##VIDEO ID:rvuxNkLO8fk## doy here Mrs Foo here Dr modra here Mr Palama here Mr Petrino here Mr Rapaport Mrs Smith here miss Zuckerman here let's rise for the flag salute i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Montville Township Board of Education provided a public notice of this meeting which included the time date and location that was posted at the Montville Township Municipal Building all Montville Public Schools the Montville Public Library the Montville Township Board of Education administrative office building the district website and advertised in the Daily Record and the monfil tap into the board's official newspapers on January 28th 2024 we today will be welcoming um our board members who had successfully won the election enclosed in your agenda are the results of that election and I'm going to start with Dr calino un un and [Applause] h all off [Applause] un AB [Applause] I would like to open the floor to take nominations for president uh I nominate David modra do I have a motion to close nominations so moved do I have a second second any discussion yeah I did do that oh I vote on okay Dr calino this is on the motion to close nominations yes Mr doy yes Mrs Spano yes Dr modra yes Mr Palama yes Mr Petrino yes Mr Rapaport yes Miss Smith yes Miss suckerman yes now is there any discussion I'm going to roll call on Dave modra as president Dr calino yes Mr doy Mrs Foo yes Dr modra yes Mr Palma yes Mr Petrino yes Mr Rapaport yes Mrs Smith yes Miss Zuckerman yes [Applause] okay thank you um I'd like to open nominations for board vice president I'd like to nominate Michelle Zuckerman and I would like to not and I'd like to nominate Joe Dy are there any other nominations and motion motion to close nominations yes so moved thank you second second thank you vote roll it's a roll call vote on to close nominations to close close nominations this is the close nominations close nomination Dr coralino yes Mr doy yes Mrs Foo yes Dr modra yes Mr Palma yes Mr Petrino yes Mr Rapaport yes Mrs Smith yes M Miss Zuckerman yes okay i' like to open it up for a discussion uh thank you Mr President um Karen so first I would just like to thank the community for the opportunity to serve another term the fact that we ran on a post was very humbling and I thank the citizens of Mel Township uh in support of Miss suman's nomination I served as president of this board for six years I was elected six times as president of Mars County School boards Association I was elected did for four years as njsba vice president of legislation and I currently serve as the president of New Jersey school boards Association I know leadership when I see it and I see it in Spades and Michelle Zuckerman she has already demonstrated her leadership by effectively serving as the vice president of our board for the past two years Michelle has demonstrated leadership by her command of the issues facing our district she she can synthesize information and communicate it concisely she expresses opinions articulately and persuasively and she contributes positively to the discussion I applaud the desires of board members to assume leadership is not the usual circumstance however it should not happen by the outing of a vice president who has served admirably for the past two years it's not a good look for the board it sends the wrong message and it does not lend itself to a healthy board culture which we've enjoyed for more than a decade some of us have contemplated a rotation of leadership every two years I have no issue with that as long as it does not kick out effective leadership I would be in favor of the status quo now with new leadership in the presidency and vice presidency next year for these reasons and more I enthusiastically endorse Michelle's AR for vice president of the board I hope you'll join [Applause] me other comments can I say something Karen thank you for nominating me and for your your comments um it would be an honor to serve as vice president of the board for a third year along with David as president I respectfully acknowledge that Joe my board colleague is interested in the leadership position however I would like to respectfully ask for the support of my colleagues for one more term as vice president the way you supported David for one more term as president with a collaborative plan for future leadership of the board I've served this Community School District and our children faithfully and honorably for over 15 years as president vice president secretary and treasur of the Cedar Hill Lazar and MTS ptc's and as a board of education member for the past seven years and as vice president of the board for the past two I stand by my unwavering commitment to putting our children first and to understanding and respecting the role of a board of education member I stand by my service as vice president for the past two years and again ask for the support of my colleagues to vote for me to continue in this capacity for another year thank [Applause] you any other comments about the Nomine seeing none I'll close discussion and ask for a roll call vote please Dr calino on the board on the vice president so you're gonna give me a name right let me help here so when your name is called you'll pick one vote for either Michelle or Joe Dr calino Michelle Zuckerman Mr doy Mrs Fano Joseph Dy Dr modra Michelle zerman Mr Palama Michelle Zuckerman Mr Petrino Joe Dy Mr Rapaport Joe D Mrs Smith Joe Dy Miss Zuckerman Michelle Zuckerman uh Joe doy is the vice president congratulations [Applause] Joe okay moving on then uh for rest of we have the adoption of our code of ethics typically what we do is we take turns reading the code of ethics uh one person reads A next person B then C D down the line and we just go around um Mike Palmer do you want to start us sure I know starting put my glasses first okay I got it okay a you will uphold and enforce all laws rules and regulations of the State Board of Education and court orders pertaining to schools desired changes shall be brought about only through legal and ethical procedures you will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social standing you will confine your board action to policymaking planning and appraisal and will help to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted those who will be affected by them you will carry out your responsibility not to administer the schools but together with your fellow board members to see that they are well-run you will recognize that Authority rests with the Board of Education and will make no personal promises nor take any private action that may compromise the board you will refuse to surrender your independent judgment to special interests or partisan political groups or to use the schools for personal gain or for the gain of friends you will hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools which if dis closed would needlessly injure individuals or the schools in all other matters you will provide accurate information and in concert with your fellow board members interpret to the staff the aspirations of the community for its School you will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer you will support and protect School personnel and proper performance of their duties you will refer all complaints to the chief administrative officer and will act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution could I please have a motion to adopt the organization so moved second second um are there any questions about the approval do we have to vote on each one we don't vote on each one you can vote on them together good thank you okay any questions about the parliamentary procedures the bylaws regulations policies on the board meeting schedule I would like to ask can come back to it sure sure we we'll prove everything else ump okay thank you okay uh in the terms of board committee and liaison as we have done in the past we will withhold assigning members to those committees and Liaisons until the next board meeting in the meantime I ask my fellow board members to send me an email let me know what your preferences are what you would like to be on and I will try my best to accommodate your wishes David I have a question is it possible for you to send us um the times in the days of the meetings just so in case anyone has conflicts I don't know or or if we just send you what we're interested in and then maybe we can get from the administration the days and times um generally speaking the finance uh meeting occurs right before our close session the other ones are more flexible typically they uh send out a notice to all members see who's available when and then find a common time to meet so there's a lot of flexibility there and then the PTC Liaisons are set by the ptc's okay but so we can just go to the website and look at generally what their schedule is then you can't find them let me know because I get all the PTC um newsletters right and so I can share that time with you if you're interest in a particular one thanks Dave great okay uh school calendar board secretary external appointments um and then are there any questions on those no let's have a roll call vote on organizing resolutions without the meeting schedule we'll vote on that in a second Dr calino yes Miss Zuckerman yes Mr doy yes Mrs Foo yes Dr modra yes Mr Palma yes Mr Petrino yes Mr Rapaport yes Mrs Smith yes okay thanks okay so about the calendar we used to have two meetings a month for most of the year we moved it last year to one meeting a month plus an extra one in April to accommodate the budget there has been talk about maybe we need more meetings because there's a lot to be done so wanted to ask the board what they feel do they feel that we are being rushed through our regular meetings do they not like the way the once a month meeting is being worked um I personally have an issue with all of the backdated approvals that we've had to do um is that a problem by the way Steve for all his backdated approvals no okay so does anyone have any questions or com I do I actually like the once a month and the times that we needed twice a month of course we could always call doc doc you could always call second meeting I feel like I enjoy being there for an hour and a half seeing the kids perform getting the business done you know um for community members there were times when we'd only have like a 20 25 minute meeting and staff have would have to come out it's a big thing and it's kind of was wasted time I feel like the administrators I'm sure would have other things that they would like to do I'm fine with the once a month I think it's good I think it's actually good for the community because they're not what day is this what week as this so I'm okay with that and of course if we need a second meeting that's fine as well um I I have a little a differing of uh feeling about it I have felt since we've gone to once a month that uh we're we're not getting as much as we could when we were meeting twice a month I felt that I feel um that I'm not as well informed uh when we're now that we're at once a month I meeting uh twice a month i' I felt like the information was you know easier to digest um I just felt more informed um I I spent most of my board career doing twice a month I don't mind it um in fact many school boards do two meetings a month with their first meeting being a work session where they hash things out and then the second meeting being an action meeting the Action meeting typically is shorter but my my point is I I I think twice a month better informs spard members M okay going back a little more history-wise and I've been there even a little longer than Karen that when we used to do the two meetings a month the first meeting being the work session second meeting being the action session I think that was because back then we were arguing a lot about a lot more things we do now but um I think there is a benefit having two meetings a month if nothing else for the reason that we do have a lot of student presentations um we like to have the kids come up here we'd like to have um presentations to the public and I'm not hellbent on having two meetings a month but I do think that one meeting a month is a little skimpy I think if we had to we wouldn't have to have some of these meetings we've got three or four presentations and maybe where we could start doing is scheduling the two meetings a month and if it comes about that we're coming before the meeting and we said you know there's no presentations and there's really nothing that has to be done this meeting let's put the meeting off we'll just push everything to the next meeting but I'd like to see at least some stuff on the schedule give us a little more flexibility so you would probably be thinking would you be thinking along the lines of maybe four extra meetings a year then you know we could do that as well have four meetings like two in the spring and two in the fall two extra ones because at summertime we are definitely one meeting a month yeah we've and I've never had two meetings in the summer when I was on the board it was always it was always two meetings a month for every month except July and August that's kind of the way it was when I was first on the board and you know because I'm I'm not wedded to it but I do think you know one meeting a month it's spreading us a little thin and maybe give put us in a spot where maybe we can't give some kids or people the opportunity to be seen and heard that maybe should be yeah well your your meetings when you first joined went till 11: 12 sometimes even 1 o'clock in the morning no that was a be that was board before I was there oh yeah um I was going to suggest similar to Dave what you're saying I think that why don't we compromise in effect and add a couple more back but not necessarily two every month and I think it could accomplish what we're looking for on on both ends I I feel like that could be a good solution I think we're doing good with one meeting a month but if we had it put two on in the spring and two on in the fall we maybe look at that okay the compromise position anyone else yeah I I'm not sure where this is coming from exactly I think we've been rolling just fine with one meeting a month I enjoy the length of the meetings I don't think they're too long in fact I think they could be longer and and we you know there's room to extend them I really do I I think um Tom's weekly emails uh you know me you know the weekly memos that you send us very informative I would ask the people that are asking for two meetings what what more do you want to see or is it just you know getting together in person just ignites more information sharing I'm just not seeing it no I was just gonna say I don't think it's coming from anywhere in particular I'm not sure what you mean by that but um I personally feel like I'm not as welled as a board me member that has to expend taxpayer dollars has to provide a good education for our students I just feel I'm really lacking some of that information I I think it's maybe because we're we were used to the two meetings a month but um I'm I feel the same way I feel like Tom Dr Gorman's emails are are excellent um he answers our questions forwards it to everybody um the response um I I like knowing what we know and if I felt that I didn't know more you could I could always call Tom I don't know I just feel like the schools are running excellent and um I don't feel the need to have that second meeting I mean that's just my opinion I feel very comfortable in what we're at our business administrator the team so those are just my thoughts yeah maybe going twice a month would save Tom some phone calls in no I I rarely call them I rarely do okay um I think we have probably two options here we can either keep it as is written on here on the agenda which is once a month or we go to two more meetings in probably what February and March and October November I'm certainly willing to compromise on that okay um so I guess what I'll probably ask then is a vote on which you would rather keep what you would rather do one meeting a month as written or add four extra meetings a year so just to be clear which are the months that would have two meetings I would think that it would be February and March because we already have an extra meeting in April May and June are too crowded with the end of school year and then October November would be again the first first Tuesday of the month for the second meeting or first meeting I'm just wonder would September be more valuable in November well run into all types of holidays usually we have a hard time even the kids aren't even in school for September yeah right um sure da Dave just as as far as the uh uh when extra meetings would be put in in um I would just hold off on that because November is credited with vacation time um so it may not be a productive time to have a have a meeting um as as Karen was uh alluding to was was the information sharing understanding what's happening throughout the uh throughout the district um so the the the extra meeting needs to be scheduled where it's appropriate for that information to come forward not necessarily uh based on on any specific calendar so I think Dr Gorman may have a better idea of exactly which months would be better to have those ex you're correct so we we just gave you a handout and in anticipation of this discussion we just came up with some uh dates February March October and November you can see the dates on in red on this addendum we gave you just to have a visual in front of you of what that compromise situation would look like again that's not set in stone but it just gives you an idea uh if you wanted to add four more meetings you notice the one in November is the first Tuesday of the month not the third uh which pushes up against Thanksgiving anyway is that Election Day first Tuesday of November first Tuesday which is nov this year this year would be November don't we try to stay away from election day we could definitely so already it's it's a it's a problem I'm saying November is kind of D but we can delete just do three delete November delete November and do three yeah yeah I I would agree that at February March and October do we do we have a consensus on that does can I have these ask for a vote on this should we close discussion so there's a an important reason to pass a resolution tonight it's not just to let the world know what calendar is it's because the statute excuses you from notice for so you need to do that now you actually to do hit your button by the way press it one more time there you go so I I think what if if this is what you want somebody should move to substitute the addendum schedule for the schedule that appears on the agenda somebody should second that and then you should vote on it so Dave um I'd like to moved to do the substitution schedule taking out the November meeting I do think more opportunities for the public uh everyone's schedules are crazy today and I think if we give more opportunities for the public to come those extra sessions it's it's only a good thing in the end so I support the agenda minus the November one is there a second I'll second c a question will this produce considerably more work for the administration U more it's not no it's not necessarily more work in the sense because we all have to get it done for that one meeting but um no we'll get it done whatever needs to be done will will create a personal hardship of any type to have to come out from more meetings before I before I say yes on this I want to make sure no I'm not no if this is the will of the board no it doesn't um can I ask a question i' Dr Gorman what are your feelings because you're saying it's the will of the board we're not working seven days a week like you guys are so so just in my two and a half years so you had the two meetings a month and people were asking can we change the times can we change the meetings and we went to this one both of them worked well the meetings are shorter as John you were saying you know when we go to twice a month because we didn't have a lot to do Ken makes a good point of you know you you're more informed in the sense of there's more of a flow to every two weeks you meeting compromise adding three more meetings we would see how this goes and we'll just play that out this year um it could work I I would just S suggest that when we schedule these presentations that the the children do and that the community does I'd still rather see them all packed into one meeting because I like the community members seeing what the other part of the community is doing and I think a packed audience is better than you know just one group of people and then they leave and then we do our business that's a good point uh I I'd rather see the children not packed in uh at night um I feel like I lose my I get tired I lose my appreciation for the children's hard work so I like having ju I like limiting the presentations and I think it helps us uh you know fill our calendar there lots lots of stuff going on in our District that's uh worthy of board presentations okay then uh close discussion and ask for a vote uh please the vote is would you like to substitute the addendum for what's in the schedule right no the vote the vote is to approve the addendum as the schedule okay minus minus the November 4th okay there we go there's your wording Miss Zuckerman yes Mr Petrino no Dr calino yes Mr doy yes Mrs Foo no Dr modra yes Mr Palama yes Mr Rapaport yes Miss Smith yes so adopted okay moving on finance resolutions does anyone have um I need a motion for to adopt the finance resolutions so moved second second thank you anyone have a concern about our bank banking institutions accounts investment wires payments fax petty cash Etc um Professional Services anything on Professional Services okay uh roll call vote please miss suckerman yes Mr doy yes Dr calino yes Mrs Fano yes Dr modra yes Mr Palama yes Mr Petrino yes Mr Rapaport yes Mrs Smith yes okay a motion to adopt our curriculum resolutions so moved second second thank you any questions on the curriculum and textbooks okay seeing none uh roll call vote please miss Zuckerman yes Mr Rapaport yes Dr cordino yes Mr doy yes Mrs Fano yes Dr modra yes Mr Palama yes Mr Petrino yes Mrs Smith yes so concludes the organization and on to the regular meeting superintendent's report business administrator's report no report there are no committee reports tonight I invite the public to come up and give us their comments in our first public part first public participation section we only have yeah we have two we have two um this would be for anything on the agenda I don't think we we have one more public okay so this would be on anything here on uh the approval of the superintendent's contract uh a couple field trips that's really about it uh roll call vote please I need a motion um so move second thank you have that on here Dr calino yes Mr doy yes Mrs Foo yes Dr modra yes Mr Palama yes Mr Petrino yes Mr Rapaport yes Mrs Smith yes Miss Zuckerman yes okay no closed session are there is there any old business new business or general board comments um I I just wanted to bring to the board's attention which you you may or may not know and particularly for the administration um that with the closing of so many or with so many newspapers not doing print anymore and moving digitally there was a concern about how were boards going to advertise their meetings and put out to the public documents that the public needs to see um and they wanted to be sure that it could be done digitally so in fact the governor did sign a law that allows at least until March school districts to put their public information uh in their normal newspaper but it'll be digital and the second thing I wanted to bring to the board's attention was uh for the first time uh this past budget the state fiscal year 225 fully funds the school aid formula under the school funding Reform Act uh completing a seven-year transition um the Department of Education is beginning to review the school funding form and invites the public to participate so one of the dates was December 17th but there's another one tomorrow uh down in Somerville uh so the January 18th 14th and 16th and anyone who wants these states I'll be happy to share will you be going down there um I'm I'm going to the Department of Education uh tomorrow actually okay good and we be sending a letter or making any comments uh letters are accepted um and if you want to speak at any of these hearings you do have to register yeah yeah through our uh organizations or professional organizations we do make our voices known if the board decided they wanted to do something on their own you could also write a letter and and voice your opinion or something like that thank you okay any other board comments I da I just wanted to welcome Kaitlyn to the board welcome to the [Laughter] Hood um and Dr Gorman I have a question for you I'm getting this question was like on my way here um Governor Murphy signed a bill saying that now there is less restrictions or now uh those who want to become teachers because of the shortage of teachers now don't have to take certain tests can you talk about that and is that going to be a case for Montville Township yeah I don't have everything in front of me so I don't want to missp speak so maybe at the 21st I can give you some more information about that thanks um will it affect us hopefully it'll affect us in the positive you know that we'll be able to get more teachers but there's been a lot of changes and even with the retirement people coming out it hasn't it hasn't been a big blip um with the incentive so far but hopefully that will start changing things but remember you have to you're talking about people that are in the pipeline so you might not see these changes for four years when kids decide to go to college and then choose career path but I'll get some more information for you for the 21st okay yeah okay thank you my understanding that the content part is isn't eliminated in just one of the tests after talking to my wife who's a teacher oh good okay thanks John I don't know if that I don't know the details but a little bit no other comment to say a couple um first of all congratulations to Joe second of all congratulations to Caitlyn and third of all Michelle thank you for your outstanding service as vice president um I guess just a couple thoughts that I've been here since it'll be 20 years in uh April and this is the first time we've ever actually had a contested election for either president or vice president in public and um you know this is a wonderful board we have nine wonderful people on this board it's a great functioning board it will continue to be a great functioning board I think either canday would have been an excellent choice and um I voted for Michelle because I always say if it ain't broke don't fix it we were running very well as it was but I have every reason I think we're going to and I would also don't want anybody in the public to in any way think that a vter against Michelle was a lack of confidence in her or a I think a reason to oust her I take it at Joe's wor it was simply a matter of Joe wanting to seek a leadership position as he has the right to do obviously and we're going to support Jo just we supported Michelle but again I have every expectation this board has continued to function this will not be a distraction of any type whatsoever Michelle is going to continue to do an outstanding job as a board member just as she has done for all these years you're great board member and a great friend Michelle and yeah thank you for all you've done as vice president uh can I piggyback on what Mike has said um you know while I'm disappointed in the outcome of tonight's leadership vote I congratulate the new Vice President Joe Dy and the returning president Dave mod and I personally will continue to work hard to maintain the legacy of the board which is that of an effective student focused body that understands its role okay thank you uh if there are no other comments I would invite the public up for the second public participation section on any topic that they wish to speak on and could you please provide your name add address yes of course uh my name is in I live on 7even boottown Road in Mountville I've been a very long-term um Mountville resident and I think everybody know I'm here to talk about the mentoring program so um first of all um congratulations to Caitlyn um and uh this is only actually my second time attending the Boe meeting so I'm actually really amazed at what you guys do um I think it's a lot of great work that you're really helping the kids in Montville on Township so I'm here to specifically talk about the mandering program and um I think we have actually students coming up later to um tell you the the board specifically a little bit more about how they have benefited from the mentoring program and how devastated they were when they heard the news from District in terms of canceling the program so for me my specific question is really just trying to understand one thing and one thing only so that we do not run into this situation down the road um if you know maybe Mr Gorman and the the board can help me understand ultimately how was this decision made in the first place and how was it reversed so quickly within the month yes so this is board comments you'll make them and then when we close it all then I'll answer the questions that may have is there anyone else that would like to speak good evening everyone so my name is cpoh Han I live at 57 changebridge Road and I'm a senior at mville tacha high school firstly congratulations to the returning and the new board members I'll say this feels familiar I feel like I've St stood up here before although I'll say I haven't done this since last year don't know how funny that joke was but without further Ado happy New Year hope everyone's well so uh I'd like to continue with some of the previous comments made about the management program and specifically I want to talk about my story and how I think it's really benefited me and you know what I think about this whole situation and what we can do moving forward so my personal story I come from a family I was born raised to speak Mandarin and English at home becoming bilingual in the two languages so going into middle school and high school when I was in the process of making My World Language elections I discussed this with my family they ultimately decided that they wanted me to and I also thought this I also thought this would be beneficial for me to take a language other than Mandarin so that I could for one learn another language and then the other more long-term thought we had was that if I my last name being Han was obviously a very is obviously a Chinese last name when I apply to colleges if I if they see manderin on my transcript then it could be potentially you know they could think the college ad missions officers could think that I'm using this course to take to take an advantage get an easa so that's sort of the pretext behind why I chose Spanish as my world language regardless because of the such robust Mandarin program we have had at the Montville Township High School and Middle School I've been able to with the help of Mrs hang participate every single year and Lead several performances presentations at the annual lunar nuro showcase on top of doing other cultural activities sharing what I'm passionate about my Heritage through ways such as the bulletin board cultural compet like little contest we have throughout the school many other many things more and what I want to reflect on is while I'm certainly very ecstatic that this program is back I'm C I'm certain many of my classmates many community members are as well I think something important is to reflect and understand what the root cause of the problem was and to Target the root cause because I think that's what will set us up for long-term success in terms of keeping a diverse Community setting so tracing back to the main reason for the phase out of the program being low enrollment I wanted to mainly make some comments regarding Solutions we could propose to low enrollment the first one being to you know in a general sense make learning the language appealing to students of all levels whether it's students who are Advanced demander like myself and some of my friends we may benefit from certain things like independent studies that are you know beyond for example the AP level and one example I want to give next week on the 14th one of our presentations one of the performances is going to be a emulation of marriage ceremonies in from ancient China it's going to be based on a piece of ancient Chinese literature called it's in Chinese it's called and we what essentially I've been able to do is you know I'm you know I learned Mand through home you know my mom and dad teach me many Traditions what I've essentially been able to do through learning this Tradition at home is in a sense independently study the culture and create a transcription of things that were based in ancient times in Ancient Chinese history and translate them essentially to what we can understand now in the modern time so that's one example of something I think an independent study Mandarin class could do go onto the deeper level of culture examine things from you know very from thousands of years because ancient Chinese history is so rich it goes back thousands of years to around you know 1,600 BC and even earlier and I think the second and the second suggestion I would want to make to promote learning Mandarin and make the language learning appealing to students of all levels would be a promotion at the middle school particularly to sixth graders who are entering their course selection as they go into seventh grade and Beyond one of an example I think we could start at the simple level is to for example maybe just show a video in all the home rooms in all the sixth grade home rooms of some of the Mand performances and some of the great things we do up here and in the long term we could you know even have we could maybe even have field trips for example last June I had the privilege to attend the Elementary tour for the orchestra and band where we went to all five of the elementary schools and performed for the elementary school students who were preparing to make their music and arts selections for the fourth and fifth grade I think we could do something similar in the long run it might be difficult this year with the given time frame but I think in the future this could be certainly something we do with the Mandarin program to again push the language push learning the language and make it more appealing to students of all levels so that was the main thing um those were the main things I want to talk about and again thank you very much for your reconsideration throughout this decision and thank you for your time thank you very much is is there anyone else who would like to speak about anything off the agenda if so come up and then your name and address hello everyone um congratulations to the new board member and also the President and Vice President my name is Luhan I am a resident longtime resident in mville my address is 20 re drive mville and I work for new workk board actually so um I am echoing my colleagues and my friends and though um they talk about the importance of uh mandering program in this district and I want to talk about some data just because I am a data analy and I work this is my profession um so I want to talk about data in general and why we need to keep the program moving forward because in this District we have about almost 20% um Asian and one one out of eight is Chinese and we have a large group that represent people who are speaking the language we also have um a huge amount of Interest so when we're talking about closing the program we want to be make sure there is enough evidence why we are closing the program and there should be enough communication sending out to the community why this program is not offering the benefit at the cost at at a minimum cost of two teachers we're talking about two two teachers in general and I've also looked at all the enrollment I have request like from the NG dooe of the historical enrollment across the board for all the other District who have offered mentoring program our ratio of enrollment over the entire population is not low at all we are at the higher end um if anyone of you are interested in knowing the data I can share that I have done the analysis I can happily share that data with you so in the nutshell our enrollment is not low and um it's very comparable to other school district who have already offered program and in the diverse um in the becoming diverse more and more diverse School District we're all seeing all the other school district not only opening more programs like my district um who I work for new work they have offered several other programs at several um other um schools for the Mandarin program um they also have one school designate for Mandarin and uh Arabic just for the two languages so I want to urge the board to be consider this program very seriously moving forward in this kind of you know very International very diverse community and we really appreciate your consideration thank you okay thank you is there anyone else if so come up to the microphone and your name and address please uh good evening everybody um my name is Roman Chan I live in 19 Bramley Road mville and also I'm Middle School teacher as Andrea kissy and Dr Gman knows I'm not here talk about Chinese program I'm here to support Chinese program and I think my husband year is burning right now so I was like he doesn't want me to talk in public but um he doesn't want any trouble so I just have one quick question because I heard and the board is discussing about the wednes a month board meeting I'm a middle school teacher I planned for my class trip every single year it concerns my you know my teaching job so I remember we need to submit the field trip plans 60 days before the actual trip happens so that was before board had a twice meeting a month so I'm Waring because this year Middle School does not have that many trips okay so and I can't do my trip this year but if the teachers want to do the trip so how many days in advance okay the teacher has to put in the application to the board because when you have meeting twice a month we can put an application in six days days in advance is that mean you have to put in the trip like two three months four months advance so that's my just question a simple question I do not want the board have actual meetings for nothing but and I just don't want the teachers who go out of the ways go so much trouble to plan the trip and they have to do actual work so that's my my single concern today so if somebody can answer my question and answer probably a lot of teachers question that would be great thank you very much oh by the way congratul ations for new member and president and vice president for the board thank you very much Tom you'll answer at the end take care at the end okay any other questions or comments yeah and then your name and address thank you hey doing my name is Robert ban uh 216 Brook Valley Road uh Dr Gorman you and I exchange emails uh before Christmas I said I'd come before the board I came before the board about four years ago this is regarding busing and the safety of our students I have seen an uptick personally of narcissistic drivers going around our buses it's been a problem and it is increasing the police department did come to my home uh yesterday morning I guess at your suggestion they you know watch traffic it doesn't happen every day it doesn't happen every week but it does happen and it happens more often now our office ERS in town have body cameras and they have cameras plastered all over their cars internal and external I implore the board to please require onboard cameras for all buses in the township when you go to renew the contract with the busing companies that's it I want to prosecute these people who go around school buses if our cops can wear body cameras as grown adults I think someone needs to review and oversee the safety of six-year-olds getting on and off school buses um that's it thank you were there any other comments from the public if so come up hello everyone my name is Cia daily and I am the President of our school microphone yeah hello my bad um hello my name is Cynthia and I am our school's Chinese Honor Society president and a current AP student I'm with my vice president and we're here to discuss the benefits of our program our achievements and our plans for the future to start men is the most spoken language in the world and also and and is also one of the six languages the United Nations speaks uses the Mandarin Mandarin is consistently ranked as one of the hardest languages to learn so when a management student has it on their transcript it makes her application more competitive now heading over to my vice president so thank you so much Cynthia um now I'm just going to go over some of the key points that were used for the previous plan removal of the Mandarin program and these are some really good counter examples that we have found by just going around the community and asking parents and students so one of the counter examples that were brought up were if the low enrollment in classes is what warranted the ending of the curriculum originally there's also the highle math courses and high level classes such as for example AP Physics C mechanics or enm with lower enrollment and they should by the same logic also be cancelled we also touched upon the budgeting issue that was cited and that was put off as just it's just the significant declines and fluctuations in student enrollment that happens uh year to year so logically that shouldn't be a valid reason why uh Mandarin program should be removed the difficulty and rigor of the mandar curriculum also makes student applications look more competitive as touched upon by a previous speaker from the public sepio Han and finally I want to touch upon additionally that languages such as the Spanish uh program are taught earlier at the elementary school and from a young age this really helps them raise their percentage of student enrollment and that is something that puts the Mandarin program at a disadvantage obviously that's very good for the Spanish program I just want to thank the all the community support that we got on our petition that we sent out on change.org with the help of Sophia Matari so thanks to her and the entire community in mville Township we were able ble to get an amazing 1,00,000 signatures along with hundreds of heartfelt comments and even videos just people voicing their concern and wanting the Mandarin program to be here to stay because it really helps mville Township Public Schools be a lot better uh and there's also social media support that we get received on Instagram uh Facebook there was a Facebook parents group that really helped out and also on WeChat and WhatsApp so all these platforms really helped us and I just want to give them a shout out because they helped all right now handing back to Cynthia thank you chis um so for the future we have two new Chinese classes the first one is Chinese culture and the Arts and the second one is the Chinese Business program the first class it is is a class taught in English and it's targeted towards non- maning students and it helps them learn more about the Chinese culture traditional foods art Arts music and dance without committing to learning the whole language and there's also a business program that okay thanks Cynthia uh I'll touch upon that so in this business program it's going to be offered to people with prior Mandarin experience but they only really need one year of experience so that can be fulfilled by Mandarin 3 or Mandarin 4 and it's open to grades 10 to 12 and it's planned to have uh five credits this basically will open up doors for mville students as it'll teach them important the it will teach them both manin language as well as useful etiquette in business settings and the goal is for them to gain insight into Chinese business etiquette and practices so I'll also give a really good example of what this is going to look like so it's going to prepare them for real world business settings skill development and cultural Insight which is very important for a rapidly globalized world with a lot of international trade going on and things going digital so that's really good and it boosts students College apps because first of all it's going to be an honors level course and we are also working with uh Mr CA who has a business degree and he's going to help us with this course so that it will become a official financial aid oh no financial literacy uh financial literacy uh it fulfills the requirement because we can't graduate until until we get that fulfilled so originally there were only two courses or types of courses I'm sorry that allow this they include surprise surprise financial literacy and also the economics courses including AP con okay thank you very much and and yeah it really helps to develop skills to excel in the global job market thank you oh we have one more thing to say okay um make it quick okay yes please thanks s all right so I would like to talk to you guys about the year of the snake a symbol of wisdom and elegance in Chinese culture a snake is a rever symbol of intelligence Grace and transformation people born in the EUR snake are believed to possess a keen intuition wisdom and the ability to adapt to with change and determination so I would to thank you all for deciding to keep the man program to show gratitude we've prepared you've brought a snake thank you yes wonder I was actually born in the year of the pig anyway we we have prepared a little gift bags and inside them right there it's a gift and also an invitation to our anual Chinese near Chinese New York showcase that takes place next week mission is free and I hope to see you all there thank you for listening okay thanks Cynthia okay thank you very much they already got what they want or presents oh wow is that for Tom the big one okay are there any other comments okay one more you yeah oh in case you're wondering why the packages are a little different they all contain the same thing that's fine fine I'm sorry you had it you wanted to make a comment sir your name and address Hi how are you board members happy New Year all the M resident I'm here to tell story can you uh uh I live in 16 drive my name is m name and address real quick yeah my name is Michael Shay yeah I Liv in 16 Nathan drive thank you very much okay tell you a story uh I was with the B laabs for more than a decade and very interest you know very I'm proud of I actually work with the Mr rer P wife in the arena coworker intellectual property of the Babs on the beginning of the 2000 uh Huawei they don't have that many patents so we have you know negotiation with them now they are very strong right so their patterns low quality but the lot of number nowadays they they purchase a lot of patterns build their their port portfolio right try to be stronger at that time I was I am the I was the only person I knew knew the Chinese language in the intellectual property in the baps so tons of documents you know the patterns always in English but they reverse engineering their pattern you know the uh the royalty analysis like involve a lot of Chinese documents it was very very helpful I know the language so I just want to say as a educator right or the people here my my thinking is for this thing here you so the program Chinese program would eliminated then reversed right it's quite a you know shock wave in Chinese Community but my thinking is if we base on whether we want to you know select the form or go ahead with the Form B just only based on the enrollment it may be you know not quite well because talking about the education is always from top to bottom right influence guidance instruction that means you tell your kids how to do it right you're not going to tell people say my kids say I want to do this I want to do that for example for example right let's pending if the math the enrollment is very low are we going to eliminate you know the math no right we're going to tell him because not only because China right now is a superpower not because here lot of you know characters culture influences here we we also talk about the diversity all the other language right but for the Chinese language for my daughter my son right they all very you know benefit from from the language so I just want to you know say thank you very much for you know reverse and put back the Chinese Lang language and also hopefully hopefully right we we're going to have in the future right we we will have more communication before we make a decision all right okay thank you very much thank you very much anyone else seeing none we'll close the public participation section and unless there was other comments from you want to make comments on yeah so just to address some of the comments that people made tonight first of all we appreciate all the feedback the board takes everything you say very seriously I'm just going to go in reverse order about the busing incident I'm glad the police came to you and talked to you uh that's great to see happening so quickly um and so we are talking to them we gave them many of the roots for them to take a look at uh on your streets as well as other streets and we're hoping that you know this will be a reduction in some of the incidents that you do see and your suggestion is something that we could look into in the future when we do the uh bus routes if we open up the contracts to the Future about what they could do with cameras on the bus or not but that is that's a complicated process with the busing companies but that's something we will look into if that can be an option regarding the field trips uh right now it's going to stay at the 60 days what you need to do for teachers to submit however I will talk to Miss Woodring and we'll take a look at that because the board only added um three new more board meetings so we'll see how that affects things and of of course we'll let all the teachers know about the field trips and uh how that whole process works and regarding um Mandarin um right now we're starting the the process for next year's budget we we do we start that January going into February and then we present the actual budget you know and you'll see on the board meetings April uh we have two meetings in April about that so we look at the facilities needs we look at the maintenance needs we look at the Personnel we look at all these different things and we as we determine the budget for the following school year each year we add and reduce teachers based on the needs based on the curriculum based on the state law based on special education law and all these things come into this whole factor of what makes up our whole budget and that's how we make these determinations so you know for instance at the elementary level you know the enrollment of the kindergarten classes determines whether I need a teacher at the elementary level uh for kindergarten or that teacher moves up or if there's a reduction and we move move Personnel around based on those things uh Mandarin happens to be an elective as opposed to a core requirement by the state so that is you know determined by the demand of the students so the board made the decision after hearing from the community and weighing the uh cultural impact upon the benefits in the school district as well as uh the students that were coming forth and doing that the uh offering an Asian language that we we have all the other romantic languages being offered and a number of other factors including some of these ideas that the students came forward and started sharing with us about how we could grow the program all these factors came together and that's when the board decided to keep Mandarin and try to help promote it over the next couple of years and see how it grows so that's where we are right now we're happy that Mandarin's sticking around and we're hoping that students are going to be signing up for the class uh right now it's it's an open enrollment for the students at the middle school and the high school levels so hopefully we'll see the in uh enrollment increase over the next couple of years and we'll be staying in touch with the uh Community as well about decisions about Mandarin in the future but for right now we're looking pretty good with mandarin and we're happy to have it still on the books so thank you okay thank you very much um I guess I will ask for a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved second okay all in favor I okay that's