I call the meeting of the parcion Troy Hills Board of Education to order on February 13 2025 in compliance with chapter 231 Public Law 1975 entitled open public meetings act adequate notice of this meeting has been provided as
specified in the act in the following manner a meeting notice was published in the newspaper and on the district website on January 8th 2025 in addition the notice of the meeting was posted at the municipal building in the schools and a copy of the notice filed with the
Township Clerk and transmitted to other newspapers on January 31st 2021 The Daily Record The Star Ledger parcion Focus tap into parcion patch and the district website this regular public board meeting is being video recorded as per
bylaw 168 the recordings of these meetings will be available on our district website and our video on thee-o YouTube channel we ask that you please refrain from using student or staff names in your statement professionalism is expected at all times may we have the
roll call please Mrs Abraham here Mr baros here Mr Devo here Mrs mayor here Mr Rea here Mrs Chappelle here Dr Wright here Mr chaa here Mrs kogan
here please stand for the pledge to the flag I ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all we're on student committee reports go ahead you're it thank you good evening all let's get started with this month's wking report starting off at the central student council updates student council is continuing preparation for their upcoming event host senior standouts scheduled for Friday February
21st at 7:00 p.m. we're currently in the process of coordinate coordinating with the hosts and preparing the award ceremony slideshow in addition to host senior standouts we're currently looking for sponsors for the upcoming annual cross town volleyball tournament Spike night the event will be held on March
3rd moving on to PHH events and updates here are some highlights from events and initiatives happening throughout phhs inflow magazine club presented an interactive story writing Workshop to the third graders at interel elementary school on January 17th club members Illustrated characters and created
setting and plot twist twist cards to teach students the fundamentals of creative story writing the class of 2025 will be hosting a pancake breakfast fundraiser on Saturday February 15th from 8:00 a.m. to 10: a.m. tickets can be purchased online and they're seeking
20 student volunteers per slot to help during the event Far Hills academic the catalon team competed in their Regional competition on February 1st taking taking home over 22 individual Awards and medals their fifth place overall ranking has qualified them for the state level competition on March 1st best of
flu to our AC DEC team phhs Arts students had three of their artworks recognized in The Morris Museum fresh perspectives contest showcasing their talents among 350 submissions from 43 schools congrats to those congrats to those three
students the class of 2025 will be hosting a t-shirt quilts fundraiser e-cards can be purchased for $25 with $50 value with 100% with 100% of the proceeds going to the class of 2025 the latest date to place an order is April April
25th the class of 2028 will be hosting a fundra fundraiser with BJ's Wholesale till February 28th with every pre-opening enrollment BJs will be donating $10 and $5 for renewals to the paros class of 2028 the phhs senior internship program
is seeking businesses in Morris County to partner with us for a senior internship program which runs from May to June 19th moving on to phhs athletic updates everyone who wants to stay updated on wiking sports scores achievements and events should follow the par Hills
Sports Instagram page and at par Hills Athletics our wrestling team had an outstanding performance at the county tournament two wrestlers became the first County Champs in 11 years a senior made history as the all-time wins leader in par Hills history and became the first our Forex
finalist another student also earned a medal finishing third the team finished sixth overall with 112 points the following are the upcoming wiing games boys basketball will play rockberry on February 13th at 700 p.m. hockey will face Arthur L Johnson on February 13th
at men area arena excuse me at 7:30 p p.m. and color guard will perform at Woodbridge High School on February 15th also this was just in um the boy swim team they won their sectional uh championships they got first place so yeah that's to add on yeah and that
concludes this month's phhs report thank you thank you do we have any questions for our student NOK you thank you now we're going to have a presentation by Dr Sutter and Mrs Cory
waza for update on the student safety data system report period one and the program determining hip grade Hib grades thank you thank you Miss kogan uh hello everyone before we begin our SSD report I want to introduce Miss Corey wesa who
is our coordinating supervisor of guidance and Medical Services she is also our anti-bullying coordinator for the district Mr Gaza is here to speak about all things Hib but first for those of you who are new SSD stands for student safety data system by law all
New Jersey public school districts including Charter Schools must use the student safety data system to collect two types of information from schools which include incidences of violence vandalism harassment intimidation and bullying weapons offenses substance
offenses and any other incident leading to student removal from school and HIV trainings and programs why does the New Jersey Department of Education collect this information the New Jersey Department of Education collects this information to fulfill state and federal reporting
requirements which include Elementary and secondary Education Act gun-free School Act school performance report civil rights data collection anti-bullying Bill of Rights edax and other state reporting requirements as you can see from report
one the district had a total of 64 incidences from September 1st through December 31st 2024 those incidents are broken down into the following categories fights uh excuse me violence they include fights assaults simple threats sexual content criminal threat
sexual assault Rob extortion and kidnapping vandalism is broken down into damage to property theft false public alarm computer trespass trespassing and arson substances include marijuana drug paraphernalia undetermined alcohol
unauthorized over-the-counter drug unauthorized prescription drugs designer synthetic drugs uh crack heroin and cocaine weapons include knives uh spray guns air guns pellet guns BB guns handguns bomb uh imitation guns and
others and confirmed and alleged HIV incidents and examples of those would be verbal physical electronic gesture written text mail email notes does anybody have any questions on the incidences in the report well thank you very much without
further Ado I'm going to bring up Mrs waza this WEA I have the luxury of speaking about the preventative things that we're doing he has the harder part of that so good evening um you've received a copy of the violence and vandalism report for the
2425 report period one which covers September through December of 2024 the section on Hib trainings and programs focuses on both schoolwide and District efforts to educate our community on harassment intimidation and bullying and pro promote a positive School climbing
and culture for all the training area involves professional development that our staff may have par participated in themselves as well as trainings that may have facilitated for other members of their school community so examples may include a building's anti-bullying
specialist presenting on the anti-bullying Bill of Rights at a faculty meeting um an administrator attending a legal one Workshop department meetings that I facilitate or even educating students on prevention programs such as The Peacemaker program
at the elementary level um the programs that are implemented vary by School level and are developed to ensure that events systems are or activities are in place the majority of which are prevention based um I'd like to highlight some of the school programs
that were implemented during this reporting period one in order to celebrate our efforts and offer you a greater understanding of the numbers documented before you Central Middle School in instituted the no place for hate program um in the fall and it
continues to run there this program is composed of both student and staff volunteers the students signed a pledge that they will contribute positively to the school community and not be a bystander if they observe inappropriate
behavior in the form of racism the volunteers also made presentations to their peers encouraging them to volunteer and also sign the pledge the goal is to reduce the number of HS involving inappropriate racial terms and improve the overall culture and climate
of the building Pary Hills High School has been implementing restorative practices to Foster more supportive and accountable Community the Administration has undergone training and two cohorts of staff are being trained to TurnKey
this knowledge at faculty meetings ensuring that teachers can effectively use these strategies with students a key Focus thus far has been the social discipline window emphasizing the importance of working with students rather than doing things to to or for
them this approach not only encourages faculty to reflect on their teaching pedagogy but encourages students to take responsibility repair harm reflect on their actions ultimately creating a more respectful and restorative School
culture all year long at Lake hawaa School staff were encouraged to nominate students to receive a positive phone call from the principal to promote kindness compassion and citizenship during the week of respect Lake ha that held a bookmark design Challenge and
participants at each grade level were entered into a w into a raffle to win tiny crocheted positive potatoes that offered words of encouragement rooted in growth mindset as a way to celebrate their participation in December their student council held a toy drive
culminating in fourth and fifth grade student council officers hand delivering a Bus full of toys to Senator Paco's office in Montville they were able to meet with the senator and see it their philanthropic efforts come to life at
inter at Intervale School their fifth grade peer modeling program was created in an effort to develop the relationships between the general education population and the MD ABA population more than half of the fifth grade students participate in this
leadership program students give up a portion of their lunch Andor recess to promote acceptance tolerance and kindness they have found that there are fewer peer conflicts and bullying instance instances as a result of the fifth grade students role model role
modeling and Leadership qualities the program continues to develop stronger relationships and fewer instances of bullying at the school two students shared their thoughts on the program one fifth grade student expressed it gives me a new perspective on children with
special needs I thought they were just behavior problems but now I've noticed they just think differently another fifth grade student shared it gives me another friend someone I hang out with although not part of this first reporting period on a district level we
are looking forward to our pthsd seel day which will be held on Friday March 7th we have great activities planned at all of our schools and have created partnership opportunities between schools allowing for some of the high school students to go down to the elementary school to facilitate some
programming the districtal committee also sponsored uh pthsd car challenge where staff could submit designs based on the parcion Care's motto of compassion accountability resilience equity and service the winner will be announced soon and the magnets will be
available for purchase we continue to be very proud of the fun enriching and meaningful experiences being offered thanks to the strong collaboration and efforts of all of our students and staff anybody have any questions for Miss waza I
have I have no questions but the comment by the fifth grader I mean that says it all right most of the time special ed students that have issues kids think they're just behavior problems but this student now understands there's a little bit more behind it I think that's
awesome absolutely can I I understand all the programs and they are sound really wonderful are the is information given to the parents about what Hib is and and
what we expect of students or is pretty much everything we do with our staff and with our students there are parts of um efforts by all schools to educate parents and inform parents I would say that looks a little bit differently depending on the level and depending on
each individual school but all populations are tried to we try to Target all populations so some of it is students some of it is parents um some of it is really not necessarily um under that umbrella of Hib so clearly and more
just about community and all of those positive things that we're trying to develop and not necessarily um communicated in that way of preventing harassment intimidation and bullying thank you anybody else thank you Miss magazi did excellent
job thank you appreciate it have a good evening you too thank you up to correspondents in our meeting is there any correspondence to come before the board no there's not no I did put something that came for you from the
education is that your seats yes the golf yes okay so is there any unfinished business to come before the board all right then we're up to committee reports I think we have
Finance Mrs Chappelle we do thank you I actually have another one also um so the finance meet finance committee meet met on uh February 10th attending where myself uh
Mr chafo Mr rehea Mrs kogan Mrs tadesco and Mrs BOS um there are number of things that we talked about it was a great meaning lots of progress uh lots of things in motion already as you can imagine um very important things first and foremost we talked about the bond
Council that came and presented to us the possibility of refunding our 2015 bonds the short story and the short good story is that it's going to bring us Savings of approximately um $700,000 by doing this refinancing so um
for anybody uh watching who may not understand it's like a mortgage if you're able to refinance you're paying less on this this is the same concept that we're doing here um so definitely worth pursuing so uh it was great effort there by both um of the providers who
came and presented that information to to us we will be sharing that with everybody um at a presentation on the March 13th meeting so more to come on that uh for the 2025 2026 budget uh poor Mrs Tesco this job never ends looking at
the budget she's already in the thick of it um she's got the revenue side pretty much wrapped up um and uh this doesn't account for the standard 2% increase that we look for every year um she is in the process of working on expenses um
just highlight what we know so far is that the health and prescription benefits are projected to increase 12% dental benefits are projected to increased 5% uh Vision will remain the same although it's got a nominal fee anyway um but uh Mrs Tesco's trying to
work her magic to balance this all to deliver what we need and we appreciate her efforts there uh there is also we got notice from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture letting us know that we've got excess funds from the Child Nutrition program um which we have
already earmarked for projects in this year and next year in order to use all of that um lots of great things uh some of the projects we've already talked about replacing equipment some of the schools um and there's a a lot more to come there you'll see it as the work is
done um there were a few questions that we talked about one I I had raised a question with regards to any state or federal changes that are going to impact our budget there really wasn't anything at this point in time but we'll keep our finger on the pulse of that and adjust as
necessary um and then we talked about the budget calendar um which we was reviewed um we have a good timeline there so we have a good plan in place um and then like all of our committees we're in the process of looking at uh due diligence questions to make sure
that as things are being considered by this committee or or things are being considered for finance the right questions are raised so that we can challenge things in the right way to come up with the optimal answer ERS for our district anybody have any
questions okay all right so the other one I have is the um ESC of Morris County uh we met last night um so it's hot off the presses uh it was a really it was a good meeting standard you a lot of things were standard um but it was helpful because we had the head of
special services uh come and present um a list of all the different types of things that they provide to us or provide to all the different schools um they help to support 40 different schools in 18 different districts uh they provide reports to uh the Department of
Education uh and the the the main thing that I was concerned about was whether this group has received any requests for services that they're unable to provide and they said that there may be some things that are very specialized where you it doesn't make sense to pay for
somebody to be trained uh to do that on site so they'll hire somebody externally to Prov provide that service but generally there's nothing else they really need to uh train up for or hire for uh internally to support uh what's needed um and that was pretty much
it any questions all right thank you Mrs mayor I think you have a I do I have a few things um first uh I want to report out that Mrs kogan and I went to the Muslim
Heritage Month celebration on on January 25th it was at the library um it was a really nice celebration we were welcomed we listened to a speaker who was very good he told us the origin of coffee the Muslims which surprised me
um there was a story teller uh the children um were excited we both got henna done I mean it was just a lovely celebration and like I said we were we were welcomed and it was they were really happy that we attended um on the
5th of February there was the Morris County virtual meeting um you've got all that material in your um packets uh the focus was um onboarding new members um Charlene um gave us a quick
rundown of things that she was you know thinking about uh the big news from Charlene was that she is retiring so that was something that she dropped on us all um there there were two districts that um kind of gave us information on how they onboard their new their new
members and I thought that was pretty interesting I don't know who all attended I know that sheel was there and you were there I don't know oh I didn't you know it's funny because I don't always see all the names on the things so I don't know who all is there but it was a really good meeting they had two breakout sessions so I thought it was a
very good meeting um and also was interesting um you also got it the new um board evalu a which I thought was pretty good I liked it I thought it was really more meaningful than what we usually got so I was pretty excited about
that um yesterday I got to go to Intervale for career day it was a lot of fun I got to talk to them about an illustrious career of being a teacher I told them I thought that I'm sure they were wishing that I was an astronaut or something really cool but it worked out
really well uh I did a science experiment with them that I had to practice at home to make sure it worked when I got there but it did and you know they were cute they were like whoa it was just a lot of fun and you know Mr Walk told me that a lot of community
came in and demonstrated or talked about their careers and that uh when I was leaving um mayor barbaria was coming in and councilman neglia was coming in but it was just it was fun to be there the kids were great I was with a fourth
grade and it was just a fun time and I think that's all I have are there any other leas on our committee reports Mr veto no I just had a comment on on the the county meeting on the 5th so I thought it was very interesting in one of the breakout sessions that uh uh the
um member from was it Long Hill Long Hill Township not long hill Oh shoot what oh no yeah where she they were basically went on about uh about governance I thought that was very interesting very informative so bring it
up there was one from Rockaway and one from quanum right there was four different yeah those are the two that I was thinking of yeah they they all all they all do it differently I mean we don't really do a
lot that they do just just saying well we do a lot we do a lot just differ right Long Hill Township Long Hill Dr R uh yes I uh just want to report out uh Lea's on report for uh
meeting from the special education parent advisory committee which met virtually on Tuesday of this week the 11th um and the topic of this Tuesday's presentation was the transition from elementary into middle school and along with uh Mr courte uh two representatives
from Brook laon were there to talk about uh what that process looks like it was relatively short presentation um but I think it was really it kind of gave a lot of the nuts and bolts and really addressed some of the anxieties I think that many uh parents of special education students experience in such a
large transition particularly going from the smaller neighborhood schools to the bigger middle schools it's kind of that these concerns about um about possibly even getting lost in these buildings and how how how the schools address those and how the parents can continue to stay
in conversation and get ongoing updates throughout the process starting now to when their when their Rising middle schoolers will start in the fall thought it was great the next uh meeting is next week um uh Wednesday February 19th it
will also be a virtual meeting um and that topic will be how to read and understand an IEP how to what I'm sorry how to read and understand an IEP an individualized education program and the week before that they did a transition a program on
transitioning from high school and 21 to adulthood and I attended that one and it was also very good because that's another big transition when you're leaving the school district and this the school system and aging into adulthood so CAC is I think covering covering all
the transitions which is good does anybody else have any leaz on Mr choer actually critical issue critical issu yeah so uh as you are aware critical issues was tasked with um revising the governance document and I did have the opportunity to perus materials that Judy
sent uh this afternoon and I think there's enough information there that the board should consider um extending the the deadline that we had set to vote uh on an adopt governance program which was a second board meeting in March i' like to suggest that we push that back
to the second board meeting in May to give the critical issues committee which hasn't met yet the opportunity to review that material and see uh what we can incorporate into our governance document because I think there is an opportunity for us to have a better document giving what we shared at that meeting does
anybody have any objections to moving our in internal date all right and did you want to make mention of the search or no yes there is a uh item on our agenda to approve a superintendent
superintendent search consultant um in as part of our process of you know finding a new superintendent and that will be the beginning of an entire process that will be well documented part of what the cons would like to do
is put something up on the website of a timeline and expectations so this will hopefully be the beginning of the process um I just agree with uh Andy about extending that timeline and I think it's really good to um kind of look at what the other districts
reported like at this last meeting because there was some really good stuff that they they do and I think you know just to kind of see what other people are doing might be a good help for us yeah I I I didn't spend a lot of time looking at the uh new board member onboarding that was uh the material is
provided but it looks like there's a lot of great information there too yeah so maybe later this year if you want to um consider assigning that to maybe policy to take a look at revamping or bylaw on the whole uh new board member orientation it may be worthwhile Endeavor all right and then um I have
just a few things in addition to the events me meetings that were already mentioned I atten I attended the par high and Par Hills girls basketball game it was fun to watch and I was definitely impressed first of all by the athleticism and then by the number of students from both high schools that
actually attended the games like it was really nice to see them cheering on their um schoolmates I was asked by the Morris County School boards to be on their nominating committee so there'll be a few meetings and we'll come up with
a slate for the county board I attended a workshop on security and mental health earlier today which was very interesting and I will provide the materials to miss BOS there were a lot of good resources listed it was obviously it was a vendor
giving the presentation um but they did provide some very good resource packets and Mrs benos has been working on setting up trainings with school boards which was another one of our goals so I think we had two already on the calendar or close March 27th is definite March
27th is will be the first one and those will be on our meeting nights and I want to thank the administration for navigating the recent weather and delays it's never easy making those decisions but obviously the safety of our students and staff needs to be considered and I
think there's a good process in place with lots of communication between all different parties to make sure that you know good decisions are being made and then we have a few calendar changes we are going to schedule a work session on
Tuesday March 25th which will start at 5:00 p.m. we are going to change three of our regular calendar meeting dates we're going to change the May 8th date to May 6th the June 19th day to the 17th and
then October 23rd to the 30th so there's you know different reasons that we would like to change all those dates if you all will make notes on your calendar October yes they will the main calendar will be updated all right are we done with
committee and leaz on reports all right so next is the approval of minutes for the regular and executive meetings of January 23rd 2025 may I have a motion for the approval Mrs mayor second Mr
Chapelle and then roll call Mrs Abraham yes Mr baros yes Mr Devo yes Mrs mayor yes Mr Rea yes Mrs Chapelle yes Dr Wright yes Mr chappa yes Mrs kogan
yes now we are up to superintendent's Bolton number 12 Dr Sutter thank you Mrs kogan good evening everyone our elementary principles Elementary supervisors of Elementary special education our elementary counselors and our Elementary child C team members have
started articulation meetings with Middle School principles secondary supervisor of special education our middle school guidance counselors and Middle School child study teams the purpose of these meetings is to discuss appropriate placements for students as they enter middle school and also to
assess the district's staffing needs our current eth grade parents were invited to attend open houses at both phhs and PHS at the end of January the purpose of the open house was to introduce middle School parents to High School administration and High School staff
members parents were also provided with an overview of both high schools which included courses programs and the difference in state requirements which pertain to high school students uh the Genesis student scheduling portal opened on February 11th and will be open until February
18th the district is recommending that all parents go to the district website to review instructions concerning the scheduling process and February's black history history month and as such our according supervisor of K12 social studies Miss Kristen brendson has provided our
teaching staff with additional resources to use in their classroom and during lessons additionally Miss brendson has encouraged teachers to share their ideas through the padlet website tonight for your approval we have superintendent Bolton items 1 through 49 with addendum and reading
items 50 through 71 any questions thank you questions all right uh secretary's report Mrs Tesco hi everyone on tonight's secretary's report we have our regular business motions including the approval of two roof
replacement bid Awards one at Littleton and one at Mount Taber does anybody have any questions thank you okay then we're up to new business Mr deito you have the a topic
thank you Mrs kogan so um word the is right when I start here so you know most of us are a little not not as young as we used to be right so I think most of us at very young aged learned learned cursive handwriting when we were in elementary
school ourselves uh I myself went to Catholic grade school grammar school K to8 and learned it and in third I believe third grade most of that maybe even earlier and I was left-handed and back then late 80 or mid 80s they didn't
really know how to teach left-handed kids so my cursive is horrid and I think Miss Mrs uh Mrs benos could tell you that she SE me right so it got me thinking and
when there's a a recent article came out in January from the USA Today it was actually in a few other Publications as well uh titled can you read cursives that National National Archives needs volunteers they're searching for
people that know how to read just read cursive because of all these old very old you know uh Revolution revolutionary documents that are written in cursive not just our own Declaration of Independence and Constitution of course
that they're trying to reinterpret and they can't be done with AI they have to actually do it by hand so it got me thinking that L of of here you know just not just here in precip throughout old New Jersey where these kids are not learning it now we've gotten I work in
it I've working in it for 20 25 years we've moved from typing with typewriters to computers texting we don't leave notes for we don't leave notes for our kids on the fridge to say when you get home do this this and this it's they get we send them a text because they all
have phones at once they reach a certain age so you know and going forward these kids are not going to be able to understand be able to read cursive let alone write it and if they don't have that that basis in my mind how are they going to sign their own name I I don't
want us to go back to the days of when the the man the guy who had sign a document had put his mark on there again they we're going going full circle again so what I came across was this this uh bill it's court for the legislature
right now it's uh sponsored by Senator Angela mcnight uh for District 31 where she's asking to trying to she's on the education Committee in the Senate and she's trying to re reintroduce cursive as a as a as a m as a manded
thing so I was aware of other bodies in in the area that have done the same where they've passed resolutions supporting legislation that hasn't even gotten to the floor of the senate or the house yet is it still in committee so I thought maybe we would
consider this as a as as a resolution just to say we support this as a board going forward I mean I know the implementation of something like this is Down The Long down Road ways before even it gets passed if it is passed the law
so that That's the basis of what I wanted to do um I guess this is be be making a motion to um to approve this resolution supporting this uh legislation and I guess I need a second Mrs
Abraham yeah Mr second second it so we can have a discussion on disc the resolution Dr Wright uh I just want to say so I on one hand I do have concerns about adding additional instructional mandates which we already know that it's a very tight
um the things that need to be taught however as an educator um I am right now see being the first generation of students who do not know how to write script that's happened in my classroom so I te you I teach freshman through graduate students and it's been about
two years I guess I have two or three years of freshmen who don't know how to write incursive and what I'm finding is actually gets in the way of their critical thinking and critical analysis um we do in my classroom a lot of uh low
stakes writing and so um I'll ask pretty regularly in almost every single class for them to look at a question that might be similar to an essay question on an exam but they're not getting graded on I'm just asking them to think through it they write their answer they they
discuss it we talk about it and I find I mean printing literally just slows it down um they're not able to they're they're spending so much time printing out one sentence that they're not getting the time to think about these
about more complex element and i' never really considered this before um and now I'm seeing it and I'm I'm seeing a consequence we're not getting as deep into um like classroom discussions because they haven't they have to slow their brains
down to however fast their printing is and I don't care if their handwriting is bad and I'm not worried about them ever answering X they all know how to print um but I think there is real really something lost um when a fluidity of writing is
lost thank you anybody else want to say anything Mrs mayor yeah um I was I'm all for having cursive handwriting back into the curriculum I taught it when I was teaching in second grade um when I was
teaching in another District last year I taught cursive so I am for putting it back into the curriculum however I want I don't want to be told by the state that I have to put it back in I would rather have our
Administration and our curriculum people decide where it should go and how it should be implemented yeah I do believe absolutely it needs to go back and I've mentioned it during our curriculum meetings with Dr Mone um it's no secret
that I've been pushing for that but I just don't want to be coerced by the state into doing it I want it to be done through how we do things in this District unless it's a mandated thing we go through the channels the the C the sui um Administration takes a look at it
they decide how and where it should be implemented so that that is my thinking having done it in the district I don't know when I mean I've been out of this classroom for a while but I don't know when it left the classroom which is too bad I was really sorry to hear that but
I do believe it should be back in the classroom absolutely I can if Ian I could tell you for a fact he kind of left the classroom about four five years ago in the midst of Co because my my my twins
were in third grade at the time and I got samples of their handwriting I asked them today to write out write out their name in print and then write it in script and my one daughter's like I can't do it you you can't do it try try it and she she dat it she did it but you
know she didn't feel confident there's no less confidence in in wanting to do it so I think there was that's where we sort of lost it in when Co started cuz my kids were in the middle of third grade and they were completely virtual and then there were another virtual for a year and a half after that you know so
that's that's where I came from from this partly too just a a question uh maybe for mam attorney the the resolution is not binding it's symbolic it's just encouraging the legislature to to advance this bill correct but doesn't bind parity to do
anything correct and if I may that that is basically my atttention yes anybody else would like to say anything I would like to say a few things so um I would um I appreciate
everyone's perspective um on this and it was helpful to hear the different views that everybody has so thank you Tim for for I mean thank you Matt for raising this um but there are a few things um as Dr Wright mentioned I do have a lot of concern about um incorporating this back
into our curriculum at some point and what we would have to give up in order to do that um with teachers already overb burden students already overburden with other things that we've adopted that um have become mandated or things that we think are important for our district trying to squeeze this in might
mean that we have to give up something else so I am very concerned about that while I do appreciate that this is not forcing that to happen I'm just voicing my my opinion just like everybody else um I I know that there was um on the February 4th uh the New Jersey
school boards Association legislation update mentioned um that this was removed from their curriculum uh in 2010 so it has been quite some time and they also shared that same perspective I just mentioned about what would have to be given up um so at some point in time it
would be helpful to hear um H as Mrs May mentioned how our Administration would uh anticipate this fitting in if it fits in then how um um and then um I do remember I think in 2022 or 2023 there
was a pilot that we implemented back into second grade cursive handwriting so I was just wondering thank you so the if the Administration has any update on how that went I guess I did kind of took some notes on this about halfway through
the 23 24 school year we investigated a few options for teaching cursive and found some good free materials and resources online um from Zer blower that was the best option um we also pinpointed second grade as the most
appropriate grade for the initiative as the year wore on and we began to address the disproportionality issues the cursive writing initiative regrettably fell by the wayside and we focused on the integration of the win period uh inrs procedures and intervention
strategies so my my concern I think uh I mean I think I like Matt's idea and I and I also think Wendy has valid points I think the only issue that I have is I would like to bring the the committee together like and and and get the teachers input and the principal's input
because I just don't know where we would put it like I could see maybe during reading uh lessons when we do um you know centers maybe uh but I would rather I'd like to get input from the elementary teachers because because they're valuable and they and they would
they would tell us what you know what they think and so the principles as well yes yeah um I can speak to that when I was teaching cursive we started in January of second grade right um and it was it it takes a long time you can't do
that lesson in 10 minutes you know you have to demonstrate you have to model and it was a chunk of time that I had a pull out of something else you can't once you've introduced a lesson yeah you can put it at a center and let them practice but I did use xer blower that
was what we were using they did have cursive homework but I think that it does take a chunk of time out of your out of whatever wherever you're going to put it it's going to it's going to impact I'm not I'm not even sure we have the line paper
anymore you can buy that on Amazon there was one more point I was gonna say um so um my my point being why now right if you think about the way we operate technology has taken over right
we focus on typing as you mentioned that you know we focus on using a keyboard we focus on using a a phone um but I'll note that our typing program was removed years ago right so we don't even focus on the skills in in order to teach kids
how to type let alone how to do cursive and typing is what they do all the time and at some point probably in the very near future we're going to get to a point where there's no typing people are just speaking and it's going to be recording what they want they're doing that now exactly so I mean I I'm just concerned that you know we might be
going down a path that it might not be the most effective use of our time because it unfortunately is going to be a lost skill saam I just had a question in you mentioned in 2010 that they probably stopped teaching it or took it out of
the districts do we have any maybe we could look it up or I could look it up as to what was the reason at that time why it was taken out and then what was in its place at that time cuz 2010 was you know 15 years ago so um I would be
curious as to maybe I can go look up what exactly was implemented at that time um just to find out just from Curiosity purposes uh what it was cuz even for me it was one of those things that I really enjoyed in school um my script is pretty bad now because of lack
of practice but uh a couple of years ago and especially during the co years um I did buy one of those books from Amazon because I really wanted to teach my son how to be able to sign a legal document and that was basically what it was all about for me was just so that he has the
ability to sign something and not have to put a fingerprint or an X or something like that and it was just a very basic thing that I wanted him to learn but whether he was interested in learning script in a classroom or not I still wanted to do it in my own home just to buy a book teach him how to do
it uh a little bit of script here and there and you know just have the ability to say hey you know what one day you might might need to learn how to do this and it would be nice to have a signature and your signature changes over time and it's a little fun but um yeah so I just
uh wanted to ask about that maybe I could do some digging and find out you know what happened but uh yeah I'd be interested and um I know we do have to figure out where to put something like that but um I'd be curious and you know
I don't know what this legislation is actually going to do I mean it is going to it's just kind of telling you but I don't think it's going to force anything on us but that was all I going to say mayor my last comment I promise I talk cursive
last year in third grade where I was teaching um and all these kids were learned how to write cursive my grandson had beautiful cursive handwriting I was so impressed this year he's in fourth grade and I said well write your name in
cursive he couldn't remember how because they don't they don't keep it going in the fourth grade they're using the computer and I felt so bad because not only did I spend a lot of time but they they really had mastered it it was such
a shame and as you said it's just going to die out I said well you learned how to do it why can't I haven't been doing it since last year which is that's a shame and I I I agree we we need to I I think it needs to get in there somehow
just just one of those things that they should know but I don't know when and I don't know how and that's where we have to go with the administration I think Mr Cho um so it's being sponsored by a fairly powerful Democrat at Hudson
County and I'm certain it's going to make it its way out of the Democrat controlled education committee and most likely be be voted on and approved by the not necessarily Mr CFO she was for formerly an assembly woman yeah and she
put the similar bill in the previous term I don't think it got anywhere it got out of the education committee but nowhere else did it go for a vote it didn't right it I don't think it got forgot to the floor to vote for a vote then that was the previous term I believe I had to look back in the history of it so this one is still just
been in December was the last time they was there any action on it okay so if I if I may for a minute so Dr Su I totally understand your point as far as having the teachers in on it and everything like that um again my my
point here today was just to say do we feel like as a board do we want to support this this legislation to Mrs mer point and even to m chelle's point of course you know as I said before I'm into technology that's my that's my job right and my own kids have these same
Chromebooks they got them in fifth grade they're going to be using getting new ones when they go we have the fouryear cycle on the Chromebooks they're going to be getting new ones when they go into into ninth grade right so like they could still sort of write their names in curses than goodness right but to that
end if if the kids are at young age are are learned just enough cursive to get enough buy to be able to sign their own names in something that means something because they're going to have to sign things when they get older and you know if you want to be able proper identification I guess you'll be able to be able ass sign your name so even have
enough to be able to read it too even if it's not much to be able to write with it so that that's all I was had thank you yes and then I historically this board has not um done many resolutions because we have not seen them to be very
effective that doesn't mean that we shouldn't do them I'm not saying it's not a good idea I do think there's um times where they are needed I personally do not want to have the state
mandating us additional work with no funding we just had a finance meeting where we said one of our questions is going to be if anything new comes in how are we going to pay for it and what's going to be replaced by it so that's you
know one of the things that we're already talking about and so I would have an issue asking the government to mandate something I too would love to have cursive and have our kids learn cursive mine were definitely in the period where
they did not learn cursive so I completely understand the lack of it however I also think with Dr Sutter saying they tried putting it in partially last year and they could not sustain it because there were so many
other things that are still mandated and they need to get to and they want to get to and the the student really need to learn um so my hesitation on a resolution is that we are asking the state to take away our choice and I am
just not in favor of that so those are my two cents so if is there any other discussion we have a motion on the floor so we should take a vote call so there's a roll call on on adopting the
resolution or signing the resolution what you do with a resolution what it would be an adoption of the resolution an adoption of the resolution whether to adopt it or not Mrs Abraham yes Mr
baros yes Mr Devo yes Mrs mayor no Mr Raya yes Mrs Chappelle no Dr Wright yes Mr chaa yes yes Mrs kogan
no motion passes all right and our other new business Mrs mayor Mrs mayor did you have something else for the county or did we already go through I kind of jumped the B I jumped the gun here sorry that's all right I jump the
agenda see the handwriting on the wall cursive hand writing on the wall couldn't read it right so at this time we're up to the hearing of the public if
there's do I need to go through this oh sorry we're gonna go back to new business while he decides if he's gonna talk just very briefly I finished a new board member certification I have my little badge that I don't know how to put on good job so seeing is there's no
public here to have comments we are going to skip that part and we're going to go to a roll call vote on the superintendent bulletin number 12 items number 1- 49 with addendum items 50 to 71 and readin may I have a motion Mr
deito and a second M Abraham roll call please Mrs Abraham yes Mr baros on number 41 I need to recho on the bill list number 10161 63 I'm sorry 101
163 okay and req on 69 in the addendums yes yes to everything else okay Mr D yes Mrs mayor yes Mr Rea yes Mrs Chappelle yes Dr Wright yes Mr
Chao yes Mrs kogan yes right I don't think anybody has has any other business that we need to do so I would just like a motion to adjourn the
meeting Mr rehea Mr Choo all in favor I meeting adjourned