##VIDEO ID:Qq1hHodrXvI## hello welcome to a meeting of the Mountainside Board of Education in accordance with the state Sunshine Law and the state regulations adequate notice of this meeting was provided by mail mailing a notice of the time date location instructions for accessing the meeting to the Union County local source and the Westfield leader filing scene with the burrow clerk posting the notice at the mean access door of the Mountainside Board of Education building and on the Mountainside Board of Education website Board of Education meetings are reserved for board deliberation and for review of items contained within the agenda the board reserves the right to vote on action items the board welcomes the participants of interested individuals we encourage questions about specific School practices incidents or events to be brought up directly to school administration public comment will be permitted at the beginning of the meeting for agenda items only each participant is asked to give his or her name and the address prior to making a statement in addition time will be allotted at the end of the meeting for public comments at any time any items speakers shall limit their comments to three minutes and read this part again no so I think that's the same okay roll call please Mr Bill Dylan Mr Michael Goodwin here Dr Dana gu to C Petro here Mr Jordan Heyman here Mrs Vivian poopo Mrs Candace shano here Mr carine Venice here thank you um at this time like please no motion for executive session motion for executive session so moved second faor in favor no all in favor I I okay thank you we will be back in 30 minutes e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e yeah that's fine perfect hello welcome back it is 7:37 and we will continue with our public portion of our meeting please please stand to salute the flag right there you [Music] go to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all can I please have approval of the minutes so move second any questions or comments rad call please Mike Goodwins here Dana qu CP D yes Jordan Hyman yes andano yes carine Denis yes thank you any correspondents uh just we had a thank you note from Mrs Chuli to the board for uh just all the years and the support that she has had great thank you uh now is public participation agenda items only in accordance with the board policy 0167 public participation is in board meetings in the events it appears a public comment portion of the meeting makes wait should I read all that yeah sorry I'm covering for the president just so everybody know doing the best um portion of the meeting May exceed 30 minutes um officer May limit each statement U made by participants to three minutes duration of presiding officer sorry any public participation okay thank you um president report Vivian is not here I'm covering for her so no president's report oh come on what this your one shot this and I'm gonna blow it Vivian wish her a lot of lot of luck sending her son off to college today superintendance report yes a couple of quick things so um we our summer programs finished at the very beginning of August and both of our summer learning academy and our extended school year went very smoothly really very pleased with the Staffing the opportunities for the children this was the first year we put everybody in one building and it worked very very well having everybody in the same spot allowed us to do some overlapping so both students from both S Summer Learning Academy and the extended school year attended the stem classes together so they were able to all take part in some of those activities um as we've shared before right now as of at this time summer Learning Academy this was the last summer for it as it's been funded through our um ARP grant funding and that funds those funds all had to be expended by the end of this month so at this time it's not something that we have have currently um in place for next year but we can always revisit as we go forward in the budgeting process um School opening um for anybody who does not get my emails or look at Mountainside matters or any other place or sit at the pool the Genesis Parent Portal will be opening at 3 o' on Friday afternoon yes um I will be setting an alarm because I do not want to be the person who forgets and it's 302 um so as we have done in the past that is how our parents will access their home rooms that's how they'll get their schedules and um just you know awareness that we and we have shared it out that if parents owe if there's fines that are owed whether they are cafeteria fines things like that those do have to be paid before they can access the parent portal so reminder emails will be going out to the families they've already received information over the summer about these um these portions of things being due but if uh they will get reminders from our principles but that's an important thing for them to uh to to be aware of um but we have a lot of stuff going on we have our new staff orientation is next week so we have all of our new staff members coming in on Wednesday and Thursday of next week for their initial training for their awareness of what we have our programming they will have opportunities to get their new technology they will have be exposed to what our evaluation system is like we have two teachers coming in Mrs chrisa foi and Mrs Cruz who will be um meeting with teachers as appropriate on our reading programs and our math programs so really trying to beef up their opportunities to be prepared for the beginning of the school year um and then the following week we are back so Tuesday after Labor Day the staff returns um and we are capitalizing on the wave of the Olympics and we are going to start out our morning with the staff Olympics um complete with a variety of activities and different uh different types of things that we have planned leading into our mandated trainings and preparation um and continuing as we do annually opportunities for our K through three students to get to view their classrooms um get a quick visitation and there's also a sixth grade parent orientation that will take place on Tuesday the I believe that's the fourth yep at one o'clock thank you you read the emails I do you are awesome um so Mrs jenss and the teachers will be holding a parent orientation opportunity to fill everybody in on what's what's happening there okay so lots and lots and a huge thank you to our custodial staff our secretaries my administrators the work that they have all put in throughout the summer to to get our year up and running get everything ready um we feel very confident that the buildings are going to be really topnotch still have a couple of projects going on um just so you're aware the camera the all of our camera systems are being replaced so we right now we're running dual system so our cameras are active but the project to finish replacing them we expect to be finished at some point next week we also um replaced all of our copers so um starting to move away from Individual printers and moving towards uh better quality copiers and color copiers for staff so those pieces are all coming together um and really working on on those pieces um and um we've had quite a few trees removed Welcome to our world of Mountainside and the trees um but uh we are very pleased that that project has concluded and we feel that the the bulk of of that is has put us in a good spot for where we need to be um barring any big storms knocking on everything we can find never rains and floods around here no no so lots and lots going on um so you know it'll be peace and quiet in two weeks when we have children back in the buildings it'll all be good thank you enjoy the next week or so business Ministry report just to add to Janet's report on the buildings we also replaced uh networks all of our networks switches over the summer um which was a big project and partially funded by erate um which was great um the on the agenda tonight we're asking you to affirm basically it's it's something we sent an email out I know you you know about the hbac projects um they are not completed yet they will be within the first couple weeks of school um but there were several projects that we just had to get done um we were spending more money repairing them so that's why we made the recommendation to do that um on the financial side business office is always busy in the summer we're closing out last year's books starting next year ordering for next year um and in fact the audit is already started um for the 2324 school year it's already underway um so we hope to be able to that won't be done until we we always have to wait for information from the state which holds us up um but we do hope to be able to turn that around and get um them the auditor out here to present to you as soon as we get that information thank you that's it thank you Berkeley Heights leaz on report yep wish mine was as short as everyone else but uh here's what I got um we've had uh technically three meetings since uh our last meeting here so uh June 20th July 25th August 15 um just highlights in order June 20th uh we extended Rob Nixon at that point to September 30th as Acting Superintendent extended Jackie Bartlett to September 30th as acting go principal uh we hired a second full-time athletic trainer for the district um we approved two law firms at that point uh and our auditor for the upcoming school year we approved the Mountainside esy tuition contract um we approved uh Joseph Cordo as their new director of Elementary Ed and intervention he's coming from Summit actually very impressive I don't know if if that name Rings about but um he came in I I thought he was great um we approved 470 new Chromebooks they're HP forus Chromebooks they're going to go first to sixth and ninth graders um this September so our incoming freshman at GL and then they're going to continue to cycle that um for new for new Chromebooks every year hey Bill um we approved a new Zoom Cloud phone system for the district um we talked about the Lower Columbia field use agreement um which if anyone has questions on I can try to address them but that that is basically an ongoing conversation um to to uh to lease the field at Lower Columbia to to the township um which would then Turf it and then obviously open up field use access for kids at GL and across across that district for sure um what else um we also talked a little bit about um just an ongoing conversation about the cost of lights for the for the for the football field up there for the GL field uh and a potential for replacement Press Box at GL um and we'll note too that in business and committee reports uh the feedback from the Mountainside committee conversation came up specific to the consultative model that was raised by Sai uh in in public at that June 20th meeting there was a request made for a deeper special ed presentation don't have that update yet um if it our next meeting there is September 12th and it was noted that that this could happen in September so we get word of that and we want to share that out I'll I'll share it with Janet and Vivien um we also met on July 25th uh that was a special meeting specifically to look at the initial batch of candidates for superintendent applicants um obviously that was basically a directional conversation um the njsba walked us through like the process and the timeline and all that stuff there were 15 applicants who completed the process um and then um we we actually last week so the 12th 13th and 14th we did first round interviews uh and then the next the second round uh will be next week August 26th and 27th and if needed uh we'll do a final final round of interviews that'll be September 9th uh and the goal at least right now on paper uh is to try to make a higher uh and to try to get someone in for genan one um so that leaves time for contracts and all the fun stuff so that's that's the timeline right now uh and then we had our next regular meeting was last week August 15th uh we approved open campus for the class of 2025 always a fun formality um Rob walked us through their NJ GPA presentation which is the um exam you've got to pass uh to graduate um that that was taken by the current or the rising seniors in the spring uh numbers were 88.5% for ELA proficiency 73.4% for math uh down a little bit from the prior year um which was 95% for ELA that's the senior class that just graduated and 82% for math uh we also approved Joseph Walsh as the new interim assistant principal at G we approved James Shriner as the interim Athletics director uh so he's replacing an Nixon whose resignation we formerly accepted uh at last week's meeting um we approved an Prenos as the new Transportation superintendent and the assistant to buildings and grounds uh and also accepted Kelly Sheen's resignation um we also approved which is on our agenda tonight the um 2425 Mountainside tuition agreement um we approved last week and then also we approved uh a requested PD um with a a group called first education resource for um best practices this is specific to math special ads special head staff for grades six through 12 um so that's going to happen um before the start of this school year uh and then we also approv field trips I only note it because um it includes the Highlander band which will be back at the St Patty's Day Parade in March of 2025 so that's all I got great thank you questions comments concerns what do you got yeah uh they've been talking about lights at jail for years now football lights yeah right yeah what really what's the holdup though uh it there were there have been different holdups I think the long and the short of it is at one point in time it was a Township issue and a neighbors issue as I understand it those issues are gone so the window is open to do it so now it becomes a financial issue it is wired though oh I mean there's a path to do it they've been talking about I think that there's a better chance now than than they've had at any point in the past certain people have been have been talking a lot about it for a while um especially because uh GL has lost sort of first right of refusal from a county level to get access to Snyder field which is also ties in the issue around Lower Columbia mean it's it's hard enough to schedule as it is with the one field without lights right now at GL so um Snyder has lights so if that should happen sorry sorry Lower Columbia has lights so if that should happen that helps a little bit um because SNY is going to be pretty limited um so I think I mean I think it's not gonna happen this fall but I do think with a new athletic director obviously a new superintendent's gonna gonna show up come January um so yeah hope so I think you get the right people in place to try to move it forward and their their ba is certainly well aware of that plus the Press Box which is its own that thing I'm frankly with like some of the storms we get that that things still standing I don't I'm amazed wouldn't hang out there in the rain yeah well I hope it goes soon yeah Jordan what does open campus mean the seniors um it technically means that the the seniors can during their open Period or lunch period can come home as I learned this past year it means that they could come home at any point during the day from 9:00 am all the way through to like really yeah so if you're like open Period and in the drop schedule is the end of the day the last period whatever that is 1:40 to 2:30 they can leave early if if it means kids so kids are coming in and out you basically have access to go have lunch technically you should go have lunch somewhere um a lot of them just come home and I don't know what they do okay did they talk about that possibly becoming a problem students coming in and out hold during the day different times it's not new not yet it's not new it's sort of a senior privilege uh I don't know how many it's it's I mean as long as I've been on that board which is four years they've been doing it goes way back though I feel like we did it when I probably I think we I think we had in Scotch Plains in the last century but yeah same yeah so it's it's it's nice I mean a member of the senior class gets up and formally requests it yeah which is sort of cute they've got to make their speech and everything as if we're not going to vote Yes although you never know never know thank you yeah can I have a motion to approve Administration one through nine so move I'll second it any comments or questions questions roll call please Bill Dylan uh I will abstain from one yes on all of Mike Goodwin yes Dan agree to cro yes Jordan Heyman yes andano yes Carmine venis yes thank you can I have a motion and a second for budget and finance one through 21 and addendum 22 and 23 so moved second any comments or questions you just pass that t I'll just I'll I mean thank obvious PTO $45,000 a lot of money yes um I know they they they do a lot for us on a rolling basis this the agenda um so I know that that money covers a lot it looks like in terms of new caches basketball hoops sound system this is like a Christmas wish list here so pretty awesome uh and just yeah thanks very much appreciated they work hard through their fundraisers through everything else and the the give back to the school this is I think one of the highest since I've I've been in the district um and really both principles when we met with the PTO very excited about the the projects and the ideas um another idea that just we're we're playing around with Mrs jenx is getting quotes on a new um welcome mat at the front of Deerfield if you walk in the the main the main doorway into that man trap in the front it's like six different small ones so one that has a husky imprint so looking at something to again give it give it that feel Mrs viring today was going through she's talking about she said to me she goes how do you feel about like an outdoor learning space I'm like I'm all about it let's so she's looking at ideas for how to revamp some space outside so really really thankful and so appreciative that they have that ability to just put put some flavor into it and look for ways that'll really support all of the kits yeah um so looking at some signage as well looking at uh the front front signage of Beachwood it's rather dated and the way that it looks so looking at some potential uses there so all sorts of ideas very much appreciated thank you yes $45,000 not nothing yeah it's great was a great number this year yeah absolutely can I motion and second for personnel one we got I'm sorry roll call please B Dyan yes Mike Goodwin yes B fetro yes Jordan Hyman yes candano yes Carmine Venice yes okay now can I have a motion in a second for personnels item one through 13 and addendums 14 and 15 so move second any comments or questions um if I may I would like to personally welcome James Mula to our staff James is going to be joining us as our new music teacher so he will be working at both Beachwood and Deerfield so we are very excited to have you on board with us and are looking forward to uh you being able to join us welcome welcome welc welcome call please Bill Dylan yes Mike Goodwin yes Dana Jordan hman yes candano yes car ven yes thank you uh motion second for policy one through three second any comments questions I had one small one um it's on the equal access student or one what was that P 5842 m this could be really easy like there's a we're we're exing out uh try to find it we're exing out a comment around I think it's bullet three basically so no agent or employee of the district will promote lead or participate in the meeting is that like covered somewhere else where we basically saying students start some sort of club and an employee of the district can't attend or lead like what what are we what are we exing out here and why I guess is my question so it's now that is gone so what happened was in the past past if students started their own the employees of the district cannot promote it or lead if these are were um other types of of programming okay um and what happened was they actually removed that so it now would allow ah okay ah interesting yes so that if opening up access for it actually opens access that's great okay yeah thank you um and before you go just if I could on Jordan had a question for me on um the abolishment of the remote public board meetings and that impact on the virtual it's being abolished because the covid um crisis has has passed it's no longer active but there was a question that came up regarding how um we would approach the um virtual access to meetings so I did speak with Mrs Machado our board attorning about this um and she shared with me that um in terms of policy stuss Esme is actually silent on member participation on remote meetings so if the board decided that they wanted board members to be able to participate virtually in either executive session or public the board itself would have to revise policy so you would have to create a new policy that specifically spoke to that interesting um also with the understanding that if you were looking to allow remote access remote participation at in the public portion for a board member you also would have to allow that same level of participation from the public interesting oh so they go hand inand should you do that should you do that for public yes they have to go hand inand one cannot exclude the other that's interesting um but there are boards that do it specifically just for exec and do not address it but that I wanted to have that answer for you and the language today indicates that you must be present right correct in the context I asked because it came up in Berkeley Heights as it relates to superintendent interviews and like there's obviously a lot happening within a couple of weeks can people listen in can they participate can they potentially vote we're talking exec we're talking public all the all the questions came up so I was like not that we need that right now but just sort of curious as from a policy perspective do we do we need want to think about that down the road travel and such yeah early early 7 a.m. presentations in front of thousand people stuff like that duck out hypothetically thank you roll call please Bill Dylan yes Mike Goodwin yes Dan CP yes Jordan Heyman yes candano yes carel Bennis thank you any old business any new business any committee reports um the the curriculum committee actually um just met today at um 5:45 and some of the things that we um discussed were the um student handbook some revisions in it um I we don't uh every year you parents get the opportunity and it's also posted on our district website and I think you might even sign off on it when you find who your child's teacher is and I know everybody reads it so thoroughly uh and will on at three o'clock on Friday um because you know they want to make sure they know the handbook before they get to their students uh child's teacher but anyway um so we made some revisions um on the handbook so that's what we talked about um regarding cell phone usage and cod of conduct things like that um we talked about um a a Spanish program that we will be implementing um for the um first trimester at a bare minimum um we talked about some newal uh Pro programming that we'll be implementing um this year and um just some other um mandates set forth uh by the state thank you y anyone else very good okay any public participation okay at this moment um at this time i' like a motion to go back into executive session we will not be we will not be returned actually action will be taken oh we will be oh I'm so sorry thank sorry that's okay false information can usually we don't let's let's let's start over let's start this over can I have a motion to go into executive session and we will be returning but we do not know what time that will be correct could be midnight it could be it could be not midnight we could be at Mike's Presentation tomorrow at 7 o'cl someone will be here a quorum will be back a quorum will be back motion so moved second okay thank you all have a good night e e e e