##VIDEO ID:wo7jnT1m8uw## Dr MTZ here Mr petruno here Mrs seart here and Mrs Mendes here I will draw your attention to but not read in full Sunshine Law statement of videotaping of public portion of Board of Education meetings the public comment statement and no smoking or vaping on school grounds can you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance announcements good evening I do have one announcement um I'd like to um show the board um as we do annually we work with the marbor Township Police Department um and they hold their youth Academy so this year was their Youth Academy Class 8 and they presented us U as the Board of Education um in appreciation of your support and commitment to the marbor Township Police Youth Academy class number eightth number eight um this was on August 9th 2024 and here's the plaque so this will be um displayed over at the board office but I just wanted to let the board know um that they did recognize us and we do recognize uh Chief pulo and the Marboro Township Police Department for their uh cooperation with us as well so thank you for that and I just want to say thank you so much for your partnership we truly appreciate it um really thank you so much um okay that was it for communications announcement sorry anything on Benny I'm sorry school bus driver and building maintenance sure all abstracts are run and all have Privileges and good standing thank you we're now going to open it to public comments so I have two on the list signed up U Mrs Amy nardella oh okay NOP not a problem okay so I have it's okay you don't have you don't have to sign in when you're here it's not the first or the last time that's going it's it's happened before um would anybody like to speak if so come up and state your name and your address it's okay okay seeing none okay motion to close public comments thank you adidi second uh any discussion okay moving on to Communications I have none HIV harassment intimidation bullying report from the period July 11th 2024 through August 15th 2024 there were zero incidents reported thank you okay moving on to policy development and community relations matters Sue Dr MTZ that's okay just turn your mic on please the superintendent of school submits the following resolution for approval change of meeting date should I read the what it says yes you can read the date be it resolved that the regular meeting scheduled for Tuesday September 17th 17 uh 2024 be rescheduled to Tuesday September 10th 2024 ISO move you have to say ISO move thank you second Michael discussion okay roll call please Mr petruno yes Mrs seart yes Mrs Palomo yes Mrs Gandhi yes Mr hayot yes Mr alansky yes Dr MTZ yes and Mrs Mendes yes okay upcoming meeting dates so we have September 10th that Dr misit just said and then Tuesday October 15th they're both regular meetings um approval of minutes resolution Chad uh approval of minutes be it resolved that the minutes of the following meetings will be approved and submitted May 7th and May 28th 2024 I move we have a second ADI any discussion okay roll call please Mr alansky yes Dr MTZ yes Mr petruno yes Mrs seaart yes Mrs Palomo yes Mrs Gandhi yes Mr hayatt yes and Mrs Mendes yes okay the um secretary business administrator's report yep so this is the monthly certification for the month ending July 31st thank you moving on to committee reports Dr MTZ curriculum we have a lot this uh month we met on um August 16th our most recent one we met prior to that also in August to plan for reviewing the curriculum guides um our meeting after we revie the the committee reviewed all of the guides then we met as a group and run over questions that we had come up with to uh that we did weren't sure um that we're actually in the guide so Mrs gross and Mr balone were able to clarify each thing for us the um Mrs SE word what did you what was the one that you read I mean reviewed which things did you review I'm not going to remember off the top of my head but I was health I know you went over did for the health yeah we had Ela um I had K through 5 Ela I had um math 678 um and I had algebra and then we the health curriculum hasn't changed from last year and I was just asking more yeah just as Prov um same with the list of approved books from the district that hasn't changed from our March meeting um but you continue and then if anything else jumps out Mrs blomo would you like to share please what what your you know what you what do you ask me to share what you reviewed uh for myself I reviewed a k through 5 math and then I reviewed uh 67 and8 uh Ela no I did 67 and8 Ela so I did 678 yeah you did okay okay well so did I okay both of us read the same thing okay but um we do want you to know that uh the novels that will be dur throughout the school year will be found on the teachers websites if there's any novel that you feel is not appropriate for your child and it doesn't have to be a sexual thing it could be an emotional a mental something like uh for instance you're um an animal died in your household your child is going to read a book about a dog and that may be upsetting for the child so you're free to please you you have the option to have your child uh read another book so all you have to do is call the teacher they will make arrangements you know you could decide between the two of you what would be a good option for your child never fear that um you're stuck with that then uh same thing with the health curriculum I want you to know make sure excuse me I'm sorry we didn't review the health curriculum so no she did no she did not review the health curriculum okay all right well then I the health curriculum was not up for review and we are just reviewing the standards as they were presented by Administration we actually didn't get into the weeds of books and uh transferring out books or anything like that just that the options were available in the meeting that I was at I don't know if I yes yes you're right you're right yeah okay you're you're right we did not review it as such she Mrs seart just uh read it you're absolutely right so I think on that point though to where you were going I think if the parent has a question regarding anything they should just contact Morgan gross directly right correct because you can opt out of that various SE of that okay next let's continue on um the um books that are being read uh used for math are envisions math and uh the elementary and Big Ideas Math in the middle school we also discussed whether the math is spiral so that to make sure that the children aren't just getting you're not just learning how to do addition and then you don't do addition again throughout the year it spirals so you're constantly doing addition and subtraction addition subtraction and multiplication it spirals throughout the content um since many of the textbooks are online now we have your uh the children when they're reading the social studies and Sciences for instance the readability level for each individual child is established you know by the teacher and then the readability level is set on the science uh so that everybody is reading the same content but reading it at their own level there are also tools embedded in each of the textbooks to help assist the children highlighting tools dictionaries and more um go uh Governor Murphy signed new legislation bolstering literacy education for new Stu New Jersey students so the district is just waiting for guidance from the state to see how that's going to be done they're looking towards um checking for dyslexia through you know by the time they're in third grade is that right Mr balone it actually happens uh by second grade second and we currently comply with that yeah okay um then we reviewed the standards and the opt out and that's about it thank you Safety and Security Michael sure so we're going to be reviewing our crisis response safety uh School Safety and Security plan executive tonight hopefully you be able to finalize it um I asked the board members to come with their suggestions and we're going to go over that tonight and hopefully we'll have a final guide be ready for the school year that's it thank you special education Dr missz during the most recent special services committee meeting the department shared with the committee the various services that are offered to the students throughout the district we discuss the curriculum development process and where staff can find modifications and accommodations within the curriculum for 504s IEPs and students who are at risk during the meeting the committee also asked questions about how students are sent to out of District placement and how the they're initially determined the committee also asked if any uh services are shared through uh shared service agreements with other neighboring districts the administration spoke about the development and the role of the new created newly created emotional regulation impairment program which is scheduled to start at in September at uh Morel Administration gave us an overview of the esy program and how it was progressing throughout the uh summer and I did get an opportunity to go over and see the Kids In Action so that was really nice we are planning on the not we the special services um Administration is plan and teachers are planning on sending the parents of esy students uh a survey to provide feedback for next year's program thank you uh moving on to policy committee uh sorry about oh go ahead I'm sorry yeah just before we move on um for the C uh curriculum committee can we just elaborate a little more on the opt out item that you had mentioned in the last just to just for clarity is it going to look last year to this year just so you know any parents I have a few things I'd like to add to that as well of course yes I I'm glad because you have a good yeah you go first because you have a good you have a good okay I don't want to skip policy but there's a few things that just need to be mentioned as far as the curriculum committee goes um first everyone should know that the proposed changes to the curriculum can be found on the district website if you head over to mcps.org you could or is it.com now is it. yeah org you could find all of the uh proposed curriculum updates which will be voted on tonight and once approved we're you know we're on track to approve them because of all the work that the curriculum committee has done parents can access the very thorough curriculum that the district has provided for us to review as a whole so if there's anything that you want to be prepared for going into this next year for your child's grade it's very easy to access you just click on the uh I guess guess the subject and then the grade and then you could even see the lesson plans and you could find the um standard and then you can find how marro will be teaching it so there's a state standard and then there's another column where you could see how marro will be implementing the state standards to fit our district um as far as the opt out goes um in the plethora of paperwork that we all had to fill out before the big excitement of the schedules being released um parents of fifth grade ERS and eighth graders were also given um very clear-cut opt-in opt out options for the more sensitive Health topics um I'm just telling you in my household it was very helpful for my incoming eighth grader to see what the health Curriculum lesson looked like for him and we actually involved him in the decision of being opted in or opted out so I appreciate the thoroughness that worked for my household um and I just wanted to give a quick thanks for that um I also want to thank the curriculum writers of the district because just being on this committee and getting a small glimpse of what went into the work that was done this summer I could really appreciate the undertaking that it is to write curriculum um I was on the curriculum committee last year I'm on it again this year so it's always impressive to see the time and effort that goes into you know implementing the standards and making sure that it fits our district appropriately so a huge thank you to the team of Staff members and um Administration that were involved in the curriculum writing and is there anything else I'm leaving out I'm like rambling a little oh right if you haven't filled out the paperwork yet you can see online that the toggle option has a little bit of a different look this year instead of being automatically toggled in to opt in or automatically toggled to be opt out it's a neutral toggle so you can make that decision you have to make the decision to move on with the paperwork but I did appreciate you know no alluding to the opt-in opt out that it was a neutral toggle um what else the adjustments that we recommended were immediately recognized and remediated so I do appreciate um Mrs gross's Swift actions when it came to the conversations that were had between all of the curriculum meetings um and I think that might be it so is there anything no you could glazing over please do can I say what else you said yeah sure um Mrs uh seart also mentioned maybe it's a good idea for the Middle School parents to especially maybe eighth graders more so to involve your child in the decision that's just what works in our home appreciate the resource yes because um they're getting older and they may you know if you feel your child is um able to handle that type of situation talking to your the parent that's you know yeah it's up to everybody's prerogative we just but it was a good idea I thought I appreciate it I just don't want anyone feeling like that's how they have to do it you know you're the parent whatever you feel absolutely you is best for your child is is what you know best but for our home we are a community give household so when I had the opportunity to show my eighth grader what the lesson was going to look like he had a better understanding instead of like being caught off guard or being opted out if he didn't want to be or being opted in if he didn't want to be we just chose to involve him for our home but exactly but I a good end result yeah no people wouldn't think of it so I thought that was a you know thanks I appreciate that but um it again it's just something that works for us so it's you know if that's if that's something that you feel might work in your home as well then you could definitely utilize the information that was given from the district just to give them a heads up also if I remember correctly these sensitive or um uh detailed discussions don't happen until the end of April beginning of May if I remember so even if you make a decision now and you feel like this is the decision and and then you maybe notice that your child matures differently in the next S8 months you always have the option to change your mind throughout the year so absolutely um I think that was your child you are your um parents are known to be a child's first teacher you will always be your child's teacher and you have the right to opt in or opt out of any piece of curriculum it's not just the health curriculum it's not just the the novels anything that you feel is not appropriate for your child based on your values is what you you know set for your child um I have a few clarifying questions sorry and follow-ups so just so that you know I guess the audience knows the the people that are watching knows who is on the curriculum committee can we just say the name it's Dr MTZ denielle and Annette and then they work with Mrs gross Mr balone is there and then Mrs gross will have people attend at times as well okay and then um you just mentioned the uh the health curriculum did everybody on the curriculum committee the health curriculums didn't have any changes this year it's the same Health curriculum that was passed last year by the board and it's the same no changes have been made to the health curriculum it's the same if I'm not mistaken I think it's every five years is that correct Michael yes you're right um normally Mr patruno um we do have a curriculum cyc we have a curriculum cycle of five years unless the state comes down before that and changes the standards so since the standards did not change we didn't have to change the health standards for this year based on that then is it safe to say that the changes that were made last year by the curriculum committee are going to stand um it'll essentially look the same where all age all age sensitive material was placed in the higher age levels and correct certain correct okay all right I appreciate that it was voted on last year so okay um Mrs blomo and at uh Mr hayatt Mrs Gandhi and myself we did not vote on it last year but the the rest of you you're correct yeah we voted on it absolutely so um sorry so you had mentioned and it just it's great to know because um I I don't know if meeting minutes are still being shared for all of the Committees not just so I'm not pointing just for the curriculum I'm just saying in general um you mentioned that there was some feedback that was provided during the meeting that was Ona email that was okay but is there it's not for me I'm just saying for the audience for for the community right CU we're talking about transparency and everybody knowing I'm just curious to know is there anything in particular that was discussed that you felt like wow this is great it would be great for it wasn't even anything that had to do with what was being instructed there was just something that jumped out at me that felt like it was um an an unnecessary it was it had nothing to do with what the children were learning it was literally citing um curriculums in other states yes and it once it was clarified for me it was actually removed because it was just one of those things that like is referenced but not implemented so that was thank you for clarifying that because it wasn't something that was written into the curriculum it was simply uh resources that were from um different state departments and Mr blone uh and Mrs gross choke it out that they said they don't use these pieces anyway so they just took them out they said we use what we have here in March yeah just so you know the context of the meeting um was more delegating what we were going to be reviewing the three of us would we picked subjects and pieces of the subject that we would all be reviewing um Morgan walked us through just understanding how the curriculum is written and the process in which it's written and then how to read it because it's robust really um but the meetings themselves the the review happened from the August 10th to the August 16th meeting so more sorry no it's fine I'm just trying to be um I'm just trying to think of anything that I may have Miss no just that um I appreciated that the entire board was actually given the opportunity to review the curriculum as well um I know Mrs G had sent the email to everyone with the opportunity to provide their feedback with the crosswalks and the curriculum and I don't think it was not brought to my attention if anybody else had any feedback everybody had nothing to share no we yeah I didn't share anything I read the curriculums and I just want to say thank you to the curriculum committee because that's some extensive work yeah it really is a huge I caught one typo and I find it on your own but just kidding no um so thank you guys that was a lot of work that was a lot of effort it was a thorough read I think it took you know an hour or two to get through it all but it all made sense and I think you guys did good work so thank you from me who's not on the curriculum committee I appreciate it it wasn't for me I'm aware of I'll tell you just more clarity for most of the work happened between the two curriculum meetings so any questions that we had were sent via email and responded by via email but nothing really nothing jumped out as um you know inappropriate or needed to be changed that the children will be learning or that the teacher like any resources that the children will be using we have a really incredible town we really to emphasize right now education is really it's really above we do stand it's really great I do have a question for Mrs blomo I saw on social media that you said that there was um something that was terrifying and I'd like you to clarify that is this part of the committee report yeah because I I'm wondering if it's if it is part of um it's C I don't want to find out if it's curriculum related can you repeat them with the piece that you're saying Miss Volo stated um this is just I'm not going to read the whole thing I want to see um the backgrounds of current board members and campaigning individuals are riddled with experience from State education organization wait wait wait wait I'm reading this is from I said social media but this is the key word I'll just I'll just let you know that I'm not going to be responding to any of your questions I just I think we'll just keep it to the committee report thank you I just anything else about curriculum okay let's move on to policy um so I'm going to give an update and board members you'll chime into with the work that's been done um regarding bias related acts hate crimes and so forth and and the training we've gone through and we'll give an update um to the community of on that work but part of that work falls under the policy committee so I'll give the rest of that update later but I'll talk only about policy under um this update so the policy committee met a couple of times and we've made some edits as discussed in our plan of action um at the end of the school year to update the code of conduct policy and to update um the HIV policy harassment intimidation or bullying so tonight up for approval for first read will be 5600 which is student discipline code of conduct and 5512 which is harassment intimidation or bullying just a couple of things to highlight within 5600 which you saw if you read um you can read it on the mtps website under the policy section under board policies um and it's there for first read but we did add within the fourth paragraph on page one of that um as part of the training that we went to with the maror Jewish Center which I'll get into how you know fantastic and informative that was but one of the things that they had at asked us they said would be make a big difference would just talk about um the board provides for the District student discipline code of conduct Equitable application student discipline and the code of conduct will be applied without regard um to and we had culture so they had said add you know adding just the word culture would be beneficial to all students and so I think that was a recommendation miss bomo you had in your training session day I I had gone a separate day and so we took that note in there so thank you in addition to and then it it stayed the same right it had all the different things race color religion ancestry you can read all of those that are in there so we did add the addition of culture I did update um the um Mrs Dara Winston this morning I told her send these over she was happy though to know that the word culture was added um there's also in here in that same paragraph there's the Board of Education shall provide to all employees um it says annual training and now we have on a semiannual basis um it's going to go to students um on the prevention of intervention and Remediation of student conduct that violates the district's policy and Regulation and so we actually added some language in there and said that on a semiannual basis during the first and third marking periods the staff shall review with students the policies and regulations 5600 and 5512 pertaining to student discipline code of conduct and harassment intimidation or bullying so we thought it would be important to add that review with students so to Mrs sew word's point it's great right my child stood there too wanting her Locker number it was really really important to her but to get to the locker number I had to go through all of the forms right and if you know that as parents you know that it's really important that you look at all the forms and so I was like come on it's important we look at the policies but in there right we know when I tried to go over code of conduct she wasn't that thrilled we interested right and I wanted to read it because we put a lot of work into it um so so we ask that it's important a that we emphasize however it works in your family but also we asked Mr balone and he agreed that staff will review it with our children as well so in their we decide in the first and third marking period so it will happen in September right they'll get to a class and it will be reviewed at the beginning of the year to talk about how important and what the code of conduct means in our school and what harassment intimidation or bullying means and kind of give an overview of that so they're going to do that twice a year they're going to do it once in September and once in January when they get back from winter break so this way it's fresh on top of mind the children know that you know how they treat others and respectful is super super important so that was a big addition that is up for a review and approval tonight I know I sent it out before but we were hoping that you know that would resonate with people just so that kids are our students know so that was one of the bigger changes also in this policy um we had just made a couple of other changes about resources that are available and so that's in there as well under HIV we just made um just one I think small or a couple of small changes in the HIV policy uh a couple of pages in because sometimes they're not numbered there's some factors in here for determining remedial measures and it fell under like personal and environmental and it left it really subjective when there's kind of An Occurrence of harassment intimidation or bullying it kind of left like personal it had like your strengths your talents and we're not sure how talents tied into HIV right to kind of make a decision on on the case so we wanted to remove all of the subjective language that came from there and so what you'll see now is factors for determining remedial measures if you're looking at it there's now kind of a grid and that grid comes from the Department of Education and that's what they actually use to determine you know your HIV um rules and regulations and so you'll see that table now replace the subjective kind of decision making and so we added that in as well and so that chart is in there if you're interested you can take a look um we'll talk more about some other things but Mr bone is there anything you wanted to add on the policy not on the policy per se but um more around the training right which relates to our policy um just again want to formally thank uh Rabbi Pont from maror Jo sener Stacy gallon and darl Winston and their team um in addition I met with um o over the course of the last several months leaders from um from uh the Christian religion uh obviously Jewish from marbor Jewish Center uh Muslim leaders Hindi leaders Chinese leaders throughout the community um seeking any other uh religious Andor cultural leaders who are willing to meet with me and discuss ways that we will uh enforce our zero tolerance for any kind of hate or crime or bias related incidents at all um and and we will deal with it swiftly um and and provide consistency through policy 5600 code of conduct thank you yeah I just I also just wanted to add um first off thank you for you know going to those lengths I know um as a board um you know based on incident that we faced in the last school year um you know we we took these measures and um I I actually agree with all of your sentiments about the training I wasn't sure what I was going to be learning but it was it was very it was informative and um it you know they act the way that it was presented was fantastic and giving you know like real life scenarios and showing how it could be implemented in the policies um so I I I think it was a huge success and I you know definitely want to thank Mr balone as well for going to the links that you did to um reach out to you know all the leaders so thank you yeah I want to Echo that too and I I just want to make sure we don't stop here that you continue meeting with those Community leaders because the one thing I learned from Stacy particularly um in her nonprofit uh Center for combat anti-Semitism is that Community bridge and just meeting with those because things change hate evolves discrimination involved so I hope you make that commitment to so and I know you will so thank you just to um add to that I too was um really enlightened with the training that we went and I want to thank Valentina for not just arranging the training for us board members with Mr baloon um but also taking action uh what happened with in with these policies um is a great example of being proactive for next school year um taking the uh the bullet points out of the hi policy and replacing them with a chart is a true Testament to zero tolerance there's now um an action and a repercussion which I know this guidance was always there however now this is part of our policy it's memorialized um and I think that it is a really positive change so it wasn't just going to a training and sitting on the information you were really Act of um in spearheading us being able to roll it into a policy as well and that's appreciated thank you and it was a group effort I know we all were working hard and rearranging schedules to to make it there so we'll talk more about the other the rest of the work because I don't want to kind of like lump it with the policy committee update but um we'll talk more about the training and other things that are going to happen in the school year and ways we can support the district did you want to say something else yeah I actually just had a question about like the um first and third marking period would have you received any feedback like is that you know is it generally felt like a good consensus among the staff or so that's something uh when I get the whole admin team together next week where that will be one of the items we discuss and then I can report back on what that looks like yeah yeah if you could let us know because I essentially what the idea with that was was um without having to you know not wanting to tie the hands of the administration so that they could um you know they could have the training twice a year but we wanted to also make sure that it wasn't done you know the day before winter break and the before kids let out for school so we had kind of um brought it to you know just a general first and third marking period so that when kids are coming back to school they are you know reminded of it and then when they return for the second half of the year after winter break it's you know brought back again so definitely keep us posted but thank you thank you okay thank you everybody for the committee reports I appreciate you meeting in the summer and and still working hard on all of those so thanks so much okay we are now going to move to the presentation of access for L's testing performance for your elll students Mr balone Mrs gross Mrs Mendes members of the board my fellow colleagues parents and the viewers my name is Kim georgees and I'm the district supervisor of ES as well as the vice principal of Robertsville elementary school tonight I'm going to present to you the access for L's annual report however before I do I would like to take a moment and talk about the process for identifying our multilingual Learners so our multilingual Learners are identified through a variety of ways upon registration a language survey is given to all parents that register their child and any language other than English that is reported it is noted the registar then fills out an online form that goes to me and I arrange to have the student screened now when a student transfers from another New Jersey district or a state that participates in Access for L's um the and the parent has noted ESL we do not need to screen we just put them into the program as it's a continuation of service however if they come from a district such as New York that does not participate in the access for El program we will screen that student um once the results are in we do notify the parent and the parent does have the right to refuse services our district Els SL program is aligned to the New Jersey student learning standards the weda English language development standards and are also aligned to our district curriculum guides in K to 5 the students receive 30 minutes of ESL a day and the students in grades 6 through 8 also receive a full period of ESL and for the students that have just arrived to this country they are also getting an additional push and support period in their core classes by an ESL teacher each year all MLS including those that have declined services are tested using the excess for L's test the four-part test measures the students ability in the areas of reading speaking listening and writing for the 203 24 school year 190 students were identified as in need of English language Services a side note that is our highest number yet 166 were enrolled in the ESL program 24 of those students declined all of our testing was done in person students remain in the ESL program until they receive a score of 4.5 or higher on the all the average on all the domains this year's results were mailed to us in July and as shown of the students tested 118 will continue to re receive Services 35 have attained proficiency five out of our six moved on to grade nine and are still eligible for services seven have moved at a district and of our 24 declined students 16 are still eligible and eight have attained proficiency typically eells will spend three academic years enrolled in the program which is consistent with the elll program goals at present we have 12 students that are in the program for more than three years and of our declined students four are still eligible after three years so that number um total students tested was one 90 but two students took an alternate version and that's typically because they're both ESL and specialed and we test them in the the best means possible and five moved prior to our um they moved out of District so we didn't get their results oops the chart above now is showing um the breakdown of where those students scored so as you can see uh the majority of our students um landed in the uh three which is the developing and um then next was a 32 which is a 4.5 or higher so 32 and then the 14 in the 56 um have exited the program so our ESL across the district so this is the breakdown as looks today um these numbers do not show any kindergarten yet because we will be screening the kindergarteners next week as well as any students that have registered that have indicated on the language survey that they are they speak another language at home so we do anticipate maybe about another 20 more on top of the 118 students that are currently going to be enrolled for next year in terms of what our ESL ml population look like uh our highest and what has been our highest for quite a few years now is Russian with 45% which is actually 73 of our students um our next highest percentage is Chinese at almost 10% and then Spanish at 7% followed by Ukrainian of 5.6% % as the pi shows we do also have a lot of other language spoken among our MLS such as Georgian erdu Telo Tamil and guara in terms of ethnicity of our MLS uh the most 58% or 67 identify as white followed by 36 or 31% identify as Asian of our economically disadvantaged 27% or 32 students fell at the economically disadvantaged category and lastly 19% or 22 of our students are identified as students with disabilities any questions that was excellent that that was excellent thank you so much I you know well thank you very much I would have been asking you those questions and that that you you know you well if anybody thinks of anything that needs some clarification please don't hesitate to ask and thank you and thank you all for your service thank you have a good evening super job thank you Mrs georgees thank you for being here thank you so much excellent job an excellent job okay we're now going to move on to the um 2425 Board of Education goal discussion so just to give you kind of like the action plan or what it is so for members of the community every school year or every year the board has to set goals from them for themselves the superintendent has the district goals and we try to collaborate and make sure that they align so he'll handle the district goals but obviously the board goals are there as well so it means as a board what are we doing right so in September's meeting we'll provide an update as to where we are on the 2324 school year goals right as they come to a close and then we'll try to map we're going to map out kind of have a discussion on board goals now so Mr Lansky and I had just put together for the board members talking points things to think about but here in this room we are to discuss what we think the goal should look like um for next year so for the members of the community the board has just samples of goals that we could talk through and just to kind of give you a starting point but by no means are these the goals you tell me what you think and so I'll start and open the discussion but for the community some things that could be out there right if you looked at our website now we had they're on by the way they're on the mtps.org website under Board of Education there's actually board goals there so if you're interested to see what they are um they're listed but you'll see things like policy right right CU that's what we are a policy-making body um you'll see things about Community engagement and so it has on there like the coffee chats and things like that um and so there's a couple of things that we had put together as examples but I will turn it over to the board members if you have ideas of goals if you've read through this um any thoughts that you may have I'll open up to all of you yeah the one thing so thank you for putting this together it's it's good and it's going to you know excellent first discussion the one thing under um enhanced stakeholder engagement and Communications so what Mr balone has done with um everyone ranging from the Jewish Community to the Indian Community to the Christian Community I think the board should do that as well so I know you have in here which is very smart listening sessions to gather input from family students I think we should extend that to community leaders as well because they're they're often a a gateway to what's going on in the community and I think could be a little more open than a family could sure absolutely so for members of the of the community so the board goal is one recommendation or idea what it the title is enhanced stakeholder engagement communication and the objective that we put as just draft talking point would be promote transparent consistent communication and Foster relationships with key stakeholders students families teachers and community members we want to actively seek input address concerns and collaborate on solutions that improve District wide educational outcomes and then underneath that we had put together a couple of Milestones as like a thought like how would we achieve that what would we do to get to that place and so we had like develop a communication schedule right that includes regular updates and so forth and so Chad you wanted to add a third Milestone there or you wanted to extend on one I'm just going to take notes as you're talking can you just yeah I think you can extend number two to um include Community leaders okay like we've started doing we should we should make had a goal and we should so on that one number two that Chad is referring to it says host quarterly Community forums Town Halls Community Coffee chats or listening sessions to gather input from fam students and community members creating a platform for open dialogue and collaborative problem solving and so you want to include just Community leaders as well correct actually looking at that I think it should be a separate you want it to be a separate Milestone yeah I agree let's keep it separate and be more specific I think Community leaders is a great uh jump off point but I just want to make sure that these are um training sessions and conversations that we can have to you know Foster better educational experiences I don't want to you know I don't want it to ever insult someone if we you know maybe don't go to the senior citizens of the community like I just want to make sure not like there's anything wrong with senior citizens I just want to make sure that something that could be directly implemented within the buildings and that could enhance the child's experience as an mcps student am I on the same page as everybody is is that something that yeah you are yeah I took that note and then what we could do is I'll just take notes and then obviously we'll expand upon it I'll send it to all of you and you can kind of review it and approve it right because we're not going to solve all for of it today but that's a great point and so I added that and took some note there since we're on that is there anything else did you like this goal did you think that it makes sense to have it did you feel like the objective hit the nail on the head I do I think it's a critical goal for Board of Education what what I'd like to know is is this if this is an action plan how are we going to we have to decide how we're going to evaluate is that next section that we are going to be and so there's it it kind of cut out it looks like it's blurred on the top but it it had on the top it had like who's going to be responsible for it like the board of staff and I think it had like resources I can't I can't see it now cuz it's kind of yeah an actual action plan and the action plan like how would we measure success am I right cuz I know you're looking at it is that what that last column said oh for you too okay okay no as long as we're going to be it's in there yeah you can highlight yeah yes yeah so the last column was indicators of success so how do we know we've met that right yeah good Michael is there a way to um have some type of formal communication between the student leaders like the peer leaders or the conflict management kids like is there any way that we can maybe get a boots on the ground perspective when we say involving the students I just want to make sure that if they're seeing something that's going on in school the only opportunity that they have right now is this big scary microphone so I just want to make sure that they're being seen that they're involved that they they know what's going on in their hallways their classrooms their buses but then I just want to make sure it gets to the right person when it comes to communication cuz you know that's like what I nerd out over I'm I'm glad you mentioned that um it's already underway um obviously we don't have students yet so um they don't know yet but we will be leveraging the student leaders and we will be bolstering our uh our peer leader groups in our in our schools middle schools have peer leaders the elementary schools look a little different um but they are going to we're going I'm going to be working directly with them with the counselors with Mrs tardio that she's the administrator um who oversees all of that I love that and so it's already underway and and um again that's that will be something we talk about as well next week yeah that's a big role right isn't it usually a student that exemplifies all bodies of our you know pillars of success I just want to make sure that they're being seen and that they feel like their job is important for us as well great okay so we all agreed I think on the stakeholder engagement and communication yes let's look at the first page then I thought you know we thought that that would be important Mr alone thought so too was student achievement I know we've talked about that one before and so the objective so the board goal the title was just an example could be student achievement and the objective that was written was improve student proficiency and read in reading and math by increasing the number of students meeting or exceeding grade level expectations that was kind of a draft the objective could not be that at all but that's kind of just the starting point so do we all agree the student achievement one is something that we should keep yes I think we should okay and then we had some things on there just for everybody else we had uh one some of the Milestones would be identify student achievement gaps in areas for improvement Implement enhanced targeted support programs um we were going to analyze student performance data which I know you sent to us already regularly to monitor progress and adjust strategies as needed right obviously in partnership with the district we're not running it we're just kind of getting the reporting and kind of asking our questions um and then expand access to academic support services such as mentoring peer tutoring and resources and I know you already have that out there and so that's why it's in collaboration um and then we had obviously we'll look at the evaluate the success of intervention strategies right and Mr balone and team always send us student growth and achievement over time and then obviously what you should always do is talk about what successful and what's working and then is it on a district level is it working in a particular school and should we expand expanded to a district level and so I that one is there as well and then the last is create a plan for sustaining progress so they're doing really well right how do we sustain that and and continue to grow and so including ongoing monitoring resource allocation and program updates and so those are just some kind of Milestones that we had put as an example but please you know share your thoughts do you want to change it do you not like these it's really up to you is there any way that we can add a blurb um for our students who are achieving minor goals especially in maybe the special education programs like a success doesn't always look the same for everybody like it might not be a milestone academic achievement but maybe we have a student that's become more independent or someone who is becoming more social or someone you know success looks different for everyone so is there a way that maybe we could add so maybe we could add something like celebrate success for all students and find ways to celebrate success for all different achievements something like that right yeah I just you know it's does that feel okay it doesn't success isn't just defined by agreed you know our gifted and talented children or our it says here meeting or exceeding grade level expectations sometimes they aren't meeting their grade level expectation but they've made Leaps and Bounds and success in their own Journey so so maybe go ahead I'm sorry I agree um and it's funny because we um Dr mcuts and I actually went to um the abbid center learning center um what was it last week about Mr bone the last day of almost the last day of class and I know that every single student in there along with all the teachers they're working really really hard and I think it would be amazing to celebrate them as well so I think that we should definitely look at adding that piece in there so thank you for bringing it up I was just going to but yeah yeah that's great so maybe the objective will keep it as meeting and exceeding but we'll add another statement about fi and finding ways to celebrate All successes as the objective itself so just a question um this might have to do with State scoring but reading and math are we we're not limiting it to reading math no that that was just an example if you we that's why it's open to it's just these are all examples just to get us talking that's all I mean those are important subjects obviously is there do you want it to be incre it says reading and math do you want us to just be meeting or exceeding grade level expectations and take out the subject yeah yeah I just want to make sure we're not limiting this you know we go and a year from now we say well we got reading of MTH scores up but we failed in other scores I wouldn't consider that achieving so is everybody in agreement then we'll take out reading and math keep it more General yeah keep it General okay that's all it's it's just a clarifying question absolutely but but it's a really good goal to achieve so absolutely okay anything else under Milestones or you think that's enough to keep it broad enough go ahead um before when we were talking about Community I do hope that we include special needs children and children that are not necessarily the top the cream of the crop I'd like them to be part of you know like you're you might be a pure leader but you're you know not everybody's going to be a pure leader I'd like you know other children to be able to be recognized for their you know for their achievements maybe they are good in art maybe they're good in music it doesn't you know let's let's get everybody involved I think that's a you know your idea was great and I'd like to pull it in further yeah of course I just don't know if I want to leave it as vague as like a suggestion box because the kids could get probably pretty crafty when it comes to that so I just want to make sure that specific oh yeah like a selected group of children across all spectrum of Education exactly exactly I just don't want to get like you know that lunch isn't hot enough kind of reports that kind of thing it's fine lunch is hot thanks Minnie he's great I think Mr Blom you you understand where we're headed with that I do okay I just had a question so go ahead I don't know if this falls on the board goals or this is an administrator goal but I know we are working to reduce the out of District placements and so I don't know if that falls under student achievement um or I assume if those students are achieved through the changes we are making through special educ education and other things that those student students should be able to achieve better and we would reduce out of District placements I don't also don't want to put things in here that aren't the board's responsibility so it's a question it's not it's not a recommendation so I'm not sure I would Mrs Tyrone you maybe weigh in here if you want to come up to the mic I'm not sure I would I would um bundle that necessarily with student achievement because there are students who achieve but have disabilities that we are unable to address and that's why they're out of District so I'm not sure I would I would do that okay that's fair in this sense it's a question I know we we've talked about it before in the past can I just ask one more thing um I know I've seen a lot of success stories here from classrooms and principls and students here um could we extend that also to the um special at like you know like that group so that whether it's from Abbot or whatever that they can come up and because I feel like as as a parent right you want to feel Pride even in that so just to give those students and those parents an opportunity to come up and kind of shine and we' love to see that happen if we can I still talk about the dog biscuit before you all were elected um we did Miss Tyrone and team had the the hurt their students made was it your group Miss Tyrone or was before you maybe the dog it was you right with the dog biscuits the the children made they actually had like a business and they made biscuits for sale for the dogs and um we were able to to buy them as board members they sold them here and it was so nice they presented they had a presentation so absolutely we're in agreement with you um they did present some more opportunity like that is fantastic and I just want to give um Mrs Tyrone a shout out like I saw her in action that day at Abbot with all the students she remembered everybody's name everybody's name everyone everyone she know them just the way she was with them like honestly you're amazing just wanted to mention that and she did such a good job we walked and Mr balone was there and it it was just really really nice to see that cuz I haven't obviously this is my first year on the board but it was it was incredible to watch so thank you for what you do really thank you so we had student achievement is everybody okay with that I'll modify the objective and then we kind of moved past that one okay so we had student achievement we had the stakeholder engagement and communication the next one that we had on there as an example we could remove it or not it's up to all of you um the goal was Foster a safe and respectful School environment we had talked about that would be important so that's part of our plan right of that we're going to talk about our plan later of like how we're kind of working through all of that uh Mr balone agreed that that was something that was really important so our objective there was to to develop an enhanced comprehensive policies and programs that address bullying discrimination and and hate promote a culture of respect and empathy through proactive initiatives ensure consistent enforcement of student conduct standards and support targeted interventions to prevent and address incidents of bullying and hate so we thought that ensuring consistent enforcement was super important too we have policies to live to we want to make sure that all students um are treated fairly so that was kind of the objective go ahead Michael so I should have thought about it before but you're going to mention it later I don't want to take here I don't have any Thunder share it now it's all it's a whole show for all of us it's not just me one of the things we're going to mention later is the setad of having a week of respect of doing a year of respect right this be we that was the drum roll that was a drum roll right but I think it needs be a board goal as well yeah let's add it to this should be we should have it here as one of the bo goals well we'll add that that was we'll talk all about the year of respect how that's going to great that's a great we were super excited about it and Mr Bone's going to talk about it and so absolutely so we'll add the year of respect here too under the kind of Milestone or objective number four number four will conduct your respect and yeah that's a good idea Michael and maybe you know something about just um leading by example you know both um you know board members and uh everyone that plays a role in the schools you know we have these pillars and we in still them into the you know curriculum with the kids when they you know they get reminded every day it's one thing to you know talk about it but it's another thing to actually um lead by example absolutely Alo I have that too I was writing the pillars as you're were talking I I wanted to ask a question about this so I I don't know if this would fall as part of the board goals um I mentioned it before it so we get like the the hip reports um but I really would like to see just a little bit more information on it and I I'll explain why because um for me as a board uh member when I'm voting on something and you know saying okay this this was either a hip or it wasn't a hip um I like to have a little bit more information um more than what we have right now that kind of identifies like what exactly happened so maybe we could see some patterns um if it's happening in a specific school if it's the same type of bullying that's that's ongoing I think that's um that's a good way to kind of prevent you know again we're talking about respect for the whole year for me I would like to see just a little bit more so I don't know if I can I would love to add that into the goal where it's um it's a summary and again I know we don't have to name the students I understand all of that you know but I as a board member before I vote I definitely want to see more information um on any of the hip reports that are coming in from any of the schools in the district and I don't know if that falls into the dis a questions it could just be something SE um I don't know if this would actually fall under a board goal so I know we did talk about that um Mr gross I know I shared our template with you and you were satisfied with it maybe we can talk because I know um there are some legal ramifications we have to be careful with the information that is shared so perhaps maybe an executive we can talk about some of the legal ramifications and if there's something that you are missing that you need and we can provide it I'm happy to provide it yeah I mean it's again whatever legally we can't it's fine but I don't think are there restrictions in terms of how many words can be in the report or you know I just I need to understand that a little bit better um because obviously I don't want to do anything that goes outside of that um I I appreciate that you approved the um the template but there's room to change that around to add you know add more to it or are there restrictions and the reason I ask also is because you know again speaking to different board members outside of this District um there are rep there are summaries that are presented that are a little bit more in- depth than what we get um so again that's something that I want to to bring up again can I ask you to elaborate when you say something that you're voting on what is it that we're voting on regarding a Hib report well not vote sorry but we approve like whatever the administration is doing which I'm perfectly okay right I obviously I don't do the day-to-day I don't run the schools right but if I am approving something I just want to going back to like what's going on in our you know what we've witnessed right um this is one step I think that we need to add because it's not just meeting with Community leaders it's not just um addressing it when it happens but if if the hip reports are coming in consistently from certain schools if we see it's related to the same stuff um maybe we can stop it before it gets worse I don't know isn't that what's in our green notes Michael provid but it's not as as much as it should I think it's I would I want to see a little bit more and we can talk about that in executive to you I just want to make sure that we don't overstep honestly no well exactly and that's why I'm asking Mr gross like I don't know like what is included but maybe he maybe Mr gross since you're at other districts maybe you can share what other districts have sure thank take a look at it thank you so could that be added if if it if it works and if it's within you know we're not I don't want to overstep again but if it's within the board's um perview yeah perview that we can put that as part of the goal yeah we could talk through when after Mr Grow speaks because in Milestone 3 where it talks about evaluate program Effectiveness annually to adjust programs and policies based on findings to enhance their effectiveness that all of that could be encompassing right if we're getting to your point a variety of reports from one school right then clearly the program may not be effective and so we could talk through what that would look like but that would potentially fall under number three um number one oh I'm sorry go ahead Jad well I think maybe a a way to make this work because I think what a DD's referen is is we do get and we do approve Hib reports every month and we have Effectiveness annually maybe we could change that and look at that more frequently which sure reviewing the hi reports would obviously be a part of any of that if we're looking at um you know fostering a safe and respectful School environment so my fear is that you know you wait a full school year and you know you can't intervene earlier and sure so maybe we take out the word annually and just leave evaluate program Effectiveness and adjust programs B on the need regularly yeah we can decide that through further discussions but all right I'll take out the word annually and then we can go from there um number one says review and revise District policies related to code of conduct by related acts and harassment intimidation or bullying ensuring they are comprehensive and consistently enforced across all schools number two had launch districtwide awareness Campaign which we'll talk about later focusing on bullying prevention and promoting respect and then I read number three I had in here your note um Michael alansky on year of respect we can expand upon that in addition Aldo I have your note to add in the pillars um making sure that people are leading by example and I have have the pillars added as well that you had asked me to add so I just took that note down um do you all agree with this one keep it it's good do you feel like it hits the mark absolutely sorry question when you say pillars our our citizenship pillars that are here behind us I just added those Ino okay just want to make sure yeah yeah yeah okay so moving on from that goal we added another one um and an example again if you don't like it it's just a talking point you can say you don't like it or you do this one is really good huh they actually all really good oh good a lot of work on that um promote fiscal responsibility and resource allocation so again we approve a budget every year Mr car caravello and and and team work really hard present it multiple times to us so thank you for that and then we have to obviously it's our job to be knowledgeable and vote on it and kind of make sure that we're aligned and that we're doing the right thing and so it's important at least right that we have it there the objective that was written was ensure District funds are allocated effectively to maximize student outcomes support high quality programs and maintain Financial stability um prioritize budget transparency and strategic Investments That align with District goals and long-term planning and so that was the objective of that goal does that one feel okay do you not like it can you just clarify number two are you looking for more than what we got because I feel like we got a very comprehensive breakdown of the budget for me so this is just maintain this is just to make sure that we have so for everybody at home or here um number two the Milestone says conduct budget transparency discussions which happens to explain the budget process priorities and key funding decisions right so sometimes Mr Caravel will talk about S2 funding or things like that and then ensure the budget is accessible to all so I think just continuing to have those conversations is important for the community and for us as board members to be able to ask the question number one says ensure that the budget aligns with District goals anticipates future needs and addresses challenges such as funding fluctuations and Rising costs because we know the costs of inflation and things are rising and so we want to make sure the budget stays on top of that um some other Milestones as examples uh number three use performance data and program evaluations to guide resource allocation decisions ensure funds are directed toward initiatives and programs with demonstrated impacts on student learning and well-being and then number four we had identify and pursue additional revenue streams such as grant opportunities Partnerships and other Revenue sources that can supplement District funding and support Innovative programs without burdening taxpayers which we thought was important there too we always talk about other grants that are available I know you're always looking if any for other things that are out there as well so we have different grants um so we thought that that was important to continue that work as well so those are just some Milestones as an example we could scratch them all and and rewrite them it was just conversation points were you all okay with they look they look great honestly I think that um they did a lot of work yeah your work is impressive and we're really lucky to have you no yep don't stop me um stop is there a way to implement any type of um exercising our right to go out for RFP since that's been a topic of discussion is this not the right time to put something like that in a goal is it so we can we can go to RFP right at any point in time for any of our services right so for everybody else that's your request for services right when we want to go out for different vendors we can do that at any time right should that just be laid out in one of our goals or should we just leave it as a assumed yeah I sure that's a great point um you know we just ran into an issue where we had a vendor that we hadn't done an RFP in almost 20 years you know maybe something like a checkpoint where not to say that we're going to leave said vendor but at least to see that pricing is in line with other um you know other um vendors in the same field maybe I don't want to overload Vinnie because I know doing the rfps is going to put a larger burden of work on him but maybe something like every couple so every year I send the board um a sheet that's up for everything that's up for cycle for RFP so it could be a goal just it wouldn't be a measurable one because not everything will always be up for RFP every single year like landscaping and garbage recycling you have two threee agreements where you can go out whenever you want but it may not be time for that to actually go out so you may have a year where you might have one RFP you may have year that may you may have like five or six yeah that makes sense M it's I certainly share that with everybody though I know we can continue to do that or put it as a goal no if it's not measurable I don't want it to become just you know throwing it at the wall um I appreciate that point though okay anything else on that or is that okay did you want to do anything else with that all right so is everybody okay with that as a goal then okay and then and then last we had policy development just because that is one of the major um roles of the board and so that is one that is on there today and so we just kept that but changed it a little bit so we put as an example the objective could be something like create and enforce District policies that address current educational challenges and promote the overall effectiveness of the district policies will prioritize the needs and perspectives of families ensuring that policies support Student Success and Foster strong family school and Community Partnerships when revising policies we vow to consider the age maturity level grade level and appropriateness of policy language and respect to the students in our K through 8 District so that was the goal and the potential objective any thoughts on it I love it I love the community uh Partnerships I love that perspectives of families are in there considering age maturity and grade level to make sure it's age appropriate I love everything about it great okay good I just want to add in there um yeah so one of the things I know there's a policy about um meeting minutes is that something and I I'll ask that's the question for you Mr gross um is that something that could be publicly made available to the community or is that so when we have we have different committee we have different committees on the board right so the meeting minutes from those committee meetings can we I I hear different things right so I just want to understand like legally is that something that we could put up so that if the committee members want to review or or is that something that we don't share committee meetings certainly could minutes of committee meetings certainly could be made public uh depending on what committee for example Personnel in all likelihood there would be too much redaction to make that worthwhile but a uh other committees as long as they're not uh prohibited under any of the exceptions of of the the Sunshine Law or certainly for confidentiality purposes student matters and the like uh security and safety those kind of things right um but absent those exceptions where it would be uh not appropriate and not legally permissible to disclose that information those minutes certainly could be made available so policy committee curriculum um what I'm trying to think what are the other committees that we have special ed um so they could so then I would like to add that we end up developing it's just in the spirit of transparency right because we're trying to keep it open with the community so I feel like that should be made available so maybe that could fall though under the Community engagement because it's not so much developing a policy but it's more that you just want you know meeting minutes are accessible already you just want to memorialize a place where it it's readily available if they if people are want to see it correct so then can we go back and put that in that yeah we have an extra box there an extra policy go very good excellent I know when I was looking at them online I thought sure sorry I'm just taking a note okay under um the Milestones examples conduct frequent policy committee meetings to review and update District policies right we should always be looking at the policies there are you you know as we've been reviewing them for the past I don't know however long year and a half or so there are some that I've a lot that haven't been touched since 2014 and so we've been trying to look at them make sure they still made sense ensure that newly created policies are communicated to the community which we do along with any applicable resources and policy implementation so we do try to give an update and so we'll continue to do that and any other feedback is welcome and then SK schedule annual reviews of key policies to ensure they remain relevant and effective and make necessary updates when needed there are some policies out there that actually are required to review on an annual basis like your Hib your code of conduct just to at least look at it and make sure it still makes sense for the district and so we just want to make sure that that's there um is it possible to add something about accountability um for the policies like we did with this most current policy where that chart was taken and actually memorialized in the policy itself yeah so you want something about like making sure that all policies are enforced across whatever and and it varies you know based on the policy what um how it is going to be held accountable similar to what we just imposed with the the Hib and code of conduct okay I have that I like that we're highlighting the annual reviews of key policies I know it was brought up in discussion this year like questioning why we were having an annual review of all of our policies so I I do like that that it's being communicated and that it's clear-cut that it's you know a normal practice to annually review all of our policies um can we take out key policies though can we make it just more since we are a policym body can we just make it more of a a schedule annual reviews of policies to ensure they remain relevant and effective because I think that key policies is an objective it is the only thing is if you put just policies in general is it all there's thousands so it's like key means like now you're right it is subjective but I don't want to be so prescriptive either where I say these are the six you're going to look at so key to us could be different to the people that are here now next year but I'm open to all of it I just I want to be careful that we're not holding ourselves like when it's measurable at the end of the year and we're like hey I didn't review 3,000 policies you know obviously right so I just want to make sure we can just measure I'm with you I think yeah as long as we differentiate between the ones that you know require the annual review and the ones that we're reviewing um to make sure that they you know still make sense and are applicable I mean honestly you'd be amazed how many weren't even looked at since 2014 it's unbelievable yeah so but I want to make sure like we're capturing the essence of what you're saying so does key policies resonate you want to change the wording I I just I understand understand where she yeah I just don't know what's key policy to me and what's key policy to someone else I just again I said objective but may we can I don't know if this is something we could just say that collectively as a board we can figure out what the key policies are and then we Implement them so it's not just the four that are on the policy committee but like collectively we do it that could be a way to um address what and a board goal so it really would be all of us right because we all have to measure success for all of us so or even collectively as a board come up with a list of um key um policies that needed to be reviewed you know that we would like to see reviewed this in the upcoming year and make that a goal so maybe what we'll do is expand on number three we'll make it we'll schedule the reviews but prior to that statement what we'll say is something like um through board collaboration within you know board will collaborate and and decide what key policies means in in this year go ahead just want to make sure we add into that then that we're we're adding in the updated policies that we get our emails that we have to look at code changes or something do we have that here that's number two okay that's mandatory anyway yeah yeah yeah so but to that point I just want to go back to what you said so the board collectively will decide what the key policies are and then schedule the review is that the heart of what you were saying I mean essentially the board will identify I like that word you know yeah just a collective turn your right list of um policies that they think needs uh attention you know that okay the committee can bring can uh discuss and then bring to the board all right well word Smith it did you want to say something Michael not what I'm saying I'm saying when we get Strauss updates we have to make sure we had that we're looking at those not just the key policies because Strauss may give us 10 updates in one month that are not key policies but the Strauss okay we have to look at okay so in number one I can expand on that one because it says to review and update District policies you want to add something else there I have to make sure that whatever board is here is looking at whatever they use Strauss or nbsa whatever they use that they're looking at those updates keep current okay so so basically to maintain like a uh to to make sure that we remain in compliance and maintain a current list of um any updates coming from the doe correct whether it's njsba or the key ones that we think the ones yeah M updates what you said just said 100% okay I'm writing that too so I know um there was discussion around um either you know we use njsba or like trust asme is that something that we're still looking at maybe potentially for next year is that something that we can add in here that we can explore yeah we can explore it I know I I spoke to them a while back there is a cost implication to changing providers which is totally okay um we just would have to talk to Mr balone and Vinnie regarding the budget so we could absolutely explore that without making that our board goal right or you can it's up to you if you all want to add it we could add it here but yes we would we should have that discussion if that's so they can come present they can present to the community I did ask them if they would talk and I'm talking about njsba So for anybody who doesn't know we use Strauss Esme as our policy provider today um there one of the two that are the biggest ones it's them or njsba right which is your your New Jersey School Board Association they provide policy updates as well some schools have them stme has a lot of schools um also and so to your point they can come and present in public I did ask if they would potentially do that at some point um and they can certainly do that if the board decides that's what we want then we can do that for sure if I'm not mistaken I think they we when we were when we asked I think we were cited that rough 80% of the districts in the state use Strauss Esme um and uh if I'm not mistaken the explanation um on why we went with Strauss over njsba is the level of detail in the updates just wasn't um as their updates just weren't as detailed as what came from the njsba um so I this is again just going based on conversations we had when the topic D that you just brought up was um discussed because uh at the time um when it was brought up for discussion I you know in in my eyes I don't think uh I don't know the costs off the top of my head um I believe Strauss is slightly more than um njsba but they weren't astronomical figures and given you know the importance of policy and that we are technically a policymaking um entity uh the board um my you know my opinion on it was why wouldn't we just subscribe to both so that we could compare the two and see what njsba has to say versus what stress has to say and take you know whichever one fits our district better or you know tailor one based off the two um which is something that I think we can you know still still uh take a look at as a board if it's something you know if it's not too cost prohibit and I don't think it is cu I think I do you remember the cost off the top of your head cuz I I don't but njsba I didn't NBA I think I don't know the exact cost I know it was a couple of thousand dollars nothing crazy to transition if we were to transition from shr to them I don't know like what their annual fees are and so forth I don't think it's anything astronomical to your point there's a cost and so is shme yeah so could we get like a something where you know we kind of see the benefits and yeah they for both they'll present to us I was just going to suggest that yeah if that's what the board collectively agrees to that you want um njsba to come out here and present then we can schedule that to come out we could talk about the costs right before we hit the next budget season but we can absolutely do that I don't know if you want that to be in the goals we could certainly talk through that but if that's just something you're all interested in then I can contact them and ask them to come to the September or October meeting whichever one works best um and this um the 80% of the schools that are now part of um St Esme has that number changed like what is that from is that from this year prior year oh I don't know that I believe uh this conversation was had don't quote me but it was the beginning of the school year when we when I inquired about um you know having both providers so it was somewhere you know a September or October policy meeting and I believe it was um the statistic was provided by our legal council at the time it was I think s told us that most districts was like 80% yeah so but we did look into it and we I think we came to the conclusion that we could probably use both at a minimal cost so but anyway the next step is probably to get njsba and just let's see what they have to offer yeah and I have that as my take away yeah I don't think we have to put that and as a goal though yeah def not a goal just as a discussion and then into it yeah but since we're talking about and I know we brought it up like a few months ago I just want to make sure that we kind of move forward I can ask them to come to the September or October meeting and present to us that's great um and we can get a cost comparison right of what does Strauss us me now we should to Aldo's Point understand the difference right because I think Michael you were here when we went to stra I think you were part of the board at the Strauss Esme piece correct we switch them njsba to St was there back in the day Michael if you don't mind me asking was there like a reason behind the switch was it like uh because of just what you had said before the board felt that stra was more comprehensive and at the time just years yeah years ago your first then your first tour first cool all right thank you okay so we have policy development um and then that that was it so I think that's five goals is there anything that anybody feels is missing you don't like you want to change go ahead since uh these goals are for ourselves is there anything that could be added or do you see a place where uh professional development um could fit because I feel like that is very useful and would be useful you know in the committee meetings as well absolutely So you you're you're talking about professional development for board members for board members yeah yeah we could add that let me I'll find a place for it and I'll put something on there about I need to understand a little bit more what does that mean that every board member has to take a certain amount of classes or like how how are we going to measure that that's my yeah that's what I'd like to understand let's craft something but let's talk through it for a moment so for everybody else board members are required to take what we call governance training when you first are elected right year one it's one two three and then if you're if you run for a second term right then you have four five and six you know and so it goes on that's the required mandated training we do as board members receive a variety of emails regarding other training opportunities that are available again I want to be respectful I understand it's not easy sometimes for people to make it it is during the day and I understand that work and schedules and and families sometimes get in the way um with that being said though um professional development is important it's helpful right I know some of us have attended a variety on budgets and law and all of that and so I think that some level of professional development is is helpful now we can also just so you know I did reach out to the njsba rep that we have regarding professional development that he can actually come and deliver to us and sometimes because I know sometimes you can't get out um and so we could do that I think we should just I could write something where it's not so prescriptive where you must attend three per year but maybe it's something because it is important for us to stay current and well-versed in in our role as board members and so I think we could add some level of it I'll put it you can read it when I write it and then go from there why does it have to be a board like a collective board goal I mean we get trainings all the time right it should be optional so I just feel like that it's great I mean everybody can as you mentioned some people what TR I'm sorry what trainings are you referring to no like the personal devel the personal development I just I think it's great and I think it should be open to anybody that wants to do it but I don't know if it needs to be an actual goal U part of the board goal yeah I I think that and I know I I was thinking about that as well um that one it doesn't I it there are some boards like man alipin recently won an award right for their board being um well versed and educated I forgot what certification they all received whatever it might be I don't remember I read it before um I just think it's important for us to stay current in our role that's all right no so let's be clear I'm not saying that we can't get trainings I'm just saying I don't think it needs to be a goal a board that's or if we look at the other side maybe it's a goal so that we do it because I understand right it it could be hard I know I'm crazy busy I know we all are busy with our lives but I think to find a way there's virtual there's webinars that they offer in the evening I think just our commitment yeah I'm just going to stop for one second because I don't think it's I'm not saying that it's because we can't do it I'm not disagreeing with anything anyone's saying here I'm just saying I don't necessarily feel that needs to be a board goal I think all everything that you're saying is great yes we all should be doing that we all should be staying current but that I don't think needs to translate to a board goal well the board it's the board as a whole it's not an individual and and I just think putting it as a goal holds us accountable to it that's all yeah and my my you know takeaway is that you know I have participated in several now and if we're able to learn why wouldn't we take the opportunity to learn um I know a lot of them if one board member is going there's no additional cost for additional board members to be going um and some of the things like when we went to the St SMA policy um seminar these are things that are coming um they're not actually things that have happened so like with AI policies that we're going to be seeing this year um in order to promote a progression so that we can progress we need to know what's coming and I feel like these professional developments are Paramount in that um yeah that was a great seminar yeah but we also get newsletters that going to share some of that information again I'm not I need to be very clear that I am not saying in any way for professionally I have to do stuff as well right so I'm not saying that we shouldn't encourage that I think we should my only thing is I don't feel that it needs and again if everybody feels that it needs to be a board goal perfectly except I'm okay with it I just don't think that it needs to be a board goal I think we should encourage each other to each other to do that but I don't think it justifies to me as a goal I think goals are you know that encouraging it because there's a difference between a newsletter or round taing with hundreds of um other board members superintendents and administrative staff from all over the state or reading a newsletter it's it's quite different they are very informative I mean that stra seminar was phenomenal the the information we received there like like you said the AI the legal the class we took with um regarding the legal um aspect of uh boards and every class we took there was phenomenal and then I mean even just the exchange that you have in between um speaking with other board members and administrators from other districts um I know Mr balone had introduced us to a couple uh other administrators I believe from Southern New Jersey but they you know like just in conversation like the feedback that you get and the stuff that you learn is like definitely not stuff that you you know it's not information you're going to get off of um you know off an email or a newsletter something like that so yeah it's just a suggestion in an effort to promote progress um you know whether it be the Safety and Security um seminar that I went to about different technology that's being implemented in schools or interfacing with parent organization seminar or law seminar or artificial intelligence seminar whichever of the many that I've attended I felt like I took something away from each and every one of them that was useful in coming back to the Committees that I'm on and and sharing that and I know you know I know you do a lot as well so you bring a lot of that knowledge to the table especially in policy so I thought it was helpful but yeah I think that's why I feel like it should remain a goal because you know I I like to live with the motto of if you think you're the smartest person in the room you're in the wrong room kind of situation so if if it's a goal and we're going to be held accountable to attend training as a whole maybe not as individuals like it doesn't need to be um x amount of training sessions per board member per year you know if we just leave it as a a board goal which I would really like to um then we'll grow as board members and essenti each other thinking about going in October right that we're all going to go so yeah there's right no I agree dozens of training over the course of those four days you could do all of your training hours there so you know what it's fine we're all pretty much saying the same thing we all in agreement that we I think it's going to be beneficial so I just don't want it to I just want to keep it a priority I don't want it to be misunderstood as removing it as making it less of priority so what I'll do is thank you and good discussion around that I think it's a really nice point so what we'll do is I'll find a place for professional development for board members I'll add it and just a couple of blurbs you all look at it and if you like it great and if not let me know and we'll remove it okay that concludes the board goal discussion so what will happen next is we'll make some edits we'll make some changes the board will take a look at it we'll discuss it in the next meeting we're not going to read them all two again will'll give you the the board goal and then the objective of them in the next meeting vote on it and then it will be placed on the um mtps website for everybody to read and take a look and um ask us questions throughout the year what are you doing with it and we'll provide you an update in the next meeting where we stand on the 23 24 school year board goals so I really appreciate this Approach at board goals I really like being able to have discussions openly and add and remove things so again and um thank you Val and Michael for being such great leaders and making sure that we all feel yeah no thank you everybody it was a group effort where when do we fill out the rest of the form yeah so the rest of the form we'll put something on here like mileston we'll do that after and I'll send it to all of you and add your feedback okay okay we'll we'll do it not not at a board meeting we could do it in a meeting right we could discuss it in the next meeting what is success look like now that we've kind of mapped these out in the next meeting we could talk about like what success look like so it's in a community setting and everybody can hear like what we're going to hold ourselves to like how we're going to measure success everybody should be hearing that and part of that conversation good okay um all right moving on so thank you everybody good discussion I appreciate it um financial and business operations matters Michael financial and business operations matters superintendent schools Mr the following resolutions for approval one transfers two list of bills three travel four harassment intimidation bullying hi report five authorization to apply for alternate method of compliance six acknowledgement of travel dollar spent in 23 24 school year 7 PTA PTO scope CPAC events eight acceptance of non-public textbook Aid nine acceptance of non-public textbook Aid of what they say the same thing technology Aid that's right 10 acceptance of non-public security Aid 11 acceptance of non-public nursing service Aid 12 acceptance of extraordinary aid funds 13 tuition students for the 2425 school year 14 donation from Student Activity fund 15 donation from Robertsville elementary school PTO 16 resolution rejecting all bids for 2024 Courtyard pavers 17 approval of 2024 2025 school year coordinated Transportation routes with MC uh 18 approval of agreement with MC for school nursing Services during the 24 25 school year 19 amended resolution out of District placement for the 2425 school year 20 authorization for escnj to develop nursing Services contract for the 2425 school year 21 non-public school requests for technology purchases under the NJ non-public technology and program for the 2425 school year 24 Award of bid H Improvement project for marbor elementary school 23 State contract purchases I so move thank you Michael have a second have a question we'll get to that Danielle thank you discussion you had a question right ad just so for number 17 sorry um just want to understand we have our own school buses too correct so is there a reason why we're going with yeah um due to a lot of drivers being out for the start of the school year and not having enough in the pipeline to be hired we're forced to at least contract a couple of routes out so we can meet the demands of all the buses that need to go out okay great and I'm sure this is already being done but they're all background checked and everything correct yes they do that for us and then they Supply us copies of all that okay all right thank you so you're not getting your CDL license this year this is not maybe I thought about it um he's not getting a CDL license on number 16 you might you number 16 the resolution rejecting all bids for the courtyard pavers I just wanted to um I had asked this question of you V some schools right Memorial I believe was on there to get pavers but I believe the cost was too much can we just talk about that one yeah so um originally this was packaged in the regular asphalt bid that we approved maybe April or May um unfortunately when you're accepting the alternate alternates this part of the bid was priced very high so we we actually noticed um a bidder that did not win the bid because it has to be aggregately theow so a bidder that did not win the bid they bid the alternate very low for this project so we felt instead of accepting it under the low bidder because their alternate was higher for this we decided to um decline those alternates and pivot and go out to bid separately for this um unfortunately we received the bids I think about three of them one came in surprisingly low it was about 80 something thousand which was well within budget the problem was they did not bid the job correctly they forgot about the drainage issue so they had to withdraw their bid so the next lowest bid was I believe like 200 and something thousand well off of the 80 that we thought we were going to have so um we're going to go and reject these and then later on in the year probably around the fall winter and speaking with the engineer we're going to go out to bid again so we're going to be trying to be the first one to really go out for it to be done during the Spring maybe during spring break because this is something that was budgeted it's still there we just want the pricing to be right because it's right now coming in like almost double what we budgeted so if the school was on the list per se to get papers it's still open right we're just waiting to go back out for bid we we'll go out to rebid and hopefully be the first ones on maybe some of these vendors list to get the work done and sometimes you get favorable pricing that way thank you and there's no Hazard to the kids or anything right no the courtyard is fine now it's just it was being it look good yeah revamped renovated could we um could we add that to um the next building in grounds walk through to take a look at as well just to get an idea of yeah what yeah there's no there's really there's no safety hazards the problem is like most of areas in marbo there's a drainage issue where sometimes if you get a heavy precipitation it'll puddle and sometimes you pass through there in that courtyard to get to the other side it's just something you that's been on a radar to take care of it's just it's been for some reason pavers are a lot more money than asphalt especially in that area because you really can't get Crane or anything back there everything has to be manually delivered yeah yeah if we could just add it to the next building and grounds walk through that'd be great thank you any other discussion yeah can we just go back to the buses real quick just so I um I'm just I guess Playing devil's advocate a little bit here with the rates I just want to make sure that our very appreciated and valued bus drivers are uh you know being compensated in the same way as the temporary routes you know um it's almost like the uh the emergency nursing situation those nurses came in and they did the same job as our hardworking you know 15-hour shifters and uh the pay was dramatically different so I just want to make sure I guess uh you can tell me to mind my business but I just want to know if never do that if the uh if those numbers right it looks roughly like $184,000 if that can be found for temporary bus routes could the same be found for our bus employees well if you recall when we negotiated we did give them an infusion of their guide each year and we raised the hourly rate so we did try to assist where we could okay um the problem is those are revolving costs so sometimes you know anticipating revolving costs and constantly after to budgeting for those it can create a short shortfall when you don't have it so this is hopefully just a onetime fix until we were able to get drivers we've been pretty aggressive with trying to partner with the township and just try to advertise for postings for drivers really it's the having the buses is not the issue it's finding the drivers who have the proper endorsements and have their CDL um it's very difficult to to obtain so I commend them for even trying to that could be done and we value our bus drivers don't let this cause fool you though I'm sure the contracted rates are a little bit higher than what some school districts can afford and that's why they stay in business and they're more competitive than we are I'm sure um and I just want to add you but there's a service fee on top of this too so that's why it looks a little inflated and also for our employees they get health benefits and all of that correct um most of our employees do our drivers just get a certain money towards benefit so well I'm saying that's that's sort of is like the offsetting of the cost like when you're because obviously the ones that we're hiring through here we're not paying for the district tries to assist whenever we can with the health benefits um all our drivers get to a certain amount of money a p a pot of money towards what benefits they're they're selecting yeah know I'm talking about the ones that we just using temporarily they don't get that from us correct I'm sure it's factored into the price with whoever they're contracted with yeah thank you thank you so much for answering that any other discussion okay roll call Mrs gandi yes Mr hayatt yes Mr petruno yes Mrs seart yes Mrs blomo obstain from Seven yes to everything else Mr alansky [Music] yes Dr MTZ is in the restroom um Mrs Mendes um yes everything else I'm abstaining from Seven because I sit on one of the ptas that's listed okay okay um curriculum matters ad curriculum matters one field trip list two nursing standing protocols and procedures manual three approval of English language arts curriculum guides K through 8 four approval of Mathematics Curriculum guides five approval of science curriculum guide 678 um I so move thank you I have a second Annette any discussion okay roll call so before we take a roll call so item number 38 um the amount for instructional assistance is incorrect it should be 17 an hour not 1513 oh is that fine no we just we're on curriculum curriculum I'm sorry that's okay we'll say that again later I was try yeah I was trying to indirectly move every keep a little light in here um okay thanks for keeping us on our toes roll call I don't need to do that roll call on curriculum matters um Mrs bomo yes Mr hayatt yes Mr alansky yes Mr petruno yes Mrs seart yes Mrs Gandhi yes and Mrs Mendes yes um moving on to Personnel matters Annette you looked like you wanted to read a lot today you know this is what I get for complimenting you the superintendent of school submits the following resolutions for approval one application for disability retirement two resignations three employment certificated staff four employment part-time certificated staff five employment supervisor of building and grounds six employment assistant transportation coordinator seven employment instructional assistant eight employment kindergarten basic skills instructional assistant nine employment School Aids 10 employment School monitor 11 employment bus attendant 12 employment maintenance mechanic 13 amended salaries non-certificated staff 14 amended hours and salary non-certificated staff 15 reassignment and amended salaries non-certificated staff 16 reassignment transfer and amended salaries non-certificated staff 17 transfer un amended salary non-certificated staff 18 transfer certificated staff 19 transfer non- certificate 20 CPR first aid training 21 ESL screening 22 stifen continuation of program for provisional teachers 23 stifen Mentor teachers 24 Mentor induction 25 stifen supervisor of buildings and grounds 26 stifen maintenance worker 27 sient additional duties assistant supervisor of buildings and grounds 28 amended extracurricular activities adviser 29 child study team evaluation and meetings 30 teacher summer IEP meetings 31 2024 extended school year special education program substitute School monitors 32 administrative internship 33 student observations 34 student practum 35 student teachings 36 substitute rates teachers 37 substitute rates school nurse 38 is this where the change was substitute rates non-certificated physics 39 substitute rates bus drivers and bus attendance 40 substitute teachers 41 substitute secretary 42 substitute school aid 43 substitute bus drivers 44 substitute bus attendant 45 paid medical disability leave 46 unpaid leave of absence 47 amended resolution leave dates I so move perfect thank you so much do we have a second Michael any discussion okay take two um under number 38 so the instructional assistant rate of 1513 should be amended to $17 thank you any other discussion uh yeah I just had a question um the so number 25 um the stien is this um is this because it's a new hire of a supervisor is that something that like how so in their um mtoa contract which they fall under there's a stip in amount in there that if they they have their black they get that all right so that is the new replacement for Mr CR Mr crell got it perfect thank you any other discussion okay roll call Mrs bomo yes Mrs Gandhi yes Mr hayatt yes Dr MTZ yes Mr petruno yes Mr alansky yes Mrs seart yes and Mrs Mendes yes policy development matters Aldo the superintendent of school submits the following resolution for approval one first reading policy 5512 and 5600 I so move thank you move second Danielle any discussion okay roll call Mrs Gandhi yes Mr hayatt yes Mr alansky yes yes Dr MTZ yes Mrs seart yes Mrs bomo yes Mr petruno yes and Mrs Mendes yes moving on to the liaison reports just for anybody reading the agenda you'll see that it now says School updates instead of it reading before like PTO PTA or whatever it was and so now it's a school because sometimes you get the report from the school principal sometimes we get it from the PTO or PTA or we get it from a mix of both so it's just the update for the school combined into one so I just wanted to call that out in case people were questioning why it looked like that now um and so with that being said we will move to freehill Regional you may not have an update by the way cuz School hasn't started yet which is totally okay but if you do that's great so freehill Regional Chad I do I got to reach my phone so I apologize for that um I'll give an update from Michael our rep there so the board voted to increase school taxes by 88.7% which I'm sure everybody's heard about by now uh Michael our Marboro rep to the regional Freehold Regional uh High School uh he voted no just so everybody knows um they approved Pro that I think everyone knows this is in relation to S2 they need the funding they had to they had to go and increase taxes and this is what they did so he outlines that the board approved the massive tax hike because the state went from giving 5.15 million back to the Freehold Regional District in 2019 to 30.5 million this year so that's a difference you can do the math 5 point 51.5 million to 30.5 million that's a significant decrease since 2019 they have cut 119 positions in the district um marber tax rate will go from 0.486 per $100 assess value to 0.514 um even with the tax increase uh there are still 19.3 million below adequacy sorry I know it's a lot of bad news but this is an update because we've been talking about this for some time um they spend about 14512 per student the average New Jers New Jersey high school spends about 20,000 per student uh the average New Jersey K12 district with 35 Plus students spends about 17,500 so as you can see they're spending 145 the average is spending 20 um I say all this because I think it's important for people to know what's going on with the high school what's going on with S2 as it relates to Freehold Regional High School District and the majors that they have to take into place um some other updates uh one of the how reps resigned uh they have 65 days as with any board to fill that vcy vacancy so I imagine they're interviewing candidates in the next couple meetings so you know might lizen Hal who wants to serve on the Freehold Regional District board there you go uh 2559 students graduated in June 21 students did not receive a diploma but they're pretty hopeful they'll graduate after some summer school classes in August so that's good uh they are implementing a new cell phone policy I know we've talked about this as a board as well um Michael notes that the phones are getting to be distracting and disruptive as a parent with two kids in high school I understand that so they are going to adopt that policy I don't have the policy specific but it basically boils down to um having the cell phones out of sight and they must be turned off so if you got kids going into High School prepare them because that was never the policy before um 89% of students passed the NJ GPA in English uh the New Jersey graduation proficiency test 68.5% passed the math portion of that proficiency test this compares to a state average of 81.6 in 54 4.7 so you can see we are well above State average uh if a student doesn't get a passing grade they can take their PSAT SAT and ACT results and use that for the graduation assessment finally we have 10,453 students in the district 250 of them uh don't speak English and we have to teach them in both language uh so this has doubled in the past 10 years so uh that's just something he wants to update us on I can imagine that has some budgetary impacts for a district that is already facing some significant budget impacts so that's the update from freeold Regional I I don't have anything more than that so if anybody has any questions I would suggest you reach out to the freal rehold I can never say that freeold Regional High School District uh Board of Education to clarify any of that so thank you Chad appreciate the update y um MEF andette thanks to report Marvel Township Michael sure Friday 8:23 is the last day to reserve your vendor spot for the 40 40th annual maror day to be H held on September 8th information has been sent out via email and it's posted on the upcoming events section of the town website the Marboro Farmers Market is open every Sunday from 9:00 a.m. to 1: p.m. through October and this weekend the marbor Sakura Association will be hosting the 36th annual kickoff classic please expect extra traffic slow down and look for families moving between field locations and that's what I got thank you thank you Michael Mammoth County School boards Alo um there's a meeting on October 1st uh so that's the only update it's a hybrid meeting I will be attending and I will keep you posted thank you so much ngba Danielle nothing to report all right we'll now move on to the school updates if you have any um Abbot Chad I do and the updates are my printer home so I got to read my phone again um so this is from Mr perno so hope you had a wonderful summer uh quick note esy ended earlier this week uh I think as we know so they're busy preparing for the start of the new school year uh they're right on schedule for the opening of the school so upcoming events for Abbot so August 26th is open house for preschool parents the first day of school orientation for preschoolers September 3rd is kindergarten orientation so students and parents so students and parents will come in for a brief visit with teachers dropping off supplies preparing for the start of the school year all the things you could expect for sort of the first day of school uh and then September 4th is the first day of school so I wish them good luck and it seems like they are prepared for it and these are kindergarteners so it's an exciting time for them thank you um Asher Aldo um defino ad nothing to report D Danielle yes uh thank you Robin for providing this liazon report for us uh School toolkits are still available for purchase for the upcoming school year please see the email sent on July 7th or the school toolbox website at www.schooltoolbox.com with information on how to order the playground play date will be taking place on Monday August 26th from 5: to 7: on Dugan's playground It's a Wonderful opportunity for returning and new students to get together before this the start of school the first PTO membership meeting will take place on Wednesday September 18th at 7:30 p.m. please join us to hear about all the wonderful things that will be taking place for the students during the school year this will also be the meeting to learn about how to sign up for being a class parent the back to school dance will be taking place on Friday September 20th please check your emails when school starts for additional information thank you Anette Robertsville yep I just wanted to take a minute to thank and um appreciate Mr J Mr Jano had his uh meet and greet at Robertsville and I heard from many that it was a great success he actually just told me that the kids loved playing a friendly game of Blitzball with him so I know he really loved being around the students and the students really loves having that informal meet and greet with him before the first day of school get all the Jitters out get to know his familiar face so I appreciate the organization and execution of meeting Mr G that's it thank you Morel Dr MTZ the morel PTO is looking forward to the new school year they're working on a new website and they have multiple fall activities and fundraisers ready to go the ice cream social and H the Halloween boob bash are always a big hit preparations for the fifth grade activities are already in progress and the picnic has already been booked moms and dads please watch out for the fit Fon Flyers which will be going out on September 18th the PTO is excited to see the new little faces coming into into kindergarten as well as meeting and greeting the students new to Morel PTO is also looking forward to meeting the new moms and dads who will be joining our school it's going to be an awesome year at marbor elementary go Mustangs thank you marel middle Michael from Principal Milwaukee and the PTO we are working on welcoming students and staff back in September sports physicals are due by August 23rd for fall Sports and intramurals including soccer volleyball cross country and a fitness club the PTO is looking forward to meeting a welcoming back friendly faces during the sixth grade open house on Friday 8:23 and Monday 8:26 from 9: to 11:00 a.m. each day PTO will have several tables set up to sell new MMS Spirit Weare apparel we accept cash check zel or credit card if you're unable to make this in person event you can also purchase on the PTO website additionally please join us at our first PTO meeting of the year uh which will take place on Tuesday 9:17 at 9:45 a.m. at MMS we hope you enjoy the last couple weeks of summer thank you and then for Maro Memorial the PTA is happy to welcome our new board members and looking forward to a great school year sixth grade orientation will be Friday 8:23 and Monday 8:26 the PTA will be there to answer any questions that you might have regarding the PTA and some fundraisers that are happening throughout the year they'll also be collecting Don ations for the back to school um breakfast for the staff so if you want to donate you can go on PT board um they donated the PTA last year donated uh mats here for the gym and so those are going to be delivered on 8:21 they're going to start their sales they've already started uh birthday grams car magnets and there will be donations also for stock the fridge so looking forward to a great year at maror Memorial scope what no updates Dr misit cpeg um cpeg will have a booth at Marboro Day come and meet them thank you and thanks everybody for the updates moving on to Old business anybody have Danielle um uh last month I had brought up uh discussing an advocacy committee um I was happy to see our board goals it kind of encompasses this so i' would like to make a motion to memorialize that um a board of education advocacy committee is a committee that is formed to help Advance initiatives within a school district the responsibilities could include ID identifying areas of need providing recommendations for addressing challenges building Relationships by engaging with community members and stakeholders to gain support for educational initiatives of the Board of Education and offering feedback on District policies and initiatives the purpose of the committee is to ensure that decisions are inclusive of all and rooted in the values needs and best interest of the school district to ensure that mtps k38 students and families are receiving the best education and experience possible this committee will consist of three board members three Community stakeholders three parents of the mtps students the recommendation of the committee will be addressed as a committee of the whole in the regularly scheduled board meeting ISO move there a second Aldo discussion do we have to limit it to three three and three just because I think that three board members I get that we can't have a um what do you call it a quorum um but three parents and three Community that's kind ofed so the advocacy committee will be an umbrella that can Branch into subcommittees so if an if an area of Interest or need is discovered by the advocacy committee they can form subcommittees which will then have additional members of the community so a special interest group um or a problem or a need that arises um it will be multi-tiered at that point so how do we pick the three parents and three that would be something that we can discuss with Valente I think that's that you know good point I think I just want to clarify one thing real quick the subcommittees that's something that will be figured out with the board as a whole correct so any recommendation of the advocacy committee got would be coming back to the board as a whole and we would discuss it openly um at a regular scheduled board meeting okay I think we also started to discuss this um in your absence so I just wanted to reignite the conversation of those three members being revolving like it would would it be a set for the 10 months of the school year or would it be so the purpose of an advocacy committee is to be um proactive and not reactive so the members shouldn't be chosen based on a specific situation it would be a standing committee of community stakeholders parents and board members and then if there is an area identified then those members would become revolving but it's open for a discussion of interested community members and stakeholders and then when you say parents and stakeholders would we consider nonparents as the stakeholders it would be more focused on community leaders um whether you know a perfect example would be um the relationships Mr blone has met with some Community leaders um it could include anything like a um local community business owners um and even it wouldn't be one of the committee me Members because of course it would be based on parent permission and the need and appropriateness of it but even some student Advocates would be great to have um interfacing with this committee also and students great idea but i' would also like to add an appropriate staff because some things could couldve what happens in Day Day in the school so we should us there yeah could oh go on you go I was just goingon to say could you put this in writing so that it's we could take a yeah you know a look at it it's it's really compreh I'm not saying that it's not a good idea I'm just there's a lot to it I feel the same way I think that it you know I guess this was discussed it would have been great to kind of see the motion ahead of time so we could kind of digest it and then you know come back with some questions like I have no problem voting on it but I just think that I need a little bit more information there's like not enough Clarity around how this group you know this advocacy groups are going to be formed who's going to them who's going to pick them there's still a lot to kind of dig into and kind of figure out so I I I don't think it's quite ready yet but you know maybe if we get the motion in in an email we can review and then provide feedback I'd be okay with that I just the three three and three thing THS throws me off a little bit so not I think we should have an advocacy as a matter of fact I think we should do a lot more advocacy so thank you for bringing up this motion I like the direction it's going in I just I got to think through the the limiting to this to three parents and three community members I and how it's how it's selected how how are they going to come up with the there's there's just a lot to it it's not that it's a great idea that's great you know so can I ask I just had a a question when it said the three I think you had raised that too about three parents it could be three or it could be subcommittees could be more right so I think just for my own Clarity it could be a pool of people right not just three it could be a pool depending on whatever circumstance you're saying right so it would be evolving obviously um we could Branch out into issues let's just say you we can take what what we're working on currently and I know you're going to speak about this soon um but Hib or student conduct or discrimination or whatever the issues are that we're seeing in the district that can then Branch into a subcommittee and we can get feedback from whatever the recommendation of the advocacy committee would be so if there's a problem that arises we have Community involvement already with stakeholders and parents that are going to help formulate committees with the board of Education or give recommendations to what kind of subcommittees could be formed so this is a very standard um type of advocacy committee uh for formation um but it would really just be that an advocacy committee would work hands- in hand with the three board members on the committee to address a problem identify the areas of need and then subcommittee it out to address specific issues and it's really all in an effort to be proactive instead of reactive so if a problem arises um there's no questioning what do we do who do we where do we go start you know Gathering community members Gathering stakeholders we have a core committee who will then Branch out to their resources and their contacts and it's really um in a networking pool um because my contacts may be different than Mr patruno contacts um you know so on and so forth so if you have six um involved community members and parents plus our additional three board members it's no longer just the resources of the board but now branching out thank you thank you for that I think this kind um no go ahead yeah go ahead I was just hoping that we can also come up with ideas to gain Community involvement because it sounds so great on paper like to have a pool of people interested that would like to come and right and also that would be great I mean and if we have this Comm 5,000 students and we have about 20 people New York audence so I just was hoping that maybe along with this motion we can all come up with ideas to like you know and gain interest is sort of like on the heels of the motion that I made I know it's a little bit different but very similar where we kind of try to get ahead of certain challenges that we may potentially feel right so obviously I made that that motion aity committee the but it was it was about the transparency but basically what we went through but this is totally different this is not trying to um like play the FBI that's not what this is at all this is proactive for community that wasn't about playing FBI it was more about trying to figure out like something went wrong in our schools what can we do like to make sure that it doesn't happen again so very similar so I I I agree I think this is needed um I advocated for that before too so I think we should do it but I just think again there's still so much to be sort of sorted through that I think we need to have the motion in writing review it and then offer some suggestions and I think Anette some of your you're absolutely right the community involvement it's hard to get people to you know step away from their families and and work and all that so a lot to think through but yeah okay thank you all right any other discussion before we oh yeah I just uh just one question I mean I um I think it's a good idea I'm I'm fine with it I'm actually ready to vote I just need to know forming it are we leaving it up to the board president or being that the referrals are coming to the board of a whole is the board is a whole picking uh I think in this case right it's a committee of a whole so so I don't know did you have a thought on that Michael would this be easier uh to alter the motion to just motion for the advocacy committee and then have um you know come back with the stipulation based on discussion you currently your policy talks about committees that board members have and there are either standing committees or there are uh ad hoc committees if you and I'm not sure which one this falls under as what suggesting to do I'm sorry standing okay so if you want this to be one of the standing committees basically that would also probably need to be as part of your policy because you have a policy that design I have to double check but you you probably designate in your policy what your current standing committees are so I think the first step that you would want to do is to amend your policy have two readings as you normally would to amend your policy to include this as one of the standing committees and then like all of your other standing committees you can then decide as a board how you're going to proceed in meeting having meetings for the committee who's going to be on the committee who's going to assist the committee with regard to members of the public or members of the uh administrative staff members of the general staff so then I can change my motion to to be that we will add a standing committee a standing advocacy committee to our policy yeah I mean and then but as any change to a policy a substantive change it would require two readings this could be counted as the first reading for that sure so do you want to change like to make a motion to add a standing advocacy committee to our policy second a second Alo I'm sorry you were the second okay do we have to roll call on that one first Yeah question yeah any other discussion on that before we vote so we're voting on the addition of the advocacy committee as a standing committee in the policy wait did she have are there two um motions on the table is that what's happen no I'm going to amend the motion okay so you're amending it just to be she's amend putting it into the policy so she amended it now to add the advocacy committee to the policy okay which we will then put out now Mr bro had stated this could be the first read right the first one because we're having discussion it will be amended sent to everybody to look at like I did with the other ones and then the next meeting in September could be second read so right now what you're voting yes or no on is the addition of the advocacy committee as a board committee and then all the stipulations that fall after would happen later right now it's just to add this committee so in other words we're giving new direction to update the policy that we'll vote on correct so right now if you if you all vote Yes this could be your first read per se because we've had the open discussion we can't make it the first we haven't right we're just adding the advocacy committee into the policy not the actual formation of the committee I just want to be clear this is not the first reading this is just you mentioned first read second count first just add go ahead can you just clarify Michael what you your statement please whenever there's a substantive change or a new policy that the board adopts there is a requirement to have two readings for those policies uh so this C certainly could as part of the motion count as the first reading and then at your next meeting in September you could have it as a second reading policy number that you have is 0155 board committees and it sets forth all the standing committees that the board of education has basically what you're doing is just amending the current policy of 0155 as part of buildings and grounds Communications curriculum policy Safety and Security special education to add another one called advocacy committee no I just have some followup questions so can you tell us again sorry how many people will be on this committee and that's off so now we're not doing that we're just that's why she amended it now all we're doing is vote that we are going to add the advocacy committee and then all the things that follow thereafter we could discuss later she she revise her motion those pieces of like the three and so forth are have been removed now we're just voting to add the advocacy committee that's all and so so just a clarification I'm not trying to extend this conversation but I've never been on a board where we've added a policy or a committee to a policy so let me play this out so we add the advocacy committee to the policy we vote on that policy it becomes Poli policy that we have this advocacy committee how does that advocacy committee get formed because I don't want to vote on something and then all of a sudden we have an advocacy committee with three parents on it because I'm not good with that yeah so we're not voting on that the only thing we're voting is the addition of this committee everything that follows thereafter is I we just also recently revised 0155 we added descriptions of the Committees under there there's also the rules and stipulations on how committees are formed how they're selected and if you remember in the beginning right you all submitted who was interested in joining what committee and then you submitted it over and then we kind of did that um so right now we're just voting on the addition of the committee and then the mission the things of that committee all the things that come thereafter it may very well be in the best interest to have it as a committee of the whole and that's an option as well if this is just added to the policy all of that will be discussed right so the objective of the committee so it looks like you had revised everything you said so the objective all of that will be discussed in public we could talk about how members are elected of the community all of that is now off the table the only thing you're voting on is do you yes or no for this committee so when the policy is written about the advocacy group you are you saying that the the first reading or second reading whatever it's going to happen publicly where the entire board is going to make a discussion is going to discuss like how you know who's going to be in it how many people how are we going to go ahead and select the board members and the community members is that is that correct or is it going to be something that just a poli policy committee is going to have a meeting sit down put it together and bring it to us for a second reading because that's a difference cuz right now I'm voting very blindly then and I don't feel comfortable with that again the way the the motion has been amended and the way I'm interpreting that is that we're adding another standing committee the only thing that the current policy5 has with regard to standing committees is it atates what the committee is it states what the mission of that committee is and for purposes of everybody understanding if we simply amend the policy that just deals with how the board is going to have a committee and the board members on that committee as with all other standing committees the board members are selected by the president that's what the policy currently says so that if you're just going to add this as another standing committee the only thing that's going to be decided as to who's on the committee pursuant to the current policy language if you just add this one as well would be that the board president selects the members of the committee and as all of your policies all of your committees say and have you can't have more than four that doesn't mean you have to have four it just means you can't have more and just to clarify on that statement to back to I think something you're asking the board president in the policy that was there I did not make it that it just said that that um the policy that was there states that the board president selects the board members now I said only right only the you're correct absolutely I just want to drive that point home because this involves community members staff at times maybe students that would be in my eyes something that the board would discuss I wouldn't select the members myself I I don't want to do that I want us to all to do it so I don't want that to be miscon that I'm selecting those people because I'm not so then Mr gross this policy I mean this advocacy group if it's added to the policy it only like you said it only pertains um to the for board members do we need to do a separate policy to involve the community well what you would do is not not necessarily a policy you might provide a regulation you might do some other uh formulation just to notify the community and to have your agreement amongst yourselves as that how is this going to move forward how how often are they going to meet um how many people are going to be on it when when are you going to include the members of the staff when are you going to me so there that's that's something that you're not that's not part of this motion right now like in any other committee that you have when you have a curriculum committee you decided as the curriculum committee members to include the administration certainly in your you know your your director of curriculum is somebody who's involved in that committee meeting with the involvement of the superintendent it's just be like no different than the curriculum committee that at this point for curriculum you do need Administration there's a little bit of a different but for for curriculum committee meetings you do need Administration that's a little B different Adra is exactly so that's I'm saying so that's needed I'm talking more about the public and again I I'm I'm for it I just feel there's so much that is still needs to be kind of discovered go through I think we just at the Inception phase I agree all we're doing is directing Val as a board to update just another policy on the list another committee on the list is all we're doing just my only question is for Mr gross um if this was like if the board decided that this would be a committee of the whole how just for my own knowledge like how would that um play out then moving forward when you say it will be a committee of the whole I'm not even sure what that means when it comes to a committee a standing committee that you have you meet in a committee you don't meet as a committee of the whole Committee of the whole means all my members yeah so again I'm not sure the terminology that was used prior to this about what a committee of the whole even means when we're talking about a standing committee because now we changed it to a standing committee and all standing committees are are no more than four board members and then we run from there as to how you want that to work so I'm not sure what that means standing committee maybe have the clarify it for me to better understand this this is going to be a committee like all of our other committees like personel that's the thing I think at one point it was said that every all the board members could be a part of this advocacy group and be in be involved if I unless I misunderstood but I think at one point it was said that the entire board could be in the selection process of the community members and be a part of this advocacy group and that's why I'm say yeah let me try clar that that that could be an option and how it's been done how I've seen it done in other districts is that that committee meeting would be have be had in public so it would be added to the agenda um as committee like the advocacy committee would now become a line item on our agenda for that meeting to happen however often we so choose that meeting to happen it would have to be always public because it's it would always be public all of us right okay so I think for the sake of discussion I'm okay with B adding that to the policy bring policy forward okay so thank you so just to be clear then you want it to be maybe it's not I just want to be clear a standing committee or a committee of a whole well a standing committee is just a committee that will remain yeah it's not an ad hoc committee Y and then the actual formulation of the committee who like the commit what is making up the committee could be a committee of the whole or four because of quum it can't be anything in between we can't just put six members because then we'll have a quorum correct and it will become a public meeting so regardless of whether we have to decide as a board if we wanted to have just three members plus the president or if we would like everyone to have the opportunity to be present which it would be added to the agenda as a line item now I understand what you're saying understood thank you appreciate it thank you and just like committee appointment in the past I'm sure you would offer an interest form to all board members for anyone who would be right I think absolutely but right now I think yes but to this point though I think that all we're voting on is yes or no to add it and then the board will discuss in public what it looks like so to Michael bro's point when he said regulation the regulation is different than the policy regulations really outline all the parameters so if you look at like policy 5600 has a regulation tied to it that goes into greater detail I'm just giving an example so regulations are not typically voted on I do put them out here now for you to look at so the regulation to that point could outline all of that right what what would that look like so I sorry and and I'm I'm going to have to say this because when I was making my motion I know that the regulation piece is where pretty much everybody on this board was stuck on right that we didn't know how it was going to happen who was going to be a part of it so I'm just I'm I'm just kind of a little a little bit confused that we're okay with voting for this not knowing how it's all going to be laid out but when a motion was made just two months ago you know very with very similar um goal in mind that everybody got stuck very everyone got stuck on the fact that we don't have the regulation we we don't know the ins and outs how this is going to happen so I'm not sure why the rush on this and why such a disparity in how we handled it two months ago versus now yeah absolutely and I can only I can only speak for myself so I can only speak to if you're asking a question first of all I don't I don't feel a rush on it I just feel like we're having a different discussion and we haven't voted on it yet the the thing that for me was that the motion is still different this is just forming an advocacy committee that's where it begins and ends the board can collectively decide I understand and and may I we may have different opinions for me when I voted no to the motion that you had made yours also con was considered a review of past events and there are reasons why which we all know because we were part of executive session as to why I think some of us voted no because of repercussions that could come from whatever may be with this ongoing situation so different because this involves proactive um whatever it might be school initiatives could be part of HIV could be a variety that was pertaining to I understand you said there were pieces that were proactive right you're like hey better communication and so forth but there were some that felt reactive to me and that's why I voted no different now I didn't vote on on this yet right but for me that that's my difference so I just wanted to clarify CU you asked that question this is this is I just want to lay it out Simply is a very positive type of committee it's actually to Branch out and include more of our community and less just the opinions of you know the board members maybe there's community members that can't give the time to run for a board seat but they have specialized interest in certain areas and are able to provide expertise and they would want to step forward to a next Point Community involvement is key it's key to success we've seen it in different Avenues uh with our children's education um so bringing that to the table in whatever issues we maybe will be seeing down the pipeline or have come come up in the schools we can have community members step forward and say hey I would be on that committee and give a little bit of their time to the much bigger picture and that's really what an advocacy committee would would be there for it's one of our portals I think everyone here agrees with Community engagement I think again update the policy let's put the details on paper and bring It Forward I'm okay voting yes for you to update that policy right now but that's all I'm okay voting for okay all right any other discussion all right roll call Mrs Gandhi I'm going to wait because I'm I'm going to vote no because I just need more information um I don't think everything is sought out yet so my vote is no until then Mr Hyatt uh yes to updating the policy for further discussion it's all voting on okay Mr alansky yes Dr MTZ yes Mrs seart yes Mr petruna [Music] yes Mrs bomo yes and Mrs Mendes yes okay motion passes 71 thank you good discussion um okay some other go ahead from um Mr uh blone had a technology committee that before to to work on the tech plan correct and then we we that stopped am I correct so where is that he still has to write a tech tech this old so you're bringing up old business yeah yeah so I was actually going to I think I emailed you all make a motion to add a technology committee and then we can expand upon your question okay okay that's good um so I'd like to make a motion to and this is old business right because we've discussed it before I emailed you all that somebody could raise it do have to be me but we'll just bring it up um so I'd like to motion to add a technology committee um to the policy and make a committee of comprised of board members um and then we can map out the objective but there's a variety of Technology initiatives that Mr balone and the team are working on plus just keeping technology current right and I know some other districts have a technology committee and I know you've all had discussions so I'd like to make a motion to add a technology committee to our list of committees standing committees thank you so same drill you're going to up the policy same thing as before I can vote no against that policy if I feel like you can vote no you can always vote no all right thank you Michael lonsky second any discussions regarding the technology committee addition yeah I have a question sorry so for that as well is it just going to be for four board members and are we going to bring in community involvement in that too I just I I'll comment for you so on Safety and Security it lists four board members but the past when needed the committee brought in the mayor the committee brought in the chief of police the committee brought in Security Experts committee brought in Tom and the security um the other Tom Security Supervisor so all security all committees should do that it shouldn't be a a blank thing this is what you do when you need the mayor you call Mayor I need you to come to the committee because it involves you you know if you need chief of police you call the chief so I think any committee we have should be open to as needed whoever we need to come to the committee and and the committee discusses set during the meetings and brings it to the board and ex right ex topic well then who's going to pick those people well the we're going to get to you're asking about the stakeholder involvement in the greater three-year District plan which Mr B can update corre on this discussion it's just about the technology committee as a standing committee for the board and then we'll get into the discussion that you're asking yeah because I think he needs he needs clarification of that I think he had I think we had a discussion we could talk through what that looked like absolutely but let's just vote first on the technology committee and then we'll go into that discussion absolutely did you want to add something yeah I this is not um playing favorites by any stretch it's just an idea um there's not a great amount of responsibility with the communications committee can this be something that we group together as technology and Communications so that we don't get like committee happy because there's a tremendous amount of responsibility with being a board member and adding all of these levels of committees is just making me feel a certain way about you know the regular meetings and the communications and the discussions and I'm not saying that I won't do it I'll gladly do it but there's not a tremendous amount of involvement with the communications committee so is anyone opposed to Growing the communications committee into Communications and technology or do you think that we should have just two totally separate commes I think they're separate at least the way I'm viewing this so Communications Committee in you're right and that I agree with everything you just said we need to evolve that but that really hits a couple board goals in here with Community engagement that we need to kind of focus on technology is to make sure that we as a board it's my understanding correctly is we are Forward Thinking in the Technologies we need to either adapt as a district or teach so it's to me it's a much different Mission yeah I'm not looking at the literal term of communication you know like when you when you're studying Communications it's not a matter of just Facebook post and cluffy chats I'm just wondering if technology and Communications could mean coverage but I agree I understand what you're saying I'm just and I could see the communications committee possibly becoming community outreach with advocacy that that could be a nice yeah I think it needs a revamp anyway because is that something that we could can you dissolve a committee um if you put another Committee in Michael yeah you can always revise the title the OB networking in the community I could see that as nice little segue into Communications as well right and maybe it aligns with the board goal of community engagement and maybe that's kind of the the committee and communication is as good as yeah ironically under your policy what's that ironically under your policy for communications it says the mission of the Malboro Township Schools communication committee is to design Pathways to promote notor noteworthy accomplishments of the entire m TPS community so I think that answers what it is so I think I think if you want to right now we're in this motion but at some point if you want to make a motion to rename the committee or dissolve it and make a new one that could absolutely be a motion too okay so I it sounds like I I think we desperately need a few more committees um personally these are a good start it sounds like if the policy committee could take a look because I believe members here have provided what other districts are doing which is all over the place but we can look at other districts can you just look at the committee policy and come back to us with recommendations based on that which we can input into yeah would would just tell me a little bit more what you well we're talking about adding two committees right and then we're talking about dissolving one to me what we're talking about is looking at our committee's policy seeing if it's still relevant today and I don't think it is in many aspects I think we need to add some things as we're discussing here seeing if we need to take away some committees and just looking at again from a fresh start to me that is combining these two motions I agree with Chad on that I think we do need to revisit our policy Committee in its entirety honestly the policy I'm sorry not the policy the the polic Committees yeah that's you want to look at the which which gets to what Danielle wants to do which I agree with is let's how figure out how we form AOC which gets to you what you want to do which is how can we be more forward-looking with technology which makes us forces us to revisit the communications if it forces us to revisit the policy committee it forces us to revisit buildings and grounds maybe buildings and grounds should be a committee of the whole given the how often you know things change with buildings sure so what we have right now just to be clear 0155 is board committees yeah we can absolutely look at it again it was revised in May of this year um we just added some statements and a description of what each of the Committees are couple of language changes in this case though we could absolutely look at them as always um in this case though so the technology piece is what we're voting on right now did you want to say something think it's important we at least get the technology piece going CU we want I'm good yeah school year and agree we look at everything else as well at the same time right when we had first got um come back from our seminar Val and the policy meeting we had um brought up a technology committee and I think it's so valuable because if we are not ahead of the trends we're going to be behind the trends um and there's a lot of stuff as we saw there's new policy coming down the pipeline right now that are being created um so a technology committee would be really in my opinion important for reviewing those new policies and just seeing how we're going to implement them in our um in our district absolutely and just a side note but going to anette's point and uh Chad and Danielle with the um Communications and um the other advocacy committee when we have this round table discussion about how to form the advocacy advocacy committee we can at that point as part of that just merge the two and create you know as that discussion transpires among the entire sure so any other discussion on technology committee or can we move to vote I'm ready to vote okay local please Mrs Palomo yes Mrs Gandhi yes Mr hayatt yes Dr MTZ yes Mr petruno yes Mrs seart yes Mr lonsky yes and Mrs Mendes yes okay motion passes 8 Zer okay any other old business I just want to mention this I don't want to lose sight of this but the polling places we talked about I know the polling locations yeah I know we can't do that and we have to work with the clerk is my understanding so I don't know if we need to form like a subcommittee to get on that but I'm more than happy to volunteer to figure that out because yeah so great great segue Chad because I know I had emailed you all um yeah I looked some late night email I don't remember when it was but it was um Michael Gross had so I know you all discussed it in July I know we discussed it before just to catch everybody up um about removing the polling the schools here in our district as polling location so right now our schools are closed um during elections right to keep our kids safe and so forth and the conversation was you know we're not comfortable with it being here at all so um in the last meeting um Michael Gross had a representative here from his firm Gabrielle and she gave some information that I then shared with the board members so they did try that I sent a letter that you all may have read from kingburg right I think you all kind of gave some feedback on that but there's the next step so for the 24 school year so obviously elections are in November this the district can't just shut the doors because the decisions were already made is at least what was in the email um to keep our sites in 2024 it does not mean that we can't remove it in 2025 though and so there are some steps to follow and so the first thing is to email the municipal clerk and the county of Elections which I did email you all and say I would like to do that on our behalf to say I think everybody greed that we would like to start that ball rolling to remove it from our schools in 2025 I think that was the conversation everybody had when I watched the board meeting I know I wasn't here so I think that's the first step um in that path and I think soad just umad to kind of add to that though um it sounds and correct me if I'm wrong uh you know Valentina Mr gross um but from what I understand from it sounds like um what the county clerk is essentially saying is they don't think that we they wouldn't they wouldn't consider moving the polling locations unless it was proven to be a disruption to the operations of the school so in that case I understand the 24 is already um set you know the elections however you know two months away um for 25 though you know in 2024 November election day kids are not in school but in 2025 if kids were in school on Election Day that would essentially provide a conflict for us that then they would need to consider moving the locations is that a fair analysis of yeah again the recommendation that goes to the county clerk or the the recommendations come from the municipality um not necessarily from the school district but the school district certainly should can and should give its input to both the municipality and to the County Board of Elections as to uh the concerns that you have the reasons why there are concerns and that there are alternative uh places within the community to adequately uh afford people the opportunity to vote um and you know usually in in non-presidential election years the turnout is less than it would be so may perhaps the accommodations the alternative accommodations that otherwise wouldn't be uh appropriate or uh uh giving the community ability to participate properly in a non-presidential election us 25 would be or any other non-presidential election year uh the turnout might be easier to find a alternative place for yeah I would agree with that especially with the early voting and mailin voting now I mean I don't think you know I I think that they'll definitely be able to find alternate locations I think the main thing though is to work with Mr balone um for the 25 school year um because you know uh going with the continuity of the education for that one week in November so there's not so many disruptions and then the you know the security aspect of it of having people come in schools I I think it's worthy of you know just noting to the Township and the County government that with school in session on election day in November in 2025 it's going to be considered a disruption so alternate locations need to be uh seek Out Mr gross I had a question because I know the person that was filling in for you g Miss Gabrielle correct um she had some concerns around if legally we could actually do this or not that I mean what is your experience with this can we well we we don't have the final say we can only Pro provide our recommendations and our reasons why we would like the municipality and the County Board of Elections to consider an alternative location there's a statute that requires if they decide that we're they're going to use the school the statute doesn't give us the ability to say no you can't come in so what was that thing that Aldo mentioned then last time that njsba or no right one of the meetings said that you can I just want a little bit Yeah I want to understand a little bit more that they they said that that that can be done and there are lots of schools that have already taken action that's why we kind of went forward with it and made the motion and and voted yes for it I think I think the C I think school boards Association um Council or whatever the committee that took that vote was basically a symbolic vote endorsing the idea that schools shouldn't have to be uh the location especially in the in the elections uh that are going to have a lot of people coming through and safety concerns so that was basically a symbolic resolution by the school boards Association to recommend to every County and every municipality that schools shouldn't be considered for those so you're not aware of any schools that have actually followed through with it or any boards that have actually implemented this the boards don't have the ability to do anything it's the municipalities do I am I aware of some school districts that have persuaded their Municipal uh body and their County to no longer utilize their facilities I don't know of any because I haven't done any re Research into that issue I just know what the law provides and I know that other districts that we represent who have tried to do that uh weren't successful again for this coming election but again it's a presidential election which may be one of the reasons why they need the bigger facilities go I was going to say um this is kind of goes to a point with what Mr balone was saying um you know perhaps rather than using if they're going to dictate that we need to use mtps buildings it doesn't need to be buildings that students are in we can use the administration building we can use the buildings and grounds building we can we can use other buildings if need be but I personally I mean if we're going to hold school that day and buildings and grounds is going to be operating administration's going to be operating I would just make the push to get it out Al together you know but that's always a fallback can I just hop in here for one second because I think the njsba motion is contradictory to the law so with the work that your associatees did for us and and the things that she provided for us it seems as though the njsba has made a motion so that the board has the power to open or close the schools to say whether or not the children are in the buildings but if there's no one else willing to allow us to use their buildings then the schools are legally obligated to be used as voting sites so it's just one big circular but there's there is other being used I mean we don't use Town Hall we don't use the library we don't use Robertsville I don't disagree with you yeah like is it up to us though that's my question well the reason I not brought this up is I it sounds like it's going to fall on US based on the discussion so we've either as a got a board form a little working group here and figure out how we do this how we convince the clerk or the municipality the case so so I'll just give you a little insight as to how the delegate meeting goes resolutions are submitted and they're reviewed by committees that sit on njsba months and months before they come to a resolution so they submit what they're asking for and then it's resolved at these meetings where all the delegates come and then vote on these action items so you know how we have stme they roll down policy this is saying that policy guidance is going to say school policies should advise that voting locations are in the control of our superintendent and they're not if we want to say our buildings will not be used we can put that in a policy and our buildings cannot be used because we set regulations for our building so just like we do building use forms for everything else I don't know what the process is for shared like you know with municipalities and whatever um but as it was stated at njsba it's that the regulation is going to be that voting locations and whether or not the schools can be used are in the hands of the school board and administration um based on their policies um to further elaborate on that there was several schools um I'm going to say like upwards of three or four maybe that were actually there and they offered ideas as to how they removed the polling from their schools uh one gentleman got up and he um said that they moved it to outdoor tented areas one had trailer areas brought into parking lots um because they just didn't have any other very small towns didn't have other locations and then there's some bigger towns that we actually looked at um that have removed it from their schools as well so maybe it would be worth reaching out to one of those districts cuz some of them are very close m one I think was one of them possibly don't quote me on that but I think that's who it was um to see what they did to remove it from their schools because it is actively no longer in the school buildings and no what I was going to say was even if found a place that withh hold the elections still has to be okay by municipality right now the law I don't know what the law might change to but right now the law is mity and the go dep elections the U INE in in Pre has to okay it the county the county level and and municipality has to okay it so the first step would be your your letters and also with a committee to go out and find that there are other places that would even hold the elections because we could do the work if we want to do the work and propose that to the county and municipality they still could reject it that's what I'm getting at it's like it's just a little discouraging because we could do all of this work and then every location we go to could say we're not doing it oh you can find one that wants to do it and they can still reject it at the count will say no yeah and I think it really isn't I mean they're they're saying it's in our hands but essentially it really isn't is what I'm getting no I don't I am not one to take no for an answer so I get this I I'm I plan to go all the way with it I just don't want to look food in the sense that the law is holding more water than the regulation I think in my email to to all of you the other day I just want at least start right the way that it said that it should start which is by emailing the county clerk by emailing you know your municipality right your MP clerk I would like to do that on our behalf of a board to start the ball rolling and at least get some momentum behind it and then I don't want to start looking up sites because I feel like hey they may say okay I I don't know if that falls with us to look up locations or if the doors are just closed at some point so and ultimately too I mean you know that's going to seriously it's going to have an impact on the 25 calendar so this is the time to start doing it because if it is feasible we we got to get things moving so I'd like to start drafting those letters I'll send it to all of you first you could look at it and give me your feedback and thoughts and then I'll send it out and copy all of you on the emails that I send on our behalf if you're all okay with that yes thank you please do that okay other old business just one thing now that we're in Old business but it's um I just want to give an update on the things right we said that we're were going to talk about what we've been working on over the summer how the board has come together and Mr balone please weigh in because you know you've been doing a lot of work with Administration as well but some things as a board so board members um and please you can share your experiences some of you did we attended um this is about the bias related acts acts of hate crimes and so forth that we experienced um last year so we attended training sessions with marbor Jewish Center I know that board members attended I attended we all had some fantastic training with that group and that was really informative and I know I discussed some policy additions there um that we'd have but there are also a variety of other things that we want to implement in this in this case um the first thing is is that I did meet with um Dara Winston today again from Maro Jewish Center she and I said what would you like me to update the community on at least on on your behalf since we spent a lot of time with her as a board she did want to share with the community that she feels that this board um and and the administration should be used as a model for other boards so she felt that we were really proactive she said that we um were really communicative with them and she said she was hoping that other boards would kind of get on board with implementing change and changing policies and and learning and growing from it and so she she wanted to share that she feels that our board is doing a really good job and being proactive and taking initiative and so thank you all so much for taking the time and out of your days and and going I think it was super informative for all of us so um and the scheduling changes when we were emailing and messaging back and forth that you know coordinating nine schedules with theirs um so so that was that was really nice um some other things that we would like to we don't have we're not going to vote on any of it today just some things that are coming down the pike um Mr balom will talk about the week of respect which is actually part of like the um Hib actually regulation and and statute um is actually something that all schools have to implement and Mr balone and and team and we've discussed how we would like to turn that into the year of respect and so Mr blone I'll turn over to you for some some highlights there sure I'll be working I think I mentioned it before I'll be working with Mrs tardio who um she she heads up the entire District um in terms of the week of respect activities um I've already mentioned to her that the board will most likely be centered or at least one of their goals will be centered around this concept so um it sounds like you at least on our first uh our first iteration of it um it sounds like you are there so um I'll be working with her to make sure that this is sustainable not only for the first week in October but for the entire year I'm also as I mentioned before working with our students right so and and uh Dr MTZ I will make sure that we're including all students of course we'll we'll leverage our student leaders but uh where we can um utilize um other students um as needed um and this will be an ongoing Endeavor for the entire year um again we we talked about how it's nice to have designated times for certain things the hour of code or the week of respect but I think we need to take a stance as a district and make it more sustainable so you will be seeing um actions from the school district and I'll I'll provide updates to all of you on what that looks like and how we are enhancing what we're currently doing and making it more widespread and sustainable for the year and not just at these designated times yeah and some things I just you know that you had shared with us I don't want to lose sight of you talked about some assemblies that will be coming up for the schools right that will be dedic dedicated to this topic right respect for each other and so forth code of conduct the meaning of Hib you had said which what we are all excited about um and then additional staff training I know know you you do a nice job right and staff's trained but I said you said you would include some more right we're including additional staff training we've already done that actually for the beginning of your trainings we added uh another module um we are also partnering with the maror Township Police Department and officer drum will be delivering um sessions to all of our students and um again thank you to marbar Police Department for supporting that endeavor um and we actually have some grant money that we're we're going to be able to utilize for that so um we'll be able to funnel um additional funds over to the marbor Township Police Department oh yes thank you Mr lonsky Stacy Gallen from the marbor Jewish Center has already committed to coming to our October 14th pro day so she will be also delivering uh professional development at our we do it Ed Camp style where our staff members get to choose where to go and um she will also deliver a training uh very similar to the training that we received um over the course of the last few weeks so those are just some highlights thank you so much and then the other piece is just that we are going to um actually draft a social media policy one does not exist today um for the students social media is a real thing I'm going to get to that in a moment but the social media for the school district is important right especially if your child child is in Middle School um and so social media activity is just something that we think should be memorialized in a policy there'll be some other policies coming regarding technology I think we had mentioned there'll be something around AI use and so forth that's a new Hot Topic not new but Hot Topic um anyway so we're super excited about some of these changes and and feedback is always I say a gift so keep the feedback coming um around all of that and looking forward to all of the things for the year of respect but I'll pause because board members you played a role in these things and you went to the training and you know you did some work here too a lot of work here so if you want to share your thoughts or experiences please I really appreciated the um anti-Semitism training at marau Jewish Center I got to meet uh some new members of our community get to understands a little more um about some of the challenges that um that commun faces and I really just appreciate that we are actually doing something about it instead of just uh empty promises so it it was a small step in the right direction as a board member and I love to hear that a lot of the things are going to be implemented in the district that it wasn't just something that we participated in without um result so thank you Michael balone for um taking this new um outlook on making change in marro because um it's got to start you know sooner rather than later so I really appreciated it um and I really hope that there's a way that we can connect with other boards in maybe M County or our surrounding area wherever just to make sure that they utilize this type of training because it really was enlightening and I um I hope that this really snowballs into something much bigger than just this small town problem yeah actually uh like I mentioned before I also thought the training was phenomenal um I did um make a recommendation while we were there um that you know being that we're one of five school districts that funnel into the freeh hole Regional High School District if um you know in order to really hopefully see an impact fighting this um at the high school level you know we're only one of the kids going to the high school so I I had made a recommendation that you know maybe being that they wanted to Branch out with it anyway it may be a good idea to reach out to the other districts um you know Howell manop in Freehold burrow Freehold Township and um to you know just to get all five um towns that go to Freehold Regional um up to date you know with the same training and they can you know take the same steps as Mr balone and you know hopefully it'll make an impact at the high school level when the kids are there absolutely um I'm not sure if they were slay to do that go ahead yeah I just wanted I think Annette said it pretty much perfectly and hit all the points um but from going to the very first meeting with you um and seeing it conceptualized to seeing the follow through um with the training and putting the pieces together to get us from the first meeting to the training and then taking the output from the training and rolling it into policy um again just to Echo Anette sentiment Valentina and Mr thank you so much for guiding the way and setting up all of those individual meetings and like you had said juggling everybody's schedule getting us all there um and really putting together something that has Real Results we appreciate it absolutely and thank you all was a group effort so I know we all played a ro say same thing very proud of us you know all of us we said we put a goal that during the summer we were going to take action and be ready for school start and I really think that we all collectively did the best that we could to put ourselves in a good position come some time the best that we could we could be at this time so Kudos everybody here for attending and Mike LA and Morgan came as well the initial meeting you know was a great thing yeah absolutely okay any other old business um yeah I have some I guess it's old business I I don't really know if it's old or new um perhaps it would have been new business but um we received uh some emails today and I don't know if everyone got a chance to see them but um I just uh I think you know especially while we were discussing board goals and you know um their focused on uh certain aspects of you know our conduct as board members I just want to ask the board members to keep in mind that you know when we are on social media there's a there's a specific conduct that needs to be followed um there is board policy guiding it and you know I know it's election season but I don't want that to you know give people I I just don't want to you know we need to lead by example and I unfortunately based on the messages that the emails that I had read prior to the meeting um I didn't get any emails what emails are we talking about I I saw one I think one came in while we were here there were some emails that came from I I saw one so far I think there was another a second one that came I saw it as I was walking just regarding I guess feeling attacked by board members on social media so I have to look more into it but that was that was the spirit of the email is that some families felt attacked by board members online I guess during the election season and so did that go to the board or individual members I I'm not looking at it right now I don't know who the recipients were I just know I saw it I'd like to see it because I don't have it sure thanks um it will be shared with the board obviously um whoever wasn't on I don't know yet so what I would say is I guess to your point Alo there is a policy out there about board decorum um obviously as board members we have to use our disclaimer disclaimer doesn't mean that we can just say whatever we want board deorum also talks about how we treat other board members uh with a level of respect and being mindful of social media we're going to have a social media policy obviously for the district um and so I think the emails I'd have to read them in more thorough I saw when I walked in the door here um but it really I mean that's I think what we have to keep in mind this board decorum we have we are held to a higher standard so do we get people talking about us all the time and that sometimes comes with being an elected official and I understand that sometimes you know it's not always great feedback we get about ourselves but I think it referring to each other um I think we should just maintain a level of professionalism maintaining your disclaimer right you're speaking about yourself um yourself as a citizen you do not lose your freedom of speech it's just keeping a level of of professionalism as a board member because again we are trying to solve for hate bias related acts making sure we treat each other with a year of respect and then it doesn't feel that way sometimes so we could all disagree on things but we just have to be mindful of how we treat each other yeah please share the emails will I'd be interested what they say yes I'll I'll look at it as soon as we go and the meeting I'll look at it and forward it to everybody um okay new business anything all right moving now to public comments anybody signed up no would anybody like to speak miss warin good evening Robin borenstein Marboro New Jersey I'm speaking on behalf of cpeg um so due to recent policy changes CP would like to mention some of the achievements that we did during the 2023 2024 school year um for and with the mtps special education community so just a few of the things that we did were that we participated in the child care um interviews with in regard to special education needs we gave some input into changing mtps policies as it impacts special education students we discussed the esy date changes with Administration and and the Board of Ed as well um we had regular touchpoint meetings with special services we also had meetings with um parents and guardians of special education students as well um those were virtually that we had the meetings with the parents and the Guardians um we had PTA and PTO collaboration we participated in back to school nights um the NJ SBA has a special education teacher appreciation week that we participated in we did Ada and disability pride month um esy Spirit Day activities so during esy there were some dress up days that the kids had um that was a good opportunity for the kids to participate in those and we worked with special services on a school supply list for special education classes because I'm not sure if people are aware but the special education classes don't necessarily have the same supply list as the general education students and sometimes those lists are not made available um ahead of the school year so um and we also did participate in Marboro Day last year and as mentioned previously we will be at Marboro day again this year and we do look forward to working with the special education Community for the 2024 2025 school year thank you thanks so much Miss porine that was so nice to get the update please continue to tell us all of your success stories and things that are happening along the way thank you for sharing that any other public comments anybody want to speak okay motion to close public comments I have a second anyone okay ad uh any discussion all right public comments are closed executive session resolution be it resolved in accordance with the provisions of the open public meetings act the marbor Township Board of Ed shall conduct a closed executive session pursuant to the exceptions prescribed by njsa 10412 for the purpose of discussing matters of attorney client privilege and Safety and Security it is anticipated the length of this time of of executive will be 60 minutes and that action will not be taken in public after the executive session be it further resolved that the minutes of the executive session will be released when the need for confidentiality in accordance with njsa yes [Music]