Okay. So, um we don't have we're missing Mark now. Okay. It's summer. All right. Please join me in a flag salute and pledge of allegiance.
The Richard Board of Education has been meeting in executive session pursuant to NJSA 10 col4-12. The minutes of this meeting will be released when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Pursuant to the requirements of the open
public meetings act, advanced notice has been given to the star ledger, the record and the clerk of the village of Bridgewood. In addition, notices were posted in the office of the board secretary and in all school buildings. So, good evening everyone and we'll go
right to uh comments from the public if there are any at this point. Okay. Oh, we do have some hands raised uh remotely. So, um I don't think there's anybody here. Uh we'll start then with
um um Mr. Loving, you're on with the board. Uh good evening, uh Board of Education members. Boyd A. Loving Ridgewood resident. Uh, I would just like to go on record to state that under no
circumstances would I be able to support any decision coming now or in the future made by the Rididgewood Board of Education to construct a new artificial turf field on any property owned by the Board of Education. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, Carolyn Holt, you're on with the board. Hi, this is Carolyn Holt. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Um, good evening and thank you
for the opportunity to speak. Um, I would like to ask the board to prioritize in your goals this school year to ensure the district has reliable fields which meet the needs of our students and our community.
We know that we have a flooding issue at all the villages full-size fields. Two of them are board of ed assets. You completed a feasibility study which confirmed that there is no quick, easy, or cost-effective solution to stop the
flooding. You need to look at and invest in an alternative field solution. All students who use fields have their seasons jeopardized by potential rainstorms and hurricanes. I appreciate and am optimistic about the
personnel and service changes that you have made to improve field maintenance of grass fields and even some of the preventative measures that you have invested in to reduce the damage of flooding at stadium and Stevens fields. But given the demand for field space in
this village, I know that the board of ed grass fields will not be enough to support the demands of our high school athletics and other field-based activities like band and cheerleading if the turf fields are not available. As a
recent example, you had to close and clean all of our full-size fields at the end of July due to a rainstorm. Our neighboring districts, Glenrock, Waldwick, Northern Highlands, to name a few, have already invested in
modern facilities. In all cases that I'm aware of, they upgraded to turf fields, and this gives their students a clear advantage. Our students deserve the same, or at least to have fields that are safe and reliable. With your field
fusibility study completed and the school year starting in a week, I urge you to prioritize approving an alternative solution to our flood plane fields. Um, and to consider a project to turf Benjamin Franklin Middle School. It
is the best alternative that emerged from your feasibility study. I understand that the funds may not be in the current budget, but if the board of ed is open to that solution, there are sports organizations and many residents who will endeavor to help to raise the
funds needed for the project. We need you to make this a priority for our students and our community and to be open to a public private partnership to help expedite the project. Thank you. Thank you.
JH, you're on with the board now. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi, thank you. My name is Jacqueline Hone. I am requesting
um an answer. I had written in July, July 15th to the superintendent raising concerns um regarding the turf fields and I had requested a meeting
to discuss ongoing and past environmental and public health issues at Ridgewood High School and Stevens Fields. And I was never granted that meeting, nor was I given a response to that.
Um, it wasn't just for myself. Other concerned residents as well would like to be heard in a setting where we can discuss one-on-one and bring up our concerns other than just a short public
comment. So, if I could please have a response to that. I also wanted to know the feasibil feasibility study included three um facilities but they when will the
rest of those facilities also be studied? When will that be completed? And then the BF project that was just referenced. I understood that that was ready to go and
it's it seems to have been halted. So, could we be given an update, please, as to what is going on with that project and why it was stopped? I know that there was designs and everything and everything was ready to go and then I expected that
to happen over the summertime and then it hasn't happened. So, when will that happen and why was that project halted? Thank you. Thank you. Um, your telephone number ending in uh 253
or is it 252? Sorry, might be 252. Hello. Am I at an angle? You're on. Hello. This is Ann Levin. Can you hear me? Ann, if you could just speak up a little bit louder.
Ann loving. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi. Um, I'm a Rididgewood resident or a resident of what the New York Times called the sports crazed Rididgewood, New Jersey. And I'm here to say that I
hope and I trust that the board of ed will not put any more artificial turf down on any field at any time in the future. There are myriad reasons which we've gone over and over and over again, but I've seen chatter on social media
recently indicating that maybe the board might do this. Please, no more artificial turf. We would love confirmation that you have no intention of doing so. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Seeing no other hands up and no one at the uh in the audience, um I'll close public comment. We'll have public comment again at the end of the meeting. Um, did you want to um make any uh or would
you like to do that with your um superintendent report? I'll give acknowled I can do some acknowledgement now if okay so just want to say I'm going to speak in very broad terms and I'm sure this is going to be very underwhelming for folks who are invested in the topics of uh
regarding fields and artificial turf and all that but uh rather than get into a back and forth uh here right now just suffice to say that we take the demand for our fields in this community very seriously we have been working very hard to make sure that we are making the most
of the fields that we have we have been making an effort to really understand and hear the concerns of folks in the community who are opposed to any idea of additional artificial turf in the community. We also recognize that there are folks in the community who very much would like to see access to our fields
expanded including the the increase in the availability of artificial turf surfaces which are which could be which could presumably expand play more. uh just given the amount of um conversation and consternation that's going on I know with the with the village and their
application for the Shedler property um and we have had a variety of people from both sides of this issue reach out to us um and we are taking everything into consideration there is a high volume of conversation so it's not I can't necessarily have one-off conversations with every person who wants to have a
one-off conversation I am making my best effort to meet in groups we had a conversation about this recently, I think it was at our facilities committee meeting. Was that when we was when we spoke about it briefly? So, uh, so we I I am open to meeting with groups on any on any side of this issue, uh, including Green Ridgewood was
referenced as a good group to meet with as well. So, we're certainly open to that. I I think it's important to note that right now, um, there is this is not this is more of a topic that is being raised to to the board, not so much something that is being board directed. uh ex I will give a small exception to
the fact that we have been trying to figure out if there is a better way to utilize the fields that we have. So one of our one I believe it was Mrs. Hone uh made a reference to a a pro a potential project that was halted. We were it did appear from our architectural
feasibility study that there might be a chance that we could make some modifications to the BF field to have football be able to use that field also. But upon further consultation, we realized that um that there were some uh practical uses that of that of the field
by the track team that would have actually been impeded in a way that we couldn't have anticipated. Uh so rather than impact the track program for something that was of marginal benefit to the to the football team based on the limitations of that field, we decided that it wasn't going to be worth the money to spend to spend on a a small
modification. it was going to have more of a negative impact on one program than a benefit to another program. So that was why we decided to not proceed with that with that conversation. Um that did not involve artificial turf. It was merely a modification of the track to try to create an additional
accommodation that was deemed ultimately not worthwhile. So again, I understand that there are a lot of strong feelings around this issue. Um and uh so again just want to acknowledge that and of course we are open um and we are going to be of course deliberative moving forward but uh we want to be responsive
to the groups but and I hate to keep saying this but at this point in time you will hear these concerns and we also heard from a from one of our constituents who is advocating for us to to explore other options with respect to the fields. Um right now uh our focus with the current school year we have a
budget struck for this current year. we have a budget that we will need to build for the following year. Um, and so we'll take all these points into consideration. Again, as I said, I know that that is underwhelming for folks, but uh that's uh I want to at least acknowledge people's positions and their
uh requests at this time. Um we will go to um our our first presentation, Dr. Shores, our only presentation, I'm sorry. So, first of all, I just want to say thanks everybody for being here. I look forward to giving a superintendent report in a few minutes. I'm just giving
a status update on the new year. Got a lot of good things happening in the district and we're excited to share them with you. But we have a really nice presentation here. I'd like to invite Miss Susan Nold who is a supervisor of 612 English language arts to join us up here and uh and is Miss Prad you're
joining as well. Um and uh so we'd like to this is also a good opportunity for us to introduce Miss Lee Parad. Miss Lee Parad is the is will be is taking over as the interim supervisor of language arts for 6 to 12 because Mrs. Nul uh we're very we're we're going to be very sad. We're going to miss her greatly but
she has had an opportunity uh life has taken her in another direction that is good for her and her family and she has done wonderful service for the district and I'm going to use this as an opportunity Mrs. Nola, thank you for all your service to the district and even right up until your some of your last
last hours here with us, you are coming and still doing the great work for the district. So, thank you for that. Um, and Miss Parad, thank you for your diligence and helping to make sure that the torch is carried well and transitioned well. All right, but but our presentation
today is about um the K12 library media curriculum review. So, without further ado, uh I will turn it over to you, Mrs. Nold and Miss Parad. Okay. Okay. Welcome to the K through2 library and
media curriculum and program review. This evaluation spans a 5-year period examining our library media programs effectiveness, relevance, and alignment with current educational standards. In this presentation, we will explore key findings, discuss areas for growth, and
outline strategies to enhance our library media services for the benefit of our students and educators. We have just completed year one of the review which included the program review, research, and recommendation as well as the K through5 curriculum
rewrite and the development of the 6 through 12formational literacy professional development. Next summer, the 6 through 12 library curriculum will be revised and we will continue to monitor progress over the next few years. In year one of the research study
process, the K through2 media specialists reviewed the current library and media program offerings to determine opportunities for revision. K through five media specialists explored technology resources including online encyclopedias and coding programs. The 6 through 12 media specialists surveyed
staff from the middle and high schools onformational literacy and research. The K through2 media specialists reviewed curricula to determine opportunities for development and refinement as well as explored new books and resources and evaluated current resources to support
students and teachers with information literacy. K through5 media specialist revised curricula this summer. The 6 through2 media specialist created information literacy professional development for 6 through 12 teachers to be delivered in five sessions over the
2526 school year. As we implement the New Jersey information literacy standards across our nine schools, our media specialists play a pivotal role in equipping students with essential 21st century skills. These professionals are instrumental in teaching students to
recognize information needs, locate diverse sources, critically evaluate content, including AI generated material, synthesize knowledge, and communicate ethically. Our media specialists collaborate across the disciplines, integrating information
literacy into all subjects and fostering skills that prepare students for academic success and inform citizenship. They guide students in navigating the complex information landscape. By leveraging their expertise, we ensure our students develop the capacity to
think critically, use information responsibly, and adapt to evolving technologies, skills that are crucial for their future academic and professional endeavors. We surveyed our 6 through 12 teachers to gather information on how to implement
these standards at each grade level and in all subject areas. There were 87 responses. Some teachers identified with more than one subject area. Looking at the results, we can see that most teachers feel that they are teaching the information literacy
standards outlined in the survey with the standout scores for teaching skills on how to evaluate information and the ethics of citing sources. In the narrative responses, we found some interesting results. With the statement, I routinely collaborate with
the school library media specialists to support information literacy or research in the following ways. We see that teachers mostly leverage specialists to support databases, database platforms, and curate sources for research. With the question, in your experience, what
are the most significant challenges students face when conducting research? A big standout is 59% of the teachers surveyed felt that evaluating information was an obstacle. We know from previous questions that 897 89% of
the teachers teach this skill. With the question, what types of research projects or research assessments could apply to your class and subject area? We found that teachers consider the most significant applications of these skills to be for research projects, discussions, and debates as well as
slideshows and infographics. We chose a variety of disciplines and grade levels for each of these responses. There are two narrative responses for this first response. There are two slides and I'm going to give you a minute on each slide before I move on.
The first prompt was, how often and in what capacity do your students engage in research activities or assessments? The next slide on the same prompt. How often in what capacity do your students engage in research activities
and assessments? Our other free response question was, "How are you and your students using AI? What opportunities and/or concerns do you see?" There are three slides for this, and I'll pause to give you a chance to
read each one. This is the second slide with the prompt. How are you and your students using AI? What opportunities and/or concerns do you see? And the last slide on this prompt, how often are you and your students using
AI? What opportunities and/or concerns do you see? A summary of feedback from middle and high school teachers. They are facilitating information literacy opportunities, especially with evaluating sources and instruction on citation and ethics. They're also
teaching the formation of thesis statements and seeking and organizing information. They identify the most significant challenges as students as evaluating information, perseverance, reading sources, and synthesizing information. 20 to 31% collaborate with media
specialists on research skills and assignments. They consider the most significant applications of these skills to be for research projects, discussions, and debates as well as slideshows and infographics. AI is a topic of interest and concern in the
research process. are takeaways. Most teachers are including information literacy and research skills in their lessons, but they are also identifying these skills as obstacles in student learning. Media specialists can support information literacy with professional development
that targets the identified skills with common language and practices that can be turnkeyed in every subject area. Some teachers are leveraging AI and most teachers want more direct messaging on how and when to use it. Most teachers see opportunities for research and
information literacy skills and assessments other than the traditional research paper. Our next steps, the K through5 media specialists have developed curricula under four bands. Library usage, love of literature, digital citizenship, and
non-fiction research. The K through5 media specialists will articulate K through 12 on information literacy to provide support for students and staff. They will continue to explore updated common sense media curriculum to enhance
their instruction, including over 70 digital dilemma scenarios to help students develop good routines to situations that do not have the right answer. The 6 through 12 next steps. Media specialists have developed professional development forformational
literacy topics, including information tools and resources, developing questions, search strategies, and lateral reading. Media specialists will facilitate this professional development with ELA and social studies teachers in department meetings.
The K through2 media specialists play a crucial role in nurturing students passion for reading through author visits and innovative school initiatives. By facilitating meaningful interactions between students and authors, these professionals create tangible connections that inspire
exploration of new genres and diverse perspectives. Media specialists also collaborate with teachers and administrators to implement comprehensive reading programs, transforming libraries into dynamic centers of learning and fostering a schoolwide culture of literacy.
Each year, elementary school communities read one book as a school. Staff participate by reading and reporting chapters. Activities are curated and shared with parents for atome reading and discussions. and the schools celebrate the conclusion of the reading with assemblies.
The middle school eighth grade historical fiction book groups were launched to help students appreciate the merits and joys of reading and discussing books in a more informal setting. It also provides students with the opportunity to read and learn about different cultures and historical
events. 10 books are selected each year to cover a broad range of voices and experiences. Students indicate their top choices. All eighth grade teachers participate along with administrators and guidance counselors, showing that we are a community of readers.
Each school has cured native language books to celebrate the different cultures in their communities. Books include popular titles in native languages and books in the native language specific to a culture or identity. The libraries continue to build these collections every year.
In the last few years, high school authors have included Briana Scurry, Malikica Gerb, Michael McCreary, and Robin Ha. Middle school author visits have included Jennifer Nielsen, Pabla Cartea, and Vieira Haron Andani.
Elementary school author visits have included Stacy Menulti, John Parra, and Elise Broch. The upcoming K through2 author visit for 2526 is Candace Fleming. Candace Fleming's expertise in crafting engaging
historical narratives and biographies aligns perfectly with our goal of inspiring students to become more proficient and passionate writers. Originally scheduled for March 2020, but postponed due to CO 19, this rescheduled visit will ignite our students
enthusiasm for writing and research. Recommendations for 2526. K through 5 will implement and monitor the revised curriculum. They will continue to articulate between the schools and between the levels to foster a love of reading and to deepen informationational informationational
literacy and research skills. 6 through 12 will facilitate professional development development with 6 through 12 staff on information literacy skills. They will evaluate the professional development and adjust accordingly for 2627 incorporating additional research
skills. Next summer they will write the 6 through 12 curriculum to incorporate the currentformational literacy and research skills. This review has showcased the vital role our library media programs play in preparing our students for the challenges of the 21st century. By
continually refining our approach to information literacy, fostering a love of reading, and adapting to emerging technologies, we are ensuring that our students are well equipped for their future academic and professional endeavors. Thank you. Thank you for your attention and continued support of our
library media programs. Thank you so much, Mrs. Nol, and all the efforts of all the teachers and administrators who who put their time in uh for this review. We're very excited for the work that you have ahead of you. Um in in I know some of our board members are going to have a few questions. Um so actually I'll turn it
over to them first to see if they would like to ask anything. Any questions or comments? Mary, do you She can see me kind of uh formulating a question here. So, I I wanted to thank goodness gracious. I wanted to thank you and everybody who participated in
Okay, speak a little clo. I know it's six inches or so. Is that better? Can you hear me now? Um I wanted to thank you for the presentation for um the comprehensive approach uh and everybody who uh participated in that library was always
my favorite place to volunteer in elementary school. So um I was particularly interested you know in this um I just uh I the one thing that I noticed and is that um and I think you
articulated is that it's interesting because informationational information literacy is a is an essential skill right everywhere science you know when uh in every part of teaching and actually in every part of life and I did
notice that some of the um the responses to the questions was that we had less than 40% of our teachers are utilizing the expertise of our media specialists. So, um I'm assuming that some of that professional development that you're
talking about there and that you're planning is designed to close that gap a little bit and to make it maybe more um in inter intertwined with an everyday experience for our teachers and our students because I think they can only
benefit from that. I see you nodding. I'm assuming that you kind of agree with me on that. So one of the I think the most challenging things for teachers they are teaching these skills and what we're we're seeing is that they still have to teach these skills. There's
still obstacles. So we wanted to to leverage the experts that we have to actually look at the skills and to to define them in the same way and to to have professional development where we're talking about lateral reading as a
specific skill. And as we're teaching ourselves what lateral reach lateral reading is, we're actually giving the teachers the resource to to transfer that same term into their teaching. So whether you're in a science class or an English class or a history class um or
math class, um that lateral reading means the same thing and that you're using the same strategy and the same for evaluating sources and all of those skills. But we initially started this study looking at how to tackle the problem of the research paper or the
research assignment. And once we really started to dig in one, we have to rethink that assessment, you know, in general in in the age that we're living in. But what we do know everyone needs to to know are informationational literacy skills. You need them for research, you need them for reading, you
need them to exist. And so once we started to look at how to do that professional development from that lens, it became very easy to see that this wasn't a one-year project. The professional development program will probably take three years and we're
picking five skills each year. This year we're focusing on 6 through 12 English and social studies teachers. So for five of their department meetings, they will be together. So that the middle school um English and social studies teachers will be learning these skills together.
And it's it's set up as a 45minute professional development where 15 minutes will be showcasing the skill, 15 minutes will be the teachers using the skill and 15 minutes will be the teachers talking about how they could apply the skill to something they're currently teaching. And then they'll
start to build this portfolio of resources. So every time they come back to that professional development, they'll review the skill um that they covered before and then they'll begin a new skill. And we're hoping that in this way people will see that they don't have
to teach a traditional research paper because we do that once a year, but that we can be incorporating research skills in every unit that we're doing. And so when we do get to that research paper or that big research assessment that the students already have the skills and
that they have the skills in every subject area and that we can do this interdisciplinary approach. So what we're hoping at the end of this first year in May is that we reflect on um what skills we're working, what we still need to build, and that the the media
specialists will develop the program again for the following year. And it's it's a pretty comprehensive program that that they've developed. Uh so even though we're focusing under our umbrella of control, which is really English and history, this could be turnkeyed in
other subject areas as well. And we hope it will be. We hope it will be. And it also I think people will become, to answer your first part, more comfortable with the media specialists if they haven't worked with them. Um, this survey, you know, we think of research as as English and
social studies, but this survey was including every subject area. Um, and I do think more ELA and history teachers do leverage the um, the media specialists, but we're hoping to expand that. Yes. Hoping that's across. I mean, I
would think especially with when you're looking for more technical information, you know, uh I was I I noted that you had somebody who talked about it for for honors chemistry and for physics and and you know, certainly research is for everybody, right? So, um so I I just wanted to thank you
for the entire thing and thank you for that answer. That's very very helpful to me now. I understand it a little bit more. And then um since you're here, uh I I just want to thank you, Miss Nold, for everything. Um, I know I sent you a little bit note, but um, your love of
reading, your love of language, your commitment to education was very, very apparent to me, uh, you know, the couple times that we met, and I know that it's infused our entire program, and I know that you leave us in good hands. Um, but I just want to express my thanks to you because I have so much enjoyed um, our
conversations. Thank you. And and I know, don't cry, but and I'm very happy for you. So, I just wanted to say that. I appreciate that. Thank you. Do I I wanted to say as a social studies teacher, I use the media center for
support and research and documenting as many of the people in the survey said, but I also know that my experience knowing people in other districts, some other districts have had to cut money and they've cut the media specialist. And I think a lot of people may and that
just pained me because I love to read and so that one aspect but the media center the library isn't just for books. There's so much more in this exploding you know era offormational technology
not to be aware and how to find the latest information that's accurate with things changing all the time. I think that the media specialist is such a wonderful resource because we're always worried about our content area and
sometimes we don't spend the time learning about these other opportunities which the specialist does. And I think that we can never underestimate the value of the media specialist. And I'm so happy that's hasn't been anything
that we've ever discussed. I don't want to alarm anybody that we're talking about that. But I've saw it in neighboring districts that they don't have this resource. And I want to thank you and the community for always supporting it. And I know other teachers
especially in the social studies field. This is something we rely on tremendously. And I too worked with you indirectly through the years. And I want to thank you from the teacher perspective as well as recently being on the board and just seeing you in that capacity this way. And thank you. We
wish you God's speed and the best of luck. Thank you. I appreciate it. I I I just wanted to to do talk about AI for a while for for because I I this is such a fascinating
era that we are living in. I think I I am plowing my way through the empire of AI. Don't like Sam Alman too much. I'll just say it right then. Uh but also there was a webcast. Uh there was a podcast today uh New York Times daily um
all about I AI and and the infighting that's going on and the the really millions of dollars um being offered to um these young um people coming out of
college to work um in these um you know for these companies. Um it is a scary process and I and I sort of recall that when we began with um technology um there was a lot of fear about
computers and then iPads and smartboards and uh the district at one point I I actually we'll talk about this at convocation district at one point um established a learning center for our
teachers teachers at uh BF and you might remember that, right? And we tried to get all of our teachers into these courses and just to give this basis and maybe maybe make it not quite as frightening um or to see how we use it
as a tool and that's what this is and and I see AI as a tool uh for educators. So what's the plan? What's the plan? Well, it's a big that that's a big that's a big question.
We do have so we we have uh rolled out Brisk um as an educational tool. We also have Gemini which is now like a tool that our teachers are using but we are approaching it this year from and I'll
I'll let Lee speak too but also in terms of bringing equity into education as a tool. How do we meet the needs of different levels of students in classes? And there are options in in all of these educational AI tools that are are safer.
They're closed systems where you could have a math tutor who could be tutoring. your math teacher could put a homework assignment in and assign the math tutor and that that student would be tracked in terms of what types of questions they were asking, where they struggled, how
many attempts, and so the teacher could see how much information um or what skills needed to be rettaught or to talk about our different tiers of support. For English, they have the writing coach, which is similar. It's a Socratic type. It's not you it won't give you a
thesis statement. Um, you can't ask direct questions like that, but you could see you could ask a question like, "I'm having difficulty starting this prompt." And it will prompt with specific questions. And you could put in a regular assignment and you could assign the writing coach and the teacher
could see where the student is struggling. So, there are opportunities. I think that chat GPT ruined our conversation um about AI and educational AI. I do think that there are companies and that there are organizations that are trying
to to reclaim that conversation and I think it's it's terrifying and exciting at at the same time. I think that the fears are real and I think the opportunities are real and um I'll let Lee speak to this because she's going to be the one rolling it out. Um, I think everything
that you just said, I like how you started with it's exciting to talk about because I think AI can be exciting, but I think it's scary to so many of us because it's the unknown. It's growing faster than we can grow to understand it and apply it and find the good in it. Um, because there's so much value in it.
Um, but I think the work that we've even done over this summer as an entire administrative team to try and grow and understand and work with this, um, the work that we'll be doing with our teachers, not just in our department, but across the district is really trying
to find the best ways we can use things like Brisk or Gemini or other resources that are out there, the writing coach, the math tutor, um, to understand it so we can see the excitement of it in a positive way to our students and our
teachers. Yeah. Because it it won't go I don't think it's going away. And really this is our students future. I mean they will have it I suspect in almost every job whatever job they determine that they'll
do and and it will get more pervasive. So the ethical use of it um you know how to really know that that information is is truthful and yeah we have law firms
and we've got lawyers writing you know briefs on AI with madeup cases. If they don't check those cases then what good is that brief right? So yeah, it does look like the trend is moving into incorporating it into professional
and educational settings, but part of that is ethical citation. If you're using it, um that has now become the practice. And that's again the information literacy skill. AI is a component of it, but if we teach the ethics of where we got the how do you
know this information is correct, where did you get it from? and cite the source, then I think we're moving in the right direction into this very unknown territory. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. And and Susan, thank you for
the um I hope the Lee you will you give me my summer reading and I'm so pleased with that. Thank you. Yeah, Miss No, we are going to Rej is going to miss you. It's not. Thank you so much. Mhm.
Great. There was so much curriculum work that happened um this summer. If if you looked at the curriculum uh we'll go through that, but uh really thank you. So much work's going on in the district.
That's all good. Um Dr. Schwarz, your your report. So, I'm pleased to report uh that we seem to be uh in pretty good shape for our reopening of schools. We had a very busy summer and we had tremendous projects
going on with two of our schools being completely shut down for construction and a great deal of shuffling around. Our staff, our administrators, our custodians, our facilities team, principles were very flexible as we dealt with these challenges. The
timelines were tight. We're going to be going on building walkthroughs tomorrow. Today we had day two of our retreat and I of course pulled every principal aside and said, "How's it going? How's the building? What do you think? Are we are we ready?" And every single one of them looked me right in the eyes and said,
"Yeah, yeah. No, I think we're going to be I think we're good." Which is very encouraging because although the students coming back is important, the teachers coming back is is really arguably the most important time to be ready because they need to be able to get in their buildings and feel as though the school year is ready to go. So, they're coming back on Wednesday and
uh I'm hopeful that in my walkings around tomorrow that my standards are met and that we will we'll feel confident uh with our facilities. With respect to programs to your point about curriculum, there has been this is now my third reop third September here in
Rididgewood and it feels really good. I think we the the team has done a lot of work over these last couple years. Um, we've we've done a lot of work in building the team, but I think we really have a very strong team that is very self-directed and works very well
together. So, we identified a variety of priorities last year through our vision 2030 process and also through our district goals. And we've also then in addition to those goals, we I challenged all the administrators at the end of the
year last year to also just identify anything maybe it's not even including goals, anything that's like we don't have a good handle on that's lowhanging fruit that we could really nail down this year and we should nail down. So in addition to the many different projects that you're hearing about we also uh the various items were selected AI use
especially among educators and now that Gemini is now consider uh Google has shared that Gemini is now acceptable for use in the school context for students of all school all school age students. We had to figure out you know what does that mean for us now that we can have
younger kids use AI. We also were asked by some of our HSA uh presidents to weigh in and maybe provide consider providing guidance to families about smartphones and uh social media which led to a really interesting conversation which made us real that those are
actually the wrong questions. It's not about smartphones. It's really about internet connected devices and the extent to which students are given access to the internet without supervision and without restriction. So, we're reframing that conversation and I do actually anticipate that we're going
to be able to give some guidance for families in best practices regarding ensuring that students are safe when they access the internet. Additionally, with respect to social media, we realized that that was also the wrong question because some social media like YouTube can be pretty easily monitored
by parents without a lot of effort and can have a tremendous educ innocent uh relatively innocuous educational value. However, other platforms that involve uh this like social interaction, virtual social interaction. We kind of we're calling it
peer-to-peer interaction is really really what we're most concerned about. the maybe videos and media content that is concerning would really still fall into the category of internet access. But there's a separate and apart concern
that we have about students being able to engage with strangers and peers in an unregulated virtual way. And so it's not just traditional social media. It's even like video games where kids put on headsets and they'll just play a game with strangers and they'll hear all
kinds of terrible things. So there is a whole other conversation around social media that is much more than just should my child have Instagram, right? So we're trying to reframe that conversation as well and uh of course taking age appropriateness into it. We talked about
um some cool alternative uh assessment models that for our for highly effective educators that might further enhance their professional growth and a variety of other topics. So, um, where that ties in for all of us as board members, uh, we are going to be, we're in the process
of taking all of our efforts and kind of funneling them all together for and around our professional development practices, but also around the formulation of the 2526 district goals. So last year, what we did was I brought to you an initi an initial statement as
a draft before I made a brought brought as a final final deliberation with the administrative team. So on September 15th, I'll bring you a draft. The goals are going to be organized based on the five pillars of the of the vision 2030 plan and we'll make sure that all of your concerns any topics that you have I
can memorialize and then we'll go back to with the administrative team uh the the cap my my cabinet team here so this ed center leadership team will be helping me to develop that draft that I'll bring to you but then we'll go back to our all admin team we'll let them choose their groups just like we've
always done we'll form uh goal committees and they will make sure that we memorialize all the different things that we're doing and the ambitions that we have for the record. So, you can all see what those action plans are for those goals and then I'll ask you to approve those goals at the October 6th meeting.
And um if you recall, we we discussed in the spring about a regular um reporting out Yeah. of the vision 2030 on the goals. So, Exactly. Yeah. Yep. So, so we're we're actually we're still brainstorming how we are going to
actually represent progress. We want to be able to have that on the website as well, like some sort of representation. We haven't really been happy with like the dashboards that we've seen. So, we're exploring a couple different options right now, but we really would like our our progress to be very clear. Great. Um, and then, um, lastly, I would just
say we have a couple we have two of our student liaison here, two of our representatives. We have Eli Dator. Nice to see you, Eli. Thanks for being here. And we also have Grace Kim. So, thank you guys. You guys are really overachievers getting here early before the school year even starts. So, thank you for your time. I know you've been busy this summer. It's really nice to
have you out today. And Eli even made an appearance at Superintendent Coffee last Thursday. So, thank you for that, Eli. Uh, so and and I'm going to end on Superintendent Coffee. We had our meeting last last Thursday. We had some really interesting conversations. Of course, people asked questions. We talked about AI. People had questions about everything from well, we didn't
have a ton of questions. We had some questions about staff absences. We had a question on how we hand how we cover staff absences at the high school uh about Chromebooks. So whenever we get those questions, we take them in, we share them with the team, and then we report out on them. So at our next coffee, I'll be reporting out on some of
those responses, and that will be on September 11th. So if any of you are free on that Thursday, we invite you to join us for the superintendent coffee on that day. I think that would and unless you have any questions, that would conclude my superintendent report for tonight. Okay,
great. Any questions? Uh Dr. Sh just on you the coffee are the coffee sub and coffee are they every month or alternate months or they're they are every month. They're every month and um are they open like from invitation perspective are
does the invitation go to the community members or only parents of school? No in the it's open to everyone in terms of our push notice. I'm not how how broad does our push notice go? And do we have the oper the ability for
people to to request to be part of a distribution list? Sure. Yeah, it can be hard to regulate. I know I've been there before. All right. And is that the spirit of your question is if is I am that does um actually make it more
confusing for me because for I have uh email addresses that are subscribed to the district newsletter and those newsletters I have received uh superintendent coffee intermittently uh in on some months so for uh like
February, April and June. So I don't know if there was a meeting in March, there was a meeting in May. Yes. Okay. So, I I apologize if uh I I I don't have an answer for you based on the question you we had over email. I'm not sure why that's been happening. We have to figure that out. So, so it's so I have different email addresses that are subscribed to
different things. And we always had a community email list that you could subscribe to for receiving um the um the board meetings, right? Board meeting notices or uh Dr. Fishb Wine used to send a
letter uh to the community and uh that he even had a column in Rididgewood news. It it was addressed to the whole community during uh um COVID. There were a lot of community newsletters that went from school. So the school district has a list that is used for board of ed
meetings and other stuff. So that is not just the parents, right? So that I have email addresses on that list and those email addresses have received intermittently the coffee invite. So that's why I want to understand who is supposed to get the coffee invites and
and if community members are not why not. Yeah. And I I don't know if you I I responded to your email earlier that I I just misunderstood your initial question. I think I understand that now. Um so we're happy to be able to get you an answer for that. The spirit of it is
transparency and w and inclusion. So folks are should be welcome to come and in the meantime in the interim while we get communic the communication network straightened out the all of the coffees are on the district website so if anybody's interested they can certainly go see them on the district website too right
and they're posted on Facebook too it's posted on Facebook too right but I think I just so you're missing the point if if we are arguing or or debating that if they are posted on the website and Facebook then we don't need push notification no then we don't need push notification for anybody. Oh, the push notification is so
the vision in my mind the vision for the push notification is just an added courtesy. It's not it's not it's not meant to be the primary way that people hear about it. I understand that but either it's going to all of the members or not going to all of them. But that's why I'm trying to understand the the
rationale for select. If somebody does not want to subscribe, they would not subscribe to board of mailing lists or anything or not some months and not all months. No, I understand. I I understand that your question is generally about I I because I we've changed our communication systems multiple times and there are different ways to even
calibrate them and then they sync with our student information system. We also don't necessarily have address and contact information for everybody in the community. So I can't I I'm not going to be able to answer your questions about how the communication what the capability is of the systems just right
now. not capability, the spirit that if if the spirit is to uh invite the community members to your coffee, should that notification be going out to everybody who is registered for board of ed meeting uh emails? So that their
agenda email goes out to a wider list. Should the coffee invite be going to all of them or not? from your perspective if we have a list like who's the target audience of the superintendent coffee reminders. Yeah,
I haven't honestly even thought about that. So, I will consider that and get back to you. Okay. But in the meantime, the spirit of the superintendent coffee in general is that anyone who would like to anyone who is a resident of the community, I mean, frankly, we even sometimes have people who aren't even residents of the
community come on just because they're actually I don't know if we've had that here very much, but I had that my last district because people were just interested. So, I do treat it as open to the public. Um, but of course, it is not an open public meeting because there's no actual determinations that are made. So I do reserve the right to regulate
this conversation as needed but generally speaking uh we keep it pretty open. So I would encourage folks who want to come and speak to they're welcome to be there. Sure. And on on the reminders also whatever is the policy I just want to understand the intent and the policy. So it's consistently our follow right. And
then um for the board of ed notifications, for meeting notifications, where can residents sign up for board of ed meeting meaning the again the reminders, the meeting reminders, the agenda, the uh meeting uh summaries.
So yes, so our official our official communications and advertisements are the the papers that we that we that we advertise in the website. But you're saying specifically those courtesy notifications that we put out, right? So, we send out emails to the community that a reminder email that
goes out on Friday. That's actually part of the uh bylaw 164 that a email will be sent out to the community on Friday evening. So, it's not that Friday email is not
that curtsy. I think Friday email and maybe the Monday email is also part of that uh bylaw 164 and then a summary goes out after the meeting two days after the meeting that is a courtesy that is not part of any bylaw.
So our bot 164 which we are modifying today u I think it it mentions that it will be an email will be sent out to the community on Friday night and Monday morning. I yeah I'd have to I'd have to look at the or the origins of that language specifically
sign up how can anybody sign up for that yeah so I gota okay all right we'll get your response to that thank you okay um we'll go to uh uh some reports out on the board uh committees uh that
met in August. Uh the first one up is finance. Um Mary, did you want to bring anything? Yeah, sure. Um so just a couple actually we did quite a bit in finance. Um just very briefly um and most of this is on
tonight's agenda. So, um we reviewed and uh we approved and financed the shared services agreement with the village regarding the uh SRO's uh just increasing their salary from $40 an hour to $42 an hour. Um that was recommended
by Dr. Schwarz. Uh apparently we've lost a couple of officers to other higher paying districts. So that was the rationale there. um changing the third party administrator for our um 403b and 457b
um funds to penserve that's also on the agenda tonight. Um can I ask a question on that? On which one? Uh on the uh administrator of the 401 3 and four yes and I will do my best to answer it and Rich will back me up. Yes. So uh that is on the agenda but it
doesn't list any um financial amounts. So uh it just says that it's the agenda item that we are voting on today uh finance number four and it basically just lists the uh vendor name fencer
plan services. So should we be listing the amounts uh financial commitments uh in the public agenda or are they changing from the when we are changing the administrator or they just get a ratio or percent of the funds or um and
but then it will not be going from the board of ed but it would be going from employees contributions. So is that changing like what's the financial impact of of this change? Okay.
So, does it No, it worries. Yeah. some so the the reason I wanted to bring it up is sometimes they don't the u brokers or financial institutions don't change what they are charging to the district but sometimes their fee management fee can
be different on the fund right the fund management fee or on if there is any impact so I'm I'm looking at the um I'm looking at the the proposal okay and the proposal and and let me just finish one thing which is to say that the reason for the change was it was
recommended by uh the business administrator because I guess there were some concerns with the prior TPA over their responsiveness. Okay. And so the idea was after interviewing um a couple of different uh TPAs that this particular entity would be able to be
more responsive, would make transfers more quickly, and would have better customer service. Perfect. So that was that was the rationale for that. I'm looking now at the fee estimate and what I see and Rich, correct me if I'm wrong, but um I see that the takeover plan implementation fee was waved and the
annual fees were waved. Participant fees um it says at 38 and I don't know that's 38%. But I I just wanted to those one those one-time fees were waved. Okay. So I I did want to at least give
you that information and then I I think Rich is going to have to really Okay. So the participant fee is for So if that impacts employees, do we is there any change in like sidebar or anything needed there or
so it's a good question. All right. So I'm going to jump in because I've been part of your slightly. Yeah, it is. I'm trying not to get too close. kind of this is like a skill, right? Jason, we need a course on microphone
usage. Um, so with the TPA one, we were receiving numerous complaints year over year since I've gotten here from the REA, from many of our members that investments weren't making it into the accounts. They were being very delayed and and our staff are aware. They're looking at that. And so, it's not right.
You're investing your money and then you have to wait for a month to gain any interest on that money that you're trying to invest. It's a problem, right? very big problem. So that that's one of the reasons why we switch. I believe the participant participant fees are not actually referring to our staff,
referring to the companies that participate. So you have to remember you have a TPA because they monitor the IRS process for us. They make sure that we stay compliant with all the IRS IRS.
I'm I'm doing intervention referral services stuff. the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service. Yes. So, um, yeah. So, there's some trans transaction processing that goes along with
so they're probably making money on the interest when the money they keep the money during transfer probably. Yeah, there's some piece. I I don't know the exact mechanics, but there's really no fee to us. The only time there would be a fee to us is if we asked them to do
a major review of our service agreements with the 403b providers that work with us in the district. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. I'm sorry for interruption. Glad you asked the question. It was useful. Um okay, so just to continue
along um we have a nice big donation from the RHS band association which I know that um our president will acknowledge later. Um but that was in finance. Um this year um the business office went out for bid for field trip transportation and we got two bids for
those. Um that's significantly going to help um especially the HSAs that are paying for the field trip costs. As a matter of fact, um, someone I know who is a prior HSA president texted me, I think the agenda went out what, Friday night, and I got something like 7:30,
8:00 on Friday night from somebody telling me that quote, "This is huge." And was very appreciative of the money that's going to be saved as a result of going out to bid. So, I just wanted to make that acknowledgement and let you know over at the business office that your work is being appreciated. Um, two
other things. We talked a little bit about the state health plan and the fact that they're talking about a 30% increase. That's unacceptable. So, we're looking at alternatives. More to come on that. Um, we're looking aggressively at other alternatives. I think that's a fair way to put it. Um, and then
finally, we had a pretty robust discussion on flood insurance. So just to give um a little bit of background uh two years ago we learned that our stadium stadium RHS stadium field and Stevens Field which by the way includes
the bridge the bleachers the the lights you know all the lights all the fields um that the insurance flood insurance for that which we had been paying for and been getting with a $50,000 deductible was going up to a $500,000
deductible which is significant. Uh that number is determined by FEMA, I've learned. Um and that um you know, we're liable then we're not insured for any damage at those fields up to $500,000. So um the business office charged our
insurance broker to go out and take a look to see if we could get some insurance to cover that gap. And we we do have under consideration a flood insurance policy which would just ensure the stadium in Stevensfield, the
bleachers, the lights, the bridge um for with a deductible of so from 50,000 up to $500,000. So with having only a $50,000 deductible would be $70,000 annually the premium
for that. Um, and if we were looking for a $100,000 uh deductible, it would be $60,000 a year annually. So, there was quite a bit of discussion about that. Um, and the one thing that I noted, um, was that when we went back and looked at
the loss information from the past 5 years, we have had a flooding event, um, where our costs have exceeded have come close to $50,000. Um, and certainly a few where they've exceeded it substantially every year for the past 5
years. So I I that's something what you're going to correct me. It it was on average it was more than one flood a year, but we've been alternating years that we've been experiencing flood. We had no flood. So no flooding, three years flooding.
No. Okay. I thought 2024 we actually had a flood, but the reason it it was kind of combined with the big one from 2023. We did. That's right. When we were talked about the every year, no, it was it was actually we were just saying if you but if you take the on years and the off years and you
average them for mathematical purposes for considering actual cost the average the average was was was a little bit more than one a year. But we've had we've been alternating years for the past six years where we have multiple floods or a singular flood and then we have no floods.
I misunderstood. I thought that I I thought that there was actually a flooding event. I only bring it up because I because you're speaking very you're representing the meaning very well and I don't want people to think that you're that you No, no, I want to be corrected if I say it incorrectly. I mean the important thing is to get the information out there. So I appreciate that.
But is it the $50,000 or those numbers are they calendar year or school year? Well, that that was the other thing. I think that it's the it's f it's our fiscal year. So then that that's why statement is correct that it's alternating. That's right. And I was I was thinking I was thinking calendar year. That's
correct. The the bottom line is that we've had I think it's fair to say the bottom line is that we've had substantial costs associated with flooding at the fields um on a fairly regular basis and that it's certainly worthwhile to consider um insuring that
loss or insuring against that loss so that we save the district some right to the extent that we can. Um, so the deductible is in uh for each event is $50,000
for both fields. Correct. So that was what that was something that we confirmed is that it's per occurrence. So one flood damaging two fields is still a $50,000 deductible, not 50 times two.
Right. Okay. So it's all considered that whole area is basically considered one location that's insured. I think that's right. So for a $50,000 deductible, our premium is 50,000. No, our our premium for a $50,000 deductible, our premium is $70,000 a
year. And for a $100,000 deductible, it goes down to $60,000. And right now it's 500,000 deductible. So for how much is the premium for that? Well, I mean, I think that's lumped into um the rest of our insurance, which is I
think our premiums over a million dollars. It's just for the stuff that's in flood zone 8, the bleachers, the the lights, the bridge, and the fields. Fairfields. Yes. So, we are we are saying if we want to change from 500,000 to 100,000, we still have that no matter what. 500,000 we have it.
Yes. If you want to change that to 100,000 deductible, we have to pay 70,000 premium. 50,000. 60,000 premium in addition to what we are paying. Right. Right. So 60,000 is in addition to what we are already paying. Oh, in addition
to this is the way I like that is it's another it's another insurance policy. I got it. So rather than being exposed up to $500,000, we're now only if we were to buy it, we would only be exposed up to 50 per occurrence. Right. And plus the uh
it's like the gap insurance. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. It's covering the $500,000 exposure that we have based on the the assessment of the zones, right? So, if we commit to60,000 or $70,000 a year as a gap insurance, does
that impact our ability to pick the vendors and timeline to get it fixed once there's a flood event? So, that's a good question. We're actually doing we're doing an RFP to go out there and be able to pick the companies that can do the restoration for the filtered and cleanup. So the RP should be going out probably within the
next couple of weeks for that work. But the insurance company doesn't dictate they're the vendor in that case. No, no, it's a reimbursement. Right. Like like for my car if I have to go to insurance company's approved vendors and their assessor has to come because I
think even when we made the claim last time, the assessor came before we could start the renovation or repair work. In this recent storm, we were greenlighted to just immediately begin cleanup, but we don't have insurance. The county is going to give us the okay
to go ahead and procure from whomever, but we actually are going to do an RP so we can actually be able to pick and choose companies that give us the best prices and the best deal. So, we're doing the RFP for restoration services for the fields. We were lucky that we got under the threshold with the last
company that we chose, but in the future, we might get something over $33,000. So now we got to go out and do competitive bidding. So we're doing that now so that we have it already in place. Right. So Rich, we you're talking about the bid threshold of 42,000 or now $50,000, right?
For for us to go out and do the work without bidding. I'm talking about if we if insurance company is also involved, is there a change in that process? Oh, you're saying I'm sorry, I misunderstood what you're saying. You're saying if there's a major flood event that will clearly be we'll be filing a claim. Yes. For them.
Yeah. Yeah. Are we going to be constrained with who we can use? Meaning I I would we'll get an answer to that. I would be inclined to say no because there are so few vendors. Um and if I recall last time I know last time there was we did not get any specific guidance about which
vendor to use when we did file a claim. So that was in prior years. But we will conf make a note of that Mr. Matthews and just confirm that. I mean this is just a a question. The last time that we did it, we paid we paid the money out and then the insurance carrier reimbursed us, right?
And I know like when you're talking about cars, usually what happens is you drop it off and you don't even see them the money change hands, right? You just get a fixed car back. So, that is a good question though, just to confirm that the the carrier would not control the repair, which is what we want to make
sure to protect ourselves. Um the only other thing that's out there and I just on that is there is no restriction on applying for FEMA if the governor has declared a state of emergency. Exactly where I was going. Another note that we have also that we can also apply
for FEMA for this event for up to and we could apply for FEMA up to the 50,000 to arguably make whole um assuming and and if we were not to get the insurance which I would I'm not inclined to do but if we were not to get the insurance we always have FEMA but
FEMA is as reliable as FEMA is at any given day. I mean it's a reimbursement. It's a reimbursement after long and a very long wait like I think the car uh the risk manager was telling us like she had one claim was five years. So
in any event um that was a a discussion and I think something we should do. So do we have a sense of are we moving forward with that? Do you still have more work to do more discussion? Um, so I my takeaway from that conversation,
we didn't we didn't have an official takeaway except that we needed to discuss it more. Um, but I we did talk about on both sides and I believe if I remember correctly, Miss McCall, you you correct me if I'm wrong, but that we that it was mathematically it made sense to go one way or the other, but the
reality is that in a more of a worst case scenario where we did have a significant flood event that we'd all feel better having paid for the insurance and then knowing that we would be covered. Is that a fair representation? Very much so. It was one of those things where, you know, we had to think I had to think about it a little bit
personally just to make sure. But, um, I think the consensus was exactly what you said that it's it's worthwhile to to protect ourselves from the fight from catastrophic financial loss potentially. Maybe catastrophic is the wrong word, but Yeah. Yeah.
Does this require um a board resolution? We'll find that out. But but if but but I'd love to know if if through you all verbally indicating if that's something that you're you're supportive of if you're comfortable giving me a nod on that at this time. Yes. Yeah. Because the other thing is I want
to I want to know the answer to um I don't want the quote for the premium to expire. Yeah. Okay. Right. So to me it's better to if we can. So my takeaway from this conversation is uh that we will we will we will we will respond with interest in moving forward and and I'll bring and
and if that's something that we can initiate then I'll initiate that if I'm author if if that's something that fits within my purview. If there's action required by the board then we'll bring it to you on the 15th. Great. The effective date will be the signing of the contract. Yeah.
Oh board approval. Yes. should probably make it effective on like I'll check on I'll check on on anniversary dates for the contract. I'll check with that tomorrow. So, we'll just have to go and hold the plats for stresses me out. That's what I'm
thinking. So, we're leaning toward $70,000 at the meeting. The I think the $50,000 we wanted to purchase the $50,000 $50,000. Yes. Great. because it seems to me that it's either a little above 50 or or you know
a 100,000. So yeah. So I mean I think that the 50,000 deductible makes more sense. Yeah. Um okay. So facilities um there's one more question of the finance. Sorry. Did you guys discuss um
the the solid waste and recycling collection bid? Solid waste. solid waste and recyclabilities or was it in finance in finance and uh there wasn't much to discuss because I think we only got one
we only had one person responsibly interstate had one was interstate and their proposal was for like $109,000 last year we paid about a buck 17 that was through the contract and%
emergency requests coming from the field which is something We've eliminated for 2526. We actually had custodians contacting the waste company to come and make pickups. So we've actually addressed that and we we're stopping that. So the contract for uh solid waste
is I think 109 $109,000 for this coming year and last year we spent I think it was a buck 17. So um so far for last several years we've been doing it annually. Um,
is there a specific reason to go three years this time? Yeah, it's three year three-ear contract. Uh, for this year is 109,000. Next year is 112 and 2720 115. But we spent $117,000
in 2425. Um, the contract was like 98,000. We spent 92,000 in the contract. what I said was spent like over $25,000 in just extra costs coming from the field which was just something that we've addressed
that can no longer happen. So, it's contract for 25 269. The question is why is it a three-year contract rather than one year? If you only had one bid, then why are we signing three years? And and do we have a from Sheila your meetings with the village? Uh do we have a definite no
from the village for any interest in providing um at this point it wouldn't be cost effective to be with the village even for recycling and food waste. Well, food waste is different. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Well, you have Well, well, so so uh Keith Kasmar did
indicate clearly that they would not be that they would not be able to build out their services in a way that would be competitive with with this particular price quote. Uh so right now our avenue and an attempt for
cost savings is to cooperate for um with respect to food waste particularly. So, we're hopeful that in being more effective with our food waste management that we might be able to actually reduce some of our charge on the garbage as well and reducing our the weight of
garbage. But but your question about is it should it be one year or three years that's a that's a fine question or or a question is if we are still working on finding a solution for food waste why are we committing to three years
right because if If we if we anticipate that cost may go down um how will that impact garbage how much I don't know the quantity like one is the environmental benefit that's actually a fair point and the other one is that poundage yeah yeah like if we're hopeful that we
would that our poundage would go down right and recycling this they said they cannot pick recycling is because village can make money on recycle they're not my understanding I can't speak for them my understanding is that the conversation around them providing us that service was that if they were
they they If if the if the feas if there was a feasibility of them be of us being able to have a partnership that was favorable to both parties then they would invest in the trucks that were needed in the infrastructure the the the what was explained to us and what I think their working hypothesis is that
some of these firm some of these waste management firms they have access to their own landfills and their own places to to and so they control both sides both the pickup and where they go whereas the village it would be would be um would not be able to potentially get
the same level of discount. They'd have to just pay the rate. We don't they don't own landfills. So I get that for the garbage. So garbage they don't have the capability for the trucks to pick the containers and they don't have their own landfills. So that's why they are in
dis competitive disadvantage. But the food management was one part and the other is recycling. Yeah. Recycling is and like for example cardboard. So we we don't put cardboards in a container that can be pulled automatically and if vi village picks up
that cardboard they can actually sell it. Same with the recycling. If I think our for each school we have 50/50 we have half of them is garbage and half of them approximately recycling containers. So if recycling containers are not the
kind that can be pulled through the truck directly then can village pick up recycle and actually sell and make money. Yeah, I don't I don't have an answer for that. Okay. Um I just know that it was not something that was that that they were that they felt was going to be they would offer.
The only the only um thing that looked like there was a possibility is the is food, right? Uh and they it would be a a slow start to that to see and of course you have to work with Pumptonian and you have to
separate out. So the garbage is important. How the how students um you know toss their lunch and the food, right? So um I I don't see it as a an immediate
something that's going to happen immediately, but I think it's something that that we both wanted to work on, right? Um Oh, absolutely. I don't have I don't have a timeline or even a projection if it would actually go down. Mr. Matt, do you have any commentary regarding the decision to go from three years or one
year? Is that something that was there specific to having three years? Something that me and Aaron talked about because we know that the competition is very limited and we just wanted to secure somebody for three years because because the rate was good. We only got one bid. That's pretty much how it's been going for
in my history, his history. We just didn't want to keep going out every year and having a price really escalate um on a one-year contract. Yeah. when there's only one bid, then theoretically the next time around it could they could just a big jump. It could be a big jump. Yeah. It um and this is just if we were to um
engage with the village and uh with on on food waste and the and the poundage went down because that was that's the advantage. Would that impact their pricing? I mean,
if if they were picking up less I mean is there a way to to find is there any be negotiated this didn't have to go to OC this is not that big of a contract that we can't contact state negotiate with them regarding
having less tonnage being I think these are by a number of containers that they have provided so if if it's just going to reduce the the total poundage then it may not change I think it's the container they the quant the volume Right. So they are just
giving us a container and you would want to well my understanding is that the projection is based on tonnage. Right. Right. So so so so we have some data. I'm assuming actually I don't want to make too many assumptions here but you know there has to be a calculation based
on how much we need. So I'm saying tonnage but it's just it's just it's volume and mass total of of of what we need. So, if we're reducing the overall volume and mass, then it will need fewer containers and and we should we should we should stand to say but but they have
to quote us on something and that that we're not realiz I don't I don't think this year particularly we're going to be able to show much for it. We don't have anything in place just yet. This is really a pipe dream that but that that has not gotten anywhere. We were talking was it with the sustainability group that we were talking about this just
that how hard it is to get people to appropriately especially in a school to appropriately comply with the expectations around food waste. Like it takes an effort and and you know kids are busy and they're moving quick and often they're just dumping food and sometimes if we're not being careful, we're not being really meticulous. You
know, sometimes people like, you know, I we all do it like you go you go to the garbage and there's like the three different types and you're moving fast like you don't even stop and you throw it and how often do you throw it and you're like, "Oh, that was the wrong one." So, we we we can't we can't do that. I think careful with that because I mean I
think the majority of your food race I could be wrong but I think it's probably the elementary schools and I I just remember um when my kids were at ridge they tried to teach the kids the proper way and they actually had like a it's gross a slop bucket like
in the middle right for the the liquid waste and you're nodding over there and then they had like the solids bucket. you couldn't you couldn't get the parents to supervise the kids because it was so gross. And I'm I'm being honest with you and I mean like you know and I was like it's just the way it was. But
my my point the reason why I raised this is is not just for you know laughs but but to say that I think there may be a practical concern about whether or not we can sufficiently reduce our food waste to the point where it makes a financial difference to us. Having said
that, if we can if we can negotiate even a high low in years two and three in the agreement and preserve, you know, the top number and see if we can get some kind of credits or something if we do, you know, succeed in this. I think that would be a good thing to try to do.
Um, but that's just, you know, there's a lot that goes into it. We're going we're you're requesting three years but it is not I we are I if the situation changed you feel we could uh negotiate
I do thank you um so facilities um sir Rob did you want to report out um no you can do that okay on facilities then um thank you to the um Rididgewood High School HS just
say a little theater donation. Uh new carpet is um being installed. So that's um that will be nice for the little theater. Um we had an update on the um water
infrastructure improvement grant application that is due at the end of this month. Are we on on target to She's back today. It's not submitted yet, but we we have till the 31st. The 31st. Yes. We're on target. Yes. Yeah. So, we're on that. Um new carpet
you will see it at some point um at the ed center. It'll be a surprise for some of us. The color um uh the BF uh the filming at BF by Netflix filming at BF has wrapped up
now. Um and um uh good news, Glenn and Ridge HVAC projects are um on on time and they they're in phase two now. Okay.
Phase two starts today, right? They're working at nights in in the buildings at nights. There's no impact on instruction, right? And as you recall that we were um looking for a a going to put out a bid
for a windows at both um new windows at both Ridge and Glenn. And those RFPs will go out in the end of September. It's going to go out for four weeks now, not not two weeks. So the award date would be probably October time frame.
October meeting. Okay. Maybe the second meeting in October, we'll be looking at that. And that would be done um as we've done other schools. You can do that. Um you would take out windows and only take out the the windows that you can have get
replaced at night. Um and we certainly did that at BF and and Somerville uh successfully in years past. Um let's see what else. uh the RHS wood shop dust collector that project is
complete and um the EDC center transformer you will see that the ball u ballards are in place. Um we are going to be looking at our
solar energy um and the uh solar panels that are on our roof. they've some at the end of this year will be um at their at the end of the contract which was 15 years. So we'll be looking at um how to
move forward and the roundabout uh at Beverly has um is in place which was put in by the village. Thank you to the village of Ridgewood for doing that. Um they really did a great job I think in in um communicating to the Ridgewood
High School community on um Beverly and bringing them in and talking through and and listening to ideas and it's ready to go. It's it's in place. I understand that probably uh we'll be involved in in in the beautifification.
That's right. That's the next step for us and we're managing beautifification. I know Mr. Higgins is working on that. and the orchard outdoor classroom has been completed also. So, a lot of projects um were in and the board has um
some walkthroughs uh scheduled for this week to see some of the facility. Um since you you mentioned that some of the solar um leases are coming for an end at the end of this year. Yes. So
which schools are coming to the end for this year 2027 right so we have time okay yeah so that's so there is one that's first thing that sty requested that what is the earliest expiration date and what is the actual expiration date for all these
schools is it so that way we can plan there are some that are 2026 aren't there no 27 Oh yeah. Oh, cuz that's the sheet I have that says 26. Oh, so I haven't seen the
updated. Okay. I haven't seen the uh Sorry, but did we are we going by what the vendor told us or are we going by by did we look at the actual contracts that we have? We'll review it at our next facilities meeting. Yeah.
Right. So, so uh the the gist of the discussion was um from my perspective at least there may be different opinion on that but from my perspective on the facilities committee the the
u my opinion on that is 15 years ago the technology was different today the technology is different so on each square inch we can generate more electricity
So we need to carefully plan whether we want to renew the current contracts because the current contracts say the vendor is supposed to remove the panels once the contract ends. So the cost to remove the panels is on to them. Right?
So after that they can just leave all the the rails there. They may not fix the roof or everything but they they should not leave anything with leaks. So at that point we have two options either we we ask the vendor to continue to keep providing us that color electricity at
some rate. So what should that rate be? How much discount can we get from them because they have a cost to remove them? Right? Or we spend some money as a new seed money initial money to install new panels there which will have more
electricity generated per square inch or per square foot. So either we can invest some money and generate more electricity or we can renegotiate the rates with the vendor because for them they will have to invest money to remove it or they
have no no use of those panels. Once they remove those panels and inverters they cannot sell it. They they so we that's the spirit there. So we need to figure out exactly what when it's coming for a renewal and work on that so we
have enough time. So if there's any confusion on the date, we should actually look at the contracts. So if I'm hearing you correctly, your point is that we the district has some leverage here. Yes. In the fact that that that they would have to come and pick up the panels and make sure the leaves roofs aren't
leaking in the process of doing so. So it wouldn't be left in the lurch. Maybe not so pretty, but they wouldn't be left in the lurch because they're so old. They wouldn't have you. We're hypothesizing that they wouldn't have the ability to use these. So they would basically just have to come pay a lot of money to get rid of them and so they'd be at a loss if we
didn't end beyond just simply walking away. They would actually have an affirmative action they'd have to take. Correct. Therefore, we as a district have some leverage to negotiate an up either upgraded panels or a better a better a better a better arrangement. Is that right? So that that is one part. The second
part is even then we should look at whether it makes sense to leverage it get get that new rate or upgrade to latest technology which will generate more electricity because we can use more solar if electricity rates are still going up right so that second point and
the third point is are the panels working and are they generating electricity for which we are paying them so are we checking that so that is that was another open question there that are they all working in all schools and is anybody cross-checking
the billing that whatever they are billing us that much electricity is being generated. So I I so again so that last question right is specifically about it's well it's about what are we actually getting out of the
panels that we have meaning to what extent are they functioning and to what extent can we see an impact on our on our energy costs. Correct. Because currently we are in a contract with them. So if any of those panels if any of those panels are not working, then
they need to come and fix them cuz we did not purchase the panels. We're leasing them. Right. But as part of the lease, we are there there is some some commitment or Oh, yeah. No, no. I meaning we didn't it wasn't like a lease purchase and now we're and now they're like they're
they're they're a service provider. They actually are the owners. Yes. Yes. And they're supposed to maintain them. And then um for the little theater we also discussed um um Mary I don't know if you remember uh Gail McCarthy came uh
once here when she was the president right she said that that stage needed a little love that's exactly what she said and I've been waiting Yep. Did you talk about that? Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry.
No, we were just waiting for you to finish the conversation. Yeah. So, yeah. So, we talked about um so Gail came here when she was uh retiring from the president and she said the stage needed some uh love because uh there was some risk there. It's expanded. So, we did
talk about that and we requested the facilities team to actually go and review that stage. Um we had requested that from the previous team but that team is now gone. So um the new team will go and review that just to make sure that there's no risk there uh for
students or whoever is performing in uh so that stage will be looked at. So we did talk about that but I don't remember all the points that Gil mentioned but I remember the stage saying that very specifically. Yeah. And u the third one um we did discuss
the BF field. Sushila you want to uh comment on the facilities committee discussion on this BF that um what the school's position is what we are doing there because I remember the last time at the open public meeting here you mentioned that
um we were working on a grass field right so that's that was the statement you had made at uh around May or June so is there any change in that um what's the current disposition of the district and also as a followup um
have I attended as a resident I attended um meeting of Shipo last week and there um Shipo asked the village that are you working with the uh school district and neighboring nearby communities or not? So have has anybody from the village
reached out to you during your meetings with the village manager and mayor about working collaboratory uh with working in collaboration for coming out with a overall field plan um or a field improvement plans. So it's a
and this is a second part question because this was after the fields committee meeting right so at the meeting um we did discuss the BF field and so uh we discussed the BF field that the field was um not up to the shape that we had
anticipated um that there were some dry spots in it um that so that was um what October 15th maybe is our what was our meeting date October 18th August, sorry, August 18th.
Um and um but today when I went by BF there were um there was soccer being played on it. Um looked like uh I'm not sure what grade. So uh there is play on that field right
now. Um tomorrow we're going to visit BF so we'll get a firsthand look at at um at that field. Um, but I I don't have any more information on behalf at this point other than we have a commitment
from Manila to work on all of our grass fields. And if I my memory serves me right, there are some grass fields where you have seen improvements um currently, right? Just not at just not at BF.
So I think the BF field we talked about the different zones and the water restrictions that we were under. And I think Dave was going to look in and talk to the guy from Ridge Water regarding expanding some of those possible restrictions and reducing some of those
zones from 15 to four so we can have better water coverage. So, I'm not quite sure where we are with with that. Yeah, we met last week. So, Okay. Yes. I mean that is the hope that we will be able to uh improve our grass
fields. Um and but we have to monitor use um and we'll have to see how that goes. you know, I don't know the intensity of uh utilization at at BF BF, the anticipated utilization of it.
I I don't know if you had any more um well, I mean, our students use it obviously and high school. We we've covered a lot of topics here. Are we what are we what is is there a specific question or No, that I was not referring to that one, but that was a good reminder that
we did talk about um the current condition and Dr. Um Schwarz actually did a walk through himself and identified that those dry spots and uh put the vendor on spot that he needs to fix that. So that that's a good reminder. I forgot about that one. I was
asking more about the um the the whole discussion about expanding the current BF field for utilization by more more uh teams because so that's the what I had expressed at the facilities committee
meeting that I'm still not clear myself that we originated a study um we paid the architect money for some a study we did this study that whether the current field can be expanded for
playing other sports when there is a flood event at high school. Um we came out of that study and we said yes it the field can be expanded by making some track changes and some changes. So there are two different vers there were two different versions. One was a bigger
expansion one was a smaller expansion. Then we at the facilities committee meeting we discussed that we will right now go with the smaller version and then um that's what you had communicated at the meeting couple of months ago that we are going to be uh we are going with the
expanded grass field option and then we did not go that route. So what I expressed at the facilities committee meeting is I'm not sure why we did not do that right yet. Well that's that's what I spoke that's what I just spoke about earlier.
Yeah. So you you spoke that the same thing at that m facilities committee meeting also but I'm still saying that I'm not clear because if track team had a reservation that reservation we knew since going in
we talked about this multiple times to be clear we we developed a projection of what was feasible based on all the measurements of the field and based on what the regulation measurements were for particularly this is the javelin throw and there was a projection that we would
be able to just move the javelin throw back a certain degree because the javelin throw already overlapped over the track oval. So moving it and it needed to be regulation. So we would need to move it back further if it was already blocking the oval. There's no
difference there. In our final FA when when when we looked at this, it seemed like it would be worth trying to expand access for other sports, including football, by keeping it a grass field and by modifying it and moving the Javelin pull back a little bit further and installing potentially uh temporary
uh eventually temporary football football um football st like football goalposts, removable ones. when we as we it was in the spring when we were thinking about the flood season we were all sitting there together and I just and after having the conversations
and looking at the numbers I realized you know what we don't have to go in all the way to do all this stuff we can do at a smaller dollar amount at least just to also be able to get football in this field and increase its flexibility so at that time I said you know what I really
think that our focus should be right now just let's just go in like we can we can we can probably figure out a pay to pay for this smaller modification which was I think in the ballpark of like $300,000 right uh not an insubstantial amount of money but if it was going to be
something that that increase that flexible use for our football program as well then it would be worth considering so I put it in motion but those conversations originated in the fall and we involved the athletic director in those conversations but based on the
actual schematics the rationale that it wouldn't have an impact on the track program made sense. As we put it all in motion as good practice, we always like do a final check before we pull the trigger. I asked Mr. Cook, I said, "Hey,
listen. I want to do think we're going to do this. I'm going to advocate for this because if it increases our flexibility um of how we can use that field even in a grass state, then I would want to do that. But make sure you like, but before we pull the final before I sign off and
we're actually doing this work, just go and check with the coaches and make sure we're not missing anything. As it was, it turns out that the way that the the track program uses the javelin, they actually don't use the entire regulation size. And the
reason they don't do that is so that way the kids who are running the oval, they can m they can continue their warm-ups while the javelin event is going on. And if we were to push that back any further, then it would block the Oval and it would change the way that they host meets. So in that conversation, in
that context, and then also speaking with the football coach, it would give them some flexibility if we had temporary goalposts to put there, but it would be a headache to put those posts up and take them down. And the field is not necessarily an optimal place for for
varsity anyway. So in that conversation with the coaches, it was like um the the cost benefit wasn't paying out and there's no way to just see that on the paper. So as soon as we realized that, okay, so we made an oversight here. We assumed something and we didn't realize
the assumption that we were making and that was the point where I said, you know what, this we're not going to spend this money if it's not going to give us the benefit that we thought it was going to. So is is that only impacting when we are doing the smaller change? Uh, and what
if we did the the other version of the the 900,000 or $800,000 renovation? Uh, $750. Yeah, $750,000 renovation. Does that also uh keep this uh limitation or will that make it uh available to the other
sports? No, I I think what the takeaway was that no matter what we do with BF field, whether it's whether it's stays exactly the way it is, where it's natural turf or whether even if it's artificial turf, it's not going to be a football site because years ago it was decided that they wanted that the
priority at that site was going to be was going to be track. So the all those modifications for they were p they were for football. That was that was where those additional modifications were going to be. We're just taking football off the table. football is not going to play at varsity football is not going to
play at the we we have practices there when we need to but but but we're not we don't have a grand design to make that a varsity football site. So that that's actually that's the first time I'm hearing that. I I just and I'm
just trying trying to kind of understand. So the bottom line is we are exactly we've done a lot of work and I'm not saying this we are exactly where we were a year ago in that should we lose our fields due to a catastrophic flood or
any kind of flood we have no place for for football or soccer or lacrosse or the band or whoever is on uses those fields we have nowhere for them to go right now and
that's what I'm trying to understand alter so that we're not speaking too much in conjecture here. We've also put together and I I I if believe this was shared with you, but if it what you the contingency plan that was shared, we'll we'll share it again. Okay? Because because because so so for
varsity level sports, any of the varsity level sports, they're going to want to be at like a top level field. They're not going to want to play a varsity level sport at a at a at a substandard field. And so and and um so so right now our contingency plans were that we'd be
h we'd have to our our premier our premier fields for for for lacrosse soccer uh and football and and flag are are Stevens and well particularly stadium but with with potential play at Stevens as well and then of course obviously there's some play at Maple but
these but but there's also all the subvarity levels too. So they're very well occupied. So so so BF gets plenty of use by our teams right now. It's a practice site. Even little even BF small as they call it, which is like kind of like the very small field over u near the building adjacent to the building is
a site for practice for a lot of the sports. So So there's there's there's plenty of use for the facilities, but yes, if there's a flood, it they're they're more or less used anyway. So we're we're we're pretty much we're using our fields and and if we have a flood event, we're we're going to
have to schedule offsite. So was that the BF field was large enough if it was usable. Yeah. We we play regulation matches. Yeah. Lacrosse and flag. It just not football.
Now now to be clear optimally and I maybe this was your question if we to re to it becomes more optimal for use for soccer and for like for regulation gameplay. It's primarily used as a practice site and again we'll fact check all this really should if we're going to
have this conversation with this level of depth we should have Keith Cook with us but um but for us to play games like official like regulation games again they're not full sides but it's we can get a regulation field on there but the long jump if I'm
remembering correctly that was the event the long jump track is right where the sidelines would be for most of the games which means that we wouldn't be able to put benches there unless we're putting them on that on the on the material there, the track material, and people standing there with cleats would chew it up. So, on an emergency basis, we could
have regulation games there if we had some sort of a flooding event, but um but it would be suboptimal with those lanes there. So there part there was an additional proposal to remove those lanes, build a retaining wall over by the street and have those lanes over by
the street and that wouldn't impact the track program negatively because we're that event would still be on site. But um and it would give us a regulation field, right? But like right but right now it's um of another sport potentially.
Well, but again it's and it is a grass field and it is it already takes a lot of beating. So, we're trying to get it we're doing our best to get it really up and running as a grass really in a good place as a grass field too. But, but I'm we're we're at we're throwing a lot of points around. I'm not really sure what exactly the question is right now. Started with a question about like the
origin. starting with the question and maybe because I'm I'm still not understanding the difference between when we started the project and today when we are making that conclusion or whenever that conclusion was made what
new information we received we we explained some of that but u with the current professionals we have we should have probably known that when we were starting that and so that's one point and then I'm not clear. If we go with the full-size version, not the
smaller change, with the full $700,000 version, then other than the football team does not want to play that there, that's the want part, is there a technical limitation in us providing their uh full fields, fulls size field
there in the event of a flood? Well, well, to be clear, wait, I'm sorry. Say that I'm I'm sorry. I missed your last just say that last thing again. So is there a technical limitation there? If we make it a full size field, full size what field? Full size the if we utilize the max available
space at BF and expand the track, expand the field grass field other than that team not wanting to be wanting to play there. Is there a technical limitation that for all the other sport that are
happening at the high school track high school field right at the if there's a Stevens and the stadium field if there's a flood all the activities that happen there can they not happen at BF during that time if we expand it what's the technical so I don't I don't know how to answer
that right now so one of the things but one of the things that's become very clear as was evidenced by our public comment that we have some community members who are very invested on some who are very invested that they absolutely don't want artificial turf which we heard and then we have some community members which I also reported
out on who have been approaching us for some time um and and with conversations that started via the last major flood that we had around coming up with ways to have more stability and resiliency within our fields who who are very interested in fundraising because they
believe that they can manage they can pull together the funds for to put artificial turf in that area. I I I I made it clear and and again, this is where I'm saying like I'm I want to be clear. I'm not advocating for any specific group. I'm I'm doing my
absolute best to be as neutral as possible on this. But and that's why I'm open to meeting with Green Ridgewood. I I I have to limit myself to official groups because I there's only so many hours in the day. But the question is from that group is if we're if they're
um basically if if if they can pull together the almost, you know, two and a half million plus dollars that would be needed to place artificial turf there and lights. If someone walked in with a check for that amount of money, would we
support that? That's kind of that's how the question is being being kind of positioned. So I I think what really comes down to is as much as any talk of converting BF hasn't really been feasibly in the cards for us because we don't have those kinds of
funds anyway. I mean we were going to have to figure out how to put together $300,000 for for for this smaller modification that might have been a benefit. Um I mean that's been our reality. That's why we keep saying this is not you know we're not it's not it's not on the table right now. We're not
even talking about that. But it's very clear that that in the long-term conversation, I think we I think we had some some level of conversation about this in the as we talk about the long-term, we talk about long-term planning for our facilities. I mean, it's pretty clear that like people want to know like are would is is is
artificial turf in the cards over there. And so to answer those questions, we're I'm going to need to dig a little deeper. Right? So that's where so I'm just summarizing and we talked all of that at the at the facilities meeting, right? So I'm just summarizing that. So I'm I'm still not clear that did we stop the
project because we wanted to explore the turf option or did we stop the project because there was not enough space uh or that it would not be utilized. So if the answer is that we stopped it because we did not have enough space or it was not
big enough to play all these sports there then how would turf create that space right so so I'm still not clear why did we I I don't I'm not clear. Why did we stop the project? I think I think I answered it already. So, I'm I'm going to say it again. So,
the the smaller project, which smaller project? The bigger project because the bigger project we had both options. I think board was open with the $700 $800,000 option. Oh. Oh, so you're saying like like why would we not just do that with grass? Yeah. It's it's just a large amount of money.
But that option was that option presented that whether the board is willing to spend that amount of money? Well, that that would be something that that would be but that would be something that we would discuss. We're we're our budget struck. We're going into a budget. I'm not we don't have any money for this right now. So, this is
all perspective. So, as we're going into our next budget, if we're interested in discussing some other type of project, that's fine. I was comfortable working with Mr. Matthews and trying to squeeze $300,000 out of our total budget
because this was unbudgeted. if it was going to make a positive difference as a show of good faith. So the larger project was stopped because of the budget reasons. Is that the answer? I'm starting to think we might want to
just save this conversation for the next facilities meeting because I don't feel like we're going anywhere with this. So that's fine. Um I I I I don't want to elongate the discussion too much and I don't want to create um a lot of speculation when that's not
appropriate. Okay. Um having said that, I think that part of you're in on the facilities committee meetings, right? I'm not. So, um, and I think that I think that at some point we have to have a very clear factbased conversation
about whether or not the facilities we currently have in their current condition satisfy the needs of our students. That's the first that's the first question, right? And we need answers from coaches and and whoever we
need, you know, Mr. Higgins and Minnelo and and and and end, right? And we need we need a real comprehensive analysis and discussion of that and then the question becomes if they do well we're in good shape, right? If they don't then
we need to discuss what if anything can we do are we willing to do are we willing to invest in to make them so that they satisfy the needs of our students. Right? And I mean, I'm going to just say the T-word, right? Because everyone goes crazy about turf or no
turf, but that's putting the cart before the horse. The first question at the board of ed we have to look at is, do our facilities meet the needs? And if they don't, how would they meet the needs? And then then turf is one of many, many factors that comes in. But
we've never had that conversation. And what happens is people, including myself, we kind of, you know, certain buzzwords come and people get a little, I'm going to use the word triggered, you know, and and we start jumping around and getting upset and that's just not helpful. So, I think that um I I
personally understand exactly what you were saying about what happened with with BF and the decision. And you know, for what it's worth, S Rob, my understanding is that it simply wasn't worth the money because it was not going to solve the problem. And at the end of the day, it was actually going to cause
more of a problem, right? So, it wasn't going to solve football's problem and the band's problem, but it was and it was going to create more of a problem for um track. That's that's how I understand it. I don't think there was anything beyond that immediate decision that was made. That's how that's how I
view it. Having said that, I think that we really do need to have this conversation and you can start it at facilities but at some point it has to go to the larger board and we need to have it in a way where just like you do I hate to say it but you know you do
state of the schools and that's done so well with the data state of the facility state of the field something not to give you more work but that's what we need to do and then we can make the decisions we can take input from the community on all levels and then we make the decisions we
need to make. We can do it in advance even if we're planning three four years down the road. But we do need to do that. So thank you and that was that was better said than I was saying it but that's my point is that at this at this juncture this is not we've had so many
various topics that we've been trying to work through as a school district on so many levels and in so many areas, right? Um, this is it's clear that we need to have a clearer data picture. It's funny I wasn't thinking of a state of the state of the facilities address per se,
but that has more or less been sort of our strategic solution is to get good data together. Much of this conversation and probably the biggest problem of this of this issue is the extent to which so much of it relies on conjecture. So, I'd like to get us to a place where we have
a more informed perspective. I have already asked anticipating these conversations really coming to a head as it's just such a crit such an issue that's so top of mind for the community that we that I requested that uh Mr. Cook would start meeting with the coaches who are potentially impacted
looking at their field use looking at their field needs looking at their field interests to gather as much information as we can. We are also in the process, this has not come up, but is it is important to note that we are in the process of evaluating our fields policy and our fields committee and and which
serves a function of helping to allocate fields. But we know that there is a lot of misuse meaning over booking of the fields. I don't mean overusing, I mean overbooking of the fields. So we also need to look at that to what extent do
our facilities in total get booked and then not used. So that is that is how I intend to respond to this community fervor around this issue is to go back finalize what data I can pull
together and and hopefully have a more informed conversation and I would I would think that um part of this analysis also has to be the um BF usage so what is their usage I mean that's critical you know for
their track program that they have and um you know any of our schools using that but for PE and all that. So yeah. So Mary um just why do you think it was not worth it for football and band
idea I would have to I I honestly I heard maybe less than you did but my understanding is that it would not work for the football team. I don't know why. You're going to have to ask the coach that. I truly but I'd like to hear from them. I'd like to hear from all of them to say this is what I need to support my
program. You know, in a perfect world, we could support everything and everybody and everyone would be happy, right? It's not a perfect world, but at a minimum, we need to get everybody's wish list. We need to get their needs so that we know what it is. We don't even I get that. I'm just I'm still trying to
understand. We had a project in flight that was dropped and I think your rationale that you summarized is because that expenditure would still not help football and band but we don't know why right just know that my understanding is the
football program said it's not going to work. So why I don't know but if you know we have to ask them well again and and find out if I can show this is just all conjecture right like so if we can stop the conjecture conversation let me get in real information I'll get answers to all these questions and everything.
Okay perfect and the and the last question I asked Sheila was has village council or the village manager reached out to you or Dr. Schwaz for any collaboration in identifying or fixing this problem of fields that we have in the in the district or in the village of
Because we have combined field usage, combined field committee. So are we exploring to solve this problem in com in collaboration with the village? Have they reached out? Are we working with them or are we not working with them? Is there any plans of working with them on to solve what problem?
The field utilization or coming up with alternative fields or improving fields. Well, I from what I read in the article, I I see that there is a request from the commit from the commission council, right? Um,
at first it looked like they were to their collaboration with the BOE, but then I think they changed the wording. So, I haven't seen the official wording. Uh, um, so from village perspective, nobody has reached out to the district for collaboration.
Are you are you speaking in response to the the shipo meeting last week since the facilities committee? Yeah, because I I attended that and I heard there that they requested that um they reach out to board of ed. So if they reached out to board of at the board of
table, I'm asking that have they reached out? Oh, but I referred it to I don't because I didn't see any of the information and I was on vacation. I just took information and I gave it to Dr. Schwarz. I do not believe that we've
heard from the village manager and any kind of request from the village manager. Okay. Because they have I think they have about 60 days. That's what I that's what our meetings are. I I want to be clear. I anticipate that I will. Right. I think there's just some vacation time at the end of summer. So I'm not saying that it wouldn't happen or I wouldn't
take the call. I just it just hasn't happened yet. Okay. Talking you're talking about Shedler in particular, but the ship meeting was about Shedler, right? So the request was was it shedler that we would use shedlers?
No, that overall the village um lack of fields or scarcity of fields how can that be solved in any collaboration between board of village? Yeah. Was that the final wording?
Something like that. I don't remember. I as I said I hadn't I haven't seen any of the final the fields committee is addressing that issue. Okay. In looking at what Dr. Schwar said about um using the fields, we've talked about different groups. I think we have to be clear about we
mean you mean the fields policy review group. Yes. Not talking about the actual fields committee. No, the the policy review and looking at fields and making sure they're being utilized in the best ways. So that a
review is looking at that to see and that perhaps may be addressing what you're asking. Perfect. Thank you. It seems to me that um the you know some of our programs use the village fields,
right? So, um, baseball, softball, and then, um, Maple is lacrosse, not necessarily, uh, varsity lacrosse, but, uh, soccer uses soccer uses, um, maple. Okay. Vars, um, JV soccer uses Maple
and freshman my when my daughters were freshman, they played at BF for soccer. So, that would be a full and I think um, I think uh, so lacrosse uses Brookside. We don't own Brookside, right? That's a village field. No, Brookside is ours. Brookside is ours.
Paw is village. Oh, I can pause is the villages. Okay. Sorry, I But I I mean the, you know, if you're going to look at field utilization, I think we have to go
back to this policy and we have to put in, you know, we have to really understand all of the field utilization. I have not been asked that question. So, but I think this is a great idea to have this information on the fields and collect it.
Thank you. Okay. Um policy. Um did um basically well one of you have a lot on here but just under discussion so I don't know if you want to talk about that now or
is there anything that's um that you want to point out? I mean a lot of it's straight driven right and the policy on the the agenda but one of them is under administration their regulation of public information. It's a regulation not um policy per se
but that's really updating new technologies and how communication to the community is disseminated and approved by the principles. It was the same wording just updated. Mhm. But that's one before the discussion
items, right? But there's more coming up in the discussion later on. Go ahead. No, I was just going to add about this um the sun protection. So the only new new So the the two new policies so we
did we did put into policy we switched the order of the uh yes reports right which is we just did right because we haven't done any work yet really about it. Um and then um the student sun protection
was um I'm sorry the is sunscreen and and it's a statemandated policy and it basically says that you don't need a written you don't need a parents note to use sunscreen and if the kids go on a field trip the nurse has got to have sunscreen with her. So that was the only one that
was really new. A lot of them were the same thing where they changed one word you know. Is that accurate Mary? Yes, I would say that and many of the policies have not been updated since 2010 or 2011 and they needed to be updated to one of
the things I didn't realize until now I'm doing policy is that when the state of New Jersey changes laws and if they impact things that the board of ed does then we have to change our wording to
conform with what the state has now said and that happens a lot much more than I realize that they pass laws that directly affect our day-to-day operations. And so many of these coming up under discussion later on this evening do reflect changes in state laws
that we now have to update and using of words and things like that that are now in process in 2025 versus 15 years ago in 2010 2011. So, it really is amazing to me as a newbie to see how much of an
impact I was very surprised and feel very good that they are that they do care about us. You know, they may not give us all the money that we need, but they are caring for our verbiage. You can keep hope alive, right?
Um on uh is that all on policy then? Okay. Curriculum. Well, we're going to do a lot on on curriculum and the agenda, but there and we heard um Susan speak about the work of uh looking at the library u media specialists um and
so much work happened this summer in in rewriting curriculum uh in in coursework and that's all listed here in the in the minutes. So, I won't go through that because it's exhaustive lists. Um and and you will also look at some new
programming from uh community schools that's on the agenda uh to approve that so they can do their fall programming. Yeah. So I think that's about it. Uh did you did communications meet? Yes, we did meet. One of the things that we talked about um was that it's been a
year since we have the implementation of the new website and overall it's worked quite well. They have looked at different things and updated here and there. And I wanted to call to the community's attention. There is a search
feature that is working very well now. And one of the things that they've also done is a enabled PDFs to be searchable. So if there's something in the board of ed minutes that you were trying to find in the past, you would have to go to
everyone, open it up, and then review it. Now, with the PDFs searchable, that facilitates a quicker research on your part if you're looking for something from the board of ed minutes or an agenda from a prior year. And I believe
they're going back, Miss Corass, you may know, it's going way back with all of the documents is my understanding. So, not just a year or so, it's gone back several years to make all where possible. Okay.
Right. And now those documents may not be there as PDFs any longer. Um so that was something. And also there is a um chat feature that's very helpful to someone who's looking for something they can't find. It may be obvious to others
where the calendar is, where's the back to school schedule, but there's a chat feature and they have kept statistics on what kinds of questions and that's helped you to make the website to continue to be and more so user friendly
because they're getting feedback what's confusing to people. Um, and the other thing that they're talking about, and we will be hearing more about this, reooking at the branding and different um, ways of um, promoting Ridgewood and
that's also part of what we will be hearing about shortly um, from the district. And I think if I think those are the main points that we covered. Great. Thank you. So good work went went through the committees this uh and most is reflected
on our agenda. So I think we're moving in a good direction. Thanks. Yeah, I I would just rephrase that Sheila. Um good work was done internally by the admit team. Committee just reviewed it most of it, right? We committee did not do most of the work. Committees just reviewed the work that
was done. But uh my question to the curriculum uh the um communication committee was did you guys talk about that um the survey software are we still renewing the license 54,000 or something thought exchange we did not renew thought
we did not renew okay perfect thank you thought exchange was that the question we did not yeah okay so let you did not agree to a smaller prize no I actually was I spoke with one of their uh one of their high level executives actually at a conference last year and uh put in a plea that they
would consider, but they're very inflexible with their pricing and they're very specific about the vision for their product. So, we we have a couple there are a couple that there are a couple of gaps that we're looking at right now possibly filling because of that. Um but at this time, we did not renew that contract this year. Thank
you. Okay, we'll go to consent items, regular and routine. Um attendance at conferences. I move attendance at conference. Would anyone like to second it? I'll second it. Yes.
Yes. Yes. I'm Yes. with some reservations because I did ask um just for a review on um
how how we're spending um uh you know the the money and uh that 10 staff members would be going to a New Jersey school board. I just want to make sure that is um because we downsized
the line the amount of money we put on the line for for um uh conferences. So I just want to be cognizant at if we approve everything on there tonight um
then there would only be $43,000 left for the rest of the year. and just having known how many things come in during the course of the year, valuable conferences. So, I just wanted an evaluation of that. So, I'm I'm I I'm I'm saying
there many there's so many good things. I say yes, but with some reservation and ask for just a you know, a little bit more of a review on that and that has our attention. Initial conversation with Mr. Matthews. I and your concern was that other opportunities that'd be very valuable on the instructional side especially could
you know would they fall off if we're running out of funds here. Uh we're going to make sure we'll redouble our communication. We have been not spending that account fully and that was the reason for the reduction. Um I also did review with Mr. Matthews plans for the professional development of the office staff and I I I do think it's that this
is appropriate and that we're there's not going to be an overabundance of of professional development that's going to unduly pull from that pot. But we're going to make sure that we communicate out well to that with that reduction that that's not taken to mean that people can't take advantage of opportunities.
Right. Right. No, it's just, you know, it's it's the best use of the money. It's the really the cost benefit. Right. So, so uh one comment on that and maybe it's a question from the for the line item perspective. Uh Mr. Ross. So when we
call Molly Ness or uh someone at to the district and they uh give a training that does not go into attendance at conferences. Correct. So then why would uh going to conquer math uh for a six
day uh learning $200 each 62 $100 why would that go into attendance and at conferences? Shouldn't that also be coming from your budget? then that then if that happens then it will free up a lot of budget because I
saw a lot of line items here for conquer math in this one if I'm if I'm correct there were seven or eight line items for 1200400 1200 1400 so I I think again good questions I don't think we're going to be able to answer them well at the table but I but
the flexibility to change the change the budget then that will open up some budget sure I appreciate that sentiment and actually we That's we're do we we we typically will do some of that if money is being underspent in one area we'll remove it but for the similar purpose but to be clear we also technically it's
all we this is conferences but it's actually it's it's it's all built it's all from the state's perspective it's district travel okay so it's the travel component that requires us to approve it in this way and that's due the accountability these are just Wayne uh so 200 like 200
each trip no I'm just saying that the reason why It's it's it's it's not coming up under curriculum. It's coming up under conferences. It's just because of the travel purpose. Right. So, I'm just saying there may be some way to uh change the budgeting there and uh possibility there. And also
um if we have u limited number of people who can go to the uh school boards, I'm not going this year. So, you have one more room there. It's uh it uh it's the same date as Diwali. I I won't be going there. So you
have one more room there for Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay, we have four. Yes. Motion pass. Yes. Yes. Administration. Uh we have the second reading adoption of the revised regulation on public information. Um and
the uh district organization chart now is finalized. Um that was discussed um in this June July in one of our summer executive sessions. Yeah. Um, would you like to move administration?
Move administration. I'll second it. Second by Miss Handy. Uh, Mr. Donnie. Um, I'm no on B1 and yes on B2. So, no for the um revised regulation
but yes for the orchard. Miss Andy? Yes. Miss McCalli? Yes, Mr. McMood. Mr. Broen. Yes. So, you have four on B2. Yes.
And one no on B1. Correct. Correct. No, it's only three, not four. No, it's B1. B1. Oh, B1. Yes. B1. There's three. Three. Yes. There's one. No.
Okay. I move curriculum instruction. Mr. Mcklly second it. Are there any questions? Sorry. Question hearing none. Mr. Donnie, yes. Miss Handy, yes. Maui, yes. Mr. McMood.
Miss Rogan? Yes. Or yes. Motion pass. Human resources. This is long again. Thank you for all your work. Um, we at this point all of our known positions
are filled. Yes. All of our all of our known teaching positions are filled. So, that that's a lot. I um we are um approving a new job description, a
teacher intervention specialist. Were you all clear on that? Or Dr. Schwarz, would you like to just give a little uh Yeah. Sure. Me too. So, so you you probably heard us talking about multi-tered systems of support paradigm that we're that we're adopting here in
the district. To be clear, this is being broadly adopted. We actually spoke about it quite a bit at our administrative retreat today. So, um normally I am very skeptical and I encourage skepticism around educational fads and trends, right? And and kind of the all these
different acronyms that people like to throw around. But uh the origin of MTSS really came from uh just research and best practices in schools that successfully close the achievement gap and really help all students and really
get high levels of achievement among all students. those different practices were researched and sometimes organized under accreditation programs like middle states and uh a company and I don't know the full story of the company but there was a company called response to
intervention that specialized in helping districts to build these tiered systems of supports. So RTI if you've been in education you probably heard that term was generally thrown around as a best practice in education because it really works. It's basically a conglomeration
of research-based practices which consist primarily of monitoring like basically building authentic assessments that align to to standardsbased research-based curriculum and then having assessment systems for benchmarking and then progress monitoring for students against those benchmarks and then of course having a
plan for how to intervene if students aren't performing against those benchmarks. So basically it's a qual it's just a quality assurance system. The term multi-tered system of support became a generic term because RTI was a brand. So now that's become commonly
it's become common language that a multi-tered system of support is a paradigm for looking at a school that involves ensuring that we have all those things that I described. But unlike other initiatives like say a math teaching strategy initiative where the
focus might be teachers, an MTSS multi-tered system of supports refers to the entire school basically. And the idea is that that a teacher can conceptualize what they're supposed to do, but the idea is that they can do at
tier one level, they do a lot with the kids in their classroom if they're skilled and they're experienced and they're trained properly. um they could try to meet the various needs. They can use flexibility grouping. They can use differentiation strategies. They can use data work to identify which students can work a little more independently while
they focus on some more struggling learners. Um but there is a limitation to what the best teacher can do with a classroom of students when some of the needs of those kids are so profound. And I'm not just talking special needs. I just mean their their academic needs. Maybe they have major learning gaps like
they they changed schools and they just missed a sign of education. Can you just pass me that microphone over there? Mine's getting spotty. All right. Can you all hear me? Yes. So um so effectively so the teacher can do everything that
they can do and they but but it's up to the administration to build the master schedule in such a way that teachers a have the time to collaborate with each other b have the have the tools to have the data that they need to monitor student progress but then also have additional flexible structures in the
school that can meet the more int the more intensive needs that a student might have. So let's say for example a student otherwise is neurotypical but maybe has uh just some pretty acute uh uh reading needs like they're not acquiring reading the way that we would
hope that they would. uh the teacher can do everything they can in the classroom, but we could all but but the next level if we're not being able to meet the need in the classroom is to give them a little bit of additional time outside of the classroom with we would call that a tier 2 intervention and but that is not
something that a teacher can just make happen. An administrator has to do that. So there are a variety of different ways by which we can adjust our master schedule and work with our staff to have teachers flexible to have either teacher flexibility in the teacher schedule to do interventions in addition to their
normal teaching load. Um that's one model. Another model is to have specialized teachers who kind of serve to push into classroom and help t help teachers within their own classroom and then provide a little support outside of the classroom. So, we're proposing a
position called teacher intervention specialist and the purpose of this position is that they would be someone who would specialize in understanding how MTSS systems are designed to operate and would but would be someone to bridge the gap between the administrators and the teachers work in the classroom and
that they're pushing in they're also providing some pullout services. But our general education teachers too as we adjust our master schedule and build out the sophistication of our multi-tered system of supports and our special education teachers also might be able will will also be able to provide some
interventions as needed. So moving to a multi multi-tered system of support is not something that you just do in one year. It's a paradigm shift. So last year was really our paradigm shift here and this is the first year we're really going in with a mindset of we are we are implementing multi-tered systems of
support. Um, and the one of the first things that we need is to repurpose some of our positions, our our full-time equivalencies that we have available. Uh, so that way we have some teachers who are freed up to to specialize and to help out here. Miss Murphy, this is something
are you um it's a it's a district-wide initiative, but but the but the MTSS specifically happens at the school level. I I want to say as a teacher is correct if these are students who do not have IEPs
and right they don't because I remember well for the mo the students that I'm thinking of that I had when I was teaching and you identified something and you really weren't sure as a teacher and you tried different strategies and there was more that was needed and we
have an intervention committee but I think that students were helped with this these strategies ies and it was to get them to to notify to figure out later on maybe, you know, testing them for an IEP or a
504 or something, but they weren't always identified as having an IEP, but we were seeing something. And I think it really helped a lot of students that I did know about that I taught to see, oh yes, this child needs additional things.
I'm doing it in social studies, but they may need that in math. And when we all talked about it, we realized it wasn't just an isolation. And I really think that the students I knew about and what we did in the past was helpful. And I'm very pleased to see a formalized program
and training and the support that students could use rather than to see them struggle and struggle. This helps them without the formality of leaving that class, having it something substitute or whatever it is. And I
think for many students it was a very beneficial addition to their program and yet they always didn't necessarily stay in that pull out with extra help. they were able to, you know, do much better and get back and like you said, when they're
coming from another school or or whatever the case may be. Now, we felt that they had that support and they were able not to have an IEP or to have additional services that they were just they needed just a little bit more and this provided that was very it was very
helpful. Yeah, I'm I'm glad to hear that. Go ahead, Mr. Murphy. And and so these positions that we've identified are strictly at the middle school for this school year whether or not we expand that beyond. But as we've been doing the work and we've looking at state of the
schools and reporting data over the last two years and really deep diving into data over the last two years in these areas we have identified that these transition grade areas specifically six through eight really needed the most support at this point in time. I will
say that both middle schools have done a lot of work over the course of last year to set us up for success this year and these FTEEs were identified during the budget process as being able to be converted into these positions. Internal staff were identified that had the skill
set and training we were looking for. Um they have worked over the summer to build out programming for this year and and as Dr. Shores mentioned they are going to be working with teachers in classrooms to give them support as we do a better not better but we do more
differentiation um and and focusing for skills in our classroom for all students and then also providing that small group instruction that sometime is needed that we have not really had at the middle school level for all students available to all
students. and they'll work on that. And they'll continue to work on looking at data and helping teachers utilize data in a way that can identify where students needs are and be able to provide those supports in their general ed classrooms before we get to a place where we're referring students into IRS
or then into um looking at needing, you know, further additional testing for child study team, etc. So, this is really a way to make sure our students are getting what they need before they get to a point where we're identifying that they need much more than what can be provided just in a regular classroom
setting. The other thing that on the agenda is we're finalizing uh gifted and tal the the gifted and talented uh teachers uh for this year that will begin their work to um create the program so that in
January we will begin to to roll that out. Right. The other thing I'd like to take a mention is um Roman numeral 6K and call out the staff that records
and um transmits our board of education meetings to Jason and Jason who are here tonight with us. um having it a far cry from the the TV on the stand uh the TV monitor what monitor camera on a tripod
to having what they do they zoom out they focus and you could never before see the board and the presenters all at one time. So I wanted to call out and thank them for doing such a great job in the technology they and the other staff members who were here going listening to
us go on and on and doing such a great job. I want to thank you very very much. Nice. Okay. So, we have um a human resources. We've moved it, seconded it, and we are ready to vote. Mr. Donnie,
yes. Miss Handy, yes. Yes. M. McCall? Yes. Miss Broen? Yes. Motion pass 40. Okay. And now we are at finance.
Um, just let me go through the Yeah. Okay. Finance. Um, finance. I'll second it. Moved by M. McCall, second by Miss Broen. Right. Let me just read into the record
the donations and with a thank you. Uh Ridgewood High School Home and School Association, $15,000, a gift in kind of new carpeting for the little theater. Ridgewood High School Ambassadors, $725.85, a gift in kind of a new television to be
used by the freshman focus, RHS ambassadors, and peer counseling groups. Selene Kim, $100 gift in kind of fabric to be used by the fashion design program.
RHS New Players Company, $2,600 to be used to pay for a chapron for the for the trip that already happened right to Edinburgh uh Scotland. Um, RHS Band Association, $39,000
gift in kind of a Ford F650 24 ft box truck truck to be used by the marching band. Congratulations for that. Uh, they did a lot of fundraising for that last year and they needed that second band truck. Uh, Somerville Home
and School Association, $8,000 to be used to pay for school clubs at Somerville Elementary School. Thank you all for your donations. So generous of this community. Um are there any questions on finance?
If not, let's go to a vote. Okay, roll call. Mistani. Um so Mr. Matthew, I trust the the process that you have done for the uh bidding. Um but I I I'm just not comfortable with the vendor and the
amount. So I'm voting no on E2. Everything else is guess. So it's it's not about the process. It's not not about your judgment. It's just if we just had one bidder, I'm just not comfortable with just one that one bidder. Right. So E2, which is the
waste, solid waste and recycling collection, I'm voting no. Everything else is yes. Miss Sandy, yes. Miss McCalli. Miss Broen, yes. Got four yes and one no on E2.
Yes. That's it. Yeah. Three yeses and one no on E2. The Yeah. And four yeses on everything else. Yes. Yes. Okay. Um approval. There are no resolutions and motions not included in
consent agenda. Approval of bills. Uh, Mary McAllie, I reviewed the bills um and I move them for consideration. I'm still trying to get to that page of the agenda. I second that. That's page 31. Thank
you. Roll call. Mr. Donnie. Yes. Miss Andy? Yes. Miss McCalli? Yes. Miss? Yes. Motion pass. Board member announcements. I I you know we've already talked about it. Wednesday
we welcome back our staff convocation 8:00 in the morning. It starts 8:30 the convoca I think 8 to 8:30 is a sort of a little breakfast if people want a cup of coffee and then 8:30 starts convocation.
Um that's always such an exciting wonderful day. I I can't wait to see what new players has in store for us this year. Last year I met the student at a later on the year she goes, "Oh, I played you."
So with her with gray hair and all so and a scarf, so um perfect. Uh students, um we welcome back on September 2nd, half day. Um I know they're must be really excited to come back to school. There's so many great things that are
going to happen again this school year. So um and does anyone have any other announcements? Yes. Um discussion item uh revise. Does anybody have any questions on policies or regulations? So they are really a lot
lot of just um updates on them from um Strauss Esme acceptance. You know what is the change on board member election and appointment? Yeah, it's mostly wording. Uh, you know what that was on the um it had to do regional, right?
Yeah, it had to do with Yeah, with the regionals uh the regional schools, not the what? Uh we're not title two type type two. Type two. Thank you. Yeah. So, it did not it didn't technically affect us. So, yeah.
Thank you. Acceptance of minutes uh June 16th special public meeting. um and executive session. Uh June 23rd executive session and regular public meeting and July 21st
executive session and July 21st regular public meeting. Um I move the minutes. Would someone like to second them? Mary will second. All in favor? I um I am going to abstain from June 23rd.
So I'm yes on everything else except June 23rd executive session minutes and June 23rd regular public meeting. I was ab absent that day. I I did not attend the meeting. So I'm going to abstain from voting on those minutes.
Okay. So you have one abstension. Everybody on 623 and now four yeses on everything else. Correct. And two minutes on 623 executive session and regular public. Yes. Okay.
Okay. Other business. Um I just wanted to ask uh board goals. I'm thinking that it's already end of August and not board no board goals, not district goals.
Board goals are u that's something that we were doing in January. Right. But um where I was going with that though was a review of where we're at on them because are we going to do the um um I'm so sorry I can't I'm like it's
too late at night for the next meeting we'll have we're going to talk an update and talk about um the the self-evaluation. Yes. Right. Because I thought that was something we were doing in the fall. We are that would be October. Okay. So it's still coming up. It was
just something that my it came up. Thank you. Yes. Uh we'll we'll circle around to those. Okay. Okay. We'll put that on the agenda. Um and a discussion of um Yes, because we didn't do it last because it was we didn't have enough,
you know, not enough turnover and yet uh discussion of self-evaluation. Yeah. I I was just wondering and I think I can answer my own question. We have this meeting this week at the end of August. Is that to make sure that we capture all
of the new employees as opposed to having it last Monday? Because with all the teachers or people that were approved, do are they here? Did they know they're going to probably have a job? So, they were all It didn't
hold back. It didn't It didn't hold back it. Okay. I just want to make sure that no teachers couldn't do anything yet until today. Do you have summer resolutions that allow members? That's just because I didn't know. I just didn't know if our timing should
have been a week earlier or something like that. No, it was just Yeah, I just didn't know. No, though. Okay. Um, one item I want to mention on other business. Um, so, uh, couple of weeks
ago or a few weeks ago, the village camp Sorry, that's okay. So, a few weeks ago, the village council introduced an ordinance u which eventually for now they voted it down
but uh it's still in discussions is to um build um a senior housing facility uh Kensington senior housing facility or or reszone um an area in the village as S1 zone for senior housing assisted living.
Um currently those properties pay around $200,000 approximately in property taxes. Um and uh if our share is 60% 60 65% we get somewhere around 120 $30,000 from that those properties. And in the
past Kensington had um asked for a pilot uh tax arrangement when they were applying for Broad Street property a few years ago. So I did go to one of the village council meetings and uh my personal capacity I uh I clarified that I'm not representing the board I'm
representing one member or the Sarabdani and I asked about the pilot and I also asked that question in an email um and for both of those the official response so far is that they are not considering pilot or they have not promised any
pilot arrangements to this developer. So um that's the understanding right now uh that I have that if that project goes through or whatever that happens to that project right as of now they have not um asked the developer or the developer has not asked or there's no arrangement
between the village and the developer that's what Keith told me that's what Heather responded in an email so I have an email for that okay uh we'll move to comments from the public. There is no public
wanting to make comments here, but I uh let me see. Mr. Loving, you're on with the board. Uh good evening, uh Boyd Day a loving Rididgewood taxpayer. Again, uh I just like to point out in terms of a
housekeeping detail to all of you, uh occasionally you will look at somebody in the audience and start speaking to them. I believe you looked at Miss Corless tonight and got some information from her. Those of us who are sitting at home cannot hear the responses from
those people in the audience who we were talking to and it is uh somewhat uh I think disrespectful to us. I know at the council meeting when they speak to people in the audience, there is a portable or a battery operated microphone that's given to the
individual so that they are recorded on the sound system and the people at home can hear what they're saying. So I would appreciate it if you would consider that in the future if you were going to speak to somebody who is not around the table with a microphone that you perhaps pass
them a battery operated microphone so we at home can understand uh or hear what is being said. Thank you for point my my other comment concerns a uh a statement made by Ms. Broen concerning the window replacement project that took
place at Benjamin Franklin a few years back. Uh, Miss Broen, you indicated that that project went very well. I just like to remind you that uh during that project, there were quite a few complaints from neighbors who lived in that area about the noise that was being
made at night during that project. So if we are or if you are planning work to take place in the evening, if you could do something to make sure that the noise level is kept to a bare minimum, the people who live around the schools where that work is taking place would be most
appreciative. Thank you so much. Have a good evening everyone. Thank you. Uh phone number ending in 252. Good evening again. This is Ann Loving. Um can you hear me? It it it's it's very soft. Ann, if you
maybe speak up just a little bit, that'd be helpful. Thank you. Is this any better? Yes, it is. Okay. Thank you. I just switched off of a different phone. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak and loving
Ridgewood resident. Couple things I want to point out. One is that um I know that uh Miss Matali referred to turf as the t-word, but I think you you really need to keep in mind that it's not about
flooding or no flooding. It's not about playability or anything like that. Turf is dangerous. It's toxic to the environment. It is dangerous for children to play on. It creates heat fields. It's just never to be an option.
And I would also like to point out the questions about TURP that are directed to the board. I think they should really be answered by the board because it is the five of you, well only four of you are there tonight, but it is the five of you who vote on budget things and
policies. So, you are really the ones who should answer the questions as to how you feel about anything really that the um that the public asks. And um the last thing I'd like to say is I'm at
home and I'm listening on TV and I never ever have a problem understanding um Mr. Donnie. And I find it very strange that the superintendent has to ask Mr. Donnie to clarify over and over
and over again what he's saying. You're sitting right next to him. I can understand him from over here in my basement. Um, I I I think it's disrespectful and I just really need to say that. Thank you very much.
Cynthia O'Keefe, you're on with the board. Hi, good evening. This is Cynthia O'Keefe, Rididgewood resident. Um, so I wanted to make a few comments. Uh, first I do want to thank Mr. Donnie for um
asking some of the critical questions, you know, and maybe um it seemed like he was asking them numerous times, but I myself dial into these meetings. I'm still very confused. I also attend the fields committee calls and I'm you know
concerned because you know I consider us all to be you know intelligent people and I feel like sometimes we go round and round and round with not only a discussion about turf or no turf or the t-word or whatever you want to call it but honestly um you know we're going
round and round about you know field avail you know the the whether there's a necessity for additional fields or expans expansion or not. And from what I've heard tonight, it sounds like the village is the one clamoring for additional fields. And if this was such
a serious um occurrence of of a lack on the part of like school fields, you know, your bow and e fields, um you know, it wouldn't be such a casual discussion. So, I'm getting the sense that there is no real like urgency. Yes,
you know, field maintenance maintenance is important. Um, but I do get the feeling that um, you know, maybe it's not as urgent as everybody's trying to make it out to be. Um, and you know, maybe like you said about a paradigm shift. Maybe we need a paradigm shift in
thinking about turf in the flood zones because it seems to be very expensive. Um, residents are complaining about having to pay um, you know, exorbitant amounts of money to replace those turf fields every time there is a flood. and these occurrences are coming. So maybe a
paradigm shift there. Um, you know, that's all I really want to say tonight, but I it sounds to me like the need isn't as critical as it has been um made out to be, at least from all the meetings that I've attended, and there are numerous ones. So, thank you very
much. Thank you. Uh Susan, you're on with the board. Um, hello. Can you hear me? I can. All right, cool. Thanks. I'm Susan
Rouan. I live in Rididgewood. Um, I just have a few topics. one. Um, I want to thank the high school coach um for track because he spoke up about repairing the Kingsbridge foot bridge
that we've been having out here. And I heard at a village council meeting that the high school coach said that the um the C um long-distance runners use that field. Omar and so used the foot bridge
as part of their training. So I do want to thank him to put some pressure on the village council to finally fix that bridge. Um the next is and this is just a a side note. I listened to the field discussion
and I know that the Army Corps of Engineers were coming in to discuss um you know the flooding of the various residential as well as the fields. Um, I just wondered what ever happened or I
know it's, you know, a 10-year plan, but could they give any short-term um fixes or like short-term um solutions that the that can help with the flooding at the fields that are in
the flood zones and stuff. I think that there is an overusage of fields and I think it has to be better regulated and to hear that some fields are over booked and then the person doesn't show is very discouraging.
So um that was pretty much it. Thank you. Bye. Thank you. Not seeing any more hands. Uh clo Oh, is there I'm sorry. Oh, I didn't see that one. I There's an
iPhone. Did it just come up? Oh. So, whoever's on the iPhone, you're on with a board. Hello. Hello. Hi. How are you? Um, I just calling because I would like to um thank you
for, you know, for all the information about the the fields and everything. My daughter uh has been doing soccer for so many years and we've been going up and down, you know, with the ticks and things with
the fields. Hello. Yes. Could you start by giving us your name and Oh, my name is Emily. My daughter is Shaina Ramos. Okay. Uhhuh. So I want to, you know, it's been
a lot of progress with the thick and things, you know, with the fields. Uh my daughter's been doing soccer for so many years and um you know with the fields over I think it was Summerville or Willard they did a lot of replacement
and you know and being one of the parents who been like all the time you know not complaining but make sure you know bring the necessities right for the kids. Anyways, uh I'm grateful for all
the uh progress that's been going on. There is never ending and like owner house, you never end in a house. There's always something to do. However, I would like to um just request I'm a little bit sad
and upset because um my daughter didn't make it for the team this year for soccer and I was a little concerned. I spoke to the coaches and everything. I say please try to reconsiderate it because uh the
soccer has been like a family for us you know for so many years and she's been playing consistently the discipline. she gained a lot of um benefit from it and she uh uh she's been about to balance the
sports and academic but this year I'm very concerned because she didn't make it to the team. So I would like I spoke to the coach and I say please try to reconsiderate her because I'm nervous. This is 11 grade you know and it's a lot
of pressure a lot of things and they need to get the balance the exercise balance and yeah so I'm I'm very concerned about that you know since she's been active all the time when they are not you know how it is they can get
you know I don't want her to be like depressed or you know without doing being active so that's it that's all what I want to share and hopefully I can have a a answer or help about that.
Thank you. Thank you. That appears to be the end of um comments from the public. Um Mike, this parent Yes. So, let me just uh just acknowledge
a few folks. Thank you all for speaking. Um uh heard some comments about being mindful of noise in evening construction. We can certainly do that. I appreciate the feedback from Mr. Loving about hearing comments from the audience. Uh that is a good reminder. Thank you for that. Um we will we will
make sure to follow up on that. Um and uh and I'm sorry you weren't able to hear those folks. Um here Mrs. Mrs. Loving had some comments about turf. We appreciate those. Um there's a comment just about um about me asking for clarification. You know, whenever an
issue is getting uh tricky and hard to understand in terms of like there's a complicated issue with multiple perspectives, I always ask for clarification. Um so this we talked about a lot of really specific and tricky topics today. So I did ask for clarification. Um, if you attend my
coffees, you'll find that sometimes if people come on and they have like just kind of comp there's it's a complicated issue. If I don't feel really confident that I that I know exactly where the person's going with a question, then I'll just ask clarifying questions. So, I certainly don't mean anything by it and I hope that it didn't come off in any way disrespectfully, Mr. Donnie.
Certainly certainly just a desire to be able to speak accurately. Mr. Donnie also has some very interesting perspectives, too. So, I always have to make sure I'm getting the complexity of the perspective. Um again more comments about turf. Um appreciate everybody's sentiments. Um
the question about Army Corps. Uh you know Army Corps is this is Army Corps projects are over a decade long. So uh they have offered some resources. Um but part of the part of the just the length of that project is kind of what has driven us to really try to seek some of our own solutions which we're trying to do which of course we'll be talking more
about uh in the coming months. Um and then uh for Mrs. I I think it was Mrs. Ramos uh was was was our last speaker. Um so, thank you so much for reaching out. I'm so sorry. Uh I know it's really hard when uh it's a really hard place to be um not making a team. So, uh we
certainly have some suggestions and tomorrow offer some support. So, uh so we'll have somebody reach out to you tomorrow and uh and we'll uh we'll make sure that uh that we something better comes along for daughter as well. And if there's any other concerns you have for us, please please uh please share that
with us. And Sheila, there was one more hand right off when you were saying that there's no more at that time that went on. Um, I'm sorry, we missed you. Um, you're on the on the with the board.
031, are you there? Okay. All righty. Okay. So, we'll close uh we already closed public comment. We'll do it again. Um and I'm um move to adjourn the meeting. Do I have a second? Second.
All in favor? Great. And Mr. Donnie, you are closest, but you're over. So,