##VIDEO ID:zwk0XPqOhLw## e check check whoa check one two one two oh no I'm sorry we wanted to turn D up a little bit oh that is pretty how's it going check check one two thank you check check check check I think I am I good check check oh okay we're good you're good okay mind no it's okay good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order please welcome to a meeting of The Hunton Central Regional High School Board of Education please be advised that this um and all meetings of the board are open to the public and the media consistent with the opland public meetings act 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 Courier News Star Ledger Express Times and the hunterton county Democrat and sent to the clerks of Delaware Township East Amwell Township Flemington burrow raron Township and Readington Township the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda like to take a roll call please Mrs blufeld here miss Dugen Miss gong here Mrs Kellogg here Mrs odonnell here Mrs Peterson here Mr Rhymer and Mrs santangelo here in the absence of a board president and a board vice president this evening I'd like to open the floor for nominations um to appoint a chair proem uh just for this evening's uh meeting so may I have nominations please I nominate miss any others okay I'm going to roll call that please just call out your second um Mrs blufeld yes Mrs gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes and Mrs S Angelo yes um for the evening Mrs BL blefeld is going to be our chairman Pro sure e I'm sorry oh okay thank you have special okay um Miss odonnell would you like to read the district mission statement I would love to let me 100 and 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 society thank you um can I have a motion to approve the minutes from September 23rd so moved I have a motion have a second second motion and a second any discussion okay can I have a roll call vote please Mrs bfield yes Miss gong yes Miss Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes and Mrs Sant Angelo yes oh yes motion carries thank you we have two items of Correspondence as noted on the agenda agenda and I will now turn it over to the superintendent report thank you uh good evening all some of us have just returned from the New Jersey school board's Workshop convention I was very happy to be down at the conference with many of you and to share ideas and I am looking forward to us debriefing and using our learnings to make an even stronger Board of Education in school district um this month our students and staff have really settled into a rhythm I have loved going into classes and seeing the Hands-On and the minds on learning um that our students are doing so just on Friday alone I watched our engineering students create designs for joints for bones that our biomedical Sciences students had dissected I saw our able students host a beautiful art gallery and I saw our introduction to Culinary Arts students putting their cooking skills to the test by making themselves breakfast um the jury is still out on how they clean the pans though those looked a little rough um I did want to make note of some specific accomplishments that we got this past month I am proud to report that hun and Central was named to the AP School honor role earning silver distinction the AP School honor rooll recognizes schools whose advanced placement programs are delivering results for students while broadening access schools can earn this recognition annually based on criteria that reflect a commitment to increasing colleg goinging culture providing opportunities for students to earn college credit and maximizing college readiness so thank you to our AP teachers for all of their hard work in preparing our students for college level courses we also had action for healthy kids and usda's food and nutrition service announced that hun Central was one of the school districts nationally that received a healthy meals incentive recognition award specifically our district received the innovation in the preparation of School meals award for the addition of scratchmade menu items and utilizing local produce so thank you to pomptonian for their menu selections and preparation that helped our dri our district be recognized for this award also congratulations to girls tennis and boys soccer teams who both captured the 100 more in Sussex County championships We wish all of our sports teams good luck as they wrap up the fall season soon and as we come to the end of October which was National prin principal recognition month I wanted to take a moment to publicly thank our principal Edward Brandt and vice principals Scott Ebner and Andrew Estrada Jessica long and David cidor for all their hard work and dedication to our school district we are very grateful to have them this yes we can clap so this month as many of you know we also prepared for cusac which is the New Jersey Department of education's quality single accountability Continuum review process this process occurs every three years for school districts and districts are rated on their performance in five key areas instruction and program governance operations fiscal management and Personnel our first steps in this process include Gathering documentation for approximately 60 indicator indicators this ranges from policies to curriculum documents to budget calendars and board secretary reports we then self assess for each indicator based on our documentation and compliance we review the scores with our qac committee and you will see those scores for your approval tonight I would like to thank Mrs M Spitzer Mr Brandt Mrs publicover Dr Charney Dr Hall Mr mcisaac Mrs G and Mrs Dugen for participating in our review we have given our district complete points for all indicators that we can score for ourselves for qac I do want to note that we can only score ourselves for 40 out of the 100 points available in instruction and program as the remaining 60 points are calculated automatically based on test scores absenteeism and graduation rates we anticipate having those scores from the New Jersey Department of Education in December we will then have our large on-site visit from the Department of Education in February so thank you for your support in this process um tonight we have some mandated reports to go through which are required through administrative code and accounted for through our qac process Dr Charney our interim assistant superintendent will present to you spring njsla scores as well as graduation Pathways report and Mr Brandt will present to you our Hib self assessment score as well as the school safety data system report for the reporting period two of last year so with that I'm going to ask Dr Charney to come up to speak about our assessment results in our graduation Pathways report thank you for that Jess thank the board I used to nice to see you so this evening I'm going to present New Jersey SLA Dr can you go the microphone they they just the public then can't hear you if you don't talk into that microphone you're we're getting it it was a test yeah do I do I need to repeat that again okay okay so this is a requirement of every District we have to present New Jersey SL scores this is a a a Statewide assessment student learning that's what we're going to do tonight so this review is that there are a number of parameters involved uh what we need to look at both in ela English language arts and math is the four and five areas so four is meeting expectations five is exceeding expectations three is approaching the expectations and I will say that you want to as a district you want to Target that at a level because it's often one or two questions that students have missed and if they get it then they're elevated to meeting expectations so in most districts I've been in that's we don't give up on on one and two but we try to Target our approaching Learners uh and that would raise your scores so here's a graphic of the State versus uh 100 and Central this is our Ela grade n and so if you do the quick math we're about 76 percentile that's pretty good for proficiency if you have the meeting and an exceeding expectation I've been in I've been worked in high performance districts and I consider this one of high performance and they're generally in the mid 70s to I've seen is as high as 79% so I think we're doing well in in that regard here's a 5year history longitudinal survey of our work in ela you can see that um the co years we dropped in terms of exceeding that's the 2122 um that pretty much stretched into 2223 we're starting to inch back up in 2324 so we're getting there there has there had been some learning loss as far as El in the ELA over those that period of time but we're catching up here's our algebra one scores that unfortunately it's is not as successful as our Ela uh we actually have in the 30th percentile and there's some structural reasons for this I want to make you aware of one is that when we get 8th grade students we don't get the so-called cream of the crop those students take algebra in the middle school either take Algebra 1 or geometry those are the High Flyers so the middle school gets to own that data we do not so 65% of the sending District students come to us as eighth graders having taken pre-algebra we then have uh a set amount of time to catch them up and that's a challenge for all districts that are not K through to 12 so our 9 through 12 kind of puts us at a disadvantage in terms of working with students but I will go over some of the interventions we have that I think are successful to get these students back up to uh up to Performance levels so there's the fiveyear history again this a national problem the covid years uh were were challenging and students were setb in their in their algebra skills and learning um we've inched up a little and you know our goal is to really get students back up to proficiency on a larger scale our our geometry these were the students of population I spoke of just pre just a little while ago these are the students that are um have taken Algebra 1 in middle school so they're very skilled in math so when we have them in n9th grade they've already taken algebra in the middle school and you can if you do the higher math we're at 100% so those those students um do well in Geometry as ninth graders uh our our fiveyear history in this regard shows you that uh our meeting next expectations is is stable are recently we had a nice pop in exceeding e expectation again these students are the the high Achievers in math and we get them in in the ninth grade our algebra two are those students in middle school that have taken already algebra one and geometry we we put them in Algebra 2 in the ninth grade they're very successful in math um there's a little disappointment in the level five we about half the proficiency of the state and I'm not quite sure why we're we're going to have to wrestle with that date and figure it out there's the algebra 25 here um progression and again you can see the meeting expectations is generally stable um and our exceeding uh we've had a nice little pop late in this year science proficiency is uh one that all districts in New Jersey struggle with and the reason is it doesn't count toward graduation the students know this they don't um perform there's no there's no uh Stakes for them in this so when we do test students in science proficiency see they um they're in our in the 40 in the 40th percentiles I mean I worked on the first signs assessment in the last century late last century and we had the same issue they we designed a very good test it was called the hspc at the time but they didn't they knew it did not count so they weren't going to uh try that hard it's a it's a it's an issue uh here's a demographic comparison so you know this is females versus males I don't see a significant difference in there um arguably the ELA the the girls do better than the boys but I'm not so sure it's statistically significant in Algebra 2 the boys do better than the girls but again not sure that it's statistically significant this is our uh race ethnicity ethnicity data uh I think you know you can see there there are t populations that we need to Target and and intervene and help them achieve these are a programmatic uh programmatic picture our students that are in special ed uh all districts are challenged well those students are challenged in across the board and and we we have we have interventions to to help them and we need to probably Target them a little better so I can tell you some of the interventions uh first of all the the stakes have been reset so New Jersey SLA no longer is counted toward graduation now it's been replaced by the New Jersey graduate proficiency assessment which is given in 11th grade it it makes more sense uh that we test kids uh closer to graduation and so our our results are predictably better and I'll share those with you in a moment uh we we do use other assessments that they which they can use to graduate PSATs uh SATs these are um these are measures which students can get credit for and I'll talk about alternate me methods or approaches to graduation uh at the end we use a multitiered system of supports this is one of the the uh District goals where we do what's called tier one intervention those are things the classroom teacher can do to assist students in class so that is a district goal we're working we're refining those approaches and and looking for very effective approaches toward helping students um in the classroom uh for example our math we use a program called I Exel it's a it's a software that that students uh use and their laptops that that uh collects data on on their algebra skills so for example factor analysis uh substitution capabilities and so we we get a trove of data on how students how we can sharpen and and hone in on those skills from use of that program in ela um we use common lit and targeted practice materials that we develop with a great 11 teachers we've Diversified uh the the the uh novel and non-fiction offerings uh to give students more exposure to various literature Styles and in content um our block five tutorials are running where students can come in voluntarily to get help with algebra or Ela you know my goal is to make this less voluntary um so in other districts I've we've come up with positive incentivized programs that get kids in the seats and get them help um and once they realize normally when you say algebra one help they run the other way so our goal is to get them in the seats help them with their homework help them with their quiz upcoming quiz or tests get them to experience success and then they become more willing to come to our block five and and seek help so that's something we have to work on uh the district is uh committed to our own assessments we use a software program called linkit uh I've used this in other dis in other districts uh what you develop is a digital footprint of Student Success so from our 9th through 11th grade we can assess what algebra skills they've grown in which ones they need more attention and we had a very good meeting meeting with the sending districts this morning uh they also use Link it so my goal is really to coordinate their their data with ours and so I have a we we'll have a K12 footprint and that that will assist the Learner in large ways so when students come to us in ninth grade we can actually diagnose and determine what skill sets they need to work on both on an individual basis and globally with the whole class so um this kind of Big Data analysis is what many districts are doing now in fact most and it's it's nothing but helpful to the learner so it tells our teachers it informs them in a in a large way what they need to work on in the next lesson and more fundamentally to the learner the conversation Chang so that the teacher and the learner can work together on skills they that that learner needs to master so it's a more targeted conversation and a more targeted um assistance and this is all done really through this program so this District's in its third year is my my understanding uh of linkit so we're well into that program and I think the use of that data will assist us and again the last Point um we do have evening tutorials those are mostly Zoom as I understand they're not avidly attended and maybe we need to make take a a different approach to that um we continue to do vertical articulation with a K8 I think that's going to be more of a Bonafide effort this year and I I told you about our morning visit so the path is laid out um we we need to increase our proficiency levels and algebra is going to be our Focus um it's always good for a district to concentrate on maybe two to three goals and not broad I think our e Ela program is very solid um we need to do some work in Algebra 1 and that I think that'll be a a a good Mission um graduation Pathways just briefly what you see under Ela most of our students graduate with the their junior level assessment New Jersey GPA they have to score above a 725 um you'll see that we're pretty successful with that when I show you the the pie chart graphic all those secondary pathways are acceptable to gra to to graduate um there are a variety of tests they have as I said taken away the New Jersey SLA and they have taken really what many districts used to use is the the Air Force assessment which uh many students use to achieve proficiency the third pathway is What's called the portfolio this is about uh 4 and a half% for the district that's way too high generally you it should be less than 1% uh so we're going to have to work on that too uh in math similarly U you have a 725 as a benchmark for graduation uh there are a variety of tests you can take to receive credit SATs acts PSATs Etc portfolio is also available for getting credit uh the good news is 96 .6% of our students graduate um through one of these means we we had 22 students that did not graduate last year and that was either because of chronic absenteeism or some other denial of credit um here's a pie chart for Pathways to proficiency you can see largely 93% of our students take uh New Jersey GPA as a means to graduate uh we have our secondary pathway is a little less than 1% and our third pathway as I told you is problematic that's almost 5% 4.8 that's large uh and we're going to have to take a very um good look at that and and find ways to um improve that measure our math Pathways um again and most students uh use GPA to uh graduate that's 73.6% we actually moved that up 3% from last year it's a large population you have over 500 kids so that's a good bump um and I will share with you some of our successes so we take our most atrisk students our 10th grade algebra students uh there's a that's a second time around so they did not pass in the ninth grade we're take they're taken again in the 10th grade we've moved that proficiency from 57% to 69% it's a large po large population and we've moved it considerably so that's a success story and what I leave you with is if we have those students in our in our seats um our interventions and our tier one classroom approaches work uh so we can raise those scores and get kids to proficiency and I think you've seen in our Algebra 2 similarly by the time they're in in uh in school for the two years we get them to graduate and and through the requirement of of U math um secondary pathway is Le is 11% by means of those other tests and and um again the the portfolio the third pathway is 13.5% that's high and we have to work on that so that concludes my remarks and I'm happy to entertain any questions from the board I just have one quick question thank you for for all that it's good to see you again Dr Char um what kind of I guess this is more practical what kind of um supports do we have during the day to help those students my only concern is that I think students who need extra help sometimes bear the burden of showing up after hours and and I feel like those are students that need more support than for us to ask more of them so again our fifth block is available for tutorial but your point is a valid one it's voluntary um I'd like to make it less voluntary and what that would mean is coordination from this from the math teacher with the teacher that um that is uh assigned to that fifth block so there's some communication between those teachers on helping Johnny Master the concepts so what does that look like the the algebra teacher uh coordinates with the the lab teacher the math lab teacher that this student according to the test data needs help on fact analysis factorials work with that so that gives it a mission often the Learners to your point they'll come to a voluntary session if you can get them there and they don't know what help they need they just say I don't get it so teach our our I think this approach would be more targeted and would help Stu students understand the segments they need to master the course and I think what the data does is help us toward that pathway so I'd say use of data um T precise use of data will help us diagnose and and then Aid those students in in a meaningful way so again posit I think what I'd like to work with uh with teachers and the supervisors is really more positive incentives to attend this help session because it's a available during the day it's available after school and we have evening sessions but you know frankly any district will see evening sessions are not well attended thank you thank you if I could add just um so you know we do have a very robust response to intervention system here so that's a tier 2 support where we have uh teachers assigned to RTI Duty as we call it and they work with the teachers reviewing d usually from our common assessments and our testing data they push in or pull out of the students math class um then in addition and we do this in math and English and then in addition we also have math lab or English lab where students can go there during their study hall um sometimes when we see students are in that percentage that do need interventions we tell them to come during their student Hall uh during their study hall so we do have those interventions built in during the school day as well not just the block five as well you're welcome Dr charie you had mentioned the evening Zoom calls or Zoom uh help session are those live or are those taped no those are my understanding is they're live um they're just not well attended um I think we need to work on that because I have been in districts where those do are attended so if you you have to Market it right you have to say Okay this this the test that it's going to be given Wednesday we'll have a zoom session Monday and Tuesday evenings if you have any questions the teacher will go over these topics and feeli any questions that you might have if you Market it uh right you're going to increase that interest and then you know communicating that to the parents and and to and and to teachers to announce would help Mrs gong just so you know we do um offer after school in person which is more attended than the Zooms in the evening so when we offer those tutorials we offer both options because we know we have student athletes who Maybe Can't attend right after school but more often than not the after school is the more popular option than the evening Zoom session as Dr Charney said good any other all right thank you Dr Charney thanks very much we will have Mr Brandt up next with two presentations the Hib self assessment as well as the ssds report for reporting period two of last year and I'll give them a time a little moment just to get set up uh good evening um and thank you for this so once a year uh I present our anti-bullying Bill override School self assessment um and this is uh conducted by what's it's called our school climate team this is different than a climate and culture survey data team uh this is a team made up of our anti-bullying coordinator our anti-bullying Specialists that we have six of um teachers and parents and they meet three times a year here it has to be a minimum of two but they meet here three times a year and they review our our data review our policies and also our protocols uh the state provides as it says there is it going through um the state provides a 40-page rubric that breaks down and there are um 26 indicators if you would 26 indicators out of eight elements where we self assess on that scale from 0er to three uh we need to score at least a 52 total in order to to meet the the basic requirements and there's a Max maximum score of 78 so here's a breakdown of the eight different uh core elements they go everywhere from the training to board policy uh to curriculum instruction in our classrooms um and also then how we execute the actual HIV investigations and reports and such so to walk through a couple of all of these briefly if you would uh so the first element is an overview of the program um and one of the areas I'd like to highlight light uh the fifth bullet there if you would it says the school climate team has examined data for identifying patterns so that's something every year that not only myself of course as principal I see each one of them come in but that team will take a look to see if there's any patterns any anything they see either by grade level by distinguishing characteristic um and two of the patterns we see typically over the last few years are usually ninth and 10th grade students um who are involved in this and and I think part of that is the work we do and as students get older they get a little more more mature they learn how to also deal with conflict a little bit better um but the other Trend we saw this past year was um a couple isolated incidences that dealt with either on within teams or in um or in clubs so what we've done uh this past year we not only do we have our training for all of our staff and students um but we've also had specific training for all of our coaches on on working on anti-bullying anti-hazing all the above within their programs that they either coach or advise um Arda students Mr Cohen had a meeting last week with all of our advisers walking through this as well uh look fors you know uh indicators to pay attention to see if there's anything going on within the team or within the club um either possibly for example a student being isolated within it and bullied um but also we've seen um you know as you try to build a team or a club and unity there's a little bit of a loyalty there and sometimes the students who are maybe part of a team but also seees something that's going wrong they they have that conflict of who are they more loyal to uh so to to to work students and help students through that process as well um was one of the factors coming out of that those patterns um another ele or yeah another element there is is um working with and recognizing um the board policies we also have training uh for all the staff members and uh you see the first bullet there the teaching staff completes two hours of suicide prevention training and Hib prevention training that's two hours within a 5year span uh this year this is the year that all staff are going through that 2hour training um as part of their overall training um the fourth element there you see cric El instruction on HIV two areas that we uh really focus on are in the ninth grade health and the 10th grade health and fizzed classes uh we also have the the Teen Mental Health that takes place within the 10th grade and within that is our HIV training and then also our week of respect uh which we recognized a few weeks ago and again this report is on last year's uh school year so last year was October 2nd through the through the 6th um The Fifth Element is on our personnel and uh we're very fortunate and I want to thank you board too for uh supporting the fact that we have six anti-bullying Specialists there are times where we've worked with um incidences that have taken place between two schools maybe one of our students with a student in another school and so far every one of the schools we've ever worked with maybe had one maybe two people um who take care of um and work with any of the Hib investigations and we're fortunate that we have six antibullying Specialists they pair up two at a time each investigation um and they're listed there as well as uh the the parents and other staff members who are part of that uh climate team if you would that conducted this self- assessment that team meets uh to get the full points um you need to meet more than two times a year and they meet three times a year and again that's the that's the group that will throughout the year take a look at any of those patterns and give feedback to us as a full staff and administration um and then the Sixth Element there is on our incident reporting um our protocols that we walk through for each one of the reports the investigation itself there's parameters that we have to follow there for example being completed within 10 school days written report is prepared for every every one of these investigations and then lastly um all confirmed hi investigations and violations are reported through the ssds which is the next report I'm going to provide um and also once a year the self assessment gets placed on our website so after tonight um you I'll share this uh with Miss magala to to place on our website and this is a a recap if you would um uh we the team felt that we exceeded uh the minimum in each one of those areas uh this is the first year we've had 78 out of 78 points if you recall a couple years ago and last year we fell short just by a couple points of that perfect score and one of those areas was um for example uh we had a staff member who was also a parent um kind of serve on that we felt you know what no we need to get a parent in here as well that is not also a staff member as part of that climate team and um we took care of that last and to give an overview of some of the data from last year there were 33 reports submitted to the principal's office uh some of them of them um I felt that I could use that predetermination not to say that the conflict or whatever took place didn't take place but it didn't fall under the parameters of an HIV investigation so then we might treat just as a a basic code of conduct violation if you would and investigated by our vice principles um there were 23 I'm sorry and three others that were also out of District so that might be for example a student from our residence but is placed and goes to school in another location um the investigation takes place in the in the hes in the school where that took place um and that happened three times last year and of those 33 reports uh there were eight confirmed hibs um again that was the 23 24 school year there's a an overview of that before I go on to the ssds or any questions I just had a quick question just regarding the team structure how do you go about selecting who's on the team and also the parent so the team itself the anti-bullying Specialists each of our four Student Assistance counselors and two other counselors and and one of the reasons why we take that route is we feel that the students might be a bit more comfortable going through that process with a counselor rather than a vice principal some smaller schools the principal is the person who's running the investigation plus they also see you know each one of these um each one of the investigations there may be a a a consequence if you would but there's also restorative piece too and with the with the student assistants counselors being in the Forefront of it um they're able to provide I think solid recommendations for what type of resources we might help these students what we don't do is we we don't have a student for example if I was a 12th grader and I was part of a an investigation they don't pair me up with the 12th grade Student Assistance coun cuz that that person may be the one ending up helping out with the restorative piece rather than the investigation so we par put it off to a different grade level as best we can um and then the parent uh I think this past year that was somebody who was very involved came to um a number of our home and School Association meetings and with somebody who um had a couple students go through the program here and um in a casual conversation hey would you be interested in being a part of this team and they were and they helped out throughout the year so that's how for the parent for the staff members I know one of them at least is part of the health uh Health um teachers who also then teach at the ninth and 10th grade level and push in with the Hib training within so um they don't have to then pay they're probably the closest if you would to that team of teachers who are working with the nth and 10th graders to provide feedback to them all right I'm going to shift gears then to um the second report so this is the student safety data systems report uh this report is provided twice a year um and they they break the the state has us break up the school year for from July 1st um to December 30th of that would be the first half of the year if you would and then July January 1st through June 30th for the full second six months of that of that school year so this report is based on those last six months of last school year so what gets reported basically well and it used to be called a violence and vandalism report in the state that shifted to that SSD s acronym um any violence any vandalism any weapons offenses or substance offenses get reported we also report any of the HIV investigations and findings um and anything that leads to a student being removed from class and I bring that up because of our uh last year was the first year I guess in about 15 years that we've had in school suspension and support so that that plays a factor in some of the numbers that we have here uh this is just a comprehensive list of everything that gets reported and this um this gets reported through a system on the New Jersey Department of Ed Home Room uh every one of these incidents is we have to enter in um and then at the end of the six-month cycle you know submit that report uh to the state part of that report is the HIV investigation so I I know I spoke about this already but the these numbers are of the second set of six months from last year so from from January 1st through June 30th of last school year there were 23 reports and I'm not going to read the whole thing but you can see that there were a that second half of the year four confirmed hibs and there there were a variety of um I don't say reasons but distinguishing characteristics of the target um with that also we report these items anything under the umbrella of violence we have assault criminal threat and fighting um vandalism substance offenses and I I do want to highlight um a big change significant change from that same six months year prior year prior there were 55 substance offenses in that six-month window and it dropped down to 18 um and there were again the same six months of the year before there were 25 instances of possession of substance or paraphernalia and that dropped down to seven uh so it pleased with that um there's the other bullet points there point out um reasons why a student would be either suspended or in school suspended I mentioned I point out the cell phone violation and I mentioned this I think six months ago too I I do want to point out that none of those suspensions for cell phone violation were because a student had the phone out in class or something like that this was if they took a picture of something they shouldn't be taking for example in the bathroom and posting it and that's something we you know frown upon as you could imagine whether you're in school or anywhere um that's a violation so I don't want you to think that we're suspending students they have their phone out for a second time in class for example um but I also want to point out the dis obedience and open Defiance that was significantly higher than the year before but majority of the reason is these are instances of students got in school suspension or support not out of school suspension so the previous year we wouldn't we didn't have in school suspension as an option student either got the three-hour extended detention on a Wednesday or out of school suspension we felt and we feel that there's instances where the in school suspension and support is a better option the students here in school in the building and we have resources to push in like the Student Assistance counselors to help students for better decision- making down the road um and there's those are I also want to point out to the the two weapons instances were a result of searches based on um suspicion for substance so it wasn't that a weapon was used or brandished or any in any way um but a weapon was found some of the interventions and prevention systems that we have and and I've shared this slide before um we have a number of ways to help support students in their decision- making Andor getting and one of the best ways is to get involved to get involved in something proactive here at school so I thank you to the board uh for supporting all of those areas um but also you'll see on the bottom there that in school suspension and support last year was the first first year um we had that in in quite a long time and um first year was a learning process and we're looking to improve on it this year um but again I I I do think having the students here rather than home um for the most part is a better decision and then the PMT training I want to thank you too because as a board you supported this uh PMT training is training that helps it's called Uh the physical and psychological management training and this is basically deescalation proactive deescalation um of um conflict if you would all of our security and Duty release aids went through that training um and and it was the feedback was very positive and once they get that long one eight hour training under their belt every year then they have a smaller two to three hour window of retraining um to help us and all all of us administrators the vice principles and myself went through that as well and then lastly resources and recommendations again um partly from the administrative team and partly also from that um climate team that I mentioned in the Hib report these are the bless you number of the areas also that we look to help um you know uh steer students uh into healthier and better decisions uh that don't lead them to getting on a report like this and that's it thank you questions thank you so much for all that good information and thank you for being such a resource for students and and really engaging them and supporting them the way you do I just have a question um in terms of the PMT training does that include any um deescalation techniques for um consideration for mental health experiences suppose we have students with mood disregulation difficulties and we know that typical deescalation techniques might not be effective does this cover the mental health piece as well for deescalation it does it doesn't get incredibly specific for mental health um but it's used both also for our security team but also our our staff members who in our um autism able program as well um because there's a proactive piece of a deescalation but then there's also the piece of if you are to need to restrain a student to do it in a way both for the student and and for the person doing it rather than just getting up there and you know cold tackling them um it both whether it's individually or as as a team how to I kind of it felt very similar to as if you were helping somebody passing out you know getting next to them holding them but then getting them to in a safe position and I can see that you know taking place also uh for something you like you're talking about thank you um how do these results align with the climate and culture survey so are we seeing any differences in these security reports and do you think that they're impacting any of the changes we saw in the climate and culture survey that's a good question I think one connection that I would say and if you recall the um and it's one of the areas that pushed us to up the ante if you would on keeping the phones away during class time climate and culture survey had a piece in there where some of the students indicated that b Laboratories were an area that they didn't feel safe um and likewise I mentioned there about the uh students who were suspended because of cell phone violations that tended to be also connected with for example in a laboratory where students are taking their phones at a laboratory and either taking pictures or um that they shouldn't be um and posting them so that that and also the feedback we got about long lines in the Laboratories and um I don't know you talk about correlation versus causation I don't know if it's a direct cause but there's definitely a correlation between right now it seems that the numbers of how long the lines are for the bathroom and how long students are are in the bathroom um they don't have their phone on they're going in there taking care of business washing their hands and getting back to class as opposed to um taking that time as a little brain break and you know surfing them that on their phone so um uh I've been periodically paying attention to that Genesis uh on our dashboard I have right there I can see how long uh individuals are in the laboratory and it seems to be moving along so that's an area that I would say is one that we're looking to um I'm looking forward to if we see a difference this year in the climate culture survey with the Laboratories okay thank you Mr brand thank you all right we're I promise we're almost there we saved the best for last um you do have a Hib and suspension report we'll review Hib in executive session um so for the final part of my report I would like to welcome our student representative bronwin Downey to our table she will share her student representative Report with us tonight and in the interest of respecting her schedule will step away from the table afterward we're grateful for your valuable time bronwin and your commitment to keeping us informed thank you good evening everyone my name is bronan dowy I am a junior here and I am the student representative for this board I will be giving a report tonight from Central students of about events clubs and sports and ideas and suggestions directly from students firstly if you saw teachers and students dressed in cowboy boots with crazy hairstyles or decked out in white red black or gray you should know that our first spirit week was a major success with the sophomores beating out all the other classes with their school spirit our homecoming football game ended with a win against East Brunswick and the crowning of Ryan Miller and Kaden Brandt has homecoming royalty and good news all of our freshman sophomores Juniors and some seniors survived PSAT and NJ GPA testing with the Freshman being rewarded with a field trip to journey park last Friday upcoming events include the thespian spectacular performance Honor Society inductions for trium and World languages a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and the junior senior play anti- Mame later in November additionally one of our teen pup classes hosted their family night last Thursday and the second class will be holding theirs tomorrow night club sectors which which is an initiative to increase uh interclub collaboration and projects based on values like wellness community service and Civic and social justice are getting underway with plans to create a leadership team with Aon and I as well as student leaders to start off the year the wellness sector will be hosting a volleyball competition on November 6th the central student council is currently working on creating an officer board to increase participation and we are also planning a student a spirit student Showdown event where students will receive points for their grade by participating in events and attending student council meetings our winter spirit week is fast approaching and by popular student and teacher demand will include our favorite excuse to be comfortable which is Pajama Day finally the boys soccer and GS tennis teams were hun in war in Sussex County Champions and fall sports are beginning to wrap Out Mr Brandt and Miss Kendy ha have been meeting with students during unit lunch to discuss the new phone policies at Central and are planning on holding monthly meetings with different student groups to continue gaining input on our thoughts and ideas many students have expressed understanding about why cell phone policies are being put into place and have also expressed desires for consistency in the effort to reduce screen usage in the classroom additionally an anonymous feedback form was sent out recently and has allowed students to share their ideas for Central uh for example many students have expressed appreciation for the continuation of unit lunch and have made suggestions about tutorial and student schedules all of which eron and I will be discussing with Mr brand Mr Cohen and Miss cangelosi hay in the upcoming months overall the student body is getting back into the swing of school feeling super pumped up from Spirit Week and excited about the increase of representation they have here at Central eron and I hope to continue reaching out to our peers through meetings and feedback collection in order to continue displaying the passion Central students have for their school thank you great yes thank you bronwin thank you okay and that concludes my report Miss blutfield thank you yes thank you bronwin and it was great having you join us at the table here um we will now open it up to the first residents Forum this forum will be for Action items on the agenda only it will last a maximum of 30 minutes and each resident can speak for a maximum of five minutes do I have any anyone who would like to speak to action items on the agenda nope okay we will move on to organizational items we have excuse me two organizational items School self assessment for determining grades under under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights Act and the New Jersey quality single accountability Continuum District performance view can I have a motion for those two organizational items so moved second I have a motion in a second any discussion can you just quickly go over what the different categories in qac are and and the types of things that go into those please good question yes I don't know if it's quick but I'll do my best okay so you can hear me okay so instruction and program like I said the majority of that covers test scores that will be based on the njsla scores that Dr Charney just presented as well as the graduation rate and then chronic absenteeism the second part of that really primarily deals with curriculum um so they'll be looking for curricula in each area we send a sample but then when they come in they also request curricula so they're looking for all the components um that are required so not standards they're looking for pacing um in a pacing guide they're looking for what assessments we do and that there's a variety of Assessments interdisciplinary connections 21st century life and careers connections um there's a whole list um including textbooks as well so um we do have that and that will be part of our our visit um fiscal management is really all under Mrs Spitzer um so that's a million different things there's a lot about the budget process um and there's policies in there as well there's board secretary reports the budget calendar she uploads um basically everything that you could think of we have to upload um governance is a variety of it it hits a few of us so it's not just governance in the sense of a board of education but it's also how we govern the school so there's things in there that are kind of all over the place um it might go from gifted and talented it might go into a little bit into special education and nursing it's kind of it's hits a little bit of everything area um operations similarly is not just in the way that we refer to operations with Mr thoron and his crew it hits us all a little bit um in different ways so and I can't recall if this one is in governance or operations but our school Improvement panel is a key component um your disclosure acts your ethics disclosure acts is in one of those um your evaluation of the superintendent is in those um and then in all of these there's a bunch of policies so as you recall our policy committee worked really hard to get us updated and this is one of the reasons why um and then finally Personnel um much of that deals with evaluation some is monitored remotely by us submitting evaluation scores for our staff um but then they're also looking at what percent rates we have on our in terms of Errors when we submit um they will come in and monitor files they'll go through Personnel files to make sure everything is there they will look at um professional development plans to make sure that they're based on data um as well as previous year recommendations for staff they will look at um do do we board approve all new new staff and um do we have them do background checks um so there's a huge variety of things and um I think Mrs dougen said it but I'm happy to share the sheet with you all so you can see the specifics it's also available on the Department of Education website but I will share it with you all separately so you can see all the many components of that thank you for those details thank you for that question um I will now open it up to the committee reports oh what oh oh we didn't vot vote you're right sorry um right so we had a motion in a second uh can we do a roll call vote please Mrs Kellog yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Miss gong yes Mrs Sant Angelo yes and Mrs blutfield yes all yes motion carries we will now open it up to the committee reports um student life and program committee Mr Rhymer is not here miss Sant Angelo would you be able to give that report um other or do you want um okay student life and program met I think about two weeks ago because we arranged our meetings early um not many action items numbers one two and three deal with tuition one and two are tuition for us to send our students out number one is for our special education students and you'll see some of that includes extended school year um it may include an aid cost as well number two is for a general education student we don't see many of these but we do have one and then number three is for students coming to us from North hun and Vorhees school district for a multilingual learner program so that puts our total now at I believe seven students that we've received from North hun and Vorhees um number four is for early graduation for some students and you do have um details about those students and their applications in the agenda and then number five is really exciting it's a partnership with bright and beautiful therapy dogs this is actually um our school-based youth services which is a partnership that we have with hun in healthcare um school-based Youth Services wants to bring and bright and beautiful therapy dogs that would be open to um all students it it's a it was a big success last year they want to continue it this year so we're just looking for approval for that program and they did um provide their certificate of liability insurance which makes Mrs Spitzer happy and able for us to put it on the agenda and that is the student life and program report thank you can I have a motion for student life and program items one through five so moved motion do I have a second second any discussion can I have a roll call vote please Mrs Peterson yes Mrs kog yes Mrs Sant Angelo yes Miss gong yes Mrs odonnell yes and Mrs blutfield yes PA yes motion carries operations and transportation committee do we have someone who can give you can do good you I'm going to do operations and transportation tonight we have 13 items to move from the uh operations and transportation committee items 1 two and three are U are standard Financial reports invoices transfers for financial reports we are looking at the uh monies that uh were spent during the month of August 31st of this year um and our board secretary make sure that no major accounts have been overexpanded in violation of uh njac 6A 23A 16.10 for invoices this uh for uh August the total was 6, 643,902 um for item number three uh we are approving the line account transfers and that's so that we can actually pay our bills um so that's always a good thing um item number four is to approve the annual memorandum of agreement between education and law enforcement officials with the raron town Police Department for the 2024 2025 school year so whenever you have law enforcement officers at your school you need to do this it's an 84-page document if anybody is interested um item number five is to approve the joint Transportation agreement between hun in Central and Delaware Valley Regional High School to transport hun in central students on field trips um and you can see the uh cost per day on the the agenda item number six is to approve the joint Transportation agreement between the Kingwood Township School District and 100 Central to transport to students under the choice program and again you can see the cost per day on the agenda um item number seven is to allow us to dispose of items from the school radio station um these items are Surplus property with no value and uh we authorize our business administrator to dispose of the property um and I also found out that sometimes she can actually post it to see if we can actually get any money for it so that's exciting um item number eight is to um approve the contract to award poll's Transfer Company to transport our marching band uh equipment and um this is for the 2024 2025 school year um and we go out and we do request different quotes uh but the only one who has responded was Paul's Transfer Company they've done it in previous years so they have the contract and um just a little plug for the uh marching Red Devils they were at South Brunswick High School this weekend um they didn't get a gold medal silver or bronze but they uh they played their heart out um someone sent me a screenshot chot they were excellent they were excellent I would have given them first place um item number nine uh is to accept the following School Bus evacuation drills conducted conducted pursuant to njac 6A colon 27- 111.2 under the supervision of our principal um and these drills were conducted on September 17th and everything went well items uh number 10 and 11 work handin hand uh item number 10 10 is to approve the district multi-year comprehensive maintenance plan pursuant to njac 6A colon 36a um the law requires us to spend a certain amount on maintenance for our campuses and we spend um over half a million dollars for each uh campus so thank you for keeping everything up to date item number 11 as I said Works hand inand with item number 10 and it is uh the specific numbers on spreadsheets that Mrs Spitzer puts together so it's to approve the 2024 2025 annual maintenance budget worksheet form m-1 to establish the 2025 2026 maximum maintenance Reserve amount item number 12 is to approve student tuition contracts with Somerset County vocational school district for the 2024 2025 school year so we have six students who are in a dance program and it costs for each student $5,750 for a total of $34,500 item number 13 is regarding professional service providers um and to approve three resolutions this is something that we must do so that we are able to um help the students who perhaps are in a hospital or an institution so we've got five um home instructors listed here and as I said we need to uh do this and with that I'd like to move items 1 through 13 for approval I have a motion do I have a second second Motion in a second any discussion roll call vote please Mrs kog yes Mrs santangelo yes with exception to item number two invoices specifically Gorman denella and Morlock okay a no I'm sorry a no on that one yes thank you Mrs Peterson I yes on 1313 with the exception of two I have a check in there to myself so I have to abstain from that vote thank you Miss gong yes Mrs odonnell yes and Mrs bloodfell yes thank you motions carry I I have a question when if we're did we come to any agreement if we um abstain or vote no on something are we supposed to give a reason or uh say something about that is that something we had talked about we we did sort of talk about that I mean nobody says you have to but um we did kind of okay discuss that that would be a good idea thank you uh I will give the Personnel committee report um before you do that Mrs blutfield may I give a quick report out for the joint Transportation committee yes please do the joint Transportation committee met on October 16th we had a robust conversation as we continued to work on the dissolution of the JTC partnership and develop next steps we continue to review the financial numbers and Analysis of the bus routes it appears that there is a cost savings to 100 Central due to the inefficiencies tied to the coordination of the F frsd bus routes and school start times one of the primary tasks ahead of us is to find an appraiser with mechanical and Equipment expertise to assist in evaluating in evaluating in valuing the assets the buses the Vans the equipment used to service the vehicles and so on and we continue to work with f frsd in making sure all of our students are transported Ed safely especially the prek students I do want to add that f frsd is steadfast in their desire to build their own transportation department and not engage in a shared services arrangement with hun and Central so that is f frsd does not want to become a customer of hun in central which might be the most practical solution going forward and of course we will assist F frsd during the transition as much as we are able to thank you okay thank you uh personnel committee I will start out with item number one we have two very big retirements this month two very big positions here Scott Cohen Dena students and Don thoron manager of operations both retiring at year end U so I thank you both for all your contributions to the district and wish you well in retirement you'll be missed we have uh three resignations number three we have the appointment of a placement health and PE teacher hourly appointments and number four number five is our long awaited hcaa labor agreement that has already been ratified by the hcaa and then along with that we have in six and seven the Reby salaries due to the new agreement they will be retroactive to July 1st number eight we have substitute rates for the 2024 2025 School school year 9 and 10 we have new bus driver rates and amendments to substitute bus driver rates those have all been approved with the JTC 11 through 13 we have appointments for substitute teachers substitute bus drivers substitute nurses 14 through 19 appointments for special services Am Pm supervision athletic workers Sheron PM security home instructors and test Proctors monitors and test coordinators number 20 we have the appointment of a six six block stiens for an English class replacing a teacher on a leap of absence 21 is professional development 22 through 24 schedule C advisors Schedule D coaches and unpaid community volunteers 25 we have salary guide advancements for the HC staff and that's done three times a year 26 we have the athletic site manager stiens that's the new position we talked about last month uh 27 we have an amendment to unaffiliated staff salary increases based on the hcaa contract increases 28 leaves of absences 29 we are receiv sending a couple of appointments 30 we have two terminations and then finally 31 we have an hcea sidebar that adds juneth as a holiday for the maintenance staff and adds positions to schedule D for Unified sports teams and flag football these activities were previously paid through grants that are no longer available I will move Personnel items one through 31 second thank you I have a motion and a second is there any discussion no okay roll call please Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mrs santangelo yes with exception to um professional development number 21 items 11 and items 30 um item 11 and 30 thank you Miss gong yes and Mrs blutfield yes with five motions carry okay just get to my page okay we have um policy committee is Peterson yeah yes we have a uh it's only one page this month so we're very excited um we have only three items on for first read today we have two regulations which again are not really um we we just approved them to uh you know support the administration but the administration really focuses on the regulations we focus on the policy uh regulation 1613 is disclosure and review of applicants employment history from July 2018 uh regulations 1642 which is an earned six sick leave Law from 2021 update and then we have uh policy 5111 which is eligibility of Resident non-resident students which was updated in September 2023 and um just really has some technical legal updates about tuition and all sorts of fun things um we have four policies to abolish this month uh for the first read we have policy 2427 which is information process processing skills which was last up amended in 2001 and uh if you would like to know how to use your word processor would be a very beneficial class but seemed a little bit out to date out of date for what we have now um policy 4143 is dismissal um we have policy 4140 and 4103 I'm sorry 4143 which are am I reading the right one 4140 and 4143 so we have two policies one is called dismissal and one is called termination based on the same group um they cover the same content um though 4140 is a bit more thorough um than 4143 and 4140 is is a policy from our vendor so I think 4143 might have been homegrown so we're keeping 4140 if you followed any of that um that's from our our vendor so we're sticking with our vendor and removing the Homegrown one we don't need duplicates uh policy 5520 is an older plagiarism policy from 1998 we have an academic Integrity policy which is 57101 which was last updated in September 2023 so we're going to keep that one get rid of the duplicate there and then we had two uh student identification card policies um we had one of them which was last updated in 2004 and then the much more thorough one which is 5517 um and has all the information that actually the state requests and and or requires that we put on there including suicide um hotline numbers and things like that so we are keeping the more upto-date uh student ID card policy uh which was last updated in September 2022 and we are abolishing 5503 all of the second reads which we have 13 items nothing has changed since last month we didn't have any comments or changes requested so they are um as is the committee also discussed feedback that we've received from students and staff as well as discussions from the home and School Association meeting related to the cell phone policy the Comm uh committee's been working on um we will likely be putting that out in November for first read um I want to thank both Miss gong and Mrs santangelo for joining me and attending the home and School Association meeting with uh Mr Brandt um we were able to gather really valuable feedback and I think it was really excellent to have um the members there to of the policy committee to really um take that kind of feed back from from everybody and I thought it was really it was kind of fun to go through everything so um the committee also came to a consensus uh that the final first reads for the year uh for our committee are going to occur in November's meeting next month in the past the board has done first reads in December and then had second reads in January um which leads brand new board members to be voting on a second read on a policy they've never had any um interaction with so uh we've decided uh to in the interest of transparency to have our last first reads in November and wrapping up our committee's 2024 work in December and not have any carryover policies um it has been an excellent year and I really want to thank every person who's on the committee for working so hard with that I move items one two and three have a motion do I have a second second any discussion no Lo call vote please Mrs S Angelo yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs Peterson yes Miss gong yes and Mrs blutfield yes all yes motion carries okay uh other committee reports do we have anything for communications this month uh no we were told not to meet this month okay uh we did joint trans Transportation racism equity and diversity committee um no uh we were also told not to meet this month in the interest of time and I I have to go on record and say I would appreciate a less autocratic process for this board to make decisions like that um from our acting president okay um student discipline I don't think we don't have anything okay we have um two other items on here for additional board business um just before we get to that I just wanted to make everyone aware that October is a big safety awar Awareness Month uh it actually has two weeks in there there's a national school bus safety week and also America's safe schools week so um in recognition of those weeks that had just recently passed I would like to thank all of our bus drivers our SRO class three officers and all of our security guards for helping to keep our students safe both going to and from school and while while they are here in our building um along those lines we also have a statement we would like to read um M Kellogg could you read the statement please we want to thank Mr tanko for his many years of service as members of a public body we take Oaths to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the state of New Jersey which protects the rights of all citizens we recognize that people have diverse views on most subjects and are happy to have resolved our differences with Mr TKO we appreciate Mr tko's Commitment to the security of our students and staff and to respecting the viewpoints of others okay thank thank you I I'd like to Echo that Applause for our security and our sro's and our bus drivers who've been through a lot so thank you thank you okay last week was New Jersey school board's conference and I know we had um several board members who attended I don't know if anyone would like to share anything that they learned or any thoughts that they had from attending the conference um I have I took notes I just haven't gotten this this is them um but there was a really a lot of good information on Robert's rules about um you know information sharing amongst the board and everything like that so um there there's always really good information and for those of you who did go if you look on your show planner you can usually get the download of the um the presentations that they did so if you uh I find that really helpful every year but it was it was excellent and it was good to see so many people there this year okay I would just like to add I also have a whole bunch of notes that I've not looked at so thank you Rebecca um it was interesting no matter what session you went to whether it was about uh board governance or student achievement uh the punchline at the end of the session was um you know thank you for your service um and we do it for the students we do it for all the students and I thought that was great um the other thing that I did was attend U various keynote speaker uh sessions and those were incredibly inspiring and i' I'd love to share it with the board later uh there's one speaker uh John I I always get his wrong name uh konis who does um uh what would you do I don't know if you guys watch that on television but I we've done that with our daughters um so uh there was also Maria from Sesame Street Sonia menzano uh but both keynote speakers uh even though they were speaking separately at different times different days and I don't think they compared notes uh they were just inspired by a particular teacher and that was just so great to hear and they both had the same message um again but in different sessions uh so kones said uh all you have to do is take that first step on the ladder for a kid uh whether the kid is a high achiever or not they don't need to see the end of that lad but if you just get them on that first step and just let them go and uh again um Maria from Sesame Street Sonia Manzano she said yes if they could just take that first step just let them go so it was just really really inspiring uh so thank you for letting me go to the first uh convention loved it okay anyone else no okay I will now open it up to the second resonance Forum this is for General comments it could be anything either on or off the agenda and again it will be a maximum of 30 minutes and each person can speak for a maximum of five minutes any comments no oh wait I don't know that oh okay I can do one online I got my phone okay is that okay yep okay you have it because I can do it to I have to be good evening um my name is Jim Vargas I I'm not a resident of this community anymore I res in mmit beach but I'm so member of the community because I belong to the parish over here uh wanted to comment on a letter from Paul tankle one I want to thank you for at least taking a time out and addressing it uh and I'm glad that you were able to satisy your your differences between the board and Mr tanko but I feared that it does not go very well to explain the exact situation it seems like there was a disagreement and it was fixed but that's not much true Mr tanko was a subject of a very honorous uh Administration under Mr Moore he took a basically what he did was he acted on his free speech he was chastised and penalized for it uh Mr Moore actually sent a letter into his file that said he put students at risk and which was not true and as I said before at this Podium the only person that put people at risk was Mr Moore it also doesn't go in you had a chance to recover another of things were gone under that previous administration it was just people who felt like Mr Moore did were allowed to speak people who felt like that did disagree were not it went from students who were challenged from teachers who supported him who spoke loudy other teachers said they were afraid to speak even here on the board two members of this board spoke out some people took offense and uh I gave it to free speech both were allowed uh one was just patted on the head the other one was actually challenged and threatened so it just doesn't go to I think you missed a point a little bit on this and uh uh I think it could have been done a little bit better having said that you know most of the board is gone the elections are coming up and we're looking forward to a New Year I hope you regress along this path that's more freedom about it but you're facing many challenges uh I've given testimony at the uh State School Board I testified at State Senate and the assembly there's a much attack on parental rights and a parental Authority and it starts from everything from Planned Parenthood which has no any child any child of any age any woman can go get contraceptives or abortion and their parents don't have to know uh you can affect that but you cannot you can let teachers support that uh other issues like there's a board I don't know if it was passed but uh recently you had to be 16 or over to select that you would go for uh a student would going to go for uh treatment for uh an illness they had or mental illness they had the board wanted the Senate wanted to change that down from 16 to 14 and they thought it was nothing basically basically what they did is they took parental rights away from all your freshman and sophomores and 200,000 students in the state that's on going on and on where the the environment that you had at one point that was had a view of the world supported by the state and was stated by state regulation and government you're the one place here that can protect St parents and students you're the one that represents both sides you're the one that has to come up and protect us so I won't spend time on that because M of the boards are leaving here there's a new election I'll come back then and talk about it but there's a real danger there's a real danger out there and even I'll tell a small thing where I wasn't planning the testimony but there was a thing come up where you know in the state contracts they awarded basic basic thing on needs minorities and that type of thing and they were moving the whole LGBT and over into that and that's fine to look at it I but I got up and testified I said well when you look at this now you've got women you've got every minority and You' got people with sexual preference the only person on this of the thing is a traditional man and wife and family and they're the only one that isn't granted special permission I said the other thing you have to do is when you look at the lgbtt environment the larger portion of that is B bisexual and by saying this you're telling me that just because a person chooses a sexual behavior they get more preference over contracts in the government than a person has a traditional family and they just kind of snub it off so one my chge to you those of you who stay and those you who are going to be elected is to keep it wide open Keep um uh a breast of what's going on be balanced do your job protect the students and protect the children and just let you know I've been working with a lot of people i' I've encouraged people to engage and get to know what their board is and go vote for their isues and next year I'm working with some people where we're going to try to get more people that would attend school boards just to listen just to understand what's going on and get involved thank you again for your service thank you again for your time God bless said that and then you know I good evening Sandra D'Or Raritan Township for those of us who have been praying for Mr TKO we would like to thank God that he has been Vindicated Mr TKO ued religious persecution at the hands of Dr Moore because Mr tanko sincerely held religious beliefs did not align with Dr Moore's radical agenda this was a win for Mr tanko but also for our freedom of religion and freedom of speech thank [Applause] you would anybody else like to speak I just wrote down my math department check supervisor number from years [Laughter] ago let me correct that um my name is Ed Brent uh principal here at Hunter Central um a couple meetings ago uh when Dr Shadow was here as interim superintendent a number of you if not all of you made uh very pleasant positive comments about how we uh were honored to be Mark number 14th in the state of all the high schools um and you know you through a lot of accolades about some of the great programs we have here uh but I want to pass it back to you too both as uh board members and residents to pass back to to your constituents we have a tremendous number of people here in the district that help us totally also all all the staff members here and students can't do it themselves of course um and I think of all the people I just mentioned about the marching Red Devils um over the weekend and if you ever been here to a game to see the number of parents to help out get get their show on the road every halftime it's amazing uh the robotics Club all all the different committees and and programs the booster clubs the home and School Association um all the sponsors you see all the banners out here uh that's community members and businesses that that provide money to help us offset some of the expenses and I think a last year when we had that first ever service and career fair here atun central and the number of community members who came in um to help connect with our students so I want to pass that back to all of you uh thank you very much for everything you do um and moving forward as well it's a great partnership and I don't live in a community so I don't get a chance really too often to say it casually you know in the store or anything like that to anybody to say hey thank you for all your support but um been here quite a while since 97 and and it's always been a steady uh positive area to work um and to help our students grow and um again one other item too for example team pep um to see last week and again tomorrow night uh on the parent night uh to see the the students and the parents and the staff members together uh there in a meeting such as that um is fantastic so I just wanted to say thank you very much I know earlier on I had to share some of the heavy news and statistics and reports um that I have to do as principal but um thank you for two weeks ago for helping me and uh supporting me going down to um the New Jersey principales and supervisors Administration conference down in Atlantic City as well so over those two days I went to a number of workshops and one of them talked about Street data it was called and it was um you know we have a lot of quantitative data about our students but it's also looking for the qualitative data when you're out about in the street um if you would and um I talk about it all the time when I take laps here at school take a lap clear your head and get a Vibe for how things are going and um like bronin said earlier um there's a good vibe right now and uh so thank you for supporting that and I really appreciate it and I I hope to carry it the rest of the year thank [Applause] you okay any more comments I will open it up to board comments I'd like to thank Mr Brandt for um your nice comments and also say that we we all appreciate everything that you and the rest of the staff do for the school uh does anybody have anybody have any comments I I have a concern um welcome back Mr Vargas we have missed seeing you here I respect your right to um to say what you would like to say the only thing that concerns me is I think I did hear you say something about disagreement among the board about the Tango statement and the only reason I'm bringing that up is not to confirm or deny but it concerns me greatly because the only place that discussion would take place is executive session so I'm just wondering where you got that sense of disagreement um and I'm concerned about it I didn't say I said did not oh okay I maybe I mistook then so if it's my mistake I'll I'll be happy to go back and look at at tonight and correct it oh good EXC thank you okay thank you um any other comments I just um when I got home from Workshop I I got home to my school leader magazine which is our um perk for serving on the board um there was a good message Dr Timothy pral he's the uh executive director of the njsba and um he he opened the magazine with a message for nonpartisanship that I thought was really pertinent especially given that it's almost November um and things always get a little crazy and heated and um the last paragraph that he that he wrote he said when the votes are counted and the national drama Fades into the background let us redouble our focus on what truly matters let us work with unwavering dedication to govern our schools effectively protect our students and staff and remain steadfast in our commitment to the Future our students are the common ground let's keep them at the heart of our efforts and Rise Above The Fray of partisan politics so um I just wanted to share that from Dr Pernell I thought that was great okay thank you anybody else I'd just like to Echo that I think that's a great Point Rebecca and I think that that applies to all of the students here so thank you okay we will now be going into executive session to discuss hip cases litigation Personnel uh we will not be taking action we don't expect to take any action after executive session uh can I have a motion to move into executive session so moved motion do I have a second second all in favor I I any abstentions or any any opposed okay thank you