##VIDEO ID:cqGIDv2RJPw## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e and Welcome to our board meeting um call to order what am I doing okay we did not have executive session so D we're going to go right today to put my glasses on we got a roll call First oh yes Tom the roll call please Miss Bose here Mr Clark here Miss Evans here miss groger here Dr King miss pesi here Mr pluta Miss Santos M van Mr van heis you have a for thank you um the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have attendance notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon as required under law adequate notice of this meeting has been provided via email and orax to the times the Lawrence leder the public library and has been filed with the municipal clerk this notice was provided prior to the 48 Hours required by the open public meetings act the board reserves the right to limit public discussion of personnel items and other matters as defined in the law we do the flag salute I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America to The Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay we don't have any student Representatives this evening um recognition and acknowledgement seeing none um we're going to get can I have a motion to adopt the regular session M minutes from the 8:14 2024 meeting second with a motion in a second from pepper and Joanne Tom Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes Miss groger yes Miss pascoli yes and who am I missing POS Miss POS you are very last one you obain yeah I wasn't okay um reports to the board superintendent's report okay we are excited to launch the new school year and welcome back our staff on Tuesday September 3rd at the high school at 8:00 a.m. and then our students will follow on Thursday September 5th I'm proud to announce that we have rebranded our district and we have refreshed our logos with the uh with the input of our principals some staff members and our pto's we are so excited to unveil um for those of you um and we plan to highlight that during opening day for our teachers we will come back and do uh a Rend of our opening day video on September 11th for the full board in case they can't be in attendance for convocation this week and last week we've been holding our new staff induction I'm proud to report that we've had roughly 35 new staff members that are absolutely tremendous they have hit the ground running they received four days with our leadership team learning and understanding curriculum responsive classroom restorative practices and numerous other topics so that they are fully equipped to open up their classrooms I also want to take a moment to acknowledge the incredible work that goes on unnoticed but absolutely essential to Our Success often times we forget to stop and look in the hallways and look at our beautifully polished floors I want to personally acknowledge the facilities and maintenance teams that have gotten our our Fields ready our the front of our buildings our floors our classrooms our teachers are ready to move in and receive children so special thanks to them they play a vital role in creating a safe clean and welcoming environment for all of our district and they definitely take pride in everything that they do walking around the outdoor space it feels like we're ready to open school I can't wait to have everyone back thank you the Intermediate School looks phenomenal thank you at the middle school that's fun too um I have to agree with Robin I'm always so proud of our district and when I come into any of our buildings um I always feel such joy and happy and I know I see so many of our staff working hard to make our schools a welcoming place for everybody um and just one thing I want to say is you know we're going to look for over the upcoming year taking our board uh meetings to the different schools so we can highlight and showcase all the great things that are going on super proud of the work at Lis over the summer and I can't wait for the board to see all of the great things that are going on and the community to know how much work we've done over there already um and I want to wish everybody a wonderful school year and uh good things for all of all of the people in our district our families our students our teachers and all of the staff so thank you so much for all the work they did over the summer okay um board secretary report Tom refer to September but thank you much I can only Echo the things that you've already said people have worked very hard from the custodian the maintenance people the school secretaries to our transportation department to everyone it's just and I think you captured it where you said it was a joyful place people are looking forward to the kids coming back and we're ready you know the one thing I think that bears noting to everybody um is how hard everybody works in this district with not a lot you know as a public school we really have to stretch things thin um and I'm always Blown Away by the dedication of what we get done with not that much and the community doesn't get an opportunity to ever see how hard everybody works we see the teachers of course and their impact but there are just so many other people that nobody ever sees that I see now um now that I'm on the board and interacting with a lot of new people um how hard everybody really works here and it is a privilege to sit on the board um and and I see this school year is going to be really extraordinary so you like it you will um committee reports any community relations and legislative affairs we won't have a lot of committee reports tonight because this is a supplemental meeting a lot of our committees haven't met yet um and we'll be reporting in September but there might be just a few little things um we do not have a student member uh report student board member report yet and we will in September we're looking forward to that um New Jersey School Board Association report just a few things um you will be receiving your um newsletter from New Jersey school board September 4th it's going to be mailed out so be on the lookout for that a podcast is going to be offered tomorrow by Ray Penny and he's speaking with speaker Craig Coughlin at 1 o'clock his role as Speaker of the assembly positions him at the heart of New Jersey legislation process key issues will be discussed such as school funding teacher shortages so if you have a moment if you can't watch it you can tune in later a webinar also developing effective School effective in District orientation programs for new board members September 11th um with the new uh School Board elections coming weeks away planning now on welcoming new members to ensure that they become an integral part of your school board and you have to register if you're interested in attending that and for us please don't forget September 19th at the high schools Commons New Jersey school board's Mercer County meeting the topic was changed the new topic is enhancing board Effectiveness strategies for educational leaders this will kick off the year on right foot by participating in a discussion to explore strategies that board of education and individual board members can Implement to enhance their effectiveness in guiding the educational decisions for their districts this will clarify the difference between board goals and District goals this we will be discussing best practices for governance and advanced individual board member professional developments to support students administrators and the communities they serve thank you great thank you so much Joanne uh student services nothing to report okay um review of communications none great uh this is our first opportunity for public input um if you come up please state your name you can write your address down on the um paper there and please limit your comments to 3 minutes thank you I like your shirt Kate ham I'm here this evening to speak to the students staff and community members for they deserve transparency and honesty it's been said throughout the building buildings in this District it's no longer a democracy it's a dictatorship irony exists the previous leader had the audacity to liken every staff member preparing for standardized testing to Hitler and his associates on the apology tour throughout the buildings there was never an apology but rather a why can't you take a joke no board member or administrator batted an eye in October 22 the recommendation came and the board approved a new position assistant superintendent for student services a week later the same individual took the liberty to recommend the hiring of a former colleague beginning January 23 four short months later on May 15th he announced his retirement the position was posted May 19th in anticipation of a thorough and wellth thought out search for the district's leader only that didn't occur 27 days after posting the position that announced Robin clim who did not have the proper credentials at the time as the next leader a transparent thorough process including posting the position accepting applications holding numerous rounds of interviews and selection cannot occur in four weeks she was gifted a year contract teachers are observed and evaluated multiple times in multiple years before earning tenure other staff members who are dedicated and provide immense support never have the opportunity for tenure transparency and honesty are vital amongst all striving towards the same goal the preparation of students academically emotionally and socially as they grow and mature for eventual life after school Universal prek would be a fantastic place to start but only if applicable to all students the definition of universal applicable to all cases seems to have been lost since since only students whose parents do not work or who have flexible schedules are able to enter some of the students who would most benefit have been excluded prompting the question of equity a cohesive educational environment can only occur when everyone feels valued and works towards the same goal from August 23 to August 24 under new leadership at Ben Franklin which is questionable since I know the truth 27 people have left only five due to non-renewal sure some change is expected under new leadership but 27 people anyone wonder why new leadership was not always effective nor were staff always respected the morale within the building plummeted and toxicity grew on a district level administrators have left for lateral moves anybody wonder why families are choosing to move or send their kids to private school as a result of ongoing concerns does anybody wonder why one of the biggest concerns the discrepancy between Public Image and Truth within this District are staff who provide fake facades to the outside world yet belittle and humiliate others who don't look worship or love like they do within this District are students who repeatedly harass and Bully others with little to no Consequence the divide in this District continues don't let anyone tell you differently take a look around Staffing in this District nowhere near reflects the students and families served in this District I implore every taxpayer in Lawrence to get involved learn about the public school system and ask questions these are your tax dollars follow the lack of Staff retainment in the township and ask why dissect the allocation of monies throughout the district Dem man factual data okay thank you I can I leave can I leave something sure so I'm leaving the shirts that you guys ordered because I don't believe that they were for Unity it's a do as I say not as I do okay thank you anybody else with public comment okay seeing none we'll move on hello hello please state your name and you write your address down and limit your comments to three minutes okay I just have a couple questions okay hi my name is Joan Mills um I worked as a kindergarten aid for the past nine years in the district and I retired this past January I have two concerns of changes for this school year um one I was wondering about the reduction in the ASI instruction in Ben Franklin and some of the other elementary schools where we're down from three teachers down to one and even with those three there were children whose needs weren't being met last year so I don't understand how those needs are going to be met this year I understand that as we get preschoolers in who then learn their ABCs we're not going to have as many kids coming into kindergarten not knowing it but that's not going to happen this year so I was wondering about that and the other thing was um being retired you run into friends and different staff have told me that there's plans to not require potty training for preschool is that true are you requiring that the children coming into preschool be potty trained if they have a special consideration obviously that would not we're going to accommodate accordingly okay um and you're going to have preschool AIDS then if there if there are children who aren't potty trained the requirement is that we have one Aid per classroom okay thank you you're welcome thank you any other comments okay uh we do not have any board discussion and work session um so we will go on to board discussion and action items um Personnel committee report or Personnel action items okay we did not meet on tonight's agenda you will find approvals for leave replacement resignation EDP clerical assistance and a very important retirement that I have to pause for granted she's not going to leave us until the end of January but Joanne Patron this one is tough she's worked in our district in the capacity of a receptionist secretary for our and a secretary for our district her outstanding bubbly happy personality has greeted many many people as they've walked into the administration building Joanna is always cordial happy to help anyone and as I said the good news is we still have her until the end of January we do wish her a wonderful retirement we hope that she has lots of opportunities spreading that Joy wherever she goes and takes us in her heart with her when she does retire and then also on the agenda and does anybody want to add anything before I move on I will miss her dearly yes she just BR spread I wasn't accepting her retirement that was a shock um also on the agenda tonight you'll see transfers appointments for Sub sub teers assist assistant um athletic bus drivers and uh substitutes for the drivers ltaa staff member hires Amendment for resignation date and an unpaid leave and with that I'd request please that we move P1 through p14 second still move and a second sorry got it oh second Tom with a motion a second correct that sorry all right I have it so Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes Miss groger yes Miss pascoli yes and Miss Bose yes motion Carri cipd report and instructional student service action items C APD will meet on Friday uh in the meantime on the agenda you will see ois1 I'd like to move ois1 second Tom that is oh ois to I'm sorry there too I'll second the two of them then so that's a motion by Miss Evans and seconded by Miss groger yes Mr Clark yes yes Miss Evans yes Miss Kroger yes Miss pascoli yes Miss Bose yes motion carried okay uh finance committee uh yeah on Kevin's absence I'll say the finance committee meets in two weeks uh you can see some of the updates on your agenda and with that I'd like to move sbm 1 through 10 second second all right motion made by Miss Evans second by Miss pasly May I call Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes M groger yes M pasly yes this Bose yes motion carried thank you um this is our uh second opportunity for public input seeing none we move on um new business okay on new business you'll see approvals for staff leave Replacements travel log mentors uh let's see I ready subscription renewal staff training uh a change order you'll see appointment for athletic bus drivers destinations coach for ecv substitute teacher an amendment for one item an extension for an end date acceptance for the BSM Grant Bristol Meers squib $34,500 many thank you thanks to ltef for their generous support for our students and our staff adopting executive minutes you'll also see for 8114 2024 meeting and with all of that nb1 please through nb20 let's move them second Tom with a motion in a second Mr Clark yes Miss Evans yes Miss Kroger yes Miss pasculli yes Miss Bose yes motion carried thank you and with that we can adjourn for the evening all in favor I I thank you 720 720 good Js e e e e e e e for