##VIDEO ID:uiNcrFiRQos## good evening everyone thank you to you brave souls for coming out on this very frig evening we certainly appreciate it um at this time Mr taliano roll call actually before we start that I entertain a motion to reconvene in Open Session been properly moved to reconvene open section any discussion on the motion all those in favor State I I all those close same right we are now back in Open Session Mr talio roll call please ston here Franco Herman here Dr Wang here M felak here M Harris here Le jigan here M nogan here Spina present T here thank you all right we'll now rise for the salute of the flag I pleasure to the flag of the United States of America to the it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all I don't believe we have our student rep here today so we'll move right into superintendent report and our presentations tonight just a report good evening everyone at the high school the annual cougars versus cancer showcase hosted by the high school's girls and boys basketball programs raised $1 15,197 to donate to cancer research all were very excited to exceed the goal of $155,000 every year they exceed from TW for the 25 no excuse me for the 24 25 school year over 300 students were invited to apply for membership in the National Honor Society based on their academic accomplishments at the high school all the 300 students 77 met the requirements of service leadership and character including Sophia our student rep and we're inducted as members of the National Honor Society on January 13th the high school peer to flower babies are back 38 seniors from peer two groups are participating in parenting flower baby projects bringing a lot of smiles and laughs to the high school hallways as they learned some of the responsibilities associated with having little one at their side at all times except the flower bags don't cry and so they're having too much fun no it's all good at ums um they're off to an amazing start for the new year new year the students warmed their hearts and with a beautiful inspiring Winter concert the winter athletes are making an impact with every game and match showcasing their talent at home and away some of the sculpture and ceramic students have been selected to have their sculptures displayed at the Montgomery Township Library upcoming events include student production of the right night event the principal Round Table Community event coug car days and a pepper the fifth and sixth grade band and choir and Orchestra concerts were a great hit rehearsals for spring susal musical are underway LMS hosted its first principal round table on Thursday January 16 LMS is grateful to all those parents who participated and shared their thinking with the administration they are looking forward to hosting a second principal Round Table later this year on Friday January 17th LMS hosted its first Ed Camp of the Year allowing students to connect with peers who share their interests while diving into their favorite passions in December Village Elementary School was delighted to welcome back an annual favor the Princeton Symphony orchestra's Bravo music education program professional musicians introduced third graders to the string instrument family during the fun engaging and interactive assembly third graders learned about the characteristics of each instrument how each one contributes to the melody Harmony and rhythm of a song students expressed interest in playing an instrument in fourth grade which is the foundation for our District's highly regarded instrumental music program the band One and Band 2 students held their first band concerts performing an impressive selection of songs to the audience's delight and amazement this week the fourth grade chorus will hold its first concert fourth grade full Orchestra rehearsals began this month and Village looks forward to their concert in March Village held its 30th annual young scholars Institute service project which was a success thanks to the support and generosity of the entire Community thees Pier Partners buillt a box truck and took a trip to deliver holiday gifts to the young scholars Institute in Trenton on January 30th Village Elementary School principal will host the first principal's Round Table of year entitled code of conduct cultivating a positive Community with shared values consistent expectations and student empowerment that concludes the superintendent report thank you superintendent M we now move to committee and representative reports first up MTA report Mr Biza good evening everyone the MP is excited to continue to sports communion 25 the virtual read alouds will resume tomorrow night the book is friends are friends first we're excited to see all of our students in attendance the MDA will also be supporting the winter Bowl this year the winter bowl is an ongoing event here in the district that's just amazing and really highlights our community and what it's all about to be a Montgomery cougar if you have never been a part or an attendance to this event I urge you to do so the positive energy and good feeling when you leave that room is just incredible and overwhelming the other big item for the MTA is is music from the heart uh the show will be once upon a mattress um the NP is really excited to put on such a wonderful performance this year thank you very much thank you Mr do we have any board member delegate and representative reports tonight I have two I have um uh the first one is uh the mpta um I was was in for uh board member ding who was unable to attend so I I went to the mpa meeting where uh a bunch of information was given um from a company called empowered Mindful Solutions um it was a presentation that uh took about 20 minutes and it were two Educators that the uh MPA which is the special education parent group brought in to have a talk with their members and it was really um like the big takeaway was trying to really help parents know some general questions to ask how to prepare for an IEP meeting um they gave some concrete advice about uh familiarizing yourself with the draft of an IEP ahead of time um they took some Q&A and um it was a really informative uh meeting then they gave some updates the dance the m dance is the biggest fundraiser that they put on each year it will be held at the Elks on March 14th this year and it's going to be an 80s theme um there's usually an auction a bake sale um and honestly the it's the their biggest fundraiser um it it provides the funds that they then give to uh administer grants to the staff which they recently fulfilled a Grant application for one of our elementary School teachers and um many of the parents that were on the call uh said that they spoke very highly of a recent event that mppa held at the Elks also um which was a limited number of people and it made for a lot of good connections between families um so the dance um again helps to fund uh senior scholarships that mpta gives every year as well as uh teacher grants and um please consider coming to the dance on March 14th um we'll go out for into the community for items to auction and last I heard they were still looking for a DJ so if anybody knows of anyone please let us know um and the other update I have is from the municipal Alliance meeting which happened on January 13th um some of those updates were talking about a let me run a program that's going to be started for uh boys in grades 5 six seven and eight and possibly even BS um similar to Our Girls on the Run program but this is something for um the the boys and they were still seeking the facilitator but hopefully that's underway uh another update was something that is going to be in conjunction with the high school um trying to do lunch and learns um having speakers come for career p talk about their career pathway is something that's not necessarily as traditional of a pathway you know high school college and therefore but maybe something that you know people take their W windy roads sometimes maybe they can share some of those um paths with our students they're thinking to start small at this point they're trying to plan it says two per month um and I'm sure that we will hear more about this from Mr delado as he's working with um Miss huff and and um the municipal Alliance for this um one of the other updates that they said was that they are um seeking grants for funding for Gap year for our youth action board our yab which um is being covered by Miss Gman while miss lockau is uh performing her duties as teacher of the year and I think the other thing was some upcoming things that that um the municipal Alliance committee had wanted to talk about is that well tonight was the first um book club for the anxious generation and I know a couple of us signed up for that and then we were double booked for this so we'll have to go to the next to the next book club meeting for that but um tonight was their launch of that beat the winter Blues is happening January 30th and um look for info coming for February 13th a virtual program called love should shouldn't hurt um about Teen Dating Violence awareness so we always look forward to the Community Connection with Municipal Alliance and the things that they do with our schools that is it for my two AUD thank you VP Spina any questions on VP sp's report he none do we have any other uh representative reports this evening heing none we'll move to board committee reports and I believe the only one we have for this evening is ACI with board member D he good evening everyone uh we met on January 17th both virtually and in person um and I just wanted to mention that two of the three agenda items um were really wonderful to hear because they were um very specific in addressing some of the um comments and feedback that we've been getting in the past particularly about servicing our students um sort of in that middle and middle to Upper range um so it really exciting to hear one of the initiatives um in ACI and then secondly uh the communication piece that we've been talking so much about as a board and being able to better communicate with our um constituents so um two things to report on that end which was really uh exciting number one was the Capstone um there's an AP Capstone uh course coming uh and again it's going to be an AP seminar and an AP resarch course um and the real goal of this is to have broad access um to the course for average and above average students um and it has to be really based on interest um which is really exciting so it will um take shape uh for 10th and 11th graders in uh the fall of 2025 um this foundational course looks at research writing proposals and presentation skills um I'm sorry the AP research will begin in 20 26 27 school year um the research course follows the seminar course um initially uh they start with one section of AP research prerequisites our teacher recommendations and an application and the students final presentations will be videotaped reviewed and then scored by the College Board um this is to be pushed out to all students and spoken about in classes so that's an exciting opportunity um the German exchange continues this is open to students who have taken at least one year of German it's a fully immersive experience for students um while they are in Germany they interact with teachers um they have full class assignments uh attend social events um and live with an actual host family and then those students come to us so we reciprocate The Experience um they come to our school for 10 full days uh with their partner school students the German students attend field trips and sports activities here uh the district has participated in this program since 1985 with a small break in time and then consistently since 2007 um we engage in this experience every two years uh and this is again interest driven not related to our budget uh and then the second piece that I talked about was this communication piece um through the program of studies and so quite a bit of work has been done both um to the ums and the am MHS program of studies um and a lot of it is aesthetic wise so that it's more user friendly in terms of when you're on um this document to be able to really scroll and find um what you're looking for so I very much um encourage uh the public to look out for those two um documents um that can really explain um the core selections um there have been a couple of minor changes to the ums program of studies um primarily in the theater Arts the theater arts class has been changed to be titled the Theater Arts explanation exploration class um and then in the M MHS again a lot of the work has been done um to the Aesthetics so that it can be more digitized and you can get to the table of contents and to the actual uh places of information that you want to get to in reference um faasa information has also been included in this document and graduation requirements uh and then lastly we reviewed the um norms for our committee which again we have two new committee members so we welcome um Christina Harris and Dr T so uh good meeting overall thank you any questions or comments yeah I have a question um with the fast graduation requirement did you talk about how that's going to be monitored we did not they simply just stated that the information is in the new program of studies um for am MHS but I can certainly get that question for you answered for you I have a question how it's going to be monitored sorry in terms of parents well that students are fulfilling that requirement right yeah sure um very exciting program uh German exchange program yes um really love it I was wondering uh any possibility of including any other places in the future so one of the board members actually asked that question and at this time there have been no proposals um put forward but the principal of the high school said that you know certainly they would entertain different proposals that came their way so how does this work like the other the countries they will reach them uh I don't know the Genesis of this program again it's been in place since um 1985 so I'm assuming that it was maybe two teachers that you know talked back and forth to one another I can get you the specifics I don't know exactly the Genesis of this program um but that's my understanding in terms of if we wanted other types of programs of this nature um that it would need to be um you know for a connection or a communication between the two schools thank you sure any other questions for board member D all right here none at this time I entertain a motion to approve the following minutes December 2nd 2024 executive Session 1 December 2nd 2024 special meeting December 17th 2024 executive Session 1 December 17th 2024 executive session 2 and December 17th 2024 business meeting so Mo second proper move and second to approve the four men ched minutes roll call please is any discussions on minutes roll call please Mr T M ding yes M Franco Herman yes Dr Wang yes Miss felak yes Miss Harris yes Jernigan yes Miss noran yes Spina yes Mr T yes thank you m carries thank you uh at this time there's no correspondence to the board the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public members of the public are allowed one opportunity to address the board regarding 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 provider 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 portions of this 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 starting at the school level responses may be provided end of the session please specify the action agenda item number prior to you speak hello um I am a b resident I want to comment on agenda item 3.3 related to committee assignments um the board president assigned board member Harris and Franco Herman to the finance and curriculum committees the school eics commission issued an advisory opinion 85-23 for these board members and instructed them they were not allowed to sit on a finance and curriculum committees until the union negotiations concluded they're restricted from sitting on these committees as well as voting on issues that remotely touch upon the interests of union members in our district these committee assignments violated the as school ethics commission director demonstrating the disregard for the laws by this board and arrogance of the board president this board took an ALT to act in the best interest of our community and to obey the laws I want to hear an explanation as to why the board president violated the public trust that the law are followed and by making this un local committee assignments I want to know if the conflicted board members Harris and Franco Herman accept this assignments in full knowledge they're creating perception of violation of the law and thus damaging the trust public trust in and good fith Public Service any other comments on action [Music] Karen Anderson B ditto is always I have to say thank you have the same request any other it any other comments on action items to address the two comments the comments um and The Stance of the board Remains the Same the AO opinions which are not have not been made public by the school ethics commission has been addressed at previous board meeting so I'll refer you to those vide tapes to review the comments from the myself the vice president and the school board uh attorney thank [Applause] you at this time I'll entertain a motion to a um accept agenda items 1.1 through 4.8 okay before we uh have a motion and second I just have to make a notation to our agenda after it's advertised we're going to withdraw item 4.1 B4 thank you can we have a comment vote can't can we have a comment U during the discussion is there a motion to accept these items so moved second it's been properly moved to accept agenda items 1.1 through 4.8 in discussion on the motion I have two things but I um I'm wondering whether or not we can have 2 three if you look at um it's called ESL education and if you notice in the changes that um were in the the high school program of studies it changed it to mled so multilingual education I don't know there's a descriptor for that so I actually asked the same question when I went through the agenda and they said the staff is still called ESL staff that's the certification for the St that's why keep ml okay and then the other thing was um about 3.10 can that equipment can we look into at least donating that equipment to it's it looks like it's all gym equipment so that's that's an excellent question after reviewing what the equipment was for uh liability reasons after assessing it um and the age of the equipment I didn't think for safety and the lack of condition of the equipment that it would be able to be utilized by somebody else I understand your point and if this the items were in better condition we would have entertained that decision okay thanks for letting me know sure so I I struggle with the assignments um to the committees as well so the New Jersey school act states that it is essential that the conduct of members of local Boards of education and local school administrator administrators hold the respect and confidence of the people these board members and administrators must avoid conact which is in violation of the public trust and in which creates justifiable impression among the public that such Trust is being violated so I would like to understand why the board members are put in position today to cast the vote either against the assignment of the conflicted board members or to approve their assignments but violate the public trust I really struggle with that distinction because it's unfair to to our board members to be the focus of the unpleasant public discussion and we have two new board members who are fully capable and willing to step into serving on additional committees and we could have a really you know valuable conversation about additional sign Nots maybe like in the summer when you know all the issues are resolved so I want to understand because I'm very very troubled by the vote that I will need to cast today okay so as you know um Maria and I have vetted the choices that we made uh we talked through many hours of discussion and we feel that the um selections we made are proper now each board member was a lotted time and they were a lot of a lot of um decisions to decide where they want to be placed on each committee as you as you well aware of that and and really what everyone needs to understand that each board member is responsible for their own decisions no I'm not to I'm not here to police anybody's decision and no other board member is here to police someone else's decision every person is responsible for every single decision that they make I agree with you that we all have personal decisions to make but as the fourth president the only one who can actually make this a committee assignment corre and create impression to the public whether or not we as the full board are compliant and that's what I struggle with noted thank you any other comments on the action it yes 3.9 um we are paying parents to transport the student de when there is a placement um we need to provide the transportation so that's pretty that that's typical practice and we are paying only for 6 months I'm not familiar I don't get involved that much with the curricular student issues um but basically when the placement changes and the student situation places I assume as within the dates that are presented here that's when the student is attending this institution that's when we have to provide the transportation that's required so either we had transportation for the child which we no longer have with the contracted service Chang or the um the student just got placed there and there is not a contract being picked up by a bus company I see maybe there is no bus nobody's going that correct the parents decided to transport themel right this an agreement we would make with that the obligation get put on them that they get paid for that any other questions on action agenda items you have anything else board member naron do you have anything else good thank you you have discussion on action action agenda items hearing none roll call please Mr tagano M D yes M frankco Herman um yes to all except are we voted for each of the action items right yes uh yes but you can was there something else that you wanted to add no um yes to all obstain 4.5 4.6 and uh no to 3.2 noted thank you Dr way yes to thank you Mr fak yes to all but um on the item agenda 3.3 I vote know for the assignment of Christina Harris and can I interrupt voting for discussion yes thank you uh I'd like to discuss 3.12 Okay so what's being asked for here is the approval for the New Jersey School Board Association as our policy and regulation service vendor of record which would be a switch from Strauss Esme I am not comfortable at this point myself I will be voting no on this and I just want to put that out there that would this would be terminating the Strauss SME Associates contract and I don't think that we have all as a board gotten the full understanding of what the njsba policy and regulation service vendor is providing to us that is that much far away and above the others also there have only been a small percentage of school districts in the state of New Jersey where there's almost 600 districts it's less than 10% of that that have made that switch and some have switched back um I know that board member W Jernigan has done extensive work on this but I still don't think that we've gotten all of the information and I just want to put that out there before we blindly vote on something thank you I'm going to make a comment to the board if the board wasn't clear on the way we were voting we've board members and we vote in a block but when we vote on the Block if there's something that you want to vote for abstain from or vote no for um essentially um was Franco Herman did there you have to mention those items and what your choices are in the individual ones if we weren't sure on what we were doing I could restart the vote from the top or would you like me to continue from where we were after Miss Spa's explanation on that it I would ask for us to start again but before we do that I'd like to know how this got onto the agenda in this way I that's it was at the request of a board member at the request of a board member okay so a board member can put an agenda item for vote make request absolutely the board president superintendent and the business administrator set the board agenda by our board policy that's how our agenda is actually formulated and within our board policy that information was presented to me and um that's how I added it uh to our agenda to be completely clear that's why I wanted to give everybody understanding of what's happening and how we vote in a block um and there's more discussion we could discuss or I could just start from the top again if we would like to I would like to respond to the 3.12 okay yes so um I've been on the policy committee for two years now and we've had this discussion about potentially switching to njsba um as you guys know we've compared we've shared comparisons between the way that shra smme represents their policies I've shared multiple times concerns about their constant mandating of certain policies that perhaps don't apply to some of our uh schools I also discussed back in December here that I would like a vote on that so it shouldn't be a surprise that it's on the agenda but most importantly I think that over the last few years I've done extensive um work just to show some of the comparisons we just completed a wellness check from njsba it's a a service that allows boards to really have access to writing of proper policies for the school district if you read the language and and jsba policies they're much more userfriendly policies where parents can clearly understand what's being asked of them they're not legal language over the last two years every month I come in here and I approve changes from student to pupil from pupil to student I don't know how that is um cost effective for the school district also you know when you look at the policies and qac policies the mandatory policies for the the school boards part of the New Jersey School Board Association the number of policies is very narrow very focused very specific IT addresses all of the legal concerns it's much more um there's an ability for us to quickly update a policy or make changes to the policy last year Mary brought a policy to me about American flag in the class from that policy still has not been instilled by Strauss SMA we still don't have a draft of it so I do find a lot of delays in that there's really perhaps because they serve so many school districts they don't feel that it's necessary for them to work with us directly to make quick changes um apply new policies allow us to adjust so I'm a little surprised that the school board members sitting here having heard me for the last two years speak about this are um now objecting to it so I would like just a little bit more clarification of why sure so there's been a number of times that I have asked you and I believe board member Dowling has also asked you for information contact information from some school districts that you've spoken with that have moved over what they've felt about it never gotten any of that shared I've given you lots of questions on documents that you've shared I've sent them back with comments and questions and questions that haven't been answered so I am not comfortable at this point moving our policy to a company who is recently started and has had a few districts move to them but some also then move away and back to st's esate so I think it's it's a little misleading your comments um some of I felt like I've answered a lot of your questions throughout the process your last request was from a document that I shared a year ago which a lot has changed in the year during the njsba which I try to explain as as far as board docks being the tool that they're utilizing we know board dos are being utilized across many school districts they're much more us of friendly um website that and the list of policies are are there so and as far as contacts I've attempted to do that however you know I can force people to have a conversation with another human being so um but you know I go to New Jersey school board meetings to Somerset County meetings that's where I speak with those folks feel free to join me to any of those sessions where you can have a live conversation that's how I gather a lot of my insight from um and you know once again two years on the policy committee I've shared my concerns we've done the wellness check our policies are not up to date we still have a lot of work to do to clean up the Strauss SME policies so once again I'm a little concerned that this board is not willing to do what's right for the school district do you know how many districts uh NJ SBA represents current pardon how many districts school boards represents well they're growing right now as you know we had um when we had the representative from njsba come in she's new she started last year they're growing their um attorneys that can answer and build the policies I don't remember the numbers I think answered that question before I don't remember it's definitely not as big as Strauss ese however you know if I look at the the quality of work that they're producing today for the school district and if I look at the response and how quickly there they got on the call with me right away and Mary during our policy session they walked us through all of the details of what is different in njsba so I do feel much more confident versus last two years with Strauss Esme I had one conversation and I have to funnel it uh through the leadership so I just think it would be a better choice for us to move into a space SP where we as board members can address specific issues of the community can build policies that help us drive continuous Improvement instead of just checking the box every uh month during the board meeting as you guys know the reason I got involved in this just to go back in history is that we had a lot of community members come up and say that they don't understand how we represent the policies and how the policies are being reflected and changed we used to to just have a checkpoint approval of policy XYZ being changed we didn't explain anything then we forced Strauss es to give us a little bit more insight then I started reading the specifics of it but once again it doesn't seem as meaningful there's no need for all the policies that we have in place a lot of them are just reflecting what the law is and the law is the law there's no reason for that we could really narrow it down and make it more meaningful for our school district and continue making more meaningful changes to the policies there are things that we have in our policies that are not law that I would want in our policies and they will remain there our change as you saw in the wellness check but I don't think that that's just that's a reason oh because it's not a law the laws let the law be the law and our policies be our policy laws can change we've seen that happen before absolutely and to just to clarify the New Jersey School Board Association does update any state laws that are being changed in policies and those would be the ones we receive on regular basis obviously they follow all the same rules and regulations all I'm saying is that Strauss Esme often States a lot of laws that are not necessary to be part of the language of the policy policy should be something that a parent can read and understand what it is that's expected of them what is this that's going to happen to their child how can they go and interact with the school administration or school board right now if you read our policies they're very lengthy a lot of them and they have a lot of uh references to specific I think the policy needs to be there not just for the parents though that there's policy that that is for faculty there's policy that is for vendors there's policy that's for all sorts of things even there's policy as to how we advertise our board meetings there's policy for how we run our standard regulations yes so it's not it's not only for one subgroup it's for many different people and I think that having a wealth of information versus pairing it all down to well I think the administration and teachers are probably more familiar with it because it's part of their day job so they understand it I was looking at it from a perspective as a parent when I go into the policy guide and I open up a policy I'm confused right so I'm catering to where I think the Gap is I'm not saying that you know Administration others don't know how to maneuver through that particular language so so I also believe that there are people available in District that can make changes to our policies through stress estimates or through our platform and so things that can be um cleaned up and and done should be before I think a switch like this is made um I was actually really hoping that you were going to propose an ad hoc to do something like that I proposed an ad hoc I had not a single person sign up for an ad hoc with me ex and I'm sorry you signed up can you talk more about why you feel it's limiting to to make some of these changes using stresses me I I have to say honestly I I just feel like the program is so much in its infancy I mean the the the representative herself said it she said we are in our infancy we're still trying to figure out all the all the um glitches which again I don't want to put our district in that predicament when this is not a rush this is not something that we have to do you've been an incredible vocal piece for this but I'd love to hear from the entire policy committee you know like I haven't I've only heard your voice on this and I I want to make sure that when we make such a drastic move that we're really all in concert about why this is happening um and again that the representative herself said that they were still in the infancy stage and that they're still figuring something that why would we put ourselves in that kind of place for a long time I think what's changing right now is that are expending the program so the program existed up until this point what they're doing is expending it and that's part of the reason why I requested a wellness check where we did the work with them and they've done an incredible job uh they have a list of districts you heard her say there's we were on the wait list so folks are taking advantage of this service and there's a reason for it because people want to have a better policy written if you look at the njsba uh website you can see uh policy manual writing Services I can literally reach out to someone over the phone and they can help me with writing a policy that I feel is important for our school district right I don't have that access today and just to go back to um you know like I said I've been at it for two years this is not new I didn't just invent this right I feel this would be a great accomplishment for the school board to make that shift as New Jersey Schoolboard Association is investing so much into that program and see the value in it they're putting incredible people in charge of it they're incredibly responsive they want to work they're hungry to um help out I mean as a person that's Works in business you know that's an opportunity for me right I would like to take advantage of that opportunity instead of waiting for everybody else to transfer so then I can wait a year to transition to a program that maybe is being refreshed but we talked about uh board dots being utilized it's a great um tool that's already being used by many School District just for the board meetings it's a quick easy filter you can find information much easier you know all of these things to me are positive so I'm curious to see why all of you feel that this is such a bad thing for the school district to to go on and do something different that could benefit us we're not hurting anyone in this process all we're doing is improving the process that exists today and like I said this is not my first you know discussion about this I've been at it for 2 years this is my year three being on the policy committee as you saw so you know I I don't know how I can another year spent trying to convince you that this is the right thing to do for our school district as I've attempted to do and just going back to as simpl as things like I still haven't gotten a clear answer from Strauss Esme why a lot of the policies that are being brought on are considered mandated but when they're clearly guidance from the state right this will allow me to at least have a conversation with someone on the other side so we can do what's best for our school district any other discussion on 3.12 obviously the discussion was not quite complete I have a small question 3.12 okay um if if we just like Mar was saying um if we find it not that great as we are thinking if we have we have to go back to the original TR May will the cost go up at that point are we worried about the cost um is so if we don't like it we can go back like other schools but somebody who is in business for so long if they're working with so many schools maybe there is um there could be a time for a change to see something works differently so that's my question is can we go back if we don't like this of course but there will be a cost Associated back correct well I I'm not sure how stra SME I mean we've been with them for so long that I don't know what kind of uh contractual obligations we have but there might be some additional cost yes to go back and then uh njsba if we go into go with them it's going to be for a one year or we are contractually we obligated for certain number of years so we have onetime startup so it's beneficial for us to continue with them because of that initial cost that takes place during the change same thing with stra SME when we go back there will be initial startup cost and then we'll continue with the services that they offer us but will there be a a saving by switching to mgba because since we are already members of mgba by signing up for their um portex service then we would not need to pay for the current um service that manages our policies and the doc both the meetings uh documents so N Net we actually will be saving money by making that switch when we did the initial analysis of the cost you guys saw that the cost to njsba was much less than Strauss Esme and uh because they switched to uh board dos with Mary and I had a conversation with njsba during the policy committee there was a a uh board docs charge that we would be responsible for because today we are not on board downs but let's fast forward next year let's say we make a decision based on some of the other feedback from Communications or other that we want to shift from our uh school boards to board docks then that charge goes completely away right so we are members of New Jersey School Board Association these are all services that are available to us and we are capable of taking advantage of it just like we did with the wellness check and there's many other uh services that they offer they offer uh writing a new manual new policy manual we can reassess all of the policies that we have in place they will sit down with us that will go one by one and help us uh figure out what's important to it all the policies updates will be month by month just like strauss's SME nothing is changing in that and all of them will be uh in reflective of what the local uh legal changes are taking place and all of that with in all of the documents that you sent like the side by side comparison and you're saying that you haven't been able to speak to Strauss smme at all I think that it's great that we got the the I have been able to speak oh well but then like but you said they wouldn't answer you Esme is a legal firm I mean we all know how legal firms work right there's a specific you can talk to them I was talking to a lady but she couldn't answer any single one of my questions because I was asking difficult questions like mandates what does that mean how do we do it she showed me how to use the website I thought looking at their website I was going to be able to see historical changes to our policies which is what we were communicating communicated from Strauss Esme I was during my policy session I went back I looked at their website I got special access there's no history outside of dates so I literally have to go back month by month yearby ear to every single policy document on this on our website I don't think that's effective way of me looking at it right I can make decisions quickly and swiftly for the school board if I have to do all of that uh extensive work I just don't see the value in it and I would like to Vita's point take a chance at something different and see how this last year as a school board member I'd like to be part of something new and where we can start developing and delivering policies that would be beneficial for the school any other discussion on 3.2 U Can I provide some input I think an you sent me email talked about the difference between the two agencies some of them will be become like mandatory policy you mentioned that too and then if we switch to this new one it seems this new policy going to become a guidance for schools does that mean like schools as District have to make decisions what are the mandatory what are the optional no the New Jersey School Board Association follows the state um guidelines and and guidance right the difference is that they will tell us this is a new state guidelines that has been issued right here's a sample policy that we have in place now as a school board we will make the decision because it's a guideline it's not a mandate we will make a decision whether this particular uh policy is something we want to adopt for our school district today in Strauss SM world we don't have that option it's highlighted as a mandate and we come in here and we say yes and we vote Yes for all the policies and we don't look at it to see whether that makes sense for a school district right so it allows it puts more work into the policy committee B basically right so you know I'm comfortable with that I'm on the policy committee I'm happy to do the work right if you guys want to do it for a year if you hate it and I do a terrible job then you guys can go back to uh Strauss ese but you know I've done enough research here to see extreme value in us moving into this new model of policy I think what you just discussed though on is is a little bit nerve-wracking because now you know those parameters in terms of what we're given of what is and what isn't is now being taken away and now it's going to be on us right in terms of liability I mean that that's what guidance or the law that's what we're supposed to follow it brought to court they're going to say but the state gave you guidelines correct so just because they call them guidelines after the law we're still supposed to follow right we still have to follow the guidelines exactly I don't think that we have that purview of just changing what we see fit in terms of what we want for our district New Jersey Schoolboard Association is not going to put any District in Jeopardy of what the state guidelines or mandates are what it does it allows us to have a clear understanding of what it is that we are going to pursue and how we're going to pursue it so we can clearly explain it to the community versus more of a checking the box and if we have a question we have an ability to have a discussion about how we might want to tweak that policy right but why can't we explain the policy to the public as it stands we can't explain the policy but you're looking at ton of different policies ton of different uh jargon from a legal perspective if you compare the number of policies alone we have versus what's required of us it's extensive and part of it is driven by the fact that as a legal firm those policies are being created from a legal perspective not necessarily from a a policy for the school perspective if that makes sense so we have thousands of policies versus if you look at qack list I think it's 150 policies that are uh required they change it every time so that they make sure because they absolutely they're looking for thousands but they can't look for thousands so they just take 150 for each cohort that goes through so but these are you know these are the main policies that they're continuously updated they continuously make sure that they follow the regulations there's nothing different about it outside of the structure of the process and how we policies read how we can access them how flexible we are in working with and jsba they provide us guidance they provide us you know legal resources to to have that conversation right so you know to me it's nothing but benefits right I I'm not sure I've gotten a lot out of Strauss SME over the last few years as far as you know big changes Orit our ability to have a discussion or conversation uh so you know this is an opportunity for me to do something a little bit different and see if we can improve the whole process and have the community take advantage of maybe something a little bit more user friendly and something that can be easily understood uh but by everyone not just administrators who kind of work in that space every day and they understand what they're looking for so that would be my recommendation and I hope you guys have been at it with me for two years that you don't object to it because I'm not sure what else I can provide to you at this point other than for us to just make a decision to proceed and do something a little bit different and to V point if it doesn't work if you guys are not satisfied with it if you know if I see that this isn't what we what we you know decided that that was the right thing which that's not the feedback I'm getting that's not the reviews that they're getting I don't see a lot of risk in here like I said this is a brand new program njsba is very serious about it they continue putting resources into it I would much rather be taking advantage of it right now than waiting another year and potentially cost going up because a lot more school districts are interested in in pursuing it so that would be my recommendation and I do want to point out there would be more costs because within stra Esme are resources for us that we would then have to purchase so for example um we used to buy these books right NJ sa 18a 6A the law and every year the Law changes the books are and so the books would come to the school districts each building principal would have one the superintendent has gone the business administrator has gone we don't purchase them anymore because it's right inside when we log into stme all the books are in there update they also send us administrators alerts on any changes to the law which you know once a year we go to Legal training but sometimes that's not until July or the end of June and not every single update would be there we get them on a regular basis from St just leave like that so superintended you're very comfortable with st smme but you've also had opportunities to listen to njsb and their program yes um what's your initial I guess um opinion of NJ sba's program versus stme and know I understand the district has been using stme for I think it's hard to compare because it's apples and oranges and stme has over 500 school districts and that's the go-to for everyone and the few people I've spoken to I don't think anyone in somerson County even has New Jersey schools uh one is had it and it's going back to St has made this not connection so I don't have a lot of experience with New Jersey school boards I've always worked in districts that have stress Ese and stresse so much more than New Jersey school boards can especially now um and our wellness check they said we're in good shape so do you have regular communication with st Esme people that I have a question if we St St Esme and we still have that relationship with New Jersey school board um what Anya maybe thought you know seeking out that conversation advice with New Jersey school board we have that contact person over there right that if we wanted to just gather more information we can always do that as well absolutely and we did give us the free wellness check which was great and it's a whole spreadsheet there's not very much on it that needs to change yeah New Jersey schoolb Services all of New Jersey for Boards of education and just a handful are there for their policy for so once again I just want to remind all of us that we are here to serve the community I understand that uh Mary feels that you know legal U information shared with her regularly is important I think Legal Information is public and can be you know looked up at any point and uh and shared right so I'm going to just refocus you guys just to this uh comment because you you're sending me in the right in the path that I've already been through so I'm not saying that uh stra estimate doesn't provide Mar and administrators the right uh information from a legal perspective what I'm saying is that as a for the community as a parent as somebody who would like to look up the school policy and have a clear understanding of what uh their uh the policy states how it's written in the language that it's written um there's also you know manuals we can create right Mary needs a manual of a certain uh process we can definitely create it if you look at their website and can see all of their capabilities I know Hunan is moving over to njsba I know uh school districts in the southern Jersey have moved over to njsba they've shared with me the whole process of getting the critical policy reference manual put together they said they're extremely happy it's clear understanding of what the school's expectations are what the parents expectations are what the students expectations are right so once again I'm just going to say it's an opportunity um to do something meaningful for the school district and something different that will allow everyone to have access to information quickly swiftly and will allow me as the on being on the policy committee which I thought I was making some of those recommendations um based on the work that I've done over the last few years so I would hope that you take that into consideration um because that's really why we're here we're here to make sure that our school district reflects those things clearly to our community so is this your recommendation Anya or is it the policy committee's recommendation well considering I'm the only one on the policy committee that can make that decision yes it's it's mine but I've been at it for two years you are with me the first year this is not the first time we've had this discussion right so I mean I would think this isn't new um and I've brought in the resources in here I've gotten the wellness check I continue bringing the resources on our call I mean I'm not quite sure what else I can do uh to convince you that this is probably the right move and a little bit of a different move for us that will just enhance the experience of the community and the school district that's that's all it is it's not going to ruin anything it's just going to enhance it in my op any other discussion all right based on the discussion Mr T I'm going to ask you to recall the role please for items 1.1 through 4.8 okay M D um I don't have enough information on 3112 so I will abstain and the rest yes noted thank you m frankco Herman um yes to all no to 4.5 4.62 noted thank you Dr way uh yes all except 3.2 thank you f um yes to go accept for the assignments to ACI and Medical Board member Christina haris thank you Harris yes to all um I have stain from 4.5 4.6 and not 3.2 thank you Mr J again um I'm going to say yes to Alla 3.13 with the same concern that uh board member felak has on assignments of our appointments noted thank you mron yes to all except 3.1 Z and that's it okay thank you m Spina yes to all except for 3.12 Tom yes to all except for 3.12 just uh give me a moment before I say if the Motions carry or not CU I have to uh I have to tally it's not hard to tally all right um motions carry um except for 3.12 3.12 does not carry AB thank you Mr new business from the public the Board of Education welcomes and encourages input from the public members of the public will allowed one opportunity to bring any new business to the board 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 provider 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 defamatory and discourteous remarks the public comment portions of the meeting are not structured as answer question and answer sessions 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 starting at the school level responses may be provided at the end of this session public comment portion is open everyone oh yeah yeah I know the drill now so I've been here long enough to actually realize that there's new faces here so congratulations to all the new board members I'm excited you know for you to be here so uh I've can here pretty consistently in the past 6 months and unfortunately I missed the December meeting which is particularly ironic cuz I thought I had a pretty good sort of holiday themed spel and as I Was preparing my points for today's discussion I thought you know look it's snowy it's cold it sort of looks like Christmas almost so maybe I'll recycle what I was going to say back in December so if you don't mind I'll kind of take you back a little bit and you know we'll talk about the holiday real quick so around this time in December my son and I were watching a movie a you know holiday movie I probably should have said we were reading a book considering the audience here but it was a movie uh would you read the book some time to from time to time but anyway so you know the movie you know the book you know the plot you know the story the movie is called the Grinch and as I was watching the movie I just couldn't help but build a parallels between the movie or the book whichever you prefer and our high school which as you know uh from me talking about this issue for the past 6 months uh closed the high school courts tennis courts from the public so I am going to be very brief here I want to totally disassociate the high school from the Grinch and my plea to the board of the education is please don't let the high school look like the Grinch don't let me think of it as the Grinch don't let my kid think of it as the Grinch you know these sords belong to the PO public they were funded by the public they are cherished by the public don't let them be hostage of some arbitrary decision that was made 6 months ago and that prevents the community from using those wordss appreciate your time I think I still have a minute left but I don't have much to say so I'll just save it for for somebody else thank you uh hi my name is uh Steve hun I'm a resident of uh Ros Court 44 Ros Court I'm also you bring the microphone up little yeah uh I'm also here for the high school courts uh I I haven't heard any new reports any progress uh so I assume the the process is still going on the countship is still negotiating with bo uh on my way here actually today I I I felt it's like the coldest day so far this winter and because it is so cold so nobody is right now playing tennis Outdoors so I feel this is actually a perfect time for the board to to work out agreement with the uh with with the tar so when the spring comes when everybody was ready to play outdoors and the cours are available to them thank you good evening every everyone my name is shes swup I live on 297 Sunset Road in skilman um congratulations to all the new board members here um I'm a parent of two boys u a junior and high school and my seven uh seventh grade stent ATS um so one of my child stood in a Bor chilling 20° which felt like 3° on a um on a Tuesday morning waiting for a school bus for more than 10 minutes the delay was due to a substitute driver and we were caught unaware of this the tentative uh estimate time of arrival had we had access to a real time Bus tracking system my child would have stayed indoors till the bus came close to the uh stop sign today we seek your support for a rightful cause we request that all m schools be required to implement a realtime Bus tracking system this isn't just a demand it's a solution that will help parents and students catch any delays and provide them with estimated time of arrival of the bus this will consequently provide peace of mind to parents and ensure the safety well-being and comfort of our students in both everyday situations and extraordinary circumstances and what better day to pick today where it's 20 OD de right and same thing happened although this was I had prepared this note a few days ago my son had a delay of 10 minutes this morning my my junior in high school the bus came was supposed to be come at 713 came around 7201 um unlike in other towns montgom schools provide bus to every student in our district and uh we are very fortunate for this unfortunately late running buses is still a challenge this tracking system can be a critical tool to address this issue at a local level uh we implore the decision makers education education stakeholders here and other concerned parents to stand with us thank you I have a note I have an additional comment from my son here hello my name is aat group I am a seventh grader in Ms and that was my dad if you guys were wondering I'm sure you could tell um I have came to add-on about his discussion uh I have had myself and my friends uh bear witness to this same uh situation um my friend uh he lives in a culdesac he lives at the end of the culdesac it's around a 5 to 6 minute walk to the bus stop which is at where the CAC meets where the CAC meets with our road he has to walk there every morning and he always does he I actually think I miss the bus more than him but even though he does have very strong legs he can't Sur he can't stay there for more than 11 or 12 minutes without being extremely cold and um extremely uncomfortable it's not fair that he would have to stay out there for so long while um kids in the bus who are at the edge of the road would be able to see the bus coming because he can so I've come to add on to my father's discussion um and for these reasons I think that real-time Bus tracking should be implemented into our school district uh another reason that I think it should be implemented is because of the uh waste of fuel as we know staying in the cold too long is very very dangerous so many parents will offer to keep their kids in their car outside and while this does seem like a good solution is not a permanent one as uh fossil fuels would be burned in the process and this would be Harding our environment which adds on more to my um adds on more to me and my dad's points and um I think that is all I have to say about this round thank you any other comments from the public hearing none public comment is now closed super any items you'd like to address at this time okay so regarding the tennis courts we have uh drafted an agreement with the township but we still haven't uh got the agreement back with the changes that they wanted to propose so we will reach out again M my fellow tennis players we got you we got you got and what was the name of that that you were referring to for the bus real real time I can get you some information on that there's there's other ones out there there are yeah there's like safe safe Fleet here comes the bus they're not that hard to can you send them to me I'll review them with my transportation coordinator and we can see the logistics on it charg to P bus they charge certain amount I'm sure they do but I'm sure like our buses have GPS and other things so I'm sure it's pretty common nature hopefully it's cost effect of mobile parents see parents can see where the bus is so then they can bring the child at that moment yes so I to wait one El and notify delays I grew up in a bit West it was cold so we that's something we certainly look into and young man we appreciate your comments very well done very well done young man very well about the environment any items from the floor board members the only can I just say uh give some good positive feedback to the district on the communications initiatives of the Strategic plan um I went to uh one of the first principal roundtables for LMS which is where my youngest is and there was a I mean terrific talk that um Mr Rano and Mr pido had on um you know B basically our um expectations of of core values and um she talked a little bit about a book that I might say would be a good second book club book for the community and School District uh called road map to responsibility by Larry Thompson when there's an educator parent guide um along with it she has her staff reading it right now um talking about how you know discipline is um really leadership and self control it was a really great um Round Table discussion they also put it out there for parents to to uh talk a little bit uh about things that they would like and a lot of parents did bring up the transitions which I know is a always a a thing that we talk about a lot here so that was my one um thing and my second besides the the round table is again the like the idea of the lunch in learn that was brought up with Municipal Alliance I mean our our community members specifically set at our strategic planning sessions that they wanted to be more involved with our students and to be able to impart some of their wisdom and stuff and and and connect the community with our students and I think that these are two really great things that are um are good athletes for our Communications piece of the Strategic plan so good good job thank you and the superintendent Round Table is going to be Wednesday February 5th at the high school media center and the topic is the district Safety and Security the email went out last week for signups any other items from the floor hearing none I'll entertain a motion to dismiss second it's been properly moov in second all those in favor State I I all those appros same right exensions thank you everyone for coming out on FR Frid night get home carefully