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good evening sorry for the delay we had a uh committee meeting and then uh our board group photo for the yearbook and then my
computer sort of took took a while to open up so in any event uh this evening's work session meeting of the northern brilling County Regional Board of Education uh is is called in conformance with the open public meeting act with adequate notice provided as follows a notice sent to the Berlin County Times in the times of Trenton on January 8th 2025 uh notice filed with the
township Clerks of Chesterfield Mansfield North Hanover and Springfield townships on January 8th 201225 and notice of the annual meetings advertised in the Berlin County Times in the times of Trenton on January 10th 2025 I will now call Ro Mr figs present Mrs Bond present Mrs appet Mr Arman ente present Mr bucks present Mr narwin here Mrs Janice
present Mr Spence Mr Zimmer here miss Pierre present thank you very much at this time I'd like to ask everyone to please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a m moment of silence
has any Board of education member receive Schoolboard related emails Andor correspondences that have not yet been shared with the superintendent all right um Dr Zuckerman if you'd like to commence with your superintendent report absolutely I'd like to first turn it over to uh Miss Pierre for the student representative
report good evening everyone my board report tonight will consist of information about our sports clubs and upcoming events boys basketball the team has had key victories recently over Lindenwood Camden Academy charter and come and a come from behind victory over pensan they are trying to stay alive to remain in playoff contention congrats to coach darling on his 200th program win
girls basketball the northern burington girls basketball team is having a strong season full of milestones and memoral moments highlighted by head coach Ed Fitzpatrick earning his 100 career win and Senior standout Joe Watson scoring her 100th a thousandth Career Point both incredible achievements that speak to the program's success and hard work the Greyhounds are focused on finishing the season strong and making a push for
the postseason wrestling at the start of the season Northern Burlington wrestling had its sights set on a return to the state championship final however as the season has unfolded injuries and lineup gaps have forced the team to shift its focus while a devastating 3936 loss tidel ran officially ended their bid for the Liberty division title the Greyhounds remain determined to stay healthy and make a push for the sectional championship and see what happens
from there winter track the northern Burlington winter track team has been putting in the work the team took on the njsi AA State relas a major event that brought together some of the best talent in the state in addition to the scheduled needs coach barbs has given the team extra chance chances to compete sending athletes to high-profile events across the tri- state area bowling the northern Burlington bowling team has been grinding through a challenging season
facing off against some of the toughest competition in the bcso with the season winding down all eyes were at the BCS bcsl annual tournament at Laurel Lane on last Thursday where the hounds did a nice job swimming all those early Mo mornings and tough training sessions in the pool have paid off for the third straight season the qu the squad earned a postseason birth after beating Freehold burrow in the first round of playoffs the
hounds ultimately ended their season against a Challen challenging Lawrence Township team that's all for my report thank you very much included in my superintendent report that you had uh for this evening's agenda is an update on my my the superintendent goals after reviewing this please let me know if anybody has any questions or if you'd like any additional information uh this evening one thing particularly that I would like to discuss that's included in my
goals is updating of the northern Burlington mission statement we are working with a company called thought exchange this tool will allow us to not only gather feedback from the students the staff the parents and the community Additionally the tool will allow the participants to rate the responses that are submitted by others this allows us to not only gather feedback but also receive ratings on how other people feel about those same items we will launch the exchanges by the beginning of March after collecting the data
I will set up meetings to share the results with the students the staff and the community ultimately this information will be will be used to develop the priorities that will be that will help us update the northern Burlington mission statement I expect to share a draft with the board and the community by the end of May with a final version being presented to the board for your approval during the June meeting on tonight's agenda you will see a modification of the 20242 school calendar that's for the
current school year the modification is being requested of four early dismissal days at the high school in March for the administration of the graduation proficiency assessment this is necessary since not everyone in a high school is testing in fact only one grade level is testing and the majority of the students will be following their regular schedule we have to pull teachers to supervise the test and an early dismissal is necessary to make sure that we can meet the contractual obligations we typically have early
dismissal also for the New Jersey student learning assessment that's administered in either April or May it happens to be may this year this year our students will be in school for the full day this is when the entire middle school as well as grades nine and some in 10 are are will be testing in an effort to maximize the instructional time in the buildings the administrators have organized schedules to make sure that the staff still receive their contractual requirements during the school day this will be this
will be allowed to be done because the majority of the students in both buildings will be testing recently the Special Olympics bowling concluded their season the season for the Special Olympics bowling was led by uh Melissa Murphy and Chris Matthews two of our two of our uh teachers we had 25 athletes from the Middle School and High School participate on Saturday February 1st 17 of the athletes competed against other teams in the county nine athletes placed first or second place and they're moving
on to the regional competitions at the beginning of March everyone who congratulations to everyone who participated that concludes my report so I apologize um I do have a question and I should have asked on the way over here please um and it's probably something delicate but regarding your goals yes uh in light of what's going on in North Hanover with uh the superintendent there you think there's any need
for you to um adjust the amount of impact Aid I mean I know I think you're doing a fantastic job um but is there any concern with that um with potentially losing a representative that you have to pick up the slack meaning that so you're asking my involvement with with naus and with the with the board and so on it is something that in when we go down in the spring that that will be discussed I've already kind of asked a few questions um
Miss Payne does a does a great job not only with with in naph but also in Misa one of the subgroups we participate with um and I am absolutely happy to do that um when I first when I first took this position I was asked to take a role in that I didn't think I had the experience but as The more I've been participating I feel that I it is something that I could do it really is based on who else in the country is willing is willing to step up for that position but it's certainly something that I that am willing to
do I have one qu quick quick question on the um on the goals as well I know you mentioned you're going to involve the community um and I guess that's the Greater Community at large is there a uh a plan to reach out to say Beyond um staff students parents that sort of thing my intention is to to publicize it also on a district website and our social media asking for people in the community to also participate um other than
that I was not planning on mailing something home to every resident in the in the district or in the in the mailing um area maybe um easy suggestion would be just to send out communication to the local governing bodies to say that that sort of um you know the opportunity to participate is there sure and whether they make mention at their local meetings or whatever it may happen to be that canas that way okay thank you uh any
other questions for the superintendent all right uh Mr Cass if you could please give your business administrator's report certainly thank you um so my report uh included the agenda for the the buildings grounds finance and transportation committee meeting that preceded this meeting um I also explain in my report uh the reasons for uh various resolutions on the in the business section of the agenda uh that includes you know the the rooftop unit over in the Middle School the replacement
of rtu number 7 um the need to uh update the hva control softwares uh for the Middle School uh system uh storage shed for bus tires uh what else we got um we updated uh the committee on uh the auditorium bids and the rejection um tonight
that will allow us to negotiate contractors at at a uh A reduced cost than what they bid um we're also uh we solicited um Cooperative purchasing uh quotes for the sythetic synthetic track or Synthetic Turf track resurfacing project um and we hope to have some some news uh and a recommendation for the March agenda uh
we're looking at um least purchase uh for uh the that project as well uh granting uh approval of the award to to uh Webster Bank out of Rhode Island uh for 5-year lease purchase agreement to cover the uh uh the turf and track project as part of our general fund budget um School Bus leasing purchase plan uh gives the authority to uh for the the school
to go out and uh bid uh for the lease purchase financing of two replacement school buses and it not to exceed cost of 250,000 uh as tradition you have will mcke director of facilities uh facilities and project summary embedded in my report uh technology we we need the new um power over ethernet
Poe switches um we're purchasing I believe uh 10 10 switches and so and it's eligible for e- rate uh reimbursement at 50% and so that is a timing issue uh that needs to be addressed uh on the February agenda uh Federal impact Aid uh we we submitted our uh annual application for federal uh impact Aid and uh again uh I'd like to
thank all those uh admin and parents that supported the electronic uh uh collection of the surveys um and then lastly but not least there's the uh the uh Financial disclosure of board ethics forms that you'll be receiving an email uh to to complete and if you have any questions with with that process you can give me or Jill a call and we'll we'll help you through that process but you can anticipate an
email tomorrow or the next day uh about that process so that uh pretty much covers covers my report any questions all right thank you thank you Mr Cass um Dr Kars you like to give your middle school report you want it sure no that's
me oh I I mean I mic turned
off all right good evening to the members of the board would offer my um my report for the middle school didn't make the cut off for the report but uh perhaps you've heard the Eagles won the Super Bowl so that's a it's a highlight here recently certainly had an impact on on the middle school a lot of excited uh students faculty staff so we were good to hear that in terms of Middle School events um a couple things to celebrate
our our robotics team our first Lego team we have two two groups they're called the Nano hounds a blue team and a great team both teams qualified SE at two separate competitions for the South Jersey champ ionship and they'll be representing Northern Burlington at Rowan University in March so we we wish congratulate them on that that achievement and wish them well at the next level also some achievements we had five middle school students make all South Jersey course they participated in a concert just a couple weeks ago the I think it's actually called the junior
high South Jersey chorus includes ninth graders so our our middle school students we're we're right in there with some some high school students uh singing and our High School chorus teacher M Miss Kathleen Kershaw was the director of that um of that group and our own Middle School Lauren Allen she was kind of like the the power behind the throne she was like the producer sluh general manager working behind the scenes to put everything together so we were well represented at that event uh no place for hate we did our our annual door decorating contest it be over in the middle school you can check out some of those um those door decorations that
we've done for for Black History Month we're beginning to get ready for the the next school year in terms of course selections we we've started that process we had some parent meetings our our academic directors are getting ready to come over to the middle school and speak to our our eighth graders about the course offerings for for next year our middle school counselors one of whom you will meet tonight is also getting ready in March to meet with our seventh graders to get them enrolled for their their eighth grade courses um we've done some some things that the students have really enjoyed for our pbsis that's our
um program where we're looking to to reinforce positive behavior teach kids positive behavior and we've done some nice uh I think some reward projects that the kids have really gotten excited about and again it's an opportunity to to recognize them for doing good things which is what they're doing most of the time this week is our blue and gray competition in the Middle School a variety of of dress themes for example today was sports day and then we have a Blu gray competition to wind up the weekend on Thursday and that includes a food drive where students can earn points for their team by bringing in
items to donate to a local food pantry um we're getting ready for our musical our our thespians are are taking the stage getting ready to do Beetle Juice I believe they they will hit the stage in um in April um winter sports have finished our girls basketball team wrestling team cheerleading all had successful seasons and I just want to point out our boys basketball team was undefeated didn't lose a single game the entire season so congratulations to coach zil and all the members of that team on that achievement and we are about to begin our our Spring sport season and with that that concludes my
report do you have any questions I can answer for you at this point second time in history for The Undefeated right well at least for the the current coach I think in 2013 they they did it before but this is a that was a good stuff all right I'll turn it over to Dr mm good evening um so we have a number of highlights as well so first um you heard from Dr Karns that the Arts is thriving at the middle school the same is true for the high school so in addition to our choir and band both
being in the um all South Jersey competitions our njdfl which is one of our thespian groups um has been to two competitions and won a large number of awards each time um we also went to a separate thespian competition where we came home with some awards and we have a jazz concert coming up later this month so we'll highlight some of our Jazz musicians and our musical for the spring is susal so the students are working on that they've selected the cast and crew um and are excited to work on that we have a number of things for second semester um that brings about some changes so first the jrtc had their
change of command um ceremony which was a really great um experience to witness um if you're looking for somebody who's punctual Dr Hogs back there make sure that we started right on time and it was run really well um our winter sports many of the teams are in the playoffs you heard from Miss Pierre there's a lot going on there's a wrestling match still down the hall happening um in the hope that we can advance with some of our playoffs so that's been exciting um we've also rolled out our course selection as you heard for middle school as well um so students are picking classes with their counselors the Juniors
will conclude this week um and then we'll work on sophomores and then on our way down um in terms of things that are happening in February that have been exciting the Paw Prints have been refreshed on that back wall so no place for hate painted the new paw prints and then students were able to sign their names on it taking the no place for hate pledge um before we put that plexiglass back up to keep it safe and sound um and you'll also see that we have door decorating that's happened in our hallways so many of the doors highlight uh achievements of famous uh folks for Black History Month that was really exciting
um as we think about the second half of the year there's a number of things that we're working on right now so finishing up the yearbook to make sure we've captured all of those events um blue and gray is coming up on March 7th for us so they're doing a lot of paint nights and getting posters ready so that we can have that competition um gryan Choice nominations are coming in to help highlight students who um maybe aren't always highlighted because they're just being kind and they're doing good things for the community um in a way that looks a little different than something like an honor roll or another type of um recognition
FFA week kicks off on um Thursday they're going to present some things about uh careers in agriculture and other um projects that they've worked on in their class you'll also notice if you drive past the high school next week that there's a line of tractors out front that's one of the Traditions uh for celebrating FFA week so if you'd like to see some tractors they'll be in the parking lot um and then there's a host of dress down days and other things to commemorate the week for them um and then last we're already working actively on our senior night and our scholarships and making sure that students are getting the ability to apply for those as well as planning
for graduation because that'll be here soon enough any questions about the principles report yeah yeah thank you for your wonderful and very thorough report so um just if you could share out some of the good news about the parking and any updates on the bathrooms so those are all good changes as well so thank you um yeah so um we for parking had Juniors apply for the lottery so we had 30 Junior spots that were um put into the lottery we had 45 students apply all those that didn't get a spot
this round are put into the next Lottery which will happen the first week in March um and then we'll have a third round um before spring break so that we're making sure that Juniors have parking on campus instead of having to park all the way on Island Road Road um we've also opened a second door for morning arrival to hope to expedite the process of drop off and we've heard some positives both from um teachers parents and students who have said like the line is moving much quicker um so we're hopeful that that leads to less tardies and just a more positive Morning Experience to get everybody in the building um bathrooms are kind of status
quo we we think students are being able to get in and get out pretty quickly it doesn't seem like there's any sort of um waiting that we saw at the beginning of the year um and I think they're being able to be monitored really nicely because we have some of our perm subs and our teachers doing that yeah of course any other questions yeah quick related question talking I'm this way sorry like um any progress on uh assessing if there's additional parking spots we could utilize from lot the main lot over here yeah so so there are spots in the main lot we've had to move around some of our subs and some of those
pieces but they'll be the 30 spots that we give to the Juniors as the year goes on so some of them will be used for FFA week for the tractors next week so we wanted to save them for that um but then the first 15 that are in that back row will go up for the first round and then 15 more that are further down will go for the second round we just wanted to make sure that we could give students who had a little bit later birthdays the opportunity to get a spot also any other questions great thank you yeah you want to
say something for the rewards right so um just before we get into the uh recognizing the educators of the year we are tremendously blessed that Northern Burlington we have a phenomenal staff and and our our students reap the rewards of of our staff um in our entire faculty for that matter every other year prior to this Northern Burlington identified two teachers as as teachers of the year and they had a great process to be able to do that um because
we did not follow the state uh approved process our teachers didn't have the opportunity to participate in a Burlington County teacher of the year or even potentially a New Jersey overall educ uh educator of the year so this year we're following the model that's that that's put forth by the state which identifies not only a a Governor's educator of the year but also an educator educator Educational Service professional of the Year from each building Additionally the district
realizes that that our educators are only part of our staff so we also recognize a we put in place to be able to recognize a support professional of the Year this person is is a northern Burlington only recognition but it also recognizes just that you know what it truly takes the the entire community of our staff and a full Village to be able to help support our students so with that being said I'm going to call over Dr Kars I was just looking which one was stepping forward to to kind of like
bring over to identify our Middle School uh recipients and uh staff please know that we did order you some really nice plaques unfortunately only two came in the mail prior to tonight so I didn't want to give it to some and not others so so either myself or or Miss Forester will will'll be delivering those hopefully tomorrow when they are received thank thank you Dr zakman the first uh person that I'd like to to recognize is our our Governor's educator of the year and that's Angelina astina I'm call her up here in just a
minute but Angelina has been with us since 2013 she wears a variety of hats besides being a classroom teacher she is a team leader for the Wizards adviser for the Middle School stack Club that's students taking action together anchor for life that's the club that's specifically designed for um you know military connected students in addition to being a three- season coach she coaches the Middle School cross country team the girls basketball team and the track team one of her students wrote The Following about her Miss as atino is amazing
she has multiple strategies to fit each of her students needs in and out of the classroom every day she always strives and makes it a point to achieve personal and professional growth in her life as a teacher in class class she's always respectful of us students as one of her students I can say that she is one of the best teachers I've had since fifth grade whenever a student needs help she does everything in her power to help them and lead them to success there is never a day that she is not friendly to each and every one of her students she is supportive of her classes and students and that is one of the
things that makes her deserving of this award going to add a live just a little bit last year we had a student family had a a fire in their house and so often when you have one of these these tragedies there's a a go or um go pay me or gofund me thank you GoFundMe Pig you get sits up pretty quickly and um like we're there wasn't one that wasn't getting set up and and the day passed and still wasn't one set up so Angelina took it upon herself to jump through all the Hoops reach out to the family reach out to to go fundme and get that set up
to to help help this uh this um student and the student's family so it just shows you the kind of uh caring and concern that she shows for all of her students and her willingness to go that extra mile so with that I want to bring Miss Asino up here to recognize her for her excellent
work youate it we are going to be taking a picture with everybody at the end so good our our Educational Service professional is our eighth grade counselor Mr Tim Tesco Tim has been at Northern for over 25 years you think about just the depth of of experience your knowledge is just just an incredible resource he was a business teacher in the high school and the middle school and then switched over to the counseling department besides his work
in the counseling office Tim has been award-winning coach of the High School boys soccer team the track team the cross country team and the swim team Tim has had a positive influence on a staggering number of students in since 1997 not to mention the students that he will be working with in the years to come many of the students still keep in touch with him to this day one of the people who nominated shared the following about Tim Mr Tesco is utterly unflappable he maintains a calm and thoughtful demeanor no matter how crazy of the situation he does not get carried away and remains thoughtful regardless of the
situation he is a key member of the Middle School faculty and we are grateful to have him here with us I can't help agree a whole lot with that you know when I was coaching we we talked about it was a about you see a a duck then you sort of Glide effortlessly across the water but if you look under the water they're pading like healthy to to get that forward momentum and and make it look so easy and I think Tim is the same way everything seems to go super smooth with him he doesn't you know lose his cool but that's because he's working really really hard by in the in the background making the phone calls reaching out doing the things he needs
to do to be successful and to to help our students so with that I'd like to call it Mr Tes up here to recognize him congratulations folks like thank you very much everybody I really appreciate it and it's an honor to work with Dr ter and you know the rest of the administration thank you very thank you Dr
M all right it is my honor today to talk to you about Dr Shan Hogs um as the students in his course can attest Dr Hogs is a strong leader that produces strong leaders in the words of one of his alumni nominators Dr Hogs runs the program like a JROTC family and is always there for his people another alumni noted that Dr Hogs touches the hearts of every student regardless of their background he never gives a second thought he sees their potential and pushes
them to reach it I believe it noteworthy that Dr Hogs was nominated by 17 people to receive this award 13 alumni and four staff members the alumni each spoke of Dr H's character the wisdom and advice he has provided the mentorship he has given and the ongoing relationship many of them have sustained with Dr Hogs long after leaving the doors of Northern the students also highlighted Dr Hog's commitment to community service whether it be Bak sales wreath laying or any other Endeavor Dr Hogs goes all
in the School Employees also highlighted Dr hogs for his ability to lead and Mentor some of the statistics noted were staggering Dr Hogs was recognized as an AF jrtc instructor of the Year selected number one out of 1,600 instructors across the globe he has grown our program here to about 175 Cadets surpassing every other unit in the state he's an accomplished author public and motivational speaker recipient of the esteemed 10 outstanding Young Americans award he's also a black belt and crab magga
um I could go on and on with his list of accolades um but we're excited that he was able to add one more this year which is the high school Governor's educator of the Year Dr Hogs come up are they coming to work tomorrow
too I know just a couple words so this is JoJo who are we this is Nori thisi and that's my youngest granddaughter in the back Drew I brought him for this purpose and my remarks will be brief but Legacy understand the shoulders that I stand on and I thank the board Dr zaraman Dr mccan and definitely Dr Stella
in the back I wanted them to see this moment because it's not my moment it's theirs but I do owe a bit of credit to another group of phenomenal individuals the cadetes of Northern brington AF jltc to them I say thank you thank you um so so our final nominee is
uh one of our athletic trainers and I just textt her and said are you coming down we have a nice certificate for you and she said there's two and a half more wrestling matches so I hope you'll indulge me and let us talk about her when she's able to get down here thank you I and I want to recognize unfortunately she's not able to be here this evening our uh first uh Northern Burlington support professional of the Year miss Paulina car Zar zaroski I I believe I pronounced that correctly Paulina
is one of the high school custodians and I want to read a few things that that some of the submissions um uh said about her Paulina is an except custodian serving the needs of our teachers and students throughout the day she always works hard and smiles and she is expedient with any task she has given Paulina work paulina's work ethic is second to none she has always engaged in a task to serve help support and
just make the high school a better place another person stated Paulina is one of the most caring members of our support staff she will stop and help anyone with any task whether it be in the kitchen the hallway the bathroom or a classroom her work is always very thorough she often goes above and beyond the ex the expected the expectations of any task she is fully committed to doing the best and never complains and
lastly paulina's impact is felt by everyone she interacts with from students to her fellow co-workers and the cafeteria staff her willingness to assist others and her habit of going above and beyond her duties have made her a beloved figure in Northern burlingtonon she approaches her work with a constant smile and a positive attitude never hesitating to lend a helping hand to offer support to others Northern Burlington is fortunate to have someone
like Paulina on it on their team Paulina is a phenomenal staff member again unfortunately she's not able to be here if she was she'd probably be in the corner cuz she hates the attention being brought brought on her but she is truly an asset to our district so with that being said if you wanted to yep I we'll take a brief recess can I have a motion for recess so moved and the second please second all those in favor I opposed extensions all right uh we'll take a brief
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all right I believe our last uh educator is here for presentation all right Dr mcken all right so I'm goingon to talk to you about the high school ESP of the Year Erin Miss C Mrs hen bleeds Northern blue and gray with over 20
years of experience at Northern Miss C exemplifies the qualities of an exemplary educator and Advocate as an athletic trainer Missy supports 53 High School athletic teams and 24 middle school teams ensuring every athlete receives expert care guidance and injury management however if yes ask any student alumni or colleague of Miss what they appreciated the most about her her skill level while it's standing would be secondary to the fact that she's just a great human her passion for supporting student trainers is unparalleled she's honest
with parents and student athletes about what is best for their student even when it's hard to hear she cooks up a storm before football games brings treats to dogss enough to attend home sporting events and works to build students confidence through her compassion and honest approach one student nominee wrote what I believe embodies Miss's approach with student athletes the conversation can range from does this hurt when I press it like this and you have a dog you have to bring him so I can see him and give him a treat back in 2016 Missy was recognized as a New Jersey athletic trainer of
the Year an amazing feat and a true Testament to both her skill and how well respected she is in the athletic training Community well that is nothing to sneeze at this award of ESP of the year you're the first ever for our high school and we're excited and we congratulate you come on up have
to people said no your choice uh I was just gonna say I absolutely would like to say thank you um it has been a great privilege to serve the school district for as long as I've been able to and I often wonder if um if I would be the professional that I am had I not been provided the opportunities here to work with individuals that I work with who have uh fostered growth and challenged me in the past
22 years and um our kids are like none other you will not find any students anywhere like what we have here in Northern Burlington and it is an incredible honor and I am uh moved and feel privileged so thank you so much and I appreciate you pushing me off till the end and accommodating my wild schedule thank you did they win did the
wrestling team win they first match um 2.05 on the agenda is approval of the Hib reports 2.06 is the approval of the superintendent reports uh the boards as everyone knows the new committees have been formed um we had a buildings grounds Transportation finance committee meeting tonight um but I know we are having another one in a few weeks um
I think it'll be best to give the March report that it compasses both committee meetings we have more information since some things are kind of in limbo right now um are there Mr bucks do you have any updates on njsba actually I do um not too extensive so but I had the pleasure to go to the delegate assembly on December 7th um there wasn't much consequence in terms of the proposals that put forward
and for everybody wow this is I'm really loud tonight um most of all the proposals that get put forward at the delegate assembly are for the Schoolboard Association to take a policy position um a lot of them I don't know were necessarily of too much interest but there was one that is probably um of interest to us and that was what was resolution number seven which was basically a proposal that school
boards be uh brought to the table when Municipal governments are negotiating pilot programs so I know this has been kind of a a bone of contention I think in some towns I think Mansfield there's a lot of Pilots that are going on I think Chesterfield there's some Pilots going on so the recommendation and and ultimately what passed the delegate assembly was a policy position that um School boards be uh be brought to the table when those Pilots are negotia now of course this has no actual change to it doesn't change anything in terms of Statute but
it's a policy position now that the entirety of School Board Association is now taking so um if legislation comes of that we'll see but otherwise um it was uh uneventful other than that so that is my report thank you um Mr armeni do you have anything on yes we uh we met uh last week
um biggest updates were there's a new um NJ SBA representative for Burlington uh Justin Wright um so he just started literally I think that last week uh he gave us some updates on Burlington in general there's three superintendent searches through the uh through the county um you also mentioned that for anyone who's a new board member there is a new me new board member orientation on February 21st in Princeton I didn't get the address but I'm sure if you go and look it up you can find it it'll also
give you your um you can do your your year one training if you go to that so that gets that um done if you go um there was a a mention about government relations um by our legislative advocate so starting I believe this coming election uh School signatures for running for school boards are going to be increasing from 10 to 25 So for anybody that's planning on running next year you have to get 25 signatures that's across the board for all um
all of New Jersey um and and it's even Beyond School Board it's any any anybody it's no longer 10 it's now 25 um they also had uh mea McClure who's the uh board of directors gave an update on um dues and potentials increases for NJ school boards so that could be coming up where that may be increasing uh as of this year they did not give any details on exactly how much but to watch the MJ school board's website on on what that
change might be um they also talked a little bit about um through um the NJ school boards for those people who are career Focus learners there's going to be some updates for careers in technology education so that's going to be changing and and um expanding throughout New Jersey um more details on the NJ school board's uh web page and then the biggest thing they had at the end was um there was an event called more than a classroom where um
Denise rras Denise redr Rodriguez who's our executive director of Education Service Services gave a discussion on the bankrupt School which is a focus on uh students with disabilities they talked a lot about what the bankr school does and how they um uh what their all their goals are down in South Jersey there is a home for more than 70 students that are given the opportunity to live there full-time um where this the
disabilities range anywhere from autism and all kinds of other intellectual development disabilities but the school is specifically focused on their clinical development curriculum and instruction it it was awesome it was about an hour that they went through all of that what they do um but the bank school really is great uh for us from a South Jersey standpoint uh anybody interested I recommend uh you go and check out what services they offer and and how extensive it is that was the that was the uh extent of it it was a a long meeting and a good meeting and good update so hopefully that's helpful for those interested thank
you thank you um legislative update is the change in the signatures from 10 to 25 so Frank has me covered on that one um there's one bill passed by the Senate um regarding a therapy dog pilot program um and a bill passed by the assembly uh regarding um labor instruction in the history of Labor movement in New Jersey so but those are still uh only passed by
one half and waiting on the the further movement so keep updated on those um I will'll uh cycle back to the uh curriculum committee um February 6th um Mrs Bond oh yeah m chadis is going to give the update because I wasn't able to attend okay okay so we had a very productive curriculum meeting on February 6th it was a virtual meeting uh we started with a discussion of the middle school programs of studies um discussion by Dr Stella was about
how uh students currently receive credit and the grade is recorded on the transcript um for High School courses taken at the middle school but it doesn't factor into GPA so there's just a discussion about um what other schools do and we're going to be looking into that Dr Kern shared that the implementation of the ELA and math blocks are going very well um for the middle school there's going to be a new science program known as lab AIDS uh Miss Dro was there and she explained
the science program being proposed lab AIDS is a Hands-On inquiry based program in which each unit is anchored in a question or phenomenon to engage Learners we also talked about the World Language textbook there's a new digital resource for Spanish one to provide a more cohesive and robust experience for our students and that was introduced um and then finally we discussed the attendance and credit recovery options we're reviewing the data from the parent
survey and discussing proposals regarding attendance and that's it thank you uh any questions on the curriculum committee meeting U Mr Lee if you could please check public comment on agenda items thank you right um items on the consent agenda are believed to be items of routine nature requiring no discussion and which are to be voted upon a single roll call vote to the
board any single member of the board may have any of the items on the consent agenda removed and placed on the other part of the agenda for discussion merely by so indicating prior to the vote to be taken on the consent agenda items removed from the consent agenda are identified by an asterisk and will be subject to discussion by the full board right uh 5.02 is approval of the minutes from the January 6 reorganization meeting 5.03 is approval of the minutes for the January 6th
regular meeting 5.04 is approval of the minutes from the January 6th executive session 5.05 is approval of the minut minut of January 28 2025 meeting 5.06 is approval of the finance report of the board secretary for October 2024 5.07 is approval of the financial report for the board secretary for November 2024 5.08 is approval of the financial report for the board secretary for December 2024 5.09 is approval of the treasures
report for October 2024 5.10 is approval of the treasurers report for November 2024 5.11 is approval of the treasures report for December 2024 5.12 is approval of the budget transfers for October 2024 5.13 is approval of the budget transfers for November 2024 5.14 is approval of the budget transfers for December of 2024 5.15 is approval of the cafeteria report for December of 2024 and
5.16 is the resolution of the board regarding the budgetary major account fund status are there any comments or questions on items in section five all right section six is approval of bills 6.01 is approval of the bill list for February 10th 2025 any questions on Section six right uh six and S is business and financial 7.02 is approval of board and
staff travel 7.03 is approval to reject the bids for the auditorium 7.04 is award the least purchase financing 7.05 is authorizing the financing of certain equipment and related items by lease for purchase financing for school buses 7.06 is approval of Professional Services contract for new bleachers 7.07 is approval of professional service providers for professional development 7.08 is approval of purchase and
installation of the hbac unit 7.09 is approval of purchase for Middle School HVAC control upgrades 7.10 is approval of purchase of computer equipment 7.11 is approval of purchase of storage unit 7.12 is approval to purchase minivans for transportation purposes 7.13 is approval of contract addendum for ESS 7.14 is approval of use of evening School Enterprise funds and 7.15 is
acceptance of donation for the Ag Department are there any comments or questions on Section 7 just quick question I guess for the Ben benefit of the public can we just spend a minute on 705 and 706 and talk about the uh the benefits uh in terms of this purchase and then how it actually impacts uh budgetary certainly so
um you said 705 yes 705 and 706 so the the bleachers and then the uh I guess the expiration did I do those wrong I may have did those out 7.05 is the school buses the financing for the school buses for the school buses yep and 7.06 is the new bleacher sorry 704 and 706 my apologies 74 74 is the ter the the the lease purchasing yeah and the expiration so we just touch on that for the benefit of
the public sure so um when we were doing the referendum uh obviously the bids came in over and so uh we found a way to Finance the health and Training Center and we used a capital lease uh that uh was a five-year uh lease payment program that uh lease expires this March next month with its final payment uh we're currently so it's in the budget the lease pay
annual lease pay payment and so as that expires um we can renew that without no fiscal impact to the budget um and and take on a new capital project and this one would be the uh Synthetic Turf and uh resurfacing of the track so uh that's what's being recommended we went out to uh bid and and we're awarding that lease purchase uh here uh tonight uh we haven't
awarded any contract for the project itself uh we're still working on those and hope to make a recommendation in in March but again the the theory is and same with the school buses um you know school buses retire after uh 12 15 years um by law uh I think it's up to 17 but it used to be 12 then it up to 15 and now it's 17 but if anybody knows school buses
don't really last that long and after 15 years so uh we have a replacement program uh so we we do at least purchase uh every year um a fiveyear lease purchase and we replenish the buses so if two buses are expiring or retiring then then you know it's in the budget and there's five lease uh purchase programs for buses one every year so every every year we're replacing
one lease purchase again without any Financial impact to to the the school budget because all five uh lease purchase programs are are in in the budget so um so each year we we are able to replace retired buses uh through that program thank you you're welcome U thank you any other questions on Section seven okay uh Section 8 uh 8.02 and 8.03 three are approval of out of
District placements 8.04 is approval of senior late arrival early release for 2425 school year 8.0 5 is approval of home instruction services 8.06 and 8.07 are approval of guest speakers 8.08 is approval class of 2025 senior trip chaperons 8.09 is approval of deca state conference and competition overnight student trip 8.10 is approval of fpla state conference and competition overnight
student trip and 8.11 is approval of softball overnight student trip are there any uh questions or comments for Section 8 all right section nine is Personnel appointments uh 9.02 is approval of certificated appointment uh 9.03 through 9.05 are approval of non-certificated appointments 9.06 is approval of substitute bus driver 9.07 is approval of coaches 9.08 is approval of
additional work assignments and 9.09 is approval of Mentor are there any questions or comments for Section n uh section 10 is change of assignment 10.02 is approval of change of assignment uh any comments or questions for Section 10 right section 11 is leave as absence leave 11.02 is approval of leave of absence uh any comments or questions for Section 11 section 12 is separation of
employment uh 12.02 is acceptance of retirement 12.03 is approval of resignation any questions or comments in section 12 section 13 is Personnel miscellaneous 13.02 is approval of 13.02 and 13.03 are approval of black s stiens 13.04 is approval of after hour site supervisor stien 13.05 is approval of
supplemental stiens 13.06 is approval of Revis job description 13.07 is approval of student teacher placement 13.08 is approval of student teacher placement 13.09 is approval of student teacher placement uh 13.10 and 13.11 are approval of practicum placements uh any question on Section 13 right uh section 14 14.02 is
approval of 2526 middle school program of studies and 14.03 is approval of the revised 20425 school calendar there's um any questions on section 14 are we going to correct yep okay the the exhibits are the the correct ones it's the agenda caption
Y and that's why I read it in as the updated one thank you right uh section 15 policy 15.02%
17.04 is approval of use of facilities for the Mansfield youth recreational track and field and 17.05 is approval of use of facilities for Northern Burlington football boosters uh any questions or comments on Section 17 right um can I get a mo motion for the consent agenda like to make
a motion to accept the consent agenda all right Mr Cass if you could please do roll call certainly uh for 1801 consent agenda roll call yay nay or abstain Mr figs um yay to all with an exstension on 7.04 this is
Bond yay Mrs applicate yay with an abion she six to 5 and 5:15 okay Mr Arman ente abstained from 5.05 and yay to everything else Mr bucks yes
Mr narwood yes Mr Janice yes Mr Spence Mr Zimmer yes thank you board motion passes all righten to passes um fortunately none of us actually chose to to vote no to Mr cass's retirement so Mr caz's retirement announcement is official um thank you Mr Cass for all your years of service to the board I know in the five years I've been here you've been an incredibly valuable asset so thank you and I I just concur that um I
think often the the knowledge and the um the history and just the experience that rch brings brings to this tradition is often um not seen to to most because a lot of what he does is behind the scenes however the work he has done will the community and our students will reap the benefits of that for many years to come so we certainly will you can change your mind at any time but we we certainly wish you all the best and we will we will miss you not that you're going
anywhere yet thank you I mean it wasn't an easy decision but I've been here 23 years and uh it's been an honor and a privilege to serve this community and the school district and uh again as I stated in in my retirement letter you know working with the past and current board members and administrators and it's enhanced my uh my life and uh I you know it's a proud moment so thank you right um
Mr Lee have public comment ladies and gentlemen this meeting will now be open to the public for comments please note that the board is here to listen the public comment period is not designed to be a discussion accordingly please do not expect the board to respond to your concerns and questions this evening we take your concerns and questions very seriously and want to have sufficient time to allow our Administration to process and research issues if need be we will however respond to your questions and concerns at a future meeting or have the proper staff member
get back to you at the appropriate time also please note that if your questions or comments pertain to litigation students Personnel or negotiation we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these items in public please keep in mind that the public comment session is an opportunity for you to share your opinions and remarks with the board and it is not a question and answer session we also recognize that our community may be polarized on some issues we want our school board meeting to serve as an example to our students that each member of the
board and Community can deal with controversial issues in a civil Manner and demonstrate mutual respect for everyone's views in that Spirit we ask that all speakers please address their comments to the board directly rather than the audience and all speakers and members of the public show respect for others views and maintain civility during the meeting please state your name Municipality of residence and group affiliation if applicable comments will be limited to 3 minutes per person and the total comment period of 30 minutes only those who have signed up on
the public comment sign in sheets will be allowed to speak this evening the individual time limits will be enforced so that as many members of the public wish to speak may be allowed to do so Cindy Ali I think it no wasn't we're gonna give you this one the volume of this um cindia
Mali Mansfield I'm here tonight to ask that you re uh revisit and consider adjusting the student unexcused late policy the current unexcused late policy on page 20 in the student handbook States and I'm paraphrasing penalties for unexcused lateness to Home Room four lates equals uh 3:30 detention eight lates equals a 5:30 detention and so on to put this in perspective a student is allowed three unexcused
lates to Home Room in a five month time period three lates in five months the fourth late is not counted because that late results in a detention so they are technically not allowed that fourth late and these lates do not take into account whether the student is 30 seconds late or 19 minutes late and it does not take into account whether the student is late one time a month or four times in one week let's compare this page to page 26 to 27 of the handbook which states and I'm paraphrasing code
of conduct level one the following offenses may result in consequences beginning with an administr administrative warning not a detention like the unexcused late policy level one offenses that are given a warning prior to detention could be such things as dress code violation or a cell phone electronic violation this section also includes lats but does not give any details on the type of late referenced also on page 27 our level
two code of conduct offenses that will result in a detention so if a student has unexcused lights to to Home Room four times in five months this carries the same discipline as a student who cuts class abuses the past system uses unacceptable language disrespects another student and the most unbelievable level to offense in my opinion that carries the same discipline as a student who has an unexcused Lake to Home Room four times in five months
is a student who opens an exterior door without authorization for any individual outside the school so student can allow a stranger to enter our school which could potentially put every student and staff in the entire school at risk and that student will see the same discipline as a student with whom walked into Home Room one second or 19 minutes after the Bell Rong I'm not asking for the unexcused lace policy to be removed I'm only asking that you make adjud adjustments to this policy I understand this
policy was put to effect to deter students from chronic unexcused latencies and aund and I 100% agree and appreciate the thought that is behind this policy I actually had a difficult time coming here today and challenging it as parents my husband and I want our children's school to have Law and Order we F feel our kids are in a safer environment with strict rules my biggest concern is how this policy is downplaying what a detention is supposed to mean to our students detention should
be used for students who have done something wrong being late once a month is not wrong being late every single day is wrong hanging out in your car until the Bell Rings or disrespecting another student is wrong there are many legitimate reasons a student can unexpectedly be late to Home Room that should be taken into consideration many of these are unavoidable students should be allowed more unexpected lates than less than one late a month before they are before they are disciplined maybe adjusting the policy to something
more reasonable such as three allowable unexcused lates to Home Room per month I know this policy aim towards the chronic offenders but unfortunately is redefining what a detention should mean to our students and parents and unfairly targeting those students who do not have a chronic lateness issue thank you thank you
Lou Klein good evening folks my name is Luke line I live in Mansville Township uh what other information did you need I think that was it right that um I was up here before you last month discussing concerns I don't know if you guys had any impact on finally getting my child back into school related to the other incident I'm coming to talk to
you today about accountability integrity and ethics you know I I I look at your website and I think look at your mission statement and I heard you guys talking about updating your mission statement I do think it's a good idea but I also think you should take it seriously not only for our students we teach our children accountability and hold them responsible for things but I think you should hold your staff and your administrators accountable I learned after that meeting I came into possession of an email that indicates that the child that
attacked my child had previous issues I don't have details because obviously privacy concerns but I would like it investigated number seven of your guess it's your mission statement we believe that our schools share in the responsibility of Home and Community in teaching and modeling ethical Behavior I've struggled this whole process because I feel the administrators hid
information and intentionally withheld information and made it very challenging for me to get my child back in that building it it's unexcusable you're going to be receiving an email detailing my allegations and they're very specific and it's not going to be within the power of this board to do anything you're going to have to go to the county superintendent and have it investigated by an authority that has the ability to search the records and investigate into these things if you don't then I will file that and put it publicly out there and let people investigate I'll share the email with you I'll give you all
that information but I want you guys to think about something in your mission statement and I did steal it from the internet so I'm not going to lie says you know is it related to a company your school culture is not words on your website or a poster on a wall it's how students feel on a Sunday night having to enter your building the next day thank you thank you that
closes public comment right um does any uh board member have any old business that they like um be rediscussed at a future meeting or sent to a committee no but I have a question about a public comment okay um regarding um the attendance policy is it actual board
policy or is that regulation or is that student handbook the consequences are in the in the high school um student uh code of conduct in in the handbook which the board does approve as and we can certainly bring that to community relations I think is what I I propos in in the email that I sent out I I think that's what I said okay that that's why I'm asking the question do we
need to refer this into a committee I was not present for the for last month's meeting um that that's up to the that's up to the board um I send then one of the in the email update that I sent I I didn't get any feedback suggesting that that it should go to a committee I I got feedback right but then not necessarily that that it should go to a committee but I mean it certainly can if that's the desire of the board I mean it sounds like there's
some some legitimate concern here in terms of of the I guess the lateness for for home room I hope I hope that is changing now right with the changes that have been made in terms of the way um students come into the building and whatnot yes but I I also think it it and no disrespect to miss Al I mean from the conversations that that we've had I mean when whenever we set an an arbitrary number there's going to be a line right and I think that whenever that line is is upheld then I think then there's
going to be question whether we make it two four 10 I mean what whatever that that may be I I guess my concern is that I think there's a there's a legitimate argument here about you know what are we actually trying to address with the policy right is it chronic lateness or is it something you know again if if there's three over a five Monon period And it results in the same sort of punishment that we have for a more serious offense I think that that justifies us taking a look at it um so I mean if there's other interest I'll make a
motion to send it into I guess if it's community relations I think community relations would be the most appropriate to start okay I just don't want to step on your toes I know I know if it's a regulation that you de you deal with or we need to deal with it from a policy perspective first I mean it is it's in the code of conduct which again the the board does approve ultimately but we can certainly look at that and then I'm happy to show the work that we've done in correlating that with the attendance policy and so on okay I would second that notion I think that um what was brought up today and the way it was brought
up we owe it to just take a look think about it right whether whether it's changed or not it's not as is is up to the board but I think we should look at it right they're all good points so I would second that for um for reference Joe uh 5230 and 5240 are the board's policies on tardiness and leness um and they basically Define what is excused and any tardiness that is not on that excused Li list is considered unexcused and therefore will be referred to
guidance or Administration in terms of 5230 and 5240 thank you yeah I'm in student yep in student section section or all the fives are the stud section so um yeah I just had another comment did you want to make a comment real quick go go forward yeah I just want to piggyback on some of the public comment regarding uh School climate I know that um Dr zerman you said that you're going
to be using a new platform for um you know working with the public on the mission statement is there a um feeling or thought that you have regarding the assessment because I mentioned before like using um School climate data from several stakeholder groups is that something that will be assessed using that new platform that will also be um we will be launching a culture and climate survey to the staff to the students um and also to the parents and
then that will be also presented at the next community relations committee meeting before we launch it just wanting the committee to to review it great thank you yeah um to follow up on old business um I wanted to update the board as the board's aware I was able to attend the New Jersey uh texo uh last month um wanted to give you guys just a brief update on some of the sessions I was able to attend while I was there we have a motion in a second on the floor we have to vote on I um I okay
I thought we were referring that to committee I but yeah that's I don't think any making an official motion Joe uh you tell me what you need done if you don't need that to we all agree I mean yeah yeah that's what I was thinking is more of a referal less of an official motion yes I just think will it be recorded I guess the minutes I guess is the question that we referred it okay then I'll that was not an official motion then okay problem thank
you Paul thanks Pa at at the dexo I was able to attend um sessions in each of the time slots let the board know some of the the things I was able to attend uh Shifting the Paradigm of data ownership cyber security for schools not if but when uh safeguarding our use of AI um increasing Equity access and achievement in advanced placement through the use of Technology um adapting to the cloud redefining it roles in the era era of SAS and AI uh increasing student engagement by eliminating
cell phones and Beyond AI understanding how AI works for teachers and students um you know as a result was able to bring a few questions to uh Dr zaraman you know he'll have discussion with Mr Lee um with that I'm going to refer policy 5701 to the policy committee meeting that's next month um in terms of that one deals with plagiarism and making sure that AI is accounted for um that was one of the focuses on one of the session um because typically in historically plagiarism has
always been copying other person's work there's something to be said about you know AI generator work um and utilizing that on your own so um will be we have a policy committee meeting next month so I'm going to refer that policy for review then do we have any are we going to reach out to Strauss to see if they have anything covering AI at this point well we did that last we voted and addended um the AI policy right recently acceptable use policy included an AI section right Strauss had provided either a recommended policy or an addendum
to be included and we went with that in the fall one of our me voted on that yes so what's this referral then so policy 571 is a policy on pism um but there's no comment right now it only deals with copying another person's work um but there is something to be said about the way AI generates students work for them and like okay maybe you know the recommendation was to add wording to
to broaden it's very outdated you know it still uses um a lot of 20-year-old in like uh descriptions of how how student work is processed so um just looking into it for an update that may make more all right so you want to align current align it to the acceptable use yes okay y but you're not talking about not using AI at all I mean no I'm just talking about not whether using an AI to say check your work whether that
is plagiarism because of the implication no saying like using AI to write your paper for you by saying here's the topic please write me paper got it you know and making sure that plagiarism policy aligns with the AI an acceptable use policy making sure those two things agree and that that's covered from both sides let's be careful because you can use AI to write a paper which we all would probably agree is plagiarism but yes you could write your own paper and use AI to edit and that's not
plagiarism so let let be sure that when you're defining what that means we don't put ourselves in a corner where like now like why do we even use it right yeah yeah we we already have something in that policy about falsely taking credit for something that they didn't produce which would be AI right in that you mean the plagiarism policy and the plagiarism policy number three falsifications including forging signatures altering answers after they've been graded the insertion of answers after the fact the
Eraser of of graders markings and other acts that allow for falsely taking credit yeah so we have to cover yeah yeah ju just be careful because you could say that if I wrote a paper and AI edited it that technically didn't write it right there's arguments that could be made if you really want to go down it that's not what we're trying to do no because I would say that you could have someone proof read your paper and that wasn't mean they wrote the paper yeah there's there's there's a line to it yeah but I know that plers and policy was revised in
2014 so it's 10 years old so I know we are attempting to update the policies as we go and so this one being brought up seemed like one that was reasonable we're having a policy committee meeting in March already to bring to the table during that policy committee meeting to discuss whether it needs to be changed or does need to be updated but just to put it on the agenda for discussion fine uh is there any other uh new business recommendations I was actually related to policy so I know in the update that we're going to have an
agenda later in the week for that committee yeah um do we have um that transparency policy back on that agenda and if not can we make sure that it's is on there I know we left it we had a couple of checks we had to do with our attorney the last I believe if I remember correctly and and somebody on the committee can correct me if I'm wrong I believe that we put that I put that out to the committee to ask for feedback and I don't remember the last time I looked at the policy if there was any feedback on it okay so maybe
the committee can just kind of make sure that they Rie that as well yeah make sure it's on the agenda yep and if there were any outstanding actions with my friend Mila that that she's been checked with as well okay all right thank you thank you everyone we have as mentioned the March 6 policy committee meeting um March 10th Personnel meeting March 12th buildings grounds Finance um and then our next work session is March 17th um we do not have executive session
this evening so with that uh can to get a motion for adjournment motion for adjournment second all those in favor I I opposed extensions all right have a good evening