##VIDEO ID:3VC1EIyi7Yw## e e e e so the north H and Vorhees Regional High School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday September 24th 2024 is now called to order in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting Act njsa 10 4-6 6 at seek adequate notice of the meeting has been provided by submission of notice at the time date and location of the Star Ledger on December 5 2023 and The Hunton County Democrat on December 7 2023 notice and to the extent known the agenda of this meeting had been posted at North Hunton high school and bores High School provided to the municipal Clerks of Bethlehem Township califan bur town of Clinton Clinton Township Franklin Township Glenn Gardner burough uh Hampton burough Highbridge bur Lebanon bur Lebanon Township tberry Township and Union Township as well as as other interested parties and posted on the District website fire exits are located in the directions indicated if a l to fire please move in any common orderly fashion in near smoke exit um please silence your cell phones and a roll call Miss Haag here Mr Chapman here miss Gallow here miss H here miss kran here Mr mcac here Mr mik here miss Rus here miss selino here Mr Miss VI here and mran here flag salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all so I need a motion in second to approve agenda item 4.1 which is the minutes from our August 13th um board meeting Beth and so any comments I know Nicole you had comments yep I did um looking through the the comment for uh regarding the memor memorandum of understanding um I just wanted to when I went back to listen to the tape exactly the discussion I just wanted a little bit more to be said in there more so um to be included uh potential government over overreach what could imped on parental rights I wanted to put something more in there stating because it just pretty much says that I was concerned just a way would be um initiate you know how it would be I'm sorry how it provides how the district May recommend this to families there was more than that so I just feel that very strong minded about this um I think it's a potential problem and I want it to be noted in the minutes and I didn't catch it before so I don't know for some reason I didn't like look through it so that could be possibly yeah so what we'll do is we'll have tonight's minutes reflect right Nicole's elaboration on her comments from the prior meeting okay thank you here okay uh Glenn um I also noticed on um when I was looking through the minutes under uh community relations and student affairs I was just concerned that um we didn't really translate um um exactly what was what transpired in conversation amongst us board members as you know board as a whole so I sorry didn't hear that so I quickly saw your email so yeah I wasn't so I I quickly went through the minutes and I went through your meal fast and I wasn't quite sure I what am not saying was wrong I'm not quite sure what you think was was not elaborated on sorry I'm not saying it's wrong I felt like there was um not that I felt there was a lot of dialogue and um the minutes don't reflect that it doesn't reflect the dialogue that took place it only reflects as though I had um a question about the process and it wasn't it's it's it's implied that there was a process in place like when you read the minutes it it appears as though there was a process in place already and that we did not do anything about it and I don't feel that we should give that perception so I'm not going put words in your I'm sorry go ahead Jess I'm sorry no I was just going to ask in what part of the the the previous minutes were we supposed to be looking for that um 13 community relations in the previous minutes because I'm looking at the minutes or maybe I'm a a AUST [Music] 13 go to your board agenda click into your minutes I have my board agenda I have the minutes from August 13th so I think it's I have a question about that so with with the minutes then do do we look for all the questions that we're posing or is it usually a a some discing so I yeah so I think I think one comment we have to be clear on right is that that minutes are not a dictation of a meeting right I mean I I think you know the intent of our minutes is to capture the you know at a high level of the discussion but not to every minua right we certainly videotape this is right which is why you're seeing right you know I saw your email but we we're not a dictation I you know I think if you see something in the minutes in our review of the prior week that is wrong right I certainly looked for my comments I didn't say that and I think there's a clarification but this isn't we shouldn't be trying to create this into a dictation it's not to say I I you're I think your comment if I if I understood I don't want put words in your mouth the process there was a process at our schools for parents to ask the Librarians to opt their child receiving book it wasn't well known I think that's correct correct right and so this school year we made sure it was a formal process that we announced to the schools is that's that accurate so yes it was an informal process that was never used I well I can't I'm not no it was it was stated that it was never used I don't think that was the correct context I context the cont was that it had not been taken advantage of correct it doesn't mean it wasn't there it just means that students didn't take advant no but you were just saying though that it implied that no one used it but you have to identify the contact as mean that it wasn't opted for by a student that's not here nor there really um my concern is that I don't want it to be posed as though we had a process in place which there really wasn't a formal process in place and when you read the minutes it doesn't appear that way that was my concern so is it fair to characterize that there was a process that wasn't that wasn't um that wasn't formalize to parents to the extent that we've done it this time again but I think that's what it says but I say exactly that that there was a in provided an informal procedure was in place to to email in place for parents to email the librarian with the request the opt out procedure has now been communicated to parents advising of the procedure so I think I think what I I'm assuming Cynthia if I don't let me put words in your mouth but you're saying that this was like the first time that we're actually hearing that this was a process and that we for the last how many years this book thing has been going on which never was mentioned so there was a lot more dialogue that day and I just wanted to make sure and make clear yes okay John is it possible for you to clarify maybe in a little bit more detail about minutes and again reiterate maybe how and by no means do I expect it to be dictated no I didn't mean I didn't I wasn't yeah I'm not trying to put words in your mouth there but I'm just yeah I just no yeah well that's correct right so it's not it's not a it's certainly not a dictation right I think it's it's it's a high level um summary of the points that we discussed right if if there's something wrong with what was written and I don't think anyone is saying that either case there was something wrong I know Nick you want to you want to elaborate on your comment yeah and I and I again I I I think since you your comment I I didn't see anything wrong with it I think your concern wasn't maybe we didn't elaborate completely what was happening I think if it's wrong we need we need to do it but I don't think we can't make this a dictation right that's certainly not what what Katie's job is the minute but the minutes aren't intended to be they're not supposed to be they're not supposed to be dictation that's not whates are for that's why we have a video and that's why we publish that if somebody wants to go in depth to what happened at the meeting they can drill right into our meeting minute our meeting uh video but I don't but I think what she's saying maybe I'm again not putting words are you questioning what was what you had stated and what's reflected in a minutes well it maybe that's what it is re asked whether there had previously been a procedure place that allowed parents to optt their student out from library books I merely brought up so I was I wanted to understand better I want to have a better understanding of what the process was because that was not clear since none of us really knew about it but why is it relevant as to what happened in the past we're moving forward now we're reviewing minutes and it says that I asked whether there had previously been a proceed I think you did you did ask that I and it was communicated that it was informal and then a more that it's now in a permanent I mentioned so with the opt out with books it was mentioned last month that there was a procedure in place and then from there is where the conversations took place amongst all of us as board members right yes so I think so the character I think there was a there was formal there was an informal procedure in place that wasn't publicized as well as it was this past this this past fall my again my concern was that it was going to be perceived as though we had a procedure based on what is here that's it okay nothing else may I ask do your comments tonight which are now part of this record clarify that record sufficiently I would say so yes okay because now we we are discussing it and that's the beauty of it it's the beauty of a discussion okay thank you okay thank you okay thank you for bringing that up okay I didn't notice that any other comments okay so all in favor of the minutes um all in favor I any opposed any Obion one Obion one Obion or two oh two exceptions [Applause] okay okay moving on to the chief administrative report okay thank you g uh before I begin the superintendent report uh on behalf of the Board of Education and the entire North hland Bo's Regional High School District I would like to express our sincere and heartfelt condolences to family and friends of Sophia dores every person I had spoke to about Sophia described her as a Shining Light and I know those closest to her will carry that light in our hearts the rest of their lives please join me in moment to silence for do all right for my superintendent report um first I'd like to congratulate uh send congratulations to B's High School senior Garett stem and North hon High School seniors Prav shanar and Matthew Strauss who were all named semi-finalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship competition finalists who will receive scholarships uh who will receive scholarships be announced in the spring and the press release for this is on our district website with more information I also want to say congratulations to Olympia Lake who placed first William Bower Bowser who placed second and Isa blacken Bush who placed third in the Nami huning County expressive Arts contest 2024 the Nami hunterman board the Nami hunterman board received submissions ranging from essays to paintings to songs recorded and each piece submitted was an exemplary reflection of talent empathy and expression that defines a asion for understanding the Vitality of mental health awareness so congratulations to all those students uh the North 140s College Fair was held at North hunland but it's for both of our schools North and Boris on September 18th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. we had over 100 Schools represented um in attendance and from what I understand it was well attended by our students and our parents as well so congratulations thank you Mike he does a lot of work to make sure that happens uh both homecoming dances are coming up or has theirs on Saturday September 18th and North has theirs on Saturday October 5th so we're excited for those uh the report that I have for harassment intimidation intimidation and bullying this month is that we had um two cases one at North one at bores uh one was unfounded and one was found and then there's a call and a motion for second but there were none so do you want to call so to call for a motion second to affirm the determinations on the hi incident report reported at the August 13th 2024 for poort meeting I just said there were no none but first so yes second yes all in favor I any opposed any extensions okay okay and um for your information there's a school bus emergency evacuation jeal reports for north and vores both happen on the same day we do those twice a year uh and then there's the monthly reports for your information as well thanks so um every year we have uh student Representatives on our board the process at a high level is the students appli to the principles and then ultimately there's a ballot among the students so this year we have four new students from warhe we have Shar Sarah schwar uh Audrey deine and from North we have Shan Patel and Amelia wman so I'd love to all four of you introduce yourselves and tell us about yourselves and thank you by the way for doing this uh hi everyone my name is um sh Patel um I'm really excited to take this position as student boorder to um represent my peers and just um my school ASO from the student body perspective um just some things about me I'm the senior class president at north um I participate in a lot of community service based clubs like um student ambassadors student council Key Club interact club I'm also a peer leader at North I I'm a swimmer and I throw for track at north um I work part-time as a LIF guard and supervisor for the outour pool at Health Quest and um yeah that's just a little bit thank you thank you hi I'm Amilia rman I'm the alternate for the north representative um I'm really excited to have this opportunity as well I've been watching these board meetings since I was in Middle School virtually so it's fun to be able to be here in person um just a little bit about myself I'm vice president of nor Key Club as well as new secretari for a lot of United Nations I'm also involved in running the environmental C school and I'm a member of the Clinton Township environmental commission thank you hi my name is Sarah schwar I'm here as the representative for bores I'm very grateful for this opportunity just especially as a senior as my time is winding down I want to be able to be involved as much as I can a little bit more about myself I uh play volleyball at Vorhees I am a member of our Lifesavers Club as well as a peer mentor in ship um I also work part-time at the local BST Sweet Melissa so yeah that's just a little bit about me hi everyone my name is Audrey deine I was elected to be an alternate for super representatives from mores um I'm excited to work in this program to represent those at or who feel unseen or unheard um it's a little bit about me I guess I'm president and founder of our school's black student union as well as the diversity club I'm captain of our M trial team I participate in various other sports like um color guard for our marching band um softball I play first base um I'm also in National Honor Society and I do a lot of volunteer work with National langage Honor Society and sever other programs inside um I'm also in Youth and government where I recently got my bill passed last year um um I'm excited to work with all of you including my fellow um Representatives thank you yes so I had an opportunity to read all of your application I think you all all four of you had a common theme of being a voice for your school so really I do encourage you work with your counselors work with the vice principls or principles and certainly with us right to be that voice and and again really on all behalf of all of us thanks for volunteering to do this and I I'll tell you if you watched you have watched right we find this very informative when you come so again thank you very much we really appreciate it uh our next board meeting is October 15 2024 at 700 pm here and the njsba workshop 2024 is October 21st to the 24th uh in Atlantic City New Jersey I think there's a handful of us going right yes that's that's great so thank you uh so we will now have a presentation of the school and small business ventilation and energy efficent Energy Efficiency verification and repair Grant um by Katie blue who is the obviously School business administrator for the school I can't talk tonight thank you so much I think I have the best job tonight which is talking to all of you about um some great money that we received about 2 years ago that we've been working on a legit thing so without further Ado I'm Katherine blue I'm the CPA and business administrator board secretary for the north hter workast board bed um I started here about 5 years ago and during that time we were in the middle of an energy savings Improvement plan an EIP if you've heard that for short um that was a second EIP that the district had participated in in its time first one was in 2011 so that one in 2019 we worked with Honeywell and they were our Esco the Energy savings consultant and during that time they complete an energy savings um study an audit per se and they look at every single piece of equipment in our buildings every single light every single fixture and during that time they were able to do that audit um it worked out perfectly well when we got the um call from them saying that there was a grant opportunity from New Jersey clean energy so so I told them at any time if there's ever a grant I want to know about it so they gave me a call in 2002 and said since we have this Energy savings audit we think it would be a great opportunity for you um there's the potential for millions of dollars of energy improvements that you could get through this Grant and since you have all the data with us already we could partner together and get this submitted so during that time in October of 2022 um we applied for that Grant with the support of the board and support of administration I was able to work really quickly and get us in the top of the queue for the submission of this grant because obviously the faster you enter your application the the higher you are on the priority list so with being able to move quickly we were able to put in the application and get full funding which was $6.5 Million um so as you can see it has a really long title so we usually abbreviate it or just call it the New Jersey clean energy Grant but you can see it's for schools and small businesses for ventil and Energy Efficiency verification and repair So based on got a little trigger happy so there's two Avenues of the grant there's the maintenance and repair pathway and a replacement pathway so the funding is split into those two Avenues so we submitted four applications two for North for maintenance and repair and then Vorhees for maintenance and and replacement so as you can see the breakdown for north and Vorhees u based on the our project budget we had a full scope in the long- range facility plan of projects that we could potentially use um based on honeywell's audit and you could see this the grant actually was 75% funded and we had 25% funded so for every dollar that we put in we got $3 back so um for an investment of $1.6 million we got 6.5 in total so they were contributing almost $5 million towards all these projects so it's all for the kids um this is for the health and wellbeing of everyone in that building and we're really proud of all the work that's been going on in the past few years so just to kind of go over where Did We Touch the buildings and how much did we impact with this money you can see this is the bores first floor um they have air handling units which are built into the building they're not rooftop units they're not Standalone so being that they're so permanent inside the structure it gives us the ability to just repair them they're really meant to be repaired and that's what we did we focus on the repair phase so you can see all of the blue in that shaded area got full lubrication um foil cleanings and so this is repair work that we usually do every 5 to seven years we were able to do it Allin one Fell Swoop in all of those areas of the building we did have one replacement piece you could see over the theater and that was a rooftop unit again the second floor focusing on air handling units and all of the repairs that we could do throughout the second floor as well so just an example of what we do again it's not an aesthetic thing that we're doing that you see in the front of the building but a brand new train unit like that is hundreds of thousands of dollars so every time you see one of those new units it's money in the bank as far as North hund in high school there's so many different additions of that building and different iterations of types of um HVAC there's areas that don't have cooling still that's kind of the areas that we focused on so you can see with the replacement areas that are red we have six new rooftop units on the 250 science Wing four new rooftop units over the nurses room 134 and 135 um there was an air handling unit in the child study area that was upgraded six unit ventilators in the wrestling room that was not existing and locker rooms and the IT room um and the list goes on so the repair also the grant um had funds for the repair phase as well so we do have some areas of blue but we really focused on Replacements at North just because some of them were so Antiquated so the second floor we focused on the repair phase and you can see those blue areas of the second floor building and the O level of the building basement ground level we focused on just the repair phase because that was part of the referendum if you remember 2022 is when we had a referendum passed with several hbac repairs so we tried to use this grant first for anything that was eligible and then back fill with referendum funding to utilize most of the best of our ability so just for an example of what North hund was dealing with you could see on the left there was an old ceiling hung unit for heat in the boy boy gym green gym whatever you want to call it um that only provided heating there were three units in that one ceiling hung and it would cost us tens of thousands a year to try to repair that one unit it was so old they didn't have parts that we could replace it with so we consistently repaired that unit so that whole unit got removed you could see it's a blank slate on the inside of the building and now we have huge we still call them rtus rooftop units but it's concrete mounted on the outside of the building and all new dock work on the inside millions of dollars just just in that area so that's um a huge area that didn't have Cooling in the past and now it has Heating and Cooling um this is the child study team again not aesthetic but a brand new unit for um that area of the building wrestling did not have any kind of condensing units and now they have Heating in that area and just I referenced throughout the presentation that it's all about better ventilation and better Energy Efficiency also with that is the requirement to have CO2 sensors throughout the building which is advantageous to us because we have a building management system where our facility manager can go into a software and see exactly if there's a classroom that has um a need for let's say a little bit more outdoor air you know let's say there's two classes going into a classroom and all of a sudden the CO2 is a little bit high he can see on his building management software that's a little too high he can make that adjustment and everything is from his desk he doesn't have to go anywhere it's all through Airy Wi-Fi um units so as we talked about in May I know at the board level we have a lot of these discussions for the public this may be um you know a new conversation but there was $2 million left of this grant um a lot of the bids came in lower than we thought when we were doing the replacement so the best part is is we could do even more work than we thought we could so at North we kind of focused on these five areas because they have the worst Energy Efficiency that were kind of left on our priority list they're an exterior rooms that tend to have worse Energy Efficiency more windows um they have old unit ventilators and Window AC units so you can see on this it's kind of behind the theater where there's the science rooms a graphic arts room an art room and a special ed room at North so again un ventilators and wall hung um U air conditioners so as you can see in the classroom you can see what a unit ven ventilator looks like in some of the Wall E units these will all be um rtus that are mounted on the roof again being mindful of our solar because right now we have solar on the roof as well um so so the ground floor is the weight room unit so also in the second phase we're able to do the weight room that is directly below those classrooms if you're familiar with North on the north side of the building um there's some rollup doors that used to have teched I believe um and now it's the weight room area so that area does not have cooling currently and they currently have older Heating units which look like this those will all be removed and it will be typical it will look similar to the boy gym where there'll be um concrete mounted units on the outside for heating and cooling so just to kind of recap where we were we applied back in 2022 we had four different Grant applications that were all approved at the maximum rate um throughout this process we were surveying every unit making sure we were identifying all the projects that we could do working with ped sjin and Honeywell to make sure all of these project Scopes were reasonable and determined as much as we could do um also taking into account the referendum that we had just passed and to where we are currently um the next summer of 2025 we'll be installing the phase two replacement upgrades that we be going and ordering right now which are the ones that I was just referencing so we are extremely proud of this project because this impacts the kids directly and without this grit um those millions of dollars would have been left on the table so thank you thank you for the opportunity Katie what Katie doesn't really modestly tell you right is that this is right the hard work of her team going out and getting right and her and her team getting these grants right and obviously as she told you it benefits the students it benefits our staff it's obviously it gets our schools modern at the you know ultimately at the benefit of taxpayers which is's also what's kind of getting hidden in here is all of these units are upgrades in in efficiencies these aren't just costs we save today right these are costs we going to be continuous to save in the future so you know this is just one example and you've heard over the years um that Katie goes after for Grant to help you know modernize our schools and and obviously ultimately save taxpayer money and benefit the students so again Katie Katie I have a good question so so do these improvements help to extend the life of the schools as well so like we have and put these types of uh repairs and and maintenance in place I would assume that we'd be looking at a much more difficult situation in extending along the SCH of course a lot of those units were past their useful life we were just kind of like getting by with maintaining them so um again if we had 6.5 million sitting in capital reserve then we'd be able to accomplish all of that but luckily we only had used 1.5 of it so it would have taken us several years to be able to complete all those projects just amazing yeah thank you and if does it move quicker and faster because of the grant itself is there a different kind of process if we have to pay for it in relevance to actually grant money um it's more complicated to have a grant to be honest with you you know if I were to go out to bid and I was using taxpayer money I could just go out to bid and complete the project but um this does add a level of complication but you know my office and I were committed to this district and we're willing to do all that extra work that's great wow amazing other questions great thanks Katie so moving on so we now um open for public comment so during this portion of the meeting the public is invited to address the Board of Education with comments you are requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to state your name Municipality of residents group affiliation uh if applicable and direct your comments to the school board president while all comments will be considered by the Board of Education and a response may be forthcoming if and when appropriate individual school board members may not respond to the speaker at the time of their appearance the public comment period will be a maximum of 30 minutes in length unless there are unusual circumstances you will be allocated 3 minutes to speak and no one will be permitted to speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard please keep your comments respectful and non defamatory and maintain the level of decorum appropriate for a public public meeting where students may be present and in the audience sign my name is Marina bartelli um I live in Franklin Township and um didn't come intending to say anything but I just want to acknowledge these students the young people for um all that they're up to and for their dedication and um you know really stepping up into something that is actually quite a bit of responsibility you know representing your your peers and representing the interests um of all you know that's what that's what community is is look looking outside of oneself and looking out for all those around us as well so I just I really appreciate these young folks for coming on in and um being willing to take on these roles and I can tell they're going to be doing some great things not only this year as um high school students but in the future and I just um it's great to see it so I wish you a lot of success in all things and um thank [Applause] you comments so moving on we will now have a public hearing on contract amendments to the assistant superintendent of school's and the school administrator School business administrator as well as the contract to the assistant super schools school um Board of Education wishes to amend the contracts of the assistant superintendent of schools Dr Rich BJ and the school business administrator Katherine blue for the effective period of July 1 2024 and through J June 30th 2025 the board also wishes to approve an addendum to the contract for Dr burjack for Acting Superintendent duties pursuant to the njsa 18a 7-8 j a proposed amendment extension renegotiation or alteration to the contract of the superintendent of schools assistant superintendent of schools Andor School business administrator must be viewed and approved by the executive County Superintendent the proposed amendment to Dr bersak and Miss bl's contracts and the proposed addendum to Dr bac's contract were submitted to the interim executive County Superintendent attendant of the New Jersey Department of Education hun County office for review and approval the amendment to Dr bersak and Miss Blue's contracts were reviewed and approved by the interim executive County Superintendent of the New Jersey Department of Education hunon County Office on August 30th 2024 the interim executive County Superintendent also reviewed and approved the addendum to Dr bers condra on August 30th 2024 in addition to review and approval by the executive County Superintendent the board is required by njsa 18a 11-11 to provide the public with 30 days advanced notice of its intent to take action to amend extend renegotiate and or alter the terms and conditions of the contract with the superintendent of schools assistant superintendent of schools and or School business administrator the board is also required to hold a public hearing regarding the the intended Amendment extension renegotiation Andor alteration of those contracts and provide the public with 10 days advanced notice that such a hearing will be held before before taking any action notice of the of the board's intent to take action and of tonight's public hearing were provided to the public the publication in The District in the district's office newspaper on August 22nd 2024 and September 12 2024 and publication on The District's Public website every day for the period beginning on August 22nd 2024 to September 24th 2024 as such I would like to open the meeting for public hearing there will be an opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed amendments to Dr bjack and M Miss Blue's contract and to the addendum to uh Dr bac's contract so and this public comment is now only on those on those three items uh and specifically on the amended contracts of the assistant superintendent of schools and the school bu administrator as well as the contract addendum for the assistant superintendent of schools the board pursuant to njsa 10 4-12 B the open public meeting act shall now should not um publicly discuss personal matters and shall not respond to comments made by the members of the public Please be aware that the public of the subject of this hearing retain one more time please be aware that the subject of this hearing retains the right of privacy and shall retain All rights regarding defamation and slander according to the laws of New Jersey the board shall not be held liable for comments made by the members of the public lot of words so are there any uh comments on the uh the two contracts and the addendum to Dr Bach's contract okay uh so that now closes public hearing on those three items so I need a call for motion in second to approve the amended contract for the period of July 1 2024 through June 30 2025 between the board and cine Katherine blue ter Brian and so I need a roll call vote Miss KAG yes Mr Chapman yes Miss Gallow yes Miss H yes m yes Mr MAAC yes Mr M yes M Rees yes Miss Selena yes Mr Miss yes Mr yes so I need a call for motion in second to approve the amended contracts for the for the period of July 1 2024 through June 30 2025 between the board and uh Dr BX so moved second no Kim and Nicole I'm sorry I'm sorry I should have asked you any questions uh so I need a roll call vote on that M KAG yes Mr chap yes M Gallow yes M yes M yes Mr MC yes Mr M yes M Reyes yes Miss selo yes Mr SPS yes Mr yes and so I need a call for motion in second to approve the contract addendum for the period of July 1 2020 July 23rd 2024 through June 30th 2025 between the board and Dr BX any questions on that okay so we need a roll call vote Miss Kagel yes Mr Chapman yes Miss Gallow yes Miss H yes m co yes Mr mcac yes Mr M yes M re yes m yes Mr Miss yes and Mr caran yes okay so moving on to curriculum instruction and Technology yes okay so the uh curriculum committee met on September 18th everyone was present um we um as as everyone knows um we take the monthly report in our meeting and our committee um so we discuss the monthly report and we're taking a look again at the suspensions basically the the disciplinary actions um and since it was only August there was only really one so there there really wasn't much to look at at this time but um we'll be taking a look again to to make sure that um we're seeing kind of a balanced approach out of both schools um going forward we also reviewed um the other items that were on the agenda the home instruction of which there are only I think one a few um that led into the summer period and then um out of District placements and then we had an additional student um who joined the district U so we had to do another contract for the commission for the blind vision impaired uh and so we're recommending approval of those items um we also had a pretty detailed discussion regarding AI which um has been on our agenda periodically and trying to best understand Ai and how whether a policy needs to be implemented by the policy um committee um we we also spoke specifically about the fact that um the parent student handbooks this year were updated um under the academic Integrity section of the hus to include um artificial intelligence and where um it is and is not appropriate to use it um I think there's still quite a bit of question around Ai and in particular um you know what AI actually means and what should and shouldn't be permitted for use and so um we've decided to add it as a standing item on the curriculum agenda so we can continue to flush that out and best understand what's one what is in the best interest for the students as well as the faculty and staff uh because there are really benefits um to using it in both instances uh they also um there there is going to be um in the professional development day coming up on uh October 14th there's also going to be a focus on artificial intelligence there and lessons has been added about artificial intelligence to the digital citizenship curriculum which began last year so there is a focus on it and U we also discussed the fact that the huning county school boards Association for those who are interested are having a session on AI on Monday Monday so um I think there are a number of us that attending that um and then finally we went through the um advanced placement results um which were really positive we received the results um that we looked at the number of students taking the test um and and I've noticed that there's been an increase again uh the numbers were down when policy had changed which was the the old policy was you had to take the AP exam in order to get the advanced placement credit um and that had the waiting and that's changed uh but we're still we're beginning to see an increase again in the courses um we also discussed the difference between the concurrent enrollment where they can get college credits at I think rbcc as well as seat in all um at versus um taking the AP exam so that the the committee could understand that um we also talked about the fact that the students can look at um the AP credit policy to see what scores colleges actually will um take credit for and it was noted that there can be a significant financial benefit to parents and students uh by getting that credit ahead of going into college because um in some instances you could even take up take out a semester's worth of of uh credit and cost when the students at college so we were talking about that quite a bit and there'll be continued encouragement for students to take the AP courses we have really an excellent AP program in the district that was very emphasize that we train our teachers to do what's necessary to be accredited AP teachers um which is really an advantage um that we have in the district versus a lot of other districts in the state um then we just uh mentioned mentioned uh for the good of the order um the the discussion around how common assessments were created this summer and it went well uh so we'll begin to have some benchmarks uh going into this school year versus you know the the students how they perform this year versus last year um and then we also discussed the and I think it's on the agenda um the copies of they say high say books that are um up for disposal are going to be donated going into um so we'll be taken care of that and that was the of the discussion questions that meeting is virtual too yeah it's virtual you go to the dinner or you can log on virtually on the 30th so that's our first 100 in County meeting yeah it looks great and then they sent the notice on the new update you have a caption our code true yeah the other thing Beth did mention I think it was like what we said 20 20 27 yeah classes yeah I was I mean I I knew there's a lot I have kids here but I didn't real there was that many right I think we kind of lose sight of just how massive a program opportunities are for our kids so it's are we still offering the same AP courses too have they changed are we are anything been added or they still the same we added seminar but I don't know how long ago it's been a few years since we added seminar we we have a proposal for um that we'll be looking at in November to change our honors pre-calculus to AP pre-calculus so that might be one one great great yeah I didn't realize when we do that right we're also then having to train the teachers to do these classes right so it really is you that's it's a massive undertaking that's it's a great opportunity for the for the students I I didn't realize there was that many classes so other questions okay thank you so need a call for motion and in second to approve agenda items 101 through 103 second Jess uh all in favor any opposed any exensions okay and policy and school security Kim um so we met on September 16th uh everyone was present um Rich up we um discussed the update on the policy manual conversion uh Rich updated the committee on the progress of the conversion of our policy manual uh by njsba we are still on target to complete the conversion by the end of October um we will be contracting with a company called board docs which will be the hosting platform to accept uh to access the manual once the conversion is complete um upload process starts and full access should be available for the board in January or by January that still will have access before but the public will have access by January January um and right now no action being [Music] taken we uh discussed uh policy a 43.2 student representatives to the board um which is an ongoing discussion um we had an in in-depth discussion about uh board reps and their role on the board uh some exploratory discussion was had surrounding some suggested revisions to the policy based on Research from other District's policies uh continued discussion will occur uh Rich shared the student rep selection process and explained how building principles meet with student reps before board meetings and added he will plan to asend to attend the said meetings um as part of the on uh boarding new student reps it was suggested that the CSA meet with uh newly Ed uh elected reps to let them know uh their expectations and responsibilities on the board um and the action items uh we will continue to um onboard new student reps and attend future meetings and in conclusion we will continue to look at the policy language for the upcoming meetings so I know Beth had asked about that about that I I wasn't sure it's okay um and then we did have some other business uh go to the order uh it was I received a request us to um about cell phones so we did have a discussion about that um and I was it was noted that individ individual teachers have um enforced cell phone policies for several years now uh this year North had a schoolwide initiative to use um um uh I guess like a over the back uh uh back of the like a shoe organizer for over the back of the door shoey um a shoe thinggy um for the classroom door have students leave their phones when they're there when they're in class uh this has created a more uniform enforcement and has shown effective thus far uh we will continue to monitor the effectiveness throughout the year um we also discussed the new part pre-participation physical evow forms being used it's for uh students a athletes Athletics um in both schools it's provided by the NJ doe Department of Education uh to help parents in completing the submission of these forms we will be highlighting the info at the top of the form there'll be a section at the top of the form so the parents see what they need to fill out and submit because they do not have to submit all the paperwork um only the doctor sign off page needs to be returned to the school this form will also be placed first in the link on our website and that was it for good of the owner questions I just had a question a comment on the cell phone um on the cell phone policies and I guess my question is you know in the context of emergencies like the school shootings and things if have if if requiring the students to keep their phones away from their person is in the best interest of our students I get trust me I get why we don't want the kids to have their phones on them all the time but is there you know thought about just having them put it in a backpack you know that's I just wanted to kind of throw that out there because something were to happen you hear about a lot of these horrible situations and kids are able to get in touch with someone if they need to if they have to actually stand up and go to the door and you get a crowd of kids going get their phones I'm going to deflect that to Rich but I think when we did discuss that whether any issues are how are the kids feeling how were the teachers doing and that was a discussion so rich can elaborate on that so from a school security standpoint I can talk to you offline address your concerns um you know again it's one tool that we're using Okay um the reality of it is if a student didn't put their phone in a thing and had it in their backpack and it was silenced and it never came out of their backpack the teacher wouldn't know okay um it's just another way to make sure that students are um they have an excuse to keep it away from them it's hard to not it's hard to resist that buzzing when it's going off in your pocket that's what the intend is okay sounds good and we have we for clarification have we had students you know complaining of such that it's an issue or or teachers causing it's it's a distraction what do you think is it has it become such an issue or it's just kind of a I guess they ask the student rep is is it is it you know I think it depends on the student but we don't have it okay yeah yeah at North I think I was actually talking to kaac earlier about um just a cell phone policy um I I was talking to him how it varies from class to class um and engagement in that class cuz I was talking about how in my AP golf class we put our phones in the pocket in the beginning of the period but because of the engagement in the class it doesn't really you don't really think about your phone because as a student you're engaged in the class but um in another class like if I were to put my phone away it's kind of just like and only because I'm not really as engaged and I'm just kind of distracted I'm in my own world it's like I don't know I know some students they instead of putting it in the pocket they put it in their in their bag but then they pull it out during class and then they'll just like behind their computer Tap Away put it back in their pocket so um yeah thank you for sure yeah it's helpful and that probably becomes it back to your point of distraction to the kids next to them someone else is doing it cuz we do it we're it me when I'm in work meetings and you've got people on the thing so I I get it trust me I totally get it um but just had some you know reservations I guess I would said about it security so in in Point if we're doing it this as an initiative here is it something we you're thinking of implementing or trying at Bor 2 or is it just they always share ideas but sometimes something starts at one building it works they share it with the other building and vice versa it happens all the time back and forth so and teachers could be doing it anyway and we don't even know I yeah some teachers did have policies before they would have bins and things like that just sort of formalized Amilia you want to add anything um I completely agree with SH um although to the point of um like if you weren't on your phone a teacher wouldn't know many teachers use the phone pockets as like an attendance system um which is difficult because if you are a student that like doesn't have their phone on them all the time and maybe LIF at at home then you have to like go out of your way and speak to a teacher about that and I understand that's a rare circumstance um but sometimes is it is inconvenient especially if you need your phone for something like contacting a parent for something important then you need to get permission and it just takes a lot longer to do some necessary tasks well thank you for that feedback I think one of the things I know when you hear examples in about the concern that you articulated uh and I feel like we've reiterated it both here and in committee you know there are opportunities obviously throughout the day where where kids can connect um I think one of the scenarios that doesn't get captured and um but there are emerging examples of is when something um concerning spreads through social media and the phones that would potentially be a distraction in the building um with the phones being away the likelihood of that emanating to the level of a distraction doesn't happen and that could be very local something just happening among the students or students you know reacting to something that happened somewhere else that doesn't create sort of the the stir in that way and that's a harder one to pinpoint uh and but when you have that example you see the impact of it but the kids are going to get their cell phones back at the end of class have the same social distraction in the hallway the same social distraction in the cafeteria the same social distraction in the class that doesn't collect the phone if it if it's you know if you're worried about that distractions yes it's going to distract them in class but they once they get to class then they're all going to be talking about it anyway so it's you're kind of in a catch 22 where they're going to find out about something that's going on I know I mean with even with Sophia it was all throughout text through the kids um um you know I I heard about it through my daughter who's a teacher at CPS now yeah so it came to me indirectly um pretty quickly um and it's I you know that's the kids I wish this was going to solve all of our C cell phone issues I don't think it ever will tool for certain s but it's a tool for both for the teachers right and for kids that as sham said that you know you get engaged and you forget about that and then the hours gone by collect your phone and you'll be able to check your email walking at whatever they're doing lunch there's another time for that but we need to get back to academics and focusing and yeah it's just also it's a form of respect you have it you have a teacher taking the time learning you know PD everything that they have to do to get that cost ready and uh and uh they deserve the attention exactly maybe there was one teacher and I'm not going to name names but was sending emails out to parents to say look I'm going to give your kid detention like this went to the whole classroom's par the whole all the parents your kids are going to get detention if they use their phones I told them three four five times but detention clearly was needed to turn from that which is crazy so yeah definitely it definitely helps from that standpoint we'll talk to what has been the talk with this is initiative with North is it every teacher is deciding is that the way it was at North prior where every teacher decided and now this is a schoolwide I think stuff like this was going on I mean I can tell you my teacher friends in other districts it's been going on for years the cell phone just didn't pop up today I mean this has been going on for years so teachers find their own ways that work for them you know it might be over the door it could be a basket on the teacher's desk there's there's lots of of ways it's what works best but as rich said they were do trying to do an initiative where they were all doing this trying to do similar things just to support teachers to allow them to have something yes okay Finance John oh uh nothing thank you Glenn um so uh we met our committee on the 16th everybody was there except for Tara um main topic of conversation that we had was regarding the capital projects Katie has already elaborated on the clean energy grant funding so I'd just also like to reiterate uh how happy I am that uh she was able to source that Grant um now that is the third time we've worked with Honeywell first time was before I came on the board and they it seemed like they did a tremendous amount of work back then 12 years ago and then we did it again um maybe four or five years ago and wrapped up that project so we've really no stone has been unturned uh at both both schools finding efficiencies upgrades um so I think we're we're set to go uh well into the future before we have to tackle uh some of these uh projects so and not only not just we're taking care of these items but we're doing it in a fashion where we we're able to capture so much State funding that you know which is difficult for us to uh latch on to especially in in an environment where we see um reduced uh state aid so this is one opportunity for us to uh to really maximize uh State participation in our in our schools um and then we also talked um about um we're wrapping up the uh 2022 um referendum projects that um was another Avenue for us to capture um State matching money and the reason we had the referendum was because we had this scope of work and in order to get State funding we had to um perform a uh a referendum and we received that approval and then the next year then we paid that off with our own money we didn't need a bond long term for that um and the good news these projects are winding down and the better news is that there is a lot of money uh left over so these projects in that referendum grouping um were you know well under budget to approximately $1.7 million so this savings um and so the state you know they kicked in their their portion we kicked in our portion and the remaining 1.7 million we'll be able to slip back into our um capital reserve capital reserve yeah um if you recall the last time we had a referendum project we had some um money left over um but since that was um a long-term um Bond bonding situation we had to return it through annually in our budgets so this this referendum project we we paid it all off that that second year after it was approved and so that because of that that 1.7 million can go directly back into our our budget so um you know I'm glad projects have gone well they've went under budget and uh we'll have more money to spend on other similar projects or other Capital work uh down the road uh we also talked about um you know we had a transportation update things seem to be going well this school year I guess there was some uh um there was increasing in Staffing over the summer so uh even the athletic runs seem to be going well you know knock on wood so we're we're pleased to see that there aren't the similar issues that we've had other years regarding those that bus busing situation uh we also just did a uh agenda review which is very light um there's a wellness Grant um on there of $122,000 um um there's some books that are biology books that are being donated to the school from the hunter County Vocational School District um reason they're donating these books because um the classes they will no longer be teaching them once the new build bu here is finished uh those classes um th those students will be taking those classes here at North hund so that's why you see that donation of books other than that there was just approval of some uh booster club Banners at both schools and then other monthly reports were discussed and there were no questions so that's all that I have anybody has any questions I Katie the the SE second half of the projects for next year that's already paid for how right it's already encumbered or do we second half of thect you're are we doing more of the agback next next summer so the $2 million that I referenced in the presentation that's still part of the grant so we still have funds from the grant so we're able to do all those projects next sum with that okay yes thank you right now we're going through the long range facility plan we kind of had that discussion as well just that we're targeting what things are our priority now so that if we have money in capital reserve we can start having better and more full discussions of what are our priorities and you know necessary projects in the next like 2 3 5 years and how much money can we keep in our maintenance fund um that's a calculation you actually see that on the October agenda it's a calculation of the square footage of the buildings and we have 1.7 in maintenance Reserve right now that we haven't touched in a few years so that's available to us um I think we're allowed to have almost 4 million okay thank you you're welcome those are probably mainly used for like emergency purposes that exactly like a really large product that's unforeseen like the gy wells are very deep up there very so the $122,000 wellness Grant that's great is that something that happens each year this is through to it's happened before insurance we apply for it every year and hope that they will have funding for it it's through the school's Health Insurance Fund um a couple years ago we joined that um Health Insurance Fund it's kind of like pooling your interest and so you get better pricing for health insurance and that fund always has a specific amount allocated for wellness so that we apply every year we try to get as much as we can and then we're able to do things like walking challenges nutritional um days during our P days this is all for the staff all for staff yeah and things that we wouldn't normally be able to do with tech funding is All Wellness related so it's been really well received the past two years John you mentioned the busing bus drivers has gotten better or not as bad maybe correct we had we've had problems past years where the ranks were so thin that the athletic runs after school if you know if there was an absent bus driver somewhere in the ranks it would it would be difficult to F fill those athletic runs so they've been able to staff up just a little bit more so there's a little bit more uh forgiveness that so um you reports are that we're not having I guess the certain teams AR don't have to transport themselves to away events and uh okay so so so we shouldn't I I shouldn't think that the whole bus driver problem is kind of Sol R Edge is now a little bit we yes we are coping as best we can but it's still a problem I me there's a Scramble for the cross country team on Satur to their away event where they had to do that exactly carpo the bus didn't arrive it just but it doesn't sound like it's happening as frequently right it's just the difference of a few more bus drivers available nothing fundamental happen change like you know oh no nothing well so the licensing procedure is is very difficult the pool of applicants is very very shallow so uh very competitive as far as pricing for the drivers it seems to be a bidding more in the area ESC who we um cooperate with is that $30 an hour I believe now and now all of the districts R are going above $30 an hour so it's just a matter of the same pool of people um are unfortunately being targeted and then you lose them and then they go somewhere else and then the standards they have to it's noty to get obtain a CDL license they're driving a bus and they have to know like running a rig driving a rig it's just it's no Rhyme or Reason I think we were able to hire one potentially two um retired drivers um to do just athletic runs in the afternoon so they don't want to be full-time but they still want to do athletic runs so we hired them directly through North or and we still have them so yeah he's still on staff we're hoping to get another just seems to be a nice arrangement for them and for us we can attract them with a slightly higher pay raise because we're just targeting that couple hours in the afternoon other questions okay so any need a call for motion and second to approve agenda items 121 through 1213 second yes uh all in favor any opposed um can I just vote no on something on the list or do I have to approve it all or not can you just reference maybe the check number or the name of the vendor yeah uh 0 37769 I'm going to vote no fortit okay thank you and I just have two questions really easy ones um were there any NOS orions sorry hold on you had a so on there was one exstension no no I'm sorry one no excuse me one no and I'm going to stay from 9 and 13 129 and 12 1213 okay Kim you just a quick um on the on the books for disposal there was a The English Department they're they're from 2021 and they're saying they're excellent is it just cuz we're not using them it's a new addition as required by our concurr moment I believe yeah okay okay and then the uh the other question ktie or Rich you can answer to this I I noticed on the travel for PD um there's a lot of repetive do we send just one person from you know for a PD or and do a turn key when they come back I don't know what you're repres can you give me an example oh um just to go for uh history conference at Princeton you have teachers going out of the building but multiple to one event I mean do we do is it you know just say thinking in general moving ahead so um staff could attend more or different PD instead of sending three people to one is don't do we do turn key we do but sometimes it's beneficial for more than one staff member to go okay something could be viral it just depends on which one you're looking at if you let us know ahead of time we could look into it yeah I just I just CAU it when I I was just thinking one that you're referencing doesn't like the I don't think they're virtual but that was all I think we oh sorry no it's okay oh no I wanted to vote no on the both Institute okay same one is a point of clarification I thought at one point we decided we were not voting on sub items within that they're not numbered right we don't vote on items that are underneath that level it's it's a yes it's a up down or abstain from the numbered level that's what right I think you recorded it as a no as a no correct so that's the way it was recorded did you a no for the whole item for the whole numbered item yeah 12.9 is a no correct well she referenced a check number so it's a check number do it yeah but are we but are we drilling down I thought we weren't because they're not agenda items we can't single out a single check item well same as Personnel I mean we allow people to but but they're on but they have agenda items they have a line item they have a line item L line bills list I have a check number but she has a check number that is a line item we've always done it that way actually I don't think we have right I know that when Katie your abs as long as I have a number reference I think I think we've always done it and then when Katie in the absence when we had the um interm it was done differently conversation no as long as I usually have a number that I can reference that I can c that out thank so M difficult do you want me to give the number nope I have that's yeah so so but that just sets a precedent so now we we can as long as we can refer to something that's underneath the items we can object or you vote no on a sub item we're setting we're allowing that to happen now I think because we've always done that with Personnel I would say that's the same as what we've been doing I don't think we were doing the individual line item bills I believe what we were doing was the bills entirely because the because it's a 2.9 is the agenda item but the like in Personnel it's 13.12 13.13 13.14 I know that when anybody goes for a PD or get reimbursement you can still approve the bills list but then you want to obain from your specific reimbursement so yeah it's been done in the past this is I've been on the board 15 years and I have it's always been like that I I actually thought that when you abstain it it means you're abstaining from the entire build but there's a line item there's a specific number and the check is the line it and I can understand that concept John is there any reason why we can't be doing it this way this is a practice issue this is how the board wants to self-govern on this it seems like this only really happens on on monthly bills list so is it fair to say we make this rule for personnel aside well you guys want to do it for bills so here's my concern with bills is that the services have already been rendered and we have to pay them so it's almost a formality here so I mean if you if we do this and then everybody disagrees you if you have a quorum that disagrees we're not going to pay the vendor we can't do that that's a breach of contract so uh for so for the full Institute I was told that in reality we're not approving the agreement that was put in place right so and if you work you know if you wanted to object to the folk Institute which I do I'm able to vote no on the payment because that's really the approval process for folk Institute so if the if the entire if there was a quorum to vote against the folk Institute check number that's already been issued and paid how is how would that how would the board take action then or the or you as business administrator would you call and stop payment on the check would you call and resend and ask for payment back we can't really legitimate line item uh check that's being cut righten there's also statute that requires as as Katie could explained uh Speedy payment uh for public entities which requires 30-day pay upon tender but but a check could be potentially tabled to be looked into or in discussion from the va's perspective if they haven't gone out yet if they haven't or Services haven't been rendered hav't rendered or Services have been rendered and you're questioning the services that are have been rendered that can happen is it our as a board if a if the business administrator and the administration have vetted the in the folk Institute have signed a contract with them because we are not signing the contracts we entrust and Empower them to do so and if they've used and facilitated the the services how is it that we can line item a check for a payment of a bill that has already been approved on a level outside of our own I think that's a I think that's a good point only because I think that our role here is to basically is to approve outgoing funds from a District budget that's what we're doing we're not looking at whether a payment is appropriate for a particular vendor we need to just agree that we're going to allow for district Monies to go out I when you vote on something that something that you're not 100% in agreeance with you know when there's taxpayer money and I'm represent my constituents I'm going to stand for what I want to say and I'm going to vote no on something so in a situation like that since this one could be separated out on this specific issue I don't think it's that big of a deal and it doesn't seem to be have core and it would be great if we did have core CU then we can go back and look at maybe have some of this stuff reviewed since we are the board members and we are approving the things that Administration is doing and schools are doing right we're not rubber Stampers we're going to question things and we're going to look at things The Institute my job the the folk Institute is a Consulting research and training for firm that develops designs and deploys diversity equity and inclusion programs to help individuals and organizations acquire the skills and insights needed to achieve success ESS in today's Global workplace yes I'm so glad you brought that up if that's if that's part of our you know we have a dni initiative here we're working with our teachers to be um diverse have equality and equity in their classrooms and this is a decision that the administrative team has made to provide these resources to our teachers to have an inclusive environment in our schools or amongst each other in the workplace if if we've already empowered that team to make that decision to provide those services without question because that's their jobs how can we line item and vote against a bill paying of a bill that we've already contracted and Administration has signed for Approved services but she but as an individual board member she has the right to question something and ask just as just as just as every month Mr Chapman takes 12.9 through 12.13 and either and votes no which doesn't support RBA so it's the same thing but it's but he's voting on on the entire line I don't care if it's entire item or or one item okay but then the point of the matter is I can vote no on the bills list and if there's a forum that votes no on the bills list then what you're you're you're not that's the point can is it what's the vote no in the line item or vote on a check but it's how would we move forward if there was a quorum is to not pay an individual Bill what is the policy or what is the procedure if and that is what we had we would question our attorney for and our VA at the point in time it could to put a no to the check number and make life easier similar to how if the board secretary's report if anyone were to vote no there's been plenty of extensions but if someone were to vote no I have to notify the county office and the county superintendent would then be contacting that board member to ask them why they don't have confidence in that board secretary correct I would imagine we would be in the same type of scenario if someone were to vote not on bills list or contractually obligated to pay these and now the county office is going to get involved so that's I believe the road that we would end up yeah if you were good on that road can I chime in sure oh yes please I love you but I'm not top I'm I think this gets to the nature of board action and the nature of board membership um each member here is elected by your constituents to discern their wishes for this school district that's what you're saying I believe not speaking for that's okay um you're not rubber stamping you're not being asked to rubber stamp a no vote on a bill that you feel where Services were not rendered is appropriate a no vote on service that we have a disagreement about I think then gets to the difference between uh making sure the district's well administered in the policymaking role and the programmatic role and the Discerning the wishes of the community role in nature of board members and I think when we talk here about hey what work did this group do what was the criteria that was used to select this group who determines that criteria who how does this align with District goals H how does uh and to that end when we're talking about here uh what I understand to be professional F corre how do we pick professional F corre right and how is that align to to District goals and curricul ulum and board goals that have been established in other ways and that's something that is totally appropriate 30,000 foot for the board to say let's talk about that committee not this vendor specifically but let's talk about how we do this Forward Thinking okay that is entirely within the role of you elected officials to have a conversation about that and that's how I would view this that's a great it's a great Point that's a great question because I think that was like one of the reasons of how this developed and how it got to this point with it you know with the funding and with the taxpayer money and with the learning loss and I understand how the um you know the U the American Rescue plan act works and what it can be used for and you know when you look at number 12 about the learning loss um with the student I think the money would have been spent some place better so maybe that could be a great conversation we can discuss wait was this or is this are funds paying that for this folk Institute from a certain Grant or funding we received or is this an actual it's a staff development we've decided to deploy this service to be in line with our district goals in for Dei and um is I mean can we qu is that within our you know our authority to question the decisions of of a Administration to who they deploy for staff development if the question to me is is this in line with our district goals the answer is yes so the folk Institute represents as far as represents our district goals it's been determined that it's a program that is um that is beneficial to our staff by the people that we have put in place to do so and that's our job and that's our job our job should not be to vote down an individual bill because you don't align personally with that vendor our job should be as as what I'm understanding John to say is how do we select these vendors and what is the vetting process or how does like John said align with our district goals not um not whether or not we personally agree with the selection of that particular vendor wait we just went in circles we didn't go in circles what John is saying is that when we when we get to the when we get to the bills list the no vote should be on the level of we are paying the wrong amount to this vendor not that um we disagree with the payment of the bill right because at this the the conversation of whether we should be you know Contracting with the vendor a more holistic conversation of saying going forward who who do we how is the school doing personal development and do we think that's in the best interest of of the teachers in the programs but at this level we're not we shouldn't be saying I don't want to pay this because I don't agree with it it's sort of too late in some respect now I have a question in what committee would this this topic be discussed as a committee it's been referred to curriculum right curriculum okay professional development as a whole and what our priorities are so that's so that's where any of these questions we have going forward would be brought up and discussed and then put forward if we need a vote from curriculum committee okay now and not to kind of Bel Point Katie but and just kind of to go back with Brian's vote and is there ramifications to this board that that we have an individual who votes no to every report that you issue like I said if you voted no I would have to reported to the executive county superintendent so it gets reported every um he's been abstaining he abstains exension and he's pulling his vote out of the mix it's just um okay so if it was a no it would be a different story because he's decided to abstain and John can you define the definition of abstain ition again I think we just go ahead I'm happy you do it but I mean do you want to go down this road you're you're in charge of the meeting respect well well well okay so since because he's doing it I think it's probably good that we all understand what's happening so why don't we understand what does what it what does it due to our quarum I don't know if that was necessarily the question wasn't the question well but I think once you start if we all abstain I think it was an abstention do in terms of can we still obtain a quorum and doing that a quorum of votes of a yes no ramifications to the board as a whole with this Contin continual exension or the continual and it's no support for the board for the ba it does not show unilateral support for our ba but neither does the questioning of each individual check du the question question a check I think checks have been questioned before I really don't think it's just today I'm not saying just today I'm just saying when a board member is questioning yes there you should be questioning okay and you're yes and asking those questions you asked simple question asking there wasn't a question asked today about the folk Institute the qu the question what happened today during vote was that there were individuals who' voted against a specific check number there wer questions as to why that vendor was chosen there wasn't questions as to what benefit it posed to the district it was a line item vote no and there was conversations that had happened prior to coming to the table with Administration regarding that perhaps but I think this is this is not we're out of we're going out of our roles and I think this is something that Administration should be discussing with a board member not another board member attacking another not attacking that's not an attack we're trying to I'm trying to get clarification here this isn't an attack what I'm trying to understand is is what our role is and can we minutia down to check numbers can we individual where is it appropriate to question payment of bills and can we are we within our rights as a board member or as a board and whole to you know go down and drill in to vendors and if and then the other question that I had is an exstension or a no vote obviously it's not a no vote it's an exstension how does that continual exstension uh impact our board you know whether it's um you said on the county level if it's a no but an exstension what does that mean well why don't you ask Mr Chapman why he's abstaining you have the right as a board member to ask another board member why they are voting the way they are voting well I I don't I would also ask mcole why are you opposed to the told you I told you okay have we voted on 12 yet no no I mean why don't we do this in new business this is getting ridiculous so let's let's I have the vote you have the vote right is anybody we had extensions so I think everything passed right everything passed yeah yes okay so I agree this is new this is a top three new business on both 129 and 1213 I think what I will say in summary right is it's not our job as a board to to to pick and choose specifically every single thing the school does on a day-to-day basis that's not our job as a board right and we were told this by by our attorneys during the ethics of of the first day of our board meetings that our job is not to run schools right our job is to oversee schools and when we start going down into every single thing they do right they know better than we do right I think it is it is appropriate to ask holistically what is the plan for Teacher development right and that's not inappropriate it's not inappropriate to ask holistic how much money are we spending on teach development maybe it's not enough money but then to ask Rich to tell me every single Choice he makes that's not our job right at some point we have to let them run the schools at the level of running bills is not the point at which if I'm understanding John's comment it's at a Bill's level the if the amount is incorrect then we should be voting no but at this stage that's this is not the point to dispute it we should be disputing this before we contract with with someone that was my question I don't have a comment 1210 to 1213 we we can have that conversation that was okay community relations okay uh community relations we didn't meet this month we meet every other month but we have two items to vote on and they are um our standard coming um this is the time of year we vote on overnight uh field trips and we have on the agenda item the 13.1 which is model un the north Hunter and cheerleaders the north Hunter and wrestling team and the youth and government clubs there are their overnight trips so we'll be voting on those um and everything is in the um U agenda there and then the other line item is 13.2 it's a proposal for the photography club at vy's high school and if you've looked at the proposal it follows all the criteria that we've put in place in policy of the board to have a new new club um proposal um so we would um I would you know welcome everyone to vote on that so we can see the budding photographers up it fores that's it just one question what do we do these the does 132 already get money or is that sort happening I believe they usually start as a volunteer okay any as other clubs lose interest okay I I be that'll be under when we vote if there's money involved this is just the proposal and then if there's an opening they move up and they can get a paid these are volunteer right now yeah do we have a a lab here for photography or everything's digital now I Bor has the broadcasting had right would they have a lab there we used to have a dark room up there yeah it was great but I don't know if they have anymore dark rooms are you Miss I know dark rooms are you could have said it was in the basement it's in the Bas no no on the fourth floor it's on the fourth floor pool yeah yeah I got it so but anyway so those are our two items so we do have to vote on them okay so any question any more questions on that all right so I need a call for motion second to approve agenda item 13.1 and 13.2 so moved second that y okay uh all in favor I any opposed any extensions okay so moved with the delates were there were the meetings this past we have a meeting on Monday September 30th it's um virtual you can join virtually or you can participate live dinner will be served and there's that we were just saying the QR code I feel like I'm going to the market yeah but yeah it's it's on it's at the where yeah they alternate North or North County and then South County so it's up so it's the first of the year it's our first one of the year um no um for for us delegates is December 7th de okay yeah okay and I'm going to send an email once we get um if if we want to put any resolutions but when they have all of the resolutions that are coming in I'll send you guys an email to the link to look at 7th December 7th yeah it's late this year it is yeah really late is it usually November MH yeah it's usually just before Thanksgiving that Saturday usually just before the Thanksgiving but this year um the board of directors is like that time I think maybe because school boards is later in October and so yeah the 7th uh Personnel Personnel meeting met Personnel committee met on the 16th and we discuss the Personnel agenda perfect so I need a call for motion second to adopt resolution 0924 24-2 for executive session to discuss matters falling under categories 47 and 8 as reflected in the attached resolution the board expects to be in executive session for prox 1 hour and upon return to public session action will be taken all in favor any oppos any extensions we are in executive [Music] session 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 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 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 e call for a motion second to recen public session so move second Tera all in favor I any opposed any extensions we're back in public session okay so I need a call for a motion and second to approve agenda item 8.1 and 8.2 and 8.3 8.3 being a hand carry 8.1 is our agenda from the September 24th meeting 8.2 are I'm sorry 8.1 is our Personnel agenda from September 24th meeting tonight 8.2 is our minutes from our August 13th meeting and 8.3 be resolve that upon recommendation of the board's NE the board's negotiating committee and the Acting Superintendent to approve and adopt the mo MOA agreed upon between the board and the NH vrh sdaa for the period 20124 2025 through 2027 2028 uh I need a motion a second some Terra second second Beth and I need a roll call vote Miss tagno yes Mr trapman yes Miss Gallow yes Miss hin yes Miss kran yes Mr yes Mr M yes M Reyes yes Miss Selen yes Mr yes Miss me oh sorry I thought you mumbled yes I appr Mr yes thank you awesome okay any older new business a minor thing real quick uh I like perhaps the finance committee or just the administration to consider with this all this uh Capital money that is that Katie has made sure is still in the book on the books the Tennis Court North hun tennis court fence that's facing the new building needs to be twice as high as it is now and I think it'll pay for itself in the reduce missing T take a at it okay uh just FYI right one of our goals was to um have a session to develop Implement board Norms which was uh Gwen's right right up to us um so I reached out to Gwen to see if we can range a 30 or 40 minute meeting prior to one of our future board meetings so if that's okay with everybody so um still trying to get a date with her and I'll circulate maybe we can do a Google whatever can we do a virtual I I'm that's probably easier it's fine yeah as a sube or yeah I don't oh can we do that yeah unfortunately the board doesn't uh need fully fair enough pleas we can uh virtually anymore oh that's right I was thinking we could do it before our board meeting yeah like 6:30 6:30 yeah well let me see what our availability is and then we we can we can send around a form and see if everybody's good so that's just an update okay anything El I have sorry um and that was Rel relation to the uh board goals yes um just looking at the Strategic plan uh are we going to invite when to start that what are we implementing we're we're we're currently evaluating proposals one of those being school boards but we have a couple otheres that also do that tring they were doing it we did the same thing for the demographic studies I'm going to have a recommendation for you for October on that once they start ball rolling on that then I'll have a recommendation in November on who we want to use for strategic planning which would probably start in January and we'll have demographic information for that which is important okay great great okay um and then I just wanted to note I I I I noted in policy um I made not note to um Bethlehem Franklin Union communities are talking about regionalization so um a lot of people didn't know I didn't even know about and I'm looking at scrolling through my Bethlehem page um and they did me and a letter was sent out um I can for I'll forward this to everyone it's just introducing writing they were writing to write an update on the results of the recent recent regionalization study and the next steps in the process um Bethlehem you know had reached out as well it was unsure I think it was more of a union Franklin but um and I know this is something that I said to you and John can attest it takes a long time I mean we saw stop hutter and I mean it's a long time but um there's a lot of red tape and there's also a lot of um I guess tentacles to that you know that you have to deal with so um but it said following the presentation the presidents and vice presidents is school boards from Bethlehem Franklin and Union met to gauge interest in moving forward with regionalization discussions it was unanimously agreed that further discussions are necessary and each district will address this topic at their regularly scheduled board meetings in September and October to gather feedback from the community while these discussions continue all three boards expressed an interest in exploring shared services between the districts were appropriate as a potential benefit regardless of regionalization which I think they've been doing and we've been doing with with our sending districts as well um it's important to note that the board's role in this process is to facilitate discussions and determine if an option would be brought to the community to vote for regionalization to move forward each District's board must pass a resolution once this is memorialized the New Jersey Department of Education must provide initial approval and then the proposal will be placed on a ballot for a community referendum and they're asking for input so you so those of you Union you know I I I would recommend I'm going to be going to my uh town meeting and my local board meetings so is there any way we can are you scheduled to have a there was one last night I'll check the minutes to see I didn't see it on the agenda for last night I'm sorry last night are but I can go to one is our exec board scheduled did you guys put a meeting together for uh with our sign we need to schedule next I think we're doing it so that would probably be a better discussing this so you get information I can also attend just to see it with their yeah and somebody could attend Franklin I Franklin yeah Frankin Jess and I yeah that would be great now just to you're talking about their their school board meeting they're sending districts they're talking about the K8 K are they talking about regionalizing with each other are they talking about regionalizing under North forhe no with each other I had the impression yeah CU it was confused to me too right we learned like like out was crazy we we learned on social media it was kind of but this came out from the township yeah that's right we yeah we got for then we got a formal letter yeah I think it's the three towns that trying to work that's my and do we I mean there's I I know there's that representation element there but I mean you're not asking us to Lea on this topic nope I suggesting recommending as your that's your your constituency that also and that's your local school board to go and find out and hear what's going on because I didn't know anything about this I would have been like to sit in and hear what they're discussing you know it's important you know that's your local sending District yeah I'm just going to listen and see if I can po report back right here so and I'll look at the meting from last night thanks and then the next round table meeting would be we have to we can probably shoot for October right yeah October would be good we hav over the um we had went over the summer so I can we can skle that and that's not something that had bubbled up recently at that Forum that did not the only thing we only thing we had discussed at that one was just the fact that the high schools can offer right services to them and I think that even that was news to many of the schools that we that we were doing that so in the past though there had there has been discussions um from districts for regionalization but not with each other yeah the whole and us I I remember when I was on CPS there were there was Outreach uh when Franklin was looking to share the superintendent they were reaching out to the sister districts to see if anybody was interested right Franklin and Union already do some degree yeah that's that's common knowledge they've been they've been sharing and yeah to help baring and back that to your knowledge hasn't extended to be yet I don't know I have I I'm not going to say I N or yay I'm going to attend their meeting and you know like I said this was up on our P our our Bethlehem page so I had but I had seen it last pre previous to the policy meeting and that's when I brought it up in policy just to let everybody know that wow I just saw this from you know question regarding I believe there was going to be a tour of the oh so yes actually um I did confirm with Todd bonsel today so uh before the October 15th board meeting cool um he's willing to come out he can come out at 5:30 we're going to do six but it might be cut cutting it close to do a tour and then still be back here for our 7 o' meeting okay if we do 5:30 I will send an invite out to everybody if you can just say yes if you can be here no if you can't that way we'll have an accurate count of we have to make sure we have enough hard hats CU we have to we oh can I wear mine from the ground breaking you can if you have one from the ground breaking that's the one I will be wearing but just in case somebody doesn't have a heart hat we can obtain some other on for people wear so I think I think I own mine still so and hopefully it's drier like it is now know CU if if we get rain and that's going to turn into a mud pit um but you know again we're appropriate but we get through anything it is it it we Katie and I actually had an opportunity to go over there with him and walk through the building and it was interesting to see you can see the programs and how they're going to be laid out it's fast there still next that's still pretty much targeted right now I think they're tar taret moved from May 2025 to June 2025 but it's definitely moving in that direction so but yes the target is next fall to you A two John or that was it that was it so I'll get that invitation out tomorrow for everybody and then that way we your count anything else okay call for a motion second to adjourn so move yes second next all in favor I any opposed any attentions we are jourm thank you all for your time