##VIDEO ID:egigwy8UC8o## all right welcome everyone to the Tuesday December 17th 2024 Montgomery Township Board of Education meeting at this time I entertain a motion to enter back into uh Open session so mov second it's been properly moved in second any questions on the motion all those in favor State I I I all those opposed same right any extensions motion carries at this time we'll all rise to salute the flag I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for stands one nation we'll now move to our MTSD student representative report Sophia um since our last meeting the Great American smokeout and the Montgomery Township Health Department set up the table at the high school to talk about the offensive drug abuse and to discourage vaping and other addictive habits as well as encouraging students to quit uh we also had P senior so that the senior class could raise money for the upcoming Disney trip we also had a production of Midsummer Night's Dream uh earlier in November and was a very big Community turned out with a lot of involvement from our Stage Group from the actors and everyone at our high school we also had the MHS coffee house for students to perform musical arts pieces for the community we also had our band and Orchestra concerts um last week also the governor's Educational Services professional Award of the year was given to guys counselor missel and the governor's teacher of the year was given to history teacher Mr FL also our Senior English classes went to the National live museum in Philadelphia which um hosts per permanent Galleries and changing exhibitions that explore the meaning of Liberty today through contemporary par and the students wereing all right thank you we now move to superintendent report SL presentations good evening everyone I want to begin by wishing you all a wonderful and happy holiday season at the high school to provide a real life example of work done in the county on January 8th the high school students at Mr Milo's media and graphic art classes will be taking a trip to visit the Somerset County marketing and Communications Department located at the Somerset County Administration Building the students are partnering with the county on a project to revamp the food drive for local food banks it's lated to role in 2025 currently the County food banks are in desperate need of of Cal the plan is to work together to create a campaign possibly called crunch time that will allow our students to learn the importance of connections for our County residents and Community Partners and bring a solution that has the potential to be the new standard for how the county collects food donations while on site students will be introduced to the entire department and explained what each of the entity which each entity performs the county has public information media graphics and the print shop we will break into four groups of the students will break into four groups which will cycle through two sessions each group will be given equal time and equal um amount of demonstration time the students will create a short reel as we build a press release create content for social media and both photo and video format and print collateral in The Print Shop the media team will start editing the video during lunch and after lunch they'll have a short viewing party they'll take a group photo of the class with a banner for the concept name and hold up some serial boxes they're very excited on November 22nd and 23rd the high school theater Department performed Shakespeare's Midsummer Night stream uh under the direction of Mr David Gordon the students re reimaged The Shakespearean classic setting it in 1970s the themes of Love magic rebellion and transformation fit well into the tural world of the 1970s when younger Generations rallied together for peace and equality on Thursday December 12th the seniors from the expression and empowerment English classes went to the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia the four floors of the museum host permanent Galleries and changing exhibitions that explore the meaning of Liberty today through Contemporary Art and the stories of real people from around the world who have done extraordinary work in the name of Freedom after a private tour of the museum students enjoyed lunch at the r Terminal Market Philly's oldest public market which has been in operation since 1893 ATS the month of December has been a festival time festive time the chorus band and jazz band and Orchestra concerts have brought together the students staff and families to celebrate the students incredible talents and welcome the holiday season with joy the winter sports teams have started wrestling boys basketball and girls basketball already with uh an amazing start impressive uh personal and team victories a special shout out to our enthusiastic student fan base for showing up and cheering on the teams during the home games ums is also thrilled to share the transition's vocational classes have been hard at work bringing back the Beloved cougar Cafe the tea and coffee card is officially back in business students are excited to take staff orders and make deliveries showcasing their skills and dedication LMS ushered in the holiday spirit with two fabulous big brass band concerts presented by the fifth and sixth grade students the student concerts were remarkable and everyone left each concert feeling a sense of joy and celebration in January they will launch new year with the first student run and Ed Camp of the school year on January 17th students will explore their passions while connecting with peers across different grades who share similar interests auditions for this year's play lmss play susal is underway the fifth grade cors enjoyed a field trip to the Lincoln Center to view the magical flute Opera students here at Orchard are busy wrapping up December with a focus on various celebrations that take place at this time of year some of our first graders recently completed classroom rotations for to learn about different holidays and their celebrations others use their engineering and design skills to make a model gingerbread houses as part of the funfilled family event non-fiction reading and writing is also a focus for our club classrooms this time of year students are becoming more and more familiar with the various components of non-fiction text while learning how to grow their thoughts about their in their books in writing students enjoy crafting how true books where they pick a topic that they are an expert on which is funny they're an expert on that and think about what they could teach Their audience on the topic this concludes the superintendent report again I wish you all a very happy holiday season and a happy New Year the reorganization meeting of the board will be on Tuesday January 7th 2025 and now we have our presentation AUD thank thank you Eric I'm the only one uh uh so for those of you who don't know me um my name is Eric Zimmerman and I'm from Supply cloning company where we do the audit the annual audit for the district uh you're required every year to have an audit done and basically the purpose of the audit is to issue an opinion on your financial statements whether they're free from material misstatement and in conformance with the rules and regulations of the state of New Jersey uh we're issuing in the report this year a clean opinion it's an unmodified opinion that's the best one that you can get and basically what that means is your your financial statements can be relied upon uh whether it's for debt issuances or or things of the like um your your financial reports are fair Fairly stated a little a little background this year and for the next two years the there's been legislation that has passed uh temporarily piloting uh the the annual due date has always been in years past December 5th um for for this year's audit and for next year's audit it's now January 15th um so I'm pleased to tell the board that your audit is going to be is finished and it will be in compliance with the deadline um that will be in January up upcoming uh also as part of our audit the the Department of Education they ask us to look into various departments uh within the district and that's the the smaller report that you have uh within that report we have a recommendation that has to be read aloud of this meeting the recommendation 20241 is that accounting controls be improved to better track Grant expenditures in their proper reporting periods uh so you will have to have a corrective action plan to to be approved to follow this up uh but I'm I'm pleased to to tell you that uh the corrective action plan has already been implemented so this is something that should not be an issue uh going forward um last thing I I I'll touch on the the the finances of the district again you know once again the district remains in Good Financial shape uh and I'll point you to a page in the bigger report uh starts on 84 it's it's your the exhibit C1 in the report and what it tells you is your your budgetary r Vues and expenditures and then corresponding fund balance and basically that's where you landed at the end of the year as of June 30th 2024 um this is important to the district because as you're now in your budget season this is the the numbers that you really need to focus on excuse me focus on uh as you're preparing your your budget for your fiscal year 26 uh and and that's what I have to be nice and brief um but with that if anybody has any question questions I'll be glad to to answer them I have a question about the Grant I don't know if it's going to be from you or for who can answer it but when I read that I was curious as to what grants were not reported in the correct tracking periods and if it was anything that was being rolled over from uh one year to the next I see there's something on you know on our approval lists tonight um for for uh what was it uh special education funds and then like you know I know that the hit Grant got carried over things like that is all of that what is how is this that's a fair question Mr ziman not to put you on the spot we had that discussion previously before the meeting could you please speak to what happened previously and what we discussed as the corrective action to ensure that hopefully Lookout doesn't happen again yeah sure um it it gets a little in depth so if you have questions just stop me uh the the federal programs that you get granted from Ida Esa all those grants they have a fiscal period ending uh September 30th so it doesn't coincide with your your fiscal C or fiscal year end for the audit um what that means is there's there's a run out period as they call it where you can continue to accumulate expenditures from July 1 to September 30th and then you submit for reimbursement with that Grant with with your final completion report that you do every year okay so the ba or someone in the business office does a final expenditure report for each of the federal programs and it has to tie out to to these expenditures after that's done the whatever is left in that Grant in those Federal programs it carries over into the next year's grant funding allotment so let's say you have uh $100,000 left on spend that is now carryover funds into the next fiscal Year's Grant so you can spend them in the next year uh what H what happened here was more on the accounting side with a combination of issues one with incumbrances um and and cences go onto the system that you use for finance which a lot of districts use system 3000 uh into a new budget report so it's it's two separate reports that you need to pick up the expenditures that you submit for reimbursement uh so that was one of the problems where not consistently but there were occasions where they were missed or overlooked and not submitted for and then the reverse happened where there were expenditures that were duplicated because the system that prevailed uh expenditures for were um submitted for reimbursement in the runout period and then they were subsequently submitted for reimbursement again in the next year which should not be um but the correction was to have separate program coding in the system so you can track for example Ida you can have two two program codes both for Ida and then it separates the years so otherwise when you're looking at a budget report and with the finance system it's a moment in time right unless you get the detail of the purchases that are booked in a system you're not going to be able to tell like when those expenditures were from okay it's just going to give you budget action blah blah blah um so by implementing you know having separate coding you as a runout period ends there should be no more expenditures in that runout period program code okay it's just D and ties out to the final completion report and then your your next fiscal year Grant should be covered on the normal program C for that for that program so that take care of the duplicates how make sure never happens with the missing so essentially it all comes to the same point of coding and unfortunately these grants they work in different years and our school years go from July to June the grants carry over so for example like your ID Grant by like New Jersey chart of accounts begins 20 to 50 and then there's a string what I've done in my experience is I ended one end 024 for that fiscal year the carryover period we'll have 024 carryover in the new school year not to make this too confusing and I'll code it carryover so then when the new one is put in I'll have 0225 for that fiscal year and not have carryover so it's basically having familiarity with our program knowing how to separate them through the different periods and just experience is doing them and uh I walk through the different uh situations that happen with Mr Zimmerman they happened before I was here I explained him how I've handled these in the past we're pretty confident that they'll be um something like this won't be a repeat it's just um we have the whole year to review everything and everything right now between myself and Miss lay in the office is up to date so all we have to do is maintain what we're doing and uh we won't be having this conversation a year from now it's the best answer I can get thanks question County materiality how how much was it just to put into context too like are we talking this or is it yeah I mean so if you look the number is in the report um cuz we did it there was an adjustment that had to be made uh back to the general fund so there were expenditures that basically were in fund 20 that should have been reimbursable but the grand period had ended so you could not submit for reimbursement for those so those those expenditures had to shift to now the general fund budget which is funded by you know obviously your your taxpayer dollars understanding um I off the top of my I don't want to say off the top of my head hold on yeah it's on that C1 that I was talking about 84 uh but that that's what was driving the the recommendation that was in the report um overall it was below materiality for as far as the financial statements go on a whole okay so that's why there's no modification to the opinion on your financial stats ultimately Mr is the way that's avoided is by doing periodic draw Downs each month as the uh grants are being spent so by the time we get to the end of the school year all the supplies and services are received everything is drawn down so you don't miss the period so that's what we can control moving forward so that doesn't repeat itself so the general fund dollars aren't supplementing Grant dollars that were already awarded so that's the corrective action for that I have a small question how many years can you carry just one year so you can you can continuously like carry over um your goal though essentially is to try to spend the money as fast as you can cuz once you continuously get into a habit of carrying over that's where the bookkeeping challenges come in and ultimately everybody wants money and there's more needs out there than we have money for so the goal going forward as I've worked with our administrative team is to identify our balances right now in real time so by the time the spring comes these grants are not in a position to be carried over so that's really our goal moving forward to work within the year to get the students things they need faster and avoid the bookkeeping errors one question you mentioned that what the uh I guess issue was um had two issues right like one was related to duplicate reimbursements did you track those reimbursements to see if those two re duplicate re reimbursements were uh actually paid out or like what was the uh I guess um correction to the duplication of reimbursements so I guess and and we track during the audit process we'll we'll use the systems um the reports from ewi which is the reporting site where you have to do the draw Downs on and we can get a listing of all the draw Downs that happened and tie them into the financial records to see that they whatever was submitted for was received uh there were instances where we where we could tell directly because of what the draw Downs were they were the same and you could tell from a a period financial statement that was done like okay this is the these were the expenditures that were that were duplicated for that same that same drop down amount but outside of doing that it there's no way to really know what expenditures you're submitting for unless you're tracking it it separately because again if you look at that budget report for the whole year it's just one line of in and it goes across so it makes our life a little bit more difficult especially going back to the fact that these grants have a different time period um to track what expenditures were submitted for compared to what needs to be you know rolled over into the subsequent year but does this mean that we actually process duplicate reimbursements twice and that the cash moved twice all those reimbursements so and there were occasions where it appeared that yeah the reimbursements were received twice for federal programs and again as as you're as you're doing that on you know you're supposed to do monthly draw Downs as you do that there's you submit there's there's no check from ewig or anything like that that will that will stop that has to be the controls that are in place at in the board office all right so yeah it did happen uh and then that net effect was was what caused the recommendation and the adjustment into the general fund but what was your recommendation to correct that should we return the money no so again because overall it was the opposite direction okay so it wasn't at at the end of the day the net effect was you had we recorded more expenditures in fund 20 taking out the adjustment for the duplication okay so the net effect was still the other way I see if there if if that was the case yeah in on those schedules we have schedules in the report for um schedule it's if your federal Awards and your your state Awards there would be a due to granter on there if that was the case all right thank you MH okay thank you everybody again thanks to the board office I know I haven't really worked with Andrew yet but uh uh it's it's always um an easier job that we go to okay but when we're in the board office we're getting everything that we asked for pretty pretty promptly so we appreciate that so thank you right have a good night thank you thank you have a wonderful holiday we now move to two committee representative reports first up MTA report Mr B good evening everyone first we want to start with some congratulations and recognitions congratulations to all the MTA recipients of the governor's teacher Awards and ESP Awards big shout out for them for each building and next up the MTA takes great pride in the amazing people that we have within our organization Dan Kerwin is one of those amazing people that we have and he served 26 years in the district it is my honor to congratulate Dan who won the Somerset County Educational support professional award for all esps across the entire County Dan started right here in Orchard as a night custodian and worked his way into the grounds position Dan one of his Fondest Memories is setting up the train at LMS every year uh for all the kids to hang out and seeing Dan has served within the MTA as an EXA representative for the grounds maintenance in custodians for many years he has always been a fierce Advocate to bring their needs to the Forefront so I want to make sure I congratulate Dan it is a huge honor and shows the quality of people that we have here in Montgomery so congrats in other MTA news we're going to start our virtual read allows the first one is tomorrow so um you can join in tune in we know is a big hit amongst the community so we're going to have the words between us will be our first book up that we have and then the MTA would like to wish everyone a great holiday and enjoy the break thank you very much thank you do you have any board member delegate SL representative reports this evening I have one um I attended the njsba delegate assembly meeting on December 7th um the delegate assembly is the njsba um major policy setting budy twice a year uh for representatives from all districts in New York uh in New Jersey meet to participate in setting the policies and vitals that guide the association on December 7 the delegate assembly voted on seven resolutions there are three resolutions that were relevant to our district the first one was presented by la la Kong um count waren County Board um of education and they proposed additional language to be cified in njsba bylaw establishing a date by which the RSC resolution report is to be provided to each Board of Education in advance of each delegate assembly currently the BS do not establish a date by which the RSC report must provide their report um must be provided but the assembly approved the additional language that would require the RC resolution report to be shared with the school boards in no less than 20 one days in advance of the delegate assembly meeting that would allow the school boards uh to discuss the resolutions uh make suggestions and the representatives that is sent to vote will be able to represent the full board the resolution was very well supported and then passed with 90 90% yes vote the second resolution was also presented by the same um Board of and it was related to the notification of public hearings they proposed a new policy language to permit schools to advertise Public Notices and electronic media outlets in L of newspapers the njsba believes that boards should be permitted to publish all public notice public meeting notices and mandatory reference materials through Electronic media and law of publication and physical newspaper as required pursuant to the open public meeting act or any other law or regulation requiring public notification of a board of the meeting of the board including but not limited to regular meetings special meetings or public meetings uh there was a discussion um by the delegates about whether or not the electronic notification will be sufficient to reach all taxpayers and stakeholders their resolution is to give the local board another option to publish the Public Notices to serve their communities the best the resolution passed with 82% uh yes vote then there was another resolution that was presented by the Verona board they um presented a resolution that was related to payment in R of taxes the pilot agreements the resolution stated that the municipalities should be required to include the Board of Education in the consideration and development of any payment in L of taxes the pilot agreements that has the potential to increase student involvement the assembly further believes that the Board of Education should be a member of the municipal negotiation committee with equal rights and decision making authority to provide input and receive appropriate portions of community benefits that resolution was also very well supported and passed with 95% support vote um there six other resolutions but I'm willing to to post them for anyone who is willing to Le them any questions I have one question yeah um will we be moving to electronic only submission of uh board notices or will we continue publishing in the local papers I think eventually like guidance comes out we probably will be moving to them just for the sake that uh more uh physical Publications becoming obsolete like over time and that was discussed at the the delegate assembly Star Ledger I think starting in February was going electronic TR times is going to be going electronic so that was some of the discussion that was held at the that was definitely in response to the trend that we start seeing that even the the um papers that right now operate in print they are moving into the electronic media space all right any other board member delegate representative reports this evening hearing none we'll move into board committee reports first up assessment curriculum instruction committee board member D good evening uh ACI met on December 6th both in Virtual and in person uh I asked for two agenda items to be placed uh on the agenda uh having to do with two questions that came my way the first question had to do with parent conferences and the second question had to do with class placement in terms of parent conferences um at the uh High School um the high school principal addressed this question by saying that conferences were held for uh parents and teachers in 2011 and that was the last year that they had done so the reason was because the amount of time allotted for the conferences for each subject was only 11 minutes um conferences take away instructional time for students uh and the current schedule builds in time for expected conferences with parents at will and as needed so there's been a big push to communicate throughout the school year so that parents and teachers can have meetings at any time and in real time the whole Focus was really to make sure that parents and teachers were talking um in real time about an issue um having to do with the student versus waiting until a conference time is scheduled within the school year the second question had to do with um class placement uh and the student process experience and in response to that question um the school uh particularly in the high school make sure to communicate the full bre bread of the courses that are available to students um they also continue to expand options um that we are that they are sure um have a broad access of options for students um they look at the complete student profile and data including the test scores of the students um in the area that they want to stretch themselves in their standardized testing their SATs and their PSAT scores are all taken into consideration what's difficult to communicate is it would be irresponsible to place students in courses that they are not capable or ready to handle class sizes are built with students in mind that are appropriate for that course and they are moved away from a one- siiz fits-all approach the high school spends a large amount of time counseling students with options that best fit them beginning in the 8th and 9th grade years then we bounce back to the regular agenda for the meeting um beginning with u Miss Borland who presented the idea of a French um pilot resource um the high school World language teachers are looking for a new resource for the French class uh with new resources that they have tried out they are piloting um and teachers are using parts of of what they're researching um to hopefully bring to the board for approval um in the coming months the digital textbooks are used by the World Language um teachers right now and they are quite um effective so they're looking um for different pieces from different resources to be able to solidify it and then identify it in Atlas the grant tutoring that we were talking about earlier um at uh sorry which is an online Tutoring company uh will be on the is on tonight's agenda for approval uh last school year you probably remembered that there was a presentation um about uh this in-person tutoring service um that was utilized in both VES and LMS um when they had the tutors at the schools it was a very good program and it was run efficiently however there were staff shortages uh they spent $100,000 last year and they have $100,000 left um from this grant the grant was then extended did uh and they opened up the parameters for what they could use um the uh grant for for this school year they are targeting 30 third and fourth grade students in literacy the target students will be those identified as approaching proficiency and this uh tutoring service will provide a placement test an online platform screened and certified teachers recordkeeping and progress monitoring they will start by the end of January and there will be two six weeks sessions which will end before the uh test the njsls testing the state approved uh this for the um in terms of the plan moving forward uh we then talked about the uh ER emotional regulation impairment program at OES the district has researched several programs uh in other districts uh this District notice students are having more and more issues with regulation uh especially in OES uh we will open the program they want to open this program in January the first two students are in kindergarten and one is in first grade they've identified a teacher on staff uh uh to support the program uh they have I also also identified a class space at OES these students are usually on target academically but need assistance for emotional needs the class will be treated like any other self-contained classroom um they will start small and have them participate in general education areas the teacher has toured other District programs and did professional development on social emotional learning curriculum uh they will also be educating the school community on ER and doing more PD for the entire staff at OES the district is hoping to expand this program over the next couple of years throughout the district um then Mr Delgado brought up uh the administration of the behavioral and emotional screening system um the that first week in December and MHS uh administered the screen uh in grades 7 through 12 and in January they will administer them in grades 5 and six questions on the screener help us uh help us identify the markers that are designated to detect students that might be struggling more than typically they screen them in controlled environments in social studies and in English classes the screening does need parental approval that is given through the consent um through the Genesis currently there are under 30% of parents at the high school and around 20% at the middle school level um that wave out of the screening no change in the number of students waved out pretty the numbers have been pretty consistent for the last three years uh Mr Delgado will review the data and will report back to the committee when flags are raised using the screening um device there are a couple of tiers of support that the school follows starting with a visit with the counselor and communication with the parent any questions or comments I do have a question um yes I was the one who brought this parenter conference uh issue um do we have parenter conference for everybody until 8th grade or we have only Elementary School the middle schools have the middle schools have them the middle school middle school and not a middle school correct not N9 not seven seven no seven and 82 seven and 9 through 12 do not 9 seven and8 do it only if requested by a parent or the teacher or the teacher or the teacher or the teacher okay so it's not for it's not a couple of days in a year you have set for Parental conference it's not like that I only asked about the high school so I will get a direct unless superintendent knows the specific they also have that whole time built in for that real time communication via emails uh phone calls Etc inperson meetings Google meets if any parent wants to come and see the teacher what is the process they have to write an email yes and um they they get to see the teacher when after school or they can mutually agree upon a time okay so they have to so they will be given a CH chance to come and meet the teacher yes okay and there is also a release day at the or release afternoon even in the Middle School yes is yes so it's a it's a early release day for students where those conferences are taking place just as they would in OES and bees in 2011 when you when they stopped doing a parent conference for high school um what was the data how many parents were usually taking use of those parent teach conf do you know I don't know if we could gather that information and if I recall from the comments from the meeting it was very low the attendance was very low at those conferences so there were a lot of parents who wanted to no a lot of parents that did not show up they had the day schedule and the time schedule but parents did not take advantage of it I see okay okay you I think the key there is to really stress the the communication piece in terms of when a parent has um an issue or a question that wants to you know want to ask the teacher that you need to reach out to the teacher and then make it the exclusive time to either talk on the phone or meet in person and they're very I will say I I I will say personally um the teachers that I've met with over this year and last year and in previous years are extremely um you know willing willing and able and and and um have scheduled meetings especially now since postco so many things are able to be done virtually I've met with multiple teachers of my own students virtually this year um outside of conference times they're very well lik which is appreciated thank you so just going back to our um what we committed to do from a strategic plan perspective right make sure that we connect with the community and and the school so you know to Bonita's point I think um and I know in your school in particular uh there's quite a few students that those um parent teacher conferences are taking place I think it would be beneficial for us to have that discussion or continue having that discussion maybe until the e8th grade because as we look at the communications plan and as we think about how we want to improve connection with the community how we want to continue the back and forth feedback you know Michelle address some of the issues around you know how the curriculum is picked right seventh and eth grade I feel are such important years where if maybe we had a structured parent teacher conferences in place it would allow for parents to have those discussions as their kids enter high school maybe High School is not necessary but I know in upper middle school if you do request a conference it's a panel discussion so all the teachers are sitting around at least that's in the few years ago that I was there interestingly we had that discussion and and Miss Peno did address that at the um at the the discussion at ACI and um I believe we could also probably get Miss um uh Rivera thank you um to weigh in as well but um Miss P said that that it's very intimidating for parents when you have those panel discussions and you have all of those teachers that you know at once and um and that typically it's much more effective to have the meetings taking place oneon-one especially content wise and I would agree with that for and LMS um you know because they do have so many teachers and sit around with eight teachers is very difficult right and it's the eight teachers on the team that the student has it it's the team in their schedule right I want in 11 minutes so yeah I can see the the but so that that that's the that's not what's what what's happening at this point it's really become more of a Ono one okay well just my point going back to the communications plan that it's an opportunity for us to really explore that a little bit further because we end so early with sixth grade maybe extending into seventh and eighth grade would be something that would and then eth grade has a formal parentage of conferences like fifth and sixth grade in the school calendar they do I have the scho P right here they have they same they have a panel but they don't uh formally meet with the parents unless the parents request right unless or they request right so the child my request yeah but is the same for anybody right like at Orchard if a parent doesn't want to meet they don't sign up for a time if at Village they don't want to meet they don't sign up for a time so it's not really different I think we also have to look at it in in the holistic sort of programmatic um aspect because I know that Mr Delgado through his um health and wellness you know he's looking at programmatically how to really reach parents and how to communicate on all different levels so you know there's 13 new um websites and and resources for parents in terms of you know Counseling of picking classes of so I think we do have to do a better job of sort of communicating that all of that is out there but if you look there's a dramatic difference between even last year and this year in terms of resources that are out there for parents to be able to find that information that they need and reach out to teachers when they need to um so I do think we need further communicate that but I know that there's been a very big effort in that in that Arena I think they have made additional improvements for um from 8th grade into High School MH as well you know that but those come later on after the course elections and everything like that go through the high school first doesn't mean there there doesn't need to be more work done but I think we're moving in the right direction yeah sometimes I hear um some schools don't want to do it because parents who op to come for the parent conference their kids are doing really well they just want to come and hear that teacher and I I don't find anything wrong with that because that's how we can motivate better parenting sure um and to tell the parents who are doing a good job with their kids and grades are good and you know uh the behavior is good and so it's it's not a bad idea for those parents to hear that also if they want to come and talk to teacher about it so that's why I feel like sometimes if there is not only for the students who have some issues the parents have to come sometimes they won't even come but parents who are doing good they want to come and see so as long as there's an opportunity for everybody to come and talk to teacher um that should that should be our goal I feel and that's how we reaching out to the community it needs to be on both ends though right parents have to show up and then you know we have to provide those opportunities I also think that the real time piece I don't want to lose sight of of how important it is you know as a parent myself you know I reach out to the teacher when my daughter comes home with a 55 right not that she does but you know the idea is that that's when you want to talk about the issue not in November when the test was in October um you know you want realtime communication with your teachers um so I I don't want to minimize that piece thank you other questions comments hearing none up next operations facilities and finance committee board member feel like so the operations uh facilities and finance committee met on Wednesday December 11th and my report today will be very short because most of the time that we spent during the meeting was discussing the review and review comments and going through the audit report which we already had an opportunity to to to hear the full report from the Auditors but after the auditor's discussion our committee also discussed development of the new uh of the next year budget the business administrator reported that the progress of collecting budget requests from our administrators and staff is in progress and the draft budget report will be uh made available for the board to review I believe in January am I right we're going to provide an update of our budget meetings with the budget managers in January in January and our superintendent and the ba attended a midyear budget review at the Somerset County NJ dooe office the purpose of the media review is to ensure that the School District Operations are on traed with the approved budget the meeting went very well and the county and jdoe administrators were satisfied with the update provided by our district the last item we discussed was an update to our travel re endorsement request uh report presented for the board approvals as more professional development courses are offered online I believe there is a need for updating our uh travel reimbursement request format because reporting only the name on the of the course on the trouble reimbursement approval request creates a challenge to link that one item that's approved by the board this month with the actual bill submitted for reimbursement next month because the next month the bill will show the vendor's name when this month we only see the name of the course so for example when the name of the online course is the only information included on the travel reimbursement request uh report the course name will not be listed as a vendor on the bills report submitted for the approval the committee request suggested a modification to the travel reimbursement request to include the name of the vendor so I believe with that request we will need to revisit policy 6471 which specifies what information should be included in our travel orent person request so at the next committee meeting for the policy maybe we can review that I would really appreciate it so that concludes my report any questions for why why would we why would we be reimbursing for travel on an online course we have an approval right so on the when you look at the um request for the reimbursement you are approving an item so that item just says the name of the course but then if you want to track the payment to the actual bill that's being paid you cannot find that name on the bill report because the bill will be paid to a vendor that offered that course so including both the name of the course and the vendor name would basically link those two transactions together it's just good transparency and financial reporting essentially I'm just going to add a piece to that the travel report that we put forward to the board and to the public it is consistent with uh Public Law five I read the Senate bill on that everything that we need to have included is included if it wasn't we would have received an audit recommendation from the auditor for not being transparent uh with the report most of the workshops we can look up online by the name and see what they are but if anybody ever has a question on what they are they could uh reach out to me but this form is pretty much identical to any of the forms that I I used at any other District that I worked at so it's pretty standard and you can look on any other District's website and compare our form to their form and uh very similar so um but if anybody ever has any questions on the uh what they are and you can't Google the name of them ask me I'll be happy to help that's all I have to uh add to that any other questions thank you board member F like up next policy and Communications committee board member what Lu at joury um so we met um on Thursday one of those days and we had a discussion in regards to two policies that we reviewed last month one of them was 3160 one was 4160 um they are on the agenda today we had initial discussions around um the district um doing drug testing prior to hiring I think we had a very collaborative discussion during our policy session where we actually um uh had discussion around if any staff memb is actually Under Suspicion for any influence that the superintendent Administration will take the appropriate actions going forward so those two policies are back on the agenda uh for approval in addition to that we had discussion last month uh and during our discussion around reviewing uh the njsba and um the Strauss Esme who's our current policy provider I think you know we have an opportunity to make uh improvements for our school district particularly around the policy um I think over the last few years being part of the uh policy committee uh I have outlined some of the shortcomings of stra Strauss smme and what I've noticed with njsba is there heavy investment in building policies that are meant for uh parents and and teachers um as well as students that can be clearly outlined and specified so uh one of the things we reviewed was um the overview of njsba so I would like to uh potentially bring it up for a vote for us to make that change uh in addition to that uh there's a different uh vehicle that's being utilized um um to track policies going forward with njsba um that we could potentially consider as well uh shifting to and that would track all of our documentation uh for all the board sessions Etc so I just wanted the board to I've sent the board quite a few emails about it some of the assessments some of the examples so I'm hopeful that you all had a chance and take a look at it and would be willing to um to pursue uh a shift from from a communication perspective um we've had some um requests from the uh board members um that we streamline some of the Comm communication to the board so uh I think our communication specialist has done some uh work uh activating some of the communications for all of us in the in the concise matter um there is also a district celebration newsletter per the Strategic plan that that we've discussed which will improve communication the district will publish a newsletter three times a year this newsletter will include information and pictures from all five schools and in addition to that we've also received the news that we have a new website provider um final site company has now bought over the district's prior website provider so I know uh Maria has experience with that and uh everybody's of high hopes that we'll have a much user friendlier experience on our overall website as far as enus is concerned um one of the things in our strategic plan was to have uh a fresh look um for the district Inus which will now be published every Friday so that's um also part of the communication piece any questions just a plug for the communication survey went out um there was question Communications update survey part of the yep and uh it's just two questions and en is one of them and the other is about the new Athletics and uh Arts part of the website um just looking for Community feedback on that um please provide the feedback so that the district knows how they're doing thank you so then survey already went out or is about it's out and it's been a couple reminder emails that have have gone out as well so everyone should have gotten that I know I got it personally and on the board email it's G by email or yes email I need to look in my I don't remember seeing it check your email y thank you board member well like a j again Human Resources committee uh board member feel like my report is going to be shorter than yours so we met on December 10th and the only items we discuss involve Personnel is that's it so are there any other questions or comments on for committee reports I just have a comment if I may um I think you know I'm a lead of from negotiation committee and we had uh some initial discussions already internally I just wanted to say that we're looking forward to beginning the MTA negotiations um as we await the dates uh from the association so I just wanted to give that high level update thank you any other questions comments here none at this time I'll entertain a motion for approval of minutes November 19th 2024 executive Session One November 19th 2024 executive session 2 November 19th 2024 executive session 3 and November 1924 business meeting so moved second it's been properly moved and second to approve these minutes any questions comments on the motion hearing none all those in favor say I hi hi all those opposed same right extensions thank you there is no correspondence to the board for this month action agenda and items public comment the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public members of the public are allowed at one opportunity to address the board regarding the action agenda items only for up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker all comments must be directed to the board before you make your comment please State your full name and address and enter both on the Chromebook provided being mindful of privacy rights regarding students board employees and board members and to avoid any liability on the part of the speaker the board discourages defamatory and discourteous remarks the public comment pance of the meeting are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather are offered as opportunities for the public to share their thoughts with the board the board may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the issue has not been handled through the appropriate chain of command usually disced at the school level responses may be provided at the end of this session action agendum items public comment portion is now open for comments on the action agenda items only and when you approach the microphone please State the action agenda action agenda item number that you are comment on please it doesn't seem like mine might reach any of the topics this is for a school [Music] project so that will be in public the public uh comment section oh so it does work for this time I'm sorry it does work for this time cuz I thought I'm there's a second yeah this portion is for any um agenda action agenda items that are listed on the agenda this is not public comment correct correct it is it's public comment on only the agenda items open public comments at the end of the meeting that be the best time for that yeah no wor say none at this time I will entertain a motion to approve action legitim items 1.0 through 4.4 4.4 4.5 1.0 through 4.5 second I have a sorry I have a question on 2.1 when I motion okay it's been prop move a second to accept agendum items 1.0 through 4.5 any questions on the motion just a small question on 2.1 uh there's one company being approved sunf Staffing uh with all the different rates I just wanted to know that is this the rates for as as in when we need their services or are they for the entire year they are servicing us well it's the rates for the year but it's as needed as we needed right if not needed they are nevered okay any other questions on a motion Harry nine roll call please Mr Tano thank you m ding yes M filac yes M Franco Herman yes M Harris M dgon yes Mr Nunes yes m w jurnigan yes Spina yes Mr Todd yes thank you motion carried thank you new business from the public the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public members of the public are allowed at one opportunity to bring any new business to the board for a maximum up to a maximum of 3 minutes per speaker all comments must be directed to the board before you make your comment please State your full name and address and enter both on the Chromebook provided being mindful of privacy rights regarding students board employees and board members and to avoid any potential liability on the part of the speaker the board discourages the fatory and discourages ious remarks the public comment portions of the meeting are not structured as question and answer sessions the board may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the issue has not been handled through your appropriate chain of command usually starting at the school level responses may be provided at the end of this session public comment is app hello again um so my name is Lisa maranella I'm a senior at the high school and I live at 71 Livingston driveing fman New Jersey um I'm here as part of a a project for my history course at the high school with Mr pelli contemporary issues and Leadership honors where I have to become an activist for an issue that I feel passionately about so mine is education reform because I want to be teacher um from my research I found how important it is for students to get like free time in classes and just have free time to either take a rest during class because here at the high school I'm talking as importantly for like the high school in the high school we have 82 minute blocks so we're sitting down for a lot of time we're listening to lectures for a lot of time um elementary school has more downtime but so I'm hoping that teachers will that there can be some sort of mandate or some sort of rule maybe that teachers can provide more break time for class because like me personally I'm sitting there for 82 minutes there's lecturing if everybody like I know we've been sitting for a while it feels good to like stand up it feels good to move around um I saw multiple studies on this issue one where there was it was by Debbie pcore um she followed 3 to seven year olds and the way that they played with a marble run so having that free time to discover new topics and um even just like with guidance from the teacher uh they were able to learn new Concepts in terms of the advaned physics with like the way that friction affects their marble run or the way that mass affects so I read also another article by Dr Peter Greg um he explained how schools are commonly they follow one curriculum for each student students don't have the ability to like to explore certain aspects of their learning that they may want to continue in in college or in um maybe their career so giving students that free time to kind of discover what they like I like that the high school and ums as well um they have those elective courses that we can choose so maybe even implementing something like that or I guess sort of explorative in elementary school like explorative um programs for the elementary students and lastly I saw a Ted Ed video about the importance of um just getting up and moving in class and in school so why sitting is bad for you um it explained that just getting up every 30 minutes or so is important for students so I was hoping that in the high school teachers can allow for just 5 minutes break between lessons or um just lessons or activities that there could be at least a break in class for students to restore cognitive function and to just be able to recuperate after a lot of talking or lessons um that's all thank you good evening my name is Michelle ding I live in skilman New Jersey I'm speaking as a resident of Montgomery who would like to address an important situation it has come to my attention that previous and current board members have been harassed defamed and Cyber Bullied both in the past and at present and I would like the board to publicly and unanimously acknowledge and act upon this fact in order to no longer tolerate any type of harassment defamation or cyber bullying of an individual or of a group of board members moving forward we do not accept this type of behavior from our students as we hold them accountable for their actions with consequences including suspension and expulsion the board needs to uphold the same accountability and model respectful decent and honest behavior for our students and our community if and when this type of behavior takes place I ask that the board act with councel from the board attorney to condemn and eradicate and any type of harassment defamation or cyber buling of a board member or a group of board members I implore you to stand United in this critical matter of Civility so that board members can continue to serve out their public elected roles in in good faith with peace of mind and with the regard for their volunteerism that they deserve thank you any other comments from the public any other comments from the Public Public comment is now closed super M anything You' like to address I just wanted to address so thank you for coming thank you for sharing your research and I will share it with Mrs uh Pino at the high school thank you thank you um at this time i' like to take a point of per Personal Privilege and thank Mr Julius Nunes for so valant stepping in giving his time dedication for the last couple of months I know it's a short tenure but thank you so much and we hope to see you see you around um at this time I would like to entertain a motion to enter into a brief executive session still moved second it's been properly moved in second for the board to enter into a brief executive session I will note that there will be no action yes personel matters and there will be no action taken uh during this session and when we come out of session we will be joury all those in favor St i i i oppos same right any exective session just want to wish everybody out there Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah and happy holidays I hate this at this time I'll entertain a motion to reconvene an open session second been probably moov in second all those in favor State I oppose same right at this time I entertain motion to adjourn so moved second it's been properly moved and seconded to adjourn all those in favor say I I post a right we are journ merry Christmas happy h happy holidays everything else happy New Year