to the state observance of juneth that will allow for some more efficiency at the end of this school year right now our last day of school is scheduled for June 23rd 2025 and graduation is June 24th we will make sure we keep our families updated as we progress through the winter um we'll make the decision by the end of February because we recognize some of our families of seniors will be making travel ARR Arrangements based on our graduation date also with that we've drafted our 2025 2026 school calendar and will include it for approval at next month's board meeting the calendar will be shared with our sending districts as we want to coordinate the same days for school closures to our sister our families and planning as well as for the coordination of Transportation routes with our sunding districts our home and School Association held its second meeting of the year on November 9th or excuse me November 12th where they reviewed results from the parent climate and culture survey the next meeting is on December 3rd at 6 p.m. uh this meeting is open to any hund Central parent or staff member and we encourage people to attend I know some of you all have attended and I encourage everyone to attend if they can um and recently we recognize our first round of Allstars this year 21 students and 12 staff members were recognized for doing great things at 100 and Central and going above and beyond nominations can be made by a fellow student teacher or staff member nominations are then reviewed by a committee and final individuals are selected we celebrate our Allstar three times a year so congratulations to our staff and student Allstars we'll clap for them too so I'm now going to move on to the next portion of the report which includes giving an update on one of our district goals on instructional priorities so I am inviting up Mrs Rebecca Lucas and Dr Robert Hastings two of our curriculum and instruction supervisors so they're going to get connected it is 43d or is it 3 a EC what which screen beam is it there's two I'm I'm going to call in the text support and she magically appears it might be easier to hardwire yeah fine yeah normally I'm like I'm normally the Scrambler okay and everyone does have a copy of this presentation in their folder as well just in case okay all right so Mrs Lucas and Dr Hasting are going to present more information to you on work on one of our district goals and you will recall that our district goal on instructional priorities um read as follows Mrs Lucas if you want to jump to the next slide because I believe we have that there so the district will fully Implement Central's instructional model with instructional priorities across all classrooms this will include integrating the model into the multi-tiered system of supports framework and emphasizing personalized learning and Innovative strategies the district will strengthen collaboration between high school and ex sending District Partners fostering the sharing of best practices and ensuring that instructional priorities are consistent in order to support a smooth transition for students moving from K to 8 to high school so just as an intro before I hand it over to Mrs Lucas this goal was developed as a next phase of one of last year's instructional goals we spent the year really inventorying and working with staff to understand what good instruction and best practices in instruction look like at 100 Central we did this in a few ways We examined our observation data using the teaching and learning framework we reviewed and discussed observation feedback we spoke with staff about what good instruction looked like to them and what personalized learning meant both in general and in their specific departments and we had our instructional coaches visit exemplary classes over the summer we put this together with feedback from the climate and culture survey to put together a districtwide focus on instructional priorities Mrs Lucas will take you through and show you what these are they're not necessarily mind-bending but rather they focus on what we know to be tried and true good cheat ing practices we have reentered our professional learning around these practices and Dr hings will speak more to that in addition we have shared these with our sending districts through our articulation is our goal to see these practices highlighted in all districts so we can ensure a more seamless transition for students moving from 8th to 9th grade so I'll pass it over to Mrs Lucas now thank you Miss cangelosi hay okay can you all hear me okay right okay uh good evening I'm Rebecca Lucas um thank you for giving us the time to be able to present to you so my plan is to just go over our uh our four areas for our instructional priorities so this is a vision um that really had its Genesis this summer and um the goal for these is to empower both teachers and students in creating engaging meaningful and successful learning experiences um our instructional priorities focus on four key areas which you can see up here instructional design and pacing student centered learning and agency engagement and differentiation and assessment and feedback so like I said this framework was initiated over the summer with a group of Administrators and it was developed using various sources of data so we used evaluation results uh end of year summi of conferences and conversations departmental collaboration informal and peer observations climate and culture assessments and the multi-tiered system of supports the framework that we've been working on uh since last year so what I'd like to do now is just spend a few minutes on each one of these bucket areas that we've worked on and give you a little bit of detail about each one so instructional design and pacing this priority focuses on structuring lessons to optimize student engagement and comprehension and classroom activities and assessments should align seamlessly with the clear learning objectives that a teacher has in the classroom that day or for that unit um effective pacing would maximize student understanding and the application of content which within that class time that class unit or that class assignment and then by carefully am monitoring the progress and collaborating with students uh to ensure that they understand the goals of each lesson our staff will create an environment where learning is both intentional and impactful so this priority helps establish a strong instructional framework and it sets students up for Success so our second area of priorities is student centered learning and this emphasizes student uh Independence Agency and Leadership within the classroom uh this approach involves designing activities that Foster inquiry based learning it allows students to lead discussions to establish classroom norms and to shape routines within the classroom and collaboration and student L initiatives we all know they create a classroom culture that's focused on active engagement and a meaningful exploration of the content and the skills associated with that department um number three is engagement and differentiation so differentiation engagement focuses on fostering active student involvement through things like strategic grouping Hands-On activities or real world experiences and by tailoring instruction to meet the diverse needs of all our Learners uh such as multilingual Learners educators will ensure a meaningful participation and continuous engagement in a postco classroom environment which is very different than it was prior to covid um assessment and feedback is our last bucket area and this involves using varied assessment methods and tools tools um such as higher order questioning to gauge student understanding and engagement data driven instruction uh real-time checks for comprehension uh these types of tools guide differentiation and instructional adjustments that a teacher may make based on a lesson or on the fly during an 80-minute block um and this practice focuses on continuous progress monitoring to tailor teaching to meet students evolving needs so those are the four bucket areas so what what we wanted to do with those areas is we wanted to actually look at them in um in action so the instructional look Force which should be linked here you probably have and here's the document uh that was created for this so I can summarize these uh pretty briefly instead of you all looking at every check mark in the box so these instructional look fors are our priorities in action they provide a clear framework for identifying how our instructional priorities translate into real actual classroom practices so teachers instructional design assistant are idas or administrators can use these look fors uh to guide lesson planning to enhance instruction and to evaluate practice teaching practices effectively they can they're also a real practical tool um to align lessons and activities and strategies with our established priorities they can also serve as a rubric uh to assess and refine classroom practices amongst plc's amongst teacher groups um by using these look fors uh we can facilitate meaningful discussions during department meetings during PLC meetings and with Administration uh fostering collaboration and driving continuous Improvement in teaching and learning and these instructional PR practices and priorities also closely aligned with our tier one strategies which Dr Hastings will take you through now there you go thank you Miss Lucas so when we refer to mtss the acronym mtss speaks to a multi tiered system of supports which is a collaborative and evidence-based framework that provides personalized instruction to all students and when we refer to tier one instructional practices tier one speaks to those academic supports that all students receive regardless of subject matter or content area tier one it simply refers to the practices and the good teaching that's built into all classroom instruction so these are some of the many examples of best instructional practices that the teaching staff at 100 and Central prioritize so regardless of content area and subject matter we will see our teachers modeling what exemplary work looks like to their students we'll see differentiated instruction taking place reteaching and extending curricular opportunities to personalize our students learning experiences teachers provide student choice they give explicit and constructive feedback as students work towards completing larger projects and teachers confer with students routinely to check in with them so these strategies are some of the examples of tier one teaching practices that support all students as they work towards individualized growth and success and through our supervisory Department work and with the help of our instructional design Assistance or idas as we refer them here teachers at 100 Central receive professional development that focuses on incorporating research-based teaching strategies into their instructional design and daily lessons so last month the idas administered professional development on two different topics one was on designing engaging lessons and the other was developing classroom management visions and the pictures on the slide are from those two sessions so along with providing further professional development throughout this school year another support that idas will begin to offer is what we refer to as exemplary visits so during exemplary visits idas work with willing classroom teachers and observe them teaching during their instructional blocks of time so they get to witness firsthand the good work that's taking place in Central in a non-evaluative capacity and the purpose of these visits is not only to identify and see the good teaching in action but then to turn key these strategies to our new and non-tenured staff as instructional coaches so the idas are working towards becoming the go-to experts on mtss and instructural priorities and they're going to serve as a districtwide support system for all of our staff members um as to what's next in our mtss framework this year we're focusing on continuing to enhance those best practices within our districtwide instruction and our instructional designs and we're also working to develop a dashboard through our Genesis system that will use assessment data to inform teachers on when to adjust instructional strategies so the creation of this dashboard it further aligns with this commitment of f fostering a culture of collaboration among our staff and ensuring that all students continue to receive the highquality personalized instruction that hun and Central is known for and we have the reputation of providing our student population and it's exciting work so uh we appreciate the time you took tonight to hear about it uh thank you for listening and for your attention we're looking forward to continuing the work together so thank you thank you Mrs Lucas and Dr Hastings are there does the board have any questions for them I have uh just one question how did uh Mrs Lucas and Dr Hastings get selected to lead this effort I don't really know if if we were selected so over the summer we have uh we have projects that we've developed through um our our evaluations and the conversations that we have and we just happen to end up with instructional practices and priorities and mtss so that was where our summer work led us um so we are by no means the only people that are working on this this is a total supervisory Department project we just happen to be the ones that we speaking tonight so it's a it's a and we all work on the same projects we just have project leads because it makes things a little bit more organized and then we can balance our work in the summer um so it was probably one of the most productive Summers that we've had in a long time it was a a great practice for us you're welcome so sorry one more question um as we go into our goal setting and um planning for the next school year are there parts of these goals or additional goals that we should be considering yes I I don't think that these uh the priorities and mtss is a single-ear project they're multi-year I would say two to three years so we're just at the we're these are just baby steps so uh we're just creating Frameworks now um like Rob said the idas are just getting started so that's working and it's December next week so we're just getting started with this so yeah yeah would be wonderful if we could continue the work that that we're doing now it's um it's a framework and it's a thread that that you can see with good teaching throughout our entire District so yeah we would love to have the board support with that yeah and just bringing to light all of those good things that we're currently doing so the beginning of this academic priorities is really getting together with everybody and collaborating to ensure that we we everybody knows the good things that we're doing and then we could turn key those to other staff members okay thank you again okay uh the next part of my report I'm going to ask our student Board of Education representatives to share their November report and I want to congratulate both of them they're coming off of a very busy time Aaron with a very busy and high achieving soccer season among other other things and bronwin was just starring in our our 1112 play this past weekend so congratulations to you both and I'll kick it over to you hello everyone our names are bronin Downey and Aaron Johnston and we are your board of education student Representatives we will be giving a report tonight about Central events updates and feedbacks from Central students while The Fall season has officially ended with girls and boys soccer football and girls volleyball teams making R in States we were beginning beginning to gear up for winter sports with tryouts beginning this week this fall we also held some fun activities like Chinglish pingpong and a wellness volleyball tournament these events have been a creative way to involve students and staff in our extracurriculars and there are plans to continue more opportunities like these throughout the winter on the topic of Wellness Mr BR Miss cangelosi Miss kelos hay held another monthly lunch meeting with a group of students with a focus on overall well-being we held a conversation about how students are feeling during this time of year and students share that they are feeling overwhelmed due to things like December SATs sealed by literacy exams work and other extracurriculars and feedback from colleges in the near future good evening everyone moving on to cultural celebrations we recently had an amazing dwali Festival where students shared the vibrant traditions of the holiday and earlier in the month we celebrated the induction of new members into our language honor societies recognizing students who have excelled in Spanish French German Latin and Mandarin classes on December 3rd there will be a Department of Education visit to continue being recognized as a model World languages program site this is a huge honor and a testiment to the hard work of both our students and teachers the Junior and senior play anti M just wrapped up for the year with great success by the cast directors and crew last week our talented musical students from Central's band choir and Orchestra programs were inducted into the trim music Honor Society those interested in seeing these students in action are encouraged to come to our instrumental concert December 5th and the coral concert December 11th tomorrow during the school Day Middle School students from sending districts will come and see their future high schools musical opportunities in our annual day of music and the community is encouraged to attend the thespian and triam honor society's collaboration in the holiday showcase carols and Coco on December 13th as seniors the fall has been busy with college applications and the first major deadline November 1st has already passed for those of us who are applying the process can be pretty stressful but there are plenty of resources available to us like walk-in meetings with M nectarine during un at lunch with over 30% of our graduating class pursuing a future and postsecondary options other than a four four-year College Hunter Central has created a program designated to educating students on pursuing a trade or technical program the military and rvcc or other community colleges the week of November 18th held meetings in the Commons in the Little Theater where students were able to interact with different panels that they found interest in the postsecondary pathways week for juniors and seniors have come with positive feedback and gratitude from students and staff for recognizing the large group of students interested in various plans after graduating Central in terms of school spirit we know that earlier this year our student council competition kicked off at the pep Ry where sophomore is racked up the most point so far and student council is continuing this competition with the focus on sit in attendance where different grades will earn more points for the lowest absenteeism rates a friendsgiving event in the IMC after school allowed students to also earn more points for their grade while making fa crafts finally it's hard to believe but we've already finished the first quarter of the school year it did go by quickly but we're satisfied with how the beginning of the school year went and are looking forward to what the second quarter will bring we continue to have high hopes for the future of our representation here at the board and we'll continue to Foster dialogues between between students administrators and board members here at Central thank you good thank you okay uh I would like to ask Mr Brandt in assisting me in honoring our student representatives brahan and Aaron Senator zwicker has sent a recognition from the state legislature to commend our Representatives the citation on your certificate reads commendations and praise are extended to bronwin and Aaron by the C CI Citi citizenry oh boy of the six excuse me it's it's spelled correctly I just can't read it of the 16th New Jersey legislative district through their elected representative for your outstanding commitment to public education by becoming a student representative to the central board of education for the 2024 2025 school year so congratulations to you both I did say this in September but I believe it's worth saying again in Brahman and Aaron we have individuals who exemplify leadership curiosity and a passion for making a difference they bring with them the unique perspectives of our students and and I'm going to change tenses from September they have been invaluable in helping us better understand the needs concerns and aspirations of those we serve so I've absolutely Lov working with them I'm grateful for their participation and Leadership and I'm looking forward to our continued work ahead congratulations browan and Aaron and I'd love to have Mr brentt give you your certificates now oh well very good yes we we'll pause yeah you want to take a picture yeah good good [Applause] thank you um so we do also have a Hib and suspension report I'll go over the hibs um during executive session and we will be voting on the ones that I presented to you all last month for those of you who were here last month to hear about them um before I conclude I would just like to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone a little early um I'm so grateful to everyone in our district um especially as I'm stepping into this role um but I especially want to thank you all for your support is meant the world to me so thank you and Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and that is the end of my report thank you that was great girls too and I wanted to say I had a chance to see the play this weekend and it was phenomenal I you know the students are so talented um even the technology behind the scenes the the construction crew or the the crew that was moving all the scenes around the lights went out so many times and I think the play was over two hours long but the time went like it went so fast and you had my attention the whole time it was such an amazing play I the talent here is just the best so and I wanted to know was the music that was playing our band students as well does anybody know like some of that some of the music I heard instrumental I don't know okay I was wondering if they recorded some of that or not um no that was just a recording but for the musical we will have live they'll they'll do live okay because I thought maybe they were involved too I was wow but it was phenomenal so well done to all the students and stff I just want to say ditto because I saw the play Saturday and it was just phenomenal and I wish that we could be saying this and that there were more performances because the language the acting it was just it was awesome absolutely awesome so I want to go back and actually look at the movie from the 1930s or whatever it was but really congratulations again really talented uh students yeah all right great okay so with that um we will move on to so you did you do the Hib suspension report you kind of talked about that real quick okay we'll move on to the first public comment the residents Forum this is an opportunity where um the public has a chance to comment on any items that are on the agenda for tonight if there's anybody that would like to comment please step forward to the podium okay all right seeing none then we'll move on to the organizational items so the first is for the Hib report move to affirm the um the Hib case that were discussed in closed session on October 28th 2024 so moved okay motion second and uh do we have any discussion about that discussion okay can we have a roll call please Mrs Spitzer yeah Mrs gong yes Mrs dougen I'm going to abstain Mrs blood Fields yes Miss rool abstain Mrs odonnell yes Mrs S Angelo yes Mr ryr abstain Mrs Dugen or Mrs Kellogg yes and Mrs Peterson yes all yes motion carries okay thank you all right so moving on to Student Life and program Mr Rymer thank you tonight for student life and programming we have four items to move the first two have to do with tuition and transportation for special education the third is an overnight field trip for model un which is a program that's been going on for about 20 years now this one is going to be held out in Hershey at the Hershey Lodge so we'd like to wish them good luck as they venture out and the fourth is for a work-based learning site fler Architects and that's for one student to uh have a work uh situation there so I'd like to move those four items thank you we have a motion do we have a second second okay any discussion okay Mrs Spitzer can we have a roll call please Miss B yes Mrs blutfield yes Miss rool yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Sant Angelo yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs Peterson yes and Mrs Duncan yes oh yes motion carries I'll try Miss how about Mrs Duan so sorry it's okay Duncan D okay thank you we're going to move on to operations and transportation so there's actually only six items tonight if I recall five items so the first is to approve the financial reports ending in September 30th 2024 we have the invoices of 5,532 38.94 we've got the the transfers um the the normal transfers that we have the approval of flexible spending account contribution limits so this is just to um update the systems to correlate with what the new FSA spending limits are going to be for 2025 that's number four and then number five is to graciously accept the donation of $250 from the hund county NAACP for HC black student union and the donation is going to be used to offset Transportation costs to attend a college fair at Ron Valley so with that I would like to move items one through five and O Motion in a second any discussion yes I I would just also like to thank um then ACP for that donation that was really generous and and um and wonderful so thank you okay anybody else discc yeah for the committee reports it's just a mild one but yes okay any other discussion on the on items okay um Mrs Spitzer roll call please miss rool yes Mrs blutfield yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs odonnell yes Miss gong yes Mrs santangelo yes Mrs Peterson yes on numbers 1 three four and five abstain SL recuse on number two and Mrs Dugen yes motion carries okay moving on to the Personnel committee um Mrs bfield 19 items on the agenda tonight first one we have two retirements Robert Kenny music teacher and band director with 32 years of service for district and Brenda mcnight an Aspire power professional was seven years so I'd like to wish you both well in retirement and thank you for all your contributions to the district number two we have a revision of an already approved effective pension date to a new deferred pension effective date number three we have some contractual salaries in including the appointment of Matt Hall as director of curriculum congratulations um number four we have an amendment to a start date for a health and PE teacher five we have some hourly appointments including two special ed coordinators paid for with grant money six and seven we have the appointments of substitute secretaries and teachers eight we have curriculum writing for another nine hours for g&t art curriculum revisions then we have chaperon uh number 10 six block stiens for a science class replacing an individual on a leave of absence 11 we have an hcea operations stien per the contract we have some Schedule D winter coaches and 12 Schedule C advisors 13 professional development uh 15 we have a devise job description for the supervisor of Athletics to report to the principal rather than the de of students 16 we have a student teacher for special ed 17 we have an amendment to add a missed administrative credit for a supervisor's salary 18 we have leaves of absences and finally 19 we are resending an appointment so with that I would like to move Personnel items 1 through 19 so second okay a motion in a second any discussion okay seeing none can we have a roll call please Mrs santangelo yes Miss gong yes Mrs BL Fields yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs cogg yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs roel yes Mrs odonnell yes and Mrs Dugen yes all yes motion carried did you want to make a com thank you okay some okay okay um let's move on to the policy committee um Mrs Peterson actually that's going to be Miss s Angelo I was not able to be here this week this month oh okay gotcha Mr s Angelo yes okay so we have three items to move in policy the first we have a first read of policy 5501 which is the student use of personal electronic devices we wanted to thank the home and School Association student council and administration on the collaborative efforts that went into reviewing and revising this policy this was truly a group effort and we appreciate everyone's input um second reads and abolished second reads were already uh addressed last month so I am going to move uh items one through three okay thank you a motion in a second any discussion can I just ask you to um we I know that there was an email that went around to the board but uh the policies that are referenced in the new first read policy 5501 um the challenges that we're going to have with 5516 and how we're going to address that next year we thank you for that um yes we intend to actually we've discussed it and we will address that in between first and second read like if it if there is a slight adjustment that can be made we didn't want to do it prior to first read without bringing it back through so it'll probably be a minor change in between first and second read that'll get adjusted and are we going to be addressing policy 5516 in the new year um I mean I I would like to say yes I don't know who's you know what next year holds and what the whole board holds it for next year but I would hope so I would assume so I'll have a yes from the the head of the table okay sorry okay um no other discussion okay can we have a roll call please Mrs santangelo yes Miss gong yes Mrs blutfield yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs rool yes Mrs odonnell yes and Mrs dougen yes all yes motion carries thank you all right moving on to additional business other Committee Member liaison reports do we have anything for communications yes um so we did have a Communications committee meeting this month um and Miss magala gave an excellent update um that everybody can see in the minutes essentially she has drafted a plan um and gave us an update on where everything stands as far as the primary methods of communication how effective the website is um and how she is is working working through social media so it seems like we're we're really making great progress um the other thing that we discussed is the need for this committee uh for next year and I think given that we have a policy and that we have a Communications officer in place I think the work of this committee can be folded underneath SLP um and so I would recommend that the the committee be dissolved for next year so okay thank you um go ahead yeah the um the equity committee did meet um and we we discussed uh policy 8100 and looking for more places that we can verify the practical application of that policy in action in the school um we talked about the care committee which was really um instrumental in working with the equity committee to create policy 8100 um and that's working with HCA and and um the community and students and so if do do you want to say anything more about that like the care committee and yeah I can so um that's part that's in one of our goals and inclusive opportunities is to kind of reup that care committee talk about what is the care committee what exactly is the charge who um appoints members or how are they elected what's their term of service um and what does it look like so I will have a draft to everyone for our December meeting thank you so much and um it was very nice because we had Miss gong join us for the for the meeting um which was wonderful because it's not lost on me that there is zero diversity on the equity committee so hopefully that will change at some point um for the good and um that's all I have okay thank you and I can just give the board a quick update about JTC we did not meet this month but um most of the month is focused on getting estimates for a company or firm that can value the assets that are owned by the JTC so that we can prepare for the disolution and so we're waiting on those estimates so we hope to meet with the JTC the first week of December so that we can discuss that and steps forward okay any other updates from anyone any other additional board business I would just like to um comment on one of our Personnel items thank you all for your support and approval I'm thrilled to have Dr Hall as our new director of curriculum and instruction um I know you all know he's our science supervisor but what you may not know is he has already spearheaded some districtwide updates so his influence is already being felt here um he was instrumental in revamping our um magnet program so we are adding to magnet programs as I said and that's in part due to Dr Hall's hard work on this Summer's projects which was one of his projects that he led this summer um he also when I moved into this role helped take over dual enrollment so he's been working a lot on that and expanding opportunities creating more Partnerships with um College Partners so I think that will do wonders as well for inclusive opportunities for students so um he's done many other things but those are the two most recent that I'm thinking of and I'm really excited to have him on board um he will still oversee science so don't worry we won't be without someone for our science department although we did post for a science supervisor so that will be coming to you soon as well for your approval so thank you all I'm just so happy and congratulations to you Dr [Applause] Hall okay great so now we can move on to the public comment um section of the meeting so residence Forum General resid Forum so if anybody would like to speak you can have a maximum of five minutes please approach the podium state your name and your municipality there also should be a form where you can fill your name out on there and um yeah I'm I'm actually going to time you and at four minutes you'll hear a beep and that will tell you that there's a minute left to go so that we can keep track of time would you mind if I had timed myself as well absolutely I love that that's even better all right then for municipality would that just be like the town I reside in yes right okay y um I'll just write it here first take yeah you can take your time time doesn't start yet okay good evening my name is subba stba I'm from the municipality of Flemington and uh I will be presenting a case uh with a detailed argument to reallocate funds to transportation services for clubs and activities and just a preface any and all figures referenced throughout my case are derived from the 2223 and 2425 budgetary reports from 100 Central extracurriculars at and Central play a vital role in student development providing unique opportunities for leadership creativity and Community Building Beyond just being a break from academics these very programs are the spaces where students find a sense of belonging develop essential life skills and discover their passion the first point that I'd like to bring up throughout my case is enrollment Trends and budget report priorities despite declining full-time enrollment in from 247 students in 22 to 23 to an estimated 1,892 students in 2425 general fund revenues have increased from 71.3 n million to $7.5 million this shift creates an opportunity to reallocate funds towards extracurricular programs which would would enhance student experiences it's important to note that in previous years and the past precedence that transportation for clubs and activities was covered this support allowed students to participate in competitions performances and events without the worry of a transportation barrier by reallocating funds the district would restore for this essential support ensuring that every student has Equitable access to extracurricular opportunities the second thing I'd like to mention is student well-being and engagement this Focus aligns with hun Central's educational Mission I'd like to recount a couple Stories the consider the story of a student who joined our school's Debate Club initially shy and uh struggling with public speaking they found a welcoming community that encouraged confidence and growth now as the president of the club this student mentors others who were once in their shoes without adequate resources to maintain and expand clubs like these stories like this students may have never even unfolded stem clubs at Central have had a similar effect on students lives fostering passions in fields like computer science engineering and physical sciences these organizations which have earned local and National recognition are now at risk without sufficient funding the investing club for example organizes an educational trip to Wall Street offering students firstand exposure to the financial World however such trips are increasingly difficult to fund depriving students of real world learning experiences similarly the award-winning thespian Society must self fund transportation to competitions whereas athletic teams receive almost full support this inequity places Arts programs behind a financial barrier making participation in events challenging when Sports receive full funding while academic and arts programs struggle it sends a message about their perceived value often that sports are superior to our clubs and activities which shouldn't be the case this imbalance Fosters a division within our student body leaving non-athletic participants feeling overlooked so to promote unity and fairness amongst our student body it's crucial to support every activity whether it's athletic academic or artistic make sure we support them equally lastly capital outlays for facilities saw a decrease from $4.5 six million in 22 to 23 to just a staggering $311,000 in 24 to 25 highlighting opportunities to optimize spending in conclusion given the trends in enrollment and budgeting at 100 Central it's clear to it's clear there is room to reallocate resources to provide robust funding for clubs and activities currently transportation is behind a pay wall effectively excluding some students from fully participating in what our school has to offer with their extracurriculars and clubs removing these obstacles ensures that every student regardless of their financial situation or their background can engage in activities that promote growth leadership and Community I'd like to take you back to the story of the student that is a part of debate that story is my own the skills I've gained public speaking critical thinking and persuasion are invaluable it's the very reason I'm able to stand here in front of you guys to get today if that isn't reason enough to invest in our school's activities I'm not sure what is thank [Applause] you thank you thank you hello my name is Anastasia Feldman I am from the municipality of Flemington and um I'm here with c aversano as representativ of the school's thespian Honor Society and we just want to reiterate how important Equity is for us when it comes to buses so in addition to our main stages like our 1112 player Musical and our 910 we attend two competitions throughout the school year and we have historically performed very well at these at the Bucks County Playhouse theater competition last year we won two Awards out of our two acts one for Bine another for outstanding actor and two years ago at the same competition we won four outstanding actor Awards between those two acts at St the speech and theater Association of New Jersey we won one award last year and the year prior we won three Awards Stan's particular ly competitive as there's over 10 schools typically in attendance we also have the children's play in which we prepare a play to perform for the elementary schools as a field trip in the past busting was available for both of these competitions as well as our two shows for children's play this year only one competition is paid for and only one show day leaving us to have to cover expensive that shouldn't fall on us particularly for the children's play this is a blow as it's a community service and it should be covered cost-wise I personally am also on the school's fencing team and so for this sport we typically have two to three meets a week and all of those buses are supplied for us without us having to do extra fundraising and so the fact that bus uh buses are supplied for these Sports and not for the Arts is just very apparent and so all that we're requesting is the same Equity Sports receive for busing when we are representing our school in our own way and doing it well at that thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Heather Mao I'm a resident of Flemington and a parent here at Central I'd like to comment on something that was said at the board of ed meeting last October 28th it didn't sit right with me at the time but I was unable to accur accurately verbalize why at in that moment I needed time to reflect on it and process my feelings about it so I appreciate you allowing me to refer back to it now during the public comments Sandra D'Or said and quote Mr tanko suffered religious persecution at the hands of Dr Moore because Mr tanko sincerely held religious beliefs did not align with Dr Moore's radical agenda let me be clear I do not want to discuss Mr Tango situation what I'd like to address is M divor use of the term radical agenda she used it to describe Dr Moore's support for the lgbtq plus students at at this school and specifically those in the trans Community both of my children one of whom graduated this past June and the other who is still a student here are trans neither of them are part of a radical agenda they're just like any other kid here at Central they love hanging out with their friends participating in various extracurricular activities pursuing their hobbies and spending time with their family they're creative and funny and caring and supportive my son who is in college now was very active in the thespian Society while here at Central if he wasn't in a production he was helping somewhere behind the scenes and cheering on his friends he came home this past weekend to attend the phenomenal as mentioned phenomenal 1112 production of ATI Mame and was beaming with pride watching his fellow cast and crew my younger child is an incredibly talented artist who shares their work with friends to celebrate their finished pieces and collaborate on their Works in progress this is not an attempt to just brag on my kids though if I were to my son was the one that got best actor at bucks last year as mention that was just side note but let me ask you when you tell people about your kids do you lead with their gender identity or sexual orientation no right you might say their age or discuss their Hobbies he's on the football team or she plays field hockey they're an artist a musician a debate team member Etc same with our kids they're not part of any kind of radical agenda they're just kids their agenda is the same as any other student succeed in their classes to graduate and pursue their goals and dreams and Dr Moore ensuring the safety and equal treatment of lgbtq plus students was not a radical agenda the only agenda our kids have that your kids may not is making it to adulthood in the face of hatred and violence towards them last week we honored the trans lives lost in the past year on the 25th transgender day of Remembrance in October we remembered Matthew Shepard on the 26th an iversary of his brutal murder we are not unjustified in our fear for our children's safety Dr Moore did not have a radical agenda in attempting to protect them and I ask you our school board to protect our kids just as much as you would your own I'm not so naive to think that anything I say up here will change what's in your heart but I'm asking you to put your personal biases aside and do what's right for every child at this school not just the ones like yours thank Youk [Applause] you okay all right I don't think I see anybody else um so we will move on to board comments anybody I just want to say well formulated arguments and um especially the research going into it I I appreciate the time you guys all took and your your confidence to come up here and speak that that's big time so thank you yeah I'd like to compliment you both as well um and if you have some information that you can leave with us or email us I think it would be uh great and I'd love to look at it and we'll see what we can do yes I I would just like to thank the speakers um absolutely you know the allocation of funds and and making sure that it is Equitable was such an important issue to raise and you raised it probably better than any of us could at the table so very well done and um yes I I really appreciate the speakers because you know there there is sort of an elephant in the room of hatred and it's a problem and I know we want to gloss over it and we want to make nice and and I do want to do that I want unity and I want to get along but I I sort of can't Overlook the New Jersey project and and Sue while I like you and I respect you the reason I voted no because we're supposed to say why we vote no or abstain um is because I I just never had a conversation with you or publicly where you acknowledge New Jersey project endorsing you and distancing yourself from them because part of their agenda is to get rid of the trans protection policy so um clearly it's very passionate to me um but I i' I'd hoped at some point to hear something just distancing yourself from that because um I I would hate to think that that trans kids here and policy 5756 are are um on the agenda for anything that is not helpful and supportive and wonderful for them so I'll just make a comment back to that when I say that I support all kids I mean all kids no matter what where they're coming from anything right I want every single child in this High School to leave this high school and feel valued have what they need to be successful in the community in the future supporting all children and I think I've said this before I don't even know what the New Jersey project is well they endorsed you and they have an agenda to they endorse a lot of people yes so I'm not gonna I'm not going to go there with you right now but um excuse me I value every single student that's in this High School period it doesn't matter where they're coming from it it doesn't matter to me I appreciate and I value and value everything that comes with these kids okay that's why I'm good to hear that's good to hear and I look forward to um this board upholding and protecting policy 5756 if you care about all the kids so thank you anybody else yes um I last week also attended the uh transgender day of remembrance that was held at a church in uh Flemington burough it was um touching um and it was wonderful to hear um different stories um the next thing uh Sports versus Arts thank you for your comments and uh this board should take a look at the um inequality uh between the transportation of the different groups um last night I attended uh a Thanksgiving Interfaith um service at another uh religious organization in uh Flemington and it was wonderful because there were gosh maybe eight different clergy from eight different churches synagogues what have you um and given the environment that's out there today or even at this board um the messages were actually quite uh important and actually poignant it was to listen to each other um and that's sometimes hard to do but what I ask is that people tell us what they value because otherwise you can't have an honest discussion um maybe next Thanksgiving folks here will actually go to an interface um service it was really just it was absolutely wonderful short sweet um but really nice and inspiring thank you okay thank you um with that no other comments here so we're going to move on to Executive session to I believe talk about Hib and Personnel tonight so with that um can I have a motion no action no action no action have a motion second motion and a second all in favor I um any knows extensions okay we'll move into executive session thank you