Richard Board of Education has been meeting in executive session pursuant to NJSA 104-12. The minutes of this meeting will be released when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. May I have a second? No, I don't need a second, sir. It just that was just
announcement. Is it? Yeah, we're just we're rolling. We're just doing a roll call. Roll call. Here please join me in a flag salute and pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. Pursuant to the requirements the open public meetings act advanced notice has been given to the star ledger the record and the clerk of the village of
Rididgewood. In addition notices were posted in the office of the board secretary and in all school buildings. Um we have a presentation. We're missing our presenter. Okay. Um, and so I think what I'll do then is open uh for public
comment. And um I don't know if there's anyone here in the audience is here for public comment. If you are um we ask that you keep your comments to four minutes and you u give us your name and your uh the
municipality which you live. Okay. None here. I don't know if there's any online. doesn't seem to be. So, I will close public comment and we have public comment again at the end of the meeting. Um,
Dr. Schwarz, would you like would you like to start your report? We're just as Oh, nope. We got that. Hello, Mr. Kish. We're we're ready. Let let us know when you are ready. Okay. Oh, that was perfect. Thanks for joining us. Perfect. All right. So, at this point, I'd like
to introduce Mr. Mr. Steven Kish, who is here to pro uh present the West Point Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership Award to one of our students at Ridgewood High School. Hi everybody. Mr. Rogan, members of the board, good to see everybody. Dr.
Schwarz, good to see you as well. Uh, so, uh, hi everybody. My name is Steve Kish. I'm a resident Washington Township, former Army Officer and 1982 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Here today representing the West Point Society of New Jersey, which is an organization of
graduates and friends of West Point who live in New Jersey. Every year we sponsor the Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership Award at about a 100 high schools throughout New Jersey. The purpose of the award is to recognize an exceptional high school junior who demonstrates outstanding performance
in the areas of academics, athletics, community service, good citizenship, and leadership. The awardee is selected by the school principal and staff. The award includes a portfolio with a formal certificate of recognition for the student and it's for the school. So,
believe it or not, Rididgewood High School has been presenting this award since 2006. This is our 20th year presenting this award. Kind of hard to believe. I'd like to uh just remind everybody who the previous awardees are just so uh you
understand the company that the current awardee is going to be joining. The first awardee was uh Kristen Demophles in 2006 and Michael Halwagi, Matthew Levitzki, Jacob Levitzky, Timothy Cox, James Lee, John Bayan, Gabriella
Bonfilio, Reed Simoni, Claire Andrews, Justin Cladsky and Kieran Power, Katherine Mara, Shan Zuckerman, Edward O'Keeffe, Brian Chan, Samuel Sarosino, Emily Schmidt, Maya a grant and last
year was Jordan Katseros. Katseros, I think. Uh, this year's awardee is Toy Mariah and I call him up. Great. I'd like to do at these events is just share a little bit about why the
awardee was selected for this award. So, Toy is a accomplished student athlete at Richard High School who will be uh challenging himself with six AP classes next year. You ready for this? Okay, that's good to hear. Uh while also a member of the varsity soccer team, he
was a president of his class for the past two years and is active in several school activities such as a philosophy club where he's co-president, the Alps club, Interact. Uh he was the uh Japan team leader for the Asian Fest, which I
didn't know anything about, which is interesting. Uh outside of school, he tutors. Uh he does club soccer and teaches uh coaches soccer and is doing a pre-law summer program at UPEN. Have you done that yet or is that this summer? You did it. Great. Congratulations. How
was it? Good. It was good. And this is interesting. He's looking to major in philosophy in college. So I'd like to congratulate Toy and let me show you the award. Okay, this is a Dwight D. Eisenhower Leadership Award
awarded for excellence in leadership, character, academics, athletics, community service, and citizenship. Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations, Toy. And we know that Toy has to has to head out because he has to get to a uh to a soccer uh camp soon. But Toy, before you
leave, can we get a picture with you and your family up here? We we'll come on over here to the uh to the background. It's a wonderful award. We'll see you next year. Yes, you definitely. Okay. So, um we'll go to the superintendent's
reports. Yes. I want to welcome welcome some of our guests here tonight. We have a couple of individuals being appointed uh being recommended for appointment and some family members here. So, thank you all for coming out. It's nice to have you all. Let's have some guests with us. Um we have uh uh for the superintendent report. I just want to congratulate
everybody for starters on finishing the 2425 school year very strong. It was a great year. We had a lot of I mean all the fantastic things that go on in the schools um were present this year. We had a lot of new initiatives in the schools. Our kids did particularly well
throughout the school year. We had so many big accomplishments. Um, and it's just been of such a pleasure. This I just finished this wraps up my second year here as superintendent of Ridgewood. And man, it has been such a blessing and an honor. So, I want to thank everyone. But, uh, we also made a lot of good progress as a district.
We've been collecting uh information about our community through looking at our students performances, but also looking at a lot of survey data as a board and as a community and as a faculty and a staff. We've been doing quite a bit of reflection and we parlayed a lot of that information into
the strategic planning exercise which resulted in a new vision 2030 which is like a five-year vision for what we want to do on behalf of our students. So we're really looking forward to continuing to report out on that this summer. We're going to work with our admin within our administrative team
taking faculty feedback and building out proposed district goals for the board to approve in the coming for the coming year based on our vision 2030 priorities. So, we're looking forward to that. We'll be talking about that at each meeting. Miss Corless is working on a very exciting project on our on our
new branding in accordance with vision 2030, but she's working with focus groups. Don't worry, we're not going to go just changing logos and everything. We're going to involve everybody and and use focus groups and make sure that we're taking an informed approach so everyone feels great about the direction we go. And if any for anyone who might not have seen it, we had the state of
the schools address on June 2nd where I really outlined with the team this overarching view of how we're doing. We've asked some really great critical questions. We've had a lot of great feedback on that at the superintendent coffee which we held recently. I think it was last week, last Thursday. More
robust conversation regarding the information the state of schools came about and we were actually had quite a long meeting. There was so much conversation. So, I'm grateful for everyone who attended. If you are interested in learning more, we have information on our website under our superintendent page. You can see the
state of the school's address. You can also search for it on YouTube. It'll pop up. And our next superintendent coffee is July 10th. So, if you'd like to be a part of some ongoing conversation, we'll keep providing updates. We'd love to hear from you. And truly, our conversations around how we're doing as
a district are really an invitation to all of our community members to weigh in and share with us how they think we're doing and what we can do better. And we're looking forward to another really productive year working together. So, uh, I would encourage anyone who has any more questions or any other topics to
please, like I said, attend the superintendent coffee. Um, but for the sake of, uh, of this being our last meeting of the year and a long agenda, I will wrap it up. Thank you. All right. Um, we will go to consent
items. But before we do that, I wanted to u make a motion to suspend bylaw 0164 um and ask that the policy committee uh look at that at your next meeting and
think about um whether the revision is something that you want. The revision is in that policy. It's very uh prescriptive in terms of what items and how the items should fall within uh the
agenda and in discussing uh some aspects with the board. We thought we would like to move the committee reports um that we make from the end of the meeting to the beginning of the meeting um um after
just before uh the consent items. so that our meeting information sort of informs what we're doing at the board meeting. So oftent times what we're saying at the end of the meeting is well you saw what we did in finance because that's what we
you know uh our committee discussed that. So rather than do that after we thought we would do it before and if there are any other if there are any questions from board members we could circle around and get get answers to those questions before the vote. So, um
we and we all receive the committee notes. Uh so, um but there may be some questions or some uh um conversation that needs to go along with that. So, I'm making that motion and I'm wondering if there's a second.
I'll second. Great. Right. Yes. Yes. Yes. So, we will do that. um we'll suspend it and we will keep it suspended until we hear back from the policy
committee if there's any ju similar um to last fall when we adjusted the public comment when we adjust it from giving your address just to giving your municipality. So we had suspended the bylaw at that point to then um have the
uh committee reflect on it and then make a determination whether that was something they wanted to put forward. Okay. Yep. So, that's where we'll go. Um, saying that then, um, there's a lot on this agenda.
Um, and so, um, I don't know, Mary, is there anything in finance that you wanted to pull out or or talk about or make note of? Well, just to to make note, there's a lot in finance. Yeah. Um, so I'm not going to hit every single one unless you know there's questions
about it, but just a couple of the the key things that we should note is we're going to be um we have um we'll be voting on um renewing the contract with Pontonian which provides you know our meals to our students um and there is a
2.5% small increase um in their per meal management fee. Um, and also, uh, they've agreed to guarantee us $210,000 this year. Um, and there's, you know, protections in the contract to to cover both sides. Uh, they've also, and it's,
I think it's attached to the agenda is, uh, they've made, I thought, fairly minor, um, increases to a couple of the, uh, menu items. Okay. Which, uh, makes sense to me in light of, you know, the cost of goods at this point in time. But we're also asking them, we want to keep
um we want to keep a close eye on uh the um purchases and the vendors that they use to make sure that our our students are getting the best value um and that they're getting the best meals. So um we're going to be asking them to work kind of closely with us on that. So I thought that was an important thing to
mention. Um that's already something that has already been uh Yeah. your your mic. Yes. after the finance meeting, we sent the letter to PO Tony regarding their commodities and we would have a kind of a a final overlook regarding any any
commodities that they're buying over the course of the next year. Great. Um the other thing is, you know, we are tonight um we are awarding uh several contracts to our broker record for employee health benefits, uh liability
insurance, grounds management services. Uh someone is here tonight on behalf of the Manel company for that. Um, uh, we're also awarding contracts to, uh, repair and upgrade the elevator at RHS and at GW, which is something that needs
to be done. Um, and we've also awarding a contract tonight, um, to our solid waste and recycling collection. Um, we have gifts in kind of books to the li uh to the at Ridge and Somerville. Um, significant gifts from Dad's Night. I know Sheila will cover that when we get
to finance later on. We'll specify them. Um and uh a couple of new grants that we are um applying for. One of note is school violence prevention program. Uh so we will obviously report on that when we get the results of the grants. Um the
other thing and you know I think it's important and I I think maybe I'll ask Rich to speak to it but we have tonight a resolution on um the reserve accounts and what to do with the um it's the the unspent. Thank you. The unspent, right?
The unspend after we have the audit, but it's the um and I'm losing the the uh the words, right? It's the um unfund what is it? The unspecified fund balance. You I apologize. Let me Well, it would be surplus at this point and
this our our projection, but not it's it's it will be finalized when we do the audit, but we have to do this resolution before June 30th. Right. But it's but but it's the Here you go. It's uh it's on page 40 and
we'll talk about it I guess more at the time. But it's it it talks about what we want to do with our unassigned that was the word that I could not remember and I apologize the unassigned fund balance uh what we're going to be doing with the emergency account and also the budgeted fund balance. So uh there was a lot of
discussion regarding that. I don't know Rich if you want to speak to that um because I think it's an important piece of information. So yeah, I'm on page. It's page 30 of the agenda. You have what's called the 2% unassigned fund balance, which is the
amount of expenditures for the year. That's at 2% that we cannot touch or we can touch, but that's the 2% mandated uh cap. The 250 is to be transferred to emergency reserve account because we currently have about $500,000 in the
reserve account right now. The 2.7 was the budgeted fund balance which is for the last two years we've budgeted 2.6 2.7. So we're trying to stay within that same uh time frame for budgeted fund balance. So 2.7 was the number that that we agreed upon.
uh capital reserve would be everything of all the all the monies above the 2% that that after they touch after they touch the emergency after they touch the 2% that remaining money will go to the capital reserve account. Right. So um
and and I just it was of note that and I know I I asked you about it is that this year we're not allocating anything to maintenance because Rich has taken a look at the maintenance reports and uh there's no need at this point in time. We have a healthy balance there. We have $3 million still in maintenance reserve
from from prior year. Right. And and you've looked at the reports about what needs to be done and you've updated it and then and in your judgment that's an appropriate amount. The $3 million that we have in maintenance reserve right now. We're safe. Yes. Right. Yeah. That's a change from the past which is why I I thought it was worth mentioning. So, thank you. All right. You're
welcome. That's finance. That's great. Thank you. Um what's next? Do you have anything on policy? I know we have some policy on the uh agenda so I just jump
on policy. We have three discussion items today um which we will be talking about but they're I think that the that everyone will be happy the way that what we have looked at these um um in terms of the student
grievance. We formalized the process because sometimes people who go through something like this for the first time don't know how to go about it and they're very worried and frustrated. This way we formalized the policy a little bit and clarified a few things.
Um, interestingly with the um um conduct conduct of meeting I thought it was the conduct which oh that's the bylaws. I'm so sorry. Um, and the public information program now with so much information being disseminated
to the community, to the schools, there's so many different things and we're not handing out paper anymore. Things are on electronically that we have to establish some guidelines to make sure that the information that people are asking us, the different
clubs and sponsors fit in with new criteria that's changing all of the time. So these kinds of policies need to be updated as we go along because we've got changing um things coming to us. We need to make sure that everything that we're asked to post and it will be there
as we know the internet is there forever that it conforms and it's properly um handled so the district um is is not promoting something that we wouldn't want to promote inadvertently more than directly. But I think we'll be having a
brief discussion on that later on today. Plus your suggestion on the bylaws that are here, but that's later on. Well, did that get on to the agenda? The new agenda. It wasn't on my It just says discussion. Okay. So,
um Okay. So, on uh facilities and curriculum, um uh Sarab Donnie and I are on that committee together. He's not here, so I'll just report out. But um on facilities,
we will be um moving forward with uh more water fountain um taking out some of our older water fountainings and putting them in or updating them. And we're going to be doing that inhouse with our new um uh plumber, I would
imagine. Yes. Yeah. Mhm. The cost differential between in-house and uh contract services uh approximately $23,000. Yeah. So that's great. Um we we already talked about the grounds um management services that we will go with
um looking towards improvements to our grass fields. I'm I'm sure the sports will uh teams will be happy about that. Um we Glenn and Ridge uh you are aware but it's not on the agenda yet but uh we
are our um architect engineering firm is uh putting up putting a bid together for the window projects uh on uh for Glenn and Ridge after we received approval
from the state to add them as a change order in our uh project to upgrade the HVAC systems at Glenn and Ridge. So, that's I think pretty um pretty exciting news. Um other than that um oh oh the
other is on our agenda when we approved the budget we had um indicated a replacement of the boiler at Willard but we're doing a little bit more investigation to see if
we if we did uh change out that bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo boiler could it be converted because it is a steam building. could it can be converted to hot water? There's some issues with that. So, we're we're a little bit on hold on the uh replacing
the um boiler at Willard. Uh we we can revisit that um next year at this point. Um I think we're we're tending not to go in that direction, but we'll um move forward on the other things that we identified in the budget.
And for curriculum, uh you will see our long list of uh textbooks. So those are all of the textbooks, the new ones that were just uh recommended to us. And textbooks are also and I mean when we think of textbooks, we're thinking of
biology, at least I do, physics and the thick books, but textbooks are also what our students are reading in their English uh classes. And so you'll see a long list of those texts. That's this is an annual um vote that we take to approve the
textbooks that are recommended uh for each of the classes. So that's on the agenda and moving forward with um our gifted and talented program and building that inter um sort of that inter um infrastructure for that. We're going
with the Kogat Kat, thank you. Kat uh testing, which is an abilities uh test um to for our students. So, we'll be putting that into place. You see that we're um I think we have now identified
all three of our gift and talented teachers for the elementary school. We'll be voting on two this evening, but um and so we'll be ready to start planning and designing that program to start in January. So I think we're we're
really in good shape. I think that was all that I had. May I just add one thing just because I don't want there any confusion? Yeah. So, we're as one of the very many different measures and efforts that we're putting into gifted and talented education, we are including a
new Kogat screener for students at certain levels. So to be clear, this is not going to be just we give one test and then your score puts you in or out of the program, but it is it's a part of our effort to expand the the the the
information that we glean from our students so that we can make sure we best serve them. Thank you for that clarification. Yeah. All right. Any other Okay, I think we're good. Then we'll go to consent items, regular and routine.
Um and the first is attendant attendance at conferences. I move that. Would someone like to second it? It B. Administration. Um it's a statement of assurance for our school security drill. a second reading
and adoption of a re revised policy on academic integrity. So this is second reading. It now will go into our policy book and then the appointment of bond council and affirmative action team. Um I move that anybody second.
Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. curriculum and instruction. Um, okay. Is that is that field trips? It is. Uh, so Miss Broen, I just have, if you don't mind, uh, for curriculum and
instruction, we have a amendment that needs to be written uh, added to the record. So, uh, Miss Murphy, did you want to read that? Read that into the record. Uh we just had we just had a um recognized in oversight about a month
ago and it was we meant to have this on for all of your review. Uh we had uh a destination that was that was put incorrectly on. We have students one of these trips it had said that they were going to Bali I believe and they're actually going to the Azors. So we've all known that but it just was on the
agenda incorrectly and someone caught it. So can you just clarify Mrs. Murphy? Sure. So we're adding to the field trips uh which is on for I this is an additional line to add to the attachment that would um revise
for trip happening June 29th 2025 through July 10th 2025 at RHS. Um it revises the location to Azor's Portugal and this will include uh approximately 18 travel service club student members.
There will be two chaperones. um this for a total of 11 nights is at no cost to the district. Exciting trip for them. So, Mr. Matthews, if you can just that in the record. Great. And then uh and then Miss and then uh then we'd be ready to
proceed. Thank you so much. Sure. So, um I move curriculum instruction. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. And human resources. Um we are and
um we we are at this point um voting to appoint um Megan Galante as our supervisor of elementary ES ELA and social studies. and she is here tonight with her family um and also um
appointing um a Richwood High School graduate um to come into the uh and be the assistant principal at GW Allison Cosgrove and she's here tonight too. So um thank you for coming and
thank you for um stepping up to more work. Um we have a long list of uh in human resources and um for more clarity I have
requested going forward that our information become a little bit more refined and a little bit more specific as to um if we're if we're doing overtime any overtime or um just
something that's sort of out of the norm. The reality is that a lot of times what we see on the agenda tonight, it wasn't so organized and we would be um doing this peace meal and so you you really didn't see all of the um all of
the uh requests all at once. So it was a pretty long dense agenda, but I think it'll be helpful uh with a little bit more information. So uh on and on on some of these uh would be helpful. And so we'll be doing that as we move
forward. A point of clarification question exactly time and I I think it's clear on the agenda but I just wanted feel like I'm too close to the mic. Um there is a lot of overtime in various
departments but as I understand it this is what you for the 2526 school year. So it's not that we're definitely going to spend this but if we need to we've approved it and should there be a um an extraordinary need for more then that
would come back to the board. Is that correct? Okay. I just wanted to I I thought it was worth kind of spelling it out. Okay. Thank you. Great. So I um would I'll move human resources. Would someone like to second that?
Second that. Okay. Did you have any other questions? Marilyn. Well, any qu um No. I just wanted to call out Mark Dwei for his second year in volunteering to help out in the district in terms of
website creation and being a very good resource. I was a member of the communications pillar for the vision um review this year and he was excellent there and he continued and I'm happy to see that he's back in that capacity as
well as some other capacities. But I think that he's um been wonderful to volunteer to do this. Great. We have a number of students uh who are either hired or volunteer, but I think can I qualif um
provide some background on Mark? So actually Mark did volunteer last year. Um we we did tell him that he would be a paid intern this year. So that will be going back on revise for July 21st. There was some miscommunication leading up to this agenda about who was unpaid
and who was paid, but he has worked very hard and done a lot of volunteer work with us. So, we did want to give him an opportunity that was budgeted for for this 2526 school year for communication student intern. Um, so that was an oversight and we will be revising that
um for the on the July 21st agenda for Mark. Great. Great. Is there any more? Any any other? Oh, I I just thought it it was great. I was happy to see that um you know, we we
accounted for in the budget an extra uh guidance counselor at the high school and uh and we've got someone that is on this list. So, we're filling that position and I'm just excited about that for the school year. I think that's going to lighten the load over there and help. So, I think that's good along with everything else. It's an amazing amount
of work that the HR department is doing. So, thank you. Truly, you take up most of the agenda. Okay, I think we're um ready for a vote. Yes. Oh, did you want to take a picture by
our repeat? Oh, yes. With your family. Yes. I think it's wonderful. That was good. Oh yes. I think it makes you hold. Okay. Okay. Oh my goodness.
We might be done. Oh, 14 people. Okay, we're going to move on and we will be um moving on finance and and thank you Mary for that. the number we have I think three um grant uh
proposals um on the agenda. So uh I'd like to take note of that and the work that we are um doing on grant work. Uh really honor uh for your voice. She's doing a great job. Right. She's doing a great job. Yeah. So um
I move finance. I'll second. And just into the record for the donations. Uh, thank yous to Somerville's dad night and Somerville Children's Theater for $9,700. A gift in kind of renovations and refurbishment of
the gym stage and two gym staircases. Forest Finkelstein, $800, a gift in kind of t-shirts for field day at Treval Elementary School. Thank you very much for that. I bet that was a wonderful look to the the school with that.
Orchard Home and School Association, $2,000 to be used to pay for the 2425 Orchard School field trips. Ridge Home and School Association, $1,300 to be used to purchase additional books for the Ridge School Library. Ridgewood Ice
Hockey Foundation 56,22467 to to be used for the 2425 hockey expenses. Bridgewood Education Foundation $3,000 to be used to pay for the John Cleaver Kelly Foundation workshop for the
seventh grade at BF middle school. Song Juan Sim and Jay Son Kim $200 to be used to support the steps program. I think he was a former student of STEPS. Yeah. I think is this I think this is
the gentleman who won an award and then donated it back. Yeah. So very impressive. Very nice. Um and thank you to Somerville Home and School Association. $1,720.3 to be used to pay for birthday books at
Somerville Elementary School. And then the donations for scholarships. We have two uh for a total of $3,000 from the class of 1972 for the Alexa Soil scholarship and two for $1,000
total for the Vanicki scholarship. So, we do um certainly um thank all of our very generous donors at this meeting. Um and I think that is it for that. I think
we're ready for a vote. Yes. Yes. Okay. Um, approval of bills. It was me and um I reviewed the bills last last week. Yeah, I was just trying to
remember my weeks last week and um everything seems in order. So I move approval of bills. Yes. Miss McCalli? Yes. M. Broen. Yes. Motion
pass. 30. Okay. Any board member announcements? No. the just that graduation was beautiful and it was great and the students were so happy and lovely and um
we had uh nice representation from the staff uh and of our mayor came and um it was a real celebration and it was between the raindrops right they hardly walked off the field when I got the
first raindrop on my car as I was pulling out of the uh out of the parking lot. So, and thank you to the parents who organized the social on the front lawn. And there's so many wonderful traditions that go along with our graduation and project graduation as
well, right? That was just beautiful and very a lot of people went and previewed it and there's so much work so much work involved by the parents. Yeah. and then the taking it down, you know, early the next morning is is a whole another
junior parent thing. So, as a parent of a senior, we're very appreciative of everything going smoothly into the lightning detectors for keeping us safe and delayed. It was wonderful. Okay. Uh we did our committee reports
already is uh discussion items as you've said. Um so these will be the bylaws. I don't know if we need to discuss much of that about that. I think we had um thought that this was a good idea to move it, see how you like tonight, bring
it back to policy and and uh we'll we can move from there. Okay. Yes. Um did you need to anything on the public information or student grievance? I thought the public information regulations look good. Uh on public
Yeah, I I did too. And just in terms of just a little bit of background is we've gone through I don't know 15 20 iterations of this policy at this point. Um little facicious but we've been through a lot because we're trying to make sure that we protect um the
integrity of the process but also we just need to make sure that the people that have to approve these things and publish them can do their jobs and then get to the other important parts of their jobs as well. So, the idea was to actually strip them a little bit a
little bit of some of the more um p prescriptive language in order that judgment calls could be made that are ultimately in the best interests of the students and the district. And I personally think we got there with this. I know that there's more convers, you know, we may have some more conversation
to be had, but I think it's worth noting that we spent a lot of time on the policy um with the ultimate goal of making sure that information got out, but that things got done efficiently because we have limited resources in this building. And you know, time is
important and the time of our chief information officer and Lucy and the other people that get involved that's important too. Um, the other thing that I wanted to mention because we had a very good conversation at policy about the student grievance policy. Um, and I think that I think that was a Strauss
Esme uh, revision, but um, I was hoping maybe Dr. Schwarz you can speak just a little bit to it because we talked about how sometimes when we put things like student grievances and we put these things into policies, sometimes there's almost a knee-jerk reaction from the public or parents. Why why does
everything have to be so scriptive scripted? Why why is it that you know you can't just make a phone call or say to a teacher this is what it is? And I thought you spoke really well on why you want to destigmatize a policy so that we can empower students to know if you have
a question about a grade or you have a concern, this is how you go about it so that it's it's ultimately easier. So, I just I don't know if I just said it for you, but you said it so well and I think it's important that people understand that this is why we do these policies and this work, right? Sure. Yeah. Well,
I I would I think you did say it very well and I think what it comes down to is um the parents in our community and the kids in our community are generally speaking very polite. And so often we see requests by the time I get something
that's at a complaint where someone's upset, the backstory usually is, well, it all started when this happened and then I tried to get some help this way and then I never got an answer. So then I went here and then I got an answer but it wasn't really followed through on. Right? It's like and it's it's it's just
simply a function of expectation management I think and a lack of it's hard sometimes to communicate from a parent perspective what exactly it is. is if you feel like something's off like what your ask is. So this policy basically sets forth criteria for which someone might say hey you know what I
have an issue a lot of times when we get to it it's like well it all started with like a grade dispute or it all started with like a student who was really struggling and didn't feel like they were getting enough help or there was some sort of miscommunication along the way. So, one of the things that ends up happening if we're not following a
formal grievance procedure with timelines and and and and um and processes that are agreed upon where everyone's trained on them is that sometimes well-meaning folks who are just trying to get an answer end up inadvertently getting kind of
meetings and attention but not necessarily resolution. One of the things that we've identified as a administrative team is that a goal that we have is we want to be able to close the loop more when people have concerns. We want to in a timely fashion address their concern and close it. But we also need for that to happen. We need parents
to be able to have be clear about what they're asking for. And I think a policy sets both sets both parties up for success because it sets forth the types of kind of concerns and grievances that a parent can raise or student can raise. That's another part is giving students agency in this process.
And it then gives the the the school district a procedure by which to evaluate that and a timeline. by which to provide a response. And I feel strongly that as we move forward and we want to go from good to I say this all the time now, good to great, great to excellent, we've got to get better at
more efficiently and more assertively addressing people's concerns, helping them have resolution. And if we and if we can't give them a resolution, being affirmative in that statement that we've heard your concern, we can't give you a resolution. But either way, parents
deserve a firm a firm answer. Um, and they deserve it in a reasonable amount of time. And I think this is going to go with this policy and other policies and procedures like it will go a long way and helping to ensure that we have mutual understanding,
but being successful is going to require us to communicate this clearly to parents. So, we're going to work on it with staff over the summer, our our lead, our school leaders over the summer and staff coming in the new school year. and then we'll communicate this with parents so they feel empowered to get the resolution that they're looking for
quickly. Thank you. Great. So that will be um all well besides the bylaws because I know I don't know when you meet again but the other two will move forward. Well, the resol uh the regulations do not have to
really be um I mean that's more of anformational thing um rather than it's the policies that we vote on um rather than the regulations. So the policy will move forward for first reading.
Regulation is is uhformational to us because that's an administrative responsibility. Um and then um the bylaws will move forward when you after you meet and you decide what you want to do. So maybe it's on the July meeting. I don't know
if you have a a meeting. Oh, okay. 10th we have a meeting in July. We have a meeting. We have a meeting. So you can take a look at that. It's a very minor change. It would be just moving the order just changing the order of the agenda. Yeah. If that's what you want to do. Okay. Um then
acceptance of minutes. There was a a little typo. So, we're really just doing April 28th regular public meeting, April 28th executive session. The this the 3 April 28th is a typo. It's not there.
Okay. Um May 19th regular public meeting, May 19th, executive session one. Those were the minutes that we received as well as receiving the June 16th executive session meeting, but I think
we need to look at that again. So, I'm going to not I'm going to move the 16th of June minutes to July 21st and also
May 19th, executive session two, which we did not receive minutes for, will be on July 21st. Yeah, I can make that I can make that simple just by saying that I'm going to withdraw. I can confirm that April 28th, 2025 is just a typo. So
I can withdraw the second one of those. We'll keep the first one and I'll confirm that I'm going to withdraw the May 19th, 2025 executive session two. So for clarity purposes, you don't have to like motion a table and things like that. Okay. So if m Mr. Matthews, you can read the re that I with two
recommendations and that but that I I continue with the recommendation for April 28th regular and executive and May 19th regular and executive one. Let me just clarify. April 28th, regular meeting, regular public meeting. Yes.
April 28th, executive session. Yes. April 28th, regular public meeting. No. Withdrawal. May 19th, regular public meeting. Yes. Uh May 19th, executive session number one. Yes. And withdrawal. May 19th, executive session two. Right.
Withdrawal. So on the 21st we'll see May 19th executive session two and the June 16th meeting and June 2nd. Oh and June. So our June meetings and the May 19th
executive session two will all come in July. Right. So I move the minutes as we've just discussed. Do I have a second? Second it. All right. All in favor? I. Okay. other business.
Oh my Oh. Uh and I um you Oh, you did send out an email. Yes. Because in the FYI, we had our July and August meetings starting at 7. Note that it's really a six six o'clock six o'clock um start to
the meeting. We we may I I think we will probably have an executive session at least for at least for the July one. I I'm assuming you will. All right. Um we'll go to uh comments from the public. Um
Mr. Manella, how are you? Nice to meet everyone here tonight. I'd like to hear Could you just say your name and the municipality where you um live? Manello. Manelo Landscape Industries
from Wayne, New Jersey. And I'm here to thank the board for awarding Manela Landscape the contract and thank Richard and the rest of the board for awarding us the contract. And I know that there's a lot of high expectations uh for the for the fields and overall maintenance
uh to Ridgewood uh board of education in general. And I just want to um say to you all, you have my assurance. I've been in business for uh 40 plus years. I started the company when I was uh in high school when I was um 15 years old
and um we now have 70 employees and I want to assure everyone that we're going to do a great job. I told Richard and and the rest of the board um that we will um definitely 100% we're committed into doing a great job for Rididgewood.
We've been doing the um the board of education for about uh five years. Uh we have an employee who's been here for over 10 years, knows everything about uh Ridgewood, and we know what it's going to take to do a great job. So, I want to um I'm here just to let you guys know
we're 100% committed to doing a great job for you guys. Thank you very much, and I appreciate you coming tonight. Um we do have high expectations for you. So, great. I'm glad to hear that you hold those expectations as high. We do.
We're we're up for the challenge. Our uh our core value is to exceed expectations and we intend to do so. Great. So, thank you very much. Good night everyone. Good night. Thank you. Your stairs back this way. Yes. Thank you. Uh no other comments from the public
here. Are there any? We have a couple of hands raised. Is the first a number? I can't see you. Oh, J. Um uh we're open to the board and the first comment is from JH
Jacqueline Hone Rididgewood. I wanted to ask uh once again and back to the superintendent statement about closing the loop in a timely fashion.
I've been asking for a really long time. Um, not only by calling in to the meeting, showing up in public, and also having a meeting one-on-one with the superintendent, specifically requesting in regards to the turf fields that the
fields be tested. We know now that the fields contain chemicals that leech into the ground and because of the flooding that we have and
the video footageing footage we see that the fields bubble up. All of its contents are then washed away spreading into the surrounding areas and the waterways. But yet the fields
themselves and the surrounding areas have never been tested to what extent the contamination is. And I recently came across a document that was sent to me that was obtained by Oprah,
another internal person, asking Dr. shores the same question where they're witnessing these clouds and large amounts of infill whether it's
airborne or in the ground that's shifting and moving especially when they do cleanups and it specifically the email specifically asks Dr. Schwarz if they are testing the fields. Dr. Schwarz
then forwards that to another internal person asking the same question and then the conversation goes offline because there's no more documentation or thread on that email. It wasn't provided via Oprah.
So my ask again is with everything that we know, we know that the infill that contains dangerous chemicals, when the fields flood, all of the infill is separated from the
turf, washes up, washes out. when the sports players are using it when they're not with the flood that this is leeched into our ground surrounding areas and water ways the brook
we need to know what exactly has leeched and how much of it has leeched especially since we're getting these floodings several times a year the rain that just happened and more rain that's coming.
When will this be tested? At this point, it's a matter of public safety. Thank you. Thank you. Cynthia Oi, you're on with the board. Hi, good evening. Cynthia O'Keefe,
Ridgwood resident. Um, first I just wanted to start by saying Sheila, thank you so much for sending me the links to the um the assessment and the or I guess we're calling it the feasibility study. I wanted to thank you for that. Um, that was a huge help. Um, and I know I asked
the question last week. I'm not really sure I got a um comprehensive enough answer, but I did ask about um you know, there was a um situation that we had in Rididgewood where a coach was fired for not signing a contract um that she
wouldn't speak out against artificial turf and and I posed the question about Mary Louu Handy's coaching on the Maroons. And I don't want to put her on the spot, but this might be a question to, you know, table for later. I can always ask it again at the fields
committee meeting. But um as a representative, you know, on the board of ed, you know, your role and and again, thank you all for volunteering, but it's impartiality fairly and justly assessing um the needs of the community. And I
guess if you're signing a contract, you know, is again, is there a conflict of interest that you will or will not speak out against artificial turf? Um regardless of what your personal belief may be about it. Um, and I guess the same would go for Carolyn Halt, who's also part of the fields committee
meeting, which is really a joint, you know, the parks and wreck, um, and board of ed share these fields and, uh, play sites as we now call them. And so, you know, I think it's an awesome responsibility that someone has to step up and volunteer, but how are we really
engaging, you know, the the wider community in some of the decisions that are being made? I am very happy to hear and quite optimistic about the good news to focus on maintaining grass um and maybe move away from artificial turf.
And just one thing I wanted to mention because it just happened today. Um Hinchcliffe Stadium is being used as uh in the proposed Shedler plan as a model for artificial turf. And there were five gradu five Patterson high schools that
were graduating today. children and their parents had to be pulled off the field um on stretchers. They ended the graduation. It was so hot that, you know, they were on artificial turf. It is so dangerous on a day like today. Um
luckily, Rididgewood didn't have that problem with the graduation. But, you know, suffice it to say, you know, we're as a community advocating for something that it, you know, has been proven today to be dangerous and children don't consent to go on these fields. So,
that's really all I wanted to say. I do agree with what Jacqueline Horn had to say about, you know, testing. Maybe that can be um prioritized, you know, in the the short term or the, you know, the near future, maybe next year's budget. Um, but I do think, you
know, we need to start taking a closer look at what's really going on and how it's affecting our community and our children's health and our, you know, every resident. Thank you very much. Thank you. There are no no other hands raised. Um,
so I will close public comment. Um, is there Um I think we've been speaking about fields sufficiently and all of our meetings for the last however many months. I think we made our position pretty clear. Um you know we're we are
as facilities committee still discussing top topics related to this to some extent but the fact of the matter is that at this time we're not proposing any changes to our field. So Right. Okay. Um and we we will not have another executive session. So uh we are back um
at our board of education meeting in the summer. We meet once in July and once in August. We'll be back Monday, July 21st um at six o'clock for our public meeting and then August 25th
uh for our at 6:00 for our August meeting and then two days later we welcome our staff back on the I think August 27th it is and then school starts. So um enjoy the summer because
it will go too fast I'm sure. Um, I make a motion uh to close the meeting. Uh, do I have a second? All in favor? All right. Um, see you in in July. Thank
you.